Jerry Dipoto of the Mariners and A.J Prellar of the Padres are both seen as free-wheeling traders. The baseball media love them both and are longing for their type of action right now. Note that neither team has won a World Series despite all of the spending and trading. 

While I don’t pretend to speak for all of Cubbiedom, I think frustration is building up as nothing has happened on the free agent/trade fronts. On the other side, most fans appear to doubt the new administration’s ability to pick a lane. GM Chris Getz appears to have been given the mandate to avoid saying rebuild, but he’s doing everything that says mediocre, half-ass rebuild.

Regardless of which mumbo jumbo you want to believe, the two teams are at different stages of development. As is always the case, I’m looking at the bigger picture more than usual because what other teams are doing does impact the teams that I follow. As such, I’ve been charting where I think all 30 teams are in development, spending and player acquisition.

Every Tom, Dick, and Shirley (not Bob) has posted their lists of teams, and what they need and how they should go about their business. It’s exhausting, and as a friend and I have said, not worth the energy. However, my list is very fluid and hardly perfect. I’ve already edited it several times today and expect to move things around as some teams do something to surprise me.

Suffice to say, I’m not happy about some of the slots.

The top tier consists of the 2023 division leaders and almosts. At the very least, they should move forward and take the steps necessary to push forward and build on momentum. A couple of the teams don’t have a great history of spending like drunken sailors (can we still describe sailors that way or will I be cancelled?)

Texas Rangers, Astros, Orioles, Rays, Braves, Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Twins. Obviously, the Dodgers have stuck more than their big toe in the deep end. Everyone else is biding their time with the Braves opting for the white elephant route.

Despite major disappointments last year, I’m including the Yankees and Mets along with the Red Sox, Jays and Giants because all of the teams have shown a willingness to spend recklessly. I’m not suggesting that any of these teams in trending positively, but they’re all leading their fans to believe they’re going to contend for top free agents.

The next group of teams is the hardest to figure out because each has a history of not knowing what the hell they are doing or sticking with the plan. In a couple cases, it’s hard to tell if they are rebuilding or shuffling the chairs on the deck of a sinking ship. Note all of the NL and AL Central teams. Cubs, Reds, Tigers, Royals, Padres, Angels, Guardians, and Marlins. It pains me to include the Cubs, but their recent decisions are questionable at best. Are they really going to spend money or rely heavily on unproven prospects? Is anyone in the AL Central going to do something or just settle for being mediocre in a bad division?

The last group is the current bottom of the barrel. I know the Cardinals fans believe the last couple of years were an anomaly. Go for it friends! Re-upping with Budweiser is no guarantee of success especially with shoddy management. Some of the other teams have longer histories of ineptitude. Anyone of them could surprise the baseball world and spend big bucks this offseason, but expecting any of these leopards to change their spots isn’t a good bet.

White Sox, Athletics, Nationals, Pirates, Cardinals and Rockies. I don’t know if the Rockies and Athletics will do anything in the near future to jump a few spots in their respective divisions. Merely accumulating fresh bodies won’t satisfy fans for long, but changing philosophies doesn’t happen overnight.

We’ve already seen the Dodgers and Yankees step up their games, and other GM’s have been more active, but the most entertaining team to watch is the Braves. Alex Anthopoulos has been busy as an white elephant exchange veteran. It almost seems he’s making trades for the hell of it. While doing so in the guise of relieving some salary debt, he’s discarded Matt Carpenter, Marco Gonzalez, Max Stassi and Evan White almost immediately after trading for them. It’s almost as if he’s saying that he liked each of these players as much as a summer cold. This is what you’d expect from NBA GM’s that have never won a title but want to show their owner and fans that they are active. The list of players already dumped by the Braves is neither complete nor exhaustive. I don’t think any of them will be first ballot all stars in 2024.