FanPost Friday: Winter Meetings Wishlist

The MLB Winter Meetings begin on Sunday and run through Thursday. Over the course of these action-packed days, general managers, players, agents (and even a few owners!) and reporters will be flooding the halls at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego, California, as everyone tries to find out what 2020 (and beyond) will offer them.

For free agents, this represents a great time to speak with multiple teams in a short window of time, and try to force a decision quickly. After all, if you don’t sign them now, you might miss out when someone else is willing to.

For agents, it serves as their Super Bowl, as they try to peddle their clients to every general manager in the hopes of getting even a few bucks extra for what may be a player’s final chance at getting seriously paid.

For the general managers and owners, a delicate dance is performed. Trades will be discussed. Free agents will be courted. And the payroll will start to take much better shape, even if a signing or trade doesn’t happen.

The biggest thing everyone gets out of the Winter Meetings, I’ve maintained, is information. Information about what the market is presently offering in terms of talent versus what it offers in terms of payment. Information about what players are hot trade commodities. Information about who is looking for what.

With all of these most important people under one roof for about half of a week, all it takes is a single spark for the entire league to change. In recent memory, the Red Sox traded Yoán Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis (Alexander) Basabe, and Victor Diaz to the White Sox for Chris Sale. This trade helped them win the World Series in 2018. In 2009, the Diamondbacks traded Max Scherzer(!) to the Tigers (other players moved from Arizona to Detroit and New York, but Scherzer is the big catch here) and received Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy. One of the teams involved won the World Series that year. But it wasn’t the Diamondbacks or the Tigers.

Anything can happen. This week could be pivotal in what happens to the 2020 Red Sox, and may serve as a message to the fans about what to expect.

With that said...

What is on your Winter Meetings Wishlist?

It can be one thing, or it can be a bunch of things. Go wild! See you after the weekend with the responses!