To download cover:  https://bit.ly/1GzylJO

On the cover:  In What Is Giancarlo Stanton Thinking?  The Mag’s Tim Keown captures how coming off his best season and a devastating fastball to the face, the most powerful hitter surprised everyone by signing a $325 million deal to work for a notoriously unreliable owner.

Giancarlo Stanton is one of the best players in baseball, and his contract—13 years, $325 million, known as “The Forever Deal”—proves it. But how will baseball’s big slugger respond this year, after missing the final month of the season after getting hit in the face in a gruesome scene last year? After six surgeries, and the months of questions and doubts, Stanton has more on his mind than his proving his contract worth.

MLB Preview Issue Features

The Man in the Van

He’s the Toronto Blue Jays’ No. 1 prospect. He signed for millions. And he lives in a VW camper. Meet Daniel Norris, the most interesting pitcher in baseball. Daniel Norris has a 96-mile-per-hour fastball, a $2 million signing bonus and a deal with Nike, but this van and this offseason are his escapes from the pressures of baseball. And as long as these unconventional behaviors keep working, Norris might end the year as the most interesting man in the major leagues. By Eli Saslow

Jonathon Lucroy

He’s a great catcher, adept at turning borderline balls into strikes. This skill is framing the pitch, and a good framer can save up to 50 defensive runs a year. Lucroy is also great at the plate—and that makes him easily the most valuable player on the field. And yet, his contract is decidedly middle-class, in baseball terms. Through Lucroy, we examine why the game’s financial compensation for catchers lags behind its advanced metrics.  By Robert Sanchez

MLB Confidential

MLB players dish on the league’s most talented, most overrated and most entertaining. Other topics include A-Rod’s return, pace of play and PEDs.

Team Previews

The Mag looks at each of baseball’s 30 teams, examining which squads are young, old or somewhere in between. They also identify which players will have the biggest impact on the team’s success and predict each league’s playoff teams, as well as the World Series winner. By Dave Schoenfeld & Dan Szymborski

Additional MLB Preview Issue Highlights:

• CBB: Howard Bryant’s most recent column, “Great power and no responsibility” writes that college basketball coaches like Jim Boeheim hold themselves high as molders of young men. But when you remove their masks, the truth isn’t so pretty. Boeheim’s fall shows that the time has come to quit assigning coaches the values that they don’t live themselves.
• NFL: In “Kroenke sparks NFL chaos” The Mag’s David Fleming highlights how St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s scheme to move his team to L.A. is raising some eyebrows — and put the reclusive owner in an unfamiliar position: the spotlight.
• CBB: In “7 Ways to Beat Kentucky” The Mag’s Jordan Brenner turns to pro scouts for tips on how to topple Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. No one’s been able to take Kentucky down yet, but they’re not invincible. With a step-by-step guide and input from scouts and coaches, Brenner provides an outline of how to beat them in the tournament, along with the teams best suited to do so.
• CBB: Columnist Mina Kimes investigates the supposed connection between March Madness wins and donations in “Happily ever after?” It is college basketball’s greatest fairy tale: an underdog like Gonzaga makes it to the dance and defeats a slew of powerful rivals, accruing millions of new fans every night. Then what? It’s often said that the NCAA tournament’s Cinderellas are swiftly flooded with donations, merchandise sales, and applications–but reporting shows these benefits are often overstated.

– 30 –

Media Contact: Carrie Kreiswirth at (646) 547-4686 or carrie.b.kreiswirth@espn.com