MLB Trade Rumors’ annual Offseason Outlook series is back, as we break down what all 30 teams could have in store for their roster machinations this winter. Going forward, the Outlook series is exclusive to Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers, and that link provides details on how to sign up for an annual membership.
This post will be updated as more Outlooks are published.
AL West
AL Central
AL East
NL West
NL Central
NL East
Pretty disappointing that a staple like the Off-season Outlook series is now behind a pay wall. I get the membership option and this is likely a way to drive revenue, but MLBTR has always been a go-to for information and fun articles. There are very few diverse options out there and it’s frustrating to see a series I’ve always looked forward to no longer being available for general readers.
Membership is only 4 dollars a month.
Less than that actually. Nothing wrong with helping keep the site running and the writers paid.
I get it, $4 a month isn’t much, but I’ve chosen to not pay it. I have never minded the new content that they’ve moved to membership, the special mailbag chats, etc. My frustration is with these series that have always been part of the site that are now no longer available to the general public. Call me frugal, but memberships add up, they’re everywhere. I’ve never complained about have advertised banners, etc to help the site. I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but it just doesn’t sit well with me and I wanted to voice my option into the abyss.
I get the aversion to the subscription model, it truly is everywhere. Sadly, it is what it is and while I dont have to love it, I have decided on a few that bring enough value to pay (mlbtr, fangraphs and the athletic). But again, I get it.
So, why pat them on the back?
You just confirmed, the content is worth paying for – you miss it.
You should have just told them they were a bunch of Rusty K’s…..
You can opt in and out easily.
It’s not that it is only 4$!! It’s the fact that every major baseball site has most all of their info behind paywalls now!!
Exactly! Just got pick 1 and roll with it. The fact this payment covers all 3 sports rumor pages I find it a good value.
@davidrocholl you’ll pay for something eventually in life, for example, your internet…
This was not a decision I made lightly last year. But this was my explanation:
mlbtraderumors.com/2024/10/offseason-outlook-artic…
Upshot: These posts take roughly three hours each to write, and the majority of them receive modest traffic. The ad revenue on the series was not close to covering the time required to produce it. I take great pride in our work on the Offseason Outlook series, and I think it’s worth paying for.
Get membership for one month, read them all, be done. $4 a year that way to support and enjoy a website you find value in.
$1/ week…that’s all they ask
The problem is this: I, and I’m guessing most fans, am very interested in my team and mildly interested in the rest of baseball.
So if I am going to spend a few bucks a month on a baseball sub, its going to be one thats all about my team, not 1/30th about my team and 29/30th about others.
For example, I am interested in Skubal, Skenes, and Ohtani, but otherwise not in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and the Dodgers. Whereas I care about the 25th prospect in my own team
This site is great at the deadline and worth browsing all offseason for (guess what) trade rumors and FA speculation. But for more in depth content on any club a dedicated site will always be way better unless you are that rare animal a general fan of the sport who doesn’t follow a team (though I’ve never met one of these)
So what i want here is free, and what is behind the paywall i can get better elsewhere. Thats the problem with paying for content here – but everyone is free to choose.
I view it like fangraphs – make a donation if you want to support them. Its not really about paying fir the (less valuable) content behing the paywall
It’s true that if the type of thing you find worth paying for is a scouting report on your favorite team’s 25th best prospect, this is not for you. In that case I’d recommend Baseball America.
All I can really do is pack as much value into the $34.99 per year as possible. For a lot of people, what we are offering is easily worth it.
– Remove all ads on all of our sites and in our app
– Ask us questions in live chats and my mailbag
– An average of three paywalled articles per week. Aside from the Offseason Outlook series, I’d say these are less about going super deep into one team and more about our analysis and opinions on all things free agency/trades.
– MLB Contract Tracker. If you are a nerd about MLB contracts, this thing is great. Something I designed specifically because it’s the type of info we look at constantly. It goes back to 2006 and took years to build up. There’s nothing else like it.
– MLB Agency Database/GM Tracker. Not for everyone, but unique and useful tools.
On the annual subscription that works out to less than $3 per month. I also provide a 100% money-back guarantee. If you subscribe check everything out and don’t feel it’s worth your money, you can get a full refund at any time.
I offer that because if you’re paying for this, I want you to feel like you’re absolutely getting your money’s worth and then some.
Trade Rumors Front Office is also the place for random perks – early access to our arbitration projections, the occasional live video chat (we’re due for a few more this offseason), stuff like that.
The price will remain stable for a good number of years, and each year I try to find more features I can add. The big one for 2026 is an MLB Trade Tracker. If I can pull it off as planned it’d be worth the subscription price by itself.
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to lay all this out. I wish all content producers were so diligent in monitoring reader discussions. Genuinely very impressed.
Grateful for the content and I hope you and your colleagues get reasonable compensation for your efforts.
This is one of my favorite subscriptions. I canceled all my streaming services (your local library probably has all the shows and movies you want on DVD!) and everything else except for this and spotify. Thanks for being the best spent $34.99 each year!
ok–I particularly agree with your 1st & 3rd paragraphs
I wonder if they would consider removing the pay wall after a certain amount of time? Like a month after all teams are covered maybe
Glad to pay for this site’s Extras, much as I enjoy paying a toll for a privately run road with higher speeds and less traffic. Kudos to MLBTR for the many previous free years, and keep up the good value.
I think if you’re a diligent (daily) reader of MLBTR and mix in some other sources of baseball news/speculation then you should already have a decent enough grasp of what Offseason Outlooks should generally entail. So I guess for me personally Offseason Outlooks are in a way redundant & superfluous, but I can definitely see their utility for folks with time pressure or who want everything summed up for them with bullet points and easily digestible to peruse on Saturday morning which is the only free time to consume baseball news all week.