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That is all from me for now. Thank you for following along this morning, and make sure to check out VAVEL USA for all of your MLB Winter Meetings needs.

It appears that we have hit a dead period in the rumor mill. It has been an interesting Winter Meetings so far, with plenty of intrigue surely still to come.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe thinks that talks between Red Sox and Phillies about Hamels "should soon intensify."

Maybe Scherzer will sign sooner than expected. He is obviously a very intriguing pitcher, but the asking price is sky high. Tigers have appeared to be the favorites throughout.

Jon Heyman is reporting that two owners (teams unidentified) flew to San Diego to meet with Scott Boras about Max Scherzer.

Francisco "KRod" Rodriguez is an intriguing bullpen option available. He had a 3.04 ERA in 69 appearances with the Milwaukee Brewers last season. Interesting low-risk bullpen flyer.

A return to San Francisco seems possible for the 33-year-old right hander. Marlins have showed some interest.

News on the Jake Peavy front has been pretty quiet.

Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that the St. Louis Cardinals are showing interest in former Brewers Rickie Weeks and Mark Reynolds.

Sullivan suggests offering Ervin Santana a beefed up one-year deal, even though the RHP is looking for a five-year contract.

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune is reporting that a "top Cubs' executive" told him the team was looking for one more starting pitcher.

Max Scherzer is reportedly seeking a $200 million contract. Probably not going to happen, but agent Scott Boras will wait it out until they get as close as possible.

Giants looking to pull off deal for Justin Upton and Chris Johnson from the Braves according to Bob Nightengale. Would cost a lot, Braves not sure if Giants have what it takes.

Cubs have shown interest in outfielder Jonny Gomes for a while now. Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles are two others who have interest.

LHP Brett Anderson feels like an obvious fit for the Twins, and they have been connected to him earlier in the off-season.

Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 (@DarrenWolfson) hears that they have talked with Mets about Gee, and have had internal discussions about costless agent RHP Kyle Kendrick.

Minnesota Twins appear to be looking for some starting pitching.

Speaking of the Rangers, they are going to put NFL quarterback Russell Wilson on their Triple-A roster to protect him from the Rule Five Draft. Not sure why, because Wilson is not leaving the NFL anytime soon. You would think that the Rangers' front office would be worried about other things right now.

Yankees and Giants appear to be the favorites for McCarthy, who is one of the most interesting mid-tier arms on the market. Rangers and Mariners have showed interest along the way as well.

Brandon McCarthy seems to be the Yankees' top priority right now.

Really weird seeing how quiet the Yankees are. Not that it was unexpected, but we are so used to seeing them spend huge, just odd.

Cubs gave Lester a full no trade clause according to Jayson Stark (@jaysonst).

A platoon behind the plate of Montero and Castillo is very interesting, and could be extremely productive.

On Tuesday, the team acquired catcher Miguel Montero, and Theo Epstein stated after that trade that they have no intentions in trading incumbent Welington Castillo. I do not think they go serious after Ross unless they get blown away with an offer for Castillo, which is very unlikely.

Costless agent catcher David Ross is a name that keeps being mentioned with the Cubs. He was Lester's personal catcher in Boston.

Jesse Rogers of ESPN just said that he feels the Cubs' big moves are probably over. Does not see a Matt Kemp like trade.

Latest from Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (@JonHeymanCBS): gee is most likely mets pitcher to go in trade, followed by niese, colon. rangers not enamored. royals, twins mentioned tho

A trade seems unlikely, but Topkin seems to suggest that Myers could be had for a fair price. Rays will not sell low.

Myers, the 2013 Rookie of the Year, had a down 2014 season.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times is reporting that the Rays are getting calls on young outfielder Wil Myers. Read about it here.

Pat Neshek is almost unhittable against right handed hitters. Seems to be a very nice signing for the Astros.

From Mark Simon of ESPN (@msimonESPN):

Beane is clearly looking to rebuild his minor league system after a couple of major "go for it" trades that backfired in July. This is how a team like Oakland has to operate. Trust Beane, he is the best at making something out of nothing.

Billy Beane has gotten a lot of ridicule this off-season. Trading Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss and now Jeff Samardzija have many questioning the Oakland GM.

Neshek's deal with the Astros is two years for $12.5 million.

Cafardo suggests that the Red Sox could have signed Lester to a Homer Bailey-like $105 million deal before last season. "The market took off on them. They miscalculated."

Interesting article from Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo: "How the Red Sox lost Jon Lester to the Cubs"

Miami Marlins also rumored to be interested in Diamondbacks' Wade Miley.

Cubs could take a chance on Masterson or maybe Brett Anderson to add to rotation, but they already have a stock of nice fifth starter options led by Travis Wood and Tsuyoshi Wada. Think an outfielder is the top priority for Chicago now. Jonny Gomes has been rumored many times and makes some sense off of the bench.

Top four of Lester, Jake Arrieta, Hammel and Kyle Hendricks is very solid for Cubs. Arrieta was incredible last season, but easily best year of career. Hendricks was also fantastic, but he is far from a proven commodity.

From Phil Rogers on Tuesday night: Why do Cubs see Lester as instant hope? Top 4 starters (including Lester, Arrieta, Hammel & Hendricks) 43-29, 2.76 ERA in 99 starts in '14.

Somewhat slow morning on the rumor front. Expect things to pick up soon.

Lester is getting a $20 million signing bonus from the Cubs.

The Detroit Tigers are probably the favorites to bring back Scherzer, but there will obviously be a ton of teams interested. Red Sox could make sense if they miss out on other targets. Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees are others to look for Scherzer.

With Lester signed, Max Scherzer is without a doubt the top costless agent starting pitcher available, but rumors about him have been few and far between. Scherzer is not expected to sign anytime soon, with many thinking he could wait it out until Spring Training.

Whispers of the Tampa Bay Rays making star third baseman Evan Longoria available have been surfacing. Very unlikely a deal happens, but interesting nonetheless. Rays would demand a huge haul of young and talented players.

The injuries do represent some risk, but the Pirates certainly got some nice value in this deal.

Liriano has struggled with injuries throughout his career, but his 2014 season was fantastic. 3.38 ERA, 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings.

The best value of the off-season so far appears to be Francisco Liriano's three year, $39 million contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Jon Lester with a classy goodbye to Boston fans on Twitter @JLester 31: To Red Sox Nation, I understand the disappointment. Boston will always have a big place in my heart and we'll always consider y'all family!

Miley to Boston does make sense, but it does not have the type of impact that they were looking for with a Lester, Hamels or even Shields. Still think they will be heavily involved with Hamels.

Latest from Ken Rosenthal: Red Sox not currently close on Phillies’ Hamels, sources say. Could trade for Miley and one of five-plus pitchers. Shields also FA option.

The Cincinatti Reds are shopping stud pitchers Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman. It would surely take a pretty penny to land one, let along both pitchers, but the Reds have reportedly received a ton of interest.

VAVEL's Tyler Milliken with an in depth look at Masterson.

With Lester now signed, RHP Justin Masterson could find a new home very soon. The Red Sox and Rangers both reportedly have one year offers out to Masterson, but there are a ton of teams interested in him as a bounce back candidate.

Neshek to Houston is official, per Jon Heyman.

Nightengale is now reporting that the Astros are about to finalize a deal with another bullpen arm, RHP Pat Neshek who had a 1.87 ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals last season.

Bob Nightengale is reporting that the Diamondbacks are listening to offers for LHP Wade Miley in order to cut payroll.

Jon Heyman of CBSSports is reporting that the Blue Jays, Giants, Red Sox, Rockies, Cubs and White Sox were all also in on Gregerson. Will be interesting to see if these teams still look to add to the bullpen, or if they just felt like Gregerson was a great fit.

Gregerson is a very nice addition for the Astros, but expect them to continue to try and add to their bullpen.

The Astros have been looking to add to their bullpen all off-season, being heavily involved in Robertson who went to the White Sox, and Andrew Miller who signed with the New York Yankees.

We have the first costless agent signing of Wednesday morning. Luke Gregerson has signed a three-year, $18.5 million deal with the Houston Astros.

The additions of Samardzija and Robertson are exciting for the White Sox who have a nice core of players to build around led by LHP Chris Sale and slugger Jose Abreu.

The White Sox made most of their noise on Monday as they acquired starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija in a trade with the Oakland Athletics, while also signing closer David Robertson to a four-year deal worth $46 million.

The Cubs have arguably been the most active team at the Winter Meetings thus far. Their biggest competition is their crosstown rivals, the Chicago White Sox.

Fortunately for the Cubs, there are plenty of outfielders seemingly available in trade right now. Both the Red Sox and Dodgers are overloaded in the outfield. Yoesnis Cespedes is being made readily available and would make sense for the Cubs at the right price, as would Matt Kemp. The Cubs would also appear to be a nice fit for Atlanta’s Justin Upton. Mostly just spitballing here, but there are certainly intriguing options if the Cubs want to attack the trade market for an outfielder.

In addition to Lester, the Cubs have also signed RHP Jason Hammel to a two-year contract and traded for catcher Miguel Montero at the meetings. There have been reports surfacing that the team is still on the search for a big bat. An outfielder would make the most sense, and Melky Cabrera is probably the best costless agent option, so the trade route may be their best bet.

That being said, Hamels is their most valuable piece, and the Phillies are looking for a huge return on him. The Red Sox have a very impressive collection of young talent, so they could easily match the Phillies’ large asking price for Hamels. Whether they are willing to do so or not remains to be seen, but it is a rumor that refuses to go away.

Boston has been the team most connected to Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels throughout those trade rumors. He has always felt like a bit of a Lester fallback option for them. The Phillies seem to know that they are unlikely to be competitive any time soon, and appear willing to be legitimate sellers.

The Red Sox, for example, now need to look in another direction for pitching. James Shields is an attractive option who would make sense for the team. Shields is a 33-year-old costless agent who is expected to get a four-year contract.

Now that Lester has signed, expect more dominoes to fall. Many teams were waiting to see how the Lester sweepstakes shook out before making their moves for pitching.

Familiarity with Cubs’ front office executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer appeared to play a key role in the negotiations. Sure, the Cubs offered more money than the Red Sox, but it appeared that the Giants and maybe even Dodgers were willing to pony up the big bucks as well. Lester seemed intent on either going back to a familiar place (Boston) or at least with some familiar faces (Chicago).

A lot of people in the industry expected Lester to return to Boston, but the Red Sox reportedly refused to offer more than $135 million on a six-year deal.

The left-handed starting pitcher was one or the most sought after costless agents on the market, and he choose the Cubs over a handful of teams. Heading in to Tuesday, it appeared that Lester would sign with the Cubs, San Francisco Giants or Boston Red Sox. Late into the evening, reports surfaced that Lester had told the Giants they were out and it was down to Chicago and Boston.

The biggest fish that was excepted to sign at the Winter Meetings, did so late on Tuesday night (or early Wednesday morning depending on your time zone) when Jon Lester signed a six-year contract with the Chicago Cubs worth $155 million.

Hello and welcome to VAVEL USA’s LIVE coverage of the 2014 MLB Winter Meetings. My name is Dan Schmelzer, and I will be here with you for the next few hours to bring you any of the latest chatter, rumors or breaking news that will happen at the meetings.

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About the author
Dan Schmelzer
Dan is a 25-year-old writer who specializes in Chicago Cubs content. Dan also writes about the Iowa Hawkeyes, Fantasy Football, and covers the NFL.