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MLB News and Notes for January 17

With spring training set to start in a little under a month, this is usually the time of year where fans reflect on the work done in free agency by their general managers and eagerly anticipate pitchers and catchers reporting.

This year seems eerily different, though, as the lockout continues and tensions between players and owners do not seem to be getting resolved through the collective bargaining process.

There are no major league signings, no trades, and no real sense of how teams will fully look come spring training.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at where the two sides stand and look at other news from around the league.

Players Union And Owners Not Making Headway

It has been over a month since the lockout began, and there doesn’t appear to be any further progression on a new contract now than when the lockout started.

On Thursday, the two sides met, and the owners made their first economic proposal. The offer included some minimal concessions, including giving bonuses to teams for playing their best prospects on opening day and a lottery for the top three picks (to try to help deter tanking), but the players don’t seem too impressed by the offer.

As a result, after an hour-long Zoom meeting, negotiations ended with no additional talks currently scheduled. Obviously, talks will have to intensify at some point, but the reality is that those talks may not become too serious until both sides are in jeopardy of losing money.

In other words, spring training, and possibly even the regular season, may not start on time until an agreement is solidified.

International Signing Period Commences

While major league free agents are unable to sign until the agreement is finalized, that does not apply to amateurs. As a result, this week, the international free agent signing period started up with a number of signings.

Teams are allotted a specific amount of money for international players based on things like market size, free agents with qualifying offers attached to them that were signed, and other variables.

The highest amount available was just over six million, which was available to about seven teams, including the Royals, Rockies, Guardians, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Orioles, and Padres.

According to Jesse Sanchez’s tracker, found on MLB.com, it appears that the top-10 international players have all agreed to deals with MLB teams.

The top overall player is Roderick Arias, a shortstop out of the Dominican Republic. Arias has agreed to a four million dollar signing bonus with the New York Yankees.

The entire top-10 list, along with signing team and bonus amount, is as follows:

  1. Shortstop Roderick Arias – Yankees – $4 million
  2. Outfielder Christian Vaquero – Nationals – $4.9 million
  3. Shortstop Ricardo Cabrera – Reds – deal and money not officially announced yet
  4. Shortstop William Bergolla – Phillies – $2.2 million
  5. Outfielder Oscar Colas – White Sox – $2.7 million
  6. Outfielder Anthony Gutierrez – Rangers – $2 million
  7. Outfielder Samuel Munoz – Dodgers – deal and money not officially announced yet
  8. Outfielder Lazaro Montes – Mariners – $2.5 million
  9. Shortstop Ryan Reckley – Giants – $2.2 million
  10. Shortstop Diego Benitez – Braves – $2.5 million

Jon Lester Calls It A Career

After an illustrious career that included three World Series titles over 16 years, Jon Lester is calling it quits.

The majority of his career was played with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. While he was not with Boston when they broke the “curse of the Bambino”, he did help the Chicago Cubs end the “curse of the Billy goat” with their 2016 World Series win.

Starting his career in 2006, Lester has gone a combined 200-117 with a 3.66 ERA. In numerous postseason appearances, Lester went a combined 9-7 with a 2.51 ERA.

In addition to his postseason success, he has also been a five-time All-Star and finished in the top-10 in multiple Cy Young Award votes.

Lester’s career is even more remarkable when understanding he overcame a diagnosis of anaplastic large cell lymphoma, requiring him to undergo chemotherapy treatments just as his season was getting started.

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