Ohtani and Stanton have new teams, so now the winter meetings should be exciting

Monday’s Say Hey, Baseball welcomes to you what should be an eventful week in Orlando.

Dec 11, 2017, 2:04 PM UTC

Arizona Diamondbacks v Los Angeles Dodgers - Game One

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Well, things could have been pretty dreary to kick off the winter meetings. What if we were still waiting for Shohei Ohtani to pick a team or for Giancarlo Stanton to waive his no-trade clause? Well, we’d end up seeing a whole lot of nothing go on in Orlando until those players had new teams, as offseason plans for so much of the league depended on where they landed.

Thanks to a busy end to last week, however, the winter meetings get to start fresh, with the biggest free agents like J.D. Martinez and Eric Hosmer and Yu Darvish and more — all able to sign without any reservations from interested teams who were hoping to land one of Ohtani or Stanton first.

That means it should be business as usual, which means we’ll have a lot to cover this week. Hopefully, anyway: The quiet of the first six weeks of the offseason has really done a number on our collective psyches. We need this, baseball. Relight that hot stove.

The Yankees did what any team with untold wealth should do, and used it to acquire Giancarlo Stanton, who mostly cost money. They probably should have jumped on it earlier, but it’s hard to argue with the price they paid once the Marlins were desperate. Where were the Dodgers in all of this?
Giancarlo Stanton and Dee Gordon are gone, and they’re going to be followed by player after player after player. The Marlins won’t be viewing them as the loss of talent, though, but instead, the saving of cash: New ownership promised their investors they’d get payroll down to $55 million, and they aren’t even close yet.
Michael Baumann on the disgrace that is the Giancarlo Stanton trade is required reading.
Alan Trammell and Jack Morris were elected to the Hall of Fame by the Modern Era Ballot, and I’m neutral on the result since it fixes one egregious mistake but replaces it with a new one.

Oh, wait, there was yet another failure to elect Marvin Miller, the single most important figure in baseball over the past 50 years, so scratch that: I’m mad as heck.
Pinstripe Alley wonders which Yankees are poised for a breakout in 2018.
The Phillies aren’t the saddest team showing up to the winter meetings. Congrats!
The Brewers are still reportedly open to trading outfielder Ryan Braun.
The Blue Jays need to reconsider their path forward.
The Cubs are signing Brandon Morrow to a two-year deal, and he’s likely to close for Chicago.
If both Josh Donaldson and Manny Machado are available, which of the third basemen should the Cardinals pursue?
Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright was arrested on domestic assault charges. His side claims things were “purely emotional” and that he “did not raise his hand,” but MLB will likely do their own investigation into the matter even if Wright is never convicted of anything.
It’s important to remember that these situations aren’t as simple as “did not raise his hand” might imply. There could be a history of abuse, or this could be the first incident — we don’t know, and you shouldn’t immediately jump to Wright’s defense just because he wears a uniform and releases a statement saying there was no physical violence.