Red Sox trade talks for Giancarlo Stanton reportedly “may be heating up”

Let the Winter of Giancarlo officially begin. Giancarlo Stanton is not just one of the best power hitters — really, best hitters — in the game, but he’s also one of the biggest starts and most familiar faces. Hitting 500 foot dingers on the regular will do that. As such, his being on the trade block is sure to be a massive story all offseason, and every little twist and turn in the saga will be reported. That, of course, is not to say that there is no value in these reports. Either way, this is just a long way of saying that there is a new report connecting the Red Sox to Stanton. According to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, talks between Miami and Boston are potentially “heating up.”

So, a few things here. For one thing, it’s not entirely clear what “heating up” evenmeans. That’s kind of a meaningless term, particularly when you don’t know how engaged the talks were before this point. We all knew that Dave Dombrowski was at least going to look into what it would cost the Red Sox to bring Stanton to Boston. This is a team that is desperately in need of a power bat and one of the best in recent memory is available. It would be ludicrous to not at least look into things.

There’s also the fact that Stanton has a full no-trade clause, and thus has to actually want to come to Boston. There isn’t much reason to believe he wouldn’t want to come here at this point, but we also really have no idea. All we really know about his preferences is that he would like to stay on a coast. The other teams who have been mentioned thus far in the process as serious contenders for the slugger are Philadelphia, San Francisco and St. Louis.

Finally, it’s important to consider who would stand to benefit from this kind of report. This is not to say that Spencer’s report is inaccurate or misleading — I have no reason to believe it’s anything besides a 100 percent accurate report — but this is the time of year when every report should be read with the consideration of who it would help. In this case, the Marlins stand to benefit from the rest of the league thinking Boston and Dombrowski are involved, as that would increase bidding from other suitors. Again, I would assume that Boston really is involved, but it’s something to think about.

These talks are sure to last at least a few more weeks, and it is almost certainly going to drive us crazy the rest of the way. You can be sure that Dombrowski and company will be right there along for the ride the whole way through, though. The GM meetings start on Monday in Orlando, and that is when you can really expect the trade winds to start howling.