LAS VEGAS — With baseball’s free agency “quiet period” set to end Thursday at 5 pm ET, many teams’ early work at this week’s GM meetings — the first formal offseason gathering — has centered around trades.
“The trade discussions are maybe a little bit more ramped up than normal,” Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said Tuesday. “Everyone’s pushing extremely hard to learn as much as possible as soon as possible. There are certain teams that can wait back and choose to wait back for strategic reasons, but there’s a lot of momentum around potential deals.”
That momentum incentivized the Texas Rangers to move quickly, acquiring starter Jake Odorizzi from the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday afternoon in exchange for left-hander Kolby Allard. (Atlanta is paying $10 million of Odorizzi’s salary.) Rangers executive vice president/GM Chris Young alluded to the pace of the deal being pretty fast and told reporters that many teams are after the same targets.
“Early on (there is more trade talk), but to me, it feels similar (to past winters),” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “We split up the teams, a group of us, and we say, ‘Hey, go check in with Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, find out what they’re looking to do.’ You might hear things about needs positionally, or you might learn something — they’re actually looking to do something a little different than our assessment of their team would indicate. So, it just gets you creatively thinking about something for later. It’s not often that anything happens (here). It just kind of sets the stage for the remainder of the offseason.”
The biggest question — certainly the one that will draw the most attention — around Falvey’s team, though, is whether they will re-sign free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa. Falvey noted Tuesday that both sides like each other, although Correa has earned the right to explore the open market.
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While the quiet period, which extends five days after the end of the World Series, has stopped any signings by new teams (clubs can exclusively negotiate with their own free agents, like the Mets did in re-signing closer Edwin Diaz), there’s no harm in laying potential groundwork and having discussions with other free agents’ representatives.
“It’s different (not being able to sign free agents at the GM meetings),” said Angels general manager Perry Minasian, who made headlines earlier this week by saying superstar Shohei Ohtani will not be traded this winter. Minasian made his club’s first big free-agent signing last year in mid-November, agreeing to a one-year deal with pitcher Noah Syndergaard. One of his main focuses this winter is on building depth on the Angels roster, which is certainly an area that could be prime for trades.
“Having dialogue with (other) clubs, understanding needs to try to match with scenarios, is important to understanding the landscape,” Minasian added. “In past years, where you can maybe be a little more aggressive (with free agent signings) it’s a little different, but I think (these meetings) have been beneficial.”
In most years, the GM meetings would have taken place after the quiet period, but with the rescheduled games originally postponed by the lockout pushing the regular season and postseason later this year, the 2022 gathering started just two days after the World Series.
Giants president Farhan Zaidi said Wednesday he’s spent a lot of time meeting with agents in Las Vegas, which makes sense as San Francisco is gearing up for what could be a huge offseason. The Giants have been labeled as an early front-runner for Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who headlines a free-agent position-player class that also includes Correa, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Anthony Rizzo and Dansby Swanson.
“I think from a financial standpoint there’s nobody that would be out of our capability,” said Zaidi, who declined to talk specifically about Judge or any other free agent. “And then it’ll just be a question of whether there’s mutual interest.”
One of the agents Zaidi did confirm he met with in Las Vegas was Scott Boras, who does not represent Judge but has plenty of other clients including Correa, Bogaerts, Brandon Nimmo and starting pitchers Taijuan Walker and Carlos Rodon. Jacob deGrom and Justin Verlander are considered the biggest free-agent starters this winter with both of their recent clubs — the Mets and Astros — expected to be in the mix to retain their services.
“The free-agent market is very much a carnivore’s market,” Boras said during a 45-minute media session in which he waxed poetic about many of his guys. “The menu features filet mignon and wagyu, and less hamburger and vegan.”
However you characterize this offseason and each team’s specific plans, all of the clubs are grateful not to be peppered with questions about a looming lockout, as was the case at last year’s GM meetings. Despite the sport’s frenzy of moves when MLB and the Players Association agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement, more than a dozen GMs said they viewed last year’s offseason as an anomaly and not something that will fundamentally change their approach.
“I am very hopeful that I will be able to say this is my first normal offseason as a Red Sox,” Boston’s chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said. “Whatever normal is these days. We unfortunately had more time on our hands in September and October (than) we planned to think about these types of things. And really just tried to get our arms around all the different possibilities, make sure we’re going back to basics with what skill sets do we need? How do we need the roster to fit together? What do we need to get out of our players to get back to the postseason?”
Added Minasian: “Every offseason is different, right? The markets, different players have different (markets). You try and understand the landscape of what is available and make decisions based on that. … Those are all decisions that you make in real time to sort of establish (your offseason). There’s no blueprint for it.”
(Top photo of Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer: Lucas Peltier / USA Today)
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