Ervin
Santana Rumors: Saturday
11:04am:*The Rockies will **t sign Santana, Troy Renck of the Denver Post
tweets.
10:53am:*The Blue Jays are "
optimistic" about landing Santana, although they have **t yet reached an agreement with him, FOX Sports' Jon Morosi
tweets.
9:08am:*The Blue Jays are willing to offer a deal in the $14MM range with ** incentives, Heyman writes. The Orioles may be a bit behind the Blue Jays. The Rockies, meanwhile, may be out of the bidding, as Heyman
tweets.
8:47am:*Santana is currently negotiating a deal near one year and $14MM with the
Blue Jays,
Orioles and one National League team, possibly the
Rockies,*
CBS Sports' Jon Heyman writes. Of those teams, the Jays and Orioles are the most likely to get Santana, who could pick a new team "
in the next day or two."
8:05am:*Ervin Santana will sign a one-year, $14MM contract with an AL club, Dionisio Soldevila of ESPN Deportes
tweets. That team is **t the Orioles, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com
tweets. The
Royals have also recently
indicated that they are ** longer pursuing Santana.
Last night, it was reported*that
Santana had begun looking for a one-year deal, amidst
further reports about changes in his representation. AL clubs recently connected to
Santana have
included the
Mariners,
Rangers and Blue Jays.
$14MM would, of course, be very similar to the $14.1MM qualifying offer
Santana rejected from the Royals. A $14MM deal would be a very disappointing result for a 31-year-old pitcher coming off a 3.24 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 2/2 BB.9 in 211 innings. But
Nelson Cruz's deal with the Orioles demonstrates what a severe effect the qualifying offer has had in depressing the salaries of certain free agents.
