NASHVILLE, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The annual gathering of Major League Baseball executives kicked off Friday in Nashville, Tn.
The meetings are being held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. They likely will center on future feature labor certainty, but they are being held with the new luxury tax on team payrolls in place.
After a relatively slow six weeks, general managers are being pressed into action with most pointing to the next three or four days as a time to get deals done.
On the player front, this offseason has seen the market crawl, with only a few big names, Jim Thome and Tom Glavine, getting deals worked out. Many of the 30 teams here will discuss free agents ranging from multiple Cy Young Award winners like Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux to offensive threats like Cliff Floyd and Jeff Kent.
However, the number of teams that can spend at will could be counted on one hand and much of the attention here figures to revolve around teams looking to swap salary headaches.
This offseason already has seen a couple of deals based primarily on salary and, given the current economic climate in the game, that trend figures to carry over right up to spring training. With so many teams looking to slash payroll, getting under a proposed salary ceiling, and avoiding the luxury tax, it has become a buyers' market.
One of teams that has made no secret of their direction are the Montreal Expos. Owned and operated by Major League Baseball, Montreal could slash its payroll by up to $10 million.
To do that, the Expos may have to shop one of their immensely talented young offensive players or pitching aces Bartolo Colon or Javier Vazquez. Other teams possibly looking to rid themselves of high-priced players include Colorado, Boston and the New York Yankees.
New York, which made the big splash at last year's meetings with the signing of superstar Jason Giambi, has been relatively quiet this offseason but has some issues to address before the start of spring training.
Many teams that figure they are one or two players away, and will be counting on their general managers to be able to trade for talent while not adding to payroll. That has sparked a number of blockbuster rumors and names like Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr., Colorado's Larry Walker, Toronto's Carlos Delgado and Kansas City's Mike Sweeney have been bandied about.
The meetings also will serve as a clearing house for many of the unsigned free agents, who have the opportunity to shop their services to all 30 teams at one venue. Players like Ugueth Urbina, Edgardo Alfonzo, Omar Daal and Paul Byrd will have the chance to finalize offers and decisions.
The meetings also serve as the host for the Rule 5 draft, which takes place Monday. Major League Baseball also uses the meetings to discuss rules initiatives and minor league matters.
