As per Ken Rosenthal on Twitter, the Pirates have reached terms with Russell Martin, pending a physical. We will continue to flesh this out with more details about the terms of the deal as they become available.
UPDATE 8:46 p.m. — Rosenthal tweets, via David Waldstein, that Martin’s contract is 2 years/$17M. If confirmed, that is for a higher average annual value than the original rumor of 3 years/$24M, but the shorter term plays better for the Pirates and their need to evaluate Tony Sanchez at the Major League level.
UPDATE 9:45 PM: A few conflicting reports on whether the Yankees made an offer.
#yankees had offered 2 years for somewhere around $12-ro-14M for martin. not sure if they bumped it at end.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 30, 2012
The Yankees never made an offer to Russell Martin; they haven't made any offers to position players so far this offseason.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 30, 2012
Olney also notes that Texas was in on the bidding.
Texas was also in on Russell Martin, with a two-year overture, according to a source involved in the talks.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 30, 2012
Rob Biertempfel notes that the Pirates briefly considered Mike Napoli, but decided he couldn’t handle everyday catching and would be better suited in the AL. That seems to be the consensus, as most rumors I’ve seen have teams looking at Napoli as a 1B/DH.
