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2025-26 Offseason In Review News & Rumors

Offseason In Review: Toronto Blue Jays

By | at March 17, 2026 2:00pm CDT

The Blue Jays reinforced their rotation, said goodbye to longtime shortstop Bo Bichette, and (again) lost a major free agent bidding war to the Dodgers.

Major League Signings

2026 spending: $70MM
Total spending: $340MM

Trades And Claims

Option Decisions

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None to date

Notable Losses

The usual “Toronto is interested in everyone” rumors barely got a chance to get rolling before the Blue Jays made the early strike of signing Dylan Cease before the end of November.  Even with some deferred money involved, Cease’s seven-year, $210MM pact is the largest free agent signing in Jays history, and it was the first indication that the Jays would again be shopping at the top of the market.

The durable Cease has logged 942 1/3 innings since the start of the 2020 season, and he has never been on the big league injured list apart from a brief stint on the COVID-19 IL in 2021.  Beyond this ability to stay on the mound, Cease misses a lot of bats (29.7% strikeout rate over the last five years), and he is a hard thrower with some of the best fastball spin rates in the league.  The down side is that Cease has below-average control and he has been prone to giving up hard contact, which is why Cease’s ERAs (like his 4.55 mark with the Padres in 2025) can be higher than his peripheral numbers would reflect.

It is certainly possible the Jays think pitching coach Pete Walker and the team’s development staff can help Cease find more consistency, and ideally get him back to his 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up form.  Even the current version of Cease, however, is a pitcher the Blue Jays view as capable of starting playoff games come October.

Cody Ponce’s three-year, $30MM deal was another intriguing investment in the rotation.  Ponce’s MLB resume consists of a 5.86 ERA over 55 1/3 innings with the 2020-21 Pirates, but the right-hander then went overseas, spending three seasons in Japan before heading to the KBO League’s Hanwha Eagles in 2025.  The result was a sparkling 1.89 ERA, 36.2% K%, and six percent walk rate over 180 2/3 innings, and Ponce earned both KBO MVP and the Dong-Won Choi Award (the equivalent of the Cy Young) while helping lead the Eagles to a berth in the Korean Series.

The Blue Jays obviously wouldn’t mind if Ponce continues this form in his return to the majors, but more realistically, Ponce becoming a decent mid-range starter would still make his contract a relative bargain, when compared to the broader starting pitching market as a whole.  Ponce will be used as a starter, and if that role doesn’t work out, his skillset could perhaps translate well to relief work, so the Jays could still some return on their investment.

Cease and Ponce are the newcomers joining a pair of familiar faces returning to the Jays rotation.  Max Scherzer waited until early March to decide on his next team, and he opted for a return engagement in Toronto on a one-year, $3MM guarantee that includes up to $10MM in innings-based bonuses.  Shane Bieber was the first pitching domino to fall in the Jays offseason when he eschewed free agency altogether, passing on a opt-out clause to instead remain in his contract on a $16MM salary for 2026.

Bieber’s decision was a surprise at the time, though reports emerged in December that Bieber pitched through some forearm fatigue during the end of the 2025 season.  To that end, the Blue Jays will place Bieber on the 15-day IL to begin the coming season so that he can fully ramp up, since he has yet to start throwing off a mound this spring.

The Jays’ knowledge of Bieber’s situation surely informed their contract with Scherzer, which added to a rotation picture is overcrowded on paper.  If everyone is healthy, there technically won’t be enough starts to go around between Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios, Cease, Ponce, Scherzer, Bieber, and swingman Eric Lauer.

As is often the way in baseball, there’s no such thing as “too much” pitching.  Beyond Bieber, Berrios is also dealing with elbow inflammation and could be an IL candidate.  The Jays are giving Yesavage a gradual build as they manage his innings heading into the postseason hero’s first full Major League season.  Ponce is an unproven commodity in MLB action, and Scherzer is 41 with a checkered injury history.  Even beyond the names set for the 26-man roster, depth starter Bowden Francis will miss the season due to Tommy John surgery, and former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann dealt with some elbow soreness this spring as he continues his own return from a TJ procedure.

Even if Berrios had some hard feelings about the end of his 2025 season or Lauer would’ve preferred a clear-cut starting job, there should be enough starts to go around for everyone.  Since the Blue Jays are intent on winning the World Series, the team is building a pitching staff for a seven-month run, not just a six-month regular season.

This plan extends to the bullpen, which is why Tyler Rogers received a hefty three-year, $37MM contract on the open market.  Though Rogers is entering his age-35 season, the veteran right-hander has been the picture of durability, as well as having some of the best command of any pitcher in the sport.  An old-school outlier in today’s velocity-centric game, Rogers’ sinker doesn’t even reach the mid-80s, but he is a master at inducing grounders and soft contact.

Rogers is the only real new face within a bullpen that lost Seranthony Dominguez in free agency, and won’t have Yimi Garcia available at the start of the year.  Trade acquisition Chase Lee could become a part of the picture as the season develops, and Rule 5 selections Angel Bastardo and Spencer Miles (selected in the last two R5s) will have trouble fitting onto the roster or staying in the Jays organization.

A minor league signing like Connor Seabold or Joe Mantiply could stand out, and a southpaw like Mantiply could benefit from the unsettled nature of the pen’s left-handed corps.  Brendon Little and Mason Fluharty struggled down the stretch and in the playoffs, and Lauer isn’t really a fit in a true left-handed specialist sense since he’ll be kept stretched out for at least multi-inning work if the Jays ever need to quickly call on him for a start.

Left-handed bullpen help could therefore be on Toronto’s radar come the trade deadline, and a more high-profile move for a closer also shouldn’t be ruled out.  Jeff Hoffman will return as the Blue Jays’ ninth-inning man, even though GM Ross Atkins suggested back in November that Hoffman was fine with moving into a set-up role if necessary.  The team’s explorations into the bullpen market bore out its interest in a new closer, as the Jays reportedly had interest in such free agents as Edwin Diaz, Robert Suarez, Raisel Iglesias, Pete Fairbanks, and Ryan Helsley.

Other pitchers on Toronto’s radar included relievers like Luke Weaver, Phil Maton, and Brad Keller, while such free agent starters as Framber Valdez, Michael King, and former Blue Jay Chris Bassitt drew at least some interest.  There was some speculation that the Jays could make a late push for Valdez after he lingered on the market into February, but the left-hander instead signed with the Tigers, and Toronto pivoted to Scherzer a month later.

Moving into the position-player ranks, Alex Bregman, Ketel Marte, Cody Bellinger, Munetaka Murakami, and Yoan Moncada were all linked to the Blue Jays at various points this winter.  These players were primarily viewed as backup plans for the Jays, however, as Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette were seen as Toronto’s biggest targets.  As the offseason continued and the markets for both players remained unclear, there was some thought that the Jays could even sign both Tucker and Bichette, if the team wanted to go all out with its spending.

As it turned out, both Tucker and Bichette will be playing elsewhere in 2026.  In Tucker’s case, the Blue Jays were reportedly the only suitor who made a major long-term offer, in the form of a ten-year, $350MM deal.  The Mets offered Tucker a four-year, $220MM contract with multiple opt-outs, and the Dodgers a slightly larger four-year, $240MM pact (also with opt-outs) that Tucker ended up signing.  Tucker could conceivably return to free agency as early as the 2027-28 offseason, but for the next two years, he’ll be joining the Dodgers’ push for more rings.

Bichette could be a free agent again next winter, if he triggers the first of the two opt-outs in his three-year, $126MM deal with the Mets, as New York quickly moved on from Tucker to sign another multi-time All-Star to a similar contract structure.  In Bichette’s case, it was the Phillies who offered a longer-term (seven years and between $190-$200MM) deal, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski felt “we were very close to having a deal done,” before Bichette chose New York over Philadelphia.

It isn’t known what the Blue Jays offered Bichette, or if the team necessarily even put a concrete offer on the table to its longtime infielder.  While re-signing Bichette seemed like a more realistic scenario for Toronto than pursuing a Bregman or a Bellinger, it always somewhat felt like Toronto was expecting Bichette to leave — even dating back to last winter, when Andres Gimenez was acquired from the Guardians as an unofficial shortstop-in-waiting.

The Kazuma Okamoto signing also cast more doubt on a Bichette return.  With Bichette, Tucker, and plenty of other position players still available, the Jays instead pivoted to sign the Japanese star to a four-year, $60MM deal.  Given how the Blue Jays like to move players around the diamond, Okamoto might see some time in left field or playing first base if Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is getting a DH day, but Okamoto is expected to settle in as the regular third baseman.

As with all high-profile NPB signings, there’s risk in committing such a significant amount of money to a player with no experience in North American baseball.  There’s good reason to believe Okamoto’s high-contact approach can translate well to the Show, however, and Okamoto hit so well in Japan (.277/.361/.521 with 248 homers over 4494 plate appearances) that it was clear why he was drawing interest from multiple Major League teams before the Blue Jays won the bidding.

With Okamoto now at the hot corner, the rest of Toronto’s lineup consists of Gimenez at shortstop, Ernie Clement at second base, Guerrero at first base, Alejandro Kirk catching, George Springer at DH, and a starting outfield of Addison Barger, Daulton Varsho, and Jesus Sanchez.  The left-handed hitting Sanchez is expected to platoon with Davis Schneider in left field, and the presence of Nathan Lukes and Myles Straw as outfield depth could allow Barger to get some time back at third base if Okamoto needs an off-day, or has some difficulty adjusting to big league pitching.

Shoulder surgery will keep Anthony Santander out of this mix until at least July, as the slugger is already looking at what might be a second lost season in a row.  Santander was limited to 54 games in 2025 due to shoulder problems, and he hit only .175/.271/.294 over 221 PA.  The hope was that a healthy Santander could rebound and start providing some return in the second season of his five-year, $92.5MM contract, yet he’ll now again be sidelined until the second half.

Shortly after word broke about Santander’s surgery, the Jays landed Sanchez from the Astros in exchange for Joey Loperfido, another left-handed hitting outfielder with less MLB experience.  Sanchez has six seasons under his belt with the Marlins and Astros, and poor numbers against southpaws have kept the outfielder from thriving as a true regular.  As noted, the Jays only need him to be the strong side of a platoon with Schneider, and the team is hoping Sanchez can at least match his .253/.324/.450 career slash line against right-handed pitching.

Looking at the position-player depth chart as a whole, it isn’t much different from the offense that was one of the league’s best in 2025.  That said, replacing Bichette with Okamoto is an obvious downgrade for now based on Major League track record, even if the Jays will get a defensive boost by installing Gimenez at shortstop.  Counting on Barger or Clement to be regular starters also carries some risk, as their huge playoff performances came after much more ordinary production over the regular season.

After a 2024 campaign that saw almost the entire lineup struggle at the plate, the 2025 Blue Jays enjoyed a dream year that saw pretty much every batter significantly improve.  The question now facing the Jays is whether the truth about their position players falls somewhere in between, or if 2025 was just the start of an offensive awakening under hitting coach David Popkins.  Tucker, Bichette, or another proven veteran bat would’ve helped solidify the lineup quite a bit, and depending on how the season progresses, adding such a hitter might well be on Atkins’ shopping list at the trade deadline.

Aggressive moves and aggressive spending have become the calling card for the organization.  This winter’s investments have again brought the payroll to new levels — as per RosterResource‘s estimates, the Blue Jays have a $289MM payroll, and a whopping $318.1MM luxury tax number.  The latter figure puts the Jays well over the highest luxury tax penalization tier of $304MM, which means they’ll face a 90% surcharge on any dollar spent above the $304MM mark.

It is safe to say at this point that the front office doesn’t care about the short-term tax implications, or details like giving up two draft picks and $1MM in international bonus money to sign Cease (a qualifying offer-rejecting free agent).  Last year’s playoff run and the near-miss in the World Series galvanized support for the Blue Jays all across Canada, creating both a ton of extra revenue for the Rogers Communications ownership group and a greater desire to finish the story with a championship in 2026.  The Jays will face tough competition just to retain their AL East crown, yet Toronto figures to be contenders again come October.

How would you grade the Blue Jays' offseason?

  • B 52% (1,094)
  • A 31% (655)
  • C 12% (260)
  • F 3% (57)
  • D 2% (42)

Total votes: 2,108

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2025-26 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals Toronto Blue Jays

Offseason In Review: Philadelphia Phillies

By | at March 16, 2026 7:46pm CDT

The Phillies are mostly running back the same squad as last year, but with a few key adjustments.

Major League Signings

2026 spending (not including Pop): $66MM
Total spending (not including Pop): $227MM

Trades and Claims

Option Decisions

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

The Phillies went into the winter with a batch of notable players reaching free agency. Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Ranger Suárez and Harrison Bader were among the players heading to the open market. The Phils generally run one of the top payrolls in the league, but it never seemed like they would have the money to bring back all of them.

Schwarber and Realmuto felt like the priorities. Losing Suárez would hurt the rotation, but the Phils could still hope for a good starting group without him. There would be some extra risk because Zack Wheeler required surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome, but he is expected back fairly early in the 2026 season. Once he is back, four spots would be taken by Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo. The final spot could then come down to a battle between Taijuan Walker and Andrew Painter. Painter still has options and could be sent to Triple-A if he doesn’t win that battle. Walker has been nudged into a long relief role in the past and could wind up there again.

In center field, the Phils seemed committed to giving Justin Crawford a shot. He was pushing for a promotion in 2025 until they acquired Bader at the deadline. He is still not on the 40-man roster, but the Phils have more or less handed him the job for 2026. He has a particularly contact- and speed-based approach. He’s never hit ten home runs in a season but puts the ball in play and lets his legs do the work.

There is risk in relying on prospects with no major league experience but those are better fallback plans than the Phils had for the other spots. They didn’t have an everyday catcher waiting to take over for Realmuto and certainly didn’t have a Schwarber-esque bat to plug into the DH spot.

Schwarber’s market was hot, unsurprising for a guy who has been so good at the plate in recent years. It felt like the Phillies would match whatever other clubs were willing to offer — and that is exactly how it played out. The Pirates, shockingly, put forth an offer in the $120-125MM range over four years. The Orioles reportedly pushed the bidding up to $150MM over five years but the Phils got it done at that price. It’s a historic deal. Putting aside Shohei Ohtani, no primary designated hitter had earned a nine-figure deal in free agency before. No hitter, regardless of position, had reached nine figures going into his age-33 season.

For a 33-year-old DH to blow past both of those benchmarks and get to $150MM showcases just how good Schwarber has been. He just crushed 56 home runs last year while continuing to run elite walk rates. He has also erased his previous platoon issues, as he was actually better against lefties in both 2024 and 2025.

Bringing back Schwarber left Realmuto as the primary item on the to-do list but the Phils explored a different path. With Bo Bichette lingering unsigned into January, the Phils tried to take advantage by offering him a seven-year deal worth almost $200M. He decided to opt for the short-term route with high average annual values, accepting a three-year deal from the Mets worth $126MM with opt-outs.

With the Phils having Trea Turner and Bryson Stott in their middle infield, it seemed the plan was to put Bichette at third. The Phils could have then traded Alec Bohm and his $10.2MM salary, perhaps for catching. The Bichette offer was worth about $28MM annually, so they would have been adding about $18MM to the payroll if they were able to flip Bohm for a league minimum player or prospect. When Bichette went elsewhere, the Phils quickly turned to Realmuto and gave him $45MM over three years, or $15MM annually.

Bringing back Schwarber and Realmuto is nice, but there’s a bit of risk in continually committing to an aging roster. Both guys are now signed through their respective age-37 seasons. Turner and Bryce Harper are going into their age-33 seasons and still under contract into the next decade. Wheeler and Nola are in their mid-30s as well. There’s a financial aspect in hoping for Crawford and Painter to carve out roles on the 2026 club, but they also need some young guys to step up in order to avoid getting blindsided by the aging curve.

One area where change seemed to be guaranteed was right field. Manager Rob Thomson and Nick Castellanos had clashed a few times in the 2025 season. The organization seemed to have no questions about where they stood in terms of that spat. Within a few days of the Phils being eliminated from the playoffs, it was reported that Thomson would be back for 2026. He and the Phils would sign an extension in December.

Castellanos, on the other hand, was out the door. In mid-October, just a few days after the report of Thomson staying, it was reported that the Phils were going to move on from Castellanos. They held onto him throughout the winter to see if a trade could come together but it never did. He was released in February, just before camps opened for spring training.

In the interim, they had replaced him with Adolis García. He had been non-tendered by the Rangers after two down years. Castellanos is one of the worst outfield defenders in the league and García is pretty good with the glove, so he’ll certainly be an upgrade in that department. His offense is more questionable, as he is coming off a dismal .227/.271/.394 showing. He’s not too far removed from a 39-homer season in 2023 but is now 33 years old. Helping him get back on track will be pivotal to the Phillies’ success.

There was another bit of internal drama, but with no real consequences. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made some disparaging remarks about Harper’s 2025 season, which annoyed Harper and led to some brief trade rumors. Those rumors were quickly shot down and Dombrowski suggested the proverbial water had passed under the bridge.

A third note of clubhouse discord seemed to impact the club’s bullpen plans. Left-hander Matt Strahm was traded to the Royals for right-hander Jonathan Bowlan on Dec. 19. Dombrowski framed it as simply a product of circumstances. Bowlan is less established than Strahm, but he has big stuff, is still making the league minimum and can be controlled for six years. Strahm had one season left on his deal and will make $7.5MM in 2026. The Phils had three lefty relievers at the start of the winter, with José Alvarado and Tanner Banks being the other two. But in the days after the trade, it was reported that the Phils were motivated to move Strahm because he had regularly clashed with team officials.

Regardless of the motivation, a key piece of the bullpen had been subtracted. The Phils then used free agency to bolster the group, signing Brad Keller to a two-year deal worth $22MM. Keller was once a decent starter with the Royals but was largely in the injury wilderness in 2023 and 2024. He had a tremendous bounceback season out of the Cubs’ bullpen in 2025, tossing 69 2/3 innings with a 2.07 earned run average, 27.2% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 56.1% ground ball rate. Some clubs were interested in putting Keller back in a starting role but the Phils plan to deploy him as a reliever.

A few more notable developments popped up during spring training. Outfielder Johan Rojas has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He is the third member of the 2025 Phillies to receive a PED suspension, alongside Alvarado and Max Kepler. With the Phils giving Crawford the center field opportunity to start the season, Rojas was going to be a potential fallback plan if Crawford struggled.

It’s not a devastating loss, but it gives the Phils a bit less of a safety net in a position where they are taking a risk. Perhaps they’ll look to add some center field depth in the coming weeks as spring training ends and other clubs make their cuts, which will send some players to the waiver wire or back to free agency.

The other big development out of Phillies camp was the Jesús Luzardo extension. He and the club agreed to a five-year deal worth $135MM, beginning in 2027. That doesn’t impact the 2026 club but staves off a potential rotation pitfall a year from now. Both Luzardo and Walker were slated for free agency after 2026. The ’27 rotation projects to have a core four of Wheeler, Nola, Luzardo and Sánchez. With Walker’s impending departure, there’s a path for Painter or someone else to step up a seize a future spot. If not, the Phillies are never hesitant to spend in free agency.

On the whole, the Phils are mostly keeping the band together. The rotation is losing Suárez, but perhaps Painter can make up for his loss somewhat. The outfield has been shaken up a bit, with Crawford and García set to replace Bader and Castellanos. The bullpen has had a few changes as well.

But the core will largely be the same. With Schwarber and Realmuto back, those two will be lineup fixtures alongside Harper, Turner, Bohm, Marsh and Stott. It’s obviously a strong group, with an active streak of four straight postseason appearances. The playoff results have been more disappointing recently, but the regular season numbers keep getting better. They went from 87 wins in 2022 to 90, 95 and 96 in the next three campaigns.

It seems the club has tried to strike a balance. With most of those core players being in their mid-30s and signed for many years to come, there’s surely a concern about eventually getting too old at some point, but they do want to keep it going for now. They will try to get an injection of youth from Crawford and Painter. They almost got a bit more youth from the Bichette signing but couldn’t quite pull it off, which led to the Realmuto reunion and greater continuity.

How would you grade the Phillies' offseason?

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Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images

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2025-26 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals Philadelphia Phillies

Offseason In Review: St. Louis Cardinals

By | at March 16, 2026 3:00pm CDT

The Cardinals leaned more heavily into the rebuild they should have begun during the previous offseason. They made four significant future focused trades in Chaim Bloom’s first season running baseball operations.

Major League Signings

2026 spending: $17MM
Total future spending: $18MM

Trades and Claims

Option Decisions

  • None

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The Cardinals officially entered the Chaim Bloom era as soon as the 2025 regular season concluded. The team had announced a year in advance that Bloom would take over baseball operations from the retiring John Mozeliak. They felt their new front office leader would benefit from a year to familiarize himself with the organization, but the atypical arrangement contributed to an inert 2024-25 offseason that squandered trade value on veterans who should have been moved (e.g. Ryan Helsley, Erick Fedde).

St. Louis was reasonably competitive last year and finished within a few games of .500. At the same time, it was clear ownership was pulling back payroll as their local broadcast deal teetered on the brink of collapse — which finally happened this winter after Main Street Sports defaulted on a rights payment. If they weren’t going to invest to fix the pitching staff, they needed to more proactively strip things down.

That’d be the focus of the 2025-26 offseason. Bloom may never have used the term “rebuild,” but it was obvious between the lines. He said that adding a long-term influx of talent to the organization took priority over immediate upgrades to the big league club. Bloom also made the direction clear to a trio of veteran players who had say over their fate in the form of no-trade clauses.

Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras had all previously been very choosy about whether or where to accept a trade. Gray and Arenado said that’d change this winter, considering more possibilities to play for a contender on the back ends of their respective careers. Contreras was a little more reticent early on, but he’d also approve a trade once the time came.

In all three cases, the primary motivations for the Cardinals were in shedding money and opening playing time for younger players. Gray, Contreras and Arenado all remain solid or better players, but none of them had immense trade value. Gray’s and Arenado’s respective contracts were above market value, in fact, while the remaining two years and $41.5MM on the Contreras deal felt about right for what he’d earn if he were a free agent.

That left Brendan Donovan as the Cardinals’ biggest trade chip. He’s controllable for two seasons via arbitration and was set for a salary in the $6MM range. Of the players that St. Louis would realistically consider trading (i.e. not Masyn Winn or top prospect JJ Wetherholt), Donovan was the only one who’d fetch a significant prospect haul.

St. Louis focused on the more expensive players first. The field for those veterans was smaller given the money involved and their no-trade protection, so it made sense to prioritize them while teams had more budgetary flexibility. There’d surely be a market for Donovan at any point of the offseason.

Gray was the first one to go. The Cardinals sent the three-time All-Star to the Red Sox just before Thanksgiving. Gray’s heavily backloaded free agent contract essentially meant he was playing on a one-year, $40MM deal ($35MM salary plus a $5MM option buyout to be paid at season’s end). That kind of salary is reserved for aces, while Gray is more of a #2 or high-end #3 starter. The Cards would need to kick in some money.

Ownership signed off on paying down half the contract. They’re sending the Red Sox $20MM as part of the trade, which also involved a minor restructure to Gray’s contract. An additional $5MM was pushed back to year’s end in the buyout, while Gray received an extra $1MM and a guaranteed buyout in exchange for waiving the no-trade clause.

The trade netted the Cardinals a pair of controllable pitchers, which would be a theme of their offseason. Richard Fitts has made 15 MLB appearances over the past two seasons, compiling a near-4.00 ERA with middling strikeout and walk numbers. It’s the statistical profile of a fifth or sixth starter, but Fitts has a 96 mph fastball and a pair of power breaking balls. He’ll start games over the course of the season.

St. Louis also landed a higher-upside arm in the form of A-ball pitching prospect Brandon Clarke. He’s a 6’4″ lefty with upper-90s velocity and massive strikeout rates in the low minors. Clarke’s command will need to improve significantly if he’s to be a high-leverage reliever, much less a starter, but he’s clearly an intriguing arm for the player development department.

One month later, Contreras followed Gray to Fenway. The Red Sox were looking for a power bat and needed to upgrade at first base, making Contreras a logical target once Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber signed elsewhere. The Cardinals again chipped in a little bit of money, though the cash was much more modest than in the Gray trade. St. Louis paid $8MM over two years on the Contreras deal (including an extra $1MM the slugger received for waiving the no-trade clause).

It was a lesser return than the Gray trade but one that followed a similar path: a near-MLB depth starter and a pair of pitching prospects. The former, Hunter Dobbins, is rehabbing a torn ACL and won’t be available on Opening Day. He managed a 4.13 ERA across 13 appearances as a rookie, albeit with a modest 18% strikeout rate. Dobbins hasn’t missed many bats but also has a mid-90s heater and a pair of breaking balls that make him an intriguing swing option. The prospects, Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita, are low minors development fliers who slot into the middle of the farm system.

The eventual Arenado trade was purely about a change of scenery. His declining offensive numbers made him a less appealing target for other teams than Gray or Contreras had been. The Cardinals reportedly had the framework of a trade in place with the Athletics, but the 10-time Gold Glove winner preferred to approve a move to the Diamondbacks.

The Cardinals paid all but $11MM of the remaining $42MM and two years on Arenado’s contract. The only player they received in return, Jack Martinez, is a 2025 eighth-round pick who hasn’t thrown a minor league pitch. Aside from the marginal cash savings, this was about getting younger in the infield.

Nolan Gorman will get what’ll probably be his last shot to cement himself as a key piece of the organization’s future. Gorman slugged 27 homers a couple seasons ago but hasn’t hit over the past two years. He has immense raw power from the left side but figures to rank among the league leaders in strikeouts if he gets a full season of playing time.

At the other infield corner, Alec Burleson will replace Contreras as the primary first baseman. Burleson has played more outfield in his career, but he doesn’t run well and has never covered much ground on the grass. He fits better as a primary first baseman/designated hitter who’ll slot somewhere in the middle of the lineup.

Winn is locked in as the franchise shortstop. Wetherholt’s impending arrival at second base meant this was the right time for the Cardinals to trade Donovan. They’d seemingly not shown much interest in extending the All-Star utilityman. His trade value wasn’t going to get any higher within the next two seasons.

Donovan’s high-contact bat and defensive versatility made him an ideal fit for a number of teams. The Royals, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Red Sox, Astros and Guardians were among the clubs that checked in over the offseason. He’d been a target of the Yankees and Dodgers at the 2025 deadline. Yet this winter’s bidding seemingly came down to the Giants and Mariners.

Seattle ultimately pulled ahead by building a prospect package around 2024 first-rounder Jurrangelo Cijntje. He’s another touted minor league pitcher who adds ceiling to a pipeline that hasn’t graduated enough pitchers with swing-and-miss stuff. Cijntje is most famous for being a switch-pitcher, though his stuff as a righty is much more impressive. Even if he settles in as “only” a right-handed pitcher, he has a chance to be a mid-rotation arm. Cijntje fanned 26% of opponents with an ERA around 4.00 between High-A and Double-A last season. A 2027 debut seems likely.

The Cardinals also landed a former supplemental first-rounder with plus tools but significant whiff concerns in A-ball center fielder Tai Peete. Double-A outfielder Colton Ledbetter came over from the Rays in the three-team deal. He has a lower ceiling but could be a factor by the end of this season if he makes enough contact in Triple-A.

St. Louis also netted two Competitive Balance Round B draft picks — one apiece from the Mariners and Rays — that’ll become a pair of mid-level prospects this summer. Those selections add more than $2.5MM to their draft bonus pool. It sets the Cardinals up well to take an upside swing on a solid high school prospect to whom they can float an overslot bonus in the middle rounds.

The Donovan trade more or less ensures that Wetherholt will begin the season on the Opening Day roster. The seventh overall pick in 2024, Wetherholt is coming off a .306/.421/.510 season between the top two minor league levels. Even though he’s only hitting .240 this spring, he has a pair of home runs and an excellent eight walks against five strikeouts. Wetherholt could be an adequate shortstop but will surely slide to second base in deference to Winn, one of the sport’s premier defensive infielders.

Carrying Wetherholt on the Opening Day roster starts his six-year service clock in a rebuilding year. However, it could set the Cardinals up for another draft choice down the line via the Prospect Promotion Incentive — as soon as 2027 if he wins the NL Rookie of the Year award. If the Cards waited until midseason to call him up, they’d lose the potential for a PPI pick while still running the risk that Wetherholt earns a full year of service with a top two Rookie of the Year finish.

St. Louis added veteran utility player Ramón Urías on a $2MM deal late in the offseason. He plays second and third base and will be a righty-hitting complement to lefty swingers Wetherholt and Gorman. The Cardinals also wanted to add a complementary right-handed bat in the outfield, but that search didn’t bear fruit. Reported targets Austin Hays and Miguel Andujar found better paths to everyday playing time elsewhere (White Sox and Padres, respectively). A multi-year deal for Harrison Bader’s age 32-33 seasons doesn’t really fit the timeline.

Lars Nootbaar is opening the season on the injured list after undergoing surgeries on both heels. That more or less took him off the trade market despite loose ties to teams like the Pirates, Mets and Rangers. The Cardinals control Nootbaar for two seasons in arbitration and didn’t need to force a sell-low trade. They can move him at the deadline or next offseason.

That leaves a wide open opportunity in left field to begin the season. Minor league signee Nelson Velázquez has had an excellent camp to take advantage. He’ll probably make the team as the righty bat in a platoon, likely with lefty-hitting Nathan Church. The Cards have also gotten righty-hitting infielders Thomas Saggese and José Fermín work in the outfield this spring.

Victor Scott II and Jordan Walker will play center and right field, respectively. It’s approaching make-or-break time for Walker, a former top prospect who simply hasn’t performed over two and a half seasons in the big leagues.

Walker is still young, turning 24 in May, but he’s over 1000 plate appearances into his career and has been well below replacement level. The reemergence of former second-round pick Joshua Baez as a legitimate prospect gives the Cardinals a potential right field alternative by 2027. Nootbaar will be traded at some point, so Walker and Baez could coexist on the same roster, but the former is running out of time to continue warranting regular playing time.

They’ll run things back with the same catching group as they had in 2025. It’s technically a three-catcher setup, but they’ve never been keen on Iván Herrera defensively. He’ll be the primary designated hitter/third catcher behind Pedro Pages and Yohel Pozo.

Prospects Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal and (much further off) Rainiel Rodriguez are in the pipeline. This is an area of organizational depth even if Herrera moves off the position entirely. It’s easy to envision them swapping someone for pitching, but they have the luxury of waiting to see how the minor leaguers develop. Pages and Pozo would have modest trade value — the latter was non-tendered and re-signed to a split deal — so Herrera or one of the prospects would have the better chance of netting a significant return.

Strengthening the pitching pipeline was a clear goal. The Cardinals had previously relied on an excellent infield defense to compensate for lacking swing-and-miss arms. They’re moving away from that approach after ranking 23rd in runs allowed and 29th in strikeout rate (ahead of only the Rockies) over the last three seasons.

It’ll take time for that to translate into MLB success. Their only big league rotation move this winter was to sign Dustin May to a one-year, $12.5MM free agent deal. It’s a decent sized bet on a pitcher with his injury history who is coming off a near-5.00 ERA. May has mid-90s velocity and found success early in his career with the Dodgers, but he struggled to get hitters to chase or miss bats last year.

The Cardinals will hope to coax better results that could turn him into a midseason trade chip. He’s also young enough (28) that he could be a candidate for a two- or three-year extension if he’s healthy and pitching well as the deadline approaches. The Cardinals don’t have much in the way of long-term certainty in the rotation.

Matthew Liberatore should probably be in line for his career Opening Day start. May is going to be in the rotation, and it seems safe to pencil reliever convert Kyle Leahy in there as well. Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy and Fitts are vying for the final couple spots. It’s probably a bottom five rotation in MLB right now. They’re awaiting the arrivals of Cijntje, Clarke and last year’s fifth overall pick Liam Doyle — plus a hopeful rebound season from Quinn Mathews — to improve the long-term outlook.

There wasn’t much turnover in the bullpen, where they’ll use a committee approach in the ninth inning after trading Ryan Helsley last summer. The Cardinals opted not to move left-hander JoJo Romero, who is coming off a career-low 2.07 ERA but had a mediocre strikeout and walk profile that seemingly limited trade interest. Romero is an impending free agent and one of the safer bets to be traded midseason, but the Cardinals evidently feel they can do a little better at the deadline than whatever was on the table over the offseason.

St. Louis took a rebound flier on Ryne Stanek on a $3.5MM free agent deal. Stanek is coming off a bad year but has plus-plus velocity and late-game experience that the bullpen was lacking in general. Riley O’Brien will work in leverage spots and could close games after a solid ’25 campaign.

The Cards sent cash to the Guardians to add lefty Justin Bruihl to the middle innings. They flipped Andre Granillo for righty George Soriano, who is out of options and has presumably nailed down a roster spot by striking out seven over five scoreless innings this spring. Soriano rode the DFA carousel all winter but never made it as far as the Cardinals (who ranked middle of the pack in waiver priority after a 78-84 season). After multiple unsuccessful efforts to claim him, they jumped the line with a trade. Matt Pushard, a Rule 5 pick out of the Miami system, is also vying for a middle relief job.

St. Louis rounded out the offseason with an extension for their fifth-year skipper. Despite the front office change, they evidently believe Oli Marmol is well positioned to oversee the rebuild. Bloom preemptively shut down any speculation about a managerial change early in the offseason. Marmol is entering the final year of his previous deal and signed an extension running through 2028.

They’re new times in St. Louis. Most of the previous core is either gone or likely to be traded within a year. At the same time, a nucleus of Winn, Herrera, and Wetherholt means they’re unlikely to bottom out the way teams like the Rockies or White Sox have. There’s a path back to contention within two or three seasons — one that’ll largely be determined by how well they develop the pitchers who are now the focal point of the rebuild.

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2025-26 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals St. Louis Cardinals

Offseason In Review: Athletics

By | at March 14, 2026 8:58pm CDT

The Athletics continue to lock up their core their long-term extensions, but there’s a short-term focus as well, as the A’s seem to be aiming to return to contention this year.

Major League Signings

2026 spending: $10.85MM
Total spending: $10.85MM

Trades And Claims

Option Decisions

  • None

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

After the 2024 A’s went 69-93 in their final season in Oakland, the 2025 squad improved to 76-86 in the first season of its temporary residency in West Sacramento.  While the cities and ballparks were drastically different, both editions of the Athletics were much better in the second half of the season than in the first.  Last year’s Athletics even got off to a 20-16 start before a brutal 3-24 stretch in May and June torpedoed their season, though the club then recovered to go 53-46 the rest of the way.

Obviously any team would seem a lot better if you erased their worst month from the ledger, but the evidence is growing that the A’s may have (once again) put together the pieces of a contender after a lengthy rebuild.  The common belief was that the A’s were going to wait until they moved to Las Vegas before truly committing to winning, except the roster might be ahead of schedule.

A team planning to just tread water, after all, doesn’t try to land two former All-Star infielders at (by the Athletics’ standards) fairly substantial prices.  The A’s obtained Jeff McNeil from the Mets before the club made its rather surprising bid to trade for Nolan Arenado, and the Athletics’ offer involved eating more of Arenado’s remaining salary than the $11MM taken on by the Diamondbacks once Arenado was ultimately dealt to Arizona.

Whatever the specifics of the Athletics offer were in terms of cash and prospects, it was reportedly enough to meet the Cardinals’ approval….but not Arenado’s.  The third baseman’s no-trade protection gave him full approval over his next team, and while Arenado apparently didn’t expressly reject going to the A’s, moving to the D’Backs held more appeal.  While the Diamondbacks were only 80-82 in 2025, they won the NL pennant in 2023, a good core of talent is still in place, and (perhaps more importantly) the Snakes aren’t spending the next two years in a minor league ballpark.

The four-year, $50MM extension McNeil signed with the Mets in January 2023 didn’t contain any no-trade language, so New York was able to freely move the veteran to West Sacramento.  The cost to the Athletics was a lottery-ticket type of prospect in 18-year-old righty Yordan Rodriguez, and the Athletics’ willingness to pay $10MM of the $15.75MM McNeil is set to earn in the last guaranteed year of his contract.  The Mets will also kick in $2MM to cover the buyout of McNeil’s $15.75MM club option for 2027 if the A’s decide against bringing McNeil back for his age-35 season.

As to what McNeill can do at age 34, the two-time All-Star should provide some needed help at second base.  McNeil hit .243/.335/.411 with 12 home runs over 462 plate appearances in 2025, translating to a 111 wRC+.  That’s a solid step up from his 98 wRC+ over the 2023-24 seasons, though not in the realm of the 140 wRC+ McNeil posted in his All-Star 2022 campaign.  McNeil had a surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome after last season, though questions about his health status have seemingly been answered by the fact that he is playing regularly in Spring Training.

The A’s received only 0.3 bWAR from its second basemen in 2025, as well as -0.3 bWAR from the third base position.  The two infield slots were therefore the obvious target areas for the Athletics this winter, and McNeil could possibly help at both positions since he has played some third base in the past (though not since 2022).  The likelier scenario is that McNeil primarily stays at the keystone, with some part-time usage in center field platooning for Denzel Clarke.

Since the reports of the Arenado trade talks only surfaced after the Diamondbacks trade, it is fair to wonder what other infield options the A’s quietly pursued over the offseason.  There wasn’t much public buzz in terms of specific free names linked to the A’s, apart from their interest in reuniting with Miguel Andujar (before he signed with the Padres) and a much more prominent offer to Ha-Seong Kim.  The Athletics were reportedly willing to give Kim a four-year, $48MM pact before Kim chose a shorter-term commitment in the form of a one-year, $20MM to return to the Braves.

Maybe Kim has some regrets over his decision since he’ll miss at least the first month of the season recovering from a torn finger tendon.  From the Athletics’ perspective, the offer may have held appeal to Kim if he wanted some security after injuries have dominated the last 18 months of his career, and Kim would’ve fit anywhere around the infield.  That includes Kim’s usual shortstop position, if the A’s had moved Jacob Wilson to either second or third.

Had Kim accepted the offer, he would’ve become the second-priciest free agent signing in A’s history, after the club’s three-year, $67MM deal with Luis Severino last offseason.  Between the Severino deal and the Athletics’ spate of contract extensions over the last year, it is becoming less unusual (if not entirely “normal”) to see such dollar figures attached to an organization that has long been associated with small payrolls.

To be clear, nobody is confusing the A’s for the Dodgers when it comes to financial might.  But, RosterResource estimates the Athletics’ 2026 payroll at $94.6MM, with a $145.8MM luxury tax number.  If the Athletics’ spending spree began last offseason as a way to avoid a players’ union grievance, the club has now gotten itself well beyond the $105MM minimum threshold, and also established two more players as roster cornerstones.

Tyler Soderstrom was first up on Christmas Day with an extension that will guarantee the left fielder at least $86MM over the next seven seasons.  Wilson then agreed to a seven-year, $70MM in late January, establishing Wilson as a key piece of the Athletics’ infield over the long term.  Between these two contracts and the Brent Rooker/Lawrence Butler deals from last offseason, that makes it four extensions in 14 months for a team that signed only one player (Khris Davis) to an extension between May 2014 and December 2024.

Most teams wait until the end of Spring Training to concentrate on extension talks, so more business may be yet to come, given reports of the Athletics’ interest in extending both first baseman Nick Kurtz (the reigning AL Rookie of the Year) and catcher Shea Langeliers.  The duo are respectively represented by Excel Sports Management and the Boras Corporation, and both agencies are known for rarely pursuing early-career extensions for their clients.  Langeliers may not fit the “early-career” designation since he has four MLB seasons under his belt and was arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter, but locking up Langeliers could be tricky regardless.

Even if no extensions are reached, Langeliers is arb-controlled through 2028 and Kurtz just completed his first MLB season.  Between those two, Soderstrom in left field, Rooker at DH, Butler in right field, and Wilson somewhere in the infield, that’s six spots in the lineup already covered for at least the next three seasons.  Clarke has already shown himself to be an superb defensive center fielder even if his bat is still a work in progress, and outfield prospect Henry Bolte is expected to make his big league debut at some point in 2026.  The same could be true of 19-year-old shortstop prospect Leo De Vries, acclaimed as one of baseball’s top minor leaguers and a huge part of the Athletics’ future.

McNeil is part of the bridge to the De Vries era in the infield, but third base remains a question mark as Opening Day approaches.  The A’s could certainly look to the trade market for more third base help before the end of Spring Training, or the hot corner could be a priority at the deadline if the team is in contention.  A trade scenario could hinge somewhat on De Vries’ timeline, or if any of the current internal options for third base can step up.

“The Other” Max Muncy is probably the favorite for the starting job if his glovework is up to the task.  Utilityman Andy Ibanez was claimed off the Dodgers’ waiver wire to provide some experienced depth at third base and around the infield in general, with Max Schuemann removed from the mix after he was designated for assignment and subsequently dealt to the Yankees. Darell Hernaiz and Brett Harris provide more depth, and at least one if not both will begin the season at Triple-A.  Zack Gelof is still in the picture, as the 2023 breakout rookie is trying to rebound from a pair of rough seasons due to under-performance and injury.

Some of this group could also be used at second base, allowing McNeil to play the outfield if circumstances warrant.  The A’s non-tendered JJ Bleday and thus created some need for outfield depth, but McNeil, Bolte, Ibanez, rookies Carlos Cortes and Colby Thomas, or even Gelof could all chip in.

Third base notwithstanding, the Athletics look solid enough around the diamond to make some noise in a pennant race.  Playing at Sutter Health Park should give the offense an added boost, so if the A’s can get just an adequate amount of production from its pitching staff, that might be enough for the team to slug its way into playoff contention.

That outcome, of course, is a lot easier said than done.  Both the Athletics’ rotation and bullpen struggled in 2025, as pitchers (understandably) had difficulty adjusting to the hitter-friendly West Sacramento ballpark.  Better pitching is the team’s most obvious path to a winning record in 2026, yet the A’s will go into the new season with a lot of the same staff in place.

Last winter’s big investment in Severino didn’t pay off, as his public complaints over Sutter Health Park generated more of a stir than the 4.54 ERA he posted over 162 2/3 innings.  There was some speculation that Severino could be traded in the wake of his comments, though the $42MM owed to the right-hander over the next two seasons was an obstacle to a deal, and Severino’s ability to opt out next offseason is another wrinkle.  Moving Severino also would’ve created another hole to fill in the rotation, so the A’s can only hope year two for Severino brings more comfort in his home ballpark.

Severino and Jeffrey Springs account for two rotation slots, and Luis Morales is looking to build off a rookie season that saw the right-hander post a 3.14 ERA over his first 48 2/3 innings in the majors.  Jacob Lopez looks to be ahead of J.T. Ginn and Jack Perkins in the battle for the fifth starter’s role, though all of this trio and Joey Estes, Gunnar Hoglund (who has been sidelined by injuries this spring) and top prospect Gage Jump could all make starts at some point in 2026.

The other rotation spot is going to the Athletics’ biggest free agent signing of the winter, as Aaron Civale joined the club for $6MM guaranteed on a one-year deal.  Civale posted a 4.85 ERA over 102 combined innings with the Brewers, White Sox, and Cubs, and his last two seasons have seen some more homer-prone tendencies that might not play great in Sacramento.  The A’s aren’t asking Civale to be an ace, but rather to eat some innings and provide some more veteran ballast since Lopez and Morales are still establishing themselves as big league pitchers.

Sean Newcomb was arguably the Athletics’ best reliever last season, but the left-hander departed in free agency to sign with the White Sox.  The A’s also parted ways with Osvaldo Bido and Mitch Spence, who each struggled in swingman roles in 2025.  Filling the gaps in the bullpen are veteran right-handers Mark Leiter Jr. and Scott Barlow, who signed for a combined $4.85MM on one-year deals.

The two will join with Hogan Harris, Justin Sterner, and perhaps others in what the A’s are planning to be a closer committee.  Harris might be the favorite for the majority of save opportunities, but as maybe the only left-hander projected to be part of the Athletics’ pen, the team might need him for situational work more than the ninth inning.  Luis Medina might be an intriguing name to watch in a closing capacity, as the former starter will be used as a reliever in order to ease him back to action since he missed all of 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery.

It’s not an imposing group on paper, yet the A’s may have been limited in what they could add to their pitching mix.  Bringing a frontline starter wasn’t happening for both salary and ballpark-related reasons, and signing even a mid-tier starter might’ve also been a tough sell for those same reasons.  Lucas Giolito is the most prominent starter still on the market in mid-March and could be available at a relative bargain price, yet even if Giolito is feeling some desperation after his long stint in free agency, even he might not want to pitch in Sacramento unless he is out of other alternatives.

On the trade front, the A’s reportedly weren’t willing to shop any of their more prominent hitters for a starter, further hampering their attempts to acquire pitching.  If a particularly intriguing offer for a controllable arm was on the table, the Athletics might’ve thought differently, yet swinging such a trade would’ve meant that this hypothetical pitcher was using two of those controllable years at Sutter Health Park.

To again reference the possibility of the A’s adding at the deadline, pitching is certainly the clearest need.  It should also be noted that any of the Athletics’ offseason additions could easily become deadline trade chips if the team doesn’t show any progress.  Acquiring so many players on just one-year commitments makes it easy for A’s general manager David Forst to pivot if his club is again out of the running by midseason.

Forst’s own employment status isn’t officially known since his last contract expired after the 2025 season, yet he has been running the front office as per usual and it appears to be just a matter of time before he’s officially extended (if a new deal hasn’t already been quietly reached).

After over 25 years in a variety of roles within the A’s front office, Forst has dealt with all manner of challenges.  He now faces the tricky decision about how to best proceed with a lineup that seems ready to contend, but a pitching staff that may not be able to seriously progress until the team moves to Las Vegas or until its next wave of prospects (Jump, Jamie Arnold, Wei-En Lin) are ready for the Show.  The Athletics may need several things to break their way to score a playoff berth, but at least a winning record certainly seems feasible for 2026.

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2025-26 Offseason In Review Athletics MLBTR Originals

Offseason In Review: Chicago White Sox

By | at March 13, 2026 4:16pm CDT

The White Sox surprisingly landed a slugger out of Japan and won the draft lottery.  The also finally found a trade match for Luis Robert Jr. and added a half-dozen veterans on shorter-term deals.

Major League Signings

Option Decisions

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

Last year’s White Sox offseason was marked by the Will Venable managerial hire and the franchise-altering Garrett Crochet trade, against the backdrop of owner Jerry Reinsdorf showing some willingness to sell the team.  During the summer we gained clarity on the ownership situation, with a plan in place to transfer ownership to Justin Ishbia at some point from 2029-34.

So executive vice president and general manager Chris Getz was operating from a somewhat more stable place this winter, his third offseason in the big chair.  It was an active one, with the Sox adding larger contracts than which we’ve been accustomed to under Getz.

A day after the 2025 regular season ended, the White Sox announced that pitching coach Ethan Katz and hitting coach Marcus Thames would not be returning, among others.  Katz was initially hired back in the Rick Hahn era, and Thames was an early Getz addition.  With a year under his belt as manager, Venable was able to provide input leading to the early November hires of Zach Bove as pitching coach and Derek Shomon as hitting coach.

Bove had a winding path to the job, and his last position with the Royals was “heavy on analytics, especially pitch design,” according to Anne Rogers of MLB.com.  Shomon, a native of the Chicago suburbs, has an unconventional background as well.  His previous job was with the Marlins, known as an analytical club, and Shomon is often linked to Kyle Stowers‘ success last year.

In a reminder that plans change and GMs don’t always tip their hand, Getz kicked off the winter by downplaying his desire to do multiyear free agent deals and saying the club was planning on center fielder Luis Robert Jr. staying put.

Getz’s first signing was indeed for two years for Anthony Kay, but at a modest $12MM total.  Kay, a southpaw who turns 31 soon, is a former Mets’ first rounder who was dealt to Toronto at the 2019 trade deadline in the Marcus Stroman deal.  He failed to stick in the Majors, bouncing around on waivers before heading to NPB and the Yokohama BayStars for the 2024-25 seasons.  Kay had a nice run for the BayStars, particularly his 1.74 ERA last year.

Kay developed a sinker in Japan, leading to groundball-centric success.  That might not match up well with the current White Sox infield outside of Colson Montgomery.  Still, 150 innings of 4.50 ball would suffice at this price, as $12MM doesn’t usually buy you one year of a decent fourth starter.  Kay seems unlikely to match Erick Fedde’s initial run with the White Sox (3.11 ERA in 21 starts), which stands as a clear win for Getz given that it netted the team’s starting third baseman in Miguel Vargas plus a couple of infield prospects.

A day after the Kay signing, the White Sox had a monumental win: their 27.73% chance of landing the first overall pick in 2026 came through.  These things can change, but at present the clear favorite to go 1-1 is UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky.  Last September, Carlos Collazo of Baseball America called Cholowsky “the most impressive college shortstop prospect in the last 10 years,” naming top draft picks Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman “reasonable benchmarks.”  Though the White Sox are flush with infield talent hoping to join Montgomery, that presumably won’t stop them from taking Cholowsky if he’s atop their board on July 11th.

Winning the top pick was not the most likely outcome for the White Sox, but we knew the exact odds of it happening.  If you’d asked me back in October to assess their chances of signing Yakult Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami, I’d have put the odds lower than 28%.  I liked the idea, suggesting as much in my Offseason Outlook as a means of the White Sox planting a flag in the Japanese market after sitting it out for roughly 20 years.  But at the time I expected the 26-year-old to secure $100MM+ and did not think Jerry Reinsdorf would approve that, given that the club has never guaranteed more to a player than Andrew Benintendi‘s disastrous $75MM deal.

It’s unknown what other offers Murakami received, but the White Sox were able to beat out the Red Sox and get it done for just two years and $34MM, plus a $6.575MM posting fee paid to the Swallows.  Murakami didn’t offer much insight as to why he chose Chicago, but it’s safe to assume his market didn’t materialize as expected.

In signing with the White Sox, Murakami enters a low-pressure environment and maintains the ability to re-enter free agency (post-lockout) still a few months shy of his 28th birthday.  He brings 70-grade power with a 40-grade hit tool, with strikeout rates even in NPB approaching 30%.  He also crushed 39 home runs per 650 plate appearances over his last three seasons, and that doesn’t include his 56 homer 2022 campaign (an NPB record for a Japanese-born player).  Murakami “struggles with offspeed and spin,” per Baseball America, but they think he has the bat speed to catch up with the high-velocity fastballs he rarely saw in NPB.

70-grade power is rare, though.  Five years ago, prospects landing that grade by BA included Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Nolan Gorman, Wander Franco, Jo Adell, and Eloy Jimenez.  Alonso’s hit tool was 45 and Gorman’s was 50, for reference.  There will be plenty of swing and miss with Murakami, but if he can manage a .330 on-base percentage with 30 home runs anyway, it won’t matter.  This is an excellent opportunistic addition by the White Sox, and Murakami adds to the growing excitement around the team that began with Montgomery’s instant success last July.  Even if Murakami goes bust, it will have been a risk worth taking for a team still running the third-lowest cash payroll in the game at $82.17MM (according to Ethan Hullihen).

Just before the holidays, the White Sox added a solid and affordable upgrade to the pitching staff with the signing of 32-year-old southpaw Sean Newcomb for $4.5MM.  Like many pitchers, Newcomb would like to get back to starting if possible, not having done so in any significant capacity since his time with the 2018 Braves.  Newcomb pitched quite well out of the A’s bullpen following a May trade, but he did go 60+ pitches eight times last year and features six different pitches.  Newcomb seems likely to begin the year in the bullpen and is pretty easily the club’s best lefty reliever, but it’s not hard to see a starting opportunity emerge for him.

The White Sox’ next couple moves were minor league signings: outfielder Jarred Kelenic and lefty reliever Ryan Borucki.  Given Getz’s highlighting of these pickups, both seem likely to make the team.  Kelenic, 26, was drafted sixth overall by the Mets in 2018 and was key to the club getting Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz six months later.  Regarded as a top-five prospect in baseball prior to 2021, Kelenic had modest success in Seattle in ’23 and was effectively purchased by the Braves.  The signing might not amount to much, but this is definitely the outfield to join for a former hotshot seeking an opportunity.

A bad White Sox outfield got even worse in mid-January, as Robert’s time with the club came to an unceremonious end with a trade to the Mets.  Robert peaked in 2023, his only season topping last year’s 110 games.  That club won 61 games and fired Hahn for Getz in August.  I wrote in March of 2024, “Luis Robert may be at peak value coming off a healthy 5-WAR season, and he’s controlled through 2027. A case could be made that if his performance is largely irrelevant on bad teams in ’24 and ’25, and the team might just be turning the corner in ’26, the optimal move is to cash him in now for the maximum return. But the White Sox probably don’t see their timeline that way, and keeping Robert simply as a reason to watch the team is defensible.”

So I wasn’t beating Getz up at the time for holding on to his star, but in hindsight keeping Robert all these years was the wrong move.  The main piece of the Mets trade is Luisangel Acuña, younger brother of Ronald and a former top-75 prospect.  Acuña’s star has dimmed considerably, as he’s struggled to hit Triple-A pitching.  He’s out of minor league options and seems ticketed for a long runway trying to replace Robert in center, and otherwise a utility role.  We don’t know what Getz turned down in his two-plus years of fielding offers for Robert, but it had to have been better than the return he ultimately received.

Some might say that within the bounds of this offseason, picking up Robert’s option and swapping him for Acuña and a lottery ticket arm in Truman Pauley was a modest win.  But since the team’s current payroll actually sits lower than it was at the end of the 2025 season, ditching Robert’s $20MM (and his $2MM buyout for 2027) seemed unnecessary if the return was Acuña.  The decision doesn’t line up well with the choice to bring in Murakami on roughly the same terms Robert would’ve had if his ’27 option was picked up.  If you’re moving toward being an interesting and watchable team, why not just keep Robert?

I know fans may say Robert was hardly watchable these last couple years, but he clearly has value as a Major Leaguer if the Mets were willing to take on his entire salary and pay a 110% tax on it.  I wonder if the Mets would’ve surrendered something better had the White Sox eaten money.  All that said, it’s hard to find major beef with moving on from a player who was worth 1.8 WAR over the last two years.

So Robert’s salary was duly unloaded, and Getz promised to spend the savings on a bunch of cool stuff.  Seranthony Dominguez was signed for $20MM, effectively consuming the entire savings but over two years.  Dominguez, 31, averages nearly 98 miles per hour on his heater and punched out over 30% of batters faced in 62 2/3 innings last year.  That came with a 13.8% walk rate, sixth-worst in MLB for relievers with at least 50 innings pitched.  Dominguez pitched another 11 1/3 in the postseason for Toronto, issuing free passes to 22% of batters faced and beaning one too.

This was Getz’s first multiyear deal for a free agent reliever; the club had taken about four years off from giving those out.  The White Sox sometimes overspent in this area under Hahn.  In Getz’s case, the Dominguez deal was fairly harmless, in that the club is still below last year’s payroll.  There are only so many places to spend money if you’re a rebuilding team.

More bullpen money was spent on Jordan Hicks, though the White Sox absorbed $16MM of his $24MM over the next two years more as a means of purchasing a 50-grade MLB-ready arm from Boston in the person of David Sandlin.  The White Sox sent back a lesser pitching prospect, Gage Ziehl, in the deal.  Sandlin will start the season in the minors.  I don’t recall this type of trade from the White Sox previously, so props to Getz for using financial flexibility to bolster the farm system.  A change of scenery and full bullpen commitment to Hicks could pay dividends as a cherry on top.  With Dominguez, Hicks, and Grant Taylor, the White Sox have a trio of upper-90s righties in their bullpen, and Jordan Leasure has above-average velocity as well.

The rest of the Robert savings went to Austin Hays, who jumped at the chance to secure regular at-bats for the first time since 2023.  Hays has destroyed lefties for the last couple of years, but has just a 78 wRC+ against righties.  He adds a veneer of credibility to what still projects to be the worst outfield in baseball.  Andrew Benintendi, Acuña, Derek Hill, and Everson Pereira figure to round out the group.  Outfielder Mike Tauchman, the team’s third-best hitter last year, was non-tendered and went to the Mets on a minor league deal.

Unloading Benintendi and some portion of the $31MM owed to him over the next couple years would certainly be fine.  But according to James Fegan of Sox Machine, Getz said in February, “In regards to interest from other clubs, we haven’t had too many conversations about Andrew, so we anticipate he’s going to be on this club come opening day.”  Benintendi has been below replacement level in his three years with the White Sox, and may yet finish his contract in another uniform, but there’s little trade value to be mined here.

The White Sox capped off their offseason by bringing back Erick Fedde on a cheap one-year deal.  Fedde seems to have leapfrogged Newcomb for a rotation job despite being one of the worst regular starters in the game last year.  I assume this is based on the 21 solid starts Fedde gave the White Sox in 2024.  I don’t expect much here, but at $1.5MM it’ll be easy to cut bait if necessary.  Newcomb, Sandlin, Tanner McDougal, Jonathan Cannon, Austin Voth, and others will be on hand to join the rotation as needed.  Drew Thorpe, key to the Dylan Cease deal two years ago, should be back from Tommy John surgery around the All-Star break.

The White Sox may have found something interesting in former Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, who pitched well enough last year to represent them in the All-Star Game and will take the ball against his old team in Milwaukee on Opening Day.  Smith came on particularly strong with a 27.6 K% over his final dozen starts.  The rotation is thin otherwise as the Sox wait to see if top lefty pitching prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith will bounce back from off-years.  Out of the gates, the starting five is likely to be Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Kay, and Fedde.  As it stands, the White Sox have one of the worst rotations in baseball.

When I see an $82MM payroll and a guy like Fedde filling out the rotation, I wonder why the White Sox couldn’t have found someone more compelling.  The problem is that good free agents generally don’t want to join 60-win teams unless they vastly overpay.  For example, Cody Ponce is more interesting than Anthony Kay, but how much over the Blue Jays’ $30MM offer would the Sox have had to go to lure him away from the defending AL champs?  Lucas Giolito‘s best years came in a White Sox uniform, and he remains unsigned, but the Fedde signing suggests the Sox don’t want to commit decent money to this rotation spot.

The White Sox’s catching depth is worth a mention.  Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero took most of the team’s innings behind the plate in 2025, and both have six years of control remaining.  Teel’s 125 wRC+ ranked sixth in baseball among catchers with at least 250 plate appearances.  Teel seems to be ahead of Quero defensively, though the latter’s struggles with pitch framing may be muted by the implementation of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System this year.  Quero managed to hold his own at the plate with a 95 wRC+.

This depth led to some rumored trade inquiries during the offseason, but nothing came of it and the young pair can certainly coexist on the White Sox.  Korey Lee, who is out of minor league options, may wind up traded.  However, Teel’s unfortunate hamstring strain in Italy’s victory over Team USA in the World Baseball Classic should buy Lee some time.

The White Sox haven’t played .500 ball since doing exactly that in 2022, and that streak is likely to extend to four years in ’26.  Their farm system seems to sit middle of the pack or worse, but part of that is due to graduations of quality players.  The team’s core is coming along nicely, and will get a big boost with the first overall pick in July.

Core pieces are emerging in the Majors on the South Side, mainly Montgomery, Teel, and Smith.  The next phase figures to be locking some of these guys up, even if Hahn’s 2019-20 series of extensions didn’t really work out.  All three could make sense in the immediate future.  None are fully proven in the Majors, but the price will go up if they establish themselves.

Though Murakami may end up more of a short-term win, the White Sox franchise is making long-term progress.  They’re looking solid at catcher and shortstop, they’ve got six top-100 prospects, and a plan is in place for better ownership.  Can a team projected to win fewer than 70 games make any kind of noise this year?  Once in a while, a team with this kind of projection flirts with a .500 record, and that’s probably the best case scenario for the 2026 White Sox.

How would you grade the White Sox’ offseason?

How would you grade the White Sox' offseason?

  • B 46% (707)
  • C 31% (468)
  • A 10% (146)
  • D 9% (141)
  • F 4% (66)

Total votes: 1,528

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2025-26 Offseason In Review Chicago White Sox MLBTR Originals

Offseason In Review: Tampa Bay Rays

By | at March 13, 2026 10:12am CDT

The Rays are always trying to walk a fine line between prioritizing the present and the future. Currently, they have even more future uncertainty than usual, but that didn’t stop them from constantly tinkering with the roster. They made over a dozen trades, including three separate three-team deals, while also working the waiver wire and signing a few free agents.

Major League Signings

2026 spending: $30.5MM
Total spending: $38MM

Trades and Claims

Option Decisions

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The Rays generally run one of the lowest payrolls in the league. Despite that, they have found a decent amount of success over the years thanks to a strong player development system and an unsentimental approach to player retention. They usually strike a balance between fielding a strong big league team in the present while also keeping the future pipeline flowing.

It feels like the current moment in time is a bit more future-focused than usual. The Rays made the playoffs in five straight seasons from 2019 to 2023, but they dipped below .500 in the past two. At the 2025 trade deadline, they acted primarily as sellers. They picked up Adrian Houser and Griffin Jax but sent out Taj Bradley, Danny Jansen, Zack Littell and others.

Beyond the roster situation, there are plenty of other important factors at play. Due to hurricane damage, the team couldn’t play at Tropicana Field in 2025. They had to relocate to Steinbrenner Field, normally the home of the Tampa Tarpons, the Single-A affiliate of the Yankees. It’s also the spring training home for the Yankees, so it’s a decent facility, but it’s not huge. With the smaller capacity and the costs of moving for the year, the club’s finances were presumably not great last year.

The damage to The Trop also had domino effects. It scuttled a deal for a new stadium and ultimately contributed to the ouster of owner Stuart Sternberg. Late in 2025, Sternberg reached a deal to sell to a group led by real estate developer Patrick Zalupski. That deal didn’t become official until the end of the season.

The Rays appear to be on track to return to The Trop for the start of the 2026 campaign, but the plans beyond that are less certain. Their lease at that venue only runs through 2028. Zalupski and his group have plans to build a new stadium, as part of a mixed-use development, by the start of the 2029 season. However, it’s unclear if they can pull it off. They are hoping to get government funding to cover half the costs and it doesn’t appear they have strong support for that arrangement. Whispers of a potential move to Orlando can be heard from the corners, or sometimes the city is plainly evoked from a dais.

There’s also the Wander Franco situation lingering in the background. He is technically still owed millions through 2032 but hasn’t been paid in a while. Due to the sexual abuse allegations against him, Franco has been on the restricted list since 2024. It’s unlikely the Rays will have to pay him again, but the legal process is still playing out, so his contract is technically still on the books.

On top of all that, there’s the broadcast revenue situation. Like many clubs, the Rays have been hit hard by cord cutting. As of a few years ago, they were getting about $56MM annually from their regional sports network deal with Diamond Sports Group. That company, now known as Main Street Sports, appears to be circling the drain. The Rays were one of nine clubs to walk away from the company in January, and they’ll now be one of the teams letting MLB handle the broadcast side of things. That arrangement can help the club reach more fans via blackout-free local streaming but it leads to a worse revenue situation. Travis Sawchik of MLB.com says teams in this position only bring in about 50% of the previous RSN set-up.

Put it all together and it seems like the Rays aren’t as focused on near-term contention, but they never fully rebuild. Their 2025-26 offseason would somewhat resemble their 2025 trade deadline, as they leaned a bit more to the sell side but still looked to backfill what they sent out.

First up was the Pete Fairbanks decision. He had been a big part of the roster for many years but was in line for a big raise. He previously signed an extension with the Rays, a deal that paid him $3.67MM annually from 2023 to 2025. There was a $7MM club option for 2026, but Fairbanks through a series of escalators based on innings pitched and games finished, he pushed the option value up to $11MM — effectively triple what he was making before.

Despite the big jump, that still would have been a fair price for Fairbanks, but it seems the Rays didn’t want to pay it. They shopped around and seemed to get a bit of interest but not enough for them to pull the trigger on a deal. They bit the bullet and paid his $1MM buyout, sending him to free agency. He eventually secured a $13MM deal from the Marlins, so there was perhaps a bit of surplus value in his option, but not enough for any club to offer the Rays an enticing trade return in the first couple days of the offseason.

In the month of December, the buy/sell hybrid was on full display. Early in the month, they agreed to free agent deals with outfielder Cedric Mullins and left-hander Steven Matz. Shortly thereafter, they pulled off two big trades on the same day. On December 19th, they sent Shane Baz to the Orioles for four prospects and a draft pick. They also sent Brandon Lowe, Jake Mangum and Mason Montgomery to the Pirates in a three-team trade, getting prospects Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito from the Astros in return.

The two trades were clearly made with an eye on the future. Baz is 26 years old, turning 27 this year, and still has three years of club control remaining. He could have been a key cog in the rotation for the next few years. Perhaps the Rays felt the package was too good to pass up. Three of the four prospects they received were generally considered to be in Baltimore’s top 10-15 prospects before the deal, and the Rays got a draft pick as well.

It’s also possible they felt like selling high on Baz, in a sense. His 4.87 earned run average in 2025 was well below average, but it was easily his healthiest season. He was once one of the top pitching prospects in the sport but hasn’t been able to stay on the field due to injuries (including UCL surgery). Baz doubled his previous career highs in terms of both starts made and innings pitched. The Rays could hold him, hope for continued health and big gains in results — or cash him in now, when he was still something of an upside play. They cashed him in.

The Lowe trade was a classic and expected Rays move. Over the years, they have traded many core players just before they hit free agency. Since Lowe is slated for free agency after 2026, it wasn’t a shock to see him sent out the door.

Mangum and Montgomery were more controllable but perhaps not deemed core pieces. Mangum is a talented speed-and-defense outfielder with questionable offense. The Rays already have a few of those and seemingly felt Mangum was expendable. Montgomery is a reliever with exceptional stuff but significant control problems. Maybe he’ll click in Pittsburgh, but the Rays generally don’t have trouble finding good relievers. Parting with this group also netted Melton, who’s currently a top-100 prospect and could fill a long-term role in the outfield. He’s already made a brief (and rocky) MLB debut but hit .286/.389/.556 in Triple-A last season.

The Mullins signing effectively replaced some of the outfield depth lost by trading Mangum. The Rays had also flipped Kameron Misner, Everson Pereira and Tristan Peters in smaller deals earlier in the winter. Mullins is coming off a bit of a down year but was still a useful player, and his deal isn’t huge, as it essentially pays him like a second-year arbitration player.

Matz hasn’t been a full-time starter in a while but is coming off a good year of mostly relief work, as he posted a 3.05 ERA between the Cardinals and Red Sox. The Rays are going to try to stretch him back out, replacing some of the innings lost by trading Bradley and Baz, as well as Adrian Houser becoming a free agent.

The three-team Lowe trade left a hole at second base but the Rays addressed that in January… with another three-team Lowe trade. They sent Josh Lowe to the Angels in a swap that netted them Gavin Lux from the Reds. Lux was in a super utility role in 2025, playing the outfield more than the infield, but the Rays plan to plant him at the keystone. They believe the consistency will help him focus on getting the most out of his bat.

Josh Lowe seemed to have a breakout in 2023 but declined in the two seasons since, so the Rays are moving on as part of a larger outfield shake-up. Jake Fraley seems to have one spot. The Rays claimed him, non-tendered him and re-signed him in quick succession early in the offseason. Mullins will have a spot next to him. Chandler Simpson could have another. They also picked up Melton and could find space for him as the season rolls along. Smaller deals also netted Justyn-Henry Malloy, Ryan Vilade and Víctor Mesa Jr..

In February, the opportunity for yet another three-team trade came along. The Rays obviously cannot help themselves in this arena. Jon Becker of FanGraphs was among those to point out that the Rays have been involved in five of the past six three-team trades in MLB, the exception being the Tommy Edman/Erick Fedde/Miguel Vargas trade from 2024 involving the Dodgers, Cardinals and White Sox.

In Tampa’s third and final three-team trade of the winter, they were a minor player. The headliner was Brendan Donovan, who went from the Cardinals to the Mariners. The prospect talent went to St. Louis. But the Rays snuck in there to get infielder Ben Williamson from the Mariners while sending prospect Colton Ledbetter and a competitive balance round B draft pick (#72 overall) to the Cards.

Williamson hasn’t hit much but has received good grades for his third base defense. The Rays have Junior Caminero at the hot corner but his bat is better than his glove. Williamson could serve as a defensive replacement for him occasionally, and he has minor league experience at second and shortstop. He’ll give the Rays a right-handed bat who can provide some extra cover at those spots as well.

It’s a bit surprising that the Rays gave up a prospect and a pick to get a guy who seems like a utility player, but there’s also a logic to it. Ledbetter is a nice prospect but seems to be decent at most things without a standout tool. He may end up being a bench/depth piece somewhat similar to Williamson, as an outfielder, but not for a few years.

As for the pick, the Rays have shown a willingness to flip those for big leaguers, even if they’re not stars. They traded a pick last year for Bryan Baker, a good reliever but not an elite closer. “We’re drafting players, and the goal is to turn them into big leaguers,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said to Adam Berry of MLB.com at the time of the Baker trade. “And this draft pick turned into a big leaguer very quickly.”

The Orioles used that pick they received for Baker to draft Slater de Brun … whom the Rays then acquired in the Baz deal. Tampa Bay also received a higher pick (#33 overall) in that trade, then flipped a competitive balance round B pick to the Cards in the Williamson/Donovan trade. In a sense, it’s emblematic of their overall approach. Buy here, sell there.

They capped off their winter with another free agent signing, getting Nick Martinez on a one-year deal worth $13MM. Martinez has been baseball’s preeminent swingman in recent years. Over the past four years, he has made 61 starts and 131 relief appearances, posting a 3.67 ERA in that time. He has been better as a reliever but serviceable as a starter. The Rays will begin the season using him in the rotation.

At the end of all the wheeling and dealing, the Rays go into 2026 with a rotation of unknowns. They subtracted Bradley and Baz in the past year but added Matz and Martinez. Ryan Pepiot is probably the guy with the least risk. Shane McClanahan has ace-caliber stuff and should be back after missing the past two seasons due to injury. Drew Rasmussen was healthy in 2025 but has a lengthy injury history. Martinez and Matz should have spots but could get pushed to the bullpen if other guys step up. Yoendrys Gómez, Ian Seymour, Joe Boyle, and Jesse Scholtens are all on the 40-man roster. Brody Hopkins is one of the club’s top prospects and he could push for a debut in 2026.

On the position player side of things, the Rays sent out a number of outfielders but also brought in a bunch. At second base, they subtracted Lowe and replaced him with Lux. In the process of all their moves, they added a lot of talent to the system, though whether they made the 2026 team better is debatable. Both the Projected Standings at FanGraphs and the PECOTA Standings at Baseball Prospectus project the Rays to finish last in a strong American League East.

Ultimately, it feels like a transition period for the franchise. The roster wasn’t bad but also wasn’t good enough in the past two years. They have a new owner and an uncertain future in terms of their stadium. The Franco deal may or may not come off the books at some point. Their broadcast revenue is up in the air. It’s a lot of uncertainty, but the front office seemed to operate in classic Rays fashion this offseason.

How would you grade the Rays' offseason?

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Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

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2025-26 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals Tampa Bay Rays

Offseason In Review: San Diego Padres

By | at March 12, 2026 5:00pm CDT

Despite some in-fighting among ownership, the Padres brought back one of their key free agents. The Friars took their usual approach of signing a notable player from an Asian league and adding a bunch of cheap veteran free agents just before Spring Training. As has frequently been the case, they’re also heading into the season with a new manager.

Major League Signings

2026 commitments: $24.5MM
Total future commitments: $99.45MM

Trades and Claims

  • None

Option Decisions

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The Padres’ offseason began in usual fashion. Immediately after being bounced by the Cubs in the Wild Card Series, San Diego faced questions about their leadership continuity. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller was headed into the final year of his contract. Manager Mike Shildt had led the team to consecutive playoff appearances, but that didn’t ensure he’d be back.

After initial reporting that the Padres planned to retain Shildt, he stepped down in the middle of October. Excellent reporting from Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune contextualized that decision. Acee’s column goes into detail about how Shildt’s managerial style wound up alienating many of his assistant coaches, while the 57-year-old skipper said he’d become worn down by the position. (Shildt would remain in baseball but in a lower-profile role by accepting a player development job with the Orioles six weeks later.)

This wasn’t quite the same situation as the Padres’ previous two managerial changes. The 2024 move to allow Bob Melvin to leave for the Giants reportedly stemmed from an acrimonious relationship between Melvin and Preller. Jayce Tingler’s ouster at the end of 2021 came after he’d seemingly lost the clubhouse amidst a second half collapse. In any case, the result was a fourth managerial hiring process in seven years — and a remarkable sixth full-time skipper during Preller’s lengthy run at the top of baseball operations.

Preller’s own contract status would linger over the offseason, but it was apparent early on that he’d be back for 2026 at least. The Padres conducted their managerial search throughout the postseason and into the first few days of the offseason. They settled on former reliever Craig Stammen, who had been in the organization’s player development department but had no coaching or managerial experience. It was an unexpected hire considering initial reporting suggested the likes of Ryan Flaherty, Nick Hundley, Ruben Niebla, and Albert Pujols were in the running.

San Diego kept the well-regarded Niebla on staff as pitching coach despite passing on him for the managerial vacancy. The Padres brought in Randy Knorr as bench coach and tabbed former outfielder Steven Souza Jr. as a first-time hitting coach. Stammen had ties to both men (Knorr as a coach, Souza as a teammate) from his time in the Nationals bullpen.

Once the manager was settled, the front office could turn its attention to the roster. They faced a handful of free agent losses. Dylan Cease and Robert Suarez obviously weren’t coming back. Cease was going to price himself out of San Diego, while the Padres had prepared for Suarez’s departure by trading for Mason Miller last summer.

The Padres had a number of option decisions. Most of them were obvious: Suarez’s opt-out, Michael King declining a mutual option, the team exercising a bargain $6.5MM option to keep left fielder Ramón Laureano. The club bought out depth starter Kyle Hart but quickly circled back on a cheaper one-year deal. They dropped Elias Díaz and Tyler Wade, while lefty reliever Wandy Peralta passed on the chance to opt out of the remaining two years and $8.9MM on his deal.

San Diego issued qualifying offers to Cease and King, both of which were expected. They opted not to make a QO to Luis Arraez, setting the stage for him to join the division rival Giants on a $12MM deal. Ryan O’Hearn was ineligible for a qualifying offer as a midseason trade pickup, not that the Padres would have given much thought to offering him a $22.025MM salary. O’Hearn’s production after the trade was just alright and it doesn’t seem like San Diego made much effort to bring him back before he signed a two-year deal with Pittsburgh.

Of their impactful free agents, King became the priority. Some of that was driven by a glaring need for rotation help beyond Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove, the latter of whom missed all of last season rehabbing Tommy John surgery. Although San Diego’s interest in re-signing King was natural, it came as a moderate surprise they got the deal done. The Padres have curtailed free agent spending since Peter Seidler’s 2023 passing. Even last offseason’s four-year, $55MM deal with Pivetta came late in the winter when the righty was amenable to a heavily backloaded contract with opt-outs after the second and third seasons.

The Padres were also facing some geographic disadvantages. King attended high school in Rhode Island, played collegiately at Boston College, and spent the first five seasons of his career with the Yankees. He said he entered the offseason preferring to land with an East Coast team. That changed when the Padres put forth a three-year, $75MM offer that included opt-out chances after the first and second seasons. King might’ve been able to land a bigger guarantee elsewhere, but he’s able to remain with a team he knows well with a chance to cash in next offseason.

King pitched at a borderline ace level during his first season in San Diego. He was out to an even stronger start to the ’25 campaign before encountering a troublesome nerve issue in his throwing shoulder. That shelved him for nearly three months, and he battled knee inflammation upon his late-season return. Although a fully healthy King is clearly one of the team’s three best starters, the Padres used him out of the bullpen in their playoff series.

It’s an upside play for pitcher and team alike. The Padres are hopefully paying King $22MM ($12MM signing bonus, $5MM salary, and a $5MM option buyout) for one excellent season. He’d be positioned to retest the market at age 32 without being attached to a qualifying offer. He’d likely try to max out the contract length and guarantee at that point.

Slotting King back into the #2 spot in the rotation is far more valuable to the Padres than the fourth round pick they would have received as compensation for his departure. They did land one compensatory draft choice when Cease signed his seven-year deal with the Blue Jays — a deal that shattered whatever the Padres would have been willing to offer.

Even with King in the fold, the rotation remained the roster’s biggest question. Yu Darvish missed a couple months last season with an elbow issue. He looked a shell of his former self when healthy enough to pitch, allowing a 5.38 ERA in 15 regular season starts (plus two runs on four hits in one playoff inning). There were early whispers that the 39-year-old Darvish could walk away from the remaining three years on his contract.

That may still be the case, but all that’s known for now is that the righty won’t be available in 2026. Darvish underwent an internal brace surgery to address UCL damage in his elbow. He made his most recent statement on his long-term future in January, saying that he and the team have had conversations about terminating his contract (presumably with some kind of deferral or buyout structure). He hasn’t made any decisions on retirement. Darvish is signed through his age-41 season for a combined $43MM: $15MM this year, followed by $14MM salaries in 2027-28.

The Padres poked around the market for a second significant rotation move. They reportedly made a three-year, $50MM offer to Merrill Kelly. He opted to return to Arizona on a two-year deal at a higher annual rate. The Padres were loosely tied to Framber Valdez as his free agency lingered but never seemed likely to make the money work.

They’ll round out the rotation with internal arms and reclamation projects. Randy Vásquez is expected to get the fourth starter role on the heels of a decent 2025 season. They added Griffin Canning on a $2.5MM deal after last June’s Achilles tear. Canning had posted a 3.77 ERA across 16 starts with the Mets before the injury. He’ll probably be on the injured list into May but should be locked into a rotation spot once he’s healthy.

San Diego signed longtime Rockies righty Germán Márquez to a $1.75MM contract to round out the staff until Canning returns. Márquez hasn’t been good since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. He’s coming off a near-7.00 ERA over 26 starts last season. He was bombed for a 7.32 mark outside Coors Field. The big league deal is less about projecting improved performance at normal altitude and more a flier on a fastball that still sits around 95 mph.

It’s a similar situation for Walker Buehler, who came aboard on a minor league contract. Buehler’s fastball sat around 94 mph last season, well down from the upper 90s heat he brought before undergoing his second Tommy John procedure in 2022. He’s in the 92 mph range this spring, though it’s common for pitchers to add a tick or two as they build up into game shape.

Buehler isn’t guaranteed a roster spot but could push Márquez for the fifth starter role. It’s also possible the Padres start Musgrove on the injured list to avoid pushing him too quickly, which would open another early-season rotation spot. The Padres tendered JP Sears a $2.75MM arbitration contract even though he was a non-factor after coming over in the Miller trade. He’s on the 40-man roster and likely starting the season in the minors. That’s also true of Hart and minor league signee Marco Gonzales, while they’ll face a decision on the out-of-options Matt Waldron once he’s back from the injured list.

The Padres understandably felt good about the bullpen despite losing Suarez. Miller is probably the best closer in MLB. Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon, David Morgan and Bradgley Rodriguez could all find themselves in setup roles. Peralta and Yuki Matsui are under contract as lefty middle relievers. San Diego’s only 40-man roster moves were depth fliers on Daison Acosta and Ty Adcock, both of whom will open the season in Triple-A.

There was more work to do on the position player side. The Padres have one of the most top-heavy offensive groups in the league. That isn’t going to change, but they made a few moves to deepen a lineup losing Arraez and O’Hearn.

The most notable was a four-year deal for KBO infielder Sung-mun Song. The 29-year-old has had an excellent last two seasons for the Kiwoom Heroes after a middling career until that point. Scouting reports project him as a utility player at the MLB level. That’s the role he’ll play in San Diego at a modest $2.8MM average annual value.

Song, a lefty hitter, has spent most of his career at second or third base. He’ll back up Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado at those respective positions. The Padres also planned to get him shortstop and outfield work this spring, though that’s been halted by some oblique trouble that seems likely to delay his team debut by a few weeks.

The Padres wanted to balance the lineup by adding a pair of veteran right-handed bats. San Diego signed lefty masher Miguel Andujar to a one-year, $4MM deal. He’s coming off an excellent .318/.352/.470 showing between the A’s and Reds. The market was nevertheless cold on him because of his lack of defensive value, injury history, and aggressive offensive approach.

Andujar will get the majority of the designated hitter work while backing up Laureano and Fernando Tatis Jr. in the corner outfield. The Padres wanted another righty hitter to platoon with Gavin Sheets at first base. Paul Goldschmidt would have been an ideal fit, but he declined an offer from San Diego to return to the Yankees. The Padres pivoted to Nick Castellanos after he was released by the Phillies.

The move comes at literally no cost financially. Castellanos is playing for the league minimum salary in San Diego (which the Padres would have paid to whoever else was taking that roster spot regardless). The Phillies are eating the rest of his $20MM salary. Castellanos should still be a decent power bat against lefty pitching. Any risk is in adding a player who had no first base experience until this spring and whose time in Philadelphia ended with a highly publicized rift with manager Rob Thomson.

The Padres opted not to make a move behind the plate, where they’ll rely on the Freddy Fermin/Luis Campusano pair. They don’t have clear backups behind Xander Bogaerts and Jackson Merrill at shortstop and in center field, respectively. They’d been hoping to get Song up to speed for that role by Opening Day. A season-opening injured list stint would create a spot for one of Will Wagner, Mason McCoy or minor league signee Ty France as a utility infielder. The out-of-options Bryce Johnson probably wins the fourth outfield role.

They could benefit from one more depth move in the final two weeks of Spring Training, but it doesn’t seem to be a priority. San Diego didn’t make a single waiver claim for a second straight offseason. They also didn’t make any trades despite Preller’s affinity for massive swings. There was a rumor out of the Winter Meetings about talks with the Mets concerning a potential blockbuster involving Miller, Pivetta and Laureano. There’s no indication that progressed, and the Padres stood pat from a trade perspective.

That surely won’t be the case this summer. The Padres mostly sat out last offseason’s trade activity as well before making three big deadline trades (Miller/Sears, Laureano/O’Hearn, and Fermin). If they’re in the running for a playoff spot, it’s in their nature to be aggressive. With Pivetta and King both able to opt out next winter, adding a controllable starting pitcher figures to be a priority. If the team underperforms, either or both veteran righties could be on the trade block themselves.

Preller will lead the deadline with long-term financial comfort. He and the organization finally reached agreement on a multi-year extension last month. That’s of particular importance given the likelihood of a major shakeup at the ownership level. In early February, the Seidler family resolved most of their litigation against one another. That paves the way for the family to move forward with a sale that could be in place as soon as Opening Day. The most recent reporting indicated they were weighing five offers and could pull north of $2.5 billion for the franchise.

The repercussions of a potential sale won’t really be felt until next offseason at the earliest. Last winter was a fairly typical Padres offseason, one they’ll hope was sufficient to maintain their status as the Dodgers’ top challenger in the NL West.

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2025-26 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals San Diego Padres

Offseason In Review: Pittsburgh Pirates

By | at March 11, 2026 7:09pm CDT

The Pirates went into the winter with a lot of pitching and almost no hitting. They spent the offseason smoothing out that imbalance and the team looks better going into 2026. Is it enough to get them back to the playoffs for first time in over a decade?

Major League Signings

2026 spending: $35.25MM
Total spending: $50.25MM

Trades and Claims

Option Decisions

  • None

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The Bucs have been stuck in a rebuilding pattern for a while. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2015 and haven’t topped 82 wins in any season since then. They flirted with contention in recent seasons, though in the era of the expanded playoffs, that just means they floated near .500 for parts of the summer.

They have graduated a lot of exciting pitching prospects to the majors in recent years but have struggled to hit. The 2025 team scored 583 runs, lowest in the majors. The team had a combined .231/.305/.350 batting line, which translated to an 82 wRC+, indicating the squad was collectively 18% worse than league average. The only guy on the team with a wRC+ greater than 101 was Spencer Horwitz, who started the season on the injured list due to wrist surgery and did most of his damage in the second half.

Despite the clear deficiencies on the roster, there was a case for making a strong push this offseason. Paul Skenes has just four years of club control remaining and may not spend all of that in Pittsburgh. His salary will increase via arbitration in 2027 and he may not sign an extension, so he could be traded before reaching free agency, currently slated for the 2029-30 offseason. Konnor Griffin became the top prospect in baseball in 2025 and put himself in position to make a major league debut in 2026. If you’re not going to invest around these stars, then when?

The club has not been active in free agency historically. They have never given a free agent $40MM in franchise history. Since Ben Cherington took over as general manager in 2019, he had never signed a free agent to a multi-year deal or signed a one-year deal worth as much as $11MM. But in the early offseason, Cherington suggested they could add $30-40MM to the payroll. That wouldn’t be too exciting for a lot of clubs but would be an increase for the Bucs. There was also the trade market, as they appeared to have enough starting pitching that flipping some for offense seemed possible.

Given the weakness of the lineup, the Bucs had the freedom to target almost any bat, regardless of position. Quickly, it became clear that Cherington’s words weren’t completely hollow, as he went after some of the top available guys. It was reported in mid-November that the club had made a strong offer to Josh Naylor before he had re-signed with the Mariners and they were also in the mix for Kyle Schwarber. Signing either would have required shattering their $39MM franchise record for a free agent deal. They were also connected to guys like Kazuma Okamoto and Jorge Polanco in the early offseason.

Their first notable move wasn’t for a surefire lineup boost, but it did feature the pitching-for-hitting framework that was expected. There were five players in the deal but the headline was that the Bucs sent righty Johan Oviedo to the Red Sox for outfield prospect Jhostynxon García. Oviedo had shown some promise in 2023 when he posted a 4.31 earned run average over 32 starts. He missed 2024 due to surgery, returned in 2025 and put up a 3.57 ERA with more strikeouts but also more walks.

Oviedo has two years of club control remaining and may have some upside but the Pirates had enough starting pitching talent to part ways with him. By doing so, they added an intriguing but unproven outfielder to their roster. García has been on some top 100 prospect lists but has just five big league games under his belt. He should have a chance to earn some playing time but his path would eventually be crowded by the rest of Pittsburgh’s offseason moves.

The Schwarber dream died on December 9th, when he returned to the Phils on a five-year, $150MM deal. The Bucs reportedly offered him a four-year deal in the $120MM range. That obviously wasn’t enough but it signaled that there was indeed some change in the pocket.

On the same date that the Schwarber news dropped, the Bucs did get a deal done, but with a reliever. They agreed to a one-year deal with Gregory Soto worth $7.75MM. Soto had a 4.40 ERA over the past three years but with perhaps more interesting numbers under the hood. His 9.4% walk rate was around average for a reliever, while his 25.9% strikeout rate and 48.4% ground ball rate were a few ticks better than par. A .325 batting average on balls in play and 67.7% strand rate seemed to hurt him, which is why his 3.55 FIP and 3.55 SIERA were more optimistic. If his ERA trends closer to those other metrics, it could be a nice bit of business for the Pirates.

A little over a week later, the Pirates made their first surefire upgrade to the lineup. Like the Oviedo-García swap, this one would see the Bucs trading from their rotation depth. In a three-team trade, they sent Mike Burrows to the Astros in order to receive infielder Brandon Lowe, outfielder Jake Mangum and left-hander Mason Montgomery from the Rays. Burrows was a steep price to pay, as he has six years of club control remaining. But the Pirates had several such arms in their rotation mix and didn’t have room for all of them.

The biggest upgrade for 2026 is Lowe, though he is just a rental, since there is one year left on his contract. But he’s one of the top power bats at the second base position. He has 81 home runs over the past five years. Only four primary second baseman have more. The four guys ahead of him all played a larger sample of games in that span, which speaks to some injury trouble Lowe has had, which is the main knock against him. Though he doesn’t count as a free agent, the Bucs are taking on his contract and will pay him $11.5MM this year.

Mangum and Montgomery are more complementary pieces of the trade but still potentially impactful. Mangum’s first year in the big leagues saw him steal 27 bases and get strong grades for his glovework. His bat was a bit below par but he was still useful on the whole. He has five years of club control and a full slate of options. Even if he’s just a fourth outfielder type, he has value. If his bat finds a new gear, then that’s even better. Montgomery has huge strikeout stuff but poor control. He’s a project but one with upside if things break right. He also comes with five years of club control and has options.

The Bucs were clearly not content to stop after Lowe. In the coming days, they would be connected to guys like Eugenio Suárez and Yoán Moncada. Just before the holiday break, they pulled the trigger on a free agent addition, a two-year deal with Ryan O’Hearn worth $29MM. While a notch below the Schwarber/Naylor pursuits, it was still somewhat notable as the biggest free agent deal of Cherington’s tenure.

O’Hearn isn’t a superstar but has been solidly above average at the plate. Over the past three years, he has 46 home runs, a .277/.343/.445 line and 121 wRC+. He has some ability to play the outfield but is more of a first baseman. It initially seemed like he and Horwitz would share first base and the designated hitter spot, but this would change in the coming months.

The Pirates were still hunting for more offense, getting connected to various bats throughout January. They also showed some interest in Framber Valdez as he lingered unsigned, though that seemed like an odd fit and he eventually landed with the Tigers.

They did apparently have room for one arm in the rotation after their recent trades, as they landed José Urquidy on a one-year deal worth $1.5MM. The Bucs usually sign a cheap left-hander late in the offseason. Since PNC Park is so tough on righty power, those lefties can usually outperform their contracts. Urquidy is right-handed but is basically filling that role since he has reverse splits in his career.

There was one more clear lineup boost to come, as the Pirates signed Marcell Ozuna to a one-year, $12MM deal in February. It’s a bit risky since Ozuna is 35 years old and coming off a down year, by his standards. His season was weighed down by a summer slump which coincided with him battling a hip injury. Perhaps he can bounce back with a full season of health but that’s no guarantee at his age.

In addition to the risk, the addition also gummed up the lineup a little bit. Ozuna is just a designated hitter at this point in his career. He didn’t play the field at all in 2024 or 2025 and was in the outfield for just 14 innings in 2023. If he’s in the DH spot most days, Lowe is at second and Horwitz is at first, that means O’Hearn will have to be in the outfield almost every day. He’s never started more than 23 games on the grass in any season of his career, so that will be new for him, but it seems the Bucs are willing to make that compromise as they try to add as much thump to the lineup as possible.

In addition to displacing O’Hearn, there are other ripple effects. With Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz in the other two outfield spots, guys like García and Mangum will be pushed to fourth outfielder roles or maybe even the minors. It also effectively closed off any chance of another reunion with Andrew McCutchen. He seemed frustrated by the situation but eventually moved on, signing a minor league deal with the Rangers.

The Bucs added one more guy into the depth picture with a spring trade. They sent reliever Kyle Nicolas to the Reds in exchange for infielder/outfielder Tyler Callihan. Nicolas is almost like a righty version of Montgomery, with big stuff but poor control. If he puts it together in Cincinnati, this one could sting, but it’s also possible that doesn’t happen. Callihan has just four big league games under his belt but strong minor league numbers. He played first base, second base and left field last year, so he provides depth in a few spots.

It was a busy offseason and it feels like there’s more optimism surrounding the Pirates than there has been for quite some time. When combining free agents and the money they took on in the Lowe deal, they added roughly $50MM to the 2026 payroll.

Despite trading away several arms, they project to have a rotation including Skenes, Mitch Keller, Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler and Urquidy. Jared Jones will return from his surgery rehab at some point, perhaps as early as late May. Prospects Thomas Harrington and Hunter Barco will be lurking in Triple-A.

The lineup will need incumbent guys like Reynolds and Cruz to bounce back but the Bucs have added Lowe, O’Hearn and Ozuna as three everyday upgrades. Guys like Garcia, Mangum and Callihan will be pushing for jobs over time. The left side of the infield feels like a weak spot but Griffin should be up to take over shortstop at some point, maybe as soon as Opening Day. That would leave guys like Jared Triolo, Nick Gonzales and others fighting over third base.

Is this enough to get them over the hump? The National League Central is in fairly healthy shape. The Cardinals are rebuilding but the Brewers, Cubs and Reds all made the playoffs last year. Did the Pirates add enough to leapfrog someone?

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Photo courtesy of Jonathan Dyer, Imagn Images

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2025-26 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals Pittsburgh Pirates

Offseason In Review: Kansas City Royals

By | at March 10, 2026 2:01pm CDT

Improving the offense (and in particular the outfield) was the key focus of the Royals’ offseason, and there was plenty of speculation that K.C. would again look to move an arm for a bat.  Instead, the Royals hung onto their rotation depth and made some moves that still leave the lineup with a few question marks.

Major League Signings

2026 spending: $7.15MM
Total spending: $7.15MM

Trades And Claims

Option Decisions

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

After reaching the playoffs in 2024, the Royals hoped to significantly upgrade their lineup last winter, except the trade that brought Jonathan India to Kansas City from Cincinnati (with Brady Singer going to the Reds) ended up being the Royals’ biggest offensive addition.  General manager J.J. Picollo was open with his frustration, telling Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star in February 2025 that “that’s probably the one area in the two years we haven’t been able to reach our goal of getting that [offensive bat].  It’s a little disappointing, but we can’t force teams to make trades they don’t want to make.  We were active in the free-agent market; we just weren’t able to land the guys.”

Thirteen months and another offseason later, an argument can be made that the Royals have again had to settle for a half-measures approach.  To be clear, the additions of Isaac Collins, Starling Marte, and Lane Thomas should help the outfield, although that’s in part because there was really nowhere to go but up.  The Royals’ outfield combined for a dismal -1.7 bWAR in 2025, so even if Collins and Marte just replicate their combined 3.1 bWAR from last season, that’s already a substantial step forward.

That said, Royals fans were surely hoping that the team’s biggest free agent expenditure of the offseason would be on a player who didn’t also have a sub-replacement year.  Thomas played in only 39 games with the Guardians due to a bone bruise in his right wrist, and then multiple IL stints due to plantar fasciitis that eventually led to foot surgery in late September.  Over 142 plate appearances for Cleveland, Thomas hit only .160/.246/.272, translating to -0.6 bWAR and just a total wash of a year for the 30-year-old.

Thomas isn’t far removed from a 23-homer, 109 wRC+ 2023 season with the Nationals, and he was still hitting well before his bat cratered following a trade to the Guards at the 2024 deadline.  It could be that a change of scenery to another AL Central team will help Thomas get his career on track, but he can’t be counted on as a sure thing for 2026.  For a Royals club working within a limited budget, committing $5.25MM to Thomas carries some extra risk, especially since he might end up being just a part-time player.

Kyle Isbel will continue to get regular work in center field, as his excellent defense makes up for the lack of punch from his left-handed bat.  Thomas (a right-handed hitter) could end up platooning with Isbel in center, or take platoon duties or even everyday duties in right field depending on Jac Caglianone‘s development.  The Royals would like nothing more than to see Caglianone start to live up to his top-prospect potential, though his first 232 plate appearances in the majors resulted in a measly .157/.237/.295 slash line.  Given Caglianone’s bigger-picture importance to the organization, the Royals would have no problem relegating Thomas to platoon duty if it means Caglianone has a sophomore breakout.

Collins is expected to hold down the everyday left field job in 2026 and potentially for years to come.  Kansas City’s most notable trade of the winter saw Collins and righty reliever Nick Mears acquired from the Brewers in exchange for left-hander Angel Zerpa.  Milwaukee may yet explore moving Zerpa back into a starting role, but on paper, the Royals were able to land a controllable (through 2030) outfielder as well as some more bullpen help without dealing from their rotation depth.

The trade made some sense for both teams, beyond just the Royals’ outfield need and the Brewers’ surplus on the grass.  From the Brewers’ perspective, they may have felt they were selling high on a late bloomer (Collins turns 29 in July) who didn’t make much hard contact in 2025 and may have benefited from a .326 BABIP.  Teams may have figured Collins out a bit, given how his numbers cooled off drastically over the season’s last six weeks.  For the Royals, Collins brings a switch-hitting bat, good left field defense, very strong walk and chase rates, and room to grow after his fourth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting.  Milwaukee has plenty of outfield depth, and Zerpa has an extra year of control over Mears, who like Collins struggled down the stretch (5.89 ERA in his final 20 appearances).

Marte signed with K.C. two weeks into Spring Training, bringing another notable name into the position-player mix.  Nobody expects Marte to return to his old All-Star form at age 37, and he’ll likely spend most of his time at DH with only a handful of outfield appearances.  But, Marte hit a respectable .269/.331/.398 with 16 homers over 699 plate appearances for the Mets in 2024-25 working in this same part-time capacity.  The Royals will happily take those numbers for the low cost of $1MM and some incentive bonuses.

Kameron Misner was also acquired from the Rays in an early-offseason trade.  Between Misner, John Rave, Drew Waters, and utility types Tyler Tolbert and Michael Massey, the Royals have depth on hand as they try to finally establish some stability in their outfield mix.

Marte may end up sharing DH at-bats with either Salvador Perez or Carter Jensen.  The Royals will want to try to give Jensen at-bats beyond just a backup catching role, and also give Perez a fair amount of rest days (which opens the door for Jensen to get more reps behind the plate).  The rest of the infield picture is set, with Maikel Garcia at third base, Bobby Witt Jr. at shortstop, India at second base, and Vinnie Pasquantino at first base.

India’s return is the only surprising element of the otherwise stable K.C. infield.  The Royals opted to give India another chance by signing him to an arbitration-avoiding one-year, $8MM contract, rather than simply non-tendering the veteran second baseman.

While it seems like the team simply believes India can bounce back in his second year in Kansas City, committing $8MM to this belief is another matter.  Owner John Sherman indicated in October that the Royals would be spending at roughly the same levels as their $138MM payroll from last year, and as per RosterResource, K.C. has around $148.6MM on the books for 2026.  India and Thomas combine for $13.5MM of that number, and one has to wonder whether the Royals could’ve done more with that money than investing in two players who simply weren’t productive in 2025.

Letting India go would’ve created another hole to address at second base, though since Collins has some experience there, the Royals could’ve still acquired him and toggled him between both the keystone and left field.  Even after agreeing to India’s contract, the Royals were still linked to a couple of prominent infield trade targets.  Kansas City was among the many teams who had interest in Brendan Donovan, though the utilityman might well have seen more time in the Royals’ outfield than the infield.  The Royals’ interest in the Nationals’ CJ Abrams indicated a scenario of Abrams moving to second base (since Witt obviously wouldn’t be moved off shortstop) and India then perhaps dealt back to Washington or dealt elsewhere.

Abrams and Donovan were just two of the many players linked to the Royals in hot stove chatter.  On the free agent front, K.C. had some interest in re-signing old friends Mike Yastrzemski and Adam Frazier, and other outfielders like Harrison Bader, Adolis Garcia, Austin Hays, and JJ Bleday were all reportedly on the radar.  Most of this group ended up signing one-year deals on modest salaries, though Yaz (two years, $23MM from the Braves) and Bader (two years, $20.5MM from the Giants) might have been beyond Kansas City’s preferred price range.

Without much to spend in free agency, the Royals featured in several trade rumors over the winter.  Apart from exploring MacKenzie Gore‘s availability as part of their talks with the Nats, most of the Royals’ reported targets were outfielders, including Boston’s Jarren Duran, Houston’s Jake Meyers, and the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernandez.

Since there are still more than two weeks before Opening Day, we can’t entirely rule out the possibility of a late-spring swap involving any of the outfield trade candidates.  Hernandez is the least-likely of the group due to his hefty remaining salary.  Meyers is the most established player within the Astros’ own shaky outfield, so it could be tricky for Houston and Kansas City to line up on a deal that addresses both teams’ needs.  The Red Sox and Royals, meanwhile, seemed like logical trade partners for most of the winter due to Boston’s outfield glut.  No deal came together between the two sides, perhaps because the Royals weren’t interested in moving Cole Ragans.

It isn’t known exactly what players or offers were bandied about during all of these negotiations, but to return to Picollo’s words from last winter, “we can’t force teams to make trades they don’t want to make.”  This naturally doesn’t absolve the front office of their responsibility to improve the team, but in relation to the 2025-26 offseason, perhaps the Royals’ rotation depth wasn’t quite as enticing as it seemed in terms of trade talks.

Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha weren’t going anywhere after being recently signed to extensions, so the trade speculations focused around the likes of Ragans, Kris Bubic, Noah Cameron, Ryan Bergert, and Stephen Kolek.  There didn’t seem to be much chance that K.C. would move Ragans in the wake of an injury-shortened down year, which is only natural given that he looked like an ace when healthy in 2024.

Bubic showed some front-of-the-rotation ability in 2025 before a rotator cuff strain ended his season early, and while Bubic drew some trade buzz, the combination of his health status and his impending free agency after the 2026 season may have limited his trade value.  For Cameron, Bergert, or Kolek, maybe the offers for any of these more back-end rotation types didn’t meet Kansas City’s expectations, if the plan was to bring back an everyday outfielder.

Again, it’s not out of the question that the Royals could still trade a starter in what remains of the offseason.  Or, perhaps crucially, the Royals might be more open to moving a starter closer to the deadline, once the team has a better sense of its rotation mix.  The 2025 rotation was hit with a number of injuries, so it makes sense that Kansas City wouldn’t want to trade away any starters unless the return was too good to ignore, or if the club was more confident in its starting pitching depth.

Turning to the relief corps, the Royals had to fill some gaps in the bullpen after Hunter Harvey signed with the Cubs, Taylor Clarke was non-tendered, and Zerpa was traded.  Mears hasn’t shown much consistency over his six MLB seasons, but 2025 was his best year yet, with a 3.49 ERA and a 5.9% walk rate over 56 2/3 relief innings for Milwaukee.  Alex Lange was another inexpensive free agent signing, with the Royals spending $900K to see what the righty can do after a lat surgery sidelined him for almost all of the 2024-25 seasons.

Zerpa’s role as the top southpaw relief option was filled by Matt Strahm, who broke into the majors with the Royals in 2016.  Kansas City’s late-game trio of closer Carlos Estevez and set-up men Strahm and Lucas Erceg looks to be a strong group, as Strahm looks to continue his excellent recent track record as a workhorse reliever.  He posted a 2.71 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate, and a 6.2% walk rate over 212 2/3 innings for the Phillies during the 2023-25 seasons.

The Phillies were open to moving Strahm for a few reasons — some tension existed between Strahm and the coaching staff, and Philadelphia has other lefties in their pen, so the Royals’ offer of righty Jonathan Bowlan was a fit for both sides.  Kansas City was also willing to absorb the $7.5MM owed to Strahm in the final year of his contract, which represents the Royals’ largest investment in new talent this offseason.

Three extensions represented the Royals’ biggest overall spends of the winter, including a deal with Pasquantino covering two of his arbitration-eligible years.  The biggest investment was a long-term extension with Garcia that will pay the All-Star at least $57.5MM through 2030, with a club option for 2031.  The Royals gain cost certainty through Garcia’s extended (as a Super Two player) arbitration years, and control over what would’ve been Garcia’s first two free agent-years.  It’s a nice deal that reflects Garcia’s emergence as both an offensive and defensive force, and his breakout was of massive import to a team in need of hitting.

It was a foregone conclusion that the team was planning to at least exercise its $13.5MM club option on Perez for 2026, and the Royals took it a step further with a two-year, $25MM extension covering the 2026-27 seasons.  The deal includes $12MM in deferred money, freeing up some shorter-term savings for the Royals and giving Perez a soft landing for what could potentially be the final two seasons of his big league career.  Moving on from Perez and entrusting the catching job to Jensen and (further down the road) top prospect Blake Mitchell might’ve made sense from a pure logic standpoint, but there’s also obvious value for the Royals in retaining Perez, one of the most beloved players in franchise history.

Manager Matt Quatraro also got in on the extension action, as the skipper’s new contract keeps him in Kansas City through at least the 2029 campaign.  The 2026 season was the final year of Quatraro’s previous deal, and there was little doubt the Royals were going to keep a skipper who has delivered consecutive winning seasons (and a playoff appearance in 2024) to bring the team out of a rebuild period.

Perhaps the most interesting wrinkle of the Royals’ offseason came not exactly off the field, but to Kauffman Stadium’s field itself.  The team is slightly reducing the dimensions of the spacious outfield and lowering the wall from 10 feet to around 8.5 feet, all in the name of making the notoriously pitcher-friendly ballpark more conducive to power hitters.  As Picollo told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other reporters, the aim is “a very fair ballpark. We don’t want it to turn into a bandbox and every ball up in the air turns into a home run. We just want hitters to be rewarded when they hit the ball well, particularly in the gaps.”

Maybe there’s a metaphor here for the Royals’ offseason, as the team is also hoping that some minor adjustments to its roster can yield larger results.  After winning 82 games in 2025, a return to the playoffs certainly seems plausible if the Royals can get more offense and the pitching stays healthy.  Kansas City’s chances are helped by playing in the relatively weak AL Central.  Giving Witt and Garcia more established lineup support would’ve been helpful, but the Royals are hoping that Caglianone and/or Jensen can deliver as much or more than the new additions.

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2025-26 Offseason In Review Kansas City Royals MLBTR Originals

Offseason In Review: New York Mets

By | at March 9, 2026 8:42pm CDT

The Mets responded to a disappointing 2025 season by undergoing a major roster overhaul for 2026, all while sticking to the front office’s preference of avoiding long-term commitments.

Major League Signings

2026 spending (not including Melendez): $86.75MM
Total spending (not including Melendez): $240.75MM

Trades and Claims

Option Decisions

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The 2025 season was a huge disappointment for the Mets. They had just gone to the NLCS the year before. They added Juan Soto in the offseason. They had every expectation of being one of the best teams in the league and got out to a good start. On June 12th, they had a 5.5 game lead over the Phillies in the National League East. It was all downhill from there. They scuffled through the end of the season, going 21-32 in August and September. They finished 83-79, the same record as the Reds. Cincinnati got the final N.L. Wild Card spot via tiebreaker.

In the clubhouse after the final game of the regular season, just minutes after being eliminated, first baseman Pete Alonso told members of the press he would be opting out of his contract. He had almost departed the prior offseason, only returning after lingering unsigned into February. Edwin Díaz would undoubtedly be opting out as well. A few days after Alonso’s forthright comments, it was reported that the Mets were planning a big shakeup of the coaching staff. Rumors of clubhouse discord would eventually seep out.

It seemed like big changes were possible as the club looked to get in position for a better campaign in 2026. It didn’t take long for the dominoes to fall. There were early offseason trade rumors surrounding longtime Mets like Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil. It wasn’t immediately clear how to take those rumors, especially since Nimmo had been with the club since 2011 and had a full no-trade clause on his deal.

Just three weeks into the offseason, Nimmo was traded to the Rangers for Marcus Semien in a rare one-for-one swap of veterans on big contracts. Nimmo would later say he approved the trade essentially because it seemed like the Rangers wanted him more than the Mets did.

For the Mets, the trade checked a few boxes. On the financial side of things, they actually took on more money in the short term. Nimmo is making $20.25MM in each season of the rest of his deal, Semien $26MM for the next two years and then $20MM in the final season. But Nimmo’s deal still has five years left on it, compared to Semien’s three.

Under president of baseball operations David Stearns, the Mets have shown a preference for higher average annual values on shorter deals. Apart from the Soto pact, which was a special case due to his youth, Stearns hasn’t signed anyone to a deal longer than three years since taking over as the club’s front office leader. That preference was clearly at play in the 2025-26 offseason, with the Nimmo/Semien swap fitting the pattern.

It also shored up the club’s defense, something that was a stated goal. Nimmo was once a center fielder but had largely been in left field in 2024 and 2025, reducing some of his value. Semien, despite being his mid-30s, continues to be a reliably above average second baseman in terms of his defense.

More changes came the following month. On December 1st, it was reported that the Mets would be signing reliever Devin Williams to a three-year, $51MM deal. Many felt that was a lot of money for a guy who’d just posted a 4.79 earned run average, but it’s actually somewhat of a buy-low situation.

Williams was one of the most dominant relievers in baseball prior to his 2025 season in the Bronx. He went into that campaign with a career ERA of 1.83. The ERA spike with the Yanks seemed fluky since his stuff appeared to be the same and he still racked up strikeouts and ground balls. His 55.2% strand rate on the year was bizarrely low, more than 20 percentage points below the rest of his career. ERA estimators like his 2.68 FIP and 2.67 SIERA thought he was pretty close to his previous self. Stearns, who was familiar with Williams from their time together in Milwaukee, is betting that 2025 was indeed a fluke.

That didn’t necessarily close the door on a Díaz reunion. The Mets have almost no real budgetary limitations and certainly had room in the bullpen for two elite relievers. However, it was reported on December 9th that Díaz would be signing with the Dodgers.

That seemed to be a bit of an unusual situation. The three-year, $69MM sticker price was a bit below expectations. The Mets had offered him $66MM over three years, which was arguably a better offer because it reportedly had less deferred money compared to the Dodger deal. Some reports said the Mets were willing to go higher but were a bit caught off-guard when he quickly accepted the offer from Los Angeles. Later reports also said Atlanta put a five-year offer out to Díaz. The dollar value of that offer was not revealed but perhaps Díaz just wanted to join the World Series champs and jumped at the chance.

Regardless of the reasons, the Mets were down another longtime franchise staple. He would not be the last. The very next day, on December 10th, it was reported that Alonso would be joining the Orioles on a five-year, $155MM deal. The Mets never seemed to interested in making a long-term investment in their franchise home run leader. It appeared they didn’t want to sign him to anything longer than three years, so he moved on.

Part of the reason the Mets seemed fine with letting Alonso walk is that, as mentioned, improving their defense was a priority this winter. Alonso has never received especially strong grades for his first base defense. Now that he’s 31 years old, he’s more likely to get worse over time than to suddenly improve.

That’s a sensible enough logic in a vacuum, but things got a little strange a few days later when the Mets pivoted to Jorge Polanco on a two-year, $40MM deal. The plan seems to be for Polanco to play a decent amount of first base, though he could also serve as the designated hitter and occasionally play second or third.

Polanco technically has experience playing first base in the big leagues but in the most limited way possible. On April 6th of 2025, Mariners right fielder Víctor Robles injured himself on a catch, recording the second out in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 4-4 game against the Giants. The Mariners removed Robles and shuffled their defenders around, putting Polanco at first. The Giants walked it off on the next pitch with a single to the outfield. That’s the extent of Polanco’s big league experience as a first baseman: one pitch, without having to make a play.

Polanco is coming off a great season at the plate, having hit 26 home runs with a .265/.326/.495 batting line, but there’s some risk. Recurring knee problems have been an issue for him in recent years. He played fewer than 120 games in each season from 2022 to 2024. His offense was below par in the final of those three, which allowed the Mariners to re-sign him for just one guaranteed year and $7.75MM. While he bounced back at the plate, he was almost exclusively a designated hitter in the first half. He gradually played more second base as the season went along but still served as the DH quite a bit.

Though Alonso’s defense was never ideal, his availability was incredible. He never started fewer than 133 games at first in any full season with the Mets. Suddenly pivoting to a guy with almost no experience at the position and notable injury concerns is a curious choice. Polanco can probably handle it, but it speaks to the club’s commitment to their desire for avoiding long-term contractual pitfalls.

Adding Polanco also pushed McNeil further out the door. He had already been in trade rumors, and the Semien acquisition blocked him from the position at which he has spent the most time. He was flipped to the Athletics just before the holidays in what was essentially a salary dump deal. Even though the Mets ate some money in the swap, the A’s took on $10MM of what McNeil is owed this year. Considering the Mets pay a 110% tax rate, that saved them more than $20MM.

Around the same time, they also made another bullpen addition, getting Luke Weaver for $22MM over two years. Weaver’s 2025 didn’t end in strong fashion, but he’s nonetheless coming off a strong two-year run with the Yankees. Over 2024 and 2025, he posted a 3.21 ERA over 148 2/3 innings, striking out 29.5% of opponents and walking just 7.8%. He’s not a replacement for Díaz, but he can pair with Williams for a strong one-two punch at the back of the bullpen.

Going into the holidays, the Mets had been busy but were also left in a weird spot, having seemingly made more subtractions than additions. At second base, they had effectively swapped in Semien for McNeil, with Polanco replacing Alonso at first. But trading Nimmo left a hole in the outfield which had not been filled.

In early January, there were still options. The top two free agent outfielders, Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger, remained unsigned. The Mets were connected to both. They made a strong run at Tucker, once again in alignment with the preference for staying short term. They reportedly offered him a huge $220MM deal over four years, with a couple of opt-outs. The massive $55MM average annual value would have led to a tax bill of over $60.5MM for the Mets, meaning they were willing to shell out almost $120MM annually to get Tucker aboard.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers had similar thinking and went to $240MM over four, so he slipped through the Mets’ fingers. The Mets could have then pivoted to Bellinger but went in a different direction. They found another player willing to opt for a short-term deal with a juiced AAV, giving Bo Bichette a three-year deal worth $126MM, or $42MM per year. Factoring in the tax bill, that’s almost $90MM annually the Mets are sending out. There are opt-outs after each season, so perhaps Bichette will only be around for one year, but it’s a big commitment.

Bichette has been a shortstop for the majority of his career but seems unlikely to spend much more time there going forward. His defensive grades have never been terribly strong. Late in 2025, a knee injury put him on the shelf for the end of the season and the beginning of the playoffs. He was back with the Blue Jays for the World Series but clearly not still 100% healthy. He spent some time as the DH and also limped out to second base a few times.

The Mets had already committed themselves to a middle infield of Francisco Lindor at short and Semien at second. The plan is to move Bichette to third, a position where he has no experience and will have to learn it on the fly. That’s a gamble the Mets are willing to take in order to get Bichette’s bat into the lineup.

That will seemingly push Brett Baty into a super utility role where he bounces around the infield and maybe the outfield corners as well. Mark Vientos is in a somewhat similar spot but his 2025 struggles should put him a bit lower on the depth chart. He’ll be trying to hit his way back into the mix, though he has a narrower path since he’s only really capable of playing the infield corners. The Mets don’t really have a strict DH, so it’s possible for Baty or Vientos to earn more at-bats, perhaps with Polanco moving more towards a full-time DH role.

The Bichette addition still left them with their outfield unaddressed but they quickly checked that box. Just a few days later, they pulled the trigger on a trade for Luis Robert Jr.. To get him to Queens, they took on the entirety of his $20MM salary and will have to pay taxes on that as well. They also parted with some talent, sending utility player Luisangel Acuña and prospect Truman Pauley to the White Sox. Acuña has shown the potential to be a solid bench piece, but the additions of Semien, Polanco and Bichette to the infield made him less necessary. He’s also out of options and surely wouldn’t have gotten through waivers unclaimed.

Robert has the potential to be an excellent upgrade to the Mets outfield but is nowhere near a guarantee. He showed a huge ceiling in 2023, hitting 38 home runs and stealing 20 bases while providing strong center field defense. But in 2024 and 2025, he was on and off the injured list, being capped at 100 games in the former and 110 in the latter. His offense was subpar in both campaigns. The speed and defense give him a nice floor, in a sense, but he has to be on the field to provide that floor.

With Nimmo gone, Soto will be moving from right field to left field. Robert will take over in center. In right field, the Mets wanted to leave a path open for prospect Carson Benge but brought in some contingency plans. They already had Tyrone Taylor on the roster. Late in the winter, they added MJ Melendez on a split deal and Mike Tauchman on a minor league pact. If Benge doesn’t look ready by the end of spring, they have some ways to pivot.

Amid all of this shuffling on the position player side and in the bullpen, the rotation had largely been ignored for most of the winter. The Mets went into the offseason with a starting group consisting of Nolan McLean, Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes, Kodai Senga and David Peterson. Just behind that group were optionable minor leaguers like Brandon Sproat, Jonah Tong and Christian Scott.

It was a good group but one perhaps lacking an ace-like arm at the front. McLean showed the potential for that late in 2025 but he was only able to make eight starts before the winter arrived. The Mets were reportedly looking for an upgrade but (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) wanted to avoid long-term free agent deals.

They were connected to some of those free agents, like Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez, but always seemed more likely to make a big splash on the trade market. Rumors linked them to Joe Ryan, Nick Pivetta, and Edward Cabrera but they were able to land Freddy Peralta from the Brewers. They sent Sproat and prospect Jett Williams to Milwaukee to get Peralta and Tobias Myers.

Peralta is a very sensible fit for the Mets. Stearns is plenty familiar with him; he already acquired Peralta and extended him when he was running the Brewers. Peralta’s one year of club control and $8MM salary are appealing for any club, but they fit well for the Mets and their tax situation.

What remains to be seen is if Stearns can sign Peralta to another extension. He has access to bigger payrolls with the Mets than he did with the Brewers but has really tried to limit the length of deals. Peralta is well positioned to cash in as a free agent next winter and is seemingly angling for the kind of long-term deal the Mets don’t like.

It was a busy offseason for the Mets. They overhauled the roster, bringing in a lot of new faces while letting some of the familiar ones go. The lineup and rotation look really strong. But by sticking to his preferences in terms of contract length, Stearns has been forced to make some compromises. The Mets wanted to improve the defense but are going into the season projecting to have third and first base manned by guys with effectively no experience there. They’ve added an injury-prone center fielder and a 35-year-old second baseman. They made some bullpen additions but may not have really improved it since they lost one of the best closers in the league.

Does it all add up to a better team or have they mostly just shuffled the deck? Give your ranking of the offseason in the poll below.

How would you grade the Mets' offseason?

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Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

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