MLB Bullets is under the weather

I hope that all Cubs fans affected by the bad weather across the country stay safe today. As for Cardinals and Brewers fans? OK. You should stay safe too, I guess.

• We got a big break in the Cold Stove League yesterday as a big three-team deal sent relievers Luis Avilan and Joakim Soria to the White Sox, reliever Scott Alexander to the Dodgers and two minor leaguers to the Royals. Yeah, that’s what passes for excitement this winter. Eight years ago a deal with Soria would have been a big deal. Now the White Sox are getting cash to offset his salary.
• Actually, Travis Sawchik thinks the Dodgers may have gotten a gem in Alexander, comparing the lefty to Zach Britton.
• Everyone thinks the next free agent to sign will be first baseman Eric Hosmer, and Bob Nightengale reports that Hosmer has a seven-year, $147 million offer to return to Kansas City.
• However, Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger disputes that Hosmer has an offer from KC in that range, although he does say the two sides are talking. But Mellinger also thinks that it would be better for both Hosmer and the Royals for the first baseman to sign with a different team.
• Jay Jaffe estimates what kind of return on their investment that any team signing Hosmer could expect to get over the next seven years. It’s probably a lot less than $140 million, unless you give Hosmer a ton of credit for defense that his metrics aren’t showing.
• Assuming that Hosmer has a choice between the Royals and the Padres, Whitney McIntosh weighs the pros and cons of signing with each team.
• James Wagner writes at how the way trades are made have changed over the past decade. Some general managers now communicate through texts, gifs and even emojis.
• David Schoenfield predicts where the remaining big free agents will sign.
• Bradford Doolittle makes an expansion team out of the remaining free agents and thinks that team could be a playoff contender.
• Doolittle also ranks all 30 MLB teams by how much they’ve improved their 2018 win projections this winter. I thought the Angels would be number one, but they only come in second.
• Part of the reason that the winter has been so slow is that teams have learned to wait out free agents, writes Travis Sawchik.
• One group of players have been signing for big money this winter and that’s relief pitchers. Craig Edwards examines why relievers are getting so much money this winter.
• Both the Rangers and the Brewers are showing interest in signing center fielder Lorenzo Cain. Those teams make some sense. The Twitter-verse gossip about the Cubs being interested in Cain made no sense to me.
• Whitney McIntosh grades how likely it is that the Rangers will sign Cain.
• Anthony Castrovince has five teams to watch in January.
• The Orioles are reportedly not getting any offers close to what they want in a Manny Machado trade.
• Danny Knobler sums up the early returns on Derek Jeter’s ownership of the Marlins and says that “he doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Knobler is mostly critical of Jeter’s poor public relations skills.
• Former Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard, who was briefly a Cub, has retired. Chris Cotillo has an interview with Bard about his career.
• Although his career went off the rails later, Jon Tayler remembers a pitch that Bard threw that he called “the nastiest ever.”
• Pitcher Dillon Gee has signed with the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball.
• Doug Miller looks at players who revived their careers by playing in Asia and then returning. Maybe Gee with will be on this list one day.
• MLB and the Players Association will meet next week to discuss “pace-of-play” issues. So we should finally get some news about a pitch clock next week. (And I’ll repeat what I’ve said before: I was against a pitch clock before I saw it in action in the minors. It works fine and you hardly even notice it. Unless some idiot broadcaster decides to put it on the screen.)
• Now that the Astros have won the World Series, Jonathan Bernhardt ranks the remaining seven franchises without a title by their probability of winning one soon.
• And Will Leitch ranks the teams with playoff droughts by their probability of breaking their streak this year.
• ESPN is reportedly trying to hire Alex Rodriguez away from Fox Sports. Rodriguez is the most naturally-gifted broadcaster I’ve seen in years, so it makes sense that ESPN would want him, probably for Sunday Night Baseball. (h/t Big League Stew)
• Cubs legend Munenori Kawasaki has signed a minor league deal with the Mariners. Chris Landers has the highlights that made Kawasaki a Blue Jays and Cubs legend.
• Astros shortstop Carlos Correa sank a free throw before a Houston Rockets game to win $5,000 for charity.
• Mets coach and former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. played his own father in the ABC sitcom “The Goldbergs,” which is set in the 1980s.
• So we all know the big news isn’t the Hot Stove, but the weather, and baseball players shared their experiences with the snow on social media.
• And finally, one player who is just as excited about the weather as trade talks is noted weather geek Mike Trout. Except that his newlywed wife is just not as interested and he’s driving her crazy.

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