We’ve talked about the brain drain of writers that CBS Sports has been experiencing in recent years, and the network has lost arguably their most powerful reporter to start the year 2016 – veteran MLB reporter Jon Heyman is no longer with CBS Sports. His role at MLB Network will be unaffected by the departure.

When contacted by Awful Announcing, Heyman confirmed he was no longer with CBS Sports.

Heyman joined CBS from Sports Illustrated at the end of 2011, and immediately added another credible voice to their stable of MLB writers. He has consistently been one of the top newsbreakers in baseball in that time period. But a pair of experienced columnists, Danny Knobler and Scott Miller, were let go in 2013, and CBS instead opted to focus on bolstering their Eye on Baseball blog by adding names like Mike Axisa, Dave Brown, and Dayn Perry rather than adding more feature columnists and reporters.

Some of the other prominent personalities that left CBS Sports for greener pastures in recent years are Jeff Borzello, Gregg Doyel, David Feherty, Bruce Feldman, Mike Freeman, Jeff Goodman, and Brett McMurphy., along with MLB blogger C. Trent Rosencrans and long-time CBS Sports digital editor Mark Swanson.

UPDATE: Heyman’s stories featured on the main CBSSports.com MLB portal were temporarily deleted shortly after the news broke of his departure. Both Heyman’s story on 2016 free agency and his Hall of Fame ballot produced the following error page before being restored shortly thereafter.

This was either a very bizarre coincidence or an extremely odd parting gift by CBS that makes you wonder what’s going on over there.