It was a beautiful day in Chicago, perhaps the last 70-degree day we’ll see for months. Although the World Series is fading from the rearview mirror, it was hard not to think about baseball on a day like this one. It would have been a perfect sunny afternoon to spend at Wrigley Field.

Baseball is in the news as well, with the GM meetings getting underway. The center of the baseball universe is Dana Point, Calif., where life appears to revolve around agent Scott Boras. Everyone’s favorite negotiator has two of the biggest free-agent clients in the business in Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixeira.

There won’t be a baseball fan in the Los Angeles area who doesn’t know Boras by the start of spring training 2009. Both Ramirez and Teixeira moved to the West Coast in the final days of July -- Manny to the Dodgers and Teixeira to the Angels -- and now Boras calls the shots whether they stay or go.

Getting a deal done with Boras takes a long time, but Angels GM Tony Reagins is suggesting that he won’t engage in protracted negotiations with Teixeira’s agent.

"There will come a time when we have to know one way or the other," Reagins told the Los Angeles Times. Any bid made to Teixeira, Reagins said, will ask for a prompt reply.

Reagins has said Teixeira and free-agent southpaw CC Sabathia are his primary offseason targets. The GM won’t tip his cap whether it’s in the budget to ink both players, but if the Angels are limited to one or the other, waiting on Teixeira has its risks. The Angels also have to make a decision on their closer, Francisco Rodriguez, who will join Teixeira on the free-agent market.

FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal believes the Dodgers may take a similar approach with Ramirez. They’ve already stepped up with an offer to their star free agent, reportedly for an annual salary in the neighborhood of $23-27 million a year. In the end, according to Rosenthal, “the strategy for both Los Angeles teams could be to avoid Boras and bid hard for left-hander CC Sabathia, perhaps the biggest free-agent prize of all.”

The Angels have tended to move quickly when the free-agent period begins in mid-November. Signing Sabathia before the end of the month seems more likely than getting Teixeira’s signature on a contract.

The three big fish in the free-agent waters will be the top stories of the offseason. Two of them finished the 2008 campaign in Los Angeles, though the third may be the most likely to call Southern California home in 2009.