Lukewarm Stove: McGehee, Sanchez, Dempster, Ryu, Soriano

Some rumor-y bits to catch you up on the weekend that was (there’s more coming later today, too) …

  • Bruce Levine shared a couple thoughts on his regular Saturday radio show this weekend (thanks to CCO for the recap): (1) The Cubs might still have some interest in Dan Haren, now that he’s a free agent (though I’d add that, based on how things played out, I can’t imagine they’re going to give him a multi-year deal (three or more) – and it’s hard to see other teams viewing him as a mere flyer); (2) there are several teams interested in acquiring Carlos Marmol, including the Yankees, who need a late-inning arm and who have Larry Rothschild there as the pitching coach (Marmol’s comments about the Angels trade similarly suggested that there were a number of teams interested in him, to whom the Cubs might want him to consider a trade – he’ll be gone by Opening Day); (3) there’s a 10% chance the Cubs re-sign Ryan Dempster, which seems about right – certainly no higher; and (4) Casey McGehee could make sense as a stop-gap, cheap third base option (a former Cubs farmhand, McGehee had two really nice years in Milwaukee in 2009 and 2010 before absolutely bombing in 2011 and 2012 – he isn’t much of a third baseman, either; feels like a Spring Training invite kind of guy rather than a hey-you’re-the-new-third-baseman kind of guy). His OPS+ the last two seasons was just 69 and 78.
  • Nick Cafardo lists 20 free agents to keep an eye on (which I take to mean something akin to “20 top free agents”), and mentions the Cubs as “could be” interested in Anibal Sanchez, and “interested” in Ryan Dempster. As Sahadev and I discussed in last week’s podcast, Sanchez is set to be paid extremely well, as arguably the second best arm on the market. It’s hard to see the Cubs stepping up to pay him, but he’s young enough (28) that he could be a quality number three for the team for the next four or five years. It’s worth considering.
  • Korean lefty Hyun-jin Ryu, who’s been discussed here before, is officially going to be posted. There’s no hard date on the bidding process yet, but it’ll begin as soon as MLB informs its teams of his availability.
  • The Red Sox re-signed David Ortiz this weekend for two years and $26 million. Sure, some of that money for the soon-to-be-37-year-old (DH-only, coming-off-an-Achilles-injury) is related to his standing among fans in Boston, but it makes you wonder what kind of value someone like Alfonso Soriano might actually have. If Ortiz is worth 2/$26M, I could put together a convincing, statistical argument that Soriano is worth 2/$20M. And if he is, the Cubs would be all too happy to find a taker at that rate. Heck, they’d be all too happy to make him a 2/$15M player and pick up a nice prospect in the process.
  • Speaking of moving outfielders, despite Jed Hoyer’s discussion of David DeJesus’s versatility (and his suggestion that he likes DeJesus in right), don’t be surprised if the Cubs shop him around over the next couple months. He put up a 106 OPS+ last year while playing above average defense, and seeing a whole lot of pitches. He’s signed through 2013 at just $4.25 million with a $6.5 million option for 2014 ($1.5 million buyout), so he’s got some trade value.
  • A reminder: to get your full BN fix during this rumor/trade/signing season, “follow” BN on Twitter, and “like” it on Facebook.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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