The Royals have been major players in the free agent market, making a big run at Andruw Jones while signing Jose Guillen, but they did lose David Riske to the Brewers.
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I woke up a little depressed on a Monday morning but was quickly cheered up with a good laugh when I saw Ken Rosenthal's report that the Pirates had no interest in dealing center fielder Nate McLouth for Robinson Cano this winter.
The Pirates also had Rosenthal also put it out there that they wouldn't deal McLouth unless it was 'a dramatic overpay.'
Robinson Cano for Nate McLouth is very nearly the definition of 'dramatic overpay.'
The Yankees are interested in McLouth as a stopgap in center field, but he is certainly more Claudell Washington than Mantle, DiMaggio, or even Bernie.
McLouth had a career season in 2008 (.276/.356/.497 with 26 homers), but those numbers are largely due to an incredible April and May. He had an OPS of .781 in the second half and hit just .710 against lefties during the entire season.
Against American League pitching during his four-year career, McLouth is hitting just .220/.265/.376 with a .228 BAbip.
McLouth was sixth in OPS+ among center fielders, behind Josh Hamilton, Carlos Beltran, Jody Gerut, Grady Sizemore, and Curtis Granderson.
Cano was 27th (out of 34) among second basemen, but he's 7th in the category since 2005, behind Chase Utley, Jeff Kent, Ian Kinsler, Brian Roberts, Dan Uggla, and Dustin Pedroia.
This was a hit the bottom kind of year for Cano, who easily had career lows in batting, OBP, slugging, and homers.
McLouth has become a serviceable center fielder and is a huge upgrade over Brett Garner (.228/.283/.299) and Melky Cabrera (.249/.301/.341), but the Yankees won't settle on McLouth as their indefinite everyday center fielder any more than they've settled on Cabrera over the past few seasons.
Matt Kemp, the other player most frequently mentioned as the player that the Yankees could possibly trade Cano for, had a season in which he didn't improve his 2007 .894 OPS and took a step backwards while becoming a regular in center field for the atrocious Andruw Jones.
Kemp has only hit nine of his 35 career homers on the road, and his OPS is 168 points better against lefties (.933) than it is against righties (.765).
I would be more inclined to trade Cano for Kemp even though the numbers suggest otherwise. Kemp was ranked 247th in season FIC while was ranked 19th, but I think the talent ceiling for these two players gives a clear edge to Kemp.
I still believe in the purity of Cano's swing, his eventual maturity at the plate, and the overall lack of talent at second base and wouldn't trade him for Kemp or McLouth, especially as his value is at an all-time low with one big exception: When will Derek Jeter allow the Yankees to move him from shortstop?
The quality of Jeter's play at shortstop is probably the most well documented and excessively discussed defensive topic in all of baseball. He would make a good second baseman for the final third of his career, and using Cano to find a long term center fielder this year will then create a stopgap situation at second base, which can be filled by a Mark Ellis, Orlando Hudson or, Rafael Furcal if they want to be more ambitious.
Meanwhile, the long term need is no longer center field and is strictly on shortstop for the first time since 1995.
- Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM
