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SI.com reports the Dodgers and Rockies are interested in inviting right-hander Eric Gagne to training camp.

The Web site reports both teams have watched Gagne throw and are willing to give him a look this spring.

Gagne, 34, is trying to return to the majors after a one-year absence. The onetime premier closer pitched as a starter in the independent Can-Am League last season.

Mark Mulder on Monday strongly denied reports out of Milwaukee and Oakland that said he had decided to retire from baseball.

The left-hander told the San Francisco Chronicle he is, in fact, backing off on his throwing program as he continues to recover from serious shoulder injuries. He said he still is working on a delivery that will allow him to be effective on the mound.

"I never said ‘retirement.’ That’s the wrong word," Mulder told the Chronicle. "The thing is, physically, I feel great, but my arm just doesn’t work the way I want to work, so I just shut it down from throwing. But I never really said I was going to retire; I’m 32 and I don’t feel like there’s anything physically wrong with me."

The retirement firestorm started Monday morning when Brewers pitching coach Rick Peterson, who worked with Mulder when the two were with the Athletics, told MLB.com that Mulder was quitting. That was after a Milwaukee television station had reported Mulder was finished. Later, A’s infielder Eric Chavez told Bay Area reporters that Mulder was indeed hanging up his cleats.

"He said he’s done," Chavez said. "But he didn’t really do a good job of convincing me. I said, ‘You’re not going to be the next Brett Favre, are you?’ "

Then came the denials, first by Mulder’s agent, Gregg Clifton, followed by Mulder himself.

"Whether or not I get it going again, I don’t know. I’m not ruling anything out. But retiring? No," Mulder told the Chronicle.

The Brewers had been interested in signing Mulder, who blossomed under Peterson’s tutelage in Oakland but hasn’t pitched in the majors since July 9, 2008, with the Cardinals.

Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez, who is entering the final year of his contract, told the Boston Herald he wants to remain with the Sox rather than explore the free-agent process.

"I don’t want to be jumping around, I don’t want to go somewhere else," Martinez told the paper. "First, I didn’t want to go out of the Indians organization. Then I’m out, and now I’m here. I came to the place where a lot of players dream to come and a lot of players wish to play here in Boston. So I’m here, I do really want to stay here and hopefully end my career in Boston."

Martinez, who hit .336 and drove in 41 runs in 56 games after being acquired at the trade deadline, is making $7.7 million in the final year of his contract.

"Like I said, I don’t really want to be a free agent," said Martinez, who added a warning: "As soon as the season starts, I don’t want to be talking about numbers or be talking about something that can distract me from the game and distract my teammates. … As soon as the season starts, I barely talk to my mom."

Sports Radio Interviews is a streaming independent sports blog which provides analysis on breaking sports news, upcoming games, and sporting events from a sports radio perspective. SRI articles frequently appear on SportingNews.com.

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has tough decisions ahead.

The New York Yankees are coming off their first championship season in a decade and with a reloaded roster that could be stronger than last year’s team. Curtis Granderson and Javier Vasquez are the biggest names to join the team, but they’ve also upgraded their depth with solid role players like Nick Johnson and Randy Winn.

But even with all that talent on hand, manager Joe Girardi still has some tough work ahead. He’ll have to balance egos, play the press, and choose a fifth starter, just to name a few issues on his plate.

Girardi joined WFAN in New York to talk about getting back to work, how he expects the center field position to sort itself out, and how his fifth starter situation will be resolved.

* * *

On what the big picture looks like as he approaches the season:
I think the big picture is you look at the health of your starting rotation, if you keep your starting rotation intact. I feel that we are going to have a good year, and we could have a very good year.

I think our rotation going into last year was really strong. We lost Chien-Ming Wang and didn’t really have him for most of the year. I think it’s strong this year as well, adding Javier Vasquez, who we know is not coming off of an injury and he is going to be a big part of our rotation.

How he expects the center field position to sort itself out:
We have a couple of different pieces. We have Granderson there, and leave him there every day, but we also have Gardner. Does he become an everyday player? Does he become a platoon player? What type of player does he become? He is another guy who can play center field. That is something that we have to iron out. I think about the things we have to iron out in spring training and that’s one of them…

We feel that our outfield has depth now, adding Randy Winn, so we feel good about the pieces. We just have to assemble them the best way.

On whether Jorge Posada is the leading candidate for the fifth spot in the lineup:
That is the guy that we are going to look at, definitely. The thing that you have to be careful is that you don’t stack your lefties. Posada being a switch hitter and Swisher being a switch hitter, that helps us in the second half of the lineup, and we need to be careful that we don’t make it easy for opposing managers just to bring in all of their left-handers against us.

On whether the fifth starter will be decided by a certain date or if it could be decided later in spring training:
I think you could carry it into March 25th. I would love to have it settled by then, so the other guy can get back to the role that they are going to do which would be in the bullpen or the later stages of the bullpen…

There is a scenario that maybe both [Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain] are in the bullpen, but I am not exactly sure. You expect one of those guys to probably emerge as a starter, but funnier things have happened.

Listen to Joe Girardi on WFAN in New York with Mike Francesca

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The Miami Herald reported that the Marlins expect to land the 2015 All-Star Game for their new stadium, which will open in 2012.
 
"If you thought we would host the All-Star Game in 2015, you would probably not be misleading yourself,” team president David Samson told fans at Saturday’s FanFest at Sun Life Stadium.

Samson said that, while the Marlins haven’t been assured of the 2015 game, "we’re pretty confident that will be the year."

According to the Seattle Times, Ichiro watching makes for riveting television in Japan. So riveting that when every one of Ichiro Suzuki’s 2,030 major league hits—over his nine-year career with the Mariners—were broadcast in his native country from midnight to 6 a.m. on New Year’s Day, the show was declared a ratings success.

"I was already asleep," Ichiro told the newspaper, laughing. "That’s the kind of attention I strive for. As a player, you have to be of the mindset that your purpose is trying to give people a compelling reason to maintain their interest in your performance every season.

"We’re behooved as professional baseball players to do that. The fact that I was able to fulfill that quest to the extent that one network thought it made for compelling programming makes me very happy."

How do you repair a strained relationship? Daisuke Matsuzaka, who admitted hiding a groin strain from Boston trainers and officials last season, apparently is doing his best to work his way back into the Red Sox’s good graces.

Matsuzaka reported early to the team’s spring training camp in Fort Myers, Fla., and appears to be in much better condition than last season, when he made only 12 starts because of shoulder problems that apparently evolved from the groin strain.

The talented right-hander has been working out since Thursday at the team’s Fort Myers complex after spending time this winter at the Athletes’ Performance training center in Arizona.

"He worked hard this winter, that’s evident," general manager Theo Epstein told the Boston Globe. "He has lost weight."

Matsuzaka agreed to recommit himself to conditioning after last season and so far has done everything the Red Sox expected him to do in preparation for a comeback season.

"Obviously we want to see him pitch well, but everything has gone the way we hoped," Epstein told the newspaper. "Daisuke is important to us."

According to the Globe, the Red Sox are counting on Matsuzaka, who is entering the fourth year of a six-year contract, to be the fourth or fifth starter behind rotation stalwarts Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and John Lackey.