Mariners

Daily coverage of the Mariners during the season and all year long.

Day 2 of the baseball winter meetings at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville

ADDITIONAL NOTE 12:56 p.m.: Here’s an update from the Pittsburgh side of things on talks between the Pirates and Mariners on first baseman/right fielder Garrett Jones. The Pirates are said to have asked for Taijuan Walker in return but were rebuffed. I’ll be starting a live chat here in just a few minutes.

Greetings from Day 2 of the baseball winter meetings, where I spent a good part of the morning engaged in BBWAA meetings. Here’s a nice winter meetings tie-in with a Seattle twist.

Billy Butler of the Royals, one of many, many bats the Mariners have been linked to at these meetings, has just been named winner of the 2012 Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award.

How’s that for some symmetry?

Butler recevied 80 of 84 first-place votes to garner the honor for the first time, beating out Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays.

The Mariners continue to be tied to just about every living, breathing hitter on the open market. They indeed did speak with Josh Hamilton and his representatives. Hamilton is here in Nashville meeting with various clubs.

But just because the two sides met doesn’t mean all that much. Like I said, the Mariners are meeting with everybody and their housemaid here. I will give you more if I hear about it, but suffice to say, there will be more rumors popping up every five minutes on Twitter and it’s impossible to keep track of all of them. You can follow my @gbakermariners account on Twitter if you’d like.

I also plan to have a live, written chat at 1 p.m. PT right here on the blog.