Good day everyone! We’ve got a lot of news to get to as we kick off this Wednesday — let’s dive in.
In Mariners news…
- Josh Naylor, who never jokes about anything, says he was entirely serious about the Mariners’ clubhouse dog Tucker playing a major role in his re-signing with the team.
- Daniel Kramer spoke to Julio Rodríguez, who is embracing his role as a veteran on this M’s squad heading into his age-25 season.
Around the league…
- Longtime MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark stunned the baseball world with the sudden announcement that he is stepping down from his post. It was later revealed that he did so due to recent allegations of an inappropriate relationship with this sister-in-law, who also worked at the union office.
- Things don’t look good for Twins starter Pablo López, who has a “significant” tear of his UCL that will likely require Tommy John surgery.
- The Akron RubberDucks announced that they will play under the alternate identity “The Cream Stick Donuts” for a weekend series this year; I think we’ve officially taken this thing too far.
- Eric Logenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski at Fangraphs discussed the prospects they disagree about most in this year’s preseason rankings.
- Meanwhile, Dan Szymborski at Fangraphs unveiled the ZiPS top 100 prospects.
Anders’ picks…
- Looking for another fun daily sports puzzle game? Check out StatPad, which is a neat twist on the standard grid game.