In what’s become an annual feature for them, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs reviews the 2014-2015 Offseason and ranks the 10 Best and Worst transactions of the Winter. The Mets only made the Worst List.
10. Royals sign Alex Rios, Cost: One year, $11 million
9. A’s sign Billy Butler, Cost: Three years, $30 million
8. Twins sign Ervin Santana, Cost: Four years, $55 million
7. Royals sign Edinson Volquez, Cost: Two years, $20 million
6. Marlins acquire Dee Gordon, Dan Haren, and Miguel Rojas, Cost: Andrew Heaney, Enrique Hernandez, Austin Barnes, and Chris Hatcher
5. Mets sign Michael Cuddyer, Cost: Two years, $21 million
When the Mets struck early, surrendering the 15th pick in the draft to sign an aging outfielder who might not really be able to play the outfield anymore, there seemed to be one obvious explanation; they were definitely going to sign another compensation-attached free agent, so the pick surrendered to add Cuddyer would be their less valuable second rounder instead. Under that scenario, 2/$21M for Cuddyer isn’t all that bad, especially if the other addition pushed the Mets into Wild Card territory. Instead, the only other free agent the Mets signed this winter was John Mayberry, and now it really looks like they punted a valuable draft choice for the right to pay $10 million a year to a guy whose best position is occupied by Lucas Duda. There are scenarios where Cuddyer at this price would have been reasonable; the Mets making him their only off-season acquisition is not one of those scenarios.
4. Mariners sign Nelson Cruz, Cost: Four years, $58 million
3. Nationals sign Max Scherzer, Cost: Seven years, $210 million
2. Braves sign Nick Markakis, Cost: Four years, $44 million
1. Padres acquire Matt Kemp and Tim Federowicz, Cost: Yasmani Grandal, Joe Wieland, Matt Kemp’s contract
It seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry has ripped the Cuddyer signing this offseason. I think it stems mostly from forfeiting the 15th overall pick in the draft. I saw one ESPN analyst ask, “Would the Mets have traded Brandon Nimmo or Michael Conforto for two years of Michel Cuddyer? Absolutely not, but essentially that’s exactly what they did and it wasn’t even for a starting shortstop.”
On the bright side, last year FanGraphs called the Mets’ Chris Young signing the best move of the Winter and we all know how that turned out. You know what they say about opinions, don’t you? Yeah, that’s right, everybody’s got one.
