Outside The Confines: Mr. Smith goes to Washington

My New Year’s Resolution is to always have something interesting to say before the links in Outside the Confines. Like the rest of my resolutions, I’ve already broken it.

• The Nationals have signed free agent first baseman Dominic Smith to a one-year, $2 million deal. Yep, we’re in the bargain bin section of the hot stove.
• The Red Sox and third baseman Rafael Devers agreed to a one-year, $17.5 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
• Still no news about a Carlos Correa agreement with the Mets, but Ken Rosenthal speculates that a deal with the Mets will get done, but with a significantly-different deal than the previously reported 12-year, $315 million.
• Who are the best unsigned free agents at each position? Manny Randhawa has you covered.
• The Royals traded first baseman Ryan O’Hearn to the Orioles for cash considerations.
• Eric Longenhagen evaluated the big deal between the Blue Jays and Diamondbacks that sent outfielder/catcher Daulton Varsho to Toronto.
• David Laurila notes that the Rangers high-risk, high-reward pitching rotation got some depth with the addition of Nathan Eovaldi. even though he’s pretty high-risk himself.
• Kyle Kishimoto looks at the Pirates signing of free-agent left-hander Rich Hill. Hill is a former Cub, of course. You may remember him as the young gun in the rotation with Charlie Root and Lon Warnecke. Or Greg Maddux and Glendon Rusch.
• Manny Randhawa has nine players looking for better results this year in the second year of a big contract they signed last offseason.
• R.J. Anderson has some players (or positions on teams) that are still trade candidates this winter.
• David Schoenfield has one key number that will define each National League team this upcoming season. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Dayn Perry has a New Year’s Resolution for each MLB team.
• Andy McCullough has a New Year’s Resolution for each MLB team. (The Athletic sub. req.) Is there an echo in here?
• Mike Petriello has the hitters who are most likely to benefit from banning defensive shifts.
• Anthony Castrovince looks at the history of major North American sports instituting major rules changes and the backlash over the changes.
• Jim Bowden evaluates some proposed trades for Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Korean star outfielder Jung-hoo Lee of the Kiwoom Heroes will be posted to MLB after this upcoming season.

• Former Giants general manager Brian Sabean has joined the Yankees front office as an assistant to Brian Cashman.
• And finally, Zack Meisel got an unusual Christmas greeting from beyond the grave for a Guardians superfan who died in October. He tells the story of Ron Ochmann, the singing “Mayor of Section 164” at Progressive Field.” (The Athletic sub. req.)

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