He will clear waivers, then any team can sign him and only pay league veteran’s minimum. Should’ve been done before the season. Before the 2019 season.
Rangers signed Daren Willman, who "since 2016 [served] as the director of research and development, where he spearheaded the development and creation of Statcast, Baseball Savant and MLB.com’s Prospects stats section." https://www.mlb.com/news/rangers-add-to-front-office-organizational-staff I don't expect one guy to make a difference, but it shows the Rangers are serious about getting people to help them make smarter decisions.
He was one of my favorite accounts to follow on Twitter when I used the site...though have been off of it for a month or so now.
Nashville would be my guess. Next would be Charlotte, then maybe Vegas. Don’t see Portland or Montreal as viable for now. I don’t think San Antonio is an option.
Vegas would be more of a seamless transition, geographically, and the ceiling on that pro sports market far exceeds that of the other possible cities. With the conference/convention meetings coming back, you could see more day game attendance there (with a retractable roof) and tourists still have the nighttime to get into trouble. But MLB will probably ignore the potential windfall and back the least desirable market...
Can we get a few fans to dress up as an Apple watch and a big syringe? Maybe another fan wears A Rods Yankee uniform and the three can all hang out together along the third base line heckling.Top it off and have someone dressed up as tarnished 2009 WS trophy. I mean none of its relevant now but it would be funny to get those characters on a national game.
MLB likely wants to keep Vegas as a bargaining chip for other teams wanting new stadiums Also, they could use expansion as a way to come up with more billions in expansion fees. Wonder if any of that plays a part in labor negotiations
They could also move back to Kansas City... I’m sure they still have fans there! But on that note, I do hope they keep the Athletics name. It’s as historic of a franchise as any in baseball, a name older than the Yankees. It’s sad enough when teams get uprooted from cities (especially founding cities). Even worse when their existence gets erased on the basis of marketing and a city trying to make a team their “own”.
This entire media release by the A’s is simply to put pressure on the city to approve the Howard site. I don’t think MLB could support two more teams. Also, are there that many teams looking for new stadiums besides Oakland and Tampa (two teams that would be better off moving if they can’t get better facilities at their current locations)? I guess the Rangers stadium is already 2 years old.... might as well groom their replacement. Same for Atlanta’s aging ballpark...
