The MLB offseason is coming to a close, and after months full of surprises, fans cannot wait to see how everything pans out during the 2016 season. Three prominent MLB clubs - the Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs - will garner the most attention because of their 2015 performances, but also because of their bold offseason moves.
Who will benefit the most from offseason signings and trades? The Red Sox, Royals and Cubs rank among our top MLB teams that did the best job in bettering their ball clubs over the past few months.
Now we'll just have to see if those moves work in their favor. Check out our rankings below.
3. Chicago Cubs
President of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer went all in after the Cubs surprised baseball with a 97-win season. While that was only good enough for third place in the NL Central, Chicago still made the postseason as a wild card team and reached the NLCS before the New York Mets defeated them handily.
But the additions of outfielder Jason Heyward, utility man Ben Zobrist, pitchers John Lackey and Adam Warren and the re-signing of Dexter Fowler really put this team in a good position to do even more damage.
Heyward adds stellar defense to a team that ranked 27th in defensive runs saved (DRS) with -26 in 2015 and provides another capable and flexible bat for manager Joe Maddon to work with. Although many have criticized the $184-million contract the Cubs gave him, there are two important things to remember: Chicago stole him away from the division-rival St. Louis Cardinals, and with the way the direction of the game is going, Heyward is more than likely to exercise his opt-out clause after 2018 or 2019 to get an even bigger contract in free agency.
Zobrist will reunite with Maddon and give the Cubs a reliable veteran option on both sides of the ball as his versatility will prove to be valuable if the team was to endure any injury troubles. Lackey and Warren provide pitching depth to a unit that was lacking much of it in recent years, and Fowler gives them a true center fielder (the Cubs were going to put Heyward there permanently before agreeing with Fowler late in the offseason). Fowler also had a career year in 2015 and the club managed to sign him for way below his projected figure.
These new additions have made Chicago the favorite to win the World Series, something the franchise hasn't done since 1908.
2. Kansas City Royals
The Royals won the World Series after making it there and losing to the San Francisco Giants in 2014. The club had a number of crucial players hit free agency this offseason, but general manager Dayton Moore worked hard to keep much of the team intact and make the players happy.
The losses of Zobrist and Johnny Cueto, both of whom were acquired at the trade deadline, were expected, but Kansas City went outside the organization to sign a few players such as reliever Joakim Soria (to replace the loss of Ryan Madson), starter Ian Kennedy, starter Mike Minor as well as other pitchers Dillon Gee and Chien-Ming Wang, who could provide depth later down the road.
However, the team's biggest moves came in-house. They re-signed Alex Gordon, which was their biggest priority of the offseason, and pitcher Chris Young. Not only that, but Moore kept his current players under contract happy by giving Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas fair two-year deals to cover their remaining arbitration seasons. The contract of Salvador Perez was also re-worked because the World Series MVP was severely out-playing his five-year, $7-million deal. Moore gave Perez a restructured five-year, $52.5-million contract, which will keep him in Kansas City through the 2021 season.
The Royals didn't make flashy moves like the Cubs did, but they made the necessary ones and are well-positioned for another World Series run.
1. Boston Red Sox
Speaking of flashy and necessary, those were the exact moves new team president Dave Dombrowski made for the Red Sox this offseason. Boston needed an ace and a closer, and Dombrowski wasted no time in filling those voids.
He immediately traded for San Diego Padres closer Craig Kimbrel and then signed David Price to a seven-year, $217-million contract, which pretty much shored up all of the team's needs for the offseason. He added outfielder Chris Young as a backup option and also traded for reliever Carson Smith (who was recently placed on the disabled list) in smaller moves to bolster the team's depth.
The signing of Price and the trade of Kimbrel both have been regarded as overpaying by some, but for a team like the Red Sox it really didn't matter. They have plenty of money as one of the richest franchises in all of sports, so giving Price $217 million wasn't a big deal. The organization is also deep in young talent, so parting ways with four prospects also wasn't a significant loss. Yes, Manuel Margot, Logan Allen, Javier Guerra and Carlos Asuaje are promising young players, but the Red Sox have ample depth at both the MLB and minor league levels to make up for those losses, while the addition of Kimbrel gives them one of the best closers in baseball and keeps that post occupied for the next two seasons (three if the Sox exercise his team option for 2018).
The Red Sox finished fourth in runs scored and 12th in defense, so there was little need to improve those areas. Dombrowski did what he was hired to do and now it's up to the Red Sox to control their destiny and avoid another last-place finish in the AL East.
