Baseball is back. Or, to put it another way, the players are back on the fields grouped by their respective teams, frolicking on green grass in temperate climates -- all the earmarks of the annual spring training rite. But in a sense, baseball never left.
The 2024-25 hot stove season -- now mostly, but not completely, over -- was a solid one, with few droughts between important moves and some big-ticket maneuvers along the way. It's not quite as engaging as watching actual games, but it's a pretty good substitute.
All winter, move by move, I've been updating team depth charts, making educated playing-time forecasts and watching it all roll up into a way-too-early projection of the 2025 season.