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Orioles Close To Hiring Craig Albernaz As Manager

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The Orioles are in the final stages of negotiations with Craig Albernaz about a deal to become the team’s next manager, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.  Moments before Passan’s report, Jon Heyman of the New York Post wrote that Albernaz was the “frontrunner” in the Orioles’ search.

It’s quite an early birthday present for Albernaz, who turns 43 later this week.  Albernaz worked as the Guardians’ associate manager this year after acting as the team’s bench coach in 2024, and four seasons on the Giants’ coaching staff as a bullpen and catching coach.  Prior to his work on big league staffs, Albernaz spent four years in the Rays’ farm system, including managerial stints at the high-A and low-A levels.  Albernaz is a former player, suiting up primarily as a catcher in the Rays’ and Tigers’ farm systems from 2006-14.

Albernaz’s job with the Guardians developed after Cleveland interviewed him about their last managerial vacancy, and Stephen Vogt then hired Albernaz to his own coaching staff.  Albernaz was a finalist for both the White Sox and Marlins in their managerial searches last offseason, and he was linked to the Giants’ vacancy this year and also interviewed with the Nationals.  There hadn’t been any public indication that Albernaz was in the running for Baltimore’s job, but it isn’t surprising that the O’s were eyeing someone who has been such a popular candidate in recent years.

Like previous Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, Albernaz is becoming a full-time MLB manager for the first time, and is coming to the job at a relatively young age (Hyde was 45 when hired in December 2018.)  The circumstances of this hiring for O’s president of baseball operations Mike Elias are much different this time around — Hyde was hired to oversee an Orioles team embarking on a rebuild, while Albernaz will be tasked with getting a contender back on track.

It seemed like Baltimore’s rebuild had paid off when the team had a winning season in 2022, and when the O’s then reached the playoffs in both 2023 and 2024.  However, a bunch of pitching injuries and a near team-wide set of offensive struggles essentially sunk this year’s Orioles right out of the gate, as Hyde was fired in May when the team had a 15-28 record.

Tony Mansolino posted a winning 60-59 record after being promoted from third base coach to interim manager, which made Mansolino a candidate for the full-time position this offseason.  The Orioles were also linked to former Mariners manager Scott Servais, former Mets manager Luis Rojas, and superstar Albert Pujols in their managerial search, plus Cubs bench coach and ex-O’s player Ryan Flaherty was reportedly under consideration.

Albernaz doesn’t have the experience or the name value as the other candidates, yet he’ll become the latest in a long line of skippers with past ties to the Guardians and/or Rays organizations.  Those two teams have made a habit of staying in contention while focusing on player development, which is key for an O’s team that will need several of its young building blocks to rebound from underwhelming 2025 seasons.  How the Orioles will augment their young core with offseason additions is now the next goal for Elias with the managerial search concluded.

This has been a busy offseason for managerial hirings and firings, and we’re still not even halfway through the list of teams looking for new skippers in 2026.  The Orioles join the Angels (Kurt Suzuki), Giants (Tony Vitello), and Rangers (Skip Schumaker) as teams who have hired new managers, while the Nationals, Padres, Twins, Braves, and Rockies remain searching.

Inset photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale — Imagn Images

Tomas Nido, Jose De Leon Elect Free Agency

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Catcher Tomas Nido and right-hander Jose De Leon both recently elected to become free agents, as per the MILB.com transactions log.  The Red Sox outrighted De Leon off their 40-man roster last week, while Nido was outrighted off the Tigers’ 40-man roster back in May and was never added back.  These outrights and the fact that both players have over three years of MLB service time allowed the duo to test the open market.

A veteran of nine Major League seasons, Nido appeared in 10 games with the Tigers after inking a minor league pact last offseason, and hit .343/.361/.343 over 37 plate appearances on the active roster.  Jake Rogers suffered an oblique strain in April that opened the door for Detroit to select Nido’s contract, and the Tigers then designated Nido for assignment and outrighted him once Rogers was healthy.  Nido could’ve declined the outright assignment and become a free agent then, but instead chose to stay at Triple-A Toledo in a depth role, suiting up in 48 games for the Mud Hens and hitting .209/.267/.331 over 189 PA.

Nido is a classic glove-first backstop, with only a .215/.249/.310 slash line to show for his 982 PA in the majors (895 of them with the Mets).  The 31-year-old will surely land another minor league deal this winter with another team looking for experienced catching depth, though it’ll likely require another injury further up the depth chart for Nido to get any significant MLB playing time in 2026.

The Red Sox signed De Leon to a minor league contract last winter, and selected him to the active roster to make a start in Boston’s very last game of the regular season, as the Sox were saving their regular starters for the playoffs.  De Leon tossed a quality start (6 2/3 IP, three ER on eight hits and three walks, with eight strikeouts) to earn his first big league win since the 2019 season, when De Leon was still a member of the Rays.

De Leon was one of baseball’s more highly-touted pitching prospects during his minor league days, but he has amassed only 72 MLB innings over parts of seven seasons since making his debut in the Show in September 2016.  A pair of Tommy John surgeries and several other injuries were roadblocks in De Leon’s career, and the second of those TJ procedures (in June 2023) cost the righty the entire 2024 season.  De Leon has a 7.13 ERA over his 72 innings in the bigs, and some major control problems contributed to his 6.93 ERA in 75 1/3 frames with Triple-A Worcester in 2025.

Yankees Hire Desi Druschel To Coaching Staff

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7:47PM: Either Claiborne or Druschel will be the Yankees’ new bullpen coach, SNY’s Andy Martino reports.

6:53PM: Desi Druschel is returning to the Yankees as an assistant to pitching coach Matt Blake, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports.  He worked in that same capacity during the 2022-24 seasons, and is now back in the Bronx after a one-year sojourn across town as an assistant pitching coach with the Mets.  Druschel wasn’t fired by the Mets, but Passan writes that the team gave him permission to speak with other teams about jobs.

The Mets’ coaching staff has already undergone quite an overhaul in the month since the team’s disappointing season came to an end.  Druschel joins bench coach John Gibbons, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes, infield coach Mike Sarbaugh, and retiring catching instructor Glenn Sherlock as members of the 2025 staff who won’t be returning in 2026.  Two vacancies have already been filled, as the Amazins hired Kai Correa as Carlos Mendoza’s new bench coach, and Jeff Albert is the team’s new director of Major League hitting (with a more traditional hitting coach still to be hired).

Hefner’s departure was the first sign of an overhaul to the pitching department, so it isn’t a shock that Druschel is also on the way out.  The Mets’ rotation and bullpen were the primary reasons for the team’s second-half fade, as between injuries and ineffectiveness, the Amazins had trouble finding enough arms to just cover innings down the stretch, let alone effectively post results.  Forty-six different players took the mound for the 2025 Mets for a team that finished 18th in baseball with a 4.04 team ERA — after the All-Star break, the Mets’ 4.74 team ERA was the sixth-worst in baseball.

It is unfair to lay the blame entirely on the coaching staff, of course, and obviously the Mets’ pitching struggles didn’t prevent Druschel from quickly landing a job back with his old club.  The 50-year-old Druschel had a long collegiate coaching career, including stints as the Iowa baseball program’s director of operations and pitching coach before was hired by the Yankees in 2019 as their minor league manager of pitching development.

Preston Claiborne was hired as Druschel’s replacement in the assistant pitching coach role last winter.  It isn’t known if the Yankees will keep both men as Blake’s assistants, or if Claiborne could potentially be on his way out.  In other Yankees coaching news, first base/infield coach Travis Chapman, bullpen coach Mike Harkey, and assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler are on the way out (though Roessler may return in another job), and former hitting coordinator Jake Hirst will join Druschel as new members of Aaron Boone’s staff.

MLBTR Chat Transcript

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Mark P

  • The Weekend Chat is upon us!  We’ll wait a minute for the questions to start piling up, then get cracking….

Guest

  • Reds trading front of line pitcher this off-season?

Mark P

  • If by “front of the line” you mean Greene, Abbott, or Lodolo, probably not.  Petty and Burns likely aren’t going anywhere either, so Singer might be the most realistic starter Cincinnati would deal to obtain some real hitting help

Angela

  • Want do you see the phillies  doing this off-season

Mark P

  • Well, my outlook on the Phillies offseason could be summed up as….
    https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/10/offseason-outlook-philadelphia-…
  • The TL;DR version is that my guess is that the Phils re-sign Schwarber and Realmuto, Suarez departs, Bohm is non-tendered or traded, and the team brings in a significant everyday outfielder to replace Castellanos (who will probably be released, in lieu of a salary-dump trade)
  • Now, whether or not this “significant everyday outfielder” is more of a stopgap or, say, Kyle Tucker or someone more eye-opening remains to be seen

Guest

  • Does Luis Arraez make more or less than 12 million AAV in free agency?

Mark P

  • Less.  I admit that Arraez is a tricky player to evaluate, but most modern front offices will look at his lack of defensive utility and lack of overall offensive production rather than just his batting averages

Jonny Venters

  • You’re the GM of the Pirates, and Bob Nutting has told you he intends to raise the payroll as high as $210 million in 2026(don’t laugh!).  What moves do you make this offseason to put PIT in contention?

Mark P

  • First I get up off the ground, since that news would’ve caused me to faint.

    Then, heck, sign Tucker, sign Schwarber, go all out on bats.

Dan

  • Who do you believe is the favorite to be the next Braves manager?

Mark P

  • The Braves are purposely keeping news quiet, but Mark Bowman of MLB.com had an interesting report the other day pointing towards Danny Lehmann as a name under increasingly serious consideration.

    Hard to call Lehmann the “favorite,” per se, but given the lack of other names, I guess it’s maybe him by default?  Just as notably, Bowman reported that guys like Ross, DeRosa, and Gibbons weren’t being considered

Read more

Extension Candidate: Pete Crow-Armstrong

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Few players captured more attention throughout the 2025 season than Pete Crow-Armstrong. The young center fielder seemed to launch himself into superstardom in the first half this year, with 20 doubles, 21 homers, and 25 steals through the end of June. That worked out to a .263/.299/.537 slash line, good for a 128 wRC+ with elite defense in center field that made him an early rival for Shohei Ohtani in this year’s MVP race. He followed up that brilliant performance with a far less exciting second half, as he slashed just .228/.274/.412 (86 wRC+) with 17 doubles, ten home runs, and ten steals from July 1 onward.

Crow-Armstrong’s second-half slump was enough to knock him far out of the MVP conversation, but his season-long numbers remain impressive. In 157 games, the 23-year-old hit .247/.287/.481 (109 wRC+) with 35 steals in 43 attempts and an MLB-best +24 Outs Above Average for his work in center field. All of that combined to be worth 6.0 bWAR and 5.4 fWAR, good for 11th and 15th respectively among qualified hitters this year. A five- or six-win season from a 23-year-old who entered the year with less than 150 games of big league experience is hard to view as anything other than an exciting success, and that’s how Jed Hoyer characterized it in his end-of-season press conference shortly after the Cubs’ season came to a close in Game 5 of the NLDS.

“In totality, he had a great year,” Hoyer said of Crow-Armstrong, as relayed by Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Hoyer went on to describe Crow-Armstrong as “the best defensive player in baseball” and noted that “when he’s hitting, he’s a superstar.”

All of that rings true based on his performance this season, and as the Cubs head into an offseason where Hoyer acknowledged they hope to have extension conversations with several players, Mooney writes that locking up the team’s star center fielder “figures to be the top priority.”

It won’t be the first time the Cubs and Crow-Armstrong talk about extending his stay in Chicago beyond his years of team control. The sides discussed an extension towards the beginning of the year, before his standout first half, and Crow-Armstrong passed on a deal that reportedly would’ve maxed out around $75MM with a guarantee in the $60MM-$70MM range. Crow-Armstrong, of course, rejected that offer, and while Hoyer expressed an openness to discussing an extension with the youngster’s camp during the season no further progress on the topic was reported throughout the year. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given the unusual year Crow-Armstrong just had.

If the Cubs do intend to reopen extension talks with their budding star, what could a sensible contract look like? After entering 2025 just barely short of a full year of MLB service time, Crow-Armstrong currently remains under control through the end of the 2030 season. At that point, he figures to be ticketed for free agency ahead of his age-29 campaign. A look at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker offers a wide range of comparable players in recent years. Players like Ke’Bryan Hayes, Lawrence Butler, and Ezequiel Tovar had less than two years of MLB service when they signed their deals, like Crow-Armstrong. They all landed extensions in the $60MM to $70MM range that the Cubs reportedly offered prior to this season, but those deals were blown out of the water by the $134.2MM guarantee Jackson Merrill landed in his eight-year extension with the Padres back in April.

Merrill is a year younger than Crow-Armstrong, meaning he signed his deal at the start of his age-22 season while Crow-Armstrong would be signing ahead of his age-24 season this offseason. Both players had five seasons left under club control before free agency, however, and were coming off similarly elite platform seasons; Merril’s 130 wRC+ outshone Crow-Armstrong, but his lesser defense and baserunning left him with a roughly comparable 5.3 fWAR. They also play the same position, making Merrill’s recent deal a logical point of reference for Crow-Armstrong overall.

It’s the second-highest guarantee an outfielder with less than two seasons of MLB service time has received in MLB history, behind the $210MM guarantee the Mariners offered Julio Rodriguez that can max out at $470MM over 17 years if all incentives are reached and options are exercised. Given that Rodriguez was in the midst of posting a 148 wRC+ with 5.7 fWAR and 6.2 bWAR in just 132 games as a 21-year-old rookie when he signed his extension, it’s safe to expect that a deal for Crow-Armstrong would come in closer to Merrill’s contract.

A contract similar to the one signed by Merrill could make some sense, and an eight-year, $140MM contract would beat Merrill’s contract in terms of both guarantee and average annual value. However, the Cubs may not be interested in such a large guarantee for only three additional seasons of team control, while Crow-Armstrong may not want to head into free agency at the tail end of his physical prime as a player who derives as much value from speed and defense.

Then, perhaps, the sides could get together on a longer contract that would buy out more free agent years. An 11-year deal that runs through the 2036 season would keep Crow-Armstrong in town for the rest of his prime and buy out six free agent years. An 11-year, $187MM guarantee would narrowly eclipse Merrill by both guarantee and AAV, while also narrowly beating out the eight-year, $184MM contract the Cubs gave Jason Heyward during the 2015-16 offseason for the largest deal in franchise history.

It would be a risky investment given Crow-Armstrong’s lackluster plate discipline, which left him with the third-highest swinging-strike rate in the majors this year. Given that risk and the fact that Crow-Armstrong is not set to even reach arbitration until next winter, it would be understandable if the Cubs decided to wait and see how the 2026 season played out before committing that sort of money to their center fielder.

On the other hand, the upside in Crow-Armstrong’s profile is obvious and Chicago’s reluctance to spend at the top of the market on free agents in recent years could mean that waiting another year could put Crow-Armstrong out of Chicago’s price range entirely. Rolling the dice on an extension for Crow-Armstrong could be the team’s best bet of securing a long-term, star-caliber talent. Meanwhile, it would be understandable if Crow-Armstrong was motivated to lock in long-term financial security ahead of a 2026-27 offseason where a contentious round of collective bargaining over the sport’s economic future is widely expected.

Lars Nootbaar May Start 2026 Season On Injured List Following Surgery

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Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar was among the players that St. Louis brass announced underwent surgery earlier this month, as he went under the knife on October 7 to shave down Haglund’s deformities on both heels. At the time, Nootbaar’s timetable for a return to action was unclear, but today president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom revealed to Matt Pauley of KMOX Sports in a radio interview that Opening Day is neither entirely off the table nor entirely guaranteed for Nootbaar following his surgery. Bloom adds that they don’t intend to rush the rehab process in order to get him back on time for the start of the season, but that if he were to miss time to open the season the absence would be limited.

As far as timelines for offseason surgeries go, Nootbaar’s doesn’t seem too worrisome. It would naturally be less than ideal if he were to miss time to open the 2026 campaign but, with the Cardinals headed into a likely rebuilding phase as it is, the handful of games Nootbaar is at risk of missing at the start of the season are unlikely to be the difference in the club’s postseason chances next year. Given that Nootbaar is coming off a career-worst season where he hit just .234/.325/.361 (96 wRC+) following three consecutive seasons where he posted a wRC+ of 114 or higher, a few extra days missed at the start of the season would be well worth it for the Cardinals if it means that Nootbaar puts his best foot forward as he tries to return to the more robust offensive form he had flashed in previous seasons.

The 28-year-old is under team control with St. Louis for two more seasons before he’s slated to reach free agency during the 2027-28 offseason. For a Cardinals team that might not return to contention until Nootbaar is already a free agent, he’s certainly a logical trade candidate. Today’s news about Nootbaar’s uncertain status for Opening Day might make a trade slightly less likely to come together, but the impact on his market is likely at least relatively negligible.

After all, clubs already knew Nootbaar would be rehabbing from surgery this offseason and his dip in performance last year might have made the Cardinals hesitant to deal him before giving him the opportunity to rebound and improve his stock following his recent surgery. St. Louis has little incentive to risk selling low on Nootbaar given that he could theoretically be dealt at the 2026 trade deadline and still be available to an interested club for two pennant races and eligible for a Qualifying Offer following the 2027 season, should the QO still exist after the next round of collective bargaining negotiations next winter.

Looking at the Cardinals’ current depth chart, the possibility of losing Nootbaar for a few games to open the year shouldn’t be too much of a problem if the rest of the team’s positional corps remains healthy. Jordan Walker, Victor Scott II, Alec Burleson, and Brendan Donovan could all see time in the outfield next year, to say nothing of potential depth options like Nathan Church and Michael Siani behind that primary group. Donovan is generally viewed as more likely to spend time on the infield next year, especially if the club manages to trade Nolan Arenado this winter, but Nolan Gorman and Thomas Saggese should be able to fill in for Donovan when he plays the outfield.

What Can The Reds Expect From Matt McLain In 2026?

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It was a good season for the Reds in 2025, on balance. Hunter Greene replicated his excellent 2024 and cemented himself as one of the game’s top young starters, Andrew Abbott enjoyed a career-year that saw him make his first trip to the All-Star game, and despite winning just 83 games the club managed to squeak into the postseason for the first time in a full season since 2013.

With all that being said, however, there are clear flaws with the team as presently constructed and it’s not at all hard to see where the team needs to improve if they hope to return to the playoffs next year for another bite at the apple. The Cincinnati offense disappointed across the board this season, with even star shortstop Elly De La Cruz hitting 11 fewer extra-base hits and swiping 30 fewer bases than last year despite similar on-base numbers.

In a season where virtually every piece of the club’s offensive nucleus fell short of expectations, it seems a bit unfair to single out any one player. Even so, the struggles second baseman Matt McLain faced stand out among the crowd. McLain was one of the most exciting young players in baseball as recently as 2023, when his sensational 89-game rookie season earned him a fifth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting that year. Unfortunately, he missed the entire 2024 season due to injuries and in some regards looked like a shell of his former self this season.

That’s not to say he regressed across the board. McLain’s 28.9% strikeout rate this season was a near perfect match for the 28.5% clip he struck out at back in 2023. His 9.5% walk rate was actually a substantial improvement over the 7.7% rate he posted in his rookie campaign. His defense was also phenomenal as he finished the year with +6 Fielding Run Value, a figure bested by just eight qualified middle infielders in baseball this year. That’s a substantial step up from the +1 FRV McLain offered in his rookie campaign.

Those are all positive (or, in the case of McLain’s strikeout rate, at least neutral) signs relative to 2023. It’s also where the good times come to an end, however. McLain’s power was down substantially by just about every metric this past year. After slugging 16 homers in 89 games as a rookie, he hit 15 across 147 games this year. His doubles also dropped from 23 to 18, while his triples actually dropped from four all the way down to zero. Hitting ten fewer extra-base hits in 174 more plate appearances is a drop in power output that’s nothing short of alarming, and McLain’s paltry .124 ISO put him in the bottom 20 among qualified hitters this year. His barrel rate dropped more than three points from 2023, and his hard-hit rate has dropped nearly two.

That falls short of even some notoriously contact-oriented hitters like Jung Hoo Lee and Jacob Wilson. While those players (not to mention hitters with even less power like Luis Arraez and Nico Hoerner) get away with that minimal power output thanks to elite bat-to-ball skills, but McLain’s lack of improvement in the strikeout department leaves him unable to emulate that brand of hitting. Barring a massive drop in strikeout rate next year, McLain will need to recapture some of that power if he’s going to improve over this year’s paltry 77 wRC+, much less approach the 129 wRC+ he posted in his rookie season.

Just how feasible is that? It’s hard to believe that he’ll get back to that level he flashed in 2023 entirely, because that was buoyed in no small part by a .385 BABIP. A BABIP of .350 is typically viewed as around the upper limit of the sustainable year-to-year range, and McLain’s .292 BABIP this year falls firmly into that more sustainable range. It’s possible it ticks back up in the future, but reversing that more than 90-point drop appears to be little more than a pipe dream. Getting back above league average, however, seems to be a far more reasonable ask, and one that could turn McLain into a key piece of Cincinnati’s core once again.

He’ll need to adjust his approach a bit if he’s going to get there. McLain’s hard-hit rate was only marginally lower than his rookie season in 2025, but he lost more than a quarter of his barrels on a rate basis this season. Some of that can surely be attributed to a stark drop in line drives. While McLain’s grounder rate stayed stagnant at 38.7% between this year and 2023, his line drive rate dropped from a 24.2% clip as a rookie to just 17.2% this year. To put those numbers in context, his line drive rate this year ranked 132nd among 145 qualified hitters, while his 2023 rate would’ve ranked eighth this year among that same group.

Getting back to a more line drive oriented approach could help McLain both recoup some of those lost extra-base hits, and it would also help with his steeply declining BABIP. McLain hit 44.2% of his batted balls in the air this year, a top-30 clip in the majors. That works well for hitters like Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber who have the power to slug 40+ homers on an annual basis, but it’s a much less effective recipe for success for someone with McLain’s profile. He pulled the ball less often than all but 23 of the league’s qualified hitters this year, leaving him with a lot of fly outs and pop ups but little production to show for it.

If McLain can lower his launch angle a bit next year, he could get back to hitting the sweet spot more often than he did this year. That was the secret ingredient that made McLain so effective in 2023, as his 39.6% sweet spot rate ranked in the 94th percentile among all MLB hitters. That dropped to just 34.0% this year, which placed him in the 43rd percentile. The good news for McLain and the Reds is that a change in approach is far easier to correct than a step back in underlying skills, and McLain’s discipline, defense, speed and bat speed all seem to be either right where they were in his rookie year or even better. That makes it relatively easy to imagine him re-emerging as a core piece of a Reds lineup that will need to generate a lot more offense this year if they want to build on their cameo in the playoffs this season.

East Notes: Bichette, Rays, Scott

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With Bo Bichette back on the roster as the Blue Jays challenge the Dodgers in the World Series, it didn’t take long for him to be asked about his impending free agency. As noted by Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, Bichette generally dismissed the question as something he doesn’t have the time to think about amid a World Series run, though he did acknowledge that his “goal” is to remain with the Blue Jays for the rest of his career.

That’s not exactly new information, as Bichette has long indicated a desire to spend his whole career in a Blue Jays uniform. Bichette has previously spoken of his desire to only play for one team throughout his whole career, and the ability to do so alongside longtime teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after Guerrero landed his own extension earlier this year surely makes the idea of sticking around in Toronto all the more appealing. With that said, there had been no extension talks between Bichette and club brass as recently as April.

Perhaps some discussions have taken place in the intervening months, of course, but with free agency just days away it seems all but certain that Bichette will hit the open market without signing an extension. That doesn’t mean he can’t be re-signed, of course, but the Blue Jays won’t be the only suitor for his services once he’s available to all 30 clubs and it’s unclear if Toronto is willing to add another major contract to the books after signing Guerrero to an extension worth half a billion dollars.

More from MLB’s East divisions…

  • The Rays may now be operating under new ownership, but they’re still facing plenty of stadium uncertainty in the wake of the club’s recent failed stadium deal and the damage done to Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton last year. While it would be impossible to expect a meaningful update on a long-term stadium solution just one month into Patrick Zalupski’s tenure as control person, commissioner Rob Manfred did tell reporters (as relayed by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) prior to Game 2 of the World Series yesterday that the league is “hopeful” that the Trop will be ready for Tampa’s opening homestand, scheduled to begin on April 6. While Manfred seemingly left the door open to the possibility that the stadium won’t be ready for those games, he said that “it certainly is going to be ready very early in the year.” That’s good news for the Rays, seeing as they were forced to play their home games in a minor league ballpark this year as a result of the damage to the Trop.
  • Turning towards the National League, Will Sammon of The Athletic writes that Mets youngster Christian Scott is nearing the end of his rehab program as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery. Scott, 26, made his big league debut last year with a 4.56 ERA in nine starts but hasn’t pitched in an official game at any level since. He entered 2024 as a fringe top-100 prospect, however, and Sammon suggests that the right-hander could be another young arm in the mix for a rotation work with the Mets next year alongside players like Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat. With that said, a crowded group of rotation options that is likely to get at least one major addition this winter might make it hard for the righty to find consistent starts without a rash of injuries creating an opportunity.

Dombrowski: “Bryce Harper’s Not Getting Traded”

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3:15pm: Harper spoke to Matt Gelb of The Athletic about his feelings on the situation, with Gelb describing Harper as “confused and upset.”

“I have given my all to Philly from the start,” Harper told Gelb. “Now there is trade talk? I made every effort to avoid this. It’s all I heard in D.C. (with the Nationals). I hated it. It makes me feel uncomfortable.”

Harper went on to note he’s not heard from either Dombrowski or Phillies managing partner John Middleton since the end of the season and described Dombrowski’s comments as “disappointing.” In his comments to Gelb, Harper highlighted his decision to not negotiate an opt-out clause into his contract because of his desire to show a commitment to the city of Philadelphia.

That certainly makes it sound as though Harper has no intention of waiving his no-trade clause even amid the current rumors, and he expressed frustration about trade talk coming up at all given the “total commitment” he’s shown to the team by moving to first base and coming back ahead of schedule from injuries.

9:33am: In his season wrap-up press conference with the media (including MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki) last week, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski described Bryce Harper’s 2025 campaign as something less than “an elite season like he has had in the past,” and expressed some vague uncertainty over whether or not Harper would be able to once again be an MVP-caliber star.  While not really a criticism of Harper, Dombrowski’s comments created a bit of a stir, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post heard that Harper was “pissed off,” in the words of “people connected to the Phillies.”

Dombrowski has now spent the last two days downplaying any notion that the club is unhappy with Harper, or that the two-time NL MVP could possibly be nearing the end of his time in Philadelphia.  The executive told the New York Post by phone that, simply, “Bryce Harper’s not getting traded.  He’s a great player.  He’s a future Hall of Famer.  He’s a cornerstone of our franchise, and we look to have him be with us a long, long time.”

Dombrowski said that he had yet to speak to Harper since the press conference but probably would in order to further clarify things, again noting that he didn’t view his comments as an insult.  Turning back to Dombrowski’s initial remarks from the press conference, the PBO said that going forward with Harper, “I guess we only find out if he becomes elite or he continues to be good.  If you look around the league, I think…Freddie Freeman: He’s a really good player, right?  He still is a good player.  Is he elite like he was before?  Probably not to the same extent.  Freddie is a tremendous player, and that, to me, is Bryce.  Can he rise to the next level again?  I don’t really know that answer.  He’s the one that will dictate that more than anything else. 

“I don’t think he’s content with the year that he had.  And again, it wasn’t a bad year.  But when you think of Bryce Harper, you think of elite, right?  You think of one of the top 10 players in baseball, and I don’t think it fit into that category.  But again, a very good player.  I’ve seen guys at his age — again, he’s not old — that level off.  Or I’ve seen guys rise again.”

Over 580 plate appearances in 2025, Harper hit .261/.357/.487 with 27 home runs.  This production translated to a 131 wRC+, which is the fifth-lowest of Harper’s 14-year Major League career.  Of course, the fact that a 131 wRC+ counts as a down year for Harper is a testament to his high standard of play, and only 24 qualified batters in all of baseball topped the 131 wRC+ mark this season.  From an fWAR perspective, Harper’s 3.5 total was tied for 45th amongst all qualified batters.

In an interview on the Foul Territory show on Thursday, Dombrowski said he viewed his statement about Harper’s season as “a compliment,” given how a 3.5 fWAR/131 wRC+ campaign would be a career highlight for many players.

“The reality is there are eight to 10 players in the game of baseball every year, when they’re not let’s say in the MVP consideration for whatever reason — sometimes it can be an injury factor, sometimes they just have a bad year — but whatever, it’s not an elite year for them….Now I’ve been reading that, ’Oh, the Phillies may trade Bryce Harper.’  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  We love him.  We think he’s a great player.  He’s a very important part of our team. I’ve seen him have better years.  I look for him to have better years.”

Harper just turned 33 last week, and Dombrowski acknowledged that there are natural concerns to be had about any player when he gets deeper into his 30’s.  Yet, these aging concerns were already baked into the fact that the Phillies signed Harper to a 13-year, $330MM contract.  As Dombrowski said on Foul Territory, in terms of gauging how players will continue to perform into their 30’s, “I’d take my chances with Bryce more than most, because Bryce is an elite talent.  He’s a very very talented individual and he’s driven.”

Harper has already battled plenty of injuries during his career, including a bout of wrist inflammation that sidelined him for most of June.  Dombrowski told the Post that Harper’s wrist problems were a factor in his 2025 season, though the PBO didn’t mention the injury during the press conference.

Speaking with Zolecki earlier this week, Harper’s agent Scott Boras said he “was surprised” that Dombrowski didn’t initially acknowledge the wrist issue, but otherwise had no problems with the executive’s comments.  What Boras is hoping to see is more lineup protection for Harper in 2026, as the agent noted that Harper saw pitches in the zone only 43 percent of the time this season.  Harper primarily hit third in Philadelphia’s lineup, with Trea Turner usually hitting leadoff and slugger Kyle Schwarber as the primary No. 2 hitter.  The bulk of the Phillies’ cleanup at-bats went to Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto, who each had below-average years at the plate (Castellanos a 90 wRC+, Realmuto 94 wRC+).

Dombrowski perhaps put it best when he said that “this thing has got a life of its own,” in terms of how his press conference comments have become a talking point.  Dombrowski didn’t say anything untrue about Harper’s season, and it is also natural for a competitor like Harper to take umbrage at any idea that he is no longer one of baseball’s top players.

Harper is now past the halfway point of his 13-year megadeal, and is still owed $144MM over the final six seasons of the contract.  It was just shy of two years ago that Harper and Boras raised the idea of a contract extension, though there seemingly hasn’t been any movement on that front, which is understandable since the Phillies likely felt no urgency or need to extend a player who was already locked up through his age-38 season.

In terms of trade possibilities, Harper has a full no-trade clause, and might well revisit a contract extension as a condition for accepting a deal.  However, while Dombrowski has swung his share of blockbuster trades in the past, there is no reason to suspect Harper is a trade candidate this winter or in the foreseeable future.  The Phillies are clearly in win-now mode, and Harper’s importance to the lineup becomes even greater if Schwarber and/or Realmuto left in free agency this winter.

John Morris Passes Away

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Former big league pitcher John Morris passed away last week at the age of 84, according to an obituary posted to the Cape Gazette in Morris’s hometown of Lewes, Delaware.

A veteran of eight MLB seasons, Morris is perhaps best known as a member of the Seattle Pilots during the club’s lone 1969 season. Morris signed into the Phillies organization for his age-18 season in 1960 but spent the first several years of his career in the minors before making his big league debut with Philadelphia in 1966. He threw just 13 2/3 innings of work in that brief cameo in the majors before returning to Triple-A for the 1967 season, where he dominated with a 1.54 ERA across 33 relief appearances.

He was traded to the Orioles ahead of the 1968 season and briefly returned to the majors in 1968 with Baltimore but once again was sent back to Triple-A for much of the 1969 campaign, though he did make it to Seattle and pitch 12 2/3 innings for the Pilots. When the Pilots franchise moved to Milwaukee the following year, Morris remained with the club and became a regular fixture of the Brewers’ bullpen for the 1970 and ’71 seasons. In 1970, Morris served as a swing man and pitched to a 3.93 ERA across 20 games, including nine starts.

The highlight of Morris’s career came on May 13 and May 19, 1970 as he threw complete games in back-to-back starts. Morris surrendered four runs on ten hits and three walks while striking out 11 batters across those two complete games, both of which ended in wins for the Brewers. Morris’s May 19 start against the Oakland A’s saw him out-duel All-Star and future Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter on the mound as Milwaukee won 6-3. Morris’s solid season a swing man earned him a full-time look in the Milwaukee bullpen for the 1971 campaign, and he posted a 3.72 ERA in 67 2/3 innings of work across 43 appearances for the team.

Morris was traded to the Giants following the 1971 season and was mostly relegated to work at the team’s Triple-A affiliate once again. He pitched for San Francisco in parts of three seasons and ended his career on a high note with a 3.05 ERA in 17 appearances for the 1974 Giants in his age-32 season. In all, Morris appeared in 132 games for the Phillies, Orioles, Pilots, Brewers, and Giants across his eight seasons in the majors. He pitched to a 3.95 ERA, struck out 137 batters, finished his career with a lifetime 11-7 record and picked up two saves along the way.

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Morris’s family, friends, and loved ones.

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