Outside The Confines: A Wanderful Thanksgiving week

Happy Black Friday everyone! As you continue to digest your Thanksgiving meals, try to figure out the best uses for 45lbs of leftover turkey, and hope you’re first in line for that big screen TV, how about a few links to guide you into the weekend.

Now, obviously even baseball writers need to rest sometimes, so there was nothing in the way of news or reporting yesterday (I’m sure writers everywhere were grateful to teams for putting trades and free agent acquisitions on hold for just one day). That means links are a little on the lighter side between your Wednesday and Friday editions.

Of course, Josh mentioned the Wander Franco extension in his Wednesday roundup, but it was top of mind for a lot of writers throughout Wednesday, so we’ll kick things off with a few Franco think pieces.

• Dan Szymborski looks at the Franco deal in all its glory over at FanGraphs.
• Adam Berry focuses on what the Franco extension means for the Rays.
• Kiley McDaniel assesses the Rays/Franco deal as a rare win for the team, the player, and all of MLB.
• Ken Rosenthal doesn’t necessarily think Wander Franco sold himself short on the extension, while others might disagree. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Wander Franco signed a monster deal just off the merits of his breakout rookie year. Jim Callis wonders which other prospects might be able to manage similar deals.
• Will Leitch has one reason for every team to be thankful. (Don’t look for anything too promising for the Cubs, it’s accurate, but a bit of a bummer where 2022 is concerned).
• Steve Cohen decided the Airing of Grievances couldn’t wait for Festivus.

• Ben Pickman shines a bit more light on why Steve is so riled up over the Matz signing.
• Wade Davis has announced his retirement.
• The Athletic staff take a look at Davis’s storied career. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Jay Jaffe takes a look at Todd Helton’s numbers, and his chances for Cooperstown. (Confession, I’m a big Helton 4 HoF stan, so I really enjoyed this piece.)
• Emma Baccellieri visits the newest Giants signings, and why it looks like they’re assembling a squad they hope will duplicate their 2021 magic.
• Yoshi Tsutsugo signs a one-year deal with the Pirates.
• Adam Jones is still going yard.

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