I cannot remember a day this active in MLB in my life that wasn’t a trade deadline day or during the MLB Winter Meetings.  Heck, this might have been one of the busiest days even including those days! Hope you have a scorecard and three or four sharpened pencils as we go over December 3, 2013 transactions.  I will also include moves that went down later in the evening on December 2.

Free Agent Signings

New York Yankees sign OF Jacoby Ellsbury to a 7 year deal worth $153M

Boston Red Sox sign catcher AJ Pierzynski to a 1 year deal worth $8.25M

Miami Marlins sign catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia to a 3 year deal worth $21M

Colorado Rockies sign 1B Justin Morneau to a 2 year deal worth $13M

Detroit Tigers sign closer Joe Nathan to a 2 year deal worth $20M

Oakland Athletics sign starting pitcher Scott Kazmir to a 2 year deal worth $22M

Toronto Blue Jays sign catcher Dioner Navarro to a 2 year deal worth $8M.

Seattle Mariners sign infielder Willie Bloomquist to a 2 year deal worth $5.8M

Trades

Oakland Athletics acquire closer Jim Johnson from the Baltimore Orioles for infielder Jemile Weeks and either a player to be named later or cash

Oakland Athletics acquire relief pitcher Luke Gregerson from the San Diego Padres for outfielder Seth Smith

Oakland Athletics acquire outfielder Craig Gentry and pitcher Josh Lindblom from the Texas Rangers for minor league prospects Michael Choice and Chris Bostick

Tampa Bay Rays acquire catcher Ryan Hanigan from the Cincinnati Reds and relief pitcher Heath Bell and money from the Arizona Diamondbacks while the Reds get pitcher David Holmberg and Arizona gets pitcher Justin Choate and a player to be named later.  The Rays then signed Hanigan to a 3 year extension worth $10.75M.

Houston Astros acquire outfielder Dexter Fowler from the Colorado Rockies for right handed pitcher Jordan Lyles and outfielder Brandon Barnes

Washington Nationals acquired starting pitcher Doug Fister from the Detroit Tigers in return for infielder Steve Lombardozzi and left handed pitchers Ian Krol and Robbie Ray.

That is at least eight free agent signings and six trades in about 36 hours.  I wonder if the Winter Meetings are going to be dead next week after all these moves.  I would hate to see three or four days in a row of activity like this.  I probably missed a move or two in this writeup.

Thanks to Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal and Chris Cotillo for having thorough twitter feeds and breaking all these stories.  I wish my beloved Cubs had been involved in some of the moves just to have something about my team to talk about.

The hot stove is burning extremely hot these last couple of days.