Apr

PRO Rumors: Weaver, Strasburg, Wellemeyer, Happ, Ortiz, July Trade Market

By Allan

Thursday afternoon PRO Rumors madness:

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com says the Red Sox will send Tim Wakefield to the bullpen when Daisuke Matsuzaka returns to the rotation.
According to Tony Jackson of ESPN, the Dodgers have placed reliever Jeff Weaver on the 15-day disabled list because of a strain on the right side of his lower back. The team activated Hong-Chih Kuo from the 15-day DL.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post says that the Met’s Mike Jacobs has accepted assignment and will report to Triple-A. Jacobs was DFA’d by the team on Sunday which opened up a spot on the 40 man roster for Ike Davis.
ESPN Insider says that the Washington Nationals Stephen Strasburg is not going to replace injured pitcher Jason Marquis. Marquis was placed on the 15-day disabled list with bone chips in his elbow. The Nats will call up Luis Atilano from Triple-A Syracuse to start against hte Dodgers.
Giants manager Bruce Bochey said Todd Wellemeyer’s recent poor outings (13 ER in 14/13 innings over three starts) is a “hiccup”. Possibilities to replace Wellemeyer include Madison Bumgarner, Joe Martinez and Kevin Pucetas. Bochey has no indications that hey’ll replace Wellemeyer. (Henry Schulman of the San Francsico Chronicle)
Todd Zolecki of MLB.com says that J.A. Happ is headed to the disabled list. The team has activated J.C. Romero to take Happ’s place on the active roster.
Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times said that former Dodgers pitcher Russ Ortiz has elected to become a free agent rather than be sent to the Minor Leagues.
Jayson Stark of ESPN.com says that Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell would “crush both the bat and bullpen markets” in July – meaning that as long as the Padres are out of the race, they could fetch a huge bounty for trading one or both of these players.
Stark also adds that the following bats may be in play come the July trading deadline: Josh Hamilton, Adam Dunn, Adam LaRoche, Rick Ankiel, Paul Konerko and Manny Ramirez.