…as far as I’m concerned.

All the evidence I needed lurked around the lobby tonight. Brian Cashman, Scott Boras, Peter Greenberg, Kevin Towers, Omar Minaya were among people just milling around and hanging out. That was a signal that nothing major was happening.

The Rule 5 draft will take place at 9 a.m., then GM’s will begin to leave Nashville.

Unless the Twins have a whopper announcement when I wake up, nothing is happening.

They will pack up Friday morning and head to the Twin Cities, where they will continue to field offers from various teams. I mentioned the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Mariners and Rangers among the interested teams. After working the lobby tonight, I don’t know if the Rangers and Mariners have a real shot because there’s questions if Santana really wants to play in that part of the country. I guess they could always blow his socks off with an offer.

I thought the Red Sox were interested in Santana only to keep him from the Yankees. I’ve changed my mind after talking to some people. After winning a couple World Series, the Red Sox aren’t satisfied and have the resources to build a real juggernaut (Detroit may have something to say about that).

These meetings were a disappointment. The media horde wanted to see a bunch of deals, but only one was announced this week. ONE! We tired of writing about the same rumors and recycling the same names and putting teams in negotiations, pulling them out and then putting them back in.

I didn’t update as much because I didn’t know anything new. We shook our heads as crazy rumors were floated. It got to the point where the plausible outranked the factual, and that’s when you know you’ve been here too long. Someone here described the winter meetings as, “four days where good journalism goes out the window.” I agree.

We fed the monster. We’re tired of feeding the monster. All we want to do is go home on work on the Christmas card mailing lists.

Oh, one bit of news: Andruw Jones to the Dodgers…..

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Don’t have much time because I must write for the ink version, but here’s what I know about clubs interested in dealing for Johan Santana:

Mets: Interested

Yankees: Still interested

Angels: Not Interested, but have talked to Twins about other players. Twins keep hearing that the Angels MIGHT change their minds on Santana.

Boston: Still interested

Texas: Interested, but would Santana go there?

Seattle: Interested, but would Santana go there?

It appears unlikely a deal will be reached this week.

That’s all for now….

Just got back from the manager’s luncheon, which is really a laid-back affair. We shared a table with the Devil, er, Rays and chatted with their beat writers and manager Joe Maddon. It’s amazing how comparing road hotels and bad travel experiences come up during these things.

Anyway, there are reports elsewhere that the Mets want in on the Santana sweepstakes and that the Mariners would like to get involved too. I can’t lie to you, I’m in catch-up mode after hitting all the morning events.

As promised, here’s a link to Ron Gardenhire’s press conference earlier today, which covered a lot of topics.

If you prefer to listen, here’s a link 

Gotta run….

 

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It’s been a busy morning already. The Baseball Writers Association of America held its annual meeting at 9 a.m. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has his presser at 10 a.m. I will provide highlights of his 30-minute session later today.

The annual mangers-media luncheon is at noon, so there will be little time for a beat writer to stake out the lobby for one of his trusted sources. The national scribes have even a bigger advantage until the afternoon.

A lot of us here are coming to the realization that the Twins may head home from the winter meetings with Johan Santana still on the roster. The Twins continue to negotiate with multiple teams, and I’m impressed that they’ve held firm on their demands.

Even if the teams agree to terms, agent Peter Greenberg would have to work out a contract extension before the deal would be final. The league usually allows a 72-hour window for such negotiations. Maybe they would need all 72 hours, maybe not. But the chances are growing that a deal won’t be finalized here.

BTW, I’ve chatted with some Devil Rays people here who speak highly of Delmon Young. Yes, he has shown some immaturity. They also say he’s a bright kid with massive talent who will be a force when the light comes on.

I’ve got about 45 minutes before the luncheon, so I’m going to sweep the lobby and see what’s up. I’ll check in later.

I learned tonight that, despite what Hank Steinbrenner says, the Twins have not been told by the Yankees that they have pulled out of the Johan Santana sweepstakes.

The Twins are expected to hold more late-night negotiation sessions tonight, and it doesn’t look like anything is close. If something develops, we’ll post it here. But I’m going to jinx myself and predict that nothing will go down tonight. So go to bed.

I already regret writing that….

I still find it hard to believe that there’s not at least one L.A. team getting involved in this…