Loose Talk: The Editors’ Take

This week, baseball execs from around Major League Baseball convened at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. This 113th annual meeting of baseball’s brightest minds was expected to be one full of action. With the free agent pitching loaded with top of the rotation talent, and the trade market buzzing more than usual, it would have been a let down if this week did not come with its share of deals.So far, the meetings have not disappointed. Jon Lester, widely considered the number two free agent on the market, signed early Wednesday morning with the Chicago Cubs. The deal was worth $100,055,000 over six years. Even with teams becoming more careful about dishing out large contracts to aging pitchers (Lester will be 31 at the start of the 2015 season), it was expected that a deal of at least six years would be needed to land Lester. A few teams were willing to go to that length. The Cubs, Red Sox and Giants all made competitive offers, but in the end Lester will be reuniting with old boss Theo Epstein.With Lester finally signing, the dominoes of the MLB offseason will fall. After losing out on the southpaw, Boston and other clubs will now look to their Plan B’s. After signing such a lucrative deal, Lester has raised the asking prices of former Royal James Shields and ex-Tiger Max Scherzer. For Boston, they have had talks with their former pitcher Justin Masterson and will also take a good look at Shields. With many questions in their rotation, no solid ace and money to burn, the Yankees will be a team to look out for as the favorite to land Scherzer.While Boston has a lack of proven starters, they have a surplus of outfielders. With ten outfielders on their 40-man roster with Major League experience, they will look to deal at least one before Spring Training. Much talk has circulated around slugger Yoenis Cespedes, potentially heading to Cincinnati in exchange for one of their starters. That would fill a hole in Boston’s rotation while also freeing up room in their outfield.For trades that have actually come to fruition, the Dodgers’ new President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman was very active on Wednesday night. He started off the evening by dealing speedster Dee Gordon to the Marlins for lefty prospect Andrew Heaney, adding to their already strong farm system. With a gaping hole left at shortstop after losing Hanley Ramirez to the Red Sox and just dealing Gordon, Friedman acquired Phillies’ shortstop Jimmy Rollins. The Dodgers are not expected to be done wheeling and dealing. There have been many rumors about them shipping off outfielders Andre Ethier or Matt Kemp, with the Padres having ag- gressive talks with Los Angeles about Kemp.On Thursday, the Rule V Draft will be held, signaling the end of Winter Meetings. The draft gives teams with open slots on their 40-man rosters an opportunity to swipe a prospect who is not on another team’s 40-man roster. The team selecting the player must then pay a fee to the player’s for- mer organization, and also keep the player on their pro roster all season or else forfeit the player. One player to keep an eye on will be Delino Shields Jr., son of former Major Leaguer Delino Shields. He possesses an intriguing combination of power, speed, and athleticism. “Also look for pitchers who have good fastballs that a team might take a chance on and see what they can do,” said Hendrik Herz, a source at the Winter Meetings.The Winter Meetings will not be the only time moves happen this offseason. Scherzer, a Scott Bo- ras client, will likely sign later in the offseason. Just last season MLB’s home run leader, Nelson Cruz, signed late in the offseason. While a late signing might not have that large of an impact this season, there are bounce-back candidates likely to sign later. An example of one player is lefty Brett Anderson. Anderson only made eight starts last season after suffering multiple injuries, but had an impressive 2.91 ERA over those starts. A team could sign him to a one-year, heavily incentivized deal.Whatever happens over the rest of the offseason, it is an exciting time for baseball fans. With the White Sox and Cubs already putting together promising rosters, the city of Chicago should have a competitive year in baseball ahead of them.