So to the surprise of no one, the Jays have offered Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas arbitration. It would be a surprise if either one accepted.
The Cubs didn't offer arbitration to Rich Harden, for anyone hopeful that the Jays might think about signing him. Two catchers have been told by their teams they won't be getting an arbitration offer Yorvit Torrealba of the Rockies and Miguel Olivo of the Royals.
You can take a name off the list of possible Jay catchers for next season, Kelly Shoppach was traded by the Indians to the Rays.
Over at TSN.ca they had a conversation with Greg Zaun, who was here in Calgary for the Grey Cup (and he didn't give me a call). Among other things (he cheered for the Rough Riders, no accounting for taste) he said he figured he'd be signed by the end of this week and that there is more than one team interested in him.
Peter Gammons tells us that the Red Sox have asked Dustin Pedroia if he would be willing to move over to shortstop. The idea is that there are more second basemen available than shortstops. I think it is more of trying to suggest to Marco Scutaro that they really don't have to sign him. He also gives us this nugget:
They (the Red Sox) have not devoted much time to Roy Halladay, as the chances of trading Clay Buchholz and Casey Kelly are, at best, minimal.
I don't know how true that is, Gammons tends to work as a PR guy for the Sox more than being an actual reporter. Of course he wants us to think the Red Sox wouldn't trade anything of value for Doc.
Speaking of Doc, it's all over the place that Doc is setting a deadline for any trade. He wants to be traded during the off-season. Basically he's holding a gun to the team's head, 'trade me now or lose me as a free agent'. It really hurts the Jay's ability to negotiate, teams can stall and weaken our position more. I guess we'd better lower our expectations for what we might get back for Doc.