Diamondbacks at the winter meetings: round-up, day one

Still, it certainly wasn't completely without interest - the fact our open thread is now past 350 comments, despite the lack of actual activity, would seem to indicate that! Let's round up the main topics mentioned out of Florida, on this first day of the get-together.

Bradley is nearly untouchable

Kevin Towers, on top #Dbacks prospect Archie Bradley: "I would say if his name is mentioned in a deal with us, it's probably a non-starter."

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) December 9, 2013

Steve Gilbert more or less concurs, quoting Towers as saying, "I would say it would be very, very tough for us to move Archie." Nothing new here, but it's still somewhat comforting to hear.

In on Choo?

Source: #Dbacks on Choo. Active on multiple fronts. Could sign Choo and trade for pitcher, or trade for Trumbo and sign FA pitcher.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 10, 2013

Previously, we had more or less written off the possibility of the D-backs getting Shin-Soo Choo, given the free-agent's demands for a nine-figure contract seemed well out of the team's league. However, since it seems we were able to offer Carlos Beltran something around $16 million per year, we may be back in the running for Choo, though there will be a lot of competition. The scenarios described by Rosenthal appear credible, and were in line with what Derrick Hall said on the radio this evening: it's likely we will fill one of the team's two needs (starting pitcher and power outfielder) through trade, and the other through free-agency. As for which is which...

Turning Japanese

#DBacks will bid on Tanaka if he is posted and they haven't already done something on a starter.

— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) December 10, 2013

It's still not clear if Tanaka will even be available, given the cap which will apparently soon be in place for major-league posting fees on Japanese players. The owner of his team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, "is the one Japanese owner who strongly opposed the new agreement, and Wednesday suggested in an interview that he would not post Tanaka," according to Peter Gammons. However, subsequent indications are he would be available, and in the (likely) event of multiple teams posting the $20 million expected posting fee (the maximum allowed under the new system), Tanaka will be able to negotiate with whomever he wants.

Eric the Sedona Red

Kevin Towers sounds OK waiting on Eric Chavez to decide where he wants to play. Says Chavez wants to win and is monitoring Dbacks' moves.

— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) December 10, 2013

Definitely get the feeling that domino, along with the back-up catcher position, will probably be one of the last to fall for the Diamondbacks this winter. No rush for either of those spots.

Around the rest of baseball

This may be the first time I can ever remember the opening day of the winter meetings going down without a single trade being consummated. Of course, there are still a couple of hours left in Florida for something to go down, but the lack of solid information on topics like David Price, Jeff Samardzija, etc. Instead, probably the big news of the day was that Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre and Bobby Cox were all unanimously elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. Regardless of what happens on the players' ballot, the class of 2014 is certainly going to be one to remember.

We'll continue to monitor the Twitter the rest of the night, and will be back tomorrow morning with a fresh thread, in the hope of seeing some actual deals go down on Day #2!