The Red Sox have won the bidding process of Daisuke Matsuzaka with a $51.1M bid. Was it worth it? Well, that will depend on how much his contract is worth and how well he pitches. I fully expect him to pitch well, but it will have to be one heck of a deal to make the bid worth it. If he gets a five-year deal, the team is basically out an extra $10M a year. That is hard to justify. With the Red Sox being who they are, I'm sure they've done their homework, but the groundwork for skepticism has been laid.

Aramis Ramirez has opted out of his deal and re-signed with the Cubs. It's amazing how much differently Ned Coletti reacted to J.D. Drew basically doing the same thing with his opt-out. By the way, that was an easy decision for Boras and Drew. He is instantly one of the best free agent outfielders, if not the best. In this offseason, he'll make much more than the $33M he would have received over the next three years.

I like the Gary Sheffield trade for the Yankees. By picking up his option, they essentially acquired Humberto Sanchez, Kevin Whelan, and Anthony Claggett for free. As for the Tigers, I'm not sure I'd sign Sheffield to that contract if he was a free agent, not to mention throwing in a couple of very good prospects (Sanchez and Whelan). Sanchez put up very good numbers at AA and AAA (123 IP, 129 K, 47 BB, 4 HR, 2.63 ERA) at age 23. Whelan was on PECOTA's radar last offseason (3.42 ERA MLB projection) and had good numbers (not great due to a high walk rate) at Hi-A Lakeland (54 IP, 69 K, 29 BB, 1 HR, 2.67 ERA) at age 22. Claggett did well at Lo-A (59.1 IP, 58 K, 20 BB, 0 HR, 0.91 ERA) at age 22. If Whelan and Claggett can keep pitching well at the higher levels, this trade could work out exceptionally well for the Yanks. Ignoring the cost of acquiring Sheffield, he is a perfect fit for the Tigers offense. He always posts good OBP numbers. I'm just worried about his age, his wrist, the money....

As for the Indians/Padres swap, I'm not sure I like the trade much for either team. The Indians acquired a 23-year old 2B in Josh Barfield, but what's wrong with trying out Hector Luna at 2B (his numbers were comparable to Ron Belliard's at the time of their trade) while waiting on Asdrubal Cabrera to force Peralta over to second? I'm sure they could've found room for Kevin Kouzmanoff in the lineup while finding a spot for Andrew Brown in the bullpen. The Padres traded their 2B for a 3B, so instead of finding someone to fill their 3B hole, they need to find someone to fill their 2B hole. What's the point?

Good move by the Cubs to get Kerry Wood on an incentive-laden deal. I thought some organization would be ignorant enough to throw a lot of guaranteed money his way. It's probably a good thing no one got the chance.

I also like the Jaret Wright trade. Wright reunites with Leo Mazzone. The Orioles don't have to pay full value on the contract. The Yankees get rid of one of the 2004 offseason's bad contracts, and get a quality reliever in the process. Chris Britton split time between AAA and MLB, putting up good numbers in both places (AAA: 16 IP, 24 K, 6 BB, 0 HR, 2.41 ERA; MLB: 53.2 IP, 41 K, 17 BB, 4 HR, 3.35 ERA).

For another perspective, be sure to check out Christina Kharl's Transaction Analysis.