This has been a fun filled winter so far in baseball with tons of trades happening plus your usual flurry of free agent signings. As with every offseason there are going to be some teams you view as winners and some that you view as losers. This offseason has been a little different though. The winners of this offseason are not the usual suspects such as the Yankees, Dodgers, or Red Sox, the small market teams are the ones making the most noise to this point. Here are a few of the biggest winners of the offseason as we near the end of December.
1) Chicago Cubs
When the Cubs acquired Theo Epstein it was only going to be a matter of time before the Cubs started making significant changes towards becoming a contender and breaking that seemingly never ending World Series champion drought. The Cubs started the offseason with a bang with the immediate signing of Joe Maddon who had years of success with a Tampa Bay team that didn’t always provide Maddon with the most talent and was consistently trading it’s best players prior to hitting free agency.
The Cubs made a couple of moves to their pitching staff with the splashiest of these signings being the signing of starting pitcher Jon Lester to a six year, $155 million contract. Lester will undoubtedly be the ace of the rotation, and even though he’ll be 31 this year he is coming off one of the better seasons of his career and will provide tons of knowledge to a young rotation. The Cubs have also reunited with starting pitcher Jason Hammel, who was very good for the Cubs during his half a year stint. Most recently the Cubs acquired reliever Jason Motte to a one year deal worth up to $4.5 million. From 2010 to 2012 Motte was one of the best relievers in baseball for the Cardinals and if he can regain that former glory this low risk high reward is going to reap many benefits for the Cubs.
With all these pitchers being added to the staff the Cubs decided they need a better catcher so they went and traded for Miguel Montero from the Diamondbacks. While Montero isn’t the same hitter he was from 2009 to 2012 he is still one of the better defensive catchers in the game. The four time all star is going to provide a lot of veteran leadership and game calling ability to a team that is going to be fairly young in the rotation and the bullpen. The Cubs also signed backup catcher David Ross which may fly under the radar a little bit but don’t underestimate the signing. He will be 38 this year but he should be able to provide Montero with valuable off days as he has experience catching Hammel and may very well be his personal catcher.
The Cubs may not be championship contenders yet but they are making the right steps to do so and have young talent on top of young talent that has the potential to bring them there in just a few seasons.
2) San Diego Padres
The Padres have really come out of nowhere to make trade after trade after trade to make themselves relevant in the 2015 season.
The Padres started things out by trading for all star outfielder Matt Kemp. This trade wasn’t cheap though as they traded away prospects and their young up and coming catcher Yasmani Grandal and two solid prospects.
Then there was the three team 11 player deal that sent Wil Myers to the Padres in exchange for prospects. The Padres however weren’t done there as they then went on to trade for Justin Upton from the Braves and Derek Norris from the Athletics.
These trades were very costly for the Padres as they depleted their farm system in order to make these deals. San Diego is in a win now mode and they are going to need to be with the now lack of talent in the minors. They do however have a set outfield with Kemp, Upton, Myers, and even if Upton leaves the other two are under contract for a few more seasons. Norris also gives the team flexibility as he is able to catch, play first or the corner outfield positions. The Padres however are going to be very right handed heavy which could come back to haunt them but all the power they acquired still makes the lineup a dangerous one. Even though young and rising star Jesse Hahn was traded away the Padres pitching staff is still a very good one and should help make them division contenders this season.
3) Chicago White Sox
This was a tough one as the Marlins have also had a very good offseason as they look to supplant the Nationals atop the division. The White Sox in my opinion been just a tick better this offseason.
The White Sox started things out by trading for Jeff Samardzija which gives the White Sox one of the better rotations in baseball headlined with Chris Sale and with Jose Quintana as one of the better number three pitchers in baseball and has done nothing but improve in every season in the major thus far.
It’s not all about the starting rotation though as the White Sox had one of the worst bullpens in all of baseball last year so they went and improved that part too. First the White Sox went and signed lefty reliever Zach Duke who is going to match up well in late innings against left handed batters and is also capable of providing his team with some long relief work. Then the White Sox went and signed former Yankees closer David Robertson to a four year $46 million deal. The White Sox possibly struggled more than any other team to close out games by blowing 21 saves and only recording 35 saves. Then the White Sox traded for Dan Jennings from the Marlins who has a 2.43 ERA for his career.
The White Sox didn’t just upgrade their pitching staff however they upgraded a lineup that at times struggled to score runs last year depending on the health of leadoff man Adam Eaton. First the White Sox signed veteran first baseman Adam LaRoche, who brings a gold glove caliber glove to the team if needed and some left handed protection to the right handed batting superstar Jose Abreu. The White Sox also went out and made a deal to acquire Melky Cabrera which will help stabilize that outfield and round out the lineup into one that should be able to score plenty of runs for what will likely be one of the better pitching staffs in the American league after being one of the worst.