DALLAS, Texas –News, notes and quotes from MLB’s winter meetings at the Anatole Hilton Hotel.

-Indians GM Chris Antonetti had no comment when asked if he was interested in signing Manny Ramirez. The former Indians outfielder is seeking reinstatement from MLB’s retirement list.

Ramirez, facing a 100-game suspension last season for violating MLB’s drug policy, retired early last season with the Rays. MLB has announced that Ramirez would only face a 50-game suspension if he can find work with a big league club.

Since 2008, Ramirez has played with Boston, the Dodgers, White Sox and Rays. He hit 37 homers in 2008, but only 28 since. Ramirez’s career numbers, without the two drug infractions, are Hall of Fame worthy at .312, 2,574 hits, 547 doubles, 555 homers and 1831 RBI.

He played with the Indians from 1993 through 2000.

-Ron Santo, the Cubs late third baseman, was elected to the Hall of Fame on Monday by a vote of the Golden Era Committee.

A player needed 12 votes to gain admission. Former Indian Minnie Minoso received nine. Louie Tiant, another former Indians, received fewer than three.

-The Indians have told catcher Carlos Santana that he cannot play winter ball. Santana, just over a year removed from surgery on his left knee, is coming off a season in which he led the Indians with 155 games played and finished second with 552 at-bats.

Santana, Fausto Carmona and Ubaldo Jimenez have been conditioning with Nelson Perez, Indians athletic trainer, in the Dominican Republic for the last five weeks. The Indians want Santana rested and healthy when he reports to spring training in February.

The switch-hitting Santana batted .239 (132-for-552) with 35 doubles, 27 homers and 79 RBI, 133 strikeouts and 97 walks. Santana’s 27 homers set a club record for switching hitters.

-Jimenez, who did not pitch winter ball last offseason, will make his first start for Licey on Dec. 15. Manager Manny Acta will be on hand to watch.

-ESPN is reporting that the Indians are one of nine teams interested in free agent outfielder Josh Willingham. No surprise there because they tried get him at the trading deadline in July.

Willingham, a right-handed hitter, hit .246 (120-for-480) with 26 doubles, 29 homers and 98 RBI for Oakland last season.

-Kosuke Fukudome did a nice job for the Indians after being acquired from the Cubs for the stretch run, but it’s unlikely they’ll re-sign the free agent outfielder. It may have been a different story if Fukudome hit right-handed instead of left-handed.

With the re-signing of free agent Grady Sizemore, the Indians are expecting to open the season with three left-handed hitting outfielders in Sizemore, Michael Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo.

-Right-hander Chad Durbin, the Indians other free agent, will not be back.

Steve Hamilton, had he not succumbed to colon cancer in 1997, would have turned 76 on Nov. 30. I remember the former Yankee, especially for one sequence of pitches he threw in a summer game against the Cleveland Indians.

As a New York Yankees fan, these are fond memories from a time when the club was in the midst of a long drought.

Hamilton was an exceptional athlete, having played for the Minneapolis Lakers during the 1958 through 1960 seasons. Hamilton, who stood 6 foot 7 inches tall, averaged 4.5 points over that span, but then turned his attention to baseball. Drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1958, Hamilton made his major league debut in 1961 for the Tribe. Cleveland traded him away at season’s end to Washington, where he labored for one campaign before the Yankees sent pitcher Jim Coates to the Senators for him in April of 1963.

Steve was a combined 12-3 with eight saves over the next two years, both ending in New York American League pennants, but World Series defeats. He was mainly a reliever; Hamilton started just 17 games out of the 421 he appeared in over his 12-year career. Hamilton started just seven times with the Yankees, throwing a pair of complete games and one shutout. In 1965, as the team trended into a downward spiral as their stars grew old, Hamilton had an exemplary season, pitching to a 1.39 earned run average in 46 games. He ended his stint with the Yankees in 1970, going on to hurl for the White Sox and Cubs in Chicago, sandwiched around a turn with the Giants.

However, Hamilton did not leave the Bronx without being part of one of the strangest scenes ever witnessed on a professional ball field. On June 24, 1970, Hamilton was mopping up in the second game of a doubleheader versus Cleveland, with the Indians ahead 7-1. In the previous season, he had developed a blooper pitch, throwing it high in the air to the batter after hesitating at the top of his delivery. Tony Horton, the Cleveland first baseman, led off the frame. Hamilton threw his pitch—he nicknamed it the “Folly Floater”—to Horton, who fouled it off behind the plate.

Horton motioned to Hamilton to throw the Floater one more time. The vast majority of fans that think they recall this game will relate how Horton proceeded to strike out. In reality, Horton popped the ball up foul, high enough for Thurman Munson to make a good, running grab in back of home. Horton threw his bat into the air in disgust and put his hands over his head as he turned back to the dugout as if to motion to the roaring fans that he was giving up. Before he got to the Cleveland dugout, Horton got on his hands and knees and crawled the last few feet as the crowd went wild.

Sources:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hamilst01.html

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hamilst01.shtml

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/04/sports/steve-hamilton-62-floater-pitcher-for-yankees.html

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Right-handed pitcher Chen-Chang Lee and infielder Jason Kipnis have won the top minor league awards in the Cleveland Indians farm system.

Lee has been named the 2011 Bob Feller Award recipient as the top pitcher in the Indians’ minor leagues.

Lee, 25, played at Class AA Akron and Class AAA Columbus in 2011, going a combined 6-1 with a save and 2.40 earned run average in 44 relief appearances. He averaged 12.5 strikeouts per nine innings pitched and limited minor league hitters to a .210 average against.

On the season, right-handed batters hit .197 off him with just four extra base hits. After beginning the season in Akron, where he had a 2.50 ERA in 23 games, he was promoted to Columbus on June 22 and went 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA in 21 games.

Lee hails from Taiwan and was signed as an amateur by the Indians in September 2008. He owns a three-year minor league career record of 15-11 with a 3.01 ERA in 133 relief appearances.

Kipnis won the Lou Boudreau Award as the team’s top minor league player of the year for the second straight time, joining Victor Martinez as the only Indian position player to win the award in consecutive seasons.

Kipnis spent the first three and one-half months of the 2011 season at Class AAA Columbus, hitting .280 with 16 doubles, nine triples and 55 RBI in 92 games. At the time of his July 22 promotion to Cleveland, he was leading the International League in triples, was second in runs (65) and tied for 12th in hits (92) and RBI.

A 2009 second-round pick out of Arizona State University, Kipnis hit .272 with Cleveland over the final two months of the season with nine doubles, a triple, seven home runs and 19 RBI in 36 games.

Here are the Bob Feller and Lou Boudreau winners in Indians team history:

FELLER: 1990 Charles Nagy; 1991 Mike Soper; 1992 Chad Ogea; 1993 John Carter; 1994 Steve Kline; 1995 Danny Graves; 1996 Danny Graves; 1997 Marc Deschenes; 1998 David Riske; 1999 Robert Pugmire; 2000 Jason Stanford 2001 Mike Bacsik; 2002 Billy Traber; 2003 Fausto Carmona; 2004 Adam Miller; 2005 Jeremy Sowers; 2006 Adam Miller; 2007 Aaron Laffey; 2008 David Huff; 2009 Hector Rondon; 2010 Alex White; 2011 Chen-Chang Lee.

BOUDREAU: 1990 Jim Thome; 1991 Manny Ramirez; 1992 Ken Ramos; 1993 Jim Thome; 1994 David Bell; 1995 Richie Sexson; 1996 Russ Branyan 1997 Sean Casey; 1998 Alex Ramirez 1999 Scott Morgan; 2000 Billy Munoz; 2001 Victor Martinez; 2002 Victor Martinez; 2003 Grady Sizemore; 2004 Ryan Garko; 2005 Ryan Mulhern; 2006 Kevin Kouzmanoff; 2007 Asdrubal Cabrera; 2008 Beau Mills; 2009 Carlos Santana; 2010 Jason Kipnis; 2011 Kipnis.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — News and rumors from MLB’s GM/owners meetings at the Pfister Hotel:

Agent Scott Boras says he’s going to meet with Indians GM Chris Antonetti this week to discuss some of his players. That in itself is a surprise, because Boras’ clients don’t come cheap. Among his stable of free agents are Prince Fielder, Edwin Jackson, Ryan Madson, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Pena, Francisco Rodriguez, Bruce Chen, Rick Ankiel, Johnny Damon, J.D. Drew, Andruw Jones and Mike Gonzalez.

The Indians aren’t going to bid on Fielder in an effort to improve their offense. They might be interested in Pena, another power-hitting lefty-hitting first baseman. Outfielders Jones, Drew and Ankiel could draw some interest as well. The Indians need an outfielder, who can play left or center, to team with Michael Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo.

Asked if he felt the Indians, who had a $49 million payroll last season, were willing to spend money, Boras said, “Yes.”

No numbers, please: The Brewers won 96 games and the NL Central this year. They advanced to the NLCS before losing to St. Louis. This winter they would like to make an upgrade at shortstop.

GM Doug Melvin was asked about how much contract he’s had with the agents for free agent shortstop Jose Reyes.

“One phone call. No [salary] numbers,” said Melvin.

Next: The Phillies supposedly had a deal in place with Boras last week to re-sign Madson, their closer, to a four-year, $44 million deal. The deal didn’t get done and the Phillies signed Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon to a four-year, $50 million deal completed Monday.

“The Phillies had make a choice,” said Boras. “They made the choice and we’re moving forward.”

Topsy turvy: The Indians have named Edwin Rodriguez manager at Class A Carolina. Rodriguez managed the Marlins to a 78-85 record over parts of two seasons from June 23, 2010 through June 18, 2011. The Carolina Mudcats, located in Zebulon, N.C., are the Indians new Class A affiliate in the Carolina League after purchasing the Kinston franchise prior to the 2011 season.

Rodriguez, 51, is the first Puerto Rican to manage a big-league team. Before managing the Marlins, he worked in their player development system from 2006-10. Rodriguez, an infielder, spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues with the Yankees and Padres from 1982-85.

Moving on: Aaron Holbert managed Kinston in 2011 to a 76-62 record. They made the postseason, but lost in the championship round. Holbert, who managed four years in the Indians’ system, will manage Atlanta’s Class AA Mississippi Braves.

Gary Thurman, the Indians’ minor-league coordinator for outfield play and base running, has left to join Ozzie Guillen‘s staff in Miami. Lee May Jr., Class AAA Columbus hitting coach, was hired by Seattle to be its minor-league hitting coordinator.

Indians farm director Ross Atkins says he’s in the final stages of filling those and other vacancies — Dave Miller (pitching coordinator) and Tom Wiedenbauer (field coordinator) — to the Tribe’s big-league staff.

Adios: Adam Miller, who used to throw 100 mph when he was the Indians’ top prospect, is a minor-league free agent, and not expected to return to the Indians. Miller’s career headed in the wrong direction once he tore a tendon in the middle finger of his right hand.

New job: Joel Skinner, a former Indians catcher, coach and manager, will manage Class AAA Charlotte for the White Sox next year. Skinner was Oakland’s bench coach last season. At the end of the season he was fired because manager Bob Melvin, who replaced Bob Geren on June 9, wanted his own coaching staff.

On Twitter: @hoynsie

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The Indians have named Edwin Rodriguez manager at Class A Carolina. Rodriguez managed the Marlins to a 78-85 record over parts of two seasons from June 23, 2010 through June 18, 2011.

The Carolina Mudcats, located in Zebulon, N.C., are the Indians new Class A affiliate in the Carolina League after purchasing the Kinston franchise prior to the 2011 season.
 
Rodriguez, 51, is the first Puerto Rican to manage a big-league team. Before managing the Marlins, he worked in their player development system from 2006 to 2010. Rodriguez, an infielder, spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues with the Yankees and Padres from 1982 to 1985.

Aaron Holbert managed Kinston this year to a 76-62 record. They made the postseason, but lost in the championship round.

Holbert, who managed four years in the Indians system, will manage Atlanta’s Class AA Mississippi Braves.

New job: Joel Skinner, former Indians catcher, coach and manager, will manage Class AAA Charlotte for the White Sox next year.

Skinner was Oakland’s bench coach last season. At the end of the season he was fired because manager Bob Melvin, who replaced Bob Geren on June 9, wanted his own coaching staff.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — One rumor down, and probably a lot more to come involving Sandy Alomar Jr. For now, the former All-Star catcher remains the Indians bench coach.

In an unexpected move Thursday, the White Sox hired Robin Ventura as their manager to replace Ozzie Guillen. Alomar Jr., promoted to Indians bench coach on the final day of the regular season, was rumored to be a favorite for the job.

“No, sir, I never received a call from the White Sox,” said Alomar in a text message. “I was going to take my name out of consideration, anyway. I just want to keep moving and taking the next step in my coaching career.

“I’m excited to be in the Tribe. It’s a new challenge.”

Alomar played with the Indians from a 1990 through 2000. He just finished his second year on manager Manny Acta’s coaching staff. He was promoted to bench coach from first base coach when Tim Tolman resigned on the final day of the regular season to continue his fight against Parkinson’s disease.

The six-time All-Star catcher was one of the most popular Indians players in history. At the end of the 2010 season, Alomar was a finalist for the Toronto’s managerial job even though he has never managed at any level. At the end of this season, Acta said it was just a matter of time before a team hires Alomar as its manager.

“Sandy is a hot commodity in the game,” said Acta.

Acta needs to fill two vacancies on his coaching staff for next season. He must replace pitching coach Tim Belcher and find a first base coach to replace Alomar. Belcher resigned on Oct. 29 to spend more time with his family.

Bullpen coach Scott Radinsky and Class AAA pitching coach Ruben Niebla are believed to be candidates for the pitching coach job. Acta is looking for a first base coach who can teach outfield play and baserunning. Kenny Lofton, who worked with the Indians baserunners and outfielders in spring training, would be a logical choice, but Lofton has a production company in Los Angeles that occupies most of his time.

Acta said Thursday that he has not started interviewing candidates. He’s currently taking part in the team’s organizational meetings in Goodyear, Ariz.