Snake Bytes

Snake Bytes 12/3: Change Is In The Wind

By M_Lopez Dec 3, 2020, 10:33am EST

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Diamondbacks News:

Jared Porter favored to be Cub’s new GM

“Porter has a bit of a history with Hoyer and Theo Epstein, both with the Cubs and with the Red Sox. Porter’s career began with the Red Sox during their curse-breaking 2004 campaign and he’s earned four rings so far: three in Boston and one in Chicago. He’s held numerous positions in both organizations, though he mostly stayed on the side of player development and scouting in the past. Before the 2017 season, he left the Cubs to become Senior Vice President and Assistant GM in the Diamondbacks organization.”

[WXXV] USM Baseball alum Bradley Roney signs MiLB deal with Diamondbacks

Former Southern Miss closer Bradley Roney has a new home in the minor league baseball ranks with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The USM alum was an eighth-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves in 2014, reaching Triple AAA as quickly as 2016. However, injuries have been a major issue for Roney, preventing him from ever making his major league debut. Some people around the league still think the former Golden Eagle has a big league arm, recording 291 strikeouts across 206 minor league innings and has a career ERA of 3.32.

Baseball News:

Phillies interviewed ‘perceptive, cerebral’ Josh Byrnes for baseball ops job

“In Arizona, Byrnes had the foresight to hire A.J. Hinch for his first managerial job in 2009. But a clash with ownership over firing Hinch a year and a half later led to Byrnes’ eventual termination. Back-to-back 76-86 finishes precipitated his demise in San Diego.”

[MLB.com] 56 more players are now free agents

A total of 59 players were non-tendered ahead of Wednesday's deadline, though three immediately re-signed (Kyle Ryan and Dan Winkler with the Cubs, and Kyle Farmer with the Reds), meaning 56 players were added to this offseason's free-agent class. Here is a look at each player who was non-tendered, listed in descending order of their combined FanGraphs wins above replacement (WAR) from 2019 and '20.

[The Athletic] MLB finalizing picks for 120 minor league teams

This month, Major League Baseball plans to notify the 120 teams it would like to continue working with as traditional Minor League Baseball affiliates that they have made the cut as MLB reduces the number of affiliates by 40. Shortly afterward, MLB is expected to send out the actual agreement to those teams, called a Professional Development License (PDL). Some minor-league teams know their fate or reasonably expect it. At least one team has a press release ready to go for the day they are officially out. Others, however, are likely to be blindsided.