The AP is reporting that pitcher Matt Clement has agreed to a 1 year 1.5m deal with the St Louis Cardinals. Clement missed all of the 2007 season while recovering from shoulder surgery.

The 33 year old Clement is 87-86 with a 4.47 ERA in 9 major league seasons.

Im surprised they actually gave a guy coming off serious shoulder surgery guaranteed money. I guess thats the pitching market for you.

Considering the landscape of this free agent market, this year could be the biggest off-season of trades in quite some time.

Johan Santana, Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, Scott Rolen, and Miguel Tejada are among those who could be seeing a change in scenery this winter.

In terms of Santana, Jayson Stark on ESPN writes that the Mets might be the team most willing to give up the prospects needed to get him.

One NL executive says: Watch out for the Mets, given the pressure on GM Omar Minaya to win now.

“Omar seems determined to make a huge splash,” the exec says. “And I think that’s the guy they’ve had earmarked all along.”

The Dodgers, Angels, Yankees, and Mets would appear to be the top teams in the running for Santana.

The Yankees don’t appear willing to deal Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, or Phillip Hughes, which would likely put they out of the running for Santana.

The Dodgers would need to make a choice on who to use their prospects on, Cabrera or Santana. Buster Olney on ESPN cites a NL source who said that the Dodgers and Marlins are ‘pretty far apart’ on Cabrera. Olney writes that ‘there is growing expectation around the game is that the Angels will land Cabrera’.

However Rosenthal believes the Angels no longer are the front-runners for Cabrera.

Rosenthal cites major-league sources who say, if the Dodgers are willing to part with outfielder Matt Kemp along with third baseman Andy LaRoche and Class AA left-hander Clayton Kershaw, they would likely be able to land the Marlins All-Star third baseman.

If the Dodgers fail to land Cabrera, they are rumored to have interest in Scott Rolen as well.

Jayson Stark believes it will take two young players to get Dontrelle Willis. The Mets, Mariners and Diamondbacks are believed to have interest.

The Orioles want to get rid of the $26 million left on Miguel Tejada’s contract which does not leave many suitors. The Dodgers and Angels may use Tejada as plan B if they lose out on Cabrera. The O’s are also rumored to be shopping Erik Bedard.

The Reds may make Ryan Freel or Scott Hamilton available due to the emergence of minor league player of the year Jay Bruce.

The Pirates could offer 26-year old Ian Snell who has more quality starts (22) than Santana or Roy Oswalt and a better strikeout rate (7.66 per 9 innings) than Carlos Zambrano or Ben Sheets.

The Phillies are looking at Randy Wolf, Matt Clement, Kris Benson, Mike Wood, and Japanese free agent Hiroki Kuroda.

Buster Olney, on his ESPN blog, gives a list of 10 free agents who could be good value signings.

Tony Clark, Matt Clement, David Eckstein, Kenny Lofton, Mike Lamb, Reggie Sanders, Jeremy Affeldt, Kris Benson, Shannon Stewart, and David Wells are the players that Olney believes could be the best bang for any team’s buck.

Olney thinks Tony Clark could fit on the Mets as a bench player. He also points out that Clark has the third highest home run rate, behind Alex Rodriguez and, wait for it…Ramon Castro. Clark had a .563 slugging percentage in 32 at-bats last season.

The Mets have been reported to have some interest in David Eckstein,  whose batting average in each of his last three seasons is .294, .292 and .309.

Affeldt might be a good pick up for the Mets, who need to upgrade their bullpen. Right-handers hit .211 against him last season, left-handers .250.