The Rays Tank: Posada Expected To Retire; Kendrick Signs Extension

There wasn't a lot of baseball news this weekend, but what did happen was certainly noteworthy. According to a WFAN report, Jorge Posada has decided to retire (although he hasn't officially announced it yet). This doesn't come as a huge surprise, as Posada was nearing the end of the road as it was. If he wanted to keep going, he would have had to sign a small contract with a team looking primarily for a DH -- and that team wouldn't have been the Yankees. It sounds like he didn't get an attractive enough offer to persuade him to stick around, so he's hanging up the spikes. Scratch one off the "potential DH signings" list.

So now there are only two members of the Core Four: Jeter and Mariano. It seems likely that Mo will be the next to retire, although crazily enough, he'll probably still have something left in the tank whenever he decides to call it quits. As for Jeter...well, we'll see how that goes.

Here's a good article on Posada's career from the New York Times. It focuses a bit more on him as a person, which I found a refreshing take.

In other news, Howie Kendrick signed a four-year, $33.5-million extension with the Angels, avoiding his last year of arbitration. For everyone still hoping for an Upton extension, yes, some players do sign contracts that late in the arbitration process. But I don't think Kendrick is a great comparison for Upton: he was coming off a career year, and his previous track record was much less impressive than Upton's. I wouldn't get your hopes up too high.

• Stuart Sternberg shared some thoughts with Marc Topkin about his upcoming meeting with mayor Bill Foster. I found the quotes by Sternberg in the fourth paragraph especially interesting; it does appear that MLB is taking an interest in the Rays, but the Rays are brushing them back for now.
• Over at Baseball Nation, Wendy Thurm did something I've been meaning to do for a while now: take a look at how the second Wild Card has impacted offseason decision making. There are plenty of teams that have kicked it up a notch this offseason, anticipating a chance at a playoff run.
• So why haven't the Orioles traded Adam Jones yet? Dave Cameron explores the question, and the answer is similar to Upton's situation with the Rays: because he still has a chance to become much, much more.