Posts tagged Adam Dunn at FanHouse

After a potential trade to the Mets fell through last week, Andruw Jones agreed to re-work the final year of his contract, apparently in an effort to grease the wheels for his eventual departure from the Dodgers.

Jones was originally set to earn $21.1 million this year after signing a slightly backloaded two-year, $36.2 million deal last winter, but he's agreed to defer at least $12 million, giving the Dodgers room in this year's budgets to go after a high-profile free agent.

With Jones counting for only $9.1 million or so on this year's books, it should be easier for the Dodgers to find a trade partner to take Jones off their hands, or at the very least, make the option of simply buying him out more palatable. What will the Dodgers do with their extra cash? They're still in the race for Adam Dunn, and it's not out of the question that they get back into consideration for Manny Ramirez.

After famously making a two-year, $45 million deal to Ramirez earlier this winter, the Dodgers allegedly made a less publicized three-year, $60 million offer that was similarly ignored. If they sweeten that offer -- maybe adding a team option/buyout in Year 4 -- they might be able to swoop in and steal Ramirez from their upstate rivals in San Francisco. Stay tuned.

In an attempt to buy some credibility after a 102-loss season, the Nationals made a very serious run at Mark Teixeira, becoming one of the final three bidders for the slugger before ultimately losing out on him because they couldn't offer a chance to win right away.

That doesn't mean they're through trying to improve though, as MLB.com's Bill Ladson writes. Not only are the Nationals in serious pursuit of Milton Bradley -- who seems destined to sign with the Cubs sooner or later -- but they're in on second baseman Orlando Hudson and first baseman/outfielder Adam Dunn.

It seems unlikely that the Nats will be able to secure all three players, and the interest in Bradley doesn't seem to make a ton of sense since their outfield is already pretty full, but it doesn't seem all that crazy that they'd come away with two of the three.

It's clear that Washington has money to spend, and in a cautious market like this, that makes them awfully powerful. Put Hudson and Dunn on the right side of the Nationals' infield and suddenly there's a semblance of respectable offense in the nation's capital. It wouldn't be enough to take them seriously as a contender -- not with such a lousy pitching staff -- but at least they wouldn't be a laughingstock.

It seems yesterday's "Andruw Jones to the Mets!" rumor died as quickly as it was born. The Mets and Dodgers did in fact talk about bringing the overpaid and overweight center fielder back to the NL East, but talks fizzled once the Dodgers balked at taking back a bad contract in return.

According to Marty Noble of MLB.com, the Mets were hoping the Dodgers would take Luis Castillo, who has three years and $18 million left on a four-year deal he signed last winter. Considering Jones is still owed roughly half of the $36.2 million contract he signed last winter, it seems like an even deal, right?

Perhaps, but if the Dodgers are going to be tying up that much salary, they may as well get it over and done with in one year, especially with Rafael Furcal and Blake DeWitt occupying the middle infield for the foreseeable future.

While the Baltimore Orioles are still one of the teams interested in signing Adam Dunn after losing out on local boy Mark Teixeira, the team also has a hole to fill behind home plate. After trading Ramon Hernandez to the Reds earlier this month, it appeared as though the Orioles were clearing room for catching prospect Matt Wieters to take over the role. Now it seems that not everybody in the organization is convinced that Wieters will be ready to take on that responsibility when the season starts.

Which is why they've contacted Scott Boras about Ivan Rodriguez to see if he'd be interested in becoming an Oriole.

Former Oriole Gregg Zaun remains the free-agent catcher most likely to end up in the Orioles lineup on Opening Day, but there have been conversations with agent Scott Boras about veteran Ivan Rodriguez. Whether he would be a good fit to mentor Matt Wieters and eventually step aside for the O's top minor league prospect has been a subject of some discussion in the O's front office.

I don't see Pudge ending up in Baltimore because at this stage of his career I'm sure he'd rather be on a team considered a World Series contender, and with the Orioles playing in a division that includes the defending AL champion Rays, the Red Sox, and the U.S. Treasury New York Yankees, the Orioles are not a World Series contender.

Especially if that non-contender is only signing him as a temporary solution until their other catcher is ready to take over. Of course, if Rodriguez did sign with Baltimore, I suppose they could just do what the Tigers did if he doesn't appreciate losing his job to an unproven prospect and just trade him at the deadline when they're out of the playoff race.

While reports out of Chicago are saying that the Cubs are the team Adam Dunn would most like to sign with this winter, there's a new team that seems to have entered the Dunn sweepstakes. With the Cubs atop his list, and the Nationals, Mariners and Orioles also reportedly interested in the home run and walk machine, it seems that the Dodgers are now testing the waters.

According to Jayson Stark over at ESPN, the Dodgers contacted Dunn's agent Greg Genske during the holidays to gauge his interest in playing in Los Angeles. On the surface, this move would make a lot of sense for the Dodgers. The team is probably getting tired of waiting for Manny Ramirez to either return to Los Angeles or sign with the Yankees -- the Steinbrenners are printing money as you read this -- and would like to figure out what kind of club they're going to have next season.

Considering that the Dodgers finished 14th in the National League in home runs last season, they could definitely use an infusion of power in their lineup, and Dunn would provide exactly that. He's hit 40 home runs in four straight seasons and his production could make up for the loss of Manny.

Of course, the question here is whether the Dodgers are really interested in Dunn, or if they are leaking word that they've contacted Dunn's agent in hopes that it will help spark a decision out of Ramirez.

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune tossed out an interesting Adam Dunn tidbit in his weekend column:

Dunn, who has hit 40-plus homers in five consecutive seasons, is trying to convince the Cubs to sign him for the right-field vacancy, instead of the equally defensively challenged Bradley. Dunn's high strikeout totals and career .247 batting average argue against him being the guy to break up the right-handed bats in the middle of the Cubs' lineup.

There are very few big-league lineups that wouldn't be improved with the addition of 40 home runs and a .380 on-base percentage, and the Cubs are no exception. And yet, for whatever reason, sportswriters (and team announcers) can't talk about Dunn without getting stuck on strikeouts and batting average.

It's short-sighted and not just a little ignorant: if you hit the ball a mile and get on base at an above-average clip, who cares how you make your outs the rest of the time? You're either driving in runs or creating opportunities for other players to do the same. But I digress -- this argument has been made dozens thousands of times.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

Season's Greetings. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

As baseball fans across the country gather to celebrate the holiday season with their loved ones, we here at MLB FanHouse have come up with a present we'd like to give to fans of every team -- even the ones who root for the Yankees, it turns out you folks don't have quite everything just yet.

On a day like Christmas, baseball season can seem an awfully long way off, especially here in the Northeast, where the snow banks are piled four and five feet high. In reality, pitchers and catchers can report to Spring Training in a mere 52 days.

Enjoy the hypothetical gifts for now; it won't be very long before we can all unwrap a very tangible one -- a brand spanking new baseball season.

It is only a surprise that the Yankees wound up with Mark Teixeira in the end when viewed through the prism of the last few weeks. Unlike with CC Sabathia, New York general manager Brian Cashman lurked quietly in the weeds as the Angels, Nationals, Orioles and Red Sox bid for the first baseman.

Had you taken a straw poll of baseball insiders at the outset of the offseason, the Yankees very well may have been the favorites to land him.

So while the baseball operations people in Anaheim, Baltimore, Boston and Washington might be feeling stunned today, they can't be all that surprised that Teixeira is being fitted for pinstripes.

Things change quickly in baseball and now the hard-working folks who lost out on Teixeira will have to shift their focus to Plan B, whatever that may be. Before running down what each team will do now, let's state the obvious. Now is not the time to panic for any of these clubs.

Teixeira was a singular force in this free-agent class. There are certainly plenty of bats available that can roughly replicate his offensive production, but there is no complete package like him on the market -- splurging for one of the pretenders out there (Adam Dunn, Pat Burrell, even Manny Ramirez) won't solve the problem that losing out on Tex created.

Since the beginning of his career, I've become progressively more annoyed with the penchant for many Reds fans -- not all of them, I won't generalize like they do about Cubs fans -- to despise the very existence of Adam Dunn. They'll complain about his defense, high strikeout totals, and low batting average.

On a recent Reds call-in radio show, famed announcer Marty Brennaman flew off the handle about him. His anger and contradictions within the argument are exactly the kind of bile I've been hearing from (some) Reds fans for years.

Our MLB editor files dispatches from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas in Notes From Sin City.

Mets general manager Omar Minaya officially announced the signing of Francisco Rodriguez Wednesday afternoon. Rodriguez is due to make a little less than $40 million over three years, but his contract also contains a vesting option for a fourth year that could push its value past $50 million.

Considering that earlier this offseason, K-Rod and his agents were talking about breaking the bank and the record for a contract given to a relief pitcher with a deal worth north of $75 million, that has to be a disappointment to Rodriguez. It could also be a sign that the plummeting economy has extended its reach into the national pastime.

Or not.

At Minaya's press conference, he admitted that the surprisingly robust closer market helped the Mets get a bargain with K-Rod.

"There is a group of relievers out there," said Minaya. "I think if there were no other relievers, the length [of the contract] would have been different."

There has been a ton of talk out here about the impact the economy is having on the game. It's been used as an explanation for the slow progress being made in the free-agent market, but agent Scott Boras just told everyone huddled around him in the Bellagio that, to paraphrase, baseball is, and has been, largely immune to the ups and downs of the national economy.