MLB trade rumors and news: White Sox, Eloy Jimenez agree on contract extension

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• Highly touted outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez and the White Sox have agreed on a six-year, $43 million contract extension that contains two club options.

• Hopefully the Guinness Book of World Records didn’t go to publication at any time in the past three weeks, because just 19 days after Bryce Harper signed the largest contract in the history of professional sports, Mike Trout broke his record by nearly $100 million — and ruined the highly-publicized recruiting pitch Harper had been planning to bring his buddy to the Phillies — as the seven-time All-Star outfielder agreed to a new 12-year, $426.5 million deal with the Angels. This deal will almost certainly keep Trout in Anaheim through the end of his career and eliminates the possibility of what could have been a thrilling free-agent process in the offseason after next.

• Even though Trout received nearly half a billion dollars and will end up as the most highly-compensated athlete in the history of pro sports, our Stephen Tolbert argues that the contract is still a steal for the Angels.
• Just one nine-figure contract extension on Tuesday for one of baseball’s most talented young players clearly wasn’t enough, so the Astros added to the fun on Tuesday night by inking infielder Alex Bregman to a six-year, $100 million deal. The deal buys out Bregman’s first two free-agent years, but it’ll pay him much more for now than he’d otherwise receive as a pre-arbitration-eligible player — and likely much more than he’d receive over the new few years through the arbitration process.

Though they’ll unfortunately miss out on their moments in the spotlight, seeing as they were the third and fourth-most notable players to receive long-term extensions on Tuesday, Astros reliever Ryan Pressly and Rays utility man Brandon Lowe have also secured the bag, as the kids say. Pressly gets a two-year, $17.5 million extension — the largest extension ever for a reliever who is not a closer — as the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome reported. And The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported late Tuesday night that Lowe is getting a six-year, $24 million deal from Tampa Bay.

• It’s been a sharp fall for 2016 AL Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer, and the bearded right-hander’s bad luck continues, as he’s received recomendations to have Tommy John surgery from both the Tigers’ medical staff and Dr. James Andrews. He’s reportedly expected to seek a third opinion, but obviously the odds of him hearing anything different seem to be extremely slim.
• Gio Gonzalez is not far removed from being one of the better pitchers in the league. However, Father Time is still undefeated and while he hasn’t looked nearly as dominant in recent years, the Yankees found themselves in need of a potential rotation replacement and signed Gio to a minor league deal with incentives if he can stick in the majors.
• The pay of minor leaguers has been a hot topic of late with the reporting by Emily Waldon of The Athletic plus the Blue Jays proactively increasing what they pay their minor leaguers. Now, it looks like MLB is looking at finding ways to increase MiLB pay in recent discussions. Long overdue given how many players have had to live on basically nothing, but a welcome development nonetheless.
• Not only is MLB implementing some rule changes over the next couple of years, but they are also workshopping other changes in the independent Atlantic League to see how things work or don’t work. Stephen Tolbert took a look at these potential changes to see what impacts they could have on games.
• Cleveland has signed veteran outfielder Carlos Gonzalez to a minor-league deal. Considering how weak their outfield is going into this season, Gonzalez stands a good chance at being back in the majors pretty soon.
• While it seems like a clear-cut, no-brainer deal for almost any team in need of a pitcher, our Stephen Tolbert breaks down the tricky part about signing Dallas Keuchel.
• Let’s take a moment to be shocked and surprised: MLB’s revised roster rules could end up punishing the players. That’s thanks to a new limit on pitchers — while it’s yet to be confirmed, multiple reports have stated that come 2020, teams will only be allowed to carry 13 pitchers on their big-league roster — and a significant reduction on September call-ups.
• Major League Baseball announced several big rules changes, some of which will take effect this season and some that will not take effect until 2020. The highlights include a three batter minimum for pitchers, having just one trade deadline, and the winner of the Home Run Derby getting a whole bunch of Benjamins.
• Our own Stephen Tolbert broke down the various new MLB rules and the various repercussions that they could have as they are implemented. Short version: some are good, some won’t do a ton, some are pretty weird.
• The Diamondbacks have signed veteran Adam Jones to a one-year deal. After 11 years in Baltimore, he’ll head west to give Arizona more outfield depth, especially because Jarrod Dyson is still questionable to start on Opening Day.
• The effect of the new three-batter minimum that each pitcher will be forced to face under the rule change is being underrated.
• The Mets have hired ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza as a special advisor to the baseball operations department. While this position may help prepare her for a full-time front office role down the road if she so desires, she’ll also remain in her existing role at ESPN for the foreseeable future.
• Do free agents lose value when they remain on the market deep into the offseason? We took a look at the data, and let’s just say it usually helps them to sign sooner than later.