Red Sox ace Chris Sale (elbow) cleared to start throwing  —  Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale has been cleared to begin throwing.  —  Chaim Bloom, the team's chief baseball officer, told WEEI in Boston that Sale saw Dr. James Andrews last week in Pensacola, Florida, and got permission to being throwing …

Josh Hader faces a unique offseason; Red Sox weigh Jackie Bradley Jr.'s value; Phillies' exits; more notes  —  In their never-ending quest for payroll efficiency, low-revenue teams often entertain ideas that, on the surface, appear to make little sense.  —  Trading Josh Hader would be precisely …

Reds To Sign Mike Moustakas  —  The Reds have agreed to a deal with free agent infielder Mike Moustakas, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter links).  It's a four-year, $64MM pact for the Scott Boras client, according to reports from Heyman and Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter).

Brewers Non-Tender Travis Shaw, Jimmy Nelson, 3 Others  —  The Brewers have non-tendered a host of prominent players, per a club announcement.  Third baseman Travis Shaw, righties Junior Guerra and Jimmy Nelson, southpaw Alex Claudio, and infielder Tyler Saladino are all being dropped from the roster.

Padres Acquire Jurickson Profar  —  8:36 pm: The Padres have agreed with Profar on a $5.7MM salary to avoid arbitration, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today.  —  1:52 pm: The Padres and Athletics have agreed to a trade that'll send infielder Jurickson Profar from Oakland to San Diego …

Phillies Non-Tender Cesar Hernandez, Maikel Franco  —  The Phillies have non-tendered second baseman Cesar Hernandez and third baseman Maikel Franco, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia was among those to report.  —  Neither outcome is surprising, but the non-tenders will nonetheless bring …

Diamondbacks Non-Tender Taijuan Walker, Steven Souza, Caleb Joseph  —  6:05pm: In a stunning twist, the Snakes are not dropping Jake Lamb but are parting ways with Taijuan Walker, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (via Twitter) and John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM (via Twitter).

Lou Whitaker's Hall of Fame case never far from Alan Trammell's mind  —  Get the numbers on a Detroit Tigers' all-time great, Lou Whitaker  —  When Alan Trammell hopped on a plane from San Diego to the 2017 Winter Meetings in Orlando, he wasn't thinking about being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

CLICK HERE TO SEE CHICAGO'S TOP 10 2020 PROSPECTS  —  A homegrown frontline starter has mostly eluded the Cubs under Theo Epstein.  —  Soon, though, they hope that finally changes.  —  Lefty Brailyn Marquez headlines Chicago's system, which ended 2019 ranked among the worst in baseball.

Cubs Non-Tender Addison Russell, Danny Hultzen  —  The Cubs have non-tendered infielder Addison Russell, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times (via Twitter).  Lefty Danny Hultzen was also not tendered a contract, MLB.com's Jordan Bastian adds on Twitter.