Rickey Henderson, a HOFer even without the steals. Plus 6 key MLB free agents

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Farewell to Rickey Henderson — one of baseball’s truly unique characters, and a singular talent. Plus: It’s first-base musical chairs time in baseball, and the stove has been boiling over for the last week. Let’s try to get to everything that teams have been cooking up. I’m Levi Weaver; Ken Rosenthal is off this week. Welcome to The Windup!

Programming note: This is the only Windup for this week. We’ll be back to our Monday/Thursday schedule next week.

Legends: Remembering Rickey Henderson

Here is a sober secret about journalism: It is common practice for publications to pre-write obituaries for celebrities. Learning this years ago felt borderline-morbid at first — callous, at best. But news is a timely industry. So, as celebrities (or musicians, or athletes) advance in age, the obit is pre-written. We see it coming.

The reason I’m telling you this is because I think it’s fitting that The Athletic did not have a pre-written obituary ready for Rickey Henderson. Sixty-five years old is relatively young, sure. But I think it illustrates his persona: It seemed impossible to consider that Rickey Henderson was mortal.

I have two favorite statistics about Henderson, who was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2009.

The first, of course, has to do with steals. Henderson not only holds the career record, with 1,406, but he’s 468 steals ahead of Lou Brock in second place. If you subtract that same number from Brock’s total of 938, you’re left with 470, which is the career total of Jimmy Rollins. Rollins ranks 46th on the all-time list.
My second favorite is more a hypothetical than a question: If Henderson’s steals were somehow wiped from the record book, would he still be a Hall of Famer? Once you dig in, it’s a slam-dunk “Yes.”

At just 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, he had 297 career home runs — 293 of those came from the leadoff spot in the order (a record). Eighty-one came as his team’s first hitter in the game (George Springer is second, with 60). His 2,295 runs scored are also a record (50 more than Ty Cobb). While many “leadoff” hitters have surpassed 3,000 hits, Henderson is the only player ever to surpass 3,000 hits if you only count the at-bats he took from the leadoff spot in the order.

But it does him a disservice to limit this to only his numbers. Henderson’s personality and entertainment value were bigger than life — often veering into legend. As Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe once put it: “Rickey doesn’t just march to the tune of a different drummer. Rickey marches to the tune of an entirely separate orchestra.”

Our team of writers did get that obituary written on Saturday. And then the tributes began pouring in.

And of course, Melissa Lockard noted the bitter irony that Henderson’s passing comes just months after the A’s played their final game in Oakland. Henderson — a graduate of Oakland Technical HS — played four different stints with his hometown team.

Market Watch: First-base musical chairs: commence!

When people talk about “watching the market develop,” this is one example. A lot of first basemen moved teams last week! Here are the big ones:

The Houston Astros signed reigning three-time NL Gold Glover winner Christian Walker (formerly of the Diamondbacks) for three years and $60 million. That’s a pretty clear sign that Isaac Paredes (acquired in the Kyle Tucker deal with the Cubs) will play third base, and Alex Bregman won’t be returning.

With Walker off the board, the D-Backs pivoted to the trade market, landing Josh Naylor from the Guardians in exchange for RHP Slade Cecconi and a Compensation Round B draft pick.

If you’re keeping track, the Guardians joined the Yankees among the teams needing first-base help. Both went with the veteran option. New York signed 37-year-old first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, formerly of the Cardinals and Diamondbacks, and the Guardians brought back 38-year-old Carlos Santana for his third tour of duty in Cleveland — he played in Minnesota last year.

We’re not done! The Texas Rangers also made a move, trading Nathaniel Lowe to the Washington Nationals for lefty reliever Robert Garcia; likely making new acquisition Jake Burger the Opening Day starter in Arlington.

More free-agent signings and trades

It wasn’t just the first basemen. Since our last newsletter, there has been a lot of player movement around the league. Here are the biggest signings and trades of the last week:

The Yankees’ acquisition of Goldschmidt came on the heels of acquiring OF Cody Bellinger from the Cubs. They also sent catcher Jose Trevino to the Reds in a trade.

The Phillies also had a week. They went and signed OF Max Kepler, who had spent his first 10 seasons with the Minnesota Twins. Then they pulled off a trade with the Marlins, bringing in LHP Jesús Luzardo to round out a formidable rotation.

In Baltimore, the Orioles addressed their need for starting pitching by signing Tomoyuki Sugano, the 35-year-old RHP who won his third Central League MVP award last season in Japan, going 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA for the Yomiuri Giants. Sugano’s deal is for one year and $13 million.

The Red Sox signed a starter too, albeit one who won’t be ready for Opening Day. Former Angels LHP Patrick Sandoval joined Boston on a two-year deal worth $18.5 million. Another former Angel — Griffin Canning — has joined the Mets on a one-year deal.

Who’s Left? Deals still left undone …

For a few days last week, the Astros seemed close to acquiring a third baseman (which would have shifted Paredes to first base). Alas, there was one final hurdle they couldn’t quite clear: Nolan Arenado’s no-trade clause.

Katie Woo did a great job reporting this story, including these two details:

Arenado “remains open to exploring the idea.” Well, he can probably stop his due diligence after the Walker signing, which would appear to solidify Houston’s infield plans for 2025.
“According to multiple team sources, Arenado did not want to rush into a decision and preferred to wait until more of the third-base market was established.” In short, this means we shouldn’t expect to see Arenado traded until after Bregman signs — and one potential suitor (Houston) appears to be off the table now.

Here are a few more storylines we’re waiting on to be resolved:

Weeks after reports that Teoscar Hernández was close to returning to the Dodgers, it appears they’re now exploring other options.
For all the first-base action, Pete Alonso — he of 226 home runs and two Home Run Derby wins in six years with the Mets — still hasn’t signed. He’s the last first baseman on our top 40 Big Board of free agents.
It looks like Michael Lorenzen may return to his former glory as a two-way player. Ken has all the details here.
While he might not move this offseason, the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. situation in Toronto is far from settled.

Speaking of the Big Board … more than a few of the bigger names are still available. In fact, six of the top 10 free agents are still unsigned:

2. RHP Corbin Burnes
3. RHP Roki Sasaki
7. 3B Alex Bregman
8. 1B Pete Alonso
9. RF Anthony Santander
10. RHP Jack Flaherty

Why? It might be that the prices have gone up. Eno Sarris has an interesting column on why this year’s free-agent class has been exceeding contract projections.