One of my heart throbs from last year may have become available again.
According to Heyman: The Angels are thought to be dangling left fielder Juan Rivera as they pursue Bay (but not Matt Holliday, interestingly enough)
Rivera is 30 years old and coming off a season that he hit: .287 .332, .478, .810 with 25 HR and 253 total bases. Rivera finished last season with a UZR of +15 and is +8.2 for his career in LF with over 2600 innings. He signed a contract with the Angels last off-season that looks as follows:3.25M 20o9, 4.25M 2010 5.25M 2011. His value last season according to Fangraphs was 15.1M.
17 comments
CaseStreet
12/7/2009-2:27pm at 2:27 pm (UTC -4)
Juan Rivera in LF though this doesn’t make any sense for the angels if they want to replace him with bay
trs86
12/7/2009-2:28pm at 2:28 pm (UTC -4)
I guess they feel Bay could be the big bopper they need, as well as a way to keep Bay from going to Seattle or at least drive up price.
CaseStreet
12/7/2009-2:30pm at 2:30 pm (UTC -4)
Sorry, iPhone prob, meant to say I’d be very happy with rivera in lf, though it doesn’t make sense the angels would want to replace him with bay
trs86
12/7/2009-2:31pm at 2:31 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah I got it. Bad that I knew what you meant.
GravediggerHebner
12/7/2009-2:29pm at 2:29 pm (UTC -4)
Just a note to those worried that Omar is “all over the place.” In that whole Angels/Holliday/Bay thing, it is being postulated that the Angels screwed themselves in potential negotiations with Bay by declaring themselves out of Holliday bidding, since that leaves them no one to bluff with.
Tis better to be all over the place than just randomly eliminating players therefore shooting yourself in the foot.
trs86
12/7/2009-2:30pm at 2:30 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah, who knows right now. They could be saying they are in on Bay to drive up Seattle’s price while in turn letting Lackey know they could get offense instead of pitching.
trs86
12/7/2009-2:29pm at 2:29 pm (UTC -4)
Here is another rumor not Met related yet but I wish it was:
In what would be a sadly cheap move, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says the Padres are likely to non-tender starter Kevin Correia if he doesn’t agree to another discounted contract by Saturday’s deadline. Correia ended up making $1.1MM this year and provided the Padres with 33 starts and a 3.91 ERA, 6.5 K/9, and 2.9 BB/9. He’ll do fine on the open market if the Padres are really this cheap.
If the Mets could trade for him for almost nothing before he gets non-tendered he would be a great guy to compete with Niese, Maine and others for the #5 spot.
trs86
12/7/2009-2:32pm at 2:32 pm (UTC -4)
More semiMets related info. Cards are close on signing Penny which may take them out of any other SP market leaving one less team for Wolf, Pineiro, Marquis, and uh Lackey (not that he was really in consideration).
GravediggerHebner
12/7/2009-2:36pm at 2:36 pm (UTC -4)
Further damage to my incredibly unrealistic hope that Pineiro would eliminate himself from consideration by the Mets through accepting arbitration from St. Louis.
trs86
12/7/2009-2:35pm at 2:35 pm (UTC -4)
MLBTR is all over it. More semiMets related news:
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Tigers are close to trading Edwin Jackson, “perhaps as early as today.” No word on the potential destination, but we’ll keep you apprised in this post. What’s more, Nightengale says the Tigers hope to trade Curtis Granderson this week.
We could only hope the Mets are the magic EJ trading partner. Something that would somehow send us EJ and one of their contracts for Castillo.
wannybackstra
12/7/2009-2:40pm at 2:40 pm (UTC -4)
I really really don’t see why they’d do anything like that when they could recoup real value for Jackson while shedding his salary. Unless the other contract is the obscene one owned by Magglio.
trs86
12/7/2009-2:44pm at 2:44 pm (UTC -4)
You know, IF they took Castillo and the prospect damage was small I would consider it. The problem is not the 18 million next year for Maggs it’s the potential of the 15 million the following. I would take EJ and Maggs for only 6 million more total than Castillo but not for that extra 15.
stickguy
12/7/2009-2:49pm at 2:49 pm (UTC -4)
I agree, I just wonder what EJ you are gong to get. Almost seems a little Ollie-ish to me.
stickguy
12/7/2009-2:49pm at 2:49 pm (UTC -4)
posted this on the last thread while this thread was going up, so what the heck, I’ll spam it where it belongs.
Where’s TRS? One of the many rumors floating around is that the Angels were shopping Rivera to free up a spot in the OF (for Bay I think).
THis could be an interesting option. Only signed for 2 years, and owed ~10mill total. Pretty good player too.
Wonder what it would take to get him?
And hell, if say Holliday ending up getting hung out to dry and the Mets could get him for what they want to pay, they could still do it and unload Frenchy (if Omar hasn’t already signed him to a 12 year extension!), and have one heck of an OF.
If you want flexibility, and to spread the $$ around, rivera/wolf/garland/barajas/glauss(sp?) seriously beefs up the support cast, and probably only takes 25-27 mill. And, you only lose the prospects (or players) it takes to get Rivera, and no draft picks.
after that, unload Castillo, and either bring back a young 2B, or heck, get Lopez or Hudson for 2 years. Maybe get an overpriced but useful pen arm for Luis, or another SP.
tweak some of the parts if you want, but without going crazy with overpriced, over yeared FA deals, the team is much much better already
GravediggerHebner
12/7/2009-3:08pm at 3:08 pm (UTC -4)
I’m on baseball-reference doing the Josh Willingham/Juan Rivera side-by-side comparison.
Rivera career: .285/.331/.470/.802
Willingham career: .264/.362/.478/.840
They are within 6 months of each other agewise (played 2009 at age 30).
Willingham has 17 SB in 6 seasons, Rivera 9 SB in 9 seasons.
Willingham made $2.95 mil in ’09 and is 2 years away from free agency. Rivera is owed $9.5 mil over the next 2 years.
Willingham career splits:
versus LHP – .265/.385/.496/.880
versus RHP – .264/.355/.472/.826
Rivera career splits:
versus LHP – .293/.334/.516/.850
versus RHP – .281/.330/.448/.778
Willingham career UZR/150:
in LF – minus 5.7
as OF – minus 5.3
Rivera career UZR/150:
in LF – plus 8.2
as OF – plus 4.5
IMO they look fairly even, I’d give the edge to Rivera for the positive defense over Willingham’s versatility to play 1B (or C in a pinch), plus knowing that if both perform well, Willingham would get big raises in arbitration whereas Rivera is locked up and would be cheap compared to production.
stickguy
12/7/2009-3:32pm at 3:32 pm (UTC -4)
This year, I am all about getting best defensive players they can. No more plodding oaf.
I honestly believe that even if they return the smae pitching staff, the results will be much better if they plug in a plus D guy at 2B and LF. Combine that with better helathy overall (post surgery, with another full off season to rehab) and likely a rebound for th ebig guy, and while the SP is not world class, it also won’t be near as bad.
GravediggerHebner
12/7/2009-3:30pm at 3:30 pm (UTC -4)
I went searching the Angels blogosphere for word on Rivera, and the one blog that had anything stated it was a Rivera to the Tigers for Granderson rumor.
They went on to state that they were about to sign Jason Bay, and then somehow worked Roy Halladay into it, essentially concluding this:
Curtis Granderson + Roy Halladay + Jason Bay – John Lackey – Juan Rivera – Gary Matthews Jr. = satisfying off season.
I’m not really sure how all those parts got into the equation exactly.
The blogger did seem quite certain of one thing, that the Angels contingent got off the plane in Indy today and immediately went into full court press on Jason Bay.