K-Rod Could Reject Trade To Setup Role

7:40pm: Rodriguez would consider re-structuring his contract to do away with the $17.5MM option for 2012 in exchange for some other form of compensation, according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com.

3:50pm: Rodriguez's no-trade list was submitted when the contract was signed and it doesn't change year to year, according to Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com. The Yankees are not on the list, according to Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal. Rodriguez chose the teams on his no-trade list based on which teams he didn't want to join and the list includes some small-market teams that wouldn't have interest in him, according to Costa.

1:39pm: Francisco Rodriguez's new agent Scott Boras strongly indicated today that the reliever would not accept a trade to a team on his no-trade list if it means being a setup man, tweets Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal.  The issue at stake: Rodriguez will receive a staggering $17.5MM salary from the Mets for 2012 if he finishes 21 more games and is healthy after the season.  The closer told Mike Puma of the New York Post he hopes the Mets let him finish the year with them.

K-Rod can block deals to ten unknown teams.  Boras will be fighting for the vesting option Paul Kinzer of Wasserman Media Group negotiated, while Mets GM Sandy Alderson is trying to skirt the clause former GM Omar Minaya accepted.  

In a fantasy baseball sense, the trade rumors have helped place Rodriguez in the third tier of closers, in the opinion of Dan Mennella at CloserNews.