Yamamoto is expected to be posted Monday. Negotiations can start Tuesday.
Let the feeding frenzy commence!
At the deadline here’s the complete non-tender list from all teams. A couple of things jumped out at me. The Mets dump Daniel Vogelbach after playing him over 100 games. Not surprising they got rid of him but I guess they don’t think he could go in a trade.
The Braves dump 7. They currently only have 36 on the 40 man roster. It’s a good indication they are looking to make a lot of moves over the off season.
The LV Knights team built a strong fan base because they were good from the start. They were in the Cup finals in their first year of existence and won it all last season. I don’t know if the A’s owner will do that. In his favour, he’s got four seasons to make the team better. Maybe they can be World Series hopefuls in 2028. I doubt it however and LV will inherit a bad team, as if it’s an expansion team. Fans will still come since it will be new the first few years. It may even be like the Florida teams where half the attendance cheers for the visitors.
MLB has made a stupid decision in my opinion. I thought Montreal was bad but this is worse. Now that it’s been decided, who in Oakland will go see the team? In Montreal, there was talk for years that the team may move - which didn’t help attendance - and there was hope they’d stay until the end. The decision was not done and officially announced until the last home game. Their next home game would be in Washington. In Oakland, it will be, come see the team before we move to Vegas in 2028. I don’t think that’s going to go over too well.
The A’s are not going to stay in Oakland through 2027 if they are intent on moving. They will play next year at the Coliseum because they have a lease, but they will leave immediately afterward. There is speculation of where the A’s are going to play in 2025-27 while waiting for the new stadium to be completed.
If ESPN’s numbers are to be believed, that is a product of the de facto seating capacities of their stadiums; most NFL teams are at or around 100 percent attendance Las Vegas is tied for fourth lowest at 95.9% and only Dallas and Atlanta are below 95.
That said it’s hard to really figure out how they come up with those percentages or who even has a solid handle on a stadium’s capacity. Dallas AT&T is sometimes listed as 80,000, sometimes over 100,000, depending how standing room tickets are factored in.
The Draftkings odds for the Yamamoto sweepstakes:
New York Mets + 220
Boston Red Sox +400
Los Angeles Dodgers +450
New York Yankees +550
Chicago Cubs +600
San Francisco Giants +900
Reports coming in on a rare Yankees/Red Sox trade. Alex Verdugo for some minor league pitchers.
I see Richard Fitts is one of the pitchers going to Boston. He looked really good here in half a season in 2022 (“here” being the Yankees High-A affiliate). Obviously that’s a long way from the big leagues, but I had my eye on him as a possible real deal. Guess we’ll see.
I saw Greg Weissert in AA. He was only ok last year when he was called up.
The Cleveland Guardians won the draft lottery and will select first in the 2024 MLB Draft.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed that the team met with Shohei Ohtani for 2-3 hours a couple of days ago, becoming the first person to divulge such information in the wake of an information blackout by Ohtani’s camp.
The Angels’ GM says he’s not trading Mike Trout in the offseason. 100%.
So…where do you think Trout will end up? 
It is looking like Soto is going to be a Yankee. Giving up some good prospects. It might prove costly if they can’t sign him for anything past this year.
OH GODDAMMIT. Not my Juan.
Speaking of former Nationals, Bryce Harper of the Phillies is talking about wanting an extension. Even though he’s got 8 more years left on his deal, that will take him through his age-38 season.
Now apparently official.
Yankees doing Yankees things. I used to begrudge them for it, but at least you know they’re trying really really hard and I can’t fault them for that. I’d hope everyone running an MLB team took it that seriously.
I thought “Yankees things” from non-Yankee fans meant buying players. They traded pitching for him. Any team could do that. I think buying players is now called “Mets things.”
Wow, when he burst on the White Sox scene, he had all the earmarks of a budding superstar but languishing in our dysfunctional lineup ended that hope. If he goes to a good organization and has good players around him who give a damn about winning, don’t be surprised if he is resurrected and a star once again.
So I was having this discussion online. Someone said the Yankees should have negotiated an extension with Soto before agreeing to a trade. Leaving aside the fact that Scott Boras would never allow it, isn’t that illegal? Soto was still a member of the Padres until the trade. Wouldn’t it be against the rules to negotiate with him while he is on another team? I can’t find the cite for that.