Pitchers and catchers report to camps next week and with nearly all of the top free agents signed and the most significant trades completed, we can begin to truly assess the offseason.
We know who the winners are.
The Mets landed the winter's top prize in Juan Soto and reunited with Pete Alonso.
The Dodgers seemed to sign basically everyone else, including pitching phenom Roki Sasaki.
The Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees spent more on free agents than the other 27 MLB teams combined.
This growing spending divide created much angst this winter. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said this week he's received emails from fans concerned about the sport's lack of a salary cap, and it's an issue he said has his attention.
"The Dodgers are a really well-run, successful organization," Manfred said. "Everything they do and have done is consistent with our rules. They're trying to give their fans the best possible product. Those are all positives. I recognize, however - and my emails certainly reflect that - there are fans in other markets who are concerned about their team's ability to compete. And we always have to be concerned when our fans are concerned about something. But pinning it on the Dodgers, I'm not in that camp."
MLB owners will likely once again pursue a salary cap after the current CBA expires following the 2026 season, like they did briefly in the last negotiation.
While star players recoil at the thought of a cap, an accompanying salary floor would certainly make the offseason more interesting for more fans while boosting the market for mid- and lower-tier free agents.
The problem, ultimately, is there are few winners and too many losers in the MLB offseason. That's why Manfred's inbox is filling up.
With that in mind, who are the most disappointing teams and players from this winter? We rank the offseason's 10 biggest losers:
No. 10: Alex Bregman
Bregman's the last star free agent available, and he may have overestimated his market. No team to date is biting on his lengthy contract demands.
While Bregman's resume is excellent, his walk rate collapsed last season, which is a red flag for someone whose excellent swing decisions are one of his strengths.
His middling underlying swing data (41st percentile bat speed) and raw power make him sensitive to his home ballpark environment. Taking him away from Houston's Crawford Boxes could be problematic for his power output. Bregman may have to follow Alonso and bet on himself on a shorter-term deal.
9: Chicago Cubs
Yes, they added star Kyle Tucker via trade, but he's likely a one-year rental, and they also traded away Cody Bellinger. They've acted like a budget-minded team at a time when using their financial might could put them over the top in a weak NL Central.
Acquiring a declining bullpen arm in Ryan Pressly is a questionable use of their apparently limited resources. While starter Matthew Boyd was great for Cleveland in last year's second half, he has major durability issues.
The Cubs should have done more to widen the gap between FanGraphs' projected win totals. As it stands, their NL Central-best projection of 84 wins is only six more than last-place Cincinnati.
8: Baltimore Orioles
While the Orioles have been active, they signed only one player to a multi-year deal (Tyler O'Neill). Most notably, they lost staff ace Corbin Burnes to free agency and haven't replaced him.
A rotation of Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer, and Tomoyuki Sugano isn't likely to lead a team to the World Series, let alone an AL East crown. One caveat here: Baltimore has the prospect capital to make a significant trade for a starter like it did a year ago with Burnes. The O's may not be done.
7: Nick Pivetta
Pivetta's one of the top bat-missing arms in the class with some of the best stuff grades in the game. He was plagued by home runs with Boston and will benefit by moving out of Fenway Park. However, he's still waiting for his market to develop because he's attached to draft-pick compensation after turning down his qualifying offer.
6: San Diego Padres
The Padres were up 2-1 on the Dodgers in last year's NLDS and that's beginning to feel like San Diego's high-water mark.
The late Peter Seidler was willing to spend like a large-market club, but his death resulted in a "Succession"-like power struggle for the club among the family and spending's been curbed. The loss of their $2-billion local cable deal isn't helping. Already featuring a top-heavy roster, the club's reportedly looking to shed salary and is open to trading top pitchers Dylan Cease and Michael King.
What was one of baseball's best stories - a traditionally small-payroll team rising up to challenge the Dodgers - appears to be fizzling out.
5: Cleveland Guardians
The budget-minded Guardians traded former Platinum Glove second baseman Andrés Giménez and cleanup hitter Josh Naylor after advancing to the ALCS. While Cleveland enjoys a strong farm system and draft-and-development program, it's difficult to see how it improves in 2025. José Ramírez only has so many prime years remaining.
4: Minnesota Twins
Like the Padres, the Twins lost their cable deal and are in an ownership transition period with the club for sale. That's meant little investment into the MLB roster at a time when money could make a difference in a weak AL Central.
FanGraphs projects a tight band of mediocrity atop the division: the Twins are forecast for an AL Central-best 83 wins, followed by the Tigers (82) and Royals (81). Minnesota's spent only $9 million in free agency to date when any added win would be a big deal.
3: Free agency's middle class
For as much as players don't want to entertain the idea of a salary cap (certainly true for star players and MLBPA officials), very few players benefit from the current cap-less system.
Few players reach free agency, and those who do are often disappointed by what they find. Many wait around for one-year deals as spring training approaches.
As of Friday, only 83 of 174 available free agents had signed major-league contracts, while another 11 agreed to minor-league deals, according to Cot's Baseball. Only about 60% of free agents in recent years signed major-league deals, and the vast majority of them (66 of 83) were for one or two years.
MLB features the lowest median salary among the four major North American sports, and no sport leans on minimum-salaried players as much. And we've seen again this winter: it's not a great time to be a mid- or lower-tier free agent.
2: Seattle Mariners
The Mariners have one of the great advantages in the game: a young, elite, cost-controlled pitching staff featuring George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo.
But the lineup leaves much to be desired.
The Mariners only had three position players with 400 or more plate appearances who recorded an OPS above .700 last season. They ranked 21st in runs scored and added only journeymen Jorge Polanco and Donovan Solano to one-year contracts this winter.
Seattle's the equivalent of an NFL team with a star quarterback on a rookie contract (its young staff), but instead of aggressively improving the roster, it remains mostly idle.
Of course, NFL teams have salary floors to reach and nothing like that exists in MLB.
1: Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates are the offseason's biggest loser and it comes down to this: the clock's ticking on their control over Paul Skenes.
Skenes is a gift, a golden ticket won in the draft lottery, and they're wasting it.
The Pirates lost a year of team control over Skenes by rule after the season because he was named a Cy Young Award finalist. That ought to have increased their urgency to improve a lineup that ranked 24th in run scoring last year, but: nope.
The Pirates swapped rotation depth (Luis Ortiz) to add infielder Spencer Horwitz, and while Horwitz is a promising young hitter, he's likely limited to a platoon role and lacks game-changing power.
Pittsburgh also re-signed Andrew McCutchen, who's far removed from his MVP heights. It also added 37-year-old Tommy Pham, and Adam Frazier, who was 34% worse than a league-average hitter last year.
And it's not only Skenes' arm being wasted. The rotation also features Jared Jones and Mitch Keller, and top prospect Bubba Chandler should be up early this season. This is a rare staff to build upon for a team that hasn't won a playoff series since 1979 and that has one wild-card game win to show for this century.
Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.
