1B Yonder Alonso signs for 1yr/$2.65mil with Oakland. P Carlos Villanueva signs for 1yr/$1.5mil with San Diego. OF Gerardo Parra signs for 3yrs/$26mil with Colorado. IF Chris Johnson agrees to a 1yr deal with Miami. 2B Dee Gordon re-signs for 5yrs/$50mil with Miami. SP Wei-Yin Chen signs for 5yrs/$80mil with Miami. Contract has an opt-out after Year 2 and a 6th year that is a vesting player option which could take the full value of the deal to 6/$96mil. Cuban free agent SP Yasiel Sierra agrees to 6yrs/$30mil with the Dodgers. Cuban free agent SS Alfredo Rodriguez, 21, agrees to a $6mil deal with Cincinnati. Korean free agent CL Seung-hwan Oh signs for 1yr/$5mil with St. Louis with a 2nd year option. Alex Anthopolous hired by the Dodgers as their VP of Baseball Ops. They have about six former GMs working in their brain trust right now. Seattle trades a couple minor leaguers to LA for P Joe Wieland. MLB requiring all teams to have a Spanish interpreter for the clubhouse for 2016. RIP Monte Irvin.
Chris Davis re-signs with the Orioles, 7yrs/$161mil. Largest contract in Orioles franchise history. Contract will also have a certain amount deferred in annual, no-interest payments through 2037. EDIT: Breakdown of deal is that Davis gets $17mil/season from 2016 to 2022. Then he gets $3.5mil/yr from 2023-2032, and then $1.5mil/yr from 2033-2037. EDIT2: Ian Kennedy signs with the Royals, 5yrs/$70mil...contract has a 2nd-year opt-out. Notice how David Glass is suddenly opening up the pursestrings...extended Alex Gordon, signed Kennedy to a big-money deal, gave Cain an extension, etc. Good to see a small market team spending.
Joe Blanton has a 1yr deal in place with the Dodgers. Justin Upton signs with the Tigers for 6yrs/$132.75mil. Has a 20-team NTC as well. Mike Ilitch was reportedly going to sign Chris Davis before new GM Al Avila talked him out of it and into signing Justin Upton. Former Rockies C/1B Wilin Rosario signing a deal with the Hanhwa Eagles of the KBO. Jonathan Sanchez, former starter on the 2010 Giants and a guy who threw a no-hitter, is trying to make an MLB comeback after bombing out a couple years ago. Marlins moving the fences in at their park. http://deadspin.com/mlbs-blackout-rules-improved-b...
Astros sign Doug Fister to a 1yr deal. Rays trade Jake McGee to Colorado in exchange for OF Corey Dickerson. Presumably McGee takes over as the Rockies closer while Adam Ottavino continues to rehab from TJ surgery. Rex Brothers went from the Rox to the Cubs. Twins dropped a new MIN alternate red jersey for 2016. http://imgur.com/PlkmXA2
Mat Latos finds himself someone who take his mopey, declining self on -- he signed with the White Sox. I guess they needed someone to replace Jeff Samardzija as their rotation's worst starter. At least Chris Sale and Carlos Rodon should be good.
Also, renewed my Y! Fantasy Baseball league from last year. Waiting on 5-6 teams to respond to invites but I have 3 open spots right now with likely more opening up as we get closer to the beginning of the new season. LMK if you're interested in joining.
Former Mets closer Jenrry Mejia (who was the closer at the start of the 2015 season before he was suspended leading to Jeurys Familia taking on the role) is banned for life by MLB for a third positive steroid test. He tested positive the first time at the beginning of the 2015 season, then a second time after the All-Star break, and a third time today. He is the first person to be banned for life based on positive steroid tests. This ban also includes MiLB. Can't stress just how stupid Mejia must be. Tested positive, suspended eighty games. Then tested positive while serving the suspension for testing positive, suspended an additional 162 games. To then test positive while serving the second suspension for testing positive while being suspended for testing positive....just wow. A's acquire OF Khris Davis from Milwaukee for C Jacob Nottingham and RHP Bubba Derby. A's DFA'd Sean Nolin to make room for Davis on the roster. Yankees giving Mariano Rivera a plaque in Monument Park on August 14th.
Ya for real. Making millions just to blow it on 3 failed drug tests. What a dummy. And fuck ya, Mo deserves that plaque. But that goes without saying. I really miss him...Jeter and Posada too for that matter. Bout a month and a half to opening day baby.
First time a player has ever been banned from the MLB for substance abuse.. Not the list you want to be first on..
Red Sox give Carlos Marmol a minor-league deal with a spring training invite. Tigers give Bobby parnell a minor-league deal with a spring training invite. Pirates give Matt Joyce a minor-league deal. Royals sign Ross Ohlendorf to a minor-league deal. Royals sign Brian Duensing to a minor-league deal. Royals sign Clint Barmes to a minor-league deal. Rays sign Ryan Webb to a 1yr deal. Buster Olney points out that my Phils owe more $ to pitchers who won't pitch in their rotation this year (Matt Harrison, Cliff Lee - $28.7mil) - Phils don't expect Matt Harrison, acquired in the Cole Hamels trade, to pitch at all in 2016 - than they owe to their actual 2016 rotation ($17.6mil). ...gonna be another long year. Still paying the price for 2006-2011...but at least we'll always have 2008.
New Marlins manager Don Mattingly adopts a strict no facial hair policy akin to the Steinbrenner Yankees.
Lol. What the hell does facial hair have to do with the chance of your team being successful? So stupid...
He explained it as something along the lines of a desire for uniformity amongst his players. Reds trading Jay Bruce to the Blue Jays; Michael Saunders will be going from Toronto to the Angels, and the Reds will get prospects from both teams. Jimmy Rollins signs a minor-league deal with the White Sox with an invitation to spring training. Jeff Francoeur signs a minor-league deal with the Braves. Frenchy's SI cover feels like forever ago...believe it was eleven or twelve years ago now. Unrelated: TIL that Julio Franco is still playing pro ball. He's 57 years old (turns 58 in August) and he's going to be a player-manager of a team in Japan's BCL, an independent league. Franco played his last MLB game nine years ago at 49 years young. My Phils signed him in 1978 and he debuted for them in 1982. I'd also like to just take a second to note how far Ian Desmond's stock has fallen between February 2015 and February 2016. He was predicted to get $100mil in free agency in 2016 and now pretty much everyone else of note has signed and Desmond is still flailing around like a fish out of water.
Cubs trade OF Chris Coghlan to the A's for RHP Aaron Brooks. Cubs re-sign OF Dexter Fowler to a 1yr deal with a mutual option for 2017. Orioles sign P Yovani Gallardo to a 2yr/$22mil deal. Blue Jays sign former Phillies prospect and one-time All-Star OF Domonic Brown to a minor-league deal. MLB bans block slides after more than a century in the game. Block slides a la the Chase Utley slide that took out Ruben Tejada in the playoffs last season. MLB and the MLBPA also agreed to shorten mound visits by head or pitching coaches to 30 seconds.
This new layout is going to take a LOT of getting used to. Austin Jackson signs a 1yr/$5mil deal with the White Sox
Sounds like both Jarrod Parker (A's) and Dan Hultzen (Mariners) are done. Parker was screaming in pain after throwing a pitch yesterday and was diagnosed with a lateral elbow impingement. Hultzen said his shoulder is very painful and very weak (he had shoulder surgery a while back). Taking a minute to look at crazy #s for players who were once good and are being paid like they still are going into 2016: * Carl Crawford - $22.5mil to be a bench bat * Ryan Howard - $25mil * CC Sabathia - $25mil * Josh Hamilton - $28.4mil * Joe Mauer - $23mil * HanRam - $22mil * Jacoby Ellsbury - $21.1mil * Matt Kemp - $21.5mil * Matt Cain - $20mil * Rick Porcello - $20mil (!!) On top of that: Zack Greinke makes $34mil a year from now til 2021; Miguel Cabrera makes $31mil a year from now til 2023; David Price gets $31mil a year from now til 2021; ARod gets $27.5mil this season and next season.