With spring training underway, it's time to look back at the offseason and see which teams improved the most and which ones are in worse shape than they were before rollover.
Here are the top five best and worst offseasons:
Worst5.
Albuquerque IsotopesThe 'Topes offseason came down to losing two pitchers to free agency and signing two different arms. Gone are
Juan Gonzales (4.00 career ERA, but a 5.04 mark in season 5) and
Jay Looper (4.42 career ERA, but a 4.86 mark in season 5). Both of them also had to deal with pitching in Albuquerque's terrible park for pitchers.
In their place, Albuquerque brought in
Brian Hunt (4.54 career ERA, 4.28 in season 5) and
Lenny Smith (4.19 career ERA, 4.66 in season 5) for at least $20.3 million over the next two seasons.
Hunt and Smith are fine pitchers, but once they start working in Isotopes Park, it's unlikely they'll be any better than Looper and Gonzales were, and they could be a good bit worse. And as part of the exchange of pitchers, Albuquerque gave up the No. 20 pick in this year's draft (for Hunt) and added the No. 42 selection (for Looper), a switch that means they may not add any impact prospects to their system this season.
4.
Boise MashersPart of this ranking isn't really Boise's fault. The Mashers lost
Sherman Yount and
Steven Miller to free agency, and it wouldn't have made sense to sign either one since they're both old and declining. However, they did combine to give Boise a 3.67 ERA in 235 innings, and that kind of performance is difficult to replace.
The Mashers made a savvy signing by picking up
Willie Tavarez on the cheap, but he's likely to have trouble matching his 4.12 career ERA or 4.04 season 5 ERA since he's moving from spending most of his career in Oklahoma City's pitcher's park to playing for Boise in a slight hitter's environment. Boise also re-signed
Pascual Ozuna once it became apparent nobody else was going to sign the Type A free agent, but it's unclear how much he'll help at age 37 after posting a 4.73 ERA in season 5.
Aside from the changes to the pitching staff, the Mashers went out and signed two free agent position players:
Esteban Manzanillo and
Zach Trammell for at least $26 million over the next two seasons and possibly as much as $36 million over the next three.
Trammell, especially, seems like a waste of money. He doesn't hit well (.337 OBP and .389 SLG for his career, .335/.397 in season 5), and he's not a defensive whiz at second base to make up for it. Manzanillo (.334/.416 for his career, .348/.468 in season 5) can at least hit a little, but his defense at shortstop is similar to Trammell's at second. Both have fine gloves, but the range is lacking, which means more balls than you'd like will get through to the outfield.
Boise finished 15 games behind Anaheim in season 5, and I fail to see how either Trammell or Manzanillo will help make up that difference, especially considering the hit the pitching took in free agency. The Mashers probably would have been better served saving the money they spent on the two middle infielders and using it on prospects.
3.
Chicago JayhawksAs usual, the Jayhawks have been very active this offseason, but it was one move in particular that doomed them to this position, and there wasn't anything they could have done about it after rollover.
The biggest problem for the Jayhawks is that
Andres Silva decided to test free agency after they didn't extend him before season 5 ended. When he left, the Jayhawks lost a pitcher with a career 3.53 ERA who went 17-7 with a 3.11 ERA in 211 innings in season 5. Losing that kind of production is bad enough, but when Silva went and signed with the rival New York Yankees, it turned into a double whammy.
To replace Silva, Chicago signed
Mo Greer, who has a 4.56 career ERA and posted a 5.05 mark in season 5.
The other free agent loss for Chicago was
Rob Matthews, who posted a .376 OBP and .443 SLG in season 5. The Jayhawks did address their offense, signing
Julius Thomas, re-signing
Fred Risley and trading for
Peter Embree, all three of whom are getting old and struggled on offense in season 5. In fact, all three had an OPS in the .700 range.
Chicago also did some work on its bullpen, re-signing
Erubiel Sanchez and trading for
Jorel Shaw,
Omar Rincon,
Francisco Ordaz and
Jose Morales, all of whom have at least been solid.
But none of the maneuvering makes up for the fact that Chicago lost one of the NL's best pitcher. And while the Jayhawks added three draft picks as compensation for Silva and Matthews, they still don't pick until 32nd overall and are unlikely to add much, if any, star talent to their farm system.
2.
Santa Cruz AmigosThe Amigos had a strange offseason. Burdened with some bad contracts from the previous owner, Santa Cruz got rid of seven players by non-tendering them or declining their options. Five of the seven played a significant role on the season 5 team, with the best being RF
Vin Hernandez (.795 OPS) and Gold Glove CF
Jaime Sinclair (.728 OPS). The cuts saved the Amigos as much as $30 million for season 6, but how they went about replacing those players didn't make much sense.
Santa Cruz went out and signed eight free agents while re-signing two of their own players. The list: C/DH
Marv Black, 1B
Al Greenwood, 1B
Eduardo Pinzon, RF
Ted Simms and pitchers
Sherman Yount,
Kareem Kipling,
Ricardo Barcelo,
John Parker,
Christopher Hines and
Manny Ellenwood.
Black can't catch, his .802 career OPS wouldn't be great at DH and he's so inconsistent that he's posted an OPS below .700 in two seasons. Greenwood has nice minor league numbers, but he's never played a game in the majors and the Amigos gave him a four-year deal (3.3 million per) anyway. Pinzon is a mediocre bat for 1B, but he didn't cost very much to re-sign. Simms has power, but he also has a career .310 OBP and will be a drain on the offense, especially in that park.
Of the pitchers, only Yount had an ERA below 4.30 in season 5, but his career mark is 4.95. Parker was a solid pitcher for the Amigos, but Kipling, Ellenwood and Hines are mediocre at best (although they didn't cost much) and Barcelo has been terrible (and he got $23 million over five seasons).
The Amigos also lost 3B
Dale Sedlacek in free agency, and none of the hitters they signed appear capable of matching the .882 OPS he posted in season 5.
In all, the Amigos don't appear to have done anything to help the team on either offense or defense, and they signed some very curious long-term contracts with Greenwood and Barcelo.
1.
Richmond RoustaboutsRichmond's offseason pretty much only consisted of trading away SS
Pat Badilla and 1B
Lee Roundtree. There's nothing wrong with that, since Richmond's not ready to contend and Badilla and Roundtree were both going to cost enough in season 7 that the Roustabouts wouldn't have wanted them on the roster if they still weren't ready to contend.
The problem is what the Roustabouts got in return once they decided it was time to unload two of their most tradeable commodities. Badilla fetched SP
Sammy Cedeno, C
Bob Crespo and IF
Rob Tracy while Roundtree brought back IF
Kevin Bryant and SP
Al Trajano.
None of those five players is a sure thing to be a quality major leaguer, and Bryant and Tracy are backups at best in the big leagues. Trajano and Cedeno have similar potential (Trajano has slightly better control; Cedeno throws harder), but neither will be more than a back of the rotation starter, if that. Crespo is probably the best of the bunch, as he projects to play good defense and he may be able to hold his own with the bat in the big leagues.
If you're trading away two quality players who could help several contending teams, you need to get more than a catcher with the potential to be slightly above average, two potential fourth or fifth starters and two utility infielders.
Best5.
Philadelphia PhenomenautsAfter four seasons as the doormat of the AL East, the Phenomenauts climbed to third place in season 5, and now they appear to want even more than that.
Philadelphia's best move of the offseason was trading for
Lee Roundtree. In that deal, discussed above, Philly picked up a first baseman with a career .949 OPS without giving up anybody who was crucial to the franchise longterm.
Philadelphia also unloaded half of
Sparky Weaver's contract while picking up DH
Julio Mendoza, who should at least be great as the right-handed part of a platoon in a season or two.
The Phenomenauts also decided to pick up a couple big free agents, signing LF/2B
Terry O'Connor and SP
Otis Upshaw. O'Connor should improve greatly upon last year's .745 OPS now that he's out of the worst hitter's park in the league, and Upshaw has a solid 4.40 career ERA and will be a definite upgrade in the rotation for Philadelphia.
The Phenomenauts still probably can't make the playoffs this season, but they should definitely set a franchise record in wins, and a winning season isn't out of the question if everything breaks right. And with some more development from the team's younger players, all four of the players Philadelphia picked up this offseason should help the team make its first real playoff push in season 7 or 8.
4.
Kansas City MonarchsThe Monarchs went on a bit of a spending spree, and their timing was pretty good. With the No. 16 pick in this season's draft, they could sign Type A free agents without giving up a first-round pick, so they went out and got two.
Aside from signing OF
Rob Matthews and SP
Dale Rooney, the Monarchs also nabbed pitchers
Denny Moore,
Steven Miller and
Ben Cox and re-signed
Damion Rekar, all of whom will cost as much as $70 million over the next three seasons.
Those five new players replace departing free agents
Julius Thomas,
Brendan Henry and
Mo Greer. In addition to bringing in a better group of players than they let go, the Monarchs essentially traded the 62nd and 94th picks in the draft for the 40th pick because Greer was a Type B free agent.
Greer and Henry combined for a 5.03 ERA in 299 innings for Kansas City last season. Rooney and Cox both struggled to ERAs above 5.00 last season, but Rooney still has a 3.98 career ERA and Cox is at 4.38. Together, they should be able to perform significantly better than Greer and Henry did.
And Moore has a 4.29 career ERA and was at 4.15 in season 5. Miller had a 3.74 ERA in season 5, but he's probably not really that good. Still, both pitchers should be useful for the Monarchs. And Matthews (with a .369 career OBP and .446 career SLG) is a better offensive player who's also more versatile on defense than Thomas (who had a .330 OBP and .445 SLG in season 5).
The Monarchs spent a lot of money, but it should definitely make them better. The question is whether it improves them enough for the first playoff spot in franchise history. If it was more clear that the answer is yes, they'd be higher on this list.
3.
Minnesota FatboysMinnesota didn't do much this offseason, because the self-sustaining juggernaut generally only needs tweaking. The biggest changes are that SP
Dale Rooney is gone and SS
Pat Badilla has arrived.
The Fatboys had no interest in giving Rooney $10-plus million for multiple seasons, so getting two draft picks (No. 35 and 62) for him is good for the franchise. Obviously they'd have preferred for one of those picks to be a first-rounder, but they're still better off with the picks than with a pitcher they didn't really need.
Badilla isn't great and he'll be pretty expensive starting next season, but he has the ability to hit significantly better than
Gerald Kim, who started 105 games at SS for Minnesota last season. And the Fatboys didn't give up anybody who figured to ever have a significant impact on their major league team to get him.
Other than that, the Fatboys traded a couple other spare parts for mediocre SP prospect
Cooper Plant and they were active in Rule 5, drafting utility infielder
Marty Pose and potentially useful RP
Hideo Yamamoto and trading for utility infielder
Phillip Trachsel. None of those players figure to see a ton of action, but they provide good depth in case of injury.
2.
Nashville TwangNashville's offseason was a case of addition by subtraction. The Twang lost free agents
Brian Hunt and
Esteban Manzanillo and while they're both solid players, their subtraction from the team added three draft picks: Nos. 20, 33 and 38. Because of that, the Twang now have five picks in the top 56 to add to a farm system that is already among the best in the league.
Aside from adding some draft picks, the Twang picked up potentially solid RP
Jerry Farrell in the Rule 5 draft, signed RP
Enrique Posada and re-signed pitchers
Pascual Vazquez and
Jose Cruz. Those pitchers will cost a combined $20 million over the next two seasons and all three have the potential to be league average or slightly better.
Nashville has a wave of talented prospects at AAA ready to hit the big leagues this season and/or next season. Those players combined with this year's draft class could set the Twang up to be a major player in the NL South for many seasons to come.
1.
New York YankeesThis offseason may end up hurting the Yankees in season 8 or 9, but the fact is that no team did more this offseason to help itself win the World Series in season 6 than the Yankees. The big signing, of course, was
Andres Silva.
The Yankees gave the 37-year-old a guaranteed $50 million over the next four seasons, but he should be worth it for at least a season or two. Silva has a 3.53 career ERA, and his 3.11 ERA in season 5 was his best yet. He'll also be moving from a hitter's park to a pitcher's park, and he's replacing a starter who had a 4.69 ERA in season 5.
Upgrading from
Otis Upshaw to Silva is probably worth 2-4 wins by itself in the regular season, but that's not really what the Yankees care about. New York has made the playoffs four seasons in a row but has only won one series and has a 7-13 record in the postseason. With Silva around to join
Jay Cosby and
Haywood Towers in the playoff rotation, the Yankees should be able to trot out an ace-caliber starting pitcher for every postseason game, which will make them a much tougher out.
The Yankees lost four free agents, including Upshaw, but they didn't have any interest in keeping any of them and they picked up the No. 43 pick in this season's draft because one of them was a Type B.
In addition to signing Silva, the Yankees also picked up swing man
Juan Gonzales and backup CF
Chris Hill. Gonzales has a 4.00 career ERA and although he posted a 5.04 mark in season 5, moving from the AL and the best hitter's park to the NL and a pitcher's park should help. Hill's a good defender (although he'd be better had he not gotten Telemaco'd in season 4) and he's hit well enough at times that he could pressure incumbent CF
Daniel Jefferson for the starting job.
The Yankees also traded OF prospect
Christian Reid (a tweener who appears to be borderline defensively in center field and borderline offensively in the corners) and RP
Ron Hafner (a mediocre talent) for RP
Paul Pearson and $6 million to cover Pearson's salary and a little extra. Pearson's upside is nice, but he's had some terrible seasons in the past and he struggles to stay healthy. Still, the worst case scenario for the Yankees is that he's either hurt for the playoffs or he pitches badly enough in the regular season that they decide not to use him much in the playoffs.
All in all, the Yankees may have added as many as 5-6 wins in the regular season and they made themselves a great deal more difficult to beat in a playoff series. If the Yankees get to the NLCS or, even better, the World Series for the first time in the next two seasons, it will be worth whatever price they end up paying for Silva's big contract down the road.
