The offseason had been suspiciously quiet in Toronto. Not anymore. The Toronto Blue Jays officially enter the trade market by acquiring catcher Matt Nokes from the owner-less Baltimore Orioles in exchange for catcher Walt McKeel and reliever German Jimenez. And frankly, this feels like one of those trades where everybody involved probably hangs up the phone feeling pretty good about themselves. Let's start with Toronto. Because Nokes is the...
There are few certainties in life. The sun rises in the east. Pitchers eventually get hurt. And at some point every offseason, the Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres are going to make a trade that leaves the rest of the league staring at the transaction log wondering if they accidentally opened last year's file. I'm not kidding. By my unofficial count, over half of Kansas City's trades in recent seasons have involved...
Re-sign numbers are out. The draft is less than a week away. Front offices are working the phones. Owners are staring nervously at spreadsheets. And somewhere, at least one general manager is trying to convince himself that a .199 hitter making nearly $400,000 a year is actually a market inefficiency. Baseball is back. The biggest story so far isn't a trade. It isn't a draft rumor. It's the reaction to the new contract calculation system. For...
Well, that’s it. The end of mock drafts. I hope you enjoyed this year’s mock draft, because this is the last one I’ll be doing. What started as a fun exercise—sparking discussion on the boards, arguing over rankings, debating upside versus readiness—has slowly turned into something that doesn’t quite feel the same anymore. And here’s the uncomfortable part: It’s become too easy. Too easy for teams to lean on these instead of...
And with that, we arrive at the final pick of the first round. The Cleveland Spiders are back on the clock after grabbing Matt Clement earlier, and their strategy here is refreshingly simple: Find more pitching. Keep finding pitching. Continue finding pitching until somebody can reliably get through six innings. The Spiders remain one of the league's most entertaining contradictions. Every year they score a ton of runs, hit a ton of home runs,...
And just like that, Washington is back on the clock. Of course they are. At this point, the Senators have accumulated enough first-round picks that I'm beginning to suspect they receive compensatory selections every time another general manager merely thinks about making a trade. The good news for Washington is that they've already done the heavy lifting earlier in the round. Assuming they've walked away with Carlos Beltran, Javier Vazquez, and...
We've officially reached the portion of the draft where teams should seriously consider trading these picks to organizations that collect first-rounders like baseball cards. The talent cliff is approaching rapidly. Only one three-star hitter remains on my board: Alex Cora. Only one three-star pitcher remains: John Rocker. And after that? Welcome to the land of preferences, projections, and pretending your scouting department definitely had this...
The Boston Red Sox arrive at Pick #21 courtesy of one of the bigger surprises from last season. This selection originally belonged to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who spent most of the year making people look foolish for doubting them and came remarkably close to representing the United League in the World Series. Instead, the pick ends up in Boston's hands. And Boston finds itself in an interesting spot. There are needs throughout the...
Before we begin, a brief correction to the alternate reality that opened this mock draft. Yes, I proposed a blockbuster trade that would have sent this pick, along with several others, to Detroit for the first overall selection. No, Washington would never actually do that. The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded. Asking Washington to trade multiple first-round picks is like asking a dragon to part with a gold coin....
Pick #19 has had quite a journey. At various points it belonged to Milwaukee, San Diego, and now New York. Frankly, this draft pick has changed hands so many times that it probably qualifies for frequent flyer status. By the time the commissioner announces it, there's a decent chance nobody in attendance remembers who originally owned it. What makes the situation even funnier is how the Yankees acquired it. This pick arrived in New York as part...