The Minnesota Twins continue to make splashes in the offseason with  under the radar signings. The addition of Logan Morrison continues to fit that theme. The contract is pending a physical, has $6.5 million guaranteed, and has the ability to be two years 16.5 million if he reaches all the incentives. Basically the contract is heavily dependent on if the Twins get the Logan Morrison of last year or the Logan Morrison of the rest of his career. This has the potential of being a big time addition to the Twins lineup. Anytime you add a guy that hit 38 home runs and drove in 85 RBI's it can't be overlooked. The Twins do have a field that is horrible for left handed power hitters, though. The wind is constantly blowing in from the right centerfield gap in turn knocking fly balls down that might've been homeruns elsewhere. LoMo isn't a cheap homerun hitter, so he should be able to get his fair share. Buxton, Mauer, Dozier, Rosario, Sano, and now Morrison makes up a pretty solid heart of the order. Will it be enough to make the Twins a serious contender, well no.

The Twins have upgraded their pitching staff, however it's still abysmal and beat up. The addition of Jake Odorizzi was solid, but they don't know exactly what they're getting with him. He started last year strong then faded hard, so he's nothing more than a middle of the road pitcher. Ervin Santana is injured and will start the season on the DL. Michael Pineda, who they signed in the offseason is recovering from Tommy John, meaning he likely won't pitch at all this season. The additions of Fernando Rodney, Addison Reed, and Zach Duke to the bullpen will certainly help a group that wasn't strong at all last year. Still, the Twins pitching staff in 2018 is not something you'll write home about.

All in all, the Twins made some solid moves, but nothing that's going to push them into the upper-echelon. The Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, and Indians are all far superior teams. The only way the Twins make the playoffs is if they make it as the second wildcard spot and face the same fate as last season. Twins are moving slowly in the right direction, just gonna need to be patient with this group. Seems like they're building this roster more towards the 2019 season. 

Nothing like Bryce Harper sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. Don Mattingly made these comments in response to Harper making comments about how the Marlins traded away all their best players this offseason. To be frank, I think Mattingly overreacted a little, although I kinda liked it. The I don't care what you're saying about my team good or bad, just keep our names off your lips attitude, is one of a strong leader. Worry about your own dugout was such a perfect response from Donny baseball. Still, I don't think it was necessary. Harper was just saying how he thought the Marlins were a few pitchers away from contention before they blew it up and he was surprised they did. Nothing outrageous whatsoever, I don't know the context of the interview that the quote came from, but I assume someone probably asked him his thoughts on the Marlins. Now, if he just went out of his way to talk about the Marlins then I side with Donny baseball. If he was asked then Bryce Harper isn't in the wrong whatsoever.

Were the Marlins actually just a few pieces away, or were they an entire pitching staff away. The starting rotation didn't have an ace after the passing of Jose Fernandez. They had no go to starter that'd be able to get them wins consistently every 5th day. As if the starting pitching wasn't bad enough the bullpen was probably even worse. As a collective the Marlins pitching staff posted a 4.82 ERA, which was good for 26th in the MLB. The Marlins pitching staff needed an entire rebuild that would've taken ample cap space or ample amount of time to develop young starters in their system. Something that the star studded lineup wasn't going to be able to wait around for. The situation was just never going to work. Once Jose Fernandez passed away the Marlins were put back at square one. It's detrimental to a team when you lose a star player and get 0  compensation for them. It was a freak accident that derailed their plans, nothing could've been done by the front office to really prepare for such a tragedy. Then, the Marlins switched owners, and agendas changed. This new group wants to make the team profitable first, then they want to make them competitive, so it's going to be about 5 years before we see real change within the Marlins organization. 

Bryce Harper was looking at from his perspective, made same pretty plain observations, and Mattingly ripped him for it. Love the alpha dog move by Mattingly, however Harper didn't step far enough out of line to take one on the chin so hard. Whatever, Harper certainly doesn't give a shit he's about to sleep walk his way to another NL East division crown, and then sign a $400 million contract in the offseason. Bryce will bounce back from this L without even knowing he took a L.

After being in a stalemate for months the Red Sox and JD Martinez have finally reached an agreement to bring the superstar outfielder to Boston. Martinez was a huge part of the Dbacks playoff push last year and he put up MVP type numbers. Boston got him at a great price, 5 years $110 million. Definitely a big salary, but nothing that’s going to cripple them financially, and if I’m not mistaken they should be able to stay under the tax threshold. Adding him to a lineup that lacked power last season will help them in that department for sure, even with the deep right field fence taking that element away somewhat. However, JD Martinez should rack up a shit ton of doubles with that wide open right centerfield gap. With Betts, Bogarts, Benintendi, Devers, and Ramirez already in the lineup, JD Martinez will help elevate them to that upper echelon, which includes the Yankees and Astros.

Do I think the Red Sox are now favorites to repeat as AL East champs? No, Yankees are still better in my biased opinion, but this definitely will make things closer in the AL East. That’s how I want it, though. I live for the Yankees Red Sox rivalry in peak form and the Red Sox adding Martinez certainly makes it way more competitive. Also, when the Yankees shit down the Red Sox throat this season they’ll realize how far away they actually are from competing with us. Sorry, I told myself I wouldn’t let the Yankee fan boy side of me come out, I just couldn’t resist. Are the Red Sox better than last year? Yes. Are they now world beaters? Absolutely not. Astros and Yankees are still my picks to be in the ALCS, although the Red Sox did close the gap with this signing.

The 2015 AL MVP, Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson, said today that he expects to hit free agency after the 2018 season. 

Donaldson said that although he has spoken with the Jays on a contract extension, the talks have not been very encouraging. 
According to Donaldson, "We’re not at the same type of area, the same ballpark, to make a discussion moving forward.”

This is big news for the rest of the league, because a player of Donaldson's caliber can significantly alter any team's future. Even though he had somewhat of a down year in 2017, he still put up awesome numbers, and he will be only 32 when he hits free agency and will likely sign a long-term deal. 

When the Blue Jays resigned Donaldson for this coming season, they made it clear that they were looking to remain contenders for at least one more year, but if things start to go south for Toronto this year, it wouldn't surprise me to see them look to deal the former-MVP, to try and get something in return for that talent. 

Sandy Alderson, General Manager of the New York Mets, made a comment saying that he believes Tim Tebow will play in the MLB. After playing one season in A ball the Mets GM, who has been around baseball for decades, believes Tim Tebow will be a major league caliber talent. Tim Tebow, hadn't played baseball in 12 years, now he decides to pick up the sport again, and after just 18 months of playing baseball the Mets GM thinks Tebow is ready for the show. Just when I try to help cover the Mets asses a little with the David Wright blog I wrote, their GM goes out and says this. Honestly, it's like they're trying to get criticized.

To share my truth, I believe this is just Sandy Alderson covering up the marketing tool that is Tim Tebow. They've already admitted they brought him in as a PR stunt, so why continue to try to cover it up instead of embracing it. Instead of just letting Tim Tebow be at spring training for PR/Marketing purposes, they continue to try to build this narrative that he'll actually play baseball for the New York Mets someday. Just say it for what it is, show some semblance of transparency with your fan base, and then just maybe they all won't hate you.

As for Tim Tebow playing in the MLB, I'm all for it. Of course I want to see this guy in the big leagues, pretending it's reasonable and the best thing to help the team win though,  I will not tolerate. Only way I see Tim Tebow ever playing for the Mets is if they're god awful this season and they need something to entice fans to buy tickets. That's the only way I can see Tebow touching the field for the Mets . I do truly believe one way or another he'll play somewhere in the MLB one day. Think of all the small market teams that need something to drive traffic to their stadium in late August early September, Tim Tebow would be the easiest way to do it. Soon enough Tim Tebow will play in the MLB and Sandy Alderson's prediction will be correct. However, it won't be for the Mets.

​Scott Boras is the real life Ari Gold. An evil genius.
 
Adding some momentum to a slow MLB free agency period, 28-year-old Eric Hosmer has agreed to an 8-year, $144 million deal with the San Diego Padres.
 
The Padres are in rebuild mode, with young talent at the major-league level, and budding talent in their farm system, and they now add a veteran leader in Eric Hosmer, who will look to help his young teammates grow.
 
Hosmer is coming off a great season with the Kansas City Royals, batting .318, with 25 HR’s and 94 RBI’s. The fans of Kansas City will surely miss Hosmer, and the Royals are now clearly shifting their focus towards a rebuild themselves.
 
The Padres have done their best to make some noise this off-season, acquiring both Chase Headley and Freddy Galvis, and now adding Hosmer.

​With Hosmer and Yu Darvish both finding new homes in the last week, Jake Arrieta and J.D. Martinez remain the two biggest names on the market, but I would bet the house that Scott Boras is going to work his magic for them as well. 

Justin Verlander took exception to MLB Network's coverage that said the Yankees are the team to beat in the AL and took to twitter to voice his opinion...

A team that was a win away from  the  World Series, that just added the NL MVP,and returned essentially every player on the roster should have very high expectations. The Yankees should have World Series or bust expectations, I expect nothing less. With that being said saying the AL runs through the Yankees when the reigning World Series champs are in the AL is a bold claim. Especially since the Astros are returning all valuable pieces and they added ace Gerrit Cole from the Pirates to enhance an already very solid rotation. 

I'm not here to say who the better team is for two reasons. One, I'm clearly biased as fuck and will say the Yankees are 100x better than those chumps, they were one win away from World Series in a 'rebuilding year', and they just added the goddamn NL MVP. Two, the champs are the champs until knocked off. They earned that title and they get to keep it until dethroned. That's just how these things work, there's really no discussion to it.Therefore, Astros are still top dawg... for now. Oh, as if that wasn't bad enough being reminded that the Astros are still a speed bump in the Yankees path of glory, Justin Verlander went full salt bae dropping this in the wound shortly after.

I already have drafts saved up on twitter for the moment they get eliminated by the Yankees and I get to throw Justin Verlander's comments right back in his face. My God, I am triggered. Too early in the long baseball season to be getting this worked up over a tweet. Sorry I'll try to be better, just letting you know now; I'll inevitably fail. 

It's never easy calling it quits in anything when it's not on your own terms. If a doctor were to tell me I could never eat Salmon again, a food that I don't even enjoy, I'd have an uncontrollable impulse itching at me to eat salmon. I'm sure that's exactly how David Wright feels, except multiplied by a million. Baseball is his passion, his first love, after a decade of putting up with the shitty Mets he finally gets his chance to win and it gets taken from him. Spinal stenosis is basically a death sentence when it comes to sports, look at the likes of Rick Dipietro, Don Mattingly, and Michael Irvin, once they got the diagnoses their career were all respectively over. All great players, all devoted to the game, unfortunately all the same diagnosis, inevitably leading them all to retirement.David Wright, arguably one of the greatest players in Mets franchise history, will be amongst those names. He already should be, however he just refuses to let go, and it's hard for me to crush him for it.

​Try telling a guy that has put in countless hours trying to get back on the field, even if it's in a limited role, to just quit trying because it's never going to happen. Fact of the matter is David Wright has earned the right(no pun intended) to do whatever it is that his heart pleases when it comes to the Mets organization. He carried them through some rough years, he earned that contract, and deserves every penny coming his way. Now, with all that being said, David Wright is single handedly handcuffing the Mets organization from making any big free agent splashes.

The absolute last thing I wanna do is give the Mets organization a cop out for being dormant in the big free agent market.  Not going to give a big market team any breaks in that area. However, when you're uncertain about $20 million of cap space potentially not being picked up by insurance on the off chance that David Wright ends up being able to play, I can't blame them for being hesitant. Knowing the Mets misfortune they would sign a guy like Mike Moustakas and somehow, someway, David Wright would miraculously heal, leaving the Mets with a financial fiasco, along with a log jam at third base. 

Basically, if David Wright retired it would remove the last excuse the Mets have for not putting on their big boy pants and spending New York money. Not that they really have any excuse not to spend money now since they're way under the tax threshold and are 10 years removed of the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme. Regardless, the Mets are being somewhat handcuffed by their former franchise player. Funny how shit ends up working out, the guy that carried pathetic Met teams for years is now part of the reason the Mets can't take the next step. I was all for the David Wright comeback story, at this point though, it's time to hang em up. It's just not going to happen and accepting that is the first step.