Outside The Confines: Big bucks for a Buc

Good morning. Let’s win again today.

• After months of speculation, the Pirates and outfielder Bryan Reynolds have agreed on an eight-year, $106.75 million extension. There is no opt-out, which had reportedly been a point of contention between the two sides. Reynolds does get a limited no-trade clause.
• Rob Biertempfel and Tim Britton look at what this deal means for Reynolds and the Pirates. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• In more money-related matters, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Nationals in their dispute with the Orioles and the MASN sports network. Should the ruling stand (and only the US Supreme Count could take an appeal), the Nats could be owed up to $100 million.
• Dan Connelly has more on what this ruling means for the Nationals and the Orioles. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Commissioner Rob Manfred defended Athletics owner John Fisher and said he felt “sorry” for A’s fans but that the team would do better in Las Vegas. Because of course he did.
• Tim Kawakami bets against the A’s succeeding in Vegas because A’s management hasn’t been able to succeed in anything else. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Zach Crizer has five questions facing the A’s as they plot their move to Las Vegas.
• Shomik Mukherjee looks at what’s next for the site of the Coliseum site and the city of Oakland.
• Getting back to the Athletics on the field, R.J. Anderson has three thoughts about the team’s historically-bad start.
• Gabe Lacques notes that the surefire way for teams to increase attendance is to win.
• Jeff Passan has some takes on the early trends in the 2023 season. (ESPN+ sub. req.) An increase in injuries, more steals, shorter games and overachieving and underachieving teams.
• Is the World Baseball Classic to blame for the increase in injures? Michael Baumann looks at the evidence. (Short answer: there’s no evidence that’s the reason.)
• The Rays finally lost a home game last night after a record 14 straight home wins to start the season.
• Ben Clemens believes that Rays shortstop Wander Franco is finally living up to the superstar billing he got as a rookie.
• R.J. Anderson has five things about the Astros’ slow start.
• Mike Axisa has four reasons the Yankees offense is struggling.
• For the first time since 2001, the Twins have won the season series with the Yankees. As outfielder Byron Buxton said, “I was six!”
• Joon Lee has four reasons the Red Sox have kept their heads above water (so to speak) so far this year.
• Red Sox manager Alex Cora also clarified some comments that the Orioles took offense to. He had said that it looked like the Orioles knew what was coming from Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale. Cora clarified that he meant that Sale may have been tipping his pitches, not that the Orioles were stealing signs.
• Brett Maguire looks at how the Pirates turned one of the worst offenses in baseball last year into one of the best this season.
• Ben Clemens says it’s not ridiculous to compare Pete Alonso to the greatest home run hitters of all-time.
• Anthony Castrovince notes that while stolen bases are up all over baseball, the Guardians are really stealing a lot of bases.
• Jesse Rogers looks at the role that Bryce Harper did (and did not) play in reuniting with his Nationals teammate Trea Turner with the Phillies.
• Juan Toribio explains why the Dodgers moving Mookie Betts to shortstop makes sense for now.
• Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior talks about how his coaching philosophy was shaped by his experience pitching in “that game” with the Cubs. You know what game I’m talking about. I’m not going into any more details than that.
• Alex Eisert looks at what the Cardinals should do with their struggling outfield.
• Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo look ahead to how the first ten picks of the MLB Draft could go.
• Kiley McDaniel notes that taking pitchers early in the first round is the riskiest move a team could make (ESPN+ sub. req.) and when does the reward outweigh the risk?
• Hannah Keyser looks at three top baseball executives—the Braves’ Alex Anthopoulos, the Astros’ Dana Brown and the Angels’ Perry Minasian—built a lifelong friendship working as young executives or interns for the Expos in the early aughts. And how they all became successful general managers.
• After 13 years in the minors, outfielder Drew Maggi got the call to the majors with the Pirates.
• A baseball signed by a 12-year-old Mike Trout just sold for $15,000.
• And finally, this is kind of a Cub Tracks item, but it is also weird enough to go here. Davy Andrews has a poem about the swinging bunt that broke up Drew Smyly’s perfect game.

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