There has been a lot of talk this off-season about windows. Such and such a team is trying to keep their window for contention open for another year while this team over here is not quite ready to compete. The idea of a window is any given team — the players which makes up their core — has a finite period of time which they can expect to contend for the playoffs and beyond.
The Seattle Mariners window to compete is not now.In fact it is still in the glass shop.
— DodgerSims (@DodgerSims) December 19, 2012
This concept is a decidedly middle-class problem. The Yankees window has been open since 1995. The Pirates live in a dark, windowless room into which no light or joy or hope may enter. The Royals pulled the trigger on significant trade, confounding pundits who believed their window to not yet be open. The Blue Jays overhauled their roster, emptying their farm system to move up their timeline for competitiveness from “never” to “now.”
Cleveland made a significant trade a few weeks back, trading their best player to Cincinnati as well as key members of their bullpen in a three-way deal which netted the Tribe center fielder Drew Stubbs, top prospect Trevor Bauer and some bullpen detritus.
A great trade for one year of Choo but Cleveland will surely be worse in 2013 than they were in 2012. Is now the time to load up for with a big free agent buy? Cleveland sure thinks so, going all out in pursuit of hometown boy Nick Swisher.
