Meetings over, Hot Stove heating up

Flurry of moves is precursor to more offseason intrigue.

With the drivers of baseball decisions heading all different directions from the Crossroads of America, the 2010 Winter Meetings came to a close Thursday with some business concluded, a few deals put into motion and a whole lot left to be done.


The session in Indianapolis certainly wasn't without action, with a seven-player deal and a few other trades involving big-name players making the rounds, and a few free-agent deals -- with an emphasis on pitching -- being finalized.

In short, it was a Winter Meetings that both got the ball rolling and left plenty to do. As it should, it set up the winter, it didn't complete it.

Or in the lingo of the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: Nice green flag, Indy.

Even if the checkered one dropped on the gathering of baseball's GMs, agents and media, we're only just beginning. Sure, some business got done when everybody was there, but there are more than four months remaining before Opening Day, and there are a lot of roster decisions to be made across baseball.

So, while we're at the first turn heading toward the backstretch, here's a little refresher of where we stand.

A few moves that made the wheels turn in Indianapolis this week:

Three teams, seven players: And if that doesn't say Winter Meetings, what does? The Yankees managed to horn in on the biggest deal of this session again, plucking Curtis Granderson from the three-way deal with the D-backs and the Tigers. But even if the defending World Series champions filled what was perhaps their one semi-void, the D-backs wound up with two young starters in Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy, and the Tigers got four players out of the deal. That haul includes Austin Jackson, one of the top center fielders coming up in the game, as well as pitchers Max Scherzer, Phil Coke and Daniel Schlereth. Sure, patience -- a foreign term to the Yankees -- belongs to the Tigers in this one, but that's a pretty solid haul.

This, then that: Trading away veteran starter Kevin Millwood for reliever Chris Ray, the Rangers helped the Orioles get the kind of mentor they want for a young rotation that includes right-hander Chris Tillman and left-hander Brian Matusz. But that was just the first step for Texas, which went out and finalized a deal for starter Rich Harden and agreed to a trade for Mike Lowell. These things don't happen in a vacuum, folks, and GM Jon Daniels made sure to capitalize on the savings of trading away Millwood's contract.

"We spent a lot of time evaluating our options against the backdrop of what we had to spend and the goals of the club," Daniels said Thursday morning. "We're a better ballclub today than we were when we got here."

Raise a brew for the Crew: The Brewers seemed to make a statement: With a few adjustments with just the right veteran flavor, we're in this thing in 2010. So they went and signed Randy Wolf, a 33-year-old veteran lefty who took a late-spring opportunity with the Dodgers and knocked it out of the park, to a three-year deal, and brought in reliever LaTroy Hawkins to bolster a veteran bullpen -- and weaken an NL Central rival, the Astros, a bit.

Quick action: Not to be labeled as having been weakened, the Astros lost Jose Valverde, most likely at least, when he declined their offer of arbitration. And they lost Hawkins. So instead of sulking, the Astros got working, trading for hard-throwing right-hander Matt Lindstrom and then signing free agent Brandon Lyon. Why wait to see how things shake out when you can get two live arms to replace a couple you lost?

And here are a few questions left unanswered heading into the rest of the winter:

Red Sox, are you there? Fact: The Yankees finished ahead of the Red Sox last year and probably improved themselves for 2010 already. Fact: The Rays are not standing by idly. Question: Not that the Red Sox are, but shouldn't they be in position to do something?

Not to turn this into the whole Yankees-Red Sox rant, but there are only so many teams that can keep up with the 27-time World Series champions, and the Red Sox are one. They have a top free agent in Jason Bay dangling in the wind still, and many believe if they don't get him, they'd better get Matt Holliday, his doppelganger in some ways as an elite right-handed slugger who won't be winning a Gold Glove any time soon.

Boston feels good about its defense at shortstop with the addition of Marco Scutaro. It remains to be seen how much more Epstein will do to tighten up on defense, with Adrian Beltre now very much in play with Mike Lowell gone. Or something.

"I think we could do more, certainly," Sox GM Theo Epstein said on Wednesday. "Whether we're able to or not remains to be seen. I think it will be hard to improve both on offense and with our defense, but I'm not sure which direction it will go yet."

Is Aroldis Chapman all that? We're going to find out a little bit about that in the next week, as the 21-year-old Cuban defector puts on a showcase for clubs in Houston, where new agents the Hendricks Brothers reside and plan to wring out what they can get for a player who has yet to pitch in a U.S. professional game.

With 100-mph stuff from the left side and perhaps 20 years left in him, Chapman will have the attention of many teams, including the omnipresent Yanks and Sox, along with the Angels, Orioles, Tigers, Phillies and Royals -- at least that's the count at this point. Whether he walks away with a multiyear, multi-million dollar contract remains to be seen, but it sure looks that way.

Anybody want a guy who's supremely talented but is a bit of a problem and just can't seem to stick with one team long enough for anybody to really take advantage of those skills? Yes, we're talking about Milton Bradley. No, we don't have any idea where he's going, just that he's bound to go somewhere. An athletic switch-hitter should be a viable commodity, of course, but when you make Lou Piniella blush with your blowups, there might be a problem, and it's going to be someone else's in 2010. Of course, those who'd really love to take a shot at Mystery Milton are holding their cards close to their vests on this one, leaving Cubs GM Jim Hendry to whistle the time away until someone brings the deal that works. It'll happen. It has happened every time, why not this one?

The Big Roy, where will he go? There might not be a single person in the baseball universe who wants to see the Roy Halladay sweepstakes play out the way they did with Jake Peavy, but things seems to be off to a good start in that gut-wrenching direction. Actually, the Padres were reported to have several deals almost done for Peavy before, during and after the Winter Meetings a year ago, but an actual trade didn't happen until the Trade Deadline in July, the White Sox finally getting the ace after the crosstown Cubs had been in the game for him for months. This time around, the ace left the Winter Meetings with his team again, not knowing if he's going to start the season with the Blue Jays.

Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos was inundated from the start at this Winter Meetings, and he actually left Indianapolis early Thursday, leaving assistant GM Tony LaCava to deliver the latest non-update on Halladay talks.

"I really wouldn't have any comments on what we've done to this point," LaCava told Toronto reporters. "You know Alex, he's relentless. No stone unturned, as you guys know. I promise you, he's working really hard."

Hey, pal, they're all working hard. There's still a ton left to do. This isn't over yet, it's only just begun.

Once again, Indy: Thanks for the green flag. We'll take it from here.