I guess everyone was waiting for the calendar to change.
December 1: Two huge free-agent deals. Jacob deGrom signed a 4/119.9 deal with the Astros and Jose Abreu went for 3/71.4 to Boston.
December 2: The Dodgers signed Xander Bogaerts to a massive 7/162.4 contract. I guess they're moving him to 3B as they have Corey Seager signed through 2025.
December 9: The Cubs signed 3B Justin Turner to a 2/42 deal.
December 10: Christian Vazquez went back to the Red Sox on a huge 5/125 deal.
BIG NEWS!
Possibly the biggest free agent signing in club history, Lakeland native Chris Sale returns home on a 4/60 deal. Well it's really a 3/46.5 deal because we have a team option for the 4th year with a $1.5M buyout. I wanted a frontline starter for the playoffs, and I got one, even though he's a bit of a checkered injury history. He came back strong last year in the 2nd half with Boston, making 13 starts. Although a 2-6, 4.10 record looks pretty mediocre, he had a 15/84 BB/K ratio in 74.2 innings and only allowed 6 homers, so those 13 starts were good for 2.3 WAR. Yes it's a gamble but one worth taking. And we won't do any throwback jersey nights when he pitches.
Let the dominoes fall:
The rare "everyone in agreement" trade. Ona is a lefty-masher with serious power (65-rated) who fills our need for a RH OF. He's really more of a DH though as he's a 45 fielder and he'll likely be our full-time DH against lefties and occasional righties. Also we recoup some of the money we're spending on Sale.
December 17: The Mets signed Corey Knebel, who closed for Seattle last year, to a nice 1/6.9 deal. The Yankees also traded Domingo German to the Mariners for C Luis Torrens and Kyle Schwarber signed a minor league deal with Kansas City. Speaking of guys who can't hit for average but have great power, we've offered Joey Gallo a minor league contract.
Time for another big Rays trade:
So long Ji-Man, you were a fan favorite (although I didn't get a "fan interest decreased" message) but you just didn't produce enough the last couple of years at 1B. So we swing an intrastate deal to acquire his much younger, cheaper, and (should be) better replacement in Lewin Diaz. Although Diaz has yet to take MLB by storm, his ratings are impeccable:
Based on this he should hit for average and power, although he won't draw a ton of walks. Not shown here is that those ratings really don't dip much against lefties, so he shouldn't need to be platooned. He's also an excellent defensive 1B for what that's worth. We had to retain about $1.4M of Ji-Man's contract so Miami could afford the deal, and we gave up some mid-level prospects in Basabe (acquired in the Nate Lowe deal in early 2021) and Paulson, as well as Barnhart who has good stuff but no idea where it's going.
December 18: Added OF Heliot Ramos and C Blake Hunt to the 40-man roster.
The Rule 5 Draft is upon us, and I've given up on predicting who will be taken. Ramos and Hunt where the only guys I didn't want to lose anyway.
December 19: Lost 2B/C Ford Proctor to San Antonio in the Rule 5 Draft.
Proctor can get on base (he's probably a .280/.370 guy) but has no power or defensive skill so despite hitting .309 for Durham last year I never really entertained recalling him.
We're going all-in, dammit:
Never pass up a chance to acquire an ace, and after we saw St. Louis put Jack Flaherty on the trading block (mainly because he's a free agent at year's end) we had to see what it would take. It took Chrinos, who was surplus to requirements after the Sale signing anyway and probably won't replicate his 2022 regular season, and prospect JJ Goss. Goss is a highly-regarded prospect, but underwhelmed (133 hits allowed and only a 42/63 BB/K ratio in 104 innings) in A+ ball, and we have other starting pitching prospects (Alexander Alberto, Neraldo Catalina, Josh Hartle, Nick Bitkso) plus now we have young pitchers like Joe Ryan and Luis Patino without rotation spots (as the rotation is Glasnow-Sale-Flaherty-McKay-Peacock). Also we got St. Louis to pick up half of Flaherty's salary so it's only costing us about $1M with Yonny off the books, and while it's highly unlikely we'll sign Flaherty to an extension he'll at least net us a compensatory 1st round draft pick, so that will make up for the loss of Goss).
December 20: After pitching for 7 different teams since leaving in 2017, Trevor Rosenthal has come full circle and signed a deal with the Cardinals.
December 24: Buster Posey signed a 3/45 deal with the Cubs and Mike Minor went for 2/7.3 to the Rockies.
December 27: The Phillies inked veteran SS Miguel Rojas to a 5/95.6 deal and starter Zach Eflin went for 4/41.3 to Minnesota.
December 28: The Cardinals sign former Minnesota closer Taylor Rogers for 3/20.7.