Welcome to the first weekend without baseball. Well, MLB baseball, at least. The Winter Leagues are up and running. And there’s Fall League, too. Actually, there’s quite a bit of baseball to watch. So
welcome to the first weekend without baseball, now with baseball.
Onto the links.
Phillies news
Ranger Suárez and Kyle Schwarber received qualifying offers from the Phillies.
Assuming Ranger doesn’t take the QO (as is likely to be the case), what’s his market going to be like? ($)
MLB news
The Padres have hired Craig Stammen, former relief pitcher and more recently a Padres coach/operations assistant, as their new manager.
Don Mattingly, most recently the Toronto bench coach, will not be back with the Blue Jays next season.
The Rays declined their option on reliever Pete Fairbanks, sending him to free agency.
ESPN presents their top 50 free agents, along with predicted contracts.
And FanGraphs presents a top 50 of their own. ($)
MLB.com reports the Colorado Rockies will be hiring Paul DePodesta, who you may recognize from Moneyball, as their new head of baseball operations.
