Winter Meetings Journal, Day 1: Welcome to the Biodome

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Here we go again. It’s the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings, a marathon three-and-a-half days of rumor-starting and deal-making that this year has set up right outside of Washington D.C.

Free-agent signings will surely come (and we’ll track them all). Trades will complement a pretty shallow free-agent class (and we’ll write about those too). But we’re also here for the spectacle of it all, the sights and the sounds and every Instagram pic of the big Christmas tree in the middle of the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center that we’re calling home until Thursday.

Each day we’ll start you off with this primer of storylines, plus some sights and sounds. Enjoy.

FIVE HOT RUMORS OF THE DAY
1. Our own Jeff Passan has a juicy one: The Indians have checked in on Edwin Encarnacion, the type of big bat that would make their lineup a lot more dangerous. A big question, though: Would they pay the $100-million-plus asking price?

2. A storyline that’s sweeping the meetings today is what the Royals will do. They’re in a position where selling might be smart (they can’t afford to pay all the looming free agents). Now the are-they-selling narrative has reached a point where Lorenzo Cain trade rumors seem to be a thing.

3. The Braves apparently tried to get Sonny Gray from the A’s, which makes sense considering they’ve also been connected to Chris Sale and Chris Archer. But according to Joel Sherman, the price was still too rich. Key takeaway, though: The Braves are after that pitching.

4. The Rangers — who it seems like are in on every deal that gets floated around these days — are checking into Cincinnati Reds speedster Billy Hamilton, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.

5. The closer market is a big one to watch, with Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon all considered top-flight options. The Giants, Nats and Cubs are among the teams looking for a closer, but you can add another team to the list and word is they’re willing to spend some money. That’s the Miami Marlins, who Ken Rosenthal says have some rival teams thinking they’d pay Jansen $80 over five years. Wowzer. Meanwhile, the Giants and Nats are reportedly chasing Melancon the most. And there’s this from Passan:

WELCOME TO THE BIODOME
This year’s Winter Meetings, like last year’s in Nashville, are held in a huge Gaylord Convention Center that is more biodome than hotel. There are hotel rooms, obviously, but there are also amenities spilling all over the place, mostly aimed at entertaining guests not necessarily of the baseball rumor-mongering variety

At the Winter Meetings, a sort of self-contained ecosystem of its own, the biodome just means you feel like you’re even more in your own world. One thing Nashville had over National Harbor, though: Its Biodome had a river.

PARTY ON
The Winter Meetings aren’t exactly a place where you baseball stars come to hang out, but that’s changing a bit on Monday night. MLB made official its new 10-year uniform deal with Under Armour on Monday morning and with that comes an unconventional Winter Meetings event: a celebration featuring some All-Stars and Olympians.

Under Armour is bringing some of its roster of stars for the party. Among them: Clayton Kershaw, Francisco Lindor, Brandon Phillips, Rick Porcello, Brian Dozier, Freddie Freeman and Ryan Zimmerman. Cal Ripken will be there too as will Olympic gold medalists Lindsey Vonn and Nastia Liukin.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz