If a story I can barely read holds water, the New York Mets have dodged a bullet in the form of paying David Ecskstein $9 million a year. Impacto Deportivo reports the Mets have come to terms with 2B Luis Castillo (above) on a 4 year, $25 million pact (link swiped from Amazin’ Avenue).

Earlier today, IF Marco Scutaro celebrated his annual gratuitious inclusion in a CSTB post about another player by being traded from Oakland to Toronto in exchange for RHP’s Graham Godfrey and Kristian Bell (above).

Tampa skipper Joe Maddon is a bit ticked off over his right fielder Delmon Young being left off as many as 8 ballots in the recently concluded AL Rookie Of The Year vote , won by Boston’s Dustin Pedroia. Maddon told the St. Petersburg Times’ Eduardo A. Encina, “I can see him not winning the award, but leaving him off eight ballots is just a sign of personal prejudice. The award is not a popularity race. I don’t think there was any way he wasn’t one of the top three rookies in the league. … And how many other rookies in the history of the game played 162 games like he did?”

Clearly, the Rays’ PR department needs to mount a more aggressive campaign the next time they have a young player with a shot at finishing a distant 2nd in the ROY race.