Morning Rundown Week in Review: Los Angeles has busy week, Nick Gonzales and defensive catcher features
A look back at the previous week this offseason
It’s been a relatively quiet offseason, at least for everyone outside of Los Angeles. The Dodgers and Angels have been the busiest teams so far, with the defending World Series champs making the most significant moves.
They locked up Blake Snell and Tommy Edman to five-year contracts. Snell’s deal is worth $182 million. Edman, the NLCS MVP, is getting $74 million with his contract, and each comes with deferred money.
The Angels started the week off with a bang, signing Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year, $63 million contract. They’ve also signed free agents Travis d’Arnaud, Kevin Newman, and Kyle Hendricks while trading for Jorge Soler.
Nick Gonzales made some strides this past year. He struggled against breaking and off-speed pitches his rookie year in the majors but cut that back in 2024. I looked at his sophomore season, what the next step could be, and if he should be the starting second baseman heading into 2025.
Our weekly paid feature looks at the catchers in the system that did the best at controlling the run game. With the new rules favoring base stealing, there was a noticeable decline in caught stealing rate throughout the system, but a few still managed to put up solid numbers, even improving from their career marks.
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I hope the Pirates FO gives us something exciting to talk about over the next week other than just looking forward to the draft lottery.
When you see the Cubs giving $29 million to Matt Boyd, who has averaged 12 appearances a season over the past 4 years, you realize how broken the economics of baseball are.