Outside The Confines: Most Valuable news

Good morning. We actually have an honest-to-goodness major deal to talk about today.

• Late last night, the White Sox dealt left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer to the Braves for right-hander Michael Soroka, left-hander Jared Shuster, shortstop Braden Shewmake, infielder Nicky Lopez and right-hander Riley Gowens. So the Braves get a lefty coming off a bad year and they also get to clean out their 40-man roster.
• They announced the BBWAA Most Valuable Player Awards for this year and the winners were the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani and the Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr. For the first time ever, the vote in both leagues was unanimous.
• Ohtani becomes a rare MVP-winner who is also a free agent. Manny Randhawa looks at the other four players in this situation and what happened to them.
• Zach Crizer notes that Ohtani hasn’t spoken to the media since August and has been a mystery throughout this entire free agency process.
• Except that we now know he has a dog. He was a social media sensation yesterday evening.

• Will Leitch ranks all 187 MVP winners throughout history.
• In honor of Acuña’s 40-70 season, Andrew Simon looks back at the best power-speed combinations in baseball history.
• And in honor of Mookie Betts who finished second in the NL MVP voting, Matt Kelly looks at the greatest seasons in MLB history that didn’t win an MVP Award.
• The Cy Young Awards were announced on Wednesday and the Padres’ Blake Snell and the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole won the top pitching award.
• Here’s a good analysis of all the BBWAA Awards voting.
• Matt Snyder picks one MVP winner for both leagues since 2000.
• I guess we have to deal with the vote to approve the Athletics move to Las Vegas. Bob Nightengale lets owner John Fisher and commission Rob Manfred have their say.
• Tim Keown writes that MLB sold out the fans for money. What else is new? Keown also argues that no one has made a coherent argument for why this move is happening now.
• Gabe Lacques places the blame firmly on Fisher, who sold out the fans for money. Fisher also showed an appalling level of entitlement when he told A’s fans that moving the team to Vegas was “a lot worse for me than you.” Man, it’s hard to be born into obscene wealth.
• Matt Snyder looks at where the A’s might play until a stadium is built in 2028.
• In contrast to Fisher, Buster Olney reports that recently-departed Padres owner Peter Seidler loved baseball and was an advocate for the fans.
• Dennis Lin writes that Seidler was, in many ways, the ideal owner. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Braves were awarded the 2025 All-Star Game.
• The Brewers promoted bench coach Pat Murphy to be their new manager.
• Jeff Tracy answers a question you may have had: what exactly does a bench coach do?
• R.J. Anderson predicts contracts for the top ten free agents.
• Jason Stark reports on the Phillies plans for this off-season. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Alex Coffey reports that the Phillies are expected to make a big push to sign Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
• Mike Axisa has the top 5 destinations for free agent right-hander Aaron Nola.
• Eric Longenhagen analyse the moves that every AL team made to their 40-man roster this week.
• Ben Clemens writes that bunting was not the Diamondbacks’ key to success this year. Or even a good thing.
• Michael Baumann looks at the struggles of rookie Pirates outfielder Henry Davis and the necessity of getting the number-one overall pick right.
• Emma Baccellieri has a fascinating piece on how MLB Pitch Tracking system works.
• And finally, back to the Brewers and their new manager. General manager Matt Arnold had his young son call Pat Murphy and offer him the manager’s job.

And tomorrow was a better day than today, Buster.