Pittsburgh controls both Bay and Nady next season, as well, and at 44-50 want to make as strong a run as possible at avoiding a 16th straight losing season. However, rival executives also anticipate the Pirates want to get top prospect Andrew McCutchen up this season and if both Bay and Nady are around that becomes more difficult. McCutchen and All-Star Nate McLouth will be the cornerstones of the outfield of what the Pirates hope is a contender of the future and rival GMs expect that Pittsburgh will want to add more pieces to that groundwork as soon as possible by moving Bay and Nady. Therefore, there is still a belief the prices will drop before July 31.
Matt Holliday, Rockies â “I can’t imagine the Rockies will act with Holliday until they know what the true price is for Bay and Nady,” an AL executive said. In other words, Colorado is expecting far more in return for Holliday than Pittsburgh will get for Bay/Nady. So the lack of movement on Bay/Nady is hurting the Holliday market, too.
One veteran agent and an NL official both concurred that they think the Rockies would be more likely to trade third baseman Garrett Atkins at the deadline than Holliday because in Ian Stewart, Colorado already has a ready-made replacement. Also, there is firm belief that the one player that the Rockies will definitely deal is Brian Fuentes, and both the Mets and Yanks remain part of that hunt. But at the moment the Mets (Jonathan Niese) and the Yanks (Ian Kennedy) are showing no inclination to deal the players desired by Colorado.
One other reason the Rockies might wait until the offseason is that the Red Sox might not be interested now in Holliday, especially if the current diagnoses are right and David Ortiz (wrist) returns by the end of the month. But two different executives pointed out that Boston pitching coach John Farrell played for Holliday’s father at Oklahoma State and is a big fan of Holliday. The scenario painted by the executives would have the Red Sox using their deep farm system to obtain Holliday, then not picking up Manny Ramirez’s $20 million option and using that money as the basis to do a long-term pact with Holliday.
Milton Bradley, Rangers â An AL official said the rise in prominence of Texas president Nolan Ryan has affected the switch-hitting Bradley’s availability. According to this official, Rangers GM Jon Daniels still is under the belief Texas should be in rebuilding mode and should translate a low-cost-gamble-turned-good such as Bradley into more long-term pieces. But the Rangers are four games over .500, six out of the wild card and have several injured pitchers ready to return, and because of all of that Ryan does not want to concede the 2008 season.
Juan Rivera, Angels â Anaheim had signaled an on-again, off-again desire to move Rivera. But now that Rivera has gotten hot by hitting .355 with three homers in his past 10 games to raise his season average from .164 to .233, the Angels are telling teams Rivera is not available. Too bad for the Mets, who were focusing on a player that GM Omar Minaya has acquired in the past as Montreal’s GM.
Casey Blake, Indians â There are mixed signals if Blake is going to have the stats to be a Type-A or Type-B free agent. Rival teams say to just ignore that. Even if Blake is a Type-A, these executives said, Cleveland would not keep him and risk offering arbitration at the end of the year to receive draft pick compensation in free agency. In that scenario, Blake, who turns 35, next month would almost certainly accept arbitration and receive a one-year contract in the $8 million-plus range for the 2009 season. Indian officials, however, say they would not mind having Blake again on a one-year contract and that they will not simply accept an undervalued offer just to get rid of Blake.