With Christmas simply days away, a number of MLB groups have been exhausting at work, giving their followers stocking stuffers that can have them decking the halls previous New 12 months’s. The Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and even the Chicago White Sox have delivered in massive methods. Usually, it’s the big-market groups that dominate the headlines; nevertheless, this offseason, quite a few big-market groups look like slumbering by means of silent nights.
However whereas many groups are having a disappointing offseason, there are a couple of that appear to be stumbling backwards. Let’s check out three such big-market groups experiencing a downward spiral.
Having acquired Devin Williams, Marcus Semien and Jorge Polanco, it will be considerably troublesome to say the Mets are having a gradual offseason. However when contemplating their losses, a gradual offseason begins to sound good by comparability.
The Mets have misplaced Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Cedric Mullins, Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley this winter. To get Semien, they traded Brandon Nimmo, who had lengthy been an impression bat for New York. Semien, however, has seen his numbers plummet for the previous two years, making this deal perplexing.
Of all their losses, Alonso, as soon as the face of their franchise, would be the most consequential. With Kyle Schwarber and Munetaka Murakami off the market, changing his manufacturing can be a lot more durable. And having missed the postseason final yr, the Mets needs to be feeling the strain to make a splash.
New York Yankees
Like their neighbors from Queens, the Yankees are additionally up towards a grueling offseason. Except for a couple of losses and free brokers, the Bombers look almost similar to the group that was trounced by the Blue Jays within the ALDS, albeit with a big gap left by Cody Bellinger.
As a matter of truth, the Yankees haven’t but acquired a major-league participant who wasn’t already on the group final yr. This stagnation could show detrimental to the group’s efforts subsequent season, as many impression names are already off the board. The Yankees have a number of areas to enhance upon and a shrinking choice of gamers to select from.
Fixing the Yankees’ issues won’t be simple. It doesn’t seem as if buying one marquee participant will make a large distinction, given their many vulnerabilities. And with the market quickly contracting, time is of the essence.
Chicago Cubs
The Cubs guess their 2025 season on one yr of Kyle Tucker. It wasn’t a foul gamble, however preserving the group in aggressive type can be troublesome if Tucker leaves.
The Cubs have made a couple of strikes this winter, choosing up Hoby Milner and Phil Maton to solidify the bullpen after the departure of Brad Keller, in addition to the potential departures of Eli Morgan and Taylor Rogers in free company. These strikes come along with re-signing Shota Imanaga and Caleb Thielbar. One intriguing acquisition got here within the type of Tyler Austin.
Greatest identified for his charging-the-mound second in a tightly-wound Yankees-Purple Sox recreation, Austin hasn’t seen a lot success within the majors. Nonetheless, his tenure in Japan’s NPB was a special story, posting a .945 OPS since 2020. However no matter his latest success, Austin remains to be a query mark.
