MLB Winter Meetings Primer - What’s next for the Cincinnati Reds?

Let’s make a deal!

Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings begin next week, with Sunday the day that executives, agents, players, and representatives from the entire industry will convene at Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee to shape the future of the sport. Monday is technically when the ‘meetings’ begin, but the larger point is that the upcoming week usually represents the highest concentration of transactions of the entire offseason.

We may see Shohei Ohtani sign somewhere for a half a billion bucks, or more.

We may see the San Diego Padres trade superstar Juan Soto somewhere, be it to the New York Yankees or (hopefully) elsewhere.

We may see Chicago White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease traded, or see Tampa send Tyler Glasnow somewhere in a deal that’s a billion percent more realistic than this one proposed by The Athletic’s Leatherpants.

What happens between Sunday and Wednesday remains to be seen, but we do know the Winter Meetings will wrap as they always do - with the Rule 5 Draft taking place on Wednesday as exhausted agents and execs stumble in with their shirts untucked and their socks on inside-out.

For more on what to expect from these particular engagements, I’ve cobbled together some links from the experts on the topic:

• ESPN’s Jeff Passan has notes on the expected contract for Ohtani and the suitors for Soto, as well as some interesting details on the negotiations to bring Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Major League Baseball from Japan. If Jeff’s intel is correct, someone may well end up doling out nearly $300 million, in total, for his signature.
• MLB.com’s Joe Trezza made note of six MLB clubs with prospects to deal at the Winter Meetings, and hoo boy, the Cincinnati Reds made the list!
• The crew at MLB Pipeline put together a handy list of prospects who could be picked in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft, once again assembled in that way where if you’re a fan of the National League clubs more than those of the American League you get to scroll, scroll, and scroll some more before finally finding the blurb about your team.
• In a related vein, Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline took a look back at last year’s Rule 5 Draftees. You’ll recall that the Reds selected Blake Sabol, who socked 13 homers and posted a respectable 91 OPS+ as a catcher-turned-outfielder for the San Francisco Giants after a trade. Tyler Stephenson and Luke Maile each posted 87 OPS+ marks last year, but I digress.
• Speaking of catchers, here’s Michael Baumann of FanGraphs waxing on Mitch Garver, the top free agent at the position. I dunno, maybe the Reds should try to sign him and deal Stephenson for something tangible. Did I just talk myself into that on the spot? I might have!
• Finally, here’s MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon on what the Reds might get into at the Winter Meetings, much of which already sounds dated after it hit the interwebs on November 29th. The additions of Nick Martinez and Emilio Pagan helped address two of the four identified issues laid out by Sheldon, to an extent, but what the club does with Jonathan India and how it addresses a right-handed bat for the outfield remain to be seen. Here’s an idea: maybe just begin to get some reps for Jonny India in the corner outfield!