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The Padres are among the teams that have interest and have requested medical records for free agent left-hander Noah Lowry. Lowry, 29, has a 4.03 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in 106 major league games (100 starts), but hasn’t thrown a pitch in the bigs since 2007 due to procedures on his forearm, elbow and rib.…

According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, the Dodgers have signed right-hander Russ Ortiz and outfielder Michael Restovich to minor league contracts with invites to Spring Training. Ortiz, 35, was 3-6 with a 5.57 ERA and 1.67 WHIP in 23 games (13 starts) with the Astros in 2009, his first full season back from Tommy John…

Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog.com reported it earlier this week, but Anthony McCarron of the Daily News confirms that the Mets are considering free agent right-hander John Smoltz “among a group of free agents.” Phew, I wasn’t sure if it was a real rumor until a mainstream reporter told me it was okay to think so.…

Ken Rosenthal tweets that the Yankees, Athletics and Padres are among five teams that are in the running for free agent utility man Jerry Hairston Jr. Rosenthal believes Hairston could make $2-3 million on a one-year deal, but is also fielding multi-year offers. Hairston batted .251/.315/.394 with 10 home runs, 39 RBI and seven stolen…

We’re hearing mixed messages on Vladimir Guerrero. Yesterday Jim Bowden was harping that the Rangers were finalizing a one-year contract with him. The two sides are known to be talking, so we gave him the benefit of the doubt at the time, but last night a source told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that nothing had…

Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports that Brett Myers will make $5 million in his new one-year contract with the Astros. The contract reportedly includes an option for 2011. For those keeping score, Ed Wade has spent nearly $25 million on Myers, Pedro Feliz and Brandon Lyon this winter.

Remember this guy? Mets fans surely do, but he didn’t have much time to endear himself in Seattle before blowing out his right knee in a nasty collision with with shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt last June. Chavez underwent ACL and MCL surgery on the knee in July, but according to his agent Peter Greenberg, he is…

Yes, this Hot Stove drama is over. Jon Heyman of SI.com broke the news just under an hour ago, as Matt Holliday has agreed to a seven-year, $120 million contract with St. Louis. Holliday will receive $17 million per season, according to Matthew Leach of MLB.com, and a no-trade clause. Holliday appeared on ESPN Radio…

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports that Jason Bay agreed to his deal with the Mets on Christmas day, four days before it was reported by Mike Francesa on his “Mike’d Up” radio show on WFAN. The Mets signed Bay to a four-year, $66 million contract with a vesting option for a fifth year which could…

In a column of “New Year’s Wishes” for baseball fans, Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record reports that David Cone is out as a color commentator at the YES Network after “a heated disagreement” with network executives. A spokesman for YES confirmed his exit, saying: “David’s contract is up. We’d love to have him back,…

According to the Detroit Free Press, “reports have said” the Tigers are interested in having free agent second baseman Orlando Hudson replace Placido Polanco, who signed with Philadelphia last month. We’ve seen Hudson linked to a number of teams this winter — Mets, Phillies, Red Sox, Rockies, Mariners, Giants and Nationals — but the Tigers…

While examining how things would have turned out if the Pirates tried to retain Jason Bay, Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that the team hasn’t approached Andrew McCutchen about a long-term contract extension this winter. Surely Bucs fans would love to see an Evan Longoria-type extension for the 23-year-old spark plug, but don’t…

According to Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres have between $5 million-8 million left to spend on free agents this winter. New general manager Jed Hoyer has spent most of his first offseason on the sidelines, but he did manage to surprise many around baseball by inking Kevin Correia to a new…

They aren’t getting the hang of this whole PED testing thing. According to Maury Brown of Biz of Baseball, the Mets led all organizations with eight PED suspensions in 2009. The Cardinals and Royals were second with six. Brown points out that 39 of the 82 minor league drug suspensions occurred in the Dominican and…

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running the second part of an interview with Chipper Jones. It’s not quite as lengthy as the previous interview, but here’s a couple quick highlights: Despite his comments in the past (“I’ll believe it when I see it.”), Jones believes Bobby Cox is “for real” about stepping down as manager after…

People often needle Marty Noble of MLB.com because he doesn’t really get sabermetrics, or even embrace “newer stats” like OPS and WHIP, which makes his analysis of David Wright’s odd 2009 campaign pretty interesting to read: Will David Wright hit more than 20 home runs? Yes. But more important is whether he drives in runs…

In his “10 questions” piece for MLB.com, T.R. Sullivan writes that the Rangers are in the market for backstops: 1. What will happen with the catching situation? The Rangers will bring in at least one and possibly two veteran catchers to push Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden. The Rangers clearly have concerns about Saltalamacchia’s right…

Dick Kaegel is a pretty optimistic guy — he’s predicting the Royals will take the AL Central with 88 wins — but that might not be the craziest thing he wrote in his “10 questions” piece for MLB.com: Which player will be the biggest surprise of the 2010 season? I’m picking Betancourt, who’ll find new…

Enrique Rojas of ESPN.com, by way of Jorge Arangure on Twitter, reports that Blue Jays third baseman Edwin Encarnacion suffered burns on his face during a fireworks accident in the Dominican Republic. Encarnacion, who turns 30 next week, batted .225/.320/.410 with 13 home runs and 39 RBI in 293 at-bats with the Reds and Blue…

MLB.com is running a “10 questions” series for all 30 MLB teams and I’ll go over a few of the more interesting tidbits today. We’ll start with a piece by Ken Gurnick about the Dodgers: Is this a make-or-break season for catcher Russell Martin? Management hasn’t given up on Martin, but it isn’t ignoring his…

It could be something spooky and nefarious like collusion, or perhaps that general managers have become more savvy about how they spend their team’s money (Jim Hendry excluded, of course), but Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports notices that there’s a striking difference between this offseason and 2006-07: Thus far, more than halfway through the 2009-10…

Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes that Pirates president Frank Coonelly doesn’t expect the club to deviate from their current plan, even as general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell enter the final year of their respective contracts: 1. Lame-duck years will not be regarded any differently by the Pirates than any other…

More from Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune: The Cubs clearly aren’t blown away by any of the center fielders on the free agent market, preferring to explore trades. One name to file away is Fernando Perez. Perez, who turns 27 in April, owns a .289/.375/.402 batting line in parts of six minor league seasons…

Free agent outfielder Jermaine Dye is drawing interest from the Yankees to fill their left field vacancy, according to Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune. Of course, a team’s offseason plans can change rather quickly, but it’s worth noting that the Bombers denied interest in Dye last month. Believe him or not, general manager Brian…

The Diamondbacks have reportedly come to terms with veteran reliever Bob Howry, but it won’t preclude them from continuing to monitor free agent right-hander Jose Valverde, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. Valverde, 30, was originally signed by the Diamondbacks in 1997 and posted a 3.29 ERA over five big league seasons in the…