The Winter Meetings begin in four nights.
Are you ready?
I know I am.
Hell, I’ve been dealing since the morning I started prepping for the ball to drop on Dec. 31.
I didn’t really have a plan to do what I did, but some things fell into place and here I am with George Springer, Amed Rosario, Matt Chapman, Mike Moustakas and a first-round pick.
What else do I need? I’m not sure.
But I know what you all need as we head into the Winter Meetings. Let’s break it down.
The biggest thing I see when analyzing the JLB, there are two teams clearly rebuilding and have some young stars that would absolutely bring back a haul of veterans from some of the contenders who are overloaded, but at this point, will adding a few vets help them?
Both NJ Bombers and Steroid.ERA are so invested in a rebuild that giving up on someone young for a few vets will only rob them of someone young moving forward. They are not a few vets away from contending; they are several minor leaguers arriving on the scene from competing.
The 2019 season will see some of them get called up, but realistically, it’s a trust the process 76ers moment for them.
The other thing I see is several teams with some positional surplus that will lead to a battle in the next two months to see who can turn it into offseason gold.
Big League Choo
Choo almost fits into that all-in rebuild, but he has so much talent in the batting lineup that he could be that team that is a few vets away from competing.
So who wants a young Braves minor leaguer? (Or a young Marlins minor leaguer once the Braves get JT Realmuto?)
Choo really needs a first baseman if Jose Martinez remains in St. Louis. His playing time is going to be greatly limited now with Goldschmidt there and no DH in the National League.
The other opening he has is center field.
“What?! I have the great Harrison Bader!”
Calm down, Choo. He hit just .264 with 12 homers and 37 RBIs in 138 games last year. His projections line up with that performance, which is far short of what Choo will get in the corners with Acuna and Soto.
As mentioned, he needs a vet starter — times three. He has saves galore built up, so he will spend the Winter Meetings bothering those teams with pitching surplus.
Cheese Steaks
Speaking of pitching surplus, here’s one of the guys with it. Zack Greinke is available — ahem, Steroid.ERA, that’s your cue — and I imagine Jon Gray wouldn’t be the worst option out there.
There would be another available but Aaron freaking Nola is 3.076 in experience, making him franchise eligible.
Let’s all take this moment to curse Justin Brown once more for his absolutely horrid trade that has help change the tide of the National League.
Steaks doesn’t really need anything, so for him, it may be just turning Greinke and maybe one of his top vet bats into draft picks.
Big Ol’ Country Breakfast
Sam has a similar problem as JV. Too many good players.
Man, that’s rough.
He has 9 vet bats for 7 slots, so we’ll have to see who makes the cut and who he can fence off for picks or something bigger.
His weakness offensively a day ago may have been second base with Dozier, but now that he landed in a good spot with the Nationals, I believe that locks him into the keeper status there.
He could perhaps go for an upgrade at SP keeper No. 3, but for the sake of the rest of the AL, he doesn’t need it.
Crox Sox
I don’t have to write much here. Maybe he could go for an upgrade in starting pitching if he really wants, but his lineup and keepers are really set now that he acquired Jose Ramirez.
That 3-for-1 deal cleared some excess, saved him some fun decisions and made his 2019 Opening Day roster clear.
Gameday Gamblers
The Gamblers has outfield issues and had some log-jam issues prior to shipping off Mike Moustakas. With Xander Bogaerts and Jean Segura on roster, it means he could only keep one third baseman (between Eugenio Suarez and Moustakas, clearly Suarez won that) and one left fielder (between Michael Brantley and Ryan Braun, clearly Brantley has to be the front-runner for that).
Still, that leaves him without a center fielder and a young duo of Alex Verdugo and Franmil Reyes for right field right now.
I’m guessing Kyle Schwarber, who his LF only, will be his franchise keeper checking in at 3.086 (just making the cut), but Adam Jones, Jason Heyward and Scott Schebler — options for RF or CF — are not really ideal and may be a waste of keeper space.
Needless to say, there are a few things the Gamblers need to address and maybe it starts Sunday as the Winter Meetings kick off.
Lebowski Urban Achievers
What does the Dude need for Winter Meetings? Maybe a phone with notifications?
I kid, I kid.
I’m here all week.
The Dude could be in search of a left fielder this winter while he has some shortstop decisions between either Elvis Andrus or Jorge Polanco. Both have similar numbers, but neither really have those numbers that make you say, “That’s my shortstop keeper.”
He also has an interesting decision at second base between Jonathan Schoop and Cesar Hernandez. Neither had great success in 2018 so once again, he could be looking for an upgrade here, and depending on how much he believes in Joey Wendle’s rookie year, the answer could be there.
Nonetheless, he could use upgrades there, and he definitely needs a left fielder because I don’t believe Brett Gardner is a keeper and he is the only player outside of Shin-soo Choo with LF eligibility on the roster.
With Gerrit Cole and Patrick Corbin at the top and young studs knocking on the door, his pitching seems to be in good shape, so for Dude, when his Slack light turns green on Sunday, he should be looking for some lineup help.
Monkeys Never Cramp
Another team, another LF hole.
Well, Monkey is quite the Orioles fan — please see Kevin Gausman, the 2018 keeper for reference — so maybe Trey Mancini is the left field answer.
I say he is not, so Monkey should see what options are out there starting Sunday.
He also has a surplus of vet SPs with Madison Bumgarner, Zack Godley, Jake Arrieta, Kevin Gausman and Rick Porcello.
With relievers Roberto Osuna and Brad Hand — projected right now to have a combined 73 saves — you would think that only three of those SPs make the final cut.
We know Gausman is already etched in stone — right? — so realistically, one of MadBum, Godley or Porcello could be had.
Is this how he gets a real LF?
NJ Bombers
I had written down a key to the Winter Meetings for Kyle Firestine was going to be actually joining Slack, but he did that today. (I wrote all my notes for this two nights ago.)
Now that he’s on, guess what, he needs a left fielder.
Sensing a trend here? Anyone with two left fielders has to be itching to deal after getting this far into the Jargon blog post.
One would think he could use an upgrade in center field, too, but Aaron Hicks is in pinstripes, so that should cover it.
His biggest thing at this point is going to be having the rookies come up, like I said to start this all. I doesn’t really make much sense for him to give up picks or a franchise eligible player for a left fielder when he is not an LF away from contending.
Quad Eh
The owner from the Great North could use a second baseman or shortstop — whichever slot he doesn’t put Javier Baez.
He also has a trio of double doses of vets leaving him some big decisions.
At third base, he has Josh Donaldson and Kris Bryant.
In left field, he has Marcel Ozuna and Eddie Rosario.
And in right field, he has Mookie Betts and Adam Eaton.
All six players, in the right situation, have keeper value, and he can only keep four of them.
Betts and Bryant are the obvious keepers, so it’s down to two of the final four.
That means he may need to look into moving one of them to fill his need at second base or short.
We could also lump in Joey Gallo into that LF log-jam. The low average isn’t pretty for keeping, but his 81 HRs and 172 RBIs in the last two seasons are.
Sex Panthers
Her young boys have grown up. Trevor Bauer, Marcus Stroman, Mike Foltynewicz and Luis Severino have all graduated from franchise status.
They all join Cole Hamels, Dallas Keuchel and even JA Happ as serviceable keepers.
She can only keep as many as four, so there is some shopping to be done. To be fair, Stroman has struggled and will likely be a casualty of his failures, and Happ, despite putting up solid numbers, will likely not draw the great attention so it may come down to trading a Bauer, Keuchel, Foltynewicz or even Hamels.
Lord knows Severino isn’t going anywhere.
Offensively, she could, like the rest of the JLB, use a LF. Then again, she could put Yelich there and aim for a center fielder if she doesn’t believe in David Peralta who had a great season last year.
Steroid.ERA
As mentioned, not sure what moves he can make here because the players he could sell to get some big help are needed for the rebuild.
With LF depth, the biggest thing Steroid could do this offseason is maybe look to sell Justin Upton to one of the LF needy teams for more pieces to aid his rebuild.
It may be a season or two too late for Upton, but worth a try when looking at the LF holes around the JLB. Upton is certainly an upgrade for a few.
Steroid definitely could use several vet SPs, but what it would cost — a Robles or Ohtani — it just doesn’t seem worth it. He would be better served building in the draft and pursuing future starters in season.
JimmyJam Slammer
What do I need?
I told you already, I don’t know. I’ve already assembled a team that can beat Parker. That’s all I need.
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