The winter meetings started yesterday and John Gibbons and AA met the media to answer some questions.

Elsewhere the Red Sox added Mike Napoli.  Angel Pagan stayed with the Giants.  Rafael Soriano is rumoured to be close to signing with the Rangers.  And A-Rod will have hip surgery in January and will miss four to six months.

The 2013 Hall of Fame ballot has been released, and it's a big one. There are 37 names this time around, ten more than last year. There are 13 players returning from last year and 24 who will be on the ballot for the first time. And some rather notorious names are among them.

The Toronto branch of the BBWAA held a meeting today and AA and Paul Besston joined the writers to answer questions. Gregor Chisholm at MLB.Com has posted a full transcript at his blog. AA discussed the roster in light of the winter meetings next week.

We did this a few years back, and it seemed like an obvious idea to put it up again...

It's still only November, but recent events have us already thinking about 2013, right?

The Buffalo Bisons have introduced a new logo for 2013 to mark its brand new affiliation with the Blue Jays.

The Bisons have ditched its New York Mets-inspired colors and logo for a red and blue look.

Or so Bob Elliot believes.

Here comes $165,000,000 worth of fish!

Commissioner Bud says that this deal "represents the exercise of plausible baseball judgment on the part of both Clubs, does not violate any express rule of Major League Baseball," such as public exhibition or unauthorized reproduction. Wait, are there other express rules?

It's been a while since the last Boxcast episode, but it's a while since anything was particularly exciting 'round here. Ben Nicholson-Smith of MLBTR dropped by and we talked about the recent moves, the AL East as it stands, and what it's like to cover the GM Meetings as an internet journalist.

Subscribe here. Listen here.

A couple of years ago I came out of my bunker, but I saw my shadow.

The Blue Jays have agreed to sign Melky Cabrera to a two year $16M deal according to ESPN.  Cabrera is coming off two very good seasons and a 50 game drug suspension.  The key question is...what kind of Melky are the Jays getting?

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting the Blue Jays have completed a mega-deal with the Miami Marlins.  Right-hander Josh Johnson, lefty Mark Buehrle and shortstop Jose Reyes are heading to Toronto.  Going the other way are righty Henderson Alvarez, shortstops Yunel Escobar and Adeiny Hechavarria and minor league lefty Justin Nicolino, one of the "Big Three" pitching prospects in the minor league system.



Update:  There is more to the deal.  Former Jays catcher John Buck and infielder Emilio Bonifacio are coming to Toronto.  Jays pitching prospect Marcus Stroman says minor league outfielder Jake Marisnick is also heading to the Fish. 



Update 2: Catcher Jeff Mathis and minor league pitcher Anthony DeSclafani are also Marlins.

The semi-official award season kicked off Monday with the naming of the two rookies of the year. The timing of the award announcements has changed this season. Previously awards were announced over a two week period at 2pm. This year the Baseball Writers Association has linked with the MLB Network to have an award show at 6pm. The award winners for both leagues are announced on the same day.

Maicer Izturis. AA signed him today to a 3 year deal plus an option year (he does love having options) for $3 million per year.

Baseball America published their top ten prospects today and it looks a lot like the Batters Box top 10.  In addition the BA guys did an AL East podcast yesterday that had some Blue Jay related discussion.

 

There will also be a subscriber chat at 2pm today.  We will add some commentary here.