The new contract Bruce Bochy signed with the San Francisco Giants does not make him the highest-paid manager in baseball.

However, he may have the second-highest salary.

Bochy is believed to be closing in on the $5 million mark, behind only Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels.

ESPN's SweetSpot bloggers have named Joey Votto their preseason MVP for the second consecutive year.

Votto collected 24 of the 47 first-place votes, with the other 23 distributed among nine different players.

After the Cincinnati Reds first baseman came Bryce Harper, Ryan Braun, Buster Posey, Andrew McCutchen, Jason Heyward, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Giancarlo Stanton and Adrian Gonzalez.

Jose Fernandez, the team's top pitching prospect, was among seven players added to the Miami Marlins' roster ahead of Opening Day.

The unexpected addition of Fernandez was made Sunday following injuries to right-handers Nate Eovaldi and Henderson Alvarez.

Jackie Bradley Jr. has made the Boston Red Sox out of spring training and will start in left field on Monday afternoon against the New York Yankees.

The 22-year-old is the first rookie to draw an Opening Day starting assignment for the Red Sox since Shea Hillenbrand in 2001.

"Like he's handled everything else, he didn't jump up and down," John Farrell said. "He took it in stride. I think it speaks to the maturity of where he is as a person."

C.J. Wilson, who left the Texas Rangers to sign with the Los Angeles Angels last offseason, says there were communication issues between the players, agents and front office.

"That's one of the reasons why I feel like a lot of the guys have left Texas over the past couple of years because of communication issues with the agents and the players and the general manger. They get very tenuous," Wilson said.

Wilson said the attitude with the front office in Los Angeles is "definitely different" and that there's "a lot more interpersonal relationships with the front office" than there was in Texas.

The Angels decided to move on from Wilson after the 2011 season and pursue Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish instead.

"When you're a free agent and the team that you're with tells you that they don't think you're that good or whatever, it doesn't give you any incentive to sign back," Wilson said. "They've played the whole wait-and-see card. It didn't really work with [Josh] Hamilton and it didn't work with me, either.

"They were hoping I would basically beg to come back, and that wasn't going to happen once I had fantastic contracts offered to me by the Marlins and by Anaheim."

The Washington Nationals have discussed a potential contract extension with infielder Ian Desmond this spring.

Desmond agreed to a one-year, $3.8 million contract for 2013 to avoid arbitration earlier this offseason.

However, it doesn't seem likely that the two sides will reach an agreement before Opening Day on Monday.

All parties declined to comment on talks.

The Detroit Tigers signed Justin Verlander to a contract that runs through at least the 2019 season on Friday, with an option for 2020.

It could make Verlander baseball's first-ever $200 million pitcher and also keep him with the Tigers for the length of his carer.

"I think it was obviously a great situation for him. I think it's a great situation for the organization. I think it's a great situation for the fans," manager Jim Leyland said. "He's been with the Tigers for going on his eighth year, [and he could stay] conceivably 15 years or maybe 16. That's pretty much a whole career. I think that's got a nice ring to it."

Alex Rodriguez will be at Yankee Stadium on Monday for the Opening Day game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

Rodriguez, who will start the season on the disabled list after undergoing left hip surgery in January, did not spend time with the Yankees during spring training.

The 37-year-old third baseman is rehabbing from the left hip surgery and is expected to rejoin the team during the middle of the season.

Andy Pettitte isn't buying the notion that the New York Yankees are going to struggle this season.

"I don't let my mind go in that direction because I think we're going to win our division and I expect us to be in the World Series. Bottom line," Pettitte said.

"I think we got the pitching and bullpen to do that and I feel like if people think we're going to be short on scoring runs, we're going to figure out how to score enough runs to me. To me, I feel great about our club."

Analysts have low expectations for the Yankees, who lost Nick Swisher and Russell Martin to free agency, and will have Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez sidelined to begin the season.

The Boston Red Sox took Jackie Bradley, Jr. with them to New York for next week's season-opening series with the New York Yankees.

Nothing has been officially announced, but Bradley is expected to make the team at this point.