Winter Baseball Meetings 2017

Although the Winter Baseball Meetings have concluded; there will be a lot of activity before Spring Training. As the New York Yankees pulled off a trade for Giancarlo Stanton, more trades and deals are coming together.

Winners of the Winter Baseball Meetings

In the first place, days before the Winter Meetings, Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels. In addition, the Angels acquired Ian Kinsler from the Detroit Tigers for two prospects. Although Kinsler didn’t have a great offensive year last season; he is still a strong defensive player and many think he will rebound from the prior season.

Another West Coast team that came out as winners was the Oakland Athletics. The Athletics traded two prospects for Stephen Piscotty. Due to Piscotty’s mother having Lou Gehrig’s disease; it enables him to be closer to his Mother.

Although the St Louis Cardinals traded Piscotty, they traded for Marcell Ozuna. Although Ozuna doesn’t have Stanton’s numbers, he had 37 home runs and won a Gold Glove in left field.

Losers of the Winter Baseball Meetings

In my opinion, the biggest loser of the Winter Baseball meetings was the Boston Red Sox. After the Red Sox had a season low, American League 168 home runs last season, there was a need for a big bat. When their rivals picked up Stanton, the stakes became more dire.

Although the Miami Marlins made a lot of trades; they didn’t get a top 100 prospect on Baseball America’s top 100. However, the team decreased their payroll which could help them on landing a player later. Also, if they do decide to trade Christian Yelich; they could get a lot of good prospects. Indeed, time will tell if their trading away their big name players pays off.

Unknown from Winter Baseball Meetings

With over four days of trades and free agent signings, there are still a lot of free agent players available. Because of Ohtani and Stanton, the market was slower than usual. Since many of the free agent players don’t have homes right now; will the price to sign them be lowered? In essence, there is still two months to go before Spring Training.

As always, I welcome your comments.