January 10: The Red Sox signed SS Nick Ahmed to a 5/84 deal to bring the 3-time Gold Glover to Beantown, while the Phillies signed P (and sometimes OF) Michael Lorenzen to a 6/93.6 pact. Lorenzen had an excellent 11-8, 3.11 in the Angels rotation last season.
January 13: Jack Flaherty, who struggled with us early last season before we shipped him to Detroit where he didn't fare much better in his contract year, went to Arizona for 5/42.4.
January 17: The Hall of Fame voting is in:
Congrats to Adrian Beltre, who just barely got over the 75% mark but they don't put that on your plaque. Carlos Beltran was close again but only improved slightly over last year's 65.7%. Joe Mauer made a decent first showing but otherwise nobody else had cause to get too excited.
January 22: The Giants signed starter Taijuan Walker to a 4/26.7 deal.
January 30: The Rockies signed veteran closer Will Smith to a 2/4.9 pact and the Braves traded OF Drew Waters to the Reds for P Sal Romano.
RULE CHANGE: I have decided that active MLB rosters will now have 27 players.
February 2: Former Ray Chris Archer surfaced in San Francisco on a 1/6.4 deal.
A minor trade:
Ona was a disappointment last year and really doesn't fit into our roster plans, and 40-man space was needed with Griffin Canning coming off the 60-day IL. And we got Velasquez in the deal, a RHB OF with 65 power, kind of Ona lite who will play at Durham or Montgomery. He's nothing special otherwise.
February 6: Closer Jordan Hicks joins a loaded Mets bullpen on a 3/22.2 deal.
February 7: Some interesting happenings today. Cleveland inked slugger Miguel Sano to a 1/7.1 deal and traded Triston McKenzie to the Braves for catcher William Contreras.
February 9: A couple of veteran starters found new homes with Kenta Maeda off to Boston for 2/19 and Sonny Gray to Memphis for 2/21.2.
Spring training now underway, Luis Patino strained an oblique and is out 7 weeks, which isn't the worst thing in the world since we have a glut of pitchers for our roster spots, even with a 27th man added. We also have a big prospect trade:
These names may not mean a lot, but Abbott was our #1 pick last year while Walton was a guy who got the deal done but isn't that much of a prospect. OSA sees Abbott as a future #2 starter but my scout Rob Metzler sees him as a #5 so we were able to leverage that disparity to pick up Greckel, currently rated as the #3 prospect in baseball. Here are his particulars:
Yes we continue to collect promising young OFs like baseball cards but Greckel looks to be just a fine all-around hitter with no weaknesses. And don't sleep on DeSpigna, a 2nd-round pick who has massive (65) power and hit 24 HR in AA last year.
March 8: More free agent signings: Carlos Carrasco, coming off surgery which kept him out of 2022, signed a 1/3.4 deal with San Francisco, former Ray Travis d'Arnaud goes to Houston for 1/3.2, and Jurickson Profar, last seen playing against us in the World Series, went for 1/3.5 to Colorado. Also the Orioles got a steal of sorts by signing Yasmani Grandal to a minor league deal.
Another deal:
Another trade necessitated by the glut of pitchers we have as Honeywell is out of options and Strotman came off the 60-day IL and had to go on the 40-man, so we dealt them to LA (along with a 1/2-star non-prospect) for a couple of somewhat interesting arms. Martinez is a starter with average stuff and probably a long shot to make the big club, but he'll go to Montgomery and we'll see what he can do as he is somewhat polished. Zuniga is the antithesis of Martinez, a power reliever with 80 stuff who made his way to the majors last September but has 40 movement and 40 control. Depending upon injuries and how things shake out, he could see action with us later this year.
March 17: Mike Clevinger, whom we rented last year, signed for a year and $5.3M with the Cubs.
March 24: Former Rays mainstay Kevin Kiermaier, who had a nice bounceback year with Miami last season, signed for 1/3.9 with San Francisco.
April 1: The exhibition season is over, and we came through pretty much injury-free, except for the setback with Luis Patino, which wasn't a big one.