It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Holiday spirit is in the air and MLB GM’s are making their moves to try and prepare a championship caliber team for the 2016 season. Some of this year’s biggest free agents made a splash along with a few big trades. And although there are still several months before next season begins, let’s take a look at what’s been a hectic week in Nashville, Tennessee.

The first big move that went down was the signing of second baseman utility man Ben Zobrist, who signed a four-year contract with the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs are now starting to emerge as a favorite to snap their 108-year curse next season with the signing of Zobrist as well as all-star outfielder Jason Heyward.

On top of these two stars, the Cubs still have the rest of their young and talented roster that includes Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo. The Cubs also signed veteran right-hander John Lackey to bolster their rotation, which holds the reigning NL Cy Young award winner in Jake Arrieta and crafty left-hander, Jon Lester.

Now that the Cubs have Zobrist, they no longer needed Starlin Castro, who they decided to ship to the Yankees. The latter team needed to fill a gaping hole at second base since they lost Robinson Cano, and in return acquired Adam Warren, who can work in either the starting rotation or the bullpen. And now that Zobrist has found a home, the Mets scrambled to pick up a second baseman and sent Jon Niese to the Pirates for the switch-hitting Neil Walker.

In addition to some new uniforms, the Arizona Diamondbacks added some new starting pitchers to their rotation during the Winter Meetings. The first came when the arguably biggest free agent this offseason inked a six-year deal with the D-Backs in the name of Zack Greinke. And to give Greinke some support, Arizona then got right-hander Shelby Miller from the Braves but paid a heavy price — Atlanta received the number one overall pick in the 2015 draft in Dansby Swanson as well as top prospect Aaron Blair and the well-hitting outfielder, Ender Inciarte.

Did Arizona give up too much for one talented pitcher? I think so, but it seems as though the Diamondbacks are trying to build a contender now and not wait a few more years. Their top faces now include Paul Goldschmidt, AJ Pollock, Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller. I think they’ll have to acquire some more offensive pieces before I call them legitimate contenders, but they’ve made some good moves to start.

There were certainly some other big deals that went down last week. One of my favorites to win the World Series next year, the San Francisco Giants, landed Jeff Samardzija and will make a great one-two punch with Madison Bumgarner in the rotation. The Astros, who went in looking for some bullpen help, resigned their lefty specialist Tony Sipp and traded for Ken Giles of the Phillies. And, like the Diamondbacks, gave up a former number pick in Mark Appel along with a few other top prospects. On top of Neil Walker, the Mets signed the slick fielding Asdrubal Cabrera to a two-year contract. So it’s starting to look like the Mets have found their middle infield for next year and will not try to resign Daniel Murphy.

Compared to the 2014 Winter Meetings, this year’s was not nearly as busy but still equally interesting. We’ll have to wait and see what the 30 GM’s will do over the next few months and preview the 2016 season.