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Outside The Confines: A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora are on their way back

So much for being blacklisted.

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Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

It was a quiet weekend for baseball news but the two main stories to emerge since Friday are the Detroit Tigers hiring embattled former Astros manager A.J. Hinch, while rumors also circulated that the Boson Red Sox were on the cusp of potentially rehiring Alex Cora.

The two managers, both of whom were on the staff of the 2017 Astros club that was found to have cheated, were both suspended for their part in the scandal — which mostly amounted to knowing what was happening, without taking action to keep the players from their activities.

After serving their suspensions during the shortened 2020 season, it appears that an “all is forgiven” attitude has been taken by the teams who are eager to hire managers with a winning record. Whether or not it feels like Hinch and Cora have been truly punished and it’s time to forgive them, or for others who think it brings a stink of scandal to these new teams, it does appear that their return to baseball is an inevitability.

The other major story those in baseball are watching, of course, is the new class of free agents entering the market, as teams decide which options they want to take and who they’re willing to let go. Look forward to more news on these high-demand players, but more importantly, we should pay attention to how much these players are signing for, with MLB claiming low revenue is causing them to struggle after the 2020 season.

Let’s dive into the weekend links!

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