Congrats, Jason.

Thank you. I had to work really hard to make this happen.

And now Brantley to the Jays on a 3 year deal. Something has to give, and I expect it will be Gurriel Jr. and one of the catchers for a front line starter.

yahoo sports saying that the deal for brantley is NOT done.

Yeah, in a kind of surprising move, the Jays don't get him, Houston pays him way more than the Jays would have, and Hazel Mae once again didn't have the whole picture.

Now, the thing I'm immediately suspicious of is whether or not the reported signing was how they did Brantley's agent a solid by helping him squeeze Houston for more. Doesn't strike me like something Shapiro would do, but I am cynical.

So… does J.A. Happ have anything left in him?

He's lost a mile or two off his fastball and gives up a lot of home runs since he's a extreme fly ball pitcher. Last year, J.A. did have a 1.93 ERA in a six game stretch but he was bad in 2019.

I read an online article saying that 15 of the 45 homeruns that Happ recently surrendered wouldn't have
left the park in Target Field. So we'll see. Maybe this is all that $8MM can buy at this point.

Hopefully the Twins get someone better.

i'll say this: the yankees are starving for pitching.......if happ had anything left, i believe the yankeees would have, at least, made an offer.

Probably true, but the Yankees weren't happy with Happ and he wasn't happy with the Yankees.

The Astros couldn't afford to lose both Springer AND Brantley. This is actually sort of a relief in terms of not losing the best hitter on the team.

Springer was not coming back to Houston. He is a great player when healthy. He can also be sort of streaky. Best of luck to him going forward. Really good guy.

I'm starting to believe that Steve Cohen won't even spend like a sober sailor.

Cohen has said he wants to stay under the luxury tax.

But, but, all the owners said the luxury tax wasn't a salary cap

To me, he can only redeem himself by signing Bauer. No Realmuto, no Springer, no LeMahieu, no Hand...
They traded for Lindor for (currently) 1 year, so that's no big signing as of right now. They basically used the $20 million they
saved on Cano. If they sign Bauer, I'll be impressed. If not, despite initial enthusiasm, it will all seem very Wilpon-y to me.

If he wants to stay under the tax, he's not signing Bauer.

Oh, and how about the suggestion to rename the Atlanta baseball team the Hammers? Don't you think that would kill two birds with one baseball?

If I, like Mr. Cohen, a lifelong Mets fan, happened to have $15 billion and owned the team, I wouldn't give two fucks about the luxury tax.

I'd love to see them add a 44 to the base of the handle. But this is pretty much spot on.

The luxury tax kicks in too low for today's salaries.

The Mets will extend Lindor before the season starts, but it will cost a lot. Then they have Conforto and maybe Syndergaard needing longterm contracts.

Cano comes back to haunt them in 2022.

And the Mets are going to haemorrhage money for a few years regardless, as Cohen cleans up what the Wilpons did to the team's finances.

There'll probably be more signings, maybe Bauer, but I'd be okay with Cohen not throwing big money at what's left of this off-season's free agent market. We already have a playoff-level team, and next year will bring a fresh batch of FA choices. Besides, I don't want to root for a Frankenstein roster put together like the Padres -- the Mets need to feel like the Mets, with players that want to be on the team (Realmuto, Springer and Hand didn't) along with lots of homegrown talent.

The luxury tax may be reset of even go away in the up coming bargaining. The MLBPA hates it.

Ok, the Yankees traded four prospects, none in the MLB top 100, to the Pirates for right hand pitcher Jameson Taillon. He's coming off TJ surgery but is really good. They have also traded righty reliever Adam Ottavino to the Red Sox in a salary dump. Otto makes nine million per year and he isn't worth the price the way the Yankees use him. I expect their will be other moves coming.