With no money to spend this is going to be a dull offseason outside of the guys we have to dump.
So let's start with the dumping:
We had to retain a little salary, and throw in Yean (whom we were non-tendering anyway to save $) but we did address a need other than payroll reduction in this deal: a pretty good lefty reliever in Adkins who was good for 1.5 WAR in 61 innings with Toronto with a 3.94 WAR as a swingman, rated 55/65/60 as a reliever. It is a bit of a sad day to say goodbye to Crumpton, a product of our farm system who turned into a star, hitting 286 homers in 7 seasons and passed Evan Longoria (261) as the club's all-time home run leader.
And it was sayonara to another stalwart of recent seasons:
So long to Baez, who hit 142 homers in 5 seasons for us plus 17 more in the postseason including 9 in 2029 to lead us to a World title that year, the first of his three rings with us. Ericson isn't as exciting as Adkins, but he's a useful pitcher who has 573 MLB innings under his belt with a 3.91 ERA, having started 102 of 155 games.
These two deals get the payroll down to $165M, still $5M over what we're supposed to have to work with. I explored a Ethan McElvain deal which will get us under 160 but nothing I've liked so far.
Awards season:
Gold Gloves: Nope, none for us.
Reliever of the Year: Tommy Burpee was a surprise second-place finisher behind Oakland's Isaac Washington, who saved 46 games with a 2.28 ERA to take the AL award while Chris Bohlig took the NL nod after saving 47 games with a 1.29 ERA.
Silver Sluggers: A clean sweep across the OF for the Rays with
Orlando Tosado (LF),
Jake Westfall (CF) and Billy Carlow (RF) all winning as well as
Nate Strickland at DH.
Rookie of the Year: Seattle's Nate Miller won it (.266-20-78, 2.5 WAR) with Danny Arroyave taking third in the AL. In the NL Philly's Ed Turley was a unanimous winner, hitting .258-38-96 with 3.5 WAR.
Cy Young: Expected
Joe Marlette to win but in a shocker Houston's Chad Weeks (15-7, 2.96) won the AL award. In fact Marlette finished third with
Chris Ferguson ending up fourth. The runaway NL winner was Josh Johnson of Memphis, 19-8, 2.81 and 6.4 WAR. It was Johnson's third straight NL Cy Young.
MVP: Jeremy Begley and his 9.6 WAR was the runaway AL winner. He hit .326-26-86 and played incredible D at SS (26.8 ZR). Our
Nate Strickland finished 3rd,
Orlando Tosado 4th and
Jake Westfall 7th. Over in the NL Kevin Aguillard and his monster .329-56-151 season took 29 of 32 first-place votes.
December 7: The first big-name free agents signed as Luis Robert returns to Chicago but this time with the Cubs after several years in Washington on a 3/60 deal. MacKenzie Gore, who finished 2nd in the AL Cy Young voting and led the league in pitcher WAR, parlayed that into a big 4/105 pact with the Dodgers. Of course the Rays with our empty pockets are the kid with his nose pressed against the store window.
December 9: Veteran C Luis Campusano, who had spent all of his career with San Diego, joined the spendthrift Cubs on a 3/55 contract.
December 10: The Mets wrapped up longtime Giants closer Jorge Ochoa on a 4/46 deal. He racked up an even 200 saves over the last five seasons.
December 15: Nathan Deschryver, who averaged 5+ WAR/season the last 9 years as the ace of the Dodgers, joins the division rival Yankees on a 6/174 deal.
December 18: The first of our free agents signed elsewhere as Jake Baldino joined Atlanta for 2/19.
December 21: Claimed OF Nahele Soamoa in the Rule 5 Draft from the Washington Nationals.
With our penny-pinching ways this winter Rule 5 was a chance to bring in somebody and what I wanted was a RH-hitting OF. We got that in Soamoa, who has an interesting profile:
He's only 24 and was Detroit's supplemental 1st round pick in 2027. With those ratings it shouldn't come as a shock he hit .343 in AA and even hit .393 in 28 at-bats with Washington last year. We did lose a couple of AAA types in the draft but given we had 5 spots open on the 40-man you can tell they were guys I didn't care if we lost.
December 30: Signed South Korean free agent OF Duk-Yoon Ko to a minor league contract.
Ko was part of the international free agent class and profiles as such:
A definite three-true-outcomes guy, he could be the Korean Kyle Schwarber with a good outfield glove. He's a lefty hitter and we have enough of those on the roster for now so he'll start at Durham most likely.
December 31: Carlos Correa is still kicking around at 39, and joined the Padres for 1/12.6. Even at his age and with injuries curtailing his playing time, he's still been a 2-WAR player the last two seasons.