-P- The Cardinals have signed 2B Adam Kennedy to a three-year deal for $10 million. It's not surprising that a slightly below average second baseman would get a contract like this that isn't crazy, because there are lots of second basemen on the market. Anyway, Kennedy is young enough that he'll probably be both good enough and bad enough to go totally unnoticed until the Cardinals reach the playoffs again. For $10 million, that's pretty good.
-P- The Jays have re-signed C Gregg Zaun to a two-year, $7.25 million deal. Zaun will turn 36 right after the season starts, so it wouldn't be surprising if he declined very quickly, but he's been a quietly solid contributor for years. This is a better idea than giving a contract to Rod Barajas, which is what the Jays were planning on doing.
-P- The Orioles' offseason reminds me of a cartoon I saw as a child in which the characters win $1 million but, as a condition of accepting it, agree to spend it all in one day. First, they try buying things like cars and horses, but for some reason they find it difficult to spend the whole million quickly enough. So they rent a boat, take a bunch of fishermen out on the water and award them $10,000 for each fish caught.
Today's fish are Scott Williamson and Chad Bradford. ESPN reports that Williamson will take a one-year, $900,000 deal from the O's, while Bradford has a three-year agreement in place for an undisclosed amount. Bradford, Danys Baez and Jamie Walker will be swimming in huge pools of money for the next three years.