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It can pay to lose a free agent, if the result is a well-employed draft pick or two.  Using players drafted and signed as compensation picks, here's my All-Star team for drafts dating back to 2000.

• Catcher: Kelly Shoppach.  Drafted by Red Sox in '01, pick from Phillies for loss of Rheal Cormier.  He'll be backed up by Nick Hundley, who was drafted by the Padres in '05 on a pick from the Red Sox for the loss of David Wells.  Jeff Mathis and Jarrod Saltalamacchia were also under consideration.
• First Base: Ike Davis.  Drafted by Mets in '08, pick from Braves for loss of Tom Glavine.  There were surprisingly few choices for my first baseman.  Conor Jackson would work, though he's currently being used in left field.
• Second Base: Kelly Johnson.  Drafted by Braves in '00 as a supplemental pick for loss of Jose Hernandez to Brewers.
• Shortstop: Tommy Manzella.  Drafted by Astros in '05, pick from Mets for loss of Carlos Beltran.  Not too many names to choose from here.
• Third Base: David Wright.  Drafted by Mets in '01 as a supplemental pick for loss of Mike Hampton to the Rockies.  Wright's in the running for the best compensation pick of the decade; he was drafted 38th overall.
• Left Field: Jacoby Ellsbury.  Drafted by Red Sox in '05, pick from Angels for loss of Orlando Cabrera.  Chris Coghlan and Conor Jackson were also under consideration.
• Center Field: Colby Rasmus.  Drafted by Cardinals in '05, pick from Red Sox for loss of Edgar Renteria.  Interestingly, Rasmus went five picks after Ellsbury.  The Rangers' Julio Borbon is another interesting center field compensation pick.
• Right Field: Nick Swisher.  Drafted by Athletics in '02, pick from Red Sox for loss of Johnny Damon.  One of two Moneyball draft compensation picks to make the cut.
• Designated Hitter: Adam Lind.  Drafted by Blue Jays in '04, pick from Angels for loss of Kelvim Escobar.
• Starting Pitcher: Adam Wainwright.  Drafted by Braves in '00, pick from D'Backs for loss of Russ Springer.
• Starting Pitcher: Phil Hughes.  Drafted by Yankees in '04, pick from Astros for loss of Andy Pettitte.
• Starting Pitcher: Joe Blanton.  Drafted by A's in '02, pick from Yankees for loss of Jason Giambi.
• Starting Pitcher: Clay Buchholz.  Drafted by Red Sox in '05 as a supplemental pick for the loss of Pedro Martinez to the Mets.
• Starting Pitcher: Jordan Zimmermann.  Drafted by Nationals in '07, pick from Cubs for loss of Alfonso Soriano.  If you think Zimmermann should be excluded since he's recovering from Tommy John surgery, consider Jeremy Bonderman, Glen Perkins, Gio Gonzalez, Ian Kennedy, and Tommy Hunter.
• Closer: Huston Street.  Drafted by A's in '04 as supplemental pick for the loss of Miguel Tejada to the Orioles.
• Setup Man: J.P. Howell.  Drafted by Royals in '04 as supplemental pick for the loss of Raul Ibanez to the Mariners.  That was actually Howell's second time as a compensation pick.  Three more who belong in our bullpen: David Aardsma, Daniel Bard, and Joba Chamberlain.

More than 80 players project to be eligible for arbitration for the first time after the 2010 season.  It's a big step in a player's career; for many, it's the first chance at a million-dollar salary.  Let's go around the diamond and look at some notable first-timers:

Catchers

The Athletics' Kurt Suzuki leads the group.  He's yet to discuss a long-term extension with the A's, but it seems possible.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Brayan Pena should also be eligible.

First Basemen

This group has three huge names: Kendry Morales, Joey Votto, and Billy Butler.  They're candidates for extensions, but either way they're getting big raises in 2011.

Second Basemen

Martin Prado may be on his way to a breakout season.  Alberto Callaspo fits here as well, unless you consider him a third baseman.

Shortstops

Some impressive youngsters here: Yunel Escobar, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Brendan Ryan.

Third Basemen

Ian Stewart and Andy LaRoche lead the way, with Stewart a potential Super Two.

Outfielders

Shin-Soo Choo, Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz, Ben Zobrist, Jacoby Ellsbury, Ryan Sweeney, Lastings Milledge – it's a talented group.  Choo and Ellsbury are represented by Scott Boras, and thus appear unlikely to sign long-term.

Starting Pitchers

The top names: Jair Jurrjens, Mike Pelfrey, John Lannan, Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Kevin Slowey, and Phil Hughes.  These days, most of the best young starters are locked up before reaching arbitration.  Brandon Morrow, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Ross Ohlendorf, and Luke Hochevar are more arbitration candidates, with the latter two likely Super Twos.

Relievers

Joba Chamberlain, Jim Johnson, and Chris Perez are the best-known relievers; Perez is a potential Super Two.  The group has more solid members in Eric O'Flaherty, Kyle McClellan, Joe Smith, Aaron Laffey, Burke Badenhop, Edward Mujica, Joel Hanrahan, and Darren O'Day. 

MLB teams spent over $850MM on free agent contracts during the 2009-10 offseason.  45 different agencies were involved in those 122 Major League signings.  Here's a look at the 15 agencies that brokered at least $10MM in free agent contracts:

• Boras Corporation: $165.05MM.  That's less than half of the previous year's total, but still the best this winter.  About 73% of Boras' total came from Matt Holliday.   Boras has Manny Ramirez, Carlos Pena, Adrian Beltre, and Kevin Millwood next winter.
• ACES: $105.325MM. The Levinson brothers' agency had five players sign for over $10MM: Chone Figgins, Placido Polanco, Marlon Byrd, Jason Marquis, and Fernando Rodney.  Aubrey Huff and Ross Gload are other clients.  Many of ACES' deals this winter seemed to favor the player rather than the team.
• Octagon: $98.55MM.  John Lackey's deal makes up about 84% of the total.
• WMG: $89.55MM.  The Wasserman Media Group's contracts included Randy Wolf, Joel Pineiro, John Grabow, Rich Harden, Hideki Matsui, Jason Kendall, and Vicente Padilla.
• CAA: $83.575MM.  Creative Artists Agency brokered big deals for Jason Bay and Ben Sheets.
• Hendricks Sports: $42MM.  Just two deals for the Hendricks brothers: Aroldis Chapman and Andy Pettitte.
• SFX: $36.85MM.  Wasserman acquired SFX a few years ago, and if you combine their totals they're #2.  SFX brokered deals for Noel Arguelles, Adam LaRoche, Miguel Tejada, Vladimir Guerrero, and Bengie Molina, among others.
• Beverly Hills Sports Council: $30.845MM.  They did Jose Valverde's two-year deal, and were also behind a bunch of one-year deals, including Octavio Dotel, Orlando Cabrera, Kevin Gregg, and Russell Branyan.
• Peter Greenberg: $21MM.  Marco Scutaro and Rafael Soriano were Greenberg's big fish.
• Legacy Sports: $18.4MM.  They brokered deals for Brad Penny, Danys Baez, and Orlando Hudson.
• Barry Meister: $17.875MM.  Brandon Lyon's $15MM deal is about 84% of the total.
• LSW Baseball: $17.7MM.  Starters Jon Garland and Brett Myers led this agency's deals.
• The Sparta Group: $17.25MM.  Basically, Mike Cameron's contract.
• Career Sports: $13.55MM.  Mark DeRosa's deal, mainly.
• Representation for next winter's big-name free agents is spread evenly, though Legacy boasts Carl Crawford and Adam Dunn while CAA has Derek Jeter and Derrek Lee.
• Sosnick Cobbe Sports: $12MM.  They make the list for Freddy Sanchez's extension.

With the help of Cot's Baseball Contracts and other sources, MLBTR has compiled data on 66 contracts given to young pitchers over the past ten years.  The criteria for the list was that at least one arbitration season was bought out in the pitcher's multiyear contract.  Over $1.4 billion has been committed to these pitchers.  Data to consider:

• Locking up young pitchers has never been more popular.  11 contracts have been signed so far in 2010, more than any other year.  The trend seems to have taken off in 2005, after which point 7-9 young pitcher contracts were signed each year.
• Will we ever see a deal for a pitcher that covers a player's first season, like Evan Longoria's?  It hasn't happened yet, but 11 pitchers have signed deals that included their second year of service time.  James Shields took more of his money upfront than most, in that he earned $1MM in his second year of service time and $1.5MM in his third.  Most players, going year to year, earn $500K or less before reaching arbitration.
• Tim Lincecum, of course, will earn the most in a season that would've been his first arbitration year – $8MM.  Next is Cole Hamels at $4.35MM.  Typically the first arbitration season goes for about $3MM (in recent years).  The second arbitration year is typically around $6MM, the third about $8.5MM.  To buy out a young pitcher's arbitration years, the cost is usually in the $13-17MM range.
• 47 of the contracts bought out the first free agent season; 20 of those are club options.  At $20MM, Justin Verlander will be paid the most for his first free agent season.  At $80MM, Verlander's total contract value is also the highest.  Aside from Verlander and Felix Hernandez, most pitchers gave up their first free agent at a $7-14MM price.
• Six pitchers gave the club options on multiple seasons.  Brett Anderson, Ian Snell, Adam Wainwright, and Ubaldo Jimenez allowed two club options, while Shields and Fausto Carmona gave three.
• Older data may be missing, but the Diamondbacks appear to lead with six young pitcher deals (two for Brandon Webb).  The A's are next at five.  As far as we can tell, the Braves, Dodgers, Mets, Nationals, and Orioles have zero.

Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this research.

Last Wednesday, over 800 prospects, coaches, and scouts gathered outside of the hotel of recently appointed MLB Dominican baseball czar Sandy Alderson in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo. Alderson joked to local reporters that he should have brought lunch for the crowd, but those in attendance, stationed behind a police barricade, simply wanted to make sure Alderson heard their three-word chant: "No al draft." No to the draft.

The crowd's concern could seem premature, as Alderson has gone on the record recently in the Spanish-speaking press saying he is not seeking to implement a draft on the island. His immediate goals, he told ESPN's Jorge Arangure, Jr., are more simple: combating age fraud and steroid use, guarding against scouts "skimming" players' signing bonuses, and implementing a scouting bureau to curb the abuses of the ill-reputed independent scouts known as "buscones." However, Bud Selig has been clear in his desire for an international draft, and Alderson noted to Arangure, "If baseball decides to start a draft, there are ways of making it work."

Over the ensuing days, the protest has received coverage only in international baseball press, but the Dominican press has been rife with increasingly panicked interviews and editorials that make the draft sound all but inevitable, and its consequences catastrophic for MLB's second-largest talent pool. Alderson, critics say, is "arrogant and categorical" in meetings, making decisions unilaterally and refusing to meet with the scouts who are at the center of the Dominican system. The changes he advocates would spell the "total collapse" of the country as a baseball market, said Enrique Soto, president of the Association of Independent Scouts, to Diario Libre's Nathanael Perez Nero.

So what is everyone so afraid of? In two words: Puerto Rico. The US commonwealth was brought under the umbrella of the draft in 1990, and has since fallen far behind the Dominican Republic as a baseball producer. Last year, noted Arangure, 28 Puerto Ricans were on Major League rosters, as compared to 81 Dominicans. This disparity isn't lost on officials in Puerto Rico, who have petitioned to be excluded from the draft as recently as 2007, at which time Secretary of Sports and Recreation David Bernier noted that "after the introduction of the draft, Puerto Rico is neither part of the continent nor part of the world."

Puerto Rico's decline looms prominently in Dominican news stories about Alderson's proposals, along with claims that the draft was the singular force which "killed" the sport. Hall of Famer and Puerto Rican native Orlando Cepeda echoed the concerns in a recent interview with ESPN, noting that "kids in Puerto Rico don't play baseball anymore," primarily because "there are hardly any more Puerto Rican players kids can look up to." In contrast, he called baseball "a sport for the hungry" in the Dominican Republic, an idea which featured prominently in fears expressed at the protest.

"(Alderson's) plan threatens to create more criminals. When you reduce the number of options for young men to sign in a country with few opportunities, they will choose to do bad," said Soto. "They want us to put our players to compete (in a draft) at age 16 against Cubans, Koreans, Australians and Americans who are 20 and 24 years old. We're talking about men versus boys and less money for our players." In 2009, according to Diario Libre's Nero, that money amounted to $39.4MM from teams to sign 421 Dominican prospects, another $15MM invested in 29 team academies on the island, and, of course, the $353MM earned by the 85 Dominican players on Major League rosters.

By week's end, tempers seemed to have calmed, as Dominican baseball commissioner Porfirio Veras Mercedes announced that "Alderson has given us assurance that if the buscones, scouts, and coaches ensure that players comply with current regulations, there will be no draft." Alderson reinforced this notion in Spanish to the AP, portraying the draft as something between a last resort and a punishment.

However, a fiery editorial in Sunday's edition of Listin Diario, the country's oldest newspaper, revived the debate by tying the reform effort to the erstwhile conversation about racism in baseball—but from the other side. Baseball columnist Mario Emilio Guerrero writes that Alderson's plans reflect widespread fear in the states that there are "too many Latinos" in baseball, noting in particular that over half of minor league players are from Spanish-speaking countries. Citing both Torii Hunter's "impostors" comment and Gary Sheffield's line about Latin players being easier to control than African American players, Guerrero writes that MLB's plans for the Dominican Republic would "delight those who see the Latin player as an intruder, dominating a scenario where he does not belong."

Guerrero concludes his lengthy diatribe by expressing a desire popular at the protest—that Dominican national authorities should take notice and perhaps even intervene on behalf of their prominent industry:

What will they do with the academies and the enormous investments that numerous Major League franchises have made in the country? Because with a draft, training centers would have no reason to be. You're not going to form a player just so someone else can select and recruit him. And most importantly, will the government and national sports leaders allow this stab at the heart of Dominican baseball without putting up any type of opposition? You have to keep your eyes open, because at any moment the wolf could bring out its fangs.

While a few scouts now seem to be willing to take Alderson at his word and embrace reform, it appears changes in the pipeline that currently accounts for a quarter of Major League players won't happen without a fight.

Pedro Alvarez, Desmond Jennings and Carlos Santana have more in common than their status as top prospects. These guys are as cheap as they’ll ever be and their teams can control their future salaries by calling them up strategically.

Just ask the Rays. Evan Longoria fell two days short of a full year of service time, which delayed his free agency by a year and GM Andrew Friedman went on to sign Longoria to one of the most team-friendly deals around. The team's decision to keep him in the minors for a couple weeks in April 2008 looks as prudent today as it looked cheap then.

If teams wait until late April to call on a player without major league service time, they can save considerably. Players who make their big league debuts after April 19th (that’s Monday) this year won’t spend enough time on a major league roster to earn a full year’s service time, so their free agency will be pushed back a year. 

If the Braves had called Jason Heyward up in late April, they could likely have delayed his free agency and he would have been under team control through 2016. But the Braves didn’t try to save with Heyward, who’s off to a hot start. It’s Bobby Cox’s last season and the Braves just want to win, so on-field ability comes first for the Braves right now.

The D’Backs faced a similar dilemma with Brandon Allen last summer. The 24-year-old first baseman was hitting well in the minors, well on his way to earning the number four spot on Baseball America’s list of top D’Backs prospects. In 502 plate appearances, he had a .298/.373/.503 line with 20 homers. 

The D’Backs could have limited Allen’s service time by keeping him in the minors. That would not necessarily have delayed his free agency or limited his arbitration years, but it would have made it easier for the D’Backs to save money in years to come. But D’Backs GM Josh Byrnes says the service time clock was secondary.

Byrnes says he will call on some promising young players – Justin Upton comes to mind – in August or September. It may mean they pick up service time, but Byrnes says it’s often worth it.

“In my experience, players like Jason Jennings, Juan Pierre and Jonathan Papelbon had impact in the first full season after a late-season call-up the year before,” said Byrnes, who worked for the Indians, Rockies and Red Sox before taking over the D’Backs in 2005.

The Rockies called on Juan Pierre in August of 2000, setting him up for a big 2001 season (.327/.378/.415 line, 46 SB). Jason Jennings made seven starts for Colorado down the stretch in 2003 before winning NL Rookie of the Year the next season. The Rockies played Pierre and Jennings instead of slowing their ascent to free agency and arbitration by keeping them in the minors.

In those cases, the decision to put player development ahead of player cost paid off. But that doesn’t mean the D’Backs don’t have one eye on their players’ service time clocks.

“Of course, we are aware of years of control and arbitration in anything we do (including trades), but service implications have not been taken precedent over baseball decisions,” Byrnes said.

And that choice is entirely the team’s. Agent Matt Sosnick, whose clients inlcude Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco and Jay Bruce, realizes clubs make these decisions.

“As an agent you have to know that,” he says. “I mean that’s the deal. It’s the teams that make that call and that’s out of your control [as an agent].”

Sosnick predicts this year will be no different than others: top prospects will get the call at the end of May and beginning of June. That limits the player’s service time to 130 days or so, which reduces his chances of qualifying for super two status. Since super twos go to arbitration four times instead of the usual three, it’s a big deal. In essence, teams can save millions by keeping an eye on the service time clock. 

Ultimately, he can’t blame the clubs for calling players up when they do.

“You look at the amount of players that are called up within a couple weeks of that time and from a business standpoint, it was a smart thing.”

After all, players earn considerably more when they’re super twos.

“It can be the difference between making $500K and $5 million bucks in that year,” Sosnick says.

The Reds called Jay Bruce up on May 27th, 2008. That left Bruce with 125 days of service time after the season. After this coming season, he’ll likely be a week or two short of super two status. The consequence of the late call-up was obvious to Bruce.

“He was at the point when he was called up- he knew  that getting called up at that point meant that he was not going to be super two,” Sosnick says.

Agents might hope their clients pick up a full year of service time or gain super two status, but they can’t do much more than wish.

“What would the alternative be?” Sosnick asks. “Should I go to a general manager and say ‘listen why don’t you call him up ten days earlier so that two years from now he can be a super two and go to arbitration a year earlier.’ They’ll tell me to piss off.”

Imagine the amount of number-crunching, scouting reports, and intangible assessments that must occur before a team signs a free agent to a multi-million dollar contract.  Presumably, team execs dissect every angle and feel completely justified before making one of these huge commitments.  Why, then, have so many free agent contracts from the 2008-09 offseason already gone sour?  Check it out…

• The Braves, feeling light on starting pitching, committed $60MM to Derek Lowe and $23MM to Kenshin Kawakami.  A year later neither contract could be moved, and the Braves had to part with Javier Vazquez after an ace-like performance.
• Manny Ramirez finally signed a two-year, $45MM deal in March of '09.  He started off raking, but his PED suspension came down on May 7th.  Manny hit .269/.389/.492 after the suspension, which was considered by many as a disappointment.  He declined the chance to opt out of $20MM for 2010.
• Francisco Rodriguez signed for less than expected, getting three years and $37MM from the Mets.  He showed the worst control of his career in '09, and now the concern has to be that he'll meet the criteria to get his $17.5MM option for 2012 guaranteed.
• Oliver Perez signed for three years and $36MM, which Scott Boras actually preferred to the Mets' idea of four years and $44MM.  Perez was a disaster in the first year of the contract.
• The Cubs have already dumped Milton Bradley; they were happy to save $5MM on his $30MM contract.
• Kerry Wood makes little sense for the Indians now, not that they could move his contract.  He's begun the season on the DL with an upper back strain.
• That's just the $20MM and up contracts; commitments to Brian Fuentes, Pat Burrell, Jamie Moyer, Damaso Marte, Koji Uehara, Kyle Farnsworth, Nick Punto, Willy Taveras, and Juan Cruz are also viewed as unfavorable.  Which 2009-10 signings will make this list after one season?  It may be a smaller group, as teams are shying away from multiyear commitments. 

Every spring, we hear about teams keeping top young players in the minors to prevent them from obtaining Super Two status. Players like Ryan Braun, Matt Wieters and Stephen Strasburg dominate the minor leagues for a couple months before getting the call near the end of May. The teams' logic is simple: Super Twos go to arbitration four times instead of three, so they make more money than their peers. That provides clubs with an incentive to keep players in the minors for eight or ten weeks of extra seasoning.

But how much more money do Super Twos really make? It depends on the caliber of the player, but Ryan Braun's contract gives us insight into how teams and agents value that extra year of arbitration. Braun isn't a Super Two player, but as Cot's Baseball Contracts shows, his contract would have paid him $25.5MM as a Super Two instead of the $19.5MM he will actually earn.

For Braun, Super Two status would have made a difference of $6MM. Not all Super Twos are superstars, of course, but even ordinary players could make as much as 31% more money over the course of the four last seasons they're under team control. As Yahoo's Jeff Passan explains in this article, Super Twos may be "negotiated into the ether" before long.

Here's a list of the start dates of each of the 30 general managers.

• Brian Sabean, Giants: 9/30/96
• Billy Beane, Athletics: 10/17/97
• Brian Cashman, Yankees: 2/3/98
• Dan O'Dowd, Rockies: 9/20/99
• Kenny Williams, White Sox: 10/25/00
• Mark Shapiro, Indians: 11/1/01
• Dave Dombrowski, Tigers: 4/8/02
• Jim Hendry, Cubs: 7/5/02
• Doug Melvin, Brewers: 9/25/02
• Theo Epstein, Red Sox: 11/25/02
• Omar Minaya, Mets: 9/30/04
• Jon Daniels, Rangers: 10/4/05
• Josh Byrnes, Diamondbacks: 10/28/05
• Andrew Friedman, Rays: 11/3/05
• Ned Colletti, Dodgers: 11/16/05
• Dayton Moore, Royals: 5/31/06
• Andy MacPhail, Orioles: 6/20/07
• Ed Wade, Astros: 9/20/07
• Neal Huntington, Pirates: 9/25/07
• Michael Hill, Marlins: 9/29/07
• Bill Smith, Twins: 10/1/07
• Frank Wren, Braves: 10/11/07
• Tony Reagins, Angels: 10/16/07
• John Mozeliak, Cardinals: 10/31/07 (became interim GM 10/3/07)
• Walt Jocketty, Reds: 4/23/08
• Jack Zduriencik, Mariners: 10/22/08
• Ruben Amaro Jr., Phillies: 11/3/08
• Mike Rizzo, Nationals: 8/20/09 (became interim GM 3/4/09)
• Alex Anthopoulos, Blue Jays: 10/3/09
• Jed Hoyer, Padres: 10/26/09
• Baseball America and Cot's Baseball Contracts were of great help in compiling this list.

What if every team was given the power to remove one contract from their payroll?  Here's what we might see…

• Angels: Brian Fuentes earns $9MM this year and has a vesting option for '11 at the same salary.  The Halos would also have to evaluate whether they're confident enough in Ervin Santana to pay him $26.2MM over the next three years.  We'll exclude Gary Matthews Jr. since he's technically not on the team anymore.
• Astros: They might miss his bat, but they'd have to erase the three-year, $55.5MM remaining commitment to Carlos Lee.
• Athletics: Eric Chavez has one year and $15MM left on his deal.
• Blue Jays: Vernon Wells is on the hook for $98.5MM over five years.
• Braves: Derek Lowe, owed $45MM over three years, would get the axe.
• Brewers: Jeff Suppan is a goner, owed $14.5MM for one year.
• Cardinals: Kyle Lohse would be a likely candidate, with $32.625MM owed over three years.
• Cubs: Easily Alfonso Soriano, owed $90MM over five years.
• Diamondbacks: I'll nominate Chris Young, who's owed $25.25MM over four years.  Chris Snyder at two years and $11.25MM would merit consideration.
• Dodgers: Manny Ramirez is owed $20MM this year, and the honeymoon is over.
• Giants: They'd have to wipe out the $83MM owed to Barry Zito over the next four years. That amount could become $94MM over five years.
• Indians: The Tribe is still on the hook for $40.25MM over three years for DH Travis Hafner.  It might be a while before we see a DH get a $50MM deal again.
• Mariners: Milton Bradley and has $21MM over two years would be on the chopping block, though taking on that deal allowed the Ms to move Carlos Silva.  If we exclude Bradley it might be Ian Snell at $4.25MM.
• Marlins: They're not paying Nate Robertson's contract, so there's really no fat to trim.
• Mets: How would you play this one?  You probably don't remove your ace Johan Santana, though he'll make $98.5MM over four years (not including deferrals).  Similar story for the $26.5MM owed to Francisco Rodriguez over two years.  Carlos Beltran is looking at $37MM over two years, and he still may be worth that.  The easy choices don't result in maximum savings: Oliver Perez at two years and $24MM and Luis Castillo at two years, $12MM.
• Nationals: They'd probably choose Cristian Guzman's $8MM.
• Orioles: I'll assume the Orioles would not remove a contract they brought on during the offseason.  Instead maybe they'd ditch Koji Uehara's $5MM or Ty Wigginton's $3.5MM.
• Padres: No obvious candidate.  Chris Young at $6.25MM would be a possiblity, though not if they feel he's primed for a solid, healthy year.
• Phillies: They'd be likely to erase Brad Lidge's two years and $24.5MM.
• Pirates: Ramon Vazquez, owed $2MM, has already been designated for assignment.
• Rangers: Michael Young will make $64MM over the next four years, though money is deferred.  Would the Rangers let this contract stand?
• Rays: They'd free up the $9MM owed to Pat Burrell.
• Reds: Closer Francisco Cordero is owed $25MM over the next two years.
• Red Sox: Would they get rid of the $12.5MM owed to David Ortiz or $12MM to Mike Lowell?
• Rockies: Even with the reworked deal, would the Rockies remove Todd Helton's contract?  Do they have regrets over Huston Street's three-year, $22.5MM extension, given his injury?  The $5.75MM owed to Jeff Francis?  The $7MM Manny Corpas gets over the next two years?
• Royals: They've got Jose Guillen at $12MM, or a more useful player in Gil Meche at two years, $24MM.
• Tigers: Miguel Cabrera's $126MM over six years is steep, but he'd be impossible to replace.  Magglio Ordonez gets $18MM this year and possibly $15MM in '11, but the Tigers passed on a chance to let him go.  Carlos Guillen would be a good choice at two years, $26MM; that would be more beneficial than removing a $12MM contract with Jeremy Bonderman or Dontrelle Willis.
• Twins: The reality is that they've have to consider Joe Nathan's $24.5MM over two years, especially if it's not insured.
• White Sox: Would they wipe out Alex Rios at $59.7MM over five years, or Scott Linebrink at $10.5MM over two?
• Yankees: They could remove a big commitment, like A.J. Burnett's $66MM over four years.  That'd make more sense than Jorge Posada at $26.2MM over two or Damaso Marte at $8.25MM over two.