Did you catch your breath yet?
Baseball’s first true (and totally unplanned) signing frenzy exceeded any hype any of us could have had. Major contracts were given out. Stars changed teams. The sport changed for 2022 and beyond. Sure, the backdrop of a lockout hovered over it all. But that doesn’t change the fun of refreshing your phone every few minutes for the next signing or rumor from MLB insider.
Here’s who won and lost this week’s MLB free agency spending spree.
Winners
Steve Cohen: It’s Cohen’s financial world, and we’re just living in it as baseball fans. Forget the luxury tax. Forget the budget. The second-year Mets owner doesn’t care, as evidenced by a Mark Canha, Starling Marte, and Max Scherzer cash grab. Time will tell how those contracts age and how good this Mets team becomes, but it’s a huge win for an owner that hasn’t had too many since taking over.
Scott Boras: This is what baseball’s top agent does. Despite economic uncertainty around the sport and no one quite sure what the next CBA will look like, Boras got his two biggest clients of the winter paid. Scherzer landed the highest annual average salary ($43M) in baseball history, and Corey Seager earned a 10-year, $325M deal from the Rangers.
Texas Rangers: Will Marcus Semien, Seager and Jon Gray vault the Rangers into contention? Probably not. It’s going to take more for a team that won only 60 games in 2021. But credit to the Rangers for trying, believing in their farm system, and planning to compete in a league that will likely soon have expanded playoffs. Texas matters again after years in baseball’s abyss.
Seattle Mariners: Robbie Ray is a difference maker atop the rotation, and rumors connecting the AL West upstart to Trevor Story and Kris Bryant won’t go away. Add one of those bats to this team and the October drought ends.
Miami Marlins: Quietly the second most active and high-spending NL East team so far this week. Miami rewarded its own young talent, along with adding complementary pieces like veteran catcher Jacob Stallings, outfielder Avisail Garcia and trading for infielder Joey Wendle. This team is going to surprise in 2022.
Losers
Rob Manfred: In a week of excitement that should make baseball’s commissioner proud, all eyes are on a collective bargaining agreement that is about to expire. This is Manfred’s sport, for all the wrong reasons.
Carlos Correa: What’s Correa’s market? The frugal Yankees don’t seem eager to hand out a contract close to what the ex-Astros star wants. The Rangers are out. The Tigers spent on Javier Baez. The Dodgers (Trea Turner) and Giants (Brandon Crawford) have cheaper and sound short-term plans at the position. Did Correa play his hand wrong? It looks like it.
Yankees: Another year, another free-agency period without the Yankees as the main talking point in the sport. Forget about the old “what would George do!?!” questions that always come up. We have our answer on what his son, Hal, does: Nothing, especially on the high-end position player market. The Yankees are clearly averse to spending like the Dodgers and Mets, and it’s unlikely to change. Barring a move for Story, it just cost them every member of the most heralded shortstop class in history.
Phillies: If the season started today, Philadelphia’s 40-man roster would sit below Atlanta, New York and Miami in the NL East pecking order. And that’s despite having Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler. The Phillies desperately need help in center field, left field, shortstop, third base and in the bullpen, yet have signed no one of note yet. The division is getting better as the Phillies canvass the market.
Mike Trout: Houston is a machine. The Mariners are on the cusp of October. The Rangers just moved back into relevance. Sure, the A’s are about to tear it down and trade off any big-time pieces that matter. But until we see another legitimate starter or two (oft-injured Noah Syndergaard isn’t enough) join the Angels, another October-less season awaits baseball’s best player.
Dodgers: It almost never matters because of the Dodgers pipeline of talent and resources, but pitching depth and lineup strength suddenly doesn’t look the same in Los Angeles. Seager is gone, and will be tough to replace. Scherzer is out, meaning the replacement for Trevor Bauer is no longer atop the rotation. Add in uncertainty around Clayton Kershaw the Dodgers suddenly don’t look as dangerous.
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Joe Giglio may be reached at jgiglio@njadvancemedia.com.
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