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MLBTR Podcast: The Nats Extend Jacob Young, Drew Rasmussen’s Future, The Angels’ GM Limbo, And More!

Darragh McDonald — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 14:38:31 +0000

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

The Nationals signing an extension with Jacob Young (2:40)
The Rays hinting that they could keep Drew Rasmussen (7:15)
The Angels being stuck with no front office leader in place while they wait for the franchise sale to be approved (14:15)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

If a salary cap is implemented, what happens to the teams that already have big contracts on the books into the long term? (27:25)
What are the priorities for the Brewers this winter and can they extend William Contreras? (35:00)
How will the Mets construct their pitching staff for the upcoming season? (41:30)
Is it possible the Cardinals trade Andre Pallante? (48:25)
What is the ideal landing spot for Jasson Domínguez of the Yankees? (51:40)

Check out our past episodes!

Offseason Preview – listen here
Angels’ Leadership In Flux, The Yankees Keep Boone And Cashman, And The Giants And Cardinals Offseasons – listen here
Brewers vs. Rays, Dodgers and Guardians Post-Mortem, And The A’s New Front Office Boss – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Tom Horak, Imagn Images

The Opener: Venable, Murphy, Pagan

Charlie Wright — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 14:17:41 +0000

And we’re off! The Emilio Pagan signing didn’t dominate headlines, but it’s the first somewhat significant move of the offseason. More on Detroit’s new closer below.

1. Venable named AL Manager of the Year

White Sox skipper Will Venable took home the top managerial honor last night. He beat out Kevin Cash of the Rays and Chad Tracy of the Red Sox. Venable engineered an impressive turnaround in Chicago. The White Sox had lost 100+ games for three straight years, including in Venable’s debut campaign. The club went 84-78 this season and snagged an AL Wild Card berth. Chicago breezed by the Astros in the Wild Card round, but came up just short in the ALDS against the Guardians.

2. Murphy wins NL Manager of the Year (again)

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Brewers skipper Pat Murphy won NL Manager of the Year for the third consecutive season. He topped Don Mattingly of the Phillies and Walt Weiss of the Braves this year. Murphy has won the NL Central in each year at the helm in Milwaukee. His club boasted the best record in the league in 2026. The Brewers piled up 103 wins in the regular season, then cruised through the playoffs. They won the franchise’s first World Series by taking four of five games from the Rays.

3. Pagan to the Tigers

Detroit had a vacancy to fill in the bullpen with Kenley Jansen heading to free agency. The club settled on Pagan to be their new closer. The veteran righty had a resurgent 2025 in Cincinnati, saving a career-best 32 games. He was effective again this past season, but missed nearly two months with a severe hamstring injury. Pagan declined his $10MM player option with the Reds to enter free agency. He grabbed an extra $1M in his deal with the Tigers.

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

Tigers To Sign Emilio Pagán

Anthony Franco — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 05:17:46 +0000

The Tigers are in agreement with free agent reliever Emilio Pagán, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s reportedly a one-year deal in the $11MM range for the Ballengee Group client. Detroit has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once the signing is official.

It’s this year’s first significant move on the free agent market. Pagán’s market moved quickly, as he finds a new landing spot within two weeks of declining a $10MM player option with Cincinnati. Pagán banks an extra million dollars and presumably will enter the season as A.J. Hinch’s primary closer.

The agreement comes together within hours of Detroit president of baseball operations Scott Harris telling reporters he was seeking a right-handed leverage reliever who could improve the team’s strikeout ability (links via Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic and Jason Beck of MLB.com). Pagán fanned 25.9% of opponents this year and has a 28% strikeout rate for his career, which will make him one of the team’s better swing-and-miss arms.

Detroit’s bullpen was 19th in strikeout rate and 21st in whiffs this past season. They were near the bottom of the league in that regard in 2025 as well. It caught up to them this year, as the Tigers led the American League with 31 blown saves despite finishing middle of the pack in earned run average. Their high-leverage arms too frequently stumbled.

Kenley Jansen had some early struggles in the closer’s role and was bought out at season’s end. Will Vest and Kyle Finnegan had very poor seasons and both finished the year on the injured list. Vest underwent surgeries on a stress reaction in his elbow and on his hip. (Harris provided an update today, saying that Vest is throwing and expected to be ready for the start of next season.) Finnegan missed the final couple weeks with a left groin strain.

Vest is eligible for arbitration once more. He’ll probably be back, as it seems likely the Tigers will tender him a contract (projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz around $4.4MM) so long as he’s on track for the start of the season. Finnegan is signed for $10.25MM, including an option buyout, so the Tigers would have a tough time moving on from him unless there’s another underwater contract swap.

Pagán will join his seventh big league club for his age-36 season. He has spent the past three seasons in Cincinnati, operating as Terry Francona’s closer over the last two years. Pagán recorded 32 saves a year ago and went 25-28 in save opportunities this past season. There’s a good chance he’d have gotten to 30+ if not for a Grade 2 left hamstring strain that cost him seven weeks between early May and the end of June.

That injury initially looked even more serious, as Pagán went down in obvious pain at the end of his delivery and had to be carted off the Wrigley Field mound. He admitted he expected it to end his season. Pagán had struggled early and carried a 6.43 ERA over his first 14 innings, so it would’ve essentially been a lost season had that been the case.

Pagán instead made a quicker than expected recovery and was lights out down the stretch. He fired 28 2/3 innings of 1.88 ERA ball upon returning, striking out 30.5% of opponents against a 4.5% walk rate. Pagán allowed five runs in the second half, all of which came on homers (three solo shots and one two-run blast). He held opposing hitters to a .189 batting average and .230 on-base mark in that span.

That’s essentially a microcosm of Pagán’s entire career. He has been a generally effective reliever with an excellent strikeout and walk profile who doesn’t have drastic platoon concerns. He’s also one of the more homer-prone leverage arms in the game, allowing an average of 1.51 longballs per nine innings for his career. Pagán’s typical season isn’t too dissimilar from what Jansen managed in 2026, though he should do a better job at keeping the walks in check. Detroit’s Fifth Third Park also has a spacious outfield that could mitigate some of the concerns with Pagán’s fly-ball approach.

MLBTR predicted Pagán would receive a two-year, $20MM contract. The market didn’t deliver the second year, though he does come out slightly ahead of the option value. The Tigers entered the day with a projected $149.18MM cash payroll and $178.54MM luxury tax number, including arbitration estimates (via the MLBTR Payroll Tracker and contributor Ethan Hullihen). Those numbers will climb to roughy $160MM and $190MM, respectively. Detroit could still look for another back-end arm and figures to monitor the rotation and infield markets

Image courtesy of Imagn Images.

Phillies, Brian Navarreto Agree To Minor League Deal

Anthony Franco — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 04:48:46 +0000

The Phillies are in agreement with catcher Brian Navarreto on a minor league contract with an invite to big league camp, reports Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News. He’d elected free agency after being waived by the Marlins at the end of the season.

Navarreto, who’ll turn 32 next month, has been a part of four organizations over a 13-year minor league career. He’s only appeared at the MLB level with Miami. Navarreto made a brief debut back in 2020 and has logged a bit of time as a backup catcher over the past two seasons. He established new career highs with 32 games and 61 plate appearances this year, holding an MLB roster spot for the final three months of the season.

The Puerto Rico native hit .135/.193/.250 with one home run in limited playing time. His primary value was in his clubhouse work alongside rookie Joe Mack and second-year player Agustín Ramírez. Navarreto has a modest .232/.300/.366 slash line in nearly 1000 Triple-A plate appearances across six seasons. He’s not bringing a huge offensive ceiling but does have a solid defensive reputation and a good arm. Navarreto cut down eight of 23 basestealers (34.8%) this year.

Philadelphia had one of the least productive catching groups in the majors. They’re trying to scale back on J.T. Realmuto’s playing time, which probably necessitates a better backup option. Philly already moved on from Garrett Stubbs. They’re still rostering Rafael Marchán, but he’s out of options and would need to get through waivers if they want to send him to Triple-A. If the Phillies sign or trade for a backup upgrade, that’d probably push Marchán off the 40-man roster and potentially out of the organization. Navarreto has more roster flexibility with a full slate of minor league options and is likely to open the season in Triple-A.

Padres, Ryan Weiss Agree To Major League Deal

Anthony Franco — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 03:37:56 +0000

The Padres are in agreement with free agent righty Ryan Weiss on a one-year contract with a club option for 2028, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Weiss reached free agency when the Astros declined a $5MM club option in favor of a $500K buyout.

More to come.

Padres Sign Ryan Weiss

Anthony Franco — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 03:37:56 +0000

The Padres announced the signing of free agent righty Ryan Weiss to a one-year contract with a club option. Weiss, who is represented by Sports One Athlete Management, reached free agency when the Astros declined a $5MM club option in favor of a $500K buyout.

Weiss is a depth add for a club that needs to rebuild its entire rotation. The Padres had eight vacancies on their 40-man roster and could afford to dedicate one this early in the offseason. He’s hardly a lock to break camp next year, as he still has a minor league option and can bounce between San Diego and Triple-A El Paso.

The 29-year-old Weiss is a former Diamondbacks draftee who spent time in the Arizona and Kansas City farm systems. He topped out at Triple-A with those clubs and made the move to Asia, spending the 2024-25 seasons with the Fubon Guardians in Taiwan and the Hanwha Eagles in Korea. Weiss pitched to a 3.16 ERA across 46 starts in the KBO to earn a $2.6MM contract from the Astros last offseason.

That positioned the Wright State product to make his big league debut. Weiss struggled in his first look against MLB hitters, pitching to a near-8.00 ERA across 26 innings. He struck out a league average 23% of opponents but walked more than 15% of batters faced. Houston demoted him to Triple-A in early May and dropped him from their 40-man roster a month later. He cleared waivers and spent the rest of the season in the minors.

Weiss worked in a swing role in the minors, starting 13 of 22 appearances. He pitched 76 1/3 innings of 5.42 ERA ball, posting a 20.7% strikeout rate while walking 11% of opponents. Weiss mixed five pitches, sitting around 95 mph with his four-seam fastball and at 93 mph with his sinker. He also threw a slider, changeup and very sporadically mixed in a curveball.

It’s a similar move to the Padres’ signings of Kyle Hart, Griffin Canning, Germán Márquez and Lucas Giolito in recent years. Weiss can work multiple innings and compete for a rotation spot in Spring Training. He’s better served as a long reliever who slots no higher than seventh or eighth on a rotation depth chart. There’ll be plenty of bigger moves, but they’ll leverage their roster flexibility to make an early depth pickup. Weiss reportedly had renewed KBO interest, so a big league deal might’ve been the only way to keep him in affiliated ball.

San Diego is involved at the top of the rotation market all the way up to Tarik Skubal. They’ll be linked to most or all of the second and third tier free agent starters as well. They need to overhaul essentially their entire rotation. Michael King opted out, while the team declined what amounted to a two-year, $32MM option on Nick Pivetta. They’ll keep in touch with both players, but deadline acquisitions Casey Mize and Robbie Ray are likely to sign elsewhere. Walker Buehler also hit the market after ranking second on the team behind King with 153 2/3 innings this year.

Randy Vásquez is San Diego’s only returning pitcher who started more than six games. It’s unclear what they can expect from Joe Musgrove or whether Yu Darvish will continue his MLB career. There’s a chance that not a single member of the team’s season-opening rotation is yet on the roster, even after the Weiss signing.

Jesse Rogers of ESPN first reported the agreement, club option, and KBO interest. Image courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images.

Nationals Receiving Trade Interest In Dylan Crews

Anthony Franco — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 02:55:52 +0000

The Nationals are fielding interest from other clubs on former #2 overall pick Dylan Crews, reports Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic. Washington has also gotten calls on left fielder Daylen Lile, Nusbaum writes, though he suggests the asking price on Lile is high enough that Crews is the more likely of the duo to move.

Other clubs would view Crews as a change of scenery target at this point. The 24-year-old outfielder has yet to find any kind of sustained success in nearly 900 plate appearances against MLB pitching. Crews struggled enough last season and during Spring Training that the Nationals optioned him back to Triple-A out of camp. He remained in the minors until mid-May. The Nats used him as their primary right fielder with some work at the other two outfield spots after recalling him.

Crews played capable defense but remained a below-average hitter. He ran a .223/.289/.374 slash line with 13 homers across 443 plate appearances. Crews’ batted ball data were a little more encouraging, as he showed plus bat speed and made hard contact at an above-average rate. He also succeeded in elevating the ball a little more often than he had early in his MLB career, which the front office cited as a focus when they sent him back to the minors.

The righty-hitting Crews hasn’t much progress in the team’s other stated goal — developing a more selective approach. He swung at a career-high 51.7% of pitches and chased nearly a third of the time he saw something outside the strike zone. Crews struck out at a 24% clip against a subpar 6.8% walk rate.

Crews did perform well with the platoon advantage, batting .264/.331/.465 with six homers in 142 plate appearances against lefties. The flip side, of course, is that he struggled mightily when facing a right-handed pitcher. He had a .600 OPS against righties this year and is a career .207/.278/.344 hitter without the platoon edge.

The Nationals presumably don’t want to commit to Crews as a short side platoon bat this early in his career. They obviously had far higher hopes than that given his draft and prospect pedigree. Crews was drafted by the previous Mike Rizzo-led group, so the current front office might not have as much attachment to him as a developmental project. Washington also seems unlikely to give him everyday run in center field after signing defensive stalwart Jacob Young to a $23MM extension last week. They can continue to give Crews reps in right field, but the offensive bar is higher there than it would be for a team playing him up the middle.

If the Nats were to trade Crews, they’d probably look to backfill the outfield depth. They’ll want to continue mixing in James Wood at designated hitter in addition to his right field work. Andrew Pinckney is the only depth outfielder on the 40-man roster. He’s coming off a league average batting line (.270/.347/.437) as a 25-year-old in Triple-A, where he struck out at a 31% clip. The Nationals seem unlikely to move Crews strictly for prospects, so the main possibility would be to flip him for an unproven or upper minors starting pitcher while looking elsewhere for a corner outfielder.

Nusbaum unsurprisingly writes that the Nationals have no interest in trading Wood, who’s coming off a second straight 30-homer season and under club control for another four years. They should have a high bar on Lile, who’s five years from free agency. Lile hit very well as a rookie in 2025 while struggling defensively. He played much better defense this past season but had an up-and-down year at the plate. Lile finished this year with a .246/.296/.429 slash line with 22 homers but showed a higher offensive gear with his .299/.347/.498 debut campaign.

Mets Focused On First Base, Pitching Upgrades

Steve Adams — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 02:46:24 +0000

There are myriad holes for the Mets to try to fill this winter, but president of baseball operations David Stearns suggested Tuesday at the GM Meetings that second base isn’t one of them (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com and Chelsea Janes of SNY). Stearns noted that with Marcus Semien, Brett Baty and several prospects on the cusp of MLB readiness, they’re confident in their second base group. First base and the pitching staff are the primary areas of focus at this time.

Semien and Baty are both coming off poor seasons. The former batted just .215/.280/.340 and saw his typically elite defensive grades plummet to below average in his age-35 season. He’s being paid $25MM per season through 2028, however, leaving the Mets little choice but to hope for a rebound. Baty, a former top prospect at third base, had a breakout 2025 showing while splitting time between multiple positions. His 2026 follow-up, however, saw him slash only .238/.311/.374.

While neither player’s season-long numbers look like much, Baty did pull himself up with a big second half. Over his final 190 plate appearances — from July 1 onward — he hit .279/.337/.488. It’s a small sample that came with plenty of platooning, but that finish, coupled with his quality showing in ’25, likely gives the Mets some confidence that he can play a prominent role in 2027.

New York also has young Jefferson Rojas, the headline prospect from the trade that sent Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor to the Cubs, nearing his big league debut. He’s widely considered a top-100 prospect and just turned in a .274/.338/.505 performance in 554 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A — all during his age-21 season. The Mets’ 2025 first-rounder, Mitch Voit, topped out at Double-A this season but had a nice showing in his own age-21 season. Émilien Pitre, acquired from the Rays in the Freddy Peralta swap, clobbered High-A and Double-A pitchers during his age-23 season this year but slowed down a bit in a small 20-game sample at Triple-A. All three can play second base, however, so it’s understandable if the Mets don’t feel compelled to pursue a veteran such as Brandon Lowe, Luis Arraez or Jazz Chisholm Jr. in free agency.

First base is another story. Last year’s outside-the-box signing of Jorge Polanco — done with an eye toward him playing a lot of first base — was an abject flop. Polanco barely saw the field due to injury and wasn’t effective when he was out there. Thirty-one-year-old Jared Young, picked up in Dec. 2024 after a nice run in the Korea Baseball Organization, saw a career-high 342 big league plate appearances this past season and hit .266/.330/.429.

That’s middle-of-the-road production, buoyed by plenty of platooning, but the Mets are confident he can be a part of the solution. Janes notes that Stearns didn’t rule out bringing in a left-handed bat to play first base on the regular but specifically mentioned Young as a potential option. A right-handed platoon pairing could make some sense, but that’s not an easy sell for a lot of free agents.

Ty France is obviously going to look for an everyday role after a big 2026 season. Rebound candidates like Alec Bohm and Ryan Mountcastle presumably prefer to sign somewhere with more playing time than a short-side timeshare at first base. The trade market could have some options. Speculatively speaking, names like Jake Burger or Royce Lewis could fit the bill, but it’s a bit surprising if the Mets are indeed content to roll with Young and a platoon partner as the preferred setup out of the gate. One name not in the mix is Juan Soto. Stearns specifically told reporters today that Soto is focused on left field.

On the pitching side of things, it’s already known that Tarik Skubal is a target. The Mets have a meeting set up with him next week. They’ll presumably be in on a variety of impact rotation and bullpen upgrades while also looking for fits to potential deal Kodai Senga elsewhere.

Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic reported this morning that multiple clubs have asked about Senga. That’s presumably in a buy-low capacity, of course. Senga’s 2025 season featured a dominant start followed by a catastrophic slump that resulted in him being optioned to Triple-A and spending the rest of the year in the minors. He looked sharp in his first two starts of the ’26 campaign before again falling into a calamitous run of poor results — an 11.48 ERA over his next 26 2/3 innings.

Senga did finish with intriguing results as a reliever. Over his final 16 2/3 innings, he notched a 3.78 ERA with a 22-to-9 K/BB ratio, sitting just under 97 mph with his heater along the way. If the Mets are willing to pay down the majority of his contract, he could command interest as a low-cost bullpen flier for a budget-strapped team. Senga has a partial no-trade clause, but it’s possible he’d welcome a change of scenery.

For now, Stearns told Mike Puma of the New York Post and others that the plan is for Senga to build back up as a starting pitcher whenever camp begins. That’s natural, as it’s far easier to build up as a starter and “ramp down” into a relief role than vice versa. Time will tell whether the Mets can find a taker and salvage some of the remaining money he’s owed, but it’s notable that Senga has at least piqued the interest of some other clubs as a rebound candidate.

Mariners Interested In Seiya Suzuki, Not Likely To Re-Sign Randy Arozarena Or J.P. Crawford

Steve Adams — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 02:15:49 +0000

The Mariners appear to be in the process of shuffling up their offense this winter. They’ve already informed longstanding shortstop and clubhouse leader J.P. Crawford that they’re planning to move on, reports Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. Jude and colleague Ryan Divish further report that the M’s won’t pursue a long-term deal with Randy Arozarena but do have interest in fellow free-agent corner outfielder Seiya Suzuki. As is the case with Arozarena, Suzuki received a $23.15MM qualifying offer that he is expected to reject.

Starting with the outfielders, the disparity in interest might seem odd at first glance. Suzuki and Arozarena are both 32-year-old corner outfielders with plus power. They’re coming off similar seasons, and there’s expected to be a good bit of overlap in their markets.

However, while the two have similar track records and platform seasons, there are some underlying metrics that might cause a team to lean toward Suzuki. There’s no clear indication of the Mariners’ reasoning, but Suzuki is coming off the better defensive season and has the sort of plus arm that’s generally needed for a right fielder. Arozarena is more confined to left field; his arm strength on throws from the outfield ranked in just the 32nd percentile of big league outfielders, with an average velocity of 82.1 mph. Suzuki’s sat in the 85th percentile, with an average velocity of 89.9 mph.

For the Mariners, that could prove key. Divish writes in a separate piece that the M’s are looking at the possibility of playing top infield prospect Michael Arroyo in left field next year. Since Arozarena isn’t an option in right field, that’d relegate him to DH work. Suzuki, meanwhile, could share time with Dominic Canzone between right field and designated hitter.

Offensively, there are gaps to consider as well. Arozarena has the better average exit velocity and hard-hit rate, but Suzuki swings considerably harder, barrels more balls and draws more walks. Traditionally, both hitters have made hard contact at plus levels. Suzuki’s high-end bat speed and plate discipline create some optimism that this year’s dip in premium contact could simply be a short-term aberration. Arozarena, meanwhile, lost nearly two miles per hour in bat speed from 2025 to 2026. He maintained strong quality of contact, but further losses in bat speed could prove problematic.

Also, while it’s impossible to know what happens behind closed doors, there was an early spat this season between Arozarena and franchise catcher Cal Raleigh when they met as opponents during the World Baseball Classic. Raleigh explained after the fact that the two are Mariners teammates and brothers, but he declined a handshake with Arozarena in a “competitive environment” where he had a “responsibility for [his] teammates” on Team USA and to his country, which prompted Arozarena to cuss him out in postgame comments. Arozarena said after the fact that he reached out and apologized to Raleigh directly. He stressed that the two had buried the hatchet and were indeed “brothers and teammates.” Raleigh, too, emphasized in the days ahead that there was “no beef” between them. It’s possible that’s all water under the bridge and plays zero role in the team’s free agent preferences, but it’s at the very least some relevant context.

As for Crawford, the writing has seemingly been on the wall regarding his departure. Crawford himself approached the Mariners this summer about sliding over to third base, both as a means of covering for the injured Brendan Donovan and also to pave the way for shortstop-of-the-future Colt Emerson, who’d signed a contract extension before even making his MLB debut. It was a selfless, team-first act that only further endeared Crawford to fans and teammates. However, Donovan is still controlled into next season, and Emerson should be healthier after playing through a wrist injury that required surgery.

Crawford could feasibly handle second base, but Cole Young had a nice year at that position and looks like the primary option there moving forward. That’s contributed in part to Arroyo’s move to the outfield. Perhaps if the Mariners prefer to use Donovan in a multi-position role, and the Mariners haven’t brought in a third baseman by late in the offseason, a Crawford reunion could still come about, but it seems likely he’ll be searching for a new club this winter.

There are any number of options for the Mets to consider at third base and in the outfield, but Divish and Jude suggest the preference is to bring in right-handed bats. That distinction plays a role in the team’s lack of interest in signing NPB star Teruaki Sato — at least at the prices he’s expected to command — as the M’s are already deep in lefty hitters, many of whom have swing-and-miss issues (as Sato also does). At the moment, Julio Rodriguez and the switch-hitting Raleigh are the only righties in the Seattle lineup. There are some righty options in the bench competition (e.g. Ryan Bliss, Jhonny Pereda, Brennen Davis and switch-hitters Leo Rivas and Brock Rodden), but none of them are proven against big league pitching.

MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest Closes TONIGHT!

Tim Dierkes — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 01:43:24 +0000

The MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest is currently open! Click here to make your picks. The contest closes TONIGHT at 11pm central time.

Thousands of people participate in this annual tradition. In the coming weeks, MLBTR will publish a leaderboard for the results. This will make it easy to mock any MLBTR writer who falls below the Mendoza Line.

Further contest info:

After the window to make picks has closed, we’ll post a public leaderboard page so you can see who’s winning the contest as players sign with teams. We’re going to use entrants’ full names on it. So, if that concerns you, please do not enter the contest. Entries with inappropriate names will be deleted.
We are also collecting email addresses, which I will use only to notify winners.
If a player signs between now and the close of the contest, that player will be excluded from the contest.
After you submit your picks, you’ll receive an email from Google Forms. In that email, you’ll see a button that allows you to edit your picks.
The winners of this contest will be declared on the first day of the 2027 MLB regular season, with any players still unsigned at that time excluded from the competition. If the season has not begun by June 30th, 2027, we will instead use June 30th as the contest’s final cutoff date, excluding any players who remain unsigned.
We will award $500 to first place, $300 to second place, and $100 to third place. We will also be giving one-year memberships to Trade Rumors Front Office for everyone who finishes in the top 15. Winners must respond to an email within one week of being notified.
Ties will be broken by adding up the rankings of each entrant’s correctly predicted free agents. The entrant with the lower total wins the tiebreaker. For example: Tim and Steve each get two picks correct. Tim gets Tarik Skubal (#1 ranking) and Shota Imanaga (#21 ranking) for a total of 22 points. Steve gets Michael King (#6) and Tyler Mahle (#14) for a total of 20 points. Steve’s total is lower and he wins the tiebreaker.

Make your picks here! If you have any further questions, ask us in the comment section of this post!

MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest Now Closed

Tim Dierkes — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 01:43:24 +0000

The MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest is now closed. A leaderboard will be created in the coming weeks. Thanks for participating!

Contest details:

After the window to make picks has closed, we’ll post a public leaderboard page so you can see who’s winning the contest as players sign with teams. We’re going to use entrants’ full names on it. So, if that concerns you, please do not enter the contest. Entries with inappropriate names will be deleted.
We are also collecting email addresses, which I will use only to notify winners.
If a player signs between now and the close of the contest, that player will be excluded from the contest.
After you submit your picks, you’ll receive an email from Google Forms. In that email, you’ll see a button that allows you to edit your picks.
The winners of this contest will be declared on the first day of the 2027 MLB regular season, with any players still unsigned at that time excluded from the competition. If the season has not begun by June 30th, 2027, we will instead use June 30th as the contest’s final cutoff date, excluding any players who remain unsigned.
We will award $500 to first place, $300 to second place, and $100 to third place. We will also be giving one-year memberships to Trade Rumors Front Office for everyone who finishes in the top 15. Winners must respond to an email within one week of being notified.
Ties will be broken by adding up the rankings of each entrant’s correctly predicted free agents. The entrant with the lower total wins the tiebreaker. For example: Tim and Steve each get two picks correct. Tim gets Tarik Skubal (#1 ranking) and Shota Imanaga (#21 ranking) for a total of 22 points. Steve gets Michael King (#6) and Tyler Mahle (#14) for a total of 20 points. Steve’s total is lower and he wins the tiebreaker.

Make your picks here! If you have any further questions, ask us in the comment section of this post!

Will Venable, Pat Murphy Named Managers Of The Year

Anthony Franco — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:56:19 +0000

The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the results of Manager of the Year balloting on Tuesday. White Sox skipper Will Venable won the American League honors, while Milwaukee’s Pat Murphy takes home the National League award for a third straight year.

Venable oversaw the league’s most dramatic turnaround in 2026. After going 60-102 in his first season at the helm, the ChiSox went 84-78 to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021. Chicago squandered their lead in the AL Central to Cleveland in September but secured the #6 seed in the American League.

Chicago succeeded behind one of the younger lineups in baseball. According to Baseball Reference, only three teams (Washington, St. Louis and Miami) had a younger average age among their hitters. They felt some of that youth with one of the higher strikeout rates in the league, but they were fifth in the majors in home runs and overall scoring.

While the Sox have a lot of young talent in the lineup, Venable and his staff had to work around an overall lack of pitching depth. That’s especially true in the rotation, where Sean Burke and Anthony Kay were their only sources of consistency down the stretch. The Sox leaned heavily on openers and multi-inning relievers to compensate for the lack of starting pitching; no team got fewer innings out of their “starters” than Chicago’s 674 2/3 frames.

Venable is the sixth manager in Sox history to win the award. Tony La Russa (1983), Jeff Torborg (1990), Gene Lamont (1993), Jerry Manuel (2000) and Ozzie Guillén (2005) previously won the award. It was a tightly-contested race, as he narrowly beat out Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash by receiving 15 of 30 first-place votes. Cash placed first on 12 ballots, while Red Sox skipper Chad Tracy finished in third place with the remaining three first-place votes. Stephen Vogt, who won the award in each of the previous two years, finished in fourth place this season. Aaron Boone and Joe Espada were the others to receive at least one vote.

While Venable is a first-time honoree in his second season, Murphy makes history in the other league. He’s the first person to win Manager of the Year in three straight years. Voters have tended to award skippers of teams that had surprising success relative to preseason expectations, making it difficult to repeat with this award. (Venable was a much more traditional winner in that regard.)

Murphy’s Brewers charged to an MLB-best 103 wins, three clear of any other team. They got contributions from up and down the lineup and ran out one of the best run prevention groups in the league. Milwaukee won the NL Central by 14 games, easily the most convincing runaway division win in either league.

The BBWAA votes on all awards at the end of the regular season. Murphy would have won Manager of the Year regardless of what happened in October. Of course, the Brewers capped off their excellent regular season with a dominant playoff run. They combined to go 11-2 against the Padres, Dodgers and Rays en route to the first championship in team history. The Brewers were the best team in baseball from essentially May onward.

Murphy received 20 of 30 first-place votes. Atlanta’s Walt Weiss and Philadelphia’s Don Mattingly respectively placed second and third. Weiss received seven first-place votes, while Mattingly was at the top of one voter’s ballot. San Diego’s Craig Stammen actually received more first-place votes, appearing at the top of the ballot for two voters. Mattingly narrowly edged out Stammen for the third-place finish by receiving two more second-place votes, however. Dave Roberts, Craig Counsell and Don Kelly were the others to place on at least one ballot.

The 67-year-old Murphy remains the only manager in Brewers history to win the award. He’s the tenth manager since the award’s inception in 1983 to receive the honor for a third time. Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox, and Buck Showalter are the only four-time winners.

Respective images courtesy of Raymond Carlin III/Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images.

Dodgers Expect To Have Meeting With Tarik Skubal

Darragh McDonald — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:46:59 +0000

It was reported earlier today that free agent Tarik Skubal is hoping to sign before the lockout arrives on December 2 and will meet with the Mets next week. Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said that his club has been in touch with Skubal and expects to have a meeting with him at some point in the near future as well. Jack Harris of The California Post was among those to relay the word from Gomes.

Skubal is the clear top free agent of the winter. MLBTR predicted him to secure a nine-year deal with a $425MM guarantee. That was more than $300MM clear of the prediction for every other free agent.

It’s possible that the expected lockout and accompanying transaction freeze will give a natural framework to the sweepstakes. With Skubal’s apparent preference to get a deal done before things go dark, he and his representatives at the Boras Corporation seem to be lining up meetings with potential suitors in the hopes of making progress on the bidding in the coming weeks.

It’s not at all surprising that the Dodgers would be involved. They are always interested when elite talent is available. They just acquired Skubal from the Tigers at the deadline a few months ago. Though the club was eliminated by the Brewers in the NLCS, that was certainly no fault of Skubal’s. He gave the Dodgers ten starts with a 2.61 earned run average after the trade. He then posted a 2.45 ERA in two postseason starts.

The rotation isn’t really a need in a strict sense. They have Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell in four spots already. Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski and others are also available to help out.

But that was also the case at the deadline this year and the Dodgers went for the kill by adding Skubal anyway. They could do the same this offseason. They don’t really have strong needs outside the pitching staff. The lineup already features strong options for every position and they don’t even have room for top prospect Josue De Paula, which has led to speculation of a Teoscar Hernández trade.

The bullpen arguably needs more attention than the rotation, as the Dodgers just lost Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips, Kris Bubic, Blake Treinen and others to free agency. They could let Skubal sign elsewhere and focus on relief arms but no reliever projects to help the club in 2027 and beyond as much as Skubal can.

If Skubal is looking for a traditional long-term deal as MLBTR predicted, it would require the Dodgers to break their personal habits. They usually prefer shorter-term arrangements with higher average annual values. In the past decade, they have only gone beyond six years for a free agent twice, both under special circumstances. Yamamoto secured a 12-year deal when coming over from Japan but he was exceptionally young, going into his age-25 season. Ohtani got a ten-year deal but he is a unicorn talent and the contract had infamously extreme deferrals.

MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker projects the Dodgers for a cash/LRD payroll of $369MM next year and a competitive balance tax number of $388MM. The LRD number is already over 2026, as the Dodgers finished at $341MM, while the 2026 CBT number was up at $431MM. In recent years, it’s been hard to predict where the club is willing to go, as they have shown a huge willingness to keep cranking up the spending. Owner Mark Walter is having financial trouble at the moment and has been selling off other assets, but he and other bigwigs with the club continue to insist the Dodgers won’t be affected.

The Mets have similar preferences to the Dodgers. That club’s president of baseball operations David Stearns has never signed a free agent pitcher to a deal longer than three years. That includes his time running the Brewers as well as the Mets.

Perhaps those two clubs will try to pitch Skubal on creative short-term structures, as they both did with Kyle Tucker. But other teams are sure to get involved as well. The Padres have already been connected to the star lefty. The Blue Jays, Yankees, Red Sox and plenty of others could jump in. Skubal has posted an ERA under 3.00 in four straight seasons now. He won American League Cy Young honors in both 2024 and 2025. His 2026 was interrupted by an elbow surgery to remove a bone spur but he still managed to post a 2.72 ERA in 26 starts around that.

Photo courtesy of Jon Endow, Imagn Images

Trevor Larnach To Undergo Arthroscopic Wrist Surgery

Anthony Franco — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:29:07 +0000

Twins outfielder Trevor Larnach will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left wrist this week, general manager Jeremy Zoll tells reporters (relayed by Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune). Larnach missed the final two weeks of the season with a wrist sprain and continued to feel soreness as he began his offseason training, necessitating the operation.

Zoll framed the procedure as a “cleanup,” suggesting it’s fairly minor surgery. He added that he does not expect it to have any impact on Larnach’s availability for the beginning of Spring Training. Even if it’s only expected to be an offseason issue, it could cloud his appeal on the trade market.

The veteran outfielder opened the winter as one of the more obvious trade candidates in the league. Minnesota had a deadline deal in place with the Astros’ front office to swap Larnach for impending free agent reliever Bryan Abreu. Houston’s ownership killed that late in the process, so Larnach remained in the Twin Cities for the final couple months of the season. The Twins still have an abundance of left-handed hitting outfielders and needs on the pitching staff and potentially on the right side of the infield.

Larnach, a first-round pick in 2018, has been a solid strong side platoon bat over his career. He’s a lifetime .255/.341/.431 hitter against right-handed pitching. Larnach slashed .284/.365/.454 with a 10% walk rate and modest 17% strikeout percentage while carrying the platoon advantage this past season. He’s entering his final year under club control and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $6.3MM arbitration salary.

Darwinzon Hernández Looking To Sign With MLB Club

Darragh McDonald — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 23:40:40 +0000

Left-hander Darwinzon Hernández is looking to sign with a club in major league baseball, reports Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. He pitched for the Red Sox from 2019 to 2022 but has spent recent seasons pitching for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

Hernández, 30 in December, showed big stuff in his big league career but struggled to get it over the plate. He tossed 85 1/3 innings for the Sox over four seasons with a four-seamer and sinker that both averaged at least 95 miles per hour. He also threw a low-80s slider and high-70s curveball. He struck out opponents at a massive 32.3% clip but also gave out free passes at an untenable 17.7% pace.

The command issues eventually pushed him off of Boston’s roster. He was designated for assignment in January of 2023 and flipped to the Orioles in a cash deal. The Orioles passed him through waivers the next month. He pitched 27 1/3 innings for Triple-A Norfolk with similar results to his big league track record to that point. With the Tides, he had a 2.96 ERA, 32.2% strikeout rate and 16.5% walk rate.

He was released in July of 2023 and signed with the Hawks. Since then, he has seemingly reined things in. He has thrown 131 2/3 innings with a 2.46 ERA, walking just 8% of batters faced while still getting strikeouts at a strong 31.3% clip.

Some context is perhaps necessary. The NPB is normally a pitcher-friendly environment and they have been playing with a dead ball in recent years. This is speculative but it’s possible Hernández felt more comfortable just grooving the ball over the plate. Tatsuya Imai had a walk rate between 10 and 17% in each NPB season from 2018 to 2023. He got that down to 9.8% in 2024 and then 7% last year in the deflated offensive environment. But when he made the move to MLB in 2026, that walk rate shot up to 15.1%.

Of course, each individual pitcher is different and Hernández might not follow the same path as Imai. But teams MLB teams may have concerns that the gains he made in Japan haven’t been proven against big league hitters.

The lefty relief market is highlighted by Adrián Morejón but also features Alex Vesia, Steven Okert, JoJo Romero and plenty of others. For teams who miss out on those options, they could perhaps look to Hernández as a low-cost alternative.

Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images

Rangers Planning To Explore Corey Seager Trades

Darragh McDonald — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 22:55:01 +0000

The Rangers plan to asses the trade market for shortstop Corey Seager at the general managers’ meetings in Las Vegas, per reports from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News.

It’s a notable development but not really a shocking one. Seager was in some trade rumors around the deadline a few months ago. He ultimately stayed put but it’s not a shock to see the Rangers circle back to the possibility. The club appears to have limited financial flexibility while having big commitments on the books to Seager, Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Brandon Nimmo.

Moving one or more of those contracts off the books could allow the club some more maneuverability in the offseason. With Seager in particular, there’s an added incentive to pursue a trade because Texas may have an in-house replacement ready to go. Sebastian Walcott is a consensus top-15 prospect in the league. An internal brace surgery on his elbow in February slowed him down in 2026 but he got back into the lineup by July and hit well at the Double-A level. He got up to Triple-A for two games in September. A big league debut in 2027 is distinctly possible.

It would be risky for a club to simply hand over the shortstop job to a prospect with no major league experience, especially one turning 21 in March. However, given the aforementioned payroll restrictions, the Rangers are faced with imperfect options in every direction. It makes sense to see what’s out there for Seager. If they find a deal they like, they open the spot for Walcott. They would also have Ezequiel Durán around as a potential placeholder if Walcott doesn’t seem ready by the end of spring training. They could address the bullpen and/or center field in the Seager trade or after opening up some extra payroll space.

But trading Seager comes with all sorts of complications. He now has full no-trade rights as a 10-and-5 guy, meaning he has at least ten years of big league service time and at least five straight with his current team. It’s unclear how much desire he has to be traded. Even if he is open to a change, he would presumably have some clubs he’s more willing to join than others.

There’s also his contract, age and health issues. Seager is still to be paid $31MM annually over the next five years, a total of $155MM. He turns 33 years old in April. Even in his younger years, he was known for having frequent injury absences. A stint or two on the injured list is generally expected for him each year. In his five years with the Rangers, he only once topped 123 games played in a season. In 2026, he got into 102 games, with two IL stints for lower back inflammation and one for a concussion. He had surgery in October to remove a bone spur from his right elbow.

Those are all the things working against the Rangers, though there are some things working for them. For one thing, the market is starved for shortstops. Free agency doesn’t really feature a proper everyday option. J.P. Crawford and Mauricio Dubón are out there but it’s debatable that they actually count as viable everyday shortstops and they certainly lack Seager’s upside. The trade market theoretically features names like Zach Neto and Jeremy Peña but it’s unclear if those players are actually available. Even if they are, their respective clubs would be looking for huge prospect returns.

There’s also the fact that Seager continues to be a strong performer when on the field. His 2026 season was arguably his worst as a Ranger but still wasn’t so bad. He hit 20 home runs and drew walks at a strong 10.3% clip. His .227/.312/.424 line lead to a 106 wRC+, putting him 6% above league average even though his .254 batting average on balls in play was well below league par and his career norms. His shortstop defense was graded near par by Outs Above Average and Fielding Run Value while Defensive Runs Saved had him six better than average. He was credited by FanGraphs with 2.1 wins above replacement, even in a fairly rocky season.

There are many facets to consider and the Rangers will be pressed for time. It is widely expected that Major League Baseball will lock out the players once the collective bargaining agreement expires at end of day on December 1. That lockout will include a transaction freeze. The 2021-22 lockout lasted until early March. The Rangers have a few weeks to explore the market before things go cold. Even if they find some interest from another club, Seager will have to be on board with the swap. Time will tell if they can make the pieces fit in a way that makes sense for them.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Max Fried Undergoes Surgery To Remove Bone Spur From Elbow; Expected To Be Ready For Spring Training

Darragh McDonald — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 22:00:25 +0000

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met with reporters at the general managers’ meetings in Las Vegas today and revealed that left-hander Max Fried has undergone surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow. Fried will be able to start throwing in December and is expected to be ready for a normal spring training. Greg Joyce of The New York Post and Chris Kirschner of The Athletic were among those who relayed the details.

Fried has dealt with some arm issues over the years, like all pitchers these days. In 2023, while still with Atlanta, a forearm strain sent him to the injured list for about three months. The following year, forearm neuritis put him on the shelf for a couple of weeks.

The Yankees were undeterred by those issues and signed Fried to an eight-year, $218MM deal going into 2025. He stayed healthy in the first season of that pact but a left elbow bone bruise sent him to the IL twice in 2026. He was limited to 20 starts this year but the results were still very strong, with Fried posting a 2.80 earned run average in those. He made two more starts in the postseason.

Ideally, this procedure will allow Fried to put those elbow issues behind him going into 2027. It’s perhaps worth noting that this year’s labor dispute could disrupt things for Fried a bit. It is widely expected that the league will lock out the players when the collective bargaining agreement expires at end of day on December 1. During a lockout, players are not allowed to communicate with team personnel. Fried will therefore have to begin his throwing program without any guidance from the club’s medical staff, though there will presumably be many conversations before the lines of communication go dark.

Assuming everything goes smoothly with Fried’s recovery and the lockout ends in the first few months of 2027, then Fried should be penciled into next year’s rotation alongside Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón. One spot would be available for someone like Will Warren, Ryan Weathers, Clarke Schmidt, Elmer Rodríguez or Carlos Lagrange.

It has been speculated that the Yankees could look to trade from that rotation surplus in order to address other parts of the roster. Perhaps a bit of added uncertainty around Fried could make trades less likely but it doesn’t seem like the concern is too great.

Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images

Dodgers Hire Pedro Guerrero As Hitting Coach

Steve Adams — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 21:51:54 +0000

The Dodgers announced Tuesday that they’ve hired Pedro Guerrero as a hitting coach. He’ll replace Aaron Bates, who surprisingly opted to leave the organization despite being offered a multi-year deal to stay. Guerrero has spent the past two seasons as the Marlins’ hitting coach. The 37-year-old had previously worked as an assistant hitting coach with both the Giants and Phillies organizations.

Though this is, of course, not the same Pedro Guerrero who made four All-Star teams with the Dodgers in the 1970s, the incoming Guerrero is no stranger to the Dodgers organization. He spent his entire minor league playing career there and served as a bench coach in the low levels of their system back in 2016-17 — his first professional coaching gigs. From 2006-13, Guerrero played 411 minor league games and tallied 1524 plate appearances. He topped out at the Triple-A level and logged a career .236/.287/.351 batting line. Of course, as we’ve seen throughout the years in MLB, a poor track record as a player doesn’t preclude a successful coaching career.

Marlins hitters batted .249/.326/.400 as a team in 2026. Miami ranked in the bottom-third of the league with 168 home runs but posted a middle-of-the-pack run-scoring total and ranked top-10 in both batting average and on-base percentage. Hitters like Liam Hicks (traded to Tampa Bay at the deadline), Otto Lopez and Javier Sanoja had breakouts in South Florida. Of course, fellow youngsters like Owen Caissie and Connor Norby struggled badly.

A team’s overall performance — and even the performance of individual players — can rarely be attributed to one singular coach. That’s long been the case but is truer than ever in an era where teams deploy much larger coaching staffs than in the past, to say nothing of input from analytics departments, advance scouting teams and personal/private offseason coaches.

Following the season, Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix praised Guerrero as a “wonderful human being” who “did a tremendous job for us” but said the organization felt it was time for a new voice to guide its young hitters. Guerrero’s free agency lasted only a matter of weeks. He’ll now step into the vacancy created by Bates’ departure to team with fellow hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc in Los Angeles. The rest of the Dodgers’ coaching staff under manager Dave Roberts is expected to remain intact.

Red Sox Notes: Story, Arias, Casas

Darragh McDonald — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 21:01:56 +0000

A big question for the Red Sox is who their primary shortstop will be in 2027. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke to members of the media at the general managers’ meetings in Las Vegas this week and wouldn’t commit to Trevor Story having the job next year. Peter Abraham and Alex Speier of The Boston Globe and Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic were among those to report on Breslow’s comments.

“We know what Trevor is capable of doing when he’s healthy and performing,” Breslow said. “This year was disruptive for a number of reasons — with injury, some struggles at times. I think we’re always evaluating these things. We still have a ton of confidence in Trevor, but any decisions like that are going to take place between Trevor and me far before I speak to anything publicly.”

Story was signed to a six-year, $140MM contract shortly after the last lockout ended in March of 2022. Five years in, that deal hasn’t worked out especially well for the Sox. Story has occasionally had runs of strong production but they have often been interrupted by injuries. In the first five years of the pact, he only played more than 94 games once.

That was in 2025, when he got into 157 games with uneven performance. He started dreadfully but finished strong, getting to 25 home runs and 31 steals but his 5% walk rate and 26.9% strikeout rate were poor figures. His .263/.308/.433 line led to a 102 wRC+, a bit above league average, but that was propped up by a .330 batting average on balls in play. Since most of that production came late in the season, there was some optimism about 2026 but hernia surgery limited him to 64 games of poor play, as he hit .235/.271/.351.

In theory, Story could bounce back in 2027 with better health but that’s a hard thing to bank on since he has been so injury prone and turns 34 years old this month. Moving on from him would be tricky. He now has full no-trade protection as a 10-and-5 guy, meaning he has at least 10 years of big league service and has spent at least the past five with the same team.

Even if that were not the case, he is still owed $30MM, since he’ll make a $25MM salary next year and there’s a $5MM buyout on a 2028 club option. Teams won’t find it palatable to pay that amount of money to a player who has often been absent or playing at a middling level. The no-trade protection will only make it harder to line up a trade.

The Sox could just stick with Story until Franklin Arias pushes him off. Many prospect evaluators have Arias as the #2 prospect in the game, behind only Jesús Made of the Brewers. Arias got promoted to Triple-A in July and has already played 42 games at that level. He hit .331/.388/.506 in those. A promotion in 2027 is easy to imagine. But he is quite young, turning 21 this month. Even the most touted prospects can sometimes struggle when first promoted, so there would be risk in simply banking on Arias to take over shortstop this year.

“Premature,” Breslow said when asked if Arias had a chance to earn the job out of spring training. “All the conversations that we’ve had with and about Franklin at this point are targeted on how we make the most of this offseason for him, getting bigger and stronger, continuing to push him on both sides of the ball and base running as well.”

In theory, the Sox could let Story keep the job until Arias takes it from him. Story could then move to second base or a depth role. Curtis Mead is expected to be the regular second baseman next year but he has only played in one game for Boston so far. He fractured his right wrist when he was hit by a pitch in his first contest after being acquired from the Nationals in exchange for pitcher Connelly Early.

In theory, the designated hitter spot has some at-bats available in the scenario where Story and Mead are battling for second base time, though Boston’s ongoing outfield situation complicates that. Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida are all still on the roster. Some of these players dealt with injury issues in 2026 but all are expected to be ready by spring training. A trade of someone could ease some pressure but it feels crowded for the time being.

The Sox have considered external options at shortstop. During the 2026 season, they were connected to trade candidates such as Zach Neto of the Angels and Otto Lopez of the Marlins. They could return to those pursuits if they don’t want to be relying on a Story bounceback or an Arias breakthrough. However, trading for either of those players would require a massive package of talent. The Sox may hesitate about paying a huge price to address shortstop when Arias is so close.

Elsewhere on the Roster, first baseman Triston Casas is healthy enough to have resumed baseball workouts. He also might play winter ball from Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Republic. Casas is a big wild card after two essentially lost seasons. He required knee surgery in May of 2025, which wiped out the remainder of that season. Intercostal and wrist injuries delayed his comeback attempts in 2026 and he never got into official game action. After all those injuries, it’s understandable he and the Sox would look to send him to the D.R. to shake off the rust.

Before the injury odyssey, he showed a lot of potential. He made 840 trips to the plate from 2022 to 2024, hitting 42 home runs. His 26.9% strikeout rate was a bit high but he drew walks at an excellent 14.2% clip. All told, he had a .250/.357/.473 slash and 127 wRC+ in that stretch.

Getting him back on track would be nice but the Sox aren’t banking on it. They acquired Willson Contreras to cover first base a year ago and still have Contreras on the roster. Casas still has options, so the Sox could have him getting regular work in the minors until he has an extended stretch of health and is hitting well.

As mentioned, there are lots of moving parts in the DH mix, which doesn’t leave Casas a great path to earning playing time in 2027. However, Yoshida and Story are slated for free agency after 2027, assuming Story’s 2028 option will be turned down. Contreras also has a 2028 club option in his deal, with that one having a greater chance of being picked up. Injuries and/or transactions throughout 2027 could completely change the roster picture. It’s also possible that Casas himself is put on the trade block if he’s playing well but doesn’t have a path to a role in Boston.

Photo courtesy of Pablo Robles, Imagn Images

Mets Meeting With Tarik Skubal

Steve Adams — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 20:42:56 +0000

The Mets have a meeting scheduled with the prize of this winter’s free agent crop, two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The two parties will sit down to chat next week. Heyman adds that Skubal is hopeful of getting a deal done before the league imposes a lockout and transaction freeze on Dec. 2 amid collective bargaining negotiations with the players union. Heyman’s colleague, Joel Sherman, wrote just a few minutes prior that rival agents and executives have framed the Mets as one of the more aggressive teams in the early stages of the offseason, both with regard to free agent pursuits and trade talks.

A fit between Skubal and the Mets is an obvious one. The Mets were probably the National League’s most disappointing team in 2026, floundering through a disastrous first half and eventually waving the white flag ahead of the trade deadline. President of baseball ops David Stearns traded nine players — David Peterson, Clay Holmes, A.J. Minter, Freddy Peralta, Tyrone Taylor, Huascar Brazoban, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley and Ben Rortvedt — ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

The reasons for the Mets’ 2026 downfall were plentiful, but shoddy starting pitching was near the top of the list. Holmes missed months with a fracture in his leg after being struck by a comeback liner. Veterans like Peralta, Peterson, Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea didn’t pitch anywhere close to their capabilities (though Peralta rebounded following a trade to Tampa Bay). Young, controllable arms like Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton give the Mets some reason for long-term optimism, but the in-house options beyond that trio aren’t particularly inspiring.

Barring a trade, Manaea will be back for the final season of his three-year, $75MM deal but is coming off a middling 4.78 ERA in 150 2/3 innings. Jonah Tong was once one of the game’s top pitching prospects and viewed as a core piece of the long-term rotation, but he posted a 4.54 ERA with a 12.6% walk rate in 23 Triple-A starts. Tylor Megill will be back after missing the 2026 season due to UCL surgery, but it’s hard to know what to expect from him after a lengthy absence.

Bringing in rotation help is a natural target for Stearns & Co. — and Skubal is clearly the most impactful means of doing so. He’s going to command the type of high-salaried, long-term commitment to which Stearns (like most front office leaders) is typically averse, but contracts of this magnitude tend to be negotiated directly with the owner. Steve Cohen, baseball’s wealthiest owner, dealt directly with agent Scott Boras on negotiations with Juan Soto and Carlos Correa (who agreed to a $315MM deal with the Mets before concerns with his physical scuttled the contract). Skubal, like Soto and Correa, is a client of the Boras Corporation.

As shown in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, the Mets finished the 2026 season with the highest cash payroll of any team in the sport and trailed only the Dodgers in terms of their luxury-tax obligations. MLBTR contributor Ethan Hullihen projects more than $276MM on the Mets’ books already (including projected arbitration salaries), with a CBT number north of $289MM. Neither is likely to serve as a deterrent for Cohen, who signed Soto for a record $765MM after finishing up the 2024 campaign with a payroll in the range of one-third of a billion dollars.

By now, Skubal’s accolades need little explanation. He’s a two-time Cy Young Award winner who’s posted four straight seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA, a strikeout rate north of 30% and a walk rate shy of 5%. Overall, he carries a 2.47 ERA, 31.1% strikeout rate and 4.5% walk rate over his past 626 1/3 regular season innings. No pitcher in the game is within even one point of the 26.7-point gap between Skubal’s strikeout and walk rates. Since 2023, Skubal is second among qualified starters in ERA (trailing Blake Snell’s 2.46 by the smallest amount possible). He’s third in swinging-strike rate and walk rate while sitting in a fifth-place tie for strikeout rate.

It wouldn’t serve as a deterrent anyhow, but the fact that Skubal was traded midseason also rendered him ineligible to receive a qualifying offer. As such, whichever team signs him won’t need to expend any draft or international amateur capital. Thus far, the incumbent Dodgers and ever-aggressive Padres have already been tied to Skubal. The Cubs, despite their status as a big-market team with a dire need for rotation help, rarely play at the top of the free agent market and reportedly aren’t planning to make a serious run at him.

Padres Interested In Seiya Suzuki, Teruaki Sato, Shota Imanaga

Darragh McDonald — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 19:36:44 +0000

The Padres are looking to upgrade their roster this offseason and are interested in a wide variety of free agents. That includes multiple Japanese-born players, as Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that the Friars have interest in outfielder Seiya Suzuki, left-hander Shota Imanaga and infielder/outfielder Teruaki Sato.

Imanaga would make plenty of sense, as starting pitching is the most glaring need for the Padres. The rotation had been an issue for a while and the club just saw Michael King, Nick Pivetta, Walker Buehler, Casey Mize, Robbie Ray, Griffin Canning and Lucas Giolito become free agents.

Randy Vásquez is still on the roster but he’s a low-strikeout pitcher who would ideally be in a swing role. It’s unclear what to expect from Joe Musgrove after two mostly lost seasons. Yu Darvish missed all of 2026 and is a big unknown going into his age-40 season. JP Sears, Jhony Brito and Kyle Hart are on the roster but don’t profile as much more than depth options.

With that outlook, San Diego should be pursuing any and all avenues for adding starters. They have already been connected to Tarik Skubal, the top free agent available. That is perhaps a pipe dream, as the club should probably be spreading money around to multiple arms as opposed to going for one big strike. Even if they do manage to pull of a Skubal deal, they will need other arms in the mix as well.

Signing Imanaga wouldn’t be as impactful as signing Skubal but would be far cheaper. MLBTR predicted Skubal for a nine-year, $425MM deal and Imanaga for $40MM over two years. Imanaga’s big league career has generally featured good strikeout and walk rates but his biggest issue has been the home run ball. In 492 1/3 innings, Imanaga has allowed 3.45 earned runs per nine. His 23.6% strikeout rate is better than average and his 4.6% walk rate much better than par but he has allowed 93 home runs. 14% of his fly balls have cleared the fence, whereas league average is usually around 11-12%.

Petco Park in San Diego has a pitcher-friendly profile but not necessarily in the home run department. Statcast’s three-year rolling average has Petco tied for 9th/10th/11th, meaning only about a third of ballparks are more homer-prone. Flip to the two-year and one-year data sets and Petco is closer to 20th.

Turning to the lineup, that’s less of a need for the Friars but they could still look to do something there. Ty France is now a free agent, subtracting a big bat. A few other role players have hit the open market as well.

Adding Suzuki would certainly help make up for France’s departure. Suzuki has hit at least 20 home runs and drawn walks at an above-average clip for four straight years now. In 2026, he had 26 long balls, a 12.8% walk rate, a .270/.368/.473 line and 134 wRC+. He also has solid defensive grades in the outfield this year. MLBTR predicted a four-year, $105MM deal for Suzuki as he goes into his age-32 season. The Cubs just gave him a qualifying offer, so any other club signing him would be subject to the associated penalties.

Lin suggests that Suzuki could play right field with Fernando Tatis Jr. moving in to second base, though that seems overly complicated when the Padres don’t have a clear left fielder. Dustin Harris and Samad Taylor played well down the stretch in 2026 but neither is a proven option. Harris hit .322/.364/.422 for the Padres but in just 100 plate appearances and with a .367 batting average on balls in play he won’t sustain.

It would be simpler to just keep Tatis in right and put Suzuki in left. If Harris proves to be a useful player next year, the designated hitter spot is fairly open for them all to get playing time. Taylor is capable of playing the infield if he earns his way into a prominent role next year. Lin has previously suggested Tatis would prefer a full-time move to second but his experience there is fairly limited and his defensive reviews mixed, whereas he is clearly an above-average defender in right. The Padres also have Jake Cronenworth signed for the long term and second base is the best place to put him.

Sato’s future defensive home is more of an unknown. He has mostly played third base in his career in Japan but some scouts question whether he is viable there in the major leagues. It’s possible he ends up getting moved to first base. He also has some right field experience, so an outfield corner is a possibility. The Padres have Manny Machado at third base but first is fairly open while France is still a free agent. As mentioned, left field is also a possibility.

He is expected to be an impact bat regardless, as he hit 39 home runs in NPB play this year and 40 last year. There are some strikeout concerns with Sato but that was also true of Munetaka Murakami a year ago. Those whiffs seemed to tamp down Murakami’s market, as he settled for a two-year deal with the White Sox, but he ended up being fine. He did strike out a lot in his first MLB season but also drew lots of walks and hit 35 home runs.

MLBTR expects a bit of market correction after that, as we predicted Sato to land a five-year deal worth $80MM. The signing club would also owe a posting fee to the Hanshin Tigers, the size of which would depend upon the guarantee on Sato’s contract. It’s highly likely Sato will sign before the lockout as his 45-day posting window will not be paused and will therefore be set to expire in the early days of the lockout.

A major unknown of the Padres’ offseason is the financial picture. Late owner Peter Seidler kept cranking up the payroll through the 2023 season. After his passing, the San Diego front office was seemingly working under tighter financial constraints, which led to the Juan Soto trade and various other swaps. The Padres still signed free agents but often with creative back-loaded structures.

The Seidler family recently sold the club to a group led by José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones. That deal became official in August, so this will be the first offseason under the new regime. Lin suggests the new owners could greenlight some greater spending but it’s unclear the full extent they would be comfortable with.

MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker projects the club for $193MM in payroll next year, both in the LRD (cash) and competitive balance tax departments. Those numbers were $224MM and $269MM in 2026, with the aforementioned back-loaded contracts accounting for the higher CBT number. Time will tell how much wiggle room the Padres have. Being connected to some big-name free agents is encouraging but the Padres have multiple needs are need to consider various paths to upgrading the roster.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images

Early Thoughts on NFBC ADP and Steamer Auction Values

Jonathan Vander Lugt — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 19:30:29 +0000

In the past couple weeks, Christmas has come early for us fantasy baseball sickos.

Source

Cubs’ Ben Brown Undergoes Neck Surgery

Steve Adams — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 19:15:06 +0000

Cubs right-hander Ben Brown underwent cervical spine surgery yesterday, reports ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. He won’t be cleared to throw until early next year. The organization hopes that he can be ready at some point in the first half of the 2027 season. Cubs GM Carter Hawkins told Marquee Sports’ Elise Menaker that the team was “likely to move forward with the surgical option” for Brown earlier this morning, but it seems the procedure had already taken place at that point.

Brown’s surgery only makes the Cubs’ rotation need more acute. Chicago saw Matthew Boyd, Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Shota Imanaga and Colin Rea all become free agents at season’s end. Top starter Justin Steele hasn’t pitched since April 2025 due to UCL surgery and some setbacks during his 2026 recovery. Cade Horton, the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up, underwent his own UCL surgery this past April and will likely be sidelined into the ’27 campaign himself.

The Cubs will certainly hope that Steele will be ready to take the ball early next year, nearly two years out from surgery. It’s hard to know what kind of workload to expect from him, however. Edward Cabrera is slated to return to the rotation and will hope for better results than he delivered in an injury-ruined first year with Chicago in 2026. Swingman Javier Assad would be in line for rotation work right now, and the same could be true of deadline pickup Braxton Garrett. The Cubs only gave Garrett five big league innings after acquiring him from Miami, but the former No. 7 overall pick was a quality starter for the Marlins in 2022-23 before missing most of the 2024-25 seasons due to injury.

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has a pair of corner outfielders to replace (Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki), but those pursuits will presumably take a back seat to refilling a rotation that’s nowhere near close to strong enough to compete — even with a quality lineup and elite defense in place. The Cubs aren’t expected to make a serious run at Tarik Skubal but will scour the remainder of the free agent and trade markets in the three weeks leading up to the likely lockout that’ll freeze all major league transactions until a new collective bargaining agreement between the league the MLB Players Association is in place.

The extent to which Hoyer succeeds in restocking the staff — and keeping said arms healthy — will determine Brown’s role whenever he’s ready to return. He’s worked as both a starter and reliever since coming over from the Phillies in the 2022 David Robertson trade. Brown had a terrific run in the bullpen to begin the 2026 season before utterly laying waste to MLB hitters upon an early-May shift to the rotation. From May 8 through June 19 (when he suffered a season-ending neck injury), Brown pitched 42 1/3 innings with a 1.70 ERA, 25% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 40.7% ground-ball rate.

Whether in the rotation, a high-leverage/late-inning role, or in a multi-inning bullpen capacity, Brown will have a place on the Cubs’ staff once healthy — likely an important one. He’s controllable for another four seasons, through 2030, and is arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter as a Super Two player. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $1.3MM salary for Brown in his first trip through that process.

Blue Jays Among Teams Interested In Brandon Lowe

Steve Adams — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 18:53:11 +0000

Brandon Lowe should be one of the most popular names in free agency this winter, having swatted 35 homers and finished as a Gold Glove finalist at second base in his lone season (to date) with the Pirates. The Blue Jays are among the teams showing early interest in the 32-year-old slugger, per Shi Davidi and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. The pair cautions that talks to this point have been preliminary, but it’s still worth noting the early interest.

There’s a clear fit between the two parties. Toronto’s offense flatlined last year, with major steps back from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer (who’s now a free agent), Daulton Varsho (also a free agent), Ernie Clement, Davis Schneider and others. Injuries played a key role, too. Most notably, third baseman/outfielder Addison Barger logged only 28 plate appearances on the year, while catcher Alejandro Kirk was limited to 313 plate appearances.

One year after scoring the fourth-most runs (796) in MLB and tying for the 11th-most homers (191), the 2026 Jays ranked last in the sport with 648 runs scored and 152 long balls. Blue Jays hitters ranked ninth in team batting average (.247) but 25th in on-base percentage (.310) and 26th in slugging percentage (.381). Toronto had baseball’s second-lowest strikeout rate (19.1%) but also the game’s second-worst walk rate (7.6%). With key bats like Guerrero, Springer, Varsho, Barger and Kirk either regressing or missing substantial time with injury — to say nothing of Bo Bichette’s departure — the Jays’ lineup was too often a pushover.

Bringing Lowe into the fold would add a credible 30-homer bat to the mix and do so at a position of need. Clement is the favorite for reps at second base right now, but he’s coming off a middling .259/.285/.364 batting line (80 wRC+) in a career-high 621 plate appearances. Even at his best in 2024-25, Clement was a below-average hitter (.271/.301/.402; 96 wRC+) whose well-rounded skill set hinged on nearly average offense with plus defense and decent baserunning. He took a step back in all those regards this past season.

Signing Lowe would allow the Jays to return Clement to more of a complementary/bench role. He could spell Lowe against lefties on occasion, back up Andrés Giménez and Kazuma Okamoto at shortstop and third base (respectively), and perhaps log some occasional work in left field. He’d give skipper John Schneider a versatile defender on the bench with enough speed to be a pinch-running option and good contact skills for late, situational pinch-hitting needs.

Because Lowe is 32 years old (33 early next July), he’s unlikely to command an especially long-term deal. His power output might give him a chance at four years, but players in this age bracket are most often capped at three years on the open market. There are a few exceptions (e.g. Alex Bregman, Freddie Freeman, Kyle Schwarber, Starling Marte), but history and precedent suggest that a heavy three-year deal is the likelier outcome. Lowe received and is all but sure to reject a $23.15MM qualifying offer from Pittsburgh. He’d therefore cost the Jays their second- and fifth-highest picks in next year’s draft, as well as $1MM of space from their international amateur bonus pool for 2027.

As can be seen in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, the Jays finished the 2026 season with a payroll just north of $276MM. Next year’s payroll has $160.625MM guaranteed to nine players — a figure that doesn’t include their eight arbitration-eligible players. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects that octet to for a combined $28.3MM in salary, though certain members of the group are non-tender candidates (e.g. Schneider, Josh Smith and perhaps Clement). There’s room to add a $20MM+ annual salary for Lowe, but the Jays could also use help in the outfield, in the rotation and in the bullpen, which gives GM Ross Atkins a lengthy to-do list as he looks to turn the page on a calamitous 2026 campaign that saw his team fall from Game 7 of the 2025 World Series to a 79-83 record that tied the O’s for last place in the AL East.

Bob Boone Passes Away

Anthony Franco — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 17:50:36 +0000

Longtime MLB catcher/manager Bob Boone passed away yesterday at 78, according to a family announcement. Boone was a baseball lifer who spent over five decades in the game in various capacities. He was also part of a three-generation family of big leaguers, the son of a 13-year MLB veteran and father of two All-Stars.

Bob Boone was born in 1947, at a time when his father Ray Boone was playing in the Cleveland farm system. Ray would reach the majors a year later and had a couple All-Star selections and a few down ballot MVP seasons among a career that spanned until 1960. While Ray Boone was a multi-positional infielder, Bob moved behind the plate after being drafted by the Phillies in the sixth round in 1969.

Boone quickly took to the position and became one of the best defensive catchers of his era. He reached the majors in 1972 and would spend a decade as Philadelphia’s starting catcher. Boone was rarely a huge offensive threat, though he had a trio of decent years at the plate in the late 1970s. He was a standout defender who led MLB with 54 runners caught stealing in his first full season. Boone would do so two more times in his career and earned his first Gold Glove award in 1978. He appeared in three All-Star games over his time in Philadelphia, a run that saw the team earn five playoff berths between 1976-81.

Philadelphia reached the pinnacle in 1980, defeating the Royals in a six-game World Series. Boone was behind the plate for the final out, when Tug McGraw fanned K.C. outfielder Willie Wilson. Boone had an excellent playoff performance that year, batting .314 in 11 games to help the franchise win its first title.

The Phillies would trade Boone to the Angels after the 1981 season. It was a move closer to home for the San Diego native, who’d play seven years with the Halos. Boone earned his fourth and final All-Star nod in 1983, helped the team to two playoff berths, and racked up Gold Glove awards in the back of his career. He won the AL honors four straight times between 1986-89, the latter of which came after he’d signed with the Royals as a free agent. He also was behind the dish for a Mike Witt perfect game in 1984.

Boone played parts of 19 seasons in the big leagues. He was a lifetime .254/.315/.346 hitter with 105 home runs and 826 runs batted in. Only Ivan Rodriguez and Carlton Fisk caught more innings in the big leagues, as Boone logged more than 18,000 frames. He’s one of four catchers in MLB history with seven or more Gold Gloves.

The leadership skills that made Boone so highly respected with pitching staffs carried over in his other endeavors. He took on an integral role with the Players Association during the 1981 strike and jumped into managing not long after his playing days were finished. Boone managed the Royals from 1995-97 and the Reds from 2001-03. His teams never reached the postseason and he recorded a .455 win percentage as a skipper. Boone joined the Nationals’ front office in 2005 and worked in that capacity until resigning at the end of the ’21 season.

Of course, the Boone family’s impact on baseball continues. Bob’s sons Bret Boone and Aaron Boone played more than a decade in the big leagues themselves. Aaron is entering year 10 as manager of the Yankees. Bret worked as a hitting coach in Texas as recently as 2025. His third son, Jake, had a brief minor league playing career and works in the Mets’ baseball operations department. MLBTR joins others around the baseball world in sending condolences to the Boone family and Bob’s friends, former teammates, and loved ones.

Yankees To Promote Aaron Gershenfeld

Charlie Wright — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 17:15:53 +0000

The Yankees are expected to promote Aaron Gershenfeld to a big-league position, per Robert Murray of FanSided. Gershenfeld will join manager Aaron Boone’s coaching staff after the club lost catching coach Tanner Swanson to the Mariners.

Gershenfeld has been the organization’s run prevention and catching coordinator in recent seasons. He’s worked with backstops in both the minors and minors. Gershenfeld has worked in defensive-related roles with New York since 2020.

Seattle hired Swanson to be their bench coach last week. He’s been credited with the strong defensive work of Yankees catchers in recent years. The list includes current players Austin Wells and J.C. Escarra and former catchers Kyle Higashioka and Jose Trevino. Wells has posted a double-digit Fielding Run Value for three straight seasons. He was a Gold Glove Award finalist this year, though Dillon Dingler earned the honor.

It’s unclear what Gershenfeld’s exact title will be, but it’s fair to assume he’ll step into the defensive duties vacated by Swanson. The Yankees ranked 15th in FanGraphs’ Defensive Runs Above Average metric in 2026. The club got tremendous efforts from Wells and Cody Bellinger, who won the Platinum Glove Award as the AL’s top defender. There were holes elsewhere on the diamond. The departure of Jazz Chisholm Jr., who posted -6 Defensive Runs Saved, could be addition by subtraction on the defensive side.

Defense has been a major issue for the Yankees in recent playoff runs. The club famously collapsed in the field during the 2024 World Series against the Dodgers. New York made four errors in an ugly loss against the Rays in Game 2 of the ALDS this year.

Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images

Getz: Grant Taylor Moving Into Rotation; Adding Further Starting Pitching Is “Top Priority”

Steve Adams — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 16:24:32 +0000

The White Sox enter the offseason with a clear need in the rotation, and it sounds as though they’ll plan to address it both internally and via some outside additions. General manager Chris Getz said in an appearance with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio link) that hard-throwing reliever Grant Taylor will move from the bullpen into the rotation. The Sox are planning to keep left-hander Hagen Smith in a relief role for now, however. Any further rotation additions will come from free agency or the trade market.

“We’re going to exhaust the starter market, both free agency — we’ll take a look — along with trades,” said Getz. “That is our top priority.”

Starting with the 24-year-old Taylor, a move to the rotation has been an oft-discussed topic in ChiSox circles for years. Taylor, selected with the No. 51 overall pick in 2023, has worked as a starter briefly in the minors but has spent the bulk of his professional career in relief. That’s not due to doubts in his ability but rather his recent health.

Taylor required Tommy John surgery while pitching at Louisiana State University. He was in the process of rehabbing in ’23 when the Sox drafted him, and he didn’t formally make his professional debut until late in the 2024 campaign. He pitched 19 1/3 innings across five starts that season, posting a 2.33 ERA with dominant strikeout and walk rates in the low minors.

In 2025, Taylor posted video game numbers (1.01 ERA) in a small sample of 26 innings between the rotation and bullpen in Double-A before being promoted to the majors, where he worked in relief (plus a couple opener stints). He had a rough stretch in mid-August but finished the year with nine straight scoreless innings and a 16-to-3 K/BB ratio in that time.

Taylor spent the whole 2026 season in the majors and now looks like a core piece in Chicago. The 6’3″, 230-pound righty tossed 84 innings with a 2.25 ERA, 31.5% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate, 48% ground-ball rate and 0.75 HR/9. Taylor sat 98.1 mph on his four-seamer and 98.9 mph on his sinker. He saved 10 games, picked up 11 holds, and regularly worked multiple innings. Half of Taylor’s 60 appearances saw him record four or more outs. He topped out at 2 2/3 innings in a single appearance on the year and tossed two-plus innings on 17 separate occasions.

Taylor will now step into a rotation mix that also includes Sean Burke, Davis Martin, Anthony Kay and veteran Luis Castillo. Shane Smith, Drew Thorpe, Noah Schultz, Jonathan Cannon, David Sandlin and Tanner McDougal are all on the 40-man roster as well and could mix in, though some from that bunch will be in Triple-A while others will pitch in relief.

It’s a decent collection of depth, but the South Siders are lacking in clear top-end arms. Burke paced the team in 2026 innings and had the best ERA among this past season’s rotation members (3.34), but it was an uneven season. Burke posted pedestrian numbers early, caught fire for most of the summer, then wilted in August and into early September before closing out the year with three strong starts. He’s assured a rotation spot and has clear playoff rotation upside, but both he and the Sox would surely prefer a smoother trajectory in 2027 and beyond.

Martin’s season was somewhat the opposite. He dominated early in the year despite middling strikeout numbers, then began missing bats and looking truly formidable … before faceplanting with a 5.63 ERA from June onward (17 starts). He finished with a 3.95 ERA in a career-high 146 major league innings. Kay started rough, pitched well midseason, then tanked over the final month en route to a 4.44 ERA.

It’s perfectly feasible that the quartet of Burke, Taylor, Martin and Kay could form a solid one through four in a competitive rotation. The wealth of names mentioned previously isn’t without upside, either. Smith was a Rule 5 gem in 2025 and looked like a potential building block before he was hit hard early in ’26 and shelled by Triple-A pitching the rest of the way following an early demotion. Thorpe and Schultz, in particular, have been top-tier prospects in the past but have been hobbled by injuries.

Though there’s some upside, the Sox are lacking in terms of certainty and established front-of-the-rotation presence. They’re not going to be anyone’s pick to sign Tarik Skubal — though as we’ll get into shortly, they have the payroll space for a big splash — but could realistically reel in anyone else on the market. Trevor Rogers, Freddy Peralta, Michael King and Sonny Gray are among the names on the next tier of the free agent market.

The trade market will likely include Angels lefty Reid Detmers. Rays president Erik Neander has already said his intent is to hang onto Drew Rasmussen, but other clubs will be calling and could still try to pry the Tampa Bay ace loose. The Mariners (George Kirby, Emerson Hancock), Yankees (Ryan Weathers, Will Warren) and Rangers (Jacob deGrom, MacKenzie Gore) are among the other teams with starting pitching that could be available.

Payroll-wise, the Sox shouldn’t have any limiting factors. As can be seen in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, Ethan Hullihen projects a $108MM payroll for the South Siders next year. The Sox only have five players on guaranteed contracts: Castillo, Kay, Jordan Hicks, Andrew Benintendi and Munetaka Murakami. They’ll all be free agents following the ’27 season (though Castillo has a vesting option that kicks in if he tosses 180 options next year).

The Sox have a blank payroll slate beyond 2027, and most of the roster is made up of controllable players who won’t become pricey via arbitration until the 2030s. Burke and second baseman Chase Meidroth can reach in 2028. Taylor, Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, Sam Antonacci and Tristan Peters won’t be arb-eligible until 2029.

That gives the Sox a good bit of runway to win with the current core, but the composition of the roster could necessitate some urgency with regard to next season. Murakami is signed only through 2o27. Getz has spoken about hoping to extend him, but nothing has come together yet. Kay is also a free agent next winter. Slugging third baseman Miguel Vargas is controlled via arbitration through 2029.

The looming departures of Murakami and (to a lesser extent) Vargas, coupled with the wide-open nature of the payroll post-2027, create a compelling case for Getz to make a sizable rotation investment, whether that be a long-term deal for a Rogers/Peralta/King-caliber arm, a trade for someone like Detmers — or possibly even both. Extensions for Vargas and/or Murakami could further legitimize the long-term core but would surely require sizable commitments. The largest contract in franchise history is, somewhat incredibly, Benintendi’s five-year, $75MM deal. Given the heightened expectations in 2027, it would seem there’s a good chance for the Sox to put down a larger commitment this winter.

All of this creates plenty of decisions for Getz and his staff — but these sorts of “problems” are more than welcome for a club that has ramped up from record-setting futility (121 loss in 2024) to genuine contender in far quicker fashion than anyone could have reasonably anticipated.

Adrian Morejon Wants To Remain A Reliever

Charlie Wright — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 15:51:12 +0000

Left-hander Adrian Morejon is one of the top relievers on the free agent market, and he wants to keep it that way. Will Sammon, Ken Rosenthal, and Katie Woo of The Athletic report that Morejon prefers to stay in the bullpen, despite drawing interest as a starter.

The 27-year-old Morejon is coming off a dominant platform year setting up for closer Mason Miller. He posted a 2.83 ERA with a 30.4% strikeout rate across a career-high 86 innings. Morejon finished tied for fifth in the league with 28 holds. He also chipped in three saves.

Morejon has been a crucial part of an elite Padres bullpen for the past three seasons. He’s had a sub-3.00 ERA with solid strikeout numbers and good control while operating in a high-leverage gig. Morejon has piled up 60 holds, 25 wins, and eight saves since the start of 2024.

It’s been quite some time since Morejon operated as a starter. The Padres signed him as an international free agent in 2016. He worked strictly as a starter in the lower levels of the minors, but took on a swingman role when he first debuted with San Diego in 2019. Morejon pitched in parts of three seasons with the Padres, then needed Tommy John surgery in 2021. He’s been almost exclusively a reliever since then. Morejon has made one MLB start over the past five years, and it came as an extended opener in 2023.

Lights-out relievers transitioning into starting roles isn’t uncommon. Clay Holmes saved 30 games for the Yankees in 2024, then left for the Mets in free agency to be a starter. Seth Lugo followed a similar path once he reached the open market. Reid Detmers came up as a starter with the Angels, moved to a relief role, then jumped back into starting last season. He put together easily the best campaign of his career in 2026. As The Athletic notes, these transitions are typically driven by the players. Holmes made it clear in free agency that he wanted to sign as a starting pitcher. Morejon doesn’t seem to have that same desire.

If he made the switch to starting, the arsenal would play. Morejon threw four different pitches at least 14% of the time last season. He leads with a sinker/changeup combo, backed by a slider and a four-seamer. It’s a well-balanced mix that can get both righties and lefties out.

The interesting factor would be the velocity. After sitting 96-97 mph with his four-seamer and sinker the past two seasons, Morejon averaged 99+ mph on both pitches in 2026. The only qualified pitchers with harder sinkers were Miller, Edgardo Henriquez, and Jacob Misiorowski. The uptick in velocity spurred a career-best 16.8% swinging-strike rate and a strikeout rate above 30% for the first time since the shortened 2020 season.

Morejon has shown he can be effective at a lower velocity, but the punchouts would likely come down in a starting role. He’d also be looking at some sort of workload limitations. Morejon has set career highs in innings in each of the past two seasons, though he’s yet to approach even 100 frames as a pro. He also dealt with a shoulder injury that kept him out of the final three games of the NLCS.

The Padres extended the qualifying offer to Morejon. That slightly dims his outlook in free agency, but shouldn’t be a major deterrent. He ranks eighth on our Top 50 Free Agents list. We have him landing a five-year, $80MM deal.

Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images

No Jump Scare! Postseason Innings Jumps Are Not Actually That Scary

Jack Dorfman — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 15:30:35 +0000

Or at least, they’re not any scarier than any other career high in innings.

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The Opener: GM Meetings, ROYs, Managers

Charlie Wright — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 14:35:59 +0000

Which squad would make sense in a Ketel Marte trade? Great deep dive from MLBTR’s Anthony Franco on the possibilities for 20+ teams.

1. Skubal the focus in Vegas

The GM Meetings kicked off on Monday. Unsurprisingly, the most prized free agent on the market was a popular talking point. Tarik Skubal rumblings began pretty quickly after executives from around the league descended on Las Vegas. The Padres reportedly have interest in landing the two-time Cy Young winner. The Cubs? Not so much. Skubal’s status could hang over the rest of free agency, like it did heading into the trade deadline.

2. Rookie of the Year awards handed out

Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle and Reds first baseman Sal Stewart earned Rookie of the Year honors last night. McGonigle delivered a 129 wRC+ with 18 homers and 12 steals as an everyday option on the left side of the infield. Stewart popped 32 homers and finished third in the league in RBI. The awards voting has resulted in three Prospect Promotion Incentive picks. The Tigers and Reds each got one for their ROY winners. The Guardians also got one after Parker Messick finished top three in AL Cy Young voting.

3. Manager of the Year decided tonight

Awards season will continue with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announcing the Manager of the Year on Tuesday. The AL candidates are Kevin Cash (Rays), Chad Tracy (Red Sox), and Will Venable (White Sox). On the NL side, it’s Don Mattingly (Phillies), Pat Murphy (Brewers), and Walt Weiss (Braves). It’s an interesting group. Two of the skippers were early-season replacements (Tracy and Mattingly). Cash and Murphy faced off in the World Series. Venable turned around a Chicago squad that had lost 100+ games the past three years.

Photo courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images

Reviewing Starting Pitcher Fastball Velocity Gainers & Decliners — Apr 6, 2026

Mike Podhorzer — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 13:30:27 +0000

In early April, I took a look at starting pitchers who had enjoyed increased fastball velocities, and those who had suffered declines. Since velocity is highly correlated with both strikeout rate and ERA, velocity is an important metric to track during the season. Identifying early season risers could help pinpoint breakouts, while decliners could help […]

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Padres Have Expressed Interest In Tarik Skubal

Anthony Franco — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 05:59:44 +0000

The Padres are among the teams that have shown interest in Tarik Skubal in the early days of the offseason, reports Jon Morosi of The MLB Network. San Diego has been speculated as a dark horse for the two-time Cy Young winner, but this is the first definitive link to the game’s top free agent.

It’s a fascinating offseason for the Friars. They’ve dramatically scaled back free agent spending since the 2023 passing of former owner Peter Seidler. The Seidler family sold the franchise to a group led by José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones over the summer. That’s raised optimism among the fanbase about the Padres diving back into the top end of the market.

The Padres’ series of backloaded contracts left them with a dramatically higher luxury tax number than cash payroll in recent years. MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker (courtesy of contributor Ethan Hullihen) shows they finished the 2026 season with a tax number around $269.43MM and an actual payroll in the $224MM range. They’re projected around $193MM in both figures for the 2027 season, including arbitration estimates. Next year’s cutoffs won’t be established until there’s a new collective bargaining agreement in place as MLB pushes for a cap/floor system. (The cap wouldn’t take effect until at least 2028 even if the league were to get the MLBPA to budge on its longstanding firm opposition.)

Skubal is widely expected to beat the current $43.333MM record annual value for a pitcher. MLBTR predicts he’ll both establish a new AAV record and handily top the $325MM guarantee held by Yoshinobu Yamamoto. We forecasted a nine-year, $425MM contract; San Diego’s franchise record is their $340MM extension for Fernando Tatis Jr. They’ve only given out a $30MM annual value to one player, Manny Machado — though they technically did so on both Machado’s initial free agent deal and his 2023 extension to override his opt-out clause. Machado and Xander Bogaerts are the two players to whom they’ve given a free agent deal exceeding $200MM.

The Padres need to overhaul essentially their entire rotation. Michael King opted out, while the team declined what amounted to a two-year, $32MM option on Nick Pivetta. Deadline acquisitions Casey Mize and Robbie Ray seem unlikely to return as free agents. Walker Buehler, Griffin Canning and Lucas Giolito also all hit the market.

Randy Vásquez is San Diego’s only returning pitcher who started more than six games this year. It’s unclear what they can expect from Joe Musgrove or whether Yu Darvish will continue his MLB career. There’s a chance that not a single member of the team’s season-opening rotation is yet on the roster. Even if they re-sign King or pull off a surprise top-of-the-market strike for Skubal, they’ll need to do a ton of work building the depth.

Skubal is not tied to a qualifying offer, as the midseason trade from Detroit to the Dodgers rendered him ineligible. The Friars issued a QO to Adrian Morejon and would receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round in next year’s draft if he signs elsewhere. Trevor Rogers was the only starting pitcher to receive a QO this year. The Padres would surrender their second- and fifth-highest picks, as well as $1MM in international bonus pool space, if they signed Rogers. No other free agent starter would come attached to draft compensation.

Angels To Begin Preliminary Meetings With GM Candidates

Anthony Franco — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 05:15:37 +0000

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, the Angels’ incoming ownership group, will conduct informal meetings with candidates for their general manager job at this week’s GM Meetings. Interim GM John Mozeliak relayed the update to Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register on Monday.

While this marks a preliminary start to the GM search, the organization remains in a holding pattern. They’re awaiting approval of the franchise sale from Arte Moreno to KSE from Major League Baseball. Mozeliak said last week that the Angels weren’t likely to hire a full-time GM until MLB approves the sale, which he reiterated this evening.

Mozeliak remains in charge of the front office until December. He could handle the team’s offseason business right up to the inevitable December 2 lockout. It’s an odd spot for the organization, as they’d surely prefer for their new ownership group and permanent front office to handle any significant moves. That could force them to miss out on free agent and trade opportunities over the next few weeks. The market is expected to move more quickly than usual as teams try to get business done before the transaction freeze.

“It’s awkward but my responsibility right now is to explore the trade market, see what that looks like,” Mozeliak acknowledged. “We’ll touch base with a handful of agents, but overall it’s really to allow ourselves to, whenever that vote happens, to ultimately be nimble and be able to react.” While he suggested the Angels would need to “be open-minded to (trade discussions concerning) our entire roster,” he has downplayed the chance that he and his current staff will be the ones actually making big roster decisions.

The Angels should be open to a rebuild. They made one retooling move at the deadline in trading starter José Soriano, who was under arbitration control for two and a half seasons, to the Blue Jays for a package led by shortstop prospect Arjun Nimmala.

Starter Reid Detmers (controllable through 2028) and shortstop Zach Neto (controllable through ’29) are their big potential offseason trade chips. The Angels would presumably be happy to offload part of the $21MM salary owed to Yusei Kikuchi in the final season of his three-year contract. They could listen on first baseman Nolan Schanuel (controllable through ’29) and potentially try to cash in on lefty reliever Samy Natera Jr. after an encouraging rookie season. Other teams are sure to call on Walbert Ureña coming off an excellent debut campaign, but trading a 23-year-old starter is probably a bridge too far even if they embrace a full rebuild.

It seems the short term will mostly be about Mozeliak’s group laying the groundwork for further trade talks down the line. The Halos could make moves around the margins, dangling fringe trade chips like reliever Tayler Saucedo while looking into mid-tier free agents to add veteran experience to the infield or bullpen. They could also bring in an experienced catcher to split time with bat-first Moisés Ballesteros, particularly if they opt not to tender a contract to Tyler Heineman at next Friday’s deadline.

Best Fits For A Ketel Marte Trade

Anthony Franco — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 03:02:29 +0000

Teams are expected to lay the foundation for their offseason trade talks as the GM Meetings get underway. Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte is one of the biggest names available. The Snakes have more or less acknowledged that they’ll listen to offers on the three-time All-Star, who has clearly frustrated many within the organization by failing to show up for certain games over the years.

Marte has full control over his destiny, as he secured no-trade protection by reaching 10 years of service time (the last five of which have come in Arizona). He’s signed for another five years at a total of $87.5MM, covering ages 33-37. Marte is only making a $12MM salary next year, though, and $3MM of that is deferred.

That’s a fine salary even if he only repeats his league average .249/.316/.432 showing this year. If he bounces back some or all of the way to the player he was before, arguably the best second baseman in the sport, it’s a bargain for the on-field production. There’ll surely be teams that have trepidations about Marte’s work habits, and some might take him off their target list altogether, but the D-Backs should get some kind of interest given the star offensive upside he’s shown at his best.

Let’s run through the league to determine which teams should be most motivated to pull Marte from the desert.

Best Fits

Blue Jays

Toronto was the lowest scoring team in MLB in 2026. The middle infield (mostly Andrés Giménez and Ernie Clement) was a big part of that. Only three teams — the Rays, Braves and Cardinals — had a lower OPS from their middle infielders. Clement’s bat wilted in the second half, and he might be better suited for a utility role or a change of scenery trade.

Orioles

Baltimore’s young core has stalled a bit over the past two seasons. They’ve respectively finished last and fourth in the AL East in 2025 and ’26 after consecutive excellent regular seasons from 2023-24. Aside from moving Pete Alonso, they’re reportedly at least open to trade conversations on the rest of the roster.

That could include dealing from an infield that didn’t play up to its pedigree this year. Jackson Holliday is up to more than 1200 career plate appearances with a lifetime .229/.300/.354 slash line. He’s only entering his age-23 season and was weighed down by wrist injuries this year. Maybe the Orioles are willing to write that off as an anomaly, but at some point, they’re going to need better production out of second base. Baltimore has shown more willingness to take on notable contracts under David Rubenstein’s ownership. They could target Marte and either flip Holliday for pitching or bounce him around the diamond in a utility capacity.

Mets

Mets’ second basemen were exactly replacement level this past season, according to FanGraphs. That’s mostly because of a career-worst year from Marcus Semien, who hit .215/.280/.340 and failed to improve the infield defense. Brett Baty remained too inconsistent to seize the everyday job. The Mets probably aren’t finding a taker for Semien, but they also have the designated hitter at-bats to offer Marte if Semien bounces back. They’ll need to weigh this against various needs on the pitching staff and at first base, but this is one of the clearer fits in the league.

Red Sox

While Boston’s offense is solid on paper, they folded down the stretch. The Red Sox only scored 71 runs in September, 18 fewer than any other team. They couldn’t generate anything against the Yankees in the Wild Card Series, only scoring two runs (both on solo homers) in as many games.

Manager Chad Tracy suggested the Sox are likely to use Curtis Mead as their primary second baseman in 2027. They liked Mead enough to give up touted young southpaw Connelly Early for him, only to immediately lose him to a hand fracture that essentially ended his season. Second base isn’t a glaring need, especially with top prospect Franklin Arias looming as an option to push Trevor Story off shortstop, but the keystone and left field are the two positions where the Sox can most easily accommodate a bat if they want to upgrade the offense and sort out the playing time later.

Tigers

Detroit is potentially losing Gleyber Torres to free agency. They could stay internal at second base with a platoon of Max Anderson and Hao-Yu Lee. Anderson has zero MLB experience, though, and Lee’s decent offensive rookie season was offset to an extent by his poor glove. Marte would stabilize the position and allow Detroit to move Lee, Anderson and Colt Keith around the dirt. Detroit has Framber Valdez signed on a player option for 2028 and Kevin McGonigle on a nine-figure extension, but the long-term books are manageable enough to accommodate this contract.

Other Possibilities

Phillies

Philadelphia is probably at the top of this second tier. They’re likely losing Luis Arraez and Alec Bohm (plus righty-hitting utilityman Edmundo Sosa) to free agency. Philadelphia could move Bryson Stott back to second base and leave third base open for prospect Aidan Miller, but that’d be an uncertain left side infield for a contender. They’re already facing questions about how much longer Trea Turner can stick at shortstop, while Miller missed the bulk of the ’26 season to a back injury. Stott is one year from free agency.

Maybe they’d rather leave second base open for when Turner needs to move off the position, but he’s fast enough to play the outfield instead. The bigger concern would be adding another long-term contract for a mid-30s player. Philadelphia is as firmly in win-now mode as any team, so there’s a case for just rostering the best 2027 team possible and worrying about the future when it arrives.

Rangers

Texas doesn’t seem inclined to spend much this offseason, but president of baseball operations Chris Young has downplayed the chance of a full rebuild. This probably only works if they find a taker for Corey Seager, which would alleviate some of their short-term payroll constraints while opening a middle infield spot for top shortstop prospect Sebastian Walcott. Marte’s 2027 salary is cheap enough that Texas would probably be in a better spot if they managed to pair this with a Seager trade, but it’s much easier said than done considering Seager also has 10-and-5 rights and a more onerous contract to offload.

Rays

Tampa Bay typically isn’t a team that trades for late-career stars on significant contracts. They’ve had previous interest in Marte, though, and the structure of his contract might make this more attainable than it initially seems. It’s cheap enough short term, especially with the $3MM deferral, that any team can accommodate his 2027 salary. He’ll make upwards of $20MM for the following three years, but Tampa Bay doesn’t have any guaranteed commitments that stretch beyond next season.

The Rays also expect to move to a new stadium in the City of Tampa by 2029 — a move that owner Patrick Zalupski claims can support a player payroll in the top half to third of the league. It remains to be seen if the organization will back up those statements with action, but this would be one way to lay the foundation. The short-term positional need is certainly there, as the back half of Tampa Bay’s lineup was exposed by Milwaukee’s pitching staff in the World Series. They’re currently slated to run a Richie Palacios – Ben Williamson platoon at the position.

Yankees

The Yankees are almost certainly going to let Jazz Chisholm Jr. walk. That opens a second base vacancy in addition to the possibility that they upgrade over Ryan McMahon at third. The Yankees could use Anthony Volpe and José Caballero to split second base, but neither has proven to be even an average big league hitter. Marte is a better offensive player even in a down year. New York could plug him in at second and cut bait on McMahon even if they want to open the door for Volpe or Caballero to play a regular role somewhere on the dirt.

Long Shots

Angels

The Angels have arguably the worst second base group in MLB. Mike Trout is their only long-term contract on the books. They certainly could make this work, but they’re midway through an ownership change and operating with an interim GM (John Mozeliak) who has already downplayed the likelihood that he makes any big moves. If Marte is still a Diamondback after the lockout, maybe the Angels’ new front office will look into this, but this team should be retooling regardless. Trading for a 33-year-old second baseman whose work habits frustrated his previous organization doesn’t make much sense.

Braves

Ozzie Albies is in the final year of his contract and has been up and down for the last few seasons. Atlanta would probably be a better team with Marte, but it’d be a risk from a clubhouse perspective and add another long-term commitment to one of the league’s oldest position player groups. 2025 first-round pick Tate Southisene has hit his way to Double-A and might fit best long term at second base.

Dodgers

Second base is the one lineup spot at which the Dodgers could look for an external upgrade. A combination of Tommy Edman and Alex Freeland is serviceable, though, and the Diamondbacks probably don’t want to move Marte to the best team in the division.

Giants

The Giants would’ve been a stronger fit had they not acquired Marcelo Mayer from the Red Sox at the deadline for reliever Erik Miller. They’ll also have Casey Schmitt back in the mix and don’t have the designated hitter at-bats to offer. They could trade Schmitt for starting pitching or plug him back into left field, but the more direct scenario would be to sign a starter and/or corner outfielder. They’d also need the Diamondbacks to be on board moving Marte within the NL West.

Mariners

Marte is a known quantity to the Seattle front office, as he spent the first two seasons of his career in the Pacific Northwest. The Mariners need offense generally but already have a quality second baseman in

Sal Stewart Wins NL Rookie Of The Year, Earns PPI Pick For Reds

Anthony Franco — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 01:39:35 +0000

The Baseball Writers Association of America announced Monday evening that Reds first baseman Sal Stewart has won the National League Rookie of the Year award. The win earns Cincinnati a pick after the first round of the 2027 draft via the Prospect Promotion Incentive.

Stewart received 20 of 30 first-place votes and was the only player in the NL field to land in the top five on every ballot. He beat out Mets outfielder Carson Benge and Cardinals middle infielder JJ Wetherholt for the honors. Benge received seven first-place votes and was on all but two ballots overall, leading to the runner-up finish. Wetherholt, who finished in third, received the three other first-place votes.

Nolan McLean, TJ Rumfield, and Logan Henderson were the other players to receive one or more votes in the top three. They respectively finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the voting. Bryce Eldridge, Didier Fuentes, and A.J. Ewing were the only other players to appear on ballots (no higher than fifth in their cases).

Stewart debuted last September but remained rookie eligible going into 2026. He was Cincinnati’s Opening Day first baseman. Stewart started 110 games there, 33 at third base, 11 as a designated hitter, and seven at second base. He led NL rookies with 700 plate appearances and hit .263/.330/.457 with 32 home runs, 12 more than any other rookie in the league. Stewart blew away the rest of the field by driving in 112 runs, nearly 40 RBI clear of any other first-year player. Only Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson kept Stewart from leading all NL hitters in that category, while he finished eighth in the league in home runs.

The volume and Stewart’s gaudy counting stats probably would’ve made this a runaway in previous eras of baseball. It was more of a borderline case in today’s game, as park adjustments for Cincinnati’s hitter-friendly stadium and Stewart’s lack of defensive value weighed him down in the eyes of WAR models. Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference graded Stewart at two wins above replacement, about half the WAR totals for Benge and Wetherholt. The majority of voters placed a premium on Stewart’s power production in the middle of Terry Francona’s lineup, keeping him at the top of their ballots.

Wetherholt and Benge were Gold Glove finalists at second base and in right field, respectively. Wetherholt seemed to be Stewart’s top competition for the bulk of the season, but his bat wilted in the second half around a two-week absence to right wrist tendinitis. Benge, who was one of the best hitters in the NL after the All-Star Break, ended up being Stewart’s biggest challenger behind a 20-20 season with a .282/.346/.430 showing.

All three finalists met the criteria for the Prospect Promotion Incentive and opened the year on their respective teams’ MLB rosters. That meant whoever won the award was guaranteed to net their team a PPI pick. Stewart’s win secures that pick for Cincinnati — one of three that’ll be awarded next year. Kevin McGonigle earned one for Detroit by winning the AL Rookie of the Year, while Parker Messick secured one for Cleveland with a top three finish in AL Cy Young voting.

Stewart is the Reds’ second Rookie of the Year winner this decade and the ninth honoree in club history. Frank Robinson (1956), Pete Rose (1963), Tommy Helms (1966), Johnny Bench (1968), Pat Zachry (1976), Chris Sabo (1988), Scott Williamson (1999) and Jonathan India (2021) are the franchise’s previous winners. They’re tied with the Athletics for fourth-most ROY winners overall, trailing only the Dodgers, Yankees and Braves.

Image courtesy of David Banks, Imagn Images.

Kevin McGonigle Wins AL Rookie Of The Year, Earns PPI Pick For Tigers

Anthony Franco — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 01:07:53 +0000

The Baseball Writers Association of America announced Monday evening that Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle has won the AL Rookie of the Year award. McGonigle’s win earns Detroit a pick after the first round of the 2027 draft via the Prospect Promotion Incentive.

McGonigle received 28 of 30 first-place votes. Guardians left-hander Parker Messick earned the other two first-place votes en route to the runner-up finish. Messick is also a top three finisher for the Cy Young award, which means he earned Cleveland a PPI pick in 2027. McGonigle finished second for the two voters who had Messick in the top spot. Messick received 25 second-place votes, placed third on two ballots, and landed fourth for one voter.

Red Sox southpaw Payton Tolle led a crowded field for the third-place finish. Munetaka Murakami, Carter Jensen, Chase DeLauter, Kazuma Okamoto, Tristan Peters, Sam Antonacci, Travis Bazzana, Walbert Ureña, Dylan Beavers and Henry Bolte all appeared in the top five on at least one ballot.

McGonigle’s runaway win doesn’t come as much surprise even in a very strong field. The 22-year-old infielder, who entered the season as the consensus #2 prospect in baseball behind Pittsburgh’s Konnor Griffin, hit the ground running. He had a four-hit performance in his debut and never really looked back. McGonigle batted .278/.376/.430 across 707 plate appearances, entrenching himself in the top third of A.J. Hinch’s lineup by the second week of the season. He walked at an excellent 13.4% clip against a modest 14.1% strikeout rate.

The 2023 supplemental first-rounder connected on 18 home runs and drove in 72. He scored 97 runs and led AL rookies (min. 200 plate appearances) in on-base percentage. McGonigle divided his defensive work evenly between shortstop and third base. He graded as a neutral shortstop defender by both Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast’s Outs Above Average. Statcast had him right around average at third base as well, though DRS (+8) was more favorable on his work at the hot corner.

McGonigle was unquestionably the best rookie position player in the American League. One could’ve made a reasonable case for Messick, who worked to a 2.56 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate across 186 1/3 innings. The Wins Above Replacement models at both FanGraphs (5.4 to 4.9) and Baseball Reference (7.1 to 6.3) had the race between McGonigle and Messick within a rounding error, but most voters understandably opted for the everyday shortstop. McGonigle also earned his first of what’ll probably be a number of All-Star nods and has a chance to finish in the top five in MVP balloting when that’s revealed on Thursday.

The Tigers carried McGonigle on their Opening Day roster, ensuring he’d be eligible for the PPI pick. They signed him to an eight-year, $150MM contract extension in the middle of April. Detroit waited to finalize that agreement until after McGonigle’s debut, which preserved his PPI eligibility. It’s one of three PPI picks for 2027. Messick earned one for the Guardians with the aforementioned Cy Young finalist honors, while Sal Stewart’s NL Rookie of the Year win secured one for Cincinnati.

McGonigle is the sixth player in team history to win ROY honors. Harvey Kuenn (1953), Mark Fidrych (1976), Lou Whitaker (1978), Justin Verlander (2006), and Michael Fulmer (2016) are the franchise’s previous honorees.

Image courtesy of Josh Boland, USA TODAY Network.

Cardinals, JoJo Romero Have Mutual Interest In Reunion

Charlie Wright — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 00:17:42 +0000

6:17pm: Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat reports that there’s interest on both sides in a reunion.

11:13am: After shipping him to Milwaukee at the trade deadline, the Cardinals have interest in bringing back left-hander JoJo Romero, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Romero was a crucial cog in a Brewers’ bullpen that dominated en route to a title.

St. Louis closed the 2025 season with an unsettled relief corps after Ryan Helsley and Phil Maton were traded away. Romero filled in at closer at times to close the year and seemed to have a shot to take the job in 2026. Instead, Riley O’Brien emerged as an All-Star stopper. That allowed Romero to stay in his high-leverage lefty role. He racked up 20 holds in 44 appearances.

With free agency looming, the Cardinals sent Romero and Dustin May to the Brewers for outfield prospects Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale. The swap worked out well for both sides. The addition of Romero gave manager Pat Murphy another southpaw alongside Aaron Ashby in the later innings. Romero was scored upon in just one of seven playoff outings. He picked up wins over the Dodgers in Games 2 and 4 of the NLCS.

St. Louis recouped a pair of young outfielders who immediately ranked among their better hitting prospects. MLB Pipeline slotted Frias at No. 5 and Ragsdale at No. 11 in the system. Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs ranked Frias as the third-best prospect moved at the deadline.

The 30-year-old Romero has been one of the steadiest lefty relievers since joining the Cardinals. He came over in the deal that sent Edmundo Sosa to Philadelphia in 2022. Romero posted a low-to-mid 3.00s ERA in every season from 2023 through 2026. The one outlier was 2025, when he recorded a 2.07 ERA over a career-high 61 innings. Romero ran hot on home run luck that year.

Romero came in at No. 46 on our Top 50 Free Agents list. He’s the fourth lefty reliever on the board, behind Adrian Morejon, Alex Vesia, and Steven Okert. Morejon is in a class by himself, but Romero certainly deserves to be in the mix with the rest of the group. We predict a two-year, $13MM deal for him. He should draw solid interest from teams looking to bolster their bullpen, which tends to be an ample bunch.

The Cardinals head into 2027 without many proven options behind O’Brien. Luis Gastelum showed some strikeout upside in his debut campaign. George Soriano had a decent season after coming over in a minor trade. The left-handed choices right now are journeyman Justin Bruihl and long relievers Brycen Mautz, Eduardo Rivera, and Josh Fleming. Bruihl had a good year, but he’s more of a middle relief candidate. The others are best-deployed as multi-inning guys.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Latest On Ben Brown

Darragh McDonald — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 23:43:19 +0000

The health of Cubs right-hander Ben Brown is still up in the air. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reports that Brown, who battled a neck injury in 2026, still hasn’t been cleared to throw and a future surgery still hasn’t been ruled out.

It’s a frustrating situation for Brown, who appeared to be breaking out this year. He started 2026 in the bullpen but pitched well enough to get a rotation spot by early May. He made his eighth start of the year on June 19. After that, he had thrown 68 innings on the season across those eight starts and his 12 relief appearances. He allowed just 1.88 earned runs per nine.

Brown got a bit of help, as his .243 batting average on balls in play and 79.1% strand rate were both to the fortunate side. But his 24.5% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 44.6% ground ball rate were all better than league average. ERA estimators like his 2.50 FIP and 3.55 SIERA suggest he would have fared well even with more neutral favor from the baseball gods.

That breakout season was interrupted by the aforementioned neck problems. Brown was placed on the IL June 24, retroactive to June 21, with what was initially described as a neck strain. A few days later, manager Craig Counsell added more info, revealing that Brown had been diagnosed with a stress reaction in his neck. Brown tried ramping up a throwing program in August but experienced a recurrence of symptoms and never made it back to the club.

Ideally, Brown would be able to use the offseason to get healthy for the 2027 campaign but it sounds like that won’t necessarily be the case. He and the Cubs are apparently still searching for answers, a process that could be complicated by the upcoming lockout.

The current collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association expires at 11:59 pm Eastern on December 1. The two sides are negotiating a new deal but don’t appear close to getting anything done, as the league continues to push for a salary cap and floor system, a framework the players oppose. It is widely expected that no deal will be reached by December 2 and the league will lock out the players at that time.

In a lockout, players are not allowed to communicate with team personnel. That includes trainers and other medical support staff. That makes things awkward for any player recovering from an injury this winter.

In Brown’s case, that might be particularly tricky. He and the club might be pressured to make a decision about surgery before the lockout. Otherwise, he may be on his own through the winter. Even if he does go under the knife in the next few weeks, he would have to fly solo on his rehab, perhaps for several months. The 2021-22 lockout wasn’t resolved until March 10. It’s unknown if the next lockout will be longer or shorter.

The ongoing uncertainty with Brown only adds to rotation need for the Cubs. The rotation group they had at the end of the 2026 was entirely lost to free agency, and even some depth as well. Matthew Boyd, Clay Holmes, Kevin Gausman, Shota Imanaga, David Peterson and Colin Rea are all now on the open market.

There are plenty of questions with the guys who are still on the roster. Justin Steele hasn’t pitched since April of 2025 because of elbow surgery. Edward Cabrera missed time with various injuries in 2026, getting bumped to the bullpen and finishing the year with a 5.96 ERA. Javier Assad has had some decent results but without a lot of strikeouts. Injuries and command issues have prevented Braxton Garrett from getting a lengthy run in the big leagues since 2023. Cade Horton had Tommy John surgery earlier this year and will still be recovering into next summer. Jaxon Wiggins and other prospects are knocking on the door but aren’t established yet.

It’s no secret that the Cubs will be looking to add multiple arms into the mix this offseason. That could happen via free agency but it doesn’t seem the Cubs will make a strong run at the top of the market by pursuing Tarik Skubal. Free agency also features Trevor Rogers, Freddy Peralta and plenty of others. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Cubs tried to re-sign any of their departing free agents. The trade market could feature Reid Detmers, Emerson Hancock and plenty of others.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images

Mets Outright Kyren Paris

Darragh McDonald — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 22:36:38 +0000

The Mets have sent infielder Kyren Paris outright to Triple-A Syracuse after he cleared waivers, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Paris had been designated for assignment last week. This is the first career outright for Paris and he has less than three years of big league service time, so he will have to accept the assignment.

It’s a strange birthday present for Paris, who will turn 25 on Wednesday. The Mets claimed him off waivers from the Angels towards the end of October. Paris has not yet qualified for arbitration. In spite of that, a few days after the waiver claim, the Mets announced that they had signed Paris to a deal for 2027 and then designated him for assignment. The financial details of that contract have not been reported.

It might seem odd for a club to sign a player and then immediately bump him from the roster but it was by design. Teams do this with the hope that the player’s salary is high enough for other clubs to pass on claiming him from waivers, thus allowing him to stick around as non-roster depth. The player, meanwhile, usually gets paid a minor league salary much higher than the minimum for that level.

In this case, it had worked. The Mets can keep Paris without him taking up a spot on the 40-man. He will probably receive a non-roster invite to big league camp in spring training and will try to earn his way back on.

Paris was once a prospect of note with the Angels, as that club took him with a second-round pick in 2019. Baseball America ranked him as one of the top prospects in the Halos’ system for much of this decade. His speed and defense are both considered assets. He has frequently racked up double-digit stolen base totals in the minors, including 44 in 2023. With the glove, he has spent most of his time in the middle infield but has also dabbled at all three outfield spots.

There are pros and cons with his offense. He can draw walks and do damage with the bat but also strikes out a lot. Over the past four seasons, he stepped to the plate 1,317 times on the farm. His 30.2% strikeout rate in that time was very high but he also drew walks at a strong 14.8% clip and hit 37 home runs. He had a combined .240/.360/.407 line and 103 wRC+. He also made 263 big league plate appearances with a 9.1% walk rate, 38.4% strikeout rate and .147/.238/.272 line.

Paris exhausted his final option season in 2026 and is now out of options. He got nudged off the Angels’ roster but the Mets grabbed him and have now put him through waivers unclaimed. Going into 2027, the Mets have Francisco Lindor projected as their shortstop. Second base could go to Brett Baty, Marcus Semien or Ronny Mauricio. Middle infield prospects Jefferson Rojas, Émilien Pitre and Mitch Voit are knocking on the door. Paris will now be in that mix as well.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

Dipoto: Mariners Eyeing Bullpen Upgrades, At Least One Bat

Steve Adams — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 22:07:15 +0000

With Jason Kanzler installed as the new skipper out in Seattle, the Mariners have one piece of offseason business checked off the list. There will still be a handful of coaching hires to sort out, but with the GM Meetings underway in Las Vegas, the focus will also turn to upgrading roster. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto chatted with Teren Kowatsch of Mariners Roundtable following last week’s Kanzler introduction and gave a relatively candid assessment of his group’s targets.

“This year’s bullpen market is pretty appealing,” said Dipoto. “There’s a lot of guys out there we feel like could help us. We’ve already identified who they might be. Whether we can land them or not is a different story. But, we’re looking to add to our bullpen. We’re looking for one, maybe two more bats. And we’d like to add a veteran infield presence. Whether that is part of the bats or just a presence is something entirely different.”

The areas of focus listed by Dipoto are all fairly natural ones. Seattle relievers were dominant in 2025 but took steps back across the board in 2026 — particularly closer Andrés Muñoz, whose ERA jumped from 1.73 to 4.24. Muñoz actually threw harder, missed more bats and lowered his walk rate in 2026, but he was astonishingly homer-prone (relative to his typical standards). From 2022-25, Muñoz saw only 9.9% of his fly-balls leave the yard; he averaged only 0.57 homers per nine innings pitched in that time. In ’26, he saw a staggering 23.6% of the fly-balls he yielded become home runs. Muñoz averaged 1.41 HR/9 — about 2.5 times as many homers as he yielded previously.

On the whole, Seattle relievers combined for a 4.46 ERA that ranked 22nd in baseball. Mariners relievers were 14th in strikeout rate and had the seventh-best walk rate in baseball, but they combined for an average of 1.12 HR/9 — tenth-highest in the sport (despite playing home games in an overwhelmingly pitcher-friendly park). Josh Simpson, Eduard Bazardo, Hoby Milner and Muñoz were the most egregious offenders in that regard. Meanwhile, top setup man Matt Brash missed most of the season due to a lat strain, which limited him to only 16 1/3 innings. Gabe Speier, their other top setup option, was down nearly a month early on due to shoulder inflammation.

The Mariners tend to prefer trades to free agency, and Dipoto again acknowledged that reality when chatting with Kowatsch. That said, he also noted that this year’s group of free agent pitchers is more appealing than the position players. It’d still be a shock to see Seattle put down the big multi-year commitments they’d need to sign Adrian Morejon or David Bednar — to say nothing of the associated draft compensation after both received qualifying offers — but there’s a nice group of relievers in the next tier. Any of Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips, Bryan Abreu, Emilio Pagán or Steven Okert could be a difference-maker without extending beyond three years; most or all seem likely to be in the two-year range. If the aim is for a big one-year deal, Raisel Iglesias stands as an option.

On the trade front, the M’s could go any number of ways. No one was expecting them to trade for Jose A. Ferrer or Gregory Santos in recent offseasons, but that’s the sort of controllable arm Dipoto has pried loose when dealing for relief help.

As for the lineup needs, it’s only natural to covet multiple bats. The Mariners ranked 28th in the majors in runs scored, 16th in home runs, 29th in batting average, 21st in on-base percentage and 28th in slugging percentage. They were tied for the tenth-best walk rate in MLB but also the seventh-worst strikeout rate. All of that was with Randy Arozarena producing one of the best seasons of his career. He’s a free agent now, as is J.P. Crawford and his 13.1% walk rate.

Beyond Arozarena, corner bats on the open market include Seiya Suzuki, Ian Happ and NPB star Teruaki Sato. Rebound candidates include Adolis Garcia, Trent Grisham, Cedric Mullins and Daulton Varsho. The trade market features names like Trevor Larnach, Jarren Duran and Teoscar Hernández, among others — at least, on the outfield side of things.

In the infield, there are ample questions. The organization hopes that top prospect Colt Emerson can be the shortstop of the future after signing an eight-year contract, but injuries didn’t give him a full chance to do so. He was placed on the IL mid-August and underwent season-ending wrist surgery not long after. Cole Young had a solid all-around season at second base but still has room to grow. Josh Naylor rebounded from a slow start to hit well over the final four-plus months. Brendan Donovan was injured more than he was healthy, leaving some doubts at the hot corner.

Dipoto’s mention of adding to the infield is likely both a nod to uncertainty at various positions and the flexibility provided by the versatile Donovan. If the opportunity to acquire a notable third baseman presents itself, Dipoto and his staff could pounce at that and push Donovan into left field work. He and Dominic Canzone would be in line to flank center fielder Julio Rodríguez. The third base market is thin — at least barring a run at international free agents like Sato and the KBO’s Si Hwan Roh. Again, the trade market presents innumerable opportunities, particularly since the Mariners may finally be amenable to dealing from their perennially enviable stock of rotation arms.

As can be seen in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, the Mariners have about $67MM committed to six players (Cal Raleigh, Seranthony Dominguez, Naylor, Emerson, Rodriguez, Muñoz). Their massive 14 arbitration-eligible players are projected for about $57MM, though there are some non-tender candidates in the group. Rounding out the roster with pre-arb players and accounting for some money on deferred signing bonuses and 2027 option buyouts bumps them to about $142.5MM in 2027 payroll projections — around $28MM shy of the point at which they ended the 2026 season. That leaves Dipoto some room, especially if he’s open to trading George Kirby (projected $9.8MM salary) or Logan Gilbert (projected $15.4MM), though their openness on either isn’t known.

Dodgers Claim Christian Cairo

Darragh McDonald — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 22:00:08 +0000

The Dodgers announced that they have claimed infielder Christian Cairo off waivers from the Mets. New York designated him for assignment last week. The Dodgers had three vacancies on their 40-man roster and don’t need to make a corresponding move.

The Mets claimed Cairo off waivers from the Phillies in September. He has not yet qualified for arbitration. Regardless, the Mets signed him to a split deal last week and then designated him for assignment later that day. The salary details of the contract have not been publicly reported.

It might seem strange to sign a player and then immediately cut him from the roster but it’s a strategy that has become somewhat common in recent years, with the Orioles being the club most frequently deploying it. The hope is that the player’s salary is high enough that other clubs will pass on putting in a waiver claim. The player will then stick around as non-roster depth. Even if he has the right to elect free agency, the guaranteed money on his deal will hopefully prevent him from doing so.

The best-case scenario for a move like this would be something like Ryan O’Hearn. The O’s sent him through waivers unclaimed in January of 2023. Baltimore got to keep him as depth while using that roster spot to pick up other players. O’Hearn eventually earned his way back onto the roster and was an above-average hitter for the 2023 to 2025 seasons. The O’s traded him and Ramón Laureano to the Padres at the 2025 deadline for six prospects.

Most cases like this won’t play out that way but clubs keep trying because the down payment is usually minimal, by baseball standards, while the payoff is potentially huge. The Mets have recently taken up the mantle of the club most aggressive in this area. They have given pre-arb deals to Cairo, Kyren Paris and Robert Stock this month. Stock is still on the roster but Cairo and Paris were designated for assignment last week.

In the case of Cairo, the Dodgers have swooped in to prevent the Mets from accomplishing their goal. Cairo hasn’t yet made his major league debut but teams are clearly intrigued by his work in the minors. Atlanta took him from Cleveland in the 2024 Rule 5 draft but he didn’t make the Opening Day roster in 2025 and was returned to the Guardians. He then got a minor league deal with an upward mobility clause with the Phillies going into 2026. The Phils gave him a roster spot at the end of spring training but kept him in the minors. He was put on waivers in September, which is when the Mets grabbed him.

Cairo’s offensive numbers on the farm don’t jump off the page. Over the past three years, he has a .236/.360/.318 line and 93 wRC+, but his 14.5% walk rate and 19.9% strikeout rate are both strong figures. If he could do a bit more damage when putting the ball in play, there is perhaps an extra gear in there. Defensively, Cairo is considered strong at shortstop. He also has experience at every other position on the diamond outside of the battery. He doesn’t need to hit much to be a useful utility piece.

He still has two options and could be kept in the minors. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if the Dodgers tried to put him back on waivers later in the winter. For now, he profiles as a depth infielder for Los Angeles. They have Mookie Betts at shortstop, Max Muncy at third and Freddie Freeman at first. Second base is a bit more open but the Dodgers have Tommy Edman, Alex Freeland and Hyeseong Kim as options there. If Cairo is still on the roster come spring, he could compete for a bench spot.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Latest On Emilio Pagán

Darragh McDonald — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 20:57:33 +0000

Right-hander Emilio Pagán recently turned down a $10MM player option with the Reds, thus becoming a free agent. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Pagán already has a busy market and would prefer to sign before the lockout, so perhaps he will have a deal in place in the next few weeks.

Pagán turns 36 in May but it’s not surprising that he has a robust market. His 2026 season was okay if you look at the whole thing but he finished on quite a heater. On the whole, he tossed 42 2/3 innings with a 3.38 earned run average. He posted a 6.43 ERA through 14 innings before a hamstring strain put him on the injured list in May. He came off the IL in June and shoved through the rest of the season with a 1.88 ERA in 28 2/3 innings. He struck out 30.4% of opponents and only gave out walks at a 4.5% clip, both excellent figures.

After that showing, Pagán left $10MM on the table in search of more. His earning power is limited by his age but beating that number should be doable. MLBTR predicted Pagán to secure a two-year, $20MM deal this winter.

It wouldn’t be a shock if Pagán’s next deal was with the Reds, as his last two deals were with Cincinnati. Going into the 2024 season, the Reds gave him a two-year, $16MM deal, with the second year being a player option. It was a bit of a surprising pairing, as Pagán’s main issue in his career has been the long ball and Great American Ball Park is fairly hitter-friendly in that regard.

The first season didn’t go especially well, as Pagán made a couple of trips to the IL due to arm-related injuries and had a 4.50 ERA in 38 innings. He bounced back in 2025, with a 2.88 ERA in 68 2/3 innings. He returned to free agency but the Reds brought him back on another two-year deal with the second year being a player option. This time, the guarantee was bumped slightly to $20MM. As mentioned, Pagán pitched well enough to turn down the 2027 option.

Manager Terry Francona would clearly be pleased if a Pagán reunion could be worked out. “I’m not giving up on him coming back,” Francona said. “He has a right to test the market. But I don’t think it’s any secret how much I’ve enjoyed him, how much I respect him, how much I love him.”

The Reds and Pagán clearly like each other but a return to Cincinnati shouldn’t be considered a lock. Pagán’s numbers will surely get him interest from other clubs. The Reds, meanwhile, have needs beyond the bullpen. The rotation has Chase Burns up top but the rest of the group looks to be light with Hunter Greene likely to miss all of 2027 because of Tommy John surgery. The lineup has two really strong guys in Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart but the rest of the group is questionable.

MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker projects the Reds to spend about $89MM on next year’s club. That’s roughly $30MM shy of the $129MM they spent on the 2026 team. As Wittenmyer notes, the Reds already had $10MM budgeted for Pagán before knowing his decision on his contract. They could circle back to him on a deal with a similar salary and end up even. But they could also redirect some of that freed-up cash to other areas of the roster.

The bullpen certainly looks better with Pagán in it. At the moment, Tejay Antone and Graham Ashcraft are the only two somewhat established arms in the projected relief group. Antone just had a good season in 2026 but he hardly pitched from 2022 to 2025 due to a number of arm injuries and he turns 33 in December. Ashcraft is younger but a sprain of his UCL put him on the shelf for several months this year. He came off the IL before the season was done but walked 15.9% of the batters he faced in the innings he pitched around that IL stint. Upgrading the relief group should be on the agenda for the Reds this winter but they will have to decide which areas are top priorities with so many spots needing upgrades.

Some players might prefer to sign before that frosty winter arrives. Since Pagán appears to be one of them, it should be known in the next few weeks if he will return to Cincinnati or pitch somewhere else on his next deal.

Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat, Today 2pm CT

Steve Adams — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 19:59:40 +0000

MLBTR’s Steve Adams is hosting a live chat today at 2pm CT, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers.

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Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

Steve Adams — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 19:59:40 +0000

Steve Adams

Good afternoon! I’ll get going at 2pm CT, but feel free to begin submitting questions at any point.
Hello! Let’s get underway

Arise, Sir Loin of Beef

Is Alec Bohm (other than being Alec Bohm) a fit for the Ments?

Steve Adams

I see Bohm being more a fit for them than vice versa … if that makes sense.Which is to say, I can absolutely see why they’d be interested in a righty-hitting corner infielder who beats up lefties. He’d pair with Jared Young nicely at 1B. Alternatively, they could use him in a de facto platoon with Brett Baty … Baty starts at 2B vs RHP, whereas it’s Bo Bichette at 2B against lefties with Bohm at third base.
From Bohm’s perspective though, he’s going to want to sign somewhere with a team that’ll just give him the 3B or 1B job outright. I don’t see the Mets doing that

cmac1973

Are you surprised we haven’t seen any major moves yet? The lockout is breathing down everyone’s neck.

RCAM

When do you think the dam will break on actual signings of significant players pre-lockout (or will it)?

Kevin

Will the GM meetings be a take off for trades of players who have multiple years of control remaining or will most teams scramble when a new agreement is in place? Also what are the chances a new deal is struck by March?

Steve Adams

Lots of “nothing happening yet” questions. I will say, broadly, this is par for the course. It’s easy to forget how glacial the first week-plus of free agency is. Everyone’s still talking with their own guys, feeling out the demands of QO free agents, etc. Even with the lockout looming, this was always going to be the case.I do think that with no Winter Meetings this year and the typically duller/more procedural GM Meetings kicking off today in Vegas, we could see some extra movement at the GM Meetings this week.
GM Meetings are often used as groundwork the lay the foundation for future deals — both trade and free agency. That’ll still be the case here, but I think the timelines across the board are going to be a bit accelerated, and gathering so many key front office personnel and player representatives in one place should shake out a few deals in the next couple days.

What are the chances of Bauers and B. Lowe returning to their 2026 teams?

Steve Adams

I think they can both trounce the QO value if they turn it down. I would say Bauers is likelier to accept his QO, just as a guy who was contemplating retirement not long ago and suddenly has more than 5x his to-date career earnings now dangled in front of him as a one-year deal to return to the club that saved his career/just won a World Series.
Personally, I still think both reject and sign elsewhere, but Bauers on just a human level feels like he’d have a better case to accept.Lowe already has more than $45MM banked and already signed one club-friendly deal.

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Phillies Interested In Ha-Seong Kim

Darragh McDonald — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 19:50:32 +0000

The Phillies have some work to do with their infield and are interested in free agent Ha-Seong Kim, reports Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Salisbury mentions Mauricio Dubón as another free agent who would fit into Philadelphia’s plans but says Dubón is looking for a multi-year deal. The Phils are targeting a one-year bounceback candidate, making Kim a more likely fit.

There are many moving pieces on the dirt in Philly. In the first months of 2026, the club mostly had Alec Bohm at third base, Trea Turner at shortstop, Bryson Stott at second and Bryce Harper at first. They acquired Luis Arraez at the deadline and shuffled things around because Arraez wanted to stay at the keystone. Stott moved to third, Bohm to first and Harper to right field. But at the end of the season, Arraez, Bohm and utility player Edmundo Sosa all became free agents.

On top of that, Turner’s future is up in the air. He is still under contract but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has said that Turner needs to improve defensively in order to stay at that position. Advanced defensive metrics were not kind to him in 2026. Outs Above Average had him eight below par, Fielding Run Value nine below and Defensive Runs Saved 17 under. The latter number was the worst in the majors for the position. Turner is now 33 years old and will turn 34 in June, so it will be a challenge for him to reverse course with those numbers.

Ideally, prospect Aidan Miller would be pushing Turner off the position by now, but that’s not the case. Back problems almost entirely wiped out Miller’s 2026. He did get into four games in September and he has added 15 more contests in the Arizona Fall League so far. After a mostly lost season, the Phillies will probably want to send him to Triple-A for more reps in 2027. At this point, his track record at the top minor league level consists of just eight games in 2025.

The Phillies don’t yet know if Miller is the long-term answer. They also have short-term questions with Turner’s struggles and Sosa’s departure. That’s where Kim could fit in. Kim has lots of shortstop experience and has generally been graded well there. He also has extensive experience at second or third base, meaning he could move around, if necessary.

The issue with Kim is that he is a few years removed from his best form. From 2022 to 2024, he got into 423 games for the Padres, hitting 39 home runs and stealing 72 bases. He slashed .250/.336/.385 for a 106 wRC+. FanGraphs credited him with 10.5 wins above replacement for that stretch, an average of more than three per year.

But that 2024 season was cut short when Kim tore the labrum in his right shoulder and required surgery. He hasn’t been able to bounce back in subsequent campaigns. In addition to his surgery rehab, he also missed time in 2025 due to calf and back problems. He only got into 48 games, split between Tampa and Atlanta, and hit .234/.304/.345 for and 83 wRC+.

Atlanta re-signed him for 2026, hoping that Kim could produce better results as he moved further away from his surgery. But even before the 2026 campaign began, Kim slipped on some ice in his native South Korea and tore a tendon in his right middle finger. That injury limited him to 51 games and an awful .116/.219/.140 line when he was able to take the field.

In theory, a healthy Kim could return to his 2022 to 2024 form but it’s a risk after two challenging years. He should be affordable. Last winter, he was able to get a one-year, $20MM contract. Now that he’s 31 years old and coming off a brutal 2026 season, he won’t get anywhere near that.

For Dubón, it makes sense that he would be looking to cash in by targeting a multi-year deal. He is now 32 years old and coming off a good season, so this is almost certainly his best chance to get the bag. MLBTR predicted he could secure a two-year pact worth $18MM this winter while noting that a three-year deal is also a possibility.

For the Phillies, it seems they would prefer to make a shorter commitment. Signing Kim would allow them to have a backup for shortstop, giving them some protection for continued struggles from Turner and/or Miller not stepping up to take the job. In theory, if all three of those players are going well, things could be moved around to make it work. Stott could play either second or third, depending on how the offseason goes for the Phils. Turner, Miller or Kim could cover shortstop or move to second or third, if needed. It’s also possible Turner ends up getting some outfield work.

The club could then reassess their options going into 2028. By then, Miller’s long-term status might have more clarity, while prospects such as Bryan Rincon or Aroon Escobar might have debuted. Stott will be heading into free agency after 2027. If Kim or someone else were signed to a one-year deal, that would be another departure. Turner is signed through 2033 but it’s unclear where his long-term defensive home is. If it’s not Kim, re-signing Sosa or someone like Isiah Kiner-Falefa could fill a similar role.

A bolder shortstop move doesn’t really exist in free agency if the Phils don’t want to commit to Dubón. The trade market could feature Jeremy Peña or Zach Neto but it’s unclear if those players are even available and the Phillies might not want to commit huge resources to the position when they already have Turner signed and Miller waiting in the wings. Going for a budget option here could leave them more powder dry to address the outfield and bullpen.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Marlins Interested In Adrian Morejon, Alex Vesia, Sean Newcomb

Mark Polishuk — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 18:20:55 +0000

A recent report from the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson indicated that the Marlins were looking for upgrades to the rotation, bullpen, and at least one of the corner infield or outfield situations. Adding some further context, Kevin Barral of Fish On First writes that the team would prefer to bring in a right-handed bat and left-handed pitchers. This makes sense given that the Marlins already have a good number of lefty hitters, and an overload of right-handed pitching. Cade Gibson and prospect Dax Fulton are the only healthy southpaws on the 40-man roster, as Robby Snelling and Andrew Nardi (a non-tender candidate) are recovering from internal brace surgeries.

To this end, Barral lists Adrian Morejon, Alex Vesia, and Sean Newcomb as left-handed bullpen targets on Miami’s wishlist. The trio in general covers a broad range of possibilities for the Marlins’ winter shopping, and while Morejon is in a tier by himself, Barral notes that Vesia is favored over Newcomb.

Morejon landing with the Marlins would count as a big surprise, as it would surely require owner Bruce Sherman to make his biggest free agent expenditure since buying the team over nine years ago. Avisail Garcia’s four-year, $53MM contract represents the biggest free agent deal of the Sherman era. Over the three seasons Peter Bendix has been Miami’s president of baseball operations, Pete Fairbanks’ one-year, $13MM deal from last winter represents the club’s high-water mark in free agent spending.

By contrast, MLB Trade Rumors predicted Morejon to land a five-year, $80MM deal, with the southpaw landing eighth on our ranking of the offseason’s top 50 free agents. Morejon and David Bednar are universally seen as the best relievers in this year’s free agent class, and while Morejon lacks Bednar’s track record as a closer, Morejon is more than four years younger and has been an elite setup man out of the Padres’ bullpen over the last three years.

Even if Morejon is more of a due-diligence exploration for the Marlins, the fact that he is on the radar at all is an interesting sign that the Fish could be ready to stretch their payroll. “Stretch” is a relative term here, as Miami’s approximate $83.2MM payroll (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker) in 2026 was the second-lowest in baseball, and only around $79.25MM is on the books for 2027. Not a single player is under contract beyond 2027, so the Marlins have tons of room for a big contract if Sherman is ready to open the checkbook.

Ongoing collective bargaining talks play a role here. If the owners get their wish of a salary cap and a related salary floor, the Marlins would have to more than double their payroll to reach the floor projection in the league’s most recent proposal. Sherman and Bendix could be considering a Morejon pursuit in advance of a possible floor, though that would hinge on the MLBPA backing down from their decades-long hard stance against any sort of salary ceiling.

In a more direct baseball sense, the Marlins might also want to spend for the simpler reason that their roster might be ready to break out as a legitimate contender for a playoff spot. Despite the reduced budget in Miami’s latest rebuild, the team has been respectable over the last two seasons, winning 79 games in 2025 and 80 games in 2026.

As opposed to Morejon’s price tag, Barral notes that Vesia and Newcomb “more comfortably fit within Miami’s price range.” Vesia ranked 27th on the top 50 list and was predicted to sign a two-year, $26MM contract on the heels of six seasons as a reliable set-up man for the Dodgers. As noted earlier, even this projected deal would count as a major splurge by the Marlins’ standards.

Though Bendix has greatly overhauled the Marlins’ front office during his tenure, there might still be some institutional familiarity with Vesia, who was a 17th-round pick for Miami in 2018. Vesia made his MLB debut in the form of 4 1/3 innings over five games for the 2020 Marlins, and was then traded along with Kyle Hurt to Los Angeles in February 2021 for reliever Dylan Floro, who posted decent results over parts of the next three seasons for Miami. Manager Clayton McCullough should be plenty familiar with Vesia after his time on the Dodgers’ coaching staff.

Newcomb’s production has been up and down over his 10 MLB seasons, but his solid work with the Red Sox and Athletics in 2025 paid off with a one-year, $4.5MM contract with the White Sox last winter. The left-hander performed well again in 2026, posting a 3.09 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, 44.4% grounder rate, and 9.1% walk rate over 90 1/3 innings for Chicago. He chipped in a 2.57 ERA over seven postseason innings. Newcomb frequently worked as a multi-inning reliever, with six pseudo-starts as an opener or the front end of a piggyback situation.

The Marlins’ closer position is wide open. Any of Michael Petersen, Calvin Faucher, Ronny Henriquez, Anthony Bender, or others could battle for the job in spring training. Bringing another pitcher with closing experience is certainly another possibility, and presumably Miami would install Morejon in that role if he signed, even though Morejon has only eight career saves. Vesia likewise could get a look at closer but seems like more of a setup type, while Newcomb would likely be used again as a swingman or in a multi-inning capacity.

In terms of the rotation, Barral writes that the Marlins have “cast a wide net” in their explorations to date. He mentions Dustin May and Patrick Sandoval as names for Marlins fans to monitor. It’s unclear if there have been firm talks with either pitcher to date, but their mention suggests an interest in starters who can be had on short-term commitments.

Cardinals Interested In Reunion With JoJo Romero

Charlie Wright — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 17:13:42 +0000

After shipping him to Milwaukee at the trade deadline, the Cardinals have interest in bringing back left-hander JoJo Romero, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Romero was a crucial cog in a Brewers’ bullpen that dominated en route to a title.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Guardians Sign Antoine Kelly To Minor League Deal

Steve Adams — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 16:40:51 +0000

The Guardians announced Monday that they’ve signed left-hander Antoine Kelly to a minor league contract and invited him to major league spring training. The Bledsoe Agency client made his big league debut with the Cubs this past season.

Kelly, not to be confused with Pirates left-handed pitching prospect Antwone Kelly, pitched just 1 1/3 innings in his first call the majors. The 26-year-old (27 in December) held the Yankees scoreless in that one-off appearance. Kelly spent the remainder of the 2026 season pitching with the Triple-A affiliates for the Cubs and Dodgers, combining for 50 2/3 innings with a 4.62 ERA, 23.7% strikeout rate and sky-high 16.7% walk rate.

That gives Kelly parts of four seasons at the Triple-A level. He hasn’t fared well there, logging a 5.82 ERA in 120 2/3 innings. Kelly’s 23.5% strikeout rate in that time is respectable, but he’s been his own worst enemy far too often, evidenced by a bloated 16.6% walk rate.

It’s not the most alluring track record, but Kelly is a former second-round pick (No. 65 overall to the Brewers in 2019) who has previously drawn praise for a dominant fastball/slider pairing that could make him an elite reliever if he could even get his command up from its currently dismal levels to merely below-average.

Kelly has pitched for five organizations already. Cleveland will be his sixth. None of the Brewers, Rangers, Rockies, Dodgers or Cubs have been unable to fully unlock the 6’5″ southpaw’s latent potential. Some of those clubs — Milwaukee and L.A., in particular — have a notable track record of helping coax new levels of performance out of talented but flawed pitchers. It hasn’t come together for Kelly just yet, but the Guards themselves have a pretty good track record on this front. Kelly has a minor league option remaining, so if he’s added to the Guardians’ 40-man roster at any point, he can be shuttled between Cleveland and Columbus for one more season before he’d have to stick in the majors for good.

Cubs Unlikely To Pursue Tarik Skubal

Steve Adams — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 16:02:05 +0000

The Cubs have the biggest rotation need of any ostensible contender as we enter the 2026-27 offseason, but having the biggest need apparently doesn’t entail pursuing the biggest name on the market. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reports that the Cubs will surely check in but aren’t planning to be real bidders for two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.

While Chicago, in theory, should be able to spend with the top teams in the league, that’s never been the playbook for the Ricketts family ownership group. The Cubs have never given out a contract larger than Jason Heyward’s $184MM deal, which is now nearly 11 years old. The team is particularly cautious when it comes to pitching contracts. Jon Lester’s six-year, $155MM deal from the 2014-15 offseason is the largest in franchise history, and Yu Darvish’s six-year, $126MM is the only other $100MM+ contract the Cubs have given to a pitcher.

Skubal, of course, is going to breeze well beyond all of those contracts. It’s all but assumed he’ll break Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s $325MM record for a pitcher — the primary question is one of “by how much” he’ll do so and not one of whether he’ll reach those heights at all.

Beyond the fact that Skubal is going to be way north of the Cubs’ typical comfort zone, Chicago has such a wide-ranging need that dedicating so many of their resources to one arm could be limiting. The Cubs could saw all of Matthew Boyd, Clay Holmes, Kevin Gausman, Shota Imanaga, David Peterson and Colin Rea reach free agency following the season. Justin Steele hasn’t pitched since April 2025 due to UCL surgery and some slower-than-expected progress on his rehab. Cade Horton had UCL surgery this past April. Ben Brown and Edward Cabrera had injury troubles throughout the season.

With so many arms needed to round out the rotation, it seems the Cubs will look to diversify their investment over several arms rather than make a run at one premier starter who’d leave them top-heavy. Of course, the Cubs could certainly afford to add Skubal and bring in another free agent and/or some help from the trade market. Young infielders Matt Shaw and Pedro Ramirez have both been frequently speculated trade candidates, and either could help the Cubs land a controllable, pre-arbitration arm.

The Cubs have $110.25MM on next year’s books in terms of guaranteed contracts and option buyouts (as you can see in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker). That doesn’t include a 11-player arbitration class, which MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects to cost a combined $28.3MM. Add in a handful of pre-arbitration players to round out the roster, and the Cubs are still shy of $150MM in their projected payroll for next year. Considering that they finished the 2026 campaign just under $250MM in actual cash payroll, there’s a lot of room with which to work.

Looking longer-term, the books aren’t too crowded but do have some hefty commitments. Alex Bregman is owed $140MM across the next four seasons, although $55MM of that sum is deferred. Nico Hoerner’s six-year, $141MM extension ($10MM of which is deferred) begins next season. Dansby Swanson still has three years and $78MM on his contract, and likely NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong’s six-year, $115MM extension goes into effect in 2027. That quartet gives the Cubs $92.5MM on in guaranteed money already on the 2029 books (albeit with $17.5MM deferred). Adding a $40MM+ salary for Skubal would ramp that up quickly and still leave the Cubs with several holes to fill.

Exactly what form the Cubs’ pitching pursuit takes can’t yet be known, but it sounds like a volume-based approach is in order. Sharma writes that names like Michael King and Adrian Morejon could wind up exceeding the team’s comfort level from a pricing standpoint, but whoever they target, the Cubs will be in on grounder- and/or strikeout-heavy pitchers of that profile in order to maximize the team’s dominant infield defense while ideally scaling back on home runs allowed.

Two of the Cubs’ own free agents — Holmes and Peterson — have the top two grounder rates among this year’s class of free agent starters. In the bullpen, lefty Tim Hill and Morejon lead the way, though veterans like Jonathan Loaisiga, JoJo Romero and Ryan Thompson all have ground-ball rates north of 50%. David Bednar, like Morejon, would check both the grounder and strikeout boxes. He’s also expected to be nearly as expensive as Morejon — likely something valued in the range of $15-18MM annually over three to four years. The Cubs typically haven’t been willing to commit multiple years to free agent relievers, though they reportedly made a big bid for Tanner Scott a couple offseasons back and did sign Phil Maton for two years last winter. That Maton contract was the first multi-year deal they’d given to a reliever since Craig Kimbrel in 2019, however.

Skubal, 30 later this month, carries a 2.47 ERA, 31.1% strikeout rate, 4.5% walk rate and 44.3% grounder rate across his past 626 1/3 big league innings. He won the American League Cy Young Award in both 2024 and 2025. MLBTR predicted a nine-year, $425MM contract for him last week as part of our annual Top 50 Free Agent rankings.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

Darragh McDonald — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 15:06:58 +0000

On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

The offseason is here. Do you have a question about a team’s approach this winter? A notable free agent? The looming lockout? If you have a question on those topics or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.