January 9: Sixto Sanchez got quatro years from Seattle for a total of $67.6M as they look to boost their rotation and return to the playoffs.
January 12: The Hall of Fame voting results are in:
Congrats to Miggy and Verlander, who were no-doubters. Robinson Cano remains agonizingly close, and Zack Greinke nearly made it on the first try. Ichiro and Joe Mauer seem to have plateaued and the deserving Todd Helton falls off the ballot.
January 20: Alex Lange, who picked a great time to have a 15-4, 2.24 season for Washington in his contract year, went to Arizona on a 4/50 deal.
January 22: 38-year-old veteran reliever Raisiel Iglesias went for 2/6.4 to Boston. I kicked the tires on him, but opted not to make an offer. Meanwhile Guillermo Zuniga, who was in our pen for a few seasons before we banished him to the minors last year, signed a minor league deal with Memphis.
January 30: The last of our big-name free agents found a new home as A.J. Puk went for 2/33 to San Francisco, where he'll be a starter again like he was in Detroit before they inexplicably waived him last season. Also Max Fried, who had struggled with injuries and diminished effectiveness the last two years with the Dodgers, signed a 1/3.8 deal with Seattle.
February 1: Interleague play is back! After going for the last 6 seasons with the garbage generic OOTP schedule after we expanded to Memphis and San Antonio in 2022 (which didn't include interleague play), I finally got the gumption to seek out a legit interleague schedule in the schedules forum, and now we have one. Also now the ASB will be the 2nd week in July, not in June anymore.
February 19: A couple of former Rays are on the move today. Lewin Diaz, who never got untracked with us, had a good year with Memphis and parlayed that into a 5/74.7 deal with Houston to be their 1B. And Blake Snell, after spending 8 years with the Padres, was dealt to Kansas City. He's a reliever these days.
February 26: Traded 25-year old LF Jhon Diaz to the Houston Astros, getting 28-year old C Juan Mendez in return.
A classic surplus-for-need deal as we had too many outfielders and Jhon Diaz was going to give way to excellent prospect Jose Aguilar this year as Aguilar is out of options. We were also thinner than an anorexic at catcher with Collins and Cartaya the only legit major leaguers in our system so we add Mendez, who is a pretty decent backup type and who has options.
February 28: After an ill-fated season with us, the Reds have decided to kick the tires on what's left of Clayton Kershaw, signing him to a minor league deal. Also on the first day of preseason games, Byron Buxton tears a hamstring and is out 6 weeks - the realism in this game is uncanny.
February 29 (2028 is a leap year): Speaking of pitchers were signed last year who were failures, Nick Lodolo inked a minor league pact with Boston. Despite pitching poorly, Lodolo actually worked out for us last year as we turned him into Yoelqui Cespedes, who was incredible for us in a 4th OF role.
March 8: All is not well for Dustin May in his new home of Boston as the longtime Rays righty tore his triceps and will miss 3 months.
March 13: It was signing day around MLB with several vets taking one year deals:
March 19: Signed SS J.P. Crawford to a minor league deal.
We needed a backup middle infielder better than Jelfry Marte. I was considering bringing back Willy Adames again but he signed a minor league deal with San Antonio, so enter Crawford who still has a plus glove at SS and even better at 2B. He'll make $2.2M when recalled; he has to serve a 5-game suspension but he might be able to serve it in the minors.