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Minor Moves: Bulger, Carpenter, Kimball

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Here's the list of players who have been added to 40-man rosters and here's the list of players who have been removed from them. Now for some moves that don't affect 40-man rosters at all…

  • The Twins announced that they signed right-hander Jason Bulger to a minor league deal.
  • The Blue Jays announced that they claimed right-hander Andrew Carpenter off of waivers from the Padres and lost right-hander Cole Kimball on waivers to the Nationals. The Blue Jays had claimed Kimball from the Nationals earlier this week and he's now back where he started. Carpenter, 26, appeared in 12 games for the Phillies and Padres in 2011. He spent most of the season at Triple-A, where he posted a 1.79 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 1.6 BB/9 in 60 1/3 innings.
  • The Astros announced that they signed right-hander Lance Pendleton to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to Spring Training 2012. The Astros selected the Houston native in the 2010 Rule 5 draft and he spent this past Spring Training with Houston before being returned to the Yankees. The Astros claimed the 28-year-old off of waivers from the Yankees in September and he finished the season in the Major Leagues. Pendleton posted a 6.75 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 5.3 BB/9 in 18 2/3 innings for the Yankees and Astros in 2011.

Pirates Claim Hefner, Jeroloman

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The Pirates announced that they claimed right-hander Jeremy Hefner off of waivers from the Padres and claimed catcher Brian Jeroloman off of waivers from the Blue Jays. Pittsburgh has 36 players on its 40-man roster after outrighting Matt Pagnozzi to Triple-A.

Hefner, 25, started 28 games for the Padres' Triple-A affiliate in 2011, posting a 4.98 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 157 1/3 innings. He has a 3.84 ERA with 7.9 K/0 and 2.8 BB/9 in 688 2/3 career minor league innings over the course of five seasons.

Jeroloman joined the Blue Jays at the end of the 2011 season, but never entered a game. The 26-year-old, who has a career .378 OBP after six years in the minors, posted a .240/.335/.295 line at Triple-A Las Vegas this past season

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Maddon, Darvish, Ortiz

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Some interesting items to pass along from around the AL "Beast" …

  • The Red Sox were gauging trade interest in some of their out-of-options pitchers at the GM Meetings this week, a source tells Alex Speier of WEEI.com. Franklin Morales, Andrew Miller, Felix Doubront, Michael Bowden and Scott Atchison are all out of options but aren't locks to make next year's bullpen, according to Speier, so Boston may decide to add or remove some of these players from the 40-man roster based on relative trade interest.
  • The Rays are hopeful of extending the contract of manager Joe Maddon, tweets Jon Heyman of SI.com. Maddon is entering the final year of a three-year extension he signed in 2009.
  • The Yankees may shy away from pursuing Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish if he's posted because of the club's history with busts Hideki Irabu and Kei Igawa, opines Heyman (Twitter link), although owner Hal Steinbrenner told reporters, such as the New York Post's Joel Sherman and Newsday's Ken Davidoff, that the team will evaluate each player on a case-by-case basis.
  • The Blue Jays are interested in free agent DH David Ortiz, tweets Scott Miller of CBSSports.com.
  • Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano said that last month's rumors that he was angling for a contract extension was the result of a joke gone awry, according to Spanish-language Web site DiarioLibre.com. “I’m not thinking about the contract. My lawyer told a journalist as a joke that I was looking for a contract extension, and that’s what got published… I’m not thinking about that. The team has a $14MM option for next year." Thanks to MLBTR's Nick Collias for the translation.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Rays, Orioles, Jays

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Dale Sveum interviewed with the Red Sox for a second time today, and the team expects to bring in at least one more managerial finalist for a second interview. However, it's still a mystery who that finalist will be. Pete Mackanin has been told he's no longer in the running, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (on Twitter), and Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com tweets that Sandy Alomar Jr. and Gene Lamont hadn't heard anything from the team about a second interview as of this evening. Torey Lovullo rounded out Boston's original five interviewees, but Larry Lucchino said tonight that the Sox could "absolutely" expand their search, tweets Rob Bradford of WEEI.

While we wait to see where Boston's hunt for Terry Francona's replacement takes them, let's check out a few more AL East links….

Minor Moves: Kimball, Corporan, Rottino, Pascucci

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Today's minor moves…

  • The Twins re-signed left-hander Phil Dumatrait, according to the Sosnick Cobbe Twitter page. Dumatrait appeared in 45 games for the Twins last season, posting a 3.92 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9.
  • The Blue Jays claimed right-hander Cole Kimball off of waivers from Washington, according to the Nationals' official Twitter feed.  Meanwhile, the Nats outrighted outfielder Corey Brown to Triple-A Syracuse.
  • Astros catcher Carlos Corporan cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Oklahoma City, tweets Alyson Footer of the Astros.  Corporan has the right to elect free agency due to previously being outrighted.
  • The Mets signed catcher/left fielder/first baseman Vinny Rottino and first baseman/DH Val Pascucci to minor league deals, reports ESPN's Adam Rubin.  Both players saw their first big league action in several years in 2011.
  • Eric Duncan, drafted in the first round by the Yankees in 2003, has signed with the Royals, tweets Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus.  The 26-year-old played mostly first base, second base, and left field this year for the Cardinals' Double-A affiliate, hitting .274/.322/.527 in 385 plate appearances.
  • The White Sox re-signed Leyson Septimo, tweets Goldstein.  The Sox claimed the hard-throwing 26-year-old southpaw off waivers from Arizona in June but removed him from their 40-man roster in October.
  • The Giants signed center fielder Gregor Blanco, according to his agency (via Matt Eddy of Baseball America on Twitter).  The 27-year-old spent the year with the Triple-A affiliates of the Nationals and Royals, hitting .201/.350/.327 in 252 plate appearances.
  • The Phillies acquired righty Adam Worthington from the Diamondbacks to complete the September Mike Zagurski trade, tweets Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com.  Worthington, 24, posted a 4.48 ERA, 10.0 K/9, 4.6 BB/9, and 0.6 HR/9 in 62 1/3 High-A relief innings this year.
  • The Yankees signed lefty reliever Mike O'Connor, tweets SI's Jon Heyman.  The 31-year-old appeared briefly in the Majors for the Mets this year, also posting a 5.22 ERA, 9.8 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, and 1.0 HR/9 in 60 1/3 Triple-A innings.

GM Meetings Notes: Kelly Johnson, Carlos Zambrano

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Here are some notes from the GM Meetings as team owners and presidents check in to Milwaukee’s Pfister Hotel in anticipation of the quarterly Owners Meetings:

  • Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is strongly considering re-signing free agent second baseman Kelly Johnson. “There’s a lot of scenarios and ways that we could go and bringing Kelly back is certainly one of them,” Anthopoulos said. He declined to comment on possible changes to the Elias rankings system, but it’s something the Blue Jays will monitor closely given the many ranked free agents they have this offseason. Johnson is a Type A free agent, but he may become a Type B under the upcoming CBA.
  • The Blue Jays would like to add starting pitching, but they don’t intend to force an acquisition, since they consider it more of a want than a need. “If we can get a front-to-mid-rotation starter, we’d love to do that,” Anthopoulos told MLBTR. “At the same time I think every team would tell you the same thing. Everyone’s going to look for that.”
  • Carlos Zambrano met with Cubs president Theo Epstein this week to discuss his future with the team. GM Jed Hoyer says the Cubs are still in the process of determining how the right-hander fits in to the 2012 plan. “He’s in very good shape,” Hoyer said. “He had a very good lunch with Theo the other day. He’s had some incidents here — we can’t ignore the past, but at the same time we talked about a lot of things we can do. It’s too early to make a decision, but so far it’s been positive.”

Rosenthal/Morosi On Dodgers, Astros, Blue Jays

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The latest from Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports…

  • The Dodgers' payroll will be well under $100MM in 2012, sources tell the FOX writers.  If James Loney and Hiroki Kuroda return, there will be little left to spend.  On the plus side, the Dodgers were able to reduce Matt Kemp's '12 salary to slightly more than $10MM as part of his new multiyear deal, in a year where as much as $16MM seemed possible through arbitration.  Rosenthal and Morosi say the Dodgers would want to buy out at least two free agent years in a long-term deal for Clayton Kershaw, who may take home the NL Cy Young award tomorrow.  With Kershaw under team control for three more years, the Dodgers don't have the same urgency to lock him up as they did Kemp.  In MLBTR's exclusive arbitration salary projections, Kershaw was pegged at $8.4MM, easily a first-time record for a pitcher.
  • The Astros "probably will acquire a shortstop and add low-cost relief pitching" this offseason, write Rosenthal and Morosi.  GM Ed Wade told the FOX writers he plans to stick with Mark Melancon at closer.  The GM explained his team's corner outfield situation: "From the standpoint of corner outfield, there are going to be guys out there, looking for opportunities.  We’re pretty much the land of opportunity right now."
  • Chipper Jones still enjoys playing, says Braves GM Frank Wren.  The 39-year-old third baseman is signed through 2012 with a '13 vesting option.  Rosenthal and Morosi say Martin Prado is available in the right deal, but the Braves value his versatility, including his ability to back up Jones.
  • Yoenis Cespesdes could petition baseball to declare him a free agent fairly quickly, after he establishes temporary residence in the Dominican Republic.  The residency part is expected to happen within 10 to 14 days.
  • The Blue Jays have expressed interest in trading for Rockies reliever Huston Street.  Street has one year and $8MM remaining on his contract.  Rosenthal and Morosi say the Rockies remain interested in a deal for Prado, which would require Seth Smith and another piece.

Anthopoulos Talks Offseason Approach, Closers, CBA

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Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos spoke to Sportsnet's Shi Davidi at the GM meetings and commented on a few hot stove issues. Here are some highlights:

  • Anthopoulos said there are still so many options available that he doesn't expect to be too active this week, since it would close the door on too many other possibilities.
  • The Jays are doing their due diligence on closers, having looked into health records for a few of the big-name free agents. However, Anthopoulos hasn't found any deals to his liking yet: "Some of them I'm fine with the terms and I'm not fine with the dollars, some of them I'm fine with the dollars and not fine with the terms."
  • Anthopoulos is very wary of making the mistake of signing or taking on a bad contract, since that would limit his freedom for other roster changes: "Cash, spots open on the roster, I think for the most part we have tradable players, tradable contracts. We've got the ability to go in a lot of directions."
  • We heard earlier today that free agent compensation could be modified this offseason as part of the new CBA, which could hurt the Blue Jays' chances of landing draft picks. But Anthopoulos thinks "the league is going to consider their impact on clubs" and isn't worried about the changes.
  • Davidi indicates the Jays' desire for a closer may be slightly overblown. He says the club would like to have one guy for the ninth rather than an ever-changing rotation of arms like they had last year with Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch, and others. However, they're not interested in committing to any reliever for the four years that Jonathan Papelbon received from the Phillies.

Cubs, Buehrle’s Agent Have Had Multiple Discussions

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The Cubs have had multiple discussions with Mark Buehrle's agent Jeff Berry, a source tells Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter link). Berry also met with Marlins earlier today.  Morosi sums up the other interested clubs: the White Sox, Blue Jays, Royals, Angels, Nationals, and Diamondbacks.

Earlier in November, we heard that the Cubs would have interest in the longtime White Sox pitcher "if the price tag and years aren't astronomical." Considering the number of Buehrle rumors we've heard so far this offseason, there appears to be plenty of competition, but we don't have a clear idea yet of the years and dollars the lefty might be offered.

Francisco Cordero Drawing Heavy Interest

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At least seven teams have expressed interest in free agent right-hander Francisco Cordero, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Cordero's agent Bean Stringfellow told MLB.com's Mark Sheldon as much yesterday, but Morosi also names many of the clubs who have interest in Cordero: the Red Sox, Reds, Blue Jays, Marlins, Dodgers, Angels, and Mets.

Although Jonathan Papelbon is off the market, Cordero is one of many closers still available, along with Ryan Madson, Heath Bell, and Francisco Rodriguez, among others. The Reds declined their option on the 36-year-old Cordero at season's end, despite a successful 2011 campaign in which he posted a 2.45 ERA and reduced his BB/9 to 2.8.

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