''In the past, as soon as I leave town and I land in Miami, they call me and say they made this deal,'' Guillen joked.

He need not worry this year. While the New York Yankees were spending a reported $161 million on pitcher CC Sabathia and GMs were scurrying from meeting to meeting with the hopes of hammering out a trade, Williams was in his hotel room channel-surfing.

''I watched a movie earlier,'' Williams said. ''I watched WGN News -- that was interesting. Then I watched CNN a little bit. We did some peripheral things, housekeeping this afternoon with my staff, but a slow day in Las Vegas.''

Slow day? Slow week.

The Jermaine Dye-to-Cincinnati rumors continued to have life, but asked flat-out if he had any meetings throughout the day with other teams, Williams was to the point.

''No,'' he said.

It's an unfamiliar position for Williams. Nothing up his sleeve -- and really, this time, nothing up his sleeve.

''I was commenting to my staff upstairs that I can't remember this little dialogue,'' he said. ''But we had a lot of dialogue before we came here. We talked and spread out our board with the amount of prospects -- the nine guys we brought in to fill out our minor-league system -- so we're really excited about that. It's just a departure to a certain degree of what we're used to.

''It doesn't stop us from playing the games internally about who is out there, what can we potentially do to make an impact. It will be a little bit of a later offseason.''

The one reassuring thing for Williams is he's not alone.

The Minnesota Twins, who pushed the Sox to the limit of a one-game playoff before the division was decided, came to town with visions of landing third baseman Casey Blake, but swung and missed.

The Detroit Tigers remained an enigma, full of talent but still with holes, while the Cleveland Indians came shopping for a closer, settling on former Cub Kerry Wood and what's arguably a risky two-year contract considering his health history.

The Kansas City Royals? Rumor is they're in Vegas, but it's hard to say. After all, the Bellagio is a bit pricey.

Asked if he took satisfaction in knowing that the rest of the division is standing pat for the most part, Williams had a surprising answer.

''I was talking to someone about this last year as I was looking over some of the Twins' banners in Minneapolis,'' Williams said. ''I thought to myself, we have spent an awful lot of time in first place each year, with the exception of '07, to only have a couple of championships. In some respect, that gives you a certain sense of satisfaction, but in my world, it disturbs you a little bit.''

He's not disturbed enough to make the big splash this winter. Not yet, anyway.

So how is that Dye trade going, Kenny?

''I thought I was going to escape that question today,'' he said. ''Jermaine is still on the club and on the board and in the lineup.''

And with that, there was more CNN to watch.