January 3: The Hall of Fame balloting is in and one guy made it in:
Talk about pulling it out at last minute! In his final year of eligibility Ryan Braun squeaked over the 75% threshold to earn enshrinement at Cooperstown. Jose Altuve came close and Christian Yelich had an impressive first-year showing. After Molina, who needs a super surge next year before he drops off, nobody received more than 22%.
January 4: Former Ray Dominic Scavone, who spent the last few years in KC after we traded him for Dong-hwan Kim (also departed), signed a 5/71 deal with Houston.
January 18: Made a deal to complete the 3rd and final goal of the offseason:
Riddick is a decently-rated (60/55/50) lefty who can also start but we'll need him in the pen. He's started in the minors and only has pitched 7 2/3 innings at the big-league level so he's not a lock to be great but the cost wasn't steep with Ko, a 31-year-old Korean we signed last winter who has the Kyle Schwarber profile (45 contact, 65 power, 80 eye) and struggled with Durham last year (193/328/394) and didn't fit into our plans.
January 20: Made an interesting international signing:
Not sure how a 16-year-old earns the nickname "Mr. Clutch" but if he lives up to his 80 contact and 80 power potential he can call himself whatever he wants.
Nothing to report in February of significance, and we head into Spring Training with the roster relatively set.