There's a new catcher in town.

UPDATE: Or maybe not....... TR Sullivan at MLB.com wrote that the Barajas deal fell apart, Barajas changed agents and canceled his trip to Toronto.

Jeff Blair reports that the Jays are in negotiations again with Zaun and that the Barajas signing isn't the done deal that was published as done this morning, pending a phyiscal, and confirmed by Barajas' agent.

"One of these guys is going to be the Blue Jays catcher," a source close to negotiations said late Monday night.

Buster Olney wrote that the Jays were "on the verge" of re-signing Gregg Zaun and "it was not immediately clear if the Barajas deal fell apart".

UPDATE 2 (11:45pm): General manager J.P. Ricciardi said late Monday the team was negotiating with Zaun, and the deal with Barajas was not going ahead. Ricciardi declined to comment about why the contract with Barajas wasn't completed.

"We don't have an agreement with anybody at this point,'' Ricciardi said.

Asked if he still had interest in Barajas, Ricciardi said he couldn't comment right now. Asked if he hoped to sign Zaun this week, Ricciardi said: "Yeah. I hope to have something done with somebody this week.''

A few notable signings today:

• According to Peter Gammons Justin Speier signed a four year deal to join the Angels. Ken Rosenthal has the deal at 4 years and $18 million.
  
• The Cat came back - Ken Rosenthal also reports that Jays OF Frank Catalanotto is close to signing a three year deal with the Rangers.
  
• Cubs sign Soriano for 8 years and $136 million ... coming on the heels of the Mark DeRosa signing, we are left with just one question -- what former Texas Ranger 2B could possibly be in the Cubbie crosshairs next?

The Big Hurt is coming to Toronto.

Update: The reliable Jeff Blair writes that it's a two year deal for $18 million with a vesting option for a third year based on plate appearances that could push the total value to $30 million. (thanks to KevinJaysFan for linking that)

Update 2: The contract is for $10 million in year 1, $8 million in year 2, and $10 million in year three if Thomas reaches an unknown threshold of plate appearances.

Update 3:  The signing is official now.

Some AL East moves:

The Yankees traded Gary Sheffield to the Tigers for three minor leaguers, including highly touted Humberto Sanchez.

Not to be outdone, the Red Sox, according to Buster Olney, are going to be the winners of the Daisuke Matsuzaka sweepstakes with a bid of 'between $38 and $45 million.

No, that's not a 20-year-old headline about former Jay Jesse ... the Padres have traded Jesse's kid, Josh to the Indians for Class AAA prospects Kevin Kouzmanoff, a 3B "uber-prospect," and and RHRP Andrew Brown.

The rarest of baseball trades -- young talent for young talent in a "challenge" deal of sorts.

Thoughts?

Fans have the opportunity to vote for the ten finalists for the Ford C. Frick award for baseball broadcasters.  Many Bauxites voted many times for Tom Cheek last year, and we have the opportunity to do so again this year.  You can link to the ballot here.

According to bluejays.com, the Jays have declined Bengie Molina's seven and a half million dollar option for next season and bought him out for half a million dollars.

Gregg Zaun filed for free agency two days ago as well -- the team has an exclusive window to negotiate with its free agents until November 12th, after which they're fair game, however there's no deadline for a player to re-sign with their former team.


Will the Jays end up with an entirely new catching crew for next year?

And who's out there to be had this off-season?

The Elias Sports Bureau player rankings for 2006 have been released. These rankings used to determine the compensation that will be awarded to a team who loses a player through free agency.

I'll admit that I was rooting for the Tigers, but there are not really any sour grapes involved here -- I found the World Series between Detroit and St. Louis to be downright boring.

There will be no labour dispute this time around as the owners and players agreed to a 5 year deal.  The deal essentially continues the status quo, with a few minor changes. Elements of the deal include:

1.   no contraction during the life of the deal,
2.   thresholds for the competitive balance tax were raised significantly,
3.   there will be compensation for clubs that fail to sign a first or second round pick, and
4.   free agent compensation was reduced in a number of ways- no type C free agents; the compensation for type B free agents is changed to a sandwich pick only, and fewer type A and type B free agents by tightening the performance criteria.