Before the major league baseball world gathered in California for the winter meetings, Arizona snapped up third baseman Troy Glaus and Los Angeles added second baseman Jeff Kent in a pair of big-money deals involving All-Stars.
Glaus, the 2002 World Series most valuable player for Anaheim, agreed Thursday to a US$45 million, four-year contract with the last-place Diamondbacks.
Los Angeles didn't even wait for the formal start of the meetings to hold the first news conference at the hotel where baseball officials will gather in Anaheim, traveling south to announce a US$17 million, two-year contract with Kent, who helped Houston come within a game of its first National League pennant.
In other deals Thursday, the Chicago White Sox agreed to a US$10.15 million, two-year contract with outfielder Jermaine Dye; San Diego agreed to a US$1 million, one-year deal with outfielder Eric Young; and 46-year-old first baseman Julio Franco stayed with the Atlanta Braves for a US$1 million, one-year deal.
Plenty of big names are likely to be bandied about on the trade market when baseball officials gather Friday for their annual weekend of business and gossip. At last year's meetings in New Orleans, there were 13 trades, eight deals with free agents who agreed to major league contracts and six more contracts with free agents that were agreed to but not announced.
Randy Johnson, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Kevin Brown, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Shawn Green all have been mentioned in trade talk, but there's been no indication their teams are ready finalize any deals.
Most of the biggest names among free agents have held off agreeing to contracts, among them pitchers Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Carl Pavano, Russ Ortiz, Eric Milton and Kevin Millwood; first basemen Carlos Delgado and Richie Sexson; third baseman Adrian Beltre; outfielders Carlos Beltran and Magglio Ordonez; and catcher Jason Varitek.
Fifty-four of the 207 free agents have agreed to contracts thus far, five fewer than on the eve of last year's meetings.
Glaus, slowed by a shoulder injury the past two seasons, is being counted on by Arizona to fill the void left by Sexson.
"He's a cornerstone player," general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. said of Glaus. "What he brings is one of the issues we felt we needed to address. Now we've done that and I'm confident in saying there will be more to come."
Glaus, 28, hit .284 with an American League-leading 47 home runs in 2000, followed by 41 homers in 2001 and 30 in the Angels' World Series championship season of 2002. In Anaheim's seven-game World Series triumph over San Francisco, he hit .385 with three home runs and eight RBIs.
The three-time All-Star played in only 91 games in 2003 because of the shoulder problems, then appeared in 29 games last season before arthroscopic surgery. Glaus returned in late August, and hit seven of his 18 home runs in the final month of the season to help the Angels to the division title.
"It's healed. It's fixed," Glaus said. "Now it's just a matter of time in the throwing program and thing's like that, and I'll be ready for spring without any doubt."
His deal includes a signing bonus of US$4 million and annual salaries of US$8 million, US$9 million, US$10.5 million and US$12.5 million. The contract also provides Glaus a hotel suite on road trips and up to US$250,000 reimbursement per year for personal business expenses.
Arizona went 51-111 last season, just three years after winning the World Series. The Diamondbacks tied for the 10th-most losses in major league history.
Kent, 36, hit .289 with 27 homers and 107 RBIs last season and made the NL All-Star team for the fourth time. The 2000 NL MVP has a .289 career average with 302 homers and 1,207 RBIs in 13 seasons.
"My parents did not know about this," Kent said, choking back tears, along with his parents. "I grew up with my dad taking me to Dodger games."
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open. World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am. Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fritz, who had 20 aces and six
Taiwan’s world No. 6 shuttler Chou Tien-chen yesterday defeated India’s H.S. Prannoy to advance to the quarter-finals of the China Open in Changzhou. It was former world No. 2 Chou’s eighth win in 14 matches against Prannoy, who had earlier this week lamented the age divide between him and up-and-comers, although he is only two years younger than 35-year-old Chou. The Taiwanese, who is seeded sixth at the tournament, rebounded from a close 21-18 loss in game 1 on Court 2 at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. He bounced back to take the next games 21-15, 21-8 and set up a tough quarter-final
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks from Jonas Vingegaard and dropped him to cement his grip on the yellow jersey. With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogacar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than 4 minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion. Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4km climb of the Col de La Loze to the finish. At 2,304m, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour. Two
RSS