Making big, expensive signings recently doesn’t mean the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets are done dabbling in the free agency market. Both teams have some needs that need attending, although those will be addressed without spending too much money.
The Orioles splashed a lot of cash on Chris Davis, re-signing their slugger on a seven-year, $161 million contract, the highest ever for an Orioles player by far. The Mets also spent big money on keeping a player they had last season, Yoenis Cespedes, who was the biggest remaining prize in the free agency market up to last week. Cespedes signed a three-year, $75 million contract, which was something of a settlement between the long term deal he wants with big money attached to it and the Mets reluctance to give out long term deals.
But after all that money handed out to keeping the team’s best players, they’re not done. The Orioles would still like to add someone to their outfield. Dexter Fowler is going to be too expensive for them and so will Austin Jackson, but they’re not the only outfielders left to sign. David Murphy, who did a pretty good job on the Cleveland Indians last season (less so with the Los Angeles Angels) or Will Venable, who had a rough time after being traded from the San Diego Padres to the Texas Rangers, seem like more suitable options financially. They have added Efren Navarro through a trade with the Los Angeles Angels, a player who can play both at first base and the outfield, but they might not be done.
The Mets seem to be focused on relievers in order to give their fantastic rotation a little bit of a safety net should they have bad days, like they did in the World Series. They did add Antonio Bastardo which a lot of teams were after. Right now, the focus is adding someone on a minor league deal in order to improve their depth. In terms of spending big cash, it seems like the World Series losers are done making moves.