Elephant Rumblings: Rangers acquire former Cleveland ace Kluber

A’s Coverage:

• Kleinschmidt: Free agent second baseman Eric Sogard interested in A’s return...
• Kleinschmidt: Mark Canha’s bat flip vs. Angels named best of 2019 by MLB Network...

Best of AN:

• CatfishBunter: Analyzing the Buchter-McFarland bullpen shuffle...
• fatrolf: Oakland A’s Player Profile - Marcus Semien...
• Nico: Front Office Thinking - Fun With Inferences...
• Hall: Oakland A’s rumors - Interest in Adam Frazier...
• Hall: Oakland A’s free agents - Brett Anderson to Brewers...
• Iversen: Mike Fiers did the right thing blowing whistle on Astros’ cheating...

MLB News:

• Sullivan: Rangers trade OF Delino Deshields Jr., RHP Emmanuel Clase for two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber...
• Gilbert: LHP Madison Bumgarner, D-backs agree to five-year deal worth $85M...
• Shaikin: MLB threatens to walk away from Minor League Baseball... ($)
• ESPN: Injured Mets OF Yoenis Cespedes agrees to pay cut in grievance settlement...
• Heyman: Indians among teams showing interest in FA 2B Cesar Hernandez...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Brisbee: The Giants viewed Madison Bumgarner through a lens of cost-benefit analysis; it’s tougher to account for nostalgia... ($$$)
• Kram: The Corey Kluber Trade Is a Catastrophe for Cleveland Fans...
• Bitzer: Why is Corey Kluber’s value so low on BTV?
• Brown: Why some MLB executives think a leaner minor-league system is best for baseball...
• Rosenthal and Stark: What’s next after the winter meetings? It’s now trading season... ($$$)
• Sarris: Front-office employees on what the public doesn’t understand about running a baseball team... ($$$)
• Gawlowski: Adam Jones Does Something Interesting...

Today in Baseball History:

• 1974 — Arbitrator Peter Seitz rules in favors of Cy Young Award winner Jim Hunter in a dispute with A’s owner Charlie Finley making “Catfish” a very attractive unrestricted free agent.
• 2010 — The Athletics trade for OF Josh Willingham with the Nationals, giving up youngsters Henry Rodriguez and Corey Brown in return. The patient power-hitting Willingham, like newly-signed DH Hideki Matsui, is a throwback to the “Moneyball” type of player whom A’s general manager Billy Beane favored in the 2000s.

Best of Twitter:

• This is a seriously cool recap of the decade...

• Ouch...

• The league has been all over the place in recent years...