MLB’s Winter Meetings Return After Two Years Away

The Dodgers have not telegraphed their plans for this winter — but also have not shown much of an appetite to pay what Turner is expected to command. There is even some speculation that the Dodgers could play Gavin Lux at shortstop, move Mookie Betts from right field to second base and seek an outfielder to fill out their roster.

“Now it’s about really rolling our sleeves up and digging in,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, said at an end-of-season news conference following his team’s shocking loss to the San Diego Padres in an N.L. division series, adding that his group would use the unexpected time it had in October wisely to review, study, and “do everything we can to pick ourselves off the ground and be the best team out there next year.”

Atlanta, which moved quickly to acquire first baseman Matt Olson when it failed to reach an agreement with the franchise icon Freddie Freeman last off-season, again faces a seismic roster decision with Swanson, a Georgia native. Anthopoulos declined to speak specifically about the club’s situation with Swanson, saying only, “we’re open minded to everything. I don’t view it as ‘We need this’ or “We need that.’ I don’t view it as locking into certain things.”

Anthopoulos has plenty of company in his creativity and open-mindedness. The Dodgers have played Betts, a former infield prospect, some at second base already and they’ve moved players like Lux, Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor all over the field. The Padres (Jake Cronenworth, Jurickson Profar, Wil Myers), Tampa Bay (Ben Zobrist, going back a few years, and several others) and more have had success doing the same.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/sports/baseball/mlb-winter-meetings.html