Which MLB Team Had The Most Disappointing 2020-21 Offseason?
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This is one of 10 burning questions comprising Baseball America’s 2021 MLB Season Preview. To see the full preview, click here. Below, our staffers pick the MLB team that had the worst offseason and offer a brief explanation as to why.
Ben Badler — Rockies. Colorado has no clear process or path to becoming a championship club, and its moves this offseason didn’t help them move in the right direction.
Alexis Brudnicki — Rockies. Paying another team to play your star player is the clincher for me.
Mark Chiarelli — Rockies. Other contenders for this designation (see: Rays, Indians) can at least point to a recent body of work that invokes optimism. The Rockies can’t. Colorado added virtually no major league talent following two disappointing seasons, have one of baseball’s worst farm systems and will pay for Nolan Arenado, a homegrown icon, to play for someone else in 2021.
Carlos Collazo — Rockies. Let’s not overthink this one. The Rockies traded away franchise icon Nolan Arenado. The next time Arenado doesn’t win an NL Gold Glove will be the first time. On top of not getting any of the Cardinals’ Top 10 Prospects for him, Colorado also kicked in $50 million. It was a low moment in franchise history, and with a farm system ranked 25th and shortstop Trevor Story a free agent after the 2021 season—things could be dreary for a while in Denver.
J.J. Cooper — Rockies. If you want to argue it’s better to pick a team expected to do something in 2021, fine. But the other picks are teams whose chances have been dimmed. Colorado seems years away from being a factor in the NL West, and trading away Nolan Arenado for a modest return means the team has become less watchable in a rebuilding year as well. With Trevor Story likely heading to free agency after the season, it’s hard to find Colorado’s path to success in the short or mid terms.
Matt Eddy — Cubs. In what could be the last hurrah for the core of the 2016 World Series champions—Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez are pending free agents—the Cubs celebrated by trading Cy Young Award runner-up Yu Darvish. Chicago also non-tendered Albert Almora, the sixth pick in the 2012 draft, and Kyle Schwarber, the fourth pick in 2014, rebuking the notion that every young hitter it touches turns to gold. These moves are thrown into relief by the fact that the NL Central is eminently winnable.
Kyle Glaser — Indians. The Indians made the playoffs four of the last five years and won 93 games the year they didn’t make it. With most of the American League taking a step back, they had a legitimate chance to reach the World Series. Instead, they effectively took themselves out of it by trading Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. With their offseason moves, the Indians now have a lower Opening Day payroll than the Rays—something that should never, ever happen.
Josh Norris — Pick’em: Any team whose ownership decided the best way to cut costs during a pandemic was to fire, furlough or slash the salaries of the valuable people in their scouting and player development departments.
Chris Hilburn-Trenkle — Rays. The Rays followed up their second World Series appearance in franchise history by trading away one of the players most responsible for getting them there, Blake Snell. They also lost Charlie Morton in free agency, leaving two huge holes in their rotation.
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