Mark Lancaster in the Post and Mark Sheldon of MLB.com have a couple of articles today about the same topic: GM Dan O’Brien is doing a lot of talking down at the winter meetings in Dallas. Some interesting notes from Lancaster:
“We’ve zeroed in on a group that we have the best potential match with and we followed up with meetings today,” said O’Brien.
One of those meetings was with the Minnesota Twins, who are said to be interested in Austin Kearns. The Reds would need pitching back in any deal they make, and the Twins have pitching to give. It’s just a question of whether it’s at the level the Reds desire.
Mmmmm…pitching. I’m not entirely sold on trading Kearns, but if he nets a good return (i.e., a nice arm), I’d pull the trigger.
In terms of free agent possibilities, check this out:
The free agent most strongly linked to Cincinnati is former Reds setup man Todd Jones, who would come back as the closer. He reportedly has several options available in varying roles.
Ugh.
Wait and see, that’s the order of the day. The winter meetings are starting to get very interesting, however.
The rumor now is that Casey is heading to the Pirates for lefty Dave Williams. Some people are down on this, as Williams appears to be just an average pitcher. However, people are overlooking that his ERA was 2.65 on the road last season. Also, there are blurbs on ESPN Insider Rumor Central about Casey and Kearns, which I cannot read.
With all that new found reliever money out there, I don’t see how there’s any way the Reds match some of the offers that will be out there for Jones.
I wouldn’t say the Reds are better, less cluttered perhaps. Losing casey gets rid of consistency for the power of Pena, but I don’t see Williams being anything better than a back of the rotation guy.
I think if the Reds had pressed some, they could have gotten a little more in the way of pitching. The only positive I see is that he is a lefty.
do you guys hate todd jones as much as we do?