So unless you had some type of pool going on the order in which set-up relievers would be signed, I'm guessing you didn't find the Winter Meetings particularly compelling.
Since nothing else really happened.
We know a pitch clock is almost certainly coming to help the pace of play on the field next season, so maybe MLB should consider a "Do-Something" clock at the Winter Meetings.
Put each of the 30 teams on the clock once over the three days of the Meetings, and give them an hour to make a significant trade or signing of some sort. Man, that would liven things up.
I'm not serious, of course, just making a point about the state of the game, now that front offices everywhere have all embraced analytics and begun to assess talent and assign value in advanced but all-too-similar fashion.
As such today's young and highly-educated GMs tend to think alike, especially in their reluctance to trade minor-league prospects. And they sure aren't sitting at the bar at night, scribbling names on a cocktail napkin with a fellow GM to make a blockbuster deal, as in the old days.
They are also more averse to the risk of long-term contracts for free agents, determined to limit the term of deals, especially for players in their 30s.
All of these trends have come to fruition this winter, it seems, and the result is that not a single top free agent-agent starting pitcher or position player had signed until Friday, when the Phillies locked up Carlos Santana and the Angels got Zack Cozart.
The only starting pitcher off the board, meanwhile, is the relatively unheralded Tyler Chatwood, and that's because the Cubs believe he has untapped value, based at least partly on the high spin-rate of his curveball, which was largely negated by the altitude in Colorado.
In other words, it might be weeks, even months before any team can be crowned as having won the winter.
The Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes and the Marlins' fire sale have given the Angels and Yankees a huge lead in that department, but never has there been an offseason when the Winter Meetings have come and gone, and still so much unfinished business remained.
As such I can't really declare Winners and Losers, but here are my Top 10 Takeaways from this slow-moving off-season, Winter Meetings included:
