This was a good offseason to be a young ace as Felix Hernandez, Josh Johnson, Tim Lincecum and Justin Verlander all received multi-year contracts. It was a bad offseason to be an older, defensively deficient player such as Jermaine Dye, Vladamir Guerrero, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Jim Thome.
It was great to be a Halladay or a Holliday, and the holiday spirit must have moved the A’s, Rangers and Cardinals to give good money to the wing-and-prayer trio of Ben Sheets, Rich Harden and Brad Penny, respectively.
The Mets signed the third-biggest free-agent contract of the offseason (Jason Bay) and were criticized for spending too little. The Yankees, who were ripped last offseason for spending too much, were ripped this offseason for trying to live within — of all things — a $200 million payroll.
Money, as usual, dominated the offseason conversation. But now, for the most part, wallets are put away, replaced by bats and balls. But before we do pitchers and catchers, let’s do winners and losers from an intriguing offseason:
Winners
1. ROY HALLADAY
Better late than never, he got all he wanted. He was traded to a contender (Philadelphia) that trains near his Oldsmar, Fla. home, and received an extension that might not have netted him the last dollar (three years, $60 million), but showed how sincere he was in wanting to be with a contender who trains near his home.
2. TWINS
Have they graduated from a good team that can’t beat the Yankees to a legitimate title contender as Target Field opens? Francisco Liriano received raves for his work in the Dominican Winter League, so the Twins might have rediscovered an ace internally. And externally they upgraded their roster and took their payroll near $100 million.
The new double-play combo is J.J. Hardy and Orlando Hudson. With Hudson and Thome added to Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel and Denard Span, Minnesota might have more lefty production than even the Yankees.
3. MARINERS
Jack Zduriencik stuck to a pitching/defense philosophy. The best move any team made was Seattle translating three good, but not elite prospects into Cliff Lee to team with Hernandez atop the rotation. Hernandez was signed to a fair, long-term contract. Jack Wilson was retained, Chone Figgins and Eric Byrnes were bought, and Casey Kotchman was acquired in a trade — and all are above-average defenders. You don’t usually applaud the acquisition of volatile Milton Bradley, but he was worth the gamble to excise the ineffective Carlos Silva.
But don’t hand the AL West to them just yet. Big questions remain about pitching depth and RBI production after an Ichiro Suzuki/Figgins top of the order. The organization brought Ken Griffey Jr. back for a second goodbye tour and should have flushed sentiment in exchange for someone such as Thome or Damon.
4. OWNERS
For the second straight year, only elite players in their prime (Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, Matt Holliday) received enormous contracts. This was a tepid free-agent class and the Yankees were reticent, and so there has been at least $300 million fewer dollars invested this offseason on free agency than last year. Cries of collusion are heard. But management has gotten shrewder about not investing heavily in older players (especially with sterner drug enforcement), in better gauging the real value of players rather than overpaying the Silvas of the world, and in not being afraid to give young, inexpensive players opportunities.
5. BLUE JAYS
It is fair to ask how a team that traded the best pitcher in its history (Halladay) is here. It is fair to ask how a team that almost certainly will finish last this year is here. Well, I am a sucker for a plan and as opposed to, say, the Royals, the Blue Jays under new GM Alex Anthopoulos have embarked on an ambitious plan. They assembled the largest scouting staff in the majors this offseason with the idea that they are not going to outbid the Yankees and Red Sox at the top of the market, and instead have to do better at the draft, international signings and scouring rivals’ farm systems to make good acquisitions. Will it work? It’s very difficult to outdo the Yankees and Red Sox, but it is more possible with a good plan.
6. ORIOLES
Baltimore is a few years ahead of Toronto in following a heady, rebuilding blueprint. The Orioles’ young talent is blossoming, and if they were in another division, they might be ready to contend. Instead, in trying to win more and protect that young talent, Baltimore added Kevin Millwood, Mike Gonzalez, Miguel Tejada (to play third) and Garrett Atkins (to play first). None of those veterans is a world-beater, and I am particularly not a fan of Atkins. But there are no outrageous commitments here (only Gonzalez, at two years, received more than a one-year deal).
7. RED SOX
Got John Lackey for the same deal (five years, $82.5 million) that the Yankees used on A.J. Burnett. Just Lackey is someone you wouldn’t mind starting in a Game 1, and Boston already had two from that department in Josh Beckett and Jon Lester. After struggling in the field last year, Boston upgraded on defense with Marco Scutaro, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron in center, which moves Jacoby Ellsbury to left. Beltre and Cameron, righty pull hitters, also should benefit from the Green Monster, but are the types of hitters that morph into outs in the postseason. Therefore, too much of the offense still revolves around J.D. Drew staying healthy and David Ortiz bouncing back.
8. YANKEES
Made good trades for Curtis Granderson and Javier Vazquez, and a reasonable sign of Nick Johnson. It all made sense under the guidelines of keeping payroll at about $200 million and trying to get younger wherever possible. But Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui were wonderful clutch players, and it is going to be hard to replace that.
9. ROCKIES
Addressed depth with Melvin Mora, Tim Redding and Miguel Olivo, and by retaining Rafael Betancourt and Jason Giambi, who believe it or not was an important team leader after his acquisition for the stretch last year. So why are they on this list? Because they have a talented, young roster that fueled a playoff run last year, and the Rockies did not have to remove anyone for financial reasons and are getting positive reports on injury rehabs from Jeff Francis and Taylor Buchholz.
10. DIAMONDBACKS
Obtained Edwin Jackson and have received positive medical news on Brandon Webb. They could join ace Dan Haren to form a strong rotation top-3. Plus, call me crazy, but I think Ian Kennedy will be this year’s Ross Ohlendorf, a guy who had to leave the Yankees and the AL East and head to the NL to be effective. The price for Jackson and Kennedy, however, was Max Scherzer, and he has the talent to make Arizona regret giving up on him. Getting Adam LaRoche on a one-year deal is a winner.
Losers
1. DODGERS
The divorce of the McCourts is to Dodgers ownership what the Madoff scam is to the Mets: a seemingly obvious throttle on finances that those in charge nevertheless insist is having no bearing. Why would they not offer arbitration to Orlando Hudson, Jon Garland and Randy Wolf? Why would they not add a better starter than Vicente Padilla and/or at least another starter of some quality?
2. ROYALS
Kansas City apparently wants to accumulate more bad multi-year deals than any team in the sport. The rest of the sport is running away from multi-year deals for fading older players, and the Royals gave two years to 35-year-old offensive sinkhole Jason Kendall. In the Royals’ bad multi-year deal department, Kendall joins Yunieski Betancourt, Kyle Farnsworth, Juan Cruz, Willie Bloomquist and Jose Guillen. Put it all together and we will soon be talking about the trade market for Zack Greinke.
3. METS
Talk pitching, defense and athleticism and do nothing to address those areas. Overpaid to retain nice-guy, but tool-challenged Alex Cora and then invested big time in Jason Bay. But after the Bay signing, the wallets snapped shut when they already had acknowledged they had plenty of other deficiencies to address. The Mets promised to clean up their medical mess and yet found themselves in a dispute with Carlos Beltran over his surgery.
4. ASTROS
The best news would have been if Drayton McLane finally had sold the team. Instead, Houston — despite multiple needs — used the little money it had to give a three-year contract to a pseudo-closer in Brandon Lyon.
5. A’S
Oakland’s aggressive bidding was shunned by Adrian Beltre, Jamey Carroll, Marco Scutaro and Aroldis Chapman. The A’s then gave Sheets $10 million. He is talented, but also injury-prone, so that plan to trade him in July if the A’s are out of the race is flimsy.
6. INDIANS
You almost can forget they exist. They traded Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez during last season, but simply pocketed the money. The economic downturn has hit Cleveland hard and the Indians have decided to mainly go young. It feels like success for the Indians’ season would be having Kerry Wood, Jake Westbrook and Fausto Carmona pitch well enough before the trade deadline that some more salary can be shed.
7. CARDINALS
They seemed to bid against themselves for Matt Holliday, and added just the enigmatic Penny to a rotation lacking in depth. And Mark McGwire came out of seclusion to be the hitting coach, brandishing tears and a fairy tale about steroids not helping him hit homers.
8. GIANTS
They needed a big run producer or two, and continued to go piecemeal by retaining Bengie Molina and Freddy Sanchez (an overpay in this second base market) and adding Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff.
9. PHILLIES
Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball, and away from the Yankees and Red Sox and in the NL, a sub-2.00 ERA is possible. And I expect the Phillies will win the East again. But they have a window for greatness now and should have cut elsewhere to keep Lee. Plus, I question if Placido Polanco can play third, whether Danys Baez provides real insurance if Brad Lidge is a dud again and whether Jose Contreras (ticketed for the bullpen) can provide rotation depth if needed.
Also, the Phillies have tied up a lot of players beyond this season, and have nearly the same 2011 payroll commitment ($138 million) that the Yankees do ($144.6 million, but sure to change with re-signings of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and more). With that kind of outlay already, it is going to be tough to keep the uber-valuable Jayson Werth. Plus, players such as Raul Ibanez, Polanco, Ryan Madson, Baez, Brian Schneider and Ross Gload are tied up next year already, and the Phillies might just regret that.
10. SECOND CITY
The White Sox could have the best top-to-bottom rotation in the AL, but the offense needed to add more punch than Juan Pierre, Mark Teahen and Andruw Jones.
The Cubs, meanwhile, made their offense even more righty dominant and their outfield defense just as suspect by adding Marlon Byrd for center and Xavier Nady (who might not be ready until May at the earliest). Two years at $7.5 million was too much to commit to John Grabow. How bad do you want to get rid of Bradley when you are willing to take a pitcher (Silva) who was 5-18 with a 6.81 ERA over the past two seasons?