Good morning. Bit of a slow news weekend, but I've got some stuff for you to digest as you head back to work or school.
- The first big free agent went off the board as the Tigers signed Jordan Zimmermann to a five year, $110 million deal.
- Cliff Corcoran thinks that both Zimmermann and his contract are a great addition to the Tigers.
- Mike Axisa notes that Zimmermann becomes the first pitcher to receive a $100 million contract after having Tommy John surgery.
- If you want to know how slow the news was over the weekend, the fact that Justin Verlander misspelled Zimmermann's name in a Tweet was somehow news.
- In a lesser free agent pitcher signing, the Blue Jays signed J.A. Happ to a three-year, $36 million deal.
- Jon Paul Morosi says that the Happ signing means the Blue Jays are out on David Price, if they were ever in it in the first place.
- There are two finalists for the Blue Jays vacant GM job: acting GM Tony LaCava and Indians executive Ross Atkins
- Yasiel Puig got in an altercation with a bouncer at a bar in Miami and ended up with a swollen eye.
- Neither party wanted to press charges, so the Miami police consider the matter closed.
- Because the incident started when Puig got in a fight with his sister, Puig may face an investigation by MLB under the new domestic violence policy. However, since other reports are saying that Puig only got physical with the bouncer and not his sister, I figure nothing will come of this. But it is another reason why the Dodgers will have trouble dealing him this winter.
- Russell Carleton tries to quantify the value of Craig Kimbrel to the Red Sox.
- Really, you should just read Nick Cafardo's Sunday notes column in the Boston Globe every week anyway. But this week he reports that the Red Sox are willing to outspend everyone for David Price. Among a lot of other things.
- Among the other notes in that piece, the Red Sox are trying to deal Hanley Ramirez. Good luck with that.
- And good luck to the Nationals trying to trade Jonathan Papelbon. One rival executive says that Papelbon is "untradeable."
- The Diamondbacks made an offer to free agent pitcher Johnny Cueto that was turned down.
- Ben Zobrist is reportedly the Mets "number one target" this offseason.
- David Schoenfield lists five possible landing spots for Justin Upton.
- Korean first baseman Byung-ho Park is reportedly flying to Minnesota. That would likely mean he has either agreed to terms with the Twins or is very, very close.
- We're now getting confirmation of what we already assumed. Longtime Marlins announcer Tommy Hutton was let go for being "too negative." In other words, he was honest occasionally.
- While Vin Scully said that 2016 would "probably" be his last season broadcasting, he now says that he can't see any circumstances that would cause him to continue broadcasting after this season.
- Joe Flint and Shalini Ramachandran have the story of why Comcast has dropped the YES Network.
- Jim Caple interviewed Mike Veeck, the "funniest man in baseball" and heir to his father's promotional throne.
- Mike Hessman, the all-time US-based minor league home run king, has retired to accept a coaching job. No word on where the job is, but please let it be Visalia.
- Tim Healy has a plan to make the Athletics good again.
- AJ Cassavell has some background on the 1884 St. Louis Maroons, the team that the Golden State Warriors are chasing for the most consecutive wins to start a season by an American professional sports team. The Warriors already have the record. The Maroons weren't a major league team. They played in the Union Association, which at best was the XFL to the National League's NFL at the time. The only reason we consider the UA a major league is because a weird guy who hated baseball but loved statistics worked his way into the Hall of Fame and decided to include them so he could have more statistics.
- And finally, Sean Doolittle and his girlfriend Eireann Douglas hosted 17 Syrian refugees for Thanksgiving dinner.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. The Hawkeyes are 12-0.