It was a bummer to see the Oakland A’s lose shortstop Marcus Semien in free agency, especially when he landed elsewhere on only a one-year contract. The A’s reportedly thought about offering a heavily deferred $12.5 million salary, but he ended up getting $18 million from the Toronto Blue Jays.
If Oakland had gone on to do little or nothing with the rest of their winter, spending no money while a contending core begged to be upgraded, then missing out on a surprisingly attainable Semien would have gone from disappointing to unacceptable. But they got busy in February, and effectively did an entire offseason in less than two weeks.