Nelson Cruz signs with Dodgers as a coach

Nelson Cruz hung up his glove, but is sticking around in baseball, finding a new home just a few weeks after his official retirement as a player. The Dodgers have hired the longtime designated hitter to their front office as an advisor:

Cruz wrapped up his playing career just south of Los Angeles with the San Diego Padres. Though the end of his career saw a massive drop-off in production, he stuck in the majors for just short of 20 years and remained an All-Star as late as year 15. He won four Silver Slugger awards, was named to seven All-Star teams, and won the ALCS MVP Award along the way.

Royals sign Garrett Hampson

The Kansas City Royals have shored up [insert position here] with their latest signing. Garrett Hampson, who played with the Miami Marlins in 2023, will play for the Royals in 2024.

To emphasize just how versatile he is as an everyday player, here's how much of each position he's played throughout his career:

• Center field: 1,299 innings
• Second base: 1,014 innings
• Shortstop: 621 innings
• Third base: 97 innings
• Left field: 94 innings
• Right field: 86.1 innings

Last year Hampson played over 215 innings at shortstop, more than he ever had in a season before, adding to his prowess as an all-around utility defender.

Bobby Witt Jr. is locked in as the team's shortstop. Expect Hampson to likely play an outfield role, but don't be shocked if he's called upon for something in the infield at some point, too, whether due to injury or fit.

Always good to have a player like Hampson that can play basically any non-specialist role on the field.

Shohei Ohtani's likely free agency timeline revealed

Good luck predicting anything related to Shohei Ohtani's free agency with certainty. The two-way All-Star is notoriously anti-limelight and seems to want to keep everything related to his upcoming decision on who he'll play for for the foreseeable future under wraps.

Though this isn't confirmed, plenty have speculated that leaks from teams engaged in possibly signing Ohtani would hurt their chances of getting him because of his desire for privacy.

That said, we do have a little information from Jon Heyman, who said that he thinks Ohtani's free agency will be wrapped up before Winter Meetings end on Dec. 6.

"At this moment, I'm thinking he may sign at the Winter Meetings, which would be very, very exciting. That seems to be the prevailing opinion at this point. No guarantee."

Every step of the way, any information that leaks out always comes with that caveat: "No guarantee." Translation: No one knows much of anything with the star pitcher.

It makes sense, though, that the biggest free agent of the winter would sign at the Winter Meetings. Most big deals get done right around that time, and this year, his lingering free agency could put several other things on hold. Given that he'll be on the books for upwards of half a billion dollars on this next contract, it's hard for interested executives to know what their budget looks like until they've officially landed him or not.

With the meetings starting Sunday, expect more information to start coming out late this weekend.

Dylan Cease to be traded soon, Braves are front-runners

A Dylan Cease trade has been widely speculated for a few days now, but it sounds like we'll have official movement from the Chicago White Sox pretty soon. Jon Morosi reports that the trade is likely to go through before the Winter Meetings start on December 3.

With that still several days away, the fact that talks have been intensifying specifically over the last 48 hours could indicate a trade is even closer to the finish line than Sunday. Maybe, we'll see some movement before the weekend hits and everyone is traveling to Nashville for the meets?

Morosi also indicates the Atlanta Braves are "among the finalists," and doesn't note any other specific teams that are engaged in discussions still. That would seem to indicate the Braves are pure front-runners, though Morosi does not say that.

Cease graduated from Milton High School in Georgia and would surely like to get himself home. He's continued to perform well as a starting pitcher with the Chicago White Sox despite Chicago, as a whole, struggling to keep itself on track. Barrelling toward an all-out teardown, the Sox are looking to trade any and all pieces of value left to likely tear down to the studs and re-assess the team entirely.

Cease was thought to be a potential trade piece last year, but wound up sticking around in Chicago through the trade deadline. He started an American League-leading 33 games and had a rock-solid 3.72 FIP. His WHIP was as bit over the 1.1 you love to see from an ace pitcher at 1.418, but he still racked up over 200 strikeouts and projects to be a winning and consistent starting pitcher for any team that can put a decent defense behind him.

After the Braves missed out on Aaron Nola and Sonny Gray, Cease is likely the best remaining option. Atlanta's pitching was its biggest weakness in 2023, and it kept them from advancing past the NLDS. It's their clearest deficiency, and one they need to figure out sooner, rather than later. Getting this done before Winter Meetings would allow general manager Alex Anthopoulos to focus on fringe moves to make the roster better for 2024.