AL East Notes: Cano, Rays, Morneau, Konerko, Young

Koji Uehara had another solid outing last night for the Red Sox, but his 1 1/3 scoreless innings had an impact for beyond the 2013 season.  The Boston closer will make $4.25MM in 2014 after locking in his option and he can bump that up to $5MM if he finishes 12 more games, giving him 35 in total.  In 54 2/3 innings this season, the veteran has a 1.32 ERA with 12.3 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9.  Here's more out of the AL East..

• Many believe that Jay-Z is looking to make a statement with Robinson Cano's contract this winter, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  “My opinion is that (Jay-Z) is very concerned with making a public display of self-promotion. So one would think that a show is coming at the player’s expense designed to play the Dodgers and Yankees against each other. I am sure they see it coming. And if you are one of those teams, do you give Cano an A-Rod deal and make him your franchise player?,” one agent said.
• Trading Emilio Bonifacio to the Royals was a "sell low" for Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos, Sportsnet's Shi Davidi tweets. Anthopoulos had to work hard to snag Bonifacio in last year's blockbuster trade with the Marlins, as many teams were targeting him, according to Davidi.
• A right-handed hitter would be a better fit for the Rays than a lefty such as Justin Morneau, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Topkin suggests the recently released Delmon Young or Paul Konerko as possibilities.
• Michael Valancius of DRaysBay asks if the Rays should have given Dane De La Rosa more of a chance in the big leagues before letting him go to the Angels.  In 53.0 innings with the Angels, he has a 3.74 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9.

Aaron Steen contributed to this post.