MLB 2024 winter meetings: Winners, losers and takeaways - ESPN

Heading into the MLB winter meetings each year, there is always hope for a big week of free agent signings and trades. The 2024 meetings delivered.

Top free agent Juan Soto chose the New York Mets for 15 years and $765 million, the largest contract in baseball history. The New York Yankees responded to losing Soto by handing a record deal to left-handed starter Max Fried. Not to be left behind in the American League East, the Boston Red Sox landed lefty ace Garrett Crochet in a trade with the Chicago White Sox.

We asked our MLB experts who were on the scene in Dallas to break down everything that happened this week. Which moves most impressed them? Which moves most confused them? Who were the biggest winners and losers? And what can we expect next?

Jorge Castillo: Garrett Crochet going to the Boston Red Sox made the most sense all along. It wasn't a matter of if but when the Chicago White Sox would finally trade Crochet for position player talent. On the other end, Boston's top offseason priority was adding a front-line starter and the Red Sox had a surplus of position player prospect capital. Both teams got what they wanted when they executed the trade — Crochet for four prospects — on Wednesday. It was the perfect match.

Alden Gonzalez: Soto spurned them for the Mets and Fried spurned them for the Yankees, but the Red Sox countered by acquiring the most sought-after pitcher in the trade market. And though it cost four highly-regarded prospects to land Crochet from the White Sox, the Red Sox did well in plucking from a deep pool of position-player prospects to grab a high-end starter who's controllable for two years and will cost a fraction of what far lesser pitchers commanded in free agency. Better yet, they also