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November 28, 2012

Rumor Roundup

Wednesday, November 28

by Daniel Rathman

After watching the Angels bullpen blow an American League-high 22 saves last year, general manager Jerry DiPoto was determined to fortify his late-inning staff. DiPoto made his first move to that end on Tuesday morning, striking a one-year deal with Ryan Madson, who missed the 2012 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Meanwhile, after adding Scott Baker to the Cubs rotation earlier this month, Theo Epstein snagged another low-cost righty in Scott Feldman, who will reportedly earn $6-7 million next year.

Here are three other rumors that surfaced amid those signings:

Mets pad offer to David Wright … maybe
On Monday, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that the Mets had offered Wright a six-year extension worth $100 million—a proposal that Rosenthal heard the third baseman was certain to refuse. On Tuesday, Rosenthal was told that the offer had been bumped up to $135-145 million over eight years, including the $16 million that Wright is already owed for 2013. Under the new offer, Wright, who was worth 5.7 WARP in 2012 and turns 30 next month, would earn an average of $17-18.5 million per year beginning with the 2014 season.

Rosenthal’s report was corroborated by several other reputable writers, including CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman and ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin. And ESPN’s Jim Bowden opined that Evan Longoria’s extension with the Rays had set a precedent for the Mets’ talks with Wright, putting his price tag in the reported range, and paving the way for general manager Sandy Alderson to finish the job. All clear? Not so fast.

Just hours after all of those reports surfaced, Wright told MLB Trade Rumors that they are “inaccurate,” and his agent, Seth Levinson, added that he does not “anticipate a deal any time soon.” The specific inaccuracies that Wright was referring to remain unclear, and writers who reached out to him—such as the New York Post’s Ken Davidoff—were unable to glean any additional information. What we know now is that we may not know anything at all.

Although—under Bowden’s logic—a seven-year extension worth $120-130 million for Wright would compare favorably to Longoria’s six-year, $100 million add-on, their situations are somewhat dissimilar, and not merely because some of Wright’s paychecks could be deferred. Wright, as Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports pointed out, is a year away from free agency, while Longoria was already locked up through the 2016 season. And, despite being nearly three years older than Longoria, Wright has a significantly cleaner injury history, with a stress fracture in his lower back that forced him to miss 58 games in 2011 representing the only long-term ailment amid a slew of nagging nicks.