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MLB Winter Meetings, Day 4: News, notes and rumors
Dexter Fowler's trade to the St. Louis Cardinals was the big move on Thursday at the Winter Meetings. Rob Tringali/SportsChrome/Getty Images

MLB Winter Meetings, Day 4: News, notes and rumors

Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings came to close on Thursday, and of the five days the event took place, it was the quietest of all. A couple of major deals came down to close out the day, but by and large the event concluded with rumors continuing to brew and some major trade chips still potentially moving on to new homes.

Here is a look at how things ended up on the final day of baseball’s biggest winter event, and what could still be set to come in its wake.

News & Notes

The Rule 5 Draft kicked things off on Thursday, with 16 teams choosing to add to select a player to their 40 man roster. This player will have to stay on the team’s 25 man roster for the full season, or else he will be returned to his former club. The Minnesota Twins selected Miguel Diaz of the Milwaukee Brewers with the first pick and then immediately traded him to San Diego for a player to be named later or cash. 

Japanese pitcher Shohei Otani, who had been rumored to potentially attempt to make the leap to the Major Leagues this year, will instead look to make the move following 2017. The updated rules on international spending clouded the road to for Otani to come over immediately however, as players under 25 years old are now subject to a $5 million spending limit per year, for players with less than five years of professional experience. This applies to the 22-year old Otani in two ways, as he will not be 25 until after the 2019 season. He could opt to take the lesser deal to come over sooner, as he is a free agent after this season in the Japanese Pacific League.

Signings & Deals

The sole major deal that is pending completion to come from Thursday’s meetings is one that was long rumored between the St. Louis Cardinals and Dexter Fowler. Per Frank Cusumano of KSDK news in St. Louis, Fowler arrived in St. Louis last night for a physical and per the results of it this morning, the deal will be announced. It is said to be in the range of between $80 and $90 million over the span of five years.

What’s still on the stove?

The decision by Kenley Jansen on where he will spend the next half decade or so was still pending as the meetings came to a close. It is still believed that he has an offer in the range of $80 million from the Miami Marlins, and the decision could be being made for him soon. The other primary suitor for his services, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are said to be uninterested in committing high dollars to the closer role currently, so unless a third party (such as the Washington Nationals) enter the fray late, Jansen to Miami could just be a matter of time.

Edwin Encarnacion entered the meetings as the biggest name on the everyday player market and left in the same condition. Encarnacion still did come to terms with any team on Thursday, although there are a number of teams still interested, but are likely awaiting his demands to come down to a more comfortable range.

After all of the rumored imminence of an Andrew McCutchen trade entering the Winter Meetings, the Pirates franchise player is appearing more and more that he will stay put in Pittsburgh for now. The Nationals were unable to agree to terms on a McCutchen move, with the Nats ultimately moving on to acquire Adam Eaton instead. McCutchen could still be on the eventually, but perhaps closer to the trade deadline in-season.

It will be another busy holiday season – and potentially into January – on the MLB hot stove, as in addition to Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Mark Trumbo, Justin Turner, Mike Napoli and Matt Wieters remain on the open market, among others. The good news is that many teams have now been able to gauge where things are after the initial flurry of deals is completed, and now some perhaps more surprising players could enter the mix for some of the remaining top names on the market.

More must-reads:

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