The AP cited a source as saying that MLB owners yesterday "ratified the sport's new" CBA by a 29-1 vote. The source said that Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg was the "lone dissenting vote during the telephone meeting." MLB players also had been "scheduled to hold a ratification vote" (AP, 12/13).
IN IT TO WIN IT? In Pittsburgh, Paul Zeise wrote Pirates President Frank Coonelly and Senior VP & GM Neal Huntington "want nothing more than to win a World Series." But Zeise does not "believe owner Bob Nutting places winning a World Series at a high priority." Zeise: "I’m starting to think it isn’t even really on his radar." Over the past 14 months or so, the Pirates have "not acted like a team that prioritizes winning the World Series." Zeise: "I don’t expect the Pirates to spend $200 million. I don’t expect them to operate like a big-market team or get reckless and start overspending." But an organization that places winning a World Series as its highest priority "should stretch itself from time to time, spending a little more than its comfort level" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 12/13).
QUIET ON THE HOMEFRONT: In Toronto, Steve Simmons wrote this is the "first real off-season" for the tandem of Blue Jays President & CEO Mark Shapiro and Exec VP/Baseball Operations & GM Ross Atkins, and their early grade "would be close to failure." Shapiro and Atkins said that they "wanted to get younger." But they "haven’t really done that." Simmons: "They wanted to get more athletic. They haven’t really done that." There is time to "correct all this, maybe eight weeks, but it will take some creative ability." Thus far, "unimpressive and disappointing" would be the term to judge the Jays' offseason (TORONTO SUN, 12/11).
PARTING WAYS: In Boston, Nick Cafardo wrote it "seems cold" that the Twins are parting ways with longtime exec and former GM Bill Smith. Pohlad was told by the team's ownership, the Pohlad family, that he is "being let go" in January after 36 years with the team. Most recently he has "overseen the rebuilding" of the Twins' minor league complex and the "building of a Dominican training facility" (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/11).
