While the Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers tipped the Red Sox to tie up IF Julio Lugo earlier today, WFAN’s Sweeney Murti reported the Mets and Lugo might be signing a 4-year, $36 million deal.

MLB.com’s Leyritz-riffic streaming chat show reported the White Sox have signed reliever Pablo Ozuna to a one year deal.

By the time the market shakes out for Eric Gagne, he should finally be able to afford contacts.

Not only does Peter Abraham have some inside knowledge of Andy Pettitte’s plans for 2007, he’s done something we’ve struggled to pull off for several months, namely, produce a photograph of agent Jeff Borris.

According to the Globe’s Gorden Edes, things are kinda lukewarm on the Moving Manny front.

The Dodgers haven’t talked to the Sox since yesterday, and one Sox source dismissed all the talk about three-way deals involving the Nationals with the (choose one) Angels, Mariners, or Giants.

“The Nationals are putting that out,” said one baseball official whose team has been involved in Manny talks.

Remember, as I keep repeating, these situations are very fluid, but if a deal were close, Francona almost certainly would have danced around the question instead of predicting Manny will be back. In his media session just before going on the radio, he also was very careful not to criticize Ramirez, and said he did not share the concern Curt Schilling expressed on the radio last week that the Sox thought Manny might lay down (that’s a paraphrase of Schilling’s quotes) if he’s back next season.

Hey, do I think he still could be traded? Sure, if a team buckles and decides to give the Sox all they’re asking for. But it seems like the probabilities have shifted toward Manny staying.