Boston Red Sox: Third baseman Bill Mueller had arthroscopic surgery to relieve swelling in his right knee and might be able to return in time for Opening Day.
Dr. David Zeman performed the surgery on Monday. Mueller can resume full baseball activities in four weeks, team spokesman Glenn Geffner said.
Zeman also operated on Mueller's right knee last May and the player missed 37 games, though he complained of soreness through the end of the season. Zeman also operated on Mueller's left knee in 2002.
The 2003 AL batting champion, Mueller batted .283 with 12 homers and 57 RBI in 110 games last season. He batted .321 in the playoffs, including .429 in the World Series as the Red Sox won it all for the first time since 1918.
His biggest hit came in the fourth game of the AL Championship Series against the Yankees. With the Red Sox trailing 4-3 in the ninth and New York closer Mariano Rivera on the mound, Kevin Millar drew a no-out walk. Dave Roberts pinch-ran for Millar and stole second base before Mueller singled to drive in Roberts.
Boston won four straight to beat New York and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the Series.
Scout suspended: Hubert Silva, a scout for the Red Sox in Latin America, was suspended by the team while it investigates his role in a game-fixing scandal in Nicaragua.
Silva, who was coaching the Leon team in the Nicaraguan baseball league, was banned by that league last month after allegations that he offered to pay opposing players to throw a game.
Geffner said Thursday that Silva was suspended pending an investigation.
New York Yankees: Kevin Brown is making a charitable contribution instead of getting fined for punching a wall and breaking a bone in his left hand last September.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Thursday the matter had been settled but wouldn't go into details. Another team official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pitcher was giving more than $100,000 to a charity, most likely the Special Forces Warrior Foundation.
In March 2003, after David Wells published an autobiography filled with revelations of drinking, drug use and disparaging talk that the Yankees felt tarnished their image, Wells was fined $100,000, and the Special Forces Warrior Foundation was one of three charities chosen by the team to receive the money.
Cashman said the Yankees and Brown reached an agreement and that the pitcher was not being fined.
Brown hurt his non-pitching hand when he punched a clubhouse wall in frustration on Sept. 3 and didn't return until Sept. 26. He has a $15 million salary, and if he would have been fined the amount of pay for the 22 days he was out, it would have come to about $1.75 million.
Brown was ineffective when he returned and was the loser in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series, giving up a two-run homer to David Ortiz in the first inning.
He was bothered by back problems for much of last season and turns 40 next month.
Los Angeles Dodgers: With the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim posting signs reading "City of Angels" along streets and freeways in and near downtown, the Dodgers will begin a campaign to reclaim their turf.
The Dodgers' 2005 advertising thrusts will feature the slogan, "This is LA Baseball."
Ads will be on buses and billboards and run in newspapers and on broadcast outlets.
The campaign will link Dodgers players of the past and present. One billboard will depict "four generations" of pitchers -- Don Newcombe, Don Drysdale, Orel Hershiser and Eric Gagne.
Angels owner Arte Moreno changed his team's name to include Los Angeles and is heavily marketing the club in the city. The Angels play some 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Minnesota Twins: Kyle Lohse and the Twins went before arbitrators in baseball's first salary hearing of the year.
After going 9-13 with a 5.34 ERA in 34 starts last season, Lohse was eligible for arbitration for the first time and asked for a raise from $395,000 to $2.4 million. Minnesota offered the 26-year-old right-hander $2.15 million.
Arbitrators Robert Bailey, Christine Knowlton and Elliott Shriftman were expected to make a decision Friday.
Ten players remain scheduled for hearings, including Twins pitcher Johan Santana, the AL Cy Young Award winner; Houston pitcher Roy Oswalt; and Milwaukee pitcher Ben Sheets. Hearings are scheduled through Feb. 18.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Left-hander Sean Burnett and right-hander John Van Benschoten re-signed to one-year contracts.
Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Burnett, a first-round pick in 2000, went 5-5 with a 5.02 ERA in 13 starts as a rookie last year before being placed on the disabled list with elbow inflammation in August. The 22-year-old Burnett was the Class AA Eastern League's pitcher of the year in 2003, when he went 14-6 with a 3.21 ERA.
Van Benschoten, who was recalled from Class AAA Nashville when Burnett went on the disabled list last season, went 1-3 with a 6.91 ERA in six games, including five starts for the Pirates.
The 24-year-old Van Benschoten was the eighth overall pick in the 2001 draft following a standout career at Kent State as both a pitcher and hitter.
Philadelphia Phillies: Outfielder Jason Michaels avoided his salary arbitration hearing when he agreed to an $825,000, one-year contract.
Michaels, 28, hit .274 with 10 home runs and 40 RBI in 115
games with the Phillies last year while platooning in center field
with Marlon Byrd. He will share time with newcomer Kenny Lofton next season.
A fourth-round pick by the Phillies in the 1998 amateur draft, he was the final player to settle with Philadelphia among the four in arbitration this year, joining shortstop Jimmy Rollins, infielder
Placido Polanco and right-hander Vicente Padilla.
Michaels made $335,000 last year and was eligible for arbitration for the first time. He asked for $925,000 in arbitration and was offered $650,000.
Houston Astros: The Astros signed journeyman outfielder Trenidad Hubbard to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training, team officials announced.
Hubbard, 38, spent the 2004 season at Triple-A Iowa in the Chicago Cubs' organization and hit .330 with nine home runs and 49 RBI.
He was originally drafted by the Astros in 1986 and spent seven years in the team's minor-league system.
In parts of 10 major-league seasons, Hubbard has played for Colorado, San Francisco, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore, Kansas City, San Diego and Chicago. He has a career batting average of .257 with 16 home runs and 72 RBI.
Colorado Rockies: The Rockies have agreed to one-year contracts with eight players, the team announced.
The players are right-handed pitchers Scott Dohmann, Juan Morillo and Jason Young; left-hander Matt Merricks; infielders Alfredo Amezaga, Jayson Nix and Ryan Shealy; and outfielder Jeff Salazar.
Catchers and pitchers will begin spring training next week in Tucson, Ariz. Position players will report on Feb. 22, and the Rockies' first full-squad workout will be held Feb. 24.
Information from The Associated Press and SportsTicker was used in this report.