Outside The Confines: The market is now open

Pretend I wrote something deep and inspiring in this space. Then, when you go out and conquer the world today, I’ll get some of the credit.

• Free agency is the big story right now, at least until the lockout comes. R.J. Anderson predicts where the top 20 free agents are going to sign. I believe his prediction that the Cubs will sign Corey Seager will be met with either excitement or laughter around here.
• Anthony Castrovince lists the ten teams that he feels could define how the offseason goes. The Cubs are on the list at number ten.
• Mike Petriello breaks down the top five free agent shortstops by the numbers.
• The baseball staff at ESPN.com break down the market for free agent pitching.
• Kevin Gausman shut down some rando on Twitter who said that he would sign with the Angels because of his “ties” to Orange County by saying the only tie he had to the area was the bow tie he bought at Fashion Island, a major shopping center in Orange County.
• Super-agent Scott Boras has been blasting MLB teams for not spending more. That’s to be expected. It’s his job to get MLB teams to spend more. But Boras said that only 17 teams are even going to try in 2022 and while he didn’t name them, Gabe Lacques guesses which 17 teams Boras thinks are trying and which 13 have already given up.
• Earlier, Boras had said that the Braves won the World Series because other teams gave up. However, Boras later clarified that he did not mean that as criticism of the Braves, whom he says “did a good job” with the system currently in place. (The Athletic sub. req.) Boras said he was talking about the system that encourages teams to sell off players at the trade deadline.
• Nathaniel Grow has a preview of baseball’s CBA talks.
• Dayn Perry writes that currently, commissioner Rob Manfred’s job is not in danger and then outlines what would have to happen for that to change and for Manfred to be fired.
• Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is a free agent after this upcoming season, but he says he would like to remain with the Yankees for ten more seasons.
• Dan Szymborski gives a short recap of the 2021 season for every team in the NL East. One team did better than the rest. See if you can guess which one before clicking on the link.
• The Giants gave manager Gabe Kapler a two-year extension. The Giants have had only five managers since they hired Roger Craig in 1985, so you can probably expect Kapler to stick around for a long time now.
• The Diamondbacks hired Astros pitching coach Brent Strom as their new pitching coach.
• Zach Buchanan has an interesting look at how the Diamondbacks assessed their own organization and the “endowment effect” clouds every team’s ability to honestly judge themselves. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Rookies of the Year will be announced later today, so MLB.com has some stuff on previous Rookies of the Year. Manny Randhawa has ten former Rookies of the Year who didn’t exactly have great MLB careers.
• Matt Monagan has a look at the oldest player to win Rookie of the Year, the 33-year-old Sam Jethroe. Of course, now that the Negro Leagues are considered a major league, will they strip Jethroe of his RoY Award since he’s not a rookie in 1950 anymore? (That’s a rhetorical joke. They’re not going to strip him of the award.)
• A couple of minor deals as the Rays try to clear space on their 40-man roster. The Brewers acquired infielder Mike Brosseau from the Rays for minor league right-handed pitcher Evan Reifert.
• And the Marlins picked up right-handed pitcher Louis Head from the Rays for cash.
• Sad news in the SB Nation family and Mariners fandom as Tim Cantu, a writer for Lookout Landing, died at the age of 32. Cantu briefly made headlines earlier this year when he preserved and transcribed the comments of Mariners president Kevin Mather that resulted in Mather’s resignation. Our condolences go out to his friends and family, as well as all Mariners fans.
• Michael Clair looks back at the best bloopers of 2021 and you get one guess which one was number one, although it’s hard to remember that that was this year.
• And finally, Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright decided to stay in off-season shape by going to a local fair and dunking the “clown” in the dunk tank on one pitch.

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