Nelson Cruz is off the board after signing with Seattle (12/2 Notes)

• The Mariners signed Nelson Cruz for 4 years. It will cost them 57 million dollars, so now they hope his Nick Swisher Decline happens later rather than sooner. Here's Lookout Landing on the deal. Like Swisher, he moves to a larger ballpark that is likely to lower his power numbers. Also like Swisher, he's likely going to end up DHing for most of the length of his contract.

• Nyjer Morgan wants to play in 2015. And is drawing a bit of interest from a variety of countries.

• The Angels are expected to non-tender Gordon Beckham. He can play some darn good defense, if you know of any teams that could use that.

• Carlos Santana really liked playing third base and doesn't want to upset anybody by choosing a side on Manziel-Hoyer.

• It has become a game of sorts to figure out what Billy Beane was thinking when he traded Josh Donaldson. Here, Jeff Sullivan takes a stab at it. In that post of his, there's an interesting link about how abruptly the strikezone shifted mid-2014. I found it quite amazing; perhaps it will be Thing Number One that will SHOCK AND AMAZE YOU this December.

And finally, with there not being a ton of news, something LGT is likely to share my appreciation for:

The best ad of 2014 was brilliant & subversive, and it wasn't even real: http://t.co/SzHsZ09B0u pic.twitter.com/ZKAUcJTpWT

— Adweek (@Adweek) December 1, 2014