COLABELLO NIXES KOREAN DEAL TO CONTINUE WITH TWINS BID PLUS OTHER COMINGS AND GOINGS

Both Chris Colabello and the Minnesota Twins seem to have a dilemma even though one potential hurdle has been resolved.

The Twins, according to multiple reports out of the Twin Cities area, have wanted the longtime Can-Am star to accept an offer from Korea that would have paid the first baseman-outfielder-DH nearly $1 million (some of it in a side deal) or twice the amount he will earn from the American League team if he can retain a spot on the 25-man roster when the regular season arrives.

Colabello prefers to stay in the U.S. and battle to establish himself as a major leaguer, we understand.

When this story broke recently, the Twins needed to open up a spot on their 40-man winter roster because of the signings of pitcher Mike Pelfrey and catcher Kurt Suzuki. That pair is on the 40-man now and Colabello still is there as well, at least for now.

Reading between the lines, we have to believe the Twins feel the seven-year Worcester, MA standout has to produce big time in spring training to make the Opening Day roster since he only hit .194 (160 at-bats) in the American League despite having a 31-homer season between the World Baseball Classic (Italy), Triple-A Rochester, NY (he was the International League’s MVP) and Minnesota (seven homers). If all the reports about Korea are accurate, Minnesota also might have gotten as much as $1 million for making Colabello available to the 10-team Korean Baseball Organization.

Colabello did not help his case by hitting only .190 with a mere two RBI (no homers) in his 17-game stint in the Dominican this offseason.

CAN-AM ALSO HAD RIGHT-HANDER KARL GELINAS FOR SEVEN YEARS, FIVE TITLES

The rarity of getting a major league organization deal after seven seasons in any Independent league cannot be overstated, but Chris Colabello does not stand alone in this regard.

Philadelphia is giving Quebec starter Karl Gelinas, who led the Can-Am with 10 victories last season, an opportunity in its farm system. Gelinas helped the Capitales to championships in each of the last five years, and totaled 41 wins in his seven seasons with the team.

ATLANTIC LEAGUE LEFTY GETS SPRING TRAINING INVITATION

Ryan Feierabend, who spent most of 2012 as a starting pitcher for the York (PA) Revolution of the Atlantic League (8-5, 2.91), has not only a second contract in the Texas Rangers organization but also a major league spring training invitation as a non-roster player. The 28-year-old southpaw was a combined 7-7 with about a 3.70 ERA with Texas’s top two farm clubs last season.

Feierabend has 19 major league starts (25 appearances) to his credit with Seattle spread from 2006 to 2008. The Mariners gave him $437,500 to sign in ’03 and they kept the Ohio native through the ’10 campaign.

Another lefty, Ryan Kulik, who struggled to a 2-11, 5.83 campaign this past summer with Camden, NJ (Atlantic) but was coming back from elbow surgery, has signed a Triple-A deal with Colorado. It is said to include a spring training invitation, but we are assuming for now that is a minor league invitation.

CANHAM INKS WITH NATS, GREG SMITH RETURNS TO PHILS

In other transactions of note, catcher Mitch Canham (Long Island, NY, Atlantic) has a new contract with the Washington Nationals farm system. He had been with Kansas City. Southpaw Greg Smith (Grand Prairie, TX, American Association) has returned to the Philadelphia organization (AAA) with a new contract. Outfielder Chris Edmondson, signed by Atlanta after a torrid start at Rockland County, NY (Can-Am) last summer, has been released by the Braves.

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YANKEES HIRE PATRICK OSBORN TO MANAGE A ROOKIE CLUB; URQUIDEZ, BURGAMY, FOX, EPPLEY ALSO IN THE NEWS

What great news to see that Patrick Osborn has been hired by the New York Yankees to manage one of their Gulf Coast League teams.

Osborn is one of most refreshing personalities I have met in Independent Baseball, and the fact he made a smooth transition from all-star third baseman to skilled manager at the age of 31 speaks volumes about his future. The onetime Florida Gators star (he hit .414 his final year with 17 homers and 76 RBI in 65 games) led the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (Waldorf) to playoff berths in his two seasons of managing in the Atlantic League against very experienced competition.

Prior to replacing Butch Hobson with the Blue Crabs, Osborn starred for Southern Maryland for four seasons. He had gotten as high as Class AA in six seasons after Cleveland tabbed him in the second round of the ’02 free agent draft.

The Atlantic League now has at least two prominent jobs open. York, PA is seeking a pitching coach to replace John Halama, who reportedly is seeking a coaching opportunity with a major league organization.

URQUIDEZ PORTRAYING MARIANO IN MEXICAN LEAGUE; BURGAMY TOPS IN HOMERS

The Mexican League hardly equates to the American League, but Jason Urquidez, who is a free agent to the best of my knowledge, is making like Mariano Rivera with a 0.57 earned run average in that winter league. Urquidez, who was signed by the Los Angeles Angels out of Lancaster, PA in the Atlantic League last season, has 21 saves and a 2-0 record in 26 appearances. He also has 31 strikeouts in the same number of innings.

At 31, Urquidez’s ERA was even better (0.25) at Lancaster, where he posted 24 saves and struck out 48 in 36 innings. Unfortunately, he did not fare as well at Triple-A Salt Lake City where he was 1-2 with one save and a 6.92 ERA in 11 appearances. He did fan more than one an inning.

Longtime Independent hitting standout Brian Burgamy is pacing the Mexican League in homers (13), two more than former major leaguer and 2013 Atlantic League standout Jake Fox (Somerset, NJ). Fox leads Burgamy in the RBI chase, 48-42. Burgamy split this past season between Atlantic League teams in Camden, NJ and York along with St. Paul, MN of the American Association.

EPPLEY GETS MAJOR LEAGUE INVITE FROM PIRATES

Cody Eppley is no doubt best known as a strong member of the New York Yankees bullpen in 2012 (1-2, 3.33 in 59 appearances plus four scoreless outings against Detroit in the ALDS), but he finished this season with six appearances for Lancaster. Pittsburgh recently signed the right-hander to a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training. Eppley also has pitched in the majors for Texas and Minnesota.

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ATLANTIC AND CAN-AM LEAGUE WORK LEAD TO METS GRABBING JONATHAN VELASQUEZ IN RULE 5 DRAFT

Jonathan Velasquez is fresh from three quality seasons in Independent leagues, and the right-hander, who could be starting to peak at 28, has his second major league-affiliated home of recent weeks after being selected by the New York Mets in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft Thursday morning during the Winter Meetings in Orlando, FL.

Velasquez was one of three former Independent players whose name was called during the draft, all in the Triple-A portion.

He had only recently signed with Minnesota after an exceptional season with the Camden (NJ) RiverSharks of the Atlantic League. Pitching for onetime major league catcher Ron Karkovice, Velasquez struck out 82 Atlantic League hitters and allowed only 58 hits in 73.2 innings spread over 61 appearances. That netted a 6-2 record and a 1.95 earned run average.

Velasquez, who was in the Philadelphia farm system earlier in his career, was a starter for Rockland County (Pomona, NY) of the Can-Am League in 2011-12, compiling a combined 14-13 record before joining Camden for one start at the end of the '12 campaign.

Arizona, which has been stockpiling Independent players of late, drafted 6-foot-7 righty Michael Lee, who spent most of this season starting for Atlanta's Double-A farm club. The 27-year-old was 9-8 for Mississippi (Pearl, MS) and made one start for Triple-A Gwinnett. Lee was a strikeout machine during an Independent stint at Rockford, IL in '12, whiffing 59 Frontier League hitters and allowing 30 hits in 41 innings. He had a 3-1, 2.20 record.

Boston selected 24-year-old multi-position player Jonathan Roof as a shortstop from Philadelphia's Double-A Reading, PA roster. He was listed as being at Traverse City, MI of the Frontier League one year ago although I cannot find that he actually appeared in any games. Roof played at the Class A level in 2013.

No Independent players were selected in the major league phase of the draft.

TWINS' LATEST INDY HOPEFUL IS PLAYER OF THE YEAR C. J. ZIEGLER

With slugger Chris Colabello and pitchers Andrew Albers and Caleb Thielbar all breaking into their major league roster this past season, the Minnesota Twins are continuing to mine Independent players, including Jonathan Velasquez (see story above).

The latest signee, who could someday compete with Colabello for playing time since both are primarily first basemen, is American Association and Independent League Player of the Year C. J. Ziegler, who homered a league-record 30 times while leading Wichita, KS into the Association playoffs. Ziegler, primarily a first baseman, also led the American Association with his 100 runs batted in, which led Baseball America to name him the top player in the non-affiliated ranks. The 28-year-old hit .316 to cap a two-year run with the Wingnuts in which he hit 48 homers and drove in 161 runs in 165 games.

OWENS, FOX MAINTAIN LEAGUE LEADS IN MEXICO

Atlantic League standouts Jerry Owens (Lancaster, PA) and Jake Fox (Somerset, NJ) rank No. 1 in some of the most important offensive categories as the Mexican League season rolls along. Owens is tops in both batting average (.361) and hits (66) and Fox leads in RBI (42 in 51 games). His nine home runs are third best in the league.

Another recent Atlantic League star, Cory Aldridge (Somerset) has the second best average (.377), is fourth in home runs (12) and fifth in RBI (36) in Venezuela. Shortstop Tucker Nathans, who started in Independent play (Can-Am and Frontier Leagues) and now is in the Baltimore farm system, has the third best batting average (.333) in Australia, one spot ahead of Brandon Tripp (.329), who played for St. Paul, MN of the American Association last season.

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JASON LANE GETS ANOTHER LOOK FROM SAN DIEGO IN HIS QUEST TO CHANGE POSITIONS AND RETURN TO THE MAJORS

Baseball’s top brass heads to Orlando this weekend for the annual Winter Meetings, which my longtime boss Bowie Kuhn used to occasionally point out were not actually held in the winter, and while former Independent players aren’t likely to be in the big-time headlines (unless Stephen Drew signs) a few more players who have been in non-affiliated leagues already have new deals.

San Diego gave outfielder-turned-pitcher Jason Lane a new contract. Lane is an interesting case since the southpaw, who turns 37 December 22, had his contract purchased by the Padres after he had won eight of 12 decisions for Sugar Land, TX last season. He was a decent 2-2 with a 5.24 earned run average in 11 appearances (six starts) for Triple-A Tucson, then was allowed to walk in order that he could play for the Skeeters in their quest for an Atlantic League title. (They lost in the first round of the playoffs.) Now, not unexpectedly, San Diego is going to give the California lefty one more look as he tries to complete the unusual position change for a 30-something and still get back to the major leagues.

More surprising to this corner was San Diego’s signing of infielder-outfielder Gabe Suarez, who turns 29 next week, to a minor league deal. Suarez had a busy ’13 as he played for Spain in the World Baseball Classic, then was in 29 games in the Atlantic League (Long Island, NY) and 72 in the American Association (El Paso, TX). He hit .261 for El Paso and only .221 for the Ducks, and still has only a handful of games above Class A except for some brief stints in the Mexican League.

Suarez has played for eight Independent teams (some of them more than once) since ’05, appearing in more than 500 games. He has been with Lincoln, NE, the Atlantic League’s traveling Road Warriors, Camden and Newark, NJ, Florence, KY and Kansas City, KS in addition to Long Island and El Paso.

SEATTLE BUMPS SHACKLEFORD UP TO TRIPLE-A

One can only believe he signed for five figures less than the reported deal for Robinson Cano, but at least right-hander Stephen Shackleford has a new contract with Seattle. At 24, Shackleford is on the Triple-A Tacoma, WA roster one year after posting a combined 3-4, 2.71 record for 47 appearances between Classes A and AA in the Mariners’ chain. He worked very briefly for Florence, KY in the Frontier League in 2012, and has averaged nearly a strikeout per inning for his professional career.

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