VoV
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MLB
– Jon Heyman of SI.com reports that the Yankees, Tigers and Diamondbacks have reached an agreement on a three-way trade. Heyman writes that assuming medicals check out, the trade is a go. OF Curtis Granderson will head to New York while RHP Edwin Jackson and RHP Ian Kennedy go to Arizona and RHP Max Scherzer, LHP Daniel Schlereth, OF Austin Jackson and LHP Phil Coke would land in Detroit. Stay tuned for confirmation.
– RHP Ben Sheets’ agent Casey Close will meet with the Mets and Yankees, among other teams, reports Joel Sherman of the NY Post. Close doesn’t expect a throwing audition for either team, but both would could certainly consider signing the 31-year-old right-hander to an incentive-laden deal. Sheets comes with some risk, obviously, because he hasn’t appeared in a major league game since 2008 and underwent major elbow surgery last February.
– The White Sox have signed INF/OF Mark Teahen to a three-year/$14M contract. The White Sox bought out his final two years of arbitration and his first year of free agency. He’ll take home $3.75M in 2010, $4.75M in 2011 and $5.5M in 2012. Teahen, 28, was acquired from the Royals in exchange for 2B Chris Getz and 3B Josh Fields in November. Early indications are that the .269/.331/.419 lifetime hitter will play third base with the White Sox in ’10.
WWE
– Eddie “Umaga” Fatu was set to return to WWE by the end of the year or early 2010, reports The Sun.
WWE officials confirmed to The Sun that Fatu would have been back on the roster had he passed a screening test – one WWE source said they expected him to return by the Royal Rumble providing he passed his screening test. Fatu only had two strikes on his record when he was released by WWE this past June after refusing to enter a rehabilitation center following his second violation of the company’s drug testing policy. Had he returned to the company, his previous two offenses would have remained.
In October, Umaga told colleagues that he was speaking to WWE about returning to the company. This was the reason he gave for pulling out of a previously scheduled ‘shoot’ interview filming. Figure Four Weekly’s Bryan Alvarez also reports that Hulk Hogan wanted to bring Fatu to TNA following the ‘Hulkamania’ tour of Australia. However, he told people there was no way he was going to TNA and that he was heading back to WWE once the tour had commenced.
Fatu died on Friday after his wife found him unresponsive inside their Houston area home. He reportedly died of a heart attack. The official report on his death is expected to be released this week. Fatu’s passing was not acknowledged during last night’s episode of Raw.