The thought is that most teams seem to be pretty much set as the calendar is about to turn to February, especially after the bevy of moves made in the last couple days.
A flurry of moves came in the days that followed the first JLB meeting, and that included the biggest trade of the offseason thus far.
Biggest as in most players, certainly not the best players moved this offseason.
Choo and Steroid combined for a 10-player deal that sent six young pitchers and bats to Steroid in return for Victor Robles, Alex Wood, Josh Bell and Tyler Anderson.
Robles was just named the No. 2 outfielder by MLB Pipeline, so he among the top names in this deal, but Steroid may end up with the best player out of this.
Jesus Luzardo, who was just named the No. 1 LHP by MLB Pipeline, is expected to take the mound in Oakland this year and make an impact. He was joined in the deal by No. 9 RHP Kyle Wright and No. 2 shortstop Royce Lewis.
Together, it’s a good haul back, but a bit of a confusing move considering what is pushed out on Steroid’s side. Once again, rebuilding deals he made last summer are being erased by large player returns in the offseason.
It was also confusing because Robles was not supposed to go anywhere.
“I saw the Choo-Butter deal,” Crox said, leaving Trillium in a bit of a haze on Wednesday night. “I realized my Spanish must have been rusty. I thought Robles was a name of a highly touted prospect not being traded. Turns out it means ‘I’ll trade him for everyone Choo picked up in June when the playoffs were out of reach.”
Steroid is now overloaded on young pitching and it will be interesting to see what’s next for him.
He wasn’t the only one making deals after the Winter Meetings.
Five other deals involving seven different teams were accepted from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22.
That includes Gameday flipping his boy Nick Senzel — Mr. “Better-Than-Bregman” — for Dee Gordon — Mr. “Better-Than-Mallex Smith.”
I don’t have a calculator near, but something doesn’t add up there.
Crox?
Oh, wait. He’s half in the bag and trash-talking Parker on Slack right now.
Parker made up for that folly with a steal of a deal, snagging Marcel Ozuna — who I see returning to 2017 form in that Paul Goldschmidt-infused St. Louis lineup — from Quad Eh in a bit of a head-scratcher as he got Paul DeJong and Ian Happ; the former regressed significantly and the latter is a part-time player in an oddly configured Cubs lineup.
DeJong hopefully will get that boost with Goldschmidt and return to his 2017 form, but Happ will need to get more than 348 at-bats to prove his keeper status.
That deal sent yours truly crying to his email inbox to click on a Dereck Rodriguez (to Monkey) for Willy Adames deal.
I had been working on an Ozuna deal for months, so it was odd that on the day that Parker dashed my hopes, Monkey jumped in without any knowledge of the other deal, and offered Adames for Rodriguez.
DRod had a strong 2018 season and as a franchise eligible pitcher, Monkey will gladly give up a shortstop who struggled at first but really came on hot at the end of the season.
At the end of the day, it’s a minor trade, but it could be bigger than that down the line.
The same kind of small deal happened between Cheese and the Dude. Brandon Nimmo, who the Mets love enough to tell the Marlins to go to hell, goes to the Dude to help fill that LF gap, while Yu Darvish goes to JV’s crowded group of vet pitchers.
What the hell are you up to, JV?
You can’t keep Yu.
You can’t keep doing this to me.
You need to go on vacation or something. For like two months. Come back on March 20. Choo will host the 4 o’clock news for you. I’m sure he won’t say anything controversial on air.
Lastly, Monkey and Crox connected to do what both of them do best: put their respective love for their AL East squads before themselves.
Crox did this in the deal by sending a second-round pick to Monkey for his beloved Red Sox's starter Rick Porcello.
I know what you’re thinking.
Wait, Jimmy? How did Ryan let his Orioles love cloud his judgment in this deal? Only Crox put the Sox over his eyes?!
Yes, on the transactions list, that would appear to be the case.
But come on. You know damn well with that second-round pick, Ryan is selecting Hunter Harvey or Cedric Mullins or who knows?
Maybe he'll just put a bunch of Orioles in his queue, tie a blindfold around his head and click. #BirdBox
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