Winter Meetings winners and losers: how MLB teams fared in Dallas

The Rule 5 draft marks the ceremonial end of baseball's Winter Meetings. Executives, agents and reporters have checked out of their hotel rooms in Dallas. Kevin Pillar even stopped by the Hilton Anatole to let teams know he was interested in playing next season — and brought baseball bats apparently to let everyone know he was serious:

Just because the Winter Meetings are over doesn't mean the offseaon activity is. Plenty of teams still have work to do to get their rosters in shape for 2025.

As far as the last 72 hours are concerned, here's who won, who lost, and who we're watching closely for the next two months:

Winners

1. Scott Boras: Juan Soto's agent didn't need to fly to Dallas to make this list. A few days after the Los Angeles Dodgers officially introduced Blake Snell (a Boras client), reports emerged Sunday that Soto had agreed to a record 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets. Boras also represents free agents Sean Manaea and Corbin Burnes, whose next deal could make the contracts for Snell and Max Fried (who got eight years and $218 million from the New York Yankees) look like pocket change.

2. Texas Rangers: signing Nathan Eovaldi and trading for Miami Marlins slugger Jake Burger weren't the biggest headline-grabbing moves in Dallas. But for a team that a) wasn't in on Soto; b) didn't have the money to compete with the Mets or Yankees on free agents; and c) won the 2023 World Series and only missed the postseason in 2024 because of rampant injuries, it was a sensible path to improvement. The AL West looks plenty winnable for the Rangers as the Astros contemplate trading Kyle Tucker and the Seattle Mariners do ... whatever it is they're doing.

3. Cleveland Guardians: The Guardians rid themselves of Gimenez's contract just as it was getting more expensive, and can soon replace him at second base with Travis Bazzana, the first overall pick in the 2024 draft. Then they used their return from Toronto to acquire three pitchers — Luis Ortiz, Michael Kennedy and Josh Hartle — who address their greatest area of need. For a team that reached the ALCS last season, it was a smart step forward.

Losers

1. Baltimore Orioles. The Blue Jays got Gimenez. The Yankees came up short on Soto, but signed Fried. The Red Sox acquired Garrett Crochet. The Orioles signed two free agents — left fielder Tyler O'Neill and backup catcher Gary Sanchez — who can help the team in 2025, but are not enough of a marginal upgrade to make up for the expected losses of Burnes and outfielder Anthony Santander (44 homers, 102 RBIs). They're running short on options at their positions of need, and a couple of them are now working for division rivals.

2. San Diego Padres. Fresh off a postseason run that saw them come within one game of knocking out the eventual champion Dodgers, the Padres have seen their NL West rivals sign Snell, outfielder Michael Conforto, and reliever Blake Treinen. San Diego has not only stood pat but has explored the possibility of trading arguably its best pitcher, Dylan Cease.

TBD

1. San Francisco Giants. Give credit to first-year president of baseball operations Buster Posey for signing a big free agent hitter in Willy Adames. Seven years and $182 million for a shortstop with questionable defensive credentials isn't the safest investment in the world, however, and Posey will need to do more to make the Giants a playoff team in 2025.

2. New York Mets. It would be easy to declare them winners for snagging Soto, but the most expensive contract of all-time is also the riskiest. Fifteen years and up to $819.5 million makes little sense from a dollars-and-cents standpoint, a reflection of the premium Mets owner Steve Cohen was willing to pay to claim victory in a battle with Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner. Perhaps that's what it took to buy a Mets cap on Soto's Hall of Fame plaque (if he stays healthy). Cohen still has more work to do to make the Mets a better team than the Dodgers club that beat them in the NLCS.

3. Roki Sasaki. In modern baseball history only Sasaki, the 23-year-old Japanese pitcher who officially became a free agent Tuesday, and Shohei Ohtani know what it's like to have 30 major league teams at once putting their best feet forward to sign them. Ohtani might not admit to any regrets, but his choice of the Los Angeles Angels in Dec. 2017 remains even more puzzling now than it was at the time. If Sasaki goes with his gut like Ohtani, here's hoping he feeds it with better information.

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