Mack Traded for Macfarlane

Shane Mack will get more playing time. Mike Macfarlane will get more teaching time.

The two veteran players are switching teams after a trade between the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals, the second deal between the clubs in three weeks.

The Royals sent catcher Macfarlane and an undisclosed amount of cash to the A’s for Mack and a player to be named later.

Kansas City needed Mack, signed as a free agent by the A’s in December after hitting .315 in 60 games for the Boston Red Sox last season, because Jeff Conine went on the disabled list because of a strained abdominal muscle.

With the A’s, Macfarlane will see spot duty and be expected to help tutor rookie catcher A.J. Hinch.

Philadelphia Phillie General Manager Ed Wade rejected a counter-proposal to the contract offer the team made last week to unsigned draft choice J.D. Drew.

“I’m disappointed,” Wade said after receiving the counterproposal from Drew’s agent, Scott Boras. “I told him we viewed this as totally unresponsive to what we proposed.”

Boras’ counter-proposal maintains a total value of $11 million, the amount the agent has said at least one unnamed team has told him they would pay Drew, an outfielder who was the college player of the year in 1997.

“We offered him a chance to make $6 million if he’s the kind of player he thinks, and we think, he is,” Wade said. “We’ve offered him $5 million if he turns into an average player.”

Dave Stieb’s comeback at age 40--after four seasons out of baseball--is underway.

Stieb, pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays’ Florida State League squad, the Class-A Dunedin Blue Jays, gave up two unearned runs on five hits in five innings. He struck out four and had 42 strikes among 65 pitches against the Tampa Yankees.

“I could have gone longer, but it was close to my limit of 70 pitches and there was no sense in pushing it.” Stieb said.

Cincinnati Red first baseman Sean Casey underwent surgery to align a fractured bone below his right eye, the result of an accidental throw from teammate Damian Jackson during a pregame workout last Thursday. Casey, 23, is expected to be out three to four weeks.