Rockies report: Free-agent market opens up for Fuentes

By Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 9, 2008 at 9:20 p.m.

Text size  

• 1 Comment
• Email
• Print

Photo by Ken Papaleo © The Rocky

Colorado Rockies closer Brian Fuentes is keeping his focus on the rest of this season, not the free agency market.

Rockies quick links

Drew on Baseball

Scores and statistics

• Rockies statistics
• Rockies schedule
• Rockies roster
• NL standings
• AL standings
• MLB scoreboard

ATLANTA — Closer Brian Fuentes, above, is headed toward free agency and a market that could have another bidder, one with deep pockets. New York Mets closer Billy Wagner will undergo reconstructive surgery on his left elbow and miss most, and possibly all, of 2009.

Asked whether Wagner's injury could affect his situation, Fuentes said, "It might. Time will tell. I still have to finish the season. Hopefully, my main focus is keeping my eye on the prize as far as getting us in the playoffs. It's like we're a squeak from being out or a squeak from being in."

Besides the Mets, clubs looking for a closer include Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis and the Los Angeles Angels, whose closer, Francisco Rodriguez, can be a free agent.

Rodriguez has 55 saves, two short of the single-season record, and is said to be seeking a Mariano Rivera-type contract with an annual average salary of $15 million.

"Obviously, Frankie's going to be at the top of the food chain," Fuentes said.

ETC.

The Rockies are holding organizational meetings in Atlanta. In addition to team president Keli McGregor, general manager Dan O'Dowd and several other members of the front office, the Rockies' major league scouts are in Atlanta, along with roving pitching coordinator Jim Wright and roving hitting coordinator Jim Johnson. . . . Low Single-A Asheville manager Joe Mikulik is at the series. He drove from Asheville, N.C., with Ian Stewart, who is married to Mikulik's daughter, Susan. Stewart and his wife took a red-eye flight out of Denver on Sunday and spent Monday's off day in Asheville. . . . Triple-A Colorado Springs manager Tom Runnells, who will be with the Rockies the remainder of the season, originally was scheduled to join the team Friday in Denver but returned home to Ohio to visit his 2-week-old granddaughter. . . . Holliday's double in the sixth was his 36th, tying the career-high he set last season . . . Smith's single in the seventh was his ninth pinch hit of the season. He's 9-for-30 (.300) in that role this season. . . . Dexter Fowler, who grew up in the Atlanta area, pinch ran for Smith in the seventh. It was Fowler's third major league appearance, his second as a pinch runner. . . . Jason Grilli made his 11th consecutive scoreless appearance. He has thrown 15 1/3 innings in that span. . . . The Rockies have been outscored 116-83 in the first inning.

• September 10, 2008

  12:03 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  NorCalGuy writes:

  Good luck Brian, you're a class act who should do well in free agency. Hopefully the Rockies will take a shot at keeping you.

Featured

• DNC in Denver

  

  Complete coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

• The Crevasse

  

  A five-part series that examines one tragic day on Mount Rainier.

• Deadly denial

  

  Sick nuclear workers applied for government compensation but most haven't seen a dime.

• Final Salute

  

  The Rocky followed Maj. Steve Beck as he took on the most difficult duty of his career.

• 'Colorado's burning'

  

  Coverage of the state's worst wildfires.

• Columbine shootings

  

  Coverage of the April 20, 1999, shootings at Littleton's Columbine High School.

• The Crossing

  

  Colorado's deadliest traffic accident killed 20 children on Dec. 14, 1961.

• Osveli's journey

  

  Osveli Sales left Guatemala for a better life. Two months later, he came home in a box.

• Wake for an Indian warrior

  

  Oglala Sioux bestow a tribute to the first tribal fatality in Iraq.