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Red Sox Could Consider Michael Fulmer For Starting Rotation

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The Red Sox are exploring all avenues when it comes to strengthening their rotation. After trading for White Sox ace Garrett Crochet, Boston is still looking into both the trade and free markets for starting pitching. Not only that, but it sounds like they might be considering at least one creative internal option, too.

Speaking to reporters at the Winter Meetings, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow suggested Michael Fulmer could potentially start for the Red Sox in 2025 (per Chris Cotillo of MassLive). Why is that surprising? The veteran right-hander, who is recovering from UCL surgery, has not pitched since 2023. More to the point, he has not been a regular starter since the 2020 season. He has not thrown more than five innings in an outing since September 2018.

Fulmer, 32 in March, was a sturdy starting pitcher over his first three MLB seasons. He won AL Rookie of the Year honors with the Tigers in 2016 and earned an All-Star selection the following year. Overall, from 2016-18, he made 75 starts, tossing 456 innings with a 3.81 ERA and 4.32 SIERA. Unfortunately, a history of elbow issues came to a head in 2019, when Tommy John surgery forced him to miss the entire season. When he returned in 2020, he was utterly disastrous. His velocity was down, and he pitched to an 8.78 ERA and 5.58 SIERA over 10 starts. It was hardly surprising when Detroit moved him to the bullpen in 2021.

On the bright side, Fulmer was an effective, if not especially dominant, reliever from 2021-23. Over 172 appearances out of the bullpen with the Tigers, Twins, and Cubs, he pitched to a 3.43 ERA and 3.71 SIERA, racking up 19 saves and 45 holds. Never a big strikeout arm during his years as a starter, he struck out more than a quarter of the batters he faced in relief. That said, his most important skill was his ability to limit hard contact and home runs.

At the end of the 2023 season, his elbow trouble reared its ugly head once more. Fulmer underwent UCL revision surgery in October that would keep him on the shelf for at least a year. He then signed a two-year minor league contract with the Red Sox and spent the 2024 season rehabbing with the organization. Until recently, there had been very little news regarding his progress. In October, he told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford (X link) that he was trending toward a return for spring training. Then, earlier this week, Breslow provided a similarly positive update, “There’s certainly a pretty clear path to [Fulmler] being ready for Opening Day.”

If Fulmer is healthy and ready to pitch this spring, the Red Sox will try to stretch him out. That could mean building him up for a role in the rotation. However, if that proves to be too ambitious, he could be a multi-inning arm out of the bullpen instead. Interestingly, that’s a role he has never really played before. As a former starter, he presumably has the skills for long relief. Yet, when he was a regular reliever from 2021-23, Fulmer threw 175 2/3 frames over 172 appearances. That’s an average of just over one inning per game. Even so, the Red Sox have faith in Fulmer to take on some sort of bulk role. Breslow suggested that’s why they targetted him in the first place, saying “He’s a guy we actually signed with an eye on — once he’s completely healthy — building him out, whether that’s as a starting pitcher or someone who can handle bulk, leverage innings.”

Cotillo notes that Fulmer will earn $1.5MM if he is on Boston’s roster in 2025. He can also earn another $500K in incentives.

As things stand, the Red Sox have four seeming locks for their Opening Day rotation: Crochet, Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford. Barring a setback in his recovery from internal brace surgery, Lucas Giolito will also join the rotation at some point in the year. However, it’s not yet clear if he’ll be ready by the beginning of the year. Behind those five on the depth chart are Richard Fitts, who has just four MLB starts under his belt, and Cooper Criswell, who was solid but not especially impressive over 99 1/3 innings in 2024. Thus, it’s not hard to see why the Red Sox remain active in their pursuit of pitching, whether it be a more significant addition or a depth move. Transitioning Fulmer to the rotation falls into the latter category. He is unlikely to be a particularly impactful arm – that would explain why no other team selected him in the Rule 5 draft– but there’s no such thing as too much pitching depth.

Pirates Exploring Corner Outfield, Bullpen Markets

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The Pirates checked an item off their offseason to-do list when they acquired Spencer Horwitz in hopes that he can serve as a long-term option at first base. They’re still not done hunting for bats, however, as Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports within a broad-reaching piece on several Winter Meetings takeaways that the team is looking for a corner outfielder, with a likely preference to operate on the trade market. The Bucs will also likely be in the market for a low-cost reliever or two, Hiles adds.

Corner outfield help isn’t a new need for the Pirates. They sought to address the issue with their deadline acquisition of Bryan De La Cruz from the Marlins, but he turned in a disastrous .200/.220/.294 slash in 44 games with Pittsburgh following the trade. The Pirates chose not to double down on an acquisition they’d come to regret, non-tendering De La Cruz rather than paying him a projected $4MM salary in arbitration (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).

With De La Cruz now on the open market, the Pirates’ outfield alignment includes Bryan Reynolds in left and converted shortstop Oneil Cruz in center field. Right field options include Joshua Palacios, Billy Cook and Jack Suwinski, the latter of whom looked to have broken out as a key bat for the Pirates in 2023 before struggling through a disastrous 2024 season (.182/.264/.324 in 277 plate appearances). There’s been some talk of Reynolds logging some reps at first base (link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com), but the Horwitz trade pretty clearly indicates that’s at best a backup plan for the time being.

Cruz will be getting the lion’s share of reps in center field. Reynolds can technically play either corner, though his once-premium range has eroded substantially. Reynolds still posted better-than-average sprint speed in 2024, per Statcast, but his reaction times and jumps in the outfield graded quite poorly. As recently as 2021, Statcast credited Reynolds with 98th-percentile range in the outfield; in 2024, he was at the very bottom of the league, in the first percentile. His arm strength on his outfield throws actually ticked back up after a down year in 2023, but he’ll need to make some adjustments regardless of which corner he roams (though it’ll presumably be left, based on recent usage).

There are a handful of known and obvious corner outfield trade candidates on the market. Pittsburgh was never going to pony up for Kyle Tucker, who just went to the Cubs, as ownership wouldn’t be willing to spend the necessary money to keep him long term. But names like Taylor Ward (a deadline target for the Bucs), Wilyer Abreu, Jake McCarthy, Alek Thomas and Mike Yastrzemski have all been bandied about the rumor mill this offseason. The Pirates will surely look into some potential under-the-radar options as well. Budget-strapped teams with some outfield depth (e.g. Twins or, if they’re comfortable dealing within the division, Brewers) could make intriguing partners, as could a team like the Orioles, with plenty of interesting young hitters but less supply in terms of quality young starting pitching.

Of course, if trade efforts fall flat, the free agent market does have some affordable names. Max Kepler, Alex Verdugo, Jesse Winker and Austin Hays are among the interesting and affordable free agents who could fit even a small-payroll club like Pittsburgh.

On the bullpen front, there’s little use speculating on specific targets, given the sheer volume of possibilities. Hiles cautions against the chances of another relatively significant splash like the one the Bucs made when signing Aroldis Chapman last year, instead positing that the Pirates will be shopping at far lower rates. Typically, the best way to find bargain options is to wait out the market and see who’s left without a seat when the musical chairs stop in February. The Pirates could also try to convince a potential trade partner to include some pre-arbitration bullpen help in any deal netting them an outfielder.

The Pirates currently project for a payroll of about $74.5MM, per RosterResource. That does not include an expected reunion with designated hitter Andrew McCutchen. Pittsburgh finished the 2024 season with a roughly $87MM payroll and peaked with a franchise-record $100MM outlay back in 2016.

Cubs Close To Deal For Kyle Tucker

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1:20pm: Right-hander Hayden Wesneski is also involved in the talks, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

1:03pm: The Cubs and Astros are “close” to an agreement on a Tucker trade, tweets Heyman. Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 in Houston reports that the two sides have discussed a return that would send Paredes, Smith and a third player to Houston.

12:56pm: Talks between the two sides have “continued to gain momentum,” Jon Morosi of MLB Network reports. Jon Heyman of the New York Post tweets that Smith and Paredes are “among the names being discussed,” suggesting others could indeed be in play.

9:10am: The Cubs and Astros have been in talks on a trade that would send star outfielder Kyle Tucker from Houston to Chicago in exchange for infielder Isaac Paredes and 2024 first-round pick Cam Smith, reports Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. It’s not yet clear whether other players are involved on either end. There’s no indication a deal is nearing the finish line.

Tucker, 27, only recently emerged as a viable trade candidate. The former No. 5 overall pick broke out as an everyday player in 2020 and has since elevated himself to one of the game’s best young players all around. Over the past four seasons, he’s turned in a .280/.362/.527 slash with 112 homers, 80 steals, an 11.3% walk rate and just a 15.1% strikeout rate. A fracture in his shin cost him much of the 2024 season, but he had his most productive season ever when healthy: .289/.408/.585, 23 homers, 16.5% walk rate in 78 games.

Tucker is a year from reaching free agency as a 28-year-old and is poised to command the type of mega-contract that Astros owner Jim Crane has been unwilling to offer; Houston’s longest contract under Crane has been Yordan Alvarez’s six-year, $115MM deal. Jose Altuve’s $151MM extension is the largest in terms of overall guarantee. Tucker could command double that guarantee in free agency over a significantly longer term than Alvarez’s deal.

For the Cubs, adding Tucker would only further increase the likelihood of trading Cody Bellinger and/or Seiya Suzuki. Tucker would supplant both in right field. Chicago already has young Michael Busch at first base and Pete Crow-Armstrong in center field. Left fielder Ian Happ has a full no-trade clause. There’d be no obvious spot to play either Bellinger or Suzuki other than designated hitter. That’d be a waste of Bellinger’s solid defensive skills, and Suzuki has a preference to play in the field rather than slot in as a primary DH. He also has a full no-trade clause, further complicating matters.

The trio of players’ contracts are worth keeping in mind, too. Tucker is entering his final season of club control and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $15.8MM this coming season. Bellinger is guaranteed a $27.5MM salary next season and has a $25MM player option with a $5MM buyout for the 2026 season. In essence, he’s guaranteed at least $32.5MM for one year and perhaps $52.5MM over the next two seasons, pending that opt-out decision. Suzuki has two years to go on his five-year, $85MM contract and will earn $18MM in each of the next two seasons.

For the Astros, trading Tucker would be a tough pill to swallow. Crane has voiced a willingness to pay the luxury tax if the right situation presents itself but seems to rather clearly prefer to avoid doing so for what would be a second straight season. The ’Stros have been angling to bring longtime third baseman Alex Bregman back into the fold, but he’s been seeking a deal north of $200MM while Houston’s most recent reported offer was for six years and $156MM. That the Astros are looking at not only an immediate big league option at the hot corner (Paredes) but also a recent first-round pick whose primary position is third base (Smith) at least implies some pessimism of completing a reunion with Bregman.

That said, the Astros also have a need at first base. Paredes could capably fill that role, as he’s played all four infield positions throughout his big league career. He’s primarily been a third baseman, but he does have nearly 400 innings at first base under his belt. It’s at least possible that the Astros could use the payroll space created by a potential Tucker trade to re-sign Bregman, play Paredes at first base and then simply be content to add a player with Smith’s overall upside to the upper tiers of their system. Smith isn’t likely to be a big league option until 2026 anyhow, and his bat is his calling card; a move to an outfield corner isn’t out of the question at some point.

Paredes, 26 in February, went from the Rays to the Cubs at the 2024 trade deadline and struggled in his new environs. The versatile slugger hit .250/.342/.488 and belted 31 homers for Tampa Bay in 2023 and looked well on his way to approximating that production in ’24 when he hit .245/.357/.435 with the Rays prior to the trade. With Chicago, however, Paredes slumped to a tepid .223/.305/.307 slash in 212 plate appearances.

Those struggles notwithstanding, Paredes is a .234/.338/.437 hitter (123 wRC+) who’s swatted 70 homers while playing four different positions across the past three seasons. He’s walked in a strong 11.2% of his plate appearances during that span against a 17.3% strikeout rate that’s about five percentage points lower than average. He’s projected to earn $6.9MM in 2025 and is under club control through the 2027 season. He’d be a long-term add for the Astros who can help out at a variety of positions and who would offer a solid bat against righties and plus production against southpaws (.274/.366/.456). On top of that, he ranked third among all qualified MLB hitters in pull percentage this season and posted the second-lowest ground-ball rate in that same set. An extreme-pull righty bat with that kind of penchant for elevating the ball seems almost tailor-made for Houston’s short left field porch.

Smith, meanwhile, was just selected with the No. 14 pick last summer and signed for a bonus a bit north of $5MM. The Florida State product absolutely torched minor league pitching with a .313/.396/.609 slash in 134 plate appearances across two Class-A levels and Double-A. It was one of the best debut performances of any draftee and only served to further elevate his already considerable prospect stock. Baseball America ranks Smith sixth in a deep Cubs farm system that in 2024 boasted six of the game’s top 100 prospects. Smith will likely be included on several top-100 rankings ahead of the 2025 season.

Currently, RosterResource projects the Astros for a $215MM bottom-line payroll with nearly $234MM of luxury tax obligations. That leaves them about $7MM shy of this season’s $241MM tax threshold. Moving Tucker would open up quite a bit of breathing room, as would a trade of reliever Ryan Pressly, whose name has also frequented the rumor circuit this offseason. He’s owed $14MM but can veto any trade scenario as a player with 10-and-5 rights (10 years of MLB service, including the past five with the same team). Astros general manager Dana Brown said early in the offseason that his club might need to be “creative” to address roster needs amid payroll uncertainty, and talk of potential deals involving Tucker, Pressly and lefty Framber Valdez all fit under that umbrella.

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers! Anthony discussed the Winter Meetings' biggest activity and the recent trades of Kyle Tucker, Andrés Giménez and Devin Williams. He touched on what's next for the Guardians, Pirates, Giants and Angels, among others, and weighed in on whether Willy Adames and Matt Chapman form the best left side infield duo in MLB.

 

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Guardians Promote Three Coaches

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Back in November, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt seemingly finalized his coaching staff for the 2025 season. As part of that announcement, he revealed that several individuals were promoted to new jobs on the staff, including Craig Albernaz (promoted from bench coach to associate manager), Grant Fink (promoted from minor league hitting coordinator to major league hitting coach), Jason Esposito (promoted from run production coordinator to assistant hitting coach), and Kai Correa (promoted from major league field coordinator to major league field coordinator and director of defense, baserunning, and game strategy).

However, it turns out Vogt and the Guardians weren’t finished handing out promotions after all. Earlier today, Cleveland announced three more changes to the coaching staff. Brad Goldberg has been promoted to assistant pitching coach, Caleb Longshore has been promoted to bullpen coach, and interpreter Agustin Rivero has earned the title of major league coach.

Goldberg earns a promotion for the second offseason in a row. After beginning his coaching career at The Ohio State University, he joined the Guardians organization as a minor league coach ahead of the 2022 season. He then earned a job as the major league bullpen coach for 2024. Now, he will work alongside pitching coach Carl Willis and fellow assistant pitching coach Joe Torres in his new role. Evidently, the team is pleased with the work Goldberg did in 2024, supporting a bullpen that was widely considered the best in baseball.

Stepping into Goldberg’s old role is Longshore, who takes over as Cleveland’s bullpen coach. He was originally hired as a High-A pitching coach for the 2022 campaign and spent the 2023 and ’24 seasons as the team’s organizational pitching coordinator. Like Goldberg, he also has collegiate coaching experience, having worked with the Middle Tennesee State University, Arkansas State University, and California Baptist University baseball teams.

Finally, Rivero earns a promotion after six seasons with the Guardians. He came aboard as an interpreter in 2019 and has taken on more responsibilities over the years. Those include “assisting the coaching staff with all day-to-day functions” and “facilitating life skills growth” for the club’s Spanish-speaking players (per a Guardians press release on MLB.com).

Cubs Finalize Coaching Staff

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Earlier this week, the Cubs announced their coaching staff for the 2025 season. As part of the announcement, the club revealed that former major league field coordinator Mark Strittmatter will take over from Darren Holmes as bullpen coach, while A.J. Lewis has come aboard as a staff assistant.

The Cubs also confirmed the previously reported hiring of first base coach Jose Javier, third base coach Quintin Berry, and assistant pitching coach Casey Jacobson. Rounding out manager Craig Counsell’s staff are returning coaches Ryan Flaherty (bench coach), Tommy Hottovy (pitching coach), Dustin Kelly (hitting coach), Juan Cabreja (assistant hitting coach), John Mallee (assistant hitting coach), Jonathan Mota (major league coach), and Alex Smith (major league strategy coach).

Strittmatter, 55, has plenty of experience working with pitchers in the bullpen. From 2003-10, he was a bullpen catcher for the Rockies. After a brief stint on the Pirates major league coaching staff, he returned to the Rockies in 2013. He worked as the organization’s minor league catching coordinator up until he joined the Cubs ahead of the 2024 season. Prior to his coaching career, Strittmatter played nine minor league seasons as a catcher in the Rockies and Padres systems. He made a handful of MLB appearances for Colorado in 1998.

Lewis, 26, also comes over from the Rockies organization. After signing with the club as an undrafted free agent in 2020, he played four seasons in their minor league system, appearing at every level from Low-A to Triple-A. While he was primarily a catcher in college, he appeared in a handful of games at several positions during his minor league tenure, including catcher, first base, second base, third base, and left field. Back in 2022, he told Thomas Harding of MLB.com that he hoped to join a major league front office at the end of his player career. If that is still his goal, this could be a step in the right direction.

In further Cubs news, the team announced that two members of the minor league strength and conditioning staff have been promoted to major league roles. Kevin Poppe will serve as head major league strength coach, while Mark Weisman will be the assistant major league strength coach. Both Poppe and Weisman joined the organization in 2022.

Bryan Sammons Signs With NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines

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Former Tigers left-hander Bryan Sammons has signed a one-year deal with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines, per announcements from the team and from Sammons’ agency, GSI.

Sammons made his big league debut as a 29-year-old rookie this past season, pitching 27 1/3 innings of 3.62 ERA ball for the Tigers during their Cinderella push to the playoffs. The 6’4″ southpaw averaged 91.5 mph on his heater, fanned 17.3% of his opponents and logged a 8.7% walk rate. Sammons spent the bulk of his 2024 season in Triple-A Toledo, where he pitched 102 innings with a 4.15 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate. Detroit outrighted Sammons off the 40-man roster after the season, and he became a minor league free agent.

The move to Japan is the latest step in the type of baseball odyssey for which all fans love to cheer. The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen penned a fantastic look at Sammons’ journey from under-recruited high schooler to an eighth-round pick of the Twins who wound up being released both by Minnesota and by Houston. (Readers are highly encouraged to check out Stavenhagen’s piece in full.) Sammons, who graduated from Western Carolina with an engineering degree, contemplated giving up baseball entirely to pursue a more traditional career before taking one last shot and pitching in the Atlantic League. Just over a year later, he was on the mound at Comerica Park.

While Sammons is joining the same team for which Roki Sasaki has starred in his NPB career, he’s effectively taking the place of veteran lefty Dallas Keuchel, who started eight games for the Marines in the second half of the 2024 NPB season. The Marines announced in early December that Keuchel had been released and was a free agent. Sammons’ role will be determined, but manager Masahito Yoshii said his hope is that Sammons can pitch out of the rotation in 2025 (link via Yahoo Japan).

Cody Ponce Signs With KBO’s Hanwha Eagles

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After a rough season in NPB, right-hander Cody Ponce is trying his luck in the KBO. The Hanwha Eagles announced that they have signed Ponce to join their pitching staff in 2025 (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). His contract is a one-year deal worth $1MM in USD, and it includes a $200K signing bonus (per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News).

Ponce began his professional career in the Brewers organization, agreeing to a $1.108MM signing bonus as the 55th overall pick in the 2015 draft. While he was never a highly-regarded prospect, Baseball America ranked him at no. 9 in Milwaukee’s system entering the 2016 season and included him among the team’s top 30 in each of the next three years. His minor league numbers were typically solid if never especially inspiring; over 394 innings in the Brewers org from Rookie Ball to Double-A, he pitched to a 3.72 ERA and 3.62 FIP. He looked sharper after moving into a more regular relief role at Double-A Biloxi partway through the 2018 season, putting up a 3.29 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 82 IP.

The Brewers dealt Ponce to the Pirates in exchange for Jordan Lyles at the 2019 trade deadline. It was with Pittsburgh that the right-hander made his few big league appearances, pitching in 20 games from 2020-21. Over 55 1/3 innings, he allowed 34 runs (30 earned), good for a 5.86 ERA. He gave up 13 home runs and struck out just 19.6% of the batters he faced. While his 4.38 SIERA was a little more promising than the rest of his numbers, he failed to impress the Pirates brass. At the end of the 2021 season, the team granted him his release to pursue an opportunity in Japan.

Ponce spent the 2022 and ’23 seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He looked solid with the Fighters, pitching to a 3.35 ERA over 83 1/3 innings in 2022 and a 3.66 ERA over 51 2/3 innings in 2023. However, things took a turn for the worse after he signed with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for the 2024 campaign. Across 67 innings, he put up an ugly 6.72 ERA. His 3.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio was actually significantly better than it was in his first two NPB seasons, and his home run rate was only slightly higher than the league average. Nevertheless, he struggled badly to keep hitters off the bases and runs off the board. On the bright side, his numbers were much better with the club’s farm team in the Eastern League, with whom he pitched to a 2.25 ERA in another 60 innings of work.

As he heads from one Eagles club to another, Ponce will hope for better results on balls in play in his age-31 season. If he can perform more like he did in his first two NPB seasons, he has the skills to be a productive arm for the Hanwha Eagles in 2025.

Nationals Sign Konnor Pilkington To Minor League Deal

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The Nationals have signed lefty Konnor Pilkington and right-hander Clay Helvey to minor league deals, per a team announcement. Both will be in major league camp as non-roster invitees this spring.

Pilkington, 27, has pitched in parts of two seasons with the Guardians (2022-23) and carries a career 3.75 ERA in 60 innings. Fielding-independent metrics are more bearish thanks to worse-than-average rate stats, including a 19.5% strikeout rate, 12.4% walk rate and 39.9% ground-ball rate in that time. He sits just over 92 mph, on average, with his heater and complements the pitch with a low-80s slider and mid-80s changeup.

Though he’s worked both as a starter and reliever in his professional career, Pilkington has seen the bulk of his work come out of the rotation. He’s had a very rough go of it in Triple-A, thanks in part to a pair of seasons with the D-backs’ system and their extraordinarily hitter-friendly environment in Reno, though environment alone can’t explain away the southpaw’s 6.80 ERA in 209 frames at that level. He’ll get a chance to compete for a spot on the Nats’ staff, be it in the bullpen or rotation, and will otherwise head to Rochester to serve as depth.

Helvey, 28 in February, was a 22nd-round pick by the Giants in 2018. He’s spent his entire career in San Francisco’s system, most recently pitching 71 1/3 innings of relief with Triple-A Sacramento in 2024. He posted a 5.17 ERA in that span but also punched out a gaudy 30.5% of his opponents — albeit against an unsightly 11.1% walk rate. Missing bats has never been an issue for Helvey, who’s punched out 28% of his opponents in his pro career. Command has been a persistent struggle, however, evidenced by his lifetime 12.9% walk rate.

The Opener: Eovaldi, Cubs, SP Market

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With the Winter Meetings now behind us, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:

1. Eovaldi presser:

The Rangers officially re-signed right-hander Nathan Eovaldi yesterday on a three-year deal worth $75MM. Today, both Eovaldi and Texas president of baseball operations Chris Young will be available to the media at a press conference that’s scheduled for 11am CT. Even after landing Eovaldi (and trading for infielder Jake Burger), Young has his work cut out for him this winter as he tries to facilitate a rebound from an 84-loss 2024 campaign while also ducking under the first luxury tax threshold of $241MM. At the very least, a bullpen that lost Jose Leclerc, David Robertson, and Kirby Yates to free agency last month will need to be addressed. Besides that, there’s been some indications the club could look to add a left-handed slugger like Joc Pederson.

2. Cubs in the thick of trade talks?

The Cubs find themselves in an interesting position on the trade market, operating as both buyers and sellers. That’s hardly an unusual reality in an offseason where few teams are explicitly rebuilding, but what makes Chicago’s situation notable is that both sides of those trade talks seemingly revolve around one position: right field. Ian Happ is entrenched as the club’s everyday left fielder, while dynamic rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong has staked his claim as the club’s center fielder of the future. That leaves Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki vying for playing time in right. Down the stretch last year, Chicago utilized Bellinger’s superior glove and put Suzuki at DH, but the club has spent the winter aggressively shopping Bellinger and his $27.5MM salary.

Dealing Bellinger has long made sense for the Cubs if they can manage it. Suzuki has expressed a preference for playing the outfield as opposed to serving as a full-time DH, and the Cubs have a number of up-and-coming prospects like Matt Shaw, Owen Caissie, and Kevin Alcantara for whom a trade of Bellinger could open up playing time. All those reasons for entertaining a Bellinger trade have only served to make recent reports that Chicago is among the more aggressive suitors for Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker more surprising. Tucker would immediately become the most talented hitter in the Cubs lineup but comes with only one year of team control. The situation becomes even trickier to navigate for the Cubs when one considers that the Yankees are simultaneously the team most connected to Bellinger and a candidate to land Tucker themselves. Could the weekend bring movement on either front?

3. Will the hot SP market spur trades?

It’s no secret that the market for starting pitching has been extremely robust. Every one of the nine pitchers featured on MLBTR’s annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list has signed for more money than predicted, although some such as Blake Snell and Yusei Kikuchi did so only nominally. In any case, that strong demand for pitching led a great many clubs to become involved in the bidding for now-former White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet, who was dealt to the Red Sox as the Winter Meetings came to a close.

Could that hot market for pitching change the plans of teams with starters they could dangle? The Mariners have long indicated that they have no interest in dealing from their rotation this winter but have received an increasing volume of calls about veteran righty Luis Castillo. Meanwhile, the Padres are at least entertaining the possibility of trading Dylan Cease. Even the Pirates have seemingly expressed willingness to consider offers on their talented young arsenal of pitchers (though Paul Skenes is obviously off limits). Will any of those teams deal from their rotation? Will other teams join them in considering deals from their own rotations?

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