While your turkey is cooking in the oven, here’s whats brewing on the Hot Stove…

• Now that Torii Hunter is off the market, the Rangers and White Sox will likely turn to Aaron Rowand. His price just got a bit higher.
• The Denver Post reports that the Rockies are close to a deal with reliever Matt Herges, and have resumed talks with Yorvit Torrealba. Kaz Matsui is expected to sign with the Cubs or Astros next week.
• The Angels have a glut of outfielders now with the addition of Torii Hunter and may use Garret Anderson, Juan Rivera, Reggie Willits, and Gary Matthews Jr. and could use one or more in a package to acquire Miguel Cabrera or Miguel Tejada.
• The Angels acquisition of Hunter puts the A’s one step closer to a fire sale, which could include Dan Haren.
• MLB.com reports that the Nationals may have interest in Elijah Dukes.

Considering the landscape of this free agent market, this year could be the biggest off-season of trades in quite some time.

Johan Santana, Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, Scott Rolen, and Miguel Tejada are among those who could be seeing a change in scenery this winter.

In terms of Santana, Jayson Stark on ESPN writes that the Mets might be the team most willing to give up the prospects needed to get him.

One NL executive says: Watch out for the Mets, given the pressure on GM Omar Minaya to win now.

“Omar seems determined to make a huge splash,” the exec says. “And I think that’s the guy they’ve had earmarked all along.”

The Dodgers, Angels, Yankees, and Mets would appear to be the top teams in the running for Santana.

The Yankees don’t appear willing to deal Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, or Phillip Hughes, which would likely put they out of the running for Santana.

The Dodgers would need to make a choice on who to use their prospects on, Cabrera or Santana. Buster Olney on ESPN cites a NL source who said that the Dodgers and Marlins are ‘pretty far apart’ on Cabrera. Olney writes that ‘there is growing expectation around the game is that the Angels will land Cabrera’.

However Rosenthal believes the Angels no longer are the front-runners for Cabrera.

Rosenthal cites major-league sources who say, if the Dodgers are willing to part with outfielder Matt Kemp along with third baseman Andy LaRoche and Class AA left-hander Clayton Kershaw, they would likely be able to land the Marlins All-Star third baseman.

If the Dodgers fail to land Cabrera, they are rumored to have interest in Scott Rolen as well.

Jayson Stark believes it will take two young players to get Dontrelle Willis. The Mets, Mariners and Diamondbacks are believed to have interest.

The Orioles want to get rid of the $26 million left on Miguel Tejada’s contract which does not leave many suitors. The Dodgers and Angels may use Tejada as plan B if they lose out on Cabrera. The O’s are also rumored to be shopping Erik Bedard.

The Reds may make Ryan Freel or Scott Hamilton available due to the emergence of minor league player of the year Jay Bruce.

The Pirates could offer 26-year old Ian Snell who has more quality starts (22) than Santana or Roy Oswalt and a better strikeout rate (7.66 per 9 innings) than Carlos Zambrano or Ben Sheets.

The Phillies are looking at Randy Wolf, Matt Clement, Kris Benson, Mike Wood, and Japanese free agent Hiroki Kuroda.

Here’s a rundown of Hot Stove news this afternoon…

According to a Newsday.com article, Yorvit Torrealba will not be wearing orange and blue next season. David Lennon and Ken Davidoff report :

“The two sides already had agreed on a three-year contract worth $14.4-million and it appeared that the only remaining holdup to an official announcement was a physical. But a person familiar with the situation said Saturday that the Torrealba deal was dead and the team confirmed it.”

Mets spokesman Jay Horowitz did confirmed the story, stating “The Mets did not reach an agreement with Yorvit Torrealba, and there are no current negotiations.” Torrealba’s agent had no comment.

Interesting. Lo Duca is going to be able to rob the Mets blind now, because I can’t really see any other option but him.

Thanks to Rob Harding for the tipoff!

I’m getting the sense from some people in the blogosphere that they have no patience.

Look, I will criticize Omar if after the Winter Meetings the team is still in flux, but for christsakes people, its November 16th.

Settle down everyone, its a long offseason and the stove is barely warm.

This has been a public service announcement from your friends at The Foot.

Here’s whats brewing on the Hot Stove this Thursday morning…

• Yorvit Torrealba’s agent told the Denver Post that he expects his client to make a decision regarding the Mets contract offer today. Tracy Ringolsby in the Rocky Mountain News reports that the Mets have offered Torrealba a two-year deal worth $9 million. The Denver Post is reporting it to be a three-year, $15 million deal.
• Omar Minaya tells Ben Shpigel of the New York Times he has an idea of how much money it will take to sign his desired free-agent targets and knows which prospects and how many he would have to surrender to upgrade the Mets pitching staff.“Ideally, you’d always like a guy with 200-plus innings, you know what I’m saying?” Minaya said. “If for whatever reason Glavine does not come back, we have to look for a starting pitcher.”
• Speaking of Tom Glavine, Mets.com reports that Tom is getting some advice on his future from the most famous Tom in Mets history, Mr. Tom Seaver.
• Dan Graziano at the Star Ledger reports that the Yankees plan on continuing to pursue Mike Lowell even if they re-sign Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees plan on putting Lowell at first base.
• Jon Heyman on SI.com reports that the Yankees and Rodriguez are discussing a 10 year, $280 million contract.
• Buster Olney said on ESPN last night that he believes that Alex Rodriguez is taking a deeply discounted offer from the Yankees, 10-years for $220 million. I’ll believe this when I see it.
• The San Diego Union Tribune reports that the Padres expect Geoff Blum to sign with the Astros, and will likely let Milton Bradley walk as well. The Padres are looking at Geoff Jenkins and Andruw Jones as their top free agent targets.
• The St Louis Post Dispatch reports that Scott Rolen seems all but gone from St. Louis. The third baseman was reportedly unhappy with the letter he received from Tony La Russa that was an attempt to reconcile with Rolen.
• The St Louis Post Dispatch also reports that the Cardinals have interest in Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse.
• 7Sports, a local Boston news television station, is reporting that the Braves, Angels, Cardinals and Yankees have all offered Mike Lowell four-year contracts worth between $55 million and $60 million.

Mets Today has come up with a great idea, fed up with false ‘buzz’ propogated by mainstream media sources.

In their section, appropriately called Buzz Baloney, they are compiling a list of ‘buzz’ items posted to see which ones turned out to be true and which ones were, well, baloney.

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.

Tonight, at 6:30 pm, and again at 11 pm, SNY will air The Mets Hot Stove Report hosted by Kevin Burkhardt and

featuring Ron Darling, as well as guests David Wright and Jeff Wilpon.

Phil Mushnick reported today in The New York Post that Burkhardt has signed a new, improved, all-year deal with SNY.

Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog interviewed Darling this afternoon. You can listen to the interview on The MetsBlog Podcast.

Here’s a run down of Hot Stove news this Monday morning…

• Jeff Kent tells Larry King he’s not retiring and plans on returning to the Dodgers. [ MLB.com ]
• Yankees set to release Carl Pavano, who apparently is a Major League pitcher. [ New York Post ]
• The Yankees are set to offer Jorge Posada a three year $40 million contract today. [ New York Post ]
• Jill Martin of MSG’s Game On blog speaks with Posada at last night’s Knicks game regarding where he plans to play next season, saying its between the Mets and Yankees and he should make a decision this week :

• Ken Rosenthal thinks you can forget about the Mets being able to trade for Johan Santana, but thinks its possible the Twins could put Joe Nathan on the block as well. [ Fox Sports ]
• The Phillies are prepared to let Aaron Rowand walk. [ Philadelphia Inquirer ]

Buster Olney on his ESPN.com blog hears that the Cardinals are shopping Scott Rolen and the Twins are interested.

Rolen is owed $33 million over the next three years.

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.

Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post indicates that an industry source has said that the Dodgers are making a big push for 3B Miguel Cabrera. There is also speculation that the Dodgers could have interest in setting up a blockbuster deal that would also include LHP Dontrelle Willis.

The Marlins are listening to trade offers for Willis, however, they aren’t likely to trade him as much as they are Cabrera.