Happy Monday BYB readers and welcome to the Week That Was. This past week things were a bit slower in the hot stove, as teams focused on cleaning up their outstanding arbitration issues (and one team was dealing with in-fighting and ownership lawsuits… more on that below).
We did see a new chapter in the Rays stadium drama, what else is new? The biggest point of discussion we’ll likely see coming up over the following week will be chatter about the Hall of Fame inductions coming later this month. There’s plenty of that below, but I anticipate there will be much more to come.
Also this week an old Tigers’ friend has found a new home. Justin Verlander is headed to the Giants on a one-year deal. Discussion of his career inevitably brought up the Tigers versus Astros debate in terms of where he’ll be remembered most. It’s still Detroit, people.
Free agents Jack Flaherty and Anthony Santander were both rumored to be considering short term “pillow” contracts with opt-out clauses included. With their markets not developing as hoped, deals like that would lock in solid future earnings and give them a chance to prove their work and hit the open market again. Of course, it’s hard to believe either is going to top their 2024 work next season, so it’s a tricky decision. Their current best long-term offers might be the best they can do in terms of total guaranteed money.
Meanwhile, things are very quiet in the Alex Bregman department.
Let’s just get right into the news of the past week.
Tigers are going to win the World Series
If MLB says it, I’m placing my bet now.
News Highlights
Hot stove moves
Social Media highlights
Just learned big news: New Red Sox City Connect uniforms will be green
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) January 11, 2025
(Here’s a little more on that ban story.)
We’ve added a 2nd row of stats to RR’s “Projected Opening Day Roster” pages. The main reason was to include WAR, but we also added wRC+, OPS, BB%, K% for hitters. The new row is labeled as STATS 1. The row of stats that has been there is now STATS 2.https://t.co/4cRgtLMJt8 pic.twitter.com/oEP2OIJa6l
— Jason R.R. Martinez (FanGraphs/RosterResource) (@JasonRRMartinez) January 10, 2025