Florida Marlins Close to John Buck Deal

Buck will give Florida some
much needed power (20 HR)

The Florida Marlins are on the verge of signing their first big-name free-agent since 2005, as they are close to a 3-year $18M deal with catcher John Buck.  Buck had a nice year with the Toronto Blue Jays, hitting .281 with 20 HR and 66 RBI and will give the Marlins a decent defensive catcher with some power.  I don't like the amount of money per year, but the market seemed to be heating up on John Buck so I guess it was the price that the Marlins had to pay to get their guy.

Ramblings: Buck, Reynolds, de la Cruz, Blum, Contreras

• The Red Sox might look at catcher John Buck in the free-agent market, says Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com.
• Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Arizona Diamondbacks are shopping K-artist Mark Reynolds.  The third-baseman is the most notorious feast or famine hitter around (hitting 32 HR but striking out 211 times last year).  They are looking for contact hitters, especially after such a pathetic strike out-laden 2010 season they had.
• The Oakland Athletics continue their busy week, this time signing 16-year old international free-agent Vicmal de la Cruz.  The center-fielder seems to be a 5-tool player with tons of upside.  Oakland paid Vicmal a $800K bonus.
• A pair of veterans are deep in negotiations with their previous teams: Geoff Blum and Jose Contreras.  Blum is thought to be "close to resigning" with the Astros while the Phillies acknowledged that they are trying extremely hard to bring back Contreras.