Where are all the winter meetings moves?
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball wonders where all the trades and signings are.
Wednesday isn't the actual final day of the winter meetings, but it might as well be: Thursday is for the Rule 5 draft and flights home. That means, in 2017, that if there is going to be any winter meetings action of consequence, that it's going to come today.
And given that the meetings thus far have been about confirming the Giancarlo Stanton trade that went down before the meetings, a few relievers signing, and Chase Headley going back to the Padres in a salary dump, well, there's a whole lot of pressure on Wednesday to keep these meetings from being a bust.
J.D. Martinez remains unsigned, and there haven't been rumblings of anything being close. Eric Hosmer suitors seem to be quietly waiting for the other Eric Hosmer suitors to make a move. Jake Arrieta's name keeps popping up, only for denials and counter leaks to make those moments seem less intriguing. Manny Machado seems to actually be on the trade block, but it's probably going to take time for a deal to unfurl, time the meetings just don't have left to them.
All of that can change in an instant. Dominos can fall, floodgates can open, insert your own analogy for a bunch of stuff happening after one thing happens here. It just maybe doesn't feel like that this morning, after days of what has mostly been inactivity. We'll get there, though: these teams have needs, and these players are going to sign somewhere. The holdup of the market for Stanton and Shohei Ohtani just might have done more damage to the offseason's momentum than any of us realized, is all.
- Here's Justin Klugh from The Good Phight with an in-depth feature on Campbell's Field, which is nearing its destruction.
- You don't think of the Twins and Brewers as being the teams to guide the free agent market, but they have the power to bring in all kinds of pitching this winter in a way many other teams don't.
- It seemed like MLB teams might have finally figured out how to utilize bullpens in the postseason, but nope, they have no idea what they're doing, as Grant Brisbee's year-end feature explains.
- Alex Colome is a popular name on the trade market right now, and DRays Bay writes about the Cardinals' trade chip that could get him.
- The Braves are showing interest in Christian Yelich.
- They also aren't the only team asking about Yelich, and plenty of clubs are calling the Marlins about Marcell Ozuna, too.
- The D-Backs and Rangers are discussing a Zack Greinke trade, but it's unclear if they actually match up in a way that both sides would like.
- Shohei Ohtani reportedly has a first-degree UCL sprain in his pitching elbow, but the good news is that it's possibly manageble, and everyone in negotiations for him knew about it already.
- Manny Machado got a reference earlier, but let's spotlight that for a second: he's being shopped more aggressively than anyone expected, and he wants to move back to shortstop.