Free Chone Figgins And Other MLBullets

A pre-emptive Happy Thanksgiving to folks. Hopefully you can enjoy some good food, family, and friends.

• The Blue Jays wrapped up their managerial search and landed on ... John Gibbons? Hmm. Gibbons was the manager of the Blue Jays from late 2004 until mid 2008. His Jays teams were relatively mediocre, and his most notable inclusions in the media involved fights with his own players (Shea Hillenbrand and Ted Lilly, in particular). The Jays know their needs better than we do, I suppose, and I reckon they had their pick of a wide variety of candidates.
• Yesterday was the deadline for adding players to the 40-man roster for purposes of next month's Rule 5 Draft, so there was quite a bit of minor roster activity around the league. Perhaps the most notable move, if the most obvious, was the Mariners finally cutting ties with Chone Figgins. He's still owed $8 million, but the M's decided they'd finally had enough. His four-year, $36 million deal will long be remembered as one of the worst in history (despite its relatively small size, the M's were paying big money for a guy who was worth negative WAR), given that he hit just .227/.302/.283 in his time with the Mariners. It's debatable whether he's even worth a bench job for the Major League minimum at this point. If he wants to keep playing - he turns 35 in January - he'll probably be able to get a Spring Training invite somewhere, but you gotta figure that's it. I mean, he did have a 94 OPS+ in 2011 and 2012. Oh, wait ... correction. If you add his 2011 and 2012 OPS+ together, you get 94. My bad.
• The Yankees agreed to terms with Hiroki Kuroda yesterday on a one-year, $15 million deal (with a little extra possible in incentives, too). Because the Yanks are hoping to be under the luxury cap limit of $189 million by 2014, they're happy to overpay on a one-year deal for a guy like Kuroda. They'll now try to wrap up a similar one-year deal with Andy Pettitte.
• Sources in New York aren't willing to give the Mets better than a 50/50 shot of reaching an extension with David Wright this offseason. And if they can't come to an agreement, you've got to figure the possibility of a trade becomes more real.
• Wendy Thurm asks (and answers) a question many wondered in the wake of the Marlins' sell-off: did they just kill public financing for other teams for years to come? With the Tampa Bay Rays in desperate need of a new stadium, and just across the peninsula from Miami, you'd think the answer is an obvious yes. But Wendy isn't so sure about that.
• Rob Neyer wonders whether big league coaching is undervalued or quantifiable in any meaningful way.

Brett Taylor is the Lead Writer at Bleacher Nation, and a Contributor here at Bleed Cubbie Blue.