Day Three of the Meetings was the most eventful from a Rays perspective.
The early morning provided us with news that that Cubs had signed Carlos Pena to a 1yr/$10million contract. That amount of money is something the Rays simply could not afford, and frankly I'd be surprised if many teams would have gone that high on him. But I'm sure everyone here wishes Pena the best of luck with the Cubs. He was nothing but a class act in his time here.
There was some mid-afternoon buzz about the Cubs having interesting in Matt Garza, but those rumors turned out to be unsubstantial. Plus, Maddon came out and said that Matt Gara will be pitching for the Rays in 2011. Take that for what you will. Andrew Friedman would likely ask the world for Garza, who still has three years of team control.
The biggest news was the apparent trade of Jason Bartlett to the Padres for relief pitchers Adam Russell and Cesar Ramos. It was reported by both Padres reporters and Mark Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. Topkin even tweeted he got conformation from Bartlett himself that the trade had gone down. But then a report came that the Rays had not confirmed the trade, and wouldn't do so at all today. This trade will have to wait to be confirmed tomorrow.
Hopefully day four of the Winter Meetings is just as exciting.