Outside The Confines: The Tigers claim the voice of the White Sox

Well, one of the biggest moves of the offseason has nothing to do with players, or even with the shuffle of managers.

The Detroit Tigers announced today that after Bally Sports Detroit parted ways with Matt Shepard the new play-by-play announcer for the season will be none other than White Sox great Jason Benetti.

Benetti spent eight seasons calling games in Chicago and attained a level of respect and renown not often seen with those in the broadcast booth. He will certainly be missed in Chicago, and welcomed with open arms in Detroit.

Benetti made a statement about the move on his Instagram.

And here was the official statement from the White Sox.

• Jason Beck breaks down the elite signing.
• Ian Casselberry writes about the move over at SI.

Now on to today’s links!

• Leo Morgenstern assesses what the concept of the Comeback Player of the Year means.
• Three MLB players cracked the list of People’s Sexiest Men, shares Scott Chiusano.
• One of those sexy men, Shohei Ohtani, donated thousands of baseball gloves to Japanese schools. (AP)
• Ron Washington is back in the manager’s seat, taking over the helm for the Angels. Story by Daniel Chavkin.
• Bryce Harper’s full-time move to first base is probably the end for Rhys Hoskins with the Phillies. (AP)
• Brendan Kuty had more on the Harper-Hoskins situation in Philadelphia. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• The free agent market isn’t the only thing of interest, as Jim Bowden suggests ten players who could get traded this offseason. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Guess they couldn’t stomach the options?

• Here’s Stephanie Apstein’s article about the virus that attempted to take down MLB GM’s en masse.
• Before the big bosses left sick, here were some of the early signals on Ohtani, according to Mark Feinsand.
• Ben Clemens looks at the Top 50 free agents for FanGraphs.
• Kiley McDaniel rates the top free agents for ESPN.
• The top 10 free agent pitchers available this offseason. (MLB)
• An ever-updating list of the free agent market. (MLB)
• Scott Boras always makes a splash at the GM meetings, but this year he got a lot of attention for suggesting a neutral site for the World Series. Story by Patrick Andres.
• Oy.

• Speaking of Cashman, he had quite a lot to say at the GM meetings, according to Jimmy Traina.
• Michael Baumann looks at the different classifications of managers.
• Where is Cody Bellinger poised to land next season? (MLB)
• Tim Keown looks at the Oakland mayor’s major plea to keep baseball by the Bay.
• The Cubs getting Craig Counsell indicates a “Hunger Games” style clamor for managers. Story by Brittany Ghiroli. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• There may be some financial uncertainty ahead for certain teams thanks to TV deal concerns. Story by Evan Drellich. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Guess we’ll see if this does them any good.

T