Hopefully everyone's holidays went well. In the MLB offseason, stuff happened while we were distracted by all the festivities. You might have caught some or all of these tidbits in the periphery of your attention span. Or you might have been completely focused on other things, non-baseball things. That's fine. It happens. But it's time to make up for that.
Let's run through some recent moves you might have missed, or barely paid attention to. None of these are earth-rattlers but they all matter, at least a little bit.
Diamondbacks sign OF Kole Calhoun.
Arizona general manager Mike Hazen continues to straddle the line between rebuilding and contending, while remaking the payroll structure of his team. The 2017 Diamondbacks advanced to the division series round of the playoffs with a roster topped by, among others, Zack Greinke, Paul Goldschmidt, A.J. Pollock, Patrick Corbin and J.D. Martinez. All of those big-name players were on new teams by the end of the 2019 season.
Yet this has not been anything like a complete tear-down. The payroll in 2017 ranked 23rd in MLB at $116 million, per Cot's Contracts. In 2018, when Arizona finished 82-80, it reached $155 million to rank 14th. Last season, the number was $138 million to rank 19th, as the Diamondbacks finished 85-77. The 2020 payroll currently projects to be around $109 million.
Hazen hasn't really cut payroll too drastically. What he has done is redistributed his money and created flexibility while concurrently restocking what was a barren farm system. MLB.com recently rated Arizona as one of the five most-improved farm systems in the game over the past year. And with the addition of Calhoun -- Mike Trout's long-time counterpart and close friend with the Angels -- for two years at $8 million per season, FanGraphs currently has the Diamondbacks projected to once again finish around .500.
There seems to be further room for improvement here, both in terms of payroll space and in positional need. The Diamondbacks could use a good bat and they could address that need either in the form of a second baseman or a center fielder, with 2019 MVP candidate Ketel Marte holding down one of the two positions. Free-agent options are tepid in terms of impact bats, so a trade might be the better play. Pittsburgh's Starling Marte would be a sensible target.
Blue Jays sign IF Travis Shaw, SP Shun Yamaguchi; designate IF Richard Urena for assignment.
It's possible Urena could be brought back on a minor league deal if he clears waivers. He's not really an impact player so his options elsewhere would probably be as Triple-A depth. For Toronto, in 2019 he did fill one important role: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s boon companion. It probably doesn't matter, but you hate to see friends split up.
In Shaw, Toronto has a classic bounce-back candidate. However, Shaw's 2019 performance went beyond any reasonable definition of a "down season." He was downright awful, cratering to a .157/.281/.270 line in the majors. In the two years prior to that, Shaw clubbed 63 homers for Milwaukee. He turns 30 shortly after Opening Day and if he gets his head right, he could get regular at-bats for Toronto.
Yamaguchi, 32, is making the move from Japan. According to the translations from Clay Davenport, he projects to be a hair better than league average. That has more or less been the approach for GM Ross Atkins this winter in restocking a struggling rotation: improving from bad to average (with one notable exception). Yamaguchi joins free-agent signee Tanner Roark, trade acquisition Chase Anderson and returnee Matt Shoemaker in the projected Toronto rotation. That quartet will slot behind big-money signee Hyun-Jin Ryu.
You can see the strategy but even with Yamaguchi, the Jays' rotation slots as a bottom-10 group with limited upside. Yamaguchi worked as a closer early in his JPCL career, so perhaps he will end up as a bridge to Toronto closer Ken Giles, with the possibility of getting more than three outs if needed.
Dodgers release RP J.T. Chargois.
Chargois reportedly is headed to Japan. L.A. needs bullpen help and apparently felt it wasn't going to get Chargois to turn the corner. The Dodgers have had a lot of success with reclamation projects like Chargois, but after two seasons and a 4.53 ERA, this is one that didn't work out.
Indians' signing of 2B Cesar Hernandez made official; C Eric Haas designated for assignment.
Hernandez is an underrated player with good secondary skills. If he is healthy, he should be a nice upgrade over what the Indians have gotten from Jason Kipnis the past couple of years. However, it won't matter if Cleveland trades Francisco Lindor and/or Mike Clevinger.
Marlins sign OF Corey Dickerson and C Francisco Cervelli.
Miami is trying to establish a foundation of veteran stability with low-cost, short-duration signings. Any possible move up in the standings would come from the position group offering something around league-average production while the organization's young starters gain a collective foothold and give the roster some upside.
The Marlins still project to be terrible, but at least they are doing something. With Cervelli, Dickerson, Jesus Aguilar and Jonathan Villar joining returnees Brian Anderson, Jorge Alfaro, Lewis Brinson, Harold Ramirez, Isan Diaz and Miguel Rojas, Miami will at least be able to trot out a lineup of big leaguers most days.
Cervelli is a good choice as a backup for Alfaro, one who offers a better OBP and enough offense overall to get starts at first base. After all of his concussions, his days as a full-time catcher are probably over, so this is a logical role for him to fill from here on out.
Over the past three years, Dickerson ranks 33rd in bWAR among outfielders. There are of course 90 starting outfield spots available, 60 if you only look at the corner positions. For whatever reason, Dickerson has become one a few solid veterans whose skill set doesn't seem to be scarce enough for him to stick very long with one team. The Marlins got him for two years, $17.5 million -- a deal that wouldn't kill Dickerson's trade value if he keeps putting up the kind of numbers he has in recent seasons.
White Sox sign DH Edwin Encarnacion.
Chicago needed another power bat. Encarnacion has hit at least 32 homers in each of the past eight seasons. During the second half of last season, he hit .321/.392/.643, though he was limited to 28 games because of injury. Only 10 of his 34 homers last season came at Yankee Stadium, so his time in New York didn't inflate that total. For one year and $12 million, he's a worthy gamble for the White Sox. But despite that long streak of 30-plus homer seasons, Encarnacion has to be classified as a risk simply because he's going to be 37 this season.
Mets sign RP Dellin Betances.
If the Mets could get each of their relievers to match their best seasons, they'd have baseball's most devastating bullpen. Betances, who signed a one-year, $10.5 million contract, is bidding to come back from an injury-marred 2019 season. He joins fellow bounce-back candidates Brad Brach, Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia in a big-name bullpen. Relievers, even most of the good ones, are fickle as all get out, so if that group regresses in the good way, the Mets will emerge as early favorites in the NL East. (Pending what the Braves do with the rest of their offseason.)
Twins sign SP Rich Hill and SP Homer Bailey.
Minnesota pitching coach Wes Johnson has quickly become one of the new wave of analytically fueled gurus who can help struggling veterans reclaim or discover the best versions of themselves. That trait helped boost a mediocre-on-paper 2019 Minnesota rotation into one of the most stable units in the majors.
This offseason was supposed to play out a little differently in terms of Minnesota's rotation agenda. They were reportedly in on the likes of free-agent studs Zack Wheeler, Madison Bumgarner and Hyun-Jin Ryu. But when none of the upper-tier starters would take the Twins' money, they pivoted to Hill and Bailey, with a possible additional acquisition still to be made.
It'll be an unusual journey for the 2020 Minnesota starting staff. They will hope for consistency from the top two in returnees Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi. Then it gets interesting. Minnesota re-upped with Michael Pineda, who was solid for them in 2019. But Pineda was suspended for PED use and won't be eligible until around mid-May. Meanwhile, Hill is coming off elbow surgery and the Twins already have said they are looking at him as more of a later-in-the-season boost.
As for Bailey, he reversed his career slide in 2019, first for Kansas City and then for Oakland after he was traded there. Bailey struggled with injuries and their aftermath from 2015 to 2018, during which time he posted a composite ERA+ of just 69. Last season, he improved to 99 -- right about league average. He did so over 163 innings, a performance that the Twins would gladly accept in 2020. However, with Johnson getting a crack at him, the Twins will hope for even better than that.