2:27 p.m. Peter Gammons has said that talks have “heated up” and that a deal is close.

2:29 p.m. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo says that Nick Hagadone will be a part of the Victor Martinez to Boston deal via twitter

2:31 p.m. FOX says that Clay Buchholz and Daniel Bard are not a part of this deal. Sounds good for the Red Sox if you ask me. Updates coming in very quickly.

2:37 p.m. Buster Olney has confirmed that Martinez is heading to Boston and that Buchholz and Bard are not part of the trade. Jonathan Mayo now adds Justin Masterson (as well as Hagadone) to the players Boston is sending.

2:42 p.m. Mayo now adds that the deal isn’t done yet, Red Sox may send more players

2:48 p.m. Rumors suggest that the Mets may be the third team involved, and will receive Adam LaRoche as part of the trade. Completely unconfirmed however.

2:54 p.m. NY Baseball Digest and MetsBlog are sources for LaRoche rumor. Maybe not a three-way deal, just Red Sox flipping LaRoche to Mets because he is no longer needed (after getting Martinez).

2:59 p.m. SI’s Jon Heyman says Braves are interested in LaRoche

3:02 p.m. Bob Nightengale says Victor Martinez deal is done. Hagadone and Masterson are the two pitchers sent to Cleveland.

3:15 p.m. MLB Network says pitcher Bryan Price is the third player going to Cleveland in the deal.

3:20 p.m. Yahoo’s Gordon Edes reports that Adam LaRoche has been traded to the Atlanta Braves

3:26 p.m. Looks like the Red Sox are getting Casey Kotchman in return for LaRoche, who they will immediately flip to someone else…probably.

3:35 p.m. Looks like Kotchman may not be being flipped after all.

3:41 p.m. Red Sox are going to keep Casey Kotchman because they like him as a bench player. Sort of strange, but I guess it kind of makes sense. According to Ian Brown, Ortiz just yelled in the clubhouse: “I was just falling in love with LaRoche.”

3:51 p.m. Ian Browne says LaRoche is in Francona’s office. Door is closed.

4:01 p.m. According to Ian Browne: “Some tears were shed,” –Masterson.

4:36 p.m. Red Sox made a last second attempt at Halladay, but the deal fell apart because Red Sox would not give up Buchholz and Bard.

First, it is important to note that the Mets received cash in the deal, roughly $270,000 so the difference in the two player’s salaries is a non-factor. But what I see in this trade is a change of scenery for one player, Francouer, and then just moving a mediocre player in Ryan Church. Church isn’t a bad player by any means, but he’s 30-years old, so its not like he is going to start hitting his stride anytime soon. If you start Church everyday, you’re going to get a .270 hitter who hits 12-15 HRs. Fine, but not exactly a major contributor to a playoff contending team, and he wasn’t necessarily a key part to the Mets lineup.

On the other hand, we have the struggling Jeff Francouer. Through 82 games this season, Francouer is batting .250 with 5 HRs and is walking at an extremely poor 3% rate (roughly). He’s slugging just .352, and he is supposed to be a power hitter. No doubt, Francouer is having a rough time. But Francouer also has shown flashes of brilliance during his young career, hitting 29 homers in in his 2006 campaign at the age of 22. Francouer has always been seen as a guy with power, but one that will unquestionably strike out a lot. But that doesn’t mean that at his current age that he is done, or anything close to it. In trading for Francouer, the Mets picked up a high-upside guy. Granted, he could crash and burn, but the high power, high K rate formula does work from time to time, just take a look at Ryan Howard.

Really, this deal was about risk. The Braves picked up a basically a no-risk player and know exactly what they’re getting out of him. Considering the Braves are trying to figure out if they want to make a run, and don’t want Francouer to bring down the ship. The Mets on the other hand are struggling, and figured the move for Francouer probably wouldn’t hurt them, might help them this year, and has a pretty good chance to help them in the future. Sometimes rolling the dice pays off.

Well on Saturday, Pirates GM Neal Huntington had to write that exact letter, after he traded away the team’s prized possession, 27-year old outfielder Nate McLouth to Atlanta for three prospects. Well things aren’t going well for Bucs. They’ve had 15 straight seasons of losing baseball, and there is no end in sight. If I was a fan, I would be a little disgruntled too.

But you know what, I’m going to back up Huntington on this one. And I’m surprised at myself too, when I saw the headline “Pirates GM tries to explain McLouth deal in letter” I was going to come out attacking him. But think about it this way: the Pirates have a lot of work to do to win a championship. A lot. And while the fans and the organization might hope that they can do it soon, they really can’t. So the best way forward is to rebuild. Again. Therefore, trading McLouth after his breakout season, even when he’s only 27, isn’t so bad. I can’t say I know about the quality of the prospects they got, but they sound good if San Diego was looking at them for Peavy, and thats a better option than hanging onto McLouth. McLouth’s average is down a little bit, and what if it’s going to stay there? Plus, they can get the most value for him now while he is in the prime of his career and about to enter his best years of production. So they did. Instead of getting to the point when he is 30-years old, losing him to free agency or just having him but not having a winning team around him.

Huntington does a hard job. He works with a struggling team under what I’ve heard is one of the worst owners in baseball, Bob Nutting, and he has to continually rebuild. And they weren’t going to be ready in 2 years. So what did he do, he pounced when he had a good offer, and the Pirates might now have a chance in a few years. With a bit of luck (and a good draft) the Pirates can fill their farm system and rise to the top. So back off Huntington, he’s making the moves he has to.

Baseball teams have to be run like a business. They are a business. I get it, they have to be cutthroat sometimes, they need to be efficient in order to beat out the other 29 teams and win it all. But when it comes to stomething like this, I don’t like it.

It’s not that they released Glavine that upsets me, its the way they did it. “Had I been told, you’re going to go on a rehab and you’re going to have to make the team again, then I think that becomes very different for me,” Glavine said. And it becomes very different for me too. Certainly there comes a point in every career where a player can’t make it anymore, and its time for them to hang it up. But that’s not what happened to Glavine. I don’t care what Braves President John Schuerholz says, this move was made for financial and structural reason, and not for performance reasons. Glavine threw six scoreless innings in his last rehab outing, how is that not performing. The simple fact is that Glavine was going to receive $1 million if he made the major league club, and that was fine with the Braves in April. But now that its June and its time for the next big thing Tommy Hanson to come up, that’s a wasted million bucks for the Braves. So they cut Glavine. Tom Glavine. All they had to do was tell Glavine, when he got hurt, that he wasn’t needed by the club anymore. He would have understood. Of course he would have, he’s a veteran. But instead, they decided they would disrespect a guy that has over 300 wins, mostly for their ballclub. That’s embarrassing.

Well Tom, if its any consolation, I don’t think anyone is siding with the Braves on this one. See you in Cooperstown.