One free-agent deal is already in the books this morning. Here are three more things to keep an eye out for today:
1. Bregman stands alone:
After slugger Pete Alonso finally agreed to return to the Mets last night, third baseman Alex Bregman stands as the lone top tier bat in free agency. With the start of spring training looming, Bregman’s market has been fairly quiet in recent days. The Tigers reportedly remain in on him even after their deal to re-sign righty Jack Flaherty. The Cubs, Blue Jays, Astros, and Red Sox are all involved in Bregman’s market on at least some level. It seems possible that at least a couple of those suitors have eased off their pursuits of Bregman, however. MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart relayed yesterday that, per GM Dana Brown, the Astros have not recently spoken to Bregman’s camp and that their discussions about a reunion with him “remain internal.” Meanwhile, the Red Sox continued their ongoing talks with the Cardinals about third baseman Nolan Arenado. A Bregman decision could be a catalyst for resolution on the Arenado front, or vice versa.
2. Could a Twins trade be on the horizon?
All winter long, it’s been clear that the Twins were operating at or near their maximum capacity for payroll and wouldn’t be able to make significant additions on the free agent market without clearing payroll via trade. Despite that long-anticipated reality, however, the Twins have made multiple free agent signings in recent days. The additions of center fielder Harrison Bader and southpaw reliever Danny Coulombe are set to cost the Twins $9.25MM, and according to RosterResource that puts them around $18MM over their 2024 payroll. While it’s possible that the front office has simply been provided more financial flexibility than initially believed, it’s worth noting that Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey recently acknowledged an uptick in trade discussions. Could a deal or two that clears payroll space be coming? Minnesota needs to open two 40-man roster spots to finalize their deals with Bader and Coulombe.
3. Several 40-man moves pending:
In addition to that pair of 40-man moves pending for the Twins, there are several other clubs who need to open 40-man spots to finalize agreements of their own. Last night’s Alonso reunion in Queens will force the Mets to open a spot on their 40-man roster that features a number of depth arms on the bubble (e.g. Austin Warren, Tyler Zuber, Max Kranick, Kevin Herget). This morning’s Tommy Pham deal will require the Pirates to jettison someone else from their 40-man, which could prove problematic for offseason DFA pickups like Brett de Geus, Peter Strzelecki or Chase Shugart. The Yankees still need to make roster space for their reunion with southpaw Tim Hill, which could lead to a quick DFA turnaround for recent waiver claims Braden Shewmake or Owen White. Over in Detroit, the Tigers still haven’t announced their deal to re-sign Jack Flaherty, which will prompt a 40-man subtraction in the Motor City as well.
Bregman
JD Martinez
Turner
Verdugo
Canha
The race is on!
Joey Gallo and Rizzo as well. Yikes.
I think Rizzo ends up going unsigned and retires.
I think he’s broken down physically.
Bregman signing heating up?
Rinse. Recycle. Repeat.
Add Arenado to the wash too.
layne – Not sure if we should add Duvall or not, he looked quite cooked last year.
I don’t even think arrenados wife wants to trade for him this season.
Padres still have 4 open spots on their 40 man roster.
On what may go down as the most disastrous offseason in Padres history, they need to fill those spots.
Lf,1b,dh,2 starters and bench depth are needed.
Padres have signed one FA this offseason.
One.
Around two weeks until spring training.
Losses:
Profar
Kim
Scott
Higashioka
Solano
Peralta
A total of nearly 12 WAR has departed.
The core is a playoff caliber squad but desperately needs reinforcements.
You forgot Perez another 1.0. And Musgrove gone for the year.
tow – Pivetta should be your #1 target right now.
Given their payroll reduction and ownership changes/issues, I highly doubt the Padres can afford Pivetta.
Probably 0 chance they look at Pivetta. Do no want to pay that salary and don’t want to surrender a draft pick as they are a team with a weak farm system currently.
Dan – Not even 3 years @ $15M AAV ?? That’s very affordable.
Not for the padres currently
No way.
For less than the cost of one Pivetta the Padres could get both Cal Quantrill and Spencer Turnbull, if nothing else quantity over quality. Verdugo and France and minor league deals with low base salaries for guys like Brandon Drury and David Peralta/Jason Heyward are definitely in their price range
Minor league deals? Yes. But they need to move salary before making any ML deals.
Rsox – sadly I’m guessing all of those guys are more than the Pads want to spend… I’ve got a better idea… welcome the new DH for MLB minimum salary since the Stros are still paying him… Jose Abreu!!! Clear bounce back candidate (ok dead cat bounce but still). I bet he doubles his home runs in his come back effort to a whopping 4. He can be packaged as a veteran leader that can also (if you squint real hard and/or after you’ve had a few beers) play 1B. Let’s get it done AJ!
And wait… our new LF (also at MLB minimum since the Yankees are still paying for him to play golf in SoCal)… Aaron Hicks! There are some nice courses in San Diego that I’m sure would be attractive for Aaron to play a little baseball on the side. He’s only 35 so he can roam around in Petco’s LF without a wheelchair yet. Best of all… former Yankee (ok better to think of his days in Baltimore). Wow… (Sad)ler Bros should hire me to replace AJ. I got this covered!
And since they are already paying Hosmer, bring him back as a defensive bench piece.
Ohhhhh, I like it. All is forgiven Hoz… come back and save us from ourselves!
dan – If they are gonna trade or lose both Cease and King, I would think 3 years of Pivetta at $15M per along with the draft pick would be a better move than trying to extend either Cease or King at market rates or dipping into free agency next offseason.
I really thinik what happened is he saw what Severino got and therefore expected similar or more, not realizing Severino was an overpay rather than a market setting deal.
When they move Cease and King they are reducing payroll to a target number. Signing a Pivetta would work against that plan. They are not extending either. Ideally, they would look at picking up pre-arb players in any returns
It’s only five days before pitchers and catchers report.
Out of all the team fans who consistently complain padres might take the cake. Every day “our ownership is a disaster. We signed no one. Worst offseason in history of sports”
Stop whining for f sake. 9th highest payroll in mlb & only 4 other tms have more $ committed 2026-2028
The problem is that $180M of that is allotted to 16 players. They don’t have a complete team and no farm system to lean on. Some bad contracts have come home to roost.
No farm?? You got devries who could be the best prospect in all of baseball a yr from now
Merrill just had a sensational rookie yr
Salas & kash mayfield & kal fountain too
STOP whining
They are ranked 28th by almost all grading systems. Badler, Law, MLB Pipeline. Mayfield is no where near top 100. Fountain? He probably isn’t top 250. Salas and De Vries are at least 2-3 years away and are still unproven prospects. Not showing anything above low A ball.
But even if they do turn out well, they ain’t helping this year.
Isn’t mega whining a prerequisite for being on here? It’s certainly not restricted only to Pads fans.
Yeah I get they were used to big spending, but welcome to the world of other teams with limited funds. Should have thought about this before spending a billion on shortstops.
Yes. I assume they probably did and knew this day was coming. But maybe not this soon. They shot for the moon last season and came up short. Now it’s going to take some time to recover from some of the moves they’ve made. Unfortunately, many of these contracts last awhile. What I assume will happen is they move Cease, Arraez and Suarez at the deadline for prospects and save some payroll and get in a better position for 2026.
That actually would be a pretty good deal for both clubs, assuming that Tiedeman is finally ready to pitch.
Preller is leaving at least a couple of roster spots open for a trade involving Dylan Cease, hopefully to the Cubs for 2 SP’s (Javier Assad, Ben Brown or Jordan Wicks) and a LF (Owen Caissie or Kevin Alcántara).
If the Cubs sign 3B Alex Bregman, 2B/OF James Triantos might also become available with top INF prospect Matt Shaw then competing to open the season at 2B until Nico Hoerner returns from his October right forearm flexor tendon surgery.
Padres aren’t in no hurry to help the Cubs. My guess is that Baltimore is the only club that might be interested in dealing for him. As of now. Might change later when SD is floating around .500 and looking past 3 or 4 teams for a WC spot.
Double negative aside, the Padres mostly need to “help” themselves in their uneventful offseason with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks being so aggressive. Trades are generally consummated to benefit each club involved.
Your “guess” having Baltimore as the “only club” interested in trading for Cease is even more ludicrous.
Apologies for the typo. Meant any hurry. Cubs and Mets seem pretty set. Mets have nothing that they would be willing to part with that would help SD in the current season. Same with Cubs. As NL teams, no incentive to bail SD out of their payroll problem. Minnesota is a trying to control payroll as well. Would only take payroll from SD if SD took dumb payroll back. AKA Paddack or Vasquez. Baltimore might be waiting for AJ to blink and take either some payroll back such as Mullins and/or lower prospects. What does Boston have that they would be willing to give up for one year of _____ that SD could use?
The Twins should trade Correa back to the Astros for Pena, Leon, and 1-2 prospects. The Astros haven’t had any players step up as leaders since Springer and Correa left, Pena’s production hasn’t been great, they have the worst OF in baseball, so they need to step up in other departments if they expect to win. Correa still lives in Houston, seems to be his best fit. Twins keep being rumored to want to shed payroll, Astros need to fill in production from losing Bregman and Tucker.
Cam Smith is going to eventually be a beast. Losing Tucker was big, sure, but the investment will be worth it. I was sad to see him go from my Cubs, even for such an all around great ballplayer in Tucker.
He might be a beast @Cubs, but prospects are suspects until proven otherwise.
I think hitting dingers in 6 straight at any level affords special players the right to skip the usual clichés to some extent though. This guy is cut from a different cloth.
He’s a special talent worth investing in. If Tucker was more than a rental, then maybe worth losing him, but one year??
I concur with your take on top 3B prospect Cam Smith. The sting of him leaving the Cubs system will lessen with an NL Central title and good fortune in the postseason. It could diminish if the Cubs can eventually extend Kyle Tucker or re-sign him as a free agent next offseason.
Tucker remaining with the Cubs long term could also hinge on his experience with the team this season and could be enhanced if his friend Alex Bregman were to ink a free agent contract with Chicago. Tucker, Bregman and new Cubs closer Ryan Pressly were very tight as Astros teammates.
@ Aaron S
Well said.
Fingers crossed that it plays out that way. If they can parlay the loss of talent (Cam Smith) into several years of Tucker/Bregman and W’s (especially in the post-season), then I’d think it’ll have been worth it.
The Bregman domino needs to fall in order to see this play out. I’m hoping he inks soon!
Rocker – Twins would have to attach Vaz and his full salary to Correa in order to make that a fair trade.
Is Correa and his injury history “a specific type of player” that Houston would be willing to go over the luxury tax threshold for tho?
His contract has outs for the team after lost seasons. That is, if he doesn’t reach PA thresholds his options don’t vest. If at any time he misses a pile of time and the team thinks he’s cooked then the end of the deal evaporates. It allowed the team to pay him well without the risk of years of crap at the far end.
Uh… No way, no how.
Astros leader has been Bregman, both before Correa left and since then. So I’m not sure why you would say that.
Me? If so, I’m saying I don’t think Correa is a player Houston would shoot over the threshold for.
Correa guaranteed 37.3M this year. Goodness. The most of any season in MIN under contract.
@Rocker – Is Correa worth that? I am not sure he is even worth a straight up swap for Pena.
There’s no way that the Astros would want to take on Correa’s contract.
Whoever signs Bregman loses.
Depends on the structure…Boras just lost with the Alonso signing. No guarantee Bregman will get anything close to what he wants.
I agree. As a Tigers fan, I’d love to have him for 25, but not for much longer than that and surely not for more than 4. It’ll be interesting to see if he keeps holding out or pivots to a shorter term pact. His last contract was backloaded. I read he thinks anything under his 28.6 mil salary from last season is considered a pay cut. He shouldn’t think like that considering the average was way under that. The only way he’ll beat that is a short term deal with opt outs. 2/60 with an opt out. No way he’s beating 28.6 per and getting several years.
Plus, he’s aging and showing signs of lower productivity. The pay curve is concave as age increases, so it’s reasonable to expect him to accept an even lower AAV than his last contract, but the heart wants what it wants I guess lol
If I’m Tigers I’d offer $112m / 4 yrs, with $64m guaranteed over first 2 and player opt-out.
It allows Boras to tout getting Breg’s an aav better than Devers in short them ($32m /yr for first two. It lessens the “real money” spent in last two years if he starts falling off. The $28/m is not entirely far off from what Bregman wanted.
Boras and Bregman want 6 years. If they find someone willing, then oh well. But in no way am I paying a 36, 37, 38 yo Bregman $25m-$35m when it’s pretty much agreed that the drop-off has already begun.
For the record, Alex Bregman will turn 31 on March 30th. If he does somehow succeed in getting a 6 year contract he would conclude his final season as a 36-year old.:-)
I don’t disagree.
If Bregman signs elsewhere, I wonder if Scott has a pivot trade for a surprising 3B planned.
The NL West- no wonder the padres, giants whoever reluctant to pursue further free agents trades to strengthen their teams now because of the dodgers! Dodgers all the way and then the rest!
Huh?
Tigers have dfa’d Alex Bregman.
I think Bregman actually dfa’d the Tigers
Either way works as a Tigers fan. Jung and Vierling may not be too much worse. At least for the price difference
The Cubs are going to introduce Alex Bregman at Spring Training ala Dexter Fowler 2016 and he’ll go hug his homies Tucker and Pressly on their way to winning a 2025 World Series. You heard it here first!
Would like to see the Mariners make a trade with the Twins for Willy Castro, he solves many of their infield issues….
Eventually Bregman will join Alonso at the dinner table for his massive turd sandwich. The hard part won’t be eating it, rather having to act like he didn’t prepare said sandwich himself.
@SupZs
I’d suspect Alonso already ate his turd sandwich. I think Boras will take his seat at the dinner table you’re talking about. Still TBD regarding Bregman.
The Mets are so lucky Alonso turned down their previous $158 million dollar extension offer.
He saved them from themselves.
Alonso will have to knock 60 over the fence this year to not regret turning that down.
The Astros told everyone last year that Bregman was “more complicated” than the Altuve deal. They were telling everyone he was gone then. He’s a squeeze the turnip guy- and there’s nothing wrong with that. Frankly signing in December is for the fans. We like it, but it doesn’t really matter until teams start camp.
Personal opinion: I think it ends up the Cubs. A guy who waits this long isn’t going to take a pay cut for security. He’s trying to secure the biggest bag.
Mets will probably DFA a position player. Azocar or Young.
Byron Buxton getting his cheddar.
Why do so many people act like Buck signed a huge contract? It’s ~$15m/yr, $100m total. Worth every penny and if by chance he does have that magical healthy season it’s outright dirt cheap
If he’s only taking a similar deal to Alonso, he’ll have plenty of suitors even with the draft pick compensation attached.
I’ve been a Twins local for 15 years now. For many years I was a Yankees fan, which is of course a different kind of off-season experience.
I’m sympathetic to the suggestion that the loss of television revenue hamstrung the team, I am. And I understand that stars like Correa take a lot of dollars to sign, that’s the cost of doing business today.
These are the problems of billionaires and millionaires. We each can choose to make it “our” problem, if we wish, but for me it’s a matter of what the fans are owed. We aren’t really owed anything. But I am comfortable asking the team to put effort into providing a product that’s fun to experience.
Signing Buxton; signing and extending Lopez, signing Correa…all of these were the actions of an ownership team that is doing something to honor that compact with the fans. Correa or Buxton or Vazquez not a good sign? Sure, that’s a worthy conversation to have, but at least the Twins were trying to get out of the kiddie pool, and I appreciated that, win or lose.
To trade Correa or Buxton would feel like having the rug pulled out. that would be much more disappointing than just losing. It’s a sign that the club owners are ok with losing, that success is an accident. I get the TV problems. That’s the billionaires’ problems. I like to go to the park or watch the team at least feeling like the owners made an attempt.
It doesn’t make me angry, just sad. I’ve watched too much baseball over my life to get angry over it, and if my enthusiasm is sapped because of it I’m confident it will blossom somewhere else. It just makes me sad.
Do we know if Bregman is still even alive? Is he waiting for the Super Bowl to announce his decision?
Cheaters never prosper except when there trying to get paid for partially inflated lifetime stats. Sure is nice knowing dial it up for dead red fastball or junk pitch n to lay off of it before ball has even left Ps hand, sweet.
Big Tiger fan here. Big mistake to sign Bergman. Save money for players we need to extend and free agent next year if they are worth it. Bergman another Baez, Cabrera disaster waiting to happen. He is on downside now. Wait until he gets to Comerica. Paying for a slightly better than average player with a name.
I really don’t think that the Yankees would have made those two waiver claims AFTER signing Hill if one of them was ticketed for the exit.