2008 Offseason: Some non-tendered players to consider
December 13, 2007 6 Comments
Some of the more interesting players who were non-tendered last night:
Mark Prior, SP. Would he ever consider setup duty for a contender?
Kiko Calero, RP. 33-year old has been well above average except for last year. Might have a little left.
Dallas McPherson, 3B. Former high prospect is just 27 and could provide some bench pop.
Red Sox Talk 
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theo epstein was the youngest general manager in 2003
Slow Offseason so far?
This is such a slow offseason! It’s all being gummed up by the Twins. Since the Santana talks have slowed to a seeming stand still, and the Mitchell reports have flooded the sports pages, I have almost stopped following baseball news altogether.
Of course I still take a look every other day, praying for Santana to be on the front page of ESPN.com shaking hands with Theo Epstine.
Yeah, things are pretty slow for the Red Sox right now. Until we know what’s happening with Santana, we can’t deal Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie, or Jon Lester, and we’ve had offers on them.
Potential suitors are turning to other options; the Rangers traded for Josh Hamilton today, the Padres dealt for Jim Edmonds, etc. The Twins can’t seriously be considering starting Jason Pridie in centerfield on Opening Day, can they? They did manage to get a barely satisfactory shortstop in Adam Everett, but that wouldn’t detract from their interest in Lowrie.
BTW, Calero was re-signed by the A’s just one day after he was non-tendered; it’s a way teams have of getting around the salary arbitration process if both team and player are basically happy with the status quo.
Why is Livan Hernandez still a free agent ? admittedly , the guy is a .500 pitcher. But , he is also a workhorse. The man will eat 200 plus innings , pitch 20-25 good starts a season and should be considered a decent fourth or fifth starter.
Teams just don’t value back end of the rotation starters , that’s for darn sure.
Livan Hernandez career numbers : 134 wins – 128 losses 4.25 ERA .511 winning percentage.
His 162 game AVG : 12 wins 12 losses , 33 starts and 230 innings.
Hernandez is a decent pitcher, almost the perfect definition of an “innings eater”. 2 of the past 3 seasons he’s been right around league average in the NL. I think his two All-Star selections in 2004 and 2005 probably raise the perception of what he is a little bit. Eight straight seasons the man has pitched well over 200 innings year in and year out, and that doesn’t include a 199 2/3 inning year in 1999.
As to why he’s not signed yet, it has to do with age and salary (doesn’t it always?). Hernandez will be 33 next year, and as someone who’s earned an average of $7.3M over the last three seasons, probably isn’t willing to take a huge pay cut. Rest assured, he will pitch for somebody in 2008. It comes down to this: will somebody get desperate enough to pony up $6-7M for his services, or will he accept something more in the $4-5M range? I expect him to sign something by February. MLBTR suggests the Mets, Phillies, Astros and Reds.