We all knew it was going to happen, but yesterday Ryan Ludwick made it official. He declined his option for next year and became a free agent.

Had he elected to take the option, he would have had another year and $5 million. On the open market he can probably get a 2-year deal and somewhat more millions, having hit .275 with 26 home runs in 125 games.

General Manager Walt Jocketty says that the team is looking to bring him back, which is cool. If you were going to complain about anyone in the outfield, it wouldn’t have been him. And if they didn’t bring Ludwick back, they’d had to go find someone new, since there isn’t an obvious left fielder waiting in the wings to take over.

I didn’t realize this, but Jocketty is also looking to bring back Ryan Madson. Remember Madson? The guy who got freakishly injured in spring training and then missed the whole season with surgery? Apparently he declined his option, which seems surprising to me. Can his just-missed-a-whole-year self command more than $11 million on the open market? Or, since it was a mutual option, did he just decline it to prevent being declined himself?

Either way, Madson really seemed promising in those early days this year. It might not be so bad to find out what we were missing. If they do bring him back, though, I bet they’ll get insurance on his contract this time.

The Cincinnati Reds had more players nominated for a Gold Globe this year than any other team, but at the end of the televised announcement show, they went home with none.

The Reds’ candidates were:

• Pitcher Bronson Arroyo – In Arroyo’s case, I’m going to say it was an honor just to be nominated. He’s got some good defense, but the best?
• First Baseman Joey Votto – Not really a surprise here, either. Dude missed two months with that knee surgery.
• Second Baseman Brandon Phillips – This is the biggest surprise of the night, I guess. Darwin Barney of the Cubs had a pretty good year, but come on, Brandon Phillips is the best there is. It is a vote, though, and Phillips rubs some folks the wrong way.
• Shortstop Zack Cozart – Robbed. Totally. The victim of the inertia that Gold Gloves pick up as a player’s years of service grow.
• Center Fielder Drew Stubbs – Stubbs is probably better in the field than the actual winner, Andrew McCutchen, but if you had to choose between the two players, you’re not picking Stubbs. McCutchen is the MLB darling right now.
• Right Fielder Jay Bruce – I don’t know the work of Atlanta’s Jason Heyward to say whether Bruce should have gotten this one. Bruce has a helluva arm, but as a player he’s really defined as an offensive force, when he’s on.

What does it mean when your team has more guys nominated than any other team but not a single one of them brings home the award? I think it has to be that, while each guy might not be the absolute superstar, as a unit these guys are the best. And I think we’ve seen that for ourselves.

And frankly, I think I prefer it. It seems like when you’ve got one guy who wins a Gold Glove at the end of the season, a lot of times it’s like a consolation prize, a single ray of hope that you focus on building around for next year. It’s actually nice not to be in that situation for a change.

Not that all six of them getting the award wouldn’t have been nice, too.

Here’s the complete list of winners, FYI:

Position	AL Winner	NL Winner
C	Matt Wieters, BAL	Yadier Molina, STL
1B	Mark Teixeira, NYY	Adam LaRoche, WAS
2B	Robinson Cano, NYY	Darwin Barney, CHC
SS	J.J. Hardy, BAL	Jimmy Rollins, PHI
3B	Adrian Beltre, TEX	Chase Headley, SD
LF	Alex Gordon, KC	Carlos Gonzalez, COL
CF	Adam Jones, BAL	Andrew McCutchen, PIT
RF	Josh Reddick, OAK	Jason Heyward, ATL
P	Jeremy Hellickson, TB and Jake Peavy, CWS	Mark Buehrle, MIA

It became official in the second game of the series: Angel Pagan stole a base, thereby requiring Taco Bell to make good on its promise to give everyone in America a taco, which was the basis for its “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” campaign.

Today’s the day: if you would like to brave the madhouse for your $0.89 value, show up at a participating location between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Don’t forget to read the salsa packets.

It took 10 innings in last night’s final game, but the San Francisco Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. So that’s it for baseball for another year.

I didn’t watch a single bit of the series this year. In fact, I’ve barely seen an inning since the Reds were eliminated what feels like a couple months ago. I’d like to say it was some righteous protest or something, but really, I just got busy and didn’t really care.

Supposedly, we ought to be happy the Giants won, since that helps to justify the Reds’ first-round exit, but we all know the Giants weren’t any kind of unstoppable force. They had less to do with the Reds’ losing than a dozen papercuts plus one decapitating blow that was losing Johnny Cueto. The energy the team showed briefly after that was apparently just a headless chicken running around.

But now is not the time for that. Now is the time to celebrate the successes and give some awards. Plus, wonder what the heck the team will do with 2 more years with Dusty “Medically Questionable” Baker while Bryan “Pitcher Whisperer” Price is interviewing to lead the Marlins.

Via Red Reporter, I saw this story on CBS Sports about Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ryan Ludwick declining his $5 million mutual option with the team next season.

Reds outfielder Ryan Ludwick will turn down his $5 million mutual option for 2013, but sources say the Reds will talk about a new deal to keep him in Cincinnati after his big season in 2012.

It’s not a big surprise. Ludwick put up some excellent numbers with the Reds, coming to life while Joey Votto was out. He ended the season with a .275 batting average, a .346 ob-base percentage, and a .531 slugging percentage. It was his best year since 2008 when he was an All Star and won a Silver Slugger award.

Ludwick is reportedly interested in returning to the Reds, but will be shopping around his services. It would be nice to have him back as I think he has some slugging left to do, and his skills suit Great American Ball Park nicely.