Matsui decides to join Mets. Three years, about $20 million. (Yahoo!)

Maddux leaves Braves, Rodriguez departs Marlins. Last night was the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to arb-eligible players. Those who were declined, including Maddux and I-Rod, are now free agents, and cannot negotiate with their former teams until May 1. Others include Vladimir Guerrero, Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, Mike Cameron, Todd Walker and Javy Lopez. (Yahoo!)

Cameron out, but Shiggy in.

The Mariners have Shigetoshi Hasegawa back in their bullpen after re-signing him for two years yesterday, but for the first time in 15 years, they will not have even a link to Ken Griffey Jr. in center field.

With a call from Seattle general manager Bill Bavasi at 6 o'clock last night telling Mike Cameron the club would not offer salary arbitration and therefore would give up the right to re-sign him, the last vestige of the Griffey trade is gone.

"It's weird what happened. It's crazy this feeling I'm left with," Cameron said after speaking with Bavasi. "It's like your dad tells you to get the hell out of the house. 'We still love you, son ... but you can't come back.'"

(Yahoo!)

Giants re-sign Snow, sign Tucker. One year, $1.75 million for J.T., who will share playing time with Pedro Feliz. Two years, $3.5 million for Michael Tucker??? (Yahoo!)

Stewart agreed to $18 million, three-year deal with Twins. (Yahoo!)

Ranting and Raving About Baseball With Mike Carminati (Part One). "I've been a baseball fan as far back as I can recall, but the first season that I remember distinctly was 1976. I was around 10. I remember keeping a scrapbook with box scores and day-to-day happenings for the Phillies. I was devastated when that Darth Vader of the diamond, Pete Rose, and his evil empire, the Big Red Machine, swept my Phils that year in the playoffs. I still memorize numbers--at the deli, for takeout food, etc.--based on mid-Seventies Phillies jersey numbers (Number 23? Downtown Ollie Brown. Number 38? Larry Christenson. Number 40? Warren Brusstar.)" (Rich's Weekend Baseball BEAT)

The Madness of King George? Alex Belth:

The Yankees have sacrificed their prospects to win now, and guess what? They've been to six of the last eight World Serious' and have won four of them. That's got to come at a price. You can't have everything. The Yankees can't stay on top forever. One year, gasp, they will actually miss the playoffs. I don't know that it will be in 2004, but it's bound to happen. George isn't just going to sit back and say, "OK, we made the Serious this year, let's take a few steps back and build for the future." This man is in his seventies, and desperately wants to win another title or three before he leaves us.

No, the Yankees will have to crash out of playoff contention, and suffer through some hard times before they start to rebuild their farm system again. The best way for this to happen on George's watch may be to get the old man suspended again.

(Bronx Banter)

Transaction Analysis: The Vazquez-Johnson deal. Chris Kahrl: "[A]s much as I like Rivera and Johnson, neither really projects to have long, brilliant careers, starring deep into their 30s. So the Expos should get them at their best and cheapest, then get some tasty draft value (assuming that system doesn't change) or trade value, while letting the two of them become Diamondbacks or whatever it is a past-peak hitter is supposed to do in his golden years a few seasons from now. While Johnson's truly inexpensive years are gone, he's still not going to cost the Expos much over the life of his pre-free agency career. Add him to a lineup that already gets the benefits of Brad Wilkerson power-and-patience blend, not to mention an overdue Tatis ejection, and you've got some worthwhile offensive building blocks, with or without Vlad." (Baseball Prospectus)