Notes: S-Gone, Cutch, WBC, Arb/Rule 5, Bonifay, Brown & 2017 Game Promos

A few things of note from the past week:

• Well, dang. Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Braves have agreed to a two-year deal with S-Rod, with the deal consisting of $5M per year with $1.5M signing bonus, just about his predicted market value. It's not official yet; Rodriguez needs to complete a physical first. His departure would leave Adam Frazier/Alen Hanson as the likely in-house replacements.

S-Rod to Bravos (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

• A second team that asked about Cutch has surfaced: Seattle joins the Nats in clubs that showed interest. Rumbunter makes a good case for the Yankees, too. The great debate: does Andrew have more trade value now or at the deadline?
• Fran Cervelli has joined Jung-Ho Kang in the World Cup chase; he'll play for Italy per Jon Morosi. Ditto for Starling Marte, who will most likely suit up for the Dominican Republic. 
• The deadline for arbitration tenders is fast approaching (December 2nd). The Bucs eligible for arb are (with Matt Schwartz's MLB Trade Rumor salary projections) RHP Gerrit Cole ($4.2M), RHP Jared Hughes ($2.5M), RHP Drew Hutchison ($2.2M), LHP Wade LeBlanc ($1.6M), LHP Jeff Locke ($4.2M), SS Jordy Mercer ($4.0M), RHP Juan Nicasio ($4.6M)     and LHP Tony Watson ($5.9M). Some interesting decisions... 
• Baseball America's JJ Cooper has a list of 15 unprotected players who could go the Rule 5 route. Altoona 3B Eric Wood is the only current Bucco pup on the list, tho LHP Wei-Chung Wang, who the Brewers selected from the Pirates in 2014, is fair game again.

Eric Wood (photo via MiLB.com)

• Josh Bonifay, the son of old Bucco GM Cam Bonifay and a Pirate minor leaguer in his playing days, was hired away from Houston by Texas to become the MLB field coordinator for the Rangers. He'll join Jeff Banister's crew to handle the base-running and outfield defense. Josh had been an Astro minor league coach and manager since 2011.
• USA Today has a piece on the early days of announcer Greg Brown and how he came up with a couple of his calls.
• For you guys who like to tie together games and giveaways, the Pirates have announced their 2017 promotional schedule. Beside Fan Jams, Pup Nights and free tees, there are a couple of sweet bobbles - one is of a singing Fran Cervelli, and the other a bobble-chair of Bob Walk's on-air tumble in the booth last season.