Cubs Re-Sign Dexter Fowler, MLB Roundup

The Chicago Cubs, in a shocking turn of events, re-signed center fielder Dexter Fowler to a one-year deal after trading outfielder Chris Coghlan to the Oakland Athletics on Thursday.

Fowler surprised his teammates with the announcement by walking onto the field in street clothes as the team performed spring drills. "With the social media these days, it's hard to keep something quiet," a smiling Fowler said afterward. "I owed it to the boys to tell them first."

The one-year deal, which came together late Wednesday when Fowler drove down from Las Vegas to take his physical, is for $8 million. It also includes a $9 million mutual option for 2017, which the Cubs can buy out for $5 million.

`This is where my heart is,'' Fowler said.

The signing comes two days after Fowler had been linked to a deal with the Baltimore Orioles. ESPN and media reports had said Fowler and the Orioles had agreed to a three-year deal pending a physical.

Fowler said he had been negotiating with the Orioles, but "I didn't give them a verbal agreement at all."

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said Fowler's insistence on a buyout clause was the main reason Baltimore's talks with the outfielder resulted in no deal.

"We made a very competitive offer," Duquette said, according to the Baltimore Sun. "There was not an agreement to terms because they kept insisting on an opt-out. I don't see [and] club ownership doesn't see the value in that type of arrangement to the Orioles. If we are going to guarantee a contract, it should be a contract."

Fowler's agent, Casey Close, ripped Baltimore and said the Orioles intentionally ignored free agency rules.

"In my 25 years in this business, never before have I witnessed such irresponsible behavior on so many fronts,'' he said in a statement posted online. "Both the Orioles front office and members of the media were so busy recklessly spreading rumors that they forgot or simply chose not to concern themselves with the truth.''

MLB Bans Rolling Blocks

Major League Baseball and the players' union have banned rolling block slides to break up potential double plays, hoping to prevent a repeat of the takeout by the Los Angeles Dodgers' Chase Utley that broke a leg of New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada in last year's playoffs.

Under the rules change announced Thursday, a runner must make a "bona fide slide," defined as making contact with the ground ahead of the base, being in position to reach the base with a hand or foot and to remain on it, and sliding within reach of the base without changing his path to initiate contact with a fielder.

An umpire can call both the runner and batter out for a violation.

"It will definitely help keep guys healthy for sure," said Utley, who is suspended for the first two games of the season for his slide in the playoffs, pending an appeal.

Utley, a second baseman, said he didn't think the play in which Tejada was injured was the singular catalyst for change.

"From my understanding, I think we have been trying to work on this for a few years now, trying to get on the same page, and now obviously we are," Utley said. "I don't think that one instance really determined anything.

"It will be a little bit of an adjustment, not only for middle infielders, but also the base runners and probably the umpires as well to try to all get on the same page. Like with the home plate rule and the batter's box rule, it kind of took a little time to get comfortable with it. Eventually we will get there. We'll have a chance in spring training to work on it and it should be better."

In addition, takeout slides and neighborhood plays will be subject to video review. In the past, the neighborhood play wasn't subject to review.

Baseball and the union also agreed to limit mound visits by managers and pitching coaches to 30 seconds and to cut the countdown clock for between-innings breaks by 20 seconds, to 2:05 for most games and 2:25 for nationally televised matchups.