MLB Bullets Has Gone To The Birds

I will never boo Dexter Fowler. I won’t cheer for him after he accepts his World Series ring, but I’m always going to be grateful for what he did for the Cubs. He also deserves to get paid. Good luck in St. Louis, Dexter. Just not too much luck.

By the way, I’m proud to say I’m now one of the 800k+ Twitter accounts followed by Jose Bautista. I feel like I’ve arrived.

• Fowler is in St. Louis today where he is expected to sign with the Cardinals today. We don’t know the exact terms yet, but the Cardinals reportedly “blew away” all other offers.
• I will highlight some of the deals made at the end of the Winter Meetings, but Craig Calcaterra has a full list of all the deals made in Maryland this week.
• Jay Jaffe has the winners and losers from the Winter Meetings.
• And more winners and losers from the Winter Meetings.
• Bob Nightengale just has some winners (mainly the White Sox) from the Winter Meetings, because Bob Nightengale is lazy that way.
• Then there are those who simply muse about the Winter Meetings. John Perrotto shares his thoughts about the Winter Meetings.
• At least Anthony Castrovince organizes his thoughts about the Winter Meetings into ten separate “takeaways.” I do hope one of them is Pad Thai.
• Richard Justice asks what is next in baseball after the Winter Meetings.
• Matt Snyder has ten questions the Winter Meetings didn’t solve.
• The staff of Yahoo Sports also has ten lingering questions, but they teamed up to write their ten articles.
• If your team is still looking for a starting pitcher, Grant Brisbee ranks all the ones that are available for trade. Remember: if you’re trading for Justin Verlander, you’ll need to include at least three runway-ready young models if you want the Tigers to throw in Kate Upton.
• Fowler is not the only ex-Cub to sign a big deal. Aroldis Chapman is heading back to the Yankees for five years and $86 million.
• Jon Tayler questions the wisdom of the Yankees signing Chapman, calling it a total “(Hal) Steinbrenner move.” I’m sure if the deal goes south, they’ll just blame it on Constanza.
• Mike Axisa likes it and thinks it’s a move that will help make the Yankees contenders in 2018 and 2019.
• Andrew Marchand thinks the Yankees will regret the Chapman deal one day, either on or off the field.
• Nicolas Stellini doesn’t like Chapman’s contract and he doesn’t like the moral questions raised by having Chapman on the field.
• Chapman has a full no-trade clause for the first three years of his deal and he can’t be traded to the West Coast in the final three. But new Yankees DH Matt Holliday has a more interesting limited no-trade clause: He can’t be traded to the Athletics. He must have really loved his half-season there.
• Tim Brown looks at the Royals future after the Wade Davis deal.
• Michael Baumann thinks the Cubs were the big winners in the Davis deal.
• Jayson Stark says the White Sox have perfected the art of the Sale. Err, the sale. Well, the Sale sale. I Don’t Know is on third base.
• Michael Baumann writes that if you love prospects, the White Sox are your team in 2017. Chicagoans have the ability to go through the Cubs 2012-14 experience all over again on the South Side.
• Eric Longenhagen scouts the prospects the White Sox got for Adam Eaton.
• Mike Petriello breaks down how getting Eaton changes the Nationals defense.
• David Schoenfield looks at the Rockies signing of Ian Desmond and wonders where Desmond fits in with Colorado.
• Grant Brisbee thinks it’s ridiculous if the Rockies are really going to play Desmond at first base.
• Jonah Keri looks at how the Desmond signing could affect the entire outfield market.
• David Schoenfield looks at the crowded market for 1B/DH and where some of the free agents may end up.
• Craig Calcaterra wonders why no one seems to want Edwin Encarnacion.
• Patrick Sauer thinks it’s crazy that the Orioles don’t want to sign Jose Bautista because the Baltimore fans don’t like him.
• Will Leitch agrees: Orioles fans would learn to love Bautista pretty quickly after a few home runs. Or once he follows all of them on Twitter.
• The Pirates failed to deal Andrew McCutchen and he looks likely to return to the Pirates in 2017.
• Sam Miller looks at how players like McCutchen and Sale, who commit to a team early, don’t have their loyalty repaid by the team.
• Craig Edwards makes the case for the Pirates to keep McCutchen.
• The Rangers and Braves made a deal that sent pitcher Tyrell Jenkins and a prospect to Texas for Luke Jackson.
• The Mariners got Chris Heston from the Giants.
• Reports out of Japan are that despite the restrictions on what he could earn in the new CBA, Shohei Otani still wants to come to MLB in 2018.
• The Red Sox trade with the Brewers has a detail that the Red Sox owe the Brewers $100 if they don’t agree on a player to be named later in the Tyler Thornburg trade. That’s still likely much more than the guy made in one day in the minor leagues.
• Eno Sarris has an interesting piece where he asked people at the Winter Meetings to anonymously tell him what people outside of baseball would be surprised to know about the game. (ESPN Insider Only)
• Mike Oz talks to people at the Winter Meetings to ask “What actually do you do here?”
• And finally, just to stick you with some soccer news, Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte flew to Spain to see Real Madrid take on Borussia Dortmund and he got to hang out with some of the players, including Cristiano Ronaldo.

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