Mariano Rivera has the most popular jersey in baseball

By Craig CalcaterraSep 26, 2013, 11:34 AM EST
18 Comments

Major League Baseball just announced the most popular jerseys sold and Mariano Rivera is at the top of the list:
1.    Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees

2.    Matt Harvey, New York Mets

3.    Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers

4.    Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles

5.    Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants

6.    Clayton Kershaw,  Los Angeles Dodgers

7.    Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals

8.    Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates

9.    Yoenis Cespedes, Oakland Athletics

10.  Mike Trout, LA Angels of Anaheim

11.  Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox

12.  Derek Jeter, New York Yankees

13.  David Wright, New York Mets

14.  Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers

15.  Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals

16.  Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles

17.  Hyun-Jin Ryu, Los Angeles Dodgers

18.  David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox

19.  Robinson Cano, New York Yankees

20.  Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks

No Brian McCann here, but I have it on good authority that his jersey is the most popular among sheriffs offices all over the country.

Troy Tulowitzki held a workout for eleven clubs

Getty Images
By Craig CalcaterraDec 19, 2018, 8:26 AM EST
2 Comments

Yesterday free agent shortstop Troy Tulowitzki held a workout in California and representatives from at least eleven teams were on hand, reports Tim Brown of Yahoo. Among the clubs present: the Giants — who were said to have a “heavy presence,” including team president Farhan Zaidi and manager Bruce Bochy — the Angels, Red Sox, Cubs, Padres, White Sox, Orioles, Yankees, Phillies, Tigers and Pirates.

Your first reaction to that may be “Um, really? For Tulowitzki?” But a moment’s reflection makes it seem more sensible. We’re so tied up in thinking of a player through the filter of their contract and, when we’ve done that with Tulowitzki over the past several years, it has made him seem like an albatross given the $20 million+ a year he was earning to either not play or play rather poorly due to injuries.

It was just the contract that was the albatross, though, right? An almost free Tulowitzki — which he will be given that the Blue Jays are paying him $38 million over the next two seasons — is a different matter. If you sign him it’ll be for almost no real money and he stands a chance to be an average or maybe better-than-average shortstop, which is pretty darn valuable. You might even get one quirky late career return-to-near-glory season from him, in which case you’ve hit the lottery. If, however, as seems more likely, he just can’t get it done at all, you’re not out anything and you can cut him with little or no pain.

Eleven teams think he’s at least a look-see. I bet one of them will offer him a major league deal. Maybe more than one. He’ll probably have his pick of non-roster invites to spring training. I can’t see the downside to at least doing that much.