By Bob Behler

The baseball winter meetings don’t seem to produce the number of trades that they used to.  It used to be that almost every team made at least one trade.  Now, trades are not nearly as common as free agent signings.

This year the big trader was the White Sox.  They traded ace starting pitcher Chris Sale, a coveted lefty, to the Red Sox, and shipped centerfielder Adam Eaton to Washington after the Nats couldn’t pull off a deal for the Pirates’ Andrew McCutcheon.  They landed four top 100 prospects and totally re-stocked their farm system.  They felt they weren’t going to win now, so why not win later. The Red Sox added a top of the rotation starter that might take some pressure off of David Price.  The Nationals are hoping Eaton might be the piece that takes them over the top.  Probably the biggest trade with major leaguers going in both directions was the Royals/Cubs swap that sent outfielder Jorge Soler to KC and relief pitcher back to Chicago.

While the Nationals added to their lineup, the back end of the bullpen was weakened, as closer Mark Melancon signed with the Giants.  As a Giants fan, I wonder what would have happened last season, if San Francisco had traded for Melancon from the deadline.  Could his presence at the back of the bullpen gotten them past the Cubs and at what prie would they have had to pay.

While the Giants improved their team, I was hoping they were going to sign Yeonis Cespedes to play left and really improve things, but they didn’t have enough cash to do that.  I was also hoping the Dodgers would get worse by not signing their free agents.  Today they re-signed closer Kenley Jansen, thirdbaseman Jason Turner, and starter Rich Hill.  They didn’t go out and get any one, but they didn’t get weaker either.

One player who won’t be with the Cubs this year is centerfielder Dexter Fowler.  He signed with the Cubs last year at a bargain basement price to see if they could win.  This winter cashed in and probably got the contract that to me was most overpaid.  The Cardinals paid an average of $16.5 million per year for five years.  Didn’t see that one.

And the Yankees proved that trade deadline deals could really be rentals.  They re-signed closer Aroldis Chapman after sending him to the Cubs for prospects, including the shortstop of the future Gleybar Torres.  The Cubs got what they wanted (a ring) and the Yankees got what they wanted (prospects).  And now the Yankees have Chapman back.

All said and done, the White Sox, if all those prospects hit could be the big winner.  But for 2017, it is hard to tell who the biggest winner might be. I think it will really be the closers.  That was the position that is going to the bank.  Biggest losers so far, the Blue Jays big bats – Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista – still out there and not generating the interest that they thought they would get.

Hope when I write a mid-season blog, I’ll think Mark Melancon has been as good of a signing as Johnny Cueto was last year for the Giants.