Another batch of links surrounding the Eastern divisions, less than 12 hours after the Marlins and Jose Reyes agreed to terms on a six-year, $106MM contract:
- The Red Sox may only be able to take on a very limited amount of payroll for a number of reasons, and Alex Speier of WEEI.com has the rundown.
- The Phillies have not had any extension talks with Cole Hamels, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney. Still, CBS Sports' Danny Knobler says there's a strong expectation on both sides that a deal will eventually get done.
- In his "10 Degrees" column for Yahoo! Sports, Jeff Passan calls the former small-market Marlins' outbidding of the Mets for Reyes "bizarro baseball," opines that Reyes at his best is better offensively than Carl Crawford, and runs down a number of other big name free agents and hot stove issues.
- David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News breaks down Laynce Nix's two-year deal with the Phillies, but has difficulty finding the logic behind the signing.
- Jimmy Rollins is the Phillies' top priority at the Winter Meetings, writes Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Other than that, however, Brookover finds it unlikely that the Phils will make a big splash this week.
- In his latest blog, MLB.com's Bill Chastain says he doesn't think the Rays will be in on Manny Ramirez, he expects B.J. Upton to stay put, and he a "big part of him" still believes Johnny Damon could return to Tampa despite reported interest from the Orioles.
- New Orioles special assistant Lee Thomas told reporters, including Steve Melewski of MASNSports, that other teams "missed the boat" on GM Dan Duquette.
It’s not bizarro baseball, it’s called having a new stadium and wanting to bring as many fans to the ballpark as possible. I still have a hard time seeing the Marlins having any sellout crowds though.
Edit: It’s also the Mets having no money.
It’s bizarre because it is suppose to be the other way. Mets are NY and they are FL. The Mets are suppose to be the big market team signing any player they want and need, not the other way around.
Laynce nix. I still don’t understand this signing. At least Ross gload, so taguchi and Greg Dobbs were pinch hit leaders when the phillies signed them. I’d rather have AAA soldiers fill the bench costing about 5 mil for the entire bench than the crap Rubes is buying.
Buster, relax with the Hamels stuff