Good
morning.
- In case you haven’t heard, the White Sox and the Mets made a trade late last night. The White Sox sent outfielder Luis Robert Jr. to Queens for infielder Luisangel Acuña and right-hander Truman Pauley.
- The big news, however, was that outfielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones were elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
- Here are the complete voting results.
- Anthony DiComo has a recap of Beltrán’s career. Beltrán wis the sixth Puerto Rican to be inducted into Cooperstown.
- Beltrán has not decided yet whether he wants a Mets or Royals cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.
- Jake Mintz says Beltrán’s election shows that the voters, at least, have forgiven him for his role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
- Mark Bowman looks at Jones’ Hall of Fame career.
- Jayson Stark has five things that struck him about the Hall of Fame voting. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Hall of Fame voting winners and losers according to the ESPN dot com writers.
- Matt Snyder offers his winners and losers in this year’s ballot.
- Gabe Lacques has his winners and losers. I’m sensing a trend.
- Jason Foster has six players who made moves towards induction in future votes.
- Bob Nightengale wonders why admitted PED-user Andy Pettitte moved towards induction when other tainted candidates have not. He also says if Pettitte gets into Cooperstown, there is no excuse to not elect the many others connected to PED use. He thinks this is a bad thing.
- Tom Verducci explains his Cooperstown ballot and why his approach has changed.
- Andrew Simon takes a look at the next five Hall of Fame ballots.
- Manny Randhawa has four storylines for next year’s Cooperstown vote.
- Turning to other matters, Evan Drellich reports that other owners are “enraged” by the Dodgers’ deal with Kyle Tucker and are demanding a salary cap. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- The Dodgers are also reportedly trying to deal for Brewers starter Freddy Peralta. (The Athletic sub. req.) Katie Woo has the details.
- Ken Rosenthal explains why a potential lockout next seasons is not slowing down signings this year. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Mike Axisa ranks all 16 players who would have been free agents this year if they had not signed extensions. He also estimates what they would get on the open market this winter had they entered free agency.
- One other deal yesterday. The Rockies traded right-hander Bradley Blalock to the Marlins for minor league right-hander Jake Brooks.
- Ben Clemens evaluates the recent three-way deal between the Reds, Rays and Angels.
- The Twins have signed free agent catcher Victor Caratini. Kiri Oler breaks down what in store for the Twins and Caratini.
- Chad Jennings puts all 30 teams into tiers based on how much they are trying to improve this winter. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Sad news as former White Sox knuckleballer Wilbur Wood has passed away at 84. Wood put up some insane innings totals from 1971 to 1975—insane even for the early seventies. I also wonder if the knuckleball isn’t dying out. There aren’t many living knuckleballers left. But our condolences go out to Wood’s family, friends and former teammates. Also to the knuckleball.
- Davy Andrews has an article about pitch models and how (and why) they’re becoming less predictive of success.
- The Rays took their first step towards a new stadium in Tampa after Hillsborough College voted in favor of a non-binding resolution that would allow the Rays to explore building a stadium at one of their campuses.
- Eric Fischer has more on what this means and how it could lead to a new stadium for the Rays.
- Good news as a followup to last week’s story about Angels farmhand Rio Foster, who has badly injured in a traffic accident last year. The Angels have now committed to signing Foster to a minor-league deal, which would keep him on their insurance plan throughout his rehabilitation. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- And finally, Bryan Hoch has the greatest Yankee player of all time by their uniform number.
