Duncan Elects for Free Agency: MLB.com's Bryan Hoch reports that after being outrighted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Shelley Duncan has elected to become a free agent. Good luck, Shelley.

Cashman Talking to Yanks FAs First: Brian Cashman spoke to Hoch and told him that he'll talk to the Yankees free agents before talking to any others. Once he has, he'll "be full-blown into the marketplace."

Jon Weber Signed: Ken Davidoff reports that the Yankees have inked 31 year old career minor leaguer Jon Weber (stats) to minor league deal that includes an invitation to major league spring training. Last year, while playing for the Triple-A Durham Bills, he hit .302 with 14 home runs, 69 RBIs and a .382 OBA in 117 games. Via Chad Jennings.

Yankees Add Seven to 40-Man Roster: Finally, this happened almost a week ago while I was traveling, but I wanted to highlight it anyway: the Yankees added seven players to their 40-man roster according to Jennings, in order to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. They are RHP Hector Noesi, RHP Ivan Nova, RHP Romulo Sanchez, INF Reegie Corona, INF Eduardo Nunez, INF Kevin Russo and OF Austin Jackson. This gives them 39 players on the roster.

In a pair of solid follow up pieces, Jennings explains what this could mean for roster flexibility and what the one spot on the roster could allow the team to do (it allows them to actually participate in the Rule 5 draft, for one).

The Yankees have signed Dominican center fielder Eladio Moronta, according to LoHud's Sam Borden. According to Borden, Moronta was previously suspended by MLB for lying about his age.

Mike Axisa over at River Ave Blues goes into a little more detail:


Just judging from that description, I'd say it couldn't hurt to have this guy around. I won't pretend to know any more about him than the information Sam and Mike gave, though.

As expected, Twins catcher Joe Mauer was voted the American League's Most Valuable Player for this season. Mauer received all but one first place vote (Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers received the other) for a total of 387 points. Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter rounded out the top three, with Tex receiving 225 points and Jeter receiving 193.

The final vote didn't stray much from what was pretty widely expected, although if it were up to me I would probably have flip-flopped Tex and Jeter. Congrats to Mauer.

SI.com's Jon Heyman reports that the Yankees "recently" called the Blue Jays to make sure that they knew the Yankees were interested in their ace, Roy Halladay.

According to Heyman, they did the same thing last Summer and, at that time, Toronto was looking for a package including both Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes. That was a non-starter. However, he speculates that the Yankees might now be open to including one of those two along with some prospect power, such as Jesus Montero, to land Halladay.

It's fun to dream about, isn't it? CC Sabathia, Halladay, A.J. Burnett and some combination of Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Chien-Ming Wang or a lower end free agent? Seems like a fantasy dream to me, but you never know.

Via Chad Jennings.

MLB.com's Lyle Spencer reports that Mike Scioscia of the Angels has been named the 2009 American League Manager of the Year. With 106 points, Scioscia finished ahead of Ron Gardenhire of the Twins (72), Joe Girardi (34), Don Wakamatsu of the Mariners (19), Ron Washington of the Rangers (19) and Jim Leyland of the Tigers (2).

Girardi received 4 first place votes, 3 second place votes and 5 third place votes and was left off of 16 ballots.

Joba's Flexible: MLB.com's Anthony DiComo Dan Martin of the Post both spoke with Joba Chamberlain about his role on the team during a charity outing. In summary: he's going to do what he can to get Pettitte to come back, he's feeling great and is ready for whatever role the Yankees place him in.

Kennedy Closes Out AFL Season: Ian Kennedy has made his final start of the Arizona Fall League. In 7 starts and 29.2 innings pitched, he was 2-1 with a 4.25 ERA. Like Joba and Phil Hughes, de doesn't know what the Yankees are planning from him in 2010, but the important thing is that everything is good healthwise.

Beat Writer Goes to Fantasy Camp: Finally, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com has part one in a series sharing his experiences attending Yankees fantasy camp, where fans get the opportunity to talk and play the game with former Yankees players. The first installment is interesting and I'm sure the next ones will be, too.

MLB.com's Jordan Bastian has learned that the Blue Jays are open to granting any potential Roy Halladay suitor a negotiating window with the starter. This would allow a team to come to terms on a long term deal with him before completing a trade, giving the Blue Jays more of a bargaining chip.

Via Ben Kabak.

Baseball America's Matt Eddy reports that, on November 9, Major League Baseball granted free agency to 536 minor leaguers. This included 17 Yankees,


In addition, Chad Jennings discovered one more free agent: Double-A OF/DH Noah Hall, who played in 59 games for Trenton last season.

Photographer Robert Caplin put together this video featuring over 5,000 images taken during the final game of the World Series.


Via Alex.

Mitre's 2010 Option Declined: Sergio Mitre's 1 year, $1.25 million dollar option has been declined by the Yankees. He's still under team control, is arbitration eligible and expected back.

Barry Lackey: George A. King III of the Post has a number of minor free agent notes. But, probably the most interesting is a quote from an agent (who doesn't represent free agent starter John Lackey), who says that the pitcher could command a deal in the range of Zito's 7 year, $126 million dollar deal.