MLB is full of surprises.
Every day a mystery team swoops in and enters the race to sign a big star, a top player hands over a trade request, or an unheralded minor leaguer develops into a reliable contributor.
This offseason alone, we have seen the Athletics spend more money than most teams.
We have also witnessed a team give away close to $800 million to one player.
MLB analyst Anthony Castrovince put together a list of the biggest offseason moves we didn’t see coming.
The A’s shocking spending spree and the New York Mets signing Juan Soto to a $765 million deal are included on the list.
Of course, we can also find a trade that the Cleveland Guardians executed.
Castrovince explained that the writing was on the wall with Josh Naylor, but the Andrés Giménez trade was the true shocker.
The writer did acknowledge that Giménez was a fantastic defender on a team that prides itself on elite fielding.
However, the offensive decline was starting to become an issue.
“The problem is that his bat was not producing at a rate befitting his rising salary on a club with a modest budget, so he went to the Blue Jays in essentially a three-team deal that brought in starting pitching option Luis Ortiz but created an open question at the keystone,” he wrote.
After Giménez’s wRC+ peaked at 141 in 2022, it collapsed to a still-decent 96 in 2023 and a troublesome 83 last year.
So, in essence, he was getting more experience and his offensive production was trending in the wrong direction.
Yes, there is now an opening at second base, but there is no shortage of quality internal options.
Considering they just erased almost $100 million off the payroll, the Giménez trade will probably go down as a successful one.
NEXT: Recent Contract Shows How Much Of A Bargain Guardians Star Is
