The baseball offseason is in full swing. Its a time for restored hope, free agents, trades, and prematurely crowning a champion for next season, either by picking a repeat or whoever improves their team most on paper through trades and free agent signings. For all of you baseball fans out there, I have broken down the stages of the offseason to help countdown how close the baseball season is getting (as of now, it is not too close).
Stage 1A: The After Glow
This is reserved for the World Series champions and teams that defied expectations. You're happy with the end result of your team's season. Cubs fans are finally feeling this way after 108 years. Teams that usually fall into this category are: Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Optimism is high for you this offseason. Hope for either a repeat, or improvement on the stellar year your team had. Maybe your team will land a free agent, maybe they will be even better with their current core of stars, or maybe some young, hot shot prospects are ready to make the Bigs. No matter what, this is always a good way to start the offseason. Most times fell under Stage 1B (see below).
Stage 1B: I Stopped Watching A Month Ago
The teams that fall under this category every year seem to be the Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners. Your team missed the playoffs and you didn't even bother watching the postseason because it's hard to comprehend what it is like to have your team there. There aren't any teams who haven't made the postseason, but there are teams that seem to miss a lot more often than others (the teams above). The fans who fall under this category may fall under it for different reasons, such as: a year of underachievement from their team, their rival is in the postseason but not them, or your team is terrible every year so you think baseball season just runs until late September/early October (San Diego Padres fans). In any case, this stage isn't fun. On the bright side, when you do see the playoffs the after glow is much better. Just ask the 2007 Colorado Rockies. Their fans found out there was baseball after September and even discovered an event they had never heard of, the World Series. Although they lost, it was a historic time to be a Rockies fan.
Stage 2: Seasonal Awards
The big time awards are picked after the season, so if your team didn't win the World Series, you can always hope one of your team's players or manager takes home some hardware. Angels fans have fallen in love with awards season, since their team is no good but Mike Trout seems to bring in some hardware every once in awhile. The only people that seem to not like the award announcements are Padres fans (I know, I know. Jake Peavy won the 2007 Cy Young. But did you see him in the 2013 postseason? Yikes) and Kate Upton. Every team has a chance at something, which makes it fun and gives you bragging rights over your friends whose team won nothing at all.
Stage 3A: Free Agency
This is the time of year where the big money contracts seem crazy if your team didn't sign the player, but seem justified if they did (unless it's Pablo Sandoval, in that case, it was a disaster waiting to happen). This offseason we will see big money handed to many players who didn't hit over .250 and pitchers who never went over 200 innings in a season. You can count on some team like the Toronto Blue Jays of Miami Marlins being prematurely crowned as a World Series favorite after signing someone like Jose Reyes or Mark Buehrle. The real trick to free agency is filling the gaps the right way, and most efficiently. Just ask the Indians. Mike Napoli and Rajai Davis were low risk-high reward signings and they paid off. Just don't be like the Padres and try to fix your team by overpaying for James Shields, like in 2015. The Braves are off to a hot start this offseason, signing two former Cy Young Award winners. Oh wait, never mind. Bartolo Colon and RA Dickey may have won Cy Young Awards, but they are over the age of 40. The Braves may want to rethink that.
Stage 3B: Trades
Teams will also be making trades, either by trading middle of the line guys or making big name deals in exchange for prospects. The winners and losers of the latter deals won't be determined until years later, but you better hope the big name lives up to the hype or your team will be kicking themselves for trading prospects that become cornerstones for the team they were traded to. Unless you are the Padres, who could've easily won the Adrian Gonzalez-to-the-Red Sox trade if they had developed top prospect Casey Kelly and not traded the other prospect in the trade to the Cubs (a guy by the name of Anthony Rizzo). While the Sox had an All Star, he underachieved. The Padres looked like they could have robbed the Sox, until you realize the winner of that trade ended up being the Cubs, who didn't even make a move in that particular deal.
Stage 4: Optimism
This is the stage where everyone is excited about how their team will do, right before players report. No one has gotten injured (unless you are Matt Wieters and have an undisclosed "household accident"), no one has reported to Spring Training out of shape and no one has an atrocious stat line. Their is endless opportunity for your team to do well with their sparkling new acquisitions, top prospects and stars. It's a clean slate. Heck, even the Padres were optimistic in 2015, when they traded for Justin Upton, Wil Meyers and Matt Kemp on top of signing James Shields. We all know how that went. In any case, this part of the offseason is a time for wishful thinking, talking unjustified smack and getting your hopes up even though your team hasn't stepped on the field since September of October.
Stage 5: Spring Training
This is when you either stay optimistic or get a slap in the face from reality. Your team looks good, they have young guys emerging and the team is healthy. The Cubs felt good in 2016 Spring Training, and for good reason. It all ended well for them. In 2013, the Red Sox saw Jackie Bradley Jr. go nuts in Spring Training (although he did not do much after that until the end of the 2015 season), but they also saw a team with one goal. It helped with the signings of Mike Napoli (are you seeing a trend here), Shane Victorino and role players like Jonny Gomes. Sometimes you just feel it in Spring Training. Other times you don't, like when you sign an overweight Pablo Sandoval and he comes to Spring Training looking rounder than the ball he isn't hitting. Spring Training can be a telling time for your favorite squad.
Stage 6: The Day Before Opening Day
A sleepless night, as you think about the coming months. The battle and grind that will start the next day gets you so excited you just forget about sleep and turn on MLB Network. Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, Cardinals, and even Twins fans are excited to get the season going. It doesn't matter what happened the season before. It is a clean slate and your team is ready to start anew. It is the eve of the best day in sports, MLB Opening Day. Depending on how the team fairs, you will be consumed by baseball for a few months (unless you are a Padres fan and your team is all but mathmatically eliminated after going 1-6 the first week of the season). It is the last day you can have unjustified optimism and equal bragging rights with everyone else. Because the next six months will have its ups and downs. It will be filled with winning streaks, losing streaks, injuries, surprises, walk offs, no hitters and everything else that the great game of baseball has to offer.
Although we are still five months away from Opening Day, there is still plenty to look forward to (even if it is false hope). Free Agency is about to start heating up and chatter is about to get started. To all you baseball fans out there, enjoy the optimism while you can. Because things will get crazy before you know it.
