Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: Hechavarria wins arbitration case

Baseball is nearing ever so closer as we are now down to just nine days before pitchers and catchers report for spring training.

There is still plenty to happen, hopefully, before players start reporting as there are still a multitude of major free agents left available on the market, with several notable former Rays players among them, like Alex Cobb and Logan Morrison. Also not to mention Sergio Romo and Lucas Duda.

• For The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal writes that at some point, MLB and its players need to understand, the sport must evolve
• The good news, the MLB Players Association, says that any talk of boycotting spring training has been highly fabricated
• Steve Kinsella continues his series, Tracking the Rays Rebuild, as he looks back on the 2016 season
• Pinstripe Alley is scouting the American League East, and they took a dive into the Rays ZiPS projections for the 2018 season
• The Texas Rangers signed Bartolo Colon to a minor league deal
• Adeiny Hechavarria won his arbitration case against the Rays on Saturday
• One of the Rays non-roster invites, Ryan Weber, is a local product and is excited for the opportunity to play for his hometown team
• Marc Topkin breaks down the Rays spring roster and points out some key dates