Good morning everyone! Yesterday was a surprisingly eventful day in baseball and in the sporting world in general, especially considering it was a holiday. Let’s get you all caught up on the action.
In Mariners news...
- Even though he’s with the Diamondbacks, Taijuan Walker is still fighting the good fight.
— Taijuan Walker (@tai_walker) January 15, 2018
- The Mariners are toying with the idea of utilizing a six-man starting rotation for parts of next season.
Around the league...
- The big blockbuster from yesterday was the Giants’ acquisition of Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen for a pair of prospects.
- The Pirates’ GM seems pretty optimistic about the status of his team, for some reason.
Huntington: "The Gerrit Cole trade did not dramatically impact our potential to win the World Series this year. This [McCutchen] trade does not dramatically impact our potential to win the World Series this year."
— Bill Brink (@BrinkPG) January 16, 2018
- He must believe they’re a competitor, because the Pirates locked up their closer to a four-year contract despite the fact that they appear to be rebuilding.
- The ZiPS projections for the Angels were released yesterday.
Rough depth chart for the Los Angeles Angels with WAR projections c/o @DSzymborski. Full ZiPS post tomorrow at fangraphs [dot] lycos [dot] cyber. pic.twitter.com/D24PLySQwQ
— Carson Cistulli (@cistulli) January 16, 2018
- Curtis Granderson landed a one-year deal with the Blue Jays.
- The Jays are the latest MLB team to agree to extend the protective netting in their stadium.
- Former Rangers pitcher Tanner Scheppers is headed to Japan.
- Howie Kendrick has agreed to a two-year deal with the Nationals.
- Yadier Molina claims that he will retire when his contract expires at the end of the 2020 season.
Anders’ picks...
- Some crazy stuff went down in the NBA last night. The Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers got into an altercation late in the game which led to former Clippers guard Chris Paul — now with the Rockets — helping his new teammates break into the Clippers locker room after the game to try to start a physical fight.