Leaving the Main League Baseball winter conferences empty-handed can really feel worse than it really is. What it’s not is the equal of waking up on Christmas morning to search out coal in your stocking and no items below the tree.
Groups that signal free brokers or make blockbuster trades through the few days everybody of significance within the MLB universe congregates below one luxurious resort roof get out-sized applause for his or her strikes. Reporters dutifully sort up the winners and losers on their flights dwelling.
So, sure, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks look like scuffling in the intervening time. Inertia isn’t tolerated by fan bases, particularly when their division rivals — the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants — are signing massive names and holding splashy press conferences.
However the winter conferences are a snapshot, not a jury trial. Spring coaching begins in two months and opening day is almost 4 months away. Loads of free brokers stay accessible — 197 eventually depend. Names massive and small dangle as commerce bait.
With that caveat, let’s discover why the Padres and Diamondbacks have stood pat.
Within the Padres’ case, their unbridled spending below the late proprietor Peter Seidler appears to have hit its restrict.
They have been onlookers through the Juan Soto sweepstakes, with solely reminiscences of him posting in all 162 video games in brown and gold in 2023 to tease them. They appear to be having purchaser’s regret at signing infielder Xander Boegarts to an 11-year, $280-million deal that runs by way of 2033.
So that they largely sat by way of the conferences on the Hilton Anatole Lodge in Dallas reportedly fielding provides for starter Dylan Stop and three-time batting champion Luis Arráez — each getting into their last 12 months of arbitration earlier than turning into free brokers — whereas making it clear to suitors that Boegarts is out there.
Stop, particularly, might fetch stable prospects in return, a startling turnabout for the Padres, who lately have been those shoveling promising minor leaguers from their fertile farm system to others in trade for win-now veterans. It was the one strategy to sustain with, and sometimes surpass, the Dodgers.
“Every year, you always have a budget that you’ve got to be in line with,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller informed reporters at the winter conferences. “This year, really no different from that standpoint. We try to be open-minded to certain players and player-specific moves that are out there — that if they line up we do have some flexibility.
“Even though we haven’t lined up on anything from a trade or free-agent standpoint, it’s been super active. Way further ahead from a knowledge standpoint today than we were when we got here.”
That’s one strategy to paint a smile on the choice to swallow onerous and sit. The shift in philosophy started final 12 months when the Padres trimmed almost $100 million off their payroll but gained 11 extra video games than in 2023 and gamely maintained their rivalry with the Chavez Ravine behemoth, falling a victory brief within the Nationwide League Division Collection.
But now they need to attempt to preserve that aggressive stance whereas reconciling that this offseason the Dodgers already added starter Blake Snell, who gained the NL Cy Younger Award in 2023 in a Padres uniform.
“We’re not naive that there are certain organizations that have just more competitive advantages,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt informed reporters. “That’s no state secret, right? We live that every day. … The reality from my seat, our clubhouse seat, our team seat is, it’s still a game that requires you to play right, compete a certain way, play the game a certain way.”
The Diamondbacks additionally inform themselves they play in a manner that permits them to overachieve. They’re one 12 months faraway from utilizing the Dodgers as a springboard to the World Collection, a outstanding achievement for a workforce that gained solely 84 regular-season video games. Final season they elevated that whole to 89 and led the majors in runs scored but didn’t make the playoffs.
A major goal isn’t so as to add, however to subtract the one-year, $22.5-million contract of left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery, who went from postseason hero with the Texas Rangers in 2023 to a 6.38 earned-run common albatross with the Diamondbacks in 2024.
It might appear Arizona would want to eat a lot of the contract, however the marketplace for beginning pitching appears to climb with each free-agent signing: Snell (5 years, $182 million), Max Fried (eight years, $218 million), Nathan Eovaldi (three years, $75 million).
Perhaps the Diamondbacks can unload Montgomery and change the offense misplaced by departing free brokers Christian Walker, Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk. They might commerce from their outfield depth, shifting both Alek Thomas and Jake McCarthy, each of whom are below workforce management by way of 2028.
Diamondbacks common supervisor Mike Hazen sounded quite a bit like Preller when assessing the winter conferences with reporters.
“A lot of meetings, didn’t really get much done,” he stated. “But there’s been progress made in some conversations in some areas, so we’ll see what happens. Wasn’t necessarily expecting anything to happen here. We’ll carry those conversations forward.”
In addition to staring on the backs of the Dodgers, the Padres and Diamondbacks should peek over their shoulders on the Giants, whose beautiful signing of shortstop Willy Adames is a sign that new president of baseball operations Buster Posey means enterprise.
The Dodgers, actually, didn’t do a lot through the conferences in addition to accepting congratulations for his or her World Collection championship. However they completed a lot out of the gate this offseason, signing veteran outfielder Michael Conforto, giving the versatile Tommy Edman a five-year extension and re-signing high-leverage reliever Blake Treinen along with bringing in Snell.
And extra is anticipated of Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes and the remainder of the Dodgers’ brass. Whether or not that holds true for the 2 groups that stymied them not too long ago sufficient that they’ll nonetheless really feel the sting is undetermined.
