Reds Pursuing Gonzalez? What For?
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:29 pm
EastValleyTribune.com is reporting that the Reds have expressed interest in Luis Gonzalez:
GONZALEZ'S SUITORS GROW
Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro had a lunch meeting with Luis Gonzalez and Clifton here Friday, the Indians joining a list of nine teams that have inquired about Gonzalez.
“It was nice to have a team that values his veteran status,” Clifton said. “They are looking to add a veteran presence to their young players.”
Baltimore and Cincinnati have joined San Francisco and Texas as teams known to have inquired about Gonzalez, and St. Louis also is believed to be interested although no formal contact has been made.
St. Louis tried to trade for Gonzalez each of the last two seasons.
Luis Gonzalez, age 39, was a guest announcer for FOX during some of the postseason games this season. I think it's clear that the guy who wrote the story is misinformed. The Reds don't need Gonzalez; they already hired an old player, Jeff Brantley, to be their color guy.
On the other hand, Gonzalez did belt 52 doubles this season, second in the NL, while playing almost errorless ball (just one error in 156 games) in left field for the D-Backs. He also walked (69) more times than he struck out (58 in 586 AB). The problem would be paying his salary, which in 2006 was $10,673,328, according to Baseball Reference.
I saw a similar story on STLtoday.com and Greg Clifton, Gonzalez’ agent who also represents Mark Mulder, said nine teams have contacted him about Gonzalez, and that Cleveland, Baltimore, Texas, Cincinnati and San Francisco are five of the nine.
That article also quoted Walt Jocketty as having interest as well, but personally, I think the Cardinals’ GM might have bigger fish to fry this offseason with Jim Edmonds having filed for free agency and only two starting pitchers under contract for next season.
Time will tell, I guess. But one thing’s for sure: Gonzalez has played left field exclusively for several years now. If the Reds are really interested in bringing in this guy, it doesn’t bode well for Adam Dunn staying with the team. Not in LF anyway.
HMZ
The “almost errorless ball” sounds like something that would appeal to The Powers That Be. Add to that the fact that he certainly “knows how to play the game” and you know Narron’s on-board with this idea.
But what would become of young Mr. Dunn? And what about the actual problems the Reds have?