The 2020 hot stove has taken far less time to get warm than last season or the one before. (We’ll spare you a joke about “cooking with gas.”) And the primary beneficiary of all that heat so far? The NL East. Sure, the White Sox made a splash with Yasmani Grandal, and the Reds with Mike Moustakas, but neither of the central divisions can touch the combined flash of the moves over here. How much will these early transactions actually make a difference in the outcome of the division? Let’s run it down, team by team, in the order that they finished last year:
Atlanta Braves
Notable Moves: Signed SP Cole Hamels (1 year, $18 million), C Travis d’Arnaud (2 years, $16 million), RP Will Smith (3 years, $40 million).