MLB Bullets Is Not Seeing Red

You heard it here first: The Cubs just signed Jon Hamm and Chuck Berry away from St. Louis.

• Why the Cardinals shouldn't panic. (Warning: Slideshow)
• With Jason Heyward now bleeding Cubbie blue, the Cardinals have turned their attention to free agent outfielder Alex Gordon.
• Jon Paul Morosi points out that there is a problem with Gordon signing with the Cardinals. Matt Holliday is under contract for one more season and can't play anywhere but Gordon's preferred position of left field. Gordon would have to be willing to play right field or center for one season if he signed with St. Louis.
• Dan Szymborski ranks the ten best-value big-money (over $90 million) contracts of all time. (ESPN Insider Only)  He expects Heyward's contract with the Cubs to join this list one day.
• Thomas Neumann remembers Alex Rodriguez's famous ten-year, $252 million contract with the Rangers on its 15th anniversary.
• If you think there are a lot of big money contracts being signed this winter, Jeff Passan looks forward to 2018, when there will potentially be the greatest crop of free agents ever. And don't think it's a coincidence that Heyward's first opt-out is for this winter: teams are already planning for that free-agent crop.
• Anthony Castrovince also writes up the free agent class of 2018.
• The Phillies trade of Ken Giles to the Astros was officially announced and to everyone's surprise, it included former #1 pick in the draft Mark Appel.
• David Schoenfield has some thoughts on Appel and a couple other notes from the news.
• The Phillies acquired pitcher Charlie Morton from the Pirates.
• Ken Rosenthal argues that the moves the Astros have made to shore up the back end of the bullpen show that closers are more important than some sabermetric analysts have argued. Also, a whole bunch of other notes on the Padres, Rockies and other stuff.
• Speaking of which, the Mariners signed Steve Cishek.
• Ken Rosenthal also has a fascinating behind-the-scenes report on how the Diamondbacks jumped into the Zack Greinke bidding at the last minute and signed Greinke less than six hours after first contacting his agent.
• Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer announced his retirement with one year left to go on his contract. Cuddyer took to The Players Tribune to explain his decision and to reflect back on his career.
• David Schoenfield says Cuddyer's piece shows why he's a class act.
• In case you're not sick of Winter Meetings wrap-ups, AJ Cassavell has grades for every team. Guess who gets an "A"?
• And Tom Verducci has ten lessons learned from the Winter Meetings.
• Jeff Samardzija said he was tipping his pitches last season.
• The Mets are unlikely to bring back Yoenis Cespedes.
• Mike Vaccaro thinks the newfound optimism of Mets fans is quickly fading thanks to the Wilpons.
• The Nationals have no interest in Aroldis Chapman as long as the domestic violence investigation is ongoing.
• The Reds are willing to trade everyone but Joey Votto, who has a no-trade clause and has made it clear he wants to stay in Cincinnati.
• The Rockies are willing to trade pretty much everyone including Joey Votto, whom they hope to pawn off in some sort of Brooklyn Bridge-type scam. They probably want to hang on to Nolan Arenado though.
• Who would fall for the Rockies Joey Votto scam? Maybe Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart, judging from Neil Weinberg's "Year in Dave Stewart quotes" collection. Of course, Weinberg does admit that Stewart might just be running a scam of his own and he says stupid stuff so people underestimate him.
• Jamal Collier looks at how to rebuild the Mariners.
• Tom Haudricourt warns the Brewers rebuilding efforts could take a while. I like his quote from manager Craig Counsell on rebuilding. "It doesn't take time to sell it, it takes patience to live through it." Been there!
• A look at the rest of the off-season for the Orioles.
• The Pirates expect Jung-Ho Kang to return from injury some time in April.
• Former Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson died last month of a cocaine overdose.
• Members of the Coast Guard that picked up Yasiel Puig at sea remember their time with the now-Dodgers star.
• Tigers pitcher Bruce Rondon started a massive brawl in a winter ball game.
• And finally, Pedro Moura caught up with former Expos pitcher Floyd Youmans in Nashville and got his story. Moura met up with Youmans because Youmans was his Uber driver. He'd like to get back into baseball, but no one is interested.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.