Lugo played in twelve major league seasons, suiting up for the Astros, Devil Rays, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cardinals, Orioles and Braves between 2000-11. He was the primary shortstop on the Red Sox’s 2007 World Series-winning team, part of a seven-year run as a regular at the position.

Lugo appeared in 120+ games in six of seven seasons between 2001-07 before transitioning into a utility role later in his career. Altogether, the slick-fielding infielder appeared in 1352 MLB games, hitting .269/.333/.384 with 80 home runs over 5338 plate appearances.

MLBTR sends our condolences to Lugo’s family, friends, teammates and loved ones.

• Mariano Rivera declined to answer when Newsday's David Lennon asked the Yankee legend if this would be his final season (Twitter link).
• The contract of Blue Jays manager John Gibbons includes a rolling option that means he won’t face a season as a lame-duck manager, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports. Gibbons, who signed for two years plus an option earlier this offseason, has a unique clause in his contract. As long as the Blue Jays don’t fire Gibbons by January 1st of a given year, his option will vest for the following season and the sides will add another option to the contract. The unique deal means Gibbons will have a two-year contract as long as he’s managing the team. It’s reminiscent of the perpetual option on the deal between the Red Sox and Tim Wakefield, though it appears to be the first of its kind for an MLB manager.
• Julio Lugo said he’s leaning toward retiring following this year’s Caribbean Series, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports. "It might be [the end], unless something comes that changes my mind," Lugo said. "But I think this is going to be it for me." The 37-year-old infielder last appeared at the MLB level with the 2011 Braves. He has a .269/.333/.384 batting line over the course of 12 seasons plus $48MM in career earnings (via Baseball-Reference).
• The Cubs (Scott Feldman), Brewers (Mike Gonzalez) and Pirates (Russell Martin) completed some under-the-radar signings that have the potential to pay off in 2013, Matthew Leach writes at MLB.com.
• Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports confirms that the Rangers and Indians have interest in free agent infielder Ryan Theriot (Twitter link). The Phillies and Giants are also interested in Theriot, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported last month.

• Talks between the Indians and Julio Lugo have fallen apart, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com reports. The sides agreed to terms earlier this month, but it no longer appears that the move will become official. Bastian suggests a physical issue may have surfaced.
• The arbitration hearing dates for Asdrubal Cabrera and Rafael Perez have been set, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets. The Indians haven’t had an arbitration hearing since 1991, Hoynes writes.
• No one is sure how long it will be before Carmona/Hernandez can join the team, Bastian explains. It seems unlikely that the Indians will have him by Opening Day since obtaining a visa and sorting through legal issues will take time.

Lugo, 36, spent last season with the Braves, signing a minor league deal in May and getting released in September. In between, he hit .231/.286/.365 in 58 minor league plate appearances and .136/.208/.136 in 48 big league plate appeances. Lugo gives the team some infield depth along with Jose Lopez and Andy LaRoche, who signed minor league deals with Cleveland earlier this offseason.

Lugo, 35, appeared in 22 games for the Braves, backing up at short, second and third without contributing anything on offense (.136/.208/.136 line in 48 plate appearances). The 12-year veteran has a career .269/.333/.384 line, but he hasn't produced at the plate since 2009.

The Braves have now released two infielders in two days; they cut Wes Helms loose yesterday.

The 35-year-old hit .249/.298/.282 in 264 plate appearances with the Orioles last year. In 11 big league seasons with six teams, Lugo has a .270/.334/.386 line with 80 homers and 198 stolen bases. He has experience at second, short and third and can even play the outfield if necessary. Lugo, a right-handed hitter, has hit lefties and righties evenly in his career, but struggled to hit right-handed pitching last year.

Dan Uggla, Alex Gonzalez and Chipper Jones start at second, short and third for the Braves and Brooks Conrad, Diory Hernandez and Brandon Hicks have provided depth at those positions this year. Lugo will provide the Braves with additional insurance in case of injuries or poor performance.

"I want to play, I'm healthy," said Lugo. "The last thing you lose is hope … I keep working every day to be ready when someone remembers my name and believes I can help … I can help in many ways, while playing in different positions in the infield and outfield, run, pinch hit."

Lugo, 35, spent last season with the Orioles, hitting just .249/.298/.282 in 264 plate appearances. The Red Sox designated him for assignment in July 2009, trading him to the Cardinals for Chris Duncan a few days later. Boston paid Lugo almost $13MM over the last year-and-a-half to play in St. Louis and Baltimore.

A right-handed bat with some speed, Lugo has played every position but pitcher, catcher, and first base in his career. As far as we know, no team has expressed interest in him this winter, but all it takes is one Spring Training injury for that phone to ring.

Here are the rest of Olney's rumors…

• Sources tell Olney there is no clear signal from the Mariners indicating that they're ready to trade Cliff Lee, but presumably that will come soon. He compares a potential Lee trade to the CC Sabathia trade, meaning that the sooner he's dealt, the more Seattle will receive in return.
• The Diamondbacks continue to gather intel about possible trades, but they are not close to making another deal at the moment.
• The Royals have a pair of outfielders in Rick Ankiel and David DeJesus who could be fits for the Red Sox. J.D. Drew suffered a hamstring injury yesterday, and Boston was already without Jacoby Ellsbury and Jeremy Hermida, who are both on the disabled list. Mike Cameron is playing through an abdominal tear as well.

"There is going to come a time where we’re going to be obligated to keep making changes in terms of offensive personnel," MacPhail said. "I would say there isn’t a great deal of time left before they have to start doing more than what they’re doing now. I’m not staying with them forever. It’s not a suicide pact. They either have to start performing or they’ll go to [Triple-A] Norfolk."

Although MacPhail didn't single anyone out specifically, Zrebiec notes that Adam Jones, Nolan Reimold, Luke Scott, Garrett Atkins, and Julio Lugo are among the players underperforming so far.

Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik talked this week about a similar need for offensive production, but while Zduriencik's Mariners are hoping to be buyers, the Orioles, already 13 games out of first place, are more likely to be sellers. Still, MacPhail's comments suggest that if the club elects to make changes, it will probably mean players being demoted rather than traded.

Feldman opines that this demonstrates the lack of value Lugo really had as spring went along.  It's hard to argue with that reasoning.  Lugo became expendable when Felipe Lopez fell into their laps at a bargain rate.

The 34-year-old hasn't exactly been mashing for the O's so far this season, as evidenced by his .107/.167/.107 slash line.  Something tells me we might see Julio again when we run the "Traded Players' Slow Starts" post later this evening.

• After seeing Mike Leake earn a spot in the Reds' rotation without pitching in the minors, MLB.com's Mark Sheldon lists the other 20 drafted players who once made the leap straight to the show.
• The Giants officially optioned Buster Posey to Triple A Fresno, writes Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Earlier today, we looked at a potential timeline for when we could see Posey in the majors.
• Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets that the Indians will pay $900K to purchase Jamey Wright's minor league contract. Wright had a provision in his deal that allowed him to opt out if he wasn't on the big league roster by today.
• Julio Lugo expects to see a good deal of playing time in Baltimore, according to the Baltimore Sun's Jeff Zrebiec.
• Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas says that the Rangers anticipate a "continued improvement" from Scott Feldman over the course of the contract they signed him to today. In a separate piece, MacMahon notes that recent addition Ryan Garko will have his playing time dictated, to a certain extent, by how Chris Davis fares early on against lefties.
• Corey Hart doesn't intend to let recent trade rumors involving him become a distraction, according to Anthony Witrado of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Tigers went on the finish the season 43-119, and were rewarded by selecting Justin Verlander with the second overall pick the following season. Here's this week's set of links from around the web…

• A Cubbies Consilience throws some kudos Jim Hendry's way for his offseason.
• Camden Crazies calls the O's trade for Julio Lugo an okay one.
• The Kept Faith finds some players Kevin Towers passed on while he was the Padres' GM.
• 1 Blue Jays Way remembers Roy Halladay's time in Toronto.
• Meanwhile, Around The BasePath looks at some expectations for Halladay's first year in Philadelphia.
• Drunk Jays Fans wonders why Lyle Overbay was named the team's every day first baseman when he can't hit lefties.
• Lookout Landing compares Eric Byrnes and Ryan Langerhans with regards to the Mariners' spare outfielder's job.
• Bronx Bombers Beat examines the Yankees' plan for Phil Hughes.
• More Hardball lists the players who will begin the season on the disabled list.
• Capitol Avenue Club rounds out the Braves' roster.
• Crashburn Alley looks at the Phillies' winners and losers from Spring Training.

If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.

Lugo provides insurance for Brian Roberts, who dealt with back spasms earlier this spring.  He can also back up Cesar Izturis at shortstop.  Ghiroli says the Lugo acquistion could mean Robert Andino is on the chopping block.

The Cards' signing of Felipe Lopez made Lugo unnecessary.  Lugo, 34, hit .280/.352/.405 in 293 plate appearances for the Red Sox and Cardinals last year.  The Cardinals acquired him in July for Chris Duncan, with the Sox assuming Lugo's contract.

Hechevarria avoids saying directly that the Blue Jays aren't the team of his teenage dreams, but he lets slip that he "played shortstop for Santiago imagining that it was Yankee Stadium." Nevertheless, Ebro notes that Hechevarria turned down an offer from the Yankees in the hopes of rising more quickly to prominence in Toronto's system. The New York Post's George King II wrote three days ago that the Yankees were likely willing to offer similar money to Toronto, and more recently, the Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott quoted an unnamed executive as saying that "the word in the scouting community" was that the Yankees' offer was larger Toronto's winning bid of $10MM for four years.

Shortstop for the Blue Jays has been a sorespot in terms of both reliable production and reliable attendance since back when the team was a perpetual contender, as last year's .789 OPS by Marco Scutaro was the highest by a Blue Jays shortstop logging at least 500 PAs since Tony Fernandez in 1987. Over those ensuing years, other AL East teams have built their lineups around the likes of Cal Ripken, Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, and Miguel Tejada. Even the Rays have been able to bank on shortstop with more reliability than the Jays, as Tampa Bay's recent history has witnessed the best years of Julio Lugo's career and the arrival of Jason Bartlett.

But what to expect from Hechevarria himself? In the absence of minor league stats and scouting reports, Ebro's sources reach for comparisons. One scout labels him "an Alfonso Soriano who can defend," while another describes him as more polished than last year's highly regarded Cuban shortstop prospect, Jose Iglesias, who will start the season in Double A Portland for the Red Sox. Comparisons between the two prospects are seemingly inevitable, for reasons of age (Iglesias is 20), nationality, contract size, and because Hechevarria got the nod over Iglesias at short for the Cuban team at the World Baseball Junior Championships in 2007.

Elliott at the Toronto Sun quotes an AL executive who calls Hechevarria "a much better player" than Iglesias, while another official from a team who made an offer to Hechevarria labeled him "probably more of a fielder than a hitter" for the time being, albeit one who will be "pretty offensive when it all plays out." Like Iglesias, Hechevarria will likely start out at Double A, notes Dave Perkins at the Toronto Star.

All comparisons with other prospects aside, though, Ebro's article starts out by comparing Hechevarria's potential to the next few years of his idol, Jeter, and writers in New York have noted the comparison as well. Mike Vaccaro at the New York Post most recently wrote that Hechevarria was widely believed to be "earmarked for the Yankees," and that that missing out on Hechevarria shows the team's commitment to an iconic shortstop who "will have to morph from shortstop into either a left fielder or a full time designated hitter" by the end of his next contract—especially if that contract stretches to six years, as Jon Heyman recently posited.

According to some, though, Hechevarria's future isn't even at short. One scout tells Elliott that the prospect's skills will eventually put him in the outfield, while Vaccaro notes that Hechevarria's bat could translate well to second base or center field, just one more reason why the newest Blue Jay "made all the sense in the world" for the Yankees.

• Brian Fuentes, Angels: $9MM option vests with 55 games finished.  Fuentes has finished 55+ three times in his career, last year included.  Fernando Rodney will be lurking.
• Billy Wagner, Braves: $6.5MM option vests with 50 games finished.
• Trever Miller, Cardinals: $2MM option vests with 45 games, but reverts to a club option with a left arm or shoulder injury.
• Matt Cain, Giants: $6.25MM option vests with 182.3 innings or 27 starts.  The Giants will exercise this even if it doesn't vest, as the alternative will be going to arbitration with Cain and potentially paying him more.
• Kerry Wood, Indians: $11MM option vests with 55 games finished.  A trade into a non-closing job could affect Wood's bank account.  That's three closers whose GF totals we'll be monitoring. 
• Alex Cora, Mets: $2MM option vests with 80 starts.
• Darren Oliver, Rangers: $3.25MM option vests with 59 appearances.
• Ramon Hernandez, Reds: $3.25MM option vests with 120 games played.
• Magglio Ordonez, Tigers: $15MM option vests with 135 starts or 540 plate appearances.
• Note that a game finished is given to the last non-starting pitcher of record.  Also, thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts for the info.