• Don Mattingly’s separation from the Dodgers was amicable, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. The pressures of managing an expensive team with championship expectations weighted on Mattingly, as did whispers about whether he would be fired. When the two sides spoke on Monday, the Dodgers told him they were not interested in offering a long-term extension, which told him their commitment to him wasn’t strong. The new Dodgers front office would, evidently, prefer to hire its own manager, even though Mattingly was willing to work with the front office with its use of advanced metrics.
• The Mariners are gambling that Scott Servais is the right hire for them despite his lack of managerial experience, John McGrath of the Tacoma News Tribune writes. As McGrath points out, gambles like this one are common nowadays: Mike Matheny of the Cardinals, Robin Ventura of the White Sox, Brad Ausmus of the Tigers, Walt Weiss of the Rockies, Craig Counsell of the Brewers and Kevin Cash of the Rays are, like Servais, all former players who lacked significant managerial experience before taking their current jobs.

3:19pm: According to John Gambadoro of KTAR Radio, the Diamondbacks signed reliever Tom Gordon to a one-year deal worth $500K guaranteed.  With incentives, Flash could earn up to $2.5MM.  Gordon, 41, had ulnar nerve decompression surgery in October.  A solid, low-risk acquisition by Arizona.

THURSDAY, 10:31pm: Piecoro spoke with Thurman, who said, "We’ve had a number of conversations and we’re getting close."  Gordon expects to be ready for Opening Day following October elbow surgery.  If he’s throwing well, I’m surprised there aren’t more suitors.

THURSDAY, 12:10pm: According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, the D’Backs are interested in free agent reliever Tom Gordon.  Flash, 41, has been affected by elbow injuries the last two seasons.  Arizona can’t have much left to spend.

Piecoro adds that the Diamondbacks were serious players to re-sign Brandon Lyon, but wanted to use him as a starter.

• The Pirates declined Jason Michaels’ $2.6MM option.  He could re-sign for less.
• The Phillies declined their options on So Taguchi ($1.25MM with a $150K buyout) and Tom Gordon ($4.5MM with a $1MM buyout).  The moves may have been Pat Gillick’s last as GM.
• The Brewers declined Craig Counsell’s $3.4MM option, paying a $400K buyout.
• The Athletics declined Alan Embree’s $3MM option.  As a Type B free agent, the A’s could offer him arbitration.  Susan Slusser spoke to Embree, who didn’t mind having the option declined.

• Cafardo seems to think the Yankees could entice C.C. Sabathia to pitch on the East Coast, and that the Angels would be crazy not to re-sign Mark Teixeira at whatever the cost. He also points out Joe Maddon’s connection to Francisco Rodriguez from his days as a coach with the Angels, and covers other top names such as Jake Peavy, A.J. Burnett, Derek Lowe, Manny Ramirez, Pat Burrell, Matt Holliday, and Garrett Atkins.
• The Minnesota Twins were ranked as the #1 team in young talent by the 2009 Bill James Handbook. Minnesota had ten players in the top 150: Joe Mauer, Delmon Young, Justin Morneau, Kevin Slowey, Scott Baker, Carlos Gomez, Nick Blackburn, Jason Kubel, Denard Span, and Glen Perkins.
• The article includes a Q&A with Tom Gordon, who has high praise for the Phillies, particularly Brad Lidge. Gordon says that having avoided Tommy John Surgery, he feels he can continue his career, and would love to pitch in Philadelphia next year. Gordon will understand if his option is declined, but is emphatic in saying he’s "going to pitch somewhere." Plenty of teams need bullpen help, and even with his injury, I can’t imagine him having a hard time finding work.
• Cafardo likes the idea of either Rocco Baldelli or Gabe Kapler as a fourth outfielder for the Red Sox.
• Would Pedro Martinez consider an incentive-laden contract to be Boston’s fifth starter next season?
• Red Sox catching prospect Mark Wagner has shown improvement the Arizona Fall League. This only adds to the Jason Varitek dilemma that Boston is faced with.

• The Padres claimed second baseman Travis Denker off waivers from the Giants.  Surprising to see the Giants let him go.
• Ted Berg at MetsBlog explains how a Carlos Beltran rumbling spun out of control.
• I recently did a Brewers Q&A with Bernie’s Crew.
• The Padres called yesterday’s report about John Moores selling his share of the team "highly speculative."  Tim Sullivan considers the statement revealing, and notes that this is a bad time to sell.
• Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times chatted with Scott Boras.
• Mark Cuban mentions that the struggling economy is slowing down the sale of the Cubs.
• Terry Pluto believes the Indians should pursue Brian Roberts.
• David Brown at Yahoo profiles Theo Epstein and Andrew Friedman.
• Freddy Garcia is headed to winter ball.  The Tigers will have the first crack at signing him.  Andruw Jones will also play winter ball; he seems to want a trade if he’s not a starter next year.
• Elbow surgery for Tom Gordon, which probably means the Phillies will buy out his ’09 option for $1MM.

It’s looking like Tom Gordon’s season is done. He was on the DL for inflammation in his elbow, but it’s now starting to look like he’ll need surgery. Philadelphia was hoping the righty set-up man would be back in time for their stretch run.

The Dodgers have DFA’d Brian Falkenborg to make room for Brad Penny. The thirty-year-old righty has a 6.17 ERA in 11 and two-thirds innings with LA this year. He has never pitched more than 20 innings per season in the big leagues.

• The Mets designated Claudio Vargas for assignment.  I’m a bit surprised, I think he’s still a useful pitcher.
• Pitcher Jon Lieber may retire after the season.  130+ wins, that’s a nice career.
• With Tom Gordon’s shoulder barking, the Phillies’ desire to add a reliever has intensified.  Here’s a look at the relief market.
• When a 2.93 ERA is considered underperforming, expectations were never reasonable.  Anyone else get the impression that if Johan Santana’s record was 10-3 instead of 7-6, there wouldn’t even be a discussion?  Joel Sherman believes the Yankees (if under Brian Cashman) would not go six or seven years to sign C.C. Sabathia in light of the Barry Zito and Santana deals.  He wonders whether Sabathia could be lured with a shorter term and higher average annual value.
• Julian Tavarez chose to become a free agent, surprising the Brewers.
• Roy Oswalt reminds us that he has a no-trade clause and hasn’t been approached by management about any deals.
• The Adam Dunn-J.P. Ricciardi saga continues.
• I chatted with Ryan Henning about the Twins recently.
• T.J. Simers and Ned Colletti argue about the GM’s trading track record.
• The Pirates are looking for pitching.  Brett Tomko anyone?  Anyone?
• Evan Grant discusses the Rangers’ trade options in his mailbag.

Dejan Kovacevic mentions that the A’s are considering Sean Casey.  Casey’s doing his usual good batting average/low slugging thing and he’s getting $8.5MM for it.  The combined efforts of Dan Johnson and Nick Swisher have been inadequate at first, but would Casey really help?  Johnson is hitting .485/.575/.848 in 33 Triple A at-bats; maybe he deserves another look.  The Athletics, who are dead last in the AL in slugging, wouldn’t be helped by adding the powerless Casey.  They need Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Lee, Pat Burrell, or even Raul Ibanez to make a difference. 

The Yankees have decided to hold on to Philip Hughes, and the Phils aren’t biting on whatever else they offered.  According to George King, the Yanks think assuming Abreu’s contract and exercising his option should be enough.  Still, it would be cool to see a nasty young Phillies rotation in 2008 with Hughes, Cole Hamels, Gio Gonzalez, and Scott Mathieson.

Also, I’m hearing that WPEN in Philadelphia has mentioned a trade rumor: Tom Gordon for Trot Nixon.  Nixon is a good hitter (.400 OBP), though he’s 32 with declining power numbers.  Given that Flash would be hands down the best reliever on the market, I’d expect the Phils to get more.   

Kenny Williams didn’t deny the recent Soriano rumor, so now you know it’s legit.  Kenny has been pretty shrewd with the media, so this is probably all part of his plan.  Despite word of a possible contract extension with Washington, Buster Olney all but assured us of a Soriano trade in today’s blog.

Also, Olney nixed the A-Rod to the Cubs idea, explaining that Rodriguez is a bargain in the Yankees’ world.  This column is kind of weird to me.  Phil Rogers almost seems like he’s just cooked up a brilliant scenario or something, with Aramis Ramirez and Jacque Jones being swapped for A-Rod.  Thing is, Bleed Cubbie Blue broke out this exact trade rumor three weeks ago.

RotoAuthority has a look at which pitchers have been abused this season.

"The White Sox have been calling around to clubs – including the Mets – letting it be known that Javier Vazquez or Freddy Garcia would be available. The price: top-notch relief help, which would allow the Sox to fortify their bullpen leading to closer Bobby Jenks, sources told the Daily News. Chicago has 23-year-old Brandon McCarthy ready to step into its rotation."

Seems like relievers are the hot ticket item of this particular trading season.  They’re always a popular deadline commodity but the price seemed quite high yesterday.  My Mets source is adamant that New York would not give up Duaner Sanchez (2.45 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 6.4 K/9) for Garcia or Vazquez.  He tells me that Aaron Heilman is an option.  To me, sounds like just the pitcher Don Cooper could fix after he’s stumbled a bit this season.

This year, the Mets have seen fine work from Heath Bell (0.83 ERA in 21 Triple A innings plus a 3.68 ERA in 22 big league innings) and Royce Ring (1.53 ERA in 29 Triple A innnings).  Henry Owens jumped up from Double A after 25 innings of 1.08 ball.

Rubin’s story also indicates that the Sox could have some interest in Tom Gordon, the best reliever on the trade market.  Flash has pitched for both Chicago teams.  He posted a 3.16 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 12 saves, and 11.0 K/9 in 74 innings for the Sox back in 2003.

The reliever who could make the biggest difference this year is probably Tom Gordon.  Trading him now could free the Phillies from the worrisome agreement to pay him $5-7 mil per season as he nears 40 years old.  Gordon has been excellent this year.  A return to the Yankees has been mentioned, and the Brewers or Dodgers could certainly use him.

Joe Borowski has been quite solid in Florida, and he makes less than $400,000.  JoBo’s actually been a lot better than his 3.71 ERA indicates.  He seems a lock to be dealt this month.

Adding a Salomon Torres or Roberto Hernandez from the Pirates doesn’t seem like it could possibly improve a team’s playoff chances significantly.  Still, there’s no reason for Dave Littlefield to keep these guys around given their salaries.

Bob Wickman, an impending free agent, has been connected to the Dodgers in rumors.  LaTroy Hawkins seems like a good candidate to move.  Other possibilities include Brian Meadows, Scott Williamson, Guillermo Mota, Arthur Rhodes, and Gary Majewski.

Anyway, the Phillies signed Tom Gordon for three years and $18-21MM.  It ain’t pretty, but they did what they had to do (a.k.a., Plan C).  I’m sure Beer Leaguer will weigh in and let us know how Phillies fans are feeling.

Me, I’m a bit taken aback by a team giving three years to a man who just turned 38.  Save the $20MM, pour it into a superstar.  A guy who plays 160 games and can impact your team by eight wins.  Not 80 innings of an aging closer.

Of course, Flash Gordon is a top-notch reliever.  The Phillies snagged the best one left on the market; why wouldn’t they?  Everyone expected this.  I can’t find anything worrisome in his stats besides his age.  Current Mets hitters have hit .096 off Gordon in 52 at-bats.  For the most part, he’ll be new to the National League hitters he’ll face regularly.  I just can’t get past the three-year commitment, especially knowing the Phillies’ history with overpaid relievers.