No, it's not Brett Lawrie.  To make room for Darren Oliver the Blue Jays have designated Mark Teahen for assignment.  The Blue Jays will trade or release Teahen after the prescribed waiting period, which is ten days I think.

Teahen's status change is not a surprise, there is no spot for him on the 2012 squad.  I assume AA has been trying to deal him with no success.  The Jays might still deal him to the team that will absorb the most of his salary but don't expect anything back unless the Jays eat all of his contract.  Teahen has value to some teams but not as his current salary of $5.5 million.

The Chicago Cubs have acquired first base prospect Anthony Rizzo from the Padres today in a four-player deal that sends former first-round pick Andrew Cashner to the West Coast.

Rizzo, a lefty-hitting slugger drafted by Boston under now-Cub Theo Epstein's regime and acquired by San Diego last winter as part of the prospect package in the Adrian Gonzalez trade, is expected to be Chicago's regular first baseman in 2012..

Rizzo, 22, hit .331 at Triple-A Tucson last year with 26 home runs and 101 RBIs, with a 423 on-base percentage and .652 slugging percentage. He was ranked the No. 3 prospect in the Padres system, and made his major league debut for San Diego in 2011, struggling with a .141 average in 128 at-bats in 49 games. (I believe that number of AB means he is still officially a rookie, right?)

The Cubs also sent outfielder Kyung-Min Na to the Padres, and received pitcher Zach Kates.

Escaping that pitcher's paradise San Diego to play in the Wrigley bandbox? This isn't a prediction, but just an observation .... the rookie HR record is McGwire with 49, you know ...

The Blue Jays have announced the acquisition of Jason Frasor for minor league pitchers Myles Jaye and Daniel Webb. Frasor returns to the Jays after being with the White Sox for less than half of a season. The Jays 40 man roster has one spot available for Frasor.

Ken Rosenthal reports that long-time Friend of Batter's Box Keith Law is in the process of interviewing with the Houston Astros.

So, now, maybe the free agent period really is transitioning into the trading portion of the off-season. Oakland closer Andrew Bailey, rumored to be dealt to  about 10 or 12 dfferent places since the '11 season's end, is now a member of Red Sox Nation.

The Sawx acquired Bailey,who compliled 24 ssaves in 2011, and outfielder Ryan Sweeney in exchange for OF Josh Reddick and minor leaguers 1B Miles Head and P Raul Alcantera.

Bailey's in Boston? Let the "Irish Cream" pun contest begin!

To all of you drafting 2012 Blue Jay projected lineups with Carlos Beltran hitting cleanup,  wrong color bird. So today's lesson is simple:

World Series rings are a great recruiting tool.

According to various national reports (and at least one Nationals report), the Great Gio Gonzalez Sweepstakes has come to a close, with the A's lefty now residing in Washington, D.C.

The Athletics will receive a packakage headlined by RHP Brad Peacock and also including C Derek Norris, LHP Tommy Milone and RHP A.J. Cole. The deal is pending physicals.

So was this too much to give up for Gio, who in 2011 for the A's went 16-12 with a 3.12 ERA, with 197 strikeouts and 91 walks? And since we all seem to like playing this game, what would a comparable package from Toronto have looked like?

P.S. sorry no image with this story. I really would prefer a Nationals Gio Graphic!  :-) 

Well, unless you've been living under a rock, or couldn't access the site because tears of sadness crashed it, you now know that the Blue Jays didn't win the posting auction for Yu Darvish, as the Rangers bid $51.7 million, to beat the Jays by somewhere between $1 and $51.7 million dollars. Which, let's face it, kind of sucks. We can blame the team, although really it's not their fault. They bid a number they were comfortable with, and though it will probably never be known, it's likely that it was the second place bid. Others in the media blew things way out of proportion, based on who knows what, and as a result there have been some 600 posts about this in the last four days on Battersbox. Not much we can do about it now, although if there is one positive to take away I think its that Jays fans are waiting, after all these years, to be excited. Why don't we take this time to commiserate about our favourite moments of the Yuletide extravaganza. For me it was that I wrote an 800 word article about how awesome it was that the Jays signed Darvish to publish when the news became official. Now, not so much. Hey, we can always trade 3 good prospects away for Gio Gonzalez... Go 2014 Blue Jays!

Japan's newest bachelor, Yu Darvish, is about to get busy.  The bachelor has a number of suitors and Darvish will get to see which one likes him the best, monetarily speaking.  The bidding deadline for Darvish is 5pm today, Wednesday.

The Jays have announced that they acquired outfielder Ben Francisco from the Phillies for minor league LOOGY Frank Gailey.  This trade has quite a few questions surrounding it.

Ben Francisco on JaysVision prior to the Canada Day game between the Phillies and Blue Jays at the Dome.