Per MLB Trade Rumors:

Just got an incredible rumor from a trusted New York sportswriter.  Stay with me, because this one's crazy.  But rest assured that if the source wasn't good, I wouldn't post it.

Minnesota has initiated talks for a three-way blockbuster with the Twins and A's.  Here's how it would go down:

Mets send Jose Reyes, Kevin Mulvey, and Hector Pellot to A's
A's send Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson to Mets
A's send Dan Haren to Twins
Twins send Johan Santana to Mets

Mets get Johan Santana, Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson
A's get Jose Reyes and Kevin Mulvey
Twins get Dan Haren and Hector Pellot

I'm not even sure where to begin.

The Marlins and Tigers have reached a preliminary agreement on a bona fide blockbuster deal that would ship perennial Met killers Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis out of town.

The keys to the deal for Florida are outfielder Cameron Maybin and LHP Andrew Miller. Detroit will also send two other prospects to the Marlins.

In the short term, this deal helps the Mets (and the Phillies and the Braves). The Marlins' lineup just became much easier to pitch to, and their rotation -- Willis's sub-par 2007 notwithstanding -- is much less formidable.

[FOX Sports]

UPDATE [7:20pm]: The Tigers are apparently including "catcher Mike Rabelo and three other minor league pitchers". [ESPN.com]

In spite of all of the rumors swirling around, Omar Minaya isn't so sure the Mets are going to make a big splash this winter.

"You get in trouble when you feel you have to make a trade. You make a trade only if it makes sense. I don't feel like we have to make a trade."

He has a point. The Mets are probably a better team than they were when 2007 ended, and the Phillies haven't gotten any better. The Braves have marginally improved their personnel, though their youngsters could be expected to improve naturally.

Having said that, the Mets would be remiss if they didn't at least inquire about available arms like Erik Bedard and Dan Haren. Just because you don't have to make a trade doesn't mean you don't take the opportunity to improve your team for this year and beyond.

[LoHud]

The winter meetings in Nashville are officially underway, though most contingents arrived last night. Here is a quick rundown of the latest news around the league.

• The Padres are close to a three-year extension with Jake Peavy worth an estimated $17 million a year. Peavy won the NL Cy Young in 2007 and should generally be regarded as one of the few best pitchers in baseball. [FOX Sports]
• Andy Pettitte will exercice his $16 million player option and return to the Yankees for the 2008 season. Pettitte was said to be considering retirement but few actually expected him to hang up his balking shoes. [Houston Chronicle]
• The Dodgers are ratcheting up their interest in Andruw Jones to play centerfield for them in 2008 and beyond. Signing Jones would serve to accomplish what some considered impossible: Rendering Juan Pierre even less useful by moving his anemic bat to a corner outfield spot. [MLB.com]
• The Astros officially inked Kaz Matsui to a three-year, $16.5 million deal. Good luck, losers! [MLB.com]
• The Yankees have agreed to include Philip Hughes in a deal to obtain Johan Santana from the Twins, but senior VP Hank Steinbrenner (a.k.a. Hankenstein) has given the Twins a deadline of Monday night to get a trade hammered out else the Yanks are moving on. [NY Times]
• Erik Bedard has informed the Orioles that he has no interest in signing a contract extension. Seeing as the Orioles have no chance of contending in 2008 they will try their darnedest to unload Bedard this offseason. They rejected a deal of Lastings Milledge, Philip Humber and Aaron Heilman for Bedard a couple of weeks ago, but look for the Mets to revisit those talks this week (Milledge will no longer be on the table for obvious reasons). [WaPo]

WFAN is reporting that the Mets have traded Lastings Milledge to the Nationals for Brian Schneider and Ryan Church. This is a rumor right now; more as it unfolds.

UPDATE: Newsday is reporting it now.

UPDATE: Church and Milledge are very similar hitters right now, though Church is six years older and will cost more. The Mets essentially traded the age and payroll flexibility difference between Milledge and Church to get Schneider. Questionable to say the least.

Per Adam Rubin's blog at the Daily News, the Mets have traded useless steroid abuser Guillermo Mota to the Brewers in exchange for catcher Johnny Estrada. Estrada hit .314/.378/.450 with the Braves in 2004 and has yet to crack a 92 OPS+ since then.

Whatever. Mota is gone and the Mets have a platoon partner for Ramon Castro.

DocMets16 and twassel each have posted diaries on this, so check those out as well. Also check out Estrada's career stats at Baseball-Reference.com.

Don Burke at NJ.com confirms the deal, and Omar Minaya adds his take on Estrad:

"Johnny adds depth to our catching situation," said Mets General Manager Omar Minaya. "He's a former All-Star who switch-hits and has hit over .300 three times in his career."

UPDATE [6:55pm]: And the Official Press Release.

According to Spanish language sports site Impacto Deportivo, the Mets and Luis Castillo have agreed on a four-year, $25 million contract.

Thanks go Google, we have the site roughly translated into Spanglish:

The intermedista Dominican Luis Castillo remain over four seasons with the Meters in New York.

According learned impactodeportivo.com.do, Castillo and the Meters reached an agreement four years by 25 million.

The news has thus far been unconfirmed by any English-speaking news outlets, so we'll just consider this one unofficial until further notice. (Hat tip: Rotoworld)

UPDATE [9:17pm]: Ken Rosenthal at FOX Sports confirms it, though he only indicates that they are close to a deal, not that one has actually been completed. Extending a four-year offer to a player with questionable health is definitely a risky move. When Castillo is healthy the Mets can count on solid defense and good on-base skills but zero in the power department. If a four-year deal with Castillo was the only thing standing in the way of a four-year, $36 million pact with David Eckstein then I guess this is good news.

Tom Glavine's agent, Gregg Clifton, has intimated that a deal with the Braves could be completed as soon as today. The agreement, said to be in the neighborhood of $8 million for one year, might be announced today or possibly Monday.

As I mentioned the other day, though the Mets have yet to offer Glavine arbitration, if he signs with the Braves before December 1st then the Mets will likely be awarded the Braves' first round pick in next June's draft (#18 overall). I say "likely" because the Braves could still sign another Type A free agent who is ranked even higher than Glavine. In such a case, the other player's former team would get the Braves' first rounder and the Mets would get their second rounder instead.

NewMet5 has more on this and other news in this diary.

Several hours ago, rumors surfaced indicating that the Mets will present a multi-year offer to former Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba, and tomorrow's New York Times will feature a Ben Shpigel column to the same effect. The Mets were already closing in on a perfectly reasonable two-year deal with Ramon Castro, and I find myself utterly mystified by the idea of pursuing Torrealba at all, let alone on a multi-year deal.

I have no idea who started the rumor that Torrealba was anything special in the first place, but I'm more than happy to put an end to it here. Yorvit Torrealba is not a good baseball player. ESPN's Keith Law recently unveiled his Top 50 Free Agents of this offseason and Mr. Torrealba appears nowhere on the list. Paul Lo Duca comes in at #32, thirty spots beneath the only other catcher on the docket, the recently signed Jorge Posada.

Torreaba turned 29 in June and has 1332 career at-bats to his credit. His composite batting line for those at-bats is .251/.313/.391 and an underwhelming OPS+ of 80. That line includes the .255/.323/.376 he hit in 2007 while playing half of his games in Coors Field. His 2007 OPS+ was 75, worse than his career mark! How exactly is this guy an attractive free agent target? He appeared in only 113 games this year, destroying his previous career high in games played of 76, split between San Francisco and Seattle in 2005.

The one thing he has going for him is his throwing arm. Despite nailing fewer than 20% of attempted basestealers in 2007, he has nabbed better than 32% of them over the course of his career. Great. He sounds like a wonderful backup catcher who can spell your real catcher by shoring up the defense on the starter's days off. This is the sort of commodity you could pluck from a list of minor league free agents or even from your own farm system, not someone you should feel compelled to pay good money for multiple years.

If the plan is to sign Castro, pray for good health, and bring in a second catcher to fill in the gaps, fine. But shouldn't that second catcher be able to hit a little bit and not cost an arm and a leg? Further, if the intention is to make Torrealba the starting catcher, the Mets would be better off -- and I can't believe I'm saying this -- just bringing Paul Lo Duca back for another go-round.

Are you happy, Mets? You made me say something nice about Paul Lo Duca. I hope you're proud of yourself.

Less than two hours after Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera were reported to become free agents tonight, the Yankees have apparently resigned Posada to a four-year, $52 million deal.

I was pushing for the Mets to sign Posada, knowing full well that the fourth year might have amounted to a throwaway. Relative to the available talent at the catching position, if Posada could have played 120 games behind the plate for the first three years of the deal I think it might have been worth it anyway. His amazing 2007 contract year performance notwithstanding, an average Posada year is still astoundingly better than that of your typical catcher.

The Mets will likely turn their attention to Paul Lo Duca, Ramon Castro or Yorvit Torrealba (bleah!), or perhaps attempt to pry Ramon Hernandez (Orioles) or Miguel Montero (Diamondbacks) from their respective teams.