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Hello everyone and happy Friday! Yesterday was a surprisingly busy day in the world of baseball (grading on the lockout curve) so let’s get to it.
In Mariners news...
- Vibin’ With J-Rod may be on pause due to the lockout (since Julio is on the 40-man roster), but that didn’t stop Julio from posting some new content to his personal YouTube channel.
Around the league...
- Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news? I suppose I can’t wait for you to decide so I’ll choose for you. The good news: the MLBPA is planning to present a new CBA proposal on Monday. The bad news: Evan Drellich at The Athletic reports that the owners have no plans to accept a deal until the absolute last minute so they can get the players into panic-accepting a worse offer. ($)
- Worth a reminder that Bob Nightengale has a mixed resume when it comes to reliability, but frankly I’d be happy with expansion anywhere. MLB needs more employment opportunities.
Nashville and Montreal are #MLB's top two expansion sites.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 20, 2022
- Marc Topkin at the Tampa Bay Times reports that Major League Baseball has killed the plan to have the Rays split time between Montreal and Tampa. Thank God.
- One of the top pitching prospects at the college ranks will miss the rest of the season while he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
BREAKING: Crushing news out of Fayetteville as @RazorbackBSB projected Friday night starter and RHP Peyton Pallette will miss the 2022 season with a UCL injury that will require Tommy John surgery. The #Hogs were No. 2 in our preseason rankings on Monday. #WPS #Hogs
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) January 20, 2022
- The Minnesota Twins are inducting three people to their organizational Hall of Fame this summer.
Congratulations to the #MNTwins Hall of Fame Class of 2022! We can't wait to celebrate during Hall of Fame Weekend in August. pic.twitter.com/aWHSWiIxcQ
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) January 20, 2022
- Baseball America continued their top prospect coverage for the weekend, listing 11 players who the staff thinks could break into the top 100 with a strong performance this summer. Harry Ford gets a write-up in the piece. ($)
- Speaking of prospects, Baseball Prospectus unveiled their top 100 for the season. ($) In case you missed it, John Trupin wrote up the Mariners’ end of the list.
- Maria Torres and Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic explore the current system that allows International Free Agents to be signed the way that they are, and ponder what changes need to be made to improve things. ($)
- ESPN reports that Major League Baseball will implement robot umpires for Triple-A games in 2022.