Morning Rundown Week in Review: MLB Awards, Rule 5 decisions, non-tender deadline
It was a busy week in the offseason around the league.
It was a busy week around the league, as there were multiple deadlines with implications on team’s rosters and award winners being announced.
Here’s a look at the award winners from the past week:
MVP
AL: Aaron Judge
NL: Shohei Ohtani
Cy Young
AL: Tarik Skubal
NL: Chris Sale
Rookie of the Year
AL: Luis Gil
NL: Paul Skenes
Manager of the Year
AL: Stephen Vogt
NL: Pat Murphy
At the beginning of the week, teams had to add eligible players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.
Despite having some notable players in the system eligible, the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t protect anyone. Sammy Siani finally broke through Greensboro and made it to Double-A, and then carried that over into the Arizona Fall League.
The Pirates have a couple of 40-man roster spots open, so they could theoretically decide to select a player in the Rule 5, but they would have to carry them on the active roster for the entire season.
Friday was the non-tender deadline for teams, giving them one last chance to move on from players, no strings attached.
The Pirates opted to non-tender three players, Bryan De La Cruz, Connor Joe, and Hunter Stratton.
The latter of the trio, Stratton, is a good reminder that the non-tender deadline impacts more than just the arbitration-eligible players.
De La Cruz and Joe were expected after down years with the Pirates. Stratton was injured toward the end of the season and is expected to miss quite a bit of time, so while he’s a player who can contribute to the team, it makes sense to do so.
The Pirates also made a trade on the non-tender deadline, acquiring right-handed pitcher Peter Strzelecki from the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for cash considerations.
Strzelecki, 30, pitched in 10 games for the Guardians last season, posting a 2.31 ERA in 11.2 innings pitched.
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A Reynolds question. Is him moving to firstbase a rumor or a suggestion?
Rumor: Some team member / player (Reynolds) has actually discussed or considered this and the source reporting it has some (even slight) level of credibility.
Suggestion: Blog, website, user comments etc. who may have very good or very bad ideas but are just stating what they would like to see or they think may work. ie. there are great suggestions on this board on players to target... these are suggestions.
I'm not being critical I just see the Reynolds move coming up more and more and personally kind of like the idea, but I don't know know the genesis and I see WAY to often suggestions suddenly presented as rumors .
A question I have is are folks looking for a long term replacement this year like Soderstrom? That likely is pricey. Or a one year (Lamont Wade, Ryan O’Hearn) which is a good one year bridge. Personally I’m fine with the latter and if they’re going to spend serious prospect capital on the outfield, to do that route.