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On Thursday, the Milwaukee Brewers awarded Lorenzo Cain with the richest free-agent contract signed by any player this offseason and traded for Christian Yelich, who is less than one year removed from his star turn as Team USA’s No. 3 hitter at the World Baseball Classic. Thanks to an unlikely ignitor, the Hot Stove is smoldering at last.

After running away with the National League Central on their way to a 2016 World Series championship, the Cubs had to fight hard to repeat as division champions last season. Chicago pulled away to finish six games ahead of Milwaukee and nine ahead of St. Louis, but if this offseason is any indication, the Brewers and Cardinals could be closing that gap. Both have done so, in large part, by addressing their outfields.

Roll out the barrel, indeed. Looks like the Brewers have got the blues on the run. They’re adding Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and in the near future probably also a very good starting pitcher through a trade or free agency. You know they’ve gotten into the heads of the Cubs, Cardinals and every other contender.

The Royals are nearing a deal that would bring free-agent shortstop Alcides Escobar back to Kansas City, a source told MLB.com on Friday. The club has not confirmed a potential agreement, which was first reported by MLB Network insider Jon Heyman.

Jim Thome has the ‘hand of God.’

It was a blockbuster Thursday night for the Brewers, who acquired Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich for four premium prospects, including top-rated Lewis Brinson, then struck a deal with free agent Lorenzo Cain pending a physical exam.

Between the four of them, the newly named members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America-elected 2018 Hall of Fame class have but a single World Series championship — and it came in Chipper Jones’ rookie year.

The Marlins continued their rebuilding process on Thursday, trading Silver Slugger Award-winning outfielder Christian Yelich to the Brewers in exchange for three of Milwaukee’s top 14 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, and four overall — including outfielder Lewis Brinson. The 23-year-old Brinson, who has 21 games of big league experience, is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the game’s 13th-best prospect. Middle infielder Isan Diaz (Brewers’ No. 6 prospect; No. 86 overall), outfielder Monte Harrison (Brewers’ No. 14) and right-handed pitching prospsect Jordan Yamamoto are also headed to Miami.

Vladimir Guerrero will be the first Hall of Famer to represent the Angels when he is enshrined in Cooperstown in July as a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018.

In many ways, the National Baseball Hall of Fame voting this year went exactly as you would have expected. Ever since Ryan Thibodaux started keeping track of public ballots — he collected 246 of them, which is 58 percent of all the votes cast — it has been fairly easy to predict who will make the Hall of Fame.