MLB Free Agent Signings, Trades and discussion

[TheGame]

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports that free agent first baseman Casey Kotchman is "headed to the Indians.

Nationals signed RHP Edwin Jackson to a one-year contract. (Building a decent staff there)


Marlins president David Samson said Thursday that Juan Carlos Oviedo will "probably not" start the season with the team.(AKA Leo Nunez)

[GreatLaker]

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports that free agent first baseman Casey Kotchman is "headed to the Indians.

Nationals signed RHP Edwin Jackson to a one-year contract. (Building a decent staff there)


Marlins president David Samson said Thursday that Juan Carlos Oviedo will "probably not" start the season with the team.(AKA Leo Nunez)

Nationals signed RHP Edwin Jackson to a one-year contract. (Building a decent staff there)

Wow!  I thought for sure Jackson was going back to Tigers. 

IF Strasburg is healthy, the rotation of Strasburg, Gio Gonzales, Jackson, J. Zimmerman and take your pick from Lannan, Gorzelanny or Wang, is pretty damn solid. 

[TheGame]

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports that free agent first baseman Casey Kotchman is "headed to the Indians.

Nationals signed RHP Edwin Jackson to a one-year contract. (Building a decent staff there)


Marlins president David Samson said Thursday that Juan Carlos Oviedo will "probably not" start the season with the team.(AKA Leo Nunez)

Nationals signed RHP Edwin Jackson to a one-year contract. (Building a decent staff there)

Wow!  I thought for sure Jackson was going back to Tigers. 

IF Strasburg is healthy, the rotation of Strasburg, Gio Gonzales, Jackson, J. Zimmerman and take your pick from Lannan, Gorzelanny or Wang, is pretty damn solid. 

Forgot about Wang. They could be tough if he could pitch at his best again.

Tigers GM said they were going to bring in some vets on minor league deals to compete for the 5th starter spot.
I thought they would give Jeff Francis a look, but he signed with somebody else.
The reason I thought Lannan could work was 1. Left handed. 2. He is getting 5 million this year.
From what I heard insurance is picking up 6 million of what Victor is owed this year. So I thought they might look for a more solid addition than holding camp tryouts instead

[MacDaddy]

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports that free agent first baseman Casey Kotchman is "headed to the Indians.

Nationals signed RHP Edwin Jackson to a one-year contract. (Building a decent staff there)


Marlins president David Samson said Thursday that Juan Carlos Oviedo will "probably not" start the season with the team.(AKA Leo Nunez)

Nationals signed RHP Edwin Jackson to a one-year contract. (Building a decent staff there)

Wow!  I thought for sure Jackson was going back to Tigers. 

IF Strasburg is healthy, the rotation of Strasburg, Gio Gonzales, Jackson, J. Zimmerman and take your pick from Lannan, Gorzelanny or Wang, is pretty damn solid.

Nice!

  With my sister-in-law in D.C. I get to go and see a few games a year.I kind of adopted them as my 2nd team....if you can count the Pirates as a team.

[TheGame]

A source told Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the Rangers are unlikely to sign Roy Oswalt.
It comes as no surprise. Oswalt said a few weeks ago that he wanted to sign with either Texas or St. Louis, but the Rangers have a logjam in their rotation and don't want to move Matt Harrison to bullpen. The Cardinals still remain a possibility for the 34-year-old free agent righty.

FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports that the Orioles and A's are "most interested" in Manny Ramirez.

[GreatLaker]

A source told Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the Rangers are unlikely to sign Roy Oswalt.
It comes as no surprise. Oswalt said a few weeks ago that he wanted to sign with either Texas or St. Louis, but the Rangers have a logjam in their rotation and don't want to move Matt Harrison to bullpen. The Cardinals still remain a possibility for the 34-year-old free agent righty.

FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports that the Orioles and A's are "most interested" in Manny Ramirez.

Orioles?  Really?  They haven't learned their lessen yet?  Obviously Manny is one of greatest hitters of the modern age, but multiple failed tests and all the crap he brings with him...please don't.

[TheGame]

Nick Camino of WTAM 1100 in Cleveland reports that the Indians have a multi-year contract offer on the table to Asdrubal Cabrera.

Cubs and RHP Matt Garza avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $9.5 million contract.

[TheGame]

MLB Network's Peter Gammons reports the Athletics are evaluating Magglio Ordonez for a spring tryout.
Ordonez has reportedly made "consistent progress" in his recovery from ankle surgery and expects to play in 2012 despite being active for just 92 games last season

[TheGame]

According to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles and Rockies are nearing the completion of a trade that will send Jeremy Guthrie to Colorado.
Connolly's sources have indicated that Rockies pitchers Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom will be headed to Baltimore in return.


The Nationals have re-signed Rick Ankiel to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training, reports Amanda Comak of the Washington Times.

[TheGame]

Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski told reporters Monday that it's "correct to say" the Tigers are interested in Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.
The Cubs, Marlins, White Sox and Orioles are also heavily interested. Cespedes is in the Dominican, waiting to be allowed entry into the United Statues from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The 26-year-old batted .333/.424/.667 with 33 home runs and 99 RBI in 90 games last year in Cuba


Mariners signed LHP Hong-Chih Kuo to a one-year contract

Rockies acquired RHP Jeremy Guthrie from the Orioles for RHP Jason Hammel and RHP Matt Lindstrom.
The deal was completed just before Guthrie was scheduled to enter an arbitration hearing with the Orioles. He has instead reached a one-year, $8.2 million deal with Colorado

[TheGame]

According to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Pirates were "rebuffed" by Roy Oswalt.
Biertempfel says the Bucs "were willing to jump into [the] bidding," but Oswalt quickly told them he had no interest in discussing a contract

[TheGame]

According to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com and MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM, Dmitri Young will work out for the Pirates next week at the team's spring training complex in Bradenton, Florida.
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle will be present for the workout. Young, now 38, has slimmed down significantly in hopes of receiving a spring training invite somewhere, but he hasn't appeared in a major league game since 2008.

[TheGame]

Marlins president David Samson told Jayson Stark of ESPN.com that they could make an offer to Yoenis Cespedes on Wednesday.

Teams that miss on him might go after Jorge Soler. He is only 19 and probably not major league ready.
But still viewed as a top prospect.

[TheGame]

Peter Gammons of MLB Network reports that Rich Harden had surgery last week to repair a torn capsule muscle in his right shoulder and will miss the entire 2012 season.

[TheGame]

Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that, as of Thursday night, the Yankees and Pirates were "a few million apart" in negotiations on an A.J. Burnett trade but "they were still talking and there is some hope for a deal."
The Yankees have asked for Garrett Jones in the deal but were rebuffed by the Pirates. It would just be a salary dump, as they want to clear some payroll space in order to re-sign Eric Chavez, as well as add some depth at DH, likely in the form of Raul Ibanez.

A source told ESPN's Jayson Stark that the Angels would trade Bobby Abreu for a "middling prospect."
There isn't going to be much playing time available to Abreu in Anaheim this year, especially with Kendrys Morales looking healthy in his early workouts. Which is why the Halos are prepared to move the 37-year-old outfielder and DH in a straight salary dump. Abreu is owed $9 million in 2012.

[TheGame]

The Yankees would have to pay a lot of the money owed to AJ to trade him.
Not sure he could help them coming out of the bullpen. I will say that a lot of his starts he pitched well early on, then got roughed up.
So he might make sense as a long guy out of the pen. But that is a huge contract to pay for a part time player.

The Angels have to decide on what they want to so with their line up.
As it stands right now they don't know where Trumbo is going to play. If he cant make it as a 3rd baseman.
Then your looking at him splitting time at DH with Morales.
Given his age and the numbers from last year. My guess is the Angels would prefer keeping Trumbo in the line up.
Morales probably has the most trade value between him and Bobby.
I would think they would consider trading him if the right offer came along.
But first teams will want to see him play this spring to make sure he is 100%

[TheGame]

According to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, the Marlins' offer to Yoenis Cespedes was worth less than $40 million.

Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News reports that there's a "good chance" A.J. Burnett is traded to the Pirates.
The Yankees and Pirates continue to make progress, but it remains to be seen how much of Burnett's contract will need to be dumped in order to get a deal done.

[TheGame]

Wow !!!
Never seen this coming...

Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports reports that the A's have signed Cuban center fielder Yoenis Cespedes.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle says the deal is worth $36 million over four years, beating the record six-year, $30.25 million contract that the Reds handed Aroldis Chapman in January 2010 by a wide margin. It's an incredibly surprising move by the supposedly cash-strapped A's.

[TheGame]

Red Sox and DH David Ortiz avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $14.575 million contract.

[TheGame]

The Indians have agreed to sign Jon Garland to a minor league contract reports the AP (via ESPN). He will take his physical at the team's complex in Arizona next week

[TheGame]

The Cubs are expected to agree to a deal with Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, according to Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune.

Reds general manager Walt Jocketty told John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he hasn't had any contact with Roy Oswalt's agent over the past week.
Jocketty was pretty adamant last week that the Reds weren't a player for Oswalt, so we'll have to take him at his word for now. Interestingly, while ESPN's Jayson Stark reported Friday that the Rangers were out of the mix, Jocketty seems to think otherwise. "I think he's waiting for Texas to clear money," said Jocketty

According to Buster Olney, the A's are "in talks" with free agent left-hander Mike Gonzalez.

[TheGame]

White Sox signed OF Kosuke Fukudome to a one-year, $1 million contract with a $3.5 million club option for 2013.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post was told by executives of three teams with interest in Johnny Damon that they are concerned his quest for 3,000 hits is affecting his plate discipline.

According to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com, the Angels have interest in A.J. Burnett.

[TheGame]

Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said Tuesday that Hanley Ramirez is not "100 percent on board" with moving to third base to accommodate shortstop Jose Reyes.
"No," Guillen told a group of reporters. "No, Hanley is not 100 percent on board. Not yet. The last time I talked to him, no. But I don't expect him to be. I expect him to be 100 percent on board with this move when we play St. Louis (on Opening Night).

Orioles and OF Adam Jones avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $6.15 million contract.

Jose Guillen has been training in his native Dominican Republic in order to make a comeback in MLB, reports Enrique Rojas of ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com.

[TheGame]

Buster Olney of ESPN.com reports that the Phillies are interested in Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler.
Olney reported Tuesday that the Yankees have "serious interest" while numerous reports have indicated that the Cubs plan to make a big offer.


Rays signed manager Joe Maddon to a three-year contract extension.

[TheGame]

Asked Thursday whether he's comfortable moving to third base to accommodate new shortstop Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez responded: "I have nothing to say."
Marlins skipper Ozzie Guillen confirmed earlier this week that Ramirez is still unhappy about the position change. The thought (or, rather, hope) is that Hanley will come around to it by the start of the regular season