It’s the baseball offseason, and that means that baseball players that are not employed are signing contracts with new employers, and in some cases, baseball players that are employed are being traded for other baseball players on other baseball teams. Baseball things happening in the baseball offseason. Imagine that. Baseball. But you know that things have been happening, what you really need to know is how to feel about it. Don’t worry. I’m here for you. And if you disagree…well, please comment and we can debate like rational adults over our differences in opinion! On to my opinions.

Victor Martinez signed a four-year, $68 million deal with the Tigers. Victor is great, but he’s also 35 and coming off by far his best offensive season. The Tigers can afford to pay that salary and not care about the future because their owner makes close to all of the money, and they’ll be a disaster in two or three years anyway, but for that contract, I’m ok with the Mariners passing.

Billy Butler signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Oakland Athletics: You may recall that Billy Butler was a part of my offseason plan. I had the Mariners signing him for two years and $16 million. This wasn’t because I was a big fan of Butler, so much as that the Mariners needed a designated hitter who is at least ok, and I had spent their money on more important players. Sorry Billy, you’re a peripheral piece. Butler is just 29-years-old, but is coming off a career-worst .271/.323/.379—a 97 wRC+— with just 9 home runs in 151 games. This was just the second time in Butler’s seven-year career that he failed to reach at least a 100 wRC+. The other time? Butler’s rookie season, which took place in an offensive environment where a .275/.324/.400 slash line was below league average. Billy Butler is also a big fat guy with about as much athleticism as a bean bag chair. He doesn’t have the body type that typically ages well in baseball. With that being said, there are still reasons to believe Butler won’t be a complete disaster going forward. If I thought he was going to be useless, I wouldn’t have advocated signing him, even at the reduced contract I had suggested. Steamer projections are optimistic on Butler, predicting him to hit .277/.347/.426 with 17 home runs in 2015, which is just a slight drop-off from his career numbers. Even though Butler probably won’t age very well, 2015 will be just his age 29 season, so he shouldn’t be done quite yet. To justify what the A’s spent on Butler, he probably needs to be worth about 1.4 WAR per year, if the going rate for 1.0 WAR on the market is about $7 million. I wouldn’t bet on Butler doing that. He’s shown clear signs of decline the past three years. Even if he bounces back towards his career averages, it’s probably unrealistic to expect more than an average or slightly better hitter. At the DH position, that’s just not that valuable. I expect Butler to be a fairly good hitter with Oakland. I also don’t expect him to be worth the money Oakland paid him. Butler would’ve helped the Mariners, but at that cost, Oakland can have him.

Russell Martin signed with the Toronto Blue Jays for five years and $82 million. Interestingly, Anthony Castrovince of MLB’s Hot Stove blog reported that the Mariners were finalists for Martin’s services. This is surprising, not because Russell Martin isn’t really good—he is, having been an above-average hitter the last two seasons—but because the Mariners have Mike Zunino, who is very young, one of the best defensive catchers in the league, and hits pretty-looking dingers. Of course, being a finalist could mean a lot of things. Maybe the Mariners had the second-highest offer, and the Blue Jays’ offer blew theirs out of the water. Maybe it was almost the same contract. Maybe they had the smallest offer of all “serious” suitors. Most likely, we’ll never know. But their interest says to me that the Mariners are approaching this offseason by looking for any sort of talent upgrade they can, then sorting out who plays where later. Would acquiring Martin have spelled the end for Zunino as a Mariner? Maybe. Probably, even. Zunino would be a ridiculously valuable trade chip given his age, potential, and present value. A package of Taijuan Walker and Mike Zunino could return a very good hitter with lots of club control and then some. Perhaps the Mariners thought they could improve the team by two wins or so with Martin behind the dish, and another two or three with whatever the return for Zunino was. We won’t ever know the answer to that question. What I take away from this is that the Mariners are looking at adding very good players, regardless of roster construction. That’s preferable to looking only to fill the roster’s holes with available free agents at those positions. Go get talented players, and figure out where they play later. I like the idea. That said, I’m still very glad we don’t have to talk about where the Mariners should trade Mike Zunino right now.

Outfielder Jason Heyward and reliever Jordan Walden were traded from the Braves to the Cardinals in exchange for starting pitcher Shelby Miller and whatever a Tyrell Jenkins is. The Braves are looking to the future with this move, getting three years of club control on Miller, who is young and has been decent in the past, and six years of former first-round pick Tyrell Jenkins. Jenkins is talented, but hasn’t had very good results in the minor leagues. But you’re not here to read about Shelby Miller, Tyrell Jenkins, or even Jordan Walden, who is a pretty good reliever, actually. So, I promise, starting with the next paragraph, that this bullet will be strictly about Jason Heyward. Jason Heyward! He is a very good player, and a very young player—it’s hard to believe, but next season will be his age-25 season. It’s also Heyward’s final year before free agency, so the Cardinals are essentially renting Heyward. The Cardinals would probably like to extend him, but I would be shocked if he didn’t at least test free agency. Heyward has been seen as a disappointment with the bat, despite hitting .262/.351/.429 over his career. He’s “only” been 17 percent better than league average at the dish according to wRC+. Even if Heyward continues to be that kind of hitter, his defensive value has helped keep his value high, ranging between 3.4 and 6.3 WAR over the past three seasons. Heyward wasn’t supposed to just be a pretty good bat, though. Early in his career, Heyward looked like he could be a 20-25 home run type of hitter with a high average and excellent plate discipline. Heyward as he was in 2014 is worth the package the Cardinals gave up to acquire him. If he finally hits like he was expected to—not out of the question for a guy just entering his athletic prime—this will go from an obviously good deal to robbery for the Cardinals.