Ben Zobrist’s free agency will end soon with 1 of 3 teams

Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball includes the Ben Zobrist negotiations, Aroldis Chapman, and the Wade Miley trade.

Dec 8, 2015, 1:18 PM UTC

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

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Ben Zobrist could have helped all 30 teams, if they were willing to make room for him. At times this offseason it’s felt like that’s how many clubs were trying to add him, but at this late stage in his free agency, the field has narrowed to just three: the Giants, Nationals, and Mets. Zobrist is close enough to a decision that Jon Morosi is reporting a decision is expected in the next 48 hours as of about 8 p.m. eastern Monday night, while Ken Rosenthal says Zobrist wants to have his new team picked out by the time the winter meetings conclude.

The Giants are at a disadvantage, as Zobrist reportedly wants to play just one position rather than be his former versatile self, and that position is second base. Joe Panik lives at the keystone for San Francisco, with the idea being that Zobrist would head to the outfield for them. The Nationals and Mets, on the other hand, have openings at second base. Or, at least, the Nats will make second base open if it means they can get Zobrist.

Zobrist reportedly wanted four years and $60 million, but there is always the chance that he’ll sign for more as one of these three teams tries to get an edge in negotiations. The Giants have money to spend, and since they would need to put Zobrist out of his preferred position, promising him larger checks is one way they might be able to convince him the outfield is pretty alright. The Nationals aren’t a financial juggernaut and the Mets run themselves like a small-market embarrassment most days, so cash might be the Giants’ best hope.

The Dodgers are now just a regular rich team. They can still outspend the entire league, but they aren't going to perpetually do so, and they finally reached what looks like a spending limit by letting Zack Greinke walk.

Speaking of the Dodgers, they were close on an Aroldis Chapman trade on Monday morning, but it was never finalized at any point during the day. Then, at night, news came out that Chapman had allegedly assaulted his girlfriend and fired a gun in his garage eight times out of frustration.

Now, this news didn't come out until someone was close to trading for Chapman: the incident occurred in October. Whether it was unearthed in doing background work on Chapman or whether the Dodgers leaked it because they didn't like where negotiations were going with the Reds and wanted to be spiteful is unknown.

Shelby Miller remains on the trade block, and the Cubs are one of the teams talking to the Braves about him. They just weren't as close to finalizing a trade as some late-night reporting suggested they were.

That's not the only Cubs' news from Monday, as rookie third baseman Kris Bryant (as well as the Phillies' Maikel Franco) filed grievances against their teams over claims of service time manipulation.

The Mariners got the starting pitcher they wanted by dealing for Wade Miley, but they had to give up potential relief stud Carson Smith to do it.

The concern with Dave Dombrowski when he took over the Red Sox was his ability to build a bullpen, but it appears that he's not screwing around with his relief corps anymore.