News: GM Meetings are Underway
Major League Baseball’s General Managers will gather in Orlando over the next four days for what it is labeled The GM Meetings.
…basically, general managers and team executives, as well as a few high-profile agents, collect to discuss league business, such as Instant Replay, as well lay off-
season ground work and create a framework and let other teams know who will aim to do what over the next few months…typically, one or two low-impact trades are made, a few players will re-sign with their former teams, and a ton of rumors get started because GMs are talking with other GMs, while their underlings are talking with other underlings…in short, these meetings often set a game-plan for the MLB Winter Meetings in Nashville, which take place during the first week of December, when the real action happens…
It was during the 2000 General Manager Meetings when former-Mets GM Steve Phillips had his one-and-only meeting with Scott Boras, regarding free-agent SS Alex Rodriguez, out of which the phrase ‘24 and 1’ was born.
…odds are good, i would think, that Mets GM Omar Minaya will have a chat with boras, if for no other reason than to check in, see what’s up, and get a sense of the super agent’s off-season plans, you know, in case he reps anybody of interest to minaya…
For an outstanding preview of the Meetings, read Jim Salisbury’s column in yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to Salisbury, hot topics over the next four days will be Rodriguez, the trade and free-agent market, and the Mitchell Report’s findings from Sen. George Mitchell’s 18-month investigation into baseball’s steroid era, which are due for public release before the end of the year.
…the buzz from baseball suggests most GMs are waiting on the report, hoping it comes out sooner than later, because there is no telling what type of impact it will have on the entire market, for better or worse…
