The baseball hot stove is about to break out of its figurative and literal cold snap (it’s pretty cold out here in the North East today) as the calendar looks to the first complete week of 2013. Generally the market goes cold between Christmas and New Years, and it did again this year but it seemed a little colder and longer than usual. This is my personal conjecture but I believe it was because:
- An unusually busy week before the winter meetings made the market move faster this year at an early date, possibly due to how late Thanksgiving was.
- Christmas and New Years this year landed in such a way that the days before Christmas and the days after New Years (like today) stretched the “break” to over two weeks
- Tanaka was finally posted. His signing is logging the free agent market
Despite the coolness of the stove, the Pirates were able to acquire a first basemen, which puts the Mets in a bind because its one less suitor for Davis (and on top of that, I thought Davis would be a nice fit in Pittsburgh). Anyway this leaves the Brewers and the Orioles left as possible landing spots for Davis.
The Brewers have been linked to Davis several times this off season. First for Aoki, who was then traded away and later for Thornberg, who the Brewers are high on.
Rumors with the Orioles have started to swirl to a vague rumor that Oriole execs are pouring over medical records for a trade. The Orioles are also a possible landing spot for Morales, who would then make Davis redundant. Mets Hot Stove took up a possible Davis to the Orioles trade last night and talked about how Britton would make sense in a deal. Both Britton and Davis are former top prospects coming off down years with potential. A swap could work out. Britton also projects to what the Mets want (young pitching).
Trading for Davis makes sense for the Orioles because they could use a bat with pop and they are reluctant to give up a draft pick that signing a player like Morales or Cruz would require. Since the Balfour mishandling, there is also pressure to make a move.
Finally, an interesting note for the Brewers is they are the only team not to sign a free agent yet this off season.
Still, as the weeks move on, it could become a reality that Davis comes to spring training and either has to beat out a Duda/Satin platoon (or join the platoon himself) or raises his value to be traded in the spring.