The Seattle Times' Larry Stone is reporting that the Mariners will trade Carlos Silva to the Chicago Cubs for outfielder Milton Bradley.

The Cubs have been unhappy with Bradley's performance after giving him a 3 year, $30 million deal last off-season. However, the enigmatic outfielder could provide the Mariner offense with solid production from the left-field or DH positions.

Pitcher Carlos Silva found himself in a similar position with the Mariners, getting a 4 year, $48 million deal two years ago but putting up an ERA over 6 in '08 and spending most of '09 on the DL.

There's no word whether the Mariners will be sending any money to Chicago to make up the difference in contracts. Silva is still owed $25 million while Bradley is only owed $21 million. Even if the Mariners send $4 million along to even things out, it's tough not to LOVE this deal for the M's.

Combined with the previous additions of Chone Figgins and ace Cliff Lee, the Mariners look to be a drastically improved team adding even more potential firepower in the form of Bradley.

Adrian Gonzalez believes he will be traded to the Boston Red Sox in the next 10 days according to ESPN's Jorge Arangure.

Arangure states, "Source close to A Gonzalez believes he'll be traded to Red Sox within next 10 days." He's quick to add however, "Does this mean deal will happen?No. But momentum is there."

The first baseman would provide a big boost to the retooling Red Sox offense but would come at a steep price.

Clay Buchholz would almost certainly be a required part of the deal that could also include Jacoby Ellsbury as well as a high end prospect.

Update: Ken Rosenthall is reporting that Philadelphia will receive Roy Halladay & $6m from the Blue Jays, Phillipe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and a 3rd player from the Mariners in exchange for sending Cliff Lee to Seattle. The Blue Jays will receive elite pitching prospect Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor, and Travis D'Arnaud from Philadelphia.

The extension being talked about for Halladay to waive his no trade clause is a 3 year deal worth $60 million which would be a great deal for the Phillies and well below what Halladay's free agent value would be.

Roy Halladay may finally be on his way out of Toronto.

Ken Rosenthall is reporting that the Phillies & Blue Jays are working on a three team trade that would send Halladay to the Phillies in exchange for prospects that will be acquired by sending Cliff Lee to a 3rd, as of yet unnamed team.

There's speculation that the Angels are the 3rd team in the deal, attempting to acquire Lee to replace soon to be departing John Lackey.

Update: Sports Illustrated Jon Heyman is reporting that the 3rd team is actually the Seattle Mariners & the deal is close to completion. The Phillies are currently trying to "lock up" Halladay.

Naturally a deal including two Cy Young award winners in the prime of their careers is going to be fairly complicated.

Lee is only under contract for one more year at $9 million and has informed the team that he won't be giving them any type of discount to resign. Halladay, however, reportedly will be willing to sign a contract extension in exchange for waiving his no-trade  clause & would be willing to take less money to play for a contender that trains in Florida.

To add even more fuel to the suddenly blazing hot stove rumor, the Philadelphia Inquirer is currently reporting that Halladay & his agent are in Philadelphia, presumably to work on an extension in advance of announcing a completed trade.

If the Phillies can manage to get Halladay locked up on a multi-year deal, without giving up all of the top prospects that were being discussed at the trade deadline, it would be a master stroke.

As we've seen previously with Halladay trade rumors, nothing is finished until the ink is dry so we'll keep you up to date

The Boston Red Sox are having a busy week! Shortly after securing a deal for John Lackey, the Sox are reportedly close to inking outfielder Mike Cameron to a two year deal worth $15.5 million.

The Sox are in need of an outfielder after abandoning their quest to resign outfielder Jason Bay. It's unknown, however, whether the Sox will have Cameron play center or left field.

Update: The St. Louis Cardinals have reportedly made Matt Holliday their biggest contract offer in team history, an 8 year deal with an average annual value "around $16 million." That's still well short of the $180 million Boras was seeking, but it sounds like the Cardinals could be close to re-signing their free agent slugger.

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post Dispatch is reporting "movement" that "most would [classify as] positive" by the St. Louis Cardinals in their negotiations with free agent outfielder Matt Holliday.

The Cardinals reportedly made an initial offer to Holliday late last week before leaving the Winter Meetings. While terms of the offer were not officially disclosed, Strauss reported it was for 8 years at an annual average of $14-16 million.

Any annual value less than $18 million would be less than Holliday rejected to stay with the Colorado Rockies, however, by going 8 years the Cardinals might buy themselves a bit of a discount. Of course Holliday's agent, Scott Boras, was said to be seeking a $180 million deal so the Cards would still likely have to increase their initial offer.

Holliday is also said to be seeking a full no-trade clause and the Cardinals have admitted that they'll need to be "creative" in their attempts to lock up the slugger.

Strauss has indicated it could be a late night of negotiations but we'll keep you posted as this rumor involves the home town Cardinals and hey, I get to be a little bit biased every now and then.

The Boston Red Sox and free agent pitcher John Lackey have reportedly agreed to a 5 year deal worth $82.5 million.

Lackey was considered by many to be the top starting pitcher on the free agent market this year.

Ken Rosenthall says the Red Sox will also attempt to extend Josh Beckett (likely to a slightly more expensive deal) and may even explore a possible trade for San Diego Padres first baseman, Adrian Gonzalez likely centered around Clay Buchholz.

Lackey's signing also ends the Red Sox's pursuit of free agents Jason Bay or Matt Holliday.

Lackey would also be the second high profile free agent to leave the Angels so far this offseason, following Chone Figgins out the door.

Baseball's general managers are meeting this week in Chicago and are likely to spawn a few trades and more rumors.

Unfortunately, I'm heading to Las Vegas for a conference of my own. As you can imagine, updates will be sparse. If major news breaks, I'll be sure to get it posted but other than that, I'm going to be a bit behind on the news this week.

As always if you'd like to write about baseball rumors and get your name in front of the over 2,000 subscribers to this site, feel free to drop me a line via the contact form.

The Los Angeles Angels are "close" to acquiring left handed starter, Scott Kazmir from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for two prospects, reportedly pitcher Alexander Torres and third baseman Matthew Sweeney, according to MLB.com's Lyle Spencer.

The Angels have been looking for help in their rotation and the 25 year old southpaw should fit in nicely, despite having a down year this year with an ERA of nearly 6.

The Rays signed Kazmir to a long term deal after the lefty posted ERA's under 3.5 each of the last three years. However, as the Rays began looking to shed payroll and with Kazmir's ERA skyrocketing, Tampa began looking to unload his contract.

To be honest, it seems like the Rays are selling low on Kazmir. Since the All Star break he's pitched much better with only 3 bad starts mixed in with several quality outings. With young left handed pitching so hard to come by, I'm a little surprised the Rays agreed to this deal.

After a LOT of back and forth, the Boston Red Sox have acquired former closer Billy Wagner from the New York Mets.

The Red Sox claimed Wagner off waivers and a brief soap opera ensued about whether or not Wagner would accept a trade to Boston.

With the deadline for a deal closing in, Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated is reporting that the deal is done.

Wagner was effective in his first appearance back off the DL but his health is still no doubt an issue and he may be limited to pitching only once every three days.

Even so, the veteran should help solidify the late innings for the Red Sox, as a setup man for closer Jonathan Papelbon.

In exchange for the pricey reliever, the Mets will reportedly receive two players to be named later, and likely will have to kick some cash into the deal as well.

Update: Well that goes to show what I know... Heyman is now reporting that the Red Sox are actually picking up all of the remaining $2 million on Wagner's deal (for just over 5 weeks of service!). If that's the case I'd be surprised if the PTBNL's were significant at all.

Buster Olney of ESPN.com reports that Blue Jays RF Alex Rios has been claimed on waivers by a unknown team The Blue Jays now have 3 things they could do:

• They can give the claiming team Rios and is humongous contract.
• They could work out a trade with the claiming team.
• They could also just pull Rios off of waivers completely.

Rios still has 6 years left on a seven-year, $69.35 million contract that he signed in April 2008..

The following teams have reportedly did not claim Rios:

• Mets
• Red Sox
• Giants
• Reds
• Mariners

We will keep everyone updated once more information comes out.