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Coming off a last-place finish last season, their third in the last four years, and armed with a new leader in the front office, next week’s winter meetings figured to be a playground for the money- and prospect-rich Boston Red Sox. 

That notion seems to have faded now, but not because the team has scoffed at a major 2016 roster shakeup. It is because Boston has already started playing in its offseason sandbox, having acquired a top-shelf starting pitcher in David Price and an elite All-Star closer in Craig Kimbrel before anyone boards a flight to Nashville for the winter meetings. 

Those two moves appear to have made the Red Sox drastically better than the 78 wins they compiled last season. They still have young, quality position players up the middle of the diamond, David Ortiz is still a middle-of-the-order bat and Clay Buchholz is potentially a co-ace for Price.

With all of that, Boston’s first-year president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is likely done making significant offseason acquisitions before the meetings start.

“You can always get better. We’ll be open-minded going into the winter meetings,” Dombrowski said on a conference call Wednesday. “We’ll see what happens over the next few days leading into that, but we’ll be in a position that I think our major moves are done. But when you go to the winter meetings, you can never tell what happens.”

More on deck? Dombrowski: “When you go to the winter meetings, you never know what happens.” https://t.co/Z5mS0x58C1 pic.twitter.com/2FVENkHd81

— Mark J. Murphy (@murphmj) December 2, 2015

That leaves the door open for more things to come, although adding major salary to their current payroll does not seem likely since the Red Sox are already committed to more than $180 million for 13 players next season. By the time the 25-man roster is complete, the club is destined to be well over the $200 million threshold. 

However, there is room to make other impact moves, such as using a deep prospect pool to acquire another cost-controlled player or shedding some of the salaries already on the books. Whatever the case may be, the winter meetings could bring the Red Sox more headlines.

“I’m definitely sure they’re not finished yet,” Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts told Ian Browne of MLB.com regarding the front office. “Who knows what else they’re going to do?”

Maybe we do not know what the team is going to do at the winter meetings, but we have an idea of what it might want to do and what it should look to do.

First, the rotation is hardly great even with Price. Buchholz has the talent to help, as he’s shown with a 1.74 ERA through 16 starts in 2013 and a 2.68 FIP through 18 starts last season. The problem is he also has a 5.34 ERA on the books between those two seasons, and his health has been a major concern throughout his career as he enters his age-31 season.

The Red Sox had the third-worst rotation ERA (4.39) in the American League last season. Simply adding a new ace might not be enough, especially in the long term, as Price will be 31 next August after signing the richest contract for a pitcher in the sport’s history.

Last year, under former general manager Ben Cherington’s guidance, the Red Sox passed on making free agent Jon Lester the kind of offer he looked for because they feared the second half of that contract as Lester aged.

Despite the franchise completely changing course under Dombrowski, who has never been shy about handing out mind-boggling contracts to aging players, it still must know it has to get younger and cheaper in the rotation.

That should bring Atlanta Braves right-hander Shelby Miller into play. Miller, 25, had a 3.02 ERA in 33 starts last season, and the Braves are listening to offers on him. The price is high, but the Red Sox did not forfeit a draft pick to sign Price, and they did not have to give up their young major league talent to get Kimbrel from the San Diego Padres. They also still have a strong prospect pool in the minors.

Using that to acquire Miller, who is under team control and will make about $5 million next year, would make the Red Sox a serious October threat. That makes him a fit even with Price in the rotation.

#Redsox and #Cubs are teams that could match up with Atlanta on a Shelby Miller deal, said person familiar with #Braves thinking.

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) December 1, 2015

While Miller or another starter might not be a priority at the winter meetings, getting rid of at least one of last offseason’s regrettable signings—Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez—should be. The Red Sox still owe Sandoval $75 million through 2019 and owe Ramirez at least $66 million through 2018, not counting a $22 million vesting option for 2019.

Despite those salaries, Ramirez and Sandoval were the worst players on the roster in 2015. While either deal would require the Red Sox eating a lot of money, they should be aggressive in ridding themselves of either player. The winter meetings are a perfect breeding ground for such trades.

Dombrowski assured the Red Sox took care of their major business prior to the meetings, making two blockbuster moves beforehand. But there is still work to be done, so do not be shocked if at least one more happens next week.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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David Price‘s path began in Tampa Bay, and it has since passed through Detroit and Toronto. Along the way, he’s made five All-Star teams, won a Cy Young and has been generally awesome.

Now, the ace left-hander’s path has taken him to Boston and its humble baseball abode known as Fenway Park. The usual line of thinking says success in those parts doesn’t come easy. And so, we must ask:

Is Price ready for this?

The Red Sox are betting big on the idea that he is. As Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe was first to report Tuesday, Price has agreed to join the Red Sox on a seven-year contract worth $217 million. Assuming he passes his physical, the former Ray, Tiger and Blue Jay will become the richest pitcher ever.

The size of Price’s contract is no surprise. He’s coming off a 2015 season in which his 2.45 ERA netted him his second American League ERA title in four years. Overall, Baseball-Reference.com WAR puts him among MLB‘s six most valuable starters since 2010. He’s good. Really good—$217 million good.

Hence why he appealed to the Red Sox. They’ve lacked a No. 1 starter ever since trading Jon Lester in 2014, and that cost them dearly in 2015. Only five clubs got worse ERAs from their starters. In the short term, at least, Price can help fix that.

As for whether he’ll be elite enough in the long term to actually earn his $217 million, well, that’s where there are opinions galore, and they’re all over the map.

On one hand, you have FanGraphs projecting the 30-year-old left-hander to produce enough WAR to be worth it. On the other hand, you have Sports Illustrated‘s own WAR calculations saying he won’t be worth it. On a miraculously grown third hand, you have the mystery box that is Price’s third-year opt-out. When looking at this deal from a wide perspective, what you see is a great, big cloud of noise.

So, if we’re going to make sense of Price as a fit for Boston, we must zoom in.

No matter where he ended up signing, Price was going to be walking into a high-pressure situation. Pressure comes with the territory with many-zeroed free-agent contracts. Because out of all things important, nothing tops sports and the people who play them. It is known.

But Boston? Boston is on a whole ‘nother level. The city’s fans and media tend toward the Miles Davis end of the intensity spectrum. On the “Tough Places to Play” rankings, Boston is up there.

Many a Red Sox player can vouch that the pressure can break a man. Not long ago, it got to Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. Even as recently as this past season, Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez seemed to wrestle with it.

To succeed where these guys have failed, composure is key. And if there’s a reason to doubt Price’s ability to handle Boston, it’s the reality that he’s not immune to losing his composure.

Back in 2014, Price instigated a feud with Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, seemingly in response to Ortiz hurting Price’s feelings when he admired a pair of home runs off him in the 2013 postseason. Speaking of which, that same postseason also saw him snap at reporters when they dared to criticize a poor performance. That, especially, is something he’ll need to avoid in Boston.

However, it’s just as easy to look past all of this and focus on the virtues of Price’s personality.

It’s not as if Price has never pitched in high-pressure environments. He’s played almost exclusively on winning teams throughout his career, getting quite a bit of postseason experience as a result. Also, his many years as an AL East pitcher granted him plenty of exposure in New York and, of course, Boston.

Also, Price definitely isn’t afraid of the spotlight. He’s among baseball’s most active (and interactive) social media users, and he is clearly comfortable being one of the sport’s most visible players. It’s all part of his personality, which is nothing if not likable.

Besides which, there’s one theoretically foolproof way for a Red Sox player to keep the pressure at bay: live up to expectations. If Price can do that, he should be OK.

Because one wants to be nice, one wants to say there’s a 100 percent chance of Price’s ace status aging gracefully. Sadly, one can’t do that.

Price is at an age when pitchers tend to start declining, after all, and his status as a power pitcher arguably makes him especially prone to a decline. Per the research presented by Bill Petti at FanGraphs, Price is already past the point when starting pitchers begin leaking velocity at a rapid rate.

On that note, what Price did in 2013 and 2014 isn’t a good look. His average fastball fell from the 95-96 mph range to the 93-94 range, and he only managed a good-not-great 3.29 ERA. When looking at Price’s return to excellence in 2015, it’s hard not to notice that his velocity bounced back into the 94-95 range.

As such, there would appear to be a correlation between Price’s effect on the radar gun and his effect on opposing hitters. That’s a troubling look on anyone. It’s an even more troubling look on a power pitcher who’s now on the wrong side of 30.

Thus is the big fear with Price. But now that we’ve acknowledged it, we can get into the reasons for optimism.

One area where Price apparently doesn’t need top-notch velocity is in his ability to miss bats. He posted a career-best 11.9 swinging-strike rate with strong velocity in 2015, but that came on the heels of a previous career-best (as a starter) 10.6 whiff rate with lesser velocity in 2014. 

This points to how Price has moved to make himself less reliant on his hard stuff. Per Brooks Baseball, his overall fastball percentage has been on a downward slope ever since 2011. On the flip side, his rising off-speed usage links his recent swinging-strike mastery to an increased willingness to change speeds.

One AL scout discussed this with Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald:

I’ll give Price credit. He’s starting to show his changeup, with a purpose at times, for the right reasons. He’s throwing breaking balls early in the count. He’s showing he’s maturing from a power pitcher, and when he does lose a degree off his fastball, he’s still going to be able to pitch with that because he’s learning the value of setting up hitters and not worrying about blowing guys away.

All of this is important. A swing-and-miss habit plays everywhere, including at band boxes like Fenway Park. And though Price won’t be repeating his 2015 swing-and-miss mastery if his velocity drops down again, it’s possible he’ll at least maintain the strong swing-and-miss habit he had with lesser velocity in 2014. That had less to do with his arm and more to do with his mind, which now clearly understands the value of a trusty changeup.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the sheer nastiness of Price’s changeup is only becoming more pronounced. Its whiff rate is going nowhere but up. So, too, is its degree of arm-side fade. It’s attracting whiffs not so much on deception, but on good, old-fashioned movement.

As Owen Watson of FanGraphs noted, Price has become especially willing to go to his changeup to finish off right-handed batters. That’s one reason why he was able to hold them to a career-low .609 OPS in 2015. 

But not the only reason. Per Baseball Savant, Price also pitched right-handed batters on and off the outside edge of the strike zone a career-high 58.8 percent of the time in 2015. Against those pitches, they hit just .193 with a .266 slugging percentage. 

As for where Price picked up these tricks, he might have learned them at his new home ballpark.

Fenway Park hasn’t frightened Price all that much throughout his career. In 11 career starts in Boston—all of which happened before 2015—he’s posted a 1.95 ERA and held opposing batters to a .550 OPS.

In posting these numbers, Price has needed to dominate right-handed batters. Though Fenway Park is probably a neutral park for righties and lefties, righties have a big advantage when it comes to the long ball. Given that, it looks good that righty batters have hit only .207 and slugged .326 against Price in his career outings at Fenway Park.

As for how he’s pulled that off, it turns out Price was feeding right-handed batters changeups and outside pitches regularly at Fenway Park even before he made a habit of it elsewhere in 2015.

If Price is going to continue to succeed at Fenway Park, he’ll need to continue owning right-handed batters. To that end, he clearly gets it. 

Lest anyone begins thinking the Red Sox have pulled off a slam dunk with their signing of Price, the elephant in the room is his durability. As good as it looks that he’s been healthy enough to log more than 1,400 innings since 2008, that’s a blessing that could very well prove to be a curse. Pitchers are durable until they’re not, and Price’s past workload may mean the clock is ticking on his durability.

But at the least, we can say the Red Sox aren’t nuts.

Beyond the reality that Price’s 2018 opt-out might save them from actually having to pay him $217 million, the Red Sox aren’t putting a square peg in a round hole. Price is exactly the kind of pitcher their rotation has been lacking, and his personality and pitching style are solid fits for his new surroundings.

So, yeah. What everyone else is saying. The Price is right, etc.

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

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Facing an offseason of change and uncertainty, the Toronto Blue Jays are bringing back first baseman Justin Smoak on a one-year deal for 2016. 

According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, the Blue Jays tendered Smoak a contract worth $3.9 million ahead of Wednesday’s midnight deadline for teams to offer contracts to arbitration-eligible players. 

Toronto has already experienced the pain of winter, losing ace pitcher David Price to American League East rival Boston Red Sox, per Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe.

Since the Blue Jays aren’t likely to swim in those deep free-agent waters, new team president Mark Shapiro seems poised to keep making smaller deals, like bringing back Smoak and adding J.A. Happ, in an effort to keep the team in the postseason mix next season. 

Smoak is entering his final year under team control and will be eligible for free agency for the first time in his career next offseason, barring a long-term extension with Toronto. 

The Blue Jays acquired Smoak from the Seattle Mariners in Oct. 2014, but opted not to tender him a contract by the Dec. 2 deadline before signing him to a one-year, $1 million deal. 

Once regarded as the No. 2 prospect in Texas‘ system, Smoak has struggled to make an impact in the big leagues. The 28-year-old has a career slash line of .224/.308/.392, but he did slug a career-high .470 and tied a career-high appearing in 132 games with the Blue Jays in 2015. 

While Smoak’s offense has been lacking, he did have the best defensive season of his career last year with four defensive runs saved and an ultimate zone rating of 2.2, per FanGraphs. Toronto’s offensive firepower does put less pressure on him to post big stats, despite playing an offensive position. 

The Blue Jays can use Smoak as a defensive replacement late in games, using Chris Colabello’s superior offensive capability to get the best of both worlds from first base next season. 

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The Baltimore Orioles announced they have acquired first baseman Mark Trumbo and LHP C.J. Riefenhauser from the Mariners for catcher Steve Clevenger.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports initially reported the news Tuesday. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports confirmed the deal. 

Rumblings about the Mariners dealing Trumbo picked up steam around Thanksgiving, with ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reporting “several” rival executives were expecting the 29-year-old to be traded. 

Trumbo’s trade status was unusual before Tuesday’s deal, as Dutton noted, because the Orioles were “concerned” they could be trading a player under contract for someone the Mariners “could choose not to offer a contract to” before Wednesday’s deadline. 

David Schoenfield of ESPN.com broke down why Trumbo put himself in a position where being tendered a contract was not a given:

…in the past two seasons, he’s averaged 18 home runs and 64 RBIs, posted a .303 OBP and averaged 0.2 WAR per season. He was a little better in 2015 after an injury-plagued 2014, but he hit just .263/.316/.419 with the Mariners — poor numbers for a first baseman or DH. That player is a borderline tender candidate at $9 million.

With Trumbo now in the fold for Baltimore, he is assured of having a home next year. Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors estimated that Trumbo will make $9.1 million through salary arbitration in 2016. 

The Orioles don’t have the luxury of spending big money on the open market, so they have to supplement their roster in different ways. For all his flaws, Trumbo does bring 20-plus homer power to hitter-friendly Camden Yards. 

Even though Trumbo isn’t the dynamic bat Baltimore fans may be seeking, he does fill a need as a potential replacement for free agent Chris Davis at first base or in left field, where Orioles players combined for a .640 OPS in 2015. 

As long as the Trumbo trade isn’t the only move Baltimore makes this offseason, his addition is welcome for a franchise in need of adding multiple bats to avoid falling behind the pack in the American League East. 

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The guy who used to play there isn‘t a realistic option, but the New York Yankees clearly need something at second base. As opposed to the, you know, nothing they’ve gotten out of the position since Robinson Cano left town two years ago.

As far as their options go, it’s obviously a choice between Starlin Castro and Rob Refsnyder. Or so we can pretend, anyway.

Though Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News has reported that the Yankees are unlikely to acquire an upgrade at second base—a position where they rank 29th in fWAR since 2014—he’s also reported that they have interest in acquiring Castro from the Chicago Cubs.

If the Yankees are going to look beyond their borders for a second baseman, Castro makes sense. Though there are options on the free-agent market, Joel Sherman of the New York Post has noted that the Yankees “pretty much have gotten out of the [free agent] game.”

As such, the Yankees will likely stick with what they have if they don’t swing a deal for Castro. That would be a platoon of Refsnyder and Dustin Ackley, with the hope presumably being that the 24-year-old Refsnyder (who will turn 25 in March) will emerge as an everyday regular for the long haul.

Now, we could just trust general manager Brian Cashman to make the right call…but nah. Why do that when we can decide for ourselves?

The Case for Castro

From afar, the Yankees’ goals for the winter seem clear. They’re looking to continue a youth movement without adding too much money to an already bloated payroll.

When considering these two objectives, you get two more reasons why Castro is a logical target.

Though Castro is a six-year MLB veteran, he’s only headed for his age-26 season. He should have several more prime years left, and he’s already locked up for those seasons at reasonable rates. His contract will pay him about $41.5 million through 2019, with a $16 million option for 2020.

And it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg to acquire Castro in a trade. Feinsand‘s report mentioned Brett Gardner as a possible exchange for the Cubs, but that’s asking too much. Castro is coming off his second bad season out of three, so his trade value isn‘t at its peak. The Cubs may need to eat some of Castro’s contract to get anything of substance, and they might just as soon move the whole thing.

But of course, Castro’s diminished trade value is also a complication for the Yankees. He’s a young player with a relatively extensive track record, but it’s hard to know what he’s supposed to be.

When Castro has been good, he’s hit around .300 with solid power. This was the case in his first three seasons between 2010 and 2012, and again in 2014 when he hit .292 with 14 homers and a .777 OPS.

But when Castro has been bad, he’s been really bad. This was the case in 2013 and in 2015, in which he hit in the mid-.200s with a sub-.700 OPS. Add in his characteristically subpar defense, and you essentially get a replacement-level player.

Given all this, a trade for Castro would not be a trade for a predictable commodity. It would be a fingers-crossed, pray-to-the-winds upside play, with the hope being that his most consistent days lie ahead.

Fortunately, that’s where there is a peg on which to hang hopes.

On the whole, Castro’s 2015 was indeed lousy. But he finished it on an extremely strong note, hitting .353 with a .968 OPS in his final 44 games after he was moved from shortstop to second base.

This wasn’t an extended stretch of good luck. Castro earned it, putting more balls in play and generally hitting the ball about as well as he had been in 2014:

Certainly, it helped that Castro was basically being used in a platoon role. But Matt Goldman of Beyond the Box Score noted that a mechanical adjustment at the plate also helped Castro take off, and in general he benefited from adjusting his perspective.

“Right now, [Castro’s] in the present tense, man,” said Cubs skipper Joe Maddon in late September, via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. “That’s what we’ve been shooting for. Just to get him to understand the concept of `one,’ and being involved in the moment. And that’s what he’s doing.”

As far as the metrics are concerned, Castro’s newfound focus on the moment didn’t just help him at the plate. Albeit in a small sample size, he rated as a decent defender at second base. 

So, here’s the nutshell: Castro’s career is the ultimate mixed bag, but he’s young, relatively cheap and is coming off an upswing that suggests he could be ready to take off. A trade for him would be the roll of the dice, but the potential payoff is there.

Question is, are the Yankees better off simply rolling the dice on Refsnyder?

The Reasons for Refsnyder

Remember how we noted that Castro is appealing because he’s young, controllable and cheap? Well, that goes double for Refsnyder. 

He’s only heading into his age-25 season, is under club control through 2021, and isn‘t eligible for arbitration until after 2018. He should earn considerably less money in the next six seasons than Castro will in the next four. And because he’s already in house, it takes nothing to acquire him.

So, yeah. Refsnyder is clearly the bargain option. At the least, that means moving forward for him is the best way for the Yankees to maintain payroll flexibility. At best, it means he can provide a far better return on investment in the long run.

The tricky part there, though, is that all we can do at this juncture is guess.

Refsnyder owns a .302 career average and an .859 OPS in the majors, but across only 16 games. That’s far too small of a sample size to draw conclusions from, so it’s what he did in the minors and what’s in the scouting report that still hold the most sway. That’s where there’s good and bad. 

Going into 2015, Refsnyder was ranked by Baseball Prospectus as the Yankees’ No. 6 prospect and by Baseball America as the Yankees’ No. 7 prospect. The two publications shared similar concerns, notably that Refsnyder has modest power potential, only average speed and is short of awesome defensively.

This leaves us looking at Refsnyder‘s hit tool, which is fortunately quite good.

His career .290 average and .380 OBP in the minors suggest as much, and that’s not a mirage. MLB.com refers to Refsnyder as the “best pure hitter in New York’s system,” and Baseball America breaks him down like so:

“A short swing and excellent plate discipline help make Refsnyder a strong hitter. He’s balanced at the plate, has good hand-eye coordination and has quick hands that help him catch up to good velocity. He sprays line drives all over the diamond.”

There’s data to back all this up. In his entire pro career, Refsnyder owns an 11.4 BB% and 15.4 K%, a very good balance between walks and strikeouts that reflects his plate discipline and short swing. And thanks to MLB Farm, we can get a solid picture of his all-fields approach:

As for Refsnyder‘s defense, it could be worse. He is a recent convert to the position, after all, and Chris Mitchell of FanGraphs noted this season that Refsnyder‘s defense “isn’t the train wreck it once was.”

As such, there’s hope that Refsnyder can be a high-average hitter who at least holds his own defensively. That’s another way of saying he may have a future as a Daniel Murphy clone.

Which brings us to the nutshell: Refsnyder is much more of an unknown than Castro is, but he’s younger, more controllable and likely cheaper, and he does have the goods to be a consistent regular.

So Then…

Cutting right to the chase, the Yankees should stick with Refsnyder.

They aren’t wrong in having Castro on their radar. They do need an upgrade at second base, and he has the upside to be a major upgrade. Possibly a bigger upgrade than Refsnyder can ever hope to be.

But the risk just isn‘t worth it. 

The Yankees are going to have to give up something to get Castro, and then could be on the hook for roughly $40 million in salary. That’s not a huge cost, but it’s not a small cost either. Especially when compared to Refsnyder, who costs nothing to acquire and who has many cheap years ahead of him.

And though Refsnyder may not have Castro’s upside, he’s a safe bet to at least be a solid regular. His hit tool may be all he has, but a hit tool is a valuable thing. Especially at a time when pitchers have the upper hand like never before.

So, if it seems like the Yankees are lacking a sense of urgency about their second base conundrum, don’t worry. That may be the whole idea.

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

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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Left-hander J.A. Happ on Friday signed a three-year deal worth $36 million with the Toronto Blue Jays, according to MLB Roster Moves. 

It will be Happ’s second stint with the Blue Jays after he spent two-plus seasons in Toronto beginning in 2012.

With the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates in 2015, Happ posted a winning record for the first time since 2010, when he was with the Houston Astros. He also struck out a career-high 151 batters in 172 innings. 

The turnaround came after he was traded to the Pirates in the last few hours before the deadline. After starting the season 4-6 with a 4.64 ERA in Seattle, Happ finished 7-2 with a 1.85 ERA while donning black and gold. 

Most of the credit could go to Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage, per Travis Sawchik of TribLive.com:

Searage saw Happ using inefficient movement in his delivery. Instead of striding directly to home plate, Happ, like [Francisco] Liriano and [Edinson] Volquez, had too much rotational movement in his motion[,] which dropped his arm slot and made the ball easier to track for opposing hitters. It also negatively impacted his control.

New motion and all, Happ is a nice pickup for the Blue Jays, who are looking to build up their rotation. Toronto had a potent offense that led the league in scoring last season, but the team’s pitching prevented it from getting over the American League Champion Series hump and into the World Series.

The Blue Jays recently re-signed Marco Estrada, who at times last season was their second-best starter, and acquired Jesse Chavez in a trade with the Oakland Athletics. They also have R.A. Dickey, and Happ could step into the middle of the rotation. 

If Toronto is able to sign David Price, whom it traded for at the deadline, and the young Marcus Stroman puts together a full season, the Blue Jays rotation could be one of the American League’s stronger units.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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A few years back, a general manager of a limited-budget team shook his head while talking about the New York Yankees.

“Sometimes it seems like they’re trying to operate like us,” he said. “If we had their money, we wouldn’t operate like us.”

The Yankees are far from having a limited budget, with a payroll that has exceeded $200 million in seven of the last eight years. While the Dodgers outspent them each of the last two seasons, the Yankees have ranked first or second in total payroll every season since 1994, according to USA Today.

So the GM wasn’t calling the Yankees cheap or frugal. He was just saying some of their decisions on how and when to spend didn’t make a lot of sense.

He could easily have been talking about this winter.

The Yankees, by their own admission, are looking for starting pitching. The free-agent market is unusually deep in starting pitching and even includes at least two legitimate aces (David Price and Zack Greinke).

If you’re going to need starting pitching anytime soon, this is the time to shop. The biggest name available next year is Stephen Strasburg—not exactly a Price or Greinke.

So what are the Yankees doing? By all indications, they’re planning to stay away from the top of the market, and maybe even the whole market. They’re hoping to find value in a starter they can get in a trade, perhaps by unloading the $37.5 million left on Brett Gardner’s contract.

They’re not going to spend big, they say, until they see some of their existing big-money contracts expire. Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran have deals that run out next year, and they’ll be done with CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez the year after.

“A couple years from now, the payroll situation will be different,” Hal Steinbrenner told reporters (including Erik Boland of Newsday) at the owners meetings last week. “I will have flexibility, we will be active on the free-agent market.”

In other words, Hal isn’t willing to spend tomorrow’s money today, even if what’s on sale today won’t necessarily be there tomorrow. Even with a team that has played one postseason game since 2012, he’s willing to be patient.

In a way, that’s admirable. It’s the same way many other franchises operate, with a real budget.

It’s not the way we expect the Steinbrenner Yankees to operate.

Hal isn’t George, though. The goal in the Bronx is still to win the World Series. But under Hal, it’s paired with (or perhaps even secondary to) winning without spending too much.

“All I know is what I’ve always said: I shouldn’t have to have a $200 million payroll to win a world championship,” Steinbrenner told the reporters at the owners meetings. “It’s been proven over and over again.”

The Kansas City Royals spent a little more than half that to win this year’s World Series. The San Francisco Giants never had an Opening Day payroll above $150 million in any of their three championship seasons (but spent $173 million on an 84-78 team that missed the playoffs in 2015).

Under Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman, the Yankees have been trying to do what other (lower-spending) teams do. They’ve embraced analytics and prospects, but without ever retreating so far that they would earn a high draft pick.

Perhaps it will work. The Yankee kids look promising, from 21-year-old pitcher Luis Severino and 23-year-old first baseman Greg Bird (who debuted in 2015) to 22-year-old catcher Gary Sanchez (who impressed scouts in the Arizona Fall League).

If they’re good enough, and if the Yankees can then use their financial power to add some free-agent stars around them, this team can be a powerhouse again. They’ll do it not by imitating everyone else, but by making their own way. They’ll do it with kids, but also with their financial might.

They won’t do it by shying away from opportunity the market provides and trying to operate like a limited-budget team.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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Managers love to talk about the flexibility of not having a full-time designated hitter. They can use the spot to give players rest, giving them in effect a half-day off. They can keep guys in the lineup when a minor injury may keep them from effectively playing in the field.

It’s all true and it’s all great, but there’s a much better way to build an American League team:

Have a DH like David Ortiz.

Sure, there have been times when having Ortiz locked into the DH spot made things more complicated. It happened just this past season when the Red Sox realized they’d made an awful mistake signing Hanley Ramirez to play left field but weren’t able to move him to his natural defensive spot because they had Ortiz there.

What has happened a lot more is that having the best DH in the game has given the Red Sox a big advantage at what should be an important lineup spot. Eight times in Ortiz’s 13 seasons in Boston, the Red Sox have hit more DH home runs than any other team. In all but three of Ortiz’s Red Sox seasons, the Sox have had a better record with Ortiz in the lineup than without him.

Overall, they’re 205 games over .500 with him in the lineup and eight games under .500 in games he doesn’t start.

All of which means Ortiz’s coming retirement—announced last week, to take effect after the 2016 season—will be at least as much a challenge as an opportunity.

Sure, the Red Sox could just use the spot to solve their Hanley problem—if they can’t trade him away and he can’t adequately handle first base and they’re not so fed up with him after another year that they can’t stand the thought of him playing anywhere.

Ramirez was the Red Sox DH 11 times in 2015, and he hit five home runs in the role. But he wasn’t a terribly effective offensive player in any role after April (.644 OPS). He’s hardly a true replacement for Ortiz, who has a .951 OPS in 13 seasons with the Red Sox (and was still a very good .913 at 39 in 2015).

But who is?

Pablo Sandoval, who hasn’t had a .913 OPS in any of his eight big league seasons and hasn’t hit even 20 home runs in any season since 2011? Probably not.

The Red Sox could try to sign Chris Davis, with the idea he could play first base in 2016 and take over for Ortiz the next year. They could hope Jose Bautista or Edwin Encarnacion gets to free agency after next season. But Bautista will be 36, and Encarnacion will be 34 by Opening Day 2017.

Or perhaps they’ll get lucky, just as they did when the Minnesota Twins made the unfortunate decision to release a 27-year-old David Ortiz in December 2002. The Red Sox signed him for $1.25 million a month later.

Thirteen years later, it looks like one of the biggest and best decisions the Sox made as they put together the most successful era in franchise history. But 13 years later, plenty of teams still wonder whether it makes sense to commit to a full-time DH. (Ortiz started 75 games at first base in his first two seasons but only 66 games in 11 seasons since.)

As Chicago White Sox general manager Rick Hahn told John Tomase of WEEI.com earlier this month, it takes a “special type offensive player” to be worth the commitment of a roster spot and the money a top DH commands. (Ortiz will make $16 million next year.)

He’s right. But finding that special type of player gives a team a big advantage. The last four American League pennant winners each had a full-time DH, and for three of the four (Kendrys Morales with the Royals this year, Ortiz with the 2013 Red Sox and Victor Martinez with the 2012 Detroit Tigers), the DH was a key guy in the middle of the lineup.

All three 2015 AL division winners had a full-time DH, all of them special offensive players (Prince Fielder with the Texas Rangers, Morales with the Royals and Encarnacion with the Toronto Blue Jays).

But didn’t the Red Sox finish in last place the last two years, even with Ortiz as their special-type DH? Sure they did. They finished in last place while scoring the fourth-most runs in the majors.

They have Ortiz for one more season. They have a full year to figure out what to do with the DH spot once he leaves.

One more year with Ortiz and one more year to try to find another DH like him.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball. 

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Josh Donaldson had to work just to get to the big leagues. Alex Anthopoulos really had to work to get Josh Donaldson to Toronto.

If nothing else, the story of the American League‘s 2015 Most Valuable Player is the story of persistence.

You can make it, even if it takes you five years to leave the minor leagues behind. You can trade for a real difference-maker, even if he’s “unavailable.”

“Listen, I’m not trading Josh Donaldson, so stop asking me,” then-Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane supposedly told Anthopoulos 12 months ago, according to Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun.

Anthopoulos didn’t stop asking, the trade got made, and now Donaldson is the MVP.

It’s great news for Donaldson, great news for Anthopoulos, not-so-great news for Beane and terrible news for every other general manager who has answered a question by saying, “I’d love to get Player X, but they’re not trading him.”

You can trade for an MVP. Anthopoulos did it.

We may find out in the years to come that Beane and the A’s got good value back in the four-for-one deal that included third baseman Brett Lawrie and three younger players. For now, though, Anthopoulos was the one who found value, because players like Donaldson just don’t get traded very often.

It does happen. Former Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski was able to trade for Miguel Cabrera, who has won two MVPs in the Motor City. Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels was able to trade for Josh Hamilton, who won an MVP with his club.

But before Donaldson’s overwhelming win over Mike Trout in the voting was announced Thursday night, the last player to win an MVP in the year immediately after getting traded was Willie Hernandez, 31 years ago with the Detroit Tigers.

“You get that guy and we’ll win the World Series,” Sparky Anderson told Tigers general manager Bill Lajoie as the two watched Hernandez pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1983 World Series.

The following spring, Lajoie traded for Hernandez. Months later, the Tigers won the World Series, and Hernandez won the MVP.

Donaldson’s Blue Jays didn’t win the World Series, but they did end the franchise’s 21-year postseason drought.

It wasn’t all because of him. Four other Blue Jays showed up on at least one MVP ballot. But it was Donaldson, who received 23 of the 30 first-place votes, who made the biggest difference.

Donaldson wasn’t always the guy who could do that. He was a first-round draft pick in 2007, but the Chicago Cubs were willing to let him go only a year later, as part of a trade that brought them Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin. He was still in the minor leagues when he was 26, but the A’s called him up in time to meet Jonny Gomes.

Donaldson cited Gomes Thursday in an interview on the MLB Network just after the award was announced.

“He would tell me, ‘Somebody’s got to step up and help us win a game,'” Donaldson said. “I learned that I could be a guy that was a difference-maker.”

Players can be difference-makers. General managers can, too.

We’re talking about Anthopoulos here because Donaldson is the MVP, but one of the other AL finalists was Lorenzo Cain, whom Dayton Moore acquired for the Kansas City Royals in a December 2010 trade with the Milwaukee Brewers for Zack Greinke. And the National League‘s Cy Young award winner was Jake Arrieta, whom Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer acquired for the Cubs in a 2013 trade with the Baltimore Orioles for Scott Feldman.

It’s not often a general manager gets the instant impact that Anthopoulos got from Donaldson. As Jayson Stark of ESPN.com tweeted Thursday afternoon:

Back then, maybe it didn’t seem so unusual. Frank Robinson had been traded from the Cincinnati Reds just before winning the 1966 MVP with the Baltimore Orioles. Roger Maris had been traded from the Kansas City Athletics just before winning the 1960 MVP with the New York Yankees.

This is a different era, a Moneyball era, an era where we’re supposed to know so much more about value—especially the Athletics team that moved to Oakland.

“I was surprised,” Donaldson said on a conference call Thursday, when asked about his first reaction to last year’s trade.

He said it didn’t take long before he realized it could work out well for him, moving to the AL East and into a powerful lineup.

“We knew it was going to be a better situation for my career,” he said.

It was better, for him and for the Blue Jays, and for anyone who wants to believe a big trade can make a big difference.

You can trade for a guy like Josh Donaldson. You can trade for an MVP.

Alex Anthopoulos did it.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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The Baseball Writers’ Association of America pared down the list of American League MVP candidates to Lorenzo Cain, Josh Donaldson and Mike Trout, and Donaldson secured the coveted hardware Thursday night to close out a compelling race. 

Major League Baseball’s official Twitter account relayed confirmation of the BBWAA’s selection, while Bleacher Report congratulated the 29-year-old on his honor. 

A complete look at the 2015 AL MVP voting can be viewed below, courtesy of BBWAA.com: 

According to MLB Communications on Twitter, Donaldson joined George Bell as the only Blue Jays players to win MVP. MLB Communications added that Trout, Barry Bonds, Yogi Berra and Stan Musial are the only players to finish in the top two of MVP voting four years in a row. 

The Blue Jays won the AL East in 2015, and Donaldson was a major reason why. Not only was his production gaudy, but it also came at the perfect time, as Toronto surged through the season’s second half en route to the franchise’s first division title since 1993. 

Overall, Donaldson clubbed a career-high 41 home runs and drove in an MLB-best 123 RBI. Toronto’s third baseman also batted a rock-solid .297 while totaling a .568 slugging percentage, which was the best mark of his career by nearly 70 points. 

“He does everything,” Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura said, per the Associated Press (via USA Today). “He hits for power, he gets on base, he plays defense. There’s just a lot of things to like about him as a player. And knowing that Toronto hasn’t been in there the last few years, he goes over in his first year and they just become a different-looking team.”

Following the All-Star break, Donaldson was simply brilliant. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Donaldson posted a .302 batting average, .615 slugging percentage and 1.011 OPS over the season’s second half. The MVP was particularly absurd in August, when he batted .324 while the Blue Jays posted a 21-6 record over a crucial late-season stretch. 

Considering Donaldson smashed his previous career-bests from power and run-production standpoints, it’s no wonder he was able to throttle to the head of the MVP pack in conjunction with the Blue Jays’ run up the standings. 

And therein lies one of the components that separated Donaldson from Trout. Although Trout posted arguably the gaudiest overall stat line in baseball, Donaldson put up his numbers for a team that was in the title conversation through September and into October. 

An American League Championship Series loss to the Kansas City Royals hurt, but by that point, Donaldson’s true worth was established and reinforced several times over.

Keeping pace with Trout in the coming years will be difficult for the soon-to-be 30-year-old, but Donaldson’s 2015 campaign was a revelation for a Toronto team on the rise. 

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