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]