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One of the defining moments of the Washington Nationals‘ 2015 season saw Jonathan Papelbon and Bryce Harper engage in a dugout skirmish on Sept. 27.

The incident led Washington to suspend Papelbon for four games, ending his 2015 season, per Bill Ladson of MLB.com. 

After arriving at spring training this week, Papelbon met with reporters to discuss the 2016 season and tried to move past the infamous fight with the defending National League MVP on Friday.

Papelbon told the media, per Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press, “I realized that what I did was wrong.” According to Whyno, Papelbon noted that he and Harper are good now.

Expanding on those thoughts, Papelbon said he’s thought about the fight a lot over the last five months, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports:

According to Todd Dybas of the Washington Times, Papelbon said he’s “an imperfect person in an imperfect world.” On his suspension, per Zuckerman, Papelbon said it was “probably the toughest point of my career.”

Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post reported in November that Harper reached out to Papelbon in an effort to ensure “their relationship as teammates is functional next season.”

Papelbon did not endear himself to fans in Washington by going after the team’s best player. It didn’t help that the incident came four days after he had received a suspension for hitting Baltimore‘s Manny Machado with a pitch.

Some thought the Nationals would try to get rid of Papelbon before the 2016 season started, but general manager Mike Rizzo said the team viewed the right-hander as “being one of our late-inning relievers” after trading Drew Storen to Toronto, per Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic. 

With all of that drama behind them, the Nationals can look forward to 2016. Last season was a disaster on all fronts, with the exception of Harper’s MVP performance, so getting a fresh start will be the best thing for everyone involved.

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Seeking depth for their starting rotation, the Kansas City Royals signed left-hander Mike Minor to a two-year contract Friday.   

The Royals announced Minor’s deal on Twitter. Per Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com, Minor will make $6 million through 2017, and the agreement includes a mutual option for 2018 valued at $10 million with a $1.5 million buyout. 

To make room for Minor, per MLB Roster Moves, the Royals put left-handed starter Jason Vargas on the 60-day disabled list as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. 

Per Flanagan, the Royals believe there is a “slim chance” Vargas pitches this season after he went under the knife on Aug. 5.

Minor isn’t coming to Kansas City with a track record of staying healthy. The 28-year-old missed all of 2015 after having surgery in May to repair a slightly torn labrum in his left (pitching) shoulder. 

Royals general manager Dayton Moore told reporters (via Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star) that Minor will likely miss “six weeks to two months” of the regular season while he continues to rehab his shoulder. 

The Royals are betting on Minor’s youth and upside with this deal. He spent the first five years of his career with the Atlanta Braves, looking like a terrific young piece in their rotation in 2013 with career highs in starts (32), innings (204.2), ERA (3.21), strikeouts (181) and WHIP (1.09).

In 2014, even though things started to fall apart for Minor with a 4.77 ERA in 25 starts, he still had occasional moments of brilliance, via MLB.com:

Moore is not afraid to take risks on starting pitchers. He already signed Ian Kennedy, who had a 4.28 ERA last season, to a five-year contract. Chris Young was a reclamation project taken on in 2015 and posted a 3.06 ERA in 34 games (18 starts). 

The Royals’ success stems largely from an outstanding defense, which will put less pressure on Minor to overpower hitters when he returns. If his shoulder is close to 100 percent, this signing will be one of the biggest offseason steals. 

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Former Major League Baseball utility man Tony Phillips has died at the age of 56 due to a heart attack.  

The Oakland Athletics, whom Phillips spent most of his career playing for, announced his death Friday on Twitter.

For the modern MLB crowd who may not be familiar with Phillips, he was basically Ben Zobrist from 1982-1999. 

Phillips played every position in his career except pitcher and catcher. He wasn’t a tremendous power hitter in his day, breaking the 20-homer barrier once (1995), but he had an outstanding eye at the plate.

The 18-year veteran led the American League in walks twice (1993, 1996), had five seasons with at least 100 walks and 11 seasons with an on-base percentage over .350 and won a World Series with the A’s in 1989. 

In addition to his accomplishments, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, Phillips holds the distinction of being Mariano Rivera’s first strikeout victim in 1995. 

Passan also shared a story about speaking to Phillips regarding that strikeout after Rivera announced he was retiring in 2013. Phillips told Passan (Warning: Some language is NSFW) at the age of 54 he would take a walk or get a hit, but Rivera “ain’t gonna punch me out.”

Phillips did add another possible outcome to the story about a rematch with Rivera, per Passan:

Phillips’ career ended after the 1999 season. He had a .266/.374/.389 slash line with 360 doubles and 160 home runs in 2,161 games for the Athletics, Detroit Tigers, California/Anaheim Angels, Chicago White Sox, New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays. 

While not one of the biggest MLB stars at any point in his career, Phillips was the kind of player every team loved to have. He could literally play anywhere on the field and had such a good approach at the plate to get on base for the big hitters behind him to do more damage.

Stats per Baseball-Reference.com.

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Former San Francisco Giants infielder and manager Jim Davenport died on Thursday night at the age of 82. 

The Giants released a statement about Davenport’s death on Twitter:  

As the Giants’ statement on Davenport’s passing noted, he spent most of his life with the franchise after beginning his Major League Baseball career as a player in 1958. 

Davenport played 13 seasons with the Giants, making one All-Star team and winning a Gold Glove at third base in 1962. He hit .258/.318/.367 with 77 home runs in 1,501 career games before hanging up the cleats following the 1970 season. 

After Davenport’s playing career ended, he remained a staple of the Giants organization, even managing the team for part of the 1985 season. The Alabama native did have brief coaching stints with other organizations even though his heart never really left San Francisco, per Chris Haft of MLB.com in February 2014:

Except for stints as a coach with San Diego (1974-75), Philadelphia (’88) and Cleveland (’89) and as an advance scout for Detroit (’91-92), Davenport has remained a Giant since he signed his first professional contract in 1955. He expects to begin his 50th Giants season in early March by visiting Minor League camp at Spring Training, where he’ll help tutor and evaluate players.

In Haft’s story on Davenport’s 50 years with the Giants, Hall of Famer Willie McCovey said his former teammate “was one of those steadying rods on that team,” adding Davenport is “as much a part of the Giant organization as me and [Willie] Mays.”

While not as well known to a mass audience like San Francisco legends McCovey and Mays, Davenport played a crucial role for the franchise during his playing days, helping the team reach the 1962 World Series before losing to the New York Yankees. 

Davenport’s love and commitment to the Giants will allow his legacy to live on long after his death. 

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Veteran utility infielder Nick Punto has decided to call it a career after playing 14 Major League Baseball seasons with six teams. 

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports confirmed Punto’s decision to walk away after he sat out the 2015 season.

Punto last played for the Oakland Athletics in 2014, appearing in 73 games and hitting .207/.296/.293. He did play average defense at multiple positions, with FanGraphs crediting him with one defensive run saved. 

The 38-year-old was not a prodigious hitter throughout his career, but he provided a glorious moment with a 444-foot blast against Toronto in June 2012, via MLB.com:

While not a household name during his playing days, Punto was a player that every team loved to have on the 25-man roster. It’s why he managed to stick around for 14 seasons with the A’s, Philadelphia Phillies, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports summed up Punto’s career perfectly:

Being a utility man isn’t glamorous, largely because you are relegated to the bench more often than not, but Punto was always in demand because of his ability to play shortstop, third base and second base. 

Punto played in the postseason five times, winning a World Series with the Cardinals in 2011. He never loaded up the stat sheets, but his contributions to MLB for 14 years should not be underestimated. You don’t play at that level for that long by accident.

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Minnesota Twins first baseman Joe Mauer is no longer the superstar he once was, which he revealed can be blamed partly on lingering symptoms from a concussion he suffered in 2013.

Speaking to Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press, Mauer said he still has bouts of blurred vision in the batter’s box. 

To combat the problem, he said he’ll use sunglasses while hitting: “I’ve always been kind of weird about my routine when it comes to stepping into the [batter’s] box, but it’s something I’ll give a shot this spring and see if it helps.”

Murphy added that Mauer will experiment with the shades during spring training, as the Twins will have their first workout February 22. The former American League MVP said he was first diagnosed with a concussion in August 2013 due to at least “two significant blows” from foul tips while he was catching. 

The Twins announced in November 2013 that Mauer was moving to first base on a full-time basis as a result of the concussion he suffered. He hasn’t been the same player the last two seasons as he was early in his career. 

Some of that drop-off in production can be attributed to a player in his early 30s in 2014 and 2015, but as recently as 2013, he posted a .324/.404/.476 slash line, so clearly something was not right for Mauer. 

Physically, the 32-year-old admitted there was a time after his concussion diagnosis when working out was a problem: 

Some of the exercises we tried to do last year, I’d come up and be like, ‘Whoa.’ Now it’s gradually getting better. I’m excited for that. That’s why I’m excited to get down there (to Fort Myers) and try some different things.

It could be a lot of things. There are so many different symptoms. For me it was lighting, I couldn’t really pick up the ball. It was blurry at times. Where I am here versus last year at this time, I can tell my workouts are better.

Even though lighting can seem like a silly issue for a hitter as talented as Mauer is, he provided a very sound reason why it does make a difference: “If you’re just a little off, you’re fouling off pitches you should be driving into the gap. In the big leagues, you don’t get too many more opportunities to see good ones to hit.”

The Twins shocked baseball pundits last year, winning 83 games and staying in the wild-card race until the final weekend. Their young talent is starting to make its presence felt in the big leagues, with Miguel Sano finishing third in AL Rookie of the Year voting and Byron Buxton getting integrated into the mix. 

If Sano and Buxton continue their evolution next season and Mauer plays closer to his 2013 level with a new approach and deeper understanding of what was wrong, the Twins will be a dangerous team in the American League.   

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Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have joined forces to develop a new hat that is designed to provide more protection for pitchers.   

According to William Weinbaum of ESPN.com, 20 pitchers will be testing the new protective headwear during spring training.

MLB vice president Patrick Houlihan described the new headwear as a “hybrid of a cap and a helmet” to Weinbaum, with a total weight between 10 to 12 ounces. 

Boombang, the company brought in by MLB and the MLBPA to create the hats, designed the headwear to be specific to right-handed and left-handed pitchers after research showed pitchers who got hit by liners typically were hit on their arm side.

While a full list of pitchers who will be testing the new hats isn’t available in Weinbaum’s report, Houlihan did say the first group to test it in games will feature a mix of pitchers who have been hit by a liner in the past and some who have taken an active leadership role in helping develop protective headgear. 

Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Alex Cobb, who suffered a mild concussion after a comebacker went off the side of his head in June 2013, told Weinbaum he would “be open” to wearing the new headgear if it feels close to what a regular hat does. 

Comfort has been a key sticking point throughout the process as MLB looks to find ways to protect its pitchers.

Brandon McCarthy, who was in a life-threatening situation after suffering a skull fracture and a brain contusion when Erick Aybar hit a liner off the side of his head, told ESPN’s Jayson Stark in January 2014 the design wasn’t right. 

“Hopefully, in a couple of years, they can come up with something that everyone wears and that you don’t notice it being on your head while you’re out there,” McCarthy said. “But right now, it’s just not there.”

Boombang CEO Tylor Garland told Weinbaum his company has created a “very lightweight solution” that was strong enough to withstand laboratory impact testing at 85 mph. 

Chicago White Sox left-hander Dan Jennings was hit in the head while pitching for Miami two years ago, but he told Weinbaum he doesn’t “think many guys will wear anything unless it is mandatory.”

Baseball is a game of repetition. Hitters need to repeat their swing in order to have the best possible outcome, while pitchers need to repeat their mechanics in order to keep hitters honest and off balance. 

One small change, even something as simple as the hat being a few ounces heavier, can alter a player’s mechanics. Athletes are stubborn creatures and aren’t going to change unless they are absolutely forced to. 

The new headgear designed by Boombang seems like a good starting point for MLB, though the results won’t be felt until we see how the pitchers respond after their spring training games. 

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The Kansas City Royals announced that they’ve locked up another one of their core players, with third baseman Mike Moustakas agreeing to a new two-year deal. 

Jon Heyman of MLB Network first reported the deal, noting that it’s worth $14.3 million.

The Royals weren’t in immediate danger of losing Moustakas, who is under team control through 2017, but he was the biggest piece they had yet to get under contract this offseason. Lorenzo Cain, who was also entering his final two years of arbitration, signed a two-year extension in January. 

Alex Gordon, who has been with the Royals since 2007, decided against leaving via free agency and instead signed a four-year deal worth $72 million. All of the other core players who helped Kansas City win the World Series aside from Moustakas remained under contract at least through 2016. 

Moustakas didn’t seem concerned about something coming together, telling Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com he had discussed a two-year deal with the Royals. 

The 27-year-old Moustakas has had one of the most fascinating career arcs in recent memory. He was Kansas City’s No. 2 pick in 2007 and then looked like a bust as his OPS went from .708 in 2012 to .632 in 2014, which led to him briefly being sent down to Triple-A to fix things. 

While the results weren’t immediately apparent, Moustakas did show signs of life in the 2014 postseason with five home runs in 15 games. He carried those changes into 2015, posting career highs in batting average (.284), on-base percentage (.348), slugging percentage (.470) and home runs (22). 

The Royals have built one of the most cohesive teams in Major League Baseball, using their financial resources wisely and developing talent in the minors. Moustakas is a perfect representation for this era of Kansas City baseball, making his contract extension an easy choice for the franchise. 

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New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia had a tumultuous 2015, culminating with a stint in alcohol rehab starting in October, but he’s in good spirits just over a week before spring training begins.

Per George A. King III of the New York Post, Sabathia said he hasn’t been this healthy in a long time: “I feel the best I have in three years. I am excited to get to Tampa with a clear head and a healthy body.”

In addition to his problems off the field, he hasn’t been productive on it since 2012. The 35-year-old has a 4.81 ERA with 470 hits allowed, 360 strikeouts and 125 walks in 424.1 innings over the last three years.

The usually durable Sabathia hasn’t hit the 30-start, 200-inning barrier since 2013 and hasn’t had an ERA under 4.70 since 2012. He’s spent time on the disabled list each of the last two seasons and had arthroscopic knee surgery in July 2014.

Prior to the Yankees’ American League Wild Card Game against Houston on Oct. 6, Sabathia announced (per the New York Daily News) he was checking himself into an alcohol rehab center:

I love baseball and I love my teammates like brothers, and I am also fully aware that I am leaving at a time when we should all be coming together for one last push toward the World Series. It hurts me deeply to do this now, but I owe it to myself and to my family to get myself right. I want to take control of my disease, and I want to be a better man, father and player.

Four months later, he sounds like he’s in a much better place physically and mentally than he was the last time anyone saw him in a Yankees uniform. The former AL Cy Young Award winner did what he needed to do for himself and his family, first and foremost.

The Yankees hope Sabathia’s work to arrive in that place will help him recover some of the dominance he once had on the mound. They will need him if they hope to make another playoff push with a pitching staff that has a lot of question marks after Masahiro Tanaka at the top.

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Looking to resuscitate his career after a disastrous 2015 season, right-handed pitcher Mat Latos signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Chicago White Sox, the team announced.

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com first reported the agreement.

Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times provided a statement from GM Rick Hahn:

After waiting for the top-tier free agents to sign this winter, Latos’ market slowly picked up steam. Crasnick reported Dec. 22 that five teams had checked in on the veteran pitcher, who was “probably” seeking a short deal to rebuild his value.

It’s certainly not a bad plan for Latos, who had the worst season of his seven-year MLB career in 2015. He posted a 4.95 ERA with 120 hits and 13 home runs allowed in 116.1 innings with the Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels, though there are some reasons for optimism.

For instance, Latos did strike out 100 with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.13. His ability to stay healthy is one of the big question marks, as he’s only tallied 218.2 innings the past two years after throwing at least 184.2 innings each season from 2010-13.

Health might also help Latos rediscover some of the velocity he has lost, with FanGraphs showing his fastball has dipped from an average of 92.6 mph in 2013 to 90.7 mph and 91.5 mph the past two years.

ESPN.com’s Keith Law did give Latos a moderately optimistic outlook when ranking the 28-year-old No. 25 on his list of top 50 free agents:

Latos pitches like a No. 2 starter when healthy, with four straight years of that kind of performance until injuries to his knee and throwing elbow cut both his 2014 and 2015 seasons in half. He was still effective when on the mound, at least until the Dodgers acquired him in July, working with a mostly-average fastball that would touch 95 mph, a plus splitter and an above-average or better slider.

Law did note that Latos has a tendency to burn bridges when he leaves a team. He memorably called out some of the younger players during his time with the Cincinnati Reds in an interview with Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports last February, saying the “dugout looked like a ghost town.”

If Latos brings his best attitude and remains healthy this season for the White Sox, he will be one of the biggest offseason bargains. He hit free agency very young, and there are enough reasons to be optimistic about what will happen in 2016.

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