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.

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.

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.

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.

Colorado expects Tulowitzki, Gonzalez to return healthy in 2015  —  Rockies manager Walt Weiss discusses his group of young players developing and reaching the next level in 2015  —  DENVER — The Rockies are entering 2015 with a “Why not us?” attitude.  —  In this age of competitive balance …

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.

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 …

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.

Dodgers Notes: Pitching, Arruebarrena  —  Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi recently spoke with reporters about the club's plans.  Here's the latest out of Chavez Ravine:  — Zaidi says the club has no plan to add more starting pitching prior to the season, tweets Ken Gurrick of MLB.com.

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 …