The Cardinals, Rangers and Brewers have explored deals for Barmes, with Milwaukee offering center fielder Brady Clark.
Even with top prospect Troy Tulowitzki expected to start at shortstop, Colorado isn’t motivated to move Barmes. The Rockies have interest in Clark, but his salary is problematic – they would like the Brewers to eat $2 million of his $3.8 million contract – and they are not sure he could outperform Barmes if they try him in center field.
“Teams just want us to give Clint away. We think he can still help us,” general manager Dan O’Dowd said. “He’s not the first player to go through a sophomore slump.”
No idea why the Cards want Barmes, unless it’s for Memphis… especially with today’s forthcoming announcement of Aaron Miles’ contract signing for ‘07. Barmes graduated from my high school alma mater.
Another relevant tidbit from the Denver Post article:
Potential non-tenders on the Rockies’ radar include pitchers Jorge Sosa, Mark Hendrickson and Chris Reitsma.
I’m tempted to write something like “You can have him,” but Sosa may have to stick around to fill a rotation hole. He’d be a better option than Looper IMHO.
