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Newsday | Anthony Reiber: The Pirates have been the talk of baseball recently. After trading Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen, it’s clear (though they won’t admit it) that the Pirates are in sell-mode. They might be losing another player in Josh Harrison soon too. Harrison said that if the team doesn’t expect to contend this year or next, they should trade him too. He’s someone that could make sense for the Yankees.
Hardball Talk | Craig Calcaterra: MLB’s been trying to come up with ways to address pace of play for a while now and it looks like they’ll finally do something about it. Apparently Rob Manfred is prepared to unilaterally approve pitch clocks and limited mound visits for this season. Surprisingly, the MLBPA might just let it happen without a fight. Unsurprisingly, their reasons for doing so aren’t that great.
New York Post | Joel Sherman: This offseason is boring. So boring that crazy trade proposals are making their way to the news. I guess it’s not that crazy if crazy trade proposals are coming to life (looking at you, Giancarlo Stanton). Anyway, here’s why a potential Ian Desmond/Jacoby Ellsbury swap could work. The problem here, as with many Ellsbury proposals, is that while it address while it makes sense for the Rockies and the Yankees, it still doesn’t solve the problem of why Ellsbury would say yes.
Cut4 | Chris Landers: While the Hall of Fame results won’t come out until January 24th, the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame announced its inductees this past weekend. One of those inductees will be former Yankee great Hideki Matsui. While Matsui’s HoF case in the US is up for debate, it’s nice to see a career as great as his get recognized. Congrats, Godzilla!