MLB Spring Training Primer
Let’s say you’re a big baseball fan and you just woke up from a 4 month hibernation and are surprised to turn on the old Twitter machine to see Bartolo Colon fielding grounders in a different shade of blue. You might also be a bit surprised by the tonal shift on the old @POTUS account as well, but you’re a baseball nut so just assume the account had been hacked…
Well, if I just described you, then you’re in luck. I’m going to sum up the offseason moves, deals, and rumors in ~500 words and then set you free to enjoy the sounds and sights of Spring Training games, and that Olympics-style international event called the World Baseball Classic. With some of the best players in baseball on display in games that matter before April, WBC offseasons are good offseasons.
The good news for our hibernation reader is that the offseason was generally boring. The game’s top free agents mostly all stayed at home. Yoenis Cespedes is still with the Mets, Jose Bautista still with the Blue Jays, Aroldis Chapman returned to the Yankees, and Rich Hill and Justin Turner both re-upped with the Dodgers. The big exception here is that Edwin Encarnacion signed to play in Cleveland (after the Blue Jays committed to Kendrys Morales), and the Indians could be a really, really tough team to beat.
The big trades were all associated with the White Sox rebuild. They swapped Chris Sale to the Red Sox for two of the game’s top prospects (Yoan Moncada and Michael Koepesh), plus. Then, they sent my boy Adam Eaton to the National’s for pre-2016’s top pitching prospect, Lucas Giolito. Oh, and the Rays added Dodgers prospect Jose De Leon for second baseman Logan Forsythe because apparently that’s a fair trade. (Note: I really don’t know if it’s fair or not. Mostly weird.)
The Braves cornered the market on over-40 starters by signing Bartolo Colon and RA Dickey, and the Phillies countered that by dealing for Clay Buchholz. The Rockies noticed that first baseman slugger salaries were cheap, so they got unnecessarily creative and gave shortstop Ian Desmond a bunch of money to play first base.
There was some bad news, too: Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic in an accident that felt like the same bad dream from Jose Fernandez‘ September death. Unfortunately, neither was a dream.
There is good news, though too. The MLB owners and players agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement that is mostly an extension of the existing rules. There were some tweaks, including a 10-day disabled list rather than the customary 15-day. The competitive balance tax (the luxury tax applied to teams with high payrolls) was strengthened a bit, but doesn’t kick in until a team’s payroll reaches above ~$200M. Free agents are still subject to the qualifying offer system, but teams are swapping second or third round draft picks, instead of first rounders.
All-in-all, baseball has been in a great stretch and this offseason didn’t rock the boat too much. I think that’s a good thing. Baseball is back!
-Sean Morash
