1B Joey Votto of the Reds is named the winner of the Tip O’Neill Award as the top Canadian baseball player for the fifth time in six years.

The Diamondbacks make a splash on the free agent market as they shell out $206 million to sign P Zack Greinke for six years. Greinke’s annual salary of $34.3 million will make him the highest-paid player in the game.

New Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro selects veteran Indians executive Ross Atkins for the team’s general manager position and executive vice-president of baseball operations. The 42 year-old North Carolina native, a close friend of Shapiro from working with him in Cleveland, becomes the seventh GM in franchise history.

Reports indicate that the Red Sox have landed one of the biggest catches of the off-season, signing free agent P David Price for 7 years and $217 million. If confirmed, it will be the largest deal ever for a pitcher. In other signing news, the Twins come to an agreement with Korean 1B Byung Ho Park, whose rights they acquired through the posting system, on a four-year contract worth $12 million.

The Dodgers, the first club to break the color barrier when Jackie Robinson made his major league debut in 1947, hire their first minority manager in franchise history. Dave Roberts, the team’s former center fielder and most recently the Padres’ bench coach for the past two seasons, takes over the reins from the new Marlins skipper Don Mattingly, who left Los Angeles after guiding the club to three consecutive NL West titles.

After finishing last season with the largest payroll in major league history, at $298.3 million, the Dodgers are assigned the largest luxury tax bill ever, $43.7 million. This amount is slightly less than the $50 million in salary that the Dodgers paid to players who did not even appear with them during the season. Only three other teams exceeded the threshold of $189 million, with the Yankees having to fork out $26 million in penalties and the Red Sox and Giants a little over $1 million each.