AL Notes: Rays, Dunn, Rodon, Yankees

There could finally be some movement on the new ballpark front for the Rays, according to a report from John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times. A deal is in the works between the team and the city of St. Petersburg that would enable exploration of possible stadium sites. Any resolution would appear to be a long way off, but Romano explains that this is an important first step towards the sides working together on the matter.

Here are a few more notes from around the American League:

• Newly-acquired Athletics DH Adam Dunn continued to walk back from the notion that he was set on retirement, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Twitter. “Obviously, things have changed now,” he said. “I owe it to myself to put that on the back burner for at least a couple months.”
• Though the White Sox considered a call-up for recent first-rounder Carlos Rodon, the club ultimately decided against the promotion. But GM Rich Hahn tells Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com (via Twitter) that, given “how far along [Rodon] is,” he “fully expect[s] him to come to big league camp next year and compete for a spot on the 2015 White Sox.”
• The moves to acquire soon-to-be free agents Brandon McCarthy, Chase Headley, and Stephen Drew were obviously designed to bolster the Yankees’ chances this year, but had a side benefit looking forward, writes Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. In the cases of the former two players, says Feinsand, the brief audition has shown both sides that a longer commitment could be beneficial. As for Drew, his poor showing since heading to New York now makes him an unlikely candidate to take over for Derek Jeter at short in 2015, according to Feinsand.