Free-agent first baseman Carlos Delgado will make his winter league debut on Sunday, according to a report out of Puerto Rico. Delgado missed most of last season with the Mets after undergoing hip surgery. "If everything goes well, I'm planning on playing that day," Delgado told the newspaper Primer Hora. "So far I haven't spoken with management [for Carolina], but that's the date I'm targeting. I still have to go through my routine these next three days, then practice on [Saturday]."

Hideki Matsui is confident that he can return to the outfield next season with the Angels. Matsui returned to Japan on Wednesday, two weeks after signing a one-year, $6 million deal with Los Angeles. "I'd like to prove I can play defense at spring training," Matsui said. "It will be difficult to play defense every day like in the past, but I'd like to reach the point where I'm able to play defense once every few games." He has been slowed by surgically repaired knees.

A lot of teams were considering free-agent Mark DeRosa as an alternative to their first target, which upset the utility man. DeRosa signed a two-year deal with the Giants on Monday. "I was just tired of being a lot of team's Plan Bs," DeRosa said. "I'm not hitting No. 3 or 4 in the lineup ... I understand that. (But) I wanted to go to a place where I felt comfortable and where the team wanted me and needed me. This was a good spot." DeRosa said about six teams were on his final list of options, though not every one had an offer on the table.

The Nationals acquired Brian Bruney from the Yankees earlier this month to compete for the team's closer role. Bruney will likely battle with Matt Capps, who Washington recently signed as a free agent, for the job. "It's a new journey. It's a new challenge. You have to continue to challenge yourself. It seems it's going to be a lot of fun. When you expect to win every night like we did in New York, I don't know if the winning is as fun as when nobody expects you to win," Bruney told MLB.com. "You are the underdogs every night and you prove people wrong. I think that is a lot more fun. That's the part I'm looking forward to --- being on a team where nobody expects us to do anything. Hopefully we'll put some wins together, get on a roll and play good baseball for six months. We'll see where it goes."

With Mark DeRosa in San Francisco, the Giants will likely move Pablo Sandoval from third to first base. DeRosa is primarily an infielder, but he can play in the outfield as well. The Giants agreed on a two-year deal with the free agent on Monday. San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean said at the winter meetings earlier this month that he expects Sandoval to become the cleanup hitter.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is proud of what he calls a "wonderful year." "It was a difficult year, but a wonderful year," he said in an interview with MLB.com. Like a majority of businesses, economic struggles reached the game of baseball, but it wasn't fundamentally changed by the recession. "There were a lot of clubs that had difficulty, some were significantly impacted," Selig said. "But in terms of management, in terms of the popularity of the sport, which is just enormous, it was a remarkable year in a lot of ways. We launched a [television] channel which had remarkable success, [MLB.com] continued to do very well, we draw 73, 74 million people. It's a great tribute to the sport. "[The decline in attendance] was fractional. If you take out the two New York ballparks' reduced capacity, we're down about five percent. There isn't a business, there isn't an entity in America who would be unhappy being down only five percent in this economy. You bet, I'm very proud of that. "It's been a great year. Given the economic environment that we live in and all the great concerns and trepidation that we had late last year, into January, February and March, the year turned out remarkably well. It was a difficult year, but a wonderful year. "On the field, it was fabulous. A great year, beginning to end. We had more competitive balance. It was just a terrific year, under the worst circumstances since the Great Depression. That's the point you have to keep in mind."

The Pirates could enter the season with Jeff Clement at first base. That's a scary proposition because Clement has never played first in the majors and rarely did in the minors. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, even when assigned to Instructional League in October to get extra work at first, he was limited to off-field rehabilitation because of a strained oblique. "From our brief look at Jeff in August, we need to give him a foundation and get him acclimated over there," director of player development Kyle Stark said.

A National League manager says that in order to get the best out of Jeremy Hermida, the Red Sox need to give him regular at-bats. Boston acquired Hermida earlier this offseason, before they signed Mike Cameron. The Globe writes that he won't get enough at-bats if he's simply an extra outfielder. "To turn the corner, he's got to play," said the manager. "He could easily be a J.D. Drew type, maybe better, but if he's platooning, not sure what that does for him or for the team. He's reaching that critical age where he could just continue being what he is or he could become an All-Star player." If the Red Sox decide to pursue Jason Bay again, Hermida isn't likely to shine.

Stan Benjamin, a Houston Astros scout for nearly 40 years, has died. Benjamin was 95 when he passed away early Thursday on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He evaluated talent on the amateur and professional level and joined the Astros in 1965.

Hideki Matsui, who signed with the Angels earlier this month, has a history of success against AL West clubs. STATS, LLC published his numbers against the division: He has four home runs and averages of .306/.367/.529 against the Athletics, five homers and .312/.361/.541 against the Mariners and four long balls and .316/.422/.592 against the Rangers.