MLB Bullets is in the Cards

Good morning, Friday. Have a great weekend. That’s pretty anodyne.

• So when do the Winter Meetings start? You mean they are already over? Since the Winter Meetings didn’t exactly get the Hot Stove boiling, Jerry Crasnick wonders when the deals will start to happen.
• Anthony Castrovince has five unanswered questions for MLB now that the Winter Meetings are over.
• Richard Justice has ten players (actually more) who are still in limbo over where they’ll be playing next year.
• Scott Lauber notes that the Red Sox came up empty in the Winter Meetings, so what next for Boston?
• Rumors are that the Red Sox could try to sign both Eric Hosmer and J.D. Martinez.
• However, from at least one report, the Padres are the “clear-cut favorite” to sign Hosmer. However, this comes from Bob Nightengale, who doesn’t exactly have the greatest track record on these things.
• Pete Caldera has some winners and losers from the Winter Meetings. Gotta have at least one of those pieces.
• Jonah Keri gives out a report card on the Winter Meetings to the teams that did the most, for good and ill.
• There were, of course, some deals made in Orlando and probably the biggest was the one that sent Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals.
• Zach Kram believes that Ozuna solves the Cardinals biggest weakness at a low, low cost.
• Andrew Simon notes that according to StatCast, the Cardinals now have the hardest-hitting outfield duo in baseball in Ozuna and Tommy Pham.
• Eric Longenhagen scouts the prospects the Marlins got back from the Cardinals for Ozuna.
• To make room for Ozuna, the Cardinals traded Stephen Piscotty to the Athletics. In a classy move, the Cardinals elected to trade him to the A’s so that Piscotty could be near his mother, who is sick from ALS.
• Of course, the Cards didn’t exactly give Piscotty away for nothing and Paul Swydan thinks the deal was a “win-win” for both the Cardinals and the A’s.
• Will Leitch thinks that the Cardinals offseason moves put them on track to contend again, but more needs to be done.
• Bradford Doolittle agrees: the Cards still have more work to do if they intend to be a perennial contender in the National League. Please note that Doolittle pretty much assumes that Bryce Harper will sign with the Cubs or the Dodgers next winter.
• Then there are the Marlins. R.J. Anderson has who is left in Miami that other teams should be targeting.
• Travis Sawchik calls Christian Yelich the most valuable trade piece the Marlins have, and that includes Ozuna, Dee Gordon and Giancarlo Stanton.
• Grant Brisbee ranks all of the Marlins rebuilding projects and calls this current one the cruelest one of all. Again, this isn’t a fire sale in Miami. It’s burning down your own store to collect on the insurance money.
• A blockbuster trade that didn’t happen could still happen. Orioles general manager Dan Duquette said the team is debating whether to deal Manny Machado this winter.
• Tom Verducci thinks the Orioles should deal Machado now.
• Will Leitch makes the case for the O’s to keep Machado.
• David Schoenfield looks at what teams could put together a package for Machado. No, I don’t trade Addison Russell for one season of Machado, although it might make Albert Almora Jr. happy.
• One of the weirdest rumors has Machado going to Chicago, but to the South Side. Tommy Stokke tries to make sense of a Machado trade to the White Sox.
• Chris Cwik thinks a deal with the White Sox only makes sense if they intend to flip Machado at the trade deadline. And even then, it doesn’t make much sense.
• The Angels got their second baseman by acquiring Ian Kinsler from the TIgers. Although Kinsler is 36 years old and is coming off the worst season of his career. At least he was cheap and only has one year left on his contract.
• One place where there was movement over the Winter Meetings was in the reliever free agent market. You know the Cubs signed Brandon Morrow and Steve Cishek. Eric Stephen notes that the prices for relievers is going up.
• OK. Rapid fire reliever signings, not counting the Cubs. Fernando Rodney to the Twins.
• Juan Nicasio to the Mariners.
• Anthony Swarzak to the Mets.
• Joe Smith to the Astros.
• Jake McGee stays with the Rockies.
• Brandon Kintzler stays with the Nationals. I probably missed one.
• Bob Costas wins the Ford C. Frick Award, which is the broadcasters wing of the Hall of Fame.
• MLB is upset about that story about Shohei Ohtani’s medical reports and plans to investigate who leaked it. The diagnosis about his elbow was shared with all teams before the bidding and was not news to the Angels or anyone else.
• Travis Sawchik notes that even if that report turned out to be a big nothing, Ohtani is still a major health risk for the Angels.
• There were some rumors about a trade that would have the Diamondbacks trading Zack Greinke. That deal may have fallen through, but Chris Cwik has three reasons why the D-Backs should consider dealing Greinke.
• Former Cubs, Phillies and Rangers outfielder Doug Glanville will be teaching a course on sports and social justice at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Bartolo Colon feeding pigeons. I need say no more.
• And finally, in honor of the new Star Wars movie, Mike Oz asked people at the Winter Meetings which baseball players they would cast in an all-baseball Star Wars movie. They were pretty unanimous who would play R2-D2.

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