What we've learned from the first month of MLB free agency - ESPN

A few hours after my free agency projections go up at the start of the MLB offseason, I generally want to move at least a few names or change a few predictions. Sometimes it's just me waffling or splitting hairs on a close call, but often it's from feedback from my industry friends letting me know what stood out to them.

While I could adjust these predictions almost nonstop all winter, that's just not healthy behavior. That said, chatter from the winter meetings and the deals that have already been done have helped reveal what might be substantively different than what I forecasted roughly a month ago. So, here is a look at what I know now that we did not at the start of the offseason — and what it means for the rest of the winter.

The Dodgers and Yankees are being bold and that likely won't stop

The blue bloods are acting like big market teams and going for it. The Los Angeles Dodgers acted as we expected them to last winter, taking a step back payroll-wise and letting some young players emerge during 2023 before hitting the gas once again and jumping into this offseason with Shohei Ohtani as a toppriority. Now that they landed Ohtani, they need to add pitching and there are plenty of options available — Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in free agency or Corbin Burnes, Tyler Glasnow and Dylan Cease in the trade market — to address the area. There could be some super-team buzz growing around the Dodgers, where the positive vibes in L.A. act as a tiebreaker for free agents with similar offers or role players looking for the best spot.

I wouldn't quite go to that extreme with the New York Yankees yet, but adding Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham helps make the rest of this offseason more palatable while Yankees