•There are some people in baseball confused by the CC Sabathia sweepstakes. It is known that the Yankees would be willing to go up from their $140 million offer, but the rumor has been out for over a week that the Angels are going to offer a “Johan Santana like deal” to Sabathia. This has not happened yet, there is some belief that the Angels are purely using Sabathia as a negotiating ploy against Mark Teixeira, but then other people believe they are legitimately in on Sabathia. All I know is, if you’re a Yankee fan that wants Sabathia in the Bronx, you better hope the Angels don’t get involved because Sabathia would love to play on the West Coast if possible. He’ll go to the Yankees if nobody on the west coast comes close in money, but if you’re the Yankees, do you want a guy who clearly is not interested in playing for you?

•If the Yankees fail to land Sabathia, expect a bigtime push for Teixeira. The Yankees won’t be signing both Sabathia and Teixeira, it’s one or the other. In addition, the Yankees will still be looking at AJ Burnett and Derek Lowe. If you’re the Yankees and you can land Burnett,Lowe and Teixeira, I think that would be a better investment than going so hard for a guy like Sabathia who has a career ERA of 3.66, and that includes his half season of dominance in the NL. What would the AL East do to a guy like Sabathia? The Yankees can expect stiff competition from the Mets and Red Sox on Lowe, but as far as Burnett goes, you’re unlikely to have anybody rival what the Yankees could or would offer.

•If the Yankees end up with Teixeira, Nick Swisher would (obviously) become the full time center fielder.

•On the Mets front, as MetsBlog.com reported yesterday per a latin newspaper, it does appear the Mets have interest in free agent RHP Fernando Cabrera, but only on a minor league deal. It is not expected he’s going to get guaranteed money anywhere.

•You can expect the Mets to pick up some kind of power relief arm in the Rule 5 draft, whether they trade for a guy that’s picked ahead of them, or draft the player at their own slot. Two names that are reportedly of interest is Tampa Bay’s Eduardo Morlan and Minnesota’s Loek Van Mil. Van Mil has a slight tear in his elbow, and a team can probably hide him on their major league disabled list all year. He is a 7 foot 1, yes, 7 foot 1 right hander who has hit 97 on his fastball. Morlan was the 3rd player traded to Tampa in the Delmon Young/Matt Garza trade. He sports a mid 90s fastball and a mid 80s slider, and has projection as a very good late inning bullpen arm. Morlan had control problems in the past when he was a starter, but since being moved to the pen, he appears to have fixed his control issues a bit.

•No real update on the closer front, Brian Fuentes will meet with Omar Minaya at the Winter Meetings, and Minaya will surely meet with Francisco Rodriguez’s agent. Rodriguez is not going to be at the meetings personally. As of now K-Rod is still at the top of the Mets list. They see K-Rod as option 1, and Fuentes as option 1a. The team would be content with either closer, but believe they can work out a 3 year deal with Rodriguez, which is the most ideal of situations for the team.

•The team still does not intend on giving out multi-year contracts to free agent middle relievers, so unless something changes, don’t expect Joe Beimel or Juan Cruz in Queens. The team is still looking for a top flight set-up man with closing experience, and are still in talks with Colorado regarding Huston Street, as well as engaging in talks with the Mariners for JJ Putz. It is unknown at this time if Putz is even available though. I’d expect talks for Street to intensify during the winter meetings. As was reported last week, the Rockies offered Street to the Mets for Aaron Heilman and Pedro Feliciano, and were turned down. Omar Minaya prefers trading a prospect with Heilman instead of another bullpen arm. It’s possible the Mets wait this out until the Rockies sign a lefty out of free agency for their pen, possibly Alan Embree or Brian Shouse. At that point the need for a lefty reliever would be gone, and the Mets could then maybe swing a prospect with Heilman.

•Derek Lowe remains the top target to be signed as a starting pitcher. The Mets seem comfortable going into spring training with a battle for the 5th spot in the rotation between Jon Niese and a “scrap-heap” pickup type. If the Mets fail to land Lowe, then Oliver Perez,Jon Garland and Randy Wolf could come into play out of free agency, or via trade they can look at Tampa’s Andy Sonnanstine,Edwin Jackson, or the White Sox’s Javier Vazquez. A name that is starting to garner some buzz is Daniel Cabrera who may get non-tendered by the Orioles. If he is non-tendered, it’s possible the Mets would look at him to compete with Niese for the 5th spot.

•As of now there is no interest at all in Manny Ramirez from a Mets front. From a Yankees front they have not “ruled him out”. Ramirez to the Mets is a “one in a million shot at this point” according to a source. The team feels it’s resources are better to be used to upgrade the pitching.

•There’s a remote chance you can see Raul Ibanez in Queens, but with the demand so high, he may price himself out of the Mets range. Juan Rivera is still a possibility, but it is looking more and more like the Mets are content with a Fernando Tatis/Daniel Murphy platoon in left.

•There is a tiny bit of buzz about the Mets looking to shop Brian Schneider, no idea what they could expect back. If they were to trade Schneider, they’d look at either the Giants’ Bengie Molina in trade, or free agent Pudge Rodriguez. I don’t think doing this is anywhere near a priority, I’d expect a Schneider/Ramon Castro duo in 2009 still.

Tags: New York Mets, New York Yankees