Teams have till Friday to get their own free agents signed before anybody else can offer them any dough and it's not looking good for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to get third baseman Chone Figgins(notes) and pitcher John Lackey(notes) re-signed before then, according to the Los Angeles Times.

There's a rumor floating around that the team (along with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees) is waiting to throw more than $100 million at outfielder Matt Holliday(notes), who hit .313 with 24 home runs and 109 runs batted in for the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals this past season. But GM Tony Reagins is saying that no such thing is true. "Our focus is not on him right now."

It is extremely doubtful that Reagins will get Figgins or Lackey to sign anything before Friday. Both are highly coveted on the free-agent market and would likely get paid to play more elsewhere. "They have earned the right to see what their value is," Reagins said.

Lackey supposedly wants to sign a deal worth more than $100 million and has interest from the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, and New York Yankees. Figgins is likely to sign a deal for half of that and his suitors supposedly include the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Big slugger Vladimir Guerrero(notes) is a free agent now and it appears that the Texas Rangers would like to bring the former Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim designated hitter to the Lone Star State, according to FOXSports.

The offense of the Rangers was significantly lower this past season than in 2008 and the team wants to boost those numbers. There have been rumors that one route toward regaining that would be to bring Milton Bradley(notes) back to the team via trade with the Chicago Cubs. But they could also up their numbers with the addition of the 34-year-old Guerrero. After all, the guy has a .394 average in 50 games at the ballpark in Arlington.

The Rangers apparently have some money woes (don't we all?) so that could make things difficult to bring Guerrero onboard. He may currently be looking to get the kind of dough Bobby Abreu(notes) got from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: $19 million over two years. But it is apparently more likely that he'll end up with a one-year deal worth somewhere between $3 million and $5 million. Nothing to sneeze at.

Source: FOXSports

The Seattle Mariners apparently have some interest in bringing pitcher Rich Harden(notes) to the Great Northwest after a year and a half with the Chicago Cubs, according to the Seattle Times.

Harden spent five years in the American League West with the Oakland Athletics and is apparently interested in returning to the division. The Mariners would like to provide some support in the rotation to young ace Felix Hernandez(notes) and Harden would be just the trick. After all, the 27-year-old went 9-9 last year with a 4.09 ERA.

It is rumored that Harden doesn't have much interest in returning to Chicago since he supposedly felt overused and suffered from some poor defensive play by Alfonso Soriano(notes) and Milton Bradley(notes).

Source: Seattle Times

Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry spoke with seven or eight teams yesterday about what players are on the market and what players aren't on the market and it appears that he's identified two players who could be playing center field on Chicago's North Side next season, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Of course Hendry also needs to get rid of an outfielder who want be easy to get rid of: Milton Bradley(notes). The rumor is that the Cubs are interested in the Texas Rangers' Marlon Byrd(notes) and that it is possible that the Detroit Tigers might put Curtis Granderson(notes) on the market, which would be another prime target for Chicago.

Hendry could likely sign Byrd without dealing Bradley but Granderson has $25.75 million owed to him over the next three years so Hendry would have to clear up some salary space and he wouldn't likely be able to do that by trading Bradley to Detroit. Tigers manager Jim Leyland flipped his lid last summer when it was so much as suggested that Bradley might be coming to the Motor City via trade.

The Cubs' 2010 payroll is expected to go up to $145 million, more than anybody else in the National League Central.

Source: Chicago Tribune

It's not looking like tons of teams want to take disgruntled outfielder Milton Bradley(notes) off of the hands of the Chicago Cubs right now, but the Texas Rangers apparently remain interested, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The two sides are still talking about a potential deal and Cubs GM Jim Hendry apparently would like to get an agreement before the winter meetings that start Dec. 7.

Bradley, of course, left the Rangers at the start of last year when he took the Cubs' three-year, $30 million deal over the offer of $6 million for one year from the Rangers.

Two other possible destinations for Bradley are apparently the New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays. Hendry would reportedly love to get his hands on Mets second baseman Luis Castillo(notes) who has two years and $12 million left on his contract. Mets ownership, though, apparently isn't hugely interested in bringing in Bradley.

The Rays also tried to get Bradley last off-season so Hendry is hoping they've still got some interest.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard that the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers are having some nasty marital troubles so there is a rumor floating around that the lovely couple, Frank and Jamie McCourt, could try to unload the team and that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban would be the first in line to buy the team, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Cuban, who tried to buy the Chicago Cubs, tells the paper there is no substance to the story. And the Dodgers aren't even for sale.

According to the paper, "Cuban has said repeatedly in recent months that he has no interest in adding any sports franchises to his business portfolio." It would really have to be some kind of special situation for him to want the Dodgers as part of his portfolio: "I'm not a fan of debt-driven acquisitions. If a unique situation came up where I could contribute capital to buy out a majority shareholder and gain control, with existing shareholders or note holders staying in place, I would consider it," he wrote.

Source: Dallas Morning News

Clint Hurdle got canned early in the season as the Colorado Rockies' manager. That didn't stop the team from rolling to 92 wins and the wild card before getting stopped by the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round of the playoffs.

Now it's looking like Hurdle may join the Texas Rangers as the hitting coach, according to MLB.com. Hurdle had the same job with the Rockies from 1997 to 2001. The Rockies were at the front of the National League pack in runs scored for three of those seasons and only two runs off the lead during the other two. Hurdle also helped guide Larry Walker to the 1997 Most Valuable Player Award. Walker, Vinny Castilla(notes), and Todd Helton(notes) also won Silver Sluggers under his watchful eye.

So the Rangers appear to want a little bit of that magic. First thing they might want to do is find a way to thin out the air at their stadium.

Will be interesting to see if Hurdle has any interest in bringing Milton Bradley(notes) back to the Rangers, which some team execs supposedly would like to do since the Chicago Cubs want to unload him and the Rangers lacked a certain punch without Bradley in the lineup this past season.

Source: MLB.com

A month ago, the Texas Rangers scoffed at the notion that it could bring back outfielder Milton Bradley(notes), but now it's looking like the idea is gaining some steam in the executive suites, according to MLB.com

Bradley was with the team in 2008 when he had a .321 average and led the American League in OPS (on base plus slugging). The loss of Bradley to the Chicago Cubs is part of the reason the Rangers scored 115 fewer runs in 2009 than in 2008.

He's got two more years and about $20 million left on his deal with the Cubs but they want to unload Bradley. Who wouldn't want a guy who injured himself while trying to go after a first baseman after he had gotten on base, confronted a television announcer in the press box for comparing him to Josh Hamilton(notes), and complained of the "negativity" in Chicago.

Source: MLB.com

The Atlanta Braves are denying it, according to MLB.com, but the word on the street is that the team is joining the fray for the services of young gun Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman, according to Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated has it that the two sides are planning to meet up soon enough but GM Frank Wren tells MLB.com that no such plans exist.

Other teams supposedly willing to throw a boatload of cash at the 21-year-old lefty Chapman to get him are the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners. New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals. In short, everybody wants him.

Source: Sports IllustratedMLB.com