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Olney On Rodriguez, Ibanez, Lee, Yankees

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Last night’s arbitration decisions included some particularly interesting cases, and ESPN.com’s Buster Olney offers insight into a few of them:

  • At times “winks and nods” are involved when it comes to Type B free agents. The free agents have been known to agree in advance to decline arbitration offers, since doing so doesn’t hurt their free agent value. 
  • However, GM Doug Melvin says the Brewers did not ask agent Scott Boras to decline the team’s offer to Francisco Rodriguez. "We felt that with us trading some players the last few years that this was a chance to recover with some high picks,” Melvin told Olney. The GM explained that he’s not expecting to obtain many compensation picks in the next couple of years.
  • As Olney points out, Rodriguez faces a similar decision to the one another Boras client, Rafael Soriano, faced last offseason: “take more money to be a setup man, or less to be a closer.”
  • Olney notes that Raul Ibanez’s agents have a good relationship with the Phillies and suggests it’s likely Ibanez has agreed to turn down the team’s offer.
  • There's no understanding that Derrek Lee will reject the Pirates' offer, according to Olney (on Twitter).
  • Olney suggests gentlemen's agreements are likely in place with Aaron Harang, Jose Molina and David DeJesus and that the three players will decline arbitration(Twitter link).
  • The Yankees are quietly confident that Phil Hughes will start Spring Training in improved physical condition and have a bounce-back season in 2012. They will continue to discuss available starting pitchers, even after agreeing to terms with Freddy Garcia.

American League Free Agent Arbitration Offers

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10 American League teams have free agent arbitration offer decisions to make, and we'll update them in this post throughout the day in advance of the 11pm central time deadline.  For a fantastic customizable chart with all 57 Type A/B free agents and their teams' decisions in real-time, click here. 

Updated team decisions:

Teams with decisions still due:

Yankees, Freddy Garcia Nearing Deal

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The Yankees are nearing a one-year deal with Freddy Garcia, according to David Waldstein of the New York Times (on Twitter).The Yankees offered the right-hander arbitration earlier tonight.

Garcia, 35, signed a minor league deal in February and delivered a surprisingly strong 3.62 ERA in 146 2/3 innings. The 13-year veteran posted 5.9 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a 36.4% ground ball rate for the Yankees, spending part of August on the disabled list with an index finger injury.

Though the Yankees have locked up C.C. Sabathia, their search for starting pitching continues. Sabathia and Garcia will join A.J. Burnett, Ivan Nova and Phil Hughes in the team's projected 2012 rotation.

Yankees Sign Jayson Nix

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The Yankees have signed Jayson Nix to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to Major League Spring Training, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Nix, a 29-year-old who bats from the right side, will presumably compete for a utility job next spring.

Nix posted a .169/.245/.309 line in 151 plate appearances for the 2011 Blue Jays before they outrighted him to the minors in July. He posted double-digit home run totals in 2009-10, but has struck out in a quarter of his career plate appearances. The 2001 first rounder has MLB experience at shortstop, second, third and both corner outfield positions.

Quick Hits: Cespedes, Red Sox, Phillies, Barmes

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Congratulations to Justin Verlander, the 2011 American League MVP. Here are some links for Monday night, starting with a note on the contract status of one of Verlander’s former teammates…

  • The value of the Yankees' 2013 option on Curtis Granderson increased from $13MM to $15MM thanks to the center fielder's top-five finish in the MVP voting.
  • Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com hears Cuban center fielder Yoenis Cespedes could obtain $45MM and suggests the 26-year-old will eventually sign for “quite a bit more” (Twitter link). One evaluator told Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun that Cespedes will sign for “way over [the] top” money (Twitter link). It appears that he’ll cost $35-50MM, if not more.
  • Red Sox GM Ben Cherington confirmed Craig Shipley will no longer be the team’s VP of player personnel and international operations, according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com (on Twitter).
  • Ryne Sandberg will return as the Phillies’ Triple-A manager in 2012, according to MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat. 
  • ESPN.com’s Keith Law doesn’t endorse the Pirates’ two-year, $10.5MM deal with Clint Barmes. Pittsburgh would have been better off picking up Ronny Cedeno’s $3MM option for 2012, Law argues. 
  • Jim Callis of Baseball America looks back at the 2005-07 drafts and shows that the Cardinals (24) and Padres (22) have developed the most Major Leaguers from those three drafts to this point.

Heyman On Rangers, Pujols, Fielder, Nunez

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Earlier this week, it was reported that in addition to the Cardinals and Marlins, there's a third team in on Albert Pujols.  Yahoo's Tim Brown hypothesized that the mystery suitor could be the Cubs or Rangers.  Today on Twitter, Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated discussed the Rangers' possible pursuit of Pujols and more..

  • The Rangers are still saying that the odds are remote for them to make a run at Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder this offseason, says Heyman (via Twitter).  The club's focus now is to try to lock up Josh Hamilton as the outfielder will hit free agency after 2012.
  • Heyman (via Twitter) still won't count Texas out of the chase for Pujols or Fielder.  As he points out, last winter's signing of Adrian Beltre came late in the offseason.
  • The Braves have long been interested in Yankees shortstop Eduardo Nunez but the Bombers will have to part with much more to land Jair Jurrjens in a trade, Heyman tweets.

Braves Interested In Trading For Eduardo Nunez

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The Braves are looking to add offense this winter, and John Harper of The New York Daily News reports that they let the Yankees know they'd be interested in trading for shortstop Eduardo Nunez last week.

“They need offense," said Harper's source. "They need a shortstop because they don’t want to bring [Alex]  Gonzalez back, and they like Nunez a lot. They know the jury is out on him defensively, but they think his offense is strong enough that he could move to the outfield if he can’t be their long-term answer at short.”

Atlanta did not discuss Jair Jurrjens or any specific players on their side with the Yankees, and they also showed interest in Nunez last winter. The 24-year-old infielder hit .265/.313/.385 with five homers in 338 plate appearances this past year, stealing 22 bases in 28 tries as well.

Nunez played short and third base primarily last season, getting regular at-bats when Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez hit the disabled list at different times of the summer. He also saw time at second base and occasionally filled in at the corner outfield spots. Nunez committed 20 errors in his limited time, most coming on throws, so his ability to play the left side of the infield on an everyday basis is still in question.

East Notes: Ortiz, Braves, Soler, Sizemore, Yankees

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The Red Sox traded Coco Crisp to the Royals for Ramon Ramirez three years ago today, and four years prior to that the Nationals traded Maicer Izturis and Juan Rivera to the Angels for Jose Guillen. Here's the latest from baseball's two East divisions…

  • Infielder Matt Antonelli will undergo a physical on Monday to finalize his major league deal with the Orioles, tweets Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun.
  • Orioles GM Dan Duquette didn't sound terribly interested in signing a high-priced DH such as David Ortiz during an interview on WEEI (audio link, 9:00 mark).
  • If Liberty Media decided to sell the Braves, Mark Cuban wouldn't pursue the franchise, tweets David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  A recent AJC poll showed 95% of readers would like Cuban to buy the team but the eccentric owner told O'Brien that he would prefer to buy a team that is in need of a lot of help.  Liberty Media has the right to sell the team after the current CBA expires on December 11th, but there's no evidence that a sale is imminent.
  • The Marlins have already scouted Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, reports MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. The 19-year-old has been working out for teams in the Dominican Republic, and yesterday we heard that the Rangers have scouted him as well.
  • The Indians and Grady Sizemore are in "serious discussions" about a reunion, but the Phillies had interest in the outfielder according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter link). Current GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and former GM Pat Gillick visited Sizemore in Arizona on the first day of free agency.
  • “The free agent guys haven’t made me any offers,” said Yankees GM Brian Cashman to Dan Martin of The New York Post. “The free agent [market] is moving at a glacial speed. And the category I’m shopping in, I don’t believe guys are jumping off the board this week. The players I’m interested in won’t be coming off the board anytime soon."

Added To 40-Man Roster: Giants, Dodgers, Pirates

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Today is the deadline for teams to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from next month's Rule 5 draft. Here's more on which players need to be protected and here are the details on which players have had their contracts selected to the 40-man roster:

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Yankees Notes: Swisher, DePaula, Cashman

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It was on this day in 1954 that the Yankees and Orioles finalized a huge 17-player deal that took five days to fully process.  The most notable new Yankees were future Cy Young winner "Bullet" Bob Turley and Don Larsen, who achieved baseball immortality two years later when he threw the only perfect game in World Series history. 

Some news from the modern-day Yankees…

  • There are teams interested in dealing for Nick Swisher, reports ESPN's Buster Olney.  The Yankees "will listen on anyone" but they say they aren't shopping Swisher despite "a perception in some corners of the marketplace" that the outfielder is on the market. 
  • A year after signing with the Yankees for a $500K bonus, Dominican right-hander Jose Rafael DePaula still hasn't made the contract official because he's been unable to obtain a visa, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America.  DePaula has been working out at the Yankee's Dominican academy in the interim.
  • "Our club is pretty much set except for trying to shore up the back end of the rotation," Brian Cashman told Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News.  Cashman said he engaged in a few minor discussions at the GM meetings but they "went nowhere. I floated some weather balloons that popped, mostly trade stuff."
  • For the latest on the Yankees, be sure to follow MLBTR's Yankee-specific Twitter feed, RSS feed and Facebook page.
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