Morning Mound Visit: The hot stove is lit but no one wanted to admit they were tampering

The lockout is over, so Baseball Savant and team roster pages have once again been populated with the bright smiling faces of our beloved baseball boys. More importantly, teams are once again free to sign major league free agents and make trades. The baseball world braced itself for a flurry of activity last night, but, perhaps not surprisingly, nothing happened.

While the lockout was in effect, teams were prohibited from contacting union members and making trades, so deals couldn’t be arranged. That doesn’t mean deals weren’t arranged, however. When have major league teams ever been known to play by the rules?

Despite the inactivity of the evening following the ratification of the new CBA, the next few days and weeks should be wild. Players must report to spring training on Sunday, and some players will arrive at camp today. It’ll be a shorter spring anyway, so players won’t have much time to ramp up.

Anthony Franco | MLB Trade Rumors: Unvaccinated players won’t be able to enter Canada to play the Toronto Blue Jays. Players who miss these games in Toronto because of their vaccination status won’t be paid nor will they accrue service time.

Max Rieper | Royals Review: Former MLB pitcher Odalis Pérez died at the age of 44. Héctor Gómez reported that “Pérez suffered a blow to the head after falling from a ladder.” Pérez played 10 seasons in the big leagues and made the All-Star team in 2002.