Winter Meetings Review: Win, Lose or Draw

Every MLB team went to Indianapolis last week looking to improve itself. We decide which teams got it done, which teams went the wrong way and which ones remain in a holding pattern:

NL EAST

Atlanta Braves
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. The Braves have already revamped their bullpen, bringing in Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito and Jesse Chavez, for less than the cost of retaining Mike Gonzalez or Rafael Soriano. GM Frank Wren still has work to do as far as filling his outfield. But this has been a good start.

Florida Marlins
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. The Marlins can wait for the best offers for Dan Uggla and Jorge Cantu. Matt Lindstrom is hardly replaceable.

HOWARD MEGDAL: The fact that they didn’t non-tender Uggla has to make one optimistic they can get decent talent for him.

Philadelphia Phillies
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. The Phillies began the offseason only trying to improve around the margins, and already made their moves at backup catcher and third base. The lost the Brandon Lyon sweepstakes, which is a plus for the team. But what were they doing bidding?

New York Mets
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. The Mets have made no real upgrades, and most of the racket they made at the Winter Meetings surrounded their failure to deal Luis Castillo and poorly advised bids on free agents Jason Bay and Bengie Molina. Yes, the Mets will only be as good as the health of their superstars allows for next year, but GM Omar Minaya isn’t inspiring a lot of faith that he’ll be able to surround those guys with a decent supporting cast.

HOWARD MEGDAL: However, it does appear, in light of John Lackey taking a physical with the Red Sox, that their four-year offer to Bay may get it done.

Washington Nationals
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. Sure, the Nats only found a replacement for “closer” Mike MacDougal. And they overpaid for Ivan Rodriguez. But they should still have money to burn, and if they remain in a position to grab a couple pitching bargains early next year, they could surprise.

NL CENTRAL

Chicago Cubs
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. Still no takers for Milton Bradley. Maybe trashing him in the media and sinking his trade value wasn’t a good idea?

HOWARD MEGDAL: Hard to grade them solely on the ability to trade Milton Bradley, though.

Cincinnati Reds
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. The Reds will probably have to dump payroll this offseason, and Winter Meetings would have been the best time to do it. Now, who knows what the return for Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo or Brandon Phillips will be with a glut of players on the free agent market?

HOWARD MEGDAL: Bigger lose comes if they deal Phillips at all.

Houston Astros
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. Brandon Lyon. Gary Majewski. Matt Lindstrom. Good thing Pedro Feliz is such a joy to watch play third base, right?

HOWARD MEGDAL: And the Phils looked awfully quick to get rid of Feliz. Danger.

Milwaukee Brewers
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. The Brew Crew has serious pitching issues, and addressed them in party by signing Randy Wolf. While it seems like a bit of an overpay, Wolf has been healthy the last two years and is definitely better than Jeff Suppan. And he won’t haunt the team for years like Suppan has. The LaTroy Hawkins deal was reasonable. Not every free agent deal can be a steal like Greg Zaun might be.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Relatively speaking- to Marquis and Pineiro- Wolf was a bargain. But this looks to me like a massive overpay. Zaun, however, was a strong pickup.

Pittsburgh Pirates
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. I just don’t know what the point of bringing in Bobby Crosby. Yea, to compete with Ronny Cedeno. But if you don’t know that a guy is going to be better than Cedeno, what the hell are you doing messing around with him?

HOWARD MEGDAL: With health, he will be. More to the point, options that aren’t Ronny Cedeno are inherently good ideas.

St. Louis Cardinals
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. I’m lukewarm to the Brad Penny signing. It seems like a lot of money for a guy that wasn’t that good last year. The Cardinals are kind of waiting out the Matt Holliday decision before deciding where to spend their money. Here’s hoping they don’t try to resign Mark DeRosa to his reported asking price ($9 million per year). That’s money better spend on an Albert Pujols extension.

NL WEST

Arizona Diamondbacks
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. Involved in a blockbuster trade that everyone, including me, thinks they didn’t do too well.

HOWARD MEGDAL: I like Edwin Jackson to be one of the best starters in the NL next year. So not everyone.

Colorado Rockies
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. Hanging on to Rafael Betancourt. Plenty of time to add more pieces.

Los Angeles Dodgers
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. The Randy Wolf signing underscored how silly it was that they didn’t offer arbitration. Something tells me the Dodgers are in for a long losing streak with this McCourt divorce.

San Diego Padres
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. Nobody really expected the Padres to be wheeling and dealing unless they were knocked over with a package for Adrian Gonzalez. But they really should have worked harder earlier to move Kevin Correia much earlier if they were going to non-tender all along to save a few bucks. (ED: Correia sticks around with a 1-year deal signed Saturday before the arbitration deadline — CP)

San Francisco Giants
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. Maybe I’m grading on a curve here, but GM Brian Sabean didn’t do anything really stupid. Add a couple offensive pieces later this offseason and the Giants should contend.

AL EAST

Baltimore Orioles
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. Another team that comes out ahead by not jumping into anything too soon. Added Kevin Millwood at a discount, and at the least he should pitch a lot of innings, which the Orioles really needed.

Boston Red Sox
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. I’m not really sure what the plan here is. They obviously think Mike Lowell is done if they were willing to eat that much money, though Max Ramirez was a pretty nifty return.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Apparently, the plan is Lackey. And I loved the Lowell deal. Really impressive.

New York Yankees
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. Re-signed Andy Pettitte and got Curtis Granderson, a great talent, for a bag of mediocre talent. Now they’ve got additional leverage with Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, and another piece in either Melky Cabrera or Brett Gardner to deal for something else. However those other situations resolve themselves, the Yankees got better.

Tampa Bay Rays
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. Got a pretty nice deal for Rafael Soriano. Still loose ends to tie up, but all indications are this front office is more than capable of handling them.

Toronto Blue Jays
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. Roy Halladay’s value is falling, maybe almost to the point that it doesn’t make much sense for the Jays to deal him. After this saga, there’s probably no way he decides to stay, even for a market-rate extension. Looks like Toronto will eventually take either a lesser package, or the two draft picks next offseason and work towards another window where they can be competitive. This window has been slammed shut in their faces.

AL CENTRAL

Chicago White Sox
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. Biding their time, waiting for a good free agent deal. Though if they are really near their payroll ceiling, this should really be a lose considering they rushed to give Mark Teahen an extension and maybe overpaid for J.J. Putz without first offering arbitration to Octavio Dotel.

Cleveland Indians
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. They lost when they decided to blow things up last summer. With Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez, the Indians could have made another run at the division this year. Instead we’re waiting for Jhonny Peralta or Travis Hafner to be deal. Or their contracts to run out. Funny how rebuilding works.

Detroit Tigers
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. I was tempted to give them a losing score like the Indians, but GM Dave Dombrowski is doing the best inside the corner he’s painted himself.  Max Scherzer has as much upside as anyone in the blockbuster deal that sent away Edwin Jackson and Curtis Granderson. I’m not so high on the rest of the guys the Tigers got back, but they’ll be cheap and useful even if they lack star potential. When some bad contracts come off the books next year, the Tigers should be able to jump right back into things.

Kansas City Royals
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. Last year the big free agent pickup for the Royals was Kyle Farnsworth. This year it looks like it’s going to be Jason Kendall. Dayton Moore is using up everyone’s patience here.

Minnesota Twins
CHRIS PUMMER: Win. When the offseason began, the Twins were still the best team on paper. Nobody else looks like they’re going to make any kind of a splash, so waiting to improve at the margins after adding J.J. Hardy earlier this winter looks like a solid plan.

AL WEST

Los Angeles Angels
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. They’ve got enough internal options that they can afford to wait for the market to come to them.

Oakland Athletics
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. Waiting to see what the next step in their rebuilding process is.

Seattle Mariners
CHRIS PUMMER: Draw. Similar situation as the Angels, especially now that Chone Figgins is aboard.

Texas Rangers
CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. In swapping out Kevin Millwood for Rich Harden, they barely saved any money and essentially traded Millwood’s innings for Harden’s upside. That upside isn’t likely to pitch a full season, and with more options than answers in their rotation, I think the Rangers made a mistake. I also don’t like the Mike Lowell deal. They gave up a decent prospect to get Lowell at a discount. But even for the money, Lowell isn’t going to help them as a DH, which I presume he’ll be with Michael Young entrenched at third base. This could be as wide open as the AL West gets for the Rangers, and they seem unable to seize the day.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Disagree- Harden’s 140 IP is likely to be far more valuable than Millwood’s 200 IP.

Tags: Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 10:40 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.