MLB Bullets hits a snag

Good morning Friday.

• The sale of NPB star Shohei Otani to MLB has been postponed because of a lack of a current posting agreement between the two leagues. It was reported that the two league had agreed to extend the last agreement by one year, but Jon Heyman reports that the Players’ Association is making demands before they will sign off of the deal. Many feel that the MLBPA is upset that Otani will only be able to get a bonus in the range of $3 million and that he will be paid the rookie minimum. They reportedly would prefer Otani to wait two more seasons when no team would be limited by international signing fees.
• Mike Axisa notes that if the union is upset about the deal Otani is going to get, they only have themselves to blame for trading away the rights of amateur players for bigger salaries for current ones.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred remains optimistic that a new posting agreement will be reached. He also said that new “pace-of-play” rules will be in place for 2018, with or without the union. He prefers “with.”
• Despite MLB denying all season that anything about the balls had changed, the commissioner has appointed a committee to study whether the balls are actually different over the past two seasons.
• There is also a report that the Braves are facing “severe” penalties for violating the rules in signing international free agents. Those penalties include a major fine and having several prospects declared free agents, including shortstop Kevin Maitlin, the top prize of last year’s international signing period.
• The Pirates have fired Rene Gayo, their director of Latin American scouting, for violations of MLB rules, including the improper receipt of payment from a Mexican League team. If you’ve seen the documentary Pelotero, Gayo is the villain who fans rumors about Miguel Sano’s age in order to drive down his price so the Pirates could afford him. Instead, he just drove down the price enough for the Twins to afford him.
• Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton and Astros second baseman Jose Altuve were named NL and AL Most Valuable Player for 2017, respectively. Stanton beat Reds first baseman Joey Votto by only two points in the voting. Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant finished seventh (with one first-place vote) and Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo was 13th.
• Despite winning the MVP, Stanton remains on the trading block and R.J. Anderson notes that he could become just the third reigning MVP to be traded the season after winning the award.
• The Marlins have admitted that they want to shed salary this winter and Stanton’s contract (and the Marlins need to get rid of it) means that it will be close to impossible for the Marlins to get the top prospects they want and salary relief.
• But Eno Sarris makes the case that teams should be interested in trading for Stanton, contract and all.
• Yankees outfielder (and Rookie of the Year) Aaron Judge finished second to Altuve in the AL MVP voting and Judge warmly congratulated Altuve for his win on Twitter.
• The Indians’ Corey Kluber and the Nationals’ Max Scherzer were the AL and NL Cy Young Award winners.
• Mark Townsend wonders that with Scherzer winning two straight Cy Young Awards, has Scherzer passed Clayton Kershaw as the best pitcher in the game?
• Joe Posnanski calls up retired Orioles ace Mike Boddicker to ask him about what Boddicker and Kershaw have in common. (Mike was stumped too until Posnanski pointed it out.)
• If you had the Mariners making the first trade of the offseason, well, you and pretty much everyone else. The Mariners acquired Athletics first baseman Ryon Healy for RHP Emilio Pagan and a minor league shortstop.
• Dave Cameron breaks down the deal and says his evaluation of this trade is a sign of the way the game has changed in the past couple years. (If you don’t want to read it, Cameron likes the deal for the A’s better.)
• The second trade of the offseason also included the Mariners. Seattle sent reliever Thyago Vieira to the White Sox for international slot money.
• This deal is all about the Mariners having more money available to offer Otani.
• Grant Brisbee ranks the top 40 free agents this winter, in case you want a different opinion.
• Anthony Castrovince has the seven best “under-the-radar” free agents. Beef!
• Jon Heyman has 7 big questions for the Hot Stove.
• It’s Scott Boras’ job to get the most money for his clients and that causes him to say things in support of his clients that others find to be ridiculous. Whitney McIntosh collects some of the silliest things Boras said at the GM meetings.
• As always in the free agent market, it’s caveat emptor. Will Leitch looks at all major leaguers earning more than $20 million in 2017 and finds that many of them did not pay off. I think you can guess one of them for the Cubs as well as one that did pay off.
• Travis Sawchik writes that whether or not a team gets value from signing free agent first baseman Eric Hosmer will depend on whether or not Hosmer is able to change.
• The Angels are reportedly looking to add a second baseman this winter, which makes sense because as much range as Andrelton Simmons has, he can’t play both positions at the same time.
• The Cardinals have told Dexter Fowler that they plan to move him to a corner outfield spot in 2018.
• Jake Peavy wants to pitch again in 2018.
• Ben Nicholson-Smith discovered that GMs do respond to trade offers with memes and gifs.
• Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said that manager Joe Girardi would have been fired even if the Yankees had won the World Series this year. Yeah, I don’t believe that. But anything short of winning the World Series? Perhaps.
• The plans to renovate the Brewers Spring Training facilities in Maryvale were approved by the Phoenix City Council.
• The A’s have picked a design team for their new ballpark in Oakland. IT’S HAPPENING! Probably. Maybe. We hope.
• And finally, now that she’s married to Justin Verlander, model Kate Upton has a new workout routine: literally pushing Verlander around. You know, Justin should have taken his wife’s name, so then we’d have two Justin Uptons in baseball. It would be hard to tell the two of them apart then. Think of the hijinks!

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