Baseball notes:
– The Dodgers will fire current manager Grady Little and replace him with Joe Torre. Rumor has it that Don Mattingly will follow him to Los Angeles as bench coach. Little is still under contract; they are working on a buyout before making the move official.
Many anticipate that this move will ensure A-Rod doesn’t play for the Dodgers next year; they were considered an option since they have flexible payroll.
– Joe Girardi has accepted the Yankees manager position. Part of me thinks this is why Mattingly will go to the Dodgers (besides the ties to Torre and his son Preston being in the organization).
– The Twins picked up Joe Nathan’s $6 million option. It’s expected that the Twins will either negotiate an extension or trade Nathan to clear payroll to re-sign Johan Santana.
– The following players have filed for free agency:
Sean Casey, Bartolo Colon, Jeff DaVanon, Torii Hunter, Todd Jones, Joe Kennedy, Jason LaRue, Doug Mientkiewicz, Trot Nixon, Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Reggie Sanders, Carlos Silva, Matt Stairs, Shannon Stewart, Luis Vizcaino.
– The Brewers announced former player Ted Simmons will be their new bench coach. He will take over for Dale Sveum, who will become 3rd base coach. Sveum coached 3rd base 2 seasons ago; Nick Leyva, 3rd base coach last season, was recently fired. Simmons was working in the Padres front office prior to this move.
– The Astros have signed catcher Brad Ausmus to a 1 year $2 million deal. It’ll be the 10th season Ausmus has caught in Houston; coincidently, it’ll be the 10th year that the Astros have no offense from their catcher.
