MARINERS SIGN RHP CORDERO (10:41 p.m. ET)
The closer-needy Seattle Mariners have signed veteran right-hander Chad Cordero to a minor league contact and invited him to the final weeks of their spring training camp.
The Mariners announced on Thursday evening they expect Cordero to report to camp Friday. He turns 27 next week.
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.
He eventually had surgery in July and will continue rehabilitating in his first weeks with the Mariners.
Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said the team will be cautious and patient with Cordero's recovery. He added the Mariners are optimistic Cordero can help them this season.
HAREN FACES FORMER TEAM (8:03 p.m. ET)
Dan Haren was excited to face his former team, and it showed. Haren walked three in three innings of the Diamondbacks' 6-1 loss to the Athletics.
Haren, who has allowed six runs in nine innings so far this spring, said he was a little wild because of the extra adrenaline of facing his former team. But he only gave up one run and one hit and struck out four.
"I felt really good," Haren said. "My arm felt really live. The first couple starts of the spring you are really working the kinks out, but today my arm felt great."
PERCIVAL SEES FIRST SPRING ACTION (6:02 p.m. ET)
Troy Percival pitched a hitless inning in his first action of spring training in the Rays' 3-2 win over the Phillies. The 39-year-old closer is coming back from an injury-plagued season. He made three trips to the disabled list because of hamstring and knee injuries and missed most of September and the postseason because of a lower back injury that required surgery in November.
"It was a step," Percival said. "I was actually forcing myself to mentally throttle back and throw my pitches, but I'd let a couple go, so the next time I'll do a little bit more. I'm gonna take it a step at a time."
Percival, who is eighth in saves with 352, said he will be ready by Opening Day.
"There's not a doubt in my mind," he said.
Rays manager Joe Maddon is beginning to believe that.
"He looks very good to me," Maddon said. "I don't see any kind of hesitation or restriction. So, I think he's in really good shape."
CARPENTER COMEBACK ON TRACK (5:28 p.m. ET)
Chris Carpenter's comeback remains solidly on track after four more scoreless innings. The Cardinals' oft-injured ace shrugged off a triple by Josh Reddick on his second pitch of the game then allowed just one more hit in his third spring start as St. Louis beat the Red Sox 4-2.
"It was another step forward," said Carpenter, who threw 46 pitches. "I definitely felt like I was locating better with my fastball and I felt like I was in a little better control of my body."
The 33-year-old Carpenter doubled the inning total from each of his first two spring starts. He hasn't allowed a run in eight innings, giving up only four hits.
"Results-wise, it's obviously been pretty good," Carpenter said. "I'm getting back into the game situations and trying to execute pitches, so it's gone the way I would have hoped so far."
Carpenter has missed virtually all the past two seasons, pitching only 15 1/3 innings last year coming off reconstructive elbow surgery. He underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in September and had another procedure in November to transpose a nerve in his elbow.
JACK OF ALL TRADES INJURED (4:55 p.m. ET)
Utility player Alfredo Amezaga has a sprained left knee that's expected to sideline him four to six weeks.
Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez didn't rule out Amezaga returning
before the season opener April 6, but baseball operations president
Larry Beinfest wasn't optimistic.
"It's doubtful right now," Beinfest said. "He's very valuable
to this team. It's tough."
Amezaga, who signed a $1.3 million contract in January, is the
team's most versatile player. He played 79 games in center field
last year, 19 at shortstop, 15 at third base and 10 at second.
RED SOX PROSPECT INJURES ANKLE (2:35 p.m. ET)
Boston Red Sox prospect Jonathan Van Every left an exhibition game against St. Louis after spraining his right ankle running the bases in the fifth inning.
Van Every, the ninth-place hitter, pulled up while going from first to third on Josh Reddick's two-out single Thursday.
The 29-year-old was batting .150 (3-for-20) after going hitless in two at-bats. He made his major league debut last year and had three stints with Boston, hitting .235 in 17 at-bats with five RBIs in 11 games.
BIG Z TO START OPENER FOR CUBS (2:00 p.m. ET)
Carlos Zambrano has been picked to make his fifth straight Opening Day start for the Chicago Cubs.
Manager Lou Piniella said Thursday he picked Zambrano over Ryan Dempster for the April 6 start against Houston after discussing the choice with pitching coach Larry Rothschild.
Zambrano was 14-6 with a 3.91 ERA in 30 starts last season. Dempster was 17-6 with a 2.96 ERA and made the NL All-Star team.
RAYS' PEREZ OUT THREE MONTHS (1:58 p.m. ET)
Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Fernando Perez will miss the next three months after dislocating his wrist.
Perez was injured in Tuesday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays when he dove to his left for a fly ball.
"That's a play I make all the time, usually once a month or so," Perez said, according to MLB.com. "The whole trick to it is making sure you keep your glove from catching on the ground. My glove has never caught on the ground [before], then that. I'm using a little bit longer of a glove than I have been using, and it got caught under there. So it really surprised me."
"It's a dislocation, and it's unfortunate," Rays manager Joe Maddon said, according to the report. "I talked to him after it had happened, obviously he was very disappointed. He's really coming on as a young player, so it's difficult. But it could have been worse, so three months, we can live with that."
ANOTHER 'NO' VOTE FOR PEDRO (10:09 a.m. ET)
Baltimore Orioles president Andy MacPhail said after Wednesday's spring training game that the team has no intention of contacting Pedro Martinez's representatives about bringing the veteran right-hander aboard, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Martinez pitched for the Dominican Republic in an exhibition game last week and had a solid outing in an appearance against the Netherlands during the World Baseball Classic. But that has yet to translate into offers from major league teams, including the New York Mets, for whom Martinez pitched the past four seasons.
The Orioles already have one veteran arm in camp in Adam Eaton. He has yet to appear in a spring game, but he is younger than Martinez -- and the Phillies are on the hook for all but $400,000 of Eaton's salary.
"Obviously, our pro scouts are out in other camps, looking at other pitchers," MacPhail said, according to the Sun, "but we would have to think it is a meaningful upgrade."
REYES RETURNS, LIKELY TO LEAD OFF (9:59 a.m.)
With Jose Reyes headed back to New York Mets camp from the World Baseball Classic, manager Jerry Manuel is once again faced with a lineup question: Should he continue tinkering with the lineup or put Reyes back at the top of the order?
The answer is it's "more than likely" that Reyes will lead off when the season starts next month in Cincinnati, Manuel said Wednesday, according to the New York Daily News.
"When push comes to shove, we have to get him back where he's comfortable," Manuel said, according to the report.
Reyes went 1-for-9 with two walks in the WBC, which he left earlier than expected thanks to the Netherlands' stunning upset of the Dominican Republic. Manuel will wait until Saturday to insert Reyes back into the lineup, according to the report.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
