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December 7, 2012

Pebble Hunting

Hottest Rumors From Baseball's Winter Meetings in Nashville!

by Sam Miller

Editor's note: Sam recently found this piece we were supposed to run five years ago but that slipped through the cracks. Our bad. It probably won’t make any sense now, but no point in letting it go to waste.

If you’re like me, you spent the past week refreshing MLB Trade Rumors, listening to Amy Winehouse, and appreciating just how calm life is before children. But if you missed out on all the action at baseball’s Winter Meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, here’s a quick review of the hottest, sexiest rumors from the 2007 Winter Meetings in Nashville.

Cliff Lee might be involved in a trade for a young slugger! 
Now, I know it might seem unlikely that a pitcher like Lee could bring back significant talent, considering he was three games under .500 this year. But there are some hot rumors swirling around about him. For instance, “the Indians tried to push Cliff Lee for (Delmon) Young but Lee was too expensive for the Rays.” Those Rays are darn smart, you know. They don’t fall for such tricks.

But will the Blue Jays? “The Indians and Blue Jays are reportedly talking about a swap that would send Alex Rios to the Tribe for Franklin Gutierrez and Cliff Lee.  Seriously?  That seems like a lousy deal for the Jays." Con-cur! (Especially considering "the Jays could get Matt Cain or Tim Lincecum 'right away' if they'd offer Rios.") The Indians might be more realistic to target a veteran like Raul Ibanez, so this rumor makes a lot of sense: 

There have been a handful of rumors about a possible deal with Cleveland involving Raul Ibanez. The way this rumor goes, pitcher Cliff Lee would be coming back the other way. Any real hang-up to Ibanez-Lee, however, at least from Cleveland's side, would be in the contracts.