Welp. And here we are.
Diamomdbacks-related news
[MLB Trade Rumors] Each Team’s Draft Compensation For Losing A Qualified Free Agent – [If Christian Walker] is a QO-rejecting free agent who signs elsewhere for more than $50MM in guaranteed money, the compensatory pick falls after the first round of next year’s draft. (For instance, the Twins received the 33rd overall pick in the 2024 draft when the Cardinals signed Sonny Gray to a three-year, $75MM contract last winter.) If a team has a QO-rejecting free agent who signs elsewhere for less than $50MM guaranteed, the compensatory pick would come between Competitive Balance Round B and the start of the third round. The 2024 draft didn’t have of these latter selections, but in 2023, these compensation picks were the 68th, 69th, and 70th overall selections.
[FanSided] 3 free agents Diamondbacks can sign to get back to the World Series in 2025 – Ketel Marte led the team of underdogs to an 89-win season, a five-win improvement over 2023. Despite the five-game improvement, the Diamondbacks missed the postseason due to a tiebreaker that they had lost to the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets. Now, headed into the offseason, the Diamondbacks will be tasked with putting together an improved roster that can compete for a postseason spot in 2025. They came up just short of the ultimate goal in 2023. They have a chance to finally achieve that goal in 2025. [Jim: seems wildly wishful thinking from a payroll perspective, but it’d be nice!]
And, elsewhere…
[ESPN] Los Angeles Dodgers seal first World Series berth since 2020 – The Los Angeles Dodgers eliminated the New York Mets with a 10-5 victory in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday night. The Dodgers clinched their record 25th NL pennant and first at home since 1988, when they beat the Mets in seven games. They moved on to their 22nd World Series — 13th in Los Angeles — and first since 2020, when they beat Tampa Bay during the pandemic-delayed season. Next up for Ohtani & Co. is a matchup with Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees, who are back in the World Series for the 41st time and first in 15 years. Game 1 is Friday at Dodger Stadium, pitting Judge (58) and Ohtani (54) — MLB’s top home run hitters this season.
- For the first time in Brewers history, the team that eliminated them in the post season has fallen short of the World Series
- No active players in MLB were alive the last time there was a Dodgers-Yankees World Series (1981)
- For the first time since 2013, the two teams with the best regular season records will meet in the World Series.
- Taylor Trammell is guaranteed a ring, playing 5 games for both the Dodgers and Yankees in 2024.
- This will be the fifth year in a row a player named Will Smith will be on a World Series roster.
[MLB] Here is why Yankees-Dodgers World Series is must-watch – No matter how much you might try to focus on your own team, you still get a little sick of the Yankees and Dodgers. It feels like they’re everywhere. I understand all this, but I’d argue — and I suspect the television ratings we’ll see over the course of this series will agree with me on this — that this all makes you more likely to be enraptured by this series than less. You can love the Dodgers and Yankees, you can hate the Dodgers and Yankees, but you cannot, ever, ignore the Dodgers and Yankees. To truly ignore the Dodgers and Yankees, after all, would be to ignore baseball entirely. [Jim: I actually won’t be watching a single pitch and will, indeed, be ignoring baseball entirely]
[Awful Announcing] Rob Manfred wants to nationalize MLB media strategy, eliminate blackouts – “What I’d like to see happen over time is, we do our national deals, that we convert some of that local inventory into national inventory. It increases our reach and at the same time, when you think about it, we own the out-of-market rights already, if we control local rights as well, we can sell anything anywhere. Right? You don’t have to just sell in your market. And I’d like to get into a mode, where if it’s not in a national package, the consumer has the ability to go in, buy what he wants to watch, wherever he is, and we get rid of that really questionable business concept of the blackout, meaning not letting people who want to watch, watch.”