*Jeff Passan has an interesting piece for Yahoo about the courtship of Bryce Harper. Passan:
The Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres are expected to check in. The Washington Nationals, with whom he has spent his seven major league seasons and who offered him a 10-year deal worth around $300 million toward the end of the season that Harper rejected, almost certainly will circle back. Harper's affection for the Houston Astros is well-known, as is the St. Louis Cardinals' for him.
Harper loves the Astros? Bandwagon fan.
*Jake Kaplan has a mailbag in The Athletic in which he answers some reader questions, like the potential rotation, Forrest Whitley's timeline, what to do about catcher, and a crazy note that Scott Feldman is the highest-paid free agent pitcher by Jeff Luhnow ($30m).
*Brian McTaggart has three free agent outfielders that could fill a hole for the Astros, though they're not exactly new names: Andrew McCutchen, Michael Brantley, A.J. Pollock.
*NBC Bay Area: The Mariners complete tear-down makes the AL West a two-team race.
*Ken Rosenthal mentions that the Reds would be a good fit for Dallas Keuchel. Jon Heyman notes that Toronto is hot after Keuchel.
*This is crazy:
From when Jerry Dipoto took over as #Mariners GM on Sept. 28, 2015, there are now two players left on the 40-man roster, Felix Hernandez and Kyle Seager. But check back tomorrow.— Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) December 3, 2018
*Stop me if you've heard this before: The success of what the Mariners have done in the last four weeks will not be determined for a few years.
*The Mariners have saved themselves a ton of money.
*A Musical Selectionm, the story behind one of my favorite moments in music history:
