Latest Winter Meetings rumors...

This is all from the Baseball Tonight special on ESPN2 about the winter meetings.

(11:06PM) Pettitte returning to the Yankees will have a big effect on the Johan Santana deal, and might drop the asking price. The Yankees and the Twins are at an impasse on the Santana deal right now. The offer of Hughes, Cabrera and a "respectable third prospect" still stands, but the Twins are holding out for Ian Kennedy. Steve Phillips says if he was the Yankees GM, he would not let Kennedy get in the way of making that deal. Buster Olney disagrees with him and says he would keep the younger pitching and save the money. Olney says that just because the "deadline" for the deal to get done might pass does NOT mean the deal is dead, considering what happened with the Alex Rodriguez negotiations.

I'm with Steve Phillips on this (wow, who said that?). I don't think you can let Ian Kennedy stand in the way of getting a shot at Johan Santana. He is, after all, Johan Santana. I don't think Melky Cabrera is going to amount to anything consequential in MLB, and although Hughes has a high ceiling, it's not guaranteed that he's going to be even half the pitcher that the Yankees know Santana is. The Yankees have got to make this trade happen.

(11:15PM) Alex Rodriguez is in the process of taking his physical to finalize his contract. His contract could be official sometime within the next week or so.

"If the Yankees get Santana and sign him to an extension, their offseason acquisitions could approach half a billion dollars," notes Buster Olney.

(11:17PM) Dan Uggla comes on the show for an interview. This is largely unrelated to the winter meetings, so I'm not going to write any more about it.

(11:25PM) The analysts start talking about the market for centerfielders. Tim Kurkjian thinks that Andruw Jones will be the next centerfielder to sign, and he says the Dodgers have the inside track to sign him. The Dodgers have a two year, $32 million offer on the table. Aaron Rowand is looking for a five year contract, but teams are balking at it, says Steve Phillips. Kurkjian agrees.

(11:29PM) Video footage of Kosuke Fukudome is shown. Wow, he has a long swing. The Padres are rumored to be interested.

(11:33PM) Erik Bedard talk starts. Dave Trembley (Orioles manager) comes on the show and talks about the Orioles. He seems like a friendly fellow but he isn't talking about the meetings. Since he isn't saying anything noteworthy, I start watching the Patriots game to watch them suck out another cheap win. Well, that's Patriots football for you.

(11:41PM) Apparently Carlos Silva has a four year offer on the table, but Karl Ravech doesn't know from who. Livan Hernandez appears to be a good fit for the Mets, says Steve Phillips. Tim Kurkjian says there's a question as to whether or not the Mets have the pieces to get Erik Bedard. Thanks Tim, tell us something we haven't heard a thousand times. The Cubs are open to trading Mark Prior.

(11:48PM) The Santana rumor talk starts up again. Nothing has changed. I'm getting bored with the same rumors over and over.

(11:54PM) Steve Finley comes on the show and talks about how some team should take a chance on him.

(11:58PM) Barry Bonds probably won't get signed, say both Phillips and Kurkjian. The Johan deal didn't happen before midnight, which means the Yankees are "out of it" and other teams might get involved.

And that's the show. Nothing groundbreaking (although I think someone will sign Bonds eventually) but still relatively interesting. I have to start scouring for more news.

Here's two interesting stories that have slipped under the radar:

The Mets might end up trading Estrada to the Nationals (bottom of the page in the link).

Omar has been trying to get a contract extension but has been shot down for the time being, reports Ken Rosenthal.

More rumors tomorrow...

Yankees extend "final offer" to Twins

Jayson Stark of ESPN reports that the Yankees have told the Twins that their offer of Philip Hughes, Melky Cabrera, and a "respectable" third prospect is their final offer for Johan Santana. The Yankees have also given the Twins until Monday night to accept this offer, at which point they will pull it off the table.

"I'm not going to be played against the Red Sox. That's not something I'll do. That's not something the Yankees should ever do, and that's I think what they're trying to do now," Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said Sunday. "So if they want the best offer that has been offered to them, then they need to make up their minds."

The Red Sox offer, believed to be some combination of Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Coco Crisp, and other prospects, would likely be the best offer on the table if the Yankees were to pull out of the negotiations. However, considering how they handled the Alex Rodriguez negotiations, we can never count the Yankees out of the running.

In Mets-related news, Erik Bedard has supposedly told Baltimore officials that he will not be resigning with the Orioles. This new development exponentially increases the likelihood of him getting traded and will also probably drive his price down, if only slightly. Look for the Dodgers and the Mets to be the front-runners in this trade. ESPN 1050 said that the Mets and the Orioles had the framework for a deal put together last week, only to have it fall through--that report may have been based on the Gomez, Heilman, and Humber offer that I talked about a few posts ago.

Apparently, one of the complaints the Orioles had with the Mets offer was that it didn't offer enough major league-ready talent. Humber hasn't fully bounced back from his Tommy John surgery, and Gomez is still very young and raw, so I can understand where the Orioles are coming from. I can't help but wonder if the Mets started putting together a deal centered around Mike Pelfrey/Kevin Mulvey, Ryan Church, and Aaron Heilman, would the Orioles like that better? The Mets would probably have to add another piece to the deal, but a deal built like that could be more favorable to the Orioles in the short run. The Mets could then swoop in and pick up someone like Jose Guillen (who they have been talking to) or Kosuke Fukudome to play right field for them until Fernando Martinez is ready to take over in a few years. Andruw Jones would also be an interesting option to explore, but would probably command way too much money.