One move each MLB Team should make this offseason

Baltimore Orioles – Let Chris Davis walk

Blasting 40-plus home runs in two out of the past three seasons should endear Chris Davis to fans of the Baltimore Orioles. The 29-year-old slugger has been incredibly valuable during both the 2013 and 2015 seasons on the strength of that high-end power, but Davis is set to enter free agency this winter, and Baltimore should, in fact, let him walk to another team.

The Orioles should certainly make Davis an offer to return, but given what free agents command on the open market, he would appear to be a bad investment in terms of a long-term deal. The first issue is age, where Davis will be 30 before the start of the 2016 season. That isn’t “over the hill” by any stretch, but handing him a four or five-year deal would take him into his mid-30s and that usually doesn’t end well. Beyond that, Davis was a catastrophe in 2014, posting a .196 batting average (.704 OPS) in 127 games, and he hasn’t exactly been the picture of consistency.

Letting Davis go would open some flexibility for the Orioles to improve their roster elsewhere, but more than that, it would avoid the possibility that Davis becomes a fiscal burden in the future.

Boston Red Sox – Invest (heavily) in David Price

Eduardo Rodriguez. Wade Miley. Rick Porcello. Clay Buchholz.

Does that seem like it could be the starting rotation for an American League contender? Well, that is what the Red Sox are entering the offseason with, and it is a bloodbath. To be fair, Boston has been a mess across the board this season, with prominent investments in Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez not exactly paying handsome dividends.

In the same breath, though, pitching is Boston’s biggest issue, and the team has the money to correct it, at least in part. The free agent market features a nice selection of high-end pitchers, ranging from Zack Greinke to Jordan Zimmermann and Johnny Cueto. For me, though, David Price makes the most sense in Boston.

Price and Greinke are at a different (read: higher) level than the others, but Greinke’s make-up doesn’t exactly lend itself to success in the pressure cooker of Boston, and Price is definitely “safer.” Given that pitching is so volatile by nature, I’ll take that safety by basically writing a blank check for the talented left-hander to anchor Boston’s staff for the next five-to-seven seasons.

Next: Cubs and White Sox