The Winter Meetings have officially started at the Gaylord resort in National Harbor, Maryland, and the D.C. area is the center of the baseball universe this week!
The hottest rumor in baseball has been Andrew McCutchen getting traded to the Washington Nationals. There have been fake tweets and inaccurate tweets. Today is the fourth day since we heard this trade was about to be finalized. Clearly the two sides could not agree when we have heard that the Pirates wanted Victor Robles in the deal plus a top prospect pitcher like Lucas Giolito or Reynaldo Lopez, and if that was not enough they wanted another prospect like Austin Voth.
Seeing some spectacular views and watching an amazing light show tonight at @GaylordNational from #WinterMeetings! pic.twitter.com/DAqZiXQKYK
— Winter Meetings (@WinterMeetings) December 4, 2016
The other ‘hot’ topic for the day is that nothing has happened with Chris Sale and the Nationals. Bob Nightengale loosely tied the Nats to Sale on November 14th. That makes today the 20th day this rumor is in play!
The Washington #Nats among the latest teams to inquire on #Whitesox ace Chris Sale, but no serious talks with anyone yet
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 14, 2016
Yesterday, the Mark Melancon rumors heated up as Ken Rosenthal has stated that three teams are ‘in’ on him including the Giants and Nats and another team. The dollars are $60+ million for 4 years according to Rosenthal.
Sources: Melancon has multiple 4-yr, $60M+ offers: #SFGiants, #Nationals, perhaps one other. SF thought to be strongest, as @jcrasnick said.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 4, 2016
The one deal that really has happened was that Mike Rizzo traded with A.J. Preller of the San Diego Padres to acquire Derek Norris.
.@Nationals fill void behind the plate, deal a prospect to the @Padres for Derek Norris. https://t.co/qUb5NdGLS3 #HotStove pic.twitter.com/uIXmZyMQx8
— MLB (@MLB) December 3, 2016
The strange news is that Roch Kubatko says not so fast on Derek Norris as he wrote this morning,
“Agent Scott Boras’ mosh pit will be filled with questions regarding Matt Wieters‘ market, which appeared to further shrink like a frightened turtle with the Nationals trading for Derek Norris and re-signing Jose Lobaton to avoid arbitration. They’re deep at the position when also factoring in their minor league system.
Not so fast. There’s a sense in the industry that the Nationals will pursue Wieters and flip Norris if they get him. Norris is a nice fallback option. It’s the proactive approach.”
Should we believe that or is that just Rizzo allowing Boras to attach their names to Wieters to help his market. We know in the bizarro world this can happen, and it was suggested that the Nationals could do the same with Wilson Ramos if he becomes affordable.
Stay tuned as the rumors are flying, and there are many other names the Nationals are attached to like Marcell Ozuna, Adam Eaton, Dexter Fowler, Chris Archer, Alex Colome, Wade Davis, Ryan Braun, Lorenzo Cain, and Steve M.’s number one idea of Jonathan Villar.
Mike Rizzo moves in a world where you can expect the unexpected. He probably has a name that is not on this list. This is the week where Rizzo shines in the cold weather of the Winter Meetings because he has ice in his veins. He can pull off the three-team trades, and could definitely pull off the sign and trade better than Kevin Costner’s character GM Sonny Weaver Jr. pulled off with the fictitious quarterback Josh Pence portrayed as Bo Callahan.
