Mariners Moose Tracks, 12/17/20: Scott Servais, The Negro Leagues, and Mike Zunino

Good morning everyone! The Mariners are building a bullpen and good feelings are being had all around. I continue to hold out hope that the team will do something exciting this offseason, because we could all use some positive vibes right about now. Anyway, here’s some links for you today.

In Mariners news...

• Our very own Jake Mailhot wrote about the Mariners’ acquisition of Rafael Montero over at Fangraphs.
• Some great news for what is shaping up to be a pretty interesting M’s bullpen.

• I’m not at all surprised by this announcement, but I would in fact be surprised if Shed Long beat Dylan Moore for the job.

• And some more good news on the coaching front.

• Ryan Divish highlighted some more quotes from Scott Servais in his latest piece for The Seattle Times.

Around the league...

• The biggest news yesterday was Major League Baseball’s announcement to recognize the Negro Leagues as being MLB-level. Ben Lindbergh at The Ringer wrote about the declaration — one that should have been made long ago.
• Gary Phillips at The New York Times wrote about Manny Ramírez’s decision to return to professional baseball — in Australia.
• After embracing the BLM movement during the summer of protests, Major League Baseball still faces a lot of questions about representation at the highest levels of the sport.
• Even though he’s getting pretty close to retirement age, Justin Verlander has every intention to pitch in 2021 after he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
• The Rays agreed to a deal with our good friend Mike Zunino.

• The Mets are getting pretty bold, with reported plans to engage the Rockies on a trade for Nolan Arenado. I’m highly skeptical they’d have the prospect ammo necessary to acquire him.
• He hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2017.