Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos has confirmed the team will not re-sign free agent first baseman/DH Kevin Millar for next season in an interview with Shi Davidi of the Canadian Press. 

As Bauxite 92-93 and our John Northey pointed out in a previous thread, the Jays have claimed left-hander Sean Henn off waivers from Baltimore.  To make room, the Jays have designated catcher Michael Barrett for assignment.

The Jays announced today that Paul Beeston has been appointed President and CEO for a three year term.

"We are thrilled that we were able to convince Paul Beeston to take on this role," continued Tony Viner. "Paul's background with the club, his credentials in the baseball world and his enthusiasm for this sport will be incredible assets." Paul Beeston will work with newly appointed General Manager, Alex Anthopoulos.

According to Friend of Batter's Box (FOBB) Jamey Newberg, the Texas Rangers "have announced that hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo has declined a contract offer and will not return to the coaching staff next year. The remainder of the big league coaching staff has been invited to return for the 2010 season."

Rumor has it that the Cubs are looking to seriously overpay Rudy to come fix Alf Soriano and Milton Bradley (both Texas exes he had some success with previously), among others. Here in North Texas, we saw how much effect a single new coach can have when Mike Maddux showed up to turn the Rangers into a model pitching-centric organization, And Rudy is generally seen (around these parts anyway) as one of, if not THE best hitting coaches in the game.

So ... does this matter at all to the makeup of the AL West and possibly the NL Central?

Alex Anthopoulos is moving quickly to put his stamp on the organization.  Today the Jays announced a  number of changes which included relieving Dick Scott and Jon Lalonde of their present duties.  Scott leaves the organization while Lalonde takes on new responsibilities.

Congratulations to Aaron Hill who won the Major League Baseball Comeback Player of the Year award. Chris Carpenter was honoured with the NL award.

Okay, who had Eric Wedge in the "first manager to be fired in the off-season" pool? Sure, it's not technically the off-season yet -- though it has been in Cleveland for a while! -- but soon-to-be-former Indians skipper Eric Wedge will complete the season, then look elsewhere for employment.

Former Indian hurler John Farrell, now the Red Sox pitching coach, is rumored to be a replacement candidate, though he may not be allowed to take the job per a contractual clause in Boston. So who will/should manage the Indians? And who's next on the MLB skipper chopping block?

The Boston Red Sox had a chance to clinch the AL Wild Card slot Tuesday night. Adam Lind had other thoughts.

The Jays slammed six homers in an 8-7 win, Lind clocked three of those longballs by hissownself -- the first Jay to hit three in a single contest since Frank Thomas a while back -- while Ricky Ro picked up his lucky 13th win and Jason Frasor saved his 11th game.

Lind is the second Blue Jay to reach the 35-homer mark in 2009, joining Aaron Hill, who hit his own 36th bomb against Da Sawx.

See now, it's not all bad news!

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Texas Rangers completed a trade Tuesday morning with Houston, re-acquiring (after a seven-season absence) catcher Ivan Rodriguez for two minor-leaguers. (Yes, yes, Friend of Batter's Box Jamey Newberg broke the story well before the DMN did ... we love the Internets!)

The Jarrod Saltalamacchia injury made some sort of deal inevitable, and Pudge will likely back up Taylor Teagarden. What would be the Toronto equivalent of this "golly-gosh, he's back home for a pennant race" North Texas story? Jays re-sign Alomar?

Jordan Bastian of bluejays.com has twittered that Travis Snider is rejoining the big club while Joe Inglett gets to say hello to Cosmo once again by heading back down to Las Vegas.  A tip of the ball cap to Bauxite "razor" ramone for alerting us in an earlier thread about Snider returning in a story from the Las Vegas Review Journal.