Outside The Confines: Anything happen last night?

At the time of writing this there was no clear-cut winner in the 2020 US presidential election, but for the sake of our links post, it doesn’t matter much. The heavy focus on the election this week has meant the usual article-heavy baseball news world has gone somewhat quiet, meaning we’ll have a pretty light links post today.

One of the big stories was the bizarre choice of Rawlings to announce the Gold Glove winners in the middle of election coverage. Whether it was due to a lack of other options for air dates, or because they wanted something to distract folks, it was certainly a choice that raised a lot of eyebrows.

We’ll get into that to lead off the links.

• Andrew Bucholtz explains the divisive reaction to the Rawlings decision to host the award on election night.
• Are the Dodgers an inevitable powerhouse next season? Will Laws and Nick Selbe wonder if the Dodgers are going to be back on top in 2021.
• The low number of qualifying offers from MLB clubs suggest it’s going to be a long, cold winter for MLB free agents. Jay Jaffe reports.
• Buster Olney is likewise suggesting there’s a dark period ahead and it won’t look good for this season’s free agents.
• And Ben Lindbergh doesn’t mince any words when he says the offseason is “dark and full of terrors.” (yes, we know it’s a Game of Thrones reference.)
• Marc Carig and Andy McCullough take a slightly sunnier approach as they look at every team’s opportunity to improve over winter. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• New Mets owner Steve Cohen took to Twitter to ask Mets fans how he can improve the team.

• Dan Hayes takes a departure from deciding between real players, and asks who would you prefer to take: Rick Vaughn or Willie Mays Hayes? (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Matt Martel has one big question for all 30 MLB teams this offseason.
• Now that they’ve won the World Series, does this Dodgers era qualify as a dynasty, asks Bradford Doolittle.
• In a new podcast with Vince Carter, Ken Griffey Jr. reflects on his Hall of Fame career.
• Here is a complete list of the 2020 Gold Glove winners, by Paul Casella.
• With all the discussion about the future of the Dodgers, Ginny Searle shifts her focus to the Rays, who she believes are not done with their success story. (Baseball Prospectus premium membership required.)
• Chris Archer expressed his difficulty in voting this year.

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