Pitchers and catchers are showing up to Spring Training, but there is still some unfinished business in the Hot Stove. Remembering a forgotten hero of integration.
Good morning.
- Jeff Passan has an update on where we stand with the remaining business this winter—including Alex Bregman. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
- A roundtable discussion of the start of Spring Training, including Buster Olney’s assertion that Bregman has narrowed it down to three teams: Tigers, Red Sox and Cubs. Not necessarily in that order.
- Matt Snyder asks after some high-profile misses on his clients, has superagent Scott Boras lost his mojo? (Answer? It’s complicated.)
- Grant Brisbee gets you up to speed on baseball if you’ve been watching football since October. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Anthony Castrovince has the biggest surprises of the offseason.
- Dave Tobener can’t explain what the Giants did this winter.
- Will Leitch looks at one team from each division that missed the playoffs last year and evaluates whether they did enough to make the postseason this year.
- Mike Axisa has ten storylines to watch in Spring Training.
- Ken Rosenthal notes the teams that have the biggest percentage increases and decreases in payroll. (The Athletic sub. req.) Also other assorted MLB notes.
- Closer Kenley Jansen signed a one-year deal, $10 million with the Angels.
- First baseman Ty France agreed to a one-year, $1 million non-guaranteed deal with the Twins.
- To no one’s surprise, the Dodgers and left-hander Clayton Kershaw agreed to a new deal. Kershaw is expected to be out until June after knee and foot surgeries.
- Jay Jaffe evaluates what the re-signing of utilityman Kiké Hernández means for the Dodgers.
- There’s no way this isn’t ending up on a bulletin board. Dylan Hernández speaks with the Dodgers about the possibility they win 120 games this year.
- Mike Axisa looks at what has happened in the five years since the Mookie Betts trade.
- The Red Sox are hoping to add a right-handed bat as Spring Training begins.
- Jake Mintz has four questions for the Yankees as their Spring Training starts.
- Yankees manager Aaron Boone took some shots at the Dodgers, saying that he hopes that the Yanks will show more class than Los Angeles did when they won the World Series.
- The Rays claim to embrace uncertainty, which they are facing this year as they play all of their home games in Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
- Michael Baumann asks something that could scare White Sox fans; “What if the White Sox haven’t hit rock bottom yet?”
- Mike Petriello notes that the projections have the American League West to be an extremely tight three-team race this year.
- Ben Clemens looks at what prospect grades mean for the players’ future outcomes.
- Eric Longenhagen looks over his Top 100 prospects from 2018 to see how he did.
- Bob Nightengale speaks with Bobby Bonilla about his career and that deferred contract that everyone is so obsessed about.
- The Brewers unveiled the Bob Uecker patch that they will wear this season.
- Finally, Anthony Castrovince has the story of “Subway” Sam Nahem, who had an undistinguished major league career but played a role in the integration of the game by defending the rights of Black ballplayers. Nahem put together an integrated team that won the “GI World Series” in Europe in September of 1945.