MLB Winter Meetings kick off Sunday in San Diego and there will be plenty of news and rumors coming out of the event.
At the annual gathering of baseball executives, agents, and media members, there are always signings to announce … and some of those can be bombshells. Additionally, some of the things that experts often think are going to happen at the MLB Winter Meetings never come to fruition, making predictions about what is to come very often a roll of the dice.
However, for this article, we’re looking into the future and bringing you some hot takes on what could happen in San Diego very soon.
5 bold predictions for the 2022 MLB Winter Meetings
5. The Rule 5 Draft will be more interesting than ever
Another consequence of the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season due to COVID-19 was that MLB teams missed out on a year of seeing which of their prospects were taking steps forward and which ones were not going to be a part of the plan for years to come.
With that in mind, this year’s Rule 5 Draft includes some very interesting candidates, including plenty of players who are listed among the top 30 prospects of most teams.
The 2022 Rule 5 Draft takes place on Wednesday, December 7. You can learn all of the details about the draft here, but here’s an important note: “…the Rule 5 Draft allows clubs without a full 40-man roster to select certain non-40-man roster players from other clubs. Clubs draft in reverse order of the standings from the previous season.”
With teams unable to protect all of their prospects and plenty of unknowns still out there after missing an entire season, expect more teams to take a chance on a Rule 5 Draft pickup this year than ever before.
4. “Trader Jerry” will live up to his nickname
If there’s one thing that is almost a sure bet for the rest of the offseason, it’s that the Seattle Mariners will not stand pat with the roster they currently have. Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto didn’t earn the nickname “Trader Jerry” by chance. He earned it by making more than 150 moves in his seven seasons overseeing Seattle’s roster.
Look for Dipoto to work his magic again at the MLB Winter Meetings. The Mariners could use upgrades at second base, as well as adding some pitching depth. Dipoto has already worked one trade this offseason, landing Teoscar Hernandez from the Toronto Blue Jays in an effort to boost the outfield around American League Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez.
Could Dipoto do even more during the Winter Meetings to upgrade the outfield? There is talk that the Mariners are interested in Brandon Nimmo, but will Seattle outbid plenty of other teams for his services when Rodriguez is already entrenched in center field?
Look for Dipoto to focus in on pitching during the Winter Meetings. Chris Flexen has been batted around as a potential name that the Mariners could trade off in a deal, so it’s very possible that that becomes the move (or one of them) for “Trader Jerry” while the MLB world is assembled in San Diego.
3. The San Francisco Giants will make a splash
One of the more interesting teams to watch this winter is the San Francisco Giants, a team that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has said will be “really active this offseason.”
That activity will likely start at the MLB Winter Meetings, with seemingly every option on the table for the Giants from signing Aaron Judge or Carlos Correa to finding an answer to lengthening the rotation (will San Francisco bring back Carlos Rodon?).
Will plenty of payroll flexibility and options on where to spend it, look for the Giants to make one of the first big signings of the offseason. That signing will not only set the direction for the rest of the winter’s plans in San Francisco, but also send a message to the Los Angeles Dodgers that the Giants intend to take back the National League West title they won in 2021.
Yes, San Francisco will be active this offseason, and that will start at the Winter Meetings with a big-name signing that starts a domino effect to keep the Hot Stove blazing until the holidays.
2. One of the four big-name free agent shortstops will sign
Many of the dominoes that will eventually fall this offseason will center around four big-name shortstops who are all free agents … and all of whom will likely land with another team in 2023.
There are plenty of suitors circling the camps of Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, Dansby Swanson, and Trea Turner this winter, hoping to land one of them as their shortstop of the future. It’s a fascinating game of musical chairs at the moment, with new rumors popping up seemingly every day about which team may have the upper hand with one of the four shortstops.
Here’s the prediction: Trea Turner will be the first of the group to sign a deal, and he will ink a lucrative contract with the Philadelphia Phillies during the MLB Winter Meetings. Turner’s deal will also set the bar for the other three shortstops in terms of amount and length of contract, likely pairing down their options even more for where they will play next season.
The Phillies have marked Turner as their likely top target this winter, and the year of winning will continue in Philadelphia as Dave Dombrowski figures out a way to get a deal done during the MLB Winter Meetings.
1. Aaron Judge will be linked to a Yankees return even more
Remember that big splash I predicted for the San Francisco Giants earlier? Well, it won’t be Aaron Judge. In fact, San Francisco’s marquee signing at the MLB Winter Meetings will likely make it that Judge will be favored to return back to the Yankees even more than previous times in the offseason.
Judge finding his way back to the Bronx makes sense on a lot of levels, but it won’t happen during the gathering in San Diego. Expect the “will he or won’t he” talk to continue well into the New Year, but the buzz growing around his return will keep escalating with what happens at the MLB Winter Meetings regarding other teams, including the Giants. In fact, one of the biggest talking points coming out of San Diego will be just how inevitable Judge’s return to the Yankees will be.
Judge, Justin Verlander, and Jacob deGrom will be the talk of the MLB Winter Meetings, but don’t expect any of them to ink a deal any time soon.
Note: I’ll be covering the MLB Winter Meetings in person for FanSided along with my colleague Robert Murray. Make sure you’re following FanSidedMLB’s Twitter account for the latest news from both of us from San Diego.