Catching Up On Offseason Moves

The high activity level of this offseason continues...

The Free Swingers (who else?) pulled off an interesting trade with Columbus, getting the extremely powerful but wildly inconsistent Andrew Davis, and sending over last year's surprise .300 hitter, Walter Day. Davis had a promising Season 17 with the Criminals, hitting .290 with 32 homers in only 379 AB's, but saw his OPS drop nearly 300 points in last year's terrible campaign. Day was a second-rounder who had spent 4 seasons in AAA before getting his shot last year, and he made the most of it. This looks like a deal where Columbus is opting for a more predictable commodity, and Chicago is betting the friendly confines of Wrigley will be more compatible with Davis' big uppercut swing.

On the FA front, New York snared a good defensive SS in Omar Freeman. He should be a step up offensively from last year's SS Mateo Cortez. Freeman signed for $23.5MM over 4 years.

Chicago struck again, landing Elroy Gant for $30MM over 4 years. The Free Swingers have now assembled one of Belle's most impressive lineups - the NL looks like it will be hyper-competitive this year, but Chicago has to be the early favorite to repeat as NL Champs.

Jacque Fitzgerald re-signed with Cleveland for $22.8MM over 4 years. There would be something odd about Fitzgerald in anything other than a Katanas uni...well, we know what cap he'll be wearing on his HOF plaque.