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The Athletic | Ken Rosenthal ($): The controversy around Jacoby Ellsbury and his final, voided $26 million only has gotten stickier. After the Yankees claimed he got unofficial treatment from an unapproved, outside doctor, that doctor, Viktor Bouquette, has responded. Bouquette claims that he gave a signed affirmation that he understood the PED policy, claiming that was the only contact they had at all other than a routine request for medical records. Sounds sliiiiightly fishy to me.
Baseball Prospectus | Matthew Trueblood ($): Getting fewer called strikes isn’t always a bad thing. Pitchers who throw up in the zone and get fewer calls might actually get better results on pitches down in the zone, which was the case for Luis Castillo, Jordan Lyles, and Kyle Hendricks.
FanGraphs | Craig Edwards: The Braves signed Travis d’Arnaud to a two-year, $16 million contract, a solid offering for a catcher who hit to a 98 wRC+ last year, above-average for the position. He also has shown improvement in that category, so he fills the hole decently for a team with NL East aspirations once again.