Winter Meetings Tuesday Night: HOU Shopping Correa? SD on Contreras and Merrifield, Rendon, Akiyama, Castellanos, More

Welcome to Tuesday night at the Winter Meetings, where a whole lotta stuff is trickling out, and I’m hitting a wall, so I’m gonna fire this stuff off rapidly …

  • Are the Astros gonna join the Cubs on the mission to trade away good and valuable players in service of a bigger picture:
  • The idea sounds pretty general at this point, and not even necessarily tied to offseason negotiations. But obviously if Correa were put on the trade market, even despite his injuries last year, he would be a really significant piece out there for teams trying to upgrade at shortstop or even at third base.
  • The Padres sure sound compelled to upgrade offensively at catcher this offseason, but they really don’t have many options out there besides Willson Contreras, who comes in for discussion here at the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Padres don’t love Francisco Mejia’s defense and don’t love Austin Hedges’ bat.
  • Apparently the Padres are also in on a certain high-contact bat at second base:
  • Not a lot doing on the Cubs-Merrifield front, despite a parade of rumors earlier in the offseason, and even recent reports that he was still on their radar.
  • Donaldson going to the Nationals – particularly if Rendon goes to the Rangers – is probably the ideal for the Kris Bryant trade market:
  • Elsewhere, at least one report takes the Phillies out of the market for Rendon after the Didi Gregorius signing:
  • It’s certainly possible that the Phillies could move Jean Segura or Scott Kingery and figure out a way, positionally, to make it work with Rendon (or another third baseman … ), but it is more logical that they aren’t big on Rendon at this point, who may mostly be choosing from among the Dodgers, Angels, and Rangers.
  • The Rangers also have interest in Nick Castellanos:
  • Kim is among the starting pitching/long relief targets the Cubs are reportedly following:
  • Having been posted, Kim does not have to sign until just after the New Year, so the Cubs are likely to hope he is willing to wait a bit.
  • Gerrit Cole is still going to be paid so very much money:
  • The Reds are still in the outfield market, and in addition to Marcell Ozuna, whom we’ve heard about before, they are also on Shogo Akiyama:
  • Here’s hoping the Cubs have met with Akiyama this week.
  • A report out of Texas has the Rangers looking to trade outfielder Nomar Mazara this week, with the Cardinals, Diamondbacks and White Sox the interested teams. Mazara is still only 24, but with four straight seasons of sub-100 wRC+ performance, he remains entirely projection and hope, rather than surefire production.
  • Other Cardinals interest, as we discussed earlier tonight, could include David Price:
  • Boy, the Blue Jays sure are excited to have financial flexibility:
  • Heh. This is always fun:
  • As for what else the Angels might do, they have plenty of money available:
  • Hyper-specific Mets rumors out there:
  • Nimmo, 26, offers a pretty compelling bat (though it comes with plenty of strikeouts) and the ability to play passable, but not great center field. In total, likely not a Cubs target so much as a target for teams looking for a lefty corner outfielder.
  • Adam Jones is getting pretty decent money to head to Japan, which is telling of the market for veterans at the fringe of a big league roster:
  • 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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