Cleveland Sports Forum

According to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com, the Yankees now have free agent Carlos Pena on their radar.
The Yankees are set to trade Jesus Montero to the Mariners in a four-player deal, so they suddenly have a need for another hitter. Pena would make some sense, but they are likely considering other names, as well. The 33-year-old batted .225/.357/.462 with 28 home runs, 80 RBI and an .819 OPS over 606 plate appearances with the Cubs last in 2011. He has also drawn interest from the Indians and Rays this offseason.
Related: Indians, Yankees, Rays
Source: CBSSports.com Jan 13 - 9:05 PM


Hiroki Kuroda - S - Dodgers
Jack Curry of YES Network reports that the Yankees and right-hander Hiroki Kuroda have agreed to a one-year deal worth between $10-11 million, pending a physical.
Buster Olney of ESPN.com reports that the deal is worth $10 million. The 37-year-old Kuroda has very quietly posted a quality 3.45 ERA and 1.19 WHIP over four seasons stateside, averaging 6.7 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. He'll join a rotation which is set to include some combination of CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and Freddy Garcia. The Yankees' rotation has improved immensely in the past hour.
Related: Yankees
Source: Jack Curry on Twitter Jan 13 - 8:24 PM

Indians will lose any FA signing competition with the Yankees; of course they will lose most any FA signing competition to anyone.

Blue Jays released INF/OF Mark Teahen.

Teahen was designated for assignment by the club last week. Acquired in a three-way trade with the White Sox and Cardinals last July, the 30-year-old batted just .200/.273/.300 with four homers and 14 RBI across 177 plate appearances in 2011. The Jays are on the hook for his $5.5 million salary in 2012.

Torn ACL likely ends Victor Martinez’s 2012 season before it even begins


A relatively quiet offseason for the Detroit Tigers just got noisy.

But for all the wrong reasons.

It was announced on Tuesday that designated hitter Victor Martinez tore the ACL in his left knee during a workout last week and will likely miss the entire 2012 season.

Martinez, 33, originally thought he'd strained the knee, but an MRI exam on Monday revealed the tear. He will re-evaluated next week to determine whether surgery is necessary. But Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski acknowledged that the chances of Martinez avoiding surgery and being able to play this season are very poor.

According to head trainer Danny Rand, Martinez suffered the injury while going through agility drills. His right foot slipped, causing all of his weight to come down on that left knee. Martinez strained the same knee last season while running the bases. Did that leave him more vulnerable to this type of injury?

Martinez was the Tigers' best hitter not named Miguel Cabrera last season, hitting .330/.380/.470 with 12 home runs and 103 RBI. His .850 OPS was third on the team, while that .330 batting average was the sixth-highest in the majors.

Obviously, this is a huge blow to a Tigers lineup that scored the fourth-most runs (787) in the big leagues, despite having few hitters who could reliably get on base and arguably needed to add another bat even before Martinez got hurt.

The question now becomes how the Tigers replace Martinez in their batting order. (Signing Martinez's son, Victor Jose, probably isn't an option as he's only six years old.)

Detroit has been mentioned as one of the teams in pursuit of Cuban outfielder Yoennis Cespedes. Signing him would allow the Tigers to play Delmon Young at DH, where he's arguably better suited anyway.

But if there's a bright side to this development (and really, it's small consolation), it's that many DH-type of hitters are still available on the free agent market.

None of them will likely be able to replace Martinez's production, but Detroit should still be able to find someone to bat behind Cabrera. (That is, if the Tigers don't decide to put Alex Avila or Jhonny Peralta in the lineup's No. 5 spot.)

Vladimir Guerrero, Casey Kotchman and Hideki Matsui are among the players that could help the Tigers out in the short-term. Carlos Pena and Johnny Damon are both former Tigers who could return to the team for a second tour. Perhaps a trade for someone like Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano or Bobby Abreu is a possibility.

Or for those Tigers fans living in fantasy land, maybe Dombrowski can check with Scott Boras and see if Prince Fielder really is willing to take a one-year deal and try the free agent market again next year.

Jamie Moyer has deal with Rockies

Associated Press

DENVER -- Jamie Moyer has agreed to terms on a minor league contract with an invite to the Colorado Rockies' spring training, pending a physical.

The 49-year-old lefty didn't play last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow.

Moyer has played 24 major league seasons, starting with the Chicago Cubs in 1986. He went 9-9 with a 4.84 ERA for Philadelphia in 2010.

Moyer is 267-204 with a 4.24 career ERA.

Rays To Sign Carlos Pena

By Ben Nicholson-Smith [January 20 at 11:01am CST]

The Rays have agreed to a deal with Carlos Pena that will bring the powerful first baseman back to Tampa Bay, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweets. Yahoo's Tim Brown reported earlier this morning that the Rays were "in pretty deep" with the Scott Boras client.

Pena, 33, posted a .225/.357/.462 line with 28 home runs in 606 plate appearances for the Cubs in 2011. He earned $10MM last, when the Rays spent $42MM on their entire Major League payroll. Pena averaged 36 home runs and a .238/.368/.516 line in his four seasons in Tampa Bay from 2007-10. Just 9.36% of 15,700 people who participated in MLBTR's December poll expected Pena to return to Tampa Bay.

The Rays have added substantial power to the lineup in Pena and Luke Scott. Casey Kotchman, who played first base for the Rays in 2011, will presumably sign elsewhere -- possibly in Cleveland -- now that the Rays no longer have an opening at first base.

Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that the Rays and free agent first baseman Carlos Pena have agreed to terms on a one-year deal.

Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier Friday that talks were progressing, and evidently a deal has been struck. Heyman says Pena will earn $7.25 million in 2012. It's a great fit, as the Rays could use some more sock to their lineup and had a big hole at first base. Pena, 33, batted .225/.357/.462 with 28 home runs and 80 RBI across 606 plate appearances last season for the Cubs. He was also being pursued by the Indians.

Related: Rays
Source: Jon Heyman on Twitter Jan 20 - 12:02 PM

JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman

hear #indians tried hard for pena. carlos wanted to go back to rays. it wasnt about $. (nobody goes to tampa for $)

While Hoynes seems to think the Indians didn't make an offer for Pena at all.

Guess we will find out eventually.

Why would you make an offer to a player that tells you that they really want to play elsewhere ?

All you can do is say you are interested and see if it works out with their desired location.

Why get in a bidding war or force another team to up their offer ?

The Indians are tired of being used to get better offers elsewhere.

YOENIS CESPEDES

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JORGE SOLER
GERALDO CONCEPCION

Williams coy on topic of Cuban phenoms

01/27/12 11:41 PM EST

CHICAGO --

The phrase "under the radar" frequently describes Ken Williams' mode of operation in trying to acquire personnel upgrades for the White Sox.

Where free-agent Cuban hurler Geraldo Concepcion and fellow free-agent Cuban outfielders Yoenis Cespedes and Jorge Soler are concerned, the White Sox general manager has changed his game to poker. And on Friday night during SoxFest at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago, Williams unsuccessfully tried to bluff in order to keep his stronghold in the game.

Williams was asked about all three players when he met with a group of Chicago reporters in the early evening, with Concepcion and Cespedes already in the free-agent stage. After first saying he didn't know the players being talked about, Williams joked about not knowing where the players were from and then asked if the reporters thought it was wise for him to check them out.

"Those are all just rumors," Williams said with a wry smile. "I don't know what you guys are talking about."

Cespedes, the five-tool, 26-year-old, might price himself out of the White Sox market with the Marlins and Cubs known as prime fellow pursuers. Williams stated on Friday that the White Sox had no money to spend, but also didn't need to shed payroll.

As for Concepcion, the 18-year-old left-handed hurler is represented by Jaime Torres, who also represented Alexei Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo when they joined the White Sox. Williams has reportedly watched Concepcion throw in person, but once again, the South Siders are not the only team interested in the hurler's services.

Even during the Town Hall Meeting Friday, Williams basically took the fifth when the young Cuban players were mentioned by a fan.

One AL executive suggests the Tigers would have to eat a lot of money to trade Victor Martinez next offseason. Insurance will likely cover approximately half of the switch hitter’s 2012 salary of $13MM, Stark writes.

The Orioles and Jeremy Guthrie have an arbitration hearing scheduled for Monday.
Guthrie requested $10.25 million and was offered $7.25 million from the Orioles when arbitration figures were exchanged last month. With such a big gap between the two sides, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun gets the sense that they won't be able to find a middle ground before Monday.

Source: Dan Connolly on Twitter Feb 2 - 12:45 PM

What a country when a stiff like Guthrie can ask for $10M

According to Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News, Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton was spotted drinking alcohol on Monday night at a bar in the Dallas area.
What kind of alcohol he drank (and how much) is currently unclear. Hamilton, a recovering drug and alcohol addict, is supposed to remain completely sober as part of a pledge he's made to his family and the Rangers organization. A team spokesman said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News that the Rangers are "aware of a situation" but not ready to comment.

Source: Dallas Morning News Feb 2 - 9:07 PM