Outside The Confines: Nothing “Free” about it

Good morning. We are officially three weeks away from a potential MLB lockout. Happy Wednesday!

• Just in case we have a Hot Stove season this year, Ben Clemens has his list of the Top 50 free agents.
• Zach Crizer takes a look at the incredible crop of shortstops available in free agency this year.
• Mark Feinsand has the six most-likely teams to sign shortstop Corey Seager. The Cubs are indeed on the list.
• Fourteen players received qualifying offers. R.J. Anderson looks at the three players who are most likely to accept the $18.4 one-year deal.
• Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw was not offered a qualifying offer. Alden Gonzalez reports that team president Andrew Friedman explains the decision and says that Kershaw will always have a spot available on the Dodgers if he wants one.
• The Dodgers did sign free agent pitcher Andrew Heaney on a one-year, $8.5 million deal. Devan Fink writes that the Dodgers are betting on Heaney’s upside in this deal.
• Everyone wants to find the next Robbie Ray, whom the Blue Jays got on a cheap one-year contract last winter and is now the favorite for the American League Cy Young Award. Eno Sarris explains what teams should be looking for in the next breakout free agent pitcher. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Astros team president James Click said that free agent pitcher Justin Verlander “looks like himself” after recovering from Tommy John surgery.
• R.J. Anderson has five “big” names in the free agency market that may have to settle for small deals.
• Angels general manager Perry Minasian said that the team will look to build an “aggressive” pitching staff through free agency and trades.
• Ken Rosenthal wonders if the Brewers will trade pitcher Josh Hader this winter (The Athletic sub. req.) as well as other rumors from the GM meetings.
• The White Sox picked up relievers Craig Kimbrel’s 2022 option and will consider trying to trade him according to GM Rick Hahn, writes Jesse Rogers.
• Jake Mailhot examines what in the world the Reds are doing this winter in dumping contracts.
• Former Nationals assistant GM Adam Cromie has emerged as a leading candidate for the vacant Mets GM job.
• Mets team president Sandy Alderson defended the team’s search a new GM.
• Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper were named the winners of the Hank Aaron Award for 2021.
• The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the three “finalists” for each of their end of the season awards. We all understand that there are no “finalists” and that these are just the people who finished in the top three in the voting, right? They’re not voting a second time on the three finalists.
• Sad news as former Mets pitcher Pedro Feliciano died on Monday. He was 45.
• Jay Jaffe offers some thoughts on the two ballots for the Era Committees of the Hall of Fame that were announced last week.
• The Arizona Fall League is experimenting with pre-tacked baseballs this year. (Baseball America sub. req.)
• David Schoenfield “boldly” looks back and grades his “bold” preseason predictions for 2021. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• I put this in last night’s BCB After Dark, but in case you ignore my late-night musings, Craig Goldstein and Patrick Dubuque make the case to get rid of the “K-Zone” on televised baseball broadcasts. (Free registration req.)
• Helen Callaghan, the woman who inspired the movie A League of Their Own, will become the first woman individually inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
• And finally, twenty years ago a nine-year-old girl named Ginger Poulson got dragged into an advertisement for the Milwaukee Brewers and their then brand-new Miller Park. Now at age 29, Ginger Poulson has been hired as an area scout for the Milwaukee Brewers. (The Athletic sub. req.)

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