MLB Bullets can’t be tied down

Good morning.

• Last week he was the World Series Most Valuable Player. Today he’s a free agent. Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg opted out of the remaining four years of his contract.
• Jesse Yomtov has an FAQ about Strasburg and his new free agency. The Nationals will try to re-sign him.
• Buster Olney has a more detailed explanation as to why Strasburg opted out and what he can expect to get in a new deal with the Nationals or a different team. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Richard Justice has the top five potential destinations for Strasburg. Yes, the Nats are on top of the list, but they’re not the only team there.
• Strasburg was on board for the Nationals victory parade through DC.
• There was another celebration in the District as six Nats players (not Strasburg) rode shirtless with the World Series trophy on a Zamboni at a Washington Capitals hockey match.
• The Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018 and they celebrated the DC teams championships while leaving out the WNBA Washington Mystics. That didn’t go over well with at least one of the Mystic players and is rather inexcusable since the Capitals and the Mystics are under the same ownership group.
• Joe Sheehan explains why the Nationals may be the most surprising World Series champions ever.
• Eno Sarris explains why the oddsmakers (and those “postseason odds standings” projections) underestimated the Nationals. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Craig Edwards adds the 2019 Astros to the list of the greatest MLB to not win the World Series. The funny thing is that only a little lower on his chart is the 2019 Dodgers and the Nationals beat them both.
• Why Gerrit Cole never pitched in Game 7 of the World Series. Because A.J. Hinch confused him with Zack Britton? No?
• Why were all the World Series games so long? Sam Miller goes through the games and finds out where all that extra time came from.
• Ben Lindbergh asks which team deserves to be the team of the decade.
• The Mets will hire Carlos Beltán as their new manager.
• Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman signed a new four-year, $48 million contract extension.
• Now that the offseason is underway, you might need a calendar and here’s a schedule of all the major off-season events.
• R.J. Anderson has the top 50 free agents this winter.
• Dan Szymborski looks at which free agents can expect to get qualifying offers and which free agents might accept those offers.
• Mark Feinsand has one free agent from each team that could end up re-signing with their current team.
• Richard Justice has seven teams that figure to be the biggest players this offseason.
• Mike Petriello thinks the White Sox could be the big “breakout” team of 2020.
• DRays Bay publishes an argument for why we need to bring on the robot umpires. More technically, automated balls and strikes.
• It should be noted that they used the automated strike zone in certain games of the Arizona Fall League this year and the players themselves almost universally hated it. They felt that too many pitches were being called strikes that have never been called strikes in the past, among other complaints.
• There’s a controversy around a deal between Nike and MLB that would give Nike exclusive rights to sell official merchandise in the area surrounding Yankee Stadium. The Yankees say that they are trying to fix this situation.
• And finally, it was Halloween last week and lots of young kids like to dress up like their heroes for the holiday. One young boy dressed up as his hero, Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, and was star-struck when he encountered Freeman himself taking his kids trick-or-treating in the same neighborhood. Freeman asks the kid “Are you me?”

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