Bah! Who needs the winter meetings when there’s a perfectly good week for signing and trading beforehand?
All 30 of Major League Baseball’s general managers must have gotten together recently and reached that very conclusion. It’s the only way to explain the current temperature of the Hot Stove.
Starting with the shocker of a trade that sent Doug Fister from the Detroit Tigers to the Washington Nationals on Monday night, there’s been a veritable explosion of impact free-agent signings and trades that demand attention.
Who are we to ignore this demand? Rather than do that, we’re going to tackle each impact deal individually (in chronological order, or close enough to it) and assign some grades as we go.
Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.