Caption: New Miami Marlins Shortstop Tim Anderson fielding a ground ball

By Sam Morris

Sam Morris is from Madison Heights, Michigan, and is an undergraduate student at BGSU majoring in Sports Management. He has a passion for sports writing and journalism. In his free time, he also performs, writes, and produces his own raps for the music industry club at BGSU.

March 15, 2024

It has been an extremely eventful offseason in Major League Baseball (MLB). A multitude of superstar free agents have been on the move, previously mediocre teams have made trades that have suddenly turned them into contenders, and an abnormally high number of prospects will reach the big leagues as rookies after Spring Training. To break down the 2024 MLB offseason, I have graded each team’s moves and ranked the team’s off-seasons based on how much I think their decisions will positively or negatively impact them.

Spring training games started a few weeks ago on February 22nd and will go on for a week and a half until March 26th. Some of the biggest free agents remaining include starting pitchers Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove who could help many of the teams that are currently lower on this list in their off-season moves. Once opening day hits on March 28th, we will begin to see just how each team’s off-season moves will truly help them.

30. Los Angeles Angels    (F)

Major Additions

• OF Aaron Hicks
• 1B Evan White
• RP Jose Cisnero

This was one of the easiest teams to rank on this list as the Angels had a franchise-altering off-season after losing two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani to the cross-town Dodgers. While remaining in the Ohtani sweepstakes for a brief moment in the offseason, it soon became clear that the Angels weren’t going to be able to compete with the Dodgers. Losing Ohtani means that the Angels have lost arguably the most globally recognizable player in baseball. Potentially even worse, it also means that they have wasted an enormous opportunity by not making the playoffs a single time while having two of the greatest baseball players of all time on their roster (Ohtani and Trout).

29. Miami Marlins    (D-)

Major Additions

• SS Tim Anderson
• UTIL Vidal Brujan

After being a surprising team and sneaking into the playoffs last year, the Marlins’ off-season was surprisingly lackluster to say the least. While the rest of the National League East made a plethora of trades and free agent signings, Miami only added Shortstop Tim Anderson from the White Sox, and Vidal Brujan, a utilityman and base stealing threat from Tampa Bay, who will likely be used off the bench. Anderson is the more interesting of the two additions as he will slide in as the everyday starter immediately and will be looking to bounce back from his horrendous 2023 campaign in which he batted a mediocre .245, had just 1 home run, and had a minuscule 25 rbi’s from the leadoff spot in Chicago’s batting order. What’s unique about Anderson is that he batted over .300 in 4 consecutive seasons for Chicago from 2019-2022 before last year, so if Miami can get that type of production from him then their offseason could prove this ranking wrong. However, Anderson’s unpredictable performance coupled with the fact that Miami also lost pivotal pieces from last year’s playoff team, including Jorge Soler, Joey Wendle, and Yuli Gurriel, makes me question why they didn’t try to get another piece or two to help bolster their roster and build more upon last year’s surprising success.

28. Colorado Rockies    (D-)

Major Additions

• SP Cal Quantrill
• C Jacob Stallings

If it weren’t for the Oakland Athletics playing so poorly that fans thought a historic loss record could potentially be broken, then the Rockies would have surely been the worst team in baseball last year. In the 2000’s, Colorado had stars like Ubaldo Jimenez, Troy Tulowitzki, and Todd Helton. Then, in the 2010’s, Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story took them back to the playoffs. But the present-day Rockies are severely lacking any real star power, with 32-year-old Kris Bryant being their most recognizable player. Although they are in a rebuild, their farm system isn’t helping the problem either, as they have been consistently ranked in the bottom 5 in the league for the past few seasons. With that being said, while Colorado didn’t lose anybody big from their roster like a few other teams this low on the list, they also barely did anything to improve it either. Their only moves came in first signing Cal Quantrill from Cleveland, who could potentially become their ace. They also signed 2021 Gold Glove Winner Jacob Stallings from Miami, who had a good year last year with the Marlins. However, adding a catcher was confusing in my opinion as out of anybody in Colorado’s lineup, 2023 all-star game MVP, catcher Elias Diaz was by far the most productive. Unfortunately for Colorado, the other 4 NL West teams’ off-seasons rank in the top 10 on this list.

27. Minnesota Twins    (D)

Major Additions

• SP Anthony DeSclafini
• DH Carlos Santana

Last season’s American League Central champions lost a lot of players this offseason and didn’t add much in return. Two of their top pitchers, Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda are now gone, one of them (Maeda) within their own division. To compensate, the Twins nabbed DeSclafini from the Giants. Desclafini’s career has fallen off significantly since leaving Cincinnati and he isn’t nearly a quality replacement for both Maeda and Gray at the top end of their rotation. To make matters worse, Jorge Polanco is on Seattle now leaving a gaping hole across from Correa at second base. The Polanco loss is extremely important because Correa, Royce Lewis, and Byron Buxton are now Minnesota’s most productive bats, and all three of them are severely injury prone. The only notable offensive player the Twins signed this offseason was about as far away from a young second baseman as humanly possible: 37-year-old DH Carlos Santana.

26. Tampa Bay Rays    (D)

Major Additions

• SP Ryan Pepiot
• RP Tyler Alexander
• INF Jose Caballero

The Rays’ ability to win with the lowest payroll in the league will be put to the test this season as they are yet another case of losing a lot and gaining little in return. Tampa Bay got hit hard by big-city market teams, losing their ace, Tyler Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margot to the L.A. Dodgers, and closer Andrew Kittredge to St Louis. Like the Twins, the Rays also lost someone important to last year’s playoff run to Seattle, power hitting first baseman Luke Raley. Tampa’s offense and pitching will be taking a hit with these losses. The Pepiot signing as part of the Glasnow trade should help build a deeper pitching staff but not necessarily a top-15 staff in the league. Caballero is also an interesting prospect from Seattle’s system and he will most likely be used in a platoon at shortstop with veteran Amed Rosario now that Wander Franco is gone. Caballero will have to improve hitting wise though if he expects to make up for the massive Margot and Raley losses to the Tampa lineup.

25. Toronto Blue Jays   (D)

Major Additions

• 1B Joey Votto
• OF Kevin Kiermaier
• UTIL Isiah Kiner-Falefa
• DH Daniel Vogelbach
• 3B/DH Justin Turner

In my opinion, while not the worst offseason on this list, Toronto made the most perplexing moves. Besides adding Kevin Kiermaier, the Blue Jays went all-in on offense and power this offseason. They got Canadian-born Joey Votto as a free agent from the Reds, Vogelbach from the Mets, and Justin Turner from the Red Sox. Although they will definitely hit some home runs, all of these free agents are very similar players playing similar positions. The Blue Jays also lost some of their best players, including star 3B Matt Chapman, pitchers Hyun Jin Ryu and Jordan Hicks, and 2B Whit Merrifield. Toronto didn’t address any of the holes left by the offensive players they lost and instead picked players at the same positions as Vladimir Guerrero. They also didn’t improve their starting or relief pitching staffs.

24. Cleveland Guardians   (D+)

Major Additions

• RP Scott Barlow
• C Austin Hedges

Cleveland addressed a major need in the back half of their bullpen by adding former Royals closer Scott Barlow to presumably be their set up man, which will give them one of the best 8th-9th inning combos in baseball with Barlow-Clase. Hedges is also a nice piece as a veteran catcher for this Guardians lineup. Despite these nice moves, Cleveland didn’t make any significant trades or free agent signings that will make their offense or starting pitching better, which were by far their two biggest needs last season. If Cleveland would have gotten at least one big name free agent then they could easily be considered a favorite to win the Central with the Twins having such a poor offseason and the division being the definitively worst in MLB. However, their offense will most likely stay stagnant with the current lineup which will not help them against the Tigers’ young up-and-coming pitching staff.

23. Pittsburgh Pirates   (D+)

Major Additions

• CP Aroldis Chapman
• C Yasmani Grandal
• 1B/DH Rowdy Tellez
• SP Martin Perez
• SP Marco Gonzales

The Pirates have one of the best farm systems in MLB but hate to spend money. So what did they do? They signed 5 veterans to relatively short and cheap deals to help the upcoming youth. These deals strengthen their immediate future, but similar to Cleveland, I wish they would have done more this offseason to help them realistically compete in a wide-open NL Central race. I legitimately think anyone could win that division and the Pirates didn’t do nearly enough to help them compete in the long term. Gonzales and Perez will be top-end rotation guys which will make for a mediocre rotation at best. Tellez and Grandal will hit home runs but won’t do much in terms of hitting consistently for average.

22. Chicago White Sox   (C-)

Major Additions

• SP Chris Flexen
• SP Eric Fedde
• C Max Stassi
• SP Michael Soroka
• INF Nicky Lopez
• SS Paul DeJong
• OF Kevin Pillar

The White Sox went into almost a complete roster overhaul this offseason. They lost inconsistent shortstop Tim Anderson to Miami and replaced him with ex-Cardinal Paul DeJong. They also lost two of their best relievers, Liam Hendriks and Bryan Shaw but didn’t gain any better relievers back. They added Soroka from the Braves, Flexen from the Rockies and Fedde from the Nationals to their starting pitching staff, but lost better starters in Aaron Bummer, Mike Clevinger, and perennial all-star ace Dylan Cease. Overall, the White Sox management clearly sees a new vision and a complete rebuild in the future, but it’ll just take a while for them to get their team back into contention in the AL Central.

21. Philadelphia Phillies   (C-)

Major Additions

• 2B Whit Merrifield

Philadelphia has had major playoff success in 2022 and 2023 and after probably the most boring offseason on this list, they have essentially kept the same team this year. They first locked down their ace pitcher Aaron Nola by resigning him for a 7-year deal. Then, they got professional contact hitter Whit Merrifield to help at a variety of positions. The main reason the Phillies rank so low is because they failed to sign Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto who they were heavily linked to in free agent discussions. They also lost both first baseman Rhys Hoskins and closer Craig Kimbrel. Because of this, Bryce Harper will most likely have to play first base again since they didn’t sign a new player at that position. This will severely weaken their outfield depth and defense with Schwarber and Castellanos on the corners. The Kimbrel loss is also big as the rest of their bullpen is relatively weak and was not addressed this offseason.