Why Shohei Ohtani’s future seems likely to remain on the West Coast
USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale feels confident that whether or not it’s with the Angels, Shohei Ohtani will play on the West Coast next year.
Sports Seriously
Major League Baseball’s annual winter meetings are underway in Nashville, where the hot stove should really start to boil over.
Shohei Ohtani’s free agency is the talk of baseball, with the two-time AL MVP expected to set the North American sports record by signing for around $500 million.
Trade talks are always a focus of the winter meetings and San Diego Padres outfielder Juan Soto could be moved ahead of the 2024 season, his final year before becoming a free agent next winter.
Keep up with the latest news, rumors and analysis from the 2023 Winter Meetings:
The Atlanta Braves got the winter meetings off to a fast start Sunday night, agreeing to a five-player trade with the Seattle Mariners that partially fills their vacancy in left field.
The Braves received outfielder Jarred Kelenic, veteran left-handed pitcher Marco Gonzales and first baseman Evan White from the Mariners in exchange for right-hander Jackson Kowar and 20-year-old pitching prospect Cole Phillips. The Braves also received an unspecified amount of cash.
Kelenic, 24, is a former top prospect with the New York Mets who was sent to Seattle exactly five years ago in the deal that brought back reliever Edwin Diaz and second baseman Robinson Cano.
However, he has failed to deliver on his prospect pedigree with the Mariners, hitting .204/.283/.373 over his three seasons in the majors. He did show some improvement in 2023, hitting above the major league average with a 109 OPS+.
The left-handed hitting Kelenic is expected to be part of a left field platoon in Atlanta along with youngster Vaughn Grissom, who is being converted from a middle infielder.
In addition to the 27-year-old Kowar, a former first-round pick of the Kansas City Royals in 2018, the Mariners get a measure of salary relief by shedding the contracts of Gonzales ($12.25M in 2024) and White ($15M over next two years).
– Steve Gardner
For the first time in free agent history, Major League Baseball awaits the dual impact of one player’s decision.
Check out the full breakdown of MLB’s top 89 free agents for 2023-24:
- SP/DH Shohei Ohtani, Angels
- SP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Orix Buffaloes, Japan
- SP Blake Snell, Padres
- OF/1B Cody Bellinger, Cubs
- SP Aaron Nola, Phillies – SIGNED with Phillies
- SP Sonny Gray, Twins – SIGNED with Cardinals
- RP Josh Hader, Padres
- 3B Matt Chapman, Blue Jays
- SP Jordan Montgomery, Cardinals
- SP Eduardo Rodriguez, Tigers
- SP Marcus Stroman, Cubs
- OF/DH Jorge Soler, Marlins
- OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Diamondbacks
- DH J.D. Martinez, Dodgers
- OF Teoscar Hernandez, Mariners
– Gabe Lacques
MLB Winter Meetings start: Few free agents have already signed
NASHVILLE — While anticipation of the most celebrated free-agent signing in baseball history continues, with teams poised to make Ohtani the first $500 million player in North American team sports, there is a genuine fear that the winter meetings could come and go without any big deals.
It has been an eerily quiet winter so far.
Aaron Nola, who re-signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for $172 million, and Sonny Gray, who signed a three-year, $75 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals, are the only free agents to receive more than $50 million.
“There’s just not a lot of good players,” one GM told USA TODAY Sports. “Nobody is jumping out and grabbing mediocre players. And agents are just waiting it out to see if teams start to panic.”
Baseball GMs, executives and agents remind everyone that the World Series ended just five weeks ago, and there are still two full months of shopping days before spring training.
– Bob Nightengale
Supply and demand: Every MLB team needs starting pitchers
Forget about upgrading your starting rotation. Most Major League Baseball clubs would do well simply to tread water this winter.
Although free agency has barely begun, dueling market forces – including a weak free agent class and an inordinate number of teams aiming for contention – will create significant challenges for clubs seeking increasingly elusive reliable starting pitching.
And an analysis of major league rosters indicates demand is outkicking supply by a roughly 2-to-1 margin.
Of course, necessity will be the mother of invention. Many teams will go without a fifth – heck, perhaps even a fourth – starter, opting for bullpen games or piggyback situations. But those practices are not necessarily sustainable over 162 games, especially for teams shooting for a berth in the expanded playoffs.
Perhaps we’ll look back and laud the St. Louis Cardinals, who doled out eight-figure guarantees to veteran innings-eaters Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn before the Thanksgiving table was set, and then added All-Star Sonny Gray on a three-year, $75 million deal.
– Gabe Lacques