Jhonny Peralta's new $53MM deal with the Cardinals could lead to changes to MLB's Joint Drug Agreement, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal writes. Peralta already served a 50-game suspension for his role in the Biogenesis scandal, but he's now getting a large contract just months later, one that dwarfs other recent contracts for players like Marlon Byrd and Melky Cabrera who also received PED suspensions. "We thought 50 games would be a deterrent. Obviously it’s not. So we are working on it again," Diamondbacks player representative Brad Ziegler tweeted today. Rosenthal writes that players are likely to raise the topic of harsher PED penalties at a players union meeting in December. Any changes would then have to be negotiated with MLB's owners. Here are more notes from around the Majors.
- The market for free agent closers is currently in a holding pattern, with interested teams all eyeing the same group of players (presumably including Joe Nathan, Grant Balfour, Joaquin Benoit, Fernando Rodney, Edward Mujica and Brian Wilson) and waiting for each other to make the first move, FOX Sports' Jon Morosi tweets.
- One dynamic affecting the market for closers might be that teams aren't as willing to pay for saves as they once were, as Paul Swydan of Fangraphs points out. Big-money contracts for closers appear to be decreasing, and Swydan suggests that a number of recent multiyear deals for closer types (Jonathan Papelbon, Rafael Soriano, Brandon League) don't appear to be going well (perhaps particularly when considering underlying indicators like peripherals and velocity).
- The Twins are one of a number of teams "in play" for catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. The Red Sox and Rangers might also be among that group of teams. After moving Joe Mauer to first base, the Twins are on the lookout for a catcher. They may also be interested in A.J. Pierzynski, Berardino writes.
