There is not necessarily anything magical about today versus yesterday. We’re on the course we’re on with respect to the pandemic, and just one more day has passed. That said, I’m right there with everyone: I hope there comes a time when we can look back and see that 2021 was just the straight damn opposite of 2020.
• Yu Darvish spoke to the media about his trade to the Padres, and he got emotional, so I got emotional:
Cool unscripted moment on Darvish Zoom: @MLBBruceLevine thanks Darvish for being a class act in Chicago, and enjoyable to deal with, and Darvish chokes up and gets emotional about his time in Chicago, can't speak, says he will address that topic later.
— Scott Miller (@ScottMillerBbl) December 31, 2020
Darvish said many teammates said they were shocked by the trade. "I'm always forever grateful to be a Cub."
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) December 31, 2020
Yu Darvish- “There Are Times that I struggled with this (trade) but many fans in Chicago thanked me and my family on twitter that made we feel very good”
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) December 31, 2020
• Darvish also pointed out why the trade was shocking from his perspective:
Darvish said the trade "shocked" him, but "not in a bad way."
"Obviously with what's happening with the coronavirus and the money that the Cubs have, I wasn't really thinking about being traded. And also, they are a winning team, so I thought we would be able to compete."— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) December 31, 2020
• The Cubs kept the hair as part of the trade:
Darvish sporting a haircut in his first media availability as a member of the Padres. pic.twitter.com/gSIUxU782J
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) December 31, 2020
• Meanwhile, the Padres also officially landed Ha-Seong Kim on a four-year, $28 million deal, with various incentives and a mutual option for a fifth year. With the posting fee, the total cost to the Padres is about $33 million for a four-year bet on one of the best players in the KBO, who is just 25 years old, and whose floor is probably that of a good defensive, good baserunning utility guy. If the bat doesn’t translate – which it might not – then you’ve got a borderline bench guy, and he’s way overpaid. But if he becomes a GOOD bench player, or even a regular? It’s a dang steal.
• Patrick Mooney writes about Jed Hoyer’s decision not to add a GM right now, which I genuinely believe is primarily about the pandemic, and wanting to be able to do the process a certain way, given the long-term importance (and the relatively stable nature of the front office for now). But Mooney added this section, which was undoubtedly a non-zero consideration, and it makes me ill: “This isn’t necessarily driving Hoyer’s decision, but forgoing a GM’s salary could also create a degree of flexibility within the budget for baseball operations. That money could instead be spent on, say, a low-cost free-agent reliever. Theo Epstein was aware that he was paid like a player when he decided to step down as president of baseball operations, working with chairman Tom Ricketts on the succession plan that promoted Hoyer from GM.” Gross. But also, spend it on a bounce-back starting pitcher type (James Paxton? Corey Kluber? Garrett Richards?) or a positional guy.
• This is good:
New Year's Eve ball drop. pic.twitter.com/gxzW3vN4sf
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) January 1, 2021
• Two big promos for college football if you want to get in on it: you can get 25-1 odds on the CFP semis at FanDuel, and you can also get +10,000 odds on any team to win it all at DraftKings.