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Long-time big leaguer Tony Phillips has died in Arizona of an apparent heart attack, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Phillips was just 56 years old.

His former teammate and current Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart conveyed the news. He noted the sad fact that Phillips was preceded in death recently by two other prominent members of the A’s 1989 championship club — Bob Welch and Dave Henderson.

Phillips was taken in the first round of the 1978 draft, cracked the majors in 1982 with the Athletics, and didn’t play his last MLB game until 1999 — at forty years of age. It took a broken leg in his final season to stop him, Slusser notes. Indeed, he put up a sturdy .244/.362/.433 batting line with 15 home runs and 11 steals in 484 plate appearances that year.

As Slusser notes, Phillips battled through drug problems (and resulting legal troubles) late in his career. But he seemingly bounced back and remained active in the game, even suiting up for some independent league action in recent seasons.

All told, over parts of 18 seasons in the majors, Phillips entered the batter’s box 9,110 times and contributed a .266/.374/.389 slash, 160 home runs, and 177 stolen bases while walking nearly as often as he struck out. He played all over the diamond, racking up significant innings at second, third, short, and all three outfield positions. The net output was worth fifty wins above replacement, per Baseball Reference, most of it coming with the A’s and Tigers. Phillips also spent time with the Angels, White Sox, Mets, and Blue Jays.

There has been an immediate outpouring of sympathy from around the game for the highly-respected Phillips. MLBTR joins in celebrating his legacy and offering its sympathy to his family, friends, and former teammates.

Recently, MLB Trade Rumors launched a brand new official Instagram account: @TradeRumorsMLB.  Each day, we’re sharing conversation-inspiring images about the hottest topics in baseball.  From there, we invite you to give us a like, weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section, and even share the link with a friend.

Shortly after the Diamondbacks signed Tyler Clippard to a two-year, $12.25MM contract, we gave fans an early look at how he’ll look in the club’s Throwback Thursday uniforms.  Ditto for hurler Mat Latos as we put together a sneak peak of how he might look in a White Sox jersey.  Speaking of the White Sox, we offered up a creative take on their interest in Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier.

So, what are you waiting for?  If you don’t have an Instagram account, this is the perfect excuse to sign up and get one.  Follow us on Instagram today!

Host Jeff Todd and MLBTR’s Steve Adams break down the latest chatter around the Orioles — in particular, the club’s reported interest in qualifying offer-bound free agents Yovani Gallardo and Dexter Fowler.

Then, they talk through some of their most and least-liked, under-the-radar moves of the winter thus far. Among many other transactions discussed, Steve likes the Mariners’ addition of Nori Aoki and the Rangers’ move to bring Tony Barnette back stateside, while Jeff questions the Rockies’ signing of Jason Motte. The addition of veteran righty Tyler Clippard by the Diamondbacks, meanwhile, is a source of debate.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

After running through the week’s quick hits, Jeff welcomes back MLBTR’s Steve Adams to talk about the upcoming extension season. Chatter on new deals tends to reach a high point over the months of February and March, with all kinds of players — from pending free agents to exciting youngsters — fielding offers from their teams.

What kinds of deals could come together this year? Are there any trends to keep an eye on? What are some intriguing names to watch? Who are the likeliest players to re-up early in 2016? Those questions and more are covered in this week’s episode, which includes discussion of Bryce Harper, J.D. Martinez, Adrian Beltre, and many more. Tune in below:

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

Recently, MLB Trade Rumors launched a brand new official Instagram account: @TradeRumorsMLB.  Each day, we’re sharing conversation-inspiring images about the hottest topics in baseball.  From there, we invite you to give us a like, weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section, and even share the link with a friend.

Shortly after the Tigers signed Justin Upton to a six-year, $132.75MM deal, we gave fans an early look at how he’ll look in his new threads.  Ditto for new Rockies outfielder Gerardo Parra, recently-signed Marlins hurler Wei-Yin Chen, and Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy.  We also asked followers to weigh in on the futures of free agent shortstop Ian Desmond as well as 29-year-old outfielder Dexter Fowler.

So, what are you waiting for?  If you don’t have an Instagram account, this is the perfect excuse to sign up and get one.  Follow us on Instagram today!

Here are MLBTR, we routinely toss around dollar figures in the tens or hundreds of millions in reference to players’ salaries. It’s rare, though, that we get as clear a glimpse into what those tens or hundreds of millions can actually buy as we do in this look at MLB players’ cars, courtesy of Tim Rohan of the New York Times. Specifically, Rohan profiles Alex Vega, who owns a custom car shop in the Miami area. Vega frequently works with baseball players during the offseason, because, he says, “Spring training is when business gets the craziest because everybody wants to show up with something new. I’m already getting calls. I’m already preparing cars.” For example, Rohan notes that Pablo Sandoval recently entered the shop hoping to buy a 2016 Rolls Royce Ghost; he left behind a customized Porsche that he had bought just two years before, only driving it for just over 15,000 miles. The quiz accompanying the article — in which the reader is asked to match the car to the star who bought it — is amusing. Here’s more from around the league.

• This offseason has seen the proliferation of opt-out clauses in long-term contracts, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal writes. Opt-out clauses were so rare in the past that the industry doesn’t have much concrete experience with what their results will be (although, I’ll note, it would be easy to study how opt-outs might have worked in past contracts by imagining what players might have done had they had opt-outs after, say, a year, or two years). The obvious conclusion is that opt-outs are a lose-lose for teams, who should theoretically lose productive players as they opt out while being stuck with the ones who don’t produce. But it might not be so simple, as Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski points out. “There may be other cases where somebody opts out and after a year — I’m not going to say this is going to happen but I’ll use it as an example — after a year something happens to him and he’s not pitching as well, and [a team says], ’See? That was a benefit to us,'” he says. “So we really haven’t reached that second step yet.”
• It’s looking more and more likely that the designated hitter will be implemented in the NL as well as in the AL, Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal writes. The players’ association has long supported the change, and taking bats out of pitchers’ hands will help create more runs in an increasingly offense-starved playing environment. Also, Diamond points out that pitchers are hitting even worse than they used to, posting four of their five lowest season OPS marks since 1974 in the last four years.

Jeff covers the league’s latest moves in the weekly Quick Hits rundown, then welcomes MLBTR’s Steve Adams to the show to discuss the Nationals’ reported pursuit of Yoenis Cespedes. Jeff and Steve also run through other possible landing spots for Cespedes, Dexter Fowler and Austin Jackson and examine the moves that several teams would have to make in order to accommodate a free-agent addition.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

36 players from MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents have signed so far.  Our prediction contest was open for a week after qualifying offers came in back in November, and 3,092 people entered.  So far, two people are batting over .400, with 15 correct picks.  The leaderboard is available here; my apologies for the delay.  You may notice some blank names in the leaderboard.  If you believe your own name is blank, please click the “Login with Facebook” button from the leaderboard and your name should appear later.

This was the fifth year using this framework for the free agent prediction contest, and I intend to upgrade it for the 2016-17 offseason.  At that time, we’ll drop the Facebook requirement so that all interested MLBTR readers can play.

Juan C. Rodriguez, the Sun Sentinel’s beat writer for the Marlins, has passed away after a battle with brain cancer. His friend, Andy Barkett, conveyed the unfortunate news today on Twitter, and the team he covered also acknowledged his untimely passing in a tweet.

MLBTR joins all those around the game in extending its condolences to Juan’s family and friends. You can learn more about his story and consider giving to the Rodriguez family at this link. Juan’s good work was often featured here at MLBTR, and the outpouring of sympathy from the ballwriting community stands as a testament to his impact on colleagues. Mike Berardino provides a fitting quote, from Rodriguez himself: “We can’t impose our will on brain cancer, but we can take charge of how we choose to live with it.”