Thanks for following NESN.com’s live blog all week long. Though the winter meetings are over, the hot stove will remain cooking until April. To keep up on the latest happenings around the league, be sure to check back with NESN.com and the MLB Hot Stove page all winter.
4:16 p.m.: The Red Sox remain busy, reportedly in a three-team race with the Yankees and Blue Jays for catcher Russell Martin, according to ESPN.com’s Gordon Edes.
3:51 p.m.: Snag may not be the right word, but curveball might be the right one.
Despite several reports that the Red Sox and Adrian Gonzalez have agreed on a seven-year extension, the slugger is denying such claims in a Mexican blog.
Read all about it here.
2:51 p.m.: By the end of last winter, the Mariners looked like a playoff team. By the end of the season, they looked like the worst team in baseball.
The reconstruction has begun for next year, as the team has acquired catcher Miguel Olivo.
Jon Paul Morosi reports the veteran backstop signed a two-year, $7 million deal. He added there is an option year.
2:04 p.m.: All that Michael Young noise appears to have been meaningless, as Ken Rosenthal is reporting that a trade is unlikely.
Rosenthal said that talks between the Rockies and Rangers have died and that Texas is not talking with any other teams regarding Young.
1:42 p.m.: Zack Greinke is still a Royal, but as tweeted by Heyman, the following teams are still in the mix to trade for him: Rangers, Brewers, Dodgers, Blue Jays and Nationals.
Just who do these Nationals think they are?
1 p.m.: Fear not, Mets fans — D.J. Carrasco will quell your offseason worries.
The reliever signed a two-year deal worth $2.5 million, according to the Mets’ official site. They also locked up catcher Ronny Paulino for a year.
“Regardless of cost, we got the catcher that we think fits best for us,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said, according to the site. “The right-handed relief that was available at a reasonable cost, we got the guy we wanted.”
That new duo, combined with the immortal Boof Bonser, just might be enough for a World Series parade through Queens next fall. But probably not.
12:15 p.m.: With a deal already agreed to, the Red Sox and Carl Crawford are expected to finalize their deal Friday night.
According to WBZ’s Dan Roche, Crawford will undergo a physical on Friday before the deal is set in stone.
Ten bucks says he passes.
11:44 a.m.: The Orioles are making more noise than they have in recent years. After adding Mark Reynolds to hit home runs and strike out a lot, they’ve now added J.J. Hardy from the Twins.
Hardy, 28, hit .268 in 101 games last year.
11:12 a.m.: Cliff Lee is still unemployed, a fact that makes a few franchises very worried.
So much so that the Angels are reportedly going to Arkansas in another attempt to woo the southpaw, according to Crasnick.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have offered Lee that elusive seventh year, according to Jon Heyman.
“[With] Werth and Crawford getting 7 [years], it’s only right,” Heyman tweeted. “Lee is the best player on market.”
10:54 a.m.: As noted by The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham, Scott Boras was happy to hear about the Carl Crawford deal. You can bet Adrian Beltre’s price tag jumped a few bucks.
10:37 a.m.: Angels fans aren’t going to like this.
When talking about missing out on Carl Crawford, general manager Tony Reagins seemed satisfied in his work thus far.
“I think I already made a huge splash with [Hisanori] Takahashi,” Reagins said, according to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. “He adds a lot of value to your club.”
Well then.
10:10 a.m.: Here’s a look at the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft, courtesy of MLB.com (teams not listed passed on their chances to make a pick):
PIT: Josh Rodriguez, SS, Columbus (CLE)
SEA: Jose Flores, RHP, Columbus (CLE)
ARI: Joe Paterson, LHP, Fresno (SF)
BAL: Adrian Rosario, RHP, Nashville (MIL)
KC: Nathan Adcock, RHP, Indianapolis (PIT)
WAS: Elvin Ramirez, RHP, Buffalo (NYM)
CHC: Mason Tobin, RHP, Salt Lake (LAA)
HOU: Aneury Rodriguez, RHP, Durham (TB)
MIL: Patrick Egan, RHP, Norfolk (BAL)
NYM: Bradley Emaus, 2B, Las Vegas (TOR)
SD: George Kontos, RHP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (NYY)
MIN: Scott Diamond, LHP, Gwinnett (ATL)
NYY: Robert Fish, LHP, Salt Lake (LAA)
TB: Cesar Cabral, LHP, Pawtucket (BOS)
PHI: Michael Martinez, IF, Syracuse (WAS)
WAS: Brian Broderick, RHP, Memphis (STL)
HOU: Lance Pendleton, RHP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (NYY)
NYM: Pedro Beato, RHP, Norfolk (BAL)
NYY: Daniel Turpen, RHP, Pawtucket (BOS)
9:49 a.m.: The Sox have been stealing the attention this week, but the Yankees just stole one of their prospects.
New York grabbed Daniel Turpen in the draft, a righty who the Sox acquired in the Ramon Ramirez trade last year.
Cliff Lee, he is not.
9:04 a.m.: So, if you’re like most folks on the East Coast, you went to sleep figuring nothing was doing down in Florida. You figured wrong.
The Red Sox obviously caught quite a few folks off guard with the addition of Carl Crawford, and in doing so, they staked claim to having the best offseason in baseball.
Yet, there is plenty offseason left, including Thursday’s Rule 5 draft.
Check back here throughout the day for updates, but for now, check out some morning reading:
Tom Caron invokes the spirit of Spongebob Squarepants to capture Red Sox fans’ delight.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay has 46 things that Derek Jeter should be mad at, other than the Yankees. (My personal favorite: “That there are men over 30 years of age wearing cargo pants.”)
Jon Paul Morosi says the Red Sox missed the 2010 playoffs but “cold-cocked the winter meetings.” It’s hard to argue with that.
6 a.m.: At this point, they’re all playing for second place.
The 2010 Major League Baseball winter meetings wrap up on Thursday morning, but in reality, the Red Sox wrapped them up with their signing of Carl Crawford late Wednesday night.
The Sox came into the meetings by trading for Adrian Gonzalez and it looks like they’ll leave them by signing Crawford to a seven-year, $142 million deal.
That’s not to say there isn’t business left to be finished at the meetings. The Rule 5 draft is slated for Thursday morning, and there are still plenty of big names on the market. Both Cliff Lee and Adrian Beltre have yet to make their decisions on where they’ll play next season. With the market officially set, perhaps those dominoes will start to fall on Thursday before everyone leaves Disney.
Either way, stick with NESN.com for all the live-blog coverage of the final day of the winter meetings.
