A’s trade Mulder to Cardinals for prospects

The Oakland Athletics traded their second top starter in three days, sending left-hander Mark Mulder to the N.L. champion St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday for a package of prospects.

Mulder follows Tim Hudson out of town, leaving Barry Zito as the only remaining member of Oakland’s vaunted “Big Three” pitchers. Hudson was dealt to Atlanta on Thursday for three mostly unproven players.

Mulder could be the top-notch pitcher the Cardinals sorely lacked when they got swept by the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, but that’s if he’s healthy.

In return, the A’s acquired pitchers Danny Haren and Kiko Calero and minor league catcher Daric Barton.

“We’re extremely excited to have obtained a pitcher of Mark’s caliber,” Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. “He is the top of the rotation-type pitcher we’ve been working hard to obtain this off-season. It was difficult to part with the three players we traded but to acquire someone like Mulder we felt that this deal worked for us in several ways.”

Mulder replaces Woody Williams, who was not offered salary arbitration by the Cardinals and signed a free-agent deal earlier this month with San Diego. Mulder will join Chris Carpenter, Jason Marquis, Jeff Suppan and Matt Morris in a rotation where all five pitchers won at least 15 games last season.

Johnson deal up to 10 players

The megadeal involving Randy Johnson, Shawn Green and Javier Vazquez grew to 10 players, with the New York Yankees, Arizona and Los Angeles hoping to present the proposed trade to the commissioner’s office soon for approval.

Pitchers Kaz Ishii, Mike Koplove and Brandon Weeden are now part of the swap, a baseball official told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The teams were aiming to put the whole deal down on paper this weekend and give it to the commissioner’s office perhaps by Monday. The deal needs permission because it involves more than $1 million – as it stands, the Yankees would pay $2 million of Ishii’s contract.

Plus, there might be a spinoff to the deal. There’s speculation the Dodgers might get Vazquez from the Yankees and then trade the pitcher to the Chicago White Sox.

Johnson has a no-trade clause, but wants to play for the Yankees. Green also has a no-trade provision, and the Dodgers outfielder has not yet waived it to play for Arizona.

Martinez gets suite deal

Pedro Martinez got a really suite deal from the New York Mets.

The pitcher will receive a luxury suite at Shea Stadium for every home game and a hotel suite on all road trips, according to terms of his contract obtained by the AP.

Red Sox, Clement close to deal

Right-hander Matt Clement and the Boston Red Sox are closing in on a three-year contract worth $25 million, according to reports citing his agent.

“There are no issues (remaining),” Clement’s agent, Barry Axelrod, told MLB.com. “We have a couple of i’s to dot and t’s to cross, but nothing major. There is pretty much a deal in place.”