After a long offseason, the MLB regular season is now just a few weeks away. Spring training action is here and fantasy drafts are rolling. Need a refresher of the last few months? That’s where we come in.
To celebrate both baseball’s return and the launch of our 2021 MLB Draft Guide, we’re going to take looks at what we have to offer all the way up to Opening Day. With a loaded arsenal of content -- from positional rankings, ADP reports and season-long projections, to mock drafts, projected lineups and draft cheat sheets -- we are as proud as we’ve ever been of what we’ve put together and are eager to share it with you in the coming weeks. No matter the format or size of your league, we are confident we can deliver the tools you need to secure that championship hardware.
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We last looked at bold predictions for the 2021 MLB season. This time, Janice Scurio (@scuriosa) highlights a few of the offseason’s top transactions and their implications for the 2021 season.
Here’s a sneak preview:
1) The Padres lock in Fernando Tatis Jr. with a 14-year, $340M extension
Tatis is fun, exciting, and on the precipice of being the face of not only the Padres franchise, but all of MLB. Though he has yet to play a full major league season, the early numbers are a testament to his ability: in two seasons, he batted .301/.374/.582 with 39 home runs and 98 RBI. Tatis’s deal is significant as it’s the third largest contract extension in history, behind Mookie Betts and Mike Trout. Tatis has also emerged as a clubhouse leader, even as a rookie, and the Padres certainly have no intention of losing his goodwill to free agency in the foreseeable future. While Tatis is inferably happy about $340M, this is also a team-friendly deal, especially if he maintains high levels of production throughout his career. The mutual level of commitment in this extension is so high, it also includes a full no-trade clause.
2) George Springer signs with the Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays were declared the winners of the George Springer sweepstakes, announcing a six-year, $150M deal. Springer brings an array of skills to Toronto, including some impressive power; he hit a career high 39 home runs in 2019. Springer is a .270/.361/.491 career hitter, but in the last two seasons, he posted a .953 OPS (.284/.376/.576) with 53 homers and 128 RBIs in 173 games (778 plate appearances). Springer joins an already impressive Toronto outfield, with the versatility to be either in center, or to become a corner outfielder. Springer also makes an interesting DH option for the Jays, and is sure to be an integral part of a formidable lineup.
3) Lindor and Cookie: A sweet acquisition by the Mets
In a move that’s more indicative that Cleveland wasn’t interested in extending Francisco Lindor for mere financial reasons, the Mets acquired a package of Lindor and Carlos Carrasco in exchange for a bouquet of prospects. The rumors of Cleveland trading Lindor had been circulating for a while, and then this move was announced, one of the first of the Steve Cohen era. It is a fantastic acquisition for the Mets, as Lindor is not only a gold-glove caliber defender at short, but also provides a reliable bat. Lindor, 27, over the course of his six-year career, is a four-time All-Star, and has a career .285/.346/.488 slash line with 138 homers and 99 stolen bases. As for Carrasco, he’s expected to hold the third spot in the Mets rotation, behind Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman. For Cleveland in 2020, Carrasco posted a 2.91 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP, along with 82 strikeouts and 27 walks over 68 innings.
4) Switching coasts: Padres acquire Blake Snell from Tampa Bay
Before the 2021 offseason, 28-year-old lefty Blake Snell was the second highest-paid player on the Tampa Bay Rays, only on year two of a five-year, $50M deal. Though the Rays have been given praise for not only making great trades, but also making it all the way to a World Series with an abysmally low payroll, it’s difficult to see this trade as anything more than a salary dump. The former Cy Young winner and MLB The Show Players League champion will headline a Padres rotation along with Yu Darvish (who we’ll talk about in just a bit). Snell has a career 3.24 ERA in 556 innings pitched and 108 games started. In his 2018 Cy Young year, he posted an impressive 21-5 record, and led all of baseball with a 5.6 H/9.
5) Padres acquire Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini from the Cubs
Taking a page from the Rays handbook and salary dumping the 2020 Cy Young runner-up for a tub full of prospects, is none other than the Chicago Cubs. Their trade partners, the San Diego Padres, came into the offseason with apparently a large amount of prospect capital, yet the Cubs received a plethora of teenage infielders, a year after drafting a highly-regarded shortstop, Ed Howard. Though this trade was initially regarded as an attempt to save money as Darvish has three years left on his $59M contract, it was later revealed that the Cubs would also send $3M to San Diego. Darvish, who throws a myriad of interesting pitches, joins Blake Snell in the Padres rotation. Darvish, a four time All-Star, garnered a 2.01 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP, 93 strikeouts and 14 walks over 76 innings in 2020. The Cubs were even nice enough to include Darvish’s personal catcher Victor Caratini in the deal.
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