2024-25 MLB free agency, trade grades: Offseason analysis - ESPN

The 2024-25 MLB offseason has arrived, and we have you covered with grades and analysis for every major signing and trade this winter.

Whether it's a nine-figure free agent deal that changes the course of your team's future or a blockbuster trade that rocks baseball, we'll weigh in with what it all means, for next season and beyond.

Follow along as our experts evaluate each move. This story will continue to be updated, so check back in for the freshest analysis from the beginning of the hot stove season through the start of spring training.

Braves get:
RHP Griffin Canning

Angels get:
DH Jorge Soler

Braves grade: C

Alex Anthopoulos always strikes quickly once the offseason begins — one of the reasons he's one of the best executives in the game — and this deal comes while the Dodgers are still nursing their World Series-winning hangovers.

The Braves had acquired Soler from the Giants last summer as a fill-in for the injured Ronald Acuna Jr., shoehorning him into right field with Marcell Ozuna locked into the DH role. Soler isn't really an outfielder any longer — the Giants had played him only as a DH — so it was pretty clear the Braves had to trade him.

With that in mind and knowing Soler will make $16 million each of the next two seasons, getting anything back is fine and Canning could at least be a No. 5 starter. He gives the Braves another rotation option if free agent Max Fried signs elsewhere — which is a strong possibility.

Canning had a 5.19 ERA for the Angels, but he did make 31 starts. He allowed 31 home runs and doesn't generate a ton of swing-and-miss, but let's just say that the Braves, with all of their pitching success, are likely to get more out of him than the Angels did.

Angels grade: D

I can sort of see