The offseason is off to a slow start. A look at the market for Juan Soto, Garrett Crochet and others. A deal has been reached to stream games in market. And other news from around baseball.
Good morning. You’ve already been informed of the Rays stadium plans for next season.
- Here are the first and second All-MLB team, if you care about that sort of thing. Shōta Imanaga was named to the second team.
- We haven’t announced the BBWAA Awards yet, but Michael Baumann has a two-part series on whether sabermetrics and WAR ruined the MVP conversation. Here’s part one and here’s part two.
- Anthony Castrovince comes up with seven “bold” predictions for the offseason.
- R.J. Anderson has three reasons that the hot stove is still cold at the moment. Meaning why there have been so few transactions.
- The Angels did sign free agent catcher Travis d’Arnaud. Ben Clemens evaluates the signing.
- Mike Axisa looks at what the Angels will have to do to return to contention in 2025.
- David Schoenfield has some superlatives for the different free agents this winter. (ESPN+ sub. req,)
- Andrew Simon ranks the top ten free agent starting pitchers.
- MLB dot com reporters debate the state of Juan Soto’s free agency at the moment.
- Jack Baer evaluates all the teams rumored to be meeting with Soto this upcoming week. He looks at how good a fit they are and how serious they probably are.
- Ben Clemens looks at Juan Soto’s swing decisions and shows how patience can be a virtue.
- Jake Mintz has the top five questions facing the Mets this winter.
- Jonathan Mayo has a scouting report on Roki Sasaki. tl:dr? He’s really, really good.
- Buster Olney looks at the trade market for White Sox hurler Garrett Crochet. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
- Sean McAdam reports on the Red Sox pursuit of Crochet. The White Sox are reportedly interested in rookie center fielder Wilyer Abreu for Crochet. Which is a lot.
- Gabe Lacques has the best six fits for free agent starter Corbin Burnes.
- Jesse Yomtov writes on the top five destinations for free agent third baseman Alex Bregman.
- Mike Axisa opines that free agent first baseman Pete Alonso may get a much smaller contract than expected.
- Joe Trezza lists all of the top 30 team prospects that need to be placed on the 40-man roster or risk being lost in the Rule 5 draft.
- Diamond Sports Group has reached an agreement to emerge from bankruptcy.
- Part of that deal is to offer in-market streaming through Amazon Prime Video for the teams on the FanDuel RSNs. And no, it won’t be included with Prime. You’ll have to pay for Prime and then pay a separate fee on top of that.
- An arbitrator upheld the five-year ban for top executives of Bad Bunny’s Rimas Sports agency.
- The MLB Players Association will no longer give licensing money to managers, coaches and trainers following new legal advice. (The Athletic free reg. req.)
- Dave Sims, who has been the TV voice of the Mariners for the past 17 years, will leave Seattle to become the new radio voice of the Yankees.
- Former MLB outfielder Yasiel Puig will play for the Kiwoom Heroes of KBO next season.
- Travis Bazzana, the first pick in this past summer’s MLB Draft, made his senior team debut for the Australian national team in the Premier12 tournament.
- Dodgers great Fernando Valenzuela died of septic shock, according to his death certificate.
- The estate of the daughter of Ted Williams is auctioning off memorabilia, including Williams’ 1946 MVP Award and his Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Shohei Ohtani’s “50/50” ball that sold for $4.4 million last month, is now a tourist attraction in Taiwan.
- And finally, Mets infielder Jose Iglesias performed his hit single “OMG” before the All-MLB Awards show.