MLB Wire Notes | Rays mull adding Barry Bonds to roster

Barry Bonds is looking for a job, and the Tampa Bay Rays might be interested in the home-run king.

Rays manager Joe Maddon said he knew "little" about what was going on, but acknowledged some thought has been given to adding the former San Francisco slugger to the roster.

"A minor discussion was thrown out there a little bit, and it's really not gone any further than that," Maddon said at the team's spring-training facility in St. Petersburg, Fla. "That's all it is right now."

The St. Petersburg Times reported team officials have conferred about Bonds, 43, and other veteran unsigned free agents, such as Kenny Lofton and Mike Piazza. Andrew Friedman, Rays vice president of baseball operations, called the report a "nonstory."

Meanwhile, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said he had interest in signing Bonds the last two offseasons but each time the team's front office decided against the idea. La Russa said he was told the asking price for Bonds was too high.

Red Sox give Colon

minor-league deal

Bartolo Colon is off the market. The Boston Red Sox snapped up the 2005 American League Cy Young Award winner with a minor-league deal that includes bringing him to camp in Fort Myers, Fla.

"He's going to show up here in camp and we'll do an evaluation of how far he is away from helping us," Boston general manager Theo Epstein said.

Colon, 34, was 7-13 with a 5.72 earned-run average for the Los Angeles Angels while hampered by shoulder and elbow injuries the past two years.

If added to Boston's 40-man roster, Colon would get a one-year, $1.2 million contract.

Notes

• A House committee has taken the first steps toward asking the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation into whether pitcher Roger Clemens committed perjury during testimony on the topic of performance-enhancing drugs, three lawyers familiar with the matter told The New York Times.

A draft letter referring to Clemens — but not his accuser, former trainer Brian McNamee — had been drawn up by staff members for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform by the end of last week, according to two of the lawyers. But all three lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter, said it was possible McNamee also would be included in the referral by the time it was sent to the Justice Department.

• A jeweler who says a rival ruined his sale of a 2.5-carat pink diamond ring Clemens was buying for his wife, Debbie, last year to celebrate his return to the New York Yankees has sued a competitor for $5.1 million.

Marshall Asnen Inc.'s court papers say Clemens had agreed to pay $750,000 for the ring until dealer Charles Krypell "knowingly and maliciously made false and defamatory statements" about Asnen to Clemens and his wife.

• Texas right-hander Kevin Millwood, 33, was scratched from his first spring start because of an injured right hamstring. He was to pitch two innings Friday against the Angels.

"It's frustrating," he said. "I felt like I was in really good shape and then something like this happens."

• Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge, 31, is expected to miss from three to six weeks after having surgery on his right knee. He caught a spike in the mound on his first pitch of batting practice Saturday.

Doctors removed torn cartilage from the same knee in October.

• Minnesota third baseman Mike Lamb, 32, has a reputation for sarcasm and complaining.

Is that true, Mike? "No doubt. I hate life," he replied.

During photo day Monday, Lamb said he hoped photographers got a good shot of his unibrow.