All quiet on the Holliday front

While Jason Bay and many of the second-tier free agents are getting serious play, things have been pretty quiet on the subject of this winter’s No. 1 free agent, Matt Holliday, during the first two days of the winter meetings. The Cardinals haven’t given up on re-signing Holliday yet, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported this morning that the parties were described as being “on different sides of a gulch” to “in a different universe” when it came to negotiations. The Red Sox are known to have talked extensively with agent Scott Boras, and it’s safe to assume that Holliday’s name came up several times. However, the team is continuing to negotiate with Jason Bay as well. It’s possible that GM Theo Epstein won’t make a real run at Holliday until he knows what Bay is doing. There’s nothing to indicate anyone besides maybe the Cardinals have made Holliday an offer. The Mets will most likely be interested at the right price and it’d be foolish to rule out the Yankees until the day that Holliday puts pen to paper, but there are no other obvious potential suitors at the moment. The Mariners and Giants prefer to spend elsewhere, and the Angels have repeatedly said they’re not interested. All signs point to Holliday remaining unsigned through Christmas and likely into next year.