It is another slow week in the back end of Major League bullpens this week. Of course, the injury to Brad Lidge tops the closer headlines. Before he could collect his first save of this tour of duty as the Astros' closer, Lidge strained an oblique muscle. That injury will probably mean a longer layoff than that provided by the 15-day DL. We are looking at two weeks as a minimum in this case and likely an additional week at the end of that. Insiderbaseball.com will keep you up to date in our daily e-mail reports.
Dan Wheeler re-assumes the position in Houston. June has not been his best month, but Dan did not earn his demotion. The Astros need to generate some trade value for Lidge or determine that he is indeed their closer of the future, and that goal necessitated handing the job back to Lidge with enough time to figure things out. Hopefully you held on to Wheeler as we advised you when the change was made.
In Texas, the extension of GM Jon Daniels' contract signals the start of the fire sale and right next Mark Teixeira in the Gettalong Lil' Dogie display window is Eric Gagne, the Rangers' current closer.
The Rangers are justifiably confident that Akinori Otsuka is capable of closing games and they will seek to find a taker for Gagne in this years trade market. Eric's contract has two relevant provisions. He has a limited no-trade clause in which he named 12 teams to which he could not block a trade. Most of the teams he named would not be able to handle his contract anyway effectively narrowing the possibilities down to the Yankees, Mets, and Angels.
One of the reasons he needed this assurance was the incentive package in his contract that provides an additional $5M to his base salary of $6M based on the number of games he finishes. In other words, saves=$. He would want to go to a team that would use him as a closer, even if he has no-trade rights to that team. Of course, any team that trades for him could negotiate out part, or all, of that incentive if they wanted to use Gagne in a setup role and Eric could, in that event, waive his no-trade rights to allow a trade to any team.
The Yankees could certainly use some bullpen help and would be an attractive destination from a competition standpoint. A return to LA would suit Eric personally but he will not close with the Angels, whose bullpen seems stable anyway. They have a much bigger need for a bat. The Mets could be a decent fit but they see starting pitching as a higher priority. Nevertheless, there are also teams who are looking for bullpen help who it is believed are not on that list, namely the Tigers, Phillies and Indians.
The Yankees are believed to have strong interest in Gagne and are sniffing around the Rangers roster trying to get the best selection in the sale.
The bottom line in Texas is that Otsuka needs to be owned. He will likely be the Rangers closer soon (if he is not included in the fire sale, himself). Gagne appears to be metaphorically swathed in bubble wrap, waiting for the Yankees truck, or some other team's truck, to arrive.
In Philadelphia the Phillies believe that both Brett Myers and Tom Gordon are on pace for a late June - early July return. Tom Gordon appears to be a bit ahead of Myers as he rebuilds his physical strength after a nasty respiratory infection, and shoulder strength after a strained rotator cuff. Myers has a strained right shoulder. The party line remains that Myers returns as the team's closer and Gordon will set him up. At a minimum, if we take that stance at face value, that puts Gordon squarely on the trading block.
