Last year, as the baseball industry headed for the the winter meetings in Las Vegas, most of the interesting action in the transaction market had taken place in the form of trades. This time around, the news has centered around an MLB offseason free-agent market that is moving much more swiftly than the glacial pace of the past couple of hot stove seasons.
However, the trade market has lagged a bit. Most deals have sprung from the need to create roster space or to move arbitration-eligible players not deemed worth the investment. The Padres and Brewers pulled off a present-value for present-value deal of sorts, with San Diego swapping LHP Eric Lauer and IF Luis Urias for OF Trent Gresham and RHP Zach Davies and San Diego was back at it with a deal bringing in outfielder Tommy Pham from the Rays.