Elephant Rumblings: A’s remain interested in catcher Wieters

A’s Coverage:

• Rosenthal: Veteran catcher Matt Wieters drawing interest from A’s, Cardinals...
• Schulman and Slusser: A’s avoid arbitration with all 7 candidates, with big raise for Marcus Semien... ($)
• Gallegos: MVP finalist Semien, A’s strike deal...
• Schulman: Ed Sprague Sr., an original Oakland Athletic, dies at 74... ($)
• Tefertiller: A’s View Vimael Machin As Rule 5 Prize... ($)
• Coffey: Five predictions for the A’s heading into 2020, including a monster season ahead for Matt Olson... ($$$)
• Jenkins: For Giants and A’s, offseason image matters... ($)
• Rosenbaum: These are baseball’s best defensive prospects...

Best of AN:

• Nico: Blogfather Writes Headline, Article...
• Hall: Oakland A’s avoid arbitration with all remaining players...

MLB News:

• Sullivan: Rangers, 3B Todd Frazier agree on one-year deal worth $5M...
• Gurnick: LHP Alex Wood returning to Dodgers on one-year, $4M deal...
• Morosi: Cardinals emerging in Arenado talks...
• Bollinger: Twins, Miguel Sanó agree to three-year extension...
• Sanchez: D-backs, OF David Peralta agree on three-year, $22M extension...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Engber: “You Guys Are Scaring Me”...
• Stark: Realignment, robots and the universal DH — how baseball will change during this decade... ($$$)
• Edwards: How Winning and Financial Power Affect Free Agent Spending...
• Posnanski: The Baseball 100 - No. 75, Justin Verlander... ($$$)
• Rosenthal: The Luis Robert deal made sense for both sides — and shows why the system should change... ($$$)
• Simon: Retroactive Review - Little Big League...
• Baumann: Did the Cubs Just Forget About Free Agency?
• Knight: How can MLB put an end to illegal sign stealing? Do away with instant replay... ($$$)
• Jaffe: JAWS and the 2020 Hall of Fame Ballot - One-and-Dones, Part 6...
• Posnanski: The Baseball 100 - No. 76, Willie McCovey... ($$$)
• Posnanski: The Baseball 100 - No. 77, Miguel Cabrera... ($$$)

Today in Baseball History:

• 1883 — Both of the New York Major League clubs will play simultaneously at the Polo Grounds. Their fields will be separated by an 8-foot fence.
• 1982 — Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson win election to the Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Aaron established a major league record with 755 home runs, while Robinson led the Baltimore Orioles to two World Championships and was named Most Valuable Player in both the American and National Leagues. Aaron falls nine votes shy of becoming the first-ever unanimous selection, and his 97.8 election percentage is second only to Ty Cobb’s 98.2 percent in the inaugural 1936 election. Robinson was also the first African-American manager in major league history.

Best of Twitter:

• Some of the responses to this are incredible...

• Why you need more than just errors to properly evaluate defense...

• Who knew the southpaw could swing it?!