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Quick Hits: Nationals, Pirates, MacPhail, Astros

By Mike Axisa [June 25, 2011 at 10:31pm CST]

Links for Saturday...

The Nationals plan on having Davey Johnson meet up with the team tomorrow in Chicago before flying to Anaheim with them, reports Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post (Twitter links). ESPN's Buster Olney, meanwhile, notes that Johnson's contract ensures that he'll be the manager for this year only. The two sides will re-evaluate things after the season.
Tim Britton of The Providence Journal says the Pirates were the big losers in the Jason Bay-Manny Ramirez trade.
Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun spoke to Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail about his contract, which expires after the season. "I have always taken the position, unlike one of my good friends in the game Jim Riggleman, let's just see how we do," said MacPhail. "Let's get to the end of the year and see how we do and take it from there."
Richard Justice of The Houston Chronicle reports that the Astros transfer of ownership from Drayton McLane to Jim Crane likely won't happen until mid-July (or later) as MLB focuses its efforts on the Dodgers (Twitter link).
Joe Strauss of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch addressed the speculation about how Albert Pujols' injury could impact his contract negotiations with the Cardinals after the season.
McLaren will not be leaving the Nationals, reports Bill Ladson of MLB.com (Twitter links). He will not be bench coach and will instead stay in another capacity.
The Nats can expect another resignation, this time from acting manager John McLaren, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. McLaren served as bench coach under Jim Riggleman.
Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports spoke to a source that is doubtful the Giants would move any of their big league pitchers to improve the offense (Twitter link). San Francisco has scored just 261 runs this year, the fewest runs in the game.
Gordon Wittenmyer of The Chicago Sun-Times says the Cubs front office plans to give the team a few more weeks to see if they can salvage the season before deciding to sell. The front office will meet next week to sort some of this stuff out.
Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun mentioned that Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail and Reds GM Walt Jocketty have swung trades in the past and spent some time together yesterday before their clubs played. He notes that the two clubs appear to match up well in a potential trade as well.
Baseball America's Matt Eddy has this week's collection of minor league transactions, which includes a slew of draft pick and undrafted free agent signings.