Friday Free For All #24: World Series Hangover Edition

Hello and welcome to Free For All Friday.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s wrap-up of World Series Game 5, during the offseason, the newsletter will be published three times each week. I’m not sure yet if I’ll follow the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule I used during the season or use a more flexible schedule that reflects the ebbs and flows of winter baseball news. At least one newsletter each week will be free for everyone; the others will be for paid subscribers only.

Now that the Texas Rangers have been crowned World Series Champions, we face a winter of no major league baseball on the field but lots of major league baseball action off the field.

The free agency period opened yesterday. It starts with a short “quiet period” in which free agents negotiate only with the team they ended the 2023 season with. The open free agent period begins five days after the World Series ends—this year, November 6. Trades may take place during the quiet period. November 6 is also the day by which teams and players must decide whether to exercise any options in existing contracts.

MLB Trade Rumors is an indispensable resource for the nitty-gritty details about free agents, contracts, trades, arbitration-eligible players etc. Here’s a link to their offseason calendar of events to keep an eye on.

Shohei Ohtani is the big free agent name, of course, and a lot of words and bytes will be used to guess, estimate, demand, and analyze possible landing spots for Ohtani and at what price. There are many other free agents, too, although the star power falls off precipitously after Ohtani. We’ll discuss it all at hanging sliders, along with trades, the Rule 5 draft, and what it all means for how teams are constructing their 2024 rosters and at what cost.

We know the Mets, Angels, Padres, Astros, Guardians and Brewers are looking for a new manager. And filling those openings could create vacancies on other teams. The Mets, for example, are interviewing Mark Kotsay, who’s still under contract with the A’s. Stay tuned for more on the manager carousel.

We’ll also be following the stories around new ballparks or ballpark improvements for the Athletics, Brewers, Royals, and Orioles. The A’s ballpark saga is long and tortured; the same will be true of the process from today to the A’s playing MLB games at a new ballpark in Las Vegas, if that happens at all. Nevada teachers are trying to stop it. The A’s are trying to stop the teachers because A’s owner John Fisher loves nothing more than an ugly public relations battle.

I’d like to hear from you about the stories you’d like to read during the offseason. Drop a comment below or send me a note with your ideas and suggestions via Substack or at [email protected].

A few more words on the Texas Rangers

Now that the team has won the World Series, it’s easy in hindsight to look back at how Texas Rangers General Manager Chris Young constructed the roster and talk about how brilliant his plan was. That’s particularly true when Young’s biggest move before the 2023 season was signing Jacob deGrom to a 5-year/$185 million contract. deGrom started only 6 games for the Rangers in 2023 before tearing the UCL in his right elbow. He underwent Tommy John surgery in early June and may not pitch at all in 2024.

But there is still a lot that can be learned from how Young built the Rangers into a team that could contend for—and ultimately win—a World Series.

First, Young asked owner Ray Davis to spend big money and Davis said yes. This is an important and somewhat overlooked aspect of the Rangers’ success because of the way the Mets and Padres crashed and burned after spending big money last offseason. The Rangers had the fourth-highest player payroll in 2023, after the Mets, Padres and Yankees. Every other team in the Top 10 also played in the 2023 postseason, save for the Angels.

Second, Young spent owner Ray Davis’ money wisely by signing both Marcus Semien and Corey Seager to long-term deals before the 2022 season. Semien and Seager topped many lists of the best free agents available that offseason. The money was significant. Seager, 27 at the time, signed a 10-year deal worth $325 million. The then-31-year-old Semien signed a 6-year deal for $138 million. By bringing Seager and Semien in at the same time, neither had the sole burden to turn the team around after so many consecutive losing seasons.

Third, after spending so much on Semien and Seager and getting paltry results in the first season (the Rangers’ record in 2022 was 68-94), Young convinced Davis to spend even more. This is not the norm. Look at what’s happening with the Padres now. They went big in 2023, it didn’t work out, and now there’s talk of trying offload at least $50 million in contracts before the 2024 season.

In addition to deGrom’s deal, Young also signed Nathan Eovaldi to a 2-year deal for $34 million. Although it didn’t work out this way, bringing in Eovaldi to be a number 2 to deGrom made sense as it spread the burden around. Those two joined Jon Gray and Martin Perez in the starting rotation. Young has signed Gray and Perez to contracts before the 2022 season.

Finally, Young was aggressive at the trade deadline and added strength to strength. Yes, the Rangers lost deGrom but starting pitching was still a strength for the Rangers this season, particularly compared to its bullpen. Yet Young added more by trading for Jordan Montgomery and Max Scherzer. You cannot have enough solid starting pitching in the postseason. Injuries happen. Players don’t perform on the big stage. Bullpens falter. Without those trades, the Rangers don’t win the World Series. Heck, they might not have gotten past the Rays or the Orioles.

Chris Young had a plan to remake the Rangers. Some of the plan involved trades (Josh Sborz, Aroldis Chapman, Scherzer, Montgomery). Some of it relied on players coming up from the minors (Josh Jung, Evan Carter). But the biggest part of the plan involved signing the best free agents available at the time and selling them on a vision. The biggest free agent of all was Bruce Bochy. Luring Bochy out of retirement was Young’s masterstroke.

That didn’t guarantee a World Series win. The Phillies, via owner John Middleton and President of Baseball Ops Dave Dombrowski, have followed nearly the same plan and have come up short two years in a row. The Dodgers don’t shy away from free agent deals and seem to have an endless supply of talent in their minor league system and yet they’ve won only 1 World Series during their remarkable run of dominating the NL West.

Young’s vision isn’t the only path to success. The Astros tore the franchise to the bone and built it back up through drafting and developing top talent. The Orioles have essentially followed that kind of plan.

But Young’s vision and Davis’ money was the right fit for the Rangers. And it sets the standard for every medium-to-big market team to follow.

Clayton Kershaw had shoulder surgery

Dodgers lefty great Clayton Kershaw announced Friday morning on Instagram that he had surgery to repair the gleno-humeral ligaments and capsule of his left shoulder. Kershaw also said that he hopes to be able to pitch by summer 2024.

None of this is a surprise. Kershaw was on and off the injured list in 2023. It was clear in the latter part of the season—and especially in his start against the Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the NLDS—that Kershaw had lost significant velocity on his fastball.

Kershaw is a free agent, as he had signed a series of one-year deals with the Dodgers over the last two seasons. Kershaw has said in the past that he’d pitch only for the Dodgers or his hometown team, the Rangers. It will be interesting to see whether either team signs him before the season 2024 season starts.

Early contract extensions

Max Muncy re-upped with the Dodgers for two more seasons. The Dodgers will pay the versatile infielder $24 million over the 2024 and 2025 seasons, and have a club option for 2026 for $10 million.

Seems a small price to pay for a player that absolutely destroys your historic and division rival. Muncy’s career slash is .227/.351/.475 with 180 home runs. That includes his first two MLB season, in 2015 and 2016, with the Oakland A’s. But against the Giants? In 80 games against San Francisco, Muncy’s hit .268/.374/.607 with 25 home runs. That’s a .981 OPS, by far the highest OPS Muncy’s posted against a team he’s faced in more than 30 games in his career.

Braves re-signed reliever Joe Jiménez to a three-year deal worth $26 million. Jiménez came over to the Braves from the Tigers before the 2023 season. The right-hander pitched 56 1/3 innings across 59 games for Atlanta and posted a 3.04 ERA. Jiménez is a big strikeout guy. He struck out 30.7% of batters he faced in 2023. Jiménez pitched only 1 inning in the postseason, in Atlanta’s Game 2 win over the Phillies in the NLDS.

Nelson Cruz announces retirement

There’s something prophetic about Nelson Cruz announcing his intent to retire the day after the Rangers finally won their first World Series. For those who don’t remember, Cruz was playing right field for the Rangers in the 2011 World Series. In Game 6, the Rangers were 1 strike away from winning the series against the Cardinals. With the Rangers leading 7-2 in the bottom of the 9th, and with 2 on and 2 out and the count 1-2, David Freese hit a double over Cruz’s head to tie the game. Freese then hit a walk off home run in the 11th to send the series to Game 7, which the Cardinals won.

Cruz played 19 MLB seasons with the Brewers, Rangers, Orioles, Mariners, Twins, Rays, Nationals, and Padres. Cruz was a prodigious power hitter at the peak of his career. His 464 career home runs is third only to Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in the seasons from 2005 to 2023. Cruz was named an All-Star 7 times and won a Silver Slugger Award 4 times.

How to watch winter baseball

We may be without MLB games until spring training kicks off in late February. But there’s plenty of baseball to watch during the offseason. Here’s a terrific primer from Red Sox blog Over The Monster on the winter leagues and how to stream the games.

Enjoy the weekend everyone, despite the lack of baseball.