Baseball Winter Meetings come to Nashville
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Pitcher Shohei Ohtani during a Los Angeles Angels game in 2022. Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Nashville is the center of the baseball universe this week as the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings return to the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.
Why it matters: Top executives from MLB franchises are in Music City to make trades and sign free agents in hopes of making their clubs better.
- It's not hyperbole to say hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of contracts will be negotiated in Nashville this week.
Zoom out: Japanese stars headline this year's free agent class, with the Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani expected to earn the largest player contract in MLB history. Speculation put his predicted contract in the range of $500 million to $600 million guaranteed.
- Pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shotā Imanaga are making the leap from Japan to the MLB and are two of the most highly sought pitchers.
Zoom in: The arrival of the winter meetings also serves as a reminder that Nashville is a pretty great baseball town.
Flashback: The Nashville Sounds were named Minor League Baseball's Organization of the Year last year.
- The team has been thriving since its stadium First Horizon Park opened in the Germantown neighborhood in 2015.
- "Organization of the Year for the Sounds is maybe the thing I'm most proud of in my career," Sounds general manager Adam English tells Axios. "The reason I'm so proud is it truly is a team award." English says it took everyone from ticket takers and parking lot attendants all the way up to co-owner Frank Ward to earn the recognition.
How it works: Minor league teams use the meetings as an opportunity to have big-picture conversations about the state of the sport, English says. These few days are especially vital for major league clubs, who are assembling their rosters.
- "It's an opportunity for all the teams to come to one location, and they're building rosters. They make trades and sign free agents. You're talking about Shohei and all the other big free agents potentially picking teams. It's an exciting time for fans."
What he's saying: English says it's a big deal for the winter meetings to be held here.
- "I think it's great for Nashville. Any time there's a national, all-eyes audience focused on our city, I think it's pretty cool."
The big picture: The arrival of the winter meetings also highlights the push for Nashville to attract an MLB expansion franchise.
State of play: The possibility of MLB expansion is more likely than ever. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred repeatedly said he wanted stadium situations for the Athletics and the Rays settled before pursuing expansion.
- The Athletics received approval from MLB owners last month to relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas, where a new publicly financed stadium will be built.
- The Rays also reached an agreement earlier this year to build a new stadium, seemingly paving the way for expansion talks.
Between the lines: Because Nashville's existing pro teams — the Predators, Titans and Nashville SC — are thriving, the city is routinely mentioned as a desirable location for an expansion franchise.
- Music City Baseball has been working for several years to drum up support for an expansion franchise in Nashville, including attracting celebrities and prominent businesspeople as investors. The group didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
- Nashville finished first in a recent fan poll by sports news website The Athletic for which cities people most want to see get an expansion team.
Yes, but: Political headwinds make public investment in a major league ballpark seem nearly impossible. The city just elected a mayor whose campaign was greatly boosted by his opposition to the Titans' new $2.1 billion stadium.
- On the campaign trail in August, Mayor Freddie O'Connell said he "would be delighted to entertain a conversation with anybody who wants to fully privately fund our next public entertainment facility."