Mariners Nearing Trade For Seth Smith  —  4:30pm: Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune hears from officials with both clubs that a trade is indeed close, but the Mariners are pushing to include a reliever other than Maurer, for whom the Padres are strongly pushing in talks.

Reds acquire ‘big bat’ in Byrd via Phils trade … The Cincinnati Reds have acquired veteran outfielder Marlon Byrd in a trade with the Philadelphia Phillies, the teams announced Wednesday.  —  He gets $8 million next season on the final year of a two-year deal that includes an $8 million team option for 2016.

How Royals' magical roster nearly got a July shakeup  —  Alex Rios curiously nixed a deal to the Royals last July before joining the AL champs as a free agent this winter.  —  The Royals signed Alex Rios recently to a one-year, $11 million contract.  But they actually first worked out a deal for him last July.

ARE YANKEES IN ON SCHERZER?  READ TEX MESSAGE FROM SIX YEARS AGO  —  JP Morosi  —  For insight into where the top free-agent pitcher will sign, let's turn to an unlikely source: the case of the top free-agent hitter six winters ago.  —  Max Scherzer today has two things in common with Mark Teixeira then …

Rays To Sign Asdrubal Cabrera  —  The Rays have agreed to a deal with Asdrubal Cabrera, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal tweets.  The deal is for one year and around $8MM, the New York Post's Joel Sherman reports (Twitter links).  Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweeted that a deal was close.

AP Male Athlete of the Year: Madison Bumgarner  —  2 photos  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Madison Bumgarner sat in the outfield alongside Jake Peavy before Game 7 of the World Series and told his teammate exactly what needed to happen: Tim Hudson would work a few innings and get the ball to Bumgarner …

Orioles have real interest in Rasmus  —  I'm still hearing that the Orioles don't have serious interest in free agent Ichiro Suzuki.  However, they do hold legitimate interest in another left-handed hitting outfielder, Colby Rasmus, and have maintained a dialogue with agent Casey Close since the Winter Meetings in San Diego.

KATOH: Forecasting Major League Hitting with Minor League Stats  —  Mookie Betts projects to be quite the productive major leaguer, based on his minor league stats.  (via Dennis Heller)  —  During the summer I crunched some numbers in the FanGraphs Community section aiming to figure …

Tigers SS Jose Iglesias makes progress toward return  —  Jose Iglesias has one hurdle left to clear.  —  And it's the same hurdle the Tigers' shortstop couldn't clear last season, a season that was lost to stress fractures in each of his lower legs.  —  Iglesias has progressed positively …

2015 BJOL HOF Results  —  This year, eighty-nine ballots were cast for the Bill James Online Hall-of-Fame.  From a crowded ballot, our readers voted in four starting pitchers:  —  Player  —  Votes  —  Percentage  —  Pedro Martinez  —  97.8%  —  Randy Johnson  —  96.6%  —  John Smoltz

Guillen ready to get back in the game of baseball  —  Frank Thomas tabs Ozzie Guillen as his favorite manager to play for, praising him for being direct and creating a positive atmosphere  —  CHICAGO — Ozzie Guillen was an accomplished manager.  —  That portion of his near-decade …

Pierce's future plans include visiting Celts  —  Photo by:  —  TWO ON ONE: Washington's Paul Pierce and Kris Humphries team up against Jared Sullinger during the C's loss Saturday night to the Wizards.  —  By:  —  Boston hasn't seen the last of Paul Pierce, and it's quite possible the Celtic organization hasn't, either.