Uncategorized News & Rumors

After grappling with hundreds (if not thousands) of hot stove reports during the ’08 Winter Meetings, I’m attempting to define the commonplace phrases and terms.  As frustrating as this jargon can be, the hard-working baseball journalists who bring us the rumors and inside information must be applauded.

• official – Doesn’t get misused – a deal is only official if a team announces it.
• done deal – Should be reserved for deals that are truly complete, yet someone jumps the gun with it weekly.  See also: finalized
• set to sign/acquire – One step below the done deal.  Doesn’t leave much wiggle room.  See also: on the verge, on the brink, tentative agreement
• close to a deal – This trade or signing is likely, but I’m leaving some wiggle room.  See also: nearing a deal, closing in on
• working to sign/acquire – Things are coming along positively, but I’m not ready to call it close.  See also: escalated, making progress, heating up, stepped up efforts
• in discussions – They’re talking, but I’m not making any promises.
• life support – Faint chance of this deal occurring – I’m not ready to call it dead.
• dead – Should be reserved for talks with 0% chance of being revisited, yet we frequently see dead talks "resurrected."
• inquired – One party called another to ask about something or express interest.  The party receiving the inquiry may have zero interest.
• internal discussions – Rarely misused.  Front office guys from one team are talking amongst themselves about something.
• shopping – Implies a GM is aggressively calling other teams to try to find a trade partner for a player.  GMs seem to dread the word because it makes them lose leverage.  Also applies to an agent trying to find a team to sign his free agent.
• believed to be – Meaningless phrase, yet a popular way to hedge.  Can be combined with phrases above for a double hedge.  See also: appear to be, seem to be, apparently
• Did I miss something?  Let me know in the comments.

Winter Meetings, Day 3.  What a day.  Hopefully now the annoying "this offseason is boring" talk will die down.  Here’s what happened.

• Joel Sherman of the New York Post broke the news around 3:30am CST: the Yankees reached an agreement with C.C. Sabathia.  It’s a seven-year, $161MM deal with an opt-out clause after the first three years.  The largest-ever deal for a pitcher by a long shot.
• The Mets continued to overhaul their bullpen by acquiring J.J. Putz in a three-team blockbuster.
• Only a physical separates the Indians and Kerry Wood from a two-year, $20MM deal.
• The Tigers acquired Edwin Jackson from the Rays for Matt Joyce.
• The Phillies were close to signing Chan Ho Park; they may use him as a starter.  The Orioles reached an agreement with Cesar Izturis.  The Royals inked Horacio Ramirez.  The D’Backs re-signed Augie Ojeda.
• Click through to catch up on Jeremy Hermida, Brian Fuentes, Jake Peavy, Mark Teixeira, Rafael Furcal, Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett, and Manny Ramirez.  Teixeira and Burnett have huge offers in hand.
• The Phillies acquired Ronny Paulino for a minor league catcher.
• Roy Oswalt expressed a willingness to restructure his contract to allow the Astros to pursue a starting pitcher.
• The D’Backs made a one-year offer to Felipe Lopez.

We just added a Top Stories section to the righthand sidebar of the website.  This should make it much easier to catch up quickly on the 5-10 most important recent stories.  For a more thorough browse of the headlines check out the December archive.

Yahoo’s Kevin Kaduk reports that the Baseball Writers Association of America added four Internet writers today: Will Carroll, Christina Kahrl, Rob Neyer, and Keith Law.  Congratulations to four fine writers.

Let’s take a look at the deals of Day 2 of the Winter Meetings.

• The Mets agreed to terms with Francisco Rodriguez on a three-year, $37MM deal with a fourth year vesting option that could bring the total to $51MM.
• The Indians neared an agreement with Kerry Wood.
• The Dodgers reached a three-year, $17.5MM agreement with Casey Blake.
• The Orioles sent Ramon Hernandez and $2-3MM to the Reds for Ryan Freel and two minor leaguers.
• The Dodgers reached an agreement with Mark Loretta for one year and $1.25MM.
• The Rockies closed in on a deal with Alan Embree.
• Mike Lamb re-signed with the Brewers.
• You’ll have to click through to read the latest rumors on Jake Peavy, C.C. Sabathia, Rafael Furcal, Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett, Mark Teixeira, J.J. Putz, Raul Ibanez, Ben Sheets, Brian Fuentes, Randy Johnson, and Manny Ramirez.  The most notable development among these players is Brian Cashman’s trip to San Francisco to meet with Sabathia a third time.

Looking for obsessive coverage of baseball’s Winter Meetings?  MLB Trade Rumors is the place to be.  Here are some links if you’re new to the site.

• Click on the December archive to see headlines for the many, many posts we’ve written since the Meetings began.  Sometimes news from even a few hours ago gets pushed off the front page of the website to make room for newer stories.
• Read about MLBTR and its creator and author, Tim Dierkes.
• Sign up for our RSS feed.
• Sign up as a fan of MLBTR on Facebook (7,518 and counting).
• Bookmark the MLBTR mobile site on your phone.
• Check out the commenting policy before joining the discussion.
• Bookmark our living, breathing list of this year’s free agents.
• Browse the list of Scott Boras clients.
• Check out the righthand sidebar for other good stuff.

I had to make a necessary sacrifice to be able to publish new rumors as quickly as possible during the Winter Meetings: the team rumor links located on the righthand sidebar will not be up-to-date this week.

You will just have to click the December archive and scan all the recent headlines.  Also, we’ve got a Winter Meetings Day 2 In Review post coming up in a few hours.

By my count, I’ve written 66 posts today for MLB Trade Rumors (probably some kind of record).  It’s been a ridiculously rumor-packed day, though we’re not shutting it down for a few more hours.

We can’t put all 66 posts on the front page, so you might find that certain rumors have gotten buried.  Your best bet is to click this December archive link and scan all the headlines, clicking on the titles of the posts you want to read.

On Friday, December 12th (at midnight I believe), the non-tender deadline will occur.  Basically, that’s when teams decide whether to offer a contract to the unsigned players on their 40-man roster.  Players not tendered a contract become free agents.  Past non-tenders include David Ortiz, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Franklin, David Eckstein, and Chad Durbin.  Usually at least a few useful guys are unearthed. 

Below I’ve listed non-tender candidates for each team; it’s mostly speculative.  Feel free to debate or add names in the comments; I may add to the list based on that.  I tried to keep it to names that are at least mildly interesting.  Bedard is unlikely but I tossed him in anyway.

Brandon Backe
Denny Bautista
Erik Bedard
Matt Belisle
Angel Berroa
John Buck
Chris Burke
Daniel Cabrera
Chris Capuano
Jason Davis
Randy Flores
Jason Frasor
Chad Gaudin
Jimmy Gobble
Jonny Gomes
Aaron Miles
Duaner Sanchez
Brian Tallet
Willy Taveras

Yesterday I chatted about the hot stove with SNY’s Matthew Cerrone.  Click below to hear it.