Lots of rumors floating around today as teams are putting the final touches on their 25-man rosters.
Apparently, The Rays are interested in Murton as Downie speculated. According to Rosenthal (hat tip to MLBTR), the Rays have shown interesting in Murton:
The Padres and Rays are among the clubs pursuing Murton, but two or three other teams also have shown interest, major-league sources say. The Rays claimed outfielder Nathan Haynes off waivers from the Angels on Friday, but continue to explore potential upgrades.
Also from a different MLBTR post, we find out the Giants might be interested in DiFelice or Paul for backup catching position:
Henry Schulman says the Giants are in need of a backup catcher and a logical choice may be Astros backup Humberto Quintero, whom Bruce Bochy is familiar with from his days with the Padres. He also notes that the Rays have two experienced catchers that were just reassigned to the minor leagues in Josh Paul and Mike DiFelice.
The LA Times tells us that Hinske is up for grabs:
General Manager Ned Colletti has been speaking to other clubs about possible trades, targeting players with short and inexpensive contracts for what they expect to be short-term replacement duty. They are believed to be interested in Philadelphia's Wes Helms. Tampa Bay's Eric Hinske is also reportedly on the market.
In what may be the most important news of the day from The Heater, Kaz threw a 35-pitch bullpen session and everything went great. I only threw fastball, but his comments were more than encouraging:
Ace LHP Scott Kazmir said he felt "really good" Sunday after throwing off the mound for the first time in more than two weeks.
"Everything went perfectly," pitching coach Jim Hickey said. "Even better than I anticipated."
Hickey said Kazmir's command was "much better than I anticipated," with only three pitches just a little bit "off track."
Also, if anyone is interested. I interviewed Will Carroll (two l's in Carroll Bishoff) on our newest podcast at NBB. Got the chance to talk to him about the Kaz injury if anyone is interested, you can check it out here.