Week In Review: 3/25/12 – 3/31/12

By this time next Sunday, the regular season will be in full swing! Let's take a look back on the final week of Spring Training (even though the season technically started on Thursday)…

• A group headed by Stan Kasten and Magic Johnson agreed to purchase the Dodgers for a whopping $2.15 billion — more than double the price of the previous record sale price of an MLB team.
• The Royals and Alex Gordon agreed to a four-year extension that will guarantee him $37.5MM. The deal contains a player option at $12.5MM. He'll earn $6MM, $9MM, $10MM, and $12.5MM over the next four seasons.
• The Padres locked up Cory Luebke through the 2015 season for a $12MM guarantee. Luebke's new contract contains a pair of club options that could raise the total value to $27.75MM.
• The Indians and Angels appeared to be on the verge of a trade that would send Bobby Abreu to Cleveland before the talks fell apart.
• Jonathan Lucroy signed a five-year extension with the Brewers that guarantees him $13MM if he qualifies as a Super Two player, or $11MM if he falls short. His contract also contains an option for a sixth season.
• In a more surprising (and albeit, smaller scale) extension, the Blue Jays signed Dustin McGowan to a two-year deal that guarantees him $3.5MM between the 2013-13 seasons and contains a $4MM club option.
• Following his release from the Astros, veteran righty Livan Hernandez signed a one-year Major League deal with the Braves that guarantees him $750K.
• The Brewers will let Shaun Marcum play out the rest of the season and reach free agency.
• The Giants and Matt Cain continue to talk about a contract extension as Opening Day approaches and CEO Larry Baer insists that the club is not lowballing the pitcher.
• The Cubs and Red Sox finalized the Theo Epstein compensation situation this week. Chicago will receive 19-year-old minor league first baseman Jair Bogaerts as the player to be named later.
• The Diamondbacks worked out a trade with the Pirates to retain Rule 5 pick Brett Lorin by sending 2010 third-rounder Robby Rowland.
• Former Yankees left-hander Kei Igawa signed a two-year deal with the Orix Buffaloes worth ¥200M, which is roughly $2.5MM USD.
• The Yankees signed Jack Cust to a minor league contract.
• The Nationals announced that they signed left-hander Zach Duke to a minor league deal.
• Tony La Russa joined Major League Baseball as a special advisor.
• The Twins officially released right-hander Joel Zumaya as the pitcher will miss the 2012 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
• Vladimir Guerrero worked out in front of Indians scouts at the team's Dominican Republic academy.
• Magglio Ordonez is close to retiring.
• The Giants placed infielder Mike Fontenot on waivers.  San Fran agreed to a one-year, $1.05MM deal this offseason with the veteran and will now save three quarters of that.
• The Rangers released veteran outfielder Brad Hawpe.

Zach Links contributed to this post.