By: David Washburn
It’s almost Spring!
The weeks of scraping frozen chunks of snow and ice off of windshields in the morning, shoveling walkways and driveways, and overall, just trying to get through the winter is almost over. One thing that all baseball fans look forward to around the middle of February is when pitchers and catchers report.
If you’re anything like me, I am a baseball fan first. I don’t watch other sports so much and really only passively follow the headlines on social media. But, in the months between October and late February, MLB fans don’t have much to be excited about. It’s getting colder. Everyone is talking about football. The sun goes down sooner. It’s outright depressing to some. Alas February fast approaches and that means that one thing is on my mind. One thing puts a little pep in my step. One thing becomes the next thing I’m focused on and excited about. It happens every year. I’m talking about Spring Training!
What can we say about Spring Training? Whether your team travels to Arizona or Florida, I can’t help but want to take a week off of work, fly to Arizona and chase games and try to meet players. I’m 34 years old and this is one of few things that make me act like a little kid still. Personally, I have never attended Spring Training. I’ve talked about it loosely with friends but I want to really maximize my experience when I go, so I’ve really just never made the effort, but every year a little part of me wishes I had. It’s a predictable cycle for me.
With Spring Training following the offseason, it is the first time you get to see free agents on new teams, or trade acquisitions in their new uniforms. You get to see more mentions of prospects in camp. You get to read more reports of how players stayed active in the offseason. What kind of conditioning, or workout programs they might be using? I always find it interesting to read about players who improved their diet, and seeing them show up to camp in a different body. This year, Vlad Jr is the guy I am looking forward to seeing. He has reportedly lost a lot of weight. I’m waiting for this guy to explode and have a monster year in Toronto.
Let’s look a little at what teams are doing, and what they have already done this offseason.
The pandemic is still raging in the US, despite having the vaccines in circulation. We are seeing lasting turmoil of not having fans during the 60 game 2020 season. With no fans means less money. A lot of these baseball teams relied more on their TV deals to keep the lights on and pay the players. With this you’ve seen a surge of cuts. And significant cuts too! The Cubs cut Kyle Schwarber. That’s a big bat to cut! Lots of small to mid-market teams felt this economic impact and have had to deviate from their long-term plans a bit. The Cincinnati Reds; on paper, seemed poised to run the NL Central in 2020. But you cut the season by 102 games, eliminate Spring Training, and you get off to a slow start and suddenly there’s no time to show what your team really is.
Much of the excitement in following free agents is seeing which teams are going to overpay for first time free-agents. Trevor Bauer has courted several interested teams. Masahiro Tanaka signs with his for team in Japan, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, which I’m sure is a direct consequence of MLB teams’ unwillingness to pay guys at this time. It’s sad because Tanaka has been a largely successful impact player in his time here. Corey Kluber signs with the Yankees. The Padres made huge waves in the trade market by trading for Blake Snell and then Yu Darvish in less than 24 hours later.
The Pirates have made notable moves that allowed them to strengthen their farm system. They still are expected to be one of the worst teams in MLB at the main level. Toronto has signed George Springer and Marcus Semien and expect to have a core of young studs. The Blue Jays might surprise some people. I think that the Blue Jays lineup is about to lead the majors in HR and SLG %. I’m not convinced they have the pitching to hang with the Yankees and Rays but they are still looking for respectable pitching.
Francisco Lindor will be donning a Mets uniform this year after Cleveland shipped him and Carlos Carrasco off to New York. Carrasco is no slouch and he improves the Mets pitching staff immediately. Cleveland clears payroll while bulking up with some younger talent. The Twins signed Andrelton Simmons. J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius stay in Philly.
The Colorado Rockies traded superstar, Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals. This trade caught a lot of the baseball world by surprise. This was a move that is puzzling on the surface because of Colorado sending 50 million to St Louis with Arenado in exchange for 5 players. While this produced some amusing memes, it was largely a result of Arenado’s dissatisfaction with the Rockies front office. He felt they aren’t doing their best to field competitive teams and requested the trade. Let’s be honest though, can we blame him for feeling this way?
Dexter Fowler got traded to the Angels, this seems to be the only noteworthy acquisition they made this offseason. Year after year they just waste Mike Trout’s prime years. It feels similar to watching Ken Griffey Jr. never win a ring in Seattle. Except at one point Griffey had Randy Johnson and Edgar Martinez around him. Get it together Anaheim! Make moves that make the team better, like getting starting pitchers.
The biggest free agent of the offseason, Trevor Bauer makes his decision in grand fashion, over social media and announces he is signing a massive deal to play for the Dodgers. This is a major addition to an already unfair rotation.
Spring Training is just around the corner now so I am excited and the excitement only grows from this point on. How will this season be different than last season? What developments are still to come during spring? We shall see. Let’s play some baseball!