The Nationals clearly have interest in Dunn; Washington GM Jim Bowden drafted him with the Reds. Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported the Braves, Mariners and Dodgers as other possibilities, although the Mariners offered arbitration to free agent Raul Iba?ez and the Dodgers still have interest in retaining Manny Ramirez.

That the Diamondbacks didn't offer Dunn arbitration will raise his price; teams won't have to surrender draft picks to get him.

But what about Dunn's reputation? Do teams really feel, as Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said earlier this year, "the guy doesn't really like Baseball that much"? Or "the guy doesn't have a passion to play the game that much"?

We polled three people. One, former Mets player and Yankees coach Jose Cardenal, agreed to speak for attribution. The other two, a pair of front-office executives from two different teams, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Cardenal served as a Reds coach for part of Dunn's time in Cincinnati, and he currently works with the Nationals as a consultant/instructor.

"Adam is a kid with a lot of power," Cardenal said. "He's going to hit you probably between 35 and 40 homers per year. What you see is what you get. For his sake, I wish that his defense would improve, but he tried to. He's like Manny. He can try for as long as he wants, but he's always going to be bad."

As for the notion that Dunn isn't a winning player, Cardenal said, "That's unfair. That kid would do anything to win. I saw him taking so many infielders out. That's not true. You've got to see him every day."

Here's what one front-office official said: "I think he's better than the J.P. review. He's fairly bright and pretty social, especially with teammates. He can be a little lazy at times. He's a good guy who needs some external motivation to play at his best."

Here's what a second official said: "Low-energy. Not a hard worker. A terrible defender at any position. He's a DH. I like his on-base percentage and I like his power."

Dunn is a sure thing offensively. The other stuff? We'll see how much it truly matters soon enough.

Around the leagues

Another reason the Giants can't really afford CC Sabathia: Their ace, reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, is a "super-two." Because the Giants called him up in early May 2007, Lincecum will be eligible for arbitration after the 2009 season. If he can put together another stellar season, he'll be breaking salary records for pitchers with his service time (figure the high seven digits).

The Angels, meanwhile, seem more likely to go after Ben Sheets than Sabathia.

Iba?ez doesn't want to accept arbitration by tonight's deadline, a person familiar with his thinking said. Yet with fellow outfielders Dunn, Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell all available without the accompanying compensatory draft picks, Iba?ez's agents, Sam and Seth Levinson, might convince him to accept the arbitration offer from Seattle.

Torre's town

For many years, the Yankees were the only team that didn't bring their manager to the winter meetings. Joe Torre spent his winters in Hawaii, and besides, the team didn't consult him much on moves anyway.

But the Dodgers' manager will attend the winter meetings this week in Las Vegas. "The fact that it's so close and it's Vegas, it's tough to say no to," said Torre, who has moved his family to Los Angeles full-time. He would not commit to showing up at next year's meetings in Indianapolis.