Dodgers, Orioles, D-backs win offseason
PHOENIX – The Dodgers can sit back and watch everyone else still trying to figure out their roster, with other teams engaged in an old-fashioned stare down with agent Scott Boras, who still had Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman and J.D. Martinez unsigned at press time.
While still waiting to see the free agent market take off, let’s take a look at the winter awards, before nearly 1,500 players report this week and we hear they’ve all come into camp in the best shape of their career.
The envelopes, please.
Best offseason
1 Los Angeles Dodgers: Hey, when you drop $1.2 billion, you better win the winter. This is a team that has averaged 99 victories for the past 10 years but are still looking for their first World Series title in a full season since 1988. They did everything possible this offseason to ensure that streak comes to an end with the signings of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez and the trade for Tyler Glasnow. Hollywood has come to Chavez Ravine.
2 Baltimore Orioles: They acquired 2021 National League Cy Young award winner Corbin Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers and prevented the New York Yankees from getting him. Hey, when you have got a chance to dominate the American League East, go for it. The Orioles sent a shortstop prospect who had no role on the team, a young reliever and a draft pick they will recoup next winter anyway by making Burnes a qualifying offer. They have a chance to be even better than last year’s 101-win team.
3 Arizona Diamondbacks: They could have rested on their laurels after reaching the World Series but instead were aggressive, trading for power-hitting third baseman Eugenio Suarez, signing front-line starter Eduardo Rodriguez to a four-year, $80 million contract, and adding designated hitter Joc Pederson. They may not return to the World Series, but they should definitely be better than last year’s 84-win team.
Best contracts (for players)
1
Shohei
Ohtani,
Los
Angeles
Dodgers – 10 years, $700 million: Must be nice for a guy like Ohtani who will be getting $68 million a year after he turns 40.
2 Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers – 12 years, $325 million: Just imagine what he could have received if he actually had thrown a pitch in MLB, or even won a Cy Young award.
3 Emilio Pagan, Cincinnati Reds – 2 years, $16 million: He was a middle reliever for the Minnesota Twins with one save. He was not used in their firstround postseason series against Toronto and pitched only two innings in the series against Houston.
Most team-friendly contracts
1 Lourdes Gurriel, Arizona Diamondbacks – 3 years, $42 million: Gurriel was supposed to be one-anddone when he came over with Gabriel Moreno from the Toronto Blue Jays in the Daulton Varsho trade. He turned out to be one of their integral pieces of their World Series run, hitting 24 homers with 82 RBI and playing solid defense. The D-backs were skeptical they’d have the money to keep him but elated when they got him back at just $14 million a year.
2 Teoscar Hernandez, Los Angeles Dodgers – 1 year, $23.5 million: When Hernandez hit the free agent market, there’s not a team in the land that didn’t believe he’d command at least a threeyear deal. He has a career .887 OPS against left-handed pitchers, and for the Dodgers to land him on only a one-year guarantee, including $8.5 million in deferrals, is a steal.
3 Adam Ottavino, New York Mets – 1 year, $4.5 million: The Mets thought Ottavino was long gone when he turned down a player option that would have paid him $6.75 million this season. Ottavino tested the market and wound up taking a massive pay cut, re-signing with the Mets.
Biggest surprise spender
Kansas City Royals: Who in the world thought the Royals, who lost 106 games last season, would be dropping nearly $400 million this season, second most to only the Dodgers?
The Royals signed shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year, $288.77 million extension while spending $109.5 million on starters Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, relievers Will Smith, Chris Stratton and Nick Anderson and position players Hunter Renfroe, Garrett Hampson and Adam Frazier.
The largest contract they had ever given out before Witt was catcher Salvador Perez’s four-year, $82 million extension.
No one could have imagined they would spend more than the combined total of the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox this winter and have part-owner Patrick Mahomes rave about Witt’s signing at the Super Bowl media day availability.
“I’m glad he’s going to be in Kansas