Who 'won the winter'? 6 teams with the best moves

Trophies and parades are cool. But we should all be able to agree that by far the most important thing in Major League Baseball is to “win the winter.”

Can I get an amen?

Anybody?

OK, so maybe winning the winter is overrated. But as one of the wildest Hot Stove seasons winds down uncharacteristically close to Opening Day, let’s look at the six teams that did the most to improve.

1. Mets

The tabloids have celebrated the Mets’ winter and labeled the Yankees’ activity “underwhelming.” Knowing what we know about New York, that’s already a W for Steve Cohen and Co.

But even beyond the ultimately meaningless back-page headlines, the Mets deserve credit here for doing everything in their financial and trade power to shake off last year’s disappointing 85-loss result and make their mark in the NL East. That of course starts with the gargantuan dollars spent on a short-term contract with Max Scherzer, who pairs with a now-healthy Jacob deGrom in one of the highest-pedigree top ends of a rotation in MLB history. The trade for Chris Bassitt adds important depth to a starting set that lost Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard in free agency.

The Mets’ lineup, which drastically underperformed last year, added one of the sport's more dynamic center fielders in Starling Marte and the underrated bats of Mark Canha, who addresses a glaring team need for improved on-base percentage, and Eduardo Escobar, who can help in a variety of defensive spots. They also added bullpen depth in Adam Ottavino. Basically, for the second straight offseason, the Mets acted like the superpower they are.

2. Rangers

Turns out, all you need to build one of the best double-play combos in MLB overnight is half a billion dollars. Who knew?

The Rangers’ willingness to fork over that kind of cash to Corey Seager and Marcus Semien was staggering. We know enough about baseball to know making that kind of allocation to a player with Seager’s injury history and to a 31-year-old infielder like Semien is dangerous. But the Rangers sure look a heck of a lot better with those two studs in their lineup than they did before.

But wait, there’s more! Texas also landed a hard-throwing starter in Jon Gray, who could benefit from the move from Coors Field, and traded for Mitch Garver, an abnormally productive catcher when healthy. They added other important depth pieces in Kole Calhoun and Martín Pérez. The Rangers likely have more developing -- and spending -- to do if they’re going to be serious contenders in the near-term. But all we care about in this ranking is the effort to improve. The Rangers get an A+ for effort.

3. Blue Jays

To lose reigning AL Cy Young winner Robbie Ray and still come out of the winter with arguably a better rotation than you had at season’s end is quite a trick. The Blue Jays may have pulled it off with their signings of Kevin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi. They also added necessary bullpen depth in the form of Yimi García. The trade sending Randal Grichuk to Colorado for Raimel Tapia was curious, but at least it addressed a lineup imbalance.

But above all else, this will likely be remembered as the Hot Stove season in which the Blue Jays added Matt Chapman to what was already one of the best position player cores in MLB. While Toronto did lose Semien after his fantastic one-year stint north of the border, Chapman greatly improves this club defensively on the left-hand side of the infield and is a good candidate to improve upon what was -- for him -- a pedestrian 2021 season at the plate. The move to the AL East and out of Oakland Coliseum should suit his offensive profile.

Ultimately, after frustratingly falling just shy of October last year despite 91 wins and embarking upon an offseason with two prominent departing free agents, the Blue Jays made the moves necessary to ensure they can still hang with the big boys in what might be the most brutal division in baseball. They could come out on top.

4. Twins

Extending -- rather than trading -- Byron Buxton was the first signal that the Twins are serious about returning to contention in 2022, and they spent the rest of the offseason proving it.

The Carlos Correa signing was a stunner. If the Twins storm up the standings, Correa’s presence will likely be a big reason why. And if it doesn’t work out in the standings (and Correa is playing well enough to likely opt out after 2022), the Twins will have one of the biggest midseason trade chips. The Correa deal was made possible by the rapid wheeling and dealing that resulted in Garver going to Texas and Isiah Kiner-Falefa getting flipped to the Bronx. The Twins wound up taking a flier on Gary Sánchez and adding a solid infielder in Gio Urshela, but the most important ramification of those back-to-back blockbusters was moving the remaining salary owed to a 36-year-old Josh Donaldson.

It remains to be seen if the Twins have enough in the rotation after trading for Sonny Gray and taking a chance on Dylan Bundy. But the wildest offseason in franchise history has left the Twins with a better allocation of their finances and legitimate reason to believe they can fare better in 2022 than they did in a disastrous 2021.

5. Braves

Go ahead and shed a tear for the loss of Freddie Freeman. You don’t have to be a Braves fan to appreciate what he meant to this organization and city. He was a model of durability and dependability and a good citizen.

But if you’re going to lose one of the game’s elite first basemen, replacing him with another elite first baseman who is five years younger is a beautiful Plan B. The Braves took advantage of their rich farm system to land Matt Olson, and the reasonable terms of his extension made it manageable to bring back Eddie Rosario after his outstanding October and to add Kenley Jansen to an already solid back end of the bullpen. The Braves were also busy adding Collin McHugh, Tyler Thornburg and Kirby Yates to the pitching staff, bringing aboard the excellent defensive catcher Manny Piña and taking a flier on outfielder Alex Dickerson.

It would be unwise to pick the Braves to repeat as World Series winners, only because the baseball gods seem intent on never letting anybody win it all in back-to-back years. But even with the loss of their franchise face, the Braves -- between these moves and the return of Ronald Acuña Jr. -- are in as good a position to repeat as any recent champ.

6. Mariners

After surprisingly winning 90 games and finishing just two games shy of a playoff spot, the Mariners did exactly what you want a team in their position to do -- aggressively pursue veteran pieces to round out a burgeoning roster.

We could dock Jerry Dipoto points for “only” making two trades (that’s well below his personal par). But one of them was for a solid contact bat and versatile defender in Adam Frazier, who was an All-Star last year, and the other was a real whopper -- the blockbuster deal for outfielder Jesse Winker and third baseman Eugenio Suárez. Winker and his .292/.392/.552 slash line from the last two seasons bring a lot of credibility to a lineup that finished 22nd in runs last season, and Suárez is a bounce-back candidate.

On the signing front, the Mariners landed Robbie Ray after his Cy Young season, bringing a legit ace to a rotation that should soon feature some of the promising young arms percolating in the Seattle system. The Mariners also signed veteran reliever Sergio Romo. The AL West is evolving, and, after these moves, the Mariners are as good a candidate as any to win the division this year.

Honorable mentions:

The Tigers brought in star shortstop Javier Báez, two solid starters in Eduardo Rodriguez and Michael Pineda and an accomplished catcher in Tucker Barnhart to improve a team that has two of the game’s top prospects (Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene) on the cusp of the Majors.

The Cubs deserve a lot of credit for landing an impact starter in Marcus Stroman, an intriguing outfielder in Seiya Suzuki, the great glove of shortstop Andrelton Simmons and a horde of puzzle pieces (Jonathan Villar, Yan Gomes, Clint Frazier, Wade Miley, Drew Smyly, Mychal Givens, Chris Martin, David Robertson, Daniel Norris, Steven Brault and Jesse Chavez). A team that could have gone into full-on rebuild mode instead made an earnest effort.

The Giants went into the winter with only Logan Webb set to return to their rotation but did good work to retain Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood and sign Carlos Rodón, Alex Cobb and Matthew Boyd. They signed Joc Pederson, too.

In addition to bringing back Clayton Kershaw and Chris Taylor, the Dodgers added a great hitter in Freddie Freeman, which is enough to merit consideration for this list. And the signings of Andrew Heaney, Tyler Anderson and Daniel Hudson might work for the pitching staff. But let’s also not forget what they lost in Corey Seager, Max Scherzer and Kenley Jansen.

The Phillies added two monster bats in Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos... but might be under the impression that NL teams are getting multiple DH spots in the daily lineup.

In signing Trevor Story, the Red Sox added a lot of shine to an offseason that otherwise revolved around gambles on James Paxton, Rich Hill, Michael Wacha and Jackie Bradley Jr.