Outside The Confines: Traveling for the holidays

And a happy Thanksgiving for everyone out there, a day early.

• There was one trade in MLB yesterday as the Angels stayed active. The Brewers traded outfielder Hunter Renfroe to the Angels for right-handers Janson Junk and Elvis Peguero and minor league lefty Adam Seminaris. There’s another Brewers Junk-ball pitcher who will frustrate the Cubs.
• Ken Rosenthal looks at the Renfroe trade and the other slew of deals by Angels general manager Perry Minasian. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Cardinals designated hitter Albert Pujols and Astros right-hander Justin Verlander were named Comeback Player of the Year for the NL and AL respectively.
• Free agent outfielder Aaron Judge caused a stir by being spotted in the San Francisco area, reportedly to meet with the Giants. Or maybe he’s just spending Thanksgiving with his family. Could be either. It’s probably both.
• Mike Axisa has the pros and cons about signing Aaron Judge.
• One pro he didn’t mention: Judge was ranked at number four on People Magazine’s Sexist Men Alive list. Experts agreed that Judge belonged in the top five, but that the editors once again blew it by leaving me off the list.
• Matt Snyder ranks all 30 teams by how likely they are to sign shortstop Carlos Correa. You may like who he ranks as number one. Or maybe you won’t. I don’t know.
• Do-Hyoung Park reports the Twins are confident that Correa wants to stay in Minnesota.
• Mark Feinsand looks at the free agent market for Dansby Swanson.
• And Feinsand also examines the free agent market for Justin Verlander.
• A roundtable discussion by ESPN’s baseball writers on where the top free agents will end up.
• Michael Baumann looks at the shortstop situation for the Yankees and three shortstops who have been traded in the past week and their new teams.
• Anthony McCarron weighs the pros and cons for the Yankees signing free agent Trea Turner.
• Michael Baumann argues that free agent outfielder Andrew Benintendi’s surge in on-base percentage should hold up going forward.
• John Tomase thinks that MLB should speed up the slow Hot Stove with a transaction deadline.
• The new Hall of Fame ballot was announced and Carlos Beltrán is the biggest name added to the list of potential immortals. There were 14 new players on the ballot and 28 players total on the 2023 list.
• Andrew Simon looks at the credentials of all 14 new candidates, including former Cubs pitcher John Lackey.
• Jay Jaffe has an overview of the ballot and everyone up for selection, which is kind of his thing.

• More on the Rogers Centre renovation.
• Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah called Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole “the worst cheater in baseball history.” I’m sure that comment won’t be forgotten.
• Matt Gelb profiles Phillies manager Rob Thompson, who had told everyone before last season that he intended to retire at the end of the 2022 campaign. (The Athletic sub. req.) Of course, since then the Phillies fired manager Joe Girardi, Thompson was named interim manager and he led the team to the World Series. That changed his plans.
• In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Sam Dykstra has one reason in the minor leagues for every organization to be thankful.
• Nick Groke has an update on what’s going on in baseball in Korea, including a planned MLB exhibition tour of Korea that got cancelled. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Henry Palattela ranks the best walk-off home runs of 2022.
• And finally, a big congratulations to Olivia Pichardo, who became the first woman to make a Division I NCAA active baseball roster when she walked on and won a spot on the Brown University team.

And everyone have a very happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. You too, Buster. (Canadians should celebrate again.)