MLB Offseason Power Rankings: The Stove Warms

With the MLB season official over *crying face emoji* it’s time to turn our attention to the hot stove.

First, a word of warning: This will not be your regular power rankings post. There will be no subjectivity, just numbers. Complicated numbers. Ok, not really, but how the heck is WAR calculated anyway?

I thought it would be interesting to calculate each team’s end-of-season WAR, subtract any free agents each team has and any trades that they may have made throughout the course of the regular season or thus far this offseason (Pat Neshek, Cameron Maybin) and then rank teams according to their new cumulative WAR totals.

After compiling the data, there are going to be some surprises. We’re not all going to agree that the top teams belong there or that the bottom teams are that bad. The middle teams are exactly where they should be, obviously.

Hopefully you’ll see some of the data to be intriguing and thought provoking. Drew Butera and Kendrys Morales had the same WAR last year (0.7) with the Kansas City Royals, which says more about Morales’ season than it does about Butera’s, but Kendrys will obviously be in for the bigger payday because he can hit dingers. On paper, they were worth the same amount on the field.

After subtracting their free agents, the Angels and Orioles ended up with the same team WAR. Does this mean that the Orioles are closer to terrible, or that the Angels are one dominant reliver having a career year away from making the playoffs?

There will be little tidbits like this that I’ll sprinkle in that mean mean something, or may not mean anything, but they’ll be interesting at the very least.

Above all else I wanted to have some fun this offseason, so let’s get weird.