The Cycle, Issue 109: Lighting the Hot Stove
The top 12 free agents, Buster Posey’s retirement, the offseason calendar, catching up on transactions, injuries, managerial musical chairs, plus a note on what the offseason holds for The Cycle
In this issue of The Cycle . . .
Dear Cyclists: My offseason plan for The Cycle
Top 12 Free Agents: Ranked, with pros and cons for each, plus honorable mentions and the top FAs at each position
Offseason Calendar: Key dates from now through Opening Day
Transaction Reactions: Buster Posey retires, the Reds trade their catcher, plus option decisions, waiver claims, and more
Personnel Department: Front office moves, managerial musical chairs, and notable coaching changes
Injury Updates: Offseason surgeries galore
Feedback
Closing Credits
Dear Cyclists
When I launched The Cycle more than nine months ago, I made a commitment to myself and (somewhat more implicitly) to you that, no matter how it was received, I would continue the newsletter through the end of the 2021 season and World Series. Having done that, the time has come to evaluate the balance between what I’m putting into The Cycle and what I’m getting out.
First thing’s first, I’m tremendously appreciative of you for reading, subscribing, and engaging with The Cycle. The audience for this newsletter isn’t huge, but it is loyal, enthusiastic, and engaged, and that has gone a long way toward sustaining my efforts over the last nine-plus months.
Beyond that, I have greatly enjoyed writing The Cycle. That’s not terribly surprising. After all, I have been the only one making the decisions about what to write, and while I did heavily format the newsletter to the degree that, in some ways, The Cycle itself was making those decisions, I created that format, and it was an expression of what I wanted to write about over the course of the season. This sort of close companion to the MLB season is what I have always aspired to in my work for others, and it was a dream fulfilled to be able to do it from the busy end of the offseason in January through the final game of the World Series.
As we head into the offseason, however, I need to consider my work/life balance. The simple fact is that my workload for The Cycle has been unsustainable and deeply disruptive to both my family and, frankly, my health via a severely altered sleep cycle. Thus, with no more games to cover for a few months, I need to scale things back a bit, both to restore order to my life and to make room for some other projects.
Here’s the plan. Next week, I am going to do the usual three issues comprised of Hot Stove Previews for all 30 teams, tackling two divisions per issue. The week after that, The Cycle is going to cycle down, if you will, from three issues a week to one. Effectively, without the need to do the Monday and Friday recap/preview issues, I’m only going to do the Wednesday issues (thought they may publish on days other than Wednesday). Accordingly, I will be cutting the subscription costs when I make that move, reducing the monthly price from $6 to $2 and the annual price from $60.50 to $20. For those who are already paid up on an annual subscription, or recently renewed their monthly, it is my understanding that the price reduction will simply push your expiration date further into the future. If you have any issues or complications in that regard, please let me know.
I should also note that the day and time of publication of the weekly offseason issues of The Cycle may vary. If there’s a notable deadline in a given week, I may want to let it pass so I can comment on the outcome. If a big transaction goes down as I’m close to publication, I may opt to hold the issue back to include it. Also, since part of my motivation for reducing the schedule is to try to improve my sleep patterns, the issues may not always drop at or around 4am ET, as they have thus far. Some may arrive in your inbox mid-day, instead, as I am going to try to avoid pulling all-nighters this winter.
Also, I’m going to try (and this is probably going to be the most difficult part on my end) to focus more on the top stories and not try to sweep up every crumb of news. That may mean listing a 40th-man waiver claim, rather than commenting on it. Or, as is the case in this issue, skipping the news of a team making a change in assistant hitting coach altogether.
As things stand right now, I do not anticipate returning to the three-day-a-week schedule in the spring, but I will reevaluate things again as March and April approach. That said, there is going to be a ton to talk about this offseason, and I can’t wait to get started. So, let’s get started!
Top 12 Free Agents
On Thursday, the day after the conclusion of the World Series, 160 players were officially declared type XX(B) major-league free agents. That list, which can be found here, has already added more than a dozen names, and will continue to expand through the weekend as teams and players decline options and trigger opt-outs leading up to Monday’s deadline for those decisions. The most notable of those still pending are J.D. Martinez’s ability to opt out of the final year and $19.375 million of his Red Sox contract, and the White Sox’s $16 million option on Craig Kimbrel.
This year’s free-agent class is the best in recent memory in terms of top-line talent. So, to kick off the Hot Stove Season, I wanted to present my own ranking of the offseason’s top free agents. I’m not going to dive 50 deep, like MLB Trade Rumors or SI.com’s Ben Reiter do annually. Rather, looking at the top players available, there seemed to me to be a fairly clear cutoff after the top dozen, so I thought I’d rank those twelve, just to give you a taste of the impact talent that is on the market this winter. I’ll present them first in a table, then add a bit of commentary on each.