The NL East as a whole has been rather quiet with the exception of the Braves who have been wheeling and dealing since the start of the offseason. The Braves started the off-season with the surprising trade of homegrown outfielder Jason Heyward and reliever Jordan Walden to the Cardinals for starting pitcher Shelby Miller and pitching prospect Tyrell Jenkins. The Braves also have released starting pitchers Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy both of whom underwent their second career Tommy John surgery in March. If healthy and fully recovered both are very likely to find homes for next season as Medlen has a career ERA that is under 3.00 and Beachy has a 3.23 career ERA. Just two days ago the Braves made a surprising signing when they inked 31 year old outfielder Nick Markakis to a four year deal. This provides a dilemma in the Braves outfielder as Evan Gattis is moving to left field and with Justin Upton specifically being a corner outfielder it is very likely that he is dealt before the start of next season. The Braves also signed struggling reliever Jim Johnson and have a decision to make on Ervin Santana and whether or not to resigning him after signing him to a one year deal.
The Phillies have been not been busy yet to this point in the offseason. This however should come as little surprise as the Phillies are far away from contending so signing big money free agents would not make a ton of sense. Many expect the Phillies to be sellers this offseason but their asking price for their aging stars is said to be high making it very difficult for the Phillies to move any of their veterans for prospects.
The Nationals, a team that have been contending the last few seasons have yet to make any big signings. They are close to competing and are just a few pieces away which makes their lack of singing to this point in the offseason surprising especially considering they lost all star first baseman Adam LaRoche to the White Sox already. Also scheduled to be free agents this offseason is the reliable veteran reliever Rafael Soriano and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera.
As expected the Marlins have not made any splashy free agent signings but nor have they traded anybody. Yet despite this the Marlins have likely made the biggest deal in their division in signing superstar outfielder Giancarlo Stanton to a 13 year $325 million deal.
The Mets started out this off-season by singing outfielder Michael Cuddyer to a two year deal. This is a bit surprising as Cuddyer is an aging star who’s numbers are surely to have been inflated the past couple of seasons by playing the hitter friendly confines of Coors Field.
Things have been relatively busy in the East compared to other divisions and if this is a sing of things to come there will be many more shocking and big moves still to be made in the East.