Ranking the 5 Most Shocking Winter Meetings Moves of the Last 5 Years
Even though baseball season is technically off right now, there is something particularly exciting about the winter meetings. Everyone converges at one location, and what you thought was going to happen at the beginning of the meetings is not at all what has happened by the end.
Even within the past five years, we have seen some pretty crazy stuff happen at these meetings. Here are the five craziest ones in my opinion, ranked in descending order.
5. CC Sabathia Setting a Record in 2008
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In 2008, the New York Yankees signed CC Sabathia to a record-setting deal. In some sense, it shouldn’t have been overly shocking. After being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers halfway through the 2008 season, he went on an amazing 11-2 run with a 1.65 ERA.
His seven-year, $161 million contract broke the record for all left-handed starting pitchers. Obviously, as payrolls rise, records are going to be broken, but the shocking part about this deal is the fact that it happened so early.
Every winter, we watch the tension build around the free agents who remain on the market. As they remain on the market, teams become more involved in trying to outbid each other. Prices rise, but it is shocking that this one did so early in the winter.
4. C.J. Wilson Moving to the Rival Angels
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Although the Texas Rangers did not win the World Series in 2010 or 2011, they had finally climbed over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and seemed to be the team to beat in the American League West. However, the Angels were not too thrilled with that, and they went after Texas ace C.J. Wilson right away at the winter meetings.
That is a very significant momentum change. You are taking the ace from one team and moving him to their prime divisional rival.
At the time, if you were a Texas Rangers fan you must have felt pretty shocked and almost betrayed by your star pitcher who chose to go to the enemy.
3. Jayson Werth Heading to the Nationals
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I know that this one is technically unfair because the Washington Nationals signed Jayson Werth the night before the winter meetings began in 2010. However, this is a move that caught many people seriously off guard.
Werth had just come off of a pair of great seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies, so there was no doubt that he would get a substantial raise. However, most players wait for the market to dictate their value. Bidding wars can develop, and contract values can climb through the roof.
Jayson Werth didn’t wait for any of that. He jumped right on to a very valuable contract.
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2. The Miami Marlins Raid the Market in 2011
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The Miami Marlins seemed to have all the money in the world in 2011. They chased after Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson unsuccessfully, but they still made a splash that no one really predicted.
In a short time they brought in Jose Reyes, Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle and tried to put themselves in position for a serious run at the playoffs. Obviously in hindsight we can tell that it didn’t work out that well, but this was a definite change of pace from the Marlins of the past.
When they had been successful in the past, they immediately sold away all of their players afterwards. This time, however, they were the buyers in the market. I have to admit that I did not see that coming until it actually happened.
1. Albert Pujols Goes to the Angels
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Let me tell you how surprised I was when Albert Pujols ended up with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I was still writing here at Bleacher Report, and I was absolutely certain that he would return to the St. Louis Cardinals. He was the face of the franchise, and they were offering him a very competitive contract.
I had written an entire article that I was going to publish the minute he signed with St. Louis. It was an article about how smart the St. Louis Cardinals were to bring the best player in baseball at that time back.
I never got to publish that article, and it was the best example of a mystery team sneaking in at the last minute and grabbing the best player on the market.
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