MLB Winter Meetings – Just a lot of fluff…

Sure, the Yankees got their man – signing CC Sabathia sometime around 2:00 in the morning on Wednesday – but that was almost a foregone conclusion heading into Vegas, wasn’t it? It was just a matter of how much money and for how long he’d agree to play in New York. Beyond this mega-deal (largest pitcher contract in history) what else happened? Yeah, the Mets got JJ Putz from the Mariners in a 12 player deal and the Reds have a new backstop, but were there really any exciting, unexpected moves to come out of the past 4 days in the desert? Not really.

Maybe the problem is that there are as many baseball writers and reporters covering this event as there are covering the World Series. Or maybe it’s just that in the past we’ve seen some surprises come out of these meetings and we now come to expect the unexpected. Or maybe I just spend too many hours in front of the computer refreshing MLB Trade Rumors home page anticipating some major nugget of baseball news to come pixel-ating before my very eyes. Nah, the easy answer is to blame Scott Boras. The devil of all devils “forcing” general managers to pay his clients exorbitant amounts of money so that he can accomplish his life’s goal of ruining baseball. That’s gotta be it.

So, what better way to wrap up my complete waste of time over the past 4 days than with my list of the least significant and least impactful moves to come out of Las Vegas this December? I know, you can’t wait… here you go!

Least notable moves

1. Twins re-sign IF Nick Punto – Really? Was there ever a question on this one? I know there were rumors of him going to the Yankees or some other team, but putting Punto in any uniform other than a Twins getup would be as weird as those pictures of Joe Namath in a Rams jersey… it just ain’t right.
2. Royals sign Horacio Ramirez – Dayton Moore continues his off-season of puzzling moves. First Mike Jacobs comes to town, then he signs crazy Kyle Farnsworth for twice as much (and twice as long) as the Giants spent on Bobby Howry. I just don’t understand what’s going on in KC. Can I get a crack at it? I mean, can I really foul it up any more than this?
3. Another reliever gets a two-year deal: Arthur Rhodes signs with the Reds. Yes, Arthur is 39 years old. Yes, he had a good season in 2008 (albeit abbreviated – only 35 1/3 innings pitched). But, come on, two years? It’s true what they say about left handed pitchers, I guess. They’re never out of work for long, right Billy Traber?
4. Marlins release catcher Matt Treanor – poor Matt.
5. Jake Peavy traded nowhere – all the Peavy talk must have generated a record number of rumors (or at least come close to a record) and then netted absolutely nothing. Seems the Padres have completely overplayed their hands here. I say “trade him already” but what are they going to get in return at this point? Everyone else knows they NEED to dump his salary so why would they offer anything close to market value? It’s going to be a tough few years in San Diego…