MLB Teams at Serious Risk of Completely Blowing the Offseason
Apart from the now-fully loaded San Diego Padres, not many teams in Major League Baseball have made the most of what's thus far been an extraordinarily slow offseason.
This is to say that pretty much everyone should be doing more, but there are a select few teams whose inactivity is particularly baffling.
We've singled out 10 teams—including three in one division that are basically in the same boat—who are at risk of blowing it this winter. As in, they're leaving obvious needs unfilled despite seemingly having the resources to fill them.
Let's count 'em down from the least to most egregious offenders.
Boston Red Sox
1 of 8
To be fair, we've only begrudgingly included the Boston Red Sox on this list.
If not a full-on rebuild, they certainly entered a retooling phase when they traded Mookie Betts and David Price last February. Chris Sale subsequently underwent Tommy John surgery in March, and Eduardo Rodriguez also missed the shortened 2020 season with a heart condition.
It was no great surprise, then, when the Red Sox finished last in the American League East with a 24-36 record. Given these circumstances, it's not that unforgivable that they're not spending willy-nilly this winter.
But with the New York Yankees—more on them later—full of holes and the Tampa Bay Rays now without Blake Snell, the Red Sox actually have a path to the top of the AL East in 2021. If they were to augment their core with a second baseman, a center fielder and pitching depth, it would become that much straighter.
The Red Sox have instead been steering clear of big-name free agents in favor of issuing low-risk deals to players like Hunter Renfroe and Matt Andriese. Given their newly reset luxury-tax penalties, they could and should be doing more.
Miami Marlins
2 of 8
Like the Red Sox, the Miami Marlins are another begrudging entry on this list.
Apart from exercising Starling Marte's option and making a few low-risk additions to their bullpen, they have thus far been quiet following their surprise playoff berth in 2020.
If this is because they're not entirely convinced this past year signaled the true end of their rebuild, well, that actually makes some sense. Getting to a 31-29 record did require some overachieving, in part because the young hitters they tried out didn't fare as well as their young pitchers.
What nonetheless makes Miami's silence frustrating is that it could seemingly pursue big-ticket signings or trades if it wanted to. There are no guaranteed salaries on the team's books after 2021, and its farm system is one of the deepest in MLB.
While the Washington Nationals are in decline and both Atlanta (Marcell Ozuna) and the Philadelphia Phillies (J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius) are missing key pieces, the Marlins also have a window for a power play in the National League East. It's disappointing they're not taking advantage.
Basically the Entire NL Central
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The Chicago Cubs might have gone all-in on 2021. Instead, Theo Epstein called it quits, and the club has effectively started a rebuild through Kyle Schwarber's non-tender and the trade of Yu Darvish.
Nobody could have seen this coming in 2016 when the Cubs were World Series winners and seemingly a dynasty in the making. Yet here we are, and it's frankly for the best in context of how rapidly the club's championship contention window has shut over the last four years.
The Cubs might still have a chance to win the NL Central this year, however, because nobody else seems interested in exploiting the power vacuum within the division.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are in a rebuild of their own, so they at least have an excuse. The same can't be said of the Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, each of whom has thus far sat out the offseason market after making the playoffs in 2020.
The general feeling emanating from the NL Central is that since there is no obvious power in the division right now, why not give in to the status quo and let the chips fall where they may in 2021?
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Los Angeles Dodgers
4 of 8
The Los Angeles Dodgers in some kind of peril? Seriously?
Yeah, it does feel a bit silly to suggest as much. They are the reigning World Series champions, after all, and the roster that got it done isn't exactly in shambles. The Dodgers merely need to re-sign or replace Justin Turner, Joc Pederson and a few free-agent relievers. Those aren't exactly insurmountable hurdles.
Still, the threat the Padres now pose to the Dodgers in the NL West must not be underestimated.
Coming off a 37-23 record and a playoff berth in 2020, the Padres were already an elite team in their own right at the outset of the offseason. Now they're even more so after adding Snell, Darvish and Korean star Ha-Seong Kim. Indeed, there's a strong case for them as the best team in the majors.
Granted, the Dodgers are reportedly in on DJ LeMahieu (here) and Liam Hendriks (here). But to sign them might require the Dodgers to do something they haven't yet done under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman: spend more than $50 million on a non-incumbent free agent.
Los Angeles Angels
5 of 8
Elsewhere in Southern California, the Los Angeles Angels have indeed already filled one of their major offseason needs.
In trading for Raisel Iglesias in December, the Angels added an ace closer to a bullpen that sorely needed one. Angels relievers accounted for a 4.63 ERA in 2020, not to mention more meltdowns than any other team.
What the Angels still need, though, is a No. 1 for their starting rotation. Their starters ranked 29th with a 5.52 ERA last year. Perhaps that number obscures the collective quality of Dylan Bundy, Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning and Jaime Barria, but the Angels nonetheless need a true ace.
To this end, they've already missed out on trades for Snell, Darvish and Lance Lynn. And while they still have a chance to sign reigning NL Cy Young Award winner and SoCal native Trevor Bauer, he certainly has options aplenty outside Anaheim.
If the Angels ultimately fail to land the ace they need, 2021 may well be another wasted year of Mike Trout's prime.
Houston Astros
6 of 8
The Angels should be all the more motivated to add an ace because of what's happening with the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics.
They've been the dominant powers in the AL West in recent seasons, but both now stand to lose key players to free agency. The A's are without Hendriks and Marcus Semien. The Astros are even worse off as both George Springer and Michael Brantley are on the open market.
It's hard to ask that the A's re-sign either Hendriks or Semien. They typically operate with bottom-five payrolls even in the best of times, which, of course, 2020 was most certainly not.
The Astros, on the other hand, would have spent $209 million on payroll in 2020 if the pandemic hadn't shortened the season. Their projected payroll for 2021 is about $55 million short of that mark, which would seem to equal plenty of leeway on the free-agent market.
Yet the Astros are not among the finalists for Springer, according to Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News. Losing him alone would be a huge blow. If they also let Brantley slip, they'll have lost their two best hitters from 2020.
Minnesota Twins
7 of 8
After handily winning the AL Central in 2019, the Minnesota Twins needed a late surge to win the division by just one game in 2020.
The Chicago White Sox did their part in challenging the Twins, going 5-5 against them en route to a 35-25 record and their first postseason since 2008. They've since kept their foot on the gas, adding Lynn to their rotation and Adam Eaton to their powerful lineup.
The Twins, meanwhile, have essentially sat back and shrugged at the offseason.
They've already lost ace reliever Trevor May, who signed with the New York Mets. They also opened up a need in left field when they non-tendered Eddie Rosario, and their list of free agents otherwise includes Nelson Cruz, Marwin Gonzalez and a handful of starting pitchers.
The Twins can go a long way toward redeeming their offseason if they simply re-sign Cruz. But the two sides have been in a staring contest for a while now. That could potentially be an open door for another team to sign him, thereby robbing the Twins of their best hope of continuing to outpace Chicago.
New York Yankees
8 of 8
Nobody is playing with more fire than the Yankees this winter.
Free agency took a big bite out of their 2020 roster, particularly at second base and in their starting rotation. The former is missing reigning MLB batting champion DJ LeMahieu. The latter is sans Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and James Paxton.
Yet Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has said he's in no hurry to add starting pitching. He's more interested in re-signing LeMahieu, yet he's apparently comfortable waiting the veteran out and daring other teams to give in to his five-year, $125 million asking price.
This has worked so far, but maybe not for much longer. Other suitors for LeMahieu include the Dodgers (here), Mets (here) and Toronto Blue Jays (here), each of whom has more than enough money for him.
That should also be true of the Yankees given that their 2021 payroll is projected about $75 million below what they would have spent in 2020. If they nonetheless fail to re-sign LeMahieu and significantly upgrade their rotation, they'll risk running their World Series drought to 12 years.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.
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