MLB Trade Rumors and News: Yelich, Betts take home MVP awards

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• The MVP awards were announced Thursday night, and to no surprise, the Brewers’ Christian Yelich was named the NL MVP and the Red Sox’s Mookie Betts claimed the AL MVP. Yelich won his award with 29 out of a possible 30 first-place votes, while Betts took home his honor with 28 out of 30 first-place votes.
• A few hours after the MVP awards were handed out, the Rangers agreed to a two-year deal with catcher Jeff Mathis.
• The Cy Young awards were announced last night and Jacob deGrom and Blake Snell took down the hardware. deGrom’s win was expected despite the fact that criminally low run support kept him from racking up many wins. Snell won a nailbiter over Justin Verlander in the American League as both had tremendous seasons.
• The hot stove season is finally starting to heat up a bit as the Indians and Pirates completed a five player deal that essentially moved around some formerly highly regarded prospects that no longer really had a place in their parent organizations. Hopefully this is a sign that we will start getting some moves here soon, especially once awards season is over.
• The Orioles made a surprisingly decent personnel decision as they hired Mike Elias away from the Astros to run their baseball operations department. Whether or not Baltimore’s ownership will actually let him run things as they should be run is to be determined, but the bigger story this offseason may be just how much talent the Astros have lost from their front office.
• With the MVP awards scheduled to be announced this evening, we broke down all of the candidates in the National League race. Right now, it looks like this is Christian Yelich’s award to lose.
• This year’s MVPs will be announced on tonight as well. Our Anthony Spaulding breaks down the cases for each of the American League candidates.
• Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, director of player development Andy McKay, and manager Scott Servais are in hot water after Dr. Lorena Martin, the organization’s recently-ousted high performance coach, accused the trio of racist and sexist treatment. The team put out a statement unequivocally denying the allegations, but Major League Baseball has announced that it will investigate the situation.
• Speaking of the Mariners, it looks as if they may be getting ready to begin a full-fledged youth movement, and that may result in them dealing left-handed ace James Paxton. Which team provides the best fit for The Big Maple?
• Of the seven players that received qualifying offers, only a couple had a realistic chance of accepting it. Once the dust settled yesterday, only Hyun-Jin Ryu accepted the offer and the other six will become free agents.
• The Rookie of the Year awards were announced Monday night and, as expected, Ronald Acuna Jr. won in the National League while Shohei Ohtani took down the awards in the AL.
• Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer announced his retirement after 15 years of good, wholesome baseball.
• The Marlins have reportedly talked with eight to 10 teams about the possibility of making a trade for All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto. Derek Jeter does not sleep, he simply waits.
• The Giants have finally settled upon a new man to steer the ship, hiring Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi as president of baseball operations. Talk about stepping onto enemy turf. Zaidi became interested in the mechanics of baseball after reading Moneyball and reached out to the A’s front office soon after — so remember that next time you want to go out on a limb and then chicken out.
• Our Eric Cole writes that there are plenty of realistic potential destinations for Bryce Harper and Manny Machado — and maybe they’ll even end up on the same team.
• The women of SB Nation’s MLB team brands look back at the 2018 season.
• Bryce Harper’s free-agent suitors should include the Phillies, Giants, and ... Brewers?
• Cleveland will listen to offers for veteran players, and the internet has subsequently spiraled into a rabbit hole of “what ifs.”
• Winter is here...and with it, hot stove season. Here’s a look at the biggest free agents this offseason and what we might see go down when baseball hits the Winter Meetings in Vegas.