As everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving leftovers, here are a few items to serve as dessert…
- The Royals would "much prefer" to trade prospects to acquire starting pitching and don't want to move Wil Myers or any of their top regulars, tweets Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star. The Royals are "willing to listen," however. We heard earlier tonight that K.C. was shopping some of its top position players in search of frontline pitchers.
- In an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM's Inside Pitch show, Marlins assistant GM Dan Jennings told hosts Jim Bowden and Casey Stern that the club's standing with both Major League and minor league free agents has changed in the wake of the controversial trade with the Blue Jays and the accusations of broken promises from Mark Buehrle. "We know that that is an issue. It's out there," Jennings said. "We probably will have to look at our policy of [not] granting no-trades, if it's something that we look to remove, [or] do you look to put more money on the front end [of contracts]? I think there's a lot of ways to address that."
- The Baseball America staff looks ahead to the Rule 5 draft, listing both players who could be drafted and five players who were somewhat surprising additions to their teams' 40-man rosters.
- As "Black Friday" comes to an end, USA Today's Jorge L. Ortiz lists Brandon McCarthy, Scott Hairston, Kyle Farnsworth, Ryan Theriot and Shaun Marcum as lower-priced free agents who could prove to be bargains.
- Of recent teams who jumped from sub-.500 records to the playoffs in a year's time, MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince notes that none did so after splurging on free agents, instead relying on trades and international signings to remake their rosters.
