After a frantic Monday that saw a handful of clubs handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to free agents like candy, every major league club now faces a busy Tuesday deciding whether or not to retain a bunch of its own players. By 8 p.m. today, teams must tender contracts to all arbitration-eligible players. Those who don't receive offers are non-tendered and immediately become free agents. So while the Nationals have been awfully quiet on the transaction front so far this winter, they...

The Nationals got a jump start on what should be a hectic Tuesday in advance of Major League Baseball's non-tender deadline and Wednesday night's expiration of the collective bargaining agreement, agreeing to terms with Andrew Stevenson on a 2022 contract to avoid arbitration. Stevenson, who qualified for arbitration despite having not yet accrued three years of big league service time as a so-called Super Two player, stands to earn a modest raise from his 2021 salary of $579,100. The...

With the clock ticking much louder on the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement, and a resolution by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday seems impossible, the next order of business for anyone covering the Winter Meetings is to check the hotel's cancellation policy. Don't want to get charged for a room that isn't used. (The policy is 48 hours before check-in, if you care.) Also, who doesn't love a Southwest credit? A free agent still must pass his physical and sign a contract after the final...

The dizzying pace of free agent signings in the last day or two has made the last 48 hours look like a frenzied edition of the Winter Meetings. Yet those meetings, if held, happen next week, not this one. The teams and players have been rushing to beat an expected deadline - the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement. This happens at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday night. The deadline to non-tender players has also been moved up ahead of the original Dec. 2 deadline. I digress here,...

Kinks in the supply chain have holiday shoppers jumpier than usual this year as they comb the Internet and the stores (remember those?) for the hot new toy or electronic gizmo. The good news is that the supply of warm baseball memories is flowing just fine via "Nationals Classics." In this week's batch, MASN brings you a big moment in the budding career of a young star, a signature win for a Cooperstown-bound hurler, some marathon matches ending in Nationals wins, more clutch hits for the...

Max Scherzer is going to be a Met for at least the next two years, possibly three. He's going to make more money each of those years than anyone who has ever played baseball has made. And he's almost certainly going to make his New York debut against the Nationals franchise he helped lead to their first championship. Happy Monday, everybody! What was percolating late Sunday night was finalized early this afternoon: Scherzer is signing with the Mets, a massive three-year, $130 million contract...

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are in the rear-view mirror, although the credit card bill next month will be a harsh reality that reminds you of how much you spent on holiday gifts. Giving Tuesday has also passed, and it's always a good time to support your favorite charities with donations of goods and money. What's the gift that keeps on giving? Orioles baseball, of course - and here at MASN, we've got a full array of "Orioles Classics" to keep your mind's eye firmly planted in the...

As Dec. 1 creeps ever closer, we're finally seeing some movement around the baseball world. With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire in two days and an owners' lockout of players looming, a group of prominent free agents is now motivated to get deals down as soon as possible and avoid falling victim to what could be a two-month stretch with zero transactions completed. And there may be no player more motivated to know where he's going to be playing in 2022 right now than Max...

In the winter after the 2018 season, one where left-hander John Means pitched to a combined 3.72 ERA between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk, Means felt he needed to make improvements to both make the major leagues and stay there. Means went to P3 Premier Pitching Performance facility in St. Louis that offseason. For this interview in 2020 spring training, before the pandemic shut down baseball for months, Means did not mince words in terms of how that facility helped him starting in...

The last gasp from the Orioles front office before the air is potentially squeezed out of the offseason comes on Tuesday with the deadline for tendering contracts to players eligible for arbitration. The date was moved up a couple of days with the threat of a shutdown due to the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. The Orioles had eight eligible players before outrighting catcher Pedro Severino and infielder Pat Valaika, sending them into free agency. Severino, projected by...