Happy day-after-Boxing-Day to you and yours. The day after Christmas is always takeout day in my house, and last night I enjoyed a Bridge Box from West Seattle’s The Bridge—an “adult Happy Meal,” $11 gets you a slider, a bag of fries, a shot of booze (!), and a toy surprise. Pair that with an order of their cheese curds (served with the sweet heat of strawberry-jalapeño jam) and that’s a nice, if not necessarily healthy, meal. And let me just say that teeny-tiny jar of play-dough, while maybe a gimmicky throw-in, actually brought me a lot of delight. Dear restaurateurs of Seattle: more toy surprises in meals, please. On to the toy surprise that is today’s links!
In Mariners news:
- Anthony Castrovince of MLB matchmakered up some free agent matches to teams. He sent the Mariners Marcell Ozuna which...I actually really like as an idea. Look for an article from John early this week with a deeper dive on Ozuna to the Mariners, and look for me hovering around annoyingly singing “O-zu-na” like the reggaeton singer.
- Blake Snell might not be a Mariner anytime soon, but if you or someone you know is interested, he’s hosting a hitting camp for youth this January in Shoreline with the Nationals’ hitting coach Kevin Long.
- Former Mariner Robinson Canó will join the Estrellas Orientales in LIDOM play, as will Fernando Tatís Jr., Padres star and my favorite player, non-Mariners division (or actually, all division. Sorry, current Mariners.). Héctor Gómez has some footage of Canó taking BP where you can see Tatís stepping into the box after him and mercy, that’s quite a 1-2 punch.
Robinson Cano's BP. pic.twitter.com/6Zz1Tjf0im
— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) December 26, 2020
Around the league:
- Speaking of LIDOM play, the Leones del Escogido were dealt a blow when it was announced Gregory Polanco has a fractured wrist. He’ll miss the rest of LIDOM’s season but projects to be back in time to suit up for the Pirates in Spring Training—provided Pittsburgh’s GM Ben Cherington hasn’t found a willing buyer by then.
- Speaking of the Pirates, Bucs Dugout took a closer look at the two pitchers acquired from Washington in the Josh Bell trade.
- Following up on yesterday’s news, here are the contract details for new Rangers RHP Kohei Arihara:
Arihara contract terms:
— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) December 26, 2020
2021: $2.6 million
2022: $3.6 million
Can earn 50k in performance bonuses each year
Posting fee is $1.24 million
- The Red Sox are reportedly interested in Kiké Hernandez, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, who points out that Kiké played for Team Puerto Rico in the most recent WBC tournament, where Team PR was managed by current Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
- I don’t know how Steve Cohen’s tenure as Mets GM will go, but it’s been incredibly interesting from a PR standpoint to watch how it’s playing out so far. (Caution: NY Post link ahoy; the no-click version: Cohen says he wants to “win for them,” the “them” being Mets fans.)
- It’s great to see Shakeia Taylor (@curlyfro on Twitter) getting some more mainstream gigs, because Shake has been writing about the intersection of race and baseball long before this summer’s league-wide reckoning. Check out Shake’s latest on the steps baseball needs to take to address the decline of Black players in the sport for Yahoo! sports here.
- Joel Sherman of the NY Post writes that the Dodgers, like a classic horror movie villain, are “lurking” around top free agents like D.J. LeMahieu and Trevor Bauer. That sound you hear is the coast-to-coast echo of fans in Anaheim and NYC screaming in stereo.
Kate’s pick:
As we limp into the end of 2020, I’m pretty mad that no one came up with this idea earlier in the year: the hotline for screaming. Just call the number, wait for the beep, scream your screamiest scream, and hang up. It’s like scream therapy, but for free! They also collect and upload the screams so you can listen to the agony of total strangers, if that’s cathartic for you.