It has been reported that The Red Sox and Diamondbacks have agreed to a trade that will send Wade Miley to Boston for Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster and a minor leaguer.
Miley has pitched better than 200 innings in each of the last three seasons.
The Yankees have had talks with The Giants regarding Sergio Romo. Romo’s saves slipped last season, as did his E.R.A. Romo lost the feel for his slider. The Yankees along with The Red Sox and Dodgers are interested and hope to fix Romo. EDB
Ruben Amara Jr. has finally faced the reality that The Phillies are on a downward turn. He has held on to overpriced veterans for the past three seasons, while The Phillies have began a downward decent. Amaro has tried to present Manager Ryan Sandberg with a younger roster, but his hands have been tied. This appears to be the beginning of ridding the Phillies of vetrans and building towards the future. In return, The Phillies will receive two minor leaguers and cash. EDB
The Dodgers were on the move at The Winter Meetings. After acquiring Phillies shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, the Dodgers traded for top pitching prospect Andrew Hearney from the Marlins.
The Dodgers are trading an All-Star, as they’re sending speedster second baseman Dee Gordon to The Marlins in exchange for Heaney.
It is a six player six-player trade. The Marlins will also receive pitcher Dan Haren. The Dodgers also get utility man Kike Hernandez, catching prospect Austin Barnes and relief pitcher Chris Hatcher.
SAN DIEGO — Maybe Slime-Rod is in good shape.
Joe Girardi told reporters Tuesday A-Rod has sent him videos of him working out, presumably near his Miami home, and that the embattled third baseman appears healthy. The videos have shown Rodriguez hitting, running and lifting, Girardi said.
“It’s been good,” the manager said. “I know he’s working extremely hard.”
Did Slime-Rod send the following phots as well:
That’s more like Slime-Rod!
A-Roid like to Boogie to 
Speaking for Yankees’ fans, Slime-Rod 
Genius Cashman addressed The Media from San Diego, this afternoon to answer questions about his plans for the team. A few notable things were discussed. Cashman admitted that the Yankees never intended to sign Robertson after after signing Miller on Friday. The comments from early this morning suggested the team never made an offer to Robertson’s camp before he agreed to a four-year deal with the White Sox. Cashman says he told media that the Yankees were still interested in Robertson after the Miller signing so that it wouldn’t hurt Robertson’s market Yeah sure, Genius!) That’s kind of nice, I guess. Cashman decided that Miller and the draft pick was a better way to allocate their resources.
Cashman said that he spoke to The A’s about Jeff Samarjia, who is heading to the White Sox after being traded earlier today. Cashman said there just wasn’t a match with the White Sox (sound familiar.) This is because The Yankees under Cashman have not developed any talent. In addition, as I have written about Clueless Hal rewarded Cashman with a three year contract. Now Yankees fans will get to see what further damage, Cashman might do. And if The Yankees are rebuilding (which they won’t admit,) then stop charging enormous prices for tickets.
Cashman said that it wasn’t in his best interest to say whether or not he was interested in the free agent pitchers, available on the market. With a glaring need (or two) in the rotation at this point, it would be pretty stunning if the team wasn’t in on at least one of Scherzer or Lester.
Reports were that The Yankees have hired former Yankee and Trenton Thunder hitting coach Marcus Thames to be assistant hitting coach in the Bronx. Cashman says that report was false. He has to hire a hitting coach before worrying about an assistant hitting coach.
Joe Girardi also spoke to the media and said that he hadn’t decided whether or not he’d name a closer between Miller and Dellin Betances or go with a situational type method.
It will come down to which guys make the Yankee bullpen out of spring training and there are plenty of people in the mix for that, included, last year’s top draft pick Jacob Lindgren.
Joltin’ Joe Girardio said that he expects Mashahiro Tanaka to make his 32 starts next season after suffering from a partially torn UCL in 2014. Joltin’ Joe also said obvious that Ivan Nova won’t be ready to pitch by Opening Day after recovering from Tommy John surgery.
The Red Sox have been linked to Masterson before during the offseason. It is the first time we’ve heard of anything so concrete as an offer.
For now, it’s hard to say what an offer to Masterson means for Boston’s greater pitching plans. Masterson is coming off a brutal 2014 season. Masterson pitched to a 5.88 ERA with Cleveland and St. Louis, Masterson is likely only looking for a chance to prove himself. It’s hard to imagine any team investing in him long-term at the moment, much less at the price Masterson may have envisioned after his successful 2013 season, meaning that we’re likely looking at a one-year deal here no matter where he might end up.
For Boston, there’s a lot to like when it comes to one-year deals. They seem to have earmarked 2015 as their one year to blow past the $189 million tax threshold, leaving Masterson an ideal pick-up, at least when it comes to the dollars and cents aspect. He’ll cost them money in the year where they’re willing to spend, and then nothing afterward.
Does that mean Masterson isn’t intended to be a second pitcher, but a third? It’s a possibility, albeit one that’s hard to really do anything more than guess at without knowing first the terms of the offer, and second just how far they’re willing to go in terms of payroll for the season. We can, however, say that the rotation can fit three new arms. So far even in the scenarios with two new faces, the Red Sox are relying on Rubby De La Rosa as their fifth starter. And while he was the best of the young arms the Sox tried in 2014, he certainly wasn’t too good to be replaced.
For now, we can only wait and see. But as the first night of the Winter Meetings comes to a close, it seems like the pitching market is finally starting to move.
SAN DIEGO — Here we go again! The Coupon’s ability to spend money in recent seasons has always been cloaked in a little bit of mystery. The Wilpons were clearly damaged financially by being ensnared in the Bernard L. Madoff fraud scheme and, have operated more like a small-market team than a big-market one. But more recently there have been hints by the Mets that they are ready to spend more, although how much is never that clear.
On Monday, however, Babbling GM Sandy Alderson tried to add some clarity to the Met’s always unclear situation. Speaking at the winter meetings, he said that the Mets’ payroll, which was around $85 million in 2014, had now pushed up to about $100 million — largely because of raises to players already on the roster and the $21 million, two-year deal with free agent Michael Cuddyer — and that it was likely to stay at that figure right into the start of the 2015 season.
“Might be a little lower, might be at that level,” Alderson said of the $100 million number. “I don’t expect it to go up too much, if at all.” It might also be in between, sideways, up or down or down or up! Right Sandy?
Essentially, Alderson was letting it be known that the Mets, with a growing pool of young talent, hope to finally contend in 2015 but are not about to start spending a lot more money in order to do so.
The Mets do want to add another left-handed reliever to complement Josh Edgin, would like a right-handed bat as an upgrade over Eric Campbell off the bench, and, most significant, would like to acquire a starting shortstop, probably through a trade.
To do so, the Mets are looking to deal at least one of their three veteran starters — Jon Niese, Bartolo Colon, or Dillon Gee — although the trade market for pitchers isn’t expected to fully develop until the top free-agent starters sign new deals.
Trading Colon would seem to make the most sense for the Mets. He is owed $11 million next year, which is a big number for the Mets, and he will turn 42 in May. The Mets’ chances of trading him will no doubt increase if they are willing to pay part of his 2015 salary.
Manager Terry Collins, who was also present, again stated that he expected the Mets to contend next season. Sure Terry, tell met’s fans some more bullshit.
“It’s time,” Collins said. “I’ve done nothing for the last four years but preach to our fan base to be patient. Sure Met’s fans should be patient and pay ridiculous prices to watch bad Baseball.
My read……….
This guy could do a better job!
SD Yankee Report 