Giancarlo Stanton is meeting with team representatives

No one would deny that, to this point, the offseason has been a complete drag. For roughly the entire first month there were virtually no moves after Justin Upton re-upped with the Angels immediately following the conclusion of the World Series. Now, with December underway, things are finally starting to heat up. Moves are coming in now, though nothing major has taken place just yet. That's coming too, though, with Shohei Ohtani officially being posted on Friday. Additionally, the seemingly never-ending Giancarlo Stanton saga could be ending in the near-future. At least, things are progressing in the right direction. On Friday, the slugger's representatives reportedly met with both the Giants and the Cardinals.

First, late Thursday night it came out that the NL MVP was meeting with representatives from San Francisco. The Giants have, based on reports, been the most aggressive in these trade talks. They've shown a willingness to take on the entire massive contract and they've sent over hard offers ready to make things work. The Cardinals have been similarly aggressive, though at this point we don't know how much of the contract St. Louis would be willing to take on. We do know, however, that they had plans to meet with Stanton's representatives on Friday.

All of this is happening because teams are aware that it is just as valuable, if not moreso, to make Stanton happy as it is to make Miami happy with the trade offer. Stanton has a high-profile no-trade clause and he hasn't been afraid to use it, even under the ridiculous threat from his own current ownership group. According to reports, the slugger would ideally like to wear a Dodgers uniform next year, but to this point Los Angeles hasn't shown public interest. Stanton is well within his rights to wait for the Dodgers to make a declaritive statement one way or the other (publicly or privately), but he's smart to at least hear out what San Francisco and St. Louis have to say. If he does give one or both of them his blessing, this whole saga could be over in short oder.

• The Marlins are under new ownership....but they've somehow just gotten worse.
• In a rehearsal for his annual rooftop tree lighting, Brian Cashman took the opportunity to make a quick pitch to Shohei Ohtani from high above.
• The Yankees have finally decided on their next manager, choosing their former third baseman Aaron Boone for the job.

• We also had a trade Friday night with Toronto acquiring 2016 breakout Aledmys Diaz from the Cardinals.
• Earlier in the day on Friday, the White Sox made a free agent signing, bringing in veteran catcher Welington Castillo.
• Everyone wants Shohei Ohtani, and while this hiring by the Twins is probably unrelated, let's speculate wildly.
• Could we be seeing a reunion between Jay Bruce and the Mets?
• If the Cubs do end up in a position where they have to trade one of their young position players, which one should they deal?
• The Red Sox are on the search for a big bat, but they should see plenty of improvement all over the diamond.
• Although it was the Braves who got popped for the international signing issues, this is a league-wide problem.