MLB Bullets is the king of Queens

With the regular season starting tomorrow, I’m very excited for another season of Cubs baseball and baseball in particular. I’m also very nervous because I’m already exhausted and the season hasn’t even started yet! Good thing there will be more off-days in the schedule this year.

• Kyle Hendricks wasn’t the only pitcher who signed a extension just before the start of the season. New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom agreed to a five-year, $137.5 million extension that will keep him in Flushing through the 2024 season if the Mets pick up the option year at the end.
• Craig Edwards evaluates the deal and thinks that both sides got a fair deal in line with the current market.
• Bob Nightengale writes that the Mets just had to get this deal done. Considering that current Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen was deGrom’s agent just four months ago, it would have been really embarrassing to not get this deal done.
• Buster Olney agrees the Mets had no choice and that the team would have faced a fan and player revolt had they not agreed to a long-term deal with deGrom. (ESPN+ sub. req.) Olney also mentions that thing about how embarrassing it would have been for Van Wagenen not to sign a guy he represented for years as an agent.
• Staying with the Mets, deGrom’s teammate Noah Syndergaard had not only complained about deGrom’s situation, but also about a scheduled workout in Syracuse, NY before the regular season started. Syndergaard decided to play nice with the fans and fly the Syracuse University flag around the Carrier Dome.
• The Athletic published the results of their anonymous survey of current MLB players. (The Athletic sub. req.) Voted the favorite city to visit? Chicago. Least favorite city? Cincinnati.
• That’s not what’s getting the headlines, however. The big news is that the players chose Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper as the “most overrated” player and Manny Machado as the “dirtiest” player. Although I think Chase Utley should get some credit for finishing second in the “dirtiest” balloting despite being retired. Players who voted for him said they didn’t care he was retired. He was still the dirtiest.
• Bill Baer argues that the players are mistaken and that Harper is actually underrated.
• In any case, Baer also notes that Harper has been pandering pretty hard to the Philadelphia fan base. He’s done everything short of changing his walkup music to Hall & Oates’ “Kiss On My List.”
• Bad news for the Diamondbacks as starting right fielder Steven Souza Jr. tore pretty much every ligament in his left knee stepping on home plate in Monday’s game. Souza will miss the entire 2019 season.
• Reds top prospect Nick Senzel was upset that he was sent down to the minor before the start of the season, but now he’s dealing with a sprained ankle and will be in a walking boot for 7 to 14 days.
• MLB has suspended Giants CEO Larry Baer until June 1 for a domestic violence incident.
• Hannah Keyser thinks it is fair to ask if Baer should have been punished more severely.
• Former Rockies great Todd Helton was charged with a DUI after being involved in a one-car accident. Helton has reportedly entered a treatment program.
• For the second time this Spring Training, we’ve had to say goodbye to a longtime baseball journalist. Former Newsday and MLB.com writer Marty Noble died at the age of 70 and Anthony DiComo has a tribute to a man he considers a mentor.
• The Padres broke with current trends by foregoing service time manipulation and they announced that top prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. will start the season with the major league team. Jack Baer finds this development refreshingly shocking.
• Jon Tayler profiles Tatis and calls him the future of MLB. Tayler says Tatis resembles his teammate Manny Machado a lot more than his father. And remember, the White Sox traded him to the Padres for James Shields. (In fairness, Tatis was a lottery ticket when the White Sox traded him. It’s just that the Padres discovered he had all the winning numbers. They still probably shouldn’t have dealt him for Shields.)
• Another top Padres prospect, pitcher Chris Paddock, also made the Opening Day roster. Watch as manager Andy Green tells Paddock he made the majors on the mound as he removed him from a Spring Training game.
• Thirty-year-old Twins right-hander Ryne Harper has made the majors for the first time after eight years in the minors. Harper has actually been in the majors once before, but the intention is to actually get him into a game this time.
• The Ringer has been running several terrific season preview articles over the past week or so. This one by Ben Lindbergh shows how the evolution of “the opener” is not only changing the game, but it’s changing the way that players are valued by teams and analysts. The “opener” strategy broke the WAR statistic, for example.
• And Zach Kram talks about the evolution of the shortstop position and how today’s shortstops are better at hitting than at any time in baseball’s history.
• And if you want something a little less analytical, Claire McNear talks about her Giants fandom and how she is dreading that this is the year that pitcher Madison Bumgarner leaves San Francisco for a new team.
• While Michael Baumann publishes a guide on which players to watch in order to get the most entertainment through your MLB.tv subscription this season. It’s hard because as Baumann notes, watching Whit Merrifield is fun. Watching the rest of the Royals is not fun.
• Moving on from The Ringer, ESPN’s David Schoenfield picks the most exciting thing to expect in MLB in 2019.
• MLB.com polled 50 of their experts and experts from the MLB Network on who is going to make the playoffs and win it all this year.
• All is not good in MLB-land, however. Bob Nightengale calls attention to the disturbing disparity in payroll between the top and bottom teams.
• Coley Harvey fills us in on the shoulder injury suffered by Yankees ace Luis Severino.
• Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun missed the exhibition games in Montreal because he “forgot” his passport. Sure. Because I’m sure he was devastated to not be able to play in two meaningless exhibition games in an outdated stadium with artificial turf for which he wasn’t going to get paid. We may hate the guy, but you can’t deny he’s a genius.
• Pitchers Jon Duplantier, Sal Romano and Carl Edwards Jr. talk with David Laurila about their curveballs.
• And finally, it’s also a beer commercial, but legendary filmmaker Spike Lee has made a short three-minute film on the legacy of Jackie Robinson.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Because tomorrow is Opening Day, Cubs fans!