Good morning afternoon, Athletics Nation!
Two big things are going on in baseball right now. One is the upcoming arbitration deadline, as teams have until Wednesday (Dec. 2) to tender contracts to their eligible players.
That means we’ll see a flurry of one-year deals signed in the next 24 hours, followed by a deluge of players being set loose to free agency by clubs who don’t want to pay their rising salaries. Still others will receive general commitments from their teams, with terms to be decided later. The Oakland A’s already made their first such transaction, signing pitcher Burch Smith and avoiding arbitration with him, but they have nine more eligible players to address.