The 2013 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings came and went as quickly as the rampant cold fronts that laid siege upon every state in the country not named Florida. Free agents were introduced, more were signed and a speckle of big name players found themselves on the hunt for a new place to live when the season kicks off next April. Some teams did well, some did poorly and quite a few opted to just sit back and watch the paint dry. Needless to say, it was the best Winter Meetings on record, but it was certainly better than last year’s which featured such “impact deals” as Joe Blanton signing with the Los Angeles Angels and Dan Haren with the Washington Nationals, neither of which panned out.
Unfortunately, it might be a while before the Meetings come close to matching the excitement displayed in 2011 when the newly renamed Miami Marlins stole the show by signing everyone they could get their hands on as well as the Albert Pujols deal with the Angels. Still, a few impactful deals were made this year, and there were certainly winners and losers going into the last dead stretch before Spring Training.
Winners
Say what you will about Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo, but be sure to include the adjective “staunch” when discussing his negotiation skills.
It’s fair to say that Rizzo pulled off two of the best deals of the offseason in his acquisition of starting pitcher Doug Fister from the Detroit Tigers as well as veteran left-handed reliever Jerry Blevins from the Oakland Athletics.
Not many thought that the Nationals were in need of another starting pitcher, but they gained one of the best junk pitchers in the game who possesses the ability to win a Cy Young Award or two before his career is over.
The biggest need for the Nats was more depth in their bullpen, which they’ll certainly get from the southpaw slider specialist Blevins.
Rizzo still has bit of work to do in bringing a few more arms in, but Blevins gives him something to revolve around outside of Rafael Soriano and Tyler Clippard.
It’s not really a Winter Meetings unless Athletics’ GM Billy Beane is involved with a deal or two. Athletics fans have come to know that nobody is safe or off limits even after the team won back-to-back American League Western Division titles.
Beane started off by singing free agent lefty Scott Kazmir to a two-year deal over re-signing the winningest pitcher from the previous season in Bartolo Colon.
After that, Beane went to work: trading outfielder Seth Smith to the San Diego Padres for relief pitcher Luke Gregerson, trading prospect outfielder Michael Choice to the Texas Rangers for outfielder Craig Gentry and right-handed pitcher Josh Lindblom, traded pitcher Brett Anderson to the Colorado Rockies for pitcher Drew Pomeranz and then acquired top-five Nationals’ prospect outfielder Billy Burns for Blevins.
As most have come to learn, as good as a deal looks for your team, it ultimately is a better deal for the Athletics.
It’s hard to put a “for sure” stamp on this one, but the New York Mets are looking like a bunch of winners for once after signing Curtis Granderson and Colon to multi-year deals and outfielder Chris Young to a one-year deal. Historically the Mets have shot themselves in the foot by going after top tier talent rather than continue to build their organization internally; however, this time around it didn’t cost them that much ($60 million for four years for Granderson and $20 million for two years with Colon) and GM Sandy Alderson kept to the team’s necessities rather than bringing in high-valued talent to put fans in the seats like former-GM Omar Minaya became notorious for in his final seasons.
Losers
It’s hard to argue that the team that generally does the worst is the one that has to do it by spending the most money. This is something that the Seattle Mariners seemed to have forgotten over the years especially considering that what they’ll be paying Robinson Cano over the next decade ($250 million) is exactly what they’ve spent on payroll for roughly the last three seasons combined.
On top of this, GM Jack Zduriencik decided that it would be a good idea to sign a first baseman/outfielder who has had surgery on both knees in Corey Hart and then traded away relief pitcher Carter Capps for another first baseman/outfielder in Logan Morrison of the Marlins.
Keep in mind that the Mariners still have Justin Smoak at first and one of their top prospects at second base in Nick Franklin to figure out what to do with. Needless to say, the Mariners have dug themselves into a bit of a hole.
Believe it or not highly-touted outfielder Shin-Soo Choo walked away from the Winter Meetings without a team to call his own.
The Scott Boras client is looking to land a fat contract much like Boras’s other client, Jacoby Ellsbury, landed with the New York Yankees. While it’s more than likely that Choo and Boras will be pleased as punch when they get close to what their asking, it’s not looking very favorable that GMs are putting the same amount of faith that most writers showered him with in 2013.
The Atlanta Braves are apparently on the verge of singing starting pitcher Gavin Floyd; however, that’s really been the only activity GM Frank Wren has mustered this offseason with the exception of waving goodbye to veteran starting pitcher Tim Hudson. The Braves certainly did a number last year when it came to trading for and signing Justin Upton and B.J. Upton respectively, but after the poor showing from B.J. it posed a problem for the Braves on wanting to spend money. With the Mets, Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies and even the Marlins adding big pieces to their rotations and lineups, it’s weird to see the Braves just sit back and watch all of it happen without taking action.