The 2009 Winter Meetings came to an end on Thursday. The last day of the meetings is typically the slowest as teams head back home after the Rule 5 Draft is held in the morning. However, there were still a few noteworthy items that made their way through the league on Thursday.
Roy Halladay Update – Jordan Bastian of MLB.com says that trade discussions are ongoing for Roy Halladay with the Los Angeles Angels and Philadelphia Phillies the current leaders for Halladay. SI.com’s Tom Verducci sources tell him that the Phillies are “very aggressive” and even willing to find multiple teams to meet the Blue Jays asking price. The Phillies pursued Halladay last July but eventually landing Cliff Lee (LHP) before the trade deadline.
Mets Make Offers to Bay and Molina – Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the New York Mets made offers to free agents Jason Bay (OF) and Bengie Molina (C) on Thursday. The Mets offer to Jason Bay is rumored to be for 4 years and between $60 and $65 million, which is pretty close to the Red Sox’s initial offer to Bay earlier this offseason that was rejected. Both players would fill glaring holes in the Mets’ lineup, regardless, I doubt the Mets sign Bay, especially if the rumored offer is true.
Yankees Negotiating with Damon – The New York Yankees have begun contract discussions with free agent Johnny Damon (OF) according to ESPN.com. The Yankees are at a position of strength in their negotiations with Damon after acquiring Curtis Granderson earlier in the week. Damon is rumored to be asking for a 4-year deal worth $13 million a year. There is no way Damon will get that kind of contract offer from the Yankees and will have to look elsewhere with those demands. Ultimately, I see the Yankees bringing back Damon on a two-year deal to be their left fielder.
White Sox Covet Brett Gardner? – Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times wrote in his daily blog that the Chicago White Sox covet Yankees center fielder Brett Gardner. The Sox are looking for someone to lead off next season and might feel Gardner would be a good fit in that spot. The Yankees have plenty of decisions looming this off season in regards to their outfield situation. The Yankees must decide whether to bring back free agents Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon along with deciding what to do with center fielders Melky Cabrera and Gardner now that Curtis Granderson is with the team.
Giants Make Offer to DeRosa? – San Francisco Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly believes the Giants have sent multiple offers to current free agents with the versatile Mark DeRosa (IF/OF) believed to be one of the players involved. Yahoo Sports Steve Henson tweeted that DeRosa is the teams top target at third base and that his versatility would allow them to either keep Pablo Sandoval at third or allow him to move across the diamond to first base. As a Cubs fan, I grew to love the way DeRosa plays the game, but most importantly how he respects the game. DeRosa is a true class act and the Giants would be smart to add a player of DeRosa’s caliber to their team.
Pedro Feliz to the Astros – The Houston Astros added their third free agent of the meetings by signing Pedro Feliz (3B) to a 1-year deal worth $4.5 million. Feliz is a great defender and has provided solid run production throughout his career. The signing of Feliz almost certainly means the end of free agent Miguel Tejada’s tenure in Houston.
Rockies Locking Up Their Backstops – MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports that the Colorado Rockies are close to signing both of their catchers to new deals. Both Chris Iannetta and Yorvit Torrealba are close to signing three and two-year deals respectively with the Rockies. Both players shared the catching duties in Colorado last season for the NL Wild Card winners.
Barry Bonds Calls It A Career – According to Barry Bonds’ agent Jeff Borris, the all-time home run leader is calling it a career due to not receiving any offers to play within the past few offseasons. Borris describes it as “an unfortunate ending to a storied career”. Teams were obviously scared of signing Bonds to a contract due to obvious media attention surrounding steroids. It’s good to see baseball slowly getting away from the steroids issue and getting back to what has made the game so great in the first place. Now if only the Cardinals could get new hitting coach Mark McGwire to talk we would really be getting somewhere.
So there you have it. Another Winter Meetings is in the books and as expected activity was slower than past years. ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark has a great article up on the Winter Meetings and where he expects a lot of the big names in this offseason’s rumor mill to go from here. We are slowly starting to see a change in the economics of baseball as a lot of teams are leery of shelling out big money to free agents. Like last year, it won’t be strange to see a lot of players signing in late January and early February as the market dictates their value. Do you feel this is a good thing for baseball? Do you think this will start to be the norm in baseball or will teams go back to their foolish spending once the economy returns to normal?
