Baseball Prospectus Rangers notes for Dec 30th:
They weigh in on the Millwood signing, the Eaton/Young trade, Vicente Padilla, and the starting to be annoying Roger Clemens rumours.
Mets sign Bret Boone:
This has two benefits. We won’t do something stupid and sign Boone (something I heard rumoured this morning on XM’s MLB Home Plate channel). Second, we don’t have to see the stupid bat flip anymore, as he’ll be in the NL.

MLB.Com has posted 31 season previews, one for each team, and one overall one for baseball in general.
Here’s the one for the Rangers.
If you’ve been following the team pretty closely, there’s nothing here that’s really new, but it’s a nice summary of what’s going on just the same.

Heard on XM Radio a few minutes ago a new rumor about Hank Blalock being moved.
Blalock to White Sox for a starter and Joe Crede.
Depending on who the starter is, I’d do that. Most of the White Sox starters had great records last year, so if we can grab one of their guys, that’d be cool, but it wouldn’t make much sense to me for the Sox to move someone like Garland, Contreras, etc…

According to the Ft Worth Star Telegram and TR Sullivan…
The Rangers have signed Kevin Milwood. It’s supposed to be announced tomorrow after a physical, but it’s apparently a four deal deal with an option (Jamey Newberg’s report says its’ a vesting option). The FTW article doesn’t mention what kind of option, and I can’t find any mention of this story on any national website as I write this.
Although I imagine that will change shortly. More updates as I get them.
UPDATE #1 @ 5:30PM Mon: According to this story, it’s a 5 year contract at $60 million. The fifth year can be voided by the Rangers if Milwood doesn’t pitch “x” number of innings in an unspecified time during the first years. So we’re locked into $48 million for four years. Could be OK, could be bad. We’ll see. Also no word if the $60 is a straight $12 per year or if there’s some other breakdown. Again, more as it comes in.

Today was the deadline to offer arbitration eligible players contracts, otherwise they’d become free agents. We offered arbitration to all our eligible players.
Mark Teixeira, Kevin Mench, Gary Matthews, Brad Wilkerson, Vicente Padilla, Joaquin Benoit, & Rod Barajas were the players all tendered contracts. Formally, San Diego offered arb to Adam Eaton, as he isn’t Ranger property until the trade is actually consumated.
Desired salaries from both sides (management, player) are exchanged sometime in the middle of January. If there’s no settlement on a contract between now and sometime in early February, there will be an actual arbitration hearing; something that hasn’t happened with the Rangers since 2000 (although I forget who the player was
If the sides don’t agree on a contract figure by mid-January, they’ll exchange desired 2006 salaries. If there is no settlement by early February, the sides will participate in an arbitration hearing, which usually is classified as ugly.
The Rangers haven’t gone to a hearing since 2000, when Doug Melvin was the GM. Can’t remember who the player was, though.

This just came in from the Dallas Morning News.

The Rangers agreed in principle to a deal with San Diego that will bring them right-handed starter Adam Eaton and hard-throwing setup man Akinori Otsuka and a minor league prospect in exchange for pitcher Chris Young, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and outfielder Terrmel Sledge, major league officials confirmed.

Out: Chris Young, Adrian Gonzalez, & Termel Sledge
In: Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka, & Billy Killian
Adrian Gonzalez I figured would bring more of a blue chip than being involved in this trade.
Termel Sledge is no big loss. My thinking there is “well, it’s not Mench”.
Chris Young? Going into this offseason, our rotation was Young, Loe, ?, ?, & ?. Now it’s Eaton, Padilla, Loe, ?, & ?. I don’t see trading him as a particularly good thing at all. Course I didn’t think moving Drese was good either, and he has been a bust in Washington for the most part.
Adam Eaton: Could be OK, but he’s a flyball pitcher if I remember right, plus he’s not the healthiest of pitchers. Could be OK, but this is a big wobbly question mark.
Akinori Otsuka: I don’t know anything about him, but the initial press says he’d be the primary setup man. We could use one of those, as Francisco probably won’t be really healthy again until 07, assuming he’s still with us then.
Billy Killian: Was the Padres third round pick in 2004. Is a catcher. We could probably use a good young one, although I thought we already had Gerald Laird?
I probably would be OK with this if it wasn’t for the inclusion of Chris Young. Young probably will really benefit by this move, going to Petco Park (a big non wind tunnel place), as wel as the NL (no DH).

• ESPN Story
• MLB.com story
• Padres Website Story
• Dallas Morning News Story
• AP Wire story via Yahoo

Contract Status:
Chris Young:
Due $1.1 Mil total in 2006 & 2007, plus 2008 team option. Not sure of 06/07 breakdown.
Adrian Gonzalez:
Arbitration Eligible in 2006, made $316,500 in 05
Terrmel Sledge:
Arbitration Eligible in 2006, made $345,000 in 05
Adam Eaton:
Arbitration Eligible in 2006, made $3.325M in 05; fa after 06
Akinori Otsuka:
Signed through 06 – gets $1.75M
Billy Killian:
In Minor Leagues. Doesn’t really apply to this.

We sent Ricardo Rodriguez to the Phillies today to complete the trade for Vicente Padilla.
No huge loss there, as he seemed to fall out of favor with managment. Shame though, as he was going so well until he was plunked in the arm with a pitch in the middle of the 2004 season.

Brad Wilkerson and Vicente Padilla were introduced to the press today. Here’s a picture from the press conference, which I did not hear, unfortunately. Didn’t even know there was going to be one. Oh well.
Anyway, on the subject of uniform numbers which I’m so keen on.. Padilla was wearing 44, which was his number in Philly. As I said before, that was worn at the end of the season here by Jason Botts, so that’s no surprise.
Brad Wilkerson was wearing 6, which was Gerald Laird’s number for the last two years. I don’t know if it will stay that way. Wilkerson wore 7 in Montreal/Washington, and that’s already taken by DeRosa, so it isn’t much of a surprise that he got bumped to 6. Don’t know what Laird will be wearing if indeed Wilkerson goes into sping training with 6. 5 was worn by Ian Kinsler in 2005’s spring trainign, so that could be open. We’ll see.
UPDATE: There’s now an article on the Rangers site with reactions from the press conference by Wilkerson & Padilla. Check it out.

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This evening it was announced that the Rangers have signed Mark DeRosa & Brian Shouse to one year contracts for the 2006 season. Both were eligible for arbitration, so this brings the number of players now eligible for arbitration for the 2006 season to seven. They are: Rod Barajas, Joaquin Benoit, Gary Matthews Jr., Kevin Mench, Vicente Padilla, Mark Teixeira and Brad Wilkerson.
The $ amounts are not out yet, but I’ll have that as soon as I find out. Here’s the story from the Rangers site about it.
Both are good signings. Yeah, they were arbitration eligible, and would have likely been here anyway. But I still like it from a baseball move. DeRosa ddn’t play much at all most of 2005 until the back end of the season,when he was pretty reliable in several different positions. He could be our regular 2B if Kinsler doesn’t work out, or management decides he’s truly not ready yet. And Shouse has been pretty good out of the pen, too. Plus he’s a left handed reliever, you want to keep them. :)
UPDATE @ 12:15AM Tue: I’ve since found out the value of the two contracts. DeRosa got $675,000 and Shouse got $725,000 plus $50k in incentives. Shouse will get $25,000 if he appears in 60 games, and another $25k if he appears in 70.
UPDATE 2 @ 2PM Tue: I also found out that DeRosa gets contract incentives, too. He gets $25,000 each if he makes 350, 400, & 450 plate appearances.

The Rangers have acquired Vicente Padilla from the Phillies for a player to be named later.
Padilla has one year left of arbitration eligibility (according to my brother who follows the Phils and lives in Philly). He made $3.2 Million in 2005. His 2005 stats:
9-12, 4.71 ERA, 27 G, 27 GS, 147 IP, 146 H, 79R, 77ER, 74 BB, 103 K, 22 HR
Not wonderful, but at this point, we need what we can get. He wore uniform #44 in Philly, which was last worn by Jason Botts, so Padilla will probably have that in 2006.
The more I think about this, the more it’s probably a good idea for us. I’m sure we won’t be giving up anything of value. PTBNL’s never are. Padilla isn’t the greatest – he had some promise a few years back, but doesn’t seem to follow through. However, when healthy, he’s at least an innings eater, and that alone should help. It’d be awesome if he could turn it around, and have a 3 era with a 1 whip. :) But that isn’t likely. The Ballpark in Arlington and Citizens Bank Park are both launching pads, so I don’t think his numbers will jump all that much, really.
The word in the news stories I’ve been reading is that the return for Padilla won’t be anyone on the 40 man roster, which is probably good. I’m also pretty sure it won’t be any of our non 40 man roster blue chip guys. Assuming the Phillies want pitching back, these are some names I see possibly going up there:
Oklahoma (AAA)
Ryan Bukvich
Matt Riley
Tulsa (AA)
Wil Rodriguez
Agustin Montero (was banned for steroids)
Ron Mahay (middle reliever)
We shall see. If they get Mahay, that would be three former Ranger pitchers the Phillies would have (the others being Julio Santana & Aaron Fultz).
News stories:
Texas Rangers site story
MLB.com news article
Padilla’s roster page on Phillies site
Dallas Morning News Story
Ft Worth Star Telegram Story
My roster page for Padilla
Phillies Fan Blog Perspective on Trade
Mlbtraderumors.com take on move