No Trade Too Big to Be a 'Total Fabrication'

Earlier today -- in what was, all around, a pretty sleepy day at the winter meetings -- blog MLB Trade Rumors ran an unsourced rumor from a "trusted New York sportswriter" that was just too crazy for words. Blockbuster, in fact, doesn't really begin to describe the thing:

Minnesota has initiated talks for a three-way blockbuster with the Twins and A's. Here's how it would go down:

Mets send Jose Reyes, Kevin Mulvey to A's
Mets send Hector Pellot to Twins
A's send Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson to Mets
A's send Dan Haren to Twins
Twins send Johan Santana to Mets

Mets get Johan Santana, Bobby Crosby and Dan Johnson
A's get Jose Reyes and Kevin Mulvey
Twins get Dan Haren and Hector Pellot

Insane, right? What's more insane is that trade actually works out for everyone involved, most notably the Mets.

So MLB Trade Rumors got everyone at the winter meetings scurrying about -- can't you just picture the darting sportswriters and the ducking GMs? -- before Joel Sherman at the New York Post got confirmation that nothing was in the works:

OK before it goes any further, let us kill a rumor that went from gestation at somebody's computer to rampant chatter in the hallways at the Winter Meetings.

Omar Minaya reiterated that Reyes is not being traded, which instantly doomed the idea. So did the fact that Minaya and Oakland GM Billy Beane have exchanged phone messages and e-mails, but have not talked at these meetings as of early tonight.

But for the final word, we offer this gem from Beane: "I rarely comment on trades publicly, but let me comment on this one: It is an absolute, total fabrication."

That's a clever little shot from Sherman there -- "went from gestation at somebody's computer" -- as if all trade rumors aren't essentially gestated at the computer. But instead of putting on my oversensitive blogger cap, I'll simply say this: the Winter Meetings are f***ing awesome. They're literally the only place where this sort of rumor -- just look at that thing! -- can elicit a frenzy among reporters and verbal anger from Billy Beane. I won't fault MLBTR; everyone floats trade rumors, and very few actually end up happening. But that's why the Winter Meetings rock: It's the time when our end-of-the-bar, talk-radio fantasies actually get played out on an hourly basis. What could be more fun than that?