July 2005 - Miami Marlins Wiretap

Infielder Pokey Reese and right-hander Joe Borowski signed one-year contracts Thursday with the Florida Marlins. Reese, whose deal is worth about $800,000, spent all of last season on the disabled list with the Seattle Mariners following surgery on his right shoulder. He hit .221 in 96 games with Boston in 2004. A two-time Gold Glove winner, Reese has batted .248 with 44 home runs and 271 RBI over eight seasons in the majors. He's a potential successor to Luis Castillo, traded to Minnesota as part of the Marlins' offseason payroll purge. Borowski went 1-5 with a 4.47 ERA in 43 games last season for the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay. He is 14-23 with 44 saves and a 3.90 ERA in nine seasons in the majors. The Marlins are his sixth team.

The St. Louis Cardinals reportedly have settled on who will replace the retired Larry Walker in right field. Juan Encarnacion has agreed to a three-year, $15 million deal with St. Louis, MLB.com reported Friday. Encarnacion's agent, Eric Goldschmidt, confirmed the deal to MLB.com and said it is pending a physical. "There were quite a few teams interested in Juan," Goldschmidt told MLB.com. "At one time we had probably nine or 10 clubs in the mix. Juan's preference was to play right field. There were a lot of clubs looking at him as a center fielder, but he wanted to play right field, he wanted to play on a competitive ballclub and if possible, he wanted to stay in the National League and stay off the West Coast."

The Florida Marlins and the agent for left-handed pitcher Dontrelle Willis have made progress on a one-year contract. "Certainly where they started is reasonable,'' agent Matt Sosnick said Monday. "We've talked a few times, and it's been very open, very polite.'' The Marlins are expected to tender contract offers to their 37 unsigned players today, including Willis and third baseman Miguel Cabrera. Willis, the only player eligible for arbitration, is expected to sign for around $4 million, the salary he likely would receive in arbitration. Sosnick does not expect the process to reach arbitration. "I feel that the Marlins recognize how valuable he is to the team, and I am not sure what they could say about him that is bad,'' Sosnick said, referring to the arbitration process. Sosnick added that he would be "very surprised'' if Willis was traded.

Ron Villone went to his first game at Yankee Stadium in 1976, when New York was starting a run of four AL pennants and two World Series titles in a six-season span. He remembers watching Ron Guidry pitch and Don Mattingly hit. Now Guidry is his new pitching coach after the Yankees acquired him from the Florida Marlins on Friday for minor league pitcher Ben Julianel. "It was a great stage to play on," Villone said. "The Yankees were the best team. You always wanted to be a part of it. I guess today I get to live that dream a little bit."

DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers agreed Thursday to an $11 million, two-year contract with free agent Todd Jones, returning the veteran closer to the team he pitched for from 1997-2001. Jones was 1-5 with a 2.10 ERA and 40 saves last season for the Florida Marlins, then became a free agent. "Todd is a quality relief pitcher who had a tremendous season in 2005," Tigers president Dave Dombrowski said. "He adds a veteran presence to our bullpen and is the type of individual the organization was looking to fill this role." The 37-year-old right-hander also has pitched for Houston (1993-96), Minnesota (2001), Colorado (2002-03), Boston (2003), Cincinnati (2004) and Philadelphia (2004). He has a 51-52 record, 3.91 ERA and 226 saves during his career.

The Florida Marlins have tentatively agreed on a four-player deal that would send Juan Pierre to the Chicago Cubs, for three young pitchers -- Sergio Mitre and prospects Renyel Pinto and Ricky Nolasco, ESPN.com's Jayson Stark reported early Wednesday. The deal is pending physicals examinations. So far this offseason, the Marlins have traded Carlos Delgado, Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, Luis Castillo, Paul Lo Duca and Guillermo Mota. Pitcher A.J. Burnett, who signed with the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, left via free agency. The 28-year-old Pierre hit .276 and stole 57 bases this past season and is eligible for arbitration. He earned $3.7 million last season. Pierre is expected to lead off and play center field in Chicago.

J.P. Ricciardi says there is no Plan B for the Toronto Blue Jays when it comes to addressing their starting pitching needs -- and that there is nothing more he can offer free agent A.J. Burnett beyond the guaranteed five-year package they put on the table over the weekend, worth between $52-million and $55-million (all figures U.S.) in base salary. "If we don't get this guy signed, we'll focus internally on our pitching," the general manager said yesterday after arriving here for baseball's annual winter meetings. "There is no Plan B out there." Although the Seattle Mariners made a late attempt to get into the picture and the Baltimore Orioles keep flitting around on the fringes of the discussions, both the Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals believe they are the finalists for Burnett, whose agent, Darek Braunecker, was expected to arrive last night after making the four-hour drive from Little Rock, Ark. "There are other teams still involved," Braunecker said by telephone. "We haven't made a decision. Really, the whole situation is still pretty fluid." The Cardinals have offered Burnett a four-year package worth just less than $10-million a year and were not prepared to guarantee an optional fifth year. The Cardinals have a club policy of not guaranteeing pitching contracts beyond three years. Braunecker said there were no plans for his client to travel to Dallas as of last night. "A.J. will only come here if there's a news conference," he said.

Mets GM Omar Minaya has crossed catcher off his holiday shopping list, shunning the free agent market and turning once again to the Florida Marlins in a deal for Paul LoDuca, the Daily News has learned. In exchange for the 33-year-old Brooklyn-born LoDuca, Minaya sacrificed one of the Mets' top pitching prospects, 21-year-old righthander Gaby Hernandez, a Miami high school product, and another minor leaguer pitcher to be named. But LoDuca, who hit .283 with six homers and 85 RBI last season, is regarded as one of the top offensive catchers in the game as well as a team leader and positive clubhouse presence. When the offseason began, Minaya cited a closer, a middle-of-the-order first baseman and a catcher as his top three priorities and he has now satisfied all of them, having previously obtained Carlos Delgado in a trade with the Marlins and signed closer Billy Wagner as a free agent. It was not until a trade to send LoDuca to the Arizona Diamondbacks fell through last week that Minaya went back to his Florida counterpart, Larry Beinfest, to land a first-string catcher to replace Mike Piazza.

The Mets are believed to be close to a deal in which they would send a minor-league prospect to the Marlins for catcher Paul Lo Duca, according to a major-league source. The identity of the Met prospect was not immediately known ? but it's hard to envision it being Lastings Milledge, the jewel of their minor-league system. Getting Lo Duca would give the Mets a starting catcher and continue their extremely aggressive offseason so far. They have already added star free-agent closer Billy Wagner and slugging first baseman Carlos Delgado, the latter coming in a trade with the fire sale Marlins two weeks ago. Lo Duca batted .283 with six homers and 57 RBIs this past season and threw out 21 percent of runners trying to steal. The backstop, 34 in April, is owed $12.5M over the next two years.

The Yankees also remain entrenched in the market for a new centerfielder, with trades for Philadelphia's Jason Michaels and Florida's Juan Pierre two of many possibilities that recently have been discussed internally by team officials. The Yankees have interest in Pierre, but the Marlins are asking for Robinson Cano in exchange.