Roy Oswalt appears headed for St. Louis in 2012, joining the defending World Series champion Cardinals. The Red Sox, still in need of help for their starting rotation, were hoping to land Oswalt and had even traded Marco Scutaro away to make room under the luxury tax to sign the right hander.

In the end. Oswalt appears headed back to the NL Central where he spent most of his career. The Cardinals don't currently have room in their rotation for Oswalt and will likely have to move either Kyle Lohse of Jake Westbrook, unless one of them is willing to move to the bullpen (although that's a bit crowded at the moment).

Lohse is set to make a little over $12M this year and will be a free agent in 2013. Westbrook is under contract for $8.5M next year and his contract has an $8.5M mutual option for 2013 ($1M buyout if team declines the option). Over the past few seasons, Lohse has been the more valuable pitcher, racking up more fWAR per start compared to Westbrook. And even with a shortened season, Oswalt put up 1.4 more fWAR than Westbrook in 2011.

Given the modest buyout, my guess is that Westbrook becomes the more likely trade candidate here. He's a ground all pitcher that, while a tad overpriced for a 1 win starter (assuming 2012 is similar to 2011), will get you around 180+ innings each year.

So who might be interested? How about the Red Sox?

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It is now being widely reported that the Detroit Tigers have swooped in and signed a deal with Prince Fielder for 9 years/$214M.

My first reaction is that this never gets close to being done if Victor Martinez doesn't suffer a freak ACL tear while working out. Martinez is out of action for the 2012 season, and the Tigers don't really have an impact bat in their system that projects to be comparable to Martinez in the near-term, but is still under contract through 2014. Virtually all of Martinez's value is tied up in his bat, so going forward his most likely home is at first base or designated hitter.

Of course, he won't be playing first, since preeminent slugger Miguel Cabrera is signed through 2015 and already occupies that position. The big question is what will the Tigers do with three, largely offensive players in Cabrera, Martinez, and Fielder in 2013 and 2014?

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Last night, the New York Yankees awoke from their long winter's nap, acquiring Mariners' starter Michael Pineda in exchange for Jesus Montero.

Montero is a highly touted hitting prospect with no real defensive position in the big leagues. He was likely to spend much of this year in the DH spot, which is highly unusual for a rookie. When you consider that the Yankees will have to move the aging A-Rod to that role in the near future, it made sense to move Montero if they could get an impact player back in return. And they certainly did.

The Yankees' biggest need was filling out the starting rotation. Last year, they managed to get by with some luck from Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon, but now they have two legitimate starters in Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda to compliment CC Sabathia at the top of their rotation.

The biggest question, of course, is how Pineda's stuff will translate to the hitter-friendly Bronx (and Boston, and Toronto for that matter).

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On New Year's Eve, the San Diego Padres traded two pitching prospects to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Carlos Quentin.

This is just the latest in a number of moves by new GM Josh Byrnes to shake up the roster and improve upon the Padres' 71-91 record last year.

On the one hand, the move makes sense in that the Padres are essentially a powerless team. Last year, the Padres ranked dead last in team slugging. Even with Adrian Gonzalez in their lineup in 2010, the team still came in 2nd to last in terms of slugging.

Quentin is a no-doubt power guy, sporting the 12th highest Isolated Power (ISO) score in all of baseball since 2008. So at first glance this deal seemingly fills a big hole for the Pads.

However, the elephant in the room is Petco Park.

Soon after taking the helm as GM, Byrnes went on Clubhouse Confidential and was asked about how he would select hitters given the issues with Petco.

We know things like exit speed off the bat. So a ball hit at 108 mph off the bat, what are the rewards around major league baseball for that quality of contact and how is it affected at Petco.

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Needing to fill the offensive whole left by Albert Pujols' departure, the Cardinals signed free-agent outfielder Carlos Beltran to a 2-year deal worth $26 million.

This deal makes a lot of sense for the Cardinals. By signing Beltran it allows them to move Lance Berkman to first to fill in for Pujols. Unlike many teams, this gives them a legit power threat at that position. Beltran will not have to play centerfield, as the Cardinals already have John Jay there.

The Cardinals are only on the hook for 2 years, and at $26 million it's highly likely they will more than make their money back from Beltran.

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Details are still coming out, but it appears the Reds have acquired starting pitch Mat Latos from the Padres in exchange for Cincinnati's top prospect, first baseman Yonder Alonso.

This trade makes a lot of sense for both teams. The Reds didn't have a whole lot of options with Alonso, unless they were willing to trade Joey Votto (who is only just now entering his peak years age-wise). And the Reds' biggest need this off-season was to bolster their starting rotation, which boasted the worst FIP in the NL last year.

The Padres needed a boost to their offense (.292 wOBA in 2011), and Alonso potentially gives them a young slugger that won't hit arbitration until 2015.

Latos is a 6'6", dominant 24 year-old starter who won't be arbitration eligible until 2013, and won't hit free agency until 2016.

The big question for the Reds (and any other team dealing with San Diego) is how Latos will translate to their hitter-friendly park.

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The Pirates are nearing a deal with Clint Barmes, apparently for two years at roughly $11MM. Though it seems like a somewhat friendly deal for a guy with a career 74 wRC+, it's not a big overpay (if at all). The deal pays him to produce ~2 total wins over the next two seasons, which is less than what he's done over the past four seasons. Depending on your WAR implementation of choice, he's averaged 1.5 to 2 WAR since 2008. I'd say Pittsburgh gave him a slightly more money than he's worth, but considering how the free agent market is shaping up, it's perfectly justifiable. In fact, there's some potential that the Pirates get surplus value out of him.

The real question for the Pirates is if signing Barmes -- at this price -- over Ronny Cedeno was a smart decision. The Pirates had a 2012 club option for Cedeno at $3MM, and chose to buy it out. Barmes is the better of the two, but is the gap big enough to justify paying more for Barmes?

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I suppose it's safe to say that the Hot Stove League is officially underway, as today brought upon quite the transaction. In preparation of a potential non-tender, Jonathan Sanchez and minor leaguer Ryan Verdugo were both shipped to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Melky Cabrera, who is coming off a career year for the Blues. The Royals expanded their strikeout-stuff-laden rotation while parting ways with a player who embarked on 40+ doubles in '11. That guy, Cabrera, will now roam the spacious AT&T Park outfield grass while potentially taking advantage of the extra-base friendly dimensions.

But what should we really expect out of Melky Cabrera? Melky posted fantastic numbers in 2011, highlighted by a 4.2 fWAR and a well above average wOBA of .349. However, that followed a dreadful .294 wOBA in 2010, which, in addition, subsequently helped submerge his WAR to the negatives (-1.0). Word on the street is that Cabrera will regress somewhat towards his career wOBA mark of .320, especially coming off a stellar and career year. In addition, it's hard to maintain a .332 BABIP two years in a row. On the other side of the coin, he's cheap and a likely candidate to don a uniform roughly 150 times per season.

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