The 5 MLB teams that got an F grade for their offseason moves
As with every offseason in MLB, there are teams that do really well and there are teams that just made awful moves. Today, we will be talking about the latter.
To make our list, a team doesn’t have to make multiple asinine signings or trade all of their franchise players away.
After all, the Oakland A’s did the latter and they did not make our list. Why? They got some very good prospects in return so while their MLB team is a laughingstock and they, frankly, need to spend more money on their MLB team, at least they have some sense of direction on building for the future. If we had six teams, though, they still might make this list just because they let their manager Bob Melvin go to the San Diego Padres for literally nothing.
Speaking of the Padres, let’s dive into our list.
MLB grades: The San Diego Padres get an F for the offseason
To be fair, the San Diego Padres getting an F is not entirely their fault because Fernando Tatis, Jr. made bad decisions. But other than hiring Bob Melvin, what did the Padres do to improve their team in 2022? They added Luke Voit, Nick Martínez (from Japan), catcher Jorge Alfaro, and two relievers. That’s it.
They didn’t add Kris Bryant (who went to college in San Diego), not Nelson Cruz, Nick Castellanos, or any other bats.
Will the Padres be as bad as they were in 2021? Probably not, but when they are also going to have to weather Fernando Tatis, Jr. being out until June with wrist surgery, they had an awful offseason, especially when their division rival (the Dodgers) added Freddie Freeman.
The New York Yankees also get an F for the offseason
What did the New York Yankees do this offseason? Traded for Josh Donaldson, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, and Ben Rortvedt in exchange for Gio Urshela and Gary Sanchez while taking on all of Donaldson’s salary from the Minnesota Twins so they could sign Carlos Correa, they re-signed Anthony Rizzo, and they traded Luke Voit to San Diego.
That’s it. The New York Yankees were outfoxed by the Minnesota Twins. That says a lot.
They didn’t get better at third base and got a light hitting shortstop. They, somehow, got worse at catcher and didn’t address their pitching staff. Oh, and they also haven’t extended Aaron Judge.
This all happened when the Rays are the Rays (a better and healthier team), the Blue Jays got better with Matt Chapman, Yusei Kikuchi, and Kevin Gausman, and the Red Sox got Trevor Story.
With the exception of taking on Donaldson’s salary, the New York Yankees are operating like they are the Cleveland Guardians. Speaking of them …
The Cleveland Guardians receive an F for the offseason
The Cleveland Guardians never, ever trade their best players when they should. Francisco Lindor, Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger, Trevor Bauer, and the list goes on and on. The chance that they can extend José Ramírez is negligible at best … yet they won’t trade him.
Don’t trade him? Fine. Then spend money on the team? No. That’s too much of an ask.
The team has, virtually, decided to forego a team with an outfield because they have Triple-A and Double-A outfielders at the MLB level (with the exception of Myles Straw) and a spotty bullpen.
Their offseason additions? Signing catcher Luke Maile for less than $1 million. That’s it. That’s their entire offseason.
Even with arbitration players, they will have a payroll of around $50 million. They had a payroll of $76 million in 2000. Talk about an embarrassing ownership group … who have more money than the Yankees owners.
The Houston Astros receive an F for the offseason
The Houston Astros tried to sign Trevor Story or re-sign Carlos Correa and the reigning AL Champions came up empty on both.
Now, they have Jeremy Peña as their everyday shortstop.
What else did they do? They re-signed Justin Verlander, signed Niko Goodrum, and reliever Hector Neris. The Seattle Mariners added the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, a former two-time NL All-Star, and a 2021 NL All-Star. The Texas Rangers added more than half a billion dollars to their team in free agency.
Not a great offseason at all.
The Cincinnati Reds continue to receive an F
Cincinnati Reds owner Bob Castellini continues to be one of about five MLB owners that desperately need to sell their team so the team can actually do well.
The Reds won 83 games in 2021, which would have been enough to get to the playoffs with the one additional Wild Card spot in 2022.
But the Reds let Wade Miley go to their divisional rival (the Cubs) for nothing, they traded Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suárez to Seattle for damaged goods, lost Nick Castellanos via free agency, traded Tucker Barnhart for (essentially) nothing, traded Sonny Gray to Minnesota, and traded Amir Garrett to Kansas City in a bizarre trade.
Next. The 5 biggest revenge series of 2022. dark
They added Tommy Pham but despite showing that they don’t want to win this year, they refuse to trade Luis Castillo or Tyler Mahle, both of which would get them a boatload of prospects.
No direction and being stuck in the middle: a place you never want to be as a baseball team.