Throughout the offseason, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week, we broke down Jack Flaherty’s free-agent future. This weekend we’re going to tackle notable offseason moves.
What was your favorite move of the offseason?
R.J. Anderson: I know this wasn’t stipulated as part of the question, but for my purposes, I’m going to pretend that we were asked to avoid the obvious, top-of-the-market moves. (No one wants to read “Roki Sasaki to the Dodgers” four times.)
With that in mind, I’ll give in to recency bias and say I loved the Rays’ signing of Ha-Seong Kim. He’s one of my favorite players to watch; he’s a high-quality fielder and baserunner and a quietly productive hitter. I’m so fond of him that, were it not for his season-ending shoulder surgery, he would’ve ranked as a top 10 free agent for me.
Granted, I understand there’s probably some concern about what Kim’s bat looks like after surgery, but he has enough secondary skills to survive if there’s slippage at the plate. In turn, I think there’s a fair chance that by the time we get to the trade deadline, many other teams will regret not taking the plunge.
Matt Snyder: I’ll go with the Cubs trading for Kyle Tucker. I’d been saying the last two years that they mostly had a team of good players who were more “supporting cast” types and needed a main character. He finished fifth in AL MVP voting in 2023 and, last year, looked to be taking another step forward into superstardom (4.7 WAR, 23 homers, 11 steals in a little less than half a season). The NL Central looks open for the taking and I do think the Cubs should’ve been more aggressive after trading for Tucker, but in and of itself, that trade was a huge move for lame duck club president Jed Hoyer.
Dayn Perry: I have to say the Diamondbacks’ signing of Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210 million free-agent contract. While I do have some concerns about how Burnes will age, there’s no doubt that he greatly helps the Arizona cause. They’re in win-now mode and acting like it despite not being among the revenue powerhouses of the sport. That Burnes reportedly took less to sign with the D-backs is also notable. Seeing a club that’s not among the usual offseason suspects right now making such a splash addition of a frontline talent is pretty refreshing.
Mike Axisa: The best moves were the Dodgers getting Sasaki, the D-backs getting Burnes, the Cubs getting Tucker, and the Mets getting Juan Soto. Can you tell I think it’s good when teams add stars? Even when they have to pay top dollar for it?
“Best moves” and “favorite moves” aren’t always the same thing, though. I really liked the Nationals getting Nathaniel Lowe at the price they paid (reliever Robert Garcia). The Tigers are getting Gleyber Torres, a 28-year-old middle infielder, for the same one-year, $15 million contract they gave late career Alex Cobb, which is a steal. It was technically two separate trades, but I loved the Guardians unloading the $96.5 million they owed Andrés Giménez on the Blue Jays, then flipping Spencer Horwitz for Luis Ortiz and two pitching prospects. That was some nifty tradecraft. It’s too bad that Cleveland didn’t reinvest the Giménez savings into anything significant.
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