Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 2/21/20

FanGraphs | Craig Edwards: Teams all carry dead money into the new year, either through traded or released or retired players. The Red Sox take the cake this year with Rusney Castillo and part of David Price’s deal, followed by the Mariners who carry Wei-Yin Chen and the Diamondbacks with Yasmany Tomas.

Baseball Prospectus | Rob Arthur ($): The biggest sign a player is cheating/sign-stealing is laying off breaking pitches, and honestly, José Altuve doesn’t fit that description. The 2018 Red Sox do, though, as they showed marked improvement when runners were on second base for swinging at balls in the dirt.

The Ringer | Michael Baumann: In many ways, this is a golden age of cheating. While baseball reels over the Astros and sign stealing, football is dealing with the suspension of Manchester City from the Champions’ League, who broke UEFA rules by disguising cash injections to the team as marketing budget. People have drawn parallels, but you could argue City has paid a much bigger price than Houston.