Every Major League Baseball team heads into each offseason with specific goals in mind and some sort of general idea of what they're planning to do, and of course, each team's goals and plans are different. Team A could be looking to trade its proven vets and rebuild, while Team B could be going the exact opposite direction. Either way, all teams will be looking to avoid a wasted winter, one in which their objectives weren't met.
Obviously the winter isn't over yet, but there are definitely some MLB teams that haven't met their objectives.
The flip of the calendar to 2016 signals the start of the hot stove league's pennant race, as spring training opens just a month and a half later (on Feb. 18). Back in my school days -- which really wasn't that long ago, as I'm not even 40 -- when a student got well into a grading period, if he or she wasn't performing well, the teacher would send home an interim report to be signed by a very annoyed parent. As someone who tended to be "homeworkally challenged," that happened to me a few times. No team has flunked the offseason yet, but let's just say a handful of teams should be grounded on the weekends until they get their grades up. Here are those teams:
Cincinnati Reds
The Reds won 97 games in 2012 and 90 in 2013, but after the latter season, they found themselves at a crossroads: They needed to either start a rebuilding/retooling phase or invest enough in the team to make them better for 2014. Instead, they did next to nothing -- their big moves were signing Manny Parra and Skip Schumaker -- and after 2014, the Reds somehow did even less, spending a total of $1 million in major league free agency. The Reds put off hard decisions for years, and even though they finally have made the decision to rebuild, they're still facing the consequences of their procrastination.