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Is your team one of the seven in the running to sign Shohei Ohtani? Or one of the two trying to sort out a trade for Giancarlo Stanton? That's great! I'm very happy for you. The rest of us are sitting here waiting for the offseason to actually begin, but it won't, not really, until Ohtani signs and Stanton agrees to a trade.
Justin Upton signed an extension rather than opt out, and then smaller free agents like Doug Fister and Welington Castillo signed on with new teams. Other than that, this offseason has been pretty quiet, mostly buoyed by Ohtani and Stanton rumors.
It makes sense, too. Ohtani is a two-way player who can fill mutliple needs for whichever team he ends up on, and will do so at an extreme discount compared to anyone else signed this winter. Stanton is Stanton, MLB's preeminent dinger monster, a lineup-changing force whose only equal offensively this winter is J.D. Martinez, who will also be expensive, is older, and comes without the ability to play defense. Nothing else of note is going to fall into place until Stanton and Ohtani do.
The good news is that Stanton is reportedly deciding between ending up on the Giants or ending up on the Cardinals, which presumably won't take him additional weeks to figure out. And Ohtani is moving along in his process, as he's already met with two of the seven teams his list narrowed to, and has to sign somewhere by Dec. 22 at the latest, anyway.
If Ohtani agrees to a deal and Stanton is traded this week, that leaves the offseason with something of a late "start," but at least the timing is still a bit right as the winter meetings kick off on Sunday. If neither of Ohtani or Stanton has made a decision by the meetings, though, then ... ugh I don't even want to think about that let's just assume they will and the meetings will be busy and fun, yeah.
- We don't know what will drive Ohtani to sign with a specific team, but we can guess, and rank each of the scenarios we come up with accordingly!
- The Eagles will practice at Angel Stadium to prepare for their game against the Rams this weekend, which should make Mike Trout happy.
- Here's how the Cubs should go about recruiting Ohtani, according to Bleed Cubbie Blue.
- Speaking of the Angels, this is Halos Heaven's argument that Ohtain should join them over any other team.
- Ohtani would alter the Mariners' franchise in the short and long term.
- Stanton hasn't said yes to the Cardinals yet, but he also hasn't said no. Why not?
- Fish Stripes argues that stripping down the Marlins' payroll will end up being the best decision for the future of the team.
- I'd argue that an ownership that could spend over a billion dollars on a notoriously garbage franchsie featuring a popular major star and other young, productive talent could find other ways of being successful, but whatever, tanking works, too, and is apparently inescapable.
- What shoud the Yankees do now that they're out of the Ohtani chase?
- Todd Frazier would make a lot of sense for the Mets at third, especially since David Wright is not someone they can rely on any longer.
- It's been 10 years since the Tigers traded for Miguel Cabrera, and Bless You Boys reflected on that megadeal.