UTK Special 12/7/23

Post-Nashville Notes

The Winter Meetings are actually still going on. Not the part you’re used to, but all the actual meetings of all the people behind the scenes and running clubs will be in Nashville, wandering the Infinite Opryland, until Sunday. But the public part that was a slow show this year is over. The MLB Network setup is gone … did ESPN even have one? … and most of the ball writers left after the Rule 5.

The biggest story - the Soto deal - and the story we all waited on - Shohei Ohtani and the rest of free agency - are still churning the baseball waters. There’s very loud rumors that the Jays are close to signing Ohtani with numbers that sound more like a GDP than a baseball salary. Not done, and I don’t think all other teams are out, but that’s the noise on the floor.

The question is - what then? A lot of Plan B moves will happen and things that happened behind the scenes while everyone was waiting on Ohtani will happen fast. Here’s the five things I think will happen next week:

First, I think Ohtani will sign, in Toronto or elsewhere. There’s a handful of teams, including the Dodgers despite Dave Roberts’ honesty, still in or at least asked to up their offer. I do not think the Angels are one of those team, nor did they make a “credible offer” per one source. If they counted on comfort to keep Ohtani, it didn’t work when faced with a mountain of money.