he said that he felt disrespected by san fransisco. its gonna be hard for him to dh with hanley and cespedes in boston in the future.

It felt like there was always tension between SF and Kung Fu Panda each offseason about how he was handling his weight. And it was always made public. Not shocked that he left.

Cespedes is not going to be in Boston for long, at least I don't think. Only one year left on his contract and there has been tons of talk of Boston growing tired of him and wanting to trade him, well before bringing in the bats of Kung Fu Panda and Hanley. Now they have too many players making too much money that can even be fit into the lineup. Between Cespedes and Allen Craig someone has to go. Craig's value is at an all time low and I'd think there is reason to believe he is capable of a turn around with better health and luck, so I would think Cespedes is the more likely of the 2 to be traded.

And if Cespedes gets traded, I wouldn't be shocked to see the Mets go after him. Maybe offer up Jon Niese? Then find someone to take Duda off the Mets hands and throw Cuddyer at 1B. Duda would be a pretty nice fit for an AL team needing a DH who could fill in the field to give the random player a break. 30 home run power aint nothing to sneeze at these days.

Cespedes is a free agent after this season.

i realize that but he does play for the red sox right now. ive heard their coaches dont like his attitude but im sure they will like him just fine once he hits 35 homeruns. i dont think that he is going anywhere. the red sox gave up alot to get him. and if he doed go somewhere it will be ina trade this year and not in free agency.

Dodgers need a SS, now eh?

Starlin Castro.

dont the dodgers have dee gordon? he had a fantastic season this past season and fits them perfectly hitting leadoff.

the diamondbacks signed the newest cuban sensation yasmany tomas.

Cespedes is definitely the odd man out in Boston now, but they won't get a haul for him by himself with just the 2015 season of control.

I guess SF were actually the highest bidders for Panda. I just can't wrap my head around him being butthurt about their legitimate gripes about his conditioning, even as public as it was. Like Mike Krukow says, he left Baseball Heaven, where he was considered a god to go somewhere where stuff like his weight will be even more heavily scrutinized. His agent should have slapped him. Oh well, we'll see what Brian Sabean can pull out for a 3B. He's been pretty good at filling holes since Bochy became his Manager.

I'm not sure Cespedes is a 35 home run/year hitter. Career high is only 26. Also, with Ortiz still there for this season it's highly unlikely that anyone else starts at DH this except for a handful of games when Ortiz is given the night off.

And Oakland trades Josh Donaldson to Toronto for a package of four players including Brett Lawrie...

Shocker. Love the trade but never anticipated they'd deal Lawrie. Him being young, canadian etc has made him a marketing dream here. But holy fuck, Donaldson! Feels like a big win for the jays.

Not being a prospect guru or a Blue Jays fan I don't know much about the package Oakland got outside of Lawrie, but everything I have read online has been a bit underwhelming. Seems like the "centerpiece" of the deal (at least from a prospect POV) might be the SS, who was maybe in Single A last year, and I just read might not even stay at the position? That seems like a huge gamble. I think I even read that Donaldson had one more season of control than did Lawrie, though I also think I read that both are entering their first years' of arbitration. So not sure what the deal is there.

Whatever the deal...seems like the Blue Jays just got the best Black Friday special and surprised that was all it took for Oakland to trade Donaldson. I could see how this deal could work out for Oakland, but just seems like Beane should have been able to get a ton more from a Donaldson deal. Oakland gave up a top prospect in all of baseball for a season and a half of Samardzija, 4 seasons of Donaldson can't do the same?

Keith Law was really critical of the return Oakland got, but it's hard to doubt Beane because this is the way he makes his living. There are rumors of trades involving Samardjzia, Reddick and Moss, so he isn't done dimantling this version of the A's as of yet. My stance is good riddance, see you in 2018 or whenever you're fielding an MLB ready team again.

Its been a big offseason for Toronto already and we're still over a week away from the Winter Meetings. It'll be interesting to see what kind of deal they end up extending to Donaldson. They surely didn't make this move just to run him through arbitration.

i think at this point beanes sanity nees to be questioned. and now alexi ramirez for samarja is what im hearing.

Mariners apparently sign Nelson Cruz for four years, $57MM. I guess it had to be done. For four years, not a franchise wrecking deal. And Walker and Paxson are still in Seattle, unlike a trade for Upton or Kemp would have netted. Good offseason for Seattle.

M's are apparently going to make Cruz their DH and are looking at Torii Hunter, Alex Rios and Kemp as their RF. Again, i'd be okay with that.

Not a fan of the Cruz signing. I get your excitement over it, Red, but i just can't help but think about the second half of the deal.

25 HR/year over the life of the contract, will be my Mendoza line. So if Cruz can add another 20-25 HR's to the 2014 team's total (which is a conservative estimate if he is going to DH and stays healthy) and we get an overall incremental improvement from Seager, Zunino, Cano, Ackley and Morrison, say another 15 HR's from that group, then their team total is in the 170-180 HR range, which is like where Detroit and Toronto have been landing recently. It ought to make them a playoff team at least over the next couple of years.

A pretty good defense of the Cruz signing:

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/7417714/v37012697

If he is hitting 25+ homers in Seattle 3 years from now, I would be surprised. It'll be interesting to see how long he keeps his bat speed for. I just read the Keith Law article and he seem pretty worried that that could be any year now.

Anyways, Rockies looking to trade Wilin Rosario. I think they are giving up on him way too soon from an offensive perspective, though do realize he is what he is behind the plate. Which is to say he is not very good. Some AL team will probably be able to trade for him on pennies on the dollar and end up with a good bat.

Torii Hunter returns to Minnesota for 1 year. They must have made him some post-career type promises to convince him to spend him remaining time as a player for a non-contending team.

Mariners trade Michael Saunders to Toronto for JA Happ. Sounds like this deal might be a precursor for another deal for Seattle, which would cost them pitching and bring them back an outfielder.

Atlanta signs Nick Markakais to a 4 year deal. Could Upton be Seattle's target?

Baltimore just took a couple shots to their lineup with the loss of Cruz and Markakais.

I guess another way of me saying what I did about the 25 HR average is making the over/under 100 HRs over the life of the contract. So if Cruz hits 40 HRs in 2015, I'd be okay if he hits an average of 20 HRs over the remaining three years. Catch my drift?

I do like the move today for the M's with Saunders/Happ. It does sort of confirm the pettiness of the Jack Z regime, as they had a bit of a pissing war, but I think Happ is a better pitcher now than Chris Young is, as a #5 starter. Jon Morosi actually thinks this trade sets up a trade with Seattle and Colorado, moving Taijuan Walker for either CarGo or Blackmon. Kind of makes me nervous as you CarGo has had many health problems and I don't think you can fall in love with offensive stats with ANY Colorado players, although Blackmon is young and was an All-Star.

Morosi also thinks that it's a foregone conclusion that the Dodgers sign either Scherzer, Lester or Shields. They won't want to give up talent to trade for Hamels. Kind of sick to think they just extended Kershaw to an astronomical amount, won the bidding war for the best FA pitcher two offseasons ago (Grienke) and will end up with another ace this year.

But yeah, the M's ain't done. They should have a RF before it's all said and done. Their rotation is a bit of a house of cards in my opinion, because Iwakuma runs out of gas in September and putting a lot of stock in two young guys (Walker and Paxton) who were hurt for significant portions of last season is really risky. Let's just say I'd rather has a James Shields next year in Seattle than Justin Upton.

The Markakis deal to Atlanta doesn't make any sense to me. Is this someone they're looking at as a foundation piece for the opening day of 2017? Yikes.

I just looked at Blackmon (I really can't say I've seen him play much) and he isn't as young as I thought, basically going into his age 29 season, so I hope the M's don't give up the farm for him.

Peter Gammons thinks the Detroit is going to end up resigning Scherzer. How big of grease-fire would this franchise be in say 2016-17 if they end up doing that?

4 years is way to much for a guy with very little power and who doesn't hit for a high average. Although, Markakis is a stud in the field. I think I read that he has committed only a total of 2 errors over the past two season.

Seattle should not be trying to trade for Charlie Blackmon. Not any of their stud pitching prospects. The most Seattle should consider offering is one of their SS's, IMO. Blackmon probably can survice as a teams 3rd outfielder, but I think he is more suited as a 4th OF. He had a nice 2014, though I think his ridiculously hot and unrepeatable 1st half allowed him to look better than he actually is.

Corey Dickerson is the Rockies outfielder teams should be trying for. But he should cost a lot more than one of Seattle's SS's. I think he has the potential to be good enough to replace Cargo, minus the speed and add some power.

Yanks trade for Did Gregorious (who I kinda wanted the Mets to go after) and sign Andrew Miller to a 4 year, $36 million dollar deal. Looks like Robertson is going elsewhere and the Yanks will get a free draft pick out of all of this.

Just read the Mariners are looking into Melky Cabrera.