A change of heart prompted the Marlins to reverse their thinking about retaining Yunel Escobar.
So on Tuesday night, after more than two days of serious discussions, the Marlins traded the 30-year-old shortstop to the Rays for Minor League infielder Derek Dietrich.
“We met with Yunel about 10 days ago,” Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said here at the Winter Meetings. “He said he was comfortable playing third base. Recently, he came back to us saying he was not comfortable playing third base. So we were not comfortable moving forward with him as our third baseman, which kind of helped move along this trade.”
Escobar is under contract to make $5 million in 2013, and his deal includes club options for ‘14 and ‘15 at $5 million per season. Beinfest added the Marlins will put the $5 million toward a third baseman.
“Our intentions are to reinvest his salary into the team,” Beinfest said. “We’re going to go shopping for a third baseman, either free agency or via trade. That’s obviously a hole we now have on the club.”
Repoz
Posted: December 05, 2012 at 06:41 AM |
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1. BrianBrianson Posted: December 05, 2012 at 06:48 AM (#4317380)"We'll take a little timeout on the trade front," said Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest, who promised the payroll savings will be reinvested.
You'd think an obvious follow-up question to a statement of such dubious veracity would be "how?".
@DKnobler: One AL exec on Yunel's short stay with Marlins: "First place he hasn't worn out his welcome."
@luirangel: Yunel Escobar no quiere jugar con los #Marlins. El cubano le dijo a @jorgeebro que prefería que lo cambiaran del equipo [TRANSLATION: Yunel Escobar does not want to play with the # Marlins. The Cuban told @ jorgeebro he preferred the team to trade him] [REAL TRANSLATION: GET ME OFF THIS SINKING SHIP!]
Ricky Nolasco: $11.5 mil then free agent
Adeiny Hechavarria: $1.75 mil then pre-arbitration
Juan Pierre: $1.6 mil
Greg Dobbs: $1.5 mil
Jeff Mathis: $1.5 mil
Jacob Turner: somewhere between $0.8 and $2.15 million (Cot's doesn't make it clear)
So they are down to one player making over $2 million and 5 more making over $1 million. Could the Yankees even field a lineup (9 hitters plus starting pitcher) with just one guy over $2 million without doing tons of callups?
Player salaries like this one always reminds me of an SI article from the early 90's about the high cost of mediocrity which can basically be summed up as, "Mark Portugal makes how much?"
Sounds like a team that needs Alfonso Soriano.
And then traded them next offseason.
Not terribly impressed with Dietrich as a prospect, I have to think the A's could have topped that without hurting too much.
That probably means 80 million pesos, or about $7 million.
Which people are these? The people quoted in post #1?
Toronto threw the idea around, and TFA states "He said he was comfortable playing third base." I doubt he just volunteered to play third for the hell of it.
The Rockies probably could:
C: Wilin Rosario*
1B: Jordan Pacheco
2B: Josh Rutledge*
3B: Chris Nelson*
SS: Jonathan Herrera
LF: Eric Young Jr
CF: Dexter Fowler* ($2.35M in 2012, arb-eligible)
RF: Tyler Colvin
SP: Drew Pomerantz
*probable starters heading into Spring Training, plus maybe Colvin if Cuddyer moves to 1st.
Norris
Carter
Weeks
Donaldson
Sogard
Cowgill
Reddick
Moss
All their SP's but Colon, basically, though I think Anderson makes over 2 million a year.
C Thole
1B Duda
2B Hicks
3B Turner
SS Tejada
LF Baxter
CF Nieuwenhuis
RF Valdespin
Hicks probably won't make the opening day roster, and Nieuwenhuis might not, but that would only be Wright, Davis and Murphy on the bench.
What about the comedic value from him running with a 98% chance of getting thrown out, and then throwing his hands in the air and acting generally incredulous when he is called out?
C Sal Perez
1B Eric Hosmer
2B Chris Getz
SS Irving Falu
3B Mike Moustakas
LF Jarrod Dyson
CF Lorenzo Cain
RF Wil Myers
DH Johnny Giavotella
Only Getz is even arb-eligible, and he makes $1 million.
The Yankees have 3 over $20 million, and 6 more over $10 million. 4 more are expected to crack $2 mil in arbitration (B-R). Just 13 guys over $2 million - geez, they are getting cheap as they might have 12 sub-$2 mil. That still leaves the Yankees with as many making $20 mil+ as the Marlins have making $1.6 mil+
That gives them a $30 million payroll. The lowest payroll last season was the Padres $55 million, you have to go back to 2008 to find a payroll that low. Would Selig even let them go that low?
I don't know why I'm being so nit-picky, but the Jays never played him at 3rd for a single inning, the Marlins traded him rather than doing that, and the Rays obviously are planning for him at SS and Longoria at 3B.
Houston is interesting as well. Right now they have $800,000 committed to Mike Pelfrey. Three players are arb eligible (mlbtraderumors estimates), Jed Lowrie (1.9m), Bud Norris (2.9m), Wesley Wright (900k). Assuming all of those go through that's a 22.5m payroll according to BB-Ref.
Has Houston been connected to any free agents? Surely they have to spend some money.
EDIT: I'm a little unsure, but I think that 6mil and 22.5 mil both include the 5m they are paying to Wandy Rodriguez to play elsewhere.
Wait...when did that happen?
I'm an idiot
Phil Humber.
I always get those guys confused.
Maybe the Marlins just asked him to play third, knowing he'd balk at the idea, thus giving them the excuse they needed to shed his burdensome contract......
Oh please God let the Marlins highest paid player be Jeff Mathis! How perfect that would be.
At this point, how can he stop it? He could force them to "try" and sign free agents, but it's not like he can demand that free agents sign with the Marlins.
With the departure this winter of Abad, Bogusevic and Wilton Lopez, the Astros 40-man roster currently contains four players who played for the Astros in 2010.
The aforementioned high-salaried talismans Bud Norris and Wesley Wright, and fellow grizzled vets Brett Wallace and Jason Castro.
Cut off their welfare windfalls. Oh, wait, the reason the Marlins can punt whole seasons is because the welfare windfalls make it more profitable to have an empty stadium with an empty payroll than actually pay baseball players to entertain the fans.
To be fair, the fact that it annoys Yankee fans provides at least some measure of fan entertainment.
Just looking for silver-linings here.
and that would get the payroll under 20 mill
it is hard to believe that there will be at least 3 teams with payrolls under 30 mill this year. all "rebuilding"
and the rest of MLB is very happy with this. especially because houston and miami have basically no fans left so who cares
/smashes Wild Turkey Bottle on head
nope
the astros and i are THROUGH!!!!! FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!
i know, don't nobody believe me. but this is like checking out your ex and laughing about the absolutely disGUSting females he ends up with because he is such a itsy bitsy limp youknowwhat.
i am not going to the ballpark. i am not watching no games - best i now understand, they will not be on basic cable. i AM gonna check the stats/box scores so as i can see how bad they are.
this is how chicks do things.
So, you're not going to go to the ballpark to see him, but you'll creep on him, on facebook?
Maybe they have great personalities.
How can you not know Hingle McKringleberry?
This sounds sort of like how I do things.
Except more like if I was a Rays fan until about six years ago when they politely asked me to stop coming to games. So now I check the standings every now and then whenever I feel the need to feel awful about myself.
I work with old Crown grants and survey plans from the late 1700's to present, and one of the few joys of my unchallenging job is getting to see all of the funny old names. The most Dickensian so far has been a Mr. Sedgefield McCrumb.
Well...it sounds as if she is happily married you have the means to change that.
Surely MLB is simply preparing for the destruction, via super-hurricanes, of both Miami and Houston in the next few years?
I lived with a girlfriend for a couple years, and I can't think of what possible reason we had, but we routinely used each other's e-mail addresses and other personal information. (I suppose maybe it's handy if you're out and need to call home to check something...though come to think of it neither of us had phones).
Anyway, I suppose we're both lucky that the other person isn't insane.
Now excuse me while I change a few of my passwords...
Framlingham Gawdy and Bulstrode Whitlock (whose notes provide us with a lot of our knowledge of the debates of the 1620s!)
@49--hilarious!
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