With their offseason shopping essentially complete, the Yankees splurged for one more reliever earlier this week, signing David Aardsma to a one-year contract with a club option for 2013. The terms are hilariously team friendly, as the right-hander will make just $500,000 in 2012 with another $500,000 in available incentives. The option is also worth $500,000 as well, and any incentives he earns in 2012 will raise his 2013 salary by the same amount. At most, they’ll have to pay him $2 million over the next two years after he made $4.5 million in 2011 alone.

Of course, Aardsma is damaged goods. The 30-year-old didn’t pitch at all last season due to hip trouble and later elbow problems that required Tommy John surgery. He’s expected back in August, but GM Brian Cashman said the signing has more to do with 2013 than it does 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »

Score one for those who reserved judgment: Ryan Braun has seen his positive test overturned by the independent panel headed by arbiter Shyam Das.

Braun put out a statement that this was a “first step in restoring my good name and reputation,” but if this had gone differently, there would have no need for redemption.

Read the rest of this entry »

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, 36-year-old shortstop Edgar Renteria is leaning towards retiring this season. After hitting just .251/.306/.348 in 96 games with Cincinnati and receiving nothing but minor league offers this offseason, perhaps it isn’t surprising. If he indeed chooses to retire, it will be the end of a 16-year career spanning seven teams, two World Series championships and five all-star game appearances.

Renteria’s time as an effective regular has been over for a few years now, but from 2002 to 2007 the Colombian native carved out a fine peak between the Cardinals and Braves (with one disappointing year with the Red Sox thrown in). Over these six seasons Renteria posted a solid .303/.361/.434 line (good for a 107 wRC+ even in the tail end of the steroid era) while fielding a solid shortstop — consistently above average according to the dreaded metrics, Gold Glove worthy according to much-maligned voters. In all, Renteria put up a total of 23.7 WAR in those four years including his best season.

Following his time with the Braves, Renteria struggled to make an impact in Detroit and again in San Francisco. By his second season as a Giant, he was relegated to a bench role, playing in just 72 games despite hitting a respectable .276/.332/.374. The Giants would go on to win the NL West in 2010, and Renteria would initially serve a bench role on the postseason roster. First he went 2-for-2 in pinch-hitting roles in the NLDS victory over the Braves — his only two at-bats of the series. Then he earned four starts in the six-game NLCS against the Phillies, limping to a 1-for-17 series line.

But somehow, the greatest games and greatest moments of Renteria’s career were still to come. Then 35 years old, Renteria would earn the start in all five games of the Giants’ World Series victory over the Rangers, going 7-for-17 with two home runs — a three-run home run in the clinching Game Five represented the Giants’ only runs of the game — and earning the World Series MVP award.

Last season with Cincinnati, however, Renteria looked like a hitter struggling to deal with the effects of aging. In 333 plate appearances, he managed just a .291 wOBA despite the righty-friendly confines of Great American Ballpark. Particularly after his crowning World Series achievements in 2010, Renteria has little left to prove or accomplish in Major League Baseball. Renteria won’t be earning induction into the Hall-of-Fame five years nor twenty years down the road, but he leaves behind a fine legacy and some great moments nonetheless.

For the last 11 seasons, Ichiro Suzuki at the top of the order has been the one constant in Seattle. Ichiro isn’t leaving Seattle, but as Eric Wedge announced today, he won’t be leading off for the Mariners any more:

#Mariners manager Eric Wedge just announced that Ichiro will hit 3rd in the lineup this season.

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) February 21, 2012

For most of his career, Ichiro has been the prototypical leadoff hitter. Even without taking a bunch of walks, Ichiro has managed to post good-to-great on-base percentages and set the table for the rest of the Mariners’ lineups. But the third hitter’s job isn’t just to get on base, it’s also to move runners around to score. Can Ichiro — especially an Ichiro feeling the effects of aging at 38 — adapt his game to fit this new role?

Read the rest of this entry »

So far as Long National Nightmares go, the Theo Epstein Compensation Saga has been neither the longest nor most nightmare-y. However, in terms of handwringing and electronic ink spilt relative to notable developments, it’s been pretty formidable.

And, in fact, despite reports of a resolution late this morning, the matter will remain curiously unresolved even after today. According to the Red Sox official Twitter feed (and the entire rest of the internet), Boston has acquired 26-year-old right-hander Chris Carpenter and a player to be named later from the Cubs in exchange for a different PTBNL.

In terms of the actual value of the deal for either club, Dave Cameron provided the conceptual scaffolding for that conversation back in early October, noting generally that, whatever marginal value Epstein provided over, say, a “freely available” general manager such as White Sox Assistant GM Rick Hahn, it likely wasn’t worth an actual player.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jorge Posada spoiled the Yankees for more than a decade, providing well-above-average production at a position where the expected output is next to nil. Russell Martin took over catching duties in the Bronx last year after being non-tendered by the Dodgers, giving his new club a .325 wOBA (100 wRC+) in 476 plate appearances. There are no great metrics for catcher defense, but Martin has a reputation as a strong defender and reportedly lived up to that billing last year. All told, he gave his team approximately three wins more than a replacement level backstop.

The Yankees retained control of their new catcher as an arbitration-eligible player this year, signing him to a one-year pact worth $7.5 million in January. The Wall Street Journal’s Dan Barbarisi reported yesterday that the two sides first tried to hammer out a three-year contract, but talks never went beyond the initial stages. Chad Jennings of The Journal News has a quote from Martin…

“My agent and the Yankees talked a little bit about an extension,” Martin said. “Including this year, they were talking about three years. That’s where the conversation ended. They didn’t really throw any numbers out there. Well, they did, but I’m not going to throw them out there.”

Given the dearth of quality catching around the league, it would behoove the Yankees to revisit talks at some point to try to secure one of the game’s rarest assets — a quality catcher in his prime years — for the foreseeable future.

Read the rest of this entry »

If the Yankees’ stable of position players was missing one thing, it was a left-handed power bat to come off the bench. Today, the Yankees signed Raul Ibanez to a one-year deal, ostensibly to fill that hole. Ibanez, however, has rapidly felt the effects of aging of late. Can he provide enough of a punch off the bench to help the Yankees in 2012?

Read the rest of this entry »

He’s not an outfielder any more. He might not even be a cutoff man any more. He can’t play in the field, in other words. He hasn’t played pro baseball in over 300 days. Even if he makes the team, he’ll have to serve at least a fifty-game suspension before shaking off the game-speed rust. He turns 40 this year. So what is there to like about the Athletics’ signing Manny Ramirez to a Minor League deal?

Something. There is something to like about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s about time.

Although it’s only been a little more than a week since the A.J. Burnett coverage started, it feels like it has just gone on and on. Especially in this dead time of baseball news — Brett Tomko signed with the Reds? Ooh! — the movement of any significant player can draw the full attention of baseball obsessives. Thankfully, the Yankees and Pirates finally pulled the trigger Friday. The Yankees will eat a little over half of Burnett’s remaining contract, and in return the Pirates will receive two prospects: right-handed reliever Diego Moreno and outfielder and Name of the Year candidate Exicardo Coyones.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Baltimore Orioles recently avoided going to an arbitration hearing by signing Adam Jones to a one year, $6.5 million contract, but there are still rumblings about a long-term deal being in play. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Orioles have started to explore the possibility of signing Jones to a long-term deal, as well they should. Jones currently has one more year of arbitration left before becoming a free agent, and considering that he’s a young +2 to +3 win player with the upside for more, he’s the sort of player the Orioles should be hoping to build around.

Rosenthal reports that Jones wants at least a five-year extension, so that got me curious: what would a five-year extension for Jones look like? Are there any players in a similar situation to him that have signed extensions recently?

Read the rest of this entry »