Examining all of the news from around baseball.
Good morning everyone and welcome to the weekend! We’ve got only a couple of weeks left until spring training, and the moves continue to trickle in. Let’s get you caught up on the latest.
In Mariners news…
- The Mariners announced a full slate of festivities for Ichiro Jersey Retirement Weekend in August.
Around the league…
- The Nationals agreed to a deal with recently-posted Japanese left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara, making him the first player to head to D.C. straight out of NPB.
- Former Athletics right-hander Tyler Cyr has announced his retirement from baseball.
- Prospect season continues with MLB Pipeline releasing its update to the top 100 prospects list.
- Jim Bowden at The Athletic outlined seven moves he’d like to see teams make right now. ($)
- Michael Baumann at Fangraphs gave his take on whether the sport needs a salary cap.
- The 11-year-old who pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 Debut Patch card has declined the Pirates’ lucrative offer for it.
- The Minnesota Twins are the latest team to unveil a very affordable streaming package for fans. With their games being distributed by MLB and the M’s reportedly working with MLB on production, this provides some hope for Mariners fans that something similar could be on the horizon.
#MNTwins streaming/TV package available for $99.99 for season or $19.99 per month.
No blackouts in ND, SD, Western Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota.
— Disco Danny Hayes (@danhayesmlb.bsky.social) 2025-01-24T18:32:25.614Z
- Wow, I guess I didn’t realize how little players got paid over in China.
CTBC Brothers have signed their 24-year-old shortstop, 江坤宇 (Chiang Kun-Yu), to a 10-year deal worth 4.93 million USD, making it the largest contract in CPBL history.
It’s a guaranteed 10-year deal with $333K performance incentive. Chiang’s annual salary in 2029 will be $480K. pic.twitter.com/SXXd2j1Hhu
— CPBL STATS (@GOCPBL) January 24, 2025
Anders’ picks…
- The soon-to-come Utah Hockey Team had its first choice of name (the Utah Yetis) rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.