MLB's 2025 offseason in summary, plus what is Stuff+?

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Congrats to the Eagles, and now lets get those pitchers and catchers reported! Today: a quick catch-up on the offseason, an explainer on Stuff+, a look at the Padres latest attempt at alchemy and Ken telling us just how free-wheelin the Dodgers have been.

Im Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal.

Welcome to The Windup! Regular readers of The Windup, if you dont mind, could I get you to stand over there for juuust a second? Now that the Super Bowl is over, there are probably a few new subscribers (or maybe readers opening their first Windup in a while) today.

Lets use one section to catch them up on the offseason.

*deep breath* OK, so ...

If you want more detail than this surface-level overview, heres Grant Brisbee to get you up to speed.

From my latest notes column : For as much as the Dodgers keep pushing to improve, with the pending return of Kike Hernandez merely the latest example, some of their moves border on overkill.

Infielder Hyeseong Kim, who signed a three-year, $12.5 million free-agent deal, might not be an improvement over second baseman Gavin Lux, who is signed for $3.325 million and is under control through 2026.

But in trading Lux to the Cincinnati Reds, the Dodgers acquired outfielder Mike Sirota, the Reds third-round pick in 2024 and a Competitive Balance Round A pick.

Advertisement The Dodgers get an extra year of control with Kim.

They obviously liked Sirota, having previously chosen him out of high school in the 16th round of the 2021 draft.

And the competitive-balance selection is perhaps more valuable to them than it is to other clubs.

For the third time in four years, the Dodgers top pick is moving back 10 places because they were more than $40 million over the luxury-tax threshold.

Their top choice this season will be No.

40 overall.

The pick they acquired from the Reds is No.

41.

The last time the Dodgers selected higher than No.

20 was 2013.

The Lux deal at least produced an intriguing return.

The signing of Kirby Yates and subsequent trade of Ryan Brasier to the Chicago Cubs for a player to be named or cash was an outright financial flex.

The one-year, $13 million deal for Yates effectively will cost the Dodgers $27.3 million when factoring in the 110 percent penalty for going over the highest luxury-tax threshold.

Brasier already was under contract for $4.5 million, and the Dodgers covered an unspecified part of his salary in the deal.

Yates, 37, is five months older than Brasier, but his career strikeout rate is 33.5 percent compared to Brasiers 24 percent.

He also had a 1.17 ERA in 61 2/3 innings last season, while Brasier was out from April 29 to Aug.

17 with a right calf strain, and not as effective as he was in 2023.

Still, Brasier performed well when healthy, and the Dodgers thought enough of him to use as an opener while facing elimination in Game 4 of the Division Series, and again in Game 2 against the Mets, when he allowed a leadoff homer to Francisco Lindor.

Heres the kicker: The Steamer projection system has Yates again finishing with a higher strikeout rate than Brasier, but their ERAs, expected Fielding Independent Pitching metrics and Wins Above Replacement are almost the same.

More here .

Last year, the Padres caught lightning in a bottle, signing Jurickson Profar to a one-year, $1 million deal.

Profar set career highs in home runs (24), OPS (.839) and bWAR (3.6), and made his first All-Star Game en route to winning a Silver Slugger award.

Profar has moved on to Atlanta ( three years, $42 million ), leaving the Padres to wash out the bottle and reset the bait.

This week, two players flew right into it: Jason Heyward and Connor Joe.

Advertisement Heyward who is somehow still just 35 accrued 29.8 bWAR from 2010-2015, but in the nine years since, has been worth just 12 bWAR with the Cubs, Dodgers and Astros (though he did win two Gold Gloves).

Hell share time in left field with Joe, who has spent the last two years with the Pirates.

Heres how they look as a tandem ...

Career vs.

RHP Heyward: .265/.350/.434 (.784 OPS) Joe: .235/.329/.377 (.705) Career vs.

LHP Heyward: .230/.300/.342 (.642) Joe: .254/.350/.415 (.766) Not overwhelming, but just for kicks, here were Profars career splits before and after Opening Day of last season (Profar is a switch-hitter).

Career pre-2024: vs.

RHP: .235/.321/.388 (.708) vs.

LHP: .248/.326/.372 (.698) 2024: vs.

RHP: .273/.378/.444 (.823) Vs.

LHP: .300/.385/.500 (.885) Thats what lightning in a bottle looks like.

But bottles are a notoriously inconsistent way of capturing lightning.

The Padres hope theres a little electricity left in Heyward and Joe.

Our last edition got a little full, so I wanted to take a section today to revisit last weeks Eno Sarris explainer.

By now, youve probably heard the term Stuff+ (it was mentioned in todays intro, at very least).

But what is it , anyway? Eno dug into it here and laid out the case for why teams use it and some of the pitfalls that have accompanied it.

Here are a few takeaways: First, Keith Laws Top 20 lists are now complete.

Here are the last two divisions: Next, remember this time last year when we on the internet were all roasting the new uniforms? On rare occasions, being mean online does work , after all.

Ken makes the argument against a salary cap in baseball, and Evan Drellich reports on commissioner Rob Manfred saying the Dodgers spending isnt actually bad for baseball , and Jayson Stark says the parity level in baseball measures up favorably against other sports.

Brian Cashman says Gleyber Torres was unwilling to switch positions while playing for the Yankees.

Most-clicked in our last newsletter: We have a tie! Cody Stavenhagens story on Paul Nyman the mystery godfather of modern pitching and Jim Bowdens top 30 Rookie of the Year candidates for 2025.

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(Top photo: Brad Penner / Imagn Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.