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.

Versatile Tampa Bay veteran in high demand  —  9/25/14: Ben Zobrist ties the game in the 2nd inning with an RBI single that scores Ryan Hanigan  —  Ben Zobrist represents the first really tough call for Tampa Bay's new administration.  And it's about as tough as it gets.

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 …

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

Cubs To Sign Chris Denorfia  —  The Cubs have agreed to terms with outfielder Chris Denorfia, former teammate John Baker tweets.  FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal confirms the deal (via Twitter), adding that it's for one year.  He will receive about $2.5MM, tweets CBS Sports' Jon Heyman.