This week's Front Office mailbag gets into the Dodgers adding a top free agent, Boston's offer to Alex Bregman as well as the Triston Casas situation, which bats the Reds could add, what's next for the Marlins and Mets, and much more.
William asks:
Any substance to the rumor that Bichette is signing with the Dodgers? How would that affect their tax? And who might they trade away?
Ron asks:
The Dodgers seem set for 2026 and beyond. They have young starting pitchers coming along and younger outfielders on the way. Left field and third base are the positions that might need tweaking this year or next. Could they grab the 2 best F.A.'s still available?
On January 1st, Jon Heyman of the New York Post wrote that the Dodgers (and Yankees and Cubs) "checked on" Bichette. That's all Heyman gave us in that article - no further context. Two days later in a tweet, Heyman added the Phillies to the list of teams that "have interest," beyond the well-known Blue Jays and Red Sox.
With all due respect to Heyman, that Dodgers-Bichette connection is pretty thin. It'd almost be irresponsible for a big market team not to "check on" a quality player like Bichette as his free agency drags into the new year, especially a club with room for improvement in the infield. We have no idea if anything more than due diligence has occurred between Bichette's camp and some of these clubs.
I hope we get better info, but GMs cannot shoot down free agent interest publicly, so if some of this is overstated we might not learn until after Bichette signs.
In late November, MLBTR's Anthony Franco included the Dodgers as a "plausible/on-paper dark horse" for Bichette, writing:
"There hasn’t been much in the way of Dodgers/Bichette smoke so far. This would feel a bit like overkill, but the Dodgers don’t have anyone locked in at second base. Their farm system is loaded with outfield talent but not as strong in the middle infield aside from Alex Freeland. Locking Bichette in at second would require them to play Tommy Edman mostly in center field coming off ankle surgery."
On Monday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote, "Dodgers people like to say that Andrew Friedman’s preferred method of operation is 'hanging around the backboard.' If a player’s price in trade or free agency drops, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations will attempt to grab him on the rebound and dunk on the industry yet again."
Friedman has had the Dodgers' top front office job for more than 11 years now, so we should have evidence of him "hanging around the backboard" and snatching up some top free agents whose market disappointed. Below is what I found, which should help us determine whether the Dodgers might swoop in on Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette:
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Good chat — one note is that the Joe Mack link goes to a guy of the same name born in 1912. Just FYI.
Thanks, fixed it.
Who the Reds SHOULD add and who they will add, if any, is wildly different.
The Reds will sign a couple of guys to minor league deals in a few weeks. And then finally sign someone with like 3 weeks left to camp and pay them more than they should warrant as a remaining FA that close to the opener.
Not sure about that last part but pretty much described where it is going.
Why does everyone keep saying Yoshida blocks Casas or Duran from being DH? Yoshida isn’t very good, it would suck to pay the guy 15 mil to sit at home and eat Lunchables but I’d rather pay him 15 mil to do that and have Casas be my DH than lose Casas’ potential and have Yoshida playing for me.
In his last 20 games of 2025, Yoshida had an OPS of .837, struck out 5 times and hit into 1 doubleplay. If he is 100%, he can hit and he’s a good bat to have in any lineup.
Can you trade Yoshida back to Japan? let’s say they take half or 2/3 of the money? Is it viable?
You make a good point. I don’t know how the Red Sox will use the DH spot if Yoshida, Casas, and the current OFs stay on the roster and everyone’s healthy and looking good in the spring. I don’t think all those things will be the case though so it’s probably moot.
Casas 💯DH
Rick – I agree with you he’s a poor fielder, but he’s not even turned 26 yet …. way too young to make him the fulltime DH.
If they were to do so, they would be devaluing him at a young age and therefore greatly hurting his trade value.
I think they will Yoshida him for a while to start the season, have him playing first base in AAA …. unless they trade him before then.
I understand the deferrals and why the present-day value of Ohtani’s contract is more in the $46-million-a year range, or $460 million total, Yet you guys are clouding the issue when you had Ohtani listed at the top of the most expensive deals at $700MM, ahead of Soto. MLBTR needs to be consistent. If not, it’s understandable why fans are confused.
nicely stated LD. Lazy (some might even say “passive aggressive”) reporting contributed mightily to the original (and unfortunately still ongoing) confusion on the deferral calculation and CBT hit. By no means was this site alone in being sloppy.
Ohtani’s representative also self-servingly contributed to the public’s misunderstanding.
I do appreciate Tim taking the time to again set the record straight.
I don’t think MLBTR pushed $700MM as the real number. We have both present-value calculations for Ohtani in our largest contracts post:
mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/mlb-largest-contracts-2…
But upon review we do need to add a present-value on Devers.
Collier is going to be a better LHhtting 1st/dh than Casas by mid 2027.
Neither one will likely be competent then.
I count Yates last season as a Dodgers opportunistic signing of a player who lingered on the market until late. Of course, in that case the market was right and the Dodgers were not.
It’s incredible how much knowledge Heyman knows about Boras clients… other reporters don’t seem to have any. and he doesn’t do much on other agents’ players.
Yeah, Bichette would be a clear upgrade at 2B. But the question if they acquire Bichette is where are Edman, Kim and Rojas going to get the bulk of their playing time, even if from a bench position. All three players are best at 2B. Edman could be plugged in as starting CF, but not ideal for many reasons including a below average bat. OF is a much more clear need, whether they acquire a CF and move Teo Hernandez to LF and Pages to RF or acquire a RF, and move Teo Hernandez to LF.
I guess my thought on that is, why does it matter?
It would matter in that you want to maximize personnel productivity. Adding a fourth 2B versus lacking a starting OF and having to throw Edman instead. Adding Bichette is an upgrade but acquiring an OF is the higher priority. Not mutually exclusive though.
I get the “ankle surgery” comment in the article but Edman is 100% a viable solid defensive CF, he’s played there plenty, better at 2B for sure, but he’s not exactly playing out of position is my point, I agree another OF bat would be ideal but unless you go huge with Tucker or make a trade for a Kwan or something, I’d rather take Bichette and improve the aging offensive lineup then roll the dice with another Conforto type fill in and deal with the OF issue as it comes because its going to be an issue no matter what they do…Teo needs to be a DH but he can’t be a DH
The Dodgers could check in with the Reds on McLain (deeply tied to SoCal). Perhaps an OF prospect outside the top 10…
As for the Reds, their Net Profit ranks high among MLB teams (Forbes). Trading an SP for a younger OF would help immensely. And I say “young” because it seems the Reds are not willing to take on an established salary. How they missed the boat on a Cassie type trade is a bit puzzling.
All the evidence seems to be pointing towards a staggeringly incompetent GM/POBO who does not seem to have a feel or any intuition for the game. The dude has made some truly astonishing decisions over the last half dozen seasons. He makes me continually SMFH.
Bob Castellini is the owner of the Reds. There’s your answer.
How many Tiger fans believe signing Bregman last year would have put them over the top?
It was really the inundation/adulation of the press that turned me off to the guy, like it was their sworn duty to get the guy an overpay.
Would he have made the difference?
Steinbrenner nailed it by blaming Castellini. Krall has had a few swing and misses in signings but name a GM that hasn’t. He’s done a great job getting us to the point of contention. If Castellini doesn’t come off more cash to fill our last and biggest need of a power bat then his legacy will be one of the most failed owner this storied franchise has ever seen.
Though the Padres are a small media market, they are not in a small market, and I think those two realities get confused.
2026 season tickets sold out last week and it’s likely they are again 2nd in MLB attendance this upcoming year. Padre fans are sending a nice message to prospective new ownership.