The Dodgers have signed left-handed reliever Will Ohman to a one-year minor league contract. Ohman will reportedly receive $1.35 million guaranteed in the deal and can earn an additional $425,000 in performance bonuses. The Dodgers claim they hold a team option for a second season.

The A's added depth at catcher, acquiring Curtis Thigpen from the Blue Jays and signing Eric Munson to a minor league deal, as reported by the Associated Press. Both catchers were brought in Friday in case projected backup Landon Powell gets hurt.

The Blue Jays will sign pitcher Shawn Hill once he clears waivers from the Nationals. "We wouldn't be signing him to come in here and make the major-league staff," Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi said. "We'd have to get him up to speed, kind of like (former major-leaguer) Wade Miller (currently in minor-league camp). "We're just trying to get as many arms as we can in here. We know the young kids are going to struggle. ... We're trying to put them in spots they might not be ready for. We get some veteran guys here and they can hold the fort down. "Eventually, (Ricky) Romero, (Brad) Mills, (Brett) Cecil will all pitch for us. Maybe one, maybe two breaks with us. It gives us enough experience where we can just ease them in as opposed to throwing them in. The Hills and those guys might allow us to buy some starts for the younger kids."

The Kansas City Royals have signed right-handed pitcher Sidney Ponson to a minor league contact for the 2009 season. Ponson will receive an invitation to Major League Spring Training camp and is scheduled to report to Surprise, Ariz., on Wednesday, March 18. Consistent with club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ponson, 32, most recently competed for the Netherlands as they made a surprising run to the second round of the World Baseball Classic. Ponson was 1-1 with a 4.00 ERA in two starts for the Dutch, allowing seven hits and four runs in 9.0 innings. He walked four and struck out four. His most recent appearance came on March 14 against Venezuela when he allowed two runs on two hits in 5.0 innings, but suffered the loss, 3-1. Ponson picked up the win in his only other WBC start on March 7 against the Dominican Republic, allowing two runs on five hits through 4.0 innings.

Chad Cordero has been signed to a minor league contact by the Seattle Mariners. He has also been invited hto the final weeks of their spring training camp. The Mariners announced on Thursday evening they expect Cordero to report to camp Friday. Cordero has 128 career saves since 2003. He has been out since last May with a shoulder injury sustained while he was with the Washington Nationals.

The Washington Nationals signed right-handed pitcher Kip Wells to a non-guaranteed minor league deal Wednesday, a contract that allows the veteran a chance to revive his career while presenting almost no risk to the club.

Wade Miller has reached a preliminary agreement on a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, according to his agent, Bob Garber. The deal is pending completion of a physical exam. Miller, 32, posted a 45-25 record from 2001 through 2003 in Houston, but his career since has been devastated by injuries.

The Cardinals signed free agent Dennys Reyes to a two-year, $3 million contract, pending his passing a team physical. General manager John Mozeliak finalized the deal during the team's 4-1 exhibition win over Team Dominicana and hours after manager Tony La Russa and his coaching staff underscored a need for help during a morning meeting. "I think it's safe to say this makes us a better team today than we were yesterday," Mozeliak said moments after the deal. "It's a need Tony and our staff felt remained, and we responded."

Well, that was a fun four months. Manny Ramirez didn't receive a single offer from a single other team, but still agreed to a two-year, $45 million deal from the Dodgers. The Dodgers and Manny clearly needed each other like the Beckhams need each other. Manny will not have an OPS of 1.232 like he had in August and September and he probably won't move as many dreadlock units, but he does three crucial things to make this move an outright success for Los Angeles. 1. Hits as well as any cleanup hitter in the game and fills a slot in the outfield that would have otherwise been filled by the sub-.700 OPS Juan Pierre. 2. Impacts batters before and after him in a way that only Pujols can match. I would knock down the projected OPS of the third and fifth place hitters by at least .30 points. 3. Manny makes the Dodgers relevant in a place where relevance counts far more than it does in a place like St. Louis. Ramirez will be 37 in 2009 for all intents and purposes and there have only been 16 seasons on record in which a player has hit for an OPS over 1.000 at 37 or older. Four of those belong to Barry Bonds, four to Ted Williams, two to Babe Ruth, two to Hank Aaron with Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Edgar Martinez and Larry Walker holding the other four. There have only been 39 seasons in which a player 37 or older has even hit for an OPS above .900. He was ranked 13th in season FIC (7th amongst hitters) and he 'deserved' a salary of $16M, giving him a Reina Value of -15%. At the beginning of free agency, I thought a four-year, $100M contract would be a fair deal for both sides. That projection of course was of target considerably as the big Edgar Renteria contracts dried up and Bobby Abreu somehow became a $5M player. The biggest upside for the Dodgers? They signed Andruw Jones to a two-year deal last year for just $8.8M less than this one. The biggest upside for Manny? He was able to skip out on the early part of Spring Training.. Wait, he would have done that anyways. Grade for the Dodgers: A-

The Oakland A's continued their aggressive offseason with an in-Spring Training move by signing shortstop Orlando Cabrera to a one-year, $4 million deal. Cabrera had one excellent offensive season back in 2003 and has ben a fairly average player in most other seasons and is coming off arguably the least productive offensive year of his career. After going to the White Sox in exchange for Jon Garland, Cabrera hit .281/.334/.371 and was 14th amongst shortstops in OPS. Not lost on people in Oakland is that Cabrera's .705 OPS easily beats Bobby Crosby's .645 and Edgar Renteria's .699. The former is the shortstop Cabrera will replace and the latter is who the Giants signed for $18.5 million over two years back in early December when the free agent market looked more slow than absolutely on life support. Cabrera is 34 and gives the A's a band-aid upgrade at shortstop over Crosby, though I'm not sure if he is exactly worth the pick it will cost them, plus the $4 million. For a team under more normal budget constraints, Cabrera is an absolute bargain but Billy Beane always has to come to the table with fewer chips. The 40 to even possibly 80 point difference in OPS between Cabrera and Crosby, however, will give the offense another .15 runs per game over the season. He will provide many more run producing opportunities for Matt Holliday than the alternatives and so this $4 million is also an investment in his $13.5 million. Crosby is of course the player most affected by this signing, but given Eric Chavez's injury proclivity, he would be wise to join Michael Young on that third baseman crash course of 2009. Additionally, Cabrera is still one of the better defensive shortstops, even though his range has declined. Grade for Oakland: B+