MLB: Does Winning the Winter Meetings Guarantee Wins in October?

With the acquisition of Chris Sale at the 2016 MLB Winter Meetings, fans of Red Sox Nation are beyond thrilled for the upcoming season while fan bases where teams did not do too much are filled with dread. Is winning the Winter Meetings a guarantee of playoff success?

It has been a busy week at the MLB Winter Meetings near Washington, DC.  Now that the Rule 5 draft has finished (or as it should be known going forward as Padrefestapalooza 2016), it signals the end of official events at the Winter Meetings and time for those journalists in attendance to compile their Winners and Losers lists.  While a convincing argument can be made for the prospect haul Rick Hahn and the Chicago White Sox left town with, I think most so-called experts will remember these Winter Meetings for the moves made by Dave Dombrowski (again) for the Boston Red Sox.  Adding Chris Sale to a staff that will feature a $217 million dollar pitcher throwing second in the rotation and the current Cy Young award winner throwing third is like a “kick in the gut” for AL rivals as well as trading for set-up reliever Tyler Thornburg in an acquisition reminiscent of last year’s Carson Smith pickup means Boston is the clear winner for 2016.

What does ‘winning’ the Winter Meetings mean as far as playoff baseball in 2017?  Let’s take a look back at the previous five Winter Meetings and see if any patterns emerge for the winners of the Winter Meetings and see what results Red Sox Nation can expect in the upcoming season based on the Chris Sale trade and the declaration made by most observers that Boston leaves these Winter Meetings on top with the rest of the World Series contenders having work to do to catch up.