Monday notes: Phillies revisit Lowell; Coste a Met

Phillies GM Ruben Amaro has spoken with Boston about the availability of third baseman Mike Lowell, according to SI's Jon Heyman.

Lowell, who turned down a four-year contract from the Phillies two years ago in favor of a three-year, $37 million deal to stay in Boston, is allegedly on the block, with the Red Sox reportedly willing to pick up half of the $12 million owed to him next season. The 35-year-old third baseman missed large portions of the last two seasons, hitting .290/.337/.474 with 17 homers and 75 RBIs in 2009. Heyman described the talks between Amaro and the Sox as "brief."

In other news, 36-year-old catcher Chris Coste has signed a split contract with the Mets and will be added to their 40-man roster. Coste, who hit .224/.301/.317 with a pair of homers in 88 games between Philadelphia and Houston, refused an outright assignment to Triple-A Round Rock yesterday and became a free agent. The Phillies placed Coste on waivers in July and he was picked up by Houston. The Mets, who had been talking with Henry Blanco and could still be seeking additional catching, also resigned infielder Alex Cora today to a 1-year, $2 million deal.

Beerleaguer: Lowell is an interesting option. He fits my first criteria: he can field the position, which makes him at least as attractive as Beltre for a variety of reasons.

Comments

[zp]

hate it. used to be a met, doesn't have enough fire, loafs behind the plate, absolutely not tall enough, constant deer in the headlights look. fire amaro now

[NEPP]

Yeah, what CJ said. You can almost guarantee if its mentioned in a rumor for the the Phillies, it ain't gonna happen.

[Phillies Red]

Clout, pinch hitting Schneider late in the game is certainly an interesting idea, and would bring some good versatility to the bench. You thing the conservative Manuel would actually do it?

[kart racer]

He was always a phillies killer from what I remember, good move.

[thephaithful]

Sucks for Ruiz knowing his 3 year older backup is making 2yr/3mil while he is waiting for arb off his $475K contract from last year.

Not that I want to increase payroll, but in a perfect world Chooch would get a raise to at least the 1.5mil his backup is making.

[Conshy Matt]

Lake Fred - I'm your opposite. Grew up in N'awlins and moved to Philly. I was a lifelong Saints fan and FINALLY converted to the Eagles in the late 90's.

God, I wish I had just stuck with them. I love watching Drew Brees and the ownership is everything the Birds Brass is not.

[NEPP]

I will guarantee that Ruiz will be making at least $1.5 million in 2010.

[Bedrosian's Beard]

CJ: Yep.

[thephaithful]

NEPP: a 300% arb raise?

[NEPP]

I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up in the $1.5 - $2 million range. He had a really good year in 2009.

[Pete Happy]

Bonehead: listed at 6-1. An excellent deal.

[Sonofjake]

Since we can all agree that Werth will be gone, how about Werth and Hamels and any throw-ins they want to the Nats for Zimmerman. Otherwise, Phils better offer Feliz more money and beg him to reconsider or we'll be back to the days of Helms, Bell, and other "cigar store indians" at third.

[DPatrone]

Great move in signing Schneider.

[joe]

>NEPP: a 300% arb raise?

Year to year contract, no arb.

[NEPP]

****Since we can all agree that Werth will be gone, how about Werth and Hamels and any throw-ins they want to the Nats for Zimmerman.****

That's got to be one of the dumber trade offers I've ever heard. We lose our starting RF (probably the best RF in the NL), the 2 picks he'll give us when he leaves after 2010 as a Type A, our #2 pitcher and a throw-in for Zimmerman? I love Zim, he's a great player but come on. Leaving us with a rotation of what?

Lee
Blanton
Happ
??
??

[bay_area_phan]

I've always thought that managers tend to overblow the risk of using the backup catcher to pinch hit. If you burn the backup, and the starting catcher gets injured in the last few innings of the game, it will suck big time. But the odds of that happening are extremely remote.

The chances of losing a game because you used Juan Castro to pinch hit instead of Brian Schneider are probably a good 20 times higher than the chances of losing a game because Ruiz gets injured late in the game & you have to use Jayson Werth or Juan Castro to catch for the rest of the game.

[Bubba]

Amaro said "He’s a guy that we would feel comfortable with playing for an extended period of time, if needed.”

Good signing, and I'm glad it stayed quiet until after the physical. Maybe the organizational memory is getting some play in how Ruben makes decisions.

[Robby J]

Excellent signing. I thought he was older-- probably because he's been kickin' our ass forever. plus, I kinda thought he was closer to a .235 lifetime hitter than .255 I think he's hit somewhere near .360 vs the Phils dating back to his days with the Expos. Havin' trouble accessing stats. Could someone find his lifetime BA vs. Phils?

[RodeoJones]

b_a_p - Drafting where they are there is no way possible the Phillies could draft a college 3b good enough to start for the team in 2011 - if that guy even exists he's gone by the time the Phillies pick. Utley was picked around 15 I believe, and he still had a couple of years in the minors ahead of him.

[NEPP]

.273 AVG .354 OBP .412 SLG .767 OPS in 385 PA

[Lake Fred]

Conshy Matt, you got the worse end of the swap. Althought I can't get Tastykakes, cheese steak subs (or any good sub, they never heard of capicola or provolone cheese down here), Phillies games on the radio, birch beer, Taylor Pork Roll or any hockey, I do get mild winters, Jazz Fest, gumbo, etoufee, crawfish boils, shrimp poor boys, mirlitons, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day Parades, great music, food atmosphere and now the 11-0 Saints!

[Hitman]

A word about the Castro and Schneider signings. In addition to being backups, they will be the Phils pinchhitters. Leaving aside the hairsplitting, these guys are not much of an upgrade over Bako and Bruntlett. Once again, Amaro puts all his chips on defense without considering at least minimally acceptable offense. How many tight games are going to be decided by the two piss poor PHs the Phils have signed.

[drake]

schnieder certainly beats the crap out of another year of bako.

[MPN]

Zolecki now reports that the deal for Schneider is $1.25M for 2010 and $1.5M for 2011.

[bay_area_phan]

Hitman: Your quibble should be with the Castro part of that equation, not the Schneider part. In a normal year, Schneider hits .250 with ok power. Plus, he's one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. That is a major upgrade over Bako, not a marginal one. How many backup catchers hit for high average?

[mvptommyd]

Offseason Recap:

Castro 1 yr/900K
Schneider 2 yrs/2.75 mil

So we have to still get 1 bench guy, 3 bullpen hands and a 3rd baseman with $18 million.

SWEEP THE LEG RUBE!

[joe]

Uhhh... Schneider is a definite offensive upgrade over Bako. Heck, he's an overall upgrade.

[mike cunningham]

@ConshyMatt -- in the 15 seasons that Lurie has owned this team, they have made 9 playoff appearances, and on pace for a 10th this year.

In the 25 seasons that Benson has owned the Saints? How many playoffs did they make? Six. Six. Brees is awesome. No question. This season is awesome. Great for NOLA. Love that town. But Benson also was under VERY STRONG rumors of moving the Saints to San Antonio. And this was BEFORE Katrina.

Lurie gets a bad wrap (in some cases deservedly so) but there is no comparison between the two.

[CJ]

Hitman: Schneider isn't an offensive upgrade over Bako? Are you insane? We're talking about a 20 point difference in career OPS+. It's not even close.

[Old Phan]

Why is everyone assuming that Werth will be gone?

[NEPP]

Because he will cost a fortune and our top 2 positional prospects are corner OFs.

[Hornet]

Old Phan, because if Werth has a good year, like last year, he could command a $10-$15m/yr salary as a free agent. At some point the phils can't keep increasing their payroll, it will have to cap out somewhere. If he wanted to play a couple more years at 7mm a year, I'm sure the Phils would take him but that isn't likely. Plus OF is one of the few spots in the farm system with real elite prospects in M.Taylor and D. Brown.

[bay_area_phan]

Rodeo: Well, yeah, the odds of drafting a third baseman who can be ready by 2011 are obviously rather slim. I was just giving examples of how things can change.

Obviously, it's always better, in theory, to sign someone to a long-term contract. But that presupposes that the person is someone you're comfortable keeping on your team for the length of the contract. I'm not so sure I feel terribly comfortable about giving a long-term deal to the mediocre Adrian Beltre or the old and declining Mark DeRosa. Given those options, I'd prefer to find a one-year solution like Lowell & then revisit the issue next year.

[Lake Fred]

Mike, you're right. I failed to criticize Conshy Matt's remark about the Saints having good ownsership. The Saints ownership is generally considered to be mediocre to bad. The Saints lucked out in signing Sean Payton. It wasn't astute ownership in his hiring. Even a bad owner occasionally makes a step without stepping in dog dirt. Winning seems to make bad owners look good. Even the Phillies have the same owners that were lambasted just a few years back as being both stupid and cheap.

[TNA]

I like trading with the Red Sox. I think a fair 3-way trade that would work well with the Friars (Padres) and Boston is Lowell, Almanzar (prospect 3b), and $6M going to the Phillies, Domingo Santana and carpenter going to the Sox, and Bastardo going to the Padres (who saw him dominate them this past season) as part of a package for A. Gonzalez.

Everybody wins!

The Schneider signing is a really good move by Amaro considering the cost and need.

[CJ]

Yo, new thread.

[TNA]

Actually, in the trade mentioned above, the Phillies should get some guy back from the Padres. Maybe Chris Young ($6.25MM owed this coming year?).