“The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part”

~Tom Petty

The Dodgers made it through the Winter Meetings in Maryland without any major signings. I wasn’t really expecting any, but as a fan you always like to see how your team is shaping up sooner than later. And of course when you see other teams make big slashy moves, you’d love for your team to do the same.

A few things were settled during the Winter Meetings, though. Two of the top three closers were signed — Mark Melancon went to the San Francisco Giants and Aroldis Chapman returned to the New York Yankees. Chapman’s deal was for five years, $86 million. That seemingly sets up a big payday for Kenley Jansen. The Washington Nationals and the Miami Marlins are both rumored to be making a big push for Jansen as well.

Marlins’ skipper Don Mattingly would love to have Kenley Jansen at the back-end of his bullpen.

Will Jansen be heading to Miami to rejoin some former teammates in Dee Gordon and newly signed A.J. Ellis? It does seem there is less and less of a chance that Kenley re-signs with LA. That remains to be seen — and we probably won’t know for a little bit, as Kenley is getting married this weekend in Curaçao.

In more hopeful news, it does sound as though there’s a very good chance Justin Turner will be coming back.

The Dodgers have explored other options, namely a trade with the Chicago White Sox for Todd Frazier, or the Yankees for Chase Headley. Turner’s market doesn’t seem to be as big as it was thought to be at the very beginning of the offseason, so the Dodgers will probably just wait Turner out. As Turner is also in Curaçao for Jansen’s wedding, that might be a while in the coming also. Maybe Turner will talk Kenley into staying while he’s down there, and they will both re-sign next weekend. Well, I can dream…

There’s also no new news at second base either. So we’re still at where we were on Monday. But that’s how the offseason goes. We’d like it to all be tied up with a pretty bow by Christmas, and who knows, it may be. But most likely we will have to wait a little more. Let’s just hope the hard part isn’t dealing with the loss of a favorite player or two.