The Winter Meetings are over and so is the Rule 5 Draft,
more on the draft later as I wanted to focus on that in its own blog post
today, so as I play catch up I want to leave you with my thoughts on the winter
meetings as a whole. I have made it quite clear what I think about the pair of
Yankees signings, although technically Matt Holliday was signed the night
before the meetings kicked off but whatever, and the joy it brings my heart as
a fan so this morning I will hit the high points and discuss the rest of the
league and the signings that went down. Enjoy.
I find it shocking that Mark Trumbo, the Major League home
run leader from 2016, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista are still free agents
while players like Dexter Fowler and Ian Desmond have come off the board for
big money. I do not find it shocking that Kenley Jansen is still on the board
as once again teams are reluctant to give up draft picks due to qualifying
offers for pitchers who are only going to give you 50-70 innings a season. And
I don’t blame them.
The Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox trade was huge. Huge
for Boston, huge for the rest of the teams in the American League East and huge
for the entire American League as a whole. The Boston Red Sox are all-in while
the White Sox have to presumably be in full sell mode now. Sale was the first,
yet the biggest, domino to fall. Adam Eaton is already gone and Jose Quintana,
David Robertson and Todd Frazier aren’t likely far behind him. Just hopefully
not to Boston.
I’m shocked to see that Andrew McCutchen is still a member
of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I all but expected him to be traded last week. I
guess Pittsburgh wanted him to make an appearance at PirateFest to boost sales
and such first. And that was not a tongue-in-cheek type message, the Pirates
are frugal like that.
Regardless of what anyone says, I’ve seen writers suggest
the Cleveland Indians somehow won the Winter Meetings just by doing nothing at
all, the Boston Red Sox won the meetings. Hands down. Yoan Moncada and a bunch
of A-Ball players for one of the best pitchers in the American League? You do
that ten times out of ten, no questions asked.
The Yankees? They did okay too. They improved for 2017 and
beyond without mortgaging the future. Just what they said they were going to
do.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)