Baseball's Busiest Offseason Week

Originally posted on my MySpace blog, December 6, 2005:

As a baseball fan, the offseason is just as fun and exciting as the regular season, when fans get anxious to see which players their favorite team will sign and trade for for the following season. This week marks the beginning of the biggest free agent and trade fiesta, the Winter Meetings. It is usually here where all the high flying rumors come to fruition and the dust begins to slowly settle on where the high profiled free agents will land, and trades take place. With the meetings now a day old, here are some of the rumors regarding local teams, as well news on the bigger prizes of the free agent market.

Dodgers:

Red Sox free agent third baseman Bill Mueller has reportedly narrowed his choices down to the Dodgers and Pirates. The Pirates have offered Mueller a two-year deal, something the Dodgers might not do considering highly touted third baseman Andy LaRoche is knocking on the doorstep down on the farm.

Rumors were flying high surrounding a possible trade with Oakland involving Milton Bradley. Most rumors (confirmed by national media) has Bradley headed to Oakland, along with at least one prospect, for former Cy Young winner Barry Zito. Another rumor suggested the talk had turned into Kirk Saarloos for Bradley, but there was no confirmation of this. Bradley's name has also surfaced with Pittsburgh, where his former manager in L.A., Jim Tracy, is now the manager, the Chicago Cubs, and the New York Yankees.

There was some talk of a potential trade with the Red Sox that would send 40-something-year-old left-hander David Wells to the Dodgers. Bob Nightingale of USA Today reports that a deal could be done today. Wells' name was also tied to the Padres and Angels.

The Dodgers are said to have spoken with the agents for Matt Morris, Reggie Sanders, Jacque Jones, Jeromy Burnitz and Nomar Garciaparra, among others, as well as the teams for Bobby Abreu, Juan Pierre and Joey Gathright, among others.

Angels:

The biggest name surrounding the Angels is Manny Ramirez. Will they or wont they? There have been talks, mostly of a possible three-team deal that would bring Manny to the Angels, send Troy Glaus from Arizona to Boston, and Darin Erstad, among others to Boston, as well as prospects to both Boston and Arizona. The glaring question is, do the Angels want to give up on some of their top prospects to take on Manny's large salary? He is due close to $58 million over the enxt three years. The Angels have balked at just about any talks that include Brandon Wood and Ervin Santana, so its highly unlikely at this point anything gets done soon. Stay tuned.

Dodger free agent pitcher Jeff Weaver has drawn some interest from the Angels and the two sides have talked about a possible deal. Weaver, should he sign with the Angels, could possibly join his brother Jered in the Angels rotation next season. Jered was the Angels #1 pick in the draft in 2004.

Padres:

The Padres have also talked to the Red Sox about a deal for David Wells. Wells has made it clear he does not intend to return to Boston for the final year of his contract, asking them to trade him to a west coast team. The Padres could send second baseman Mark Loretta to Boston for Wells,or catcher Doug Mirabelli as suggested bu Nightingale, contingent on signing Nomar to a deal to play second base.

A.J. Burnett:

One of the last remaining top free agents, A.J. Burnett has just signed a five year, $55 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. Burnett, highly regarded as the top starting pitcher in this year's free agency class, was highly sought after by several teams, including St. Louis and Washington. Burnett's deal will become official today once he takes a physical.

Johnny Damon:

Johnny Damon remains as the lone top free agent hitter unsigned, mainly because of his agent Scott Boras' demands for a seven-year contract. Damon probably wont get half those years in a contract, largely because of his age, but he should continue to get feelers from several teams in need of a leadoff hitting centerfielder. Damon is not considered a good defensive centerfielder, his arm is below average but he does still have some speed, but he is considered a solid leadoff hitter with a knack for getting on base, stealing bases, scoring runs and an unusual ability to drive in a lot of runs from the top of the order. Damon also has some legitimate power that most teams would love to have in the middle of their lineup. Teams that have shown interest in him are his former team, the Red Sox, and their hated rivals, the Yankees. Damon probably will remain unsigned through the meetings this week but we should have a better idea where he ends up in about a week to 10 days.