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Hernandez declines salary arbitration
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As expected, Livan Hernandez declined salary arbitration at the Friday deadline, making his departure from the Diamondbacks official.
Read Jack Magruder's Inside Baseball Blog
The D-Backs will get a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds of the 2008 draft if Hernandez signs with another team, and it appears that the New York Mets have interest.
Mets general manager Omar Minaya was in Montreal’s front office when Hernandez was the Expos’ No. 1 starter, and Hernandez said last season he would like to play with his half-brother, Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, who also pitches for the Mets.
The D-Backs, meanwhile, will continue their pursuit of Oakland’s Dan Haren and Japanese free agent Hiroki Kuroda this week.
The acquisition of either would more than offset Hernandez’s loss and give the D-Backs a No. 2 starter to put behind Brandon Webb.
Durability was Hernandez’s best feature in his only full season with the D-Backs, when he was 11-11 with a 4.93 ERA in 2007 while pitching 204 1/3 innings, the 15th most in the NL.
Hernandez made 19 quality starts but gave up an NL-high 247 hits.
His style of pitching around certain hitters to get to others was evident in his 1.60 ratio of hits and walks to innings pitched, the third-worst ratio in the league.
SHORT HOPS: The D-Backs selected first baseman/outfielder Baltazar Lopez from the Los Angeles Angels’ organization in the Double-A phase of the Rule 5 draft. Lopez, who was assigned to Double-A Mobile, played in Mexico last summer and hit .296 with nine home runs and 42 RBIs for the Chihuahua Dorados.
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