8 biggest surprises of 2022-23 Hot Stove season
You shouldn’t be stunned to be studying this. Every yr, we run an inventory of probably the most stunning developments of the Hot Stove season, as a result of yearly a bunch of stuff occurs that catches us off-guard.
Though there’s nonetheless loads of time for extra dumbfounding developments, let’s recap the winter, to this point, with this record of the eight greatest shockers of the Stove.
The Correa saga truly qualifies for the highest three spots on this record.
Waking up (on Eastern Standard Time) to news of his new staff was a short-lived custom, however a convention, no much less. It truly dates again to final spring, when news got here down in the course of a March evening that the Twins had shockingly swooped in to signal Correa to a short-term deal.
It occurred once more when the Giants pivoted to Correa after they have been unable to land Aaron Judge.
Then once more when the Mets pounced on Correa after a failed bodily in San Francisco, with proprietor Steve Cohen negotiating the deal whereas vacationing in Hawaii.
Then we realized, late one evening, that the Twins have been again on the forefront of the Correa market. And positive sufficient, they landed him once more.
All this due to a steel plate in Correa’s decrease leg.
What a “steel” for the Twins!
After the 2021 season, Correa turned down a five-year $160 million provide to stay with the Astros as a result of he understandably needed to discover his market. When all is claimed and executed, he may have made $172 million over the 5 seasons that Astros contract would have coated, with a further two assured years price a complete of about $63 million and 4 staff possibility/vesting years after that.
So sure, he wound up beating that unique provide from his unique staff. But it’s fairly secure to say all of us — together with the Giants and Mets — anticipated him to beat it extra emphatically … and with fewer agreements alongside the best way.
2. The 5 minutes when “Arson” Judge was headed to the Giants.
Aaron Judge’s vacation spot was shaping as much as be the most important story in baseball this winter and virtually actually the most important story of a long-anticipated Winter Meetings. Every reporter in San Diego was on the case. Every fan was hanging on each morsel of details about the battle between the Giants and Yankees for Judge, whereas additionally ready and questioning if a thriller staff would swoop in final minute.
Anticipation, anxiousness and a focus to element have been excessive.
That’s when the hearth broke out.
When Jon Heyman of the New York Post and MLB Network posted a tweet that stated merely “Arson Judge appears headed to Giants,” he set the Winter Meetings ablaze. There was palpable buzz within the foyer, executives from the Giants and the panicked Yankees scrambled to achieve Judge’s agent, and the Internet — being the Internet — had a discipline day each with the news and the typo.
Mere minutes later, Heyman deleted the tweet and apologized for leaping the gun. Heyman is a recognized news-breaker who deserves explicit kudos for being all around the Correa saga this winter. The world of coping with nameless sources who’ve agendas may be troublesome, and errors do occur. So we forgive him. But we are going to always remember these few frantic moments when Judge was a Giant and, apparently, a pyromaniac.
(Then Judge wound up again with the Yanks like most all people anticipated all alongside.)
3. Xander Bogaerts to … the Padres?
We’ll get to Boston’s finish of this growth slightly later, however, even should you’ve come to count on the sudden from the Padres, this was nonetheless … sudden.
Forgive us if we thought the Padres have been working out of rabbits to tug out of their hat after a bevy of blockbusters lately that included the Manny Machado contract, the Fernando Tatis Jr. extension, the Juan Soto commerce and a lot extra. To lengthen themselves even additional with one more shortstop and the Thirteenth-largest contract in MLB historical past was fearless even by latest Friars’ requirements. This will probably be their third straight season with a franchise-record payroll. Their spending elevated about 80% from 2019 to the following full season in ’21, one other 21% from ’21 to ’22 and is on observe to go up one other 18% or so this yr.
Remember the times when the Padres supposedly couldn’t afford to maintain Chase Headley? Just take a look at ’em now!
4. The dimension of the offers.
No, it wasn’t simply the Mets splurging this winter (although Cohen’s membership dedicated extra {dollars} to free brokers and arbitration-eligible gamers in a single winter than the Pirates have spent on payroll over the previous 10 seasons mixed).
At final rely, $3.8 billion has been invested in free brokers this winter, surpassing the file of $3.31 billion from final yr.
Four of the 13 largest offers ever (the Judge, Trea Turner and Bogaerts free-agent contracts and the Rafael Devers extension) have been signed this winter, as have three of the highest 4 offers by way of common annual worth (Justin Verlander, Judge and Jacob deGrom). Nine gamers acquired nine-figure offers, together with — for the primary time ever — a reliever (Edwin Díaz).
In an business that has spent the previous decade or so paying a lot nearer consideration to getting older curves, a 39-year-old (Verlander) scored the best AAV of anyone within the free-agent discipline, two shortstops coming into their age-30 seasons (Turner and Bogaerts) obtained 11-year commitments (and the 28-year-old Correa had a 12-year deal in hand earlier than his bodily blew it up) and a 31-year-old with an iffy well being historical past (Judge) acquired the biggest free-agent deal ever.
It was very a lot a risk-on surroundings.
5. The deGrom contract, particularly.
That deGrom left New York was no shock. That he wound up with the Rangers — a staff broadly anticipated to be a giant spender on pitching this winter — was not a serious shock, both.
It was the contract itself that was jaw-dropping: Five years, $185 million. Yes, deGrom is among the best pitchers of his era, however there’s additionally that small matter of him solely making 12 begins since July 7, 2021, due to elbow and scapula points.
The whole worth of deGrom’s deal in 5 years is $3 million greater than the Rays pays shortstop Wander Franco in an 11-season span from 2022-32. It’s $5 million greater than the seven-year extension Verlander signed with the Tigers a decade in the past. It’s virtually precisely as a lot as Mike Trout (who has the biggest contract in MLB historical past) will make in the identical five-season span, in his age-31-35 seasons (whereas deGrom is simply coming into his age-35 season).
It is, in brief, an enormous dedication to an enormous expertise who has missed an enormous period of time the previous two years.
6. The Dodgers’ relative inaction.
With a bunch of huge cash off the books after 2022, the Dodgers may have put themselves on the forefront of free company. Instead, they’ve made it clear that they’re making an attempt to reset their luxurious tax threshold penalty — one thing that will probably be troublesome to do now that we all know they’re on the hook for the bulk of Trevor Bauer’s ’23 wage.
So as an alternative of Verlander becoming a member of the rotation, it’s Noah Syndergaard. Instead of Turner at shortstop, it’s Miguel Rojas. Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger are all gone, and the Dodgers have conjured up recollections of a 2014 Jason Heyward-for-Shelby Miller commerce by signing … Jason Heyward and Shelby Miller!
These are the Dodgers, winners of 9 of the previous 10 NL West titles and a mannequin of drafting, creating and sensible spending. So maybe this may all work out properly. But it’s nonetheless an odd — and, sure, stunning — search for L.A.
7. The Red Sox. (That’s it. That’s the headline.)
When Kiké Hernández signed an extension with the Red Sox final September, he instructed reporters what satisfied him to remain in Boston was a assure from chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom that the 2023 staff could be higher than the ’22 staff. That’s concurrently a low bar (given their place within the standings) and a tall order (given the complexities of their roster), however feedback like that — and Boston’s penchant for vacillating forwards and backwards between sluggish and sterling seasons — led to some intrigue over what their winter would appear like.
Well, it seems … nothing like we thought it will. Bogaerts bolted, in order that’s a fairly large blow to that assure (and Trevor Story’s elbow surgical procedure solely makes the Bogaerts gap larger). The Red Sox shocked many within the business with the velocity and dimension (5 years, $90 million) of their pact with outfielder Masataka Yoshida, who attracts quite a lot of differing opinions from scouts over how he’ll carry out right here. They additionally signed Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner, who will mix to make slightly bit greater than Mookie Betts will make with the Dodgers this season. The Red Sox did lengthen Devers to take the commerce chatter out of the equation, however they’ve most of the similar query marks in the present day that they did on the finish of final season … with some new questions added.
8. Sean Murphy traded to … the Braves?
It was a fait accompli {that a} rebuilding A’s staff with a stash of catching would deal Murphy coming off a powerful 2022 as he entered arbitration. But you’d have been hard-pressed to guess that the Braves, who ranked third in MLB in Baseball Reference WAR from the catching spot and despatched each of their backstops — Travis d’Arnaud and William Contreras — to the All-Star Game in ’22, could be those to land him.
Even when phrase started to unfold that the Braves have been critically concerned within the Murphy discussions, they tried to throw us off the scent by refuting these rumors emphatically. Then, per week or so later, they acquired the three-team deal executed, with Contreras shipped off to Milwaukee. Sneaky! And stunning.
