In two years, the baseball winter meetings will return to Las Vegas.
In truth, they should be there every year.
Making big deals (let's call them what they are: risky gambles) at the winter meetings are the biggest sucker bets in the sport. It's like going out the Wednesday before Black Friday and paying retail for all your Christmas toys, knowing that half of them will be available for much lower prices in just a couple of weeks and that most of the others will be broken by spring time.
Here's a general rule of thumb to follow for most winters: big deals done before or during the winter meetings -- stupid on somebody's part; deals done after -- much smarter.