2023 Winter Meetings Preview

What to look for this week at the Winter Meetings

The Winter Meetings kick off today, with some bigger free agents still available and trade rumors swirling.

While there isn’t much going on outside of potential signings/trades, the last couple of days get really exciting with two events that directly impact the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Here’s what to look for during this year’s Winter Meetings.

Draft lottery

A lottery system will determine the top of the MLB draft for the second time. Last year, of course, the Pirates won the lottery, getting the first overall pick and drafting Paul Skenes.

This year, the Oakland Athletics, Colorado Rockies, and Kansas City Royals have the highest odds (18.3%) to claim the draft's top spot.

The Pirates will have a 3% chance of claiming the first overall spot and will receive the eighth pick if everything falls into order.

We saw the Minnesota Twins jump from 12 to fifth overall and eventually draft Walter Jenkins. The Athletics were tied with the Pirates and Washington Nationals with the highest odds to get the first pick but slid to sixth overall, where they took Jacob Wilson.

The lottery will take place on Tuesday, with the drawing at 3:30 pm ET and the results announced at 5:30 pm.

Rule 5 draft

The Rule 5 draft will be on Thursday, both the major league portion and the minor league phase.

Tsung-Che Cheng and Braxton Ashcraft were added to the 40-man roster to protect them from being selected, and Ethan did his best to put together a potential reserve list for the minor league side of things.

Examining the potential Triple-A Reserve List for the Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates have a couple of 40-man roster spots available so they could select a player in the Rule 5 this coming week.

Last year, they selected left-handed pitcher Jose Hernandez and lost Blake Sabol to the Cincinnati Reds (who traded him to the San Francisco Giants).

In 2020, they took Jose Soriano and acquired Luis Oviedo and Ka’ai Tom after the fact.

Free agents and trades!

Of course, if you get all the major executives and general managers into one building, there will be some moves. Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and Cody Bellinger are among the free agents still available.

Talks of a potential Dylan Cease were picking up, so it’s a possibility something will be finalized this week. Tyler Glasnow and Shane Bieber were two other pitchers recently included in trade rumors.

What that means for the Pirates remains to be seen, but even if nothing does happen, it’s an excellent opportunity to get the ball rolling on a trade or free-agent signing before the offseason ends.