Paul DeJong In Agreement With White Sox On Major League Deal

DeJong, 30, is a buy-low move for the Sox, as he has struggled badly in recent seasons. He had an incredible debut with the Cardinals in 2017, hitting 25 home runs in his first 108 major league games. His 28% strikeout rate and 4.7% walk rate were not great, but his overall line of .285/.325/.532 translated to a wRC+ of 123. The Cards made a bet that DeJong could be their shortstop for many years to come, signing him to a six-year, $26MM extension prior to 2018. Unfortunately for them, DeJong’s production slid downhill from the moment that deal was signed. His wRC+ dropped to 103 in 2018, then 101, 87, 84 and 54 through 2022.

In 2023, he seemed to get back on track somewhat. Through 81 games for the Cards, he hit 13 home runs and ...

Padres hire Mike Shildt as new manager on 2-year deal

The San Diego Padres have agreed to terms with Mike Shildt on a two-year contract to become their new manager, the team announced Tuesday.

Shildt, former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, replaces Bob Melvin, who left San Diego for division rival San Francisco.

Shildt, 55, served as senior adviser for the Padres after the Cardinals surprisingly let him go following the 2021 season, and was seen as the favorite to take over after San Diego granted Melvin permission to talk with the Giants about their job despite having one year remaining on his contract.

Cardinals sign P Kyle Gibson to 1-year, $12M deal, sources say

One day after signing pitcher Lance Lynn, the St. Louis Cardinals have added righty Kyle Gibson on a one-year deal with an option for 2025, the team announced on Tuesday.

Gbison’s deal is worth $12 million next season, sources told ESPN.

Gibson, 36, spent last season with the Baltimore Orioles, going 15-9 with a 4.73 ERA in 33 starts. He threw 192 innings while giving up a league high 198 hits. After spending the first seven years of his career with the Minnesota Twins, the veteran is joining his fourth team in four years. Overall, he’s 104-100 with a 4.54 career ERA in 11 seasons.

Willie Hernández, MVP & WS champ in ‘84 with Tigers, passes

Tigers great Guillermo “Willie” Hernández died Monday. He was 69.

One of the many great Puerto Rican players throughout Major League Baseball history, Hernández was a dominant closer in Detroit who won both the American League Most Valuable Player Award and Cy Young Award for the 1984 World Series champion Tigers.

The left-hander had a 13-year MLB career and was a three-time All-Star for the Tigers from 1984-86. He helped lead Detroit to a World Series title—still the franchise’s most recent—in his first season with the team.

Hernández recorded a career-high 32 saves with a 1.92 ERA and 112 strikeouts in that 1984 season. He pitched 140 1/3 innings, all in relief, and led the Majors with 80 appearances and 68 games finished.

In ...

OT - NBA Redux Thread for the End of 2023

I estimate only 10-12 Primates care about the NBA, and Draymond Green will find a way to put you into a choke hold if Steph’s not playing.

Braves’ Reynaldo Lopez: Gets three years, $30M from Atlanta

Lopez signed a three-year, $26 million contract with Atlanta on Monday.

The deal contains an $8 million club option or $4 million buyout for the 2027 season, so Lopez will net $30 million over the life of the deal. Atlanta had already re-signed Pierce Johnson and Joe Jimenez and traded for Aaron Bummer and they’ve now brought in Lopez to reinforce their bullpen. Lopez made a full-time move to relief in 2022 and has produced a 3.02 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 146:45 K:BB over 131.1 innings covering the last two seasons. Justin Toscano of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Lopez will be stretched out during spring training to give Atlanta a rotation option, with the possibility that he could contribute both as a starter and reliever. In ...

Source: Cardinals finalizing deal for starter Lance Lynn’s return to help rotation

The Cardinals’ first move to restock their rotation is a retro one.

Right-hander Lance Lynn, a fixture in the rotation for years, is finalizing a one-year deal to return to the Cardinals, a source described to the Post-Dispatch. The deal is pending a physical to be completed in the near future.

The contract also includes option language for 2025 that gives Lynn the chance to earn more than $20 million over the two seasons, a source described.

Right-hander Lance Lynn and the St. Louis Cardinals are in agreement on a one-year contract with a club option that guarantees around $10 million, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN. Lynn, 36, was drafted by Cardinals and returns, pending physical, as they rebuild rotation.

— Jeff Passan ...

Who is on the 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot and what’s the induction process?

As announced moments ago by @baseballhall, the 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot: pic.twitter.com/wBfOUheuF3

— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) November 20, 2023

Ex-Yankees reliever Zack Britton retiring after 12-year career

Ex-Yankees and Orioles reliever Zack Britton is retiring, the southpaw told The Athletic.

Britton, 35, did not play this past season, and finished his 12-year career – all in the AL East with the Yankees and Orioles – with a 3.13 ERA and 154 saves.

He last appeared in a game Sept. 30, 2022 for the Yankees, ironically against the Orioles.

Britton exited that game early after throwing a wild pitch.

The 2016 saves leader told the outlet he’s retiring to spend more time with his family, which includes his four children and wife, Courtney.

“My last outing was against the Orioles. I threw a ball to the backstop as my last pitch; I think about that and it sucks,” Britton said. “It might not have been perfect from a career ...

Who are the 10 most hyped free agents ever?

1. Alex Rodriguez, SS, 2000-01 offseason
Previous team: Mariners
Signed with: Rangers

He was 25 when he hit the market in the baseball winter of 2000. Again: This isn’t about what we discovered about him later. This is about what we saw then. And what we saw was a shortstop who’d hit 125 homers his last three seasons with the Mariners, and knocked in 367 runs. Then he went to the Rangers and hit 52 homers, then 57 and 47 in his first three seasons there, and knocked in 135 and 142 and 118.

Sources: Phillies, Aaron Nola agree to 7-year, $172M deal

The negotiations between Nola’s agents, Garrett Parcell and Joe Longo, and the teams pursuing him ratcheted up going into the weekend. Despite the fact that no free agents had signed since the market opened, Nola didn’t want to dawdle. Philadelphia and Atlanta were the final two suitors, and Nola wound up receiving the biggest contract for a pitcher in Phillies history and the 11th largest overall.

As Nola grew into a pitcher who twice finished in the top five of NL Cy Young voting, the Phillies moved out of a rebuilding phase, added stars around him and followed a World Series appearance in 2022 with an NLCS berth this season.

While Nola’s ERA regressed to 4.46 this year amid a spike in home runs allowed, he still threw 193⅔ innings, ...

Royals add Anderson, Wright in pair of trades with Braves

The Royals and Braves were busy trade partners on Friday, executing two separate trades that landed Kansas City two pitchers.

First, the Royals acquired reliever Nick Anderson for cash considerations. A few hours later, the clubs swapped a pair of former first-round pitchers, with Kyle Wright heading to Kansas City and Jackson Kowar to Atlanta.

Wright, 28, will likely miss all of 2024 after undergoing right shoulder surgery, but he led the Majors with 21 wins and a 3.19 ERA in 2022, becoming the first Braves pitcher to lead the Majors in wins since Tom Glavine in 2000. Wright was an integral part of the 2021 World Series champion Braves when he allowed one run over 5 1/3 relief innings against the Astros that October.

The No. 5 overall ...

Guardians trade Enyel De Los Santos to Padres for Scott Barlow; sign Ramon Laureano to 1-year deal

The Guardians made their second trade of the day on Friday, sending strong-armed reliever Enyel De Los Santos to the Padres for right-hander Scott Barlow.

The also avoided arbitration with outfielder Ramon Laureano, signing him to a one-year deal worth $5.15 million. He was projected to make $4.7 million in arbitration, and can be a free agent after 2024.

Brewers non-tender Woodruff, Tellez

Other non-tenders:

ARI - KYle Lewis
ATL - Yonny Chirinos, Kolby Allard, Penn Murfee, Angel Perdomo and Michael Tonkin, Chadwick Tromp and Luke Williams.
BOS - Wyatt Mills
CHC - Ethan Roberts, Brandon Hughes, Codi Heuer
CIN - Nick Senzel, Derek Law, Reiver Sanmartin
COL - Tommy Doyle
DET - Austin Meadows, Spencer Turnbull, Brenan Hanifee, Garrett Hill, Freddy Pacheco
KCR - Diego Hernandez, Josh Staumont, Logan Porter, Austin Cox
LAA - Jose Marte
MIA - Jacob Stallings, Garret Hampson
MIL - Brandon Woodruff, Rowdy Tellez, JC Mejia
MIN - Jovani Moran, Ronny Henriguez
NYM - Jeff Brigham, Sam Coonrod, Trevor Gott, Luis Guillorme, Daniel Vogelbach
NYY - Albert Abreu, Lou Trivino, Anthony Misiewicz
OAK - Kevin Smith
PHI - Josh Fleming
PIT - ...

MLB cancels Paris games in 2025 after being unable to find promoter, per report

Major League Baseball has canceled plans to play regular-season games in Paris in 2025, reports the Associated Press. The league failed to find a promoter and has been unable to make progress ensuring the games are financially viable. Other international games, including the Seoul Series next March, remain on schedule.

The 2025 Paris games were part of the league’s efforts to grow the game internationally. Teams had not yet been selected, though the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees threw their hats in the ring. The Paris games would have been played at Stade De France, an 80,000-seat stadium that opened in 1998 and is home to the France national soccer and rugby teams.

Hot Stove Omnichatter

The Hot Stove is heating up!

White Sox trade for Soroka, Lopez, 3 others from Braves

White Sox receive: RHP Mike Soroka, INF Nicky Lopez, LHP Jared Shuster, SS Braden Shewmake, RHP Riley Gowens
Braves receive: LHP Aaron Bummer

Bummer is under contractual control through ‘24, with club options for ‘25 and ‘26.

Lopez, who played for the Royals from 2019-23 and hails from Naperville, Ill., figures to bridge the gap at shortstop from Tim Anderson to Colson Montgomery, but he can effectively play around the infield. The left-handed-hitting Montgomery—the top White Sox prospect and No. 17 overall per MLB Pipeline—should arrive in the Majors sooner than later in ‘24.

A Unanimous Duo! Acuña, Ohtani named MVPs

Braves to host 2025 MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta after losing 2021 festivities over Georgia voting laws

Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, will host the 2025 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced in a press conference Thursday afternoon during the owners meetings.

“I commend Terry McGuirk, Derek Schiller, the entire Braves organization and the Atlanta Sports Council for leading this effort,” Manfred said. “As a model of success on and off the field, the Braves deserve to host the All-Star Game. Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta will provide fans a world-class experience in 2025. We look forward to working with the Braves and local leaders to deliver a memorable All-Star Week that brings people together and benefits the community in many ways.”

With the All-Star Game also comes several days ...

MLB owners give Fisher green light to leave Oakland, move A’s to Las Vegas

After 56 seasons, Major League Baseball has given up on the Oakland Athletics.

The election that A’s fans have anticipated and dreaded for months took place Thursday morning and, as expected, MLB owners voted 30-0 to approve owner John Fisher’s plan to relocate his franchise to Las Vegas.

The owners, tired of the exhaustive A’s stadium search and desperate for commissioner Rob Manfred to consummate a deal, were ready to vote “yes” on ending the A’s time in Oakland, which would create an extremely lucrative one-team market for the San Francisco Giants.

The A’s moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland and are headed to their fourth city. They are committed to just one more year at the Coliseum before their lease ...

Padres’ Blake Snell, Yankees’ Gerrit Cole win Cy Young Awards

San Diego Padres starter Blake Snell won the NL Cy Young Award on Wednesday, becoming the seventh player—and second left-hander—to win the award in each league. Meanwhile, New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole won the AL edition for his first Cy Young Award.

AL Cy Young voting totals pic.twitter.com/7vJNDlPDyR

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) November 16, 2023

The voting breakdown for the NL Cy Young Award pic.twitter.com/Ut7zX5wIIE

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) November 15, 2023

Sources: MLB considers reducing pitch clock with runners on

Major League Baseball’s competition committee is weighing a proposal that would reduce the pitch clock with runners on base from 20 seconds to 18 next season, aiming to reverse a late-season trend that saw the average time of game increase by seven minutes, sources told ESPN.

MLB’s competition committee, which includes six members representing teams, four players and one umpire, heard the proposal to shave the clock as well as cut down mound visits from five per game to four, sources said

The 15-second clock without runners on base would remain the same, sources said.

The competition committee can implement a change to on-field rules with 45 days’ notice to players after a proposal. Players are currently discussing the proposal and ...

Why MLB offseason desperately needs a pitch clock, too

Baseball saved its season with a pitch clock. Now it needs to apply that concept to the sleepy offseason.

Free agency started last week, but you’d never know it. Whereas the NBA and NFL kick off player movement with feeding frenzies requiring blanket coverage, baseball is content to poke its head out the door in a bathrobe before pulling the shades and crawling back into bed.

Given the excitement generated by deadlines that now exist between every pitch, it shouldn’t take a visionary to recognize the winter needs a similar boost. Former Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski has long advocated for an offseason signing deadline, and perhaps this winter will finally spur MLB to action, because we’re looking at potentially even less action than ...

Legislature sends Brewers ballpark funding package to Gov. Tony Evers for his signature

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers plans to sign into law a funding deal aimed at keeping the Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin after it cleared the state Legislature with bipartisan votes in both chambers on Tuesday.

The proposal passed the state Senate on a 19-14 vote Tuesday morning following lengthy negotiations that went into Monday evening. The Assembly approved the Senate’s amended version late Tuesday afternoon with a 72-26 vote — a larger margin than the earlier version it approved last month…

Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, argued the deal should have looked more like the package that funded the Milwaukee Bucks’ Fiserv Forum, with changes including a 50-50 split between private and public funding, a ticket tax on all events including ...

Orioles’ Brandon Hyde wins AL Manager of the Year while Marlins’ Skip Schumaker takes NL award in rookie season

Brandon Hyde and the Baltimore Orioles showed promise in 2022, winning 86 games in a tough AL East. They fully arrived in 2023, winning 101 games and their first division title in nearly a decade.

Hyde picked up one final victory Tuesday, winning the American League Manager of the Year award on Tuesday. He beat Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy and Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash for the award.

Meanwhile, Skip Schumaker of the Miami Marlins got his managing career off to a good start, taking home the NL award.

Out of 30 BBWAA votes, Hyde received 27 first-place votes and three second-place votes. The only other manager to get first-place votes was Bochy. It is worth noting that the BBWAA submits votes at the end of the regular season, ...

Padres owner Peter Seidler dies at 63

SAN DIEGO — Peter Seidler, chairman and owner of the San Diego Padres, died Tuesday at age 63, the team confirmed.

“The Padres organization mourns the passing of our beloved Chairman and owner, Peter Seidler,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner is quoted saying in a news release.

“Today, our love and prayers encircle Peter’s family as they grieve the loss of an extraordinary husband, father, son, brother, uncle, and friend. Peter was a kind and generous man who was devoted to his wife, children, and extended family. He also consistently exhibited heartfelt compassion for others, especially those less fortunate. His impact on the city of San Diego and the baseball world will be felt for generations. His generous spirit is now firmly ...

Yankees GM Brian Cashman expects Giancarlo Stanton to get hurt again next season: ‘It seems to be part of his game’

The Yankees general manager, however, is struggling with what to do about outfielder Giancarlo Stanton — who he said is bound to get hurt at some point next season. In his eyes, that’s just who Stanton is now.

“We try to limit the time he’s down,” Cashman said at the general manager meetings in Arizona, according to the New York Daily News. “But I’m not gonna tell you he’s gonna play every game next year because he’s not. He’s going to wind up getting hurt again more likely than not because it seems to be part of his game.”

Stanton held a career-low .191 batting average with 24 home runs and 60 RBI last season while playing in just 101 games due to a hamstring injury he sustained early in the season. He played in just ...

Troy Percival wants pitchers to care more about eyes than iPads. The Angels might agree

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Early this fall, during minor league instructional camp, the Angels invited one of the most decorated pitchers in franchise history to help work with their up-and-coming prospects.

Troy Percival wasn’t a fan of what he saw.

He wasn’t frustrated with the pitchers or how they were throwing. Rather, Percival told The Athletic, his reaction stemmed from how technology was being used by people in player development.

“I’m not one that’s big on using the iPads,” said Percival, who spent six seasons as the head coach at UC Riverside. “I understand it. I had to understand it through college coaching. I just feel like we need to have coaches with eyes that can see things and put their hands on people and fix them. ...

Report: Brewers to name bench coach Pat Murphy as next manager

The Milwaukee Brewers are sticking in-house to replace Craig Counsell.

The Brewers are planning to name bench coach Pat Murphy as their next manager, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Murphy has been with the Brewers since 2015, and had been seriously considered to replace Counsell in recent days.

The job will mark Murphy’s first full-time managerial gig in the league, though he’s served in the role in an interim capacity, at the minor league levels and at multiple spots at the collegiate level.

Carroll, Gunnar linked again as unanimous Rookies of the Year

The leadoff man and center fielder was a Seattle speedster named Corbin Carroll. The third baseman was a tall, athletic kid from small-town Alabama named Gunnar Henderson.

It was the American team at the 2018 Under Armour All-America Game. And as it turns out, it was a preview of the 2023 Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year class in MLB.

When the D-backs’ Carroll and the Orioles’ Henderson were announced Monday night on MLB Network as unsurprising – and as it turns out, unanimous – winners of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America rookie honors in the American and National Leagues, it was the second time they were paired together. The first was back when they were amateur prospects in a showcase game at Wrigley Field in ...