Before I begin reviewing Thursday's abundant moves, I'm going to share with you my resurrected faith in the union. As I mentioned in Tuesday's article, MLB and the players' association have been meeting since Monday to delay contraction. Those discussions broke down on Thursday, and the union resumed their grievance.

I don't want to rehash everything from Tuesday, so lets just say that I saw no reason for the players to agree to the arrangement that was reportedly being discussed. Several other columnists have lamented what this might mean for baseball and decried both sides of labor. I really can't understand their angst. We are no closer to contraction now then we were a few days ago. In fact, while the owners are naturally running out of time for contraction this season, the agreement would have made it easier for them in the future with only a concession that they would hold off at least until next off-season.

What I find so incredibly neat about these discussions is that they began on Monday as the winter meetings started to get rolling, and then ended Thursday as things wrapped up in Boston. The stated cause from the union for the collapse in negotiations involved, among other things, displeasure over being asked to keep the content of the discussions private for the time being, only to have the other side disclose the information they found relevant to the press.

The players' association may have been negotiating in good faith the entire time but allow me to point out that with these talks, they allowed the general managers at those meetings to relax, not worry about whether or not they should hold out for possible contraction booty, and get down to the business of baseball at the exact time that they were all in a hotel together for the express purpose of facilitating off-season transactions. Accident or not, my faith in the cunning and ingenuity of Donald Fehr and his associates has reached a new high. We may see another relapse into the lethargy that covered baseball before the discussions, however I think that after the jump-start the off-season just received, things could keep on rolling.

Signings

Roger Cedeno has re-joined the New York Mets. The outfielder signed an $18 million, 4-year deal with the club early Thursday. We knew that the Mets were looking to add another outfielder, especially after trading away Matt Lawton. This is probably a good deal for them as I expect Cedeno to rebound strongly after leaving Detroit.

The Tigers' dreadful treatment of the 27-year-old last year culminated with their benching of him near the season's end, in order to prevent him from reaching the plate appearances he needed to earn the incentives in his contract. Cedeno enjoyed his time on the Mets and is happy to return. Happy players are more productive, something Cedeno will need to be to rate the salary that he will receive. Another performance like last year, and the club will be more desperate to unload him then they were with Robin Ventura.

New York will most likely bat Cedeno leadoff and play him in right field. He's played centerfield, but popular opinion of his defensive skills has dropped so far in the last few years that some question his ability to play the field at all. The team has several options to fill the rest of the outfield. David Justice and Tsuyoshi Shinjo should be the front-runners to receive the playing time, Justice in LF and Shinjo in CF, but Jay Payton and Joe McEwing are also available.

However, I doubt the Mets are done making moves this off-season. They will be looking to trade recent arrival Justice to a team that can use him as a DH at least part time. If successful, they would likely use the salary they saved there to sign Juan Gonzalez, who is all but begging to play for them.

David Weathers also signed with the Mets on Thursday. The right-handed reliever began last season with the Milwaukee Brewers before being traded mid-season to the Chicago Cubs. With their lefty-heavy rotation, New York can use a quality righty in the pen, so Weathers will probably work out well for them. The Cubs will need to step up their hunt for a replacement. Mike Williams is a possible target, although rumors indicate that he's likely to head to Boston. Chicago also lost free agent Todd Van Poppel earlier this off-season to the Rangers, and was originally looking to sign Colorado free agent Jay Powell before losing out to the Texas Rangers.

While it may have been somewhat understandable when I left Raul Casanova out of the article covering Tuesday's moves, I'm now mentally kicking myself as I realize that I also neglected Powell. Texas signed the reliever to a 3-year, $9 million contract. Powell is probably a good addition to the Rangers' bullpen, despite being a tad expensive, both in the size of his contract and the draft pick that his acquisition will cost Texas. GM John Hart seems intent on doing a total refit of the club's pitching staff, and after unloading Darren Oliver, I would expect him to move on to starters in the near future.

Now we get to the day's expected but still big news, the New York Yankees have signed Jason Giambi to a 7-year, $120 million dollar contract. The details have taken weeks of haggling and Giambi did have to pass a physical on Wednesday, but in retrospect it seems as though it was inevitable. I myself very much wanted Jason to return to Oakland, and there seemed to be a lot of reasons for him not to leave the club that drafted him. Among the reasons were a team on the verge of several seasons of greatness, his leadership role in the clubhouse, his ties to the community, and his brother Jeremy who also made the news today, in his case for marijuana possession. However from the press conference today, it appears that Giambi has been a closet Yankee fan.

Since I don't have all the quotes due to not taping the Giambi press conference, I am just going to say that from where I was sitting I don't think Jason would have re-signed with Oakland even if they'd matched the Yankees money. Playing for the New York Yankees appears to have been a childhood dream, and if not his own dream, certainly his father's.

The money can't be overlooked, and he's certainly interested in winning a few rings, but neither of those things struck me as the primary force behind his decision to play for New York. Luckily I do have most of the quote I'm looking for, as it was printed in the MLB.com article about the signing.

Jason Giambi: "There comes a time in your life when you need to start focusing on your family and the things that are important to you -- maybe getting a chance to someday make a run at getting into the Hall of Fame. This team adds to those dimensions."

Looking past the fact that I have never before heard a player voluntarily mention an active pursuit of the Hall of Fame at the press conference announcing their signing, I think Jason Giambi signed with the Yankees because he felt they would make his induction more probable. The above quote was the most overt, but not the only mention the first baseman made about the Yankee Hall of Fame Factory. His eyes had an eerie light in them when he spoke of retired numbers and Monument Park. While its theoretically nice to know that money really isn't the only thing a player thinks about when picking a new franchise, I have to say that this makes for an interesting new criteria. I am very interested in the opinions of readers on this matter, especially those who caught the press conference.

Whatever Giambi's motives, we should look at the way his signing will likely affect the rest of the Yankees. With Jason's arrival and long-term deal, it is improbable that the club will hold on to prospect Nick Johnson for too much longer. Clubs very rarely carefully groom a player to DH fulltime, especially one with Johnson's defensive skills. Despite the Rondell White signing, which is pending a physical before becoming official, I think that the team could still deal Johnson for Cliff Floyd to strengthen their outfield. I also believe that Giambi's signing does not preclude their further pursuit of Moises Alou, especially if Alou's price continues to drop the longer he remains available.

I will leave the discussion of their cash-juiced lineup for another day, and merely comment that if past success hasn't been bought, future success will have been purchased by the Yankees come spring training.

In the last and probably least interesting signing of Thursday, Craig Paquette agreed to a 2-year deal with the Detroit Tigers. As a Cardinals fan, I am well aware of their affinity for players with abundant position flexibility. However, as I look over the Tigers now and for the last few years, they seem to have the same kind of taste and have started a collection of their own with Dmitri Young and now Paquette. They even started that whole trend of playing a guy at all 8 non-pitching positions in a game a couple of years ago with Shane Halter.

Detroit has not defined Paquette's role with the club, but he is another candidate to spell or replace Dean Palmer at 3B. Palmer would then be left competing for playing time at the over-crowded positions of DH and 1B. Whatever niche he fills on the club, it is likely that Paquette will continue to play an occasional game at a number of positions.

I was going to cover all four of yesterday's trades and the disclosed identities of the players to be named later from the CHC/TOR and CLE/NYM trades, but this article has already gone on long enough. In anticipation of a possibly slow day, I will save those for review tomorrow. You may want to look in on Tim's article today, as he will be including a review of the major league Rule V draft.