The offseason never sleeps and what I’m realizing is that MAN it’s hard to keep up with an entire league, but hey #GoMariners always and let’s get to all this baseball! It’s been a little over one week since Chris Young (the Royals too, I guess) was #crowned a World Champion and there has been a TON of news to follow in this lovely world of baseball we choose to surround ourselves with. There are lots of stories to pick from and I’m going to do my best to hit all the points for your baseball reading pleasure. Offseason week one(ish) everybody:

  • The Seattle Mariners traded Brad Miller, Logan Morrison and Danny Farquhar to the Tampa Bay Rays for Boog Powell, C.J. Riefenhauser and Nathan Karr. A general consensus, sad to to see Brad go and lord.. I mean Danny Farquhar was definitely nothing close to the 2013 version of himself but I wish him the best to return to some formidable version of himself. LoMo (Logan Morrison)… Well. I’ll miss comparing your face to joker memes.
  • A record 20 players received a qualifying offer this postseason. In case you aren’t familiar, a qualifying offer is a one-year deal offered to a player of whatever team, the salary determined by the average of the top 125 salaries in MLB the previous year (this year averaged out to $15.8 million). A team has up to 5 days after the World Series to make this offer to a player. There is a whole lot of other stipulations that involve draft picks/compensation that you can read about here, if you so desire. To date, no player has ever accepted a qualifying offer. Here is a list of of the players that were given a qualifying offer this year:
QU
sbnation.com
  • The 2016 HOF ballot was released yesterday. The Mariners very own, George Kenneth Griffey Jr. headlines this next potential HOF class.  In addition to the Kid, the Mariners former famous double-hittin’, and beloved current hitting coach Edgar Martinez is on the ballot again. Griffey, Jr. is obviously (in my completely biased opinion) a guaranteed spot, but it proves harder every year to make a case for Edgar. I will also say with (almost) complete certainty that Randy Winn will make it too. My reasoning is 89% because I have an uncanny affinity to most former Mariners, and 11% because he has had a solid career (with all 5 teams hes played for). Rob Neyer wrote an analysis of the 2016 HOF ballot, which I agree with for the large majority. Especially as he defends Edgar and his much needed recognition as a DH. Here is the complete list of potential HOF inductees:
HOF2016
baseballrefrence.com

On the left are men who have already been on the ballot more than once, and the right are the new guys to the ballot. The inductees will be announced January 6th.

  • The Byung-Ho Park era has begun. the Minnesota Twins are the victors of the “right to negotiate” with the highly shopped Korean 1st baseman. For the small fee of $12.85 MM the Twins have bought themselves 30-days to negotiate a deal with Park, or else the fee is returned and he plays the 2016 season in Korea.
  • There have already been a myriad of surgeries this offseason: Robinson Cano/SEA (sport hernia), Michael Brantley/CLE (shoulder), Zack Wheeler/NYM (tommy johns) and Albert Pujols/LAA (foot). Cano and Pujols should be back by spring training, but Brantley isn’t projected to be back until at least April.
  • Colorado Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes (traded to the Rockies mid-season in the deal that brought Tulo to the Blue Jays) was accused of domestic violence in Hawaii at the endof October. Amid the resurgence of the Greg Hardy DV case this week (and Jerry Jones’ lack of punishable action) all eyes are on the MLB to try and make an example of of Reyes. The MLB has a new Domestic Violence policy and all the time in the world to handle this extremely sensitive matter with diligence and care. MLB’s official statement:

MLB DV

This statement was also released by the Rockies:

CR DV

  • The experts have officially released their “Top 50 Free Agents” lists/predictions and boy oh boy do we have a lot to look forward to. CBS & TradeRumors have both released Top 50 lists, and Fox Sports has released a comprehensive list of ALL free agents available. Another good source to keep checking throughout the offseason is SBNation’s free agent tracker. David Price, Zack Greinke, Johnny Cueto are the best among the pitchers available, and are poised to be even richer men come early February when pitchers and catchers report to camp. If you’ll remember, all three of the these pitchers made it to the post-season this year. Chris Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, Jason Heyward and Alex Gordon headline the available bats. Many of the highly ranked free agents have been offered qualifying offers from their current clubs (see above) but I see the trend of “no one accepting these offers” continuing this offseason.
  • Rest in peace to former Angels and Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson. He passed away last night from organ failure, after being in a coma in an Atlanta hospital. If you’ll remember, Hanson pitched the first no-hitter in Mississippi Braves history back in 2008. He was 29 years old. Sending virtual hugs and prayers to the Hanson family during this time. #RIPTH
  • Jose Bautista also had something to say to those who continue to criticize his now infamous bat flip in game 5 of the ALDS. He singles out “the small section of people always seem to turn it into a debate about the integrity of the game”.
  • On this day (November 10th) five years ago the Mariners community lost their voice. Love you Dave Niehaus, rest in love big guy. Promise that World Series ring is coming soon.

That’s all for now folks! Next week will be full of end of the year awards and whatever curveball (haha get it) news stories baseball decides to throw at us. Here’s to the second full week of the offseason (yeah it’s only week two, ugh)! 

P.S – The Mariners Spring Training Schedule got released today!  #GoMariners