Ranked: Top 5 Impactful Moves of the 2024 Season

The 2024 baseball season is nearing a close. After about 10 months of trades, signings and other maneuverings, the cream of the crop has emerged, and the best offseason and in-season moves have become clear.

Baseball insider Jon Heyman of The New York Post has recently put forth his Top 5 impactful moves of the 2024 season:

1. Atlanta Braves acquire Chris Sale in preseason trade for Vaughn Grissom

Wow, could this have gone any better for the Braves? After four essentially lost years due to injuries—some strange and bizarre—Sale has regained his Cy Young candidate form in a big way. His 18-3 mark with a major league-best 2.83 ERA has practically assured him of his first Cy Young award after a string of Top 5 finishes earlier in his career. And what timing for the Braves, who lost another Cy Young candidate for the entire season when Spencer Strider went down in only his 2nd start of the year. Sale rescued their season.

2. LA Dodgers Sign Shohei Ohtani for $700 million

After that insane game on Thursday, in which Shohei created the 50-50 Club with a ridiculous 6-for-6, three HR, 2 SB performance, you could even argue that Ohtani has already earned his $700 Mill. The way he performs on the big stage, is there anyone who can't wait to see what he can do in his first postseason?

3. Chicago Cubs sign Japanese free agent Shota Imanaga for $53M

Imanaga has outperformed even the $325M Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers, writes Heyman, as he's gone 14-3 with a 3.03 ERA for the Cubbies.

4. NY Yankees acquire Juan Soto in preseason trade with San Diego Padres

Certainly, Yankees fans will argue that this move should be higher on this list, as Soto has been dominant. But it wasn't as one-sided as one might think, says Heyman, who notes that the Padres turned around a lot of the assets they acquired from NY and turned it into Dylan Cease, who's performed wonderfully for them as well.

5. KC Royals sign Seth Lugo for $45M

It sounds crazy, but the former longtime reliever for the NY Mets, who insisted he could make it as a starter last year, actually leads the majors in innings-pitched this season, with 197. He's also 16-8 with a 3.05 ERA, and a big reason that the Royals are in a good spot to earn their first postseason berth in nine years.