MLB Free Agency Update By John Ryan November 30, 2010 Now that we are entering the first week of December, the free agency market and negotiations are going to start cranking up. There will be more rumors certainly, but remember nearly 100% of these rumors prove to be just that. Jason Werth I have been following the Jason Werth trail quite closely and I strongly believe the Phillies may be more interested in retaining him than initially stated by General Manager Rubin Amaro. You may remember that he spoke very highly of his left fielder Raul Ibanez a few weeks ago and this was interpreted as his way of saying we are moving forward without Werth. However, there are new developments that have suddenly made me realize that Amaro may be structuring an offer for Werth. First, there has not been much interest in Werth and the Jason Bay numbers he is looking for in a contract from his new team. Werth has been a late bloomer in his MLB career and it is beginning to look like his agent Scott Boras may have to do some of his best marketing and salesmanship to land that type of contract. Werth has blossomed in Philadelphia because he batted 5th in a lineup that had Chase Utley batting third and power hitter Ryan Howard fourth. So, he saw plenty of fastballs with runners on base and being flanked by left handed hitters in the lineup. Pitchers had to pitch to him more than any fifth hole batter in the National League. When Werth retained Scott Boras in mid-summer it was all but assumed by the Phillies brass that they would lose Werth, but had a fantastic young replacement in Dominick Brown. Brown was called up July 28 when the Phillies were more of a M.A.S.H. unit then a baseball team. Werth moved to center field and Brown took over Werth’s position in right field. Brown has a canon of an arm and had done very well at two levels in minor ball hitting .327 with 20 homers. It became obvious after his 15 games that he needed more development at the AAA level, but certainly had the tolls to be a strong MLB player. He is now in Santo Domingo playing in the Dominican Winter League for the defending champion Leones del Escogido. Brown was initially batting in the three hole reserved for the best prospects, but after a horrendous start is batting in the seven slot. The reason is that he is a horrid 1-for-23 batting .043 with a .207 OPS. Although a small sampling of statistics, it is nowhere close to replacing Werth’s numbers in the lineup let alone even being MLB level performances. So, with the summer plan now in near ruins it is going to be interesting to see if Amaro does go after retaining Werth and even more interesting if Werth’s goal is to stay a Phillie. The presence of the ongoing Yankee saga involving Derek Jeter is beginning to dim the lights on Werth and many teams would be more interested in getting Jeter and his proven brand. Derek Jeter I think teams will be reluctant to get serious about making an offer for Jeter knowing that is may just create leverage for him to use against the Yankees. No general manager wants to be drawn into this sort of deal where there is no sincere interest from Jeter wanting to leave the pinstripes to finish his career elsewhere. So, at some point I think we will see Jeter accept the ‘evil empires’ final offer. Yet, there is an interesting side to this saga. Boston has little if nothing to lose by offering the Yankee captain a huge multi year deal. If he calls the bluff then the Red Sox will have ‘stolen’ one of the Yankees all time great icons and captain. If he doesn’t call the bluff then the Red Sox have succeeded in making them pay more than top dollar to retain their captain. That is a win-win for the Red Sox and just might make the signing of Lee a bit more difficult. Cliff Lee and Zack Greinke. Same old story now as the Yankees will have a very difficult task landing Lee and resigning Jeter and Mariano Rivera. I like what Texas is doing in having a backup plan to go after the Royals Zack Greinke and this may be a sign that the Yankees have offered Lee a deal worth $140 million as previously reported by the New York Post, but still not confirmed.
 

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