AL Central Winter Meetings Roundup

As the Winter Meetings Draw to a close here it might be a good idea to see what the competition has spent the week accomplishing, or at least attempting to accomplish. I should remind you that the Meetings are not an exclusive window in which to do business. A lot of things tend to get done during the week, sure, but the wheeling and dealing continues until teams are ready to head home for opening day.

Detroit Tigers
The Tigers were a part of the ongoing Asdrubal Cabrera talks, despite having picked up Jhonny Peralta’s 2013 option. Other teams have shown interest in Peralta so he’d be moveable if Asdrubal were acquired. Instead the Tigers pulled a different Cabrera, this one walking around with the first name of Ramon, in exchange for Andy Oliver from the Pirates. Ramon Cabrera is a catching prospect that’s been in the Pittsburgh system since 2008. The most followed piece of the Tigers’ week was the ongoing pursuit of Anibal Sanchez. Talks have continued after the Tigers apparently offered 4/yr $48M, which falls well short of the right-hander’s expectations.

Kansas City Royals
The main functions of the Royals in the rumor world have been the availability of Wil Myers and their desperate need of pitching. These two items are regularly intertwined. Kansas City has been in on the Anibal Sanchez talks, the R.A. Dickey & James Shields trade talks, and pretty much talks about any pitcher that’s not tied to the ground. Wil Myers is being dangled in the hopes of receiving respectable pitching assistance. The big question is whether or not any pitching they could get in return would be worth parting with the potential impact Myers could provide. And on and on it goes. The Royals need pitching help, yes, but moving Myers to get it probably ends up a step backwards, so in all likelihood the Royals will have to sign free agent pitching to fill their gap.

Cleveland Indians
The Indians have been incredibly active without actually getting anything done. They’re trying to move Asdrubal Cabrera, and maybe even Shin-Soo Choo. They’re involved in the ongoing negotiations for a multi-team trade that would possibly bring Justin Upton to Cleveland. They’ve looked into acquiring Nick Swisher, Stephen Drew, Mark Reynolds, Kevin Youkilis, and Dee Gordon. They seem to be confused as to what their goal is for the upcoming season but are certainly not leaving any stone unturned. My guess would be that whatever good deal comes together for them first will point the organization in their 2013 direction. Good luck with that, fellas.

Minnesota Twins
The Twins entered the month having just traded Denard Span to the Nationals. They need pitching badly and have made overtures to Francisco Liriano and Joe Saunders. The list of pitchers they’ve asked about, poked at, and identified as targets begins to look like the closing credits of a movie rather quickly as they’re not in a position to be very picky and mainly just need major league arms that will be able to toss a significant amount of innings. Of the cast of plenty, recent non-tenders like Jair Jurrjens, John Lannan, and Mike Pelfrey seem like reasonable guys to give a shot. The Twins did manage some progress, sending Ben Revere to Philadelphia in exchange for Vance Worley, coming off of surgery to remove a bone chip in his elbow and pitching prospect Trevor May. But given the lack of bodies they have already in place, there is more work to be done.