Dodgers create fear by acquiring Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow, Yankees partner Aaron Judge with Juan Soto and Red Sox come up empty: MLB’s offseason WINNERS and LOSER

Only one team can win the trophy that really matters seven and a half months from now in the World Series.

But ever since Josh Sborz struck out Ketel Marte to seal a first championship for the Texas Rangers on Nov. 1, there has been another prize at stake — winning the offseason.

There were colossal contracts, blockbuster deals and eight new managers in the winter of 2023-24, but now it’s spring and the season is set to get underway.

Here, Mail Sport takes a look at the five biggest winners and losers…

WINNERS

1) Los Angeles Dodgers

What do you get the team that has everything? How about a unicorn? And the record-setting, mystifying pitcher that everyone wanted? And a 6-foot-8 flamethrower? And a 25-home run bat? And a couple of shutdown relievers? Oh and the franchise icon thrown in, but only when he’s ready.

The Dodgers won this winter, as they would have done almost any of the last 50, with their gluttonous $1.2 billion of acquisitions, headlined by Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Any team would have been transformed by both.

The Dodgers — thanks to Ohtani’s selfless layups — got both. Add in Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernandez, Ryan Brasier, Joe Kelly and eventually Clayton Kershaw and we need a phrase a few levels above ‘championship or bust’.

But not everything is perfect in Dodgertown. Ohtani’s longtime friend and interpreter was fired by the team this week following a suspicious wire transfer from the player’s bank account to an illegal gambling operation that is reportedly under criminal investigation.

And while his spokespeople deny that Ohtani had any involvement, there was more bad news for his compatriot, Yamamoto, who surrendered five runs in just one inning of work in his Dodger debut Thursday in Seoul.

2) San Francisco Giants

The Blake Snell deal completes a full set on the Giants’ offseason wish list.

They have an ace (Snell), power (Jorge Soler), defense (Matt Chapman), speed and contact (Jung-Hoo Lee), rotation depth (Jordan Hicks, Ross Stripling and Robbie Ray when he recovers from injury) and a wise old hand to tie it all together (new manager Bob Melvin).

Each individual move won’t be enough to slay the Dodger dragon, but this is now a team ready for the playoffs.

3) Baltimore Orioles

Remember when we were all worried about the Orioles? How they had blown their chance to build on a glorious young core, and it was classically thrifty Baltimore scraping by, and how they would never win anything again?

Well, that’s all a distant memory now, fading into a Corbin Burnes-shaped shadow as they finally gave their rotation an ace.

Burnes, the 2021 Cy Young Award winner with Milwaukee, is pitching to impress not only his new team, but all 29 others, and his contract expires this winter.

Joining the group of young stars — led by Adley Rutschman, Grayson Rodriguez and last year’s rookie of the year Gunnar Henderson — are former No. 1 overall pick Jackson Holliday and outfielder Colton Cowser, whose bat has been making noise in Spring Training.

4) Chicago Cubs

Yes, they could have done more. Shota Imanaga, Hector Neris and Michael Busch were all promising additions that, should everything pan out, the Cubs will likely have them as favorites to win the NL Central.

Cody Bellinger could win another MVP. But the key is new manager Craig Counsell, and so the Cubs pushed David Ross out, went to their division rivals in Wisconsin and paid the best leader in the game twice as much as any of his peers.

The Cubs missed the postseason by one game last year. Counsell’s addition alone should put them over the top.

5) New York Yankees

Aaron Judge is the most intimidating hitter in the American League, and parking an on-base machine in front of him in Juan Soto will make the nightmare even scarier. Keep these two in the lineup and New York will pile up runs and wins, with Soto’s discipline driving pitchers crazy and the umpire’s power driving him in.

But they have to keep them on the field, and the umpire’s frailty, along with a two-month absence for reigning Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole, is why the Yankees aren’t higher on this list.

LOSER

1) Milwaukee Brewers

Life in MLB’s smallest media market just got significantly tougher as bigger fish came to swim in the Brewers’ waters.

Counsell was snapped up by the Cubs, while Burnes’ talent was always going to put a contract extension out of Milwaukee’s reach — so he went to Baltimore. Now, closer Devin Williams is out for three months, and that could be the last straw to trigger a full teardown — the Dodgers’ connections to Willy Adames won’t go away.

It’s still only a winnable division, and top prospect Jackson Chourio has a skill set every fan can dream of, but it looks like a step back when they should be taking a leap forward.

2) Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox top brass make it very easy to forget that they are the most successful team of the 21st century, including ending an 86-year title drought.

Ever since their fourth championship in 2018, it’s been one long string of disappointments and body blows to their fanbase, summed up by another winter of doing very little.

Lucas Giolito was the biggest arrival on a two-year, $38.5 million deal, and then he blew out his elbow — and won’t opt ​​out for half of his contract. In the toughest division in baseball, the Red Sox have once again let an offseason slip by.

3) Los Angeles Angels

The only light at the end of the tunnel for the Halos is if the universe-altering revelation comes that Ohtani was actually a bad player to have on your team. Seems unlikely though, doesn’t it?

And the Angels are especially unlikely to end their decade-long postseason drought by replacing their two-way star with the small group of veterans that make up their offseason spending.

Snell was linked, Dylan Cease was linked, Chapman was linked, and even a reunion with Ohtani was linked. But none came to fruition, and Mike Trout is now pretty much a one-man band.

4) Colorado Rockies

The Dodgers spent $1.2 billion, the Giants $400 million, the Padres ended up softening the blow by losing Soto, and even the Diamondbacks added a few names as reigning National League champions.

The Rockies, very much the ‘other’ team in the NL West, are coming off a franchise-worst 59-103 record last season, and still decided to keep things the way they are.

It is very difficult to see a way back, even to respectability.

5) Chicago White Sox

It really wasn’t that long ago that the White Sox were an exciting, young talent pool. Even last year they were favorites among many to win the AL Central.

But then they finished with their worst record in 53 years, and the bottom has now fallen off the list entirely.

With Cease now in San Diego, there is Luis Robert Jnr and not much else. In their division, it really wouldn’t have taken much to build around Robert in the final four seasons left on his contract, but instead this will be another long, painful battle on the South Side.