• Outfielder Juan Perez, third baseman Zack Cox and right-handed reliever Waldis Joaquin have joined the Tigers on minor league deals. Perez’s only major league experience came as a member of the Giants, with whom he batted .224/.267/.316 in 246 plate appearances from 2013-15. All of his time in 2016 was spent with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in Iowa, where he slashed .276/.310/.444 with nine home runs and 16 steals in 412 trips to the plate. Cox went to the Cardinals in the first round of the 2010 draft (25th overall), but he didn’t get to the majors with either them or his second organization, the Marlins. The 27-year-old hit .290/.348/.452 in 460 PAs with Wichita of the independent American Association last season. Joaquin, who spent the past few seasons pitching in Mexico and his native Dominican Republic, was with the Giants from 2007-11. He notched 21 2/3 big league innings of 5.40 ERA ball during that period, also adding matching strikeout and walk rates of 7.06 per nine.
• The Reds have signed righty reliever Rob Wooten to a minor league contract, tweets Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. Wooten last pitched in the majors in 2015, when he totaled six innings as a member of the Brewers. Overall, he has registered a 5.03 ERA, 7.01 K/9, 2.91 BB/9 and 48.1 ground-ball rate in 68 major league innings – all of which have come with the Brewers, who selected him in the 13th round of the 2008 draft. The 31-year-old spent last season with the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate and recorded a 3.58 ERA, 7.4 K/9 and 1.36 BB/9 in 73 frames.
• The Diamondbacks have added righty swingman Brooks Hall on a minors deal. Hall, 26, went to Milwaukee in the fourth round of the 2009 draft and stayed with the organization through last season, but he hasn’t yet cracked the majors. He saw his first action at the Triple-A level in 2016 and struggled with a 6.94 ERA, 4.24 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 23 1/3 frames. Most of Hall’s recent work has come at the Double-A level, where he has logged a 3.90 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 across 267 2/3 innings since 2013.
• To continue the theme of ex-Brewers catching on elsewhere, third baseman Garin Cecchini has signed a minor league deal with the Royals. Cecchini, whom the Brewers designated for assignment in October, hit .271/.325/.380 over 469 Triple-A plate appearances last season. The 25-year-old was previously a high-end prospect with Boston, and even slashed a terrific .258/.361/.452 in a small sample of 36 major league PAs in 2014, but the shine truly wore off in 2015. That year, Cecchini batted just .213/.286/.296 in 496 Triple-A plate appearances.
• Righty Jon Edwards has re-signed with the Padres on a minors pact, per Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link). The 28-year-old reliever missed all of last season after suffering a flexor strain in spring training. He previously totaled 25 innings with the Rangers and Padres from 2014-15.
• The Cubs have reached a minors agreement with middle infielder Elliott Soto, who was previously with the organization from the 2010 draft (15th round) through the 2015 campaign. All of Soto’s action last season came with the Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate, with which he hit .241/.358/.297 in 190 plate appearances. In 2,202 minor league PAs, Soto has batted .249/.329/.299.

None of the moves are particularly surprising. Milwaukee is preparing for another winter in which the club figures not only to protect some of its own Rule 5 draft-eligible players, but also to seek undervalued assets that don’t stick with other organizations. The club lost outfielder Rymer Liriano via waivers earlier today as well.

Of course, some of the players now leaving the 40-man were brought in with hopes they’d thrive in a new environment. That is most apparent, perhaps, in the case of Cecchini, who was once a fairly highly regarded Red Sox prospect. He never earned a major league shot in Milwaukee after hitting .271/.325/.380 over 469 plate appearances at Triple-A, with 13 stolen bases and five home runs.

The 29-year-old Elmore is no stranger to this process. He has appeared in the majors in each of the last five years, every time with a different team. All said, he has produced a miserly .215/.297/.280 batting line in 478 trips to the plate, but continues to be seen around the league as a useful depth piece given his defensive versatility.

Wilkins, 28, has also bounced around a fair bit of late. He’s still looking for his first real shot at major league playing time, but hasn’t impressed at the Triple-A level since a strong 2014 campaign with the White Sox’ top affiliate. In 2016, he posted a .235/.321/.419 batting line with a dozen home runs in 374 plate appearances in the highest level of the minors.

As for Nolin, health problems have derailed his career. He had been acquired by the A’s as part of the deal that sent Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays, but Oakland gave up on him after one year and he was claimed by Milwaukee. The 26-year-old never ended up pitching competitively for the Brewers; after trying to stave off Tommy John surgery, he wound up going under the knife late in the summer. Nolin will likely miss most or all of the ensuing campaign.

Cecchini, 25 next April, will provide the Brewers with an option at third base or first base, where they’re quite thin on MLB-ready talent. The 2010 fourth-rounder has received 40 plate appearances in Boston over the past two seasons and batted .229/.325/.400, but his bat never really came around in two seasons at the Triple-A level. Viewed as a consensus top 100 prospect heading into the 2014 season, Cecchini has batted just .238/.314/.333 in two seasons at the top minor league level.

Following the 2013 season Baseball America lauded Cecchini for his knowledge of the strike zone and ability to barrel up pitches and hit to the opposite field, projecting that even if his glove would cause him to move to first base or left field, his on-base skills and high averages could make him a big league regular. Last winter, BA wrote that he still had considerable offensive upside even as his defensive question marks grew, but he struggled a great deal in Triple-A this year.

Following a 2013 season in which he hit .322/.433/.471 between Class A+ Salem and Double-A Portland, Cecchini was regarded as a top prospect — prior to the 2014 season, Baseball America rated him the 74th best prospect in the game. Since then, though, the 24-year-old’s stock has slipped, as he struggled to establish himself at Triple-A Pawtucket. This season, he batted .213/.286/.296 there (while playing mostly left field, although he also appeared in 42 games at the infield corners) and went 0-for-4 in two games in the big leagues. He is, however, still young enough that other clubs could find him to be an attractive option as a waiver claim.

• The Mets aren’t likely to pursue Joe Beimel, ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin tweets.  Though the Mets have a need for a left-handed reliever, they apparently don’t have much interest in the recently-released Beimel.
• The relationship between Mets GM Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins is one to watch, as there have been a few signs of miscommunication between the front office and the dugout this spring, Newsday’s John Harper writes.  Alderson’s recent biography revealed that the GM came close to firing Collins last season, though Harper reports that the two men “had a clear-the-air meeting” to resolve their differences.
• Michael Cuddyer told CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman (Twitter link) that “most interest dried up” for his services in the free agent market after the Rockies made the surprise move of issuing him a qualifying offer.  Cuddyer’s final choice came down to the one-year, $15.3MM qualifying offer or his eventual pick, the two-year/$21MM deal he got from the Mets.
• The Phillies don’t have much interest in Red Sox third baseman Garin Cecchini, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes as part of a reader mailbag.  The Phils and Sox have been linked for much of the offseason in Cole Hamels rumors and the Phillies have reportedly scouted Cecchini already during their examinations of Boston’s farm system.  The Phillies have concerns about Cecchini’s defense, both at third and for a possible conversion to the outfield.  Cecchini was ranked as one of the 100 top prospects in the sport prior to the 2014 season and is still ranked by MLB.com as the eighth-best prospect in the Red Sox system, though his stock dipped a bit after only an okay season at Triple-A.
• The Rangers are cited as one of “a number of teams…would be eager to acquire Andrew McKirahan in a trade,” MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro writes in his look at the Marlins’ situation.  Texas and Miami have recently been connected in trade rumors, with Brad Hand and Mike Dunn cited as possible targets for the Rangers.  As Frisaro notes, however, the Marlins might want to keep Hand since he can be a spot starter and could bring a bit of balance to their all-righty rotation.  What complicates matters for the Fish is that Hand is out of options and McKirahan is a Rule 5 draft pick who would have to remain on Miami’s 25-man roster all season or else be returned to the Cubs.

More from the AL East…

• The Yankees announced that Hideki Matsui has been hired as a special adviser to GM Brian Cashman. Per ESPNNewYork.com’s Andrew Marchand, Matsui will work closely with Cashman and vice president of player development Gary Denbo, and he’ll spend much of the 2015 season visiting minor league affiliates to work with their managers, coaches and players, focusing on aspects of hitting.
• Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News spoke to Cashman about why the Yankees re-signed Stephen Drew. The GM explained that the team believes Drew’s rapid offensive deterioration in 2014 to be an aberration, and there’s little concern about the defensive en of the equation despite a change of positions. Andrew Miller, newly signed with the Yankees but a teammate of Drew’s last year in Boston, also weighed in with Feinsand, stating that he doesn’t envy the situation Drew entered in 2014. “Missing spring training and trying to come in with that weight on your shoulders, for it to be such a big story, have a team act so excited to see him, it was a little unfair to him,” Miller explained. “I can’t imagine missing that time and then trying to go to game speed.” Drew himself adds that the missed time hurt him quite a bit, and he’s pleased to be getting reps on schedule this year with the rest of the league.
• The Phillies scouted both the Yankees and Red Sox today, via Jon Morosi of FOX Sports and Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter links). Of course, having a senior scout in attendance doesn’t necessarily indicate that anything eventful is on the horizon in terms of trade activity, as scouts are frequently watching multiple teams over the course of Spring Training. Still, Abraham notes that the Phils have taken quite a few looks at Boston third base prospect Garin Cecchini.

Here’s more from the eastern divisions:

• Braves owner Liberty Media continues to provide some interesting insight into the club through its legally-required Securities and Exchange Commission filings, as Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains. In addition to ticking through the accounting for last year’s emergency pickup of Ervin Santana and release of Dan Uggla, the filing documents that the organization has already borrowed about $100MM from credit facilities arranged to help fund its portion of the funding of its new stadium.
• Atlanta’s biggest write-off may be yet to come, as struggling and now injured center fielder Melvin Upton could eventually go the way of Uggla. For now, the team is focused on finding a temporary replacement and getting him back up to speed as soon as possible, as David O’Brien of the AJC reports. One possible fill-in, prospect Todd Cunningham, says that the players in camp “can kind of smell blood in the water,” while Eric Young Jr. called it an “unfortunate situation” but acknowledged that “you’re kidding anybody if you don’t see it as an opportunity.” The most interesting possibility could be Eury Perez, who is just 24 and has a solid track record in the upper minors but never had a real chance with his prior clubs.
• The Phillies have had one of their top advisers, Charlie Kerfeld, watching Red Sox prospects as the clubs continue to eye one another over left-handed pitching, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports. There is a sense now that Cliff Lee could be dealt before Cole Hamels, Cafardo adds, though that doesn’t necessarily mean Boston is the inevitable destination.
• As Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports, there are no signs of progress on a Hamels deal. The Sox are more likely to be willing to part with players like Garin Cecchini, Deven Marrero, and Jackie Bradley Jr. in any trade scenarios than they are some of their other top young players, Mastrodonato adds.

Here are more prospect notes from around the league:

• Pitcher Jacob Nix could be a late first round pick in the upcoming Rule 4 draft, reports Keith Law of ESPN.com (Insider required). You may recall Nix’s part in Houston’s Brady Aiken fiasco – he was the player who lost a $1.5MM bonus when Aiken failed to sign. Without Aiken’s expected under slot signing bonus, the club didn’t have the funds to honor Nix’s deal without losing 2015 draft picks and money. Nix is now pitching with IMG Academy, a post-graduate team in Bradenton, Florida.
• Of the prospects in Mets camp, Rafael Montero is the most likely to make the major league roster, writes Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The club has plenty of starting pitchers, but they could use Montero out of the bullpen. Others like Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz will look to make a strong impression while at the big league camp. Remember, an opening day assignment to the majors can affect when a player reaches arbitration or free agency.
• Due to depth at the major league level, the Red Sox aren’t expected to add a prospect to their opening day roster. However, hard throwing righty Matt Barnes could be among the first called up, writes Ian Browne of MLB.com. Barnes pitched a few innings out of the bullpen last season, so he’s already on the 40-man roster. Another prospect with brief major league experience, Garin Cecchini, will work on improving his defensive versatility.
• The Twins will welcome number one prospect Buxton to their major league camp for the second time, writes Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. However, it’s 29th ranked prospect Alex Meyer who has the best chance to break camp with the club. The giant righty will compete for a spot in the rotation, although he’ll face competition from Tommy Milone, Mike Pelfrey, Tim Stauffer, and Trevor May.

A few more notes from around the AL East…

• Red Sox third base prospect Garin Cecchini isn’t worried about the team’s addition of Pablo Sandoval, he tells Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. “I take it as a positive for my career,” Cecchini explains. “I get to hang out with a great player like that and work with him in spring training. That has to help me. It’s easy to say, ‘Where is my spot?’ but I can’t worry about that. You have to create your own opportunity.”  Of course, creating that opportunity won’t be easy, barring an injury to Sandoval. And even in that instance, left fielder Hanley Ramirez could slide over to third base, as the Sox have tremendous outfield depth. Cecchini acknowledged to Abraham that a position change or trade could be the eventual outcome. “You hear that kind of stuff. But I don’t look too much into it. … I understand Pablo is in front of me but I hope I can do something to help.”
• The Blue Jays had two scouts watch Matt Albers’ recent workout, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. Albers turned down multiple offers to sign with the White Sox, according to Nicholson-Smith, though it’s not clear if Toronto was one of the teams to make an offer. Shortly after Albers signed, the Houston Chronicle’s Evan Drellich tweeted that Albers had offers from four teams besides the ChiSox.
• Nicholson-Smith also spoke with someone familiar with the arbitration process who estimated that the Blue Jays’ win over Josh Donaldson in yesterday’s arbitration hearing may have saved the club upwards of $6MM over the next several winters, as each salary is based upon the previous year’s figure (Twitter link).

“Last month, we were made aware that proprietary information held on Astros’ servers and in Astros’ applications had been illegally obtained. Upon learning of the security breach, we immediately notified MLB security who, in turn, notified the FBI.  Since that time, we have been working closely with MLB security and the FBI to the determine the party, or parties, responsible.  This information was illegally obtained and published, and we intend to prosecute those involved to the fullest extent.

“It is unfortunate and extremely disappointing that an outside source has illegally obtained confidential information.  While it does appear that some of the content released was based on trade conversations, a portion of the material was embellished or completely fabricated.”

2:29pm: Extensive trade discussion notes, apparently logged by Astros executives about their talks with other teams, have been leaked onto the site AnonBin here and here, with Deadspin breaking the story and Yahoo’s Jeff Passan verifying the authenticity of the logs.  The earliest notes are from June 2013, and the latest are from March of this year.  The Astros have yet to comment on the leak, which provides unprecedented detail into how the team values players and approaches trade discussions.  According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Astros have been reaching out to people around baseball apologizing for the leaks, and plan to issue a statement soon.

A March feature by Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle outlines Ground Control, the Astros’ confidential internal database from which the trade discussion notes were likely taken.  At this time, it’s unclear whether the information reached the Internet via a rogue employee of the team, or by some kind of security vulnerability in Ground Control.  The trade discussion information, mostly from last summer and offseason, is somewhat dated in the fast-moving baseball hot stove world.  The larger ramification is the breach of trust experienced by the many non-Astros executives cited in the notes.  It’s unlikely any team would rule out the Astros as a trading partner based on this breach, but some teams could approach talks with added caution.  Additionally, I imagine the many other teams with such highly sensitive material online are doubling down on security right now.

The Astros’ trade notes from last summer and offseason range from the blockbuster to the mundane; here are some highlights.

• On November 15th, Astros GM Jeff Luhnow expressed interest with Marlins GM Dan Jennings in slugger Giancarlo Stanton.  From the notes: “[Jennings] said he doesn’t think he’ll trade Stanton and the only deal he could think of from us that would work would be [George] Springer and [Carlos] Correa. [Luhnow] said that would not work. [Luhnow] posited a deal around [Jarred] Cosart and [Delino] DeShields.”  It’s not a big surprise that Luhnow rejected Jennings’ proposal out of hand, as Correa and Springer were ranked #4 and #19 on Keith Law’s top 100 prospects list for ESPN, and are major building blocks for Houston.  That Luhnow didn’t appear to offer either player suggests he was mostly gauging Stanton’s price after an off-year with three years of control remaining.  UPDATE: Jennings has commented to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, saying it’s fabricated that they ever offered Stanton to the Astros or any other team, also using the word “laughable.”
• Interest in Astros catcher Jason Castro was strong last offseason, with a few surprising suitors.  The Blue Jays and Rangers reached out in mid-October to gauge Castro’s price, the White Sox had “definite high interest,” and Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik told Luhnow in November that he was getting calls from other teams asking if he could get Castro from the Astros for those teams.  Zduriencik offered Dustin Ackley and was turned down.
• Notes for the Astros’ summer trade discussions begin at June 17th, 2013.  The team ultimately went on to acquire Ronald Torreyes from the Cubs in June, and also dealt veterans Jose Veras, Bud Norris, and Justin Maxwell near the July deadline.  The Astros did not end up acquiring any top 100-type prospects, but they sure did ask for the moon.  For Norris, the Astros sought Kyle Crick and Clayton Blackburn from the Giants, Dylan Bundy or Kevin Gausman from the Orioles, Marcus Stroman and more from the Blue Jays, Xander Bogaerts, Allen Webster, Jackie Bradley Jr., or Garin Cecchini from the Red Sox, and Tyler Glasnow plus Luis Heredia or Nick Kingham from the Pirates.  The Red Sox offered Ryan Lavarnway or Deven Marrero for Norris and were turned down.  In the end, the Astros traded Norris and an international draft slot to the Orioles for L.J. Hoes, Josh Hader, and a 2014 competitive balance pick.
• When Nationals GM Mike Rizzo called to express interest in middling Astros starting pitcher Lucas Harrell, who had a 5.17 ERA at the time and nearly as many walks as strikeouts, “[Luhnow] told him we would still need a headliner like [Lucas] Giolito because we still value Harrell highly. Rizzo did not respond immediately.”
  Harrell was designated for assignment, outrighted, and traded for a pittance nine months later, so the Astros might have overplayed their hand.
• “Untouchable” players from other teams were revealed through conversations with their executives.  White Sox GM Rick Hahn wouldn’t consider trading Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Jose Abreu, or Avisail Garcia.  Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos considered Brett Lawrie off-limits.  Pirates outfield prospect Gregory Polanco came up as well, in that GM Neal Huntington wouldn’t include him in any Norris deal.  In December talks regarding Harrell, the Giants said they would not discuss Brandon Belt.
• More random notes: Mets executive Paul DePodesta asked Luhnow if the Astros would consider trading shortstop Jonathan Villar in a Daniel Murphy deal in December…the Marlins expressed interest in Jose Altuve, Matt Dominguez, and others in December.

The 36-year-old had his $5.75MM club option declined by the Dodgers after they finalized their deal with Cuban second baseman Alexander Guerrero.  Ellis batted .270/.323/.351 with six homers and four steals in 126 games (480 plate appearances) for the Dodgers and, as usual, he was a standout defender at second base.  Ellis posted marks of +7.6 in UZR/150 and +12 in The Fielding Bible's Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) metric.  The Tigers also have Ellis on their radar.

The Marlins have also approached the Red Sox about 22-year-old third baseman Garin Cecchini, even though he would appear to be similar to Colin Moran, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2013 draft.  Cecchini spent time in Advanced-A and Double-A in 2013, hitting a combined .322/.443/.471 with seven homers.  Baseball America ranked Cecchini as the seventh-best prospect in the Red Sox's system heading into the 2013 season.  One executive covering the Arizona Fall League told Gammons that the youngster “has sneaky power that will play in the big leagues and will keep increasing in pro ball.”