Lookout Landing, 1/7/15

Now that the Hall of Fame announcement has been made and most of the deals that are going to be made this offseason have been made, news will likely slow down until pitchers and catchers report. That being said, there will always be some news because #ThereIsNoOffseason right? Anyway, to start things off:

The Rangers appear to be in talks with the Marlins regarding outfielder Marcell Ozuna. If you'll remember from earlier this offseason, there was a time when the Mariners were reportedly close to acquiring the young Marlins outfielder. The deal never materialized, supposedly due to a disagreement over whether Taijuan Walker would be involved in the deal or not. The Mariners were reportedly more interested in sending Nate Karns or Roenis Elias instead. Then there's this from yesterday:

Source: #Marlins have discussed OF Marcell Ozuna with #Rangers for RHP Chi Chi Gonzalez and perhaps another piece.

— clarkspencer (@clarkspencer) January 6, 2016

Now we know Elias was involved in a deal to Boston and as such would no longer be an option for this thought exercise anyway. But pending who this "other piece" is, does Chi Chi Gonzalez seem like a more attractive piece than Nate Karns? You tell me.*

In the end, I'm not sure I would take a deal of Karns+ for Ozuna at this point. I'm not even sure I'd take the deal straight up. The Mariners are in a place now where the outfield is pretty much set and there isn't a whole lot of room left for Ozuna in theory. If you make such a deal, all of a sudden there's an outfield that's way too crowded and a starting pitching staff where if someone gets injured things could get ugly.

The M's were wise to walk away from a potential deal when the Marlins wanted Walker. It is interesting, however, that the market seems to have fallen on Ozuna.

*It should be noted that Chi Chi Gonzalez is 23 years old and has only pitched about 60 innings in the big leagues. He is still considered a prospect at this point and is semi-well-regarded, but he's not clearly more valuable than Karns.

In other news:

• Luke Arkins takes a positive spin on Jack Zduriencik's reign as Mariners' GM.
• August Fagerstrom disagrees with my earlier sentiment, noting that there are plenty of free agents still out on the market.
• Mike Napoli has agreed to a one-year deal with the Indians.
• Neftali Feliz and the Pirates have come to terms on a one-year pact.
• The Royals have re-signed outfielder Alex Gordon to a four-year deal.
• The Dodgers have signed pitcher Brandon Beachy to a one-year contract.
• Chris Carter will join the Brewers after agreeing to a one-year deal.
• Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard have sued Al Jazeera for libel.
• Jeff Sullivan notices that players are starting to spray the ball to all fields more frequently.
• Alex Anthopoulos has joined the Dodgers' front office.
• Not totally baseball news, but Paul DePodesta has left the game to run the Cleveland Browns football team.