This will be a recurring feature, to recur no more often than whenever I feel like it.
(1) Quote the first, from David Aardsma, in an article by Kirby Arnold:
"I’ve grown to really like that mlbtraderumors.com site," Aardsma said. "I find out so much information about everybody – who we’re bringing in, who we’re looking at. So, it’s kind of hard to miss it."
Oftentimes, a player who may soon be on the move will tell the press that he's unaware of the rumors, or not paying attention to them, or what have you. As more and more time goes by, there's more and more reason to call these guys liars. Many of them will see things on the internet. Many of the ones who don't will hear about them anyway from friends and family, who tend to read everything. More than ever before, players generally know what's being written about them in print and online, and that's one of those simple truths that everyone probably ought keep in mind.
(2) The other two quotes come from this article in the NY Post by Brian Costello. Joakim Soria:
[Soria's] no-trade clause reportedly blocks deals with the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, Phillies, Cardinals and Cubs.
"I didn't put it there, my agent did, as a strategy," Soria told the newspaper as translated by mlbtraderumors.com.
This is something many have long suspected, but Soria offers some confirmation. Sure, sometimes a player will include a team or two on his no-trade list because he personally doesn't want to play for them. But more often, teams are listed with compensation in mind. We talked about this a little while ago with regard to Felix. Players don't list teams like the Yankees and Red Sox because they don't want to play there; agents list teams like the Yankees and Red Sox because those are the teams most likely to trade for the player, and because those are the teams most able to offer compensation in exchange for the player waiving his no-trade clause.
Contracts are cold, emotionless, and very carefully drawn up. When looking one over, try not to see what isn't there.
(3) And finally, from Dayton Moore:
"We weren't shopping Greinke," Moore said. "I didn't make one call to one club asking them if they had interest in Zack Greinke. It's no different than any other player. Everybody wants good players and it's very common for clubs to pursue other teams' quality players. We don't have any plans to move any of our players unless we get a deal that makes perfect sense."
Again, this is nothing new, but it's nice to hear an explanation from someone inside the game, rather than speculation from someone on the outside looking in. There's a big, big difference between "shopping" and "taking offers for". Every team in baseball is pretty much always taking offers for - or open to taking offers for - anyone and everyone on the roster. And that's because there's no harm in listening.
There's infinite demand for content come rumor season, and the result is that, from time to time, we get a new tweet or article from a journalist saying that Team X is taking offers for Star Player Y. These tweets and articles can provoke a considerable response, but I don't know that they even qualify as rumors. They don't provide any information.