Free agents are flying off the shelves at bargain prices as reporting dates near, and several more are available.
But the off-season’s biggest changes already have been made, so it’s time to look at five developments of major impact:
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1. King Felix stays in Seattle
The Mariners have done the most this winter to improve and challenge for a division title.
From signing Chone Figgins to dealing for Cliff Lee to taking a shot on Milton Bradley in a talent-for-talent steal for Carlos Silva, general manager Jack Zduriencik has made a hard-to-pronounce name for himself in a busy off-season.
Legitimate questions about having enough offense remain, but there is little doubt that locking up ace Felix Hernandez with a five-year, $78-million deal helps make the Mariners a playoff threat for the foreseeable future.
Hernandez will make an Opening Day start at 23, celebrate a birthday three days later, and over the course of this contract could become the best pitcher in the game. And every championship team needs a No. 1, especially in late October.
So that makes the $78-million price tag a relative bargain, even though it’s a big step up for the Mariners — especially at the back end of the deal: $6.5 million in 2010, $10 million in 2011, $18 million in 2012, $19.5 million in 2013 and $20 million in 2014.
As Zduriencik said: “There’s no better move than to secure a Felix Hernandez. This one was immense.’’
2. Roy Halladay to the Phillies
Let’s not over-think this one. Instead, let’s focus on it from a balance of power perspective.
And what we have here is clearly the best team in the National League adding to its rotation an ace who most agree was the best pitcher in the American League. And they’ll have him for the entire 2010 season, too.
The best just got even better, and that has to be scary stuff to the rest of the NL, not to mention whoever wins the AL pennant.
Would it have been more intriguing — and possibly more dominating — if they had hung onto Cliff Lee, at least for awhile in the 2010 season? Absolutely.
But forget the payroll implications for a minute. When you traded three of your top four prospects to get Lee, plus six more for Joe Blanton (July 2008) and Brad Lidge (November 2007), it’s time for some prudent, long-range thinking.
Even after the Lee deal that brought them Phillippe Aumont, Juan Ramirez and Tyson Gillies, the Phillies are a bottom-third organization in terms of prospects.
So a few years from now, we’ll probably be saying GM Ruben Amaro did the smart thing long-term back in the winter of 2009-10 by sending Lee to the Mariners.
3. Curtis Granderson to the Yankees
There are mixed reviews on the Yankees’ entire winter of activity: They already had Javier Vazquez and Nick Johnson, and now have brought them back for second turns in pinstripes.
They let go of World Series hero Hideki Matsui, and cried cheap on bringing back Johnny Damon, who clearly is better in the new Yankee Stadium than he will be anywhere else.
But adding another All-Star – and a personable and marketable one at that – in Granderson ushers in a much-needed move to get younger and more athletic. And the price was minimal – low-ceiling young big-leaguers Austin Jackson and Phil Coke.
Plain and simple, this was the Yankees and GM Brian Cashman capitalizing on the Tigers’ economic woes that also led them to part ways with Placido Polanco, Edwin Jackson and Fernando Rodney.
And here’s a prediction: Granderson is made for the big stage. Watch his career reach the next level in the Bronx.
4. Rangers’ ownership situation resolved
A variety of problems keep franchises from success – everything from inferior stadiums to inefficient player development to trouble at the top -- say, something along the lines of McCourt v. McCourt.
But the Texas Rangers are about to turn a negative into a positive with the pending majority ownership change from over-leveraged Tom Hicks to Chuck Greenberg’s group.
Part of what’s good about the transition is what won’t change: The Nolan Ryan-led organization – with arguably the game’s best farm system -- will remain in place.
“The franchise has been on the right path for some time,’’ Greenberg said recently. “We have a great deal of anticipation about where that road is going to lead us.’’
And with financial restrictions listed, there is the likelihood of a mid-season deal to push the Rangers over the top in a suddenly-tough AL West.
“Two things organizations need to make a move like that is depth of talent and depth of resources,’’ Greenberg said. “Fortunately, we’ll be two for two.’’
(And maybe they won’t let their No. 1 draft choice slip away unsigned, either – as they did last summer).
5. Ben Sheets to Oakland
This has become a modus operandi for A’s GM Billy Beane, the latest in a line of successful outside-the-box methods.
And frankly, one that has become a necessity given that the early Moneyball ideas aren’t working as well now that Zito-Hudson-Mulder has morphed into Anderson-Braden-Cahill.
We saw it last season with the Matt Holliday deal (although the cost proved to be steep: Huston Street and an emerging Carlos Gonzalez):
Spend $10 million, get a few months of production from a top talent on the verge of free agency, then flip him for some high-level prospects to whom somebody else already has paid the big signing bonus.
And, this one should work out even better for the A’s, as Holliday never fully succeeded in making one of the toughest moves a hitter could have to make – from Coors Field to the Coliseum.
But the real benefactor here should be Sheets. What better place to showcase your health and restored frontline starter abilities than the pitcher-friendly Coliseum?
By July 31, Sheets may be this season’s Cliff Lee. And Beane may have a few more cheap bricks in a rebuilding process that has some promise.
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