Outside The Confines: The rotten apple

Good morning. OK, it’s not such a good morning.

• Tim Keown has the inside story of how John Fisher and the Athletics walked out on Oakland. If you’re still one of those people who think Oakland didn’t support the A’s, you should read this. The two sides were $38 million apart on a multi-billion dollar project when Fisher pulled the plug with no warning.
• Michael Baumann laments the current stages of ballpark building and praises two stadiums (probably) about to be torn down, Tropicana Field and Kauffman Stadium.
• Another big behind-the-scenes story that broke this week is Tim Britton and Will Sammon on how $445-million payroll Mets fell apart this year. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• One of the people quoted in that piece on the Mets was Tommy Pham, who questioned the Mets work ethic. Buck Showalter defended the team’s effort.
• Mike Axisa thinks complacency in the front office has led to the Yankees’ disastrous season.
• Dayn Perry thinks the Padres shouldn’t overreact to their disappointing season.
• Shohei Ohtani underwent elbow surgery. The procedure is being termed a “reinforcement of a healthy ligament” rather than Tommy John surgery.
• Jack McKessy writes that despite the injury, Shohei Ohtani is still the American League MVP.
• R.J. Anderson has what you need to know about Ohtani’s upcoming free agency.
• Jon Paul Morosi has a look at Japanese pitchers who may be joining MLB next year.
• Stephanie Apstein speaks with Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi about what he says the secret to his career is—getting 13 or 14 hours of sleep a night before a start.
• I may be the only one who cares about this, but Michael Clair previews the European Baseball Championship.
• Christina De Nicola traces Marlins infielder Luis Arraez’s path from almost quitting baseball to being a batting champion.
• Chris Gilligan looks at the breakout season from Reds outfielder TJ Friedl.
• Tyler Kepner speaks with Yankees ace Gerrit Cole on the shifting standards of greatness. (The Athletic sub. req.) Cole is likely to be the next pitcher to win 200 games and that may be the new 300 wins as a standard of greatness. (Which would be good news for Jon Lester.)
• Jay Jaffe looks at the teams who have benefitted by letting their rookies play.
• Will Leitch looks at the chances of four teams to win their first World Series this year.
• Bradford Doolittle has the biggest success and failure of all 30 teams. (ESPN+ sub. req.) For the Cubs, it’s Cody Bellinger (success) and first base (failure).
• Sam Dykstra and Jonathan Mayo look at the prospect in each organization that has improved the most this season.
• Jayson Stark looks at Hall-of-Famer Scott Rolen’s upcoming return to Philadelphia and whether the fans will forgive him for leaving. (The Athletic sub. req.) Stark, a native Philadelphian, says that the city needs to forget about the acrimony that accompanied Rolen’s departure.
• Joel Sherman reports that the qualifying offer for free agents next year is likely to be $20.5 million.
• The Tigers hired Chicago Blackhawks assistant general manager (and former Cubs executive) Jeff Greenberg as their new GM. This is the Carter Hawkins role to team president Scott Harris.
• Brewers reliever J.C. Mejia was suspended 162 games for his second violation of the PED policy.
• Zach Meisel introduces us to Allan Wylie, the blind broadcaster for the High-A Lake County Captains. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Wednesday’s Dodgers/Tigers game was briefly delayed by a giant bubble and a goose that almost got hit by a foul ball.
• And finally, it’s been a while since we got a great short film by director Andrew McCutchen. But the recent illness of former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel caused McCutchen to take out his camera and do his impersonation of Manuel.

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