Kuzul

Late last night, it was reported that the New York Yankees were out of the running to sign free agent pitcher Cliff Lee and that the Philadelphia Phillies were making a late push.

As I fell asleep last night, I couldn’t help but wonder about the timing of those two reports. The Yankees were out and the Phillies were suddenly in it? It could only mean one thing:

Cliff Lee was going to leave millions on the table to add his name to a rotation that already includes Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt to form the best rotation in baseball.

And so he did. He turned down an offer which, at one time, was reported at $161 million from the Yankees.

He left as much as $40 million on the table to return to the team which traded him away to the Seattle Mariners just a season ago.

Not only that. But he left two whole years on the table.

The Yankees began with a six-year offer, which they later added a $16 million player option which would have brought the deal to around $148 million, according to an unnamed source (as usual).

So instead of seven-years, $161 million, Lee chose the Phillies’ five-year, $120 million offer which came like a bolt from the blue.

Lee’s agreement with the Phillies is the third-richest contract for a pitcher in baseball, behind the Yankees’ CC Sabathia ( $161 million) and the San Francisco Giants‘ Barry Zito ($126 million).

In July 2009, the Phillies acquired Lee from the Cleveland Indians and he carried them on his back into the World Series, posting a 4-0 record and a 1.56 ERA in the playoffs.

Lee came to love Philadelphia during his time there and when the Phillies traded Lee to the Seattle Mariners last December, after acquiring Roy Halladay from the Toronto Blue Jays, Lee and his wife, Kristen were “heartbroken.”

So how did Lee repay the Phillies’ kindness?

He took a $40 million pay cut and came crawling back.

Trading Lee to Seattle enabled the Phillies to complete their trade for Halladay. Did Lee sacrifice himself to ensure the Phillies obtained Halladay, knowing he’d return once he hit free agency?

Sure, he didn’t know he’d then be traded again, this time to the Texas Rangers, but he knew he’d hit free agency at the end of the season, so whether he was traded or not before that didn’t matter.

Lee could have accepted the Yankees’ offer, like everyone expected from the beginning, and salvaged their starting rotation. He would have slid in right behind fellow lefty CC Sabathia and given the Yankees a tremendous one-two punch.

Or he could have gone back to the Texas Rangers, the second team in two seasons that Lee came to halfway through the season to lead into October. Rangers fans had held out hope for weeks that Lee might return, and were bolstered by the Rangers’ ability to hang in with the Yankees’ offers all offseason.

So after all the wondering; after all the theorizing and praying from Yankees and Rangers fans alike, the Phillies swoop in like a thief in the night with their low-ball offer and steal Lee away.

The Phillies’ GM Rubin Amaro Jr. threw the club’s handbook out the window in order to sign Lee. Previously, the Phillies never went beyond three years with any pitcher. After trading for Halladay, the Phillies signed him to a three-year, $60 million contract.

That wasn’t going to get it done with Lee, so the Phillies pulled out all the stops.

We’ll never know, and it’s probably sour grapes on my part, but was an eventual return to Philadelphia once Lee hit free agency discussed before the Phillies shipped Lee to Seattle?

Outfielder Jayson Werth, one of the fan-favorites on the Phillies, became a free agent this season, and most people expected the Phillies to make a push to resign him. They made him an offer which was considered enough to bring Werth back, but instead he bolted for Washington DC and signed a seven-year, $125 million contract with the Nationals.

Given the reports surrounding another free agent outfielder, Carl Crawford and the type of contract he was looking for, and given Werth’s agent is Scott Boras, the Phillies had to know that a contract of anything less than six-years and $100 million wasn’t going to be enough for Werth.

But they offered less than that.

Did they know Werth wouldn’t take it? Maybe.

But by making an offer they knew Boras and Werth would decline, no one could say they didn’t try to resign him and they could then direct that money towards another free agent, say, Cliff Lee.

A contract of five-years, $120 million for Werth would have raised some eyebrows, but it would have looked realistic in the face of Crawford’s seven-year, $142 million deal with the Boston Red Sox.

Instead, that $120 million sat in their back pocket until the doomsday clock reached five minutes to midnight and they swooped in to sign Cliff Lee and leave the Yankees and Rangers out in the cold.

Some said seven years on a pitcher of Cliff Lee’s age (32) was too long. Well, the Phillies got him for just five years. Some said spending $140-150 million on Lee was too much. Well, the Phillies got him for the basement price of $120 million.

Less years and less money got Lee to Philadelphia. Interesting.

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With so many high profile faces coming to the Boston Red Sox, it seems only fitting that some big time nicknames be assigned. We need to find ones befitting the size of the contracts, power of the bats, and overall exceptional play expected from these guys.

David Ortiz takes the nickname cake with Big Papi. It fits him perfectly. He is a slugger of a DH who has come through time and again in clutch situations with the needed home run jack or sack fly. No Red Sox, or Yankees fan for that matter, can forget the walk off hits he had in the 2004 come-from-behind American League Championship Series.

Big Papi is perfect for Ortiz, so what about incoming transfers Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford? Usually I would hesitate to assign a sweet moniker to a couple of newbies, but these guys have signed contracts bigger than Dustin Pedroia’s ego (and I mean that lovingly Pedey), so you have to figure that they are in a two sox uniform for the long haul.

Without further ado, a list of the Boston Red Sox players and my attempt (I use that term loosely) at their nicknames.

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After it was announced that Carl Crawford will play the next seven years in Boston, every Sox fan had the same thought: “Yes!  Suck it, New York!!!!”  Five seconds later, every Boston fan shared this thought as well: “Well, I guess that’s it for either Ellsbury or Cameron in Beantown.” The third thought that popped into every Boston fan’s head was, “Oh S—!! Now the Yanks will get Lee for sure!!”

Now, the biggest question for the Red Sox is not who will pitch the 7th inning, but if the Crawford signing was worth having to face Lee in the division. The Carl Crawford signing undoubtedly forces the Stein Brothers to cough up whatever amount necessary to net Cliff Lee to satisfy angry fans.

Every Yankee fan knows that George Steinbrenner would never allow Boston to get two MVP-type players in one offseason without New York adding its own superstar. Hal and Hank know it too, and they won’t let themselves be known as the guys who let Boston win the division in ’11. New York will have to push extra hard to put Lee in pinstripes now. 

Many Boston fans now wonder, should they have gone after Lee instead? In this world where Sawx fans would almost rather their team finish 5th in the division than see New York win a championship, would it have been smarter to get Lee and block the Yankees from adding what they desperately need?

Theo Epstein probably thought of getting Lee instead, but after an embarrassing display during the 2003-04 offseason negotiations for Alex Rodriguez, he probably thought it was best not to directly compete with the Yankees for fear of losing to them. Boston cannot just step aside and let New York have whichever free agents they want. In order to beat the Yankees during the season, Boston needs to step up and beat them during the offseason by going after the players the Yankees want as well.

If Boston signed Lee, their rotation would feature five aces, the best in baseball. Daisuke Matsuzaka, the biggest question mark in the rotation after posting a 4.69 ERA in 2010, would be bumped to the bullpen, or moved to another team in a trade. Boston would have no question marks regarding their rotation, while the outfield would still be pretty solid without Crawford. Ellsbury can steal 60 bases, Cameron can play excellent defense, and J.D. Drew can hit 20+ homers per year.

Now, with Crawford, Theo Epstein has to figure out which of his four outfielders he will trade for a useful part. Why add one player when you will just have to get rid of another that’s not bad at all? Mike Cameron had a .328 OBP in the 48 games he played in last season, while Ellsbury stole 70 bases in his last full season. Neither of those two are bad players, but one will be benched because of the signing of Crawford.

One can present the argument that while Boston didn’t really need a new left fielder, they don’t need a new starting pitcher either. To that, I say you have to look from the perspective of the rivalry. The Red Sox could use a starting pitcher like Lee, and they have the money. They could also use a left fielder, but the Yankees have no need for one. By signing Lee, Boston assures that neither Crawford nor Lee goes to their arch rival. Boston gets the best rotation in the majors, and a better chance to win the division by taking Lee from the Yankees.

Boston would have better spent their money on Cliff Lee rather than Carl Crawford because he would make the rotation unstoppable and the Yankees would miss out on an elite free agent. But because Boston went after Crawford instead, most Boston fans will be muttering, “That damn Cliff Lee,” for the next seven years.

You can follow Charlie at http://twitter.com/#!/charlie123517

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It wasn’t a dream. Carl Crawford, who reached an agreement with the Boston Red Sox late Wednesday night, officially signed a seven-year, $142 million deal on Friday, making him the highest-paid outfielder in baseball, and was formally introduced Saturday morning.

No baseball player, or any athlete, should be making that much money. But, putting my opinions on the “business” aspect of the game aside, this is a sensible, aggressive move by a team generating the most noise this offseason.

Battling a cold, Crawford put on his Red Sox jersey and cap, then hoarsely spoke to the media about joining the team.

On staying in the division: “That was important to me, I feel like the American League East is so exciting and the fans are so passionate. I really wanted to stay in the AL East. When I got the call the Red Sox were interested, I really was excited about it.”

On playing in Fenway as a Red Sox:

“I’m definitely ready for that. That’s the one thing that attracted me here. You know it’s going to be sold out, and you know there’s going to be excitement, you know there’s going to be a lot of screaming and hollering and that’s something that gets you up and keeps you going, so that’s definitely one of the things that attracted me here. Instead of getting booed, now they can boo somebody else. I took my share of torture in left field.”

As their left-fielder, he said hopes to join Manny Ramirez, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice, four greats who dealt with the Green Monster on a daily basis and tormented opposing pitchers. With his array of talents, there is no reason to believe he won’t.

Manager Terry Francona said Jacoby Ellsbury will be their leadoff hitter when he is deemed fully healthy, and Crawford didn’t seem to mind. “Whatever he [Francona] wants to do with me is fine,” he said.

In my opinion, I think Boston would be best off hitting Crawford third. They could set the table with Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia, put Crawford in run-producing spot. There he could drive in runs and also get on base and score in front of Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis, and David Ortiz.

With J.D. Drew, Jarrod Satalamacchia, and Marco Scutaro rounding out the batting order, Boston’s lineup would feature contact hitters throughout. It would also be lefty, righty, lefty, lefty, righty, lefty, lefty, righty, righty, giving them a nice balance from both sides of the plate that would no doubt strike fear into the hearts of every opposition.

Their defense would be even more impressive with Crawford’s addition. According to Ultimate Zone Rating, which is an advanced fielding metric, the left fielder ranked as the third-most valuable defensive player in the game last year at any position. Having played in Fenway many times before, he should have no trouble playing ricochets off he 38-foot behemoth.

His contract breakdown is as follows: he will receive $14 million in 2011, $19 million in 2012, $20 million in 2013 and an increase in $250,000 thereafter. There is a limited no-trade clause attached to the deal. He picks two teams, the Red Sox one. Which does Boston choose? The Yankees, of course.

Speaking of the Red Sox’ bitter rival, New York is waiting for Cliff Lee‘s decision. Lee, a 32-year-old southpaw deemed to be amongst the best pitchers in baseball, is weighing his options. The Texas Rangers, his former team, has met with him multiple times at his home in Little Rock, Arkansas, while the Yankees have as well.

Both teams have given him a menu of offers, with New York being the only of the two to offer him a firm seven years. The Rangers appear willing to go seven, but on their terms, meaning the seventh would likely be an option or incentive-based.

Lee’s representatives have been insistent that his client receive a contract spanning seven years, which I find ludicrous considering Lee’s age. But, given the Yankees have answered that demand, it’s a good sign for Texas that he’s yet to respond to New York.

As the New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt and Richard Sandomir document, Bob Simpson, an energy executive who had a hand in purchasing the Rangers as a member of Nolan Ryan’s group, could help Texas meet Lee’s extraordinary asking price.

He made his money in the natural gas industry along with Rangers co-owner Ray Davis, and if he is willing to reach into his deep pockets, Lee could be back with Texas before Santa comes to town.

Considering a seven-year contract would cost the Rangers $160 million or thereabouts, the $23 million Lee would receive annually would amount to more than a third of their 2010 payroll, which stood at $65 million.

Crawford, three years younger with far less risk attached, didn’t command seven years. When the Red Sox entered the bidding, that’s the team he saw himself playing for. Lee is playing a game with his strongest suitors, hampering them from doing anything else this offseason until his decision is made.

The term ‘decision’ is familiar when it comes to choosing a team. It is reminiscent to that of LeBron James’ hoopla, only slightly so. There isn’t a television special–at least not yet, anyway. Unless he goes down that road, there won’t be an analyst—in James’ case, Jim Gray—who will be paid $500,000 to build suspense and ask the ultimate question.

He is just keeping two teams on their heels, and it’s driving fans, like me crazy. Do you want to pay income tax in New York and play in biggest market or do you want to stay closer to home and play with a team you bonded with during a magical run that culminated in a trip to the World Series?

Do you want to play for the Rangers, a low-key, youthful team that would be built to win for years with him in the fold, or the Yankees, a team that puts unparalleled pressure on its players, is in a large market, has unlimited pocketbooks, and is far from young? The environments are complete opposites. It can’t be that hard to choose.

This drawn out process is without a doubt intentional. He wants to keep the baseball world on pins and needles. And as the best free-agent left, baseball’s eyes are on him. The suspense out there to build for some of sports’ elite is too difficult to pass up. And it ends up becoming tiresome and reputation-damaging.

As one Leo Brutus fittingly said via Twitter, “Cliff Lee is going to the Miami Heat. Wow. Didn’t see that coming.”

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What do Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford have in common? 

Their prior teams couldn’t afford to keep them. 

Boston’s general manager, Theo Epstein, stepped in with gold-lined pockets and pocketed them all.

Everything Epstein touches, however, does not turn to gold.  Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez were traded by Epstein for Beckett and Lowell in 2005.  Ramirez has MVP talent at shortstop.  With the exception of 2004, the Sox have struggled at shortstop forever it seems. 

Epstein helped the Sox to sign Crawford on Dec. 8 for forever (seven years) and $142 million.  It was the ninth largest contract in baseball history. 

A talented young man still on the major leagues upswing, Crawford is 29-years-old.  At 6’2,” 215 pounds, he’s in his prime.  Last season, he won his first Gold Glove, stole 47 bases, slugged 19 home runs and batted .307.

He could bat leadoff, and give the Red Sox the second coming of Ricky Henderson.  I believe Crawford is capable of winning an MVP in 2011.  He’s just now entering his prime.

“One thing I believe about Carl is he’s not yet fully developed.  There is still room for improvement,” his former Tampa Bay Rays coach, Joe Maddon, said. 

Other teams know it.  The Angles reportedly offered Crawford $108 million.  Recruiting Crawford for his team, Torii Hunter must’ve been listening to Soulja Boy songs upon hearing the news. 

“I’m sitting here in a daze right now, like, what the heck just happened? I’m crushed, man.  I could have sworn he was coming here,” Hunter said.  Here, would be the Los Angeles Angels.  What  happened was who but Epstein?

He is the executive vice president and general manager of the Red Sox. 

Hired in November 2002 at 28-years-old, he was the youngest general manager in MLB history.  He won the first World Series in 86 years by the Red Sox in 2004.

He resigned in October 2005, but was rehired in January 2006 and won a second World Series in 2007.  In 2008, Epstein traded Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers for Jason Bay, who became an American League All-Star in 2009.

His management style is to provide the club’s manager with certainty at almost every position for several years.  He wants to give the Sox the best chance to consistently make the playoffs.   

In his shot-calling duties, he considers as many alternatives and opinions as possible.  More so to consider the ramifications of every single deal rather than trying to win now, he’s rarely hasty. 

Epstein showed steely confidence by allowing Orlando Cabrera, Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe to become free agents.  He wanted to stock the farm system with draft picks. 

In MLB, organizations get draft picks as compensation for losing their free agents.  Boston lost free agent Victor Martinez to the Detroit Tigers.  Declining salary arbitration, Adrian Beltre and Felipe Lopez became free agents on Nov. 30. 

Boston could still sign Beltre and Lopez.  Through compensation, however, the Red Sox stand to own five of the first 50 draft picks in 2011.

Born in New York City—once the writing and publishing Mecca—Epstein is now 36-years-old.  He grew up, just a few miles from Fenway Park, wanting to be a Red Sox executive.  His family consists of several famous writers.   

His screenwriting grandfather and great uncle won Academy Awards for a certain screenplay called “Casablanca.”  His father, Leslie Epstein, heads the Creative Writing Program at Boston University and has for over 20 years. 

Theo’s sister is a successful writer for television.  He’s a talented writer in his own right.  He was the sports editor for the “Yale Daily News.” 

He was named Major League Executive of the Year by “Baseball America” in 2008.  “Sporting News” named him their Executive of the Decade.  “Sports Illustrated” placed him No. 3 on its list of top GMs/Executives of the Decade (in all sports).

Boston should be at or near the top of the standings until at least 2015, but one never knows.  Most of Boston’s key players are signed through at least the 2014 season. 

Jarrod Saltamacchia could prove to be a worthy replacement for Victor Martinez.  At $418, 580, he’ll be a bargain if he turns out to be.  The Red Sox pitching staff is still superb.  Gonzalez could become the best slugging first baseman the Red Sox have ever had. 

Although he went from sports editor to general manager, Epstein is not the best general manager ever, in my view.  Hanley Ramirez would’ve possibly set all kinds of records for shortstops with the Red Sox.

Respectful challenges to opinions and assumptions via vigorous debate are known to be constant for many professional sports operations staffs.  Under Epstein, the Boston Red Sox are no exception to the corporate American rule.

He could have to make some more exceptional moves for the 2011 season, but he’s not a freewheeling fool.  He’s made few glaring mistakes, but he’s strengthened weaknesses on the Red Sox roster as a rule. 

Former Los Angeles Lakers general manager, Jerry West, and R.C. Buford of the San Antonio Spurs own more championships than Epstein.  Mitch Kupchak of the Lakers and Joe Dumars of the Detroit Pistons are tied with him.

Brian Cashman of the New York Yankees has won four World Series.  Epstein has at least two more World Series to win before he can claim to be better than Cashman.  He appears to be well on his way in building a team to help him catch Brian. 

I’d give Epstein a solid B+ for helping to build a perennial championship contender in Boston.

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Part of being a sportswriter these days is always being on top of your stuff.

I check my e-mail constantly. I’m on Twitter all day. I don’t sleep as much or as well as I used to since I’m always afraid that if I go to bed too early or sleep in too late, I might miss something important.

At this point, I’m even up on Saturdays and Sundays before 7:00 a.m. Tough life, huh?

So with that said, it’s only logical that right before I went to bed on Wednesday night, I did my final Twitter/e-mail check of the evening. Granted, I’d just done the same check 20 minutes before. But again, it’s just part of that whole “staying on top of your stuff” thing.

I wasn’t expecting to see much in that final go-around until I logged on to Twitter and saw one minor, innocuous posting: Ken Rosenthal was reporting that Carl Crawford and the Red Sox had just agreed to a seven-year, $142 million contract.

(Because of length, this is just PART of Aaron’s article on Carl Crawford. To read the rest, please click here or visit www.aarontorres-sports.com.)

Wait, what?

I had literally read a half an hour before that Crawford to the Angels was a done deal—that all that was left to consummate the deal was dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Was Crawford to the Sox for real?

Quickly I flipped on SportsCenter and saw nothing. I checked ESPN.com, and all that was showing up was the archaic Crawford to the Angels article from 20 minutes before. MLB Network had nothing. But as the night rolled on, the tweets just kept piling up, and apparently Carl Crawford was going to be a Red Sock.

One of my favorite players had just signed on to play for my favorite team, yet as I flipped off the lights and rolled around in bed, I’ve got to admit that the signing left me a bit uneasy.

Let me explain.  

On the one hand, I’m a Red Sox fan. That means a lot of things, but in relevance to this column, what’s most important is that I’ve seen Crawford play quite a bit over these last half-dozen years. With that said, the Crawford signing has me excited. Okay, I’m beyond excited. Truthfully, I haven’t been this tingly inside since the night of my senior prom.

The Red Sox just acquired one of the 10 most exciting athletes in professional sports, and one of the two or three most exciting in baseball. Hands down. Crawford is a physical freak with enough raw athleticism to have been recruited to play both football at Nebraska and basketball at UCLA. Instead he chose baseball to put food on the table, despite having barely played the sport in high school.

Since then, Crawford has evolved into one of the seven wonders of the baseball world, to the point that at 29 years old, his former manager in Tampa, Joe Maddon, has said that Crawford is just now reaching his full potential. Not bad for a guy who’s stolen at least 45 bases in six of the last seven years and hit over .300 in five of them.

But looking at the raw stats doesn’t do justice to how fun it is just to watch him. Every Crawford at-bat is “must see,” simply because he can turn a poorly played single into a double, and a double in the gap into a triple. Every time Crawford reaches base, it’s the kind of excitement Red Sox fans haven’t seen since Manny Ramirez was stumbling around left field like a drunken sailor.

Crawford once stole six bases in one game, and I was personally watching him one night when he stole home…standing up, mind you.

Now I get to watch him upwards of 160 times next year. I feel like a kid whose parents gave him a brand new car on his 16th birthday. What did I do to deserve this?

Unfortunately, with all that said, there’s always a “but.” In this case, the “but” comes in those mixed emotions I mentioned before. Because as exciting as this Crawford signing is for me personally, I can’t help but think that it’s terrible for baseball.

Seriously, the Red Sox just spent (a justified) $142 million on Crawford, thumping Anaheim’s bid by an extra year and close to $30 million over the length of the contract. That came on the heels of Boston acquiring Adrian Gonzalez and doling out a seven-year extension that’s going to pay a reported $23 million a year.

Now I’m not a math major, but if my calculations are correct, that’s close to $300 million through 2017…for two guys! Which leads to my next question: Is Theo Epstein running a baseball team or the U.S. Treasury?

It’s not like Theo hasn’t spent money recently either. This is a guy who handed a $40 million extension to a soon to be 30-year-old Josh Beckett in spring training last March. Granted, that signing wouldn’t have been that bad, except Beckett was throwing 89 mph fastballs that at the time could barely break a pane of glass, let alone an opposing hitter’s bat. Yet there was Theo throwing $40 million at him.

A few months prior, the Red Sox gave John Lackey $80 million to be their No. 3 starter.

Now I want to make it clear that I’m not complaining. As a fan, ultimately, all you can ask for from ownership is to put the most compelling and competitive team on the field possible. I get why the Red Sox gave each and every guy the money they did, even if I didn’t agree with all of it.

If the Red Sox hadn’t swooped in with a huge check for Crawford, they ran the risk of losing him to the Yankees like they did Mark Teixeira two years ago. If they hadn’t traded for Gonzalez, they ran the risk of having God knows who playing one of the corner infield positions. If they hadn’t extended Beckett in the spring, he might have blown up during the regular season, which would’ve pushed his price tag up.

To stay competitive in the current climate, these are moves that had to be made. Again, I’m not complaining, and I’m not pointing fingers.  

But at the same time, is the Red Sox throwing around money like this good for baseball?

Look, we’ve known for a long time that the business model of the sport is broken, and I hate to be the 8,217th sportswriter to bring that up. Still, how is the Red Sox spending this much money good for the game? How is it fiscally healthy when Boston trumped one of the other “big spenders” for Crawford by over $30 million? How is it good when two teams are playing by a completely different set of rules than everyone else?

People have been saying for years that baseball is about the “haves” and “have-nots,” but really that’s too simplistic. Baseball has turned into a caste system, with the Red Sox and Yankees at the top, Philadelphia, the Mets, Cubs and Angels in the middle and everybody else picking up the scraps. How is that good for anyone?

Now, I know this has all been a problem for a while now. I get it. But really, things haven’t been this bad for nearly as long as most people think…

(Because of length, this is just PART of Aaron’s article on the Carl Crawford signing. To read the remainder, please click here or visit www.aarontorres-sports.com.

Also, be sure to follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.)

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Carl Crawford has signed a seven-year, $142 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. He joins Adrian Gonzalez as the second huge catch the Red Sox have landed this offseason.

The Red Sox are clearly going for it all this year.

Whenever the hot stove heats up with a flurry of blockbuster deals occurring within such a short period of time, it’s only natural that a number of subsequent questions arise.

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MLB Rumors: Russell Martin is done in Los Angeles, but he appears to have plenty of options on the open market.

Marc Carig of the Star Ledger tweeted that Martin has received offers from four teams, three of which are in baseball’s power division, the AL East.

The New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox have reportedly offered Martin a one-year contract while an unidentified fourth team has offered a multi-year deal.

According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the favorites right now are…the Red Sox.

Yep, with Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez already in Boston, the team is the frontrunner for Martin’s services.

The fourt team in the mix is reportedly the Colorado Rockies, according to Ed Price of AOL FanHouse.

Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com also notes that Martin would serve as a catcher for the Red Sox rather than as a utility player.

It does appear, however, that Martin would prefer to go to an East Coast team.

MLB Rumors: Edgar Renteria was a member of the San Francisco Giants when they won the World Series last season.

But he’s now stuck in no-man’s land, seemingly unsure of what his future entails.

According to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants have offered Renteria a one-year deal to but that’s to serve as a utility infielder.

Not to mention the deal is for $1 million, which is a huge decrease from his previous two-year $18.5 million deal with the team.

Renteria has gone on record in saying that he wants to finish his career with the Florida Marlins or St. Louis Cardinals, but the Marlins don’t seem to be a fit for him right now and there’s no word on him ending up in St. Louis.

There is speculation right now that Renteria will wind up back in San Francisco because of his friendship with Miguel Tejada, who recently signed with the team.

However, the Giants would have to restructure their infield if Renteria does re-sign.

Take a look at the Giants’ offseason outlook. 

MLB Rumors: Cliff Lee holds the key to the MLB free agency puzzle.

Whenever and wherever he signs, Lee is expected to have a ripple effect throughout all of baseball.

And perhaps no one’s future will rely on Lee’s signing more than Kansas City Royals pitcher ZackGreinke.

According to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star, the market for Greinke will heat up once Lee is off the market.

The reported asking price for Greinke?

Dutton says the Royals wants”two high-impact prospects, preferably a starting pitcher and either a middle infielder or center fielder, and two players capable of supporting roles.”

Damn, that sounds like a lot.

Greinke is coming off a so-so season, and it’s unclear how many teams would be willing to part with that much talent to acquire a pitcher who’s not a surefire ace.

FoxSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal notes that the Marlins have been in touch with the Royals aboutGreinke’s services but nothing is on the horizon.

So where would Greinke fit? Check out 10 possible destinations for the star pitcher.