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SAN DIEGO – Conversations throughout the marble-floored hotel lobby all at once turned to shortstop Trea Turner as reporters, agents and MLB team personnel checked their buzzing phones to see the news Monday afternoon: Turner and the Phillies had agreed to terms on an 11-year, $300 million deal.
Just like that, the seal on the shortstop market was broken as Turner became the first of the Big Four free agent shortstops off the board.
Now, it’s time for the Cubs to make a statement.
“Sometimes it just takes some deals at the top coming off,” Hoyer said Monday evening, the first day of winter meetings, “to sort of ‘break the ice’ and free people up to do deals.