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Insider | Short Hops
Standing in the lobby of Disney's Swan and Dolphin Resort as the winter meetings were breaking up, suitcase beside him, Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi mapped out his plans for the rest of the offseason very simply.
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| The Blue Jays are counting on Vernon Wells to accept the extension. (Getty Images) |
He doesn't want the situation to linger into next season, when Wells could become a lame duck, er, Jay, and a franchise's plans -- or lack thereof -- could implode.
So the Jays went home and drew up a whopper of an offer to Wells, somewhere between seven and eight years for between $126 and $138 million according to various reports.
And though the Jays' deadline may not be as severe -- or as well publicized -- as that facing pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Boston this week before the Red Sox reached a deal just under the wire, there is a line of thinking worth following here.
"We'll know by the time we get to the first of the year," Ricciardi said. "If we can't sign him, then we've got to explore trading him. Plain and simple."
There was no immediate word this week of Wells' reaction to the Jays' offer, other than that he's received it and is thinking about it. Greg Genske, who represents Wells, did not respond to telephone or e-mail messages left Thursday.
But know this: If Wells and the Blue Jays don't agree to terms, odds are CN Tower-high that an All-Star center fielder will be on the trade market next month (and hmmm, in the let's make a deal portion of our Insider, can we perhaps solve the White Sox's gap in center field by sending an unsigned Wells there, along with a pitching prospect, for Jon Garland or Mark Buehrle?).
It is the most lucrative contract offered in franchise history, eclipsing the four-year, $68 million Carlos Delgado deal that expired after the 2005 season and dwarfing the five-year, $55 million contract pitcher A.J. Burnett signed last winter that made Ricciardi not only a headliner at the 2005 winter meetings, but also the target of some harsh criticism.
What a difference a year makes, huh? Kansas City signs Gil Meche to the same five-year, $55 million deal this offseason and, suddenly, Burnett looks like Bob Gibson in Toronto.
The Alfonso Soriano-like deal offered by the Jays -- Soriano received eight years and $136 million from the Cubs this offseason -- certainly should get Wells' attention. It is in the same financial ballpark as Soriano, whose deal is worth an average annual value of $17 million a season, and far exceeds the AAV of $10 million Gary Matthews Jr. is getting in his five-year, $50 million deal with the Angels. The Jays' offer to Wells is believed to be between $17 million and $18 million a year.
The questions are, does Wells want to stay in Toronto, and how much might he be able to get on the open market next winter?
Though he speaks affectionately of Toronto, there is a belief among some in the industry that Wells, who grew up and still resides in Arlington, Tex., will play out the string and then join best-friend Michael Young in the Rangers clubhouse in 2008.
Fueling that speculation is Texas' obvious need for a center fielder -- the Rangers signed Kenny Lofton this week to a one-year deal that essentially makes him a bridge until the Rangers can come up with a long-term alternative in center.
His answer to this deal will speak volumes. If he rejects it, it's pretty clear that he's closing the door on Toronto.
As for Wells' as-of-now pending arrival on next winter's free-agent market, it could be a gold mine for teams looking for center fielders (right now, the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros spring immediately to mind). Well, Atlanta's Andruw Jones, Minnesota's Torii Hunter and San Diego's Mike Cameron all currently are on track to step into the open market next winter.
The Blue Jays would love to reduce that marquee list by one, and they're taking a serious swipe at it. But they're also realistic. Earlier this offseason, they made the decision not to rely on Wells much in their advertising for the '07 season.
"You look at what is happening now and going into next offseason, he's got to be the premiere free agent out there," Toronto manager John Gibbons said last week at the winter meetings. "Young, one of the best players out there ... so he's in the driver's seat. So it is going to definitely take a lot to bring him back, but (the club) is going to make every effort to do that."
The beastly East
The arrival of Matsuzaka in Boston not only gives the Red Sox perhaps the deepest rotation in the AL East, it should give them one of the most dynamic rotations in the game.
Curt Schilling, Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon's move into the rotation from closer, a healthy Jon Lester and Tim Wakefield all will make life difficult for everybody from the Yankees to the Devil Rays as an already well-funded division gets tougher and tougher.
It is enough to cause other AL East citizens to openly root for the Red Sox to trade away Manny Ramirez before the '07 season begins.
"We'd love to see it," Gibbons said last week. "I think that would be huge. I'm sure they would replace him with a pretty good player or two but, I mean, he covers (David) Ortiz, you know?"
Yep, we've heard (and, quite often, witnessed) that. But while the Blue Jays sort through things and attempt to decipher whether Wells will be a keeper or a goner, one thing is clear in Toronto: Unlike last winter, when the Blue Jays added Burnett and closer B.J. Ryan, they so far have been unable to add help to their pitching staff in '06.
The Jays were in on both Ted Lilly (four years, $40 million to the Cubs) and Meche (five years, $55 million to Kansas City) but whiffed in the end.
Disappointed?
"I think you always walk into these things with your eyes open," Ricciardi said. "You put your best foot forward, and these things have a way of working themselves out."
So right now the Blue Jays line up with perennial Cy Young candidate Roy Halladay, Burnett, Gustavo Chacin and Josh Towers, who was so bad last season that he was demoted to the bullpen. Maybe it works -- last year's Blue Jays ranked fifth in the AL with a team ERA of 4.37 -- but you know what they say. If you're not getting better, you're getting worse.
On the other hand ...
"Meche, we liked him," Ricciardi said. "But that he chose Kansas City, that might have been an eye-opener for us. I'm not knocking the kid, but we're trying to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. He might not have been comfortable with that."
Grunge, coffee and Vidro
Before making any jokes now that Seattle has another over-the-hill second baseman in Jose Vidro, who arrives from Washington with Mariners fans still cringing at Bret Boone's final season at second, remember, with Jose Lopez around, rest easy. Vidro will see most of his time at designated hitter.
Unless the Mariners shove Lopez over to third, install Vidro at second and trade third baseman Adrian Beltre. Which would make them worse defensively at second base, but if they could move Beltre for a starting pitcher -- the Angels have a stable of them and need a slugging third baseman for the middle of their order -- it might behoove them to do so.
Having fanned on Jason Schmidt already, the Mariners settled for free agent Miguel Batista. He'll fit somewhere toward the bottom of the rotation, after Felix Hernandez and Jarrod Washburn and possibly Jake Woods. After that, the Mariners might have to force-feed Cha Seung Baek into the rotation.
For Vidro, it was a slow, sad fall in Washington, where, as his knees betrayed him, manager Frank Robinson farmed him over to first base by season's end last summer.
The senior member in the clubhouse of the Washington-Montreal franchise, Vidro can still hit some. He batted .289 with seven homers and 47 RBI last season, and odds are, barring a Beltre deal, that Vidro will take some DH at-bats away from Ben Broussard, a lefty who batted only .230 against right-handed pitching last season.
And he was a complete bust after the Mariners acquired him, batting just .238 overall.
As things stand, the Mariners are set at second with Lopez, who should have been an AL All-Star last season. In teaming with Yuniesky Betancourt, Seattle has one of the best middle infield tandems in the game.