MLB Winter Meetings Recap

Ace starting pitcher Gerrit Cole was a Houston Astro last season, but now signs a blockbuster deal with the Yankees for 2020 and beyond. Photo Credit: Business Insider

Last year's Winter Meetings left us baseball fans wanting, they left us right where we started entering the meetings, and they left us praying our teams could still land a Harper or Machado type (for those who were in the mix). This year in San Diego's meetings, that was not the case whatsoever.

According to the MLB, there were only ten free agents available with a 3.0 WAR or higher going into the off-season (WAR is a stat used to determine a player's total contribution to his team). Those free agents in order of best to worst WAR were; Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, Yasmani Grandal, Josh Donaldson, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Zack Wheeler, Jake Odorizzi, Brett Gardner, and Madison Bumgarner. Now that doesn't necessarily mean these were the ten most coveted free agents (some names not on this list were Gregorius, Moustakas, Abreu, Ozuna, Castellanos, Pineda, Hamels, Wainwright, Teheran, Porcello, Keuchel, Encarnacion, Pomeranz, Will Smith, etc), but it does generally mean these were a good portion of the top players available. Well almost opposite of the slow-moving terrain that was the MLB free agent market last year, this year has been a race to sign up star talent. Seven out of those ten I listed are already spoken for in 2020, and over half of the honorable mentions I listed have already been inked up too. All that's left is a few big names and all the small pieces to fit in around the league... so where did everyone end up?

Top talent catcher Yasmani Grandal signs with the Chicago White Sox. Photo Credit: White Sox Twitter

Before the Winter Meetings even occurred, certain positions in particular seem to fly off the board, like catcher and bullpen. Grandal was amongst the first stars to commit to a deal, going to the Chicago White Sox on a four year deal for 73 mill. The veteran is consistent both behind the plate and in the batter's box, which is rare for modern day backstops. Other relevant names at the position that inked contracts were Travis d'Arnaud and Tyler Flowers both to Atlanta, Yan Gomes resigning with Washington, Stephen Vogt to Arizona, Wellington Castillo to Texas, Sandy Leon to Cleveland, Dustin Garneau to Houston, Alex Avila also to the White Sox, and recently Austin Romine to Detroit. The top catchers left are probably Jason Castro and Robinson Chirinos. When it came to relief pitching, the Braves swooped in to scoop up a bunch of arms early on. Atlanta signed or resigned Will Smith, Darren O'Day and Chris Martin. Bigger names in the bullpen like Drew Pomeranz (now a San Diego Padre) and Jake Diekman (staying in Oakland) soon followed, and then smaller names came off the list. Brad Brach resigned with the Mets, Justin Miller and AJ Cole took deals with Toronto, Carl Edwards Jr and Nestor Cortes found new homes in Seattle, Alex Claudio resigned with Milwaukee, Blaine Hardy went to Minnesota, Yimi Garcia got a deal with Miami, and finally Blake Treinen (one of the more appealing relievers on the board) signed with the Dodgers during the meetings this week.

But those weren't the positions we wanted to know about, that wasn't the salivating information we were hoping for! This free agency period was all about starting pitching and corner infield (specifically third basemen)... and a few names in particular.

Gerrit Cole, the child pictured in this photo, was a life-long Yankees fan. Now he IS a Yankee, and a very rich one at that. Photo Credit: Newsday

If you haven't heard the breaking news around the MLB, you must live far away from NYC or not use any form of social media, but Gerrit Cole is now a Yankee. Yes, the evil empire strikes again on a record-setting nine year 324 million dollar deal. This immediately makes the Yanks the AL favorite for the World Series in 2020, if they weren't the favorite already! Cole was the AL Cy Young runner up in 2019 (in my opinion he should of won), and better yet, he was on the roster of the Yankees greatest competition, the Houston Astros. This shouldn't be considered a win for Brian Cashman and the Bombers, it should be considered a landslide blowout dominant slap in the face of the American League as a whole. The Angels were the only ones close to acquiring Cole and apparently they weren't even that close financially in recent reports. Did the Yanks spend a boatload of cash? Absolutely. Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely not. Money is just money to the Steinbrenner's, as it's always been, and so long as they win at least one championship in the next nine years this move will be lauded as yet another time where this ownership family was willing to give more than all the rest. I'm not a Yankees fan, but bravo, you got your guy.

World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg will continue to pitch for the Nationals after getting a mega-contract to return. Photo Credit: Bleacher Report

There were some casualties (as there always are) in the Yanks signing Cole. I mentioned Romine leaving earlier, but the main man leaving pinstripes is short stop Didi Gregorius, who was pillaged away by his former manager Joe Girardi and the Phillies. Before we get to all that though, let's discuss the other starters that were on the watch-list. Strasburg and Wheeler were the next names on most lists, although Mad-Bum and Ryu shouldn't be overlooked. The latter two have not yet signed, but the NL East veterans did. Strasburg resigned with the Nationals a few days before Cole got his deal, and Zack Wheeler went to NL East Mets rival Philadelphia, joining Didi, Girardi, Harper, and friends. Personally I think both Strasburg and Wheeler got too much money, both have had up-and-down success in their careers due to injuries and general inconsistency either with the long ball or ERA. Teams are desperate for starting pitching though, and I'm not surprised they got paid. Other notable names that have made things official were Cole Hamels (Atlanta), Jake Odorizzi and Michael Pineda (both resigning in Minnesota), Tanner Roark (Toronto), Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha (both to the Mets), Kevin Gausman and Tyler Anderson (both to San Francisco), Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles (both to Texas), Dario Agrazal (White Sox), and the ageless wonder Adam Wainwright resigning with St. Louis.

2019 MVP hopeful and World Series Champ Anthony Rendon is now an Angel. Photo Credit: Houston Chronicle

Hitting talent was more sparse this off-season. One colossal star loomed over all the rest, Anthony Rendon, the Nationals World Series Champion third baseman who had an MVP type season and is in the prime of his career. Almost like clockwork after missing on Gerrit Cole, the LA Angels made good on their promise to Trout about spending money and wrote Rendon the fat check they originally meant for Cole. They may have missed on the pitcher they desperately needed, but I still like this move for LAA. One, they kept Rendon off the rival Rangers and Dodgers (fandom rival) roster. Two, their window to win a ring with Mike Trout is beginning to close and they need to supplement him with some star power. Three, the contract was large (35M average per year), but for a player at the top of his game both offensively and defensively at a position the Angels had a glaring hole, it's worth it. The other free agent at the hot corner, Josh Donaldson, has yet to sign, while Mike Moustakas went to Cincinnati on a four year deal. Asdrubal Cabrera, Todd Frazier, Maikel Franco, Travis Shaw, and Matt Duffy are among the names at third base still up for grabs. First base has been quieter, Jose Abreu and Howie Kendrick resigned with both the White Sox and Nationals respectively. Besides those two, players like Eric Thames, Mitch Moreland, CJ Cron, Justin Smoak, and Ryan Zimmerman remain unsigned. In the middle infield besides Didi, the market has been even slower. Josh Harrison did also sign with Philly and Jose Peraza with Boston (which I thought was a sneaky value signing for the Sox). Outfield has also seen little to no movement, with Brett Gardner (NYY) and Nick Markakis (ATL) resigning as largely the only notable pieces of info thus far. Adam Jones and Gerardo Parra were two decent names I noticed leaving for overseas baseball in Asia however (Justin Bour and Tyler Austin as well).

So with most of the top free agents signed before Christmas this off-season, there have been obvious winners (Yankees, Angels, Braves, Phillies, White Sox) and losers (Astros, Rangers, Dodgers, Red Sox, Brewers), with a few teams that seem like they more or less broke even with some key resignings and replacements (Nationals, Twins, Mets). Now the spotlight shines on names like Bumgarner, Ryu, Donaldson, Ozuna, as teams make their final push to fill their rosters... and after that Spring Training is only a few short months away. Happy Hunting!