HBT: Blue Jays sign Carlos Pena for one year

UPDATE: Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com says Pena to the Rays is now a done deal and he?ll get $7.25 million.

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Tampa Bay signed Luke Scott last week, but apparently the Rays aren?t done adding veteran left-handed bats.

Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Rays are ?pretty deep? in talks with Carlos Pena, who would step into middle of the lineup as their starting first baseman.

Pena had the best run of his career in Tampa Bay from 2006-2010, with back-to-back top-10 MVP finishes, three straight 100-RBI seasons, and a total of 144 homers in four years. He slumped to a .197 batting average (and 28 homers) in 2010 before leaving the Rays to sign a one-year, $10 million deal with the Cubs as a free agent.

Pena is often criticized for his low batting averages and high strikeout totals, but he?s topped an .800 OPS in four of the past five seasons while averaging 34 homers and 95 walks per year. On a modest one-year deal he?d be a very solid pickup for a team that can certainly use more offensive firepower to go along with their stacked pitching depth.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/20/rays-pretty-deep-in-talks-with-carlos-pena/related/

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