The Tigers rescheduled a game to accommodate the NFL - MLB

Now: watch the football people act all dumb about it.

You’ll recall last year that the NFL and its water carriers in the media got all huffy when the Baltimore Orioles would not reschedule a game that conflicted with the Baltimore Ravens’ desired Thursday night home opener.

This angered them because the Super Bowl champion opening at home on Thursday night has a long rich tradition lasting at least, like, a couple of years. And because baseball is dying and the NFL rules and why don’t you pencil neck baseball people just do the right thing and get the hell out of the NFL’s way even though your game was scheduled months before ours?

Really, go back and read that Michael Silver post at Yahoo. It was one of the more obnoxious and, ultimately, more wrong things written by a professional sports talking person in several years.

Anyway, we have a baseball-football conflict again. Or at least we had one. The Detroit Tigers had an evening game scheduled against the Royals for Monday, September 8. The Lions were granted the Monday Night Football Game that night, however, and since the Tigers and Lions stadiums are literally right next to each other it would’ve been a mess for both to play that night. The Tigers rescheduled their game to a 4PM start, though, solving the problem before anyone could get mad about it.

While that conflict lasted approximately five seconds before being resolved, there was already room for some snark from our NFL friends and commenters at PFT, saying things like “see, that wasn’t so hard, take note Baltimore” and the like. What our NFL friends and commenters are missing, however, is that the Tigers and Orioles were in very different situations with respect to the conflict, making the resolution of their respective scheduling problems totally different things.

The Tigers game is smack dab in the middle of a six-game homestand and the game against the Royals is the first of a three-game set. It’s the simplest of all things for the Tigers to unilaterally move the game up and, because the Lions and Tigers play well together for the most part, they did so willingly. A totally easy call and a totally right call.

Last year, however, both the Orioles and their opponent, the Chicago White Sox, were are coming in to Baltimore off the road following night games and thus weren’t even getting into town until the wee hours of that Thursday morning, making a day game a pretty unreasonable proposition. Likewise, rescheduling that game as a doubleheader would’ve required union, league and Chicago White Sox signoff, and there was resistance to that. While, in an ideal world the Orioles make way for the Ravens, if doing so is not a simple proposition it’s not reasonable to expect them to do it.

So, different situations resolved differently and, in both cases, quite reasonably. Especially considering that baseball set its schedule months before the NFL did. If that inspires you to throw shade at the Orioles over what happened next year, well, I suppose you have the right to. You’re just misapprehending the facts of the matter. And, in all likelihood, operating from an assumption that the entire world lives to serve the NFL’s interests.

That’s not the case. Not yet anyway.

CHICAGO – The number will follow Shohei Ohtani until it is over. No, not Ohtani’s home runs or strikeouts or any of his magnificent numbers from the field. Nothing like that.

It’s all about how much. As in how much will his next contract be worth.

Ohtani is among several players going into their final seasons before they are eligible for free agency. There is still time for signatures and press conferences before opening day, but history shows a new contract becomes less likely once the real games begin.

There is no real precedent for placing a value on Ohtani’s remarkable skills, especially after baseball’s epic offseason spending spree. And that doesn’t factor in the potential business opportunities that go along with the majors’ only truly global star.

Ohtani hit .273 with 34 homers and 95 RBIs last season in his fifth year with the Los Angeles Angels. The 2021 AL MVP also went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA in 28 starts on the mound.

He prepared for this season by leading Japan to the World Baseball Classic championship, striking out fellow Angels star Mike Trout for the final out in a 3-2 victory over the United States in the final.

Ohtani, who turns 29 in July, could set multiple records with his next contract, likely in the neighborhood of a $45 million average annual value and quite possibly reaching $500 million in total.

If the Angels drop out of contention in the rough-and-tumble AL West, Ohtani likely becomes the top name on the trade market this summer. If the Angels are in the mix for the playoffs, the pressure builds on the team to get something done before possibly losing Ohtani in free agency for nothing more than a compensatory draft pick.

So yeah, definitely high stakes with Ohtani and the Angels.

Here is a closer look at five more players eligible for free agency after this season:

RHP Aaron Nola, PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

Nola, who turns 30 in June, went 11-13 with a 3.25 ERA in 32 starts for Philadelphia last year. He also had a career-best 235 strikeouts in 205 innings for the NL champions.

Nola was selected by the Phillies with the seventh overall pick in the 2014 amateur draft. There were extension talks during spring training, but it didn’t work out.

“We are very open-minded to trying to sign him at the end of the season,” President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski said. “We’re hopeful that he’ll remain a Phillie for a long time.”

3B Matt Chapman, TORONTO BLUE JAYS

Chapman hit 36 homers and drove in 91 runs for Oakland in 2019. He hasn’t been able to duplicate that production, but the three-time Gold Glover finished with 27 homers and 76 RBIs in 155 games last year in his first season with Toronto.

Chapman turns 30 on April 28. Long one of the game’s top fielding third basemen, he is represented by Scott Boras, who generally takes his clients to free agency.

OF TEOSCAR HERNÁNDEZ, SEATTLE MARINERS

Hernández was acquired in a November trade with Toronto. He hit .267 with 25 homers and 77 RBIs in his final year with the Blue Jays. He was terrific in 2021, batting .296 with 32 homers, 116 RBIs and a .870 OPS.

The change of scenery could help the 30-year-old Hernández set himself up for a big payday. He is a .357 hitter with three homers and seven RBIs in 16 games at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.

OF Ian Happ, CHICAGO CUBS

The switch-hitting Happ is coming off perhaps his best big league season, setting career highs with a .271 batting average, 72 RBIs and 42 doubles in 158 games. He also won his first Gold Glove and made the NL All-Star team for the first time.

Chicago had struggled to re-sign its own players in recent years, but it agreed to a $35 million, three-year contract with infielder Nico Hoerner on Monday. The 28-year-old Happ, a first-round pick in the 2015 amateur draft, is on the executive subcommittee for the players’ union.

LHP JULIO URÍAS, LOS ANGELES DODGERS

Urías, who turns 27 in August, likely will have plenty of suitors if he reaches free agency. He went 17-7 with an NL-low 2.16 ERA in 31 starts for the NL West champions in 2022, finishing third in NL Cy Young Award balloting. That’s after he went 20-3 with a 2.96 ERA in the previous season.

Urías also is a Boras client, but the Dodgers have one of the majors’ biggest payrolls. Los Angeles also could make a run at Ohtani, which could factor into its discussions with Urías’ camp.