All 30 MLB Team’s Offseasons Ranked

The MLB offseason is a funny time because it feels like with the exception of maybe 1 or 2 teams every single fanbase feels like their front office is absolutely blowing it. For example I was listening the a Red Sox podcast and they were lamenting how terrible their offseason had been and how Craig Breslow was a fraud and so on and on and I was a bit surprised because I feel like the Garret Crochet is one of the very best and also aggressive moves of the offseason but as I listened I found myself agreeing with them that the Red Sox have had a bad offseason. 

I also saw this graphic tweeted out by Brooksgate that shows the largest increases in team payroll

 and as you can see the Orioles are near the very top but am I happy, content and grateful? Absolutely not. So if Orioles fans are upset even though their payroll has increased significantly and Red Sox fans are upset even though their front office traded for maybe the best pitcher in baseball. Is anyone happy? Should anyone be happy? 

These kinds of questions lead to more questions like, Who is the angriest? Who has it worst? So after much thought and consideration here are the all 30 MLB team’s offseason ranked from best to worst. 

The criteria is simple, we will look at who you brought in and who you lost to determine if your team has improved or declined this offseason. 

We will also weigh the expectations of the team going into the offseason taking into account if the major holes on the roster were addressed or if the team still has glaring weaknesses. 

Some things to note: This is not by any means a power ranking of teams for next season, bad teams will get credit for making moves that improve their farm system/future outlook even though they may win fewer games than a good team that did nothing this offseason. 

When it comes to free agent dollars spent the only thing we care about with these rankings is if the contract is going to hamstring your ability to field a competitive team so you won’t see many teams get ding’d for “overpaying” unless it seems that contract is going to bite them Chris Davis style. You might see some teams get credit for making shrewd moves to get guys on cheaper deals but in general this is a “did you make your team better discussion” not a “were you fiscally responsible” discussion.

Another thing is you’ll notice there are little in/out graphics for each team and I just want to get out in front of this and say these are not comprehensive lists, it’s just the people I think are interesting. So your backup catcher or low leverage lefty reliever might not appear in the out category although they may show up in another team’s “in” category if I think they do matter for that team. I can’t be bound to consistency; I contain multitudes. Additionally you’ll see a few names in the retained section highlighted in green representing guys that got extensions that weren’t free agents.

Lastly these are the rankings so far, there are multiple high level free agents still available and a team landing Alex Bregman or trading for Logan Gilbert could still happen and would greatly impact their standing on this list. 

1. The Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers are having such a good offseason that fans of other teams are trying to call the money spending police on them and demanding that the rules for deferred money be changed. After winning the world series with “a bad rotation” they went out and signed 1 of the 3 available ace level pitchers in free agency and on top of that they got the most coveted pitcher to come over from Japan since the last Japanese pitcher they signed only this time instead of paying 325 million they paid 6.5 million and he’ll be on a rookie scale deal for the next 6 years. 

The Dodgers have a real tie goes to the runner situation where even if a team dares to match them in a bidding war for the best players in free agency the players have shown that all things being equal they will choose the Dodgers. In some cases they’ll pick the Dodgers even if they are being offered more elsewhere. At a certain point it is a little demoralizing but I can’t bring myself to be too upset about what they are doing. 

The contracts they signed Blake Snell and Tanner Scott to are aggressive top of the market prices for those caliber of pitchers. Teoscar Hernandez reportedly gave them a bit of a break but they still signed him to a higher AAV than Anthony Santander got. 

The Sasaki signing is where they got a real break when Sasaki chose them over San Diego and Toronto even though the Dodgers were offering much less and now they’ll have him as an extremely cost controlled asset for the next 6 years. Much has been written and said about Sasaki signing with the Dodgers, the pro Dodgers crowd would have you believe that they are just light years ahead on pitching development so of course Sasaki would choose them. I would point out that if you look at the pitchers on the Dodgers 40 man roster the guys who are slated to actually be in the rotation came from other orgs and the guys who came up through the Dodgers system are mostly hurt and hurt badly so to me it looks like they are the cutting edge of blowing out elbows and shoulders. 

Anyway, whether Sasaki signed with the Dodgers because he loved the pitching development staff or because he’d had an agreement to sign with the Dodgers since he was 16 either way the Dodgers got him. 

Even if Rob Manfred swooped in and took away the signings of Snell, Sasaki, Hernandez and Scott and distributed them to the impoverished team of the league the Dodgers would still have had a good offseason with just the signings of Conforto, Kim, Yates and re-signing Trienan in addition to extending Tommy Edman. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

One thing I will say is that I find the decision to put Mookie Betts back at shortstop odd. He’s 32, that is a grueling position to play everyday and last year he was not that good at it. His natural position is clearly a corner outfield spot but the Dodgers are determined to have him in the infield. Betts is a versatile player and that allows you to have some roster flexibility but I think if the plan is for him to play a position that he is not good at then that is a bad plan. 

The only issue with the Dodgers projected rotation is health. Snell, Glasnow, Yamamoto, Ohtani and most of their depth arms like Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin all have had health issues in their career so the Dodgers do have the potential for a frustrating year where their on paper rotation is good but they never get their best guys all healthy at the same time. 

2. The New York Mets

Going into the offseason there was one name that stood out head and shoulders above all the other free agents and the Mets signed that guy. Signing Juan Soto was a huge win for the Mets not only because he will be bringing elite production at the plate to Queens for the next 15 years but also because they beat the Yankees in a bidding war where the Yankees offer was also super competitive. For the Mets’ entire existence they’ve been the little brother team to the New York Yankees but signing Juan Soto feels like it could be a turning point where 100 years from now people will say stuff like “fun fact for the first 100 years of MLB history the Yankees were the better New York team?” And then they’ll say “Did you know the T. Rowe Price Goats used to be called the Baltimore Orioles?”

Anyway, besides providing fun hypotheticals about who the real New York team is, Soto is going to make the Mets a much better offense. Lindor and Soto as a duo won’t be quite what Judge and Soto were last season but with Vientos and Pete Alonso batting around them that offense will keep pitchers up at night. 

Getting Pete Alonso on a short term deal was also a win for the Mets front office. Everyone knows that Steve Cohen has enough money that he isn’t worried about what he’s spending on the Mets but I think it is good business to let a super agent like Scott Boras know that just because you have the money doesn’t mean you’re going to cave into every player’s demands. 

Getting Manaea back on a 3 year deal was huge for the Mets, it felt like when they signed Soto that Manaea might be collateral damage of how high the bidding got but he wanted to be back and they found a number that was good enough. This is another intangible win for the Mets where because of the culture they have fostered guys who could be looking for massive once in a lifetime payouts are finding a way to stay with the Mets. 

As far as who left the Mets, the biggest names on the graphic are still free agents. I could see Iglesias or Quintana coming back on small deals but if they don’t I don’t think the Mets will miss them too much. Severino leaving is probably the biggest blow but he got a big deal after pitching well on a one year contract with the Mets and they didn’t want to match what the A’s were offering and I can’t be mad at that process. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The rotation is the biggest area of concern. It lacks the top end talent that you would expect from a team with the resources and desire of the Mets. The Holmes and Montas both represent low ceiling and low floor signings where I can’t see either of them being all stars and I can easily see either of them being so bad they get moved out of the rotation and they both got multi year deals so those moves were head scratchers to me. Manaea isn’t the worst number 1 starter you could have but lots of teams around baseball have 1 or 2 starters better than Manaea. After Manaea the Senga, Montas Holmes and Peterson squad to round out the rotation feels like a lot of question marks when it comes to health and ability. I wouldn’t rule out the Mets for a deadline acquisition. 

3. The Arizona Diamondbacks 

Most of the time when there is a “mystery team” involved in free agency that means the agent is trying to stir up some interest but with Corbin Burnes that was not so as the Diamondbacks came out of nowhere to sign the last ace starter on the market. 

The D-Backs fell just short of the postseason a year after playing the World Series and the biggest reason for their regression was that their pitching was just not good enough. Now with a trio of Burnes, Gallen and Kelly at the top of the rotation they can comfortably say that if they miss the playoffs it won’t be because they didn’t have the pitching. 

The combo of letting Christian Walker walk and trading for Josh Naylor is about a wash but Naylor is younger and cheaper and gives you 90% of what Christian Walker and the Diamondbacks have shown they’re not scared to extend contracts to pretty good players so if Naylor is a good fit then there’s a pretty good chance he ends up being more than a rental. 

Losing Pederson hurts but getting Grichuk back on the deal they got him on is a big win for the D-Backs after it seemed like the Burnes deal might cost Arizona both halves of their very successful platoon.

Remaining Roster Flaws

My big question is what are they going to do with Jordan Montgomery. Maybe everything is fine now but a few months ago the team owner called signing him a “horrible decision” which to me seemed like an attempt to dare him to decline his player option which he didn’t. I think Montgomery would be an interesting rehabilitation project for a team, he has a long track record of being an above average starter and he was instrumental in the Rangers playoff run but at the current price point what could the D-Backs get for him? Would they eat his money to get a decent trade return? 

4. Chicago Cubs 

Kyle Tucker is the best player to be traded this offseason so the Cubs get a lot of credit for looking at their roster, realizing they needed a superstar and then making an aggressive trade to get an MVP caliber player. It’s the kind of trade that every fan hopes their team makes and having Tucker on their team takes them from a decent team to very much in the mix to win the division despite other issues with their roster. 

In the trade they lost Issac Paredes who they had just recently acquired in the trade where they sent Christopher Morel to Tampa Bay along with Cam Smith who instantly became the Astros number 1 prospect and Hayden Wesneski. I have to applaud the process of turning Christopher Morel into Kyle Tucker, it’s like the Cubs traded a paperclip for an apple and then traded that apple, along with a few other household items they had around, for a car, even if it’s a rental car.

A few weeks later the Cubs called the Astros again and asked “do you guys have any more players you want to send us?” and the Astros responded “as a matter of fact we do” and they sent them closer Ryan Pressly which was a big deal for the Cubs because even though someone named Porter Hodge had a sneaky good season last year this bullpen was missing the kind of talent that Ryan Pressly immediately brings.

In relation to the Tucker move they traded Cody Bellinger to the Yankees for Cody Poteet in basically a salary dump which if your optimistic could signal the Cubs making room to extend Tucker and if you’re pessimistic then it’s just the Cubs saying “we can’t be expected to pay this many players at once”. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The Cubs will be relying on very young players at several key positions. Pete Crow Armstrong in center, Matt Shaw at third and Moises Ballesteros at catcher are going to be in sink or swim positions while guys like Kevin Alcantara and Owen Caissie will also debut this year.

Having lots of young talent is great and should allow the Cubs to move on from expensive players to make room for a Kyle Tucker contract and still field a competitive team for the next several years but for 2025 it could be tough sledding with so many young guys trying to find their way. 

The owner is part of what worries me the most with this team because he’s going on the radio to cry poor while he owns one of the most valuable sports franchises in the entire world. The claim that we just try to break even is so wildly dishonest that the FCC should fine him for putting that on the airwaves. 

5. The Boston Red Sox 

If you asked Red Sox fans they might tell you they’ve had a bottom 5 offseason but the act of trading for the best pitcher available this offseason and if it pans out possibly the best pitcher in the league gets you a lot of points in the who had the best offseason competition. The Crochet trade at this point appears to be a win win because on one hand people will say the Red Sox gave up a lot to get him but on the other hand they didn’t have to give up any of their top 3 prospects or Triston Casas which is hard to do in a trade like this. 

Besides the big trade the Sox signed Walker Buehler to a 1 year prove it deal which feels like low risk high reward for this season, they got Patrick Sandoval on a two year deal so he’ll rehab with the Sox this year and then be back next year. A casual Red Sox fan might see Lucas Giolito pitching and assume that he was one of the arms they signed this offseason since he signed last year and then missed the entire season after a poorly timed injury. 

Out of everyone the Sox lost they could end up missing Tyler O’Neill the most purely because he can hit lefties and should things stay the same the best right handed hitter on the Red Sox might be Christian Campbell who has never taken an MLB at bat. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

Red Sox fans feel like this offseason is a disappointment because they were promised big moves from their front office and they got one but when you’re the Red Sox and you’ve won 4 World Series in the last 20 years then you don’t just want one big offseason move you want two and Alex Bregman is sitting out there and he’d be a perfect fit in Fenway and would provide a needed dose of veteran leadership and it seems like the Red Sox are content to just roll with the current team and hope to fill any holes with their upcoming prospects.

If the Red Sox big three prospects Anthony, Campbell and Mayer come up and are awesome then this lineup would feel almost perfect but that is a lot to ask of three rookies. As is the Red Sox are vulnerable against lefties and they have a lot of guys that are either injury prone in Story and Casas and guys that are defensive liabilities like Devers and Yoshida. 

The bullpen is going to be relying heavily on two 36 year old relievers in Liam Hendricks and Aroldis Chapman so it will be interesting to see how that experiment goes. They both have good track records but at that age it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if the Red Sox are looking for bullpen help at the deadline. 

6. The Philadelphia Phillies

Trading for Jesus Luzardo was a somewhat curious move considering the fact that the Phillies greatest strength is their starting rotation but I suppose Dombrowski saw the opportunity to push Tijuan Walker out of the rotation and couldn’t pass up on it. Luzardo is one of my favorite pitchers but has been pretty consistently hurt throughout his career so it’s not a slam dunk that he’ll change the Phillies fate this season but it’s the kind of high reward move that GMs of good teams should be making. 

I was surprised to see Austin Hays non-tendered in favor of Max Kepler. Hays was disappointing for the Phillies but he’s been better than Kepler for the last few seasons and would have been cheaper.

Losing Hoffman and Esteves in the bullpen hurts but the Phillies still have Alvarado, Strahm and Kerkering back there so they must have felt like it was strong enough they could pass on paying either one of those guys. The Romano experiment will be interesting, he was one of the best relievers in baseball in 22 and 23 and then maybe with worst last year. If he bounces back, that Phillies bullpen will be as strong as it ever was. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The Phillies have been searching for a few years now for some offense in the outfield besides Nick Castellanos. They’ve made some moves over the past few seasons like bringing in Hays and now Kepler but if Kepler doesn’t work out there watch for them to be aggressive at the trade deadline to get a bat.

7. The Texas Rangers

After winning the World Series in 2023 The Rangers had a weird season in 2024 where several of their key players from their World Series team just played much worse. This offseason they are shaking things up in hopes of returning to contender status. 

Nathan Eovaldi has been the Rangers most reliable pitcher since he arrived in Texas so bringing him back even though he got older and more expensive was a big time move by the Rangers front office. Having him will take some of the pressure off of DeGrom as he works his way back from injury. 

The Rangers hit 57 fewer home runs in 2024 than they did in 2023 so bringing in Jake Burger and Joc Pederson will bring some much needed power to the lineup. They also got some catching depth after Jonah Hiem struggled on both sides of the ball in 2024.

Yates will likely be the biggest loss for the Ranger this offseason, he had locked down the closer position after the Rangers struggled to close games in 2023. Yates didn’t sign for an extreme amount in LA so it is a bit of a head scratcher as to why the Rangers didn’t bring him back. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The biggest concern for the Rangers is will their starting lineup stay healthy. On paper Degrom and Eovaldi are a great 1-2 to start a rotation with but they are both in their late 30s and have long injury histories if either of them gets hurt this rotation looks pretty thin very quickly. 

As I look at the newly reworked bullpen I see a lot of good relievers but I don’t know who from this group is going to close games. I would guess Chris Martin so that doesn’t seem like a set it and forget it situation in the bullpen. 

8. The Toronto Blue Jays

After finishing third on many of the most anticipated free agents it seemed like the Blue jays were destined to not only have a bad offseason but an embarrassing one as well as it was habitually reported that many of their free agent targets were refusing to sign with them despite the fact that they were offering more money than other teams. 

But the Blue Jays have bounced back and signed Jeff Hoffman, Anthony Santander and Max Scherzer in successive weeks and today have a better lineup, rotation and bullpen than when the season ended. 

I haven’t talked a lot about team direction in these rankings because all of the teams ahead of the Blue Jays were going in at least similar directions where they had a real path to the playoffs. Even with the good players the Blue Jays have acquired this offseason they just don’t seem like a playoff team and it’s not like there is a crop of young Blue Jays that these free agents are going to shepherd along. This team is in decline and in denial and these moves aren’t going to save them. 

Still as ill conceived as their moves may be, the Blue Jays deserve credit for doing more than most teams in the league to accomplish their stated goal of making the playoffs and contending for a World Series.

Remaining Roster Flaws 

Even with the addition of Anthony Santander if you are a Blue Jays supporter and are trying to convince yourself that this lineup is going to be good you’ll find yourself saying “we need George Springer to bounce back”, “we need Bo Bichette to bounce back”, we need Andres Gimenes to bounce back” and so on and at a certain point if you are hoping for 6 out of your 9 regular starters to “bounce back” then you may have to consider the fact that it just isn’t a very good team.

The rotation is solid and will be serviceable in making it through a regular season but the Jays lack a true number 1 starter which is part of why this teams ceiling is as low as it is. 

9. The Kansas City Royals 

The Royals are coming off their best season since they won the World Series in 2015 and they have been active so far. The Jonathan India trade was a good one with the Royals trading from their strong starting pitching depth to shore up their biggest weakness on offense. They retained two members of the rotation that were on their way out the door in free agency and most recently they reinforced their bullpen by signing one of the very best relievers on the market. 

Competing in the AL Central is funny because 3 teams from that division made the playoffs last year and 4 of the 5 teams in the division are going to try to contend this year and yet they are all so cost conscious (cowardly) that Carlos Estevez is the biggest free agent signing for the whole division. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The offense is still the primary concern here. India is an immediate upgrade but this offense has a stark dropoff after 4 hitters and that is assuming Perez stays elite and Pasquantino stays healthy which are both not guaranteed. The Royals got by with a bad offense last year because of how good they were in close games and how good Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha and even then they only won 86 games which most years won’t be good enough to make the playoffs. The Royals don’t have much in the way of prospects coming up soon so it will be interesting to see if they get active in the trade market. 

10. The Detroit Tigers 

The Tigers were last year’s surprise team and that entire team is coming back for 2025. Because they had basically torn it down the year before and at the trade deadline this offseason nobody of importance walked out the door. 

Trading Jack Flaherty at the deadline for 2 prospects, making a playoff push and then signing him back this offseason after he won a ring with the Dodgers is a nice bit of business and if he is able to recapture his first half of the season form when he returns to Detroit that signing might be one of the best value deals of the offseason. 

The Gleyber signing pushes Colt Keith to first and signals that the Tigers are ready to move on from Spencer Torkelson so I would imagine that a Torkelson trade is on the way. I’ll be interested to see if they can get positive value for a guy that hit 30 homers in 2023. 

Cobb provides some needed depth to the Tigers shallow rotation that was relying on bullpen games for the last 2 months of the season and the Kahnle signing makes a strong bullpen even stronger. 

There could be an argument that after the Tigers surprise season they could have benefitted from an all in move to take control of the AL Central and maybe they’ll sign Bregman and become favorites for the division but I don’t mind giving some of their young guys another year to grow before springing for a big acquisition. You want to make sure you don’t bet on the wrong guy or supplement the wrong position. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

Like I said this is a really young lineup Trey Sweeney, Jace Jung and Colt Keith didn’t exactly light the world on fire but they should take a step forward this year and if 2 of those 3 guys become real offensive players then this lineup will suddenly feel really long. 

In general the Tigers should be keeping an eye out for a catcher. Jake Rogers and his moustache are fun but that’s a spot that could get a lot better and they don’t have anyone in the system that will be ready any time soon. 

The rotation has a good 1-2 punch with Skubal doing a lot of heavy lifting. If Jackson Jobe pops then they have maybe the best trio of starters in the AL Central. If Jobe doesn’t pop then this rotation is going to need some help. Last year the Tigers proved they could win a lot of games with their bullpen but that’s hard to do again.

11. The Cincinnati Reds 

After a promising 2023 season the Reds fell short of expectations in 2024. In response to that they have made several aggressive trades to improve the roster. 

They gave up Jonathan India to get some much needed pitching depth in Brady Singer then to re-bolster the lineup they traded a prospect and a comp pick for Gavin Lux which for a market like Cincinnati is not a nothingburger trade package and in addition to those two moves they also took Taylor Rogers off the Giant’s hands to improve their bullpen. 

Getting Nick Maritnez back on the qualifying offer after the season he had is a big win and getting 2023 All Star game starter Austin Hays for almost nothing are good moves in general and good especially if you take into account that this is a team that has to be careful about how they spend their money. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

The Reds lineup could go either way. It’s full of names that are familiar and showed up on top prospect lists for years so you read it and think this is a good lineup and then you look at what they all did last year and you’re forced to consider that maybe they’re not so good? It may be a bad sign when you need 7 out of 9 of your starters to “bounce back”, but they’re mostly young so I get giving them another year, however if 2025 is more like 2024 than 2023 then the Reds are going to have to ask themselves some uncomfortable questions about their young core. 

The Reds will also have to keep an eye on their bullpen, their closer Alexis Diaz had a poor season last year and if that continues they’ll be searching for answers in the ninth inning and I don’t know if Taylor Rogers can solve that problem. If the Reds find themselves in contention at the trade deadline this is where they will most likely need to devote their attention. 

12. The Chicago White Sox

Measuring the success of an offseason is not necessarily just looking at who added the most WAR to their roster. For a team like the White Sox, who bottomed out harder than any team in history, their focus should be on building up a core of players to return to contention as soon as possible rather than trying to go from 41 wins to 55 wins. 

The Crochet trade brought in 2 top 100 prospects along with 2 other promising young prospects. I mentioned in the Red Sox section that it was a win for the Red Sox that they kept their top 3 prospects in that trade and that is true but with how devoid the White Sox are of talent getting 4 good prospects could prove more impactful than getting 1 elite prospect and I should say that Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery could end up being really good players. 

With Crochet gone there is really only one player left on the roster with any real trade value and that is Luis Robert and I don’t fault the White Sox for not trading him right now while his value is as low as it has ever been I would expect if Robert appears to bounce back at all next season that the White Sox will deal him quickly.

They also purged the roster of many of the most disappointing players and replaced them with guys who, while not game changing players, are competent and with the additions they made plus the prospects due to come up from the minors they should be able to avoid being the worst team off all time again but still be bad enough that they should get a pick at the top of the draft although nothing is guaranteed with lottery system which is why completely tanking is a much riskier game than it used to be. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

This is one of the least talented rosters you’ll ever see by design so there’s not much point in talking about all the flaws. I do have one thing to say in this section as far as what the White Sox could do to simultaneously make their team a little better and improve the future of the org.

I am crediting the White Sox with one of the better off seasons in the league and the best offseason for a team whose stated goal is not to win the title this year but there is still a lot they could have done to make it better. If they were willing to spend the money they could become a dumping ground for bad contracts in exchange for prospects. You don’t see MLB teams do this very often but it would be cool to see a team imitate the Oklahoma City Thunder rebuild where they traded everyone worth anything and then started taking on the league’s worst contracts in exchange for picks. Sometimes those players they got in salary dumps recouped their value and the Thunder were able to trade them for picks as well. 

Would the Red Sox give you a prospect if you took Masataka Yoshida off their hands? What would the Yankees give up to get rid of Marcus Stroman? How grateful would the Tigers be if someone took on Javier Baez’s money? Could you get a prospect for taking on Jordan Montgomery’s contract and then get another prospect if he’s pitching well at the deadline? It would be cool to see a front office get creative like this. 

13. The San Francisco Giants 

Any team that loses a player as good as Blake Snell is going to have a hard time digging themselves out of the hole when it comes to having a positive offseason. Still the Giants made an earnest effort to improve their team after Snell bolted for the Dodgers when they signed Willy Adames and later added Justin Verlander. 

Adames is a big upgrade for the Giants offense which has been one of the worst in the league since their magical 2021 season and with him and Chapman both signed long term the Giants will have one of the very best third base/shortstop combos in the league for next several years. You could also kind of include the Chapman extension in this offseason even though it happened mid season it was an offseason move in spirit so the Giants get credit for locking down a high quality infield for the next half decade. 

The Verlander addition is interesting because It’s cool to add a future first ballot hall of famer to your roster but he is 42 and was not great for the Astros last year. He’s not far removed from winning the Cy Young but for athletes 39 to 42 isn’t the same as the difference between 29 and 32. The Giants cavernous ball park should help keep some of the fly balls Verlander struggled with last year stay in the ballpark and you hope he can stay healthy. 

There is a version of this where it’s a great swan song to finish a great career and there’s also a version of this where he makes 6 starts in a Giants uniform and it’s over. 

The Giants are similar to the Blue Jay in the sense that they clearly want to compete and clearly have the money to sign big name stars, unfortunately for them they are in the division with one of the most stacked teams of all time and on top of that 2 other teams in the division have gone all in on trying to win now so it’s hard to imagine the Giants finishing above 3rd in their division or making the playoffs.

I wouldn’t have blamed them if they had taken advantage of changing the front office to tear it down and start from scratch but that’s not what they wanted to do.

Remaining Roster Flaws 

The Giants still project to be an underwhelming offensive team. I’ll be interested to see if Tyler Fitzgerald and Heliot Ramos can repeat their breakout seasons but even if they do this lineup is still 1 if not 2 bats short of what it takes to compete in the NL West. 

Jung Hoo Lee is an interesting piece of the puzzle because he was their big signing a year ago and got hurt before he had a chance to really get rolling. If the defense is as advertised then all he needs to do to be a very good player is be a league average hitter. If he’s solid then the Giants will really like having the spine of their team be Bailey, Adames and Lee. 

With no Snell the Giants rotation looks much more vulnerable. Webb at the top is solid but Ray, Verlander, Harrison and Hicks all have massive questions marks, between health and general ability. The Giants were finalists to land Burnes and had they been able to land him they would have maybe the best 1-2 punch in the National league but instead they got 42 year old Verlander and the difference between prime Corbin Burnes and 42 year old Justin Verlander is immense. 

If Camilo Doval can bounce back then between Doval, Ryan Walker and Tyler Rogers the Giants would have a lethal 7,8,9 inning combination but if Doval’s struggles continue then the Giants will find themselves looking for answers. If a starter emerges then either Hicks or Harrison could get pushed to the pen and be viable options. 

14. The Oakland Athletics 

For the first time in several years the A’s did not use the offseason to purposely make themselves worse. It started out as a surprise but once it was revealed that they had to spend in order to avoid a grievance from the players association it became much less surprising to see the A’s doling out contracts like their lives depended on it. Even though I was tempted to hold it against the A’s that they waited until they were out of Oakland to try to be better than garbage there are still things I liked about this offseason. 

Last year’s A’s were one of the better offenses in the league and it was their pitching that held them back so signing Luis Severino and trading for Jeff Springs will immediately reinforce that weak link. Better pitchers than Severino and Springs have moved this offseason but the difference between what the A’s had in their rotation last year and what they’ll have this year makes this the biggest rotation upgrade of the offseason. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

As I mentioned the A’s had a decent offense last season lead by Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler. If former top pick Jacob Wilson blossoms and Zach Gelof bounces back they’ll have a strong lineup but that’s a lot to ask. As is they would benefit tremendously from a middle of the lineup bat that they could put in the corner outfield in place of Seth Brown. 

Even with the big upgrades the A’s already made their rotation is still poor and will ultimately be the reason they fall well short of making the playoffs, they are going to be down 4-0 in the second inning far too often. 

15. The Cleveland Guardians 

The Guardians have perfected the kind of offseason where they make a bunch of moves that you can’t be mad at but you sure wish you could. Trading away Josh Naylor and Andres Gimenez for Slade Cecconi and Luis Ortiz makes the team cheaper but also worse. Signing Carlos Santana and Paul Sewald make things a little better but those guys are short term answers. 

The biggest win was re-signing Bieber who perhaps could have gone out and found a better deal for himself elsewhere but he clearly wanted to remain in Cleveland and was satisfied with their offer. That move may not pay dividends this season but locking up Beiber on a relatively low cost deal is good business. 

Swapping Andres Gimenes for Spencer Horwitz made sense since Gimenez had not lived up to the big contract he had signed after his breakout season so getting off that money and getting a good young hitter at the same position seemed like a win and then they immediately swapped Horwitz for Luis Ortiz. So the move freed up money, freed up space for number 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana and landed them some pitching depth, you gotta hand it to them. 

The Naylor deal was demoralizing because he had become a fan favorite and one of the better hitting first basemen in the league so it was a “certified classic Cleveland move” to trade him a year before he hits free agency. If I were a Guardians fan I would have preferred to see an effort to re-sign Naylor at a reasonable deal, he’s a one time all star who has never eclipsed 3 WAR in a season so it’s not like they would have to give him the Juan Soto deal to get him to stay or if I was in the front office I would have preferred to at least let him play out his contract and put the Qualifying Offer on him so that if he walks we could get a comp A pick. As is they got Slade Cecconi and a comp B pick. 

Carlos Santana is a good consolation prize and was also a fan favorite during his time in Cleveland and if you look at how he’s played over the last several seasons you could easily come to the conclusion that the Guardians got better by replacing Naylor with Santana but big picture I think it is hard to maintain a fanbase when you are constantly churning over the roster to avoid paying anyone and you won’t always have a 40 year old fan favorite to sign back.

On the Paul Sewald front all I’ll say is I am excited for the Guardians version of the “It is time for Paul Sewald to pitch” meme. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

Catcher and shortstop are two of the most important positions in baseball and the Guardians have big gaping holes in their roster at those two spots. A lot of teams try to build up the middle with catcher, middle infield and centerfield and the Guardians might have the worst “spine” of any contending team.

The rotation is surprisingly weak, it lacks top end talent and depth, you can usually count on Cleveland to find some pitching out of nowhere but it was a problem last year and it still is this year. 

I haven’t been mentioning the bullpen for most teams if I think their bullpen is solid but the Guardian’s bullpen is so good it makes me want to go back and say everyone else needs to work on the pen. 

16. The Washington Nationals 

The Nationals are seeing the light at the end of their rebuild tunnel. They’re roster is full of young players from their own drafts and from the trades they made during their tear down and this offseason they made a positive step towards competing. 

Even though it is hard to see the Nationals finishing higher than 4th in their divisions nd by default outside the playoffs there is value in creating a more winning competitive environment for their young players to develop in. They’ve seen first hand with CJ Abrams what can happen if their players feel like the games aren’t important. 

As far as the actual moves they made they added a lot of decent bats, the approach seems to be that at least 1 of Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell or Amed Rosario is going to be helpful and if 2 or all 3 are helpful then this becomes a deep lineup. 

They also improved their rotation depth by re-signing Trevor Williams and bring Shinnosuke Ogasawara over from Japan. Patrick Corbin’s reign of terror is over in Washington so they’ll get a nice addition by subtraction there. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The glaring weakness for the team is catcher where they are stuck with Kiebert Ruiz in what is now a pre arb extension gone wrong scenario. The offense will likely be up and down this year because of all the young guys and some of those young guys might not pan out like the Nats hope but having the young guys take their lumps is the whole purpose of this season for the Nationals. 

The Nats rotation doesn’t have much for high end talent but for the stated purpose of the season having a whole rotation of guys with ERA’s just over 4 isn’t the worst thing. If James Wood and Dylan Crews pop and the Nats find themselves in wild card contention it would be cool to see them go after a starter at the trade deadline. 

The Nats ditched their late inning duo of Hunter Harvey and Kyle Finnegan so they are starting from scratch when it comes to their high leverage innings. 

17. The New York Yankees

The Yankees suffered the single biggest loss of any team this offseason when Juan Soto chose the Mets over them in free agency. I talked about what Soto choosing the Mets could mean in the Mets section so I won’t harp on that now but from a pure baseball perspective Soto was so important to the Yankees last year. I don’t know if baseball has ever seen a more fearsome duo than Juan Soto and Aaron Judge and the power of that duo almost single handedly lifted the Yankees to the AL East crown and the World Series. Seriously watching them together it felt like you just had to hope you only gave up runs in innings when Judge and Soto hit because they were automatic runs. 

Here are the OPSs of the 12 players who had the most plate appearances for the Yankees last year. Let me know if you see a dropoff anywhere. 

.989

1.159

.657

.709

.647

.773

.718

.637

.661

.642

.527

It is clear that 2 players were doing most of the heavy lifting and now one of those two people plays for the Mets. 

If you were to butterknife the Yankees’ offseason stats the way that fans will do when they are trying to push an agenda then you could say that after the Yankees lost Juan Soto they’ve actually had one of the best offseasons in the league. 

Max Fried was one of the 3 available aces on the market, they got a top 3 closer in baseball in exchange for Nestor Cortez, and they upgraded both first base and the outfield by essentially swapping Anthony Rizzo and Alex Verdugo for Paul Goldscmidt and Cody Bellinger. If you look at the projected starting lineup for 2025 compared to last year on paper the Yankees look a lot more well rounded. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

As I said the Yankees have done a lot this offseason to balance their lineup even with these moves there is still a lot of “if” in this lineup. Goldschmidt and Stanton will both be in their late 30s so it will be a lot to ask of them to be important bats in the lineup for a full 162. They will be relying on Austin Wells to be the everyday catcher which is something he has not done and last season we saw how being asked to play everyday wore on him. Jasson Dominguez may prove to be a capable everyday outfielder but this is the third season in a row where he is supposed to be the Yankees big outfield addition. 

If everything goes right this lineup could be the best in the American League but if anything goes wrong the Yankees don’t have much depth to fall back on. 

The rotation has an elite 1-2 punch but after that there is a pretty serious dropoff. Rodon and Stroman are already albatross contracts and Luis Gil regressed significantly in the second half of the season. The Yankees will need one of those three to step up or they’ll need to get active at the trade deadline to prepare for the playoffs. 

18. The Pittsburgh Pirates 

The Pirates have had an incredibly disappointing offseason. They have the kind of payroll and roster flexibility that could have allowed them to go out and bring in impact free agents to contend in the NL Central. There is so much room to improve on this roster that even if they had gotten just 1-2 mid tier free agents it could have significantly improved the team but instead they’ve made moves that I don’t think you could even call half measures. 

They signed Tommy Pham, Caleb Ferguson and Tim Mayza who were all negative WAR players last year. Adam Frazier’s OPS last season was .576 but at least he was on the positive side of WAR at 0.3. Re-signing Andrew McCutcheon is mostly fan service at this point which is good because it at least means that Pirates ownership is aware that there are fans to try to service. 

The Spencer Horwitz trade was a solid move, the Pirates have a wealth of pitching talent on the roster and in the minors so trading from that talent for hitting makes sense and if ownership remains unwilling to seriously invest in the team trading pitching for hitting might be the only way for the Pirates to build an offense in the Paul Skenes era.

Remaining Roster Flaws 

If you were to ask a pitcher getting ready to face the Pirates who he was most worried about pitching to, they’d probably say nobody. There are decent to good hitters like Bryan Reynolds and O’Neill Cruz but there is just no star power on that side of the ball. Sometimes a team can get away with not having any star power if the whole lineup is just pretty good but the Pirates have some of the worst hitters in the league weighing down the bottom of their lineup. Between Ke’Bryan Hayes and Isiah Kiner-Falefah they might have the worst hitting infield in baseball. 

The combination of bad offense and good starters means that the Pirates are going find themselves in a lot of low scoring close games and the current bullpen is going to blow a lot of those games. They’ll have to hope that David Bednar figures it out again and forms a decent 1-2 punch with Colin Holderman but if Bednar stays in the wilderness it could be a long frustrating season watching the last few innings of Pirates games. 

19. The Baltimore Orioles 

The Orioles have had a weird offseason because I have seen people, probably out of habit, criticize the Orioles for not spending and that hasn’t really been the problem this offseason. The Orioles have increased their payroll dramatically from last year, the real issue is that the Orioles have not used their money well and the guys they’ve brought in are going to have a hard time filling the shoes of the guys that they are replacing. 

I have nothing against Charlie Morton and I suspect that I am actually going to enjoy watching him pitch for the O’s this year but It is hard to stomach that a team that views themselves as contenders are pretty much saying “Don’t worry about losing Corbin Burnes we got Charlie Morton!” 

I’ve already written a whole blog on losing Santander so I won’t rehash that here but if we combine O’Neill, Laureano and Carlson’s stats from last season you get 104 RBIs and 44 homers which is about equal to Santander’s 102 RBIs and 44 homers so mission accomplished on building Tony Taters in the aggregate. 

Similar to with the Pirates the Orioles need to realize that they have some of the best talent in baseball on artificially cost controlled contracts and they need to take advantage of it before the clock runs out and those guys are Dodgers, Yankees and Mets. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

A lot would have to go wrong for this Orioles offense not to be among the best in the league but it will be interesting to see how the Orioles proceed if Adley Rutshman’s second half struggles from last season continue. 

Corbin Burnes left a massive hole in the top of this rotation. Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez are both solid starters and you can take your pick as to who the “ace” of the rotation is but in a playoff series it’s likely that whatever team the Orioles draw would have 2 pitchers better than either of them and that is a big disadvantage. It feels like with all the outfielders the Orioles have signed recently that there could be a trade coming either just before the season starts or during the season. 

20. The Tampa Bay Rays 

The Rays are in an odd spot where it feels like they are heading towards a rebuild but when you look at their roster it feels like if they made a few moves they could be back at the top of the AL East. However the Rays have not had a very busy offseason. They let some washed relievers walk and traded Jeff Spring and Jose Siri for mostly unknown prospects, but maybe one day we’ll look back and one of the minor leaguers in the Jeff Spring trade will be an MVP candidate and we’ll all shake our heads and say “they did it again”. 

Signing Ha-Seong Kim was a good move and they got him on a bargain contract but even that move feels like the Rays did it more to eventually trade him or to trade Brandon Lowe and have a replacement for him. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The Rays have some good hitters in their lineup and they always do a great job putting their guys in spots to succeed so you feel like they should be able to get the most out of guys like Christopher Morel but they are weighed down by just some dreadful hitters at the bottom of the lineup. Taylor Walls is going to continue to play a big role until Kim returns from injury so that’s 3 or 4 outs a game accounted for. Jonny DeLuca just turned in a dreadful offensive season (a Dodger’s prospect that they used to get an awesome player turned out to not be as good as people thought!?!?!?!) and when you look at the bench where the Rays have always been strong it looks really thin. 

21. The Houston Astros

The lowlight of the Astros offseason was trading Kyle Tucker when they didn’t have to. They had talked about how they wanted him to be an Astro and he had talked about wanting to be Astro and then suddenly he wasn’t an Astro anymore. They won’t come out and say it but it feels like seeing Juan Soto sign an 800 million dollar deal scared the Astros owners because Kyle Tucker was up next to get paid like that. 

They did alright in the deal getting Paredes (have you heard that his swing is perfect for the Crawford boxes?) Wesneski and Cam Smith who isn’t on our graphic but is now the Astros number 1 prospect but that’s hardly a deal that makes you say “we had no choice but to trade Kyle Tucker for that”. 

Losing Kyle Tucker is bad enough on its own but it is also accompanied by Alex Bregman leaving in free agency. I don’t know if there was a team in the league that lost 2 players as important as Tucker and Bregman have been to the Astros so it’s been just brutal for Astros fans and the team is worse for it. 

It was also disappointing to see Kikuchi high tail it out of Houston so quickly this offseason. He unlocked something when he arrived in Houston and pitched really well for them. I would have thought both parties would have been interested in staying together but they must have let him know they weren’t even kind of interested in matching the Angels offer because he got out of there in a hurry. 

For a long time the Astros were seen as one of the smartest organizations in Baseball but over the years they’ve suffered a lot of brain drain with their executives either getting poached by other orgs or just firing them for no good reason and it is clear based on their last few offseasons that Jim Crane is overly involved and the results have shown as they enter a self inflicted decline. 

I should say that getting Christian Walker was a really good move and it will be nice for the Astros to get some pop from first base after that has been a noodle bat position for many years for them. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

If you told the Astros that as a delayed punishment for their sign stealing scandal they had to release all of the outfielders on their roster I don’t think they would even care, that’s how unremarkable that entire position group is. 

22. The Atlanta Braves

This has not been a good offseason for the Braves. They have mostly bled talent while their division rivals have stocked up for another intense three way war for the NL East. However that’s kind of the cost of doing business the way the Braves have done it the last few years.

Most fans are envious of how the Braves have managed to sign so many of their young stars to long term deals. When I look at their payroll I see 12 extremely team friendly deals and that’s a lot. I would kill for my favorite team to sign/extend even 6 players to long term deals. 

The flip side though is that when someone like Max Fried or Freddie Freeman or Dansby Swanson doesn’t get with the program and wants to get to free agency and get as much money as possible the Braves let those guys go every time. As much as it sucks to let a talent like Max Fried leave it is hard to argue with the process. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

Ronald Acuna is optimistic that he’ll be ready for the start of the season and if that is true then there isn’t much to worry about with this lineup. Should there be any delays or set back for Acuna the Braves will be crossing their fingers that either Jarred Kelenic or Bryan De La Cruz can get on an early season heater to hold down the fort. 

Chris Sale leads this rotation and everyone saw last year just how good he can be when he’s healthy but the question for the last half decade has been “will he be healthy?” Last year he made it through almost an entire season and it was good enough for a Cy Young. 

Lopez and Swellenbach both pitched well last year but don’t feel like locks to repeat that performance but the Braves do have 2 highly regarded pitching prospects who debuted last year so even if Lopez, Holmes or Swellenbach falter they should be able fill some of those innings until Spencer Strider returns midway through the season. 

The Braves are going to miss AJ Minter and as good as Raisel Iglesias has been he will be 35 this season so it is something to watch if he starts slipping. 

23. The Los Angeles Angels

The Angels are in an awkward space where they have a team designed to win now but they will almost certainly finish a distant 4th or worse in their division. Despite sincere efforts to build a winner around two of the best players in baseball history they have managed to be squarely in the bottom half of the league every year for the past decade, not good enough to make the playoffs and not bad enough to get a good draft pick. Here is where the Angels have drafted going back to the last time they made the playoffs:

2024: 8

2023: 11

2022: 13

2021: 9

2020: 10

2019: 15

2018: 17

2017: 10

2016: 16

It is definitely possible to get really good players with the 10th pick but the Angels clearly aren’t very good at finding them. If they were drafting 1st or 5th they might have a better chance of getting some difference making talent but because of their determination to reach the exact middle of the pack they have successfully avoided those kinds of players. 

What the Angels need to do is accept that they are not close to competing for the AL West and embrace the tank. They have a decent draft pick in the 2025 draft because they were so bad on accident last year, they have players like Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo that teams would trade prospects for and they have decent young players that if you start rebuilding now could be really good veterans by the time the guys you get from the teardown make it to the big leagues. 

Instead the Angels are determined to get back to drafting 13th and have done everything in their power to get back to middle this offseason. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

The offense is probably the least of the Angels worry, they are on year 4 of trying to make Jo Adell a thing and Yoan Moncada and Mike Trout both represent serious injury risk but if they go down at least the Angels can rely on Anthony Rendon and Mickey Moniak to step in and carry the offense, right? Right??

As has been the case for pretty much the entirety of Mike Trout’s career in Anaheim the rotation is going to be a problem, Yusei Kikuchi is over tasked as the ace of the staff and putting Kyle Hendricks in the rotation in 2025 is basically waiving the white flag every 5 games. 

If Ben Joyce can stay healthy it will be fun to watch him try to throw 105 MPH but besides him there’s not much you can bank on with this bullpen, optimistically this bullpen could be bad enough to help them get to a decent draft pick this year. 

24. The Colorado Rockies

25. The Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers have a system and that system is why they’ve made the playoffs 6 out of the last 7 years and part of that system is that when they have to choose between signing one of the best players on their team to a market level contract and saving money they hit the save money button every time. 

Most team’s would kill to have the success that the Brewer’s have had so it is hard to argue that their system is a bad system but when you look at an offseason where you lose your franchise shortstop for nothing and you trade away probably the second best closer in baseball last year and your big addition is Nestor Cortes it feels like they are doing a bad job. 

With how good the Brewers have been while operating on such a scant budget it feels like if they ever took the plunge and spent some money they could actually compete with the big boys in the National League but they clearly feel comfortable just making the playoffs and hoping that they luck into a World Series. 

All these teams that cry poor and act they have no choice but to be as cheap as possible are lying, they are profiting millions of dollars every year and it’s not even necessary to profit every single year when the value of these franchises rises so steadily. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

Chourio, Yelich and Contreras is a great start to a lineup but after those three the Brewers are dealing with a lot of hoping and wishing. It’s been three years since Rhys Hoskins was good, Turang and Frelick were miserable at the plate last year and there is a gaping hole in the lineup where Willy Adames used to be. If any of their top three hitters get hurt (have any of them had serious back surgery recently?) this could be one of the worst offenses in the National League. 

The Brewers deserve some benefit of the doubt with their rotation as they have proven able to get really good pitching from unlikely sources but on paper this is a weak rotation. Brandon Woodruff still won’t be back when the season starts so they lack both top end talent and depth. I would love to be wrong and see DL Hall become a great starter next year.

The Brewers must feel good about their bullpen since they were willing to move on from Devin Williams but I’ll be interested to see if there is any sort of dropoff now that they can’t rely on the Airbender to close games. 

26. The Miami Marlins

A tear down is not a fun process for fans and it is hard to call an offseason where you get rid of good players and bring in zero real MLB talent anything but bad but the Marlins are doing what needs to be done.

The Marlins are in the beginning stages of joining the Rays big brain team building club. I know I have mentioned before that I am not always a huge fan of this style of team building as it allows ownership groups to get away with crying poor but for some teams like the Marlins the big brain style would be a marked improvement. 

With Jesus Luzardo and Jake Burger now traded there are only a few players from the Marlins 2023 Wild Card team left so it will be interesting to see what the Marlins choose to do with their remaining valuable trade piece in Sandy Alcantara. 

As I said earlier with the White Sox section the Marlins could be doing this better, they could be taking on bad contracts in exchange for prospects but they clearly are only interested in being creative with their team building as long as it saves them money. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

IDK all of it I guess.

27. The St. Louis Cardinals 

The Cardinals have been sliding towards the middle of the pack over the last few seasons and this offseason they appear to be committing to a rebuild which is something the Cardinals have not done in my lifetime. 

For the Cardinals and their fans this is uncharted waters so I’m sure it’s a little scary to see them have an offseason where they do nothing but bleed talent but they brought on Chaim Bloom who’s main contribution in his 5 years in Boston was taking their barren farm system and turning it into a talent pipeline that is the envy of the whole league. 

One of the mistake Bloom made in Boston is that he allowed the team to be boring and sad while he was building the team and if he had just made some moves to allow the team to be a little more exciting then he might still have a job and from the looks of it Cardinals are moving down that same path the Red Sox did where there is not much to be excited about with this roster especially if they follow through on the rumors and trade Nolan Arenado.

Remaining Roster Flaws

There is no gaping hole or dramatic drop off in the Cardinals lineup but they lack any star power that would stress out opposing pitchers. 

The rotation is the real problem with the team where Sonny Gray and Eric Fedde make up a decent 1-2 punch assuming that Fedde can repeat his 2024 season but after that there’s just a group of guys that you’d be shocked to see get through 5 innings without giving up more than 3 runs. 

28. The San Diego Padres

The Padres have been dealing with a lot this offseason, their owners are suing each other, their payroll is packed with long term high AAV contracts and they lost the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes to their most hated rival. 

In general I support the Padres approach to team building that they’ve used the last few years, they have invested heavily in the team and been aggressive in both free agency and trades and as a result they have one of the best teams in the league and one of the most popular teams in the league. The Dodgers will tell any podcaster with a mic that the Padres were the best team they faced last year. 

But similar to with the Atlanta Braves when you lock in all your best players into long term contracts there will be offseasons where you mostly lose players and that is the reality that the Padres are facing this year. 

Profar and Scott were huge parts of what made the Padres one of the best teams last year and they both went to teams that the Padres will likely have to face if they want to win the World Series. Ha-Seong Kim’s defense has been super important to the Padres over the last several seasons and he’s gone now, these are pieces that will impact the Padres ability to compete over the course of the regular season and in the playoffs and the guys they’ve brought in so far this offseason will not come close to replacing them. 

Remaining Roster Flaws 

The Padres need corner outfield and DH help. Those positions are strange positions to be bad at because not getting offense from your DH puts you at a pretty big disadvantage but you would suppose that DH would be one of the easier positions to fill on a budget. Shortstop is an interesting conundrum because Xander hasn’t looked great at short in a while and he’s currently slated to be the everyday shortstop which is a lot to ask a 32 year old who has been battling injuries. The path to fixing DH could be signing a defense first shortstop and then moving Xander to DH or moving Xander second and Cronenworth to DH or something like that.

Right now the Padres rotation is strong but if they trade Dylan Cease or Michael King for a bat then they’ll quickly find themselves in a tough spot on the mound. Whatever starters they do have just need to get through the 5th inning so the Padres can hand it off to their elite bullpen. 

29. The Seattle Mariners

After the season the Mariners had it felt like they would have no choice but to face the fact that their offense was making it impossible to contend and that they had to make a change. Every single team that needs pitching is making mock trades to get one of the Mariners guys and while I don’t expect Jerry Dipoto to be surfing Twitter looking for trades ideas it has to occur to him that his team’s offense is a problem and he has the means to fix it by trading one of his elite starters. 

The Red Sox reportedly offered Triston Casas and Masataka Yoshida for Luis Castillo and the Mariners declined, that would have been a power hitting first baseman (a position that the Mariners don’t have anyone to play at the moment) under contract until 2029 and DH who would be a significant upgrade over who the Mariners have been running out at DH in exchange for your 4th or 5th best starter who is on the wrong side of 30 and you just decline?? It was said that Yoshida’s money is what turned the Mariners off from the deal and yes Yoshida is overpaid but he makes 6 million less than Castillo and most of the pitchers on your roster make so much less than they deserve that you are coming out ahead talent wise and financially in this deal. With this deal your lineup gets stronger, your rotation doesn’t take too much of a hit and the team gets cheaper. Why wouldn’t you do this?

Maybe there are details about the Casas deal we can’t see but even if there was a good reason not to do that particular trade why not find another one? Or if trading one of your starters is just out of the question why not sign someone? Pete Alonso signed a 2 year contract that’s basically a one year deal. Why not offer him? Santander signed for less than people thought, why not pursue him? Instead the Mariners have brought in 37 year old Donovan Solano to platoon at first and brought back Jorge Polanco even though he’s been awful for them since being traded and then sat on their hands. 

There was a recent report that hitting in Seattle is harder than pitching Colorado and if that is true then that then that is very unfortunate for the Mariners but the answer to this problem is not to just give up on hitting like the Rockies have done with pitching you have to get hitters that are good enough that  it doesn’t matter that they are playing in a bad environment, Seattle has been home to some legendary hitters in a way Colorado has never had with pitchers, it is possible to have a good offense in Seattle but not if you don’t try. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

I already hammered this in the last section but the offense is not set up to succeed, the Mariners best hitters are either super streaky or have imbalance approaches at the plate, like yes Julio Rodriguez is great but he starts every season off with a 2 month slump before getting hot, yes Cal Raleigh is a good offensive catcher but he hits .220. Half the lineup you’re happy if they can go 3-13 in the 3 game series. It takes an impressively bad lineup to keep the pitching staff the Mariners have out of the playoffs. 

30. The Minnesota Twins 

Last season the Twins had one of the more embarrassing meltdowns I’ve ever seen. On August 17 they were 70-53 and firmly in the picture to win the division and easily make the playoffs, they then went 12-27 to finish the season and were surpassed by the Guardians, Royals and Tigers to finish 4th in the division and miss the playoffs. 

In addition to the crash landing to end the season it was announced that ownership is exploring a sale of the team. The combination of those two things appears to have forced the new front office to hold on making any serious moves.

This kind of limbo couldn’t be coming at a worse time for the Twins, a year ago they were the heavy favorites to win their division and looked like they were about to reel off a dominant stretch in the AL Central. Today they are standing idly by while the Guardians, Royals and Tigers load up to do battle for the division. 

Minnesota has talented hitters, a solid rotation and some of the best relievers in baseball there is no reason for them to be finishing 4th in the division. With just a little more investment they could be one of the best teams in the American league but instead they’ve been mostly spectators this offseason. 

Bader is a decent insurance policy for Buxton in center but he doesn’t hit so it’s a one dimensional insurance policy. Danny Coulombe has been one of my favorite relievers since he joined the Orioles so I’ll be rooting for him in Minnesota but he’s older and has been battling injuries so having him as your big pitching addition feels underwhelming for a team that should have division champion aspirations. 

Remaining Roster Flaws

If you could turn injuries off I’m not sure you’d have a problem with this roster but unfortunately that is not a thing so you when you see Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis and Matt Wallner penciled into the starting lineup for 2025 you have assume you are only getting most of those guys for half the season at best. I don’t know if it is possible to have enough depth to make up for all your best players being massive injury liabilities but the Twins certainly don’t