Waiting for a blockbuster

Griffey, Expos rumors spice up dull winter meetings

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Somewhere, in back rooms or lavish hotel suites or in a tucked-away corner of some leafy lobby, a baseball blockbuster is being made.

And so the Mets sign utilityman Joe McEwing to a one-year contract.

And Tampa Bay announces Andy Sheets is going to play in Japan.

And injured Toronto pitcher Chris Carpenter heads to the Cardinals.

These are the blockbusters everyone talks about?

Baseball executives spent most of Friday secretly talking and secretly preparing to talk and secretly evaluating talks and then talking -- secretly, of course -- some more. The annual baseball winter meetings are one big old PG movie so far, filled with a lot of fluff and the hint of a tease.

Just when the latest rumor seems ready to turn into reality, you get this:

The Mets announce Gary Carter has been named their "minor league roving catcher instructor." What, exactly, does a roving catcher do?

These are the winter meetings. More talk and less action than a Woody Allen flick.

There are a couple of major players in these meetings that keep the promise of something happening humming along. Ken Griffey Jr. is one. The Montreal Expos are the other.

The Cincinnati Reds are listening to offers for Griffey, their fragile center fielder, though general manager Jim Bowden insists he doesn't really want to trade Griffey.

"I didn't come to Nashville to move Ken Griffey Jr.," Bowden told a group of reporters in his suite late Friday. "I came here to make our team better."

But that, it goes to figure, might best be done by trading Griffey, something that would have been unheard of a couple of years ago. The deal that brought Griffey to his hometown from Seattle remains Bowden's crown jewel as a GM. "I'll never make another that surpasses that," he said.

Bowden already had a deal worked out to trade Griffey for San Diego's Phil Nevin and some other players, but Nevin vetoed it. The trade, Bowden said, would have saved the Reds some $55 million.

A team can get well in a hurry with $55 million to spend. Heck, an entire hospital wing can get well in a hurry on that kind of money.

Bowden also talked, however briefly, with Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams about a trade for Griffey, reportedly involving Magglio Ordonez. Williams evidently quashed that idea quickly.

There may be other teams who are interested in the one-time home run threat who has missed more than 140 games in the past two years, yet Bowden steadfastly claims he doesn't want to trade Griffey.

"But we'll trade anybody," Bowden said, "if a team overwhelms us."

The Expos are getting overwhelmed. General manager Omar Minaya has to cut payroll, which means players like slugger Vladimir Guerrero and pitchers Javier Vazquez and Bartolo Colon are up for bidding. Minaya talked with the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks earlier Friday, had plans to talk to the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox and will talk with a lot more.

Nothing has been done. But he's working on it.

"I've heard that before, that I'm holding these meetings hostage," he said. "I just want to do what's best for the Montreal Expos at the end of the day."

Minaya said he got specific with several teams, but until he hears from a lot more -- or until someone comes up with an offer he can't refuse -- there could be a lot of teams still sitting around come the end of these meetings. The meetings are supposed to last into Monday.

"I will try to talk to as many clubs as possible, but if someone is aggressive and puts the right trade in front of me, I'll make that trade," Minaya said. "[But] I don’t have to get down to payroll by Tuesday. I have to get down to payroll by Opening Day."

There was other news Friday. The Phillies signed lefty Randy Wolf to a four-year deal worth $22.5 million. The Reds signed their supplemental first-round pick in the 2002 first-year player draft.

The real news from these meetings, though, was busy being banged out in some fancy suite somewhere, still to come.

Let's hope so, anyway.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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