Friday, December 12, 2014

Wheeling and Dealing at the Winter Meetings

Now that the Winter Meetings are over and free agency is in full swing, we're starting to get a glimpse of what some 2015 Major League rosters will look like.  Some teams filled needs, others had to go to Plan B when their guy went somewhere else, while still others made nonsensical trades and signings.  Then there are the teams that just sat around and did nothing.

Take the Boston Red Sox, the first team to make a splash with their signings of Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez.  Now, the Sandoval signing made a lot of sense.  They needed a third baseman and a middle-of-the-order hitter.  Panda was the best guy available on both those fronts, and they had the money to pay him, so why not?  But the Hanley Ramirez signing is confusing.  It wasn't the type of signing the Red Sox typically make.  It was George Steinbrenner singing.  By that I mean, they went out and got a guy they really had no particular need/use for simply because they could.  I don't blame Hanley for following the money, but it made very little sense for the Dodgers to let him go, and even less for Boston to go after him.

Hanley Ramirez filled no need for the Boston Red Sox.  They have Xander Bogaerts at shortstop, they obviously signed Sandoval to play third, and another fat guy is the DH.  So Boston settled on left field, even though they got Yoenis Cespedes to play that very position in July.  No worries.  Instead of using Cespedes as a piece they were going to build around in 2015, he became a two-month rental that was shipped to Detroit for Rick Porcello.  Why did the Red Sox get Rick Porcello?  Because the reunion with Jon Lester isn't happening.  The guy he's reuniting with is Theo Epstein.  That's right.  Lester's a Cub.

The Cubs are at least two years away.  Even with Lester, they're probably a third-place team at best in 2015.  But they've got the ace everybody else wanted.  And after 108 years without a championship, there's at least hope for the Cubs.

As for the A's, who knew they weren't going to keep Lester, so they didn't even try, we're seeing another one of those famous Billy Beane fire sales.  Oakland traded its best two hitters.  Brandon Moss is headed to Cleveland, and Josh Donaldson is now a Blue Jay.  And 60 percent of Oakland's rotation is headed to Chicago.  Lester and Jason Hammel are both Cubs, and Jeff Samardzija hopefully didn't get rid of his apartment.  Because he's joining a White Sox team that's suddenly looking like a contender.  They've even got a fresh new closer to boot in David Robertson.

Robertson certainly earned his payday.  He didn't just take over for Mariano Rivera, he thrived as the Yankees' closer.  But not enough for the Yankees to be willing to pay him the type of money he was going to get.  Instead, they didn't even make him an offer.  They signed Andrew Miller and they're looking at Sergio Romo, both of whom come with a cheaper price tag.

Besides, the Yankees have much bigger needs and they know it.  One of those needs was filled via trade.  The unenviable task of following Derek Jeter at shortstop goes to Didi Gregorius, formerly of the Diamondbacks.  They'd also like to bring Chase Headley back, but Panda leaving the Giants means San Francisco's going to have a lot of interest in Headley.  Will they end up pricing the Yankees out of the Headley market?  Another guy who came to the Yankees at last year's trade deadline was Brandon McCarthy, who they wanted back for rotation depth.  Except that's not going to happen.  He signed with the Dodgers.

Speaking of the Dodgers, it's been a bit of a curious off season for them.  LA was built to win last season.  They one of the best 1-2 pitching punches in all of baseball in Kershaw and Greinke, and the lineup was just as good.  Hanley Ramirez was a big part of that.  Everyone knew Ramirez was going to be a free agent, but I think most people assumed the Dodgers would at least make an effort to keep him.  Whether or not they did is unclear, but the bottom line is Hanley left, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the lineup with him.

So what do they do to fill that hole?  They trade Matt Kemp?  Their best right-handed power hitter after Ramirez?  Yes, they had a logjam in the outfield.  Everyone knows that.  Andre Ethier had expresses his displeasure in being the odd man out.  You knew Yasiel Puig wasn't going anywhere, but Kemp's the best all-around player out of the other three.  I would've sent Carl Crawford (or, at the very least, Ethier) packing.  But instead it's Kemp, who's headed south to the division rival Padres?  A curious move to say the least.

That was the strangest move the Dodgers made, but it was by no means their last.  They had a busier Winter Meetings than anyone but Scott Boras.  To make up for the loss of Ramirez at short, they made a trade with the Phillies and got Jimmy Rollins, who could be great fit in LA despite his age.  Leadoff hitter Dee Gordon, meanwhile, who developed into an All-Star last season, is also a former Dodger.  He was traded to the Marlins to make room at second base for Howie Kendrick, the latest guy to pull off the cross-town switch.  Frankly, though, I'd rather have Gordon, Ramirez and Kemp.

You want a team that's been an off-season loser so far?  How about the Orioles?  Nick Markakis went to Atlanta as a free agent, and Nelson Cruz signed a monster deal with Seattle.  Suddenly, the Mariners are looking very formidable in the AL West.

There are still plenty of moves to be made, and the rosters of virtually every team aren't complete yet.  But, as per usual, the start of free agency has been plenty eventful.  It'll only get better from here.  After all, we're still two months from the start of Spring Training, and April's a long way away.

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