Rumors and Notes from day 1 of winter meetings

December 7th, 2009 | by Mark |

Its been a busy first day of the Winter Meetings for the Cubs, here’s a recap of all the rumors from the first day:

First, it was reported that Pat Burrell was traded to the Mets (supposedly as part of a 3-team deal. Joel Sherman earlier had Tweeted that the Mets might be interested in a Burrell for Luis Castillo swap.
Mets officials quickly denied this report. David Lennon expanded on this further in a Tweet, saying “Oh, and forget Burrell to #Mets – period. Source just said team not interested in him. Not in 3-way, not in any way.”
Marc Tompkin of the St. Petersburg Times reports that the Cubs are “confident” of trading Bradley, but that the Cubs are going to have to swallow some of Bradley’s contract to make it happen. However, Joel Sherman later Tweeted that the “Rays growing less hopeful of swapping Burrell to Cubs“.
But wait, there’s still hope, Jayson Stark Tweets that “Rays haven’t backed off on Milton Bradley even though 3-way with Mets for Burrell is dead“. Money is still an issue between the Rays and Cubs, but apparently 2 or 3 new teams have expressed interest.
One of the new teams could have been the Royals, as Bruce Levine reported that the Cubs and Royals got together and discussed possible trade scenarios involving Bradley and Gil Meche. However, both the Cubs and Royals owner Drayton Moore shot down that report.

So, we’re left with a whole lot of talk and speculation, but at the end of the day, the Cubs are still left with Bradley.

As for other rumors, Peter Gammons of ESPN (link no longer available) reported that the Tigers were asking the Cubs for Starlin Castro in return for Curtis Granderson, a price that the Cubs are not willing to pay. So, unless the Tigers asking price comes down, the Cubs will likely move on to plan B (Mike Cameron, perhaps?).

In addition, according to Fox Sports, Braden Looper stated that he would be interested in pitching for the Cubs. The question is, are the Cubs interested in him? Looper has posted a 4.76 ERA over the last 3 years as a starter, including a 5.22 ERA in 2009. Do the Cubs really want to pay money for that?

Finally, there was an interesting rumor regarding the Cubs and additional bullpen pursuits, which got me wondering “what are Hendry and Piniella thinking?” Check out my analysis of what might be going on here.