That's one middle-infield upgrade off the table—the Los Angeles Dodgers have apparently signed Juan Uribe to a three-year deal worth $21 million. Uribe is 31 and has a three-year dead spot in his career that will worry me indefinitely, but he was, worryingly enough, the class of the free agent options in the middle infield, and the Dodgers are at least playing this the right way, presumably moving Uribe to second and leaving Rafael Furcal at short. What remains?
↵Well, there's Bill Hall, who had an even more terrifying 2009 season before bouncing back a little with the Boston Red Sox; Miguel Tejada, who is probably the favorite to replace Uribe in San Francisco; and Jason Bartlett, likely on the trading block. The Dodgers will probably nontender Ryan Theriot to make room for Uribe, if you feel a need to give Tony La Russa yet another scrappy white guy to play with.
↵My favorite options right now, pending any Jose Reyes blockbuster or Hiroyuki Nakajima actually being posted after all, are Marco Scutaro, also on the block, who would make a nice second baseman (although the year-to-year variance in his defensive numbers and his age [35] are both concerns), or J.J. Hardy, who had a decent-enough bounceback year with the Minnesota Twins and is still just 28. If the Cardinals are still intent on adding power this offseason, Hardy, who should be available after the Twins won the bid for Tsuyoshi Nishioka, might be the best lottery ticket around in the middle infield.
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