MLB Bullets has an evil Twin

Good morning. By the time you read this, I will still be asleep.

• We have a free agent signing as Nelson Cruz (who, as far as I know, is not evil) has agreed to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins with an additional team option for 2020. Cruz will make $14 million in 2019 and the option is for $12 million
• Jon Tayler looks at the Twins and what they can expect out of Cruz. He gives the Twins a strong “B+” on the deal.
• Rian Watt also loves the deal for the Twins and thinks that Minnesota isn’t far from contending for the playoffs in the weak AL Central with this deal.
• Grant Brisbee loves the deal for the Twins in principle and loves the fact that a team with a losing record like the Twins are adding talent and not selling everything off. But Brisbee does think the Twins have too many DH-type players and perhaps could have spent the money better elsewhere.
• Speaking of the “weak AL Central,” David Adler thinks that not only are the Twins possible contenders in 2019, but don’t count out the White Sox winning the division either.
• Cruz is a pretty big free agent, but he’s not one of the really big free agents. The Phillies have been aggressive in trying to land either Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, or even both. But there is a report that neither of the “really big free agents” is very interested in playing for the Phillies. Maybe they found out what happened to the Chicken Man in Philly last night.
• Pete Caldera argues that Machado looks likely to end up with the Yankees.
• Gabe Lacques looks at how Harper would fit in with the Blue Jays before admitting that it’s not going to happen. But Harper would be a good fit for the Blue Jays.
• Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Padres are making a strong push to acquire Indians pitcher Corey Kluber.
• Jonah Keri looks at the Mariners offseason plans and agrees that the team was right to tear everything down and start all over.
• Rays outfielder Tommy Pham blasted Rays fans by saying the team has “really no fan base at all.” Yeah, that’s going to get him booed by all 10,000 fans at Tropicana Field next season. Of course, that may be Pham’s goal—to get himself traded. (To be fair to the Rays, their local TV ratings indicate that the team does have a reasonably large fan base. They just watch the games from their living rooms instead of trying to drive to downtown St. Petersburg.)
• Athletics’ first-round draft pick and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray is not ruling out playing football instead of baseball next season.
• The Trump administration has indicated that they will seek to block MLB’s agreement with Cuban baseball to allow Cuban ballplayers to come to MLB legally. This is all going to the courts. All I’m going to say about this is that I think this is a foolish move on the part of the White House and the State Department.
• Eric Stephen writes that it looks like Edgar Martinez will get into the Hall of Fame, either this year or eventually.
• Joe Posnanski looks at the how no one being elected to Cooperstown unanimously became a thing (The Athletic sub. req.) and he argues that Mariano Rivera should break that trend, even if he probably won’t.
• Sam Miller time-travels to the year 2118 and looks at what baseball fans of that time remember about the 2018 season.
• Andrew Simon looks at ten rookie hitters who had an impressive 2018 season.
• Simon also looks back at some famous three-way trades.
• Jim Callis looks at the five most-improved farm systems of 2018.
• And if you want to feel old, Callis also tries to figure out who will be the first player born in the 2000s to reach the major leagues.
• Kelsey McKinney is unhappy about the recent moves of sports teams to issue only digital tickets. I guess “unhappy” isn’t quite a strong enough word, but I’ll stick with it for now.
• Royals first-round pick Brady Singer gave his parents a Merry Christmas by using his signing bonus to pay off all of their debts, many of which they accrued by helping Brady pursue his dream of being a major league baseball player.
• And finally, Astros third baseman Alex Bregman is making it his mission in life to bring a little joy to the lives of the people who toil in Houston’s service industry. After earlier making a video of leaving a waitress a $500 tip, he has a new video out of him going through several fast food drive-through windows and leaving $100 tips for everyone.

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