The most romantic day of the baseball year is finally here: As of Valentine’s Day eve, pitchers and catchers from all 30 teams will have officially reported to spring training. For now, at least, everything is possible for all of them. The honeymoon phase begins.
Sure, rosters will still change. Heck, from the time this story was drafted to the time it was published, the Boston Red Sox added a two-time World Series champion and perennial all-star in Alex Bregman and changed their offseason dramatically. But for the most part, the offseason work of rebuilding dreams and courting new stars is over. Here is a non-exhaustive look at the winners and losers of the past 3½ months of the offseason, though as all parties could attest, whirlwind winters do not guarantee summer flings.
Juan Soto (winner)
Consider the following: Until Juan Soto signed with the New York Mets in December, the biggest contract in the history of professional sports — not baseball, SPORTS — belonged to Shohei Ohtani, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a stunning $700 million last offseason.
But Ohtani is a unicorn, a two-way star unlike any the sport has seen, an advertising dream, the perfect candidate to make contract history. And somehow Soto, hitting savant, sometimes suspect outfield defender, no threat to steal a base and a probable designated hitter in his later years, blew that deal away.
At 15 years and $765 million, Soto’s deal is the longest in baseball history and the most lucrative in baseball history — and it pays him more than what two-thirds of MLB owners paid to buy their teams in the first place. Because none of Soto’s money is deferred, its present value is nearly 60 percent greater than the roughly $460 million Ohtani got in present-day value. Not since Alex Rodriguez, who doubled the biggest contract in baseball history when he signed for $252 million in 2000, has a baseball player and his agent (also Scott Boras) engineered such a jump.
Los Angeles Dodgers (winners)
Nothing suggests a team dominated the offseason more than widespread accusations that it is ruining baseball. By that measure, the Dodgers are undisputed offseason champions, immediately after winning the World Series in October. For yet another winter, the Dodgers piled up talent, adding Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Michael Conforto and highly regarded South Korean standout Hyeseong Kim to the most star-studded roster in baseball history.
Remarkably, if the season started today, the Dodgers would have a lower season-opening payroll than Soto’s Mets — though a higher one as calculated for competitive balance tax purposes. But the Dodgers combine a rare ability to pay top talent with a proven game-planning and development infrastructure that seems to attract it. Maybe this year, with Snell and Sasaki joining Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and others in the rotation mix, they will not need to save their season with a bullpen game. Then again, they have thought that in March before.
Boston Red Sox (winners)
Well, well, well. Long time, no see Boston. For the first time since they dealt Mookie Betts to the Dodgers and stagnated for half a decade, the Red Sox finally spent an offseason spending and dealing like a team that wants to play in October. They capped that offseason with an exclamation point late Wednesday night when they agreed to a deal with longtime Houston Astros stalwart Alex Bregman, committing $120 million over three years to a two-time World Series champion who accumulated more FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement than all but seven other players since 2017.
That deal, which includes opt-outs after each of the first two years, is the kind of win-now splurge owner John Henry and his general managers simply would not make in recent years. But these Red Sox, led by former player Craig Breslow, already looked different. They beat out several other contenders to acquire all-star Garrett Crochet. They signed starters Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval and added Aroldis Chapman to their bullpen. They can hope for a healthy Trevor Story and Liam Hendriks and Lucas Giolito. And for the first time in quite some time, they can hope to challenge the Yankees and whoever else decides to compete at the top of the bruising American League East.
Seattle Mariners (losers)
The Seattle Mariners have one of the best young, sturdy starting rotations in baseball. They have had that rotation in place for multiple seasons now. And they have no playoff victories to show for it. Mariners owner John Stanton seems determined to keep payroll, which sat at $145 million in 2024, limited. Team president Jerry Dipoto said point blank two years ago that Seattle wanted to win 54 percent of the time over a 10-year period, hoping that would result in a World Series somewhere along the way. He has since apologized for his clinical assessment, but his franchise’s actions have reflected it all the same.
This offseason, for example, the Mariners desperately needed to improve on a .687 team OPS by adding an impact hitter (or three). Instead, they re-signed Jorge Polanco and Donovan Solano while trading for Miles Mastrobuoni, a former Chicago Cub with limited big league experience.
Rumors that they might trade from their rotation, particularly relatively expensive veteran Luis Castillo, for more polished offensive pieces have yet to jell with reality. Dipoto’s normally frenetic approach to transactions has sputtered to a perplexing halt. The Mariners could still make moves, of course. But if they hope to take advantage of a stellar pitching generation, it might already be too little, too late.
The ‘Best Fans in Baseball’ (losers)
Ah, yes, St. Louis: that self-proclaimed preeminent baseball town, home to the franchise that didn’t have a losing season for a decade and a half, the model for annual contention. Times have changed.
The Cardinals entered this offseason after missing the playoffs again in 2024, their second straight season of futility after a generation of fans only saw them win. The stated goal for team president John Mozeliak, who will step down after this year, was to shed payroll, get younger, start something like a rebuild. They didn’t pay to keep Goldschmidt around. They fielded offers for eight-time all-star third baseman Nolan Arenado. Even last year’s free agent pitching prize, Sonny Gray, seemed disposable for the sake of a more financially efficient, productive future.
But as of this week, the Cardinals have not made strides toward a brighter future. Instead, they are standing still. They are the only team that has not signed a major league free agent. They have not traded Arenado. They have not traded anyone. As they report to spring training this week, they do so in a state of arrested nondevelopment, the future as uncertain as it was three months ago. And in St. Louis, for Cardinals fans, that simply does not fly.
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