Trades and Trade Rumors Around Baseball

Every year, players are traded or signing from free agencies amongst all 30 teams. They’re traded to upgrade or cover up weak spots on the roster to make for the best possible team to win the world series. This past winter meetings, held in San Diego, California, was one of the busiest times of transactions in a long time. Although the first half was put to a hold because then-free agent Jon Lester (16-11, 2.46 ERA) was awaiting his decision whether to sign with Chicago or Boston. After he chose Chicago, then the rest of the week’s transactions started to begin. There has been countless and countless trades so far this offseason. Although, i’m only going to discuss the big deals, since talking about it all would be more like 10 pages.

For starters, the Giants picked up their closer, Sergio Romo (6-4, 3.72 ERA), on a two-year contract. He’s obviously given the Giants what they need. Then we have the Dodgers trading away Matt Kemp (.287 AVG) and a catcher for Yasmani Grandal (.225 AVG) and two other players to the Padres. That’s a huge deal in San Diego. Kemp is still an elite player. The Phillies traded their long-time shortstop, Jimmy Rollins (.243 AVG)to the Dodgers for RHP (right hand pitcher) Zach Eflin (-.–) and LHP (left hand pitcher) Tom Windle (-.–) on December 19th. Scott Boras, Max Scherzer’s (18-5, 3.15)  agent, has been trying to get teams to take him, like the Yankees, but his price tag is another story.

By looking at the trades and transactions section on ESPN.com, I can tell you that the San Diego Padres have acquired many players, outfielders in particular. Seth Smith (.266 AVG) , Wil Myers (.222 AVG) , Justin Upton (.270 AVG) , Will Middlebrooks (.191 AVG), and Derek Norris (.270 AVG). Those are the big names going into PetCo Park, with A.J. Preller, a first year GM, looking to impress everybody. To me, he’s accomplished that.

In my opinion, there’s a few teams that have had a trade or two, but not as nearly as busy as the Padres. The Yankees, Astros, and Rockies are the kind of teams that haven’t done a whole lot so far. What I mean when I say this is they’ve made moves here and there, with the yankees only getting a third basemen for their big move, Astros getting a few minor league prospects, and the Rockies getting some bullpen depth, which is helpful.  I honestly don’t think they’ve done enough to be contenders during the 2015 season. Seemingly how their records were all below 500% in 2014. Who knows, any of them could win a world series this upcoming season.

The trading deadline is on July 31, 2015, and after that, you can only obtain players by waivers. There’s been talk about the Colorado Rockies trading Troy Tulowitzki (.340 AVG) to the Mets, but no word yet. This paper goes to show how busy the MLB offseason is. It’s all about what teams can get the best players to become contenders. Being a contender means that a team has a good chance of making the postseason. The trades I have mentioned are big moves or fairly decent moves, since there has also been many other small trades.