The year 2024 is upon us and, in keeping with ancient tradition, the time is upon us for poorly conceived and ultimately untenable promises to the self -- the New Year's resolution. Let the gym memberships flow like the wine we're definitely not drinking anymore. Let the cigarettes we're absolutely not buying anymore improve the personal finances to which we're freshly committed. Resist the rituals of calculated self-defeat at your own peril.
The world of Major League Baseball is no different. Sure, MLB teams aren't officially declaring their resolutions for the year to come, but they're there, those resolutions, lurking behind the potted palm and waiting to be achieved or roundly ignored after a 10-day trial period. We are here to do the semi-honest work of dictating the New Year's resolution for 10 of MLB's most notable or at least most convenient teams. Whether they, you know, satisfy those resolutions is up to them (mostly), but that's not a concern for the Grand Assigner of Resolutions. Let us begin.
1. Dodgers: Have a fully healthy rotation for the playoffs
All right, this isn't exactly a matter of will, something you can resolve to make happen regardless of the Celestial Dungeon Master above. We're sticking with it anyway. The Dodgers have boldly addressed their rotation concerns by inking Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a $325 million pact and swinging a trade with the Rays for Tyler Glasnow. Even so, you can squint and still find depth concerns.
Shohei Ohtani of course won't pitch in 2024 as he recovers from an elbow procedure. Walker Buehler will be in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and thus something of an unknown quantity. Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan are both young and varying degrees of unproven. Franchise-legend-in-decline Clayton Kershaw is still a free agent and won't pitch until at least the summer anyway. Tony Gonsolin almost certainly won't pitch this upcoming season, and Dustin May likely won't be back from his own TJ surgery until well into the stretch drive, barring setbacks. That's a lot of uncertainty.
Thanks to their star-laden lineup and rotation upside, the Dodgers are mortal locks to return to the postseason for a 12th straight year. The goal, though -- the burden, if you will -- is to win their first full-season World Series since 1988. The Dodgers are every inch a modern juggernaut, but their lone title during this incredible run came during the COVID-abbreviated 2020 season. Their best chance to add another, arguably truer ring to their recent collection requires those front-end starters to be in fighting shape for October. Yamamoto's relatively wee size and lack of exposure to MLB workloads and starter schedules are at least modest concerns. Buehler's recovery from TJ is noted above. As for Glasnow, he's never pitched more than 120 innings in a season in his eight-year MLB career. If there's a soft underbelly to what looks like a dominant roster, it's that. Hereby: The Dodgers must resolve to not let rotation health and durability be their undoing.
2. Cubs: Re-sign Cody Bellinger
At an underlying level that strips away luck and randomness, the Cubs have a case to have been the NL Central's best team in 2023. They have an impressive base of young talent, but they need targeted strikes to position themselves as divisional favorites in 2024. Lead lever-puller Jed Hoyer positioned the club to be at least on the fringes of the Ohtani and Yamamoto discussions, but obviously nothing came of those efforts. The most fundamental step to take soon is to secure the services of their best hitter in 2023 -- center fielder Cody Bellinger. In addition to playing a nifty center field and adding value on the bases for the Cubs in 2023, Bellinger enjoyed a strong renaissance season at the plate. As a first-year player for the Cubs, the previous Dodgers lifer had an OPS+ of 133 with 26 homers in 130 games. There's some question as to whether his new, more contact-oriented approach makes these numbers sustainable -- Bellinger's batted-ball measures aren't promising -- but it may be a risk the Cubs have to take.
3. Mets: Sign Pete Alonso to an extension
The Mets badly wanted to land Yamamoto, but despite in essence matching the Dodgers' winning offer, that didn't come to pass. New president of baseball operations David Stearns likely isn't going to make a splash move this winter, as his focus will most keenly be on 2025. So that leaves plenty of room for an Alonso extension. The hard-hitting first baseman carries some risk, as slugging first basemen tend not to age all that well, but Alonso is a frontline power producer and figures to remain as much for some time. He's also a highly popular figure among Mets paying customers, and Alonso by all accounts wants to stay. The 2024 season will be Alonso's walk year, and most players don't like negotiating while the season is going on. Best to get something done now.
4. Yankees: Sign Blake Snell
The reigning NL Cy Young winner has his flaws -- control issues and a general inability to work deep into games, to name a couple. However, Snell puts up elite strikeout numbers, and for his career he boasts an ERA+ of 127. After the Yankees missed out on Yamamoto, Snell is the best starting pitcher left on the market and, thus, the best target for the Yanks, who badly need help in the rotation behind ace Gerrit Cole. With the recently acquired Juan Soto going into his walk year and unlikely to sign an extension, GM Brian Cashman can't stop now even if the drop-off from Yamamoto to every other available starter is substantial. Snell's the best fit at this point. Go get him.
5. Orioles: Trade for Dylan Cease
The O's in 2023 clocked 101 wins during the regular season and prevailed in baseball's toughest division. That's thanks to their impressive young core of position players, which is the fruit of the Orioles' deep rebuild/tank job. The problem is that owner John Angelos is unwilling to invest in putting complementary pieces around that core, and that's harming the Orioles' chances of going on a deep playoff run. In particular, Baltimore badly needs some certainty in the rotation. That was the case last season, but now the situation is even more critical given the free-agent departure of linchpin starter Kyle Gibson via free agency.
That brings us to the White Sox, who are widely expected to trade ace Dylan Cease this winter. Cease still has two years of team control remaining, and he would give the Orioles a helping of certainty and performance upside at the front of the rotation. That's precisely what they need. It's expected to be a competitive market for Cease's services, but the Orioles have an abundance of position prospects -- more than they can plausibly fit on the field in Baltimore -- and should be able to outbid all comers. GM Mike Elias is a prospect-hugger, which is to the detriment of the team's current title hopes. It's time for him to change that approach and add a true difference-maker to the rotation. Cease fits the bill nicely.
6. Rangers: Bring back Jordan Montgomery
The reigning champs once again figure to boast perhaps the best offense in all of baseball, but the rotation is a question mark for their repeat bid in 2024. That's largely because of injuries. Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle will miss significant chunks of the upcoming season as they recover from Tommy John surgery, and Max Scherzer could miss the first half of 2024 after undergoing surgery to repair a herniated disk. Throw in the free-agent exodus of useful swingman Martín Pérez, and Texas needs some help to keep them at the forefront of the fairly tough AL West.
Fortunately, they already have the foundation in place for just such an addition — veteran left-hander Jordan Montgomery. The Rangers acquired Montgomery from the Cardinals at last season's deadline, and he was a key stabilizer for them down the stretch and during their title run in the postseason. He promises innings, deep starts, and plus run-prevention for the near- to mid-term, and that's what Texas sorely needs until some of their other starters start getting healthy around mid-summer. Texas is, to its enduring credit, heavily invested in winning now, and it's no time to let up.
7. Angels: Tear it down
Infamously, the Angels met with precious little success despite having Shohei Ohtani and peak Mike Trout on the roster for lo these many years. Now they are of course without Ohtani, and Trout has trouble staying healthy and may be entering his decline phase. More broadly, the Halos are in the unenviable position of having no realistic path to contention while also being saddled with one of the worst farm systems and young talent bases in all of baseball. Nothing is working right now, and it's time for a drastic change of tack. Owner Arte Moreno and GM Perry Minasian need to undertake a deep rebuild.
The reality is that the Angels have endured eight consecutive losing seasons and are now on their fifth different manager since 2018. It's time to face that reality. It's a long-term process that won't yield positive results for some time, but it needs to happen. They can start by shopping names like Patrick Sandoval, Griffin Canning, and Taylor Ward, and, yes, they should approach Trout about his willingness to waive his no-trade clause and go to a contender. It's painful, but such a teardown is overdue in the O.C.
8. Cardinals: Add yet another starting pitcher
The Cardinals have already done a great deal of work in repairing a rotation that was the prime mover in their surprising struggles of 2023. The front office has inked Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn, and that gives them a great deal of stability. What they lack, however, is upside and swing-and-miss to complement all those bedrocks capable of making 30 or more starts in a season. As such, St. Louis' work isn't done. Ideally, the Cards will be involved in any Cease trade discussions. They should also be in discussions with the Mariners and Marlins about one of their controllable young arms and be willing to trade the lineup help those two clubs need (St. Louis has bats to spare). Maybe taking a swing at Alek Manoah as a change-of-scenery candidate is another option. Elsewhere, the organization is still seeking to improve its presence in Japan when it comes to luring top talent, which means they should be in pursuit of lefty Shoto Imanaga, whose posting deadline is fast approaching. Add one more rotation piece, and the Cardinals may wind up as preseason favorites in the NL Central.
9. Mariners: Sign Matt Chapman
The M's right now have a contending core and impressive pitching depth. However, they still need lineup help, and that's the case even after signing Mitch Garver to fill the DH role. The trade of Eugenio Suárez to the Diamondbacks leaves a hole at the hot corner, and right now Seattle doesn't have an ideal way of filling it internally. The recently acquired Luis Urías is probably in line to be the regular at the position, but he's best deployed as a reserve -- or, in Seattle's case, as the light half of a second-base platoon. M's ownership and GM Jerry Dipoto very much lack commitment to the team's current contending hopes, but they need to find the will to go out and add Chapman, one of the top position players on the free-agent market. For the time being, he projects as an above-average hitter, and he remains one of the top fielding third basemen around. He'd meet a definite need for Seattle, and his addition would help the flow of the entire roster. This, however, would require the club to do something for which they've shown little recent appetite -- spend some money.
10. Marlins: Put the home run sculpture back where it belongs
One could argue that the Marlins' most pressing organizational need is more offense, yes, but the real priority item is to restore the home run sculpture to its former glory. Absent a trade of the statue to the White Sox, which we long ago recommended, the most soaring recent example of public art made good should be put back in the outfield of Marlins Park where everyone can see it. This, of course, is the fault of established loser Derek Jeter, who according to contemporaneous accounts decided to relocate the statue in a gross use of his awful powers. It's long past time to correct this grievous mistake and once again grace The People of Baseball with this:
Do not fail us, Marlins.
