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MLB Mailbag: Gore, Pivetta, Phillies, Santander

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As the Winter Meetings start to pick up, this week's subscriber mailbag gets into MacKenzie Gore trade proposals, more trade ideas involving this year's Cy Young winners, the trade value of Nick Pivetta and Anthony Santander, and much more.

Steve asks:

Assuming that MacKenzie Gore has not been traded as I write this, would either of these two deals be likely to work for the teams involved?

1. Gore and Luis Garcia, Jr. to the Giants for Bryce Eldridge and Carson Whisenhunt? or

2. Gore to the Red Sox for Triston Casas and Connelly Early?

Your thoughts?

Gustav asks:

Who’d say no in a Gore & Abrams for Sheehan, Freeland, Ferris & Hope?

Gore, 27 in February, has two more years of team control remaining.  He's had a couple of 3-WAR type seasons in 2024 and '25, but they came with extreme volatility.

The lefty made 32 starts in 2024.  He had a 14-start stretch in the middle where he posted a 6.18 ERA, 19.8 K%, and 11.4 BB%.  That 8.3 K-BB% was the fourth-worst in baseball among qualified starters during that June 3rd-August 17th period.  Before and after that, Gore pitched like an ace.  His velocity was up early in the season, spiking to 96.6 miles per hour from the beginning of the year through July 1st.  It was a full mile per hour slower from that point on.

Similarly, Gore entered a July 20th start against the Padres this year with a 3.02 ERA, 30.5 K%, and 7.7 BB%.  His was back in ace form, and earned his first All-Star nod.  From that point forward, though, Gore posted a 6.75 ERA, 20.7 K%, and 12.8 BB% over his final 11 starts.  This stretch was a bit more concentrated into three or four blow-ups.  Gore's velocity was back down to 95.3 this year, but was relatively consistent game-to-game.

A run through Gore's injury history:

  • 2018: IL time with blisters and fingernail issues
  • August 2019: rested for 26 days to manage workload
  • 2020: no minor league season; pitched at Padres' alternate site
  • 2021: Started year at Triple-A; moved to Padres' alternate site in June after struggling with blisters; remained there to work on his delivery.  Finished the year with two Double-A starts.
  • 2022: Made MLB debut in April when Blake Snell got injured.  July 26th: landed on IL with elbow soreness.  August 2nd: traded to Nationals.  Made four minor league rehab starts for the Nats.
  • 2023: Exited July start with a blister; made the following one.  Removed from August 16th start due to a blister; returned a week later.  September 9th: season ended due to blisters.
  • 2024: Avoided IL and known blister issues.
  • 2025: Exited May start due to leg tightness; made his next one.  August 30th: went on IL for shoulder inflammation; ended up going 16 days between starts.

The blister issues didn't seem to pop up after 2023.  Gore has never undergone Tommy John surgery.  His 2022 elbow soreness and his 2025 shoulder inflammation seemed minor.

So Gore's injury history is not bad, but he's been a pitcher of extremes the last two years.  It's difficult to value that, but I'm sure just about every organization would like to bring him in and try to smooth things out.

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Tommy Pham Aiming To Play Several More Years

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Free agent outfielder Tommy Pham struggled early in 2025 with the Pirates before a torrid stretch over the season’s final few months. He’ll turn 38 next March, but Pham is fully intent on playing in 2026 and appears to be eyeing multiple more seasons in his big league career. The well-traveled outfielder tells Katie Woo, Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that he hopes to cross both the 200-homer and 200-steal threshold before retiring. He’s currently 51 homers and 69 steals away from reaching those lofty goals.

Notably, Pham tells The Athletic that he has played through plantar fasciitis dating back to late in the 2023 season. That, Pham contends, has hindered him on the basepaths. He’s swiped just 12 bags total over the past two seasons but stole 22 times in 2023. He’s gone through stem cell treatment to address his plantar fasciitis and now feels confident he can get back to being more of a threat on the bases.

Overall, Pham’s 2025 season in Pittsburgh was pedestrian. He finished out the year with a tepid .245/.330/.370 batting line — about six percent worse than league-average offense, by measure of wRC+. Defensive Runs Saved pegged him as a strong left fielder (+5), while Statcast’s Outs Above Average was more bearish and had him slightly worse than average (-2) in 925 innings.

It bears mentioning, however, that Pham’s modest batting line includes a middling stretch of two-plus months to begin the year. Over the final three months of the 2025 campaign, Pham came to the plate 273 times and turned in a hefty .278/.363/.468 slash (128 wRC+) with 10 home runs, 13 doubles, a triple, an 11.7% walk rate and just a 17% strikeout rate. He averaged 92.7 mph off the bat and turned in a huge 51.8% hard-hit rate in that time. Any team would love to have that type of output in its outfield mix.

If Pham can continue anywhere close to that pace, he’ll have a chance to get to the 200-homer threshold with another three seasons in the majors. Reaching 200 steals feels like a loftier goal, but Pham quipped that he’s “seeing all these guys that can’t run like me steal 30 and 40 bases now” and feels that with better health in his feet he can get back to running at higher levels. Both Josh Naylor and Juan Soto topped 30 steals in 2025 despite ranking in the second and 13th percentile of average sprint speed among big leaguers, per Statcast. Pham was in the 45th percentile even with his plantar fasciitis issues; back in 2023, he sat in the 61st percentile.

Working in Pham’s favor is that it’s a thin market for teams seeking outfield help in free agency this winter — particularly from the right side of the plate. Harrison Bader, Miguel Andujar and Austin Hays are all coming off productive seasons. There are a couple of notable rebound candidates in Lane Thomas and Adolis Garcia, the latter of whom was non-tendered by the Rangers last week. But most of the market’s top outfield options this offseason swing from the left side of the dish, and even in that regard, the supply of established veterans coming off healthy, productive seasons is limited. Clubs like the Guardians, Twins, Reds, Brewers, Marlins, A’s and Rockies all have fairly left-handed outfield groups and could look to balance things out with a righty, speculatively speaking.

There’s also one oddball record at least loosely in play for Pham, who in 2025 suited up for the tenth team of his major league career. He’s still four teams shy of the record 14 that’s jointly held by Rich Hill and Edwin Jackson, but Pham has added five teams to his list in the past three seasons alone. That’s probably not a consideration for the veteran corner bat, but those 200 milestones clearly are. “I don’t have an All-Star appearance or anything like that,” Pham tells The Athletic. “But getting to that number, I could look back at my career, and me, personally, I can be proud of myself.”

Erasmo Ramirez Plans To Pitch Next Season

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Veteran swingman Erasmo Ramirez wants to pitch in 2026, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. The right-hander tossed 11 innings for the Twins last season. Nightengale relays that Ramirez is training as a starter.

Minnesota marked the seventh stop in Ramirez’s 14-year career. The 34-year-old was called up from Triple-A St. Paul in August after the Twins’ bullpen was gutted at the trade deadline. Ramirez notched a two-out save in his first game with the club. He posted a 2.45 ERA across nine outings and closed his Minnesota tenure with five straight scoreless appearances. Ramirez was designated for assignment in late August. He elected free agency shortly after the season ended.

Ramirez has plenty of starting experience, with 96 MLB starts under his belt. It’s been a while since he’s worked extensively in that capacity, though. Ramirez made a career-high 27 starts with Tampa Bay in 2015. After pitching almost exclusively as a reliever in 2016, he made 19 starts in 2017 between the Rays and Mariners. A shoulder strain cost Ramirez the majority of the first half of 2018, but he returned to make 10 starts with Seattle.

Boston grabbed Ramirez on a minor league deal ahead of the 2019 season. He’s been mostly a reliever since then. Ramirez has made 144 big-league appearances over the past seven seasons, and only four of them have been starts.

Ramirez has a 4.34 ERA over 860 MLB innings. He entered the league with a fastball sitting in the low-90s, and he’s unsurprisingly lost a few ticks over the years. Ramirez has gone mostly cutter/sinker this decade, but he hasn’t been afraid to expand his arsenal. He threw seven different pitches as recently as 2023. He’s since ditched the slider and sweeper, relying on his curveball as his lone breaking ball the past two seasons.

As an aging soft-tosser relying on veteran guile, Ramirez is likely best suited for a swingman role, covering multiple innings as needed. His last two MLB starts came during his second stint with the Rays in 2023. While neither outing reached four innings, both of them were on short rest and resulted in Tampa Bay wins. That kind of flexibility could have value for a team in need of reliable innings.

Photo courtesy of Matt Krohn, Imagn Images

BBWAA Announces 2025 Awards Finalists

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The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the finalists for the 2025 awards tonight. Those are top three vote getters (listed in alphabetical order) for the four biggest awards: MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year. Winners will be revealed next week, as will each voter’s individual ballot.

MVP

American League

National League

Cy Young

American League

National League

Rookie of the Year

American League

National League

Manager of the Year

American League

  • John Schneider (Blue Jays)
  • Stephen Vogt (Guardians)
  • Dan Wilson (Mariners)

National League

  • Terry Francona (Reds)
  • Pat Murphy (Brewers)
  • Rob Thomson (Phillies)

—————————————————–

The American League MVP race has been hotly debated for months and the arguments will probably continue for years after the award is given out. Judge has already won the award twice and he put up another monster season, hitting 53 home runs with a .331 batting average and .457 on-base percentage. Raleigh hit 60 home runs but his offense was otherwise a notch below Judge. Strictly based on the work done at the plate, Judge gets the edge. However, Raleigh’s performance is completely unprecedented for a catcher. It’s possible some voters give Raleigh the edge due to the extra work catchers have to do working with a pitching staff, on top of the wear-and-tear associated with the position.

Ohtani seems likely to repeat in the National League, given that he continued to hit at an elite rate and also returned to the mound this year. Skubal is expected to repeat as A.L. Cy Young winner, even though Crochet gave him a good run for his money this year. Skenes is generally considered the favorite in the N.L. Kurtz probably earned himself the hardware by launching 36 home runs. The N.L. Rookie of the Year race feels fairly wide open.

With awards voting, the Prospect Promotion Incentive has become a consideration in recent years. Brown has already earned the Astros an extra pick just by being a Cy Young finalist. Baldwin can also net Atlanta an extra pick, but only if he ultimately wins Rookie of the Year in the National League.

The awards will be announced as follows:

  • Nov. 10: Rookie of the Year
  • Nov. 11: Manager of the Year
  • Nov. 12: Cy Young
  • Nov. 13: MVP

Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images

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

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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 2025 regular season is now over and the World Series will be done soon as well. Do you have a question about the season which just ended? The postseason? The upcoming offseason? 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.

Fielding Bible Award Winners Announced

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Sports Info Solutions announced the winners of the 2025 Fielding Bible Awards today, the 20th year the awards have been given out. The awards are voted on by a panel of experts who consider statistical analysis, the eye test, and any other factors that they wish to utilize.

This year’s winners are:

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

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

By | at

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 2025 regular season is now over and the playoffs are in full swing. Do you have a question about the season which just ended? The postseason? The upcoming offseason? 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.

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

By | at

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 2025 regular season is now over and the playoffs are in full swing. Do you have a question about the season which just ended? The postseason? The upcoming offseason? 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.

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

By | at

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 2025 regular season is now over and the playoffs are in full swing. Do you have a question about the season which just ended? The postseason? The upcoming offseason? 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.

David Ross Hoping For Another Managerial Opportunity

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Former Cubs manager David Ross is interested in a return to managing, the ex-skipper told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. “It’s an itch that hasn’t gone away.” Ross has been out of baseball for the past two years after getting fired by Chicago following the 2023 campaign.

Ross spent four seasons at the helm in Chicago. He had no previous managing experience prior to taking over for Joe Maddon after the 2019 season. Ross led the Cubs to an NL Central title in the shortened 2020 season, but the squad was dispatched by the Marlins in the Wild Card round. Chicago failed to reach the playoffs for the final three years under Ross. After back-to-back seasons well below .500, Ross led the team to 83 wins in 2023, but they fell a game short of a Wild Card berth. The Cubs moved on that offseason, choosing to hand Craig Counsell a record five-year, $40MM deal.

The jump from player to manager without a previous coaching gig was a bit surprising, but Ross was a familiar face in Chicago. He spent his final two seasons as a player with the Cubs, winning a World Series in 2016. The photo of Ross being carried off the field by his teammates was an iconic image following the curse-breaking victory.

Ross relayed to Rosenthal that he was not interviewed by the Reds, Marlins, or White Sox during their managerial searches ahead of the 2025 season. He added that there were conversations about bench coach positions, but nothing came to fruition. The Athletic had previously reported that the Yankees and Orioles had shown interest in Ross for bench coach roles since he’d been fired by the Cubs, but the former catcher preferred a managerial position if he were to return to the dugout.

This offseason presents plenty of opportunities. With Brian Snitker stepping down this week, there are now a staggering eight managerial openings around the league. The Twins and Giants fired their managers at the end of the regular season. The Nationals, Orioles, and Rockies did so during the season (though none of those teams have firmly declared that their interim skipper won’t be back). The Rangers and Bruce Bochy are parting ways. The Angels chose not to retain Ron Washington, who stepped away midseason due to heart surgery. The team also announced that interim manager Ray Montgomery, who took over for Washington, will not be back.

Ross isn’t the only former manager in search of a new home. Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote last month that Brandon Hyde, Derek Shelton, Bud Black, and Davey Martinez are all looking to land skipper positions after getting fired during this past season. Rocco Baldelli, Bob Melvin, Bochy and Washington were all let go at the end of the year.

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