Last year at this time, Shohei Ohtani had signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Juan Soto had been traded to the New York Yankees -- but 20 of the top 25 free agents remained unsigned, so it felt like a slow-moving offseason.
This year, things seem to be moving faster. Soto signed a record-breaking $765 million contract with the New York Mets, the Yankees pivoted after losing him to sign Max Fried to the fourth-largest contract for a pitcher (and biggest for a left-hander) and we've had two additional nine-figure deals in Willy Adames (San Francisco Giants) and Blake Snell (Dodgers).