Slow Start to the Winter Meetings

The baseball world converged on Nashville this week, with MLB executives and fans hoping to resolve the most significant questions of the offseason: Will Shohei Ohtani sign a deal with a new team? Who will win the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes? Are the Padres really about to trade Juan Soto?

Teams’ front offices are likely working hard to answer these questions behind closed doors. Through Monday night, however, their efforts yielded no visible progress. In fact, the biggest news of the day was an indication that the Ohtani and Yamamoto situations may linger beyond the winter meetings. And because there’s some overlap among the teams interested in Ohtani/Yamamoto/Soto, the Padres may not be able to assess the market for their 25-year-old superstar until the other big names are off the board.

While everyone waits for the logjam to break, the market for the next tier of free agents will be affected as well. It’s hard for a team to look toward the Blake Snells and Josh Haders of the sport without knowing whether they’ve locked up $600 million plus in an Ohtani contract. It’s also hard, of course, for a team to turn to the Lucas Giolitos and Rhys Hoskinses of the sport until the Snell- and Hader-type situations are resolved.

All in all, it’s a recipe for an uneventful week in Music City.

But things can change rapidly. Very late Monday night, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Ohtani and the Blue Jays “are believed to have met Monday at the team’s Florida complex.” If Ohtani comes to terms with Toronto (or any other team) on a deal, the dominoes discussed above may start falling fast.

The Phils

Even if the winter meetings pick up, Phillies fans should probably temper their expectations for any type of Fightins-related blockbuster. Dave Dombrowski, the team’s President of Baseball Operations, is telling anyone who will listen that the Phils will probably stick to moves at the margins of the roster.

Dombrowski’s statements could be gamesmanship, but it’s also possible (maybe even probable?) that he’s genuinely content to bring back the core of his 2022 and 2023 teams to make another World Series run. After all, there’s no shortage of talent on his Phillies squad. This group of players would likely remain in the championship conversation in 2024 without any significant changes. And it’s not like Dave has been asleep at the wheel–consider how comforting it is to have Aaron Nola locked into the Phils’ rotation as other teams scramble for starting pitching.

In addition to Nola, the Phillies made sure to take care of manager Rob Thomson, extending his contract through the 2025 season on Monday. The team also hired two assistant hitting coaches on Monday to work with highly-respected hitting coach Kevin Long.