SteveSilver.net

This Week in Baseball

Lots of baseball news from Day 3 of the winter meetings:

- The Astros have declined to offer Roger Clemens arbitration, meaning he will not return to Houston. Once he finally makes up his mind on whether to retire, he'll likely set off another Yankees/Red Sox showdown, though the Rangers have to be considered in the mix as well. That way, we'll get version #5 of "The last game of Roger Clemens' career."

- When Alfonso Soriano was a young second base prospect with the Yankees, there seemed to be trade rumors every week about him being traded to the Expos for some star. But it never happened, Soriano made it to the Yankees, and was later traded to Texas in the A-Rod deal. Now, Soriano has finally landed with the (former) Expos, as the ownerless Washington Nationals traded for him tonight. Then again, the Nats want him in the outfield, and he won't play there, so watch him get traded again.

- Other than signing reliever Kyle Farnsworth, the Yankees have done zippo so far. I kind of like it that way.

- The Twins, according to LaVelle E. Neal III ("LEN 3"), are exploring a trade for Rangers third baseman "Hey Now" Hank Blalock, with Kevin Mench possibly in the deal as well. They'd give up pitching, in the person of JC Romero, who wouldn't really be missed. LEN3 also suggests a three-way trade rumor that would send pitching to Milwaukee, Lyle Overbay to Toronto and Shea Hillenbrand to the Twins, but the Jays and Brewers already made the deal themselves without "Minny"'s help. Frank Thomas is still in the picture for the Twinkies too, hmm.

- The Red Sox solved their second base problem by getting Mark "Get Back" Loretta from San Diego for backup catcher Doug Mirabelli. I see no reason for the Red Sox not to make the deal, except that it marks the end of "Dougie's going deep tonight!" in Boston.

- No, Bobby Abreu hasn't been traded yet, as the Derek Lowe deal became just the latest to not happen. Okay, I'll try one- Abreu to St. Louis for Mark Mulder. What do you mean, the Cardinals wouldn't do it? Gillick needs to be more aggressive!

And finally, if you're not reading Ken Rosenthal on FoxSports.com for baseball news every day, you should be. He's just been doing incredible stuff all offseason.

Posted by Stephen Silver at December 8, 2005 12:49 AM