DALLAS — As the MLB winter meetings came to a close on Wednesday, it was clear that some teams walked out of the Hilton Anatole better than they were when they arrived in the Lone Star State.
On the flip side, there were a couple of teams that didn’t have the best luck or come out of Dallas with the player they wanted.
With that in mind, here are the winners and losers from this year’s winter meetings.
Winners
Texas Rangers
The hometown team not only reportedly inked Nathan Eovaldi to a three-year deal to solidify its rotation, but also landed Jake Burger in a trade with the Miami Marlins. Burger will provide some good pop for the Rangers and shake up a lineup that underperformed last season after reaching the World Series the year before.
St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals had the 13th-best odds of landing the top overall pick in the 2025 MLB draft, yet skyrocketed all the way to the fifth-best spot thanks to the luck of the ping pong balls. St. Louis hasn’t picked as high as number five since 1998 when the franchise selected J.D. Drew.
In an offseason where the Cardinals have parted ways with Paul Goldschmidt and are reportedly in talks to trade Nolan Arenado, having a surprise high pick in next year’s draft is at least a positive for St. Louis.
Losers
Miami Marlins
There were plenty of questions about the Burger trade, including why the Marlins would part ways with a player who was under team control through the 2028 campaign and was far and away the home run leader for Miami last season (Burger had 29 homers while a pair of players finished tied for second with 18). Additionally, the initial thoughts on the return for Miami were underwhelming.
Also, Miami was tied with the Colorado Rockies for the best odds to get the top draft pick in 2025 (22.5 percent), but plummeted all the way to seventh. Pair those two events together and it wasn’t a few good days for the Marlins.
Baltimore Orioles
For a team that is going to be fighting for the top of the American League East again this season, the task got a little tougher for the Orioles during this year’s winter meetings. The New York Yankees picked up Max Fried and the Boston Red Sox made a trade for Garrett Crochet, so the level of pitching in the division went up.
Throw in that the Orioles are still trying to bring back Corbin Burnes or find his replacement and there are suddenly more questions about Baltimore’s pitching than two of their top rivals. That puts Baltimore at a disadvantage as the winter meetings break up.