Winners and losers from the major league baseball offseason
By Brett Deresinski // Staff Writer
With pitchers and catchers already reporting and Spring Training games only a few weeks away, it is time to reflect on the MLB offseason of free agent signings, trades and more. While some teams stayed the same with an acquisition or departure here and there, some teams took major steps forward in 2018, while a handful of teams took steps in the wrong direction. Here are the three major winners and losers of this past, relatively quiet offseason.
Winners
San Francisco Giants: Coming off a season where they lost 98 games, tied for the second most in franchise history, the Giants clearly had some needs to address during this offseason. The biggest question for them was offense, as they ranked at or near the bottom of MLB in almost every offensive category last season. This offseason, they managed to trade for not one, but two franchise cornerstones, taking 3B Evan Longoria from the Rays and CF Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates. In return for Longoria, the Giants offloaded two minor league pitchers, LHP Matt Krook and RHP Stephen Woods, top prospect SS Christian Arroyo, and CF Denard Span to the Rays. In return for McCutchen the Pirates got minor leaguers RHP Kyle Crick, CF Bryan Reynolds and a player to be named later in return. Overall, this was a great haul for the Giants who went out and addressed their needs without shelling out any big free agent contracts. Despite these acquisitions, the team may still want to acquire a pitcher or two for the back end of the rotation and bullpen.
New York Yankees: As much as America may hate to see it, the Yankees dynasty is on its way back up. The first and perhaps still biggest trade of the offseason was the Yankees acquiring reigning National League MVP candidate OF Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins in exchange for 2B Starlin Castro and prospects RHP Jorge Guzman and SS Jose Devers. The Yankees, in turn, will have to eat $285 million of Stanton’s remaining $305 million contract. Stanton hit a career-high 58 home runs last season, the most by any MLB player since Ryan Howard also hit 58 in 2006, and Stanton did so while playing his home games at the cavernous Marlins Park. Barring injuries, he should feel right at home in the Yankee Stadium bandbox, batting right behind Aaron Judge and his 52 home runs from last season. The Yankees also re-signed LHP CC Sabathia to a one year, $10 million contract, shoring up the back end of the rotation that will certainly get plenty of run support in the coming year.
Milwaukee Brewers: Last year, the often overlooked, mid-market Brewers fell just a few games shy of their first playoff appearance since 2011. This year, they made some nice acquisitions to make it back to the playoffs. They picked up CF Lorenzo Cain from free agency on a five year, $80 million contract, and acquired LF Christian Yelich from the Marlins in exchange for minor league prospects CF Lewis Brinson, 2B Isan Diaz, CF Monte Harrison and RHP Jordan Yamamoto. The Brewers picked up two solid young outfielders in their prime, including one with a World Series ring in Cain. They also picked up RHP Yovani Gallardo for the back end of their rotation, who pitched for Milwaukee for eight seasons from 2007-2014. While this team is still projected to finish third in the NL Central behind the Cubs and Cardinals, they have the pieces necessary to make another serious run at the playoffs.
Losers
Miami Marlins: Miami is the clear loser of the winter, as they have managed to give away their entire all-star outfield, along with anyone with value on their big league roster in what can only be described as a major fire sale. Outside of the aforementioned Stanton and Yelich, the Marlins also traded OF Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals and 2B/OF Dee Gordon to the Mariners. None of the trades have garnered any major top prospect hauls in return, either. New owner Derek Jeter has not exactly won the hearts of Marlins fans over, cutting their payroll to one-third of the league average, and almost ensuring a last place finish in 2018.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Only two seasons removed from winning 98 games and playing in the Wild Card Game, the Pirates traded away their ace RHP Gerrit Cole to the Astros and franchise player OF Andrew McCutchen to the Giants in the same week. It is not clear what direction they are going in, other than possibly trying the tanking method that has worked for so many other teams. As the team who set the North American professional sports record with 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993-2012, fans certainly do not want to witness this all over again.
Kansas City Royals: Only two seasons removed from their World Series title, it seem like they are drifting further and further away from another one. The core of that team is quickly disbanding with each passing offseason, garnering big money elsewhere in free agency. OF Lorenzo Cain left for the Brewers, 1B Eric Hosmer and 3B Mike Moustakas are free agents likely to sign elsewhere, and RHP Wade Davis went from the Cubs to the Rockies. The only player they re-signed, OF Alex Gordon, has been a massive disappointment lately, hitting just .211 over the past two seasons. This is a team that is in limbo, and is unlikely to make any major moves to improve the roster. For Royals fans, the only hope is they do not have to wait another 30 years to be good again.