Yankees' Damon remains left out  —  There was a vacancy sign placed above left field at Yankee Stadium yesterday, but Johnny Damon's outlook on returning hasn't changed any.  —  On the same day the Yankees sent Melky Cabrera to the Braves as part of a deal that added Javier Vazquez to the starting rotation …

Red Sox talking about Bay return  —  According to a team source, the Red Sox have had internal discussions about extending their organizational budget to potentially allow for another offer for free agent outfielder Jason Bay.  The discussed proposal to Bay would be in the vicinity four-year …

Baseball's Top 20 Prospects … Baseball America's Prospect Handbookis going to press, and it's hard to describe the book to my non-baseball friends (a short list, but I have had a few such discussions).  It's a book of 900 scouting reports on the game's top minor league players: 30 for each of the 30 major league organizations.

Source: Braves give Glaus one-year deal  —  The Braves have reached agreement on a one-year contract with free agent Troy Glaus to play first base, according to a major-league source.  —  The deal, which also includes incentives, is pending a physical, the source said.

Boston Red Sox Top 10 Prospects  —  Boston Red Sox … After winning the World Series in 2007 and losing in Game Seven of the American League Championship Series the following year, the Red Sox looked poised to make another title run in 2009.  —  They got off to a 51-34 start …

Source: Los Angeles Angels, Fernando Rodney agree to 2-year deal  —  Former Detroit Tigers closer Fernando Rodney and the Los Angeles Angels have agreed to a two-year, $11 million deal pending a physical, a source told ESPNdeportes.com's Enrique Rojas.  —  The physical examination is scheduled to take place later Wednesday.

Source: the Pirates have made Octavio Dotel an offer  —  A source tells me that the Pirates have made an offer to Octavio Dotel to be their closer.  The offer: $3 million plus games-finished incentives.  Not a deal yet or anything, but it's out there.  —  Dotel has turned in back-to-back …

Sources say Washington Nationals, Matt Capps are close to one-year deal  —  The Washington Nationals are closing in on a one-year deal with Matt Capps, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.  —  Assuming the deal is completed, sources say that Capps — who was not tendered a contract …

Inbox: Did Dodgers pursue Halladay?  —  Los Angeles fans ask about DeWitt, contracts and more  —  Did the Dodgers really try to trade for Roy Halladay?  —  Actually, they did.  Perhaps more interestingly, sources claim that the Blue Jays preferred the Dodgers as trading partners …

Read: The Mets All-Decade Team of the 2000s  —  Eric Simon of Amazin Avenue has started his look at the Mets All-Decade Team for the 2000s, beginning with catcher Mike Piazza, who played six seasons, stepped to the plate nearly 3,000 times and hit 157 home runs.

An option year on Lackey deal  —  The Red Sox built in a “conditional club option” at the minimum salary for the 2015 season into John Lackey's contract to protect them in case Lackey gets hurt, according to salary information obtained by Boston.com.  —  Highlights of Lackey's $82,791,426 deal include …

We hear: John Lackey, Ellen DeGeneres, Larry Johnson & more...  That new Red Sox [team stats] hurler John Lackey's bride, Krista, may be rethinking her decision to urge her hubby to move to the Hub.  Because when Lackey and his lovely wife - a Maine native and University of New Hampshire grad …

The Latest On Mark DeRosa  —  The San Francisco Giants have offered Mark DeRosa a two-year deal worth $12MM, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (via Twitter).  —  Heyman wonders if DeRosa, a New Jersey product who has previously played in Atlanta, is hoping for the Yankees, Mets, and Braves to enter the mix more aggressively.

MLB is concerned about Greenberg group's funding in the Texas Rangers bid  —  UPDATE: I received a call from someone with the Greenberg group.  They couldn't explicitly comment because of confidentiality agreements, but they deny the report that there is anything amiss with financing and say that everything is going just fine.