Blue Jays Winter Meetings Notes: Live Blog Day 1

Dec 6, 2012; Nashville, TN, USA; ESPN anchors from left Jon Sciambi , Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian broadcast live during the Major League Baseball winter meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Mandatory credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

Good Morning Blue Jays fans and welcome to our live blog covering the 2013 Winter Meetings. We’ll try to keep you up to date on all the breaking news and rumors that could pertain to the Blue Jays or affect them otherwise.

As we discussed yesterday, Toronto still has quite a few items to check off on their winter wish list, and you can bet that Alex Anthopoulos will be working the floors heavily in the land of the Mouse.

9:40pm: Here’s another pitcher on the trade market that could draw a significant trade package, oh and he throws a lot of groundballs as well. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Indians are listening on offers for Justin Masterson.

I would personally be a lot more interested in Masterson than Jeff Samardzija. However, any deal for Masterson comes with the caveat that he is a free agent next winter.

8:30pm: Okay, a little time off handled by my cohorts in crime, in relation to the Sergio Santos and Thad Weber news (links HERE and HERE). Thanks guys!

On a couple of other fronts, there has been a Rajai Davis sighting, as it appears the free agent outfielder is close to signing with a club shortly.

The report out of Baltimore and coming from Dan Duquette would insinuate that the Orioles are interested in play, but the former Blue Jays outfielder isn’t likely to find an everyday job there either. It’ll be interesting to see where Rajai lands and what kind of playing situation he winds up in.

In other news, the Mets are “seriously” looking to trade second baseman Daniel Murphy (per Jeff Passan), who has two seasons of team control left. For a team looking for a second baseman, which the Blue Jays certainly apply, there appears to be a decent amount of inventory available at the position.

4:42pm: And the tweet that will simultaneously raise and sink the hopes of many a Blue Jays fan out there:

The good news is Anthopoulos is looking into trades rather than overpay for an underqualified “ace” on the free agent market. That said the costs through trades may be steep. However, the talk of waiting until January may be a bit painful to endure for fans who want to see their team fixed now.

However, the plan appears to be to wait out the Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes (if it ever starts) and then see what it left. Anthopoulos apparently has deals in place with agents to call him if movement is going to happen until then, but the sense of the market is that none of the available free agent arms are going anywhere until Tanaka gets resolved.

4:40pm: Update on the earlier tweets about Adam Lind and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ interest in him. According to John Perrotto of USA Today and Sports on Earth, that interest appears to minimal.

3:08pm: According to Bruce Levine, the Dodgers and the Rays are close to matching up on David Price.

While the Blue Jays were rumored a week ago to be a team interested in Price, they were never a serious contender for him, as an inter-divisional trade would have been extraordinarily expensive for the team. That said, the Dodgers lining up with them is an interesting match-up. Firstly, it would give Los Angeles a rotation with Clayton Kershaw, Price, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Josh Beckett / Chad Billingsley. One would have to think that any package landing Price in LA would have to include Joc Pederson or Corey Seager, just to start.

2:17pm: Interesting note from Shi Davidi, as a follow-up to Halladay press conference. Blue Jays have invited Halladay to join the organization in some capacity or another.

Halladay would be a great mentor as a roving pitching instructor and could eventually become a solid pitching coach at the big league level. Tough to teach his kind of mentality and work ethic, so who better to teach it than the man himself.

1:00pm: The Pittsburgh Pirates are again being tied to Blue Jays first baseman/designated hitter Adam Lind, as per Jon Morosi. Morosi now becomes the second writer to tie the Pirates to Lind, as we discussed Jayson Stark doing the same last week. Lind could be a solid, tradable asset for the Blue Jays, but outside of infield help (Neil Walker or Jordy Mercer), the Pirates don’t have a lot that the Blue Jays would be looking for in return.

11:01am: Well, the news on the Blue Jays press conference is official. Roy Halladay will sign a one-day contract with Toronto and will retire as a Blue Jays, as reported by Jon Heyman.

Halladay was one of a kind, in an environment where the game just didn’t cater to work horse pitchers. He dominated in an extremely offensive environment in the AL East. Roy Halladay will certainly be missed on the field, but glad he’s going out as a Blue Jay!

10:44am: Jon Morosi just got our hopes up, noting that the Blue Jays have called a press conference for 12:30pm, however Shi Davidi quickly scaled that hope down a bit:

Hmm, that’s interesting. Not coaching or player related, so what could we be hearing? Perhaps an update on the Spring Training home situation? We’ll have to see.

10:10am: Former Blue Jays manager Bobby Cox is unanimously selected to the Hall of Fame, along with Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa. Cox managed the Blue Jays from 1982 through 1985, posting a 355-292 record. Of course, he made his headway with the Atlanta Braves and holds a career managerial record of 2504-2001, including 5 division pennants and a World Series title.

8:37am – It’s still a bit early, but with all the focus on a possible David Price trade being bantered about, there may be a dark horse entering the trade arena, and one that the Blue Jays could deem worthy of a decent trade package. This, according to Ken Rosenthal:

Chris Sale is a full four years younger than Price and is coming off of two very solid seasons for the Chicago White Sox. He’s also got considerably less mileage on his left arm. The asking price could be astronomically high, but given the fact that he’s controllable through 2019 (w/ team options), this could be the arm the Blue Jays chase at that price, and may be willing to sacrifice prospects for.

Stay tuned as we keep you updated throughout the day. If something breaks, we’ll be right on top of it.