John Smoltz Rumors

Links for Tuesday…

• Orlando Hudson is "making progress on signing with a team," tweets MLB.com's Bill Ladson, however Hudson declined to name the team. In separate tweet, Ladson says a source told him that the Nationals top Hudson's wish list.
• ESPN's Jerry Crasnick tweets that the Diamondbacks and Rockies are pursuing Derrick Turnbow, who could sign soon.
• MLBTR's resident translator Nick Collias passes along this report from Esteban Rivera of the Puerto Rican newspaper Primera Hora, in which Carlos Delgado says that the Mets, Orioles, and Royals "have seen him [play] on the island." Omar Minaya said there is still a mutual interest in bringing Delgado back to New York, tweets ESPN's Jorge Arangure
• The final offer Scott Boras presented the Yankees with for Xavier Nady was worth $5MM, tweets Joel Sherman of The New York Post. He adds that the Yanks would have considered him at the price he signed for today, and that they'll only do a minor league deal for Rocco Baldelli (via Twitter).
• Now that Ben Sheets has signed with the A's, Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com tweets that the Mets' next target appears to be John Smoltz. A source tells him they haven't aggressively pursued Jon Garland. 
• MLB.com's Brian McTaggart mentions that the Astros and Wandy Rodriguez are set to go an arbitration hearing on February 17th. Wandy filed for $7MM, the team $5MM.
• Meanwhile, Richard Justice of The Houston Chronicle breaks down the Astros' offseason in a video.
• Rick Ankiel said that the Nationals, Marlins, and Yankees were in it until the end, reports Doug Tucker of The Brownsville Herald.
• Cody Ross' arbitration hearing has been scheduled for February 15th, reports MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. Ross is seeking a $4.45MM salary in 2010, but the Marlins are countering with $4.2MM.
• ESPN's Buster Olney wrote about baseball's internal discussions on how to fix the draft, including some notes about what was discussed at the recent general managers meeting (sub. req'd).
• In a mailbag, MLB.com's Kelly Thesier says the Twins payroll appears to be right around $90MM, and they don't seem willing to spend much more than that.    
• Meanwhile, Lyle Spencer of MLB.com writes in his mailbag that the Angels "appear to have stretched the salary budget to its limit," so don't expect any more major moves.
• Ken Davidoff of Newsday lists what he thinks are the best run organizations in baseball (sub. req'd). There's 15 of them, however ten are from the AL while just five come from the NL. 
• John Fay of The Cincinnati Enquirer looks at the list of remaining free agents, and sees only one fit for the Reds: Orlando Cabrera. He's probably too expensive for them at this point, however. 
• MLB.com's Marty Noble says in a mailbag that he doesn't believe the Mets' current roster and the Opening Day roster will be the same, but he's not sure where the club can turn to improve.