The Houston Astros are the 2017 World Series champions

For the first time in franchise history, the Houston Astros won the World Series. They defeated an unlikely challenger, the New York Yankees, who are way ahead in their rebuild process. With no major moves yet in the offseason, the Astros will aim to repeat in 2018 with the same, young core team.

 

Giancarlo Stanton is traded to the New York Yankees

With a playoff run that took them all the way to the World Series, the Evil Empire is back. Rather than continue with their youth-focused rebuild, the Yankees traded for the National League MVP and took on the largest contract in baseball. They will make a few more big moves this offseason with the aim of dominating the American League East. They will be going for broke in 2018, with a Judge — Stanton punch that could resemble the Maris — Mantle battle of 1961.

Hall of Fame 2018

On January 24th, the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the inductees for 2018. While nothing is official until that day, the voting that is public currently shows  Trevor Hoffman and Vladimir Guerrero in the lead. It seems as if the voters’ disdain for the steroid eras is slowly fading, as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds have now passed the 50% threshold.

Shohei Ohtani chooses the Los Angeles Angels

[2017-12-08] Surprising to many, except the Angels front office, Shohei Ohtani has decided to sign with the Angels. The media and fans assumed that he was going to be going to the Mariners or the Giants but his close relationship with the GM of the Angels led him to choose Orange County over Silicon Valley or Amazon / Microsoft land. As an outstanding hitter and pitcher with a 100+ fastball while playing in the NPB, we could see him pull a Babe Ruth — pitch and then hit on his off days — something that hasn’t been seen in hundred years.

Crazy Predictions

I’m no baseball insider so anything said here should be taken with a grain of salt, and will be deleted as soon as proven wrong. In the meantime, here are a few thoughts on how the rest of the offseason will play out. One, Yu Darvish will sign with the Yankees or the Cubs. Two, Jake Arrieta will sign with the Brewers or the Blue Jays. Three, J.D. Martinez will end up with the Red Sox or the Giants. Finally, the Tampa Bay Rays will not have solved their stadium problems by the start of the 2018 season.

Expansion Progress

Again, with no insider information, all I can do here is speculate on the future of baseball becoming a 32 team sport. As a Montréal native, hope is that expansion is going to happen sooner rather than later. We’ve been led to believe that our fair city is at the top of the list, as long as we break ground on a new stadium. Tampa Bay, Oakland and now Miami seem to be struggling franchises, so I hope that MLB figures out how to improve their situations. It would be interesting to see a team in Mexico although Mexico City seems less likely than Monterrey.

Collusion Anyone?

[2018-01-25] Everyone in baseball circles, from the players to the agents to the union are currently very quiet about what has been a very strange offseason. With a month to go before the start of spring training, most crucial deals and free agent contracts would have been decided in previous years. As of January 25th, there are over 100 players without contract, some of them the highest profile free agents available. It seems like the owners are not offering any long term, high priced contract, with the hopes that someone will crack and reset a new, lower bar. I think it’s time to break the silence.