MLB Bullets cries in baseball

There’s no crying in baseball.

• Since the news is a little slow right now, let’s lead off with this article that everyone has been talking about on social media, although you will need a subscription to The Athletic to read it. Robert Andrew Powell has the story of how Hall-of-Famer Mike Piazza’s fairytale purchase of a third-division Italian soccer club turned into a nightmare that ended with the dissolution of an almost 100-year old club. (The Athletic sub. req.) Also, it’s a stick in the eye to my readers who don’t want me to report soccer stories.
• The other big news is the death of actor/director Penny Marshall at the age of 75. This is a baseball story because Marshall directed one of the great baseball movies of all-time: A League of Their Own. Natalie Weiner talks about the movie and how it changed the way people perceive women and sports. Beyond the film’s revolutionary (for the time) treatment that women in sports deserve the same respect that men do, it’s just a terrific, traditional baseball movie in any sense of the genre. And yet, it isn’t traditional at all.
• Gabe Lacques talks about how the film affected the women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. It’s not an understatement to say that without the film, which was a passion project for Marshall, the AAGPBL would be forgotten by everyone other than the women who played in it and a few baseball historians at SABR.
• The Astros have signed outfielder Michael Brantley to a two-year, $32 million deal.
• Grant Brisbee likes the signing of Brantley and notes that the Astros are in the exact right spot in the lifespan of an MLB team.
• The Angels need starting pitching so they signed Matt Harvey to a one-year, $11 million deal.
• The Mets signed free agent catcher Wilson Ramos and Jay Jaffe thinks it was maybe the best move the Mets have made all winter.
• Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen thinks the Mets are the favorites in the NL East. At least, he said that. He’d better not think it. The Mets are likely competitive now, but there is no way they are the favorites in a division with the Nationals, Braves and Phillies and he shouldn’t make moves as if they were.
• The Mets signing of Ramos means that they are out of the J.T. Realmuto sweepstakes. David Schoenfield explains why so many teams want Realmuto and who is likely to get him.
• Emma Baccellieri handicaps the Realmuto sweepstakes.
• Mark Feinsand examines possible destinations for free agent outfielder A.J. Pollock.
• Will Leitch ranks the top contenders to sign free agent infielder Manny Machado.
• Jonah Keri looks at the pros and cons of Machado signing with the Yankees, Phillies or White Sox.
• Keri also has a look at the Indians’ offseason plans.
• Matt Kelly has three starting pitchers that could be attractive (and cheap) trade targets.
• Mike Rosenbaum has a list of ten minor league hitters that are breakout candidates for 2019.
• Craig Calcaterra wants fans to know that no baseball free agent that signs with a different team is “disloyal.”
• Speaking of which, Tim Dillard has been pitching in the Brewers organization since 2002, all but 73 of those games in the minor leagues. But now Dillard has signed with the Rangers.
• Overall baseball payrolls took their biggest drop since 2004 in 2018.
• Ben Lindbergh has a nice profile of Trey Hillman, who he calls “the world’s most successful manager” after Hillman led the SK Wyverns to the KBO title in Korea this past year. With that, Hillman became the first manager to win a title in two of the top three professional baseball leagues, having previously won a title in NPB in Japan. Hillman will be the Marlins first base coach in 2019.
• Carlos Beltran has joined the Yankees front office.
• The Yankees also gave CC Sabathia his $500,000 innings bonus. Sabathia failed to reach the number of innings for the bonus when he was ejected in his final start when he hit a Rays batter in retaliation. But the Yankees gave him the money anway.
• The most talked-about MLB draft pick in years is the Athletics’ Kyler Murray, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma this college football season. That has led to a lot of talk about Murray either leaving baseball or trying to play both sports. But as Sheryl Ring explains, it will not be easy for Murray to play football after signing with the A’s.
• Eric Stephen talked to the people looking to land a job at baseball’s Winter Meetings.
• Clinton Yates went to the Winter Meetings and came away (mostly) impressed with MLB’s efforts at increasing diversity in the industry. Yates does point out some weak areas, however.
• Justin Klugh talks to a group of Baltimore baseball fans who are dedicated to keeping alive the memory of Negro Leagues star and Hall-of-Famer Leon Day.
• John Pascal has a baseball Christmas Wish List for Santa.
• Finally, the Milwaukee Admirals of the minor league American Hockey League are going to wear some really sweet looking Brewers-inspired jerseys for two games in March.

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