Eight years ago today, the Twins released David Ortiz. He has since hit 291 regular season homers and 12 more in the playoffs, all for the Red Sox. Here are today’s links…

• The D’Backs chose Xavier Nady over Austin Kearns, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). Arizona agreed to a one-year, $1.75MM deal with Nady last night.
• Rangers GM Jon Daniels told Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas.com that he would welcome Vladimir Guerrero back under the right circumstances, but isn’t sure when he’ll have the team’s DH situation resolved.
• The Rangers signed Japanese outfielder Hirotoshi Onaka, according to Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker (on Twitter). He was not selected in the NPB draft.
• The Yankees called the Mariners about Felix Hernandez and heard that he is absolutely not available, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (Twitter link).
• Russell Martin needs knee surgery, but the Yankees don’t consider the injury serious, so they signed him anyway, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link).
• The Orioles continue to negotiate with Kevin Gregg, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun.