After baseball went through a largely dormant offseason in 2017-18, the 2018-19 offseason should give us a bit more action.
I hope that you all enjoyed the quick break that we all had between the end of the World Series and the start of free agency, because that quick lull has come to an end and the Hot Stove season is officially here. Still, it would be understandable if you are bit apprehensive about getting excited about any sort of offseason action. After all, the Hot Stove was anything but hot for the vast majority of last offseason. The World Series Champion Boston Red Sox ended up being the ones to sign J.D. Martinez last offseason and even then, that signing didn’t happen until February and pitchers and catchers had already reported.
It would be a pretty big bummer for us fans if there was another long winter of inactivity across baseball. Fortunately, that may not be the case for the upcoming offseason. According to a tweet that served as a truly refreshing splash of water for baseball fans who suffered through the desert of inactivity from last season, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports believes that “the market is going to be robust early” and that we could be in for an “awfully busy winter.” If Passan ends up being correct, then that is absolutely fantastic news.
The previous offseason wasn’t much fun for fans across the sport as few teams were active and it seemed like it took forever for the teams who actually did make moves to do so. It helped contribute to what felt like one of the longest offseasons in the history of baseball as the wait for Opening Day seemed like it was an agonizingly long one. Now, it appears that we could be in for some actual wheeling-and-dealing across the baseball world and that’s only a good thing.
Of course, nothing will come close to actually replacing real-life major league baseball games. It will still feel like a long, long wait between now and Opening Day 2019. However, it’s always nice to have baseball-related things to talk about from now until then and it appears that MLB isn’t going to spend most of this winter in a cave doing a whole lot of hibernating. It appears that we’ll finally see some activity this winter and we’ll see some signs of life when it comes to this sport’s offseason.
- Ever wonder what it’s like for SB Nation MLB staff writers as they go through the normal day-to-day duties of a respective MLB season? If bad PR pitches, problems with MLB.tv and terrible puns appeal to you, then this is the look behind the curtain that you have been waiting for.
- Clayton Kershaw is going to remain with the Dodgers after signing a three-year deal worth $93 million. True Blue LA is all over the news.
- The Texas Rangers have a new manager, as they’ve hired former Dodgers third base coach Chris Woodward as their new skipper for the next season and hopefully beyond.
- Texas had a busy day, as they also picked up Drew Smyly from the Cubs via trade.
- Speaking of the Cubs, rumors are floating around that they could trade Cole Hamels. There are also rumors that they may have “limited payroll flexibility,” which would probably infuriate Cubs fans if that was true.
- The Nationals aren’t rebuilding. Instead, they are rebooting and Federal Baseball took a look at what Washington could be planning for what should be an intriguing offseason.
- Speaking of an intriguing offseason, Mariners fans are obviously desperate for a long-overdue return to the playoffs. Lookout Landing figures that if they get there, it’ll be because Seattle took a chance on high-risk, high-reward pitching.
- Clayton Kershaw didn’t spend too much time as a free agent, which means that according to Dayn Perry of CBS Sports, Patrick Corbin is now the top starting lefty on the market at this point.
- Jon Heyman of Fancred Sports has been busy, as usual. This time, he’s once again embarked on the futile quest of predicting deals for 131 free agents.