With the hot stove roaring back to life after going dormant over New Year’s, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. What’s next for the A’s?
The Athletics have engaged in their busiest winter in recent memory as they head from Oakland to West Sacramento. In December, the club added Luis Severino and Gio Urshela in free agency while swinging a trade for Jeffrey Springs. Last night, they kicked off 2025 by working out a five-year extension with current face of the franchise Brent Rooker. That extension also has the side effect of boosting the roster’s payroll for luxury tax purposes, with RosterResource now estimating the club’s tax payroll to be in the range of $97MM.
The A’s reportedly need to get that number into the $105MM range in order to avoid risking a grievance from the MLBPA. That likely leaves just over $8MM in spending for the A’s to do this winter, at minimum. Club brass hasn’t ruled out the addition of another starting pitcher, and a reliever to serve as a veteran setup option for closer Mason Miller could also make plenty of sense.
2. Is the relief market coming to life?
Speaking of the relief market, that’s been by far the quietest corner of free agency this winter. Aroldis Chapman, Blake Treinen, and Yimi Garcia standing as the only notable signings, though there have been some notable trades (headlined by the trade of Devin Williams to the Yankees). The latest major free agent relief signing of the offseason took place yesterday, when the Rangers agreed to a one-year deal with veteran setup man Chris Martin. Meanwhile, the Braves became the latest team to be connected to top free agent reliever Tanner Scott as he reportedly seeks a deal that could guarantee him an annual salary in the $20MM range. It’s unclear how close Scott might be to signing, but with a glut of late-inning talent still available it’s difficult to imagine the dam not breaking sooner rather than later.
3. MLBTR Chat Today:
It’s time for the first weekday chat of 2025. Twenty-six of the players on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents list for the winter have signed, putting us just beyond the halfway point in the offseason by that metric. Whether you have questions about what’s left for your team to do this winter or a trade proposal in the back of your mind, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be here to answer your questions during a live chat scheduled for noon CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
I’d be interested in an updated “Top 50-the guys who’ve already signed”, maybe divided up positionally.
Maybe pose that question to Steve during the chat, more likely to get it some attention than posing it here in the comments. Just a thought!!!
There is also the contract tracker offered by this site, i do believe it gives positional info. i think it may only be available to front office subscribers, but am not sure.
It would also be fun if the Top-50 Free Agents list was maintained throughout the offseason, with guys falling off the list because they’ve already signed. After a while, you get to the point of the off-season arguing if Rene Pinto should have been added to the list instead of Colten Brewer
Trade some kids to the Twinkies for Paddack.
Grievance issue resolved. Threshold met.
@Jacksson13
Paddack is a league average pitcher, based on SIERA. I wouldn’t trade much for him. Maybe a couple of lottery tickets for for Powerball.
Sign Scherzer or Verlander for 25 and issue is certainly solved. With strong pitching and a weak central, they can compete for at least a wild card. Only the Angels can’t in the West.
MIN has to have some pitching.
They’ve got so many challenges – players with too frequent injury issues, total budget constraints and probably not the greatest TV revenue sources
A’s finally escape Jokeland and put together a proper team and investing in their players.
I’ll have to go purchase some West Sacramento A’s merchandise.
Those Sacramento city connects will be fire yo
Make sure you buy genuine caps if you visit the park as cheap crap will likely melt on your head in the Sacramento heat. I only stopped there once (usually I was traveling to the Reno casinos back in the day), it was as bad as the Palm desert.
I lived there for a few years. Days are brutal but there’s usually a Delta breeze that cools things down nicely at night.
I watched a night game there last August and was fine.
However there are stretches without the breeze and the day games will be bad.
I hope Tanner Scott secures that bag before he faces Joe Carter in game six of a world series. That WHIP, oy vey!
Just wondering if i missed it, but was there a post up on the site about a podcast tomorrow???
…or Tanner Scott
Chem from what i have read, the A’s have nearly the whole 2025 season to reach the roughly 105 Mil mark to avoid a grievance not the end of this offseason
The A’s don’t need any more big splashes. As the article already pointed out, they’re only about 8 million from the threshold. A couple low level signings or a middling trade of some sort is all it will take for them to reach the threshold. They’ll get there. No need for them to throw 20+ million at Bregman.
The PA is mostly toothless. The only thing that concerns the A’s is the revenue sharing. As long as they get to keep that, they’re good.
@chemfinancing
They are about two mediocre relief pitchers short of the line in the sand. The Players Union can make (rightfully) a grievance if the A’s spend less than 150% of the CBA fund, which was $70 million. All in all pretty pathetic that the Union has to gripe rather than Teflon Manfraud actually threatening an owner. But our commissioner is too worried about coloured bags and the coordinated sharpies for line up cards.
I don’t think you understand the organizational structure of MLB. Manfred is the owner’s representative. He’s effectively their employee. He can’t “threaten” them. His job is to represent their interests to the public and in negotiations with the players union.
They tell him what to do, not the other way around.
With the exception of the Tucker trade, what have the cubs and hoyer meaningfully have done? 0, not much at all except pocket the bellinger savings and not back into the team.
@Canuckleball
Agreed in the most part but “MLB” still warned the Padres about their debt to revenue percentages. So there is clearly some scope there, but maybe not much…
West Sacramento: we’ll only spend in free agency to avoid a grievance! Good luck, Las Vegas.