Unsurprisingly, the first day of baseball’s Winter Meetings did not bring the dual Holliday-Halladay acquisition we’ve all been waiting for. (Obviously, that will happen closer to Christmas.) But that doesn’t mean nothing happened. We’ll divide yesterday’s dealings, rumors, and buzz into four convenient categories.
A Move That Officially Happened
Brian Bruney was dealt to the Washington Nationals for the Nats’ pick in Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft. (Poor bastard. At least he won a ring on his way out.) It seems that changing his number from 38 to 99 wasn’t enough to regain the top form that Yankee announcers always talk about but for the life of us we don’t really remember.
A Move That Will Happen Soon Enough
We know that the Yankees have made Andy Pettitte their top priority. And we know that the lefty announced he will play in 2010, and would prefer to play for the Yankees. Pettitte reportedly turned down an offer in “the $10 million range” (which seems like a fair number to us), but if it’s only about money at this stage, we’d be shocked if Pettitte didn’t return.
A Move That Might Happen, Maybe
The Yankees are reportedly working on a three-way trade with Detroit and Arizona, in which they’d acquire Curtis Granderson and two Diamondbacks prospects. In exchange, they’d send Ian Kennedy to Arizona and Austin Jackson, Phil Coke, and Mike Dunn to Detroit. But one of the teams has reportedly rejected the proposed trade, so it’s at an impasse, at least for now.
A Move That Probably Won’t Happen
The Yankees aren’t expected to tender a contract to Chien-Ming Wang — the deadline to decide is Saturday — though for what it’s worth, his agent says he’ll be ready to pitch by May 1. Just for another team, it would appear.