White Sox Sign Derek Holland  —  The White Sox have officially agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent starter Derek Holland that pays him a reported $6MM.  The 30-year-old southpaw, a client of Martini Sports Management, can also earn $2MM in incentives, $1MM apiece upon reaching 150 and 200 innings pitched.

New MLB hazing rules ban dressing as women, offensive costumes  —  NEW YORK — That baseball hazing ritual of dressing rookies as Wonder Woman, Hooters Girls and Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders is now banned.  —  Major League Baseball created an Anti-Hazing and Anti-Bullying Policy that covers the practice.

Chad Bettis says he expects to make full recovery from testicular cancer  —  Colorado Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis has been diagnosed with testicular cancer and underwent surgery to have one of his testicles removed in late November, he said in a statement to ESPN on Monday night.

Brewers Acquire Jett Bandy  —  3:38pm: The Brewers have announced the trade.  —  3:07pm: Righty Drew Gagnon is the other piece of the deal, Hudson Belinsky of Baseball America tweets.  The 26-year-old spent most of 2016 at the Triple-A level with Milwaukee, converting mostly relief work …

2017 Philadelphia Phillies Top 10 Prospects  —  Chat it up: Phillies Top 10 Prospects Chat with Ben Badler  —  Knowledge is Power: Phillies Top 10 Insider  —  Want More?  Complete Top 10 Prospects Rankings  —  Go 30 deep: Order the 2017 Prospect Handbook!

Pirates Claim Brady Dragmire  —  The Pirates have claimed righty Brady Dragmire off waivers from the Rangers, per a club announcement.  Texas had only recently nabbed Dragmire from Pittsburgh before designating him, so this move reverses that process.  —  The Bucs had acquired Dragmire …

Tigers closer Francisco Rodriguez not on trade block — for now  —  It seems he'll be a Tiger to start 2017, but if Detroit falls out of postseason race, he'd made for an attractive option  —  Francisco Rodriguez isn't on the trade block this winter.  —  But if the Detroit Tigers are trailing …

So about the Cardinals' free draft pick ...  Wednesday, the Cardinals lucked into a “competitive balance” draft pick, and a pretty good one.  The last-place Cubs weren't even in the lottery, and someone was smart enough to ask Theo Epstein about that ...  A curated snippet of his measured response:

David Ross is adding a few more chapters to his World Series legacy  —  Grandpa Rossy has a book coming out in early May  —  “Grandpa Rossy?”  That's “Author Rossy” to you, buster.  —  Yes, retiring Cubs catcher David Ross is writing a book — co-writing one, actually, with Don Yaeger …

Royals believe Jorge Soler will bring a ‘presence’ to their lineup  —  The Royals introduced their new right fielder on Tuesday, and for close to two minutes, the visual optics of the event were more or less customary.  —  Jorge Soler, the 24-year-old outfielder by way of the Chicago Cubs …

Who Has and Hasn't Avoided the Awful  —  A couple years ago, I wrote an article titled “Dan Duquette and Avoiding the Awful.”  Within, I ran a pretty simple study, adding up every team's negative WAR.  The Orioles came away scoring pretty well — that is, one of the explanations …