Report: Michael Young Requested Trade
Joey Matschulat
Michael Young (pictured) reportedly wants out of Texas. - kendrick/Flickr.com
There's nothing quite like some inopportunely timed late-night chaos engulfing the Texas Rangers to make the hot stove season just a little bit more interesting, and we can all thank FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal for evoking it:
Rangers shortstop Michael Young asked to be traded after team officials told him in December that they want him to move to third base, according to major-league sources.
Young, 32, does not want to change positions. He was "absolutely livid" with the Rangers for making such a request just months after American League managers and coaches voted him a Gold Glove for the first time, one source said.
More blindsiding revelations, all courtesy of Rosenthal:
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington informed Young shortly after the winter meetings that the team wanted him to play third to clear a spot for top shortstop prospect Elvis Andrus, 20. Club president Nolan Ryan did not attend the meeting.
The Rangers have been listening to trade proposals for Young, an All-Star the past five seasons. Young, who is owed about $60 million over the next five seasons, holds a full no-trade clause. However, he would rather be traded than displaced for Andrus, who has yet to play above Class AA, sources said.
General manager Jon Daniels affirmed during a hastily organized Sunday evening conference call with the media that while the Rangers have investigated multiple trade possibilities, they remain hopeful that Young will remain in Texas for the long haul:
"It was a shock to him and he has not necessarily agreed with the move so far. He has asked us to explore trade opportunities, which we have. I'm going forward expecting Michael to be a part of our team in 2009. Our desire is for Michael to play third base. He has to buy into what we're doing and buy into the concept that we're a better club by getting all of our championship-caliber players lined up. We're going to continue to talk to him and come to a resolution."
Though Daniels has evidently not spoken to Young directly since before the New Year, he has stayed in contact with his agent, Dan Lozano (who declined comment on the rapidly deteriorating situation); Ryan, meanwhile, spoke with Young last Friday, downplaying the seriousness of the shortstop's indisposition towards moving to third base and stating that it was "too premature to make any type of prediction" about how the situation would play out and what the projected Opening Day starting lineup might look like.
Young, however, reiterated his frustration to Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News, emphasizing that he does not presently have any intention of acquiescing to the organization's implorations:
"I'm not playing third base. I'm pretty adamant about my stance. I told them I wanted to be traded. The biggest misconception is that I was asked to move to third base. I was never asked. I was flat-out told. I was told I was playing third base. I felt that I had absolutely no say. I don't feel like there was any discussion or dialogue about the matter."
Owed approximately $60 million over the next five seasons (multiple media reports suggest the exact sum is actually $62 million), Young persevered through a pair of broken fingers in 2008 to log 700-plus plate appearances for the fifth time in six seasons while hitting .284/.339/.402 and acquiring his first-ever Gold Glove award.
Reader Comments (22)
Well let's see what we can get for him... I think that the return for him can be somewhat decent, and the time for that is now. Andrus, Smoak, will be up sooner than later, to go along with Davis.
The time to do it is now, especially if it yields quality pitching, and this would help free enough room for Sheets. The bottom line with Texas has got to be pitching.
This is a SHOCKER!!! This really caps off an otherwise quiet weekend. WOW!!!
I will refrain from the hellfire and brimstone I am vehemently spewing forth to one Joseph Matschulat right now on IM by just saying the following about this development:
This is bad.
Boston fans seem to think they can get 'em... I'm STUNNED, especially reading that Daniels had commented. A good point was made in the comments there... which was if Texas really wanted to make young happy they'd move him back to 2B and Kinsler to 3B, although his (Kinsler) defense was suspect last year, it's an interesting thought. I agree with the Rangers, find a way to get your best players on the field.
All this banter makes my weekend! :)
Is is perfectly acceptable for me to be sick to my stomach right now?
So, we thinking maybe Young + Salty to the Sox for Lowell + Buccholz (or Hagadone + Bard) ?
This is wild. Still working on hammering out a main story with some thoughts on this absolutely stunning turn of events.
Also, if the Red Sox won't do Saltalamacchia for Buchholz, I'm not sure why they would do Young for Lowell when Lowell's a better bet to provide more value than Young next season at third base (assuming that the rehabilitation of his surgically repaired hip is progressing as planned), and if they were to acquire him with the intention of keeping him at shortstop -- well, they've already got Jed Lowrie in the fold, who's quite a bit younger, sharp defensively and solid enough with the bat, to the point where the disparity in projected offensive/defensive production is probably minimal.
Such a deal would probably require significant pot-sweetening on the Rangers' end, and I don't envision organizational amicability to that idea That would probably take significant pot-sweetening from the Rangers' end.
Not real sure why the Sox are interested in Young anyway with the reigning AL MVP to go with Jed Lowrie, they seem pretty set in the middle infield.
New stuff from Richard Durrett has just hit the newswires, and it sounds like the relationship between Young and the Rangers has rapidly deterioriated:
http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/01/just-talked-with-michael-young.html
I sure hope not Lowell, or Bard; but Buchholz + young promising player(s), preferably more pitching sounds nice. I think that Saltalamacchia added with Young surely would sweeten the deal with any team in my opinion. It's really hard to gauge how much other clubs value Mike Young. I've seen a lot of post tonight ripping Young. I sure wish people would get his contract right, as well realize he played with two broken fingers for a stretch last year. Please Rangers don't pay half his salary or something boneheaded like that again, i.e. A-Rod.
This is great stuff. As sick as it's making some, this is great stuff. I'm still shocked!
Let's hope our sports talk shows are all over this tomorrow, for more than one segment. Norm Hitzges are you listening? This sure makes for great radio. I've had enough of the constant Cowboys talk... and Jerry's head cases. It's time for some baseball.
Yeah, if we're going to be forced to pay half his salary, we could have just kept him at SS, and signed Crede like everyone assumed we were going to do anyway. Maybe cooler heads will prevail, but this is just disgusting.
Checkout those rips Robert, over at the links Joey posted. I'm a little angry that Young said he went to current teammates, that seems a little disruptive in my eyes, cause we need these guys coming into camp as a team, not with a split clubhouse. It sounds like Young is livid, I bet he's smashing the ball pretty hard right now, having some vampire BP.
Also, just wondering why if this supposedly happened in December, why it took so long to surface now?
I don't know how disruptive it necessarily is, but then again I don't understand why management supposedly approached him and said he WOULD be playing 3B this season. Andrus could certainly use some more seasoning in the minors, I mean... at the very least, do what the small market teams do and leave him in the minors to start the season, then call him up later to delay his arbitration by a year. Then you could approach Young about a move to 3B, or began looking around to deal him to a team who's SS went down with injury, or something.
Good point RB. I have no estimations on that. Joey?
Unless they figure if they move Young now it frees enough room to sign Sheets. At that point it becomes a question of who do you want more. I hate to see him go, but we need pitching bad, and if moving Young makes that happen... then I'm all for it.
The Mets want out of Castillo's 2B contract. He and 3B/LF Daniel Murphy for MY & Duran, and we still trade Byrd or David Murphy (plus Castillo, cash & Metcalf?) to ATL for Prado (& Josh Anderson) but play DanMurphy at 3B & Prado at SS...?
This is getting complicateder & complicateder!
Sorry skip Duran to NYM in my suggestion, and let Atlanta choose between him and Castillo & cash.
I don't understand the rush in doing this in 2009.
In the best of circumstances, Andrus would struggle in the bigs this year but now they will be asking him to replace one of the few likeable players we've ever had in what will surely be another 90 loss season?
If he played 150 games this year, I'd expect a .225 average with about 20-25 errors.
Damn... just when we thought that the offseason was on cruise control.... BAM.
I picked a heckuva day to spend away from my computer... so I hope you guys don't mind if I jump in midstream here and hash things out a little, just for the benefit of my shocked and awed brain.
Argh, where to start... first of all, this is obviously shocking news on a number of levels. First and foremost it's shocking how uncooperative MY is being (so much for that "team first" attitude, he's famous for I guess) but what's even more shocking is the Rangers chose to do this now. Not that I disagree with asking MY to move now (quite the opposite, in fact) but this says a lot about A: how committed the Rangers really are to upgrading the infield defense, B: what they think about Elvis Andrus, and C: what they think of our current options at 3B. From what I've read so far on this (which admittedly isn't everything, yet) it sounds like the Rangers indeed still want MY as our 3B of the future (or the next 5 years or so, anyway) but Micheal's adamance has really thrown a wrench into their plans.
I can't even begin to wonder what all the possible effects of having to trade MY might be at this point... but I will say this: I'm glad the Rangers seem to have committed to this idea, and I hope they follow through with it - even if means trading the FOTF.
Alright, I'm clearly not going to get any thoughts posted anymore tonight...information overload is beginning to set in from the enormous quantity of quotes and such being put out there. I will say, however, that as somebody who has gone on the record (several times, in fact) as stating that Young would do the best thing for the team when the time came for Andrus to make his long-awaited ML debut, this is an exceedingly disappointing, discouraging, disheartening and disturbing development.
Josey: FWIW, Andrus's 2009 CHONE projection is .238/.286/.312.
What an utterly bizarre night of Rangers fandom.
I see this as a despicable ploy by Jon Daniels to turn the Rangers fan base against Michael Young. I don't think he really wants him at 3rd. I think he wants to dump his salary on another team but because MY has a no-trade clause and the fans love him, he has to really piss the guy off first so he'll accept a trade and the fans won't be as upset to see him go. I think it's a rotten way to treat the guy that's been the heart and soul of your team for years and stayed loyal to the team by sticking around despite the losing seasons. Should My move to 3rd, maybe in the future but not this year. Andrus shouldn't even be major league ready for another year so this shouldn't even be an issue yet.
I've actually been supportive of Daniels despite his early gross negligence, but this is inexcusable. I want to see Nolan make JD give MY a public apology for the way this situation has been handled then ask JD to switch positions for the good of the team. Maybe MY's towel boy?
Something doesn't add up - because MY has always been a class guy who plays with a team first attitude. All I can think of is that JD failed to approach him in a respectful manner, or maybe MY is still angry about some other stuff (like when they traded away Tex & went into rebuild mode right after they signed him to that huge extension) - or maybe MY just doesn't like JD. Maybe he feels like he already had to switch positions once for Texas, and now that he's the veteran, he should be the one who gets to play where he wants. Who knows?
Anyway, I too hope they can reach an amicable solution. My gut feeling is that MY will - if he is inclined to consider it from the team's position - reassess and see that it would be a good thing to let someone with a little more range take the SS spot.
To me, the good in all this is the chance that we get to see Andrus in Arlington this year - something I've been looking forward to. Maybe this is a real shift in the Rangers philosophy, and perhaps it will mean that if some of the rotation candidates don't perform early on, we will also get to see Holland and Feliz in 2009. How great would that be?
I don't like the idea of MY playing on another team. If they have to trade him, please God not the friggin' Red Sox or Yankees. They already have everyone else in the world on their teams. If they have to trade him, let it be the Dodgers.
Let's hope that doesn't happen, though.