Rival Roundup, Vol. 56: Turked Out

Happy Thanksgiving.

Well, folks, we made it. After Thursday’s passing, the big holiday event of the fall has come and gone. With everyone’s bellies full of all the trimmings — (“turked out,” as it were) — we can all sit back and relax, knowing that the family gatherings and big events are just about through for the year, and there won’t be an oh good lord December has so many more holidays and we have to do this like 3 more times and possibly more depending on denomination.

I guess we better roundup some rivals.

• The Royals kicked off this winter’s first controversial move by dealing familiar face Brady Singer away to the Cincinnati Reds, in return for a package that includes established major-league infielder Jonathan India.

• The move seemed to play better amongst Royals fans than the general baseball audience, and does a lot to signify that the club has a direction for 2025 that involves getting better in the margins and building upon last year’s monumental turnaround.
• Additionally, Bobby Witt Jr. was unanimous in MVP voting. (For second place.) It was a great year for Royal accolades, as Seth Lugo finished second in Cy Young voting with Cole Ragans in fourth place.
• Three li’l fellers were selected to their 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft.

• The Cleveland Guardians tossed around a bunch of promotion announcements this week, and while many of the internal machinations of other organizations seem a bit hard to crack into from an outside perspective, it’s always fascinating to revisit these later when one of these folks turns into a hot new GM candidate. Also peep the hiring of Alyssa Nakken from the Giants, the first woman to coach in a major-league game.

• He didn’t win — it would have taken a much worse season from Tarik Skubal to make it happen — but Clase’s third-place Cy Young finish is still the highest for a reliever since 2008, when Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez set the single-season saves record with 62 in 68.1 innings for the 100-62 Los Angeles Angels. Along the same lines, rookie manager Stephen Vogt took home the honors of Manager of the Year, becoming the fastest skipper ever to go from seeing in-game action to winning the award.
• A trade!

• And, some more 40-man moves.

• We pivot from the Cleveland 40-man to the Detroit Tigers 40-man, because it’s that time of year.

• Perhaps the biggest seating-related news of the offseason belongs in Detroit as well, with the club revealing their brand-new, first-of-its-kind climate controlled seat.
• The White Sox have one of the more notable names in the trade market around the Central, with pitcher Garrett Crochet attracting plenty of interest from a handful of teams on the east coast. For whatever reason, the talks include Alec Bohm and the Philadelphia Phillies, who doesn’t exactly fit the bill for a return given Chicago’s timeline and the intention of trading him in the first place.
• In other confusing news –

• No, it’s not the acquisition itself that’s confusing, but the fact that Austin Slater indicated he was priority 1-A for the worst team in the modern era.

Attempting to understand this iteration of the Chicago White Sox may prove a futile task to contemporary writers and future baseball historians alike, so it’s best that we call it there without any further discussion.

Enjoy the weekend as the weather takes a turn for the Minnesotan.

We’ll see you next Saturday!