Diamondbacks and the Winter Meetings, Day 2

The rumor-mill seemed to crank up last night, over the possibility of the Diamondbacks and the Cubs getting together, with Arizona sending catcher Miguel Montero to the windy city, and getting a couple of prospects - some way from being major-league ready - in return. Fox Sports started this one rolling, and it seems to have quite a lot of traction, but a note of caution is perhaps merited, if you're looking for the instant gratification of a trade today:

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick hears that a trade between the #Diamondbacks and #Cubs involving Miguel Montero "isn't close to fruition."

— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) December 9, 2014

We'll see how thing unfold - or not - today. Of course, there would be one obvious downside for Arizona fans of trading Montero.

Hopefully nowhere, what am I going to do, ask for my Tacos "Tuffy style"? "@miggymont26: Any of you know where do I'm going to ?"

— Ben Shroyer (@BenShroyer) December 9, 2014

Elsewhere, we signed Yasmany Tomas, and now we have details of the contract, which is interestingly back-loaded.

Player options are to be exercised/declined at the same time, so it is $14M up front, 4 yrs/$22M then Tomas' option to add 2 yrs/$32.5M.

— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) December 9, 2014

Effectively, that's four years for $36.5 million, then the opt-out kicks in, but we do have the right to make a qualifying offer at that point. It's a bold statement by new management, and one wonders if it will end up defining the Stewart era - for good or bad - in the same way that the Upton trade is seen for the Towers era. And speaking of which, this was amusing...

The #Braves now are packaging OF Justin Upton and 3B Kelly Johnson in trade talks with teams.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 9, 2014

Curious to see what return they get. Finally, out of the box marked "?", we find this:

Tony La Russa on @DanielDescalso: ‘One of my favorites all time because he’s a winning player.’ Dbacks mentioned as a possible destination.

— Stan McNeal (@stanmcneal) December 9, 2014

I'm trusting this is just La Russa being polite. Because, as our colleagues over at Viva El Birdos point out, "I suppose Descalso was a member of Cardinals teams that won one World Series, two National League pennants, four playoff berths, seven postseason series. However, one has firm grounds for asserting that the Cardinals teams he was on won in spite of him, his .243/.313/.341 (.288 wOBA, 81 wRC+), middling baserunning, and fielding that ranged from mediocre to awful depending on where he stood on the diamond."

Couple of moves to report overnight, with the White Sox being particularly active. They signed closer David Robertson to a four year, $46 million deal - something something overpaid closers - and also dealt for Jeff Samardzija from the Oakland A's, who now seem to be in full-on rebuild mode. Today may (or may not) also see an end to the Jon Lester competition. Four teams (Cubs, Giants, Dodgers and Red Sox) have offered around the six year, $150m mark, with a fifth, "mystery" team willing to go to 7/$175m, though they may not necessarily win.

As yesterday, this will be an open thread for all manner of chat. If the Montero rumors grow into anything solid, that will probably spin off into its own stream. Good job I have the day off!