Hot Stove Update: Abreu and Guerrero Off the Market

As the postseason grinds toward baseball played in freezing rain(seriously, what is MLB going to do if the Minnesota Twins every make it into the World Series?), other teams are already firing up their Hot Stoves getting ready for the winter.  The first players to get warm by the fire were Cuban expatriates Jose Abreu and Alexander Guerrero as they signed contracts with the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers respectively.

The Guerrero signing by the Dodgers had to be expected as he had already signed with them once only to have the contract voided on a technicality.  Abreu signing with the White Sox probably should not be a big surprise either as the ChiSox have a history of signing Cuban players and Abreu's skill set probably fits better on an AL team.

Probably the most puzzling thing about Abreu is what, exactly, was the Giants interest or involvement?  Cove Chatter has a nice post up where he is scratching his head over what we know about the Giants end of the chain of events leading to Abreu's signing.  Cove Chatter is linked over on the left.

I'm going to take a stab at what I think might have gone down in the Giants front office over Abreu, all pure speculation on my part.  Abreu does not fit the profile of the type of player the Giants have ever tried to acquire.  On the other hand, he does represent power, which is probably the one thing the Giants lack most at the MLB level.  I think that someone influential in the Giants organization, I'll just make a guess and say John Barr or less likely Felipe Alou, made a strong pitch for Abreu to Brian Sabean.  Sabes was skeptical, but decided he better see more for himself, thus the junket to the Dominican Republic to see Abreu's workout in person.  Ultimately, whoever was pushing for Abreu in the organization failed to convince Sabes that he wanted Abreu enough to shell out the bucks it was going to take to sign him.

Of course, it's also possible that the Giants made a competitive offer and Abreu just had a comfort level with the White Sox due to their history with Cuban players.  At any rate, the 6 years/$68 M the White Sox will pay him seems like a whole lot of money, but in the current baseball economy, it is worth just 2 WAR per season over the course of the contract and $11 M per season should not bankrupt or seriously hamper any MLB organization going forward.  I can see an argument that Abreu's skills were not a fit for the Giants, but the White Sox got themselves a low risk lottery ticket that has at least even odds of paying off big time.

In other Hot Stove League news, Tim Lincecum reportedly turned down a 2 year offer from the Giants, but is also reportedly seeking a short term deal during which he hopes to rebuild his value.  Hmmm.....did the Giants maybe lowball Timmy with the 2 year offer hoping he would take that rather than risk a Qualifying Offer?  Is he daring them to make his day with the QO?  Sounds like the Giants and Timmy are playing a little game of QO Poker here!

Around the League:

Don Mattingly is apparently more than just a little bent that the Dodgers left him dangling this season.  He is not rushing to accept the vesting of his contract option for next season, and did not hold back in telling reporters how he really felt about it.

Kirk Gibson, on the other hand, seems to be in a cozy situation in Arizona and is not interested in the Tigers managerial opening in the wake of Jim Leyland's resignation.

Hot Tip:  If you haven't read is already, go on over to Obssessive Giants Compulsive linked to the left and check out ogc's impassioned but thoughtful take on juiced balls and the "Sillyball Era."  I don't happen to agree with his conclusions, but it's a good read.

Update on my daughter's marathon run in the Nike Women's Marathon in SF this weekend:  She finished #771 out of over 31,000 runners overall and #115 out of over 700 in her age group.  As a proud dad, I think that is pretty darn impressive!