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White Sox Targeting Position Players In Garrett Crochet Trade Talks

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Left-hander Garrett Crochet figures to be one of the top trade candidates this offseason, recently getting the top spot on MLBTR’s list. White Sox general manager Chris Getz doesn’t seem to be too concerned with hiding Crochet’s availability, telling Bruce Levine of 670 The Score that Sox are looking to get position players back in return.

“We are focusing on position player return,” Getz said. “That is our primary focus in any trade talks. The right players have to be there. We can’t force anything. We certainly need to improve our offense. That is very clear.”

The Sox obviously need to improve everything, since they just wrapped up the worst season of the modern baseball era, but the offense could definitely be upgraded. The club hit a collective .221/.278/.340 in 2024. Their wRC+ of 75 indicates that the team as a whole was about 25% worse than the league average hitter. That was easily the worst mark in the league, with the Rockies a distant second-last with a wRC+ of 82. The Sox also subtracted from their lineup by trading Tommy Pham, Eloy Jiménez and Paul DeJong at last year’s deadline.

Upgrading that offense is an understandable priority, though they will have to assess any trade offers on their overall merits. The club presumably wouldn’t take a package of mediocre position players over really good pitchers just because that’s their target, but the preference could be notable.

It’s also understandable since pitching can be mercurial. Many hyped-up prospects get injured or simply don’t live up to their pedigree. Even the prospects that do pan out can have lengthy absences due to elbow or shoulder surgeries. As such, it’s not uncommon for rebuilding clubs to focus on building a position player core, later adding pitching through trade or free agency.

The Sox also don’t really have any core position players that would block any new guys that would come over in a potential trade. Andrew Benintendi, Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert Jr. are set for free agency after three more years and the club is surely willing to listen to offers on any of them. The rest of the roster doesn’t have many other guys that could really be called established major leaguers.

Whatever the eventual trade package, it seems highly likely that Crochet will be available and highly coveted, which is why MLBTR gave him the top spot on our trade candidates list. Crochet was a high draft pick that quickly made his major league debut, but spent a few years either working out of the bullpen or being injured. Coming into 2024, he had just 85 1/3 professional innings on his track record over the 2020 through 2023 seasons. The Sox stretched him out in 2024 and he eventually tossed 146 innings with a 3.58 earned run average, 35.1% strikeout rate, 5.5% walk rate and 45.1% ground ball rate.

Those unique circumstances contribute to his availability. Despite the limited track record, he has racked up over four years of service time and is now just two years away from the open market. Given how bad the Sox were in 2024, it’s hard to envision them returning to contention in that time frame.

They could sign Crochet to an extension but he is on track to hit free agency after his age-27 season. That means he has a massive amount of future earning power and may not want to give that up, especially to stay with a franchise that is in disarray and reportedly for sale. Crochet did say he’s open to extension conversations but also seemed to acknowledge that it wasn’t likely to come together. Looking at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the White Sox have never given any player more than the $75MM deal they gave to Benintendi.

If Crochet isn’t a part of the long-term plans, then it makes sense to listen to trade offers. The Sox were already shopping him at the deadline a few months ago but couldn’t nail down a deal. Given that Crochet was pushing his workload beyond his previous levels, there were concerns about how he would hold up down the stretch and into a playoff run in October.

The lefty and his camp indicated that they would want to sign a contract extension before risking his health by being a part of such a postseason push, which seemed to scuttle the chances of a deal coming together. The Sox kept him and backed off his usage as they played out the string on their woeful season, not letting Crochet pitch more than four innings in any outing after the month of June.

Those concerns figure to be dissipated now. Crochet held up enough to get his innings total reasonably close to a full starter’s workload, meaning he and any team employing him could reasonably expect him to hold up for a full season, even if that means taking the ball in the month of November. The Sox now have the advantage of potentially marketing him to all teams, whereas presumably the clubs contending in 2024 had more interest at the deadline.

His appeal to other clubs will go beyond his performance. Due to missing so much time earlier in his career due to injury, he hasn’t yet been able to push his salary up too high. He qualified for arbitration for the first time a year ago but only made $800K, barely above this year’s $740K league minimum. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $2.9MM salary for Crochet next year, with the lefty due for another bump via arbitration in 2026.

For a pitcher of Crochet’s caliber, there’s tremendous surplus value there. Veteran back-end guys like Martín Pérez, Wade Miley and Alex Wood signed deals in the $8-8.5MM range last winter while the top pitchers have gone beyond $40MM in terms of average annual value. To get an ace-like performance for a salary barely above the league minimum is a tremendous bargain.

It also could be hugely important for clubs that pay the competitive balance tax. There are varying tax levels depending on how many consecutive years a club has been a tax payor and how far above the base threshold they are, but ticking all the boxes can get a club to a 110% tax rate. That means that paying a pitcher a deal with a $20MM salary would add another $22MM in taxes, just as a hypothetical example. Saving that money and getting Crochet instead would naturally be very attractive.

All of that adds up to make Crochet one of the most interesting players for the coming months and it gives Getz an incredibly important decision in shaping the future of his franchise. He is likely going to be spending a good deal of his winter on the phone, assessing different offers from all over the league.

Red Sox, Orioles, Dodgers Interested In Teoscar Hernández

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Free agent Teoscar Hernández just won a World Series and is now drawing interest in the early days of the offseason. The Red Sox and Orioles are interested in the outfielder, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network on X. The Dodgers and Hernández also have mutual interest in a reunion, per Russell Dorsey of Yahoo Sports.

Hernández, 32, was a free agent a year ago and received interest from the Red Sox at that time. Chris Cotillo of MassLive (X link) reported that the Sox offered him $28MM over a two-year deal, numbers that were later confirmed by the player himself when speaking to Rob Bradford of WEEI and the Baseball Isn’t Boring Podcast.

He turned down that offer and instead took a slightly smaller guarantee on a one-year pact with the Dodgers. That deal paid him $23.5MM with some deferrals, but perhaps most importantly, allowed him to return to free agency after hopefully having a bounceback year.

That bet on himself looks like it will pay off well. From 2020 to 2022, he slashed .283/.333/.519 for the Blue Jays, production that led to a 132 wRC+. His defense wasn’t great but he did steal 24 bases in that stretch and the offense was undeniable. He was traded to the Mariners prior to 2023 and had a down year at the plate, hitting .258/.305/.435 for a 106 wRC+. With that weak platform year, his free agent market was fairly tepid, including the aforementioned offer from Boston.

But his year with Los Angeles could hardly have gone much better, as he hit .272/.339/.501 for a 134 wRC+, right back to his previous form. His defensive metrics still weren’t great but he swiped another 12 bags. He got into 16 playoff games and hit .250/.352/.417 for a 119 wRC+. On MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents post, we predicted that he could secure a three-year, $60MM deal this time around.

Whether he can get that deal or not, the Sox would almost certainly have to increase their offer from a year ago. If they are willing to do so, his right-handed swing would fit well on a roster with plenty of left-handed bats. Rafael Devers, Triston Casas, Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu all hit from the left side, as do prospects Kyle Teel, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony.

Last year, the Sox complemented their lefty outfielders by having Tyler O’Neill, who had a good season in a specific way. He was injured a few times, struck out a bunch and did most of his damage against lefties, but still had a strong season overall. He hit 31 home runs in 113 games for a .241/.336/.511 slash line and 131 wRC+, all that despite a 33.6% strikeout rate and a meager 91 wRC+ against righties.

Hernández should be ranked a bit above O’Neill as he has a slight edge in most of those areas. His 28.8% strikeout rate in 2024 was high but not as bad as O’Neill’s. He does have platoon splits, though not to the same extent as O’Neill. Hernández has a 140/113 wRC+ split in his career and was at 154/126 in 2024. He’s also far more durable, having played at least 125 games in each of the past six full seasons, whereas O’Neill has only hit that number once in his career.

Either could work as the needed righty for Boston. Hernández would arguably be better but would also likely cost more. O’Neill was predicted by MLBTR for a three-year deal just like Hernández but with a lesser guarantee of $42MM. However, Hernández received a qualifying offer from the Dodgers and is therefore tied to draft pick forfeiture, whereas O’Neill is not. Per Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe on X, the Sox remain engaged with O’Neill’s camp and could potentially bring him back.

Either should fit in the club’s budget. RosterResource projects the club for a payroll of $136MM right now, more than $50MM below where they were in 2024. They’re about $70MM below the competitive balance tax line. They have needs on the pitching staff but could certainly spend on an outfielder if they want.

For the Orioles, they are a logical fit for similar reasons. Their lineup features lefties Gunnar Henderson, Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins, Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad and Jackson Holliday. Prospects Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers are also lefty swingers. Their outfield just lost switch-hitting outfielder Anthony Santander to free agency, so Hernández could slot in as Santander’s replacement if the O’s don’t re-sign him.

Orioles general manager Mike Elias recently identified a right-handed hitting outfielder as an offseason target, per Jake Rill of MLB.com. The big question is how much spending capacity the club will have this winter. In the past six years, they haven’t given a free agent a multi-year deal, with Craig Kimbrel’s $13MM guarantee on a one-year pact their largest expenditure.

For much of that time, they were rebuilding and then the club was up for sale. David Rubenstein took over ownership officially just as the 2024 season was getting started. It has been expected that the club will get a bit more aggressive and their trade deadline behavior gave some encouraging signs in that regard. They took on notable money to acquire Zach Eflin and Seranthony Domínguez, but it’s still unknown exactly how far they plan to go this winter.

“Whether it’s free-agent spending or it’s support for my staff or the baseball organization, I think we have everything that we need financially to make the optimal decisions for the long-term health of the franchise. And a lot of that’s going to be in my judgment,” Elias said this week. “But certainly, if we have something that we want to do and we need financial support for it, I’m exceedingly confident that that’s going to be there.”

Returning to the Dodgers is also easy to see, especially with the club planning to move Mookie Betts back to the infield next year. That means the projected outfield currently consists of Andy Pages, James Outman and utility guys like Tommy Edman and Chris Taylor. While the Dodgers could easily fit Hernández in there, they will probably first see how things play out with their reported interest in Juan Soto.

Phillies Exploring Outfield, Right-Handed Relief Markets

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The Phillies head into the offseason with a star-studded roster and substantial payroll obligation, though owner John Middleton has already expressed confidence that the 2025 payroll will increase. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has at multiple points hinted at potential trades rather than free agent pursuits, speaking of a need to be “open-minded” as he looks to augment a roster that’s been a perennial playoff club but fallen shy of a World Series win (or even a World Series appearance). The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reports that the Phils have signaled a desire to add an outfielder and at least one right-handed reliever.

As laid out in our Phillies Offseason Outlook, adding in the outfield is one of the most logical pursuits for a Phillies club that has established contributors at catcher (J.T. Realmuto), first base (Bryce Harper), second base (Bryson Stott), shortstop (Trea Turner), third base (Alec Bohm), right field (Nick Castellanos) and designated hitter (Kyle Schwarber). Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas offer options in the remaining two outfield spots, but the Phils aren’t likely to simply roll the same lineup back out in 2024 after another shorter-than-hoped season. Marsh and Rojas could form a platoon, as Marsh bats left-handed to the more defensively gifted Rojas’ right-handed bat. That’d open a path for one incoming outfielder, but Dombrowski’s repeated chorus of “open-minded” approaches to reshaping his offense have prompted natural speculation about trades.

From that standpoint, it’s hard to imagine deals involving Realmuto, Harper, Turner and Schwarber. All have been viewed as core pieces in Philadelphia. The Phillies would probably love to move on from the final two years and $40MM on Castellanos’ contract, but Castellanos is a poor defender who hasn’t hit nearly as well in Philadelphia as he did in his free-agent platform season with the Reds. The Phils would need to pay down a good portion of that contract and/or include a prospect to find a taker.

Bohm, Marsh, Stott and to a lesser extent Rojas are the big league position players who could more plausibly be flipped elsewhere as the Phillies try to reshape their identity. Gelb also lists lefty starter Ranger Suarez as a possibility. Their contractual statuses are as follows:

  • Suarez: Controlled through 2025 via arbitration, projected to earn $8.9MM in 2025 (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
  • Bohm: Controlled through 2026 via arbitration, projected to earn $8.1MM in 2025 (via Swartz)
  • Marsh: Controlled through 2027 via arbitration, projected to earn $3MM in 2025 (via Swartz)
  • Stott: Controlled through 2027 via arbitration, projected to earn $3.5MM in 2025 (via Swartz)
  • Rojas: Controlled through 2029, pre-arbitration in 2025

Obviously, the valuation on each player will vary. Suarez would be a one-year rental for a club and would require the Phils — already in need of a starter and likely hoping to dump the remaining two years and $36MM on Taijuan Walker’s contract this offseason — to replace him. He posted a 3.46 ERA with strong strikeout (23.2%) and walk (6.5%) rates in 150 2/3 innings this season but also missed a month with a back injury and struggled from July through September. Plenty of teams would still love to plug him into their rotation.

Bohm is the most consistently productive but has the highest salary and lowest amount of club control remaining of the position players. He also cooled off considerably after a blistering start to the season. He was one of the game’s most productive hitters through early March (.360/.430/.576 in 142 plate appearances) before reverting to his usual brand of roughly average offense for the remainder of the season (.256/.302/.410 over his next 464 plate appearances). Bohm improved his glovework this year and hit righties better than usual but was still notably more productive against left-handed pitching.

Marsh can handle all three outfield spots but is best suited for left field. He’s never hit lefties well but is well above-average versus righties. He runs well and could probably pop 20 homers with a full season of at-bats, though that’d mean lesser rate stats and more plate appearances versus lefties. He’s hit 28 homers in 948 plate appearances across the past two seasons. Marsh is a useful part-time player, but his 31% strikeout rate since 2023 (and 32.8% career mark) is rather concerning, especially since he’s been platooned so often.

Stott is a plus defender and strong baserunner with 15-homer pop. He makes plenty of contact but has really only had one average season at the plate (2023), in addition to a pair of below-average campaigns during which he’s still been a solid overall contributor because of his glove and speed. If a team with budget problems and no concrete option at shortstop would view him as an outside-the-box candidate at short, his market could expand. Stott hasn’t graded as well there in 770 big league innings but has more than 2000 professional innings at short.

Rojas is an even more extreme case of the speed-and-defense skill set. He’s a plus center fielder with excellent speed but turned in just a .243/.279/.322 slash in 2024 (68 wRC+) and is a career .261/.298/.355 hitter (81 wRC+) in 527 big league plate appearances.

Dombrowski has publicly suggested that he needs to be open to trading “good players” in order to get talent in return. Speculatively speaking, Bohm feels like the most plausible fit, as he’s set to earn the most money, has the least club control remaining and plays a position (third base) where the free-agent market is quite thin this offseason. There could be paths to flipping Bohm for a bullpen arm, a back-of-the-rotation starter or an outfielder, and shedding his payroll could also free the Phillies to pursue other options at the hot corner or give them more money to address needs elsewhere on the roster.

Former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and longtime Phils beat writers Todd Zolecki and Jim Salisbury took a deep dive into the possibilities on the latest episode of their podcast. All three acknowledged that Dombrowski’s repeated phrases this offseason have not-so-quietly signaled a trade is likely. In addition to repeating the “open-minded” line on several occasions, Dombrowski has at least twice suggested the Phillies have enough star players on the roster. At his end-of-season press conference, Dombrowski said his club has “as many star players as about anybody in baseball” before adding that sometimes “the supporting cast” is where the biggest need sits.

Gelb notes in the previously referenced piece that Dombrowski doubled down on that thinking at this week’s GM Meetings. Asked if the Phils would be “big-game hunting” this winter, the Phils’ president replied: “Our ownership allows us to do a lot of things. But sometimes that’s not what you want. We have a lot of good star players on our team. So, read that as you would.”

MLBTR Podcast: Breaking Down The Top 50 Free Agents List

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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 Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss our annual Top 50 Free Agents post. The conversation veered into these specific topics…

Check out our past episodes!

  • The Mets’ Spending Power, Juan Soto Suitors, And The Rangers’ Payroll Limits – listen here
  • The World Series, The White Sox Reportedly For Sale, And Tropicana Field – listen here
  • Changes In Minnesota, Cubs’ Prospect Depth, And Possibilities For The O’s – listen here

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

Jeff Hoffman Garnering Interest As Starter

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Jeff Hoffman’s breakout as an elite reliever in the Phillies’ bullpen over the past two seasons played a huge role in the team’s success, but now that he’s a free agent it’s possible he’ll sign in a completely different role. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reported within his ranking of the offseason’s top free agents that some clubs have considered pursuing Hoffman as a starting pitcher. The Athletic’s Matt Gelb backs that up in his own report, further pointing out that Hoffman is represented the same agency (CAA) that represented Reynaldo Lopez during his own switch from the bullpen to the rotation last winter.

Hoffman, 32 in January, has quietly been a dominant force in the Philadelphia bullpen since signing a minor league deal early in the 2023 season. Recency bias might conjure up the unflattering memory of the right-hander’s NLDS meltdown against the Mets, but from 2023-24, Hoffman compiled 118 2/3 innings of 2.28 ERA ball while punching out a gaudy 33.4% of his opponents against a 7.4% walk rate. This postseason’s pair of regrettable outings against the Mets isn’t an ideal final memory, but Hoffman also snapped off six shutout innings of relief with eight strikeouts and no walks during the 2023 NLCS.

Excellent as Hoffman has been in relief, there’s reason to believe he could succeed in a lengthier role. First and foremost, the former No. 8 overall draft pick was a starter in his college days at East Carolina University and began his pro career in a rotation role. He started 11 big league games as recently as 2021 with Cincinnati and didn’t move to a full-time relief role until his 2022 season with the Reds. Hoffman has appeared in 361 professional games (majors and minors combined); 145 of them (40%) have been starts.

Beyond his familiarity with the role, Hoffman still uses a four-pitch repertoire even when working out of the bullpen. Many relievers who were once starters narrow their arsenal down to two pitches when they move to a short relief role. Hoffman still threw four pitches at least 8% of the time in 2024: a four-seamer (39%), slider (40.8%), splitter (12%) and sinker (8.2%). He averaged a fiery 96.6 mph on that four-seamer and 96.7 mph on his sinker. Those numbers would surely go down were Hoffman to begin working five, six and seven innings at a time, but even with reduced life on his fastballs he could still have average or better velocity. The league-average starting pitcher in 2024 sat 94.2 mph with his four-seamer, per Statcast.

Among those four pitches, Statcast has ranked them all as plus offerings over the past two seasons. Hoffman’s slider has easily been the best of the bunch, producing a huge 20.6% swinging-strike rate and limiting opponents to a .160/.201/.215 batting line when finishing off a plate appearance with that offering (dating back to Opening Day 2023). Again, whether he could sustain that level of dominance when facing opponents a second and third time through the order isn’t certain, but Hoffman’s wipeout slider has played an enormous role in his breakout since signing with the Phillies.

There are health and performance risks when taking a reliever and stretching him out. Hoffman hasn’t reached even 100 innings (majors and minors combined) in a season since 2019. Even among the reliever-to-starter experiments that panned out nicely in 2024, no one from the bunch worked what could be considered a full workload.

Garrett Crochet came the closest, compiling 146 innings across 32 starts, but the White Sox didn’t allow him to pitch more than four innings in a start after the calendar flipped to July. The aforementioned Lopez reached 135 2/3 innings but had a pair of IL stints owing to forearm and shoulder inflammation. Angels righty Jose Soriano went from 65 1/3 innings in 2023 to 113 in 2024 but was shut down for the season on Aug. 17 due to arm fatigue. Giants righty Jordan Hicks thrived in the rotation through late May before stumbling to an ERA over 6.00 in the early summer and being dropped back to the ’pen in mid-July. He finished at 109 2/3 innings with a 4.10 ERA. Seth Lugo is perhaps the best recent example of success in this transition. He jumped from 65 innings with the 2022 Mets to 146 innings with the 2023 Padres and 206 innings with this past season’s Royals.

Notably, McDaniel opines that Hoffman is still likelier to sign as a reliever. It’s the role in which he’s dominated over the past two seasons, and while he’s not the No. 1 reliever in this offseason’s free agent class — most publications, including MLBTR, assigned that honor to lefty Tanner Scott — Hoffman has a case to be considered the No. 2 or No. 3 bullpen arm on the open market this winter.

Gelb suggests Hoffman may prefer the relief role, though logically speaking, one would imagine he’d simply take the best offer possible. This is Hoffman’s first real crack at a notable MLB contract. He took home a signing bonus of just over $3MM in the draft but was non-tendered throughout his arbitration years and earned a relatively modest $2.2MM this past season in his final arb season. Even with that draft bonus, Hoffman’s career earnings fall shy of $8MM. He’ll presumably prioritize top dollar, regardless of location or role.

Alex Bregman Willing To Move To Second Base

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Earlier this month, Alex Bregman was awarded a Gold Glove for his defense at third base. He has been an All-Star, a Silver Slugger, and a World Series champion, but this was the first Gold Glove of his nine-year career. The honor was well deserved. According to Baseball Savant, Bregman set new career highs in Outs Above Average (OAA) and Fielding Run Value (FRV). The metrics at FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus agree he was the most valuable defensive third baseman in the American League. Yet, Bregman’s agent Scott Boras revealed at the GM meetings this week that multiple teams have asked about his client’s willingness to move to second base – and Boras confirmed that Bregman would indeed be willing to make the change (per Bob Nightengale of USA Today).

It’s not necessarily surprising that Bregman would be amenable to switching positions. Extra versatility will only make him more appealing as a free agent. The more suitors he can attract, the more money he can command. Similar reports came out this week about fellow top free agent Willy Adames, a talented shortstop who would be willing to move to second or third base on the right deal. Moreover, it’s not as if Bregman would be completely new to the keystone. He played a handful of games at second base in each of his first three MLB seasons. He also has plenty of experience at shortstop from college and his early professional years.

What is slightly more surprising is the fact that teams would be interested in Bregman playing second base in the first place. He’s a good enough hitter that his bat could play anywhere around the diamond, but he is an experienced third baseman coming off the best defensive season of his career. It’s hard to imagine his glove would be quite as valuable at a new position – nor would his bat necessarily play any better at second base. Historically, second base has been a weaker offensive position than third, but the gap has nearly disappeared over the last two years. From 2023-24, second basemen have produced a .308 wOBA. Third baseman have put up a .309 wOBA in that time. Finally, there is more competition on the free agent market at second base than third. Adames and Ha-Seong Kim can play both positions, but each has more big league experience at second. In addition, two of MLBTR’s top 50 free agents are primary second basemen: Gleyber Torres and Hyeseong Kim. Bregman is the only primary third baseman on our top 50 list.

On the other hand, Bregman has never had a good arm for a third baseman. What’s more, it’s quite possible he would have been a second baseman all along if it weren’t for Jose Altuve blocking the position in Houston. Considering Bregman’s arm looked weaker than usual in 2024 (and that he just had surgery on his throwing elbow), perhaps some of his suitors think he’ll be a better defender at second base in the long run. Alternatively, they might just be hedging their bets in case his elbow problems linger into next season.

Regardless, Bregman continues to be most strongly linked to Houston this offseason. GM Dana Brown told reporters (including Jon Heyman of the New York Post) at the GM Meetings that he thinks the Astros have “a really good chance” of re-signing their homegrown star. In that case, there is no doubt he would resume his duties at the hot corner in 2025. Altuve is coming off another All-Star season at second, and the face of the Astros franchise is under contract for another five years and $125 million.

Top 50 Free Agent Chat Transcript

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You’ve had a few days to digest our entire 2024-25 Top 50 MLB Free Agent rankings, all 20,000 words of it. Tim Dierkes, Anthony Franco, Darragh McDonald and I put more than a month into deliberating our contract predictions. If you want to ask us more about our process, a particular prediction, tell us someone we overlooked/underestimated/overrated or give any other thoughts, you can click here to read a transcript of the chat with Tim, Darragh and me about the list!

The Opener: Marlins, Angels, Top 50 Chat

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With the first position player and starting pitcher deals of this year’s free agency now in the books, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on today:

1. Marlins managerial search nearing conclusion?

After the White Sox recently hired Will Venable to take over the club’s managerial gig, that left just one club without a skipper set to helm the dugout in 2025: the Marlins, whose new hire will have their work cut out for them after the club decided against bringing back the entire 2024 coaching staff. Fans in Miami have been in suspense about the club’s next manager for quite some time, and there’s some reason to believe the search is coming to an end. Jon Morosi of MLB Network said yesterday that Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix told him that he was “nearing” a decision on the club’s new manager. Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough and Tigers bench coach George Lombard are among the rumored names not yet known to be out of the running.

2. Angels 40-man move incoming:

The Angels made their first free agent signing of the offseason yesterday when they agreed to a one-year deal with longtime Cubs veteran Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks, 35 in December, is coming off the worst season of his career in 2024 but was once among the most effective starters in the league in terms of run prevention and put up solid mid-rotation results (114 ERA+) as recently as 2023. He’ll slot into a rotation that currently includes little certainty outside of veteran Tyler Anderson and young righty José Soriano. Hendricks joins trade acquisition Jorge Soler as the key pieces Anaheim has already added in a busy start to the offseason.

Before Hendricks’ deal with the Halos can become official, however, the club will need to make room for him on the 40-man roster. That will likely require the club to designate a player for assignment, but it’s possible the club could try to work out a trade to clear a spot on the 40-man as well.

3. MLBTR Top 50 Chat today:

Earlier this week, we here at MLBTR posted our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list, complete with contract and team predictions. It’s our biggest post of the year, jam-packed with information and analysis. If you have any questions about the list and our predictions, you’re in luck, as Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Darragh McDonald will be hosting a joint live chat at 9am CT today! You can click here to submit a question in advance, participate live when the chat begins, and read the transcript after it concludes.

Cards Moving Willson Contreras To First Base; Contreras Unlikely To Waive No-Trade Clause

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As he heads into the third season of his five-year, $87.5MM contract, Willson Contreras is headed for a position change. The Cardinals plan to move Contreras from catcher to first base next season, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters at the GM Meetings today that the move to a first base/designated hitter role was made with Contreras’ long-term health and longevity in mind, adding that he’s “unlikely” to catch much at all in 2025 (X link via Katie Woo of The Athletic).

Mozeliak added that Contreras was quite clear about his desire to remain in St. Louis even as the team embarks on something of a reset (via Woo). That makes it unlikely he’d be willing to waive his full no-trade clause this offseason. It’s a similar story with right-hander Sonny Gray, it seems. Mozeliak didn’t directly state as much, but Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Gray has also expressed a preference to remain with the Cardinals. Like Contreras, Gray has full no-trade protection.

The move to first base for Contreras opens the path for Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages to split time behind the plate. It’s perhaps possible that an injury to one or both players could result in Contreras suiting up and crouching behind home plate once again, but it seems the organization’s preference is a shift away from that role. It’s the latest in a winding saga with the Cardinals’ seeming distaste for Contreras’ defense — one that began just weeks into his first season with the club.

The Cardinals announced early in the 2023 season that Contreras would be moving off catcher for at least a few weeks. At the time, Mozeliak stressed that Contreras hadn’t caught his last game for the club but added that the team had grown accustomed to Yadier Molina’s glovework behind the dish, adding that “this is going to take a little time to get him to where we feel he understands the expectations of what this role is for us.” It was a stunning announcement less than two months into a five-year contract, and one that generated even more confusion when Contreras returned to catching just one week later.

With the contract now 40% complete, Contreras appears ticketed for a more permanent move off the position. The 32-year-old has long been regarded as a bat-first catcher, but the ongoing questions about the Cardinals’ satisfaction with his defense (or lack thereof) has at multiple points prompted questions about why the team signed him to a five-year deal in the first place. Those questions will only grow louder now. Statcast has generally given Contreras plus grades for his throwing and rated him as a solid blocker, though his framing skills have been panned. He’s lived up to his end of the deal at the plate, however, hitting a combined .263/.367/.468 in 853 plate appearances. A broken forearm and finger, among other smaller injuries, have limited his time on the field, but Contreras has generally been one of the Cardinals’ best hitters when healthy.

That’ll presumably continue as he moves into a new role on the field. Contreras’ position shift seems likely to close the door on a potential reunion with free agent Paul Goldschmidt, who’ll now look to rebound elsewhere after a disappointing finish to his St. Louis tenure. It’ll also finally give the 24-year-old Herrera a crack at the starting catcher role for which he’s appeared ready for several years.

Herrera was thought to be a potential heir to Molina behind the plate, but any such hopes were dashed when the Cards originally signed Contreras. He’s a .289/.365/.398 hitter in 325 major league plate appearances (117 wRC+) and carries a stout .281/.414/.453 slash in 176 Triple-A contests. Pages, 26, hit .238/.281/.376 in 218 big league plate appearances in 2024. The righty hitter did post solid offensive numbers as a 24-year-old in Double-A in 2023, but scouting reports on him have questioned his hit tool while characterizing him as a likelier platoon option or backup.

Turning to Gray, his apparent desire to remain in St. Louis makes him a less obvious trade candidate than he was entering the winter. The Cards were reported to be open to offers on Gray even before they publicly revealed their plan for a step-back to focus on player development. Gray’s no-trade clause and heavily backloaded contract were always significant roadblocks in a potential trade, but ones that potentially seemed surmountable. He was quite selective about his destination in free agency, preferring to be relatively close to his Nashville home. Still, there was some thought that a trade to a geographically close club might hold appeal.

Working out such a swap would’ve been complicated. Gray’s three-year, $75MM contract paid him just $10MM in year one. He’s owed $65MM over the course of the next two seasons. That’s a huge number for an acquiring club to take on, particularly if said club has luxury-tax concerns (e.g. the Braves). A team acquiring a contract is taxed on the remainder of the deal rather than the original AAV, meaning a new club would be on the hook for a $32.5MM luxury hit in acquiring Gray. Those hurdles are all rendered moot, however, if Gray prefers to remain in St. Louis and see how things play out in the short-term.

Mozeliak told reporters today that he spoke to all of his players with no-trade clauses. That means he’s at least broached the possibility with third baseman Nolan Arenado. It’s not yet clear, however, whether Arenado is as convicted in his desire to remain on board through the team’s reset. Certainly, the lack of comments or concrete reporting on the matter doesn’t mean Arenado is requesting or even open to a trade, but the lack of information on him will fuel natural speculation. Arenado’s trade from Colorado to St. Louis, after all, was prompted by his frustration over the Rockies’ inability to field a competitive roster. Playing for a contending club was a priority for him — so much so that he passed on an opt-out opportunity in his contract to remain in St. Louis due in large part to their status as perennial contenders.

Arenado now has three years and $74MM remaining on his contract. The Rockies are on the hook for $5MM of that sum. He’s had two straight pedestrian seasons at the plate, batting .269/.320/.426 since 2023. That’s still slightly better than league-average production by measure of wRC+ but is a far cry from his MVP-caliber 2022 showing when he hit .293/.358/.553. Whether he can bounce back as he heads into his age-34 campaign is an open question, but Arenado remains an elite defender with rare durability. He’s missed 28 games over the past two seasons but has played in 94.6% of his teams’ games dating back to the 2015 season.

Giants, Sergio Alcantara Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Giants are in agreement with infielder Sergio Alcántara on a minor league deal, reports Francys Romero (X link). The Quality Control Sports client gets an invitation to big league camp.

Alcántara has appeared with four teams at the major league level. He hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2022. The switch-hitting infielder split the ’24 campaign between the Triple-A affiliates of the Pirates and Diamondbacks. His .271/.388/.416 slash is solid on the surface, though that was mostly concentrated in a hitter’s paradise in Reno. Alcántara has played the role of light-hitting utilityman in his MLB career. He’s a .209/.281/.343 hitter over 502 big league plate appearances.

While Alcántara doesn’t provide much at the plate, he has bounced around on the strength of his glove. He has more than 6000 innings of shortstop experience in the minors. Alcátara has upwards of 1000 professional frames at both second and third base. The Giants are likely to add a starting shortstop this winter to push Tyler Fitzgerald to second base. Most of San Francisco’s utility players are stretched at shortstop, so Alcántara is a sensible depth target who’ll likely open the season in Triple-A.

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