Felipe Lopez

Tampa Bay Rays 3B Evan Longoria is expected to return from an oblique injury sometime during the Rays' next home stand (April 29-May 5).

This inevitably means that somebody on the current 25-man roster is going to be without a spot. So who should be the man to go? You could make strong cases for Casey Kotchman, Dan Johnson, and Elliot Johnson.

Zack Greinke got his “Welcome to Milwaukee” press conference yesterday and he seemed genuinely happy to be there. He had made it very clear over the past year or so that he wanted to play for a winner and now he has his wish.

I don’t have a problem with Greinke wanting to play for a winner and eventually forcing his trade. Over the years, many star players were stuck on bad teams and several ultimately demanded a trade to get the chance to win.

I get it.

The shortstop position is one that the Mariners have been trying to patch since Alex Rodriguez left Seattle following the 2000 season.

They used Carlos Guillen there in 2001, but his relationship with then-ace Freddy Garcia appeared to be damaging to the pitcher in the eyes of the front office, and he was sent packing to Detroit in 2003.

In the past two entries in an attempt to repair a broken team, we looked at Chone Figgins and Dustin Ackley. The two make up a reasonably probable combination of second and third basemen for much of next season.

Coming into the 2010 baseball season, there was no clearer choice than the St. Louis Cardinals as National League Central Division champs.

They had Albert Pujols, the best player in baseball, and possibly the best 3-4 combination in Pujols and Matt Holliday.

Their starting rotation, led by co-aces Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, was thought to be one of the best in baseball.

You would think that a guy who hit .310 with nine home runs and an .810 OPS in 2009, wouldn’t have a hard time finding a job in 2010, but that was the case with second baseman Felipe Lopez.

And before we go any further, I am talking about Felipe Lopez the baseball player here, not Felipe Lopez the basketball player, who was a massive bust at St. Johns University. I don’t know why, but I was compelled to mention that.

Now we can move on.

After an off-season full of speculation surrounding infielder Felipe Lopez signing with the St. Louis Cardinals, the deal finally became official on Friday.

The club agreed with Lopez on a one-year, $2 million contract with incentives on Friday, despite recent reports that the Cardinals weren’t looking to add another infielder before Spring Training.

Let me preface this by saying that I have seen no linkage of any kind between the Atlanta Braves and Felipe Lopez.

With the Marlon Byrd signing shoring up the center field situation, the biggest weakness in the Cubs lineup, provided Geovanny Soto turns things around, is now at second base.

It seems as though the Cubs are content to open the season with the trio of Jeff Baker, Mike Fontenot, and Andres Blanco set to man second base, with Baker in position to get the bulk of the playing time. While there are worse options than Baker, there is a better option currently sitting in free agency, and that is Felipe Lopez.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times.

The Twins need another infielder and they need a legitimate hitter to handle the two-hole in the lineup.

Both of these facts have been beaten to death by Twins fans this offseason, and for good reason.