January 2: There goes Yordan Alvarez. He took his two rings he won with us to Detroit, where they'll pay him $45M over 3 years.
January 3: Jacob Watters, who flat-out stunk for us last season, somehow finagled a 3/11.5 deal with Atlanta. Good luck!
January 4: The Hall of Fame voting is in, and it was a big ol' shutout. Here's who came close:
Despite a weak first-year class (Yasmani Grandal at 10.7% was the top vote-getter!) nobody got in. Maybe Goldy, Wainwright and Yadi split the Cardinal vote.
January 20: Made a couple of international amateur free agent signings: 16-year-old 3B Danny Moroyoqui from Venezuela (75 power potential, 55 contact) and 17-year-old 1B Alex Garibay from the Dominican Republic (80 contact, 55 power potential).
January 23: Elly De La Cruz is right back where he started as the Reds re-acquired the 32-year-old from San Antonio for a prospect. He's a 30-homer guy in this save but not the all-around player he actually became.
January 27: Major trade incoming!
We needed a starter, and we got one of the best in Najera, who led baseball with a 2.11 ERA last year and earned 5.2 WAR. He was only 7-3 in 32 starts, primarily since he pitched 166 innings, which averaged 5 a start. He had 4.4 and 5.1-WAR seasons in the preceding years so last year wasn't a fluke. The price was a franchise fixture of late in Solano, but he had declined from 4 WAR in 2031 to 3.4 in 2032 to only 2.2 last year and he's now 28. We also have depth in the outfield to replace him, although his speed and defense will be missed. The only negative is that Najera apparently isn't a great clubhouse guy, something I never look at but got the "players leery" message after the acquisition. Oh well as long as he does his job every fifth day.
January 30: Another reliever who struggled with us last year, lefty Max Green, signed with Milwaukee for 2/7.2. For some reason the fan reaction decreased slightly, thought they'd be happy to see him gone.
March 1: Our first monthly development report came in and newly-acquired Hugo Najera saw his stuff upgraded from 60 to 65, his movement from 75 to 80 and his control from 55 to 60, so he should be even better!
Time to head into the exhibition season and try to stay healthy.