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Week In Review: 10/31/10 - 11/6/10

Free agency officially began this week, which makes for some busy times around MLBTR. Let's take a look back at the last seven days:

• One of the more interesting stories of the week saw the Blue Jays acquire Miguel Olivo from Colorado and immediately decline his 2011 option. Toronto will send a player to be named later or cash to Colorado, and will offer Olivo arbitration. Should Olivo decline, the Blue Jays have essentially purchased a supplemental round draft pick, as Olivo is a Type B free agent.
• It may be the end of the road for Jamie Moyer, who suffered an elbow injury in the Dominican Winter League this week. The 48-year-old lefty has spent a quarter of a century as a major leaguer.
• More manager/front office news this week; the Brewers hired Ron Roenicke, the Marlins will stick with Edwin Rodriguez, Ron Washington received a two-year extension, and the Mets hired J.P. Ricciardi as a special assistant to Sandy Alderson.
• The Rakuten Golden Eagles posted Hisashi Iwakuma this week, and are hoping for a $16MM-$17MM posting fee. Bidding has reportedly closed, and the Mariners may be the favorites.
• Jay Bruce and Chris Perez are among the bigger names of players who reached Super Two status this week.
• The Astros won't pursue bringing Lance Berkman back to Houston.
• San Francisco is likely to retain Aubrey Huff but unlikely to try to move Barry Zito.
• The White Sox are looking to extend John Danks but haven't made an offer to A.J. Pierzynski. They also announced Omar Vizquel will be back on a one-year, $1.75MM deal.
• Sticking in the AL Central, the Tigers and Jhonny Peralta are nearing completion on a new two-year, $11.25MM contract to keep the infielder in Detroit.
• The Nationals are looking to make a splash this offseason, and we heard earlier today that Cliff Lee will listen to their pitch. They also released Tyler Walker this week.
• It's a bit out of the ordinary for them, but the Pirates are planning on pursuing free agent starting pitching to strengthen their rotation.
• The Yankees will be all over Cliff Lee, we know that much. We learned this week though, that Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth are not in their offseason plans.
• The Marlins offered Dan Uggla a four-year deal, beginning with an $8MM salary in 2011, but the second baseman is looking for five years.
• Hisanori Takahashi will seek a three-year deal worth $4MM or $5MM annually.
• World Series MVP Edgar Renteria may have had his option declined (no surprise there), but he also announced this week that he does intend to play in 2011. Obviously, he'll be taking a pay cut.
• The Padres exercised Adrian Gonzalez's 2011 option, but GM Jed Hoyer said he'll listen to offers on his first baseman as well as All-Star closer Heath Bell.
• The Pads declined their 2011 option on Chris Young. Yorvit Torrealba declined his half of his mutual option with San Diego as well. Ditto for Jon Garland.
• Tons more option news this week; we'll try to list them all here. The Red Sox picked up David Ortiz's option and announced they'd do the same with Scott Atchison, while declining their options on Felipe Lopez and Bill Hall. Adrian Beltre declined his player option.
• The A's picked up Coco Crisp's option as well as their option on Mark Ellis.
• The Braves picked up options on Alex Gonzalez and Omar Infante, while declining options for Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth.
• The Rockies declined their option on Octavio Dotel and their option on Jeff Francis.
• The Reds exercised Bronson Arroyo's option, while we learned in this piece that they'll do the same with Jonny Gomes, but not Orlando Cabrera or Aaron Harang.
• Milwaukee declined options on Gregg Zaun, Trevor Hoffman, and Doug Davis.
• Arizona declined its option on Adam LaRoche, as did the Nationals with Adam Kennedy, the Orioles with Mark Hendrickson, the Blue Jays with Kevin Gregg, and the Rangers with Vladimir Guerrero.
• The Rays declined options on Dan Wheeler and Willy Aybar, while the Mariners declined options on Erik Bedard, Russell Branyan, and Jose Lopez.
• The Mets picked up their 2011 option on Jose Reyes, and Aramis Ramirez exercised his player option.
• Scott Podsednik declined his side of his mutual option with the Dodgers and hit free agency.
• In addition to all of the options that were declined, several other names were added to the free agent list after being outrighted by their teams, including Casey Kotchman, former top prospect Andy Marte, and Scott Olsen of the Nationals. Check out the Transactions section for all of the news from the week -- dozens of minor moves took place.

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