Deals heat up winter meetings

Published 3:51 am Thursday, December 10, 2009

INDIANAPOLIS — The winter meetings heated up even more Wednesday, with Milwaukee landing pitchers Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins, Baltimore acquiring Kevin Millwood in a trade with Texas, and the Yankees completing the three-team, seven-player swap that brought them All-Star center fielder Curtis Granderson.

As the Rangers traded Millwood, they added Rich Harden. New York also re-signed postseason star Andy Pettitte, and Houston reeled in hard-throwing reliever Matt Lindstrom from the Florida Marlins on the next-to-last-day of the four-day annual session.

As always, money overshadowed everything, with some teams prepared to pay for top talent and others set to slice payroll.

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“We are making some adjustments and it’s a business decision,” Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said after dealing Granderson to the Yankees and All-Star pitcher Edwin Jackson to the Diamondbacks.

Detroit obtained lefty reliever Phil Coke and outfield prospect Austin Jackson from the Yankees, plus touted young pitchers Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from Arizona. The Diamondbacks also got right-hander Ian Kennedy from New York.

Baltimore will receive $3 million from Texas along with Millwood, while the cash-strapped Rangers get a player to be named. The money offsets part of the former All-Star’s $12 million salary.

“Our job is to identify motivated buyers and motivated sellers,” said Andy MacPhail, Orioles president of baseball operations.

Millwood, who lives in Texas, heads to a team coming off its 12th straight losing season. He was 13-10 with a 3.67 ERA and three complete games this year.

Relief pitcher Chris Ray and a player to be named head to the Rangers, a club in the process of being sold. Ray, 28 next month, was 0-4 with a 7.27 ERA in 46 games and has struggled since elbow surgery two years ago.

Texas also reached a preliminary agreement at $7.5 million, subject to a physical, with the hard-throwing Harden, who struck out 171 batters in 141 innings last season. Harden, who turned 28 last month, is 50-29 with a 3.39 ERA in seven big league seasons.