He’s the heir apparent to an all-time Phils great.

Once again, the Tigers have swooped in and made a big January deal. After weeks of insisting they didn’t have the room for a long-term contract with a prominent free-agent outfielder, they spent Monday coming to terms with Justin Upton on a six-year contract worth $132.75 million, a source told MLB.com.

The Tigers have an awful lot of right-handed hitters, eight of them in their projected starting lineup, to be exact. As it stands, Victor Martinez — a switch hitter — is the only starter who will set foot in the opposite batters’ box.

When the Cubs and Cardinals played an intense weekend series last season in September, Joe Strauss, the St. Louis Post Dispatch columnist who recently passed away from leukemia, declared that Cubs-Cards was finally “a rivalry in more than name alone.” Strauss hit the nail on the head.

Which teams have the most talented coaching staffs when you rank them based on playing careers?

Lot of power there.

The Yankees’ search for a backup third baseman may be resolved in-house as Starlin Castro is set to see action at the hot corner in 2016.

We polled general managers, scouting directors and other executives to assemble an All-Defense Team comprised of the best fielding prospects in the game.

“Oh, it’s gone.”

Of all the wonderful things we learned from Statcast™’s first season perhaps nothing was more outstanding than this: Tyson Ross hits the ball harder, on average, than Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Donaldson or Paul Goldschmidt. Yes, really.

Juan C. Rodriguez, a longtime Marlins reporter for the Sun Sentinel, died on Monday of brain cancer. He was 42.

Perfection in action.

Outfielder A.J. Pollock is the lone D-backs player eligible for salary arbitration who has not reached an agreement on a one-year deal, but it sounds like an agreement is definitely possible prior to a February hearing.

Carlos Martinez, who was lost from the team’s rotation in late September after suffering a right shoulder injury, estimated that he is back to “90 percent” health with the Cardinals a month away from opening Spring Training.

Despite subzero temperatures throughout Minnesota on Monday, the first day of the annual Twins Caravan witnessed huge crowds to see Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, top prospect Byron Buxton and reliever Casey Fien.

The Phillies are holding a series of promotional caravans this week, and kicked it off Monday with outfielder Aaron Altherr hosting a free clinic for their North Camden RBI and Junior RBI teams.

Mariners pitchers and catchers are due to report to Spring Training in just over a month, and it appears the club will be without Jesus Sucre for the start of camp after the 27-year-old backstop broke a bone in his right leg during a playoff game in the Venezuelan League on Sunday.