Top News:
Todd Zolecki / The Zo Zone:
Polanco Signs Three-Year, $18 Million Deal — The Phillies announced Placido Polanco has signed a three-year, $18 million contract. The contract also includes a fourth-year mutual option for 2013. — Polanco will meet with reporters later today. — Update: The Phillies also just announced …
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Jayson Stark / ESPN:
Source: Phils pursue Polanco — The Philadelphia Phillies are targeting Placido Polanco as their next third baseman, according to a source familiar with their thinking. And they were making a “very serious” effort to sign the 34-year-old free agent Wednesday, the source told ESPN.com.
Geoff Baker / The Seattle Times:
Oh Canada! Mariners seriously looking at Jason Bay and Rich Harden — Things are starting to heat up in the rumor mill as the baseball winter meetings approach. As colleague Larry Stone wrote yesterday, FoxSports mentioned the Mariners were pushing hard for British Columbia native Rich Harden to join their starting rotation.
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Jerry Crasnick / ESPN:
Sources: Free-agent shortstop Marco Scutaro holds private workout for Boston Red Sox — Free agent Marco Scutaro, a prime candidate to fill the Boston Red Sox's shortstop void in 2010, worked out in Florida earlier this week for one of the team's top talent evaluators, two baseball sources told ESPN.com.
Amalie Benjamin / Boston Globe:
Wagner gets $7m from Braves — Free agent loss nets 2 draft picks — Not long after the Red Sox offered arbitration to Billy Wagner, the reliever they picked up in August from the Mets, they found themselves in exactly the situation they desired. While they would have worked around …
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Loge 13
Rob Bradford / Full Count:Hudson also drawing interest from Sox
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The Knobler Blog:
Saito close to deal with Braves — The Braves are close to signing free-agent reliever Takashi Saito to a one-year contract, CBSSports.com has learned. — The deal, which should be announced later this afternoon, is expected to be for about $3 million. — With Saito and Billy Wagner …
Discussion:
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Mike Axisa / MLB Rumors:
Braves Sign Takashi Saito — 3:57pm: Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com has the contract details. Saito will earn a $3.2MM base salary with another $2.3MM in incentives. Interestingly, all but $500K of the incentives are based on games finished, which should be Wagner's department.
Adam Rubin / NY Daily News:
Report: New York Mets close to signing San Diego Padres catcher Henry Blanco — The Mets appeared to be closing in on a deal with free-agent catcher Henry Blanco. The Venezuelan newspaper “El Nacional” reported Blanco had left that country Sunday for a physical with the Mets.
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Mark Feinsand / NY Daily News:
Joe Girardi, Brian Cashman and New York Yankees brass will meet to map out course of offseason — It's been four weeks since the Yankees won the World Series, a time for Joe Girardi and his players to celebrate, accept awards and soak in all that comes with winning a championship.
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Pete Caldera / NorthJersey.com:
Girardi says Pettitte is key to off-season — NEW YORK — To get a better idea of whether the Yankees will become a more urgent suitor for starting pitching this winter, they must receive the answer to one question first. — What is Andy Pettitte's status?
John Manuel / Sports Illustrated:
Ranking baseball's best, worst farm systems … Baseball America ranks the 30 MLB farm systems twice a year — in the spring, as the minor league season is about to start, and again every December in our Prospect Handbook. — It's a collaborative effort, and staff members don't always agree on what constitutes a strong system.
Discussion:
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Jerry Crasnick / ESPN:
Perusing the free-agent bargain bin — Sure, Holliday, Bay and Lackey will go for big bucks, but there are reasonable deals — Ben Sheets sat out all of 2009 to recover from surgery and to be ready for the start of 2010. — The Major League Baseball Players Association has advised agents …
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ESPN:
The Yankees' case for Halladay — The Yankees, Mets and Red Sox have spent more money in free agency over the past decade than any other teams, as ESPN's esteemed Mark Simon notes: Bi...
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Jkiesewetter / TV and Media Blog:
Thom Brennaman Replacing George Grande on Reds TV — Thom Brennaman tells me that he's cutting back on his Saturday Fox TV commitments next year to become the Reds primary TV announcer. Brennaman will replace George Grande, who retired in October after 17 seasonswith the Reds.
