Outside The Confines: Who am I to Judge?

If Twitter goes dark next week (or anytime in the future), this job is going to be a lot more difficult. Don’t get me wrong, it will still be possible to do it. But there simply isn’t any other place to keep track of sports journalism like Twitter was.

OK, on to more pleasant things. Or mostly more pleasant things.

• You likely know this already, but Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt were named American League and National League Most Valuable Players, respectively. Anthony Castrovince has more details on their seasons.
• Here are the MVP vote totals. The two AL MVP votes for Shohei Ohtani came from the two Los Angeles voters.
• Sam Blum explains why he voted for Ohtani. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• At 35, Goldschmidt joins this list of the oldest MVP winners ever.
• Tom Verducci profiles Goldschmidt’s career and his victory over the aging curve. For now. Time always wins in the end.
• Joon Lee talks to Judge’s Yankee teammates about several historic home runs he hit this year.
• Will Leitch ranks all 184 MVP-winning seasons.
• Matt Kelly ranks the all-time greatest seasons by players who didn’t win an MVP Award. The top three are all current Angels.
• Matt Snyder looks the 2022 season of Shohei Ohtani, which was one of the greatest of all time and still didn’t win the MVP.
• You probably also already know this, but the Astros’ Justin Verlander and the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara were unanimous choices for the AL and NL Cy Young Awards, respectively. Anthony Castrovince has the reaction from both players.
• We have a trade that kind-of qualifies as major. At least it’s not minor. The Mariners sent 2020 Rookie of the Year, outfielder Kyle Lewis, to the Diamondbacks for catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel. It was a straight-up, one-for-one deal.
• In another trade that qualifies as “not insignificant” and involves the Mariners, the Blue Jays traded outfielder Teoscar Hernandez to Seattle for right-hander Erik Swanson and left-handed prospect Adam Macko.
• Esteban Rivera evaluates the deal that sent Hernandez to the Emerald City.
• Keith Law also grades the Hernandez deal and some other minor deals over the past week. (The Athletic sub. req.). The Miles Mastrobuoni deal didn’t make the cut.
• The Padres re-signed reliever Nick Martinez to a three-year deal for at least $26 million. Incentives could push the deal to as much as $42 million.
• Today is the non-tender deadline and Mark Feinsand has 11 players who could be free agents after today.
• Jack Harris looks at the non-tender decision the Dodgers have to make about outfielder Cody Bellinger.
• Free agent left-hander Tyler Anderson said it was a “no-brainer” to sign with the Angels.
• The Yankees and the Mets are being investigated by MLB for possible collusion for public comments on Aaron Judge’s free agency. Also, the Astros are being investigated for comments about Justin Verlander’s possible contract, writes Ken Rosenthal. (The Athletic sub. req., but you can get the important details here.)
• Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to the media yesterday. He announced that the 2024 All-Star Game will be played in Texas at Globe Life Park. Manfred also addressed Pete Rose’s situation and the issues around the bankruptcy of sponsor FTX. Manfred admitted that MLB had to be more careful about sponsorship deals. So only carefully-vetted Ponzi schemes from now on.
• Bill Shaikin writes that MLB and Shohei Ohtani are going to take a hit to their reputations for their connection with FTX.
• That won’t stop Ohtani from playing in next spring’s World Baseball Classic, and he announced this week that he’d like to compete for Team Japan. The Angels said that they won’t stop him, so unless Samurai Japan doesn’t want him for some reason, he’s in.
• Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper will undergo ulnar collateral ligament surgery next week. They probably won’t know whether or not it will be Tommy John surgery until they open him up and have a look. The recovery time for position players having TJ surgery is much less than for pitchers, but Harper is still likely to miss the start of next season.
• A round-table discussion comparing the big four free agent shortstops.
• Chris Gilligan examines the issues surrounding shortstop Xander Bogaerts defense.
• Michael Baumann looks at how good would the Orioles be if they went wild and signed seven big free agents this winter. And their payroll would still be below that of the Mets.
• Baumann also examines the trade market for catchers this winter.
• Fordham University will rename their press box after their most-famous broadcasting alumnus, Vin Scully. They will also start the “Vin Scully Ring of Honor” to honor alumni in sports broadcasting and journalism.
• After 43-years in broadcasting, Royals’ play-by-play man Steve Physioc has called it a career. The Royals have called up Jake Eisenberg to take his place, who had been the broadcaster for their Triple-A affiliate, the Omaha Storm Chasers. That almost never happens, so congratulations to Jake. And congratulations to Physioc on a long career and well-deserved retirement.
• Liberty Media has announced that they intend to spin the Atlanta Braves off into a separate company.
• R.J. Anderson has his current top 20 minor league prospects.
• And finally, Ben Clemens asks which major league pitchers would be best at carnival games. Actually, it’s just a clever way of asking which pitchers are best at painting the corners of the strike zone.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. We’ll see if Twitter is still here.