Interesting Non-Tendered Free Agents

(featured on www.bluejayway.ca)

After Wednesday’s non-tender deadline, there are a few interesting names available.

Dallas McPherson (3B) – A former Angels prospect, and a lefty with a lot of power. He has been plagued by injuries, but a low market team with no 3B would be smart to give him a shot, especially because he has tons of service time left. The Blue Jays would also be smart to look for a backup 3B in case Glaus gets injured for a few months.

Morgan Ensberg (3B) – Still could produce, as he had good walks and power in the past. But unless he can play LF, another team might be able to offer him a starting spot.

Adam Everett (SS) – One of the best defensive shortstops in baseball, with a poor bat. His type of tools are the kind that go underrated when contracts are given out.

Kevin Mench (OF) – He’s got a decent bat for LF, with a career .791 OPS.

Miguel Olivo [C] – Has hit 32 homeruns over the last two years (and 23 walks!). He might be that good backup catcher Ricciardi has been looking for. He threw out 33% of baserunners last year.

Johnny Estrada [C] – An even better solution offensively than Olivo, since he’s a switch hitter, and has a higher career OBP by 45 points. However, defensively he’s not as good, throwing out 13% last year, even worse than an injured Zaun.

Kiko Calero (RHP) – A career 3.55 ERA has got to make some teams look twice for bullpen help, even though he struggled last year. The Blue Jays would be wise to beef up their bullpen to protect against any possible regressions from some of the overperforming young pitchers last year. Not that the Jays bullpen will be bad, but you can never have enough pitching.

Akinori Otsuka (RHP) – He has a 2.44 career ERA. I’m not sure why the pitching hungry Rangers non-tendered him, as even though he’s returning from injury, he still has an awful lot of service time left, making the risk of losing a few million dollars over 1 year logical. He was also the last valuable commodity left in the Adam Eaton/Otsuka for Adrian Gonzalez/Chris Young/Termel Sledge trade.

Mark Prior (RHP) – The Cubs non-tendering Prior makes more sense than the Otsuka situation. He will be a free agent after next year, and could resign anywhere. He will be returning from injury, so a big market team might want to drop $3.5 million to see if he can be useful for half of the year.

Josh Towers (RHP) – NL West bound.

Matt Wise (RHP) – Another potentially useful bullpen arm. He’s got a career ERA of 4.18, with a good K:BB ratio (238:103).

Other names:

Jose Garcia, RHP, John Parrish, LHP, Cory Doyne, RHP, Roberto Novoa, RHP, Nick Gorneault, OF, Brendan Donnelly, RHP, Emil Brown, OF, Chad Durbin, RHP, Jason Tyner, OF, Andy Gonzalez, INF, Heath Phillips, LHP, T.J. Beam, RHP, Matt DeSalvo, RHP, Darrell Rasner, RHP, Bronson Sardinha, OF, Willie Harris, OF, Aaron Miles, 2B, Mark Hendrickson, LHP, Scott Munter, RHP, Ben Johnson, OF, Juan Padilla, RHP, Nook Logan, OF, Mike O’Connor, LHP, Jack Cassel, RHP, Ryan Ketchner, LHP, Jason Lane, OF, Brad Eldred, 1B; Brian Rogers, RHP, Jerry Gil, SS, Brad Salmon, RHP, Sean Barker, OF, Darren Clarke, RHP.