I can't imagine the Royals would complete one of these oft-mentioned trades on Christmas Eve, but you never know. For the baseball community, this time of year is very important, a chance to hunt a few more times, purchase more necklaces and wrist things, think about new arm and neck tattoo designs, and prank call Ken Rosenthal.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and upcoming Happy New Year to everyone. Thanks for all your comments and feedback and arguments all year. Thanks for making the site fun.

A raised glass of eggnog to everyone.

No news is good news? No news is bad news? Apparently Mark Buehrle has left the AL Central. Can't say I'll miss having to look up how to spell his name for the game threads during his monthly start against the Royals much.

• Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost: Youth will be served in 2012 | royals.com: News
• Winter Meetings interview with Ned Yost | royals.com: News
• Have The Astros Made A Mistake Firing Ed Wade - The Crawfish Boxes
• Stupid Offers, Rogue Teams, and Plan Bs - Viva El Birdos
• How Much Is Too Much for Albert Pujols? | FanGraphs Baseball
• Mark Buehrle follows Ozzie Guillen to Miami, signing $58 million deal with Marlins | HardballTalk

I'd love Pujols in teal.

Now it gets real. Trade rumors are swirling.

• The talent-rich Kansas City Royals are drawing interest at the Winter Meetings | royals.com: News
• Winter Meetings 2011: Would Wil Myers For Gio Gonzalez Provie A Good Deal For Kansas City Royals? - SB Nation Kansas City
• The Royals are interested in Gio Gonzalez | HardballTalk
• Catching Up With the 1994 Royals: Part 14 - Billy Brewer - Royals Review
• Royally Speaking: Looking For Backups
• Frank White Dismissal Not So Simple | Pine Tar Press
• An Insufficient Glance Back At Pedro Martinez - Baseball Nation

The Marlins fire the first salvo by signing Reyes.

• Royals’ offseason shopping nearly done as winter meetings begin - KansasCity.com
• Rany on the Royals: For Want Of A Pitcher: Jonathan Broxton?
• Royalman Report: 12/4/11 - Joel Goldberg Talks Frank White, Media, More - Kings of Kauffman - A Kansas City Royals Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More
• Marlins Get A Potential Bargain In Jose Reyes | FanGraphs Baseball
• Is Jose Reyes Worth $106 Million Over Six Years? - Baseball Nation
• Traditional Managing Index Results: 2011 AL - Beyond the Box Score

Yankee "catcher" Jesus Montero turned 22 today. Montero emerged as one of the top rated prospects in baseball over the last three seasons, reaching #3 in Baseball America's rankings this last spring. (Of course, this would actually make him just #7 in the Royals system, Dayton Moore is that good.) In two seasons at AAA, Montero has hit .289/.351/.493. Last year in 69 PAs with the Yankees, he posted a .996 OPS.

Montero was famously almost traded to the Mariners for Cliff Lee. Supposedly. Allegedly. A few months later, he was frequently linked to the Royals as part of a Joakim Soria (mostly) or even a Zack Greinke trade (more rarely). It never happened.

Anyway, today was his birthday.

All week we've been announcing the winners of the major awards as determined by the bloggers here at SB Nation. Like Hosmer in the ROY race, we actually have a dog in this fight. As we noted earlier this year, Alex Gordon turned in a season worthy of down-ballot votes for MVP.

Results after the jump. Can you handle the drama?

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Yesterday, we announced the AL Cy Young Winner, which I actually voted on. The NL Awards were done strictly by the general/national guys and the NL team blogs. It turned out to be an extremely close race.

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