There has been varying amounts of chatter regarding a possible Luis Castillo trade this week, but it’s probably time to put the kibosh on it.  The Post’s Joel Sherman: [The Mets] told agt for 2B they were interested in that they now think dealing Castillo unlikely: “Don’t hold your breath” was the exact term. If…

Just because they gave up some prospects in the Granderson deal doesn’t mean that the Yankees are out of the Roy Halladay bidding. Far from it, actually.  So says Joel Sherman of the New York Post, who seems to be having more conversations with Mets and Yankees people with anyone this week: Even while finalizing…

A lot of you responded to the Peter Gammons news yesterday by saying something like “Good! Now that Boston homer can do his Boston homer stuff!”  Well, you’re not 100% wrong.  Gammons, speaking to Chad Finn of the Boston Globe: “A big part of it is that I just want to be home more .…

. . .  have to Include listening to Ozzie Guillen talk about Tiger Woods’ problems.  I can’t repeat any of it, partially because it was in an informal off-the-record setting, but mostly because NBC would fire me, the Marion County, Indiana authorities would arrest me for trafficking in extreme obscenity and I’m pretty sure my…

So tweets Buster Olney. At this point you’d have to figure Crisp as a backup outfielder/pinch runner type for the Red Sox, though other teams have expressed interest in him in a more substantial role. Crisp had his season cut short by shoulder surgeries last year, but thanks to the crappy Royals medical staff he…

How do we know this?  They’re now willing to include Erick Aybar in a trade, which had previously been considered verboten. The Blue Jays asked for Aybar during negotiations last summer.  If he’s on the table now, it’s much more likely that the Jays would consider sending Doc west.

John Lackey is reported to want something better in terms of money and years than A.J. Burnett got last winter.  A.J. Burnett got five years and $82 million. That puts Lackey’s demand in the six-year range, with total dollars approaching $100 million. Guess what: he ain’t gettin’ that from the Angels, reports Mike DiGiovanna of…

With Houston apparently giving Miguel Tejada the kiss off yesterday, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that Tony La Russa may be interested in bringing him in.  It’s more of a “personal interest” on La Russa’s part, Strauss says, but that he has been discussed by others in the Cardinals organization. But as…

Each night the bar and lobby scene at the Winter Meetings lasts a bit longer, which in turn means that the morning starts a bit later. It takes a bit longer for the press room to fill up and the tweets to start flying. The line at Starbucks is deeper and deeper.  I bet I…

Sources told MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki that the Phillies and free agent Ross Gload have come to terms on a two-year deal. The 33-year-old Gload was believed to have similar offers on the table from the Marlins and Braves. Gload hit .261/.329/.400 with 30 RBI in 230 at-bats for Florida last season. He was terribly miscast…

FOXSports.com’s Jon Paul Morosi says that the Rangers are showing strong interest in the Marlins’ Jorge Cantu and could offer a starting pitcher for the first baseman. Cantu seems like a curious target, given that he’d cost a player or two in return and several free agent first basemen/designated hitters could offer similar production. However,…

In additional to picking up Curtis Granderson, Yankees GM Brian Cashman worked on bringing back a couple of his own free agents today in meetings with the agents for Andy Pettitte and Hideki Matsui. According to the New York Times, Cashman met with Pettitte’s agent, Randy Hendricks, twice. Reports Monday indicated that the Yankees were…

Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the White Sox and Rays have discussed a deal that would have sent Carlos Quentin to Tampa Bay for Carl Crawford, but that those talks have “flat-lined.” Says White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on the possibility: ”To make that trade there is a lot of money involved.…

The Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman says the Red Sox did discuss Curtis Granderson with the Tigers before the still unfinalized trade with the Yankees took place, but that Detroit requested both Jacoby Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz in return. If that seems like a substantially higher price than the Yankees paid, well, that’s mostly because it…

While Jason Bay and many of the second-tier free agents are getting serious play, things have been pretty quiet on the subject of this winter’s No. 1 free agent, Matt Holliday, during the first two days of the winter meetings. The Cardinals haven’t given up on re-signing Holliday yet, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported…

- Giants GM Brian Sabean said there’s no way Bengie Molina would be returning to the team. “That ship has sailed,” he told the San Jose Mercury News. The Giants don’t want to turn over the job to Buster Posey, so Molina would still make sense if he can’t get a multiyear deal elsewhere. However,…

ESPN Dallas is reporting that rumor that’s also made its way around twitter a bit, even though it has no concrete sources behind it. So, we’ll run with it here, even though we have serious doubts. According to a baseball official, the Rangers offered right-hander Neftali Feliz and first baseman Justin Smoak to the Marlins…

The Orioles reportedly met with the agents for Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman on Tuesday. According to the Baltimore Sun, Chapman has been “positively inclined” toward the Orioles since the club played the Cuban national team in 1999. The Phillies, on the other hand, appear to be out of the mix for Chapman. GM Ruben Amaro…

We’ve had all day to assimilate it, but no one around here has yet to make sense of the Nationals giving Pudge Rodriguez two years and $6 million.  So someone finally decided to ask the Nats about it.  The response, not for attribution apparently, is that Pudge had offers – note the plural — from…

MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports that the Orioles offered Brandon Erbe and David Hernandez to the Rangers for Kevin Millwood, but that talks have now “cooled off.” Judging by the fact that the Orioles were prepared to surrender two intriguing right-handers, they must have been expecting Texas to pick up a significant portion of the $12…