2022-23 Offseason and Year in Review

[Cardinals]

In 2021, Mike Trout was hurt and out nearly all year. In last year's offseason review, I wrote " Added prospects that I am excited about in Kowar, Nootbaar, Otto, Schmidt, Tena, Yepez, Eder, Herz, Killian, Pfaadt and Vera."

As a surprise to nobody, none of those players are on my team anymore. They were shipped off in various deals to add players like Jack Flaherty, Kenley Jansen, Tommy Edman, Wily Adames, Giancarlo Stanton and others.

The result, largely thanks to a healthy Mike Trout and superb team defense, was another championship. We avenged our loss to Philadelphia from the year prior, before taking out Nils in 7 in the NLCS and defeating Tullar's Red Sox in the World Series.

It's admittedly very odd posting as the Cardinals and moving my team to St. Louis. After 14 years in Pittsburgh (!), the Pirates are now Levine's and I'm picking up the mantle from Aaron in STL.

Earlier in the fall, I thought if I won it all and Aaron left, I would blow it up and start new in a new city. But Aaron hung on through January before hanging it up and my offseason was set in motion already. So, the defending champions enter 2023 into a new city, new park. Lots of work still to be done, and the division got a lot better with Jake swapping with Aaron's roster. It will be really interesting to see what the balanced schedule does to the league, as underachieving rosters can't get pounded on 18-20 times by their division mates.

With that said, here's where we stand with offseason moves:

OUTBOUND
Tommy Pham
Andrew Heaney
Wily Adames
Trey Mancini
Luis Ortiz
Jorge Alfaro
Luca Tresh
Jorge Soler
Jerar Encarnacion
Jairo Pomeras
Mason Black
Greg Jones
TOR 4
WAS 3
Pick 84

INBOUND
George Springer
Miles Mikolas
Jameson Taillon
Mitch Garver
Michael Massey
Gary Sanchez
Dillon Tate
James Paxton
Paul Sewald
Luis Gil
Mike Moustakas
Trevor Bauer

Retired
Yadier Molina
Darren O'Day
Steve Cishek