Cardinals Avoid Arbitration With Kyle McClellan

The Cardinals and reliever Kyle McClellan have agreed to a one-year contract, avoiding arbitration according to the team's Twitter feed.  The deal is worth $1.375MM, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. With the right-hander's contract taken care of, the Cardinals have no more arbitration eligible players for 2011. 

Last season McClellan, 26, turned in a career-best 2.27 ERA last season with 7.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 75.1 innings of work.  This winter marked McClellan's first crack at arbitration eligibility.  To keep up on all of the 2011 arbitration cases, check out our Arb Tracker.

Odds & Ends: Fielder, Young, Pierzynski Dice-K

Links for Tuesday...

• Brewers GM Doug Melvin tells MLB.com's Adam McCalvy that there's "no sense of urgency" to the Prince Fielder extension talks, since Fielder's "not going anywhere" for now.
• Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets that Chris Young (the Padres' version) could be a trade candidate this year, but that the right-hander would be better served staying in the National League.
• Morosi also lays out the decision facing the White Sox as A.J. Pierzynski's contract approaches its end. We discussed the catcher's next contract here.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka wants to play in the majors for at least another decade, according to WEEI's Rob Bradford.
• SI's Tom Verducci explains a radical floating realignment concept that was discussed by Bud Selig's "special committee for on-field matters."
• Joe Posnanski describes Aroldis Chapman's spring debut in this SI column.
• Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog reports that the Mets re-signed pitcher Kyle Snyder to a minor league deal.  Snyder posted a 4.23 ERA, 6.4 K/9, and 2.8 BB/9 in 104.3 Triple A innings last year.
• Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explores the recent pattern of the Cardinals acquiring rejected Red Sox players.
• ESPN's Keith Law opines that "if the season started this week, [Kyle Farnsworth would] have to be a candidate for unconditional release."
• MLB.com's Jason Beck caught up with Blue Jays pitcher Casey Fien, who bounced around between three clubs in a short span this winter.
• Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald says the 2007 Marlins-Tigers Miguel Cabrera blockbuster hasn't panned out as planned so far.

Cardinals Pursuing Matt Holliday

SATURDAY, 7:05pm: Peter Gammons tweets (account protected) that any discussions would have to start with Brett Wallace, as the A's don't need to trade Holliday.

FRIDAY, 11:13pm: The Cardinals are "redoubling efforts to acquire" Matt Holliday, according to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Strauss says the Cards have warmed to the idea of offering a multiplayer package.  They were previously reluctant to send a Ryan Ludwick-fronted package to Colorado in November.  Strauss believes that the Cardinals would now probably be willing to offer Ludwick, one of Jason Motte, Chris Perez, and Kyle McClellan, and a prospect to Holliday's current team, the Athletics.  Strauss adds:

Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., who opposed the November deal for Holliday, is apparently on board with assuming the remainder of Holliday's $13.5 million salary.

Only about $7.6MM remains on Holliday's contract, and he is of course a free agent after the season.  Holliday, a Scott Boras client, currently profiles as a Type A free agent despite a decrease in production with Oakland.

Ludwick has about $2MM remaining on his contract this year.  He's under team control through 2011 as an arbitration-eligible player.  Ludwick was actually drafted by the A's in 1999, 60th overall.  In 2002, they sent him to the Rangers with Gerald Laird and others for Carlos Pena and Mike Venafro.  Ludwick, like Holliday, has dropped off significantly from his huge 2008 season.