Fan News

The Seattle Mariners' offseason shopping spree has landed a closer. 

According to Grantland's Jonah Keri, the Mariners and righty Fernando Rodney have agreed to a two-year, $14 million deal that could escalate with incentives:

After being a punch line with the New York Mets from 2009 to 2010—and even spending the entire 2011 season at Double-A for the Washington Nationals—Oliver Perez has completely reinvented himself as a serviceable relief pitcher. Over the past two seasons with the Seattle Mariners, the left-hander has combined for a 3.16 ERA (versus a park-adjusted 119 ERA+), 1.36 WHIP and 2.72 strikeouts-to-walks ratio over 82.2 innings. 

The Atlanta Braves had a difficult offseason. Star catcher Brian McCann and veteran pitcher Tim Hudson both left Atlanta and instead of replacing those players, the Braves stood pat.

Fans were restless.

Freddie Freeman should feel special on this fine day in February, as the word is he's the first $100 million player in Atlanta Braves history.

Good for him, but even better for the Braves. They just locked up a young, talented player who's on the rise for money that's really not all that absurd by today's standards.

First of all, the news itself. As the Braves happily announced on Twitter:

With spring training right around the corner, the New York Mets will have a number of sleeper prospects for fans to watch throughout February and March.

If all you're looking for is a typical 150-200-word blurb, then this should do the trick.

After Murphy’s Law wrecked their 2012 season, everything went the Boston Red Sox’s way in 2013. They won 97 games, the AL East title, the American League pennant and, of course, the World Series.

The very idea of Major League Baseball teams investing big bucks in unproven international players doesn't sound like a good idea. A look back at recorded history will say that, yeah, it's really not.

The twist, however, is that this might not be the case for much longer.

You can probably guess why we're about to have this conversation. Surely you've seen seen the three big contracts handed out to international stars since the middle of last October. If not, well:

There's no doubt that the bold move of luring Theo Epstein away from the Boston Red Sox to become the Chicago Cubs' president of baseball operations changed the culture of baseball on the north side of Chicago. Instantly, there was a change in organizational philosophy and for the first time in seemingly forever, the Cubs were preparing to undergo a rebuild.

A successful baseball season usually consists of a team having a lot more players meeting or exceeding expectations than those who fall short. In most cases, at least one or two of those players will perform way above and beyond what anyone could have imagined.

The Atlanta Braves have reached an agreement with first baseman Freddie Freeman on an eight-year contract extension to avoid arbitration.

The Braves tweeted confirmation of the news:

Jon Morosi of Fox Sports clarified the monetary amount: