GM Meetings Wind Down Today: Catch Up on the Rumors You May Have Missed

bn baseball featureThe three days of GM Meetings in Phoenix, Arizona wrap up today, and it’s already been a crazy two days (and nights). Given the volume of stuff, I thought it might be worth a brief recap, in case you missed anything.

  • Things kicked off bright and early Monday morning with a good old fashioned mystery rumor – the Rays were reportedly close to dealing pitcher Jeremy Hellickson to an NL team. I’d bet it’s not the Cubs, but it would be interesting to see what a guy like Hellickson nets.
  • The Phillies are apparently still hoping to get three top prospects for Cole Hamels, who reportedly does not have the Cubs on his no-trade list (about which I’m still a little confused).
  • It isn’t so much a rumor as an annoyance, but the Rays have pushed MLB to investigate the Cubs for tampering with Joe Maddon. The Cubs say bring it on.
  • Russell Martin may be the Cubs’ top free agent target, and his asking price is right where you’d expect: five years and $75 to $80 million (or even an McCann-like $85 million).
  • Top lefty reliever Andrew Miller may or may not be on the Cubs’ radar.
  • On the eve of the qualifying offer decision deadline, the Mets shocked everyone by signing outfielder Michael Cuddyer to a two-year deal … and gave up the 15th pick in the 2015 draft to do so.
  • Speaking of those qualifying offers, every free agent who got one declined it, including borderline calls David Robertson and Francisco Liriano.
  • On the Jon Lester front, there was a new rumor that the Red Sox may have some confidence that they can bring the lefty back, and could be willing to go to six years to do it.
  • I ran down some of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer’s most recent quotes, and you get a distinct flavor of “no, seriously, this offseason is going to be different.”
  • The Cubs are one of four teams on Justin Upton’s no-trade list, which means he may no longer be a realistic one-year trade target.
  • There was a huge Lukewarm Stove yesterday, because, even after all this stuff, there was still so much more to discuss that I couldn’t get to in individual posts.
  • A whole lot of smoke billowed on the Cubs and Jason Hammel, whose agent indicated there was mutual interest there. I wrote about that, and dug in on why Hammel could be the Cubs’ preferred second tier pitching target.
  • The Dodgers are looking to move an outfielder, understandably, and it was worth looking at the contract situations to see if there’s any value there.
  • And then last night, there was a really surprising – and, let’s be honest, a little exciting – rumor about the Cubs being in talks with the Nats to acquire Jordan Zimmermann. Although it sounded relatively advanced, other reports quickly shot the rumor down, indicating no serious talks are currently taking place.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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