Thread: Report: Red Sox pitch Manny-for-Tejada blockbuster

Alls I want for Christmas is Miguel Tejada!!!

What a move for the Sox if they can pull this off (although i know it's prob only speculation....and 99.9% of sports media speculation never happens).

But still! They aren't gonna get a better player than Tejada for Manny. He's very nearly the hitter Manny is, we'd be getting that production out of SS (so the jump from a SS to Miguel is bigger than the drop from Manny to whoever), PLUS he's an awesome fielder, he hustles etc. etc.

Mino, please use your magic powers and make this happen!

Originally Posted by Flex

Alls I want for Christmas is Miguel Tejada!!!

What a move for the Sox if they can pull this off (although i know it's prob only speculation....and 99.9% of sports media speculation never happens).

But still! They aren't gonna get a better player than Tejada for Manny. He's very nearly the hitter Manny is, we'd be getting that production out of SS (so the jump from a SS to Miguel is bigger than the drop from Manny to whoever), PLUS he's an awesome fielder, he hustles etc. etc.

Mino, please use your magic powers and make this happen!

You must have forgotten I am a Yankee fan.

Why did they give up on Edgar Rentaria so quick?

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Why did they give up on Edgar Rentaria so quick?

Renteria could not handle Boston. He's a quiet guy with thin skin. He can't handle the microscope-scrutiny in Boston. Besides, $10 million per season for a 30 error guy with a weak bat is too expensive. Besides, Renteria wanted out.

don't see this happening..no way Orioles are letting go of their best player

I heard that the Yankees are trying to persuade Nomar G to wear the pin stripes and play first base

Originally Posted by IainDaniel

I heard that the Yankees are trying to persuade Nomar G to wear the pin stripes and play first base

I see no reason to have him...we have enough hitters right now.
The only position I open is centerfield and he's never played there before....he breaks down too much.

Originally Posted by I Are Baboon

Renters could not handle Boston. He's a quiet guy with thin skin. He can't handle the microscope-scrutiny in Boston. Besides, $10 million per season for a 30 error guy with a weak bat is too expensive. Besides, Renteria wanted out.

S.I.com

Someone, either the Braves or the Red Sox, is dead wrong about Edgar Renteria. There's no getting around it. No front-office double talk or toothy camera-ready smiles can hide that fact.

Either Renteria is not the player that just about every team thought he was -- which would make the Red Sox absolutely brilliant for cutting their losses and unloading him last week -- or he's simply coming off a down year and is still one of the best shortstops around. That would make the Braves the smartest team in the game.

Baseball's relentless offseason has been filled with news; the Marlins' dismantling, the Mets' spending spree, the bullish market on closers. A.J. Burnett and $55 million, for crying out loud. But no deal since the season's end has been as surprising as Boston's dumping of last winter's prize free-agent shortstop, Renteria.

A lot of people knew that Boston wasn't very keen on Renteria's first season with the Red Sox, when he hit .276, struck out 100 times and committed a career-high 30 errors. But trading him, with three years left on a $40 million contract that he signed just last winter? With the soaring cost of shortstops today? With his reputation before the 2005 season? With no heir apparent in the organization?

Everybody knew, too, that the Braves needed a frontline shortstop this winter after losing Rafael Furcal, who signed a three-year, $39 million blockbuster from the Dodgers.

But Renteria? Who knew?

"We could not have acquired a more perfect player, for us, than Edgar Renteria," Braves general manager John Schuerholz said as he introduced his new shortstop to the media on Monday.

The story behind this trade a mystery. Nobody seems to remember who broached the subject. It might have been just a couple of scouts or baseball people shooting the stuff in the lobby of the Wyndham Anatole in Dallas, the site of the winter meetings last week. It might have been cocktail chatter at some official reception in Dallas. Whatever, wherever, after Furcal signed with the Dodgers, the Braves let it be known that they were interested, and the Sox let it be known Renteria could be had.

The Braves knew all about Renteria, a four-time All-Star with two Gold Gloves, from his nine years in the National League. They had played against him in the NL East when Renteria was with the Marlins, from 1996-98, and had run into him several times during his six-year stint with the Cardinals. They had positive reports on him from all over the game, including one from their public relations director, who was with Renteria in St. Louis.

The Sox had a similar book on Renteria before they signed him last winter.

"We have him as one of the top guys in all of baseball," former Boston general manager Theo Epstein said before the 2005 season. "He's very sure-handed, consistent, with good range and he's fun to watch play shortstop."

Once Renteria made it to Boston, the Sox found a completely different player. To some, he looked overweight and slow. (He stole only nine bases, a career-low.) He might have had a back injury and other physical problems. He seemed to struggle with all the attention of Red Sox Nation, though the low-key Renteria handled the pressure of the World Series just fine the year before. (He hit .333 against the Sox in the '04 Series.)

In Boston, he started off slowly, as he typically does, but he began to heat up, hitting .354 in May. Renteria never found his way in the field, though. Seventeen of his 30 errors were on throws. He sometimes looked as if he wasn't trying for balls in the hole, leading to more speculation about injuries.

The Sox became so disenchanted with Renteria that they began having internal discussions about how to move him. And when the Braves inquired about a trade, offering up their top prospect, third baseman Andy Marte, the Sox jumped. Boston gave the Braves $11 million to offset the remaining three years of Renteria's contract, a stark indication of just how badly the Sox wanted him out of town.

"That's what it seemed like to me, too," said Renteria's agent, Jeff Lane. "There's no other way to soft-sell that."

For their part in this deal, the Braves may end up with a slow, stone-handed shortstop, but at least he'll be cheap -- somewhere around $6 million a year, after the money from Boston is figured in, or about $2 million a year less than what the Braves offered Furcal to stay. Over the next three years, Atlanta will pay Renteria less than half of what the Dodgers are paying Furcal.

"It's probably better," Schuerholz said of the trade, "than we could have expected."

It's probably more likely, though, that the Braves will get something closer to the Renteria of 2004 and years before. He's only 30. He'll be playing in the relative quiet of Atlanta, back in the NL with familiar opponents and in familiar parks. He appeared Monday, fresh off the plane from Colombia, to be slim and in shape, so much so that Schuerholz felt inclined to point it out.

And now he has something to prove.

"When you work hard, do everything you can to help the team win, you don't have to feel bad," Renteria said. "Everyone has one bad year. Maybe that's my year. I tried my best. That happens."

If it happens again in 2006, the Braves will regret ever talking trade with Boston, no matter what the savings. But if it doesn't -- if Renteria is the player whom Boston thought it had signed last winter, and whom the Braves hope they have traded for this winter -- the Sox will be left with the knowledge that they gave up too much, too quickly and at too great a cost.

We'll find out, one way or the other, soon enough.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

I see no reason to have him...we have enough hitters right now.
The only position I open is centerfield and he's never played there before....he breaks down too much.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/a...2005&fext=.jsp