Morning Mound Visit: Giants pursuing multi-year deals for Brandon Belt, Anthony DeSclafani

Darragh McDonald | MLB Trade Rumors: The Giants extended a qualifying offer to Brandon Belt but declined to do the same for Anthony DeSclafani. Still, Farhan Zaidi and co. are interested in multi-year deals for both players. The Giants are also interested in NPB star Seiya Suzuki, who is expected to be posted.

Russell Carleton | Baseball Prospectus $: Catcher is an especially demanding position both in terms of its health impact and its requirement for skills not measured by WAR. Still, when catchers are in consideration for the Hall of Fame, they’re held to the same standards as any other position player. It’s kept players like Thurman Munson out, and in a few years, some voters are going to try to keep deserving candidates like Buster Posey and Yadier Molina out.

Jake Mailhot | FanGraphs: The Reds have already lost a decent amount of talent with Nick Castellanos’s opt-out, the Wade Miley waiver, and the Tucker Barnhart trade. Cincinnati is supposedly listening to offers on Luis Castillo, so the Reds could be in for a bit of a teardown.