Good morning.
- We’ve already covered Major League Baseball Players Association boss Tony Clark’s resignation yesterday, but Jeff Passan and Don Van Natta Jr. have the full story of the union boss’s departure.
- Gabe Lacques writes that the poorly-time departure leaves the union directionless heading into the collective bargaining agreement talks.
- Jake Mintz takes a similar approach but also focuses on the next steps for the union.
- Michael Baumann puts the scandal that brought Clark down into context and looks at the MLBPA’s next steps.
- Evan Drellich argues that commissioner Rob Manfred’s biggest problem in the upcoming labor talks may not be with the players but rather with the owners over the control of TV rights. (The Athletic sub. req.) Tom Ricketts is featured as an enemy of Manfred’s plans.
- Padres owner John Seidler says that the team is getting “tremendous interest” from potential buyers. (Free The Athletic reg. req.)
- In the meantime, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller signed a new contract extension.
- AJ Cassavell gets reaction from players and coaches at Padres Spring Training to Preller’s extension.
- Then there’s the reaction from Padres manager Craig Stammen.
- Dennis Lim has more details on Preller’s extension and notes that it gives the Padres some certainty in a time of uncertainty. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- The Padres also signed free agent and former Dodger right-hander Walker Buehler to a minor-league deal.
- Michael Baumann notest that between the Padres’ signing of Buehler, Griffin Canning and Germán Marquez this past three-day weekend, Preller is casting a wide net in order to find a 4th starter. He also writes about the Padres signing of Nick Castellanos over the weekend.
- We are just two weeks away from the kickoff of the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Tokyo. Michael Clair has one key player for all 20 teams.
- A look at the uniforms for all 20 WBC teams.
- Kiri Oler has a preview of Pool D of the WBC.
- Ken Rosenthal talks to Bobby Witt Jr. about his first WBC three years ago as the last guy on the bench and this year, where Witt is expected to be the starting shortstop. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Witt’s role of the young guy who is expected to watch and learn on Team USA will likely be filled by Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, who was named as the replacement for the injured Corbin Carroll.
- Tigers utility guy Javier Báez addressed his WBC suspension for marijuana use. (Free The Athletic reg. req.)
- Time to pay the butcher’s bill as Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez is already out for the year with a ulnar collateral ligament injury that will likely require Tommy John surgery.
- Dayn Perry has offseason grades for all 30 teams.
- Will Leitch looks at the 14 teams with the longest World Series droughts and ranks them by their chances to end that drought this year.
- Jared Greenspan looks at how ten teams with an under 40 percent chance of making the playoffs now can defy the odds. Sorry Rockies, you aren’t on the list.
- Chad Jennings lists the biggest offseason change for all 15 National League teams. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Buster Olney is ranking the top ten players at every position. Here’s his top ten starters and top ten relievers.
- Mike Trout has told the Angels brass that he wants to move back to center field.
- Travis Sawchik tries to answer whether trading defense for offense (or vice versa) works.
- New Giants manager Tony Vitello said the team will consider calling pitches from the dugout, like NCAA teams do. (The Athletic sub. req.) The Rockies have said they will “experiment” with calling pitches from the dugout this year and the Marlins did for a few games last year.
- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made new free agents Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz explain to the team why they decided to play for the Dodgers. I’m guessing that while “because they offered the most money” was the correct answer, it was not the acceptable answer.
- Brian McTaggart writes about how the Astros are using vocabulary lessons in four languages is helping the team come together.
- RJ Anderson has his top 30 draft prospects.
- In case you were wondering who the next White Sox star is, here’s UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky hitting two home runs in one game.
- Benjamin Hill and Josh Jackson have one fun fact about every minor league system.
- This is fascinating. Fabian Ardaya meets with Dodgers World Series hero Miguel Rojas to break down every pitch of his game-tying home run in Game 7 of the World Series. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- And finally, this is from a mailbag column and I normally ignore those, but this one is too good to pass up. Michael Baumann answers the big baseball question we all have: Are there any rules saying a golden retriever can’t play first base?