The Winter Meetings End With A Whimper And Other MLBullets

The 2012 Winter Meetings are over, and teams left Nashville not knowing where any of the biggest prizes - Zack Greinke, Josh Hamilton, Justin Upton, Michael Bourn, Anibal Sanchez, among them - were going. It was one of the quietest Winter Meetings in recent memory.

• Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik pretty much summed up a big part of why we saw so little activity at the Meetings this year: "There can be a domino effect. I think when clubs are focusing on a certain position, a certain need, there's options out there. And once one option goes away, then that changes the landscape of what a club would want to do. Everybody's got their ducks lined up in a row, and it's just a matter of how things fall. And there's timing involved." Because that first domino never fell, neither did any of the others.
• Speaking of those dominos, the Dodgers are considering pulling out the Zack Greinke sweepstakes - where they are believed to be the leading suitor, together with the Dodgers - if the process drags on much longer.
• The Phillies picked up outfielder Ben Revere from the Twins yesterday for pitcher Vance Worley and pitching prospect Trevor May. Seems like a pretty good haul for Revere. I reckon that, with escalating payroll commitments for aging players, and an urgency to keep trying to win in the next three years, the Phillies put a premium on a big league center fielder whom they could control for a while cheaply. Revere's numbers don't knock your socks off, but his defense is excellent and he's cheap as all get out. Couple that with Worley's elbow bone spurs surgery, and it's a little more understandable.
• Grant Brisbee examines the difficult choices that have faced the Rangers in recent years - whether to extend Josh Hamilton or Mike Napoli, most notably - and how those choices have fared. At the same time, if the Rangers don't bring back Hamilton next year, they stand to potentially have a considerably worse offense. The whole discussion serves as a backdrop to the idea of "good" contracts and "bad" contracts. Maybe it isn't that simple.
• The lawsuit challenging, among other things, MLB's draconian black-out restrictions has been allowed to proceed.
• Jeff Sullivan sells you on Joe Blanton as much better than he looked last year.
• The ongoing battle for dollars between Scott Boras, and his usually-reliable landing place - the Yankees. With the Bombers looking to get under the luxury tax cap of $189 million for 2014, they are sticking to one-year deals for 2013, and it invariably frustrates the super agent.

Brett Taylor is the Lead Writer at Bleacher Nation, and a Contributor here at Bleed Cubbie Blue.