Early Ohtani signals and 4 more takeaways from the GM Meetings
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Much of the baseball world convened right here this week for the General Managers Meetings, kicking off the 2023-24 Hot Stove season.
Executives gathered for his or her conferences, speaking in regards to the results of the brand new guidelines adjustments, the state of pitching accidents within the sport, transaction guidelines and quite a lot of different on- and off-field points. Pretty normal stuff for the annual get-together.
But these issues aren’t the issues that can hold the range burning within the weeks and months forward. The free-agent market will dominate the news, supplemented by a commerce market that’s anticipated to be lively.
Here are 5 takeaways from this week’s GM Meetings.
Free company formally commenced on Monday afternoon, and though many brokers had been in attendance in Scottsdale this week — their very own conferences are going down on Thursday in the identical metropolis — the GM Meetings principally function the start of a prolonged course of.
Still, one participant’s identify was uttered across the Omni resort greater than every other: Shohei Ohtani. The presumptive American League Most Valuable Player is undoubtedly the highest free agent accessible, and whereas the vast majority of executives across the league imagine he’ll finally signal with the Dodgers, different golf equipment together with the Giants, Mets, Red Sox and Cubs are anticipated to take their shot at signing Ohtani.
Those talks will doubtless start to warmth up after Thanksgiving, with many trade insiders predicting that Ohtani might make his choice by subsequent month’s Winter Meetings in Nashville.
“Nobody saw this one coming,” one NL govt mentioned. “It’s pretty rare for something to happen that surprises literally everybody other than the parties involved.”
There had been two minor trades this week, each involving the Rays, however when the highest decision-makers from all 30 golf equipment collect in a single place for 3 days, commerce discussions are certain to occur.
“This is an information-gathering situation,” one AL govt mentioned. “Everybody is just starting to get a feel for which players could be available, what teams might be looking for and so on. But for some trades that happen later in the winter, invariably some groundwork for those moves will likely have been laid here this week.”
The spotlight of the GM media availabilities got here courtesy of the Yankees’ Brian Cashman, who went on a tirade in opposition to critics of the group whom he believes are creating false narratives, principally involving the membership’s reliance upon analytics.
“There’s a lot of stuff that’s not accurate that’s floating around about [how] analytics took us offline,” Cashman mentioned. “The one thing we have is a very consistent, successful operation. Last year, obviously, is the first year in a long time we took a dip – and it happens. But the same people that were responsible for us having a lot of success are somehow being focused as the blame game for the reason [the 2023] season went south.”
Cashman famous that the Yankees have the smallest analytics division within the AL East (a press release that was troublesome to fact-check) and the most important professional scouting division within the division, proof that the membership isn’t making all of its selections primarily based on numbers.
“Is that a shocker to everybody?” Cashman mentioned. “It shouldn’t be, but no one’s doing their deep dives. They’re just throwing ammunition and [bull] and accusing us of being run analytically. Analytics is an important spoke in our wheel, but it should be in everybody’s wheel and it really is. It’s an important spoke in every operation that’s having success. There’s not one team that’s not using it. We’re no different. But to say we are guided by analytics as a driver, it’s a lie.”
Hoskins, who missed all of 2023 after struggling a torn ACL, is a free agent this offseason and will draw curiosity from quite a lot of groups. Harper performed 36 video games at first base in 2023 after spending a lot of the 12 months as a delegated hitter following his return from Tommy John surgical procedure.
The Phillies might have this plan in place, however with the chance that Castellanos may very well be traded within the coming weeks or months, there’s at all times a chance that the crew pivots and returns Harper to proper discipline, which might open the door for a Hoskins return. Dombrowski might additionally flip to the commerce or free-agent market to fill proper discipline if he offers Castellanos.
