Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: Houston Astros Acquire Gerrit Cole

The reigning World Series champions just got even better as they added the ace of the Pittsburgh Pirates rotation, Gerrit Cole, to their already solid staff.

Last week, it was reported that the deal had already been finished, but those talks were premature. It took several more days for things to actually finalize as the Astros sent OF Jason Martin, RHP Joe Musgrove, RHP Michael Feliz, and 3B Colin Moran to the Pirates to complete the deal.

In Rays news, they avoided arbitration with seven of their nine eligible players. Adeiny Hechavarria and Jake Odorizzi were the two who the team couldn’t settle with. The arbitration cases will take place sometime in February.

• The New York Mets signed veteran 1B Adrian Gonzalez
• Over at Bucsdugout, they try to come to terms with the Gerrit Cole trade
• Marcell Ozuna, who was dealt to the Cardinals as part of the Miami Marlins firesale, spoke to media and was thankful that he didn’t land with the Oakland Athletics
• Apparently the Cardinals interest in Alex Colome wasn’t too serious

• By now, most everyone has heard of the false alarm, mass panic situation that took place in Hawaii over the weekend as an alert went out stating there was an incoming missile, only to be deemed a false alarm nearly an hour later. Rays infield prospect, Kean Wong, was among those in Hawaii who went through the harrowing experience
• MLB Pipeline released their all defense team of top prospects, without a member of the Rays making the cut
• Rays infielder, Daniel Robertson, honored his late father and family with a fundraiser. Think back to Opening Day this past season, when Robertson spoke of the voicemail he played from his father had left for him a few year prior, after learning he had made the Rays MLB roster.
• Former Pittsburgh Pirate farmhand, Rinku Singh, whose story was made famous by the film ‘Million Dollar Arm’ has left baseball to become a professional wrestler