Teams just don’t seem to want to give up their first-round picks (in some cases, later picks) to be able to sign these players, even though each is capable of helping a team win now, while a draft pick out of the top 10 offers no assurance of panning out. So, the wait goes on. Here’s the latest on each of the Frozen Five…
Nelson Cruz
On Saturday, following up on reporting by Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune, Jeff Sullivan wrote a piece for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer titled “Nelson Cruz Might Happen While I Write This.” Nelson Cruz has not happened in the intervening time period, because the groundhog said six more weeks of winter, which meant six more weeks of Nelson Cruz-to-Seattle rumors.
At this point, it would be fair to start to wonder if Cruz was a real person if we had not all seen him play for the Texas Rangers. A real person, getting offers from only one team, and with spring training about to begin, would be expected to go to that one team, even if it might be a horrible idea for that team, and even if that person might not want to play for that team because of its giant outfield that would both sap his home run total and devalue him as an outfielder on a team that already has a DH logjam.
Kudos to Cruz for continuing to fight the good fight against reality, but there hasn’t been another team seriously linked to him for weeks, if not months. Unless his plan at this point is to wait for a preferred team to have an outfielder get hurt during spring training, maybe it’s just time to take the Mariners’ money and settle in for a bumpy year or so until the inevitable salary dump trade.
Stephen Drew
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson went on WFAN radio in New York on Tuesday and said that bringing Drew to Queens would only happen “under the right circumstances.” Ooh, circumstances! No, wait, Alderson meant it’s probably not going to happen.
The right circumstances for the Mets would probably be a non-exorbitant, short-term contract, and if Drew is going to take that, he might as well go back to Boston, chase another World Series with the Red Sox, and beg them not to give him another qualifying offer so that he can actually get good contract offers when he returns to free agency.
Drew still does not make a ton of sense for the Mets, given that they still have another year before they really expect to contend, and Ruben Tejada is worthy of one more season to try to nail down the shortstop position for himself. Boston has Xander Bogaerts at shortstop and Will Middlebrooks at third base, but bringing back Drew for another year would add both depth and the possibility of giving Bogaerts a Class AAA safety net if necessary.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman talked on Tuesday about third base for his team being “Kelly Johnson and a cast of characters,” but New York’s search for an infield boost is more likely to be on the trade market.
Ubaldo Jimenez
In a twist on not wanting to sign a free agent because of draft pick forfeiture, the Cleveland Indians are reluctant to re-sign Ubaldo Jimenez because they want the compensatory draft pick that would come when they lose him, according to Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer.
The Indians were a wild card team last year, and finished only one game behind the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central. Cleveland lost Scott Kazmir to free agency when the left-hander signed with the Oakland A’s. As promising as Danny Salazar might be, losing both Kazmir and Jimenez without making any additions to the rotation would put a serious dent in any hopes of returning to the postseason. And for what?
At best, the compensatory pick the Indians would get for losing Jimenez would be No. 31 overall. While Greg Maddux was the No. 31 pick in 1984, the next-best all-time No. 31 pick was Jarrod Washburn. Is it worth submarining your own playoff chances so that you can someday, maybe, if everything works out and he never gets hurt, have the Jarrod Washburn of his generation?
Kendrys Morales
Finally, it seems like someone got the memo that there’s a 30-year-old player with a career OPS of .813 on the market, with 90 home runs in his last 493 games played. Buried deep in Nick Cafardo’s notes column on Sunday in The Boston Globe, the words “mutual interest” appeared for Morales and the Pirates, with the caveat that Pittsburgh might still prefer a trade.
The switch-hitting Morales, who hits better from the left side, would be a fine complement to righty-swinging Gaby Sanchez at first base, with whoever is not playing on a given day representing a strong bat on the bench — an area where Pittsburgh was found wanting in the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals in October.
Ervin Santana
According to Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun, the Orioles’ interest in Santana has grown since Baltimore lost out on Bronson Arroyo, the only pitcher in the major leagues who has given up more home runs over the last three years than Santana.
Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal mentioned the Blue Jays as another potential team for Santana, who has given up the most home runs of any American League pitcher since 2006.
About those home runs: there were two ballparks in 2013 where there were 200 or more home runs hit. Those ballparks were in Baltimore (232 home runs) and Toronto (214 home runs). Santana’s successful 2013 campaign came while pitching for the Kansas City Royals, who play in the least homer-happy park in the American League. Santana still gave up 26 dingers, but that was a far sight better than the 39 he surrendered the previous year with the Angels.
Santana would make sense for the Mariners, Cruz would make sense for the Blue Jays or Orioles, and this offseason would make sense if these players found jobs before Carlos Marmol, but the combustible reliever managed to gain employment with the Miami Marlins.
