2010-2011 MLB Offseason Thread

[tybruns]

Reds are close to signing Edgar Renteria pending physical

[dfreely]

Reds did end up signing Reneteria, and Fred Lewis as well. Tigers signed Brad Penny.

Trevor Hoffman retires, with the all-time saves record of 601.

Also retiring is Anna Benson's husband Kris. True fact - the Mets once traded both Ty Wigginton and Jose Bautista (combined 76 homers last season) to get this guy.

[packrat]

Twins announced they re-signed Jim Thome to a one year, $3 million deal. Now they are supposedly going to try to re-sign Carl Pavano.

[acarter13]

New York Yankees sign 2010 Saves leader Rafael Soriano to a 3 year 35 million deal. Soriano will be the set up man for Mariano and will likely take over as closer in 2013.

[dfreely]

Gil Meche retired with $12 mil still left on his contract. He was just 32 years old too, guess the Royals just abused his arm too much.

Milton Bradley was arrested on unspecified felony charges. Remember back when the Indians had both Milton Bradley and Coco Crisp on the same team? That was hilarious.

There's also an interesting writeup on some weird contract clauses over on ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove1 ... id=6032779

Chein-Ming Wang, JC Romero and Cesar Izturis all get bonuses if they win the Silver Slugger. Adam Dunn gets a bonus if he wins the Gold Glove - he's a DH. Will Ohman, Jesse Crain and Takashi Saito get bonuses if they start the All-Star Game - none of them have ever even started a regular-season game. Six players from the Pirates get bonuses if they win the World Series MVP award. Six of them. The Pirates.

[packrat]

Six players from the Pirates get bonuses if they win the World Series MVP award. Six of them. The Pirates.

Is that supposed to be funny? Yeah, I guess it is...

Pirates badboy Scott Olsen has an incentive ladened contract that pays bonuses for the number of starts he makes. He's expected to start the season in the bullpen.

[dfreely]

It's not so much funny as it is weird. It's just so farfetched. The Pirates aren't going to the World Series, and even if one of those six gets traded to a contender and the clause carries over, it's still hard to imagine guys like Ronny Cedeno or Scott Olsen being World Series MVP.

[packrat]

Minnesota Twins signed free agent Carl Pavano to a reported 8 million dollar contract. I had thought Pavano overplayed his hand as a free agent, but 8 million isn't a bad deal for him.

[dfreely]

Reports say Rays sign Manny and Damon to 1-year deals. Manny gets $2 mil, and Damon gets $5.25 mil, up to $6 mil with bonuses. I'm kinda surprised it's not the other way around.

Blue Jays traded their albatross to the Angels for Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera.

[packrat]

Lastings Milledge finally found a home. He was just signed to a minor league contract by the White Sox.

Off all the Pirates that were non-tendered or traded away, only two (that I know of) are still free agents: Bobby Crosby and Ryan Church. Only one coach is still unemployed -- Gary Varsho. Former Manager John Russell became the Orioles third base coach. He was widely disliked as a third base coach in Pittsburgh because he had a tendency to wave too many guys home and they'd wind up getting tagged out more often than not. Maybe the O's hate winning...