The 2022 MLB Winter Meetings are in the books and it was an eventful week that saw free agents sign more than $1 billion in contracts. Aaron Judge (nine years, $360 million to Yankees), Trea Turner (11 years, $300 million to Phillies), and Xander Bogaerts (11 years, $280 million to Padres) cashed in the biggest. Carlos Correa, Brandon Nimmo, Carlos Rodón, and Dansby Swanson remain unsigned.
Some teams got more done at the Winter Meetings than others. The Phillies landed Taijuan Walker and Matt Strahm in addition to Turner. The Mets fortified their rotation with Justin Verlander and José Quintana. The Cubs added Cody Bellinger and Jameson Taillon. The Guardians signed Josh Bell, the Cardinals sign Willson Contreras, on and on we could go.
Spring training is a little more than two months away and several teams -- including those with plans to contend in 2023 -- still have a fairly long offseason to-do list. They went to the Winter Meetings, had some conversations and maybe made a minor deal or two, but weren't able to cross anything significant off their offseason shopping list.
Here are three teams that were inactive during the Winter Meetings and still have a quite a few needs to address before the 2023 season begins.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Notable offseason additions: Clayton Kershaw and Shelby Miller
Remaining needs: Center fielder, starting pitcher, maybe a middle infielder
Kershaw's return felt fait accompli and Miller is a worthwhile low-cost bullpen flier. Otherwise the Dodgers have been really quiet the last few weeks. They didn't make much of an effort to retain Turner and were on the periphery of the Judge race at best. The Dodgers do want to give young players, specifically third baseman Miguel Vargas and possibly outfielder James Outman, the opportunity to play next year, but there are also some real questions to answer here.
"We've got a lot of talent coming on the position player side, on the pitching side. Things are going to look a little different, but a lot of it still is going to be the same," manager Dave Roberts said at the Winter Meetings. "Also, (president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman) and I and the organization believe there's some young players that need a little room, some runway, some opportunities. And they're going to have that at some point in time this season on both position player and the pitching side. So I think that's a good thing for us. But the idea that our goal is to put together a championship ballclub, that doesn't change."
Center field became a glaring need once Bellinger was non-tendered and unless the Dodgers spend big on Nimmo (free agent) or Bryan Reynolds (trade candidate), they're looking at second and third tier options like Kevin Kiermaier or Ramón Laureano. The rotation needs reinforcement as well given Walker Buehler's Tommy John surgery and Tyler Anderson's free agent departure. The rotation depth chart current looks something like this:
- LHP Julio Urías
- LHP Clayton Kershaw
- RHP Tony Gonsolin
- RHP Dustin May (first full year back from Tommy John surgery)
- RHP Ryan Pepiot
- RHP Michael Grove
- RHP Bobby Miller (top prospect who reached Triple-A late in 2022)
There's some room for improvement there. Rodón would be great. Anytime you can add a dominator like him, it helps, but Los Angeles would also benefit a lower cost one-year signing (Johnny Cueto? Corey Kluber?) just to add depth. Ideally, they would unearth the next Tyler Anderson, an unheralded one-year free agent signing they can coach up into an impact pitcher, but that's easier said than done.
The Dodgers can slide Gavin Lux over to shortstop to replace Turner, then go with a combination of Max Muncy, Chris Taylor, and prospect Michael Busch at second base. Muncy's (and Busch's) lack of range would be an issue with infield shifts now banned, however. No longer can teams compensate for range-challenged infielders with creative defensive alignments. The Dodgers don't absolutely have to do something about their middle infield, but there is a path to improvement there.
Center field is the real need and the market doesn't offer many quality options unless you're willing to give Nimmo a large contract or surrender a big prospect package to get Reynolds. The Dodgers also need another starter to protect themselves and make sure they don't put too much on the kids as well as May in his first full year back from elbow reconstruction. It's been a quiet offseason to date but don't that expect that to continue to Freidman and his staff.
Minnesota Twins
Notable offseason additions: Kyle Farmer
Remaining needs: Shortstop, catcher, starting pitcher
In theory, the Twins could plug the perfectly cromulent Farmer in at shortstop and be OK. That said, going from Correa to Farmer is a massive downgrade, and the club continues to pursue a reunion with Correa. They're also talking to Swanson as a backup plan, according to The Athletic. The problem here is market forces are beginning to work against the Twins. Consider:
- Two of the big four free agent shortstops have signed (Bogaerts and Turner), leaving only Correa and Swanson available. There are fewer alternatives out there now.
- The Giants missed out on Judge and have a lot of money burning a hole in their pocket. They're expected to pivot to Correa now which will, at minimum, make retaining him more difficult for the Twins.
- The Bogaerts and Turner contracts have pushed the market upward and potentially out of Minnesota's reach. Can they really do, say, $35 million a year for 12 years for Correa?
"We're very comfortable with each other. He's a guy that we obviously want and care a lot about and think can be an enormous factor for us for a long time, playing at shortstop and leading," manager Rocco Baldelli said at the Winter Meetings. "This is kind of where Carlos has set himself up for guys who do what he does. They set themselves up for the future, and they set themselves up to have great options going forward. And we think we've positioned ourselves well to be one of the highest priority options for him. So we feel good about that. We just have to let things play out and become comfortable doing that, which we're doing right now.
On top of Correa and the shortstop position in general, the Twins could also use a catcher to timeshare with Ryan Jeffers, if not take over as the starter outright. Contreras has signed, leaving Christian Vázquez as the clear-cut No. 1 catcher in free agency. The trade market offers Danny Jansen and Sean Murphy, though to get Murphy, you'll have to give up a top prospect or two. He's very good and under control through 2025.
They Twins also need another starting pitcher. Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle, and Joe Ryan is a strong top four as long as Maeda has a smooth return from Tommy John surgery and Mahle is healthy, which he never really was after coming over from the Reds at the trade deadline. The depth behind them is decent (Bailey Ober, Josh Winder, Simeon Woods Richardson, etc.).
It feels like the Twins need Correa to make a decision -- one way or the other -- before they can move on with their other offseason business. If they're able to re-sign him, great! But it means committing $30-plus-million a year to one player and will affect how they spend on the rest of the roster. Lose Correa and theoretically that's a nice chunk of change they can reallocate.
With all due respect to the defending AL Central champion Guardians, the division is winnable, plus there are six postseason spots per league now. The Twins aren't that far away from contention. They did nothing at the Winter Meetings though, and all the major items on their offseason agenda are still outstanding. Falvey & Co. have still have a lot of work to do this winter.
Toronto Blue Jays
Notable offseason additions: Erik Swanson
Remaining needs: Outfielder, starting pitcher
The Blue Jays won 92 games and went to the postseason in 2022 but still underachieved. They looked like a budding powerhouse entering the season and just never really got on a roll. Their offseason to date has been quiet. They traded stalwart slugger Teoscar Hernández for a reliever -- a very good reliever in Swanson, but a reliever nonetheless -- and that's pretty much it. Huh.
Valuable swingman Ross Stripling is a free agent and now there's a Teoscar-sized hole in the lineup as well. Jansen is an obvious trade candidate with Alejandro Kirk entrenched behind the plate and top prospect Gabriel Moreno as MLB-ready as he's going to get, and Jansen should fetch a nice return. With he bring back a good starter or an everyday outfielder? Yeah, maybe. Good catchers are really hard to find.
Toronto specifically needs a lefty bat to balance out a lineup that projects to be entirely right-handed most days. Nimmo would make an awful lot of sense and I see no reason why the Blue Jays couldn't win that bidding war. Reynolds would be an ideal fit too, or maybe Andrew Benintendi. Clearly though, a bat to replace Hernández is necessary, and ideally that bat would be a lefty.
"Yeah, people especially talk about it now with no shift involved too. You want to have as much of a balanced attack as you can, but we're unique again where we have a lot of good right-handed hitters," manager John Schneider said at the Winter Meetings. "In the perfect world you line them up right, left, right, left, and you kind of match up from a bullpen standpoint. But if that's the case, I think just collectively how our lineup can be most productive is what we're going to try to target. If it happens to be a lefty, that would be great."
As for the rotation, the Blue Jays need José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi to have bounceback seasons more than anything. If they want to open the wallet for Rodón or someone like Chris Bassitt, by all means, go for it. But they need Kikuchi and especially Berríos to rebound, and then add stability to the back of the rotation. Finding an upgrade over Mitch White won't be too difficult, will it?
The AL East is a brutal division, particularly with the Orioles on the rise, and Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alek Manoah will only be this young and this affordable for so long. The Blue Jays are a very good team as it is, but there are clear needs that must be addressed, and after a disappointing 2022, there should be motivation to improve and improve significantly. It didn't happen at the Winter Meetings, so it'll have to happen in the coming weeks instead.
