Here's tonight's look around the NL Central..
- Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny says that another club has already made an offer to free agent outfielder Carlos Beltran, tweets Jim Bowden of SiriusXM. The veteran figures to garner a great deal of interest this winter and it looks like his interest in the Yankees is finally being reciprocated.
- In a chat with David Kaplan of CSNChicago.com (Twitter link), Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija explained that he is not in a rush to work out an extension. "I have two more years of arbitration so there is a lot of time to get something done," said Samardzija, who turns 29 in January.
- Pirates pitcher A.J. Burnett remains undecided between retirement or returning to pitch in 2014, agent Darek Braunecker tells Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (via Twitter). The Bucs opted against extending Burnett a one-year, $14.1MM qualifying offer yesterday. The veteran pitched to a 3.30 ERA with 9.8 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, and a 56.2 percent ground-ball rate in 191 innings in his second season with the Pirates.
