In the interest of getting this done before Opening Day, here's another lightning round of MLB transactions. I'm going to try to pick up the pace on this so I can use it in my 2014 prediction series.
12/18: Marlins sign IF Casey McGehee. The third baseman put up big numbers in NPB (Japanese pro ball) last year, and does have a couple of quality seasons with Milwaukee on his resume. He's not going to win any MVP awards and he may not even win the starting 3B job, but there's nothing wrong with a cheap depth signing.
12/18: Indians trade OF Drew Stubbs to Rockies for RP Josh Outman. It's addition by subtraction in Cleveland. Stubbs would only take AB's away from David Murphy or Michael Bourne, and Colorado always needs spare outfielders for when Carlos Gonzalez gets hurt. Slight edge to Cleveland for getting a usable lefty reliever in Outman and saving a couple million bucks.
12/18: Royals trade OF David Lough to Orioles for IF Danny Valencia. Lough's defensive numbers were eye-popping, off-the-charts, nobody-is-really-this-good in 2013. He's likely to regress and it might be a stretch to expect him to be an everyday player. Valencia showed some power in limited action last year and seems like a good fit as Mike Moustakas's backup/platoon partner in KC. Assuming Valencia is used properly, this should be a win for the Royals.
12/19: Yankees sign OF Carlos Beltran, 3 years, $45M. The Yankees kind of played the "sign everybody" game this winter, and as a result of the additions of Ellsbury and Beltran, Ichiro is going to be an expensive bench player most of the time. They're paying for Beltran's late 30s and the wheels could come off at any moment, but these are the kinds of risks Brian Cashman has to take since he's failed to build a farm system. Beltran's offense hasn't aged yet, so I'm an optimist, at least for this year. He'd be a lot more useful if he could throw 200 innings of 3.50 ERA ball, though.
12/20: Diamonbacks re-sign IF Eric Chavez, 1 year, $3.5M. Who knew Eric Chavez would still be a useful Major Leaguer in 2013? He doesn't walk or hit homers as much as he used to, but he puts the ball in play more and amazingly put up OPS+'s in 2012-13 that rival his peak years. For all the blunders I think Kevin Towers has made this winter, this signing is better than sneaky-good. It's covertly awesome. I really don't understand how the Yankees didn't step in and snag him; he's a perfect player for their needs.
12/24: Dodgers sign RP Chris Perez, 1 year, $2.3M. I'd really like to be in the Dodgers' bullpen this year, just to see what kind of conversations Perez would have with Brian Wilson. They're either going to attempt to murder each other or become BFFs and invent a secret twin language, and that's before you factor in California's marijuana availability advantage over Cleveland (That is a stat on which Baseball-Reference needs to get busy immediately.) The signing is low-risk and high-reward, but there's no way to read anything into Perez's numbers thus far in his career. He could have a 1 ERA or he could throw batting practice.
12/25: Dodgers sign IF Juan Uribe, 2 years, $15M. Uribe's first two seasons in LA were worse than worthless at the plate, but he had arguably his best year at age 33 in 2013. While he might be barely worth this contract, he might be unplayable instead. An all-in team like the Dodgers should probably aim a little higher than this.
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