Top News:
Jerry Crasnick / ESPN:
Source: Yanks offer fifth year to reel in Burnett … The New York Yankees, making a hard late charge to beat out the Atlanta Braves for A.J. Burnett, offered the free-agent right-hander a guaranteed five-year contract Wednesday, a baseball source told ESPN.com.
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Joel Sherman / New York Post:
CC SABATHIA PICKS YANKEES — LAS VEGAS - CC Sabathia is not going to play on the West Coast. He is not going to play in the National League. CC Sabathia is going to be a Yankee, The Post has learned exclusively. — After three straight days of face-to-face meetings between GM Brian Cashman …
Discussion:
NY Daily News, Boston Globe, San Diego Union-Tribune, WasWatching.com, Baseball Prospectus, MVN, ESPN, Hardball, Newsday, New Jersey Online, Hardball Times, Fire Ned Colletti Now, Respect Jeter's Gangster, Over the Monster, Hot Stove League, MetsBlog.com, Projo Sox Blog, Riding with Rickey and Replacement Level …
Yahoo! Sports:
Opt-out clause key to Sabathia going to Yankees — Buzz up! — LAS VEGAS - Baseball's perennial high-rollers, the New York Yankees, scored the biggest coup of the winter meetings when CC Sabathia reached preliminary agreement on a deal that will pay him $161 million over the next seven years.
Jon Heyman / Sports Illustrated:
Yanks, Sabathia reach 7-year deal … LAS VEGAS — Free-agent pitcher CC Sabathia is about to sign with the Yankees, SI.com has confirmed. The deal being finalized now is expected to pay Sabathia about $160 million over seven years. — The two sides are on the verge of an agreement …
Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Derek Lowe Rumors: Wednesday
Derek Lowe Rumors: Wednesday
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports, MetsBlog.com, iYankees, IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS, WasWatching.com and Pinstripes, Pa.
Cork Gaines / MLB Rumors:
Sabathia Reaches Agreement With Yankees
Sabathia Reaches Agreement With Yankees
Discussion:
New York Post, JSOnline, Boston Globe, MVN, True Blue LA, Pinstriped Scranton, WasWatching.com, Yahoo! Sports and MY BASEBALL BIAS
Jose Mota / Yahoo! Sports:
Nationals extend offer to Teixeira — Buzz up! — LAS VEGAS - The Washington Nationals have stepped boldly into the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes, making an offer to the free agent first baseman for seven years and $150 million, a highly placed baseball source said Wednesday morning.
Discussion:
MLB.com, Boston Globe, Nationals Journal, MLB FanHouse, iYankees, Federal Baseball, PE.com, Hot Foot and LA Times Sports Blog
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Adam Kilgore / Boston Globe:
Boras: Sox offer Tek, multiple offers for Tex — LAS VEGAS — Scott Boras addressed a massive pack of reporters here at the Bellagio at roughly 4:20 p.m. local time. He said Mark Teixeira, the most prominent free agent remaining, has received contract offers from every team with interest …
Mike DiGiovanna / LA Times Sports Blog:
Mark Teixeira negotiations heating up — LAS VEGAS — The Yankees' imminent signing of free-agent left-hander CC Sabathia to a seven-year, $160-million deal would seem to take them out of the running for Mark Teixeira, but that will hardly ease the competition the Angels face in retaining the free-agent first baseman.
Duk / Yahoo! Sports:
BBWAA opens doors wider, admits four more Internet writers — Slowly but surely, the Baseball Writers Association of America is becoming more inclusive. The organization just held a meeting here at Bellagio and, for the second straight year, humbly voted to add a few Internet writers to their newspaper-dominated ranks.
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Christina Kahrl / Unfiltered:
Baseball Prospectus and the BBWAA — The Winter Meetings are the baseball industry's opportunity not simply to meet and make a few changes, it's also the place where a lot of the game's affiliated institutions make moves of their own. That took a different form this morning …
Discussion:
Baseball Digest Daily Blog
Scott Lauber / Phillies:
HERE'S THE DEAL: PHILS ACQUIRE CATCHER — LAS VEGAS — So, it seems the “small trade” mentioned by Ruben Amaro Jr. will be a swap of catchers. The Phils will send Class AAA catcher Jason Jaramillo to the Pirates for Ronny Paulino, a .278 hitter in parts of four seasons.
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Hot Stove Blog:
Is a deal near for Peavy? — LAS VEGAS - The end could be near as Padres general manager Towers and Cubs general manager Jim Hendry are to speak at least one more time before the meetings end Thursday. — Towers has gone as far to tell reporters that he will know one way or the other by then if a deal is to be had.
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David Lennon / On the Mets beat:
Inside the K-Rod signing — With the Mets about to make the Francisco Rodriguez signing official in a matter of minutes, new details have emerged about the speedy negotiations with the free-agent closer that resulted in the three-year, $37-million deal. — When K-Rod and his agent …
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Nick Cafardo / Boston Globe:
Smoltz's wish list includes Boston — LAS VEGAS — John Smoltz wants to pitch for a team that could take him to the World Series. — He hopes that's still the Atlanta Braves, the team for whom he has pitched since 1988, but the 41-year-old free agent is considering the Red Sox …
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For the Record:
QUOTE(#4): … what about last year BurghFan? — Capps went on the dl last year on July 2 with should bursitis and did not join the big club again until august 23, - essentially missing 2 months of the season, so get your facts straight on that. — he's also free agent after this season …
Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com:
Three-way deal could send Putz to Mets — Mariners and Indians also involved in trade talks — LAS VEGAS — The Mets, Mariners and Indians appear to be on the verge of a three-team deal in which J.J. Putz would go to New York as the setup man to the newly acquired Francisco Rodriguez.
JSOnline:
Latest Brewers updates — By Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel — Las Vegas - We just had our daily briefing with Brewers general manager Doug Melvin and here are the latest updates on several topics: — *Free agents Ben Sheets and Brian Shouse.