JJ Putz
Rumors

A number of Rays rumors to look at in Joe Smith's article from the St. Petersburg Times.

• The Rays would like to sign star outfielder Carl Crawford to a long term extension.  Crawford will likely make about $11.5M in 2010 with escalators and could command quite a bit on the open market.  There's word in the article that the Mets and Braves have expressed interest in acquiring Crawford if the Rays look to move him, however it is likely that almost every team in baseball would be interested.
• BJ Upton is rumored to be available and the Rangers and White Sox have already inquired.
• Smith feels like the Rays will be interested in signing Kevin Gregg or JJ Putz this off season.
• Gregg Zaun is currently a free agent, but the team might look to bring him back and try the Zaun/Dioner Navarro platoon that worked in 2009.

Carl Crawford will command a lot in a trade if the Rays are unable to extend him

Though John Lackey, Jason Bay and Matt Holliday will dominate the headlines and the dollars this off season, Buster Olney of espn.com breaks down the next tier of free agents who are sure to get plenty of calls when free agency begins on Friday.

Brandon Lyon: Though there are a lot of closers available via free agency, Lyon may be willing to take a set up role and is only a Type B free agent. The Phillies, Angles, Mets and Yankees are all likely to be interested

Mark DeRosa: As a player who can play multiple positions his flexibility is a good fit for the Phillies. His bat is a good fit for any team.

Jermaine Dye: His age, 35, precludes him from being able to command a long term deal, but an AL team might be able to snag a good DH for a short and small contract.

Miguel Tejada: Though he might not be able to play shortstop anymore and would require a move to third base, his 313/340/455 splits are still attractive. Philly and Oakland could be good fits.

Miguel Tejada hopes to get plenty of offers this off season

Nick Johnson: Defense and power are very suspect for Johnson, but his OBP (an absurd .477 in 35 games last year for the Marlins) is still attractive. Offense starved teams like Oakland or San Francisco could be interested.

Coco Crisp: He's unlikely to be an everyday outfield, but his defense and speed are still tremendous and he could be a good platoon outfielder.

JJ Putz: A big market team like the Red Sox (think Billy Wagner), Yankees or Angels might be willing to give Putz a one-year deal despite coming off of injury.

Placido Polanco: His 45 extra base hits along with solid defense at second base will certainly attract suitors.

Rafael Betancourt: If the Rockies offer him arbitration, he becomes a Type A free agent and interest will be minimal. If they don't, look out.

Olney notes at the end of his piece that the rational behind Betancourt also applies to relievers Wagner, Jose Valverde, Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano.

This list of free agents for the 2010 class is growing with every declined option.  Four more players were added to the mix today when their respective teams declined their options.

• The Mets declined their $9.1M option on reliever JJ Putz.
• Austin Kearns had his $10M option declined by the Nationals and received a $1M buyout.
• The Rockies declined their portion of a mutual option on catcher Yorvit Torrealba and reliever Alan Embree.  Torrealba received a $500K buyout, while Embree got $250K.

Austin Kearns is now a free agent

Below is a list of middle relievers that are eligible for free agency for the 2010 season, their age, current team, current contract and whether the player falls into a Type A or Type B free agent compensation status.

Free agent catchers
Free agent first basemen
Free agent second basemen
Free agent third basemen
Free agent shortstops
Free agent left fielders
Free agent center fielders
Free agent right fielders
Free agent starting pitchers
Free agent closers

Luis Ayala, 32, Marlins - 09:$1.3M
Danys Baez, 32, Orioles - 07:$4M, 08:$4.5M, 09:$5.5M
Joe Beimel, 32, Rockies - 09:$2M (Type B)
Joaquin Benoit, 32, Rangers - 08:$2M, 09:$3.5M
Rafael Betancourt, 35, Rockies - 08:$2.05M, 09:$3.35M, 10:$5.4M club option (Type A)
Chad Bradford, 35, Rays - 07:$3M, 08:$3.5M, 09:$3.5M
Doug Brocail, 43, Astros - 09:$2.5M (Type B)
Kiko Calero, 35, Marlins - 09:$500K (Type B)
Buddy Carlyle, 32, Braves - 09:$425K
Chad Cordero, 28, Mariners - 09:$750K
Elmer Dessens, 38, Mets - 09:$600K
R.A. Dickey, 35, Twins - 09:$525K
Brendan Donnelly, 38, Marlins - 09:$950K
Octavio Dotel, 36, White Sox - 08:$5M, 09:$6M (Type A)
Alan Embree, 40, Rockies - 09:$2M
Kelvim Escobar, 33, Angels - 07:$8.5M, 08:$9M, 09:$9.5M
Scott Eyre, 38, Phillies - 09:$2M (Type B)
Eric Gagne, 34, Brewers - 09:minor league contract
Geoff Geary, 33, Astros - 09:$1.7M
Dan Giese, 33, Athletics - 09:$422K
Edgar Gonzalez, 27, Padres - 09:$407K
Tom Gordon, 42, Diamondbacks - 09:$500K
John Grabow, 31, Cubs - 09:$2.3M (Type A)
Jason Grilli, 33, Rangers - 09:$800K
Eddie Guardado, 39, Rangers - 09:$1M
LaTroy Hawkins, 37, Astros - 09:$3.5M (Type A)
Mark Hendrickson, 36, Orioles - 09:$1.5M
Matt Herges, 40, Rockies - 09:minor league contract
Bobby Howry, 36, Giants - 09:$2.75M (Type B)
Jason Isringhausen, 37, Rays - 09:$750K
Masa Kobayashi, 36, Indians - 08:$3M, 09:$3M
Shane Loux, 30, Angels - 09:$405K
Brandon Lyon, 30, Tigers - 09:$4.25M (Type B)
Ron Mahay, 39, Twins - 08:$4M, 09:$4M
Gary Majewski, 30, Phillies - 09:minor league contract
Guillermo Mota, 36, Dodgers - 09:$2.35M (Type B)
Joe Nelson, 35, Rays - 09:$1.3M
Will Ohman, 31, Dodgers - 09:$1.35M (Type B)
Darren Oliver, 39, Angles - 09:$3.665M (Type A)
Chan Ho Park, 37, Phillies - 09:$2.5M (Type B)
Tony Pena Jr., 29, Royals - 09:$425K
Joel Peralta, 34, Rockies - 09:$640K
Troy Percival, 40, Rays - 08:$4M, 09:$4.445M
Scott Proctor, 33, Marlins - 09:$750K
JJ Putz, 33, Mets - 07:$2.2M, 08:$3.4M, 09:$5M
Horacio Ramirez, 30, Nationals - 09:$1.8M
Juan Rincon, 31, Rockies - 09:$750K
Glendon Rusch, 35, Rockies - 09:$750K
Takashi Saito, 40, Red Sox - 09:$4M, 10:$4M club option
Duaner Sanchez, 30, Padres - 09:$1.6875M
Scott Schoeneweis, 36, Diamondbacks - 07:$3.6M, 08:$3.6M, 09:$3.6M
Rudy Seanez, 41, Angels - 09:minor league contract
Brian Shouse, 41, Rays - 09:$1.55M (Type B)
Justin Speier, 36, Angels - 07:$3.75M, 08:$4.25M, 09:$4.75M
Russ Springer, 41, Rays - 09:$3.3M (Type B)
Ken Takahashi, 41, Mets - 09:minor league contract
Jack Taschner, 32, Phillies - 09:$835K
Julian Tavarez, 37, Nationals - 09:$500K
Ron Villone, 40, Nationals - 09:minor league contract
Luis Vizcaino, 35, Indians - 08:$3.5M, 09:$3.5M
Jamie Walker, 38, Orioles - 07:$3M, 08:$4.5M, 09:$4.5M
David Weathers, 40, Brewers - 09:$3.5M (Type B)
Jamey Wright, 35, Royals - 09:$800K
Yasuhiko Yabuta, 37, Royals - 08:$2.5M, 09:$3M
Tyler Yates, 32, Pirates - 09:$1.3M

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports has a new column up:

• The Mariners and As have started the 2009 seaosn competitively and plan to finish it that way.  No one expects either team to try and trade off their higher priced players at the trade deadline as each team has a legitemate chance to win the division.
• JJ Putz has a $8.6M club option for 2010 with a $1M buyout that is sure to be a tough decision for the Mets.  Baring any injuries, I suspect they pick it up.
• A recent trend in baseball is to take a struggling pitcher and place them on the DL with a difficult to prove injury.  One GM told Rosenthal that he saw the placement of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Chien Ming-Wang and Dontrelle Willis on the DL as an abuse of the system.

Gordon Edes of Yahoo! Sports gave us his winners and losers from the winter meetings in his latest article:

Wnners:

• The Mets/Omar Minaya: Seems pretty obvious, but landing Francisco Rodriguez and JJ Putz for the small price they paid was impressive.
• Mark Teixeira: Tex is doing his best A-Rod circa 2000 impersonation by getting the Nationals to seemingly bid against themselves with their rumored $160M offer. The offer is the highest out there, trumping rumored offers from the Red Sox, Angels and Orioles.
• Scott Boras: the amount of media attention the uber-agent received was astounding.

Losers:

• Jake Peavy: Peavy was alleged to be very excited about heading to Chicago, only to see the deal break off completely.
• Manny Ramirez: The $100M offers are not rolling in and it's possible that Ramirez and Boras have over played their hand. Nevertheless, Ramirez is expected to ultimately sign with Los Angeles.
• Dave Dombrowski: The Tigers general manager was interested in K-Rod, Kerry Wood and Putz and lost out on all three of them.

Just a few days after signing Francisco Rodriguez to a three year $37M deal, the Mets have acquired JJ Putz from the Mariners in a three team, 12 player deal that also includes the Indians. As part of the deal, New York sent Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, Mike Carp and three minor leaguers to Seattle for Putz, Jeremy Reed and Sean Green. Additionally, the Mariners received Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians while Cleveland received Luis Valbuena from the Mariners and Joe Smith from the Mets.

The Indians had been rumored to be interested in acquiring Putz themselves, but have since come to terms with Kerry Wood. Once their closer situation was resolved, Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro noted that the team was dealing from a position of strength with regard to trading Gutierrez.

Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times is reporting that the three minor leagues the Mariners received are pitchers Maikel Cleto and Jason Vargas and outfielder Ezequiel Carrera.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post is reporting that the Mets and Francisco Rodriguez agreed to a 3-year, $37M deal today.  The report indicates that K-Rod could be in New York on Wednesday to complete the deal with a physical.  K-Rod will replace injured closer Billy Wagner who will miss the 2009 season after getting injured in the middle of 2008. 

The $37M contract is far less than his rumored demands of 5-years and $75M at the beginning of free agency.  Since that time, the market has been flooded with closers available either by free agency (K-Rod, Brian Fuentes, Trevor Hoffman, etc.) or trade (JJ Putz, etc.).  Sherman speculates that the Mets could use the moeny saved to go after Derek Lowe, retain Oliver Perez or save even more money with Jon Garland. 

The Mets could get even more ambitious, attempt to move the $18M left on Luis Castillo's contract and go after free agent Orlando Hudson.

Earlier we gave you Yahoo! Sports Tim Brown's winter meetings preview of the NL teams.  Now, let's look at the AL teams:

• The Red Sox are quite involved in talks for big free agent names like Mark Teixeira, Derek Lowe and AJ Burnett but perhaps the most interesting question is how they handle Jason Varitek or his replacement.
• There seems to be a hierarchy of the Yankees off season moves: 1) sign CC Sabathia 2) sign Teixeira 3) sign Lowe or Burnett 4) sign Manny Ramirez as the worst case scenario.
• The Blue Jays are out of the running for Burnett, but could still consider Brad Penny, Paul Byrd, Randy Johnson, Oliver Perez, Pedro Martinez and Ben Sheets are all possibilities. 
• The off season priority list for the Indians reads as 1) closer 2) closer and 3) closer.  Possibilities include: Trevor Hoffman, Jason Isringhausen, Huston Street or JJ Putz.
• Trading for Gerald Laird filled the Tigers hole at catcher, but they're still interested in a closer and could be a dark horse for Rafael Furcal or trade for Jack Wilson.
• Teixeira will dictate the Angels off season.  If he signs with the Angels, that's likely it.  If not, they'll take Francisco Rodriguez back for the right price or look at Sabathia. 
• As Jayson Stark told us a few weeks ago, the Rangers off season priorities are pitching, pitching and more pitching.  They'll look at Penny, Randy and Freddy Garcia.

Jayson Stark of espn.com presents his preview of the winter meetings in his latest article:

• There is almost no chance that the Padres are able to trade Jake Peavy at the meetings.  Their main dance partner, the Cubs, need some time to figure out their ownership situation to help determine how they can take on Peavy's contract.
• The White Sox have made Jermaine Dye available and the Braves, Reds, Royals, Rays and Mets have reportedly shown interest.  The White Sox have also put Paul Konerko and Jim Thome on the trading block as well. 
• While the Mariners are open to any trade offer for JJ Putz, considering how many closers are available either as free agents or via trade and a lack of teams needing a closer, Putz is unlikely to be traded.
• Trade rumors have surrounded Zack Grienke, David DeJesus and Mark Teahen but the Royals aren't really interested in trading any of them unless the deal was impossible to turn down.  Jose Guillen, however, is very available. 
• While many teams are interested in Jeremy Hermida, the Marlins would rather trade Jorge Cantu.
• When the Angels finally make an offer to Mark Teixeira, Stark expects that the team will include a two to three day deadline for an answer from the switch hitting slugger.
• Rafael Furcal and Casey Blake are the free agents most likely to sign this week according to Stark. 
• Stark surveyed multiple team executives and the consensus is that Manny Ramirez and Teixeira do not sign until January.