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MLB: The biggest offseason transactions to date

Here we take a look at which franchises have made early moves to bolster their rosters following the Winter meetings last week.

The New York Mets for example have added three pitchers for their rotation, while perhaps the biggest move was not a move at all, with Aaron Judge staying with the New York Yankees.

Aaron Judge (New York Yankees)

Aaron Judge made a massive bet on himself at the end of last season, going into free agency that he could get a larger contract than the Yankees initially offered him at the start of last season - he gambled and he won.

The Yankees have given him a massive nine-year, $360million deal, which was $150m more than the previous offer.

I don’t really think that Judge was ever going anywhere else other than the Yankees, however the San Francisco Giants were waiting if he failed to get that big offer from the Bronx Bombers.

Jacob deGrom (Texas Rangers)

Giving Jacob deGrom a five-year deal considering the injury issues the 34-year-old has had over the past two seasons, the Texas Rangers have gambled in a different way than the Yankees with Judge.

If DeGrom stays fit then it is a massive plus to the Rangers in their quest to win a World Series.

The deal was five years for $185m, the Mets were only prepared to offer him three-years according to reports, however, the general consensus is that DeGrom was always going to leave New York.

The Rangers are +3300 To Win Outright their first World Series in 2023.

Trea Turner (Philadelphia Phillies)

Trea Turner has signed an 11-year deal worth around $300m according to MLB.com.

Turner was arguably the stand-out shortstop on the market and he was almost destined to join Bryce Harper at the Phillies, having spent a number of seasons together at the Washington Nationals.

There were rumours that the San Diego Padres were in the bidding for Turner, but the 29-year old now knows where he will be for the next 11 years.

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Justin Verlander (New York Mets)

When it was announced that Jacob deGrom was leaving the New York Mets, the hierarchy in Queen’s moved quickly to sign the 40-year-old Justin Verlander, the three-time Cy Young award winner agreed to a two-year, $86.6m deal to join former Detroit Tiger team-mate Max Scherzer in the Mets rotation.

Speaking to ESPN, Dusty Baker, Verlander’s former manager at Houston said: "We still have to find that guy that does what Verlander did for us.

"He would stop all losing streaks. On the days that he pitched, I could go full bullpen before he pitched and I could full bullpen after he pitched. That preserves your bullpen, big time."

The Mets are +1000 To Win Outright the World Series in 2023 and the way they have added to their rotation, who could write them off.

Along with Verlander and Scherzer, the Mets have added Jose Quintana (two years and $26m), plus Japanese right-hander Kodai Senga (five years worth $75m).

The Mets have also added David Roberterson to their bullpen and who can forget they also added Edwin Diaz a few weeks ago.

Brandon Nimmo has re-signed to a huge deal over eight years, worth $162m, with the Mets clearly in win-now mode.

Xander Bogaerts (San Diego Padres)

Xander Bogearts received a mega-deal from the San Diego Padres, something which the Boston Red Sox were reluctant to match.

The Boston Globe reported that the Red Sox were prepared to offer $160m over six years. However, the Padres blew that deal out of the water with an 11-year, $280m offer, which was unsurprisingly taken.

The Red Sox general manager Chain Bloom spoke to the Globe at the winter meetings and said: "We had a good sense of where it was headed for some time before the deal was actually done.

"It got to a point to we just weren’t going to get to. That’s not to say that, emotionally, it wasn’t hard, but I don’t think there’s any sense in beating around the bush. The endpoint speaks for itself.We just weren’t going to get there."

The Padres adding Bogaerts to an already star-studded line-up means, San Diego will be contenders for a World Series win and are +1000 To Win Outright the 2023 title.

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