NASHVILLE - The Orioles arrived at the Winter Meetings yesterday still trying to gauge the market for first baseman Chris Davis. Does it exist? If so, let's hear about the teams and the potential dollars. Don't hold back. I'm not talking about the inevitable mystery team, which won't surface until much later if Davis remains unsigned. Are the Cardinals still one of the favorites to sign him? ESPN.com suggested that their reported interest was overblown. Are the Astros willing to spend big...

NASHVILLE - Jonathan Papelbon's stay in Washington just gets messier for the Nationals by the minute. The veteran closer has reportedly filed a grievance against the Nats for withholding his salary during a team-imposed four-game suspension at the end of the 2015 season. Rob Bradford of WEEI.com in Boston reported the story Sunday night, citing multiple major league sources. The suspension resulted from Papelbon's dugout brawl with Bryce Harper on Sept. 28, which escalated to the reliever...

NASHVILLE - Does stirring up the industry two straight years on the day before the official start of the Winter Meetings actually constitute a streak? Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette isn't being courted by the Blue Jays this year, but he has to address the confusion over an apparent agreement with reliever Darren O'Day on a four-year, $31 million contract. ESPN.com's Buster Olney is now reporting that the final details in O'Day's talks with the Orioles center on...

NASHVILLE - It would seem very likely that the Orioles' payroll in 2016 will exceed the 2015 mark, which was in the $118-120 million range. While executive vice president Dan Duquette certainly isn't ready to provide any numbers or guarantee the payroll will go up, he indicated it would during a one-on-one video interview tonight with MASNsports.com at the Winter Meetings. "Well, I think we have some flexibility in the payroll and we have a good core of our team," Duquette said....

NASHVILLE - A few days ago, the projected outlook for the reconstruction of the Nationals bullpen appeared optimistic. Many believed Washington was in the driver's seat to land right-hander Darren O'Day, considered the best free agent reliever on the market after his All-Star season with the Orioles. The next step was expected to be a blockbuster deal to acquire coveted Reds closer Aroldis Chapman, solving the Jonathan Papelbon debacle. Now, barely a few hours into baseball's Winter...

NASHVILLE - Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette didn't wait for the inevitable questions about Darren O'Day. Before anyone from the media could chime in while gathering in his suite at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, he stated that "there's more work to do" regarding an agreement with the free agent reliever. Duquette said there's no "news item" today related to O'Day and he wouldn't provide a timetable for finalizing an agreement despite earlier...

NASHVILLE - Season's greetings from the Winter Meetings! I hope you're all as excited as I am for the start of this year's baseball Winter Meetings, as we are bringing everything to you live from the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. The MASNsports.com crew is off to a good start to the week, as our flight from Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport landed in Music City about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. We were able to grab lunch and settle into the...

NASHVILLE - Greetings from Music City! The MASNsports.com Web team arrived to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center this afternoon, ready (or not) for a week of rumors, press conferences and baseball buzz. Of course, it wouldn't be the Winter Meetings without some early news. Before boarding our flight, we learned that Darren O'Day had reportedly agreed to a four-year deal with the Orioles. However, by the time we touched down in Nashville and checked into our hotel, O'Day had...

NASHVILLE - Baseball's Winter Meetings return to Nashville, the place where Kevin Brown made contract history in December 1998, signing a seven-year, $105 million contract to pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The news of Brown's contract, which beat the previous record of the Mets' seven-year deal worth $91 million for Mike Piazza a few months earlier, stunned the meetings and the general thought was that the industry was going broke. Brown also got 12 airline trips a year for his family to...

NASHVILLE - If the Nationals are willing to deal Stephen Strasburg - and all indications are that they are at least open to discussions, with the right-hander one season away from free agency - keep an eye on the Rangers as a possible trade partner. Texas had interest in Strasburg last offseason, though the Nationals were content to see how strong their rotation could be with the eventual addition of righty Max Scherzer via free agency. The teams talked extensively at the Winter Meetings in San...