MLB Winter Meetings journal: Waiting for the next domino to fall
NASHVILLE, Tenn — For a while there, I was starting to wonder whether anything was going to happen. Day 2 of the Winter Meetings started slow, but ended with a bang.
One of the first big offensive dominos fell when Ben Zobrist signed with the Chicago Cubs. Almost immediately after that news went official, the Cubs turned around and traded Starlin Castro to the New York Yankees.
But that wasn’t the end of it. As writers were still scrambling to compose headlines for those deals, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves came together for a monster trade involving Shelby Miller.
Just like that … chaos!
Both the Zobrist deal and Miller trade had been prominent rumors over the past couple days, and there’s some belief those players may have held up the transaction market. Now that Zobrist is gone, we might see Jason Heyward, Alex Gordon or Justin Upton sign. Now that Miller has been traded, teams desperate for pitching might focus their attention on other candidates.
The Winter Meetings end tomorrow, but tonight marks the unofficial deadline of the event. With just hours to go before general mangers, agents and executives head back home, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
FIVE THINGS THAT MIGHT HAPPEN: DAY 3
• As I mentioned above, there’s a sense that Zobrist may have been holding up the offensive market. Now that he’s gone, it’s going to be interesting to see how teams react. The corner outfield market is particularly strong, with Gordon, Heyward, Upton and Yoenis Cespedes available. On top of that, Chris Davis is still out there. Zobrist was probably going to be a primary second baseman anyway, but his ability to play a corner outfield spot likely impacted the market of those first four players. Will teams immediately turn to those guys now that Zobrist is gone?
• The Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics appear to be moving toward a deal that would send third baseman Brett Lawrie to Chicago for two minor-league players. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Lawrie part is “essentially settled,” so the deal could become official soon.
• The Washington Nationals are turning their attention to free-agent pitcher Mike Leake, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. Leake has pitched for manager Dusty Baker in the past, and is arguably the best pitcher still left on the market. The Diamondbacks were said to be in on Leake earlier this week, but backed out after acquiring Miller. Now that they are out of the picture, someone else, like the Nats, might step in and act quickly.
• Speaking of outfielders, the Baltimore Orioles met with Justin Upton’s agent recently, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The Los Angeles Angels were mentioned as a possible destination for the 28-year-old, so it does appear the market for him is starting to heat up. There were also some reports that the San Francisco Giants might make a play for Alex Gordon. Perhaps either Gordon or Upton will be the next big offensive stud to go off the board.
• The Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Philles are working on a deal involving reliever Ken Giles, according to Heyman. It’s no surprise the Astros are going after a closer, they’ve been rumored to be chasing relievers over the past couple weeks. The Phillies are probably hoping to rebuild, and Houston does have the prospects to get things done.
PICTURE OF THE DAY
Two days into the Winter Meetings, coffee starts to become pretty important for everybody. The days start early, and the nights run late. Writers, executives and job seekers are all involved in that, making coffee essential, particularly on Day 3. The lines at the coffee shops in the hotel have typically been this long every morning, but everyone seemed just a little more groggy today. Bonus note: There’s at least one major-league manager in this picture. Can you guess which one?
On a side note, if you want to keep up with the Yahoo! Sports guys at the Winter Meetings, you can follow Jeff Passan, Tim Brown, Mike Oz and me on Twitter. Feel free to do that to stay on top of the latest rumors and notes.
WINTER MEETINGS DAILY OBSERVATION
There are autograph seekers here. I’m not talking about cute kids, like the ones featured in the People at the Winter Meetings section from Tuesday, I’m talking about grown men with binders full of baseball cards. I didn’t really have a run-in with them until yesterday.
On three separate occasions, I saw them hound Buck Showalter, Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland for autographs. The seekers will typically stake out one area and wait for someone of prominence to walk by. At that point, they strike. Let me be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to secure an autograph for your kid, and I’m OK if you really need a Showalter baseball in your office, but I don’t love the idea of hunting for autographs and selling them online. That’s always seemed … strange to me. I definitely feel for the managers and execs that have to deal with that stuff.
The Showalter run-in did result in what I thought was a pretty neat moment. Shortly after dealing with an autograph hunter, a tall man in a suit approached Showalter and said something like, “Hey Buck, I don’t know if you remember me, I was in Yankees camp back in ’95.” Showalter looked at him briefly and said “pitcher, right?” He was correct. It was pretty clear this former player wasn’t anyone prominent, so I found it telling that Showalter could remember a guy’s face 20 years later. Building relationships is such a big part of managing, and this was an example of just how far managers need to go.
PEOPLE AT THE WINTER MEETINGS
Taking some inspiration from Humans of New York, I’m highlighting a person, or a group of people at the Winter Meetings each day. Wednesday’s picture includes Marc Caiafa and Tom Guidice, both of whom hold prominent roles at MLB Network. Marc is the Sr. Coordinating Producer of Field Production, and Tom is the Vice President of Remote Operations. People at home get the see the great on-air work done by analysts and hosts on the network, but might not be aware of how much preparation it takes to schedule and put this event together behind the scenes. I‘ll also be sharing these pictures on the BLS Tumblr page and on Twitter.
Tom (right): “The biggest challenge for us is managing the crews and making sure everyone gets proper breaks and we’re covered. Basically, if we have breaking news, to make sure that we can get onto the set right away. The biggest challenge for me on the operations side is before we even get out here. When we get out here, we’re all set up. We’re on cruise control.”
Marc (left): “This is my favorite event because it’s all … it’s like a kid in a candy store. It’s 30 to 60 people from all the teams here that you can get on the set. And we’re on so often, so much during that day, people want to see that. We were sitting down at dinner the other night. On Monday night, news came out. Six of us out of 10 left the dinner table with our meals there. We had to come back two hours later. It’s like a rush. You really can’t leave.”
— Marc Caiafa (left) and Tom Guidice (right), two veterans at MLB Network
With hours left to go, there are still plenty players available. You get the sense there could be a flurry of moves to get through before everyone heads home. It might be the last day here for most teams, but it also feels like it could be the most exciting.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
