Elephant Rumblings: Winter Meetings come to a close

MLB news roundup

Rise and shine A’s fans! Welcome to Thursday everyone!

The Winter Meetings are officially over, and there was a ton of movements all across baseball. The Chicago White Sox traded ace starting pitcher Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox for a huge haul of prospects, superstar outfielder Juan Soto finalized the largest contract in sports history with the New York Mets, and the rival Yankees quickly pivoted to sign lefty ace Max Fried to the largest contract ever given to a left-handed pitcher. Lots of other small moves happened as well but perhaps more importantly the groundwork for future moves was likely set with preliminary and exploratory talks happening on both the free agent market as well as the trade front.

The Athletics entered the Winter Meetings with somewhat raised expectations. The team had just signed starting pitcher Luis Severino to the largest deal in franchise history but still have a long ways to go to reach the $100MM threshold that is reportedly a minimum for the MLBPA to avoid filling a grievance against the team. As of right now the A’s payroll is sitting at an estimated $76.8MM so the team is roughly 75% of the way to reaching that stated payroll goal. So naturally there was a question of whether the A’s would strike again during the meetings.

Well we now know that no deal ever came together. The team didn’t sign anyone and no trades were made. In fact, if you were following the rumors flowing out of the meetings you’d be hard pressed to find anything leaked out about the Athletics intentions or free agent targets. That is, until Bob Nightengale of USA Today sent out this tweet connecting the A’s to Max Fried:

Even with the recent signing of Severino and the publicly stated goal to dramatically raise payroll, this one came as a massive shock. Fried, who had spent the entirety of his career with the Atlanta Braves entering the offseason and has a World Series ring, signing with the Athletics would have come as the biggest shock of the offseason, perhaps the biggest shock ever from a free agent. A top-of-the-line lefty ace signing with a team that doesn’t have a major-league ballpark, doesn’t have a star-studded team around him, and doesn’t have aspirations for contention anytime soon would have been stunning. No one expected the team to even contact Fried and even if the A’s did offer a massively overpaid contract, the likelihood of nabbing him seemed remote. At 30 years old this was always going to be Fried’s big chance at free agency. Did the A’s really make that serious of a play for the ace left-hander?

No, of course not, according to the man who runs the Athletics:

That makes more sense. While the club definitely needs starting pitching (and in a bad way), it’s still too early in the rebuilding process to go full out and sign someone like Fried when the club just isn’t ready for contention just yet. It’s fun to think about the A’s shelling out a deal in excess of $200MM but it’s not the right time yet.

Not to say that that time won’t come. The club is surely looking at upgrades for the roster but won’t be swimming in the deep end of free agency until they are either in Las Vegas or the stadium is on track to open. Perhaps Forst actually was pitching Fried on the club but maybe not “aggressively”, considering the deal Fried ultimately got from New York. It wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world for Forst to at least begin talking to free agents and getting a better sense of what those massive contract negotiations are really like. He sure hasn’t had to deal with contracts anywhere close to that range.

The report of an aggressive front office could even be a long-term play: swing and miss intentionally this offseason, watch the team improvement in 2025, and begin pitching players on the squad in 2026 and ‘27. By then the stadium in Las Vegas should be at least started, the on-field talent continues to grow and improve, and the reputation of the Athletics not being willing to spend at least takes a dent. Showing more seriousness towards contention can only help the poor perception that the club has right now. And the offseason isn’t over; the A’s were reportedly talking to a familiar face in lefty Sean Manaea about a potential contract before the Severino signing and he remains unsigned as of this posting. Could those conversations restart sooner than later now that other options are falling off the board?

Have an excellent day everyone.

A’s news:

• There’s more to A’s newfound willingness to spend than on-field improvement
• Athletics select RHP Noah Murdock in Rule 5 Draft
• Meet Rule 5 Pick Noah Murdock
• A’s were reportedly “one of the most aggressive” teams in Fried bidding
• With Winter Meetings over, what’s next for A’s?

MLB News & Interest:

• Red Sox acquire ace lefty Garrett Crochet from White Sox
• Blue Jays acquire second baseman Andres Gimenez from Guardians
• Rangers acquire infielder Jake Burger from Marlins
• Rangers bring back starter Nathan Eovaldi on 3-year, $75MM deal
• Yankees sign left-handed ace starter Max Fried to 8-year, $218MM
• Mets, Soto finalize record-breaking contract
• Mets open to paying down salary to facilitate Starling Marte trade
• Padres reportedly “listening” on Dylan Cease, Luis Arraez, Xander Bogaerts
• Yankees sign reliever Jonathan Loaisiga to 1-year deal
• Red Sox, Yankees line up on rare trade sending catcher Carlos Narvaez to Boston
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Ballers’ next season schedule is out:

Adding a lefty reliever with MLB experience: