11:19pm: Olney reports that the Padres and Red Sox had made very little progress in their discussions about Adrian Gonzalez as of 9pm CST.
4:19pm: In regard to the Qualls item below, ESPN's Jerry Crasnick has an update. His source says the D'Backs are "very unlikely" to trade their closer.
11:58am: All kinds of good stuff from ESPN's Buster Olney (Insider required and recommended).
- The big news: the Red Sox and Padres talked "at length" about an Adrian Gonzalez trade Wednesday night. Those discussions are expected to resume today; of course you can expect top prospects to be involved.
- On the D'Backs front, there has been interest in Doug Davis and Jon Garland. Jeff Wilson of the Dallas Morning News says the Rangers have spoken to the D'Backs about a deal for starting pitching, but would probably have to unload salary (Hank Blalock?) first. A D'Backs scout took a look at Rangers reliever Guillermo Moscoso. However, Arizona is actually considering whether to extend Davis. Might make sense, with Brandon Webb going under the knife.
- Olney says there's momentum building toward a Chad Qualls trade, but the closer won't come cheap. Chad Tracy would be a fourth available D'Back, but Bob McManaman and Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic feel that August trades are more likely for the club.
- The Royals would like to move the contract of southpaw reliever Ron Mahay (.274/.292/.468 against lefties). He's got about $1.5MM left.
- ESPN's Jayson Stark tosses in this nugget: the Marlins made a run at Roy Halladay but balked at an asking price that included Cameron Maybin and Mike Stanton.
