In this week’s New York Magazine, Amy Odell writes a piece regarding the possibility of Alex Rodriguez reuniting with Joe Torre in Dodger blues.

At the New York Comedy Festival’s “Stand Up for Heroes” benefit November 7, the new Dodgers manager noted that, when it comes to A-Rod,

“you’ve got to understand there aren’t a lot of clubs that are going to be able to afford what he certainly—I don’t want to say ‘demands’—but, um, commands.”

“I think the Dodgers are certainly interested in him, absolutely,”

The clock strikes the witching hour and the deadline for teams to have exclusive negotiating rights has passed. The big deal last night was Jorge Posada returning to the Yankees with a 4 year, $52.4 million deal. Lets look at some of the players who are expected to reach the open market today.

• The Mets are not expected to make offers to Paul Lo Duca and Luis Castillo until they have a chance to look at other options such as Yorvit Torrealba, Jason Kendall, Orlando Hudson and David Eckstein.
• The Palm Beach Post reports that the Marlins are looking to upgrade over Miguel Olivo, and may join the Mets in kicking the tires on Lo Duca and Torrealba as well.
• The Red Sox were unable to reach an agreement with Mike Lowell before the deadline. They reportedly offered a three year deal. What happens with Lowell now will have implications on where Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera will land. The Dodgers, Angels, Yankees and Phillies have all expressed interest in Lowell.
• The Twins do not seem optimistic they can resign Torii Hunter. The Twins will have some tough decisions to make if Hunter leaves, including if they can afford to trade Johan Santana on top of losing Hunter and not have Twins fans marching in the streets looking for new GM Bill Smith’s head. The White Sox, Rangers, Nationals, Royals, Braves and Dodgers are believed to be interested in Hunter’s services.
• The most prized member of a weak free agent market for pitchers, Carlos Silva, is unlikely to receive an offer from the Twins and will likely be pursued by the Mets, Phillies, Angels, Royals, Tigers and Mariners.
• A number of relievers will hit the open market, barring some midnight madness. Scott Linebrink, Jeremy Affeldt, Ron Mahay, Eric Gagne and Francisco Cordero among the most notable names on the list.
• The Yankees have reportedly offered Mariano Rivera a three year, $40 million deal. At this time it appears that Rivera will be hitting the open market and is likely to be one of the most sought after free agents available. The Phillies were once thought to be interested in Rivera but with the addition of Brad Lidge that seems to be dead issue.

David Wright is the anti-A-Rod who happens to be pro A-Rod.

Only a player like David Wright, the premier player in New York city, now that Alex Rodriguez has become a free agent, would be willing to make the concessions he has with one thing in mind, winning a World Championship.

The Mets are lucky to have David Wright. He’s shown a willingness to be a vocal leader the Mets have not had in years. While Mike Piazza will always be a beloved Met, who carried the Mets before the Wright era began, he was never fully willing to embrace the leadership role.

Wright is unselfish and accountable and respected by veterans and rookies alike. Players like this do not grow on trees, especially ones with the rare combination of being able to talk the talk and walk the walk. Amid mountains of Alex Rodriguez talk, David Wright might be the most valuable third baseman in baseball after all.

When the Mets tanked in the final month of the season, many players ran for the hills, Wright stood in the clubhouse and accepted the slings and arrows that were thrown at him from the press, and assumed full responsibility even though his performance down the stretch was solid and not the decisive factor in the Mets collapse.

In 2007, at 24 years old, in his third major league season, Wright batted .325 with 30 home runs, 107 RBIs and 34 stolen bases and has not even reached his full potential yet. Wright has a better career batting average, OBP and OPS than Rodriguez. This is not to say that Wright is a better player than A-Rod, but to highlight how good David Wright really is. Peter Gammons wrote on his ESPN blog that he doesn’t even think Wright should have to move for Alex Rodriguez.

The Mets should take Wright’s advice and focus on pitching, which is where the real weakness with the Mets lies, not offense, which Rodriguez would provide in bunches. Looking back at the collapse, the bullpen and starting pitching sealed the Mets fate, not a lack of offense.

Wright told the Associated Press today that he has been told to be prepared to be the Mets third baseman. Whether or not the Mets decide to bring Alex Rodriguez into the fold, this Mets fan feels pretty lucky to have David Wright.

The baseball players’ union is claiming that commissioner Bud Selig and baseball owners are trying to hold down the price of Alex Rodriguez’s next contract, reports the Associated Press.

At the GM meetings this week, general managers spoke about their offseason goals, and many mentioned what players they were making available. The idea was suggested by Red Sox GM Theo Epstein and Marlin’s Larry Beinfest, who co-chaired the meetings. GMs said they found it to be useful but the players union is claiming collusion through this sharing of information about their free-agent plans.

The players union made this statement.

“Over the past few days, press reports coming out of the general managers’ meetings relating to the sharing of information between clubs as to their plans regarding players potentially raise serious questions concerning the fairness and integrity of the free-agent market,” the union said in a statement Thursday night after the four-day session ended. “Such questions are amplified by reports stating that the commissioner is attempting to influence the market for at least one player.”

A person familiar with the union’s statement said the player in question was Alex Rodriguez.

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com polled baseball executives and GMs regarding what will happen this winter.

Asked where Alex Rodriguez would be playing next year, 7.5 of them out of 15 said the Los Angeles Angels, next on the list was the Mets with 3 votes.

When asked where Barry Bonds would be playing next year, most executives believed it would be in Oakland. Nearly every baseball executive preferred Torii Hunter over Andruw Jones.

14 of 15 executives believe Johan Santana would be pitching for the Twins on Opening Day 2008.

Among the pool of free agent pitchers, Bartolo Colon, Josh Fogg, Livan Hernandez, Kyle Lohse, Carlos Silva or Jeff Weaver, four people chose Silva, four chose Lohse, three chose Hernandez and three chose Colon, while nobody selected Weaver or Fogg.

Buster Olney reports on ESPN.com from the GM meetings.

Olney sees the Johan Santana market heating up. Rival executives began for the first time to get a serious vibe that if the Twins don’t sign Santana, they will definitely put him on the market. The Twins will make a contract offer to Santana and if he refuses their offer they will look to trade him.

Olney heard of possible offer from the Dodgers for Miguel Cabrera that consisted of third baseman Andy LaRoche, minor league pitcher Clay Kershaw, and an outfielder, possibly Matt Kemp. The Chicago Sun Times believes the White Sox have enough young pitching to get Cabrera.

Two teams told Olney that their A-Rod bidding would need to begin with eight years and $32 million per season bringing it to $256 million, $4 million more than his old deal. Many GMs feel that A-Rod relatively fits into the market at $20 to $23 million, but as we have seen, the market for A-Rod defies reality.

The next best closer on the market after Mariano Rivera, Francisco Cordero, could net a deal worth $40 million.

The most coveted middle reliever on the market is Ron Mahay, who held hitters to a .189 average, and allowed just two homers in 106 at-bats.

Roy Oswalt is not available, however the Houston Chronicle reports that Brad Lidge is.

Ryan Zimmerman has a broken bone in his wrist.

Many more rumors, news and notes regarding the GM meetings can be found on Olney’s blog on ESPN.

Jon Heyman on SI.com reports that the Mets and Scott Boras met secretly to discuss the possibility of signing Alex Rodriguez.

In what he called a ‘clandestine’ meeting, Boras and the Mets agreed to monitor the situation, as interested teams cannot discuss terms of a deal until Monday.

With the Florida Marlins entertaining offers for third baseman Miguel Cabrera, Jon Heyman on SI.com lists some possible destinations. Heyman seems to think Cabrera is headed west, while Mike Francesa sees him headed northeast. Matthew Cerrone on MetsBlog quotes Francesa saying Omar Minaya is ‘in love’ with Cabrera.

Heyman belives if the Red Sox do not come to terms with Mike Lowell, they may look to Cabrera for some combination of Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz and/or Jon Lester. The Red Sox have said they will not bid on Alex Rodriguez.

The Dodgers have third-base prospect, Andy La Roche, Outfielders Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, young pitcher Chad Billinsgley and pitching prospects Clayton Kershaw and Jon Meloan to offer.

The Giants have three great young starters to offer in Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Noah Lowry as well as young reliever Jonathan Sanchez.

The Yankees have great young pitchers to deal such as Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy but seem unwilling to offer any of them to replace Alex Rodriguez.

The Daily News reports that the Mets and Angels appear to be the most likely destination for Alex Rodriguez at the price tag he is commanding. The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are a possibility but have not been as clear about their intentions of approaching the free agent third baseman.

Yahoo Sports lists a number of players the Yankees may consider to replace Alex Rodriguez at third base.

Mike Lowell, Adrian Beltre, and Miguel Cabrera are among those mentioned. Scott Rolen is listed as a dark horse candidate, since he’s been plauged by injuries. The $36 million owed to him through 2010 would likely cost the Yankees little in the form of a trade, as the Cardinals would like to simply have the Yankees pick up most of his contract.

AOL Fanhouse has a great feature where you get to choose the fate of Alex Rodriguez through the classic “Choose Your Own Adventure” style narrative.

Very clever. I don’t want to ruin it for you, so go ahead and choose for yourself. 

On SI.com, Jon Heyman handicaps the race to acquire free agent Alex Rodriguez. He pins the Mets at 10 to 1 odds and makes this interesting comment.

“A-Rod has wanted to be a Met forever (his favorite player growing up was Keith Hernandez)”

Heyman gives the Anaheim Angels the bets odds at 4 to 1.

Image courtesy of ImKeithHernandez.com

Ken Davidoff has an exclusive on his blog for Newsday regarding an offer being made to Alex Rodriguez by the clever PR director of the Toledo Mud Hens, sparked by this quote by Hank Steinbrenner :

“Does he want to go into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee,” Steinbrenner said, “or a Toledo Mud Hen?”