9:31 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Jackson, Tennessee, lost its Double-A baseball team for next season, one of 40 cities dropped as professional affiliates as Major League Baseball went through with its plan to cut to 120 farm teams. The New York-Penn League, which started in 1939, was eliminated and the Pioneer League,
MLB
2:13 PM ET ESPN News Services KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals and veteran first baseman Carlos Santana have agreed to a two-year contract that plugs one of the team’s biggest offensive holes while providing some clubhouse leadership for a rebuilding club. The deal is for $17 million, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan,
12:34 PM ET ESPN News Services The Chicago White Sox and Adam Eaton have agreed to a one-year, $7 million deal that includes a club option for 2022 at $8.5 million, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Eaton is expected to be the every-day right fielder for the White Sox. The deal was first reported
3:40 PM ET As part of its restructuring of the minor leagues, Major League Baseball formally issued invitations to fill each franchise’s four affiliated slots. The affiliations will not be official until the minor league teams sign agreements. All 30 MLB franchises will have a Triple-A team, a Double-A team, a high Class A team
7:00 AM ET MLB InsidersESPN In a normal year, baseball’s winter meetings are a gathering of team executives of all stripes, player agents and journalists where the hot stove starts gaining steam and the trade and free-agent markets start buzzing. This, of course, is not a normal year. Instead of crowding into the lobby of
3:23 PM ET Associated Press Dick Allen, a fearsome hitter who was a seven-time All-Star, the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1972 AL MVP, has died. He was 78. The Philadelphia Phillies, the team Allen started out with, announced his death on Monday. Phillies statement on the passing of Dick Allen: pic.twitter.com/KCWIYLEJEj
3:50 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — First basemen Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves and Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox have won Hank Aaron Awards as the outstanding offensive performers in each league as voted by MLB.com. Freeman, 31, was second in the NL in batting (.341), OBP (.462), slugging
10:38 AM ET NEW YORK — Dick Kaegel, who covered the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals and edited The Sporting News during a career of more than 53 years, has won the Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing. He will be honored during induction weekend from
12:08 AM ET The Chicago White Sox are acquiring right-hander Lance Lynn in a deal with the Texas Rangers for right-hander Dane Dunning and a prospect, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The White Sox have been looking for a starting pitcher and they are landing arguably the best on the trade market. They also had
2:08 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Japanese star pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano has been posted by the Yomiuri Giants and is available for bidding to major league teams. The bidding starts at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday and runs through 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 7. A right-hander who turned 31 on Oct. 11, Sugano