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It’s the signing of the off-season! Screw that Zito deal in SF – this is the biggest one yet! The Rangers re-signed Jerry Hairston Jr to a 1 year minor league contract with an invite to spring training. (Link)
I hope they’re starting to print the World Series Tickets already.

The Giants just trumped everyone, pulling a Hicks/Arod move and outbidding everyone by a wide margin apparently. Zito has agreed to a deal with the Giants for seven years on Wednesday evening. It’s a 7 year deal for $126 million with an option eighth. Largest contract ever for a pitcher, that’s for sure. According to the story:

Zito’s agreement, reached late Wednesday night, includes an $18 million option for 2014 with a $7 million buyout that could increase the value to $137 million. The option would become guaranteed if Zito pitches 200 innings in 2013, 400 combined over 2012 and 2013 or 600 combined from 2011-13.

Well, at least he won’t be pitching in Arlington anymore with that 11-1 record, unless it’s in the playoffs or interleague anymore. That part is good.
It’s also good that this money is not spent, so it could be used for Mike Young and Mark Teixeira. I expect it will take those kinds of numbers to resign Teixeira, especially with Boor-Ass as his agent. I know the Rangers have said that signing Zito wouldn’t have stopped them, but you have to think re-signing them has been made easier with that money not being paid to Zito on payroll day.
This all makes the deals signed by Padilla & Millwood look like a bargain, eh? :)

Sat down after putting my daughter down for a nap, and got a flash from the Dallas Morning news saying this..

According to two Rangers sources, the club has agreed to send top pitching prospect John Danks, the team’s No. 1 pick in 2003, and reliever Nick Masset to the Chicago White Sox for 23-year-old hard-throwing right-hander Brandon McCarthy. Both teams will also exchange low-level minor leaguers.

There is an article online at the DMN; as these things break, online DMN articles tend to be updated, so you may want to check back again there in a little.
Danks AND Masset, eh? That’s a high price for McCarthy. Yikes. I know McCarthy is good, but he’ll now be known as the guy who cost us Danks, so he had better deliver.
UPDATE: TR Sullivan’s blog now has a story on this trade. TR says the full trade list is: John Danks, Nick Masset, & P Jacob Rasner to White Sox for Brandon McCarthy & OF David Paisano. Don’t know Rasner & Paisano myself, I know the other guys. This will be big, and a lot of discussion will follow shortly, I’m sure.
UPDATE 2: The Rangers site has a story up now, but it’s mostly the same thing that’s on TR’s blog (as he writes the Rangers site too).
UPDATE 3: I went to the White Sox site to see if their reporter had anything yet. They had not as of 1:50PM Saturday. However, they had posted an article earlier this morning on McCarthy getting his Christmas wish about being put into the rotation. I bet you he thought it was going to be in Chicago, not Arlington. Go check out the article, it has a lengthy interview with McCarthy about a wide range of topics.
UPDATE 4: An article is up on chicagosports.com about the trade. Check it out.
UPDATE 5: The White Sox fan site Sox Machine has an update on the trade. They seem as stunned as Ranger fans are about losing Danks.
If you have something to say, please feel free to add a comment here.

Here’s some proof that the world of baseball blogging tends to fold in on itself. I was reading Athletics Nation today, and they have a piece up talking about whether they want Barry Zito to end up in the NL, or with the Rangers so they could see him all the time. They reference back Adam Morris’ article over at lonestarball from this past Sunday where he references Zito as “a younger Kenny Rogers”; the perfect pitcher for TBIA.
My personal thoughts is that the Rangers won’t get outbid on dollars per year, but it could come down to years. All things being equal, my gut says New York. I’ve seen several biographies on Zito over the years, and I always got the impression he wasn’t the kind of personality that would stand up well in New York. I don’t think it would be as disastrous as Rogers was up there, but my gut feeling is that Zito is more suited to a market that wouldn’t do news stories on every single fart he has, claiming it’s some sort of sign. Heck, I saw a TWIB story on him saying he travels on the road with a Teddy Bear. Is that the kind of guy who seems well fit to deal with a media market like New York? For the record I love teddy bears. :)
As a Rangers fan, sure I want to see him here. But I think the only way he comes here is if he gets the most $ from Hicks. Yeah, there’s those stories about him being 11-1 here in his career. If he had Arlington as his home park, I’m sure those numbers wouldn’t be as gaudy.