Fan News

Well, that was fun.

One of the most frenzied and hectic winter meetings in memory is in the books and in the process, we got answers to some of the hottest questions in baseball.

Jon Lester decided against a reunion with the Boston Red Sox, signing instead with the Chicago Cubs, while the Los Angeles Dodgers found a taker for Matt Kemp and his burdensome contract. But with those answers come even more questions.

Major League Baseball's winter meetings may be over, but the shock from what transpired on Thursday may linger.

The final days of the event featured a flurry of deals involving All-Star players, as Matt Kemp, Yoenis Cespedes, Mat Latos, Howie Kendrick, Jimmy Rollins, Dee Gordon and Alfredo Simon were all included in separate trades.

Many teams considering whether to deal high-profile players this past week were ultimately swayed by offers featuring young players and prospects in return, with some clubs netting as many as three or four in some deals.

With the 2014 winter meetings having come to an end, the New York Mets did not control the majority of the baseball headlines this week. The Mets, though, did not go into the winter meetings with a big agenda of tasks to complete. There were only a few particular areas the Mets really needed to look into, and they accomplished some, but not all, of their goals this week.

The Oakland Athletics have had an interesting offseason to say the least—one extremely difficult to grade.

If you look at it from the perspective that the A's were contenders and are retooling to remain as contenders in 2015, then the grade is an F. They downgraded at third base, traded their starting first baseman and one of their top starting pitchers and did not sign a proven shortstop.

The 2014 MLB winter meetings have come and gone, with the Boston Red Sox as one of the event's most active participants.

Now that the dust has settled in San Diego, it's time to evaluate Boston's offseason to this point.  Below are individual grades for each move the Red Sox have made, as well as an overall assessment of their performance.

The 2014 MLB winter meetings in San Diego arrived. Rumors flew. Teams signed players and dealt others. Plenty of action went down.

Then, the winter meetings went, just as quickly as they arrived.

A+

No, seriously. A+. Catcher has been upgraded, shortstop has been upgraded, second base has been upgraded, depth has been added, and essentially all it cost was Matt Kemp and a left-handed pitching prospect named Tom Windle.

Shoot for Jon Lester—even if you miss, you'll land Rick Porcello, Wade Miley and Justin Masterson.

OK, so that's not exactly how the saying goes. But it is the reality for the Boston Red Sox, who whiffed on a chance to bring back Lester at the MLB winter meetings but did manage to revamp their starting corps, which posted an unsightly 4.36 ERA in 2014.

All remains fairly quiet for the Texas Rangers this offseason, as the 2014 winter meetings have now come and gone.

In life, and in sports, nearly everyone experiences prolonged periods of both success and failure. Of course, the 2014 sports year was far from different, as fans were treated to some truly memorable performances, of both the good and bad sort.

Madison Bumgarner, for example, had a downright iconic year, establishing himself as one of baseball’s all-time greats with the type of postseason pitching we’d never seen before.