For my Christmas gift to you this year I will take a moment to discuss some of the offseason moves that some teams have made.  I’m picking five teams that made moves that would improve their team.  Lets see who those five were.

1. Kansas City Royals

P Jeremy Guthrie (re-signed)

P Ervin Santana (trade)

P Wade Davis (trade)

P James Shields (trade)

Sure, one could say that these moves aren’t going immediately pay off for the lowly Royals who haven’t had a winning season since 2003.  And haven’t won more than 90 games since 1989.  But it has been even longer since the Royals had as deep a rotation as they show today.  Getting Shields and Davis from Tampa Bay was one of the biggest coups of the offseason.  Now to go along with Santana and Guthrie the Royals have a starting four that can be matched with almost every team in baseball.  Their bullpen still needs work, but the Royals young and talented lineup will have less pressure on them to produce with a deep rotation to back them.  The Detroit Tigers are still atop the lowly AL Central, but the Royals are right behind them now.

2. Los Angeles Angels

P Joe Blanton (free agent)

P Sean Burnett (free agent)

P Tommy Hanson (trade)

P Ryan Madson (free agent)

P Jason Vargas (trade)

C Chris Iannetta (re-signed)

OF Josh Hamilton (free agent)

They seem to always be a sneaky team in the offseason under GM Jerry DiPoto.  They were heavily focused on pitching for most of the offseason.  First dealt P Ervin Santana (Royals) and almost dealt Dan Haren to the Chicago Cubs, but that deal fell through. He found a home in Washington with the Nationals on a one year deal. Afterwards they acquired former Atlanta Braves starter Tommy Hanson for reliever Jordan Walden.  Madson, Burnett and Blanton were all acquired right around the Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee.  Then came the big prize, Josh Hamilton. He probably won’t be able to live up to his contract, but he does fill a need for the Angels.  Protection for Albert Pujols.  With the recent trade of Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for Jason Vargas it provides even more depth to their rotation that they didn’t have last year.  Granted their starting staff isn’t as good as last year, but with the added bullpen arms and depth the Angels staff will be among the deepest in the league.

3. Los Angeles Dogers

P Zack Greinke (free agent)

P Brandon League (re-signed)

P Hyun-Jin Ryu (free agent)

INF Skip Schumaker (trade)

Obviously since August of last season the Dodgers have been on a spending spree of epic proportions.  Nothing changed in the offseason as they shelled out over $200 million on just Greinke and Ryu alone. With those two additions to their rotation, the Dodgers staff stands at eight starters.  Obviously that includes two injured starters, Ted Lilly and Chad Billingsley, but that’s a staggering amount of depth they have.  It’s possible the likes of Aaron Harang or Chris Capuano could be dealt to fill a need elsewhere, but Spring Training is still a long ways away.  Not all of this spending guarantees a World Series title, but it brings an added buzz to a city that wants to see the Dodgers succeed.  No matter the cost.

4. San Francisco Giants

P Jeremy Affeldt (re-signed)

2B Marco Scutaro (re-signed)

OF Angel Pagan (re-signed)

OF Andres Torres (free agent)

Now the defending champion San Francisco Giants didn’t make any splashy moves, but in their eyes they made the right moves. And there is nothing to suggest that they were wrong in making them.  Two of their postseason heroes, Scutaro and Pagan received nice extensions for their performances.  As did Affeldt who had another strong season in the bay area.  Bringing back Andres Torres, who was their leadoff hitter for their World Series run in 2010, won’t replace what Melky Cabrera did for the Giants last season.  But he brings added depth and speed that their bench didn’t have for much of last season.  When you have a full season with Hunter Pence in your lineup next year, you don’t need to get the big bat.  And with their depth in the pitching staff, they don’t need to make any quick fixes either.

5. Toronto Blue Jays

P Mark Buehrle (trade)

P R.A. Dickey (trade)

P Josh Johnson (trade)

INF Maicer Izturis (free agent)

SS Jose Reyes (trade)

UTL Emilio Bonifacio (trade)

OF Melky Cabrera (free agent)

Someone was going to benefit from the Miami Marlins fire sale.  It happened to be the Toronto Blue Jays.  A lot of players were involved in this amazingly complicated trade.  Yet, the outcome of it is unknown at least for now.  Will the Marlins win another title after another fire sale?  Will the Blue Jays immediately be contenders?  Those are just two of them.  Regardless of that, the Blue Jays know that the time is now to try and win.  With the New York Yankees suddenly being cautious in their spending and the Boston Red Sox in a state of transition.  All that stands in Toronto’s way is the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays. Neither of which made any significant moves to improve upon their teams from last year.  Toronto acquired three former aces of their previous teams.  Put those three, Buehrle, Dickey and Johnson together with Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow.  You have yourself a hell of a rotation.  Getting one of the best leadoff hitters in the game today in Reyes was an even bigger deal than the pitchers.  Toronto’s lineup is stacked with power, but no threat at the top of the order until now.  Cabrera had a career year last year, albeit with the help of performance enhancers.  He won’t repeat that performance again, but he is a good slap hitter that will help setup Reyes in scoring position often.  Bonifacio and Izturis provide depth to a team that hasn’t had it since their last postseason appearance in 1993.  This will be an interesting team to watch in 2013.