As you pick through the Thanksgiving leftovers, here are a few things to monitor on Friday…
1. Financial constraints in Milwaukee
Will Sammon, Ken Rosenthal, and Katie Woo of The Athletic dropped a report yesterday about Milwaukee’s payroll concerns heading into next season. The trio wondered if financial challenges could lead to a Freddy Peralta deal. The right-hander is in the final year of his contract and is slated to make $8MM next season. Brandon Woodruff‘s acceptance of the qualifying offer gives the Brewers another option in the rotation if they move Peralta, though both Brewers owner Mark Attanasio and president of baseball operations Matt Arnold described Woodruff’s return and a potential Peralta trade as “independent decisions.” There have been several instances of Milwaukee trading star players before they hit free agency, including Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes, and Devin Williams.
2. Red Sox eyeing Alonso, Okamoto
We knew Boston was looking for more thump in the middle of the order, as chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said as much earlier this month. Jon Heyman of the New York Post linked the team to Pete Alonso and Kazuma Okamoto on Thursday. Alonso has been one of the premier home run hitters in the league since his 2019 debut, leaving the yard at least 34 times in each full season of his career (excluding the shortened 2020 campaign). Alonso signed a two-year deal to return to the Mets last offseason. He opted out of the second year of the pact in early November. Okamoto has delivered solid power contributions in the NPB since 2018. The Yomiuri Giants posted him last week. The addition of either Alonso or Okamoto, who are both corner infielders, could make a Triston Casas trade more likely.
3. Orioles looking at top starters
Heyman also reported that Baltimore is keeping tabs on Framber Valdez and Tatsuya Imai at the highest tier of the free agent starting pitching market. Dylan Cease was also on the list, but he signed with AL East rival Toronto. Heyman mentioned Michael King and Zac Gallen as fallback options for the Orioles. The club sent Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels for Taylor Ward, further thinning a starting rotation that already had depth concerns. Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish will headline the staff heading into 2026, but beyond innings-eater Dean Kremer, the unit has plenty of question marks. Some kind of addition, even in the Gallen range, seems like a decent possibility.
Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images
As an O’s fan, I hope the Orioles sign King, then trade him for an OF bat…
That’s not how it works. If anything it would be signing one of Schwarber or Tucker (which I don’t see happening) and then flipping a package centered around Beavers or Cowser for a controllable SP.
I think the OP was kidding since the O’s have goo many OF bats already.
Sorry, my sarcasm doesnt come through in text form.
I got it. No need for apostrophes or italics or any kind of sarcs fonts, just use your noodle mixed with yer funny bone, folks. Better that way.
Your sarcasm came through just fine.
Happy to send you back Santander, we need a young shortstop to replace Bo. Lmk
Bo and Polanco will be 2026 versions of Santander. Free agents coming off excellent seasons who are going to regress.
This isn’t the nba sign and trade
Right now, here are the possible bidders for starting pitching at the top tier.
Giants, Cubs, Orioles
Astros? (If Jim Crane decides to pony up and they slash more payroll)
Red Sox, Mets, Phillies, Yank$, Dodgers (bc one is Japanese)
The Phillies are more in depth starters. I forgot about the Mets, and the Red Sox likely won’t get a top starter because they got Sonny Gray.
Somebody on the top 50 had the Phils on Cease!
Wouldn’t be shocked at Angels or Rangers.
@saj just because he’s Japanese does not mean he’s going to the Dodgers you ignorant doofus, my God, you people…
Just for fun, on Imai, I will pick the Dodgers, and you can pick any other team on an even bet.
Why be such a troll? How does it help?
Really, life will not be better for you no matter how much you treat down other people.
Thanks Hal
Trading Casas doesn’t make sense.
I think it’s too early to give up on him. He’s showed big time potential when he’s actually been healthy the past couple of seasons. Yes he struggled at the beginning of last season, but was starting to heat up before he blew his knee out. He was a top 5 hitter in baseball during the second half a couple of seasons ago. And he’s still only like 25. Red Sox fans have pretty divided opinions on him, but I am one who wants the Sox to hold onto and stick with him at 1B for now. He could very well be that big bat they are wanting for next season.
I agree, selling low on Casas doesn’t make any sense, especially when he isn’t going to be making much over the minimum and still has options.
You don’t really know when you are selling low. If he is not ready for ST, then you are selling high. If he doesn’t re-gain his 2022-2024 results, you’re selling high.
And every other GM will be thinking the same way. The only folks in the world that think he is finished are RS fans. Other GMs will range from seeing 2022-2024 as the baseline and think the guy is awesome to GMs that won’t want to rely on him being ready in April.
There will definitely be GMs that are interested in paying a fair price.
Right, selling low and they could still use him if healthy. They just can’t depend on him
It makes sense if they sign Alonso to a big money multi-year deal and a team is willing to offer something the Sox actually need. Would they be willing to stash Casas in the minors to start the season if everyone else on the roster was healthy at the beginning of next season? Have another bitter player situation?
If he doesn’t win a job in spring training I could care less if he’s bitter about being in AAA. He hasn’t proven anything yet.
Casas is worth keeping at $1.7 million. If he’s not in stride by the trade deadline, trade him or ship him to the minors. If healthy, he can be a big bat in the lineup.
I think(?) I have Framber going to the O’s so we’ll see if I kept it. I changed a bunch last minute.
Like Cease, I had him to the Phils, but actually surprisingly changed it to the Jays. Actually was shocked I had that right when I went and rechecked it.
I’m now 2/6, I think.
Is there a contest leaderboard yet? I think I missed that post.
The leaderboard is on the main menu under tools. At least on cell phone. Top Right.
I had Framber to Jays and Cease to Red Sox so looks like I struck out on them.
Thank you!
Main menu of trade rumors app? All I see is a setting wheel on the top right corner.
What am I missing, I would love to know where my picks are and how I’m doing
Just in browser the little menu icon. I don’t have the app.
mlbtraderumors.com/mlbtr-apps/free_agent_contest_l…
Here is a link
I told my self I was gonna go back and change stuff since I was in a rush when I filled it out. But alas I did not
I changed a bunch in the last hour so far this is only one that has come to fruition.
2/7 now that I saw the leaderboard. Forgot about Raisel.
I am 3/6 with Naylor, Raisel, and Gleybor.
There are a ton of people batting 1.000 though.
Only 1 actually, Jimmy Hand. I thought there were only 6 signings too at first, but there was 7 with the Cease signing.
Oh man I just checked and yeah only 1!
That’s a really good start, especially since a lot of what’s left could go anywhere
It is interesting that one wrong guess at the top of the market can mean pretty much every other guess is going to be wrong.
James Hand is a country singer. Passed away a few years back.
You can tell there’s nothing to write about when you see articles like ” The Brewers have payroll concerns”. That’s ground breaking stuff.. Stop the presses.
Yeah, although I’m guessing it had to do with the unusual number of clicks and comments on the article yesterday- for an article about the Brewers that is. People want to read about baseball, and that’s a good thing in my book! Get the stove stoked!
Next thing they’ll be telling us the Pirates have similar concerns.
When the best team in baseball for the just-concluded year indicates they will reduce payroll, that is newsworthy.
Not really interested in Valdez or Gallen, but King or Imai would be pretty awesome.
I think a trade for a big SP is much more likely though.
Gallen really feels like an Orioles style signing. Hope the go with someone else.
The Brewers “issues” with regard to the acceptance of the QO by Woodruff are of their own making. By sticking him with the QO they diminished his value to potential signors, who all had to be thinking about his health. Now the best they can hope for is that he’ll be a valuable asset this year who, if necessary, can be traded at midseason for prospect value. But it does point towards a distinct feature of the entire system. If the idea is to compensate the former team, they have to be willing to take the risk. With a healthy, high performing player, there’s not real risk. But if you are trying to extract a little value from the departing player, you have to put in a little risk capital yourself. This is fair, but the Owners weren’t thinking about “fair” when they devised it (and cling to it).
How isn’t it fair? the QO for lesser players, means a or year overpay.
It really hurts player’s markets. They wait a long time to get to free agency and this costs them money.
@Wade
For the top tier free agents, no
For guys like Trent Grisham it simply delays the optimal market by 1 year. Grisham was speculated to get a 4/$66 mil deal this year. He accepted a 1 year QO that’ll pay him more money annually for 1 season. Not a huge delay but he has to hope he can stay healthy and have another strong season. He could have a stronger market next year if he can show it wasn’t a fluke but a “coming of age”.
The good thing for the Brewers is they don’t have to really do anything on the position player side of the roster. A backup Catcher and maybe a 1B/OF to replace Bauers (or just re-sign Bauers).
The rotation already has Peralta, Woodruff, Misiorowski, Priester, Patrick, Myers, Henderson, and Gasser as internal options and much of the bullpen is under team controll. If they choose to trade Peralta they still have some pretty solid depth
I thought they already tendered Bauers? Or did I not read that right?
You are correct. I didn’t realize it either at the time of my post but saw they avoided arbitration with him already.
Which makes it even more that the Brewers have zero heavy lifting to do this offseason with only supplemental pieces to add
Bauers is already back in the fold. Jefferson Quero is in line to be up with the big club this year, presumably as the backup catcher. They don’t have much if anything to add other than reclamation projects in the pen perhaps.
Brewers need to bring in SS competition for Ortiz and that’s about it. Of course some low-leverage RPs just like all 30 teams will bring in.
Ortiz ops+ was 102 in 511 pa’s in 2024
You are right, but in 2025, as I’m sure you know, the OPS+ was 66 in 506 PAs. And despite his fantastic defense, his bWAR was 0.3. Basically a replacement level player. I didnt say to get rid of him, either (I know you didn’t accuse me of that), but just to bring in someone to make him earn it next year.
I can’t see a scenario where Casas is traded. His value is super low and he’s coming off a serious injury. Perfect situation IMO would be the Sox sign Alonso, Casas comes back healthy and they share 1B/DH. Neither is exactly Keith Hernandez in the field, but having both of their bats in the line-up would offset any defensive shortcomings. I’m pulling for Casas despite his oddness and inconsistency.
The posted players from Japan/Korea have so many question marks when they transition to MLB. It’s hard to commit as a fan so I just kind of hope Boston passes and they become someone else’s risk. We got so excited about Dice K and the Gyroball, then it was like meh…
I honestly don’t see BOS laying out a ton of money for FAs. It’ll likely be either/or Bregman or Alonso as the big spend. Then they’ll fill in w some minor trades/signings and keep the spending somewhat flat with last year, Someone told me they have a few young, controllable OFers to trade to shore up the roster. We’ll see how that goes.
I too like the Alonso / Casas split but I’m hoping that Alonso stays with the Mets. I think Yoshida has been OK and can get better but I agree on the hesitancy. I’m wondering about the bullpen but I think they have a lot of pitching talent coming throught the ranks. Losing the lefty relievers might be a sign that they see Early and maybe Tolle as rotation pitchers if not bullpen contributors.
Agree on the LH relievers. They traded Bernie and Murphy. Matz and Wilson probably won’t be back. That leaves Chapman as the only LH in the pen as of today. I would love to see Tolle start being conditioned for the BP. If he could pair a slider/sweeper with that fastball, he’d be lights out.
I’m bullish on Harrison for some reason. I think if he’s given a chance to get 20-22 starts in a year, he can put up some great numbers. Early will be asked for in just about any big trade so his days could be numbered in Boston.
I haven’t seen Harrison pitch yet but Early and Tolle seem to have good makeup. I think that’s underrated. I don’t mean swagger and overconfidence, I just mean the ability to turn the page on failure and get back out there and compete. The inner game of baseball.
I think they’re going to be fine with those 3 young guys in the mix.
Keep in mind, Thanksgiving is a slow news day in MLB, so take all of this with a grain of salt, unless you had too much salt with the meal.
Need a big bat to protect Anthony otherwise he’s gonna be pitched around all season long. Nothing wrong with leading the league in walks but with a threat behind him, opposing teams aren’t worried about putting him on.
red sox aren’t eying anybody.