Plus: White Sox showed interest in Adam Lind and the Twins are close to a new manager
With free agency approaching, Major League Baseball teams can exclusively negotiate with their own free agents -- including qualifying offers -- through Monday. As soon as the clock strikes Tuesday, the market opens its doors.
The White Sox don't really have a need for the courtesy period. They declined Felipe Paulino's option, and they're probably saying goodbye to Matt Lindstrom, so Rick Hahn and the front office only has to keep track of what other teams are doing with their candidates.
Here's a list of notable, non-obivous moves that affected the free-agency pool over the last couple days:
- Red Sox: Re-signed Koji Uehara to a two-year deal.
- Blue Jays: Declined options for Sergio Santos, Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan, gave qualifying offer to Melky Cabrera.
- Rockies: Declined Brett Anderson's $12M option.
- Marlins: Exercised option on Jeff Mathis.
- Royals: Declined Billy Butler's option.
- Indians: Exercised Mike Aviles' option.
- Tigers: Exercised Joakim Soria's option.
- Yankees: Qualifying offer for David Robertson.
Over at MLB Trade Rumors, Tim Dierkes posted his top 50 free agents list with predictions. He has the White Sox signing Victor Martinez (No. 6), Colby Rasmus (No. 20) and Luke Gregerson (No. 32), although it's worth noting he was only right on eight of 50 last year.
And in more lists, Grant Brisbee ranked the top 34 free agents, and Matthew Pouliout at Hardball Talk ranked 150.
Christian Marrero Reading Room
The rumors of the Blue Jays wanting to move Adam Lind were well-founded. Toronto dealt him to Milwaukee for homer-prone righty starter Marco Estrada. That seems like a good deal for the Brewers on paper -- even though Lind is probably best as a DH, he can play first base, and the Brewers desperately needed somebody there.
Since the Sox need lefty bats, they seemed to be a possible landing spot for Lind. Sure enough:
Sources: #WhiteSox were other team on Lind, but weren’t willing to give up much. #BlueJays’ best offer was from #Brewers.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 1, 2014Which is interesting, because Estrada -- a 30-year-old coming off a bad season and entering his last arbitration year -- doesn't seem like all that much himself.
The Minnesota Twins' search to replace Ron Gardenhire is nearing an end, and in the most Minnesota Twins way possible. Not just because they're hiring an internal candidate, but also because of this quote (h/t @mighty_flynn on Twitter):
"He’s very aware of who he is and what he represents," the person said. "He’s not going to do anything that’s not proper and right and just. There’s a dignity about him."
Buster Olney lays out the Rays' case to pursue tampering charges against the Cubs in their hiring of Joe Maddon. It's a strange case, since Maddon said he wouldn't have opted out had the Rays not informed him of his right to do so after former Tampa Bay GM Andrew Friedman left for Los Angeles. But that would mean Maddon's agent is bad at his job, and they're still doing great together. Also, Theo Epstein went out of his way to set up an alibi in his statement about the process.