MLB Wire Notes | Sosa might have value based on 21 homers

CHICAGO — Sammy Sosa showed this year he still could hit, batting .252 with 21 homers and driving in 92 runs in 412 at-bats. His production tailed off late in the season but mostly because he lost a lot of at-bats while the Texas Rangers evaluated younger hitters.

Texas is not re-signing Sosa, who turns 39 Monday, but it is unclear what kind of offers he will get.

The Washington Nationals could enter the picture, but the New York Mets apparently aren't interested — not even with the team being run by general manager Omar Minaya, the scout who signed Sosa in 1985.

Minaya said he is set with an outfield that has Moises Alou in left, Carlos Beltran in center and Carlos Gomez in right.

"If [Sosa] wants to play, he should," Minaya said. "I thought he did a good job for Texas. He was on his way to driving in 100 runs. I'm happy for him. He worked hard, took advantage of the opportunity."

A-Rod watch

The Alex Rodriguez saga will reach another milepost Tuesday, the first day free agents can sign anywhere they choose.

Rodriguez probably won't agree to a new contract that day, but the infielder could start to see what sort of deal other teams are willing to give him. Rodriguez, 32, batted .314 with 54 home runs and 156 RBI this year, his fourth with the New York Yankees.

Will ex-Mariner Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras, find a team ready to shell out $30 million per year? Will some team offer a contract that will trump the 10-year, $252 million deal Rodriguez signed with Texas the last time he was a free agent?

Notes

• Front-office executives seem to agree this year's free-agent crop is devoid of top-tier starting pitchers.

"It's a dangerous market," Philadelphia general manager Pat Gillick, a former Mariners GM, said.

Gillick should know. Last year, the Phillies gave Snohomish's Adam Eaton, who had never won more than 11 games or surpassed 200 innings in a season, a three-year, $24.5 million contract. He went 10-10 with a 6.29 earned-run average in his first season with the Phillies, becoming a target of fans' venom.

• Reliever J.C. Romero, 31, re-signed with the Phillies, agreeing to a three-year, $12 million contract. The team has an option for a fourth season that could bring the total value of the contract to $16.75 million.

• Delwyn Young hit a three-run homer in the first inning to lead the United States, managed by Davey Johnson, to a 5-1 victory over Japan at the Baseball World Cup in Taiwan.

• A 1938 game-used jersey worn by Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees went for $402,500 to an anonymous bidder at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory auction in Kentucky.

• Former Mariner Ken Griffey Jr., a Cincinnati Reds outfielder who is involved with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, received the inaugural Living Legend Award from the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory.

"This is something I never dreamed about. Never thought about," Griffey said. "I'm honored and humbled."