The calendar says the Major League Baseball offseason is just about over, but the calendar is telling us an incomplete story. What we have are questions, many questions. Will spring training really start this month? Should it? When are the rest of the free agents going to sign? What, exactly, are the rules going to be? Monday’s MLBPA rejection of MLB’s proposal to delay the 2021 season suggests that structurally, we’re looking at a renewal of 2019 baseball, at least at the big league level, but is that really going to happen? Universal DH? Roster sizes? Length of the schedule?
Within this miasma of uncertainty we begin the process of making an appraisal of the work teams have done since the Los Angeles Dodgers ended their World Series title drought on Oct. 27. We’re going to look at how each team’s offensive attack looks, right now, on paper. The “right now” aspect is important to keep in mind, because the numbers will change.
Nelson Cruz went off the board late Tuesday, but premium bats remain, such as Marcell Ozuna, whose market is highly affected by the limbo over the designated hitter question. Also, because the free-agent market has only recently begun flowing, it’s also possible that another Nolan Arenado-level trade surprise lies waiting to be sprung. So this is both a snapshot of how the offenses across baseball currently stack up, and a kind of wake-up call for some clubs eyeing the good bats still available.
Now onto our rankings of MLB’s offenses, as they stand today: