Outside The Confines: Trevor goes west

I think there’s still time for Patrick Mahomes to switch back to baseball. I’m pretty sure his baseball teammates will actually do something if the other team comes after him and tries to knock him to the ground.

After watching this weekend’s Wandavision, I’m a little surprised that Al didn’t decide to just re-cast me last season. On the other hand, how do you, my gentle readers, know that he hadn’t?

• Before we get to the main news of the weekend, there was sad news last night as ESPN baseball reporter Pedro Gomez died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 58. Gomez was not only a terrific reporter on the MLB beat, he was also one of the most-knowledgeable writers about Caribbean baseball and especially Cuban baseball, where his family lived until shortly before he was born. He will be missed. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.
• El Mago sent out his condolences as well.
• Gomez posted this Tweet just last Thursday. Gomez’s son Rio is a pitcher in the Red Sox organization.

• Turning back to the sport that Gomez loved, on Friday in this very spot, Ashley told Trevor Bauer to hurry up and pick a team already. Bauer must have been listening as he agreed to a bizarre three-year, $102 million deal with the Dodgers that will make him the highest-paid player in the sport, at least for the next two seasons. He’ll make $40 million in 2021, $45 million in 2022 (if he doesn’t opt out and he’s not opting out of a $45 million, one-year deal) and $17 million in 2023 (if he doesn’t opt out and in this case, he’s probably opting out after two years unless he’s injured or something).
• Bauer will make more than the entire Pittsburgh Pirates team will in 2021, as things stand now.
• Emma Baccellieri examines that Bauer contract and while she admits it’s weird, it’s not that surprising that Bauer would get this kind of a deal.
• Ben Clemens writes about what to expect from Bauer, both on and off the field. He also believes that signing Bauer now makes the Dodgers a clear favorite over the Padres in 2021, something they weren’t before the deal.
• Molly Knight notes that as a baseball writer, a woman and as a Dodgers fan, the Dodgers signing Bauer makes her feel queasy. (The Athletic sub. req.) She doesn’t use the word queasy—that’s my interpretation of what she writes. She notes Bauer’s long history of turning an on-line mob of fans against his critics, especially female critics as well as difficulties Bauer has had dealing with teammates in the past.
• Bradford Doolittle and David Schoenfield discuss what Bauer’s signing means to the Dodgers, the Mets and all of baseball. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• There was a trade on Saturday as the Rangers sent shortstop Elvis Andrus to the Athletics in exchange for first baseman Khris Davis.
• David Schoenfield explains why this deal made sense for both teams. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Kevin Sherrington thinks that while dealing Andrus was the right move for both the Rangers and Andrus, he and everyone else are sure going to miss Elvis in Texas.
• The Braves re-inked outfielder Marcell Ozuna to a four-year, $64 million deal.
• Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos said that re-signing Ozuna makes the Braves a World Series contender. And I just now realized that I no longer have the proper spelling of “Anthopoulos” memorized. I used to. Eh, it’s all Greek to me.
• Jayson Stark evaluates the impact of five of the biggest transactions of the winter. (The Athletic sub. req.) Written before Bauer signed.
• Jay Jaffe has the best free agent position players and the best free agent pitchers left on the market. Also written before Bauer signed, but at least it has a note acknowledging that.
• David Adler also has a list of top free agents still available.
• Buster Olney thinks that there could still be an agreement for expanded playoffs in 2021.(ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Manny Randhawa on Hall-of-Famer James Thomas “Cool Papa” Bell.

• And finally, there was some sort of American football game played this past weekend that a lot of people were excited about. One of the teams featured the son of former Cubs (and many other teams, mainly the Twins) reliever Pat Mahomes. In a reprint of an article originally written before last year’s big American football game, Michael Clair examines what kind of a baseball player Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes could have been.
• Also, Mahomes wasn’t the only contestant in that American football game to have played baseball. Katherine Acquavella notes that both Mahomes and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady were drafted by MLB and she looks at the baseball playing careers of both men. How old is Tom Brady? Brady was drafted in the 18th round in 1995 by the Montréal Expos. Tom doesn’t care how old he is—he’s still got more rings than anyone else.

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