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It wouldn’t be a proper day after the winter meetings without discussion of all the big deals.

The four days of hot-stove action at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, didn’t disappoint. Among the things that happened were trades involving an elite starting pitcher, a star outfielder and a star closer, along with signings of some of the best players on the free-agent market.

We’re going to round up the big moves and grade them based on how the price paid matches up with the quality of the player (or players) involved, as well as how the new additions fit with their new teams.

We’ll go in chronological order, starting now.

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The St. Louis Cardinals have the unenviable task of catching up to the Chicago Cubs. It’s a mission that will take all their cunning.

Their latest idea: deny the enemy and enrich themselves in one fell swoop.

It’s not officially official, but the news circulating Thursday night is that Dexter Fowler is defecting from the Cubs to the Cardinals. Bob Nightengale of USA Today was on it first:

According to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, Fowler’s deal with St. Louis will be for five years and at least $16 million per season. The Cardinals would also lose the No. 19 pick in the 2017 draft.

Nonetheless, a quality center fielder may be about to earn less money than Aroldis Chapman, a one-inning relief pitcher who’s in line to get $86 million over five years from the New York Yankees. Simply on those grounds, let’s call this a win for the Cardinals. Good job, guys.

But that’s not the only reason for them to be giddy. Per Nightengale, Fowler has been the club’s top target since the summer. Manager Mike Matheny has made no secret of that, going so far as to compare Fowler to Cardinals All-Star Matt Carpenter.

“The more players that you can have like that, I think the better off you’re going to be,” the skipper told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

There’s more reason to like Fowler now than ever before. The 30-year-old is coming off one of his best seasons. He finished 2016 with an .840 OPS underscored by a .393 on-base percentage. He also played against type by rating well defensively.

With Fowler’s age-31 season due up in 2017, there’s a natural concern about how well he’ll age in the life of a five-year contract. But in his case, there are reasons to believe he’ll be fine.

Although Fowler’s still an excellent athlete, his offensive production stems mainly from his head. He has an outstanding approach and an excellent batting eye.

That not only affords him plenty of OBP-boosting walks but ensures that most of his swings are taken at pitches he can hit well. Even if he tops out around 15 home runs per season, this is how he keeps his overall power production above league average.

Meanwhile, Fowler’s defensive improvement in 2016 had nothing to do with a random mid-career surge of athleticism. It traced back to a simple positioning adjustment.

“I was getting crushed with the defense,” Fowler told Paul Skrbina of the Chicago Tribune in October. “They said I was a bad outfielder. I kind of took offense to that. So I just moved back a few steps.”

Assuming Fowler takes this adjustment to St. Louis, he stands to improve a center field spot that finished 24th in ultimate zone rating in 2016. The Cardinals’ entire defense would benefit from that, which would satisfy one of the goals they had for their offseason.

“It certainly was a year of inconsistencies,” general manager John Mozeliak said in October, per Ben Frederickson of the Post-Dispatch. “You think back to some of our defensive struggles, which put a lot of stress on our rotation and then led to some inconsistencies with the rotation.”

On the other side of the ball, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney’s projection for the new Cardinals lineup looks about right:

Fowler can’t do much to upgrade a leadoff spot that, mainly thanks to Carpenter, posted a .368 OBP and .848 OPS in 2016.

But allowing Carpenter to move into the middle of the batting order should have the desired effect there. Only five teams got a lower OPS from their Nos. 3 through 6 hitters than the Cardinals in 2016. With an .877 OPS and 49 home runs over the last two seasons, Carpenter should fix that.

Bottom line: The Cardinals will be better after signing one of the top players on the market than they were before. How ’bout that, huh? Amazing.

Now, as good as the Cubs? Not quite yet.

The Cubs won 17 more games (and that other thing) than the Cardinals in 2016, so they started the winter in a better place by default.

And although they’ve lost Fowler, Albert Almora Jr. will probably play better defense in center while a healthy Kyle Schwarber picks up Fowler’s offensive slack. The Cubs also filled their vacant closer role with Wade Davis, who is very, very good.

The early projections for 2017 peg the Cubs to once again be the team to beat not just in the NL Central but in the entire league. Per FanGraphs, their projection of 95 wins is the highest of any club.

But with a projection of 84 wins even before Fowler is factored into the mix, the Cardinals do have one thing going for them: They’re the team in the NL Central with the best shot of taking down the Cubs.

Two of the clubs in the division, the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, are so far out of the picture that we might as well be assessing their chances of winning the NFC North. The Pittsburgh Pirates have good individual parts but an incomplete whole and limited resources for fixing it.

With only the (shockingly expensive) Brett Cecil signing going for them before Thursday, the Cardinals were more in a boat with the Pirates than paddling toward the Cubs. With Fowler now set to give them a boost in more ways than one, their odds of overtaking the Cubs are somewhere below laughable.

Faint praise? Sort of. But you never know. Maybe the Cardinals aren’t supposed to topple the Cubs, but Frodo wasn’t supposed to get the One Ring to Mt. Doom either. Nor was Luke Skywalker supposed to destroy the Death Star.

Sometimes all you can do is give it a shot. The Cardinals are now ready to take theirs.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The party in National Harbor, Maryland, is over. Major League Baseball’s winter meetings have come and gone, leaving us to pick up the pieces.

Tell you one thing: It’s not hard to see who made out well and who didn’t.

Let’s get into that by looking at the six winners and four losers of the winter meetings. They’re a nice balance of teams and individual players who are walking away from Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center with either smiles or scowls.

We’ll go in no particular order, but we’ll start by assessing by far the biggest move of the week…

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Day 3 of the 2016 MLB winter meetings started with a bang and ended with a bang, with assorted other bangs in between.

Missed it and want to catch up? Welcome to the right place.

We’re here to take stock of the major moves and rumors that populated the baseball headlines on Wednesday. These range from Aroldis Chapman and Ian Desmond signing free-agent contracts to trades involving Wade Davis and Adam Eaton.

What else happened during the third day of action at National Harbor, Maryland? Oh, you know. This, that and the other thing.

Rather than get into all of it in brief here, we better get more in-depth with a slideshow.

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Two things steadily became clear about the Chicago White Sox’s position on Chris Sale this winter: He was available but only at an incredibly high price.

On Tuesday, that price was paid in full.

Sale is changing his Sox. As Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports first reported, the All-Star left-hander went from the White Sox to the Boston Red Sox. Per Boston, Chicago got four prospects in exchange: infielder Yoan Moncada, right-handers Michael Kopech and Victor Diaz and outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe.

It doesn’t sound like much of a return when only their names are mentioned, huh? We should probably introduce some context into this conversation.

Let’s start with Moncada, who is arguably the best young talent in the sport:

This position isn’t unique to MLB‘s experts. Before Moncada ended up as its Minor League Player of the Year in September, he was the No. 1 prospect in Baseball America‘s midseason Top 100. 

Now, the catch should be that the White Sox will pay the remainder of the $63 million investment the Red Sox made in Moncada when they signed him as a mere 19-year-old in 2015.

But nope, according to Bruce Levine of 670 The Score in Chicago:

This means the White Sox got all of Moncada‘s upside and basically none of his risk.

It’s not as if the Cuba native was struggling to live up to that investment, either. All he’s done since signing is put up an .875 OPS with 94 stolen bases in 187 minor league games. And he already has some major league experience, having appeared in eight games with the Red Sox at the end of 2016.

Like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant before him, this makes Moncada The Next Big Thing™. In need of a course correction after a fourth straight losing season in 2016, the White Sox could not have asked for a better headliner for a Sale trade.

But a lesser deal almost happened. The word Monday, per Rosenthal, was that Sale had one foot in a Washington Nationals uniform for two prospects notably not named Yoan Moncada. Instead, general manager Rick Hahn was rewarded for his patience.

“You have to have that line before you get in the heat of the negotiation or an environment like this where there is a bit of a fever pitch to make moves, that you have objectively set that line you aren’t going to go below,” Hahn said Monday, via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Otherwise, you are compromising too much in terms of the value.”

Because it must be said, let’s be out with it: Since the White Sox got only prospects from the Red Sox, they got a heck of a lot more upside than certainty.

And even by top-prospect standards, Moncada is more uncertain than most. Despite his position atop assorted prospect rankings, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America noted there was some pushback at play:

There’s little question Moncada has the raw talent befitting a No. 1 prospect. He’s a switch-hitter who not only has plus-plus speed but also plus-power potential built into his 6’2″, 205-pound frame.

Thus, MLB.com’s glowing endorsement:

Few middle infielders can match Moncada‘s huge offensive ceiling, which earns him comparisons to Robinson Cano with more speed. He’s a switch-hitter with outstanding bat speed who makes consistent hard contact from both sides of the plate. Moncada has added some loft to his swing in 2016 and has the potential for 20-25 home runs per season.

Or maybe you’d prefer what one scout told Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports in September 2015: “He’s the closest thing to [Mike] Trout I’ve seen.”

However, how well Moncada‘s talent will translate to the majors is a question that only got amplified by his first taste of The Show in 2016.

He logged only 20 plate appearances in eight games, but Moncada registered three times as many strikeouts (12) as hits (four). He also failed to impress on defense at third base and on the basepaths, where one gaffe in particular drew the ire of Boston manager John Farrell.

As Bernie Pleskoff covered at FanRag Sports, Moncada‘s strikeouts and defensive issues loom as legit question marks. As talented as he is, he can only be so good if he struggles to put the ball in play at the plate and doesn’t have a true home in the field.

But all handwringing aside, there’s a major bright side here. Moncada is just 21 years old, and he played only two seasons in the Cuban National Series before coming to the United States. Whatever bad habits he has now shouldn’t be so ingrained they can’t be fixed.

To boot, Tuesday’s trade signaled the White Sox are in no hurry.

Oh, sure. They could hold on to Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, Melky Cabrera, David Robertson and other notables who have also popped up in trade rumors this winter, according to Buster Olney of ESPN (via MLB Trade Rumors). But if their goal were to try to win in the immediate future, Sale would still be with them.

Instead, the fallout of the Sale trade should involve the opening of the White Sox’s floodgates. More trades will bring even more young talent for the core of a future winner, as Hahn told reporters Monday, via The Athletic:

I think what we’re looking to do is put ourselves in a position for extended success. And the means for us to do that is by acquiring as much impact controllable talent as we can over an extended period and continuing the efforts to build ourselves up internationally and through the draft and adding to that potentially via trade.

The addition of not only Moncada but also the other three players garnered in the Sale trade was a hell of a start to this process.

Kopech has control issues to sort out, but he’s already famous for uncorking a 105 mph fastball and ranks as MLB.com’s No. 30 prospect. Basabe is a power-speed player who landed as Chicago’s No. 7 prospect. Diaz is another power arm who checked in at No. 29.

This haul was a proverbial shot in the arm for a White Sox farm system that Baseball America ranked No. 23 going into the 2016 season. There may not be any guarantees that the club’s wildest dreams will come true, but its future is in a much better place today than it was yesterday.

Or in other words: worth waiting for.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The San Francisco Giants‘ run of even-year championships finally ended in 2016 in large part because their bullpen was cursed. Or to put it more bluntly, just not very good.

All they had to do to solve this was sign the most expensive relief pitcher in Major League Baseball history.

The honor now belongs to Mark Melancon. The early buzz at the first day of the winter meetings Monday had the Giants closing in on a deal with the veteran right-hander, and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports was the first to report the terms: four years and $62 million.

Of course, the signing didn’t really become official until the three-time All-Star made like a true 21st-century man and took to Twitter:

If we want to be technical, it’s actually “a part.” While we’re at it, we should also note that Melancon’s four-year deal is really a two-year, $34 million deal with a two-year option. According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, he can opt out after earning $17 million in each of the first two seasons.

But, whatever. There’s $62 million in guaranteed money available in Melancon’s deal, which is $12 million more than the $50 million Jonathan Papelbon got from the Philadelphia Phillies in 2011. Let the record show, there’s a lot more money in today’s MLB, and also, elite relief pitching is even more valued now than it was then.

And after 2016, the Giants certainly have more cause than most to value elite relief pitching.

Their bullpen lacked a true shutdown arm in 2016, and that led to no shortage of aches in manager Bruce Bochy’s plus-sized head. Despite finishing with a respectable 3.65 ERA, Giants relievers led the league with 30 blown saves.

That was a major factor in their winning just 87 games and falling four games short of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West race. And after Madison Bumgarner put the Giants in the National League Division Series with a shutout in the Wild Card Game, the Chicago Cubs‘ four-run rally in the ninth inning of Game 4 resulted in the Giants finally succumbing to their biggest weakness.

It’s a good thing the core of the 2016 Giants will be back for 2017. They’ll continue to ride a rotation led by Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto and a lineup led by Buster Posey, Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt.

But with Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla and Javier Lopez all free agents this winter, the Giants had just the window they needed to rebuild their bullpen. Signing Melancon is the biggest step forward they figure to make in that regard.

“It gives all of the club a peace of mind and confidence with as many close games we play that we have a lockdown guy for the ninth,” general manager Bobby Evans said, per John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Unlike fellow free-agent relief aces Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen—who will each make sure Melancon’s status as baseball’s most expensive reliever is short-lived—Melancon doesn’t get by on overpowering stuff that allows him to miss bats.

The 31-year-old worked at 91.0 mph with his cutter in 2016 and has struck out just 7.7 batters per nine innings over the last two seasons. To these extents, he’s bringing nothing new to a Giants pen that tied for 27th in fastball velocity and 27th in strikeouts per nine in 2016.

However, Melancon mixes command and movement as well as any reliever out there.

His pinpoint command is reflected in his rate of 1.4 walks per nine innings since 2013, but more so in how he works on the edges of the strike zone. Eno Sarris of FanGraphs has more insight on that.

When you can do that, you don’t need velocity. It’s good enough to have a loopy 12-to-6 curveball and a cutter that can do this:

Melancon may not miss bats with his approach, but he does miss barrels. Only Zach Britton has a higher soft contact percentage over the last two seasons, and much of Melancon’s soft contact ends up in the same place as Britton’s: on the ground.

“Perfect for our defense,” is how Evans characterized that aspect of Melancon’s game, per Chris Haft of MLB.com.

You know what else is great about command and movement? Unlike velocity, they’re not under constant threat to be taken away by age. Melancon’s a living reminder of that, as his command and his movement have remained on point even as he’s lost velocity over the last two seasons.

Assuming he can keep that up, he could be just as effective in the next four seasons as he’s been in the last four seasons. A good way to punctuate that is to look at where he places among his fellow relievers in ERA since 2013:

Look at that! First. This guy must be pretty good.

And not only that, but he’s also reliable too. Despite not becoming a full-time closer until 2014, Melancon still leads all relievers in win probability added over the last four seasons. Other relievers have been more overpowering, but all but one of them (Britton) have had more meltdowns than Melancon (minus three others who tied him).

To be fair, there would have been an equally large number of things to rave about if the Giants had signed Chapman or Jansen instead. They are also elite relief aces, and either arguably would have been an even better solution for what ailed the Giants in 2016.

Nonetheless, nobody should be thinking the Giants merely settled for Melancon. They paid a pretty penny for a big-time improvement in an area where they needed just that. And with him in place, you can already see a team that ought to be more well-rounded in 2017.

And despite FanGraphs’ early projections giving the Dodgers the edge in the 2017 NL West race, they still have moves to make before they’re on the Giants’ level. The Dodgers have talent, but none of it is located at third base, second base or closer.

Melancon’s signing filled the only major hole the Giants had. All they need now is some outfield depth, a back-end starter and a supporting arm or two for their bullpen. Not too much to ask for.

There’s still a lot of winter left. But for now, the Giants can rest easy knowing that lifting the curse on their bullpen has given them the upper hand in the NL West.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The last time Carlos Beltran was in a Houston Astros uniform, he was punishing baseballs left and right as he led the team deep into the postseason.

It could be deja vu all over again 11 months from now.

After parting ways back in 2004, Beltran and the Astros reunited Saturday. Buster Olney of ESPN.com was first to report the Astros had signed the 39-year-old switch-hitter to a one-year, $16 million contract. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Beltran’s contract also features a full no-trade clause.

Go ahead and score another one for an Astros lineup that has reached full ignition this winter.

The Astros already had a core of Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Evan Gattis, Alex Bregman and Yulieski Gurriel. Now they have Brian McCann and Josh Reddick in addition to Beltran. Per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, here’s how they could line up on Opening Day:

The only major changes I’d make are sliding Reddick over to his natural right field position, Gattis to left field and Beltran into the designated hitter spot.

That’s where he belongs these days. Beltran was still a darn good center fielder when he played for the Astros in 2004, but age and mileage have taken a toll on his legs. The advanced metrics make it clear that he can’t play even average defense as a right fielder.

Fair warning: Beltran’s also not going to be the hitter he was the last time he was in Houston.

After he was acquired from the Kansas City Royals in a June trade, he boosted the Astros with a .926 OPS and 23 home runs in 90 regular-season games. He then posted an absurd 1.557 OPS and hit eight homers in leading the Astros to Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. Asking him to do that again would be like asking Altuve to dunk on Hakeem Olajuwon.

But while numbers reminiscent of 2004 may not be in store, old age has only slowed Beltran’s bat down so much.

He’s put up an .830 OPS and hit 48 home runs over the last two seasons. Most of that damage came in 2016, when he had an .850 OPS and cranked 29 home runs in 151 games with the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers.

The Astros could have benefited from production like that at a number of different positions. As ESPN Stats & Info will vouch, DH was one of them:

Beltran’s arrival should make for better fortunes at that position in 2017. And the news is nothing but good elsewhere too.

Reddick’s arrival gives the Astros another bat for an outfield that, Springer aside, struggled offensively in 2016. McCann has been a more consistent hitter than the guy he’s replacing behind the plate, Jason Castro. Full seasons from Bregman, a former No. 1 prospect, and Gurriel, formerly a Cuban superstar, could also yield impressive results.

At the least, Houston’s offense is due for a major improvement from its place in the American League in 2016, in which it finished eighth in runs and ninth in OPS. As FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan highlighted, it could even be the best offense in the league as things stand now.

And the 2017 Astros should do more than just hit.

A defense that finished second to only the Chicago Cubs in defensive runs saved in 2016 is arguably just as good now as it was at the end of the season, if not better. And despite losing Pat Neshek in a salary-dump trade, the Astros have largely retained a bullpen that, by FanGraphs‘ calculation, led baseball in wins above replacement in 2016.

The only part of the team that looks like an Achilles heel is the starting rotation. It put up a 4.37 ERA without good peripherals in 2016. The only upgrade it’s gotten this winter is Charlie Morton, a 33-year-old whose health and productivity have been easy-come, easy-go.

This is the part that makes me hesitant to buy into the early projections at FanGraphs, which have the Astros pegged as the AL’s best team with a 2017 projection of 91 wins. Of course, there’s also the fact the Astros are just about done with their offseason shopping while most other teams haven’t even started theirs.

However, there is the possibility that the Astros will get bounce-back seasons from 2015 Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh. There’s also the possibility that Lance McCullers will stay healthy and dominate with his electric stuff—Castro, now with the Minnesota Twins, won’t soon forget it.

There’s also the possibility that the rotation is next in line for a major upgrade. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports has the latest on that:

According to Heyman, the Astros have their eyes on Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale and Tampa Bay Rays ace Chris Archer. It could require taking Bregman out of the picture, but they have enough young talent to acquire either one of them. Even after dropping tens of millions on their offseason acquisitions to this point, they should also have the funds to take on Sale’s or Archer’s contract.

“We’re going to have the resources to go out and sign some players,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow promised in October, via Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle.

The Astros will have nothing to complain about if they get Sale or Archer. They’ll have taken a team that, though flawed, was good enough to win 84 games in 2016 and outfitted it with a lineup, rotation and bullpen worthy of a World Series chase.

This is unfinished business for both Beltran and the Astros. Beltran hasn’t won a World Series in his 19-year career, and the Astros have played in one and won none in their 54-year history.

It’s all too easy to imagine either party saying three magic words as soon as Saturday’s deal was done: Let’s do this.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

If anyone’s having trouble imagining Andrew McCutchen wearing something other than a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, don’t worry. Soon you won’t have to.

Because it’ll be reality.

This is according to the hot-stove season’s Masters of Whispers. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported Wednesday that McCutchen, a five-time National League All-Star and one-time NL MVP, is the “most likely to go” of the star players on the trading block this winter. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports forcefully concurred:

McCutchen, 30, obviously hasn’t been moved yet. If the center fielder is still in the same frame of mind he was at the end of the season, he’s not sweating it wherever he is.

“I’m under contract with them, right? That’s the way I’m looking at it,” he told MLB.com’s Adam Berry. “I don’t align the stars. I’m not the person that controls all that. I don’t do that. It’s all in God’s hands.”

Well, in this case, McCutchen‘s fate is technically in the hands of Pirates general manager Neal Huntington. While he hasn’t yet moved McCutchen, that could change before you even get to the period at the end of this sentence.

Although nothing ultimately happened, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reported Thursday the Pirates had “ramped up” talks with the Washington Nationals, who preferred to get a deal done by the end of the day. They didn’t, but Friday’s a new day with plenty of time for wheelin‘ and dealin‘.

The writing on the wall is easy for the people of Pittsburgh to read: Time to say goodbye.

Oh, it’ll get dusty in there for sure. McCutchen has been with the organization since the Pirates drafted him in the first round back in 2005, after which he largely made a mockery of the minor leagues en route to his major league debut in 2009.

From then on, he’s been the Pirate.

Early on, that only meant being a bright spot on teams that were carrying on a legacy of futility dating back to the team’s last postseason trip in 1992. McCutchen averaged an .822 OPS with 17 homers and 26 stolen bases in his first three seasons, but the Pirates topped 90 losses each year.

Things started to change before the 2012 season even began. The Pirates rewarded McCutchen‘s strong beginning by brightening his future with a six-year contract extension.

“Knowing that Andrew will continue to lead the team for a bright, successful, championship future at PNC Park is a thrill for me—the organization is in a wonderful place,” Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said, via Tom Singer of MLB.com.

Nutting then turned to McCutchen and said, “You’re going to be a critical part of that as we go forward.”

Spoken like a true prophet. 

McCutchen broke out as a superstar in 2012 with a .953 OPS, 31 homers and 20 stolen bases, winning a Gold Glove as well. That helped the Pirates improve to just 83 losses. His MVP season in 2013 boosted them to 94 wins and put them back in the playoffs as one of the NL’s wild-card teams. They were a wild card again in 2014 and again in 2015 after a 98-win regular season.

McCutchen‘s average season in these three years: a .917 OPS with 23 home runs and 19 stolen bases. In the National League, only Paul Goldschmidt was worth more wins above replacement.

Which brings us to 2016, and where this story gets considerably less nostalgic.

Star players tend to fall off gradually, taking several years to go from great to good to mediocre to bad. This past season saw McCutchen take an express elevator straight to bad. His bat produced a career-low .766 OPS, and defensive runs saved charges that his defense cost the Pirates 28 runs.

Maybe this wasn’t the biggest factor in the Pirates going from 98 wins to 78, but it was a big one. Nor is it the most encouraging stepping stone toward the rest of his contract, which calls for $14 million in 2017 with a $14.5 million option for 2018.

As Passan reported, Pirates ownership did not issue a mandate that McCutchen be moved this winter. There’s a good argument that they shouldn’t move him. Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today cited that $28.5 million is plenty reasonable for a player of McCutchen‘s status, and moving him would be a jab at a fanbase that’s “certainly grown tired of hearing their management cry poor.”

Like it or not, the Pirates are a small-market team with a payroll that can only go so high. With extensive repairs to make, clearing McCutchen‘s deal and getting some talent back before his value declines any further does make sense.

As much as the man himself feels like a Pittsburgh landmark, McCutchen might need a change of scenery. For whatever reason, be it knee soreness left over from 2015 or something else, eagle-eyed observers didn’t see the same bounce in his step in 2016.

“He didn’t play with that Andrew McCutchen edge,” one American League scout told B/R’s Danny Knobler. “Maybe he just needs to get out of there and get some new scenery—unless there’s some long-term medical issue. He has been banged up.”

There is a bright side: Life after McCutchen could be just as fruitful as life with him.

In the short term, the Pirates could fill his shoes in center with the feet of Starling Marte, who’s been an elite defender in left field in addition to a fine offensive player. If Josh Bell lives up to his potential in his first full season at first base, he could more than make up for McCutchen‘s offense from 2016. Coming off a breakout season, right fielder Gregory Polanco can also help pick up the slack.

In the long term, the Pirates will reap the benefits of a farm system that could soon be in the running for the best in the league.

Jim Callis of MLB.com ranked Pittsburgh’s system at No. 4 in August. Although they’ve debuted in the majors, said system still includes Bell and right-hander Tyler Glasnow alongside well-regarded prospects such as outfielder Austin Meadows, shortstop Kevin Newman and right-hander Mitch Keller.

Per Rosenthal, there’s now buzz on getting outfielder Victor Robles from the Nationals. That would mean adding MLB.com’s No. 10 prospect.

It’s easy to hear all this and point to the big ol‘ “Maybe” implied in prospect chatter. But cultivating and establishing a core of homegrown players is essential to winning in today’s MLB. The Pirates know this from their experiences with McCutchen, Marte, Polanco, Gerrit Cole and others. They can do it again.

Trading McCutchen will be the end of an era for the Pirates. That’ll be worth lamenting. It was the first era in a while that was worth a damn, and he made it not only possible but that much more enjoyable. There should be a special place in the all-time Pirates pantheon for him.

But it’s not often that a team gets to say goodbye to one good era and hello to another. The Pirates will be in a position to do that if they trade McCutchen, and that would mean just another nice thing to say about his time in Pittsburgh.

He was always good for the Pirates, even on his way out the door.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t get in on what was possibly the best season ever for second basemen in 2016. Chase Utley and others didn’t provide much hitting, baserunning or defense.

Sounds like a good excuse to target a guy who can give them all three, and the first one especially: Brian Dozier.

In this context, his name may stand out most because he’s not Ian Kinsler. The Detroit Tigers‘ veteran second baseman is the one the Dodgers have been most often linked to on the hot-stove rumor mill. 

But as Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported, the Dodgers also have Dozier on their radar. And, shoot, why wouldn’t they?

The Minnesota Twins‘ 29-year-old All-Star is coming off a career year that featured an .886 OPS, 42 home runs and 18 stolen bases. With his contract running out and the Twins in need of more young building blocks, even Dozier wasn’t blindsided when he was asked about a possible trade in September.

“Oh, really?” he told Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press, apparently with his tongue firmly in his cheek. “I don’t read too much into that. All I can know is I’m here for two more years.”

From the sound of things, a deal between the Twins and Dodgers is nowhere close to being done. Here’s Berardino with a recent report:

There’s no indication the Dodgers are close to a deal for Kinsler, either. We’ve already discussed how his talent and the $21 million remaining on his contract make for a high price tag. And since the Dodgers are on his no-trade list, he’ll only accept a deal if additional money is involved.

Dozier doesn’t have no-trade protection, but that doesn’t necessarily make him easier to acquire.

With plenty of talent of his own and only $15 million remaining on his contract, the Dodgers would likely have to surrender at least one of their blue-chip prospects for Dozier—say, Cody Bellinger, Jose De Leon, Alex Verdugo or Grant Holmes.

However, it’s not like the Dodgers can find a stand-in for Kinsler or Dozier on the open market. The second base aisle is barren. And if they’re going to trade for one of them, Dozier’s the one they should be leaning toward.

Nothing against Kinsler. He’s been a great player his whole career and hasn’t slowed down as he’s advanced into his 30s. The 34-year-old has produced 17.8 wins above replacement since 2013, second only to Jose Altuve among second basemen. He finally won an overdue Gold Glove in 2016.

But on that last point, defense is the one thing Kinsler has done better than Dozier over the last three seasons:

Nothing against defense, either, but it’s not one of the Dodgers’ major needs. They finished tied for fourth in defensive efficiency in 2016, according to Baseball Prospectus. This despite the fact the advanced metrics rated Utley as a mediocre defender at second base.

Where second base really failed the Dodgers is at the plate, producing just a .723 OPS and 18 homers. Kinsler and Dozier both have the bats to fix that, but the extra appeal in Dozier’s bat is hard to miss.

The 42 homers he slugged in 2016 are 10 more than Kinsler’s ever hit in a season. They also kept alive a trend of Dozier’s home run total increasing in each of his five major league seasons. He started with a humble six in 2012 and has gone to 18 to 23 to 28 to 42.

It’s all in Dozier’s approach. His consistently above-average walk rates reflect his strong plate discipline, and his swing is made to get the ball in the air to his pull side. His ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio has settled well below 1.0, and nobody has pulled the ball as frequently as he has since 2014.

As Dozier’s career .246 average can vouch, his approach isn’t good for hitting for average. But with a solid .320 career on-base percentage to go with all his power, he rightfully doesn’t care about that.

“I can look at my average and see I’m hitting .250-something,” he told David Laurila of FanGraphs in August, “but if I can get on base at a .350 clip, versus a guy who’s hitting .300 and getting on base .330….300 doesn’t matter. If you can find ways to get on base and create runs, you’re being productive. In my opinion, that’s how you evaluate a player.”

The one thing Dozier doesn’t have is booming raw power, which does loom as a red flag regarding a potential move from Target Field to Dodger Stadium.

But courtesy of Baseball Savant, we see that most of the home runs he’s hit in his career would have cleared Dodger Stadium’s dimensions just fine:

Dozier’s other appeal is that he’s a right-handed batter who crushes left-handed pitching. He owns an .854 career OPS against southpaws and just peaked with a .965 OPS against them in 2016.

A hitter like that is something the Dodgers sorely need after posting an MLB-worst .622 OPS against lefties in 2016. And given that their second basemen posted just a .586 OPS against lefties, second base is an ideal place to slot an upgrade.

After all this, Dozier’s other qualities come off as welcome bonuses.

He’s an excellent baserunner, stealing his 74 career bases in 99 tries with plenty of extra value on the side. Since 2014, only seven players have accumulated more total baserunning value than Dozier.

And while Dozier’s not on Kinsler’s level defensively, he’s no slouch. The metrics have been largely positive on his defense. If nothing else, the Inside Edge data shows he’s money at making routine plays.

The Dodgers have the right idea in having Kinsler and Dozier on their radar as fixes for what ails them at second base. They’re two of the game’s best second basemen.

But since their prices are probably equal and the Dodgers need offense more than defense, Dozier’s the one for them. Lucky for them, they still have plenty of time to strike a deal.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. Payroll and contract information courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There hasn’t been much action in the first month of the 2016-2017 Major League Baseball offseason. Everyone’s been busy tip-toeing around the rather large elephant in the room.

Nonetheless, the time has come for a routine stock-taking. Let us now discuss the winners and losers of the hot stove season so far.

Since it’s been an unusual offseason, we’re going to look at five winners (players, teams and markets that have done well or are shaping up well) and only three losers (players, teams and markets that aren’t doing so hot).

We will proceed in an order that makes narrative sense, starting…

Now.

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