At a time when Major League Baseball is silly with cash to spend on free agents and young talent to swap in trades, the hot-stove season has a dial that skips right past 11 and goes to 12.
It is, however, still possible for teams to be both quiet and productive on the offseason market. And we can prove it!
We could talk about the Boston Red Sox signing David Price, the Chicago Cubs signing Jason Heyward or the Arizona Diamondbacks signing Zack Greinke and trading for Shelby Miller. But, meh, we're not going to do that. The loud noises speak for themselves.
Instead, we're going to throw credit at a few teams that have been productive in a manner more fit for a library than baseball's rock concert-like offseason market. Some of them—looking at you, Oakland A's, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies—merely deserve an honorable mention. Others deserve the full hats-off treatment.
Three others, to be exact. Starting with...
Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners were a popular pick to go far in 2015. Instead, they sputtered their way to 86 losses and made a lot of otherwise respectable people (he said in his own defense) look like dolts.
What we're witnessing now is the Mariners trying to put themselves back together under the leadership of new general manager Jerry Dipoto. And so far, the former Los Angeles Angels GM is doing pretty well.
Granted, the biggest move Dipoto has made has been widely panned. When he sent budding relief ace Carson Smith and left-hander Roenis Elias to the Boston Red Sox for lefty starter Wade Miley, most everyone was sent scrambling for dumbfounded-reaction GIFs.
But as far as bad moves go...that's...pretty...much...it.
Miley may be no more than a league-average starter, but he and fellow trade addition Nate Karns do add some depth to a Mariners rotation that sorely needed some. That takes some pressure off Felix Hernandez and Taijuan Walker, which is nice.
So, that's good. And the list goes on!
In 2015, the Mariners got just a .702 OPS out of their first basemen. A trade for Adam Lind should fix that problem, as he's a guy with an .842 OPS since 2013.
Elsewhere in 2015, Mariners catchers authored a cringe-worthy .205 OBP. Signing Chris Iannetta to a one-year contract should fix that, as he owns a .351 career OBP even despite a .293 OBP in 2015.
The Mariners also had issues with consistency at the top of their lineup in 2015, getting OBPs in the low .300s from both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. Nori Aoki, signed to a one-year contract, and his .353 career OBP should help address that.
Another area where the Mariners were perilously weak in 2015 was on defense in center field. A trade for Leonys Martin should solve that, as defense is the one thing that's never been a problem for him.
Then there's Seattle's bullpen, which is in surprisingly good shape despite the loss of Smith.
His shoes are basically being filled by Joaquin Benoit, who owns a 1.98 ERA over the last three seasons. The Mariners also traded for Evan Scribner, who had the highest strikeout-to-walk ratio of any qualified reliever in 2015. Steve Cishek is more of a roll of the dice, but he's remained a reasonably effective reliever despite dwindling velocity.
In all, Dipoto's offseason definitely passes the ol' quantity test with flying colors. But the quality of his moves is not to be underestimated. He hasn't pulled off any true blockbusters, but Dipoto hasn't needed to in order to clean up a whole bunch of inherited weaknesses.
"We knew what we wanted to accomplish," Dipoto said after the winter meetings, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. "We laid a plan in place. And then we just got after it pretty quick. By design we wanted to get out in front of the market."
If anyone could get Dipoto to cut the GM talk, even he would probably have to admit he didn't expect things to go this well. He was walking into a job that offered little financial flexibility or prospect depth to play with, so creativity was always going to be key. Creativity is exactly what he's displayed, and the Mariners are looking better because of it.
Detroit Tigers
Like the Mariners, the Detroit Tigers haven't been dealing exclusively in extreme silence this winter.
They made a big splash when they signed right-handed ace Jordan Zimmermann to a five-year, $110 million contract. He appealed to the Tigers because they needed someone solid atop their rotation, and because he cost the one thing that owner Mike Ilitch doesn't give two toots about: money.
Will Zimmermann help? Of course he'll help. He's a really good starting pitcher. It's important to have those. Particularly when you're coming off a last-place finish.
But there's also more to life than starting pitching, and Detroit's less splashy moves demonstrate that new general manager Al Avila understands that.
The Tigers acquired old friend Cameron Maybin in a trade with the Atlanta Braves. He's coming off a so-so bounce-back season in 2015, but he still looks like a good option to either play center field full time or to platoon with the lefty-swinging Anthony Gose.
The Tigers also shored up their catching depth in a low-risk move, signing Jarrod Saltalamacchia for one year at the major league minimum. That has a chance to be a steal if Salty can pick up where he left off in 2015, as he rebounded with an .806 OPS in 70 games with the Arizona Diamondbacks after the Miami Marlins cut him loose.
But the biggest change has happened in Detroit's bullpen. It's typically been a bad unit, ranking second-to-last among American League bullpens in WAR since 2012. It's been in need of talent for a long time.
Well, now it has some. The Tigers traded for veteran right-hander Francisco Rodriguez, who's coming off a 2.21 ERA and his best swinging-strike rate in a decade. They also added Mark Lowe, whose velocity spike in 2015 helped make him death on right-handed batters, on a two-year contract. Lastly, a trade also netted Justin Wilson, a hard-throwing southpaw who can get lefties and righties out.
"The back end had been really, really frustrating," Avila said of the club's bullpen, per Lynn Henning of the Detroit News. "It was a priority from day one. The first thing I told Mr. Ilitch, our No. 1 priority is going to be pitching. We wanted to get the rotation back, then beef up our setup and closer. And we needed a power lefty. We hadn't had that in a long time."
Done, done, done and done. Throw in some extra outfield and catching depth, and the Tigers may only be healthy seasons from Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Justin Verlander away from reclaiming their place atop the AL Central in 2016.
San Diego Padres
This time last year, the San Diego Padres had us all standing slack-jawed in amazement. With GM A.J. Preller at the controls, the Padres went on one of the most treat-yo-self shopping sprees in recent memory.
That, uh, didn't work out. The Padres were the Padres before 2015. They continued being the Padres in 2015. Such is life when best-laid plans go "pluh."
And, if we're being honest, the Padres haven't gotten better this offseason. That's not why they're here. They're here because they've done a heck of a job making sure things don't get considerably worse.
It's been "full sell ahead" for the Padres this winter, as they've traded away Benoit, Craig Kimbrel, Jedd Gyorko, Yonder Alonso and Marc Rzepczynski. In the process, the only really established major leaguers they've gotten back are outfielder Jon Jay and left-hander Drew Pomeranz.
But while San Diego's major league roster doesn't look better, its payroll and farm system sure do.
In dealing away Kimbrel, Gyorko and Benoit, the Padres unloaded roughly $60 million in guaranteed money. In trading Alonso and Rzepczynski, they ducked $5.5 million in projected arbitration payouts, per MLB Trade Rumors. For a team like the Padres, this is a good chunk of change.
Meanwhile, these trades have also netted the Padres a decent amount of young talent. They scored two top-100 prospects for Kimbrel, as well as four other players who now rank among their top 30 at MLB.com. Another player acquired is young catcher Christian Bethancourt, a well-regarded prospect until recently.
The Padres haven't just acquired young talent in trades; they were also active in the Rule 5 draft, adding a whopping four players. About that, you can color JJ Cooper of Baseball America impressed:
"I think it's just continuing to find ways to access talent," Preller said of his Rule 5 selections, per Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. "We had scouts and a front-office group that recommended these players, and think they'd be a good fit. We looked at it as adding four guys that have a chance to be with the big league club."
The Padres probably aren't done yet. In Tyson Ross, James Shields, Andrew Cashner, Matt Kemp and Derek Norris, they still have quite a few trade chips they could cash in.
But as things stand now, the Padres have done well for themselves. They're not a better team, but they've recouped much of the financial flexibility and prospect depth they lost in last year's shopping spree. In time, they'll be glad they did.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. Special thanks to MLB.com's Hot Stove Tracker for putting all the winter's moves in one place.
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