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Right-hander Kyle Finnegan was quick to say after the season that he enjoyed his time in Detroit after coming over in a deadline deal with the Nationals and that he’d be open to a return. Tigers GM Jeff Greenberg tells Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press that the interest is mutual, citing Finnegan’s open-mindedness to the adjustments the Tigers suggested as well as his strong results and his “impact” in the clubhouse.
A year ago at this time, Finnegan was coming off a brutal finish to his 2024 season and was actually non-tendered by the Nats. Petzold reports that the Tigers had interest in him last offseason, but Finnegan opted to return to Washington on a lesser guarantee ($6MM) than his projected arbitration price — particularly when factoring in some deferred money. Finnegan bounced back with a solid first four months in D.C., but it was the trade to the Tigers that really seemed to elevate his status. New coaching and a much heavier slate of data tailored to his strengths and weaknesses coaxed a new level of performance out of Finnegan. He’s always thrown hard but never missed bats like one might expect from someone sitting 97 mph with his heater.
The Tigers had Finnegan throw his splitter at career-high rates and slightly raised the horizontal release point on both his four-seamer and splitter. He rattled off 18 innings with a 1.50 ERA, 34.8% strikeout rate and 6.1% walk rate. Finnegan didn’t miss many bats in the postseason but was clearly one of A.J. Hinch’s most trusted relievers both in the regular season and in the playoffs.
Detroit’s bullpen is in dire need of upgrades. Will Vest, Tyler Holton, Brant Hurter and Brenan Hanifee all posted quality earned run averages, but Holton and Hanifee both logged well below-average strikeout rates. Neither Hanifee nor Hurter was used regularly in high-leverage spots. Meanwhile, veteran relievers Rafael Montero, Tommy Kahnle and Paul Sewald all hit free agency alongside Finnegan.
The Tigers have been linked to both Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley thus far in the offseason, though their interest in Helsley was reportedly as a starting pitcher and he’s since signed on as the Orioles’ new closer. President of baseball operations Scott Harris has spoken openly about a desire to improve the lineup’s contact rate, but Greenberg has publicly stated that pitching is the top priority early in the offseason. The Tigers are looking around the rotation market even after Jack Flaherty exercised his 2026 player option to return, and the GM has been frank in stating that he and Harris “certainly” need to add some quality relief arms.
The Astros don’t have a ton of breathing room between their current payroll figures and the first tier of the luxury tax threshold — a line owner Jim Crane is once again reportedly loath to cross. With a prominent need in the rotation, they’ve been exploring both the free agent and trade markets. One scenario in play, per Ken Rosenthal and Chandler Rome of The Athletic, is to trade center fielder Jake Meyers for pitching help. Meyers is drawing plenty trade interest, per the report, and Houston brass is open to moving him if it’d mean adding a starter with multiple years of club control remaining.
The 29-year-old Meyers (30 next June) isn’t necessarily a household name, but the defensive standout is coming off a strong all-around season. In 381 trips to the plate, Meyers hit .292/.354/.373 with a career-best 8.1% walk rate and career-low 17.6% strikeout rate. He hit three home runs, 15 doubles and two triples and added 16 steals in 21 attempts.
Meyers’ power output in 2025 was a career-low, but he didn’t experience an especially alarming dip in his quality of contact. He averaged 88.1 mph off the bat, which is south of the league average but right in line with the 88.2 mph he averaged in 2024, when he hit a career-high 13 homers in 513 plate appearances. His 38.9% hard-hit rate was actually higher than the 37% mark he posted in ’24. Meyers hit more line drives and grounders in 2025, however. His 28.4% fly-ball rate was his lowest since 2022, and his percentage of fly-balls that left the yard — just 3.8% — was a career-low mark. A .353 average on balls in play boosted his production but also feels ripe for regression.
Even if there’s some regression in store, though, Meyers is a potentially impactful player when considering the totality of his skill set. He’s never posted a below-average (or even average) season in center in the eyes of Statcast, Defensive Runs Saved or Ultimate Zone Rating. In nearly 3500 career innings in center, Meyers has posted 22 DRS and 41 Outs Above Average.
Meyers has had elite sprint speed in the past, sitting as high as the 92nd percentile of big league position players as recently as 2023. His sprint speed wilted in a 2025 season that saw him endure a pair of IL stints due to calf injuries, though it still sat well above average (71st percentile). It’s feasible that with better health in his legs, his speed and defensive grades could trend upward. Notably, he’d already swiped 14 bags by the end of June but stole only twice more the rest of the way; his first IL placement due to a calf strain came in early July.
It seems fair to infer that Meyers wasn’t operating at full speed at any point down the stretch. He was out from early July through early September and hit just .204/.271/.204 in 59 plate appearances following his return from the IL. He was sporting a .308/.369/.405 batting line (buoyed by a .374 BABIP) at the time of his injury.
Meyers is controllable for another two seasons via arbitration. He’s also quite affordable, projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn just $3.5MM in 2026. His availability comes at a time when the center field market is otherwise paper-thin. Trent Grisham accepted his qualifying offer from the Yankees. Cody Bellinger is a free agent but is more of a corner outfielder/first baseman and occasional center fielder than an everyday option in center. Harrison Bader is a free agent but has an inconsistent track record at the plate. Free agents Cedric Mullins and Lane Thomas are pure rebound candidates. The trade market offers names like Alek Thomas and Jarren Duran, but the former has never hit in the majors and the latter played primarily left field in 2025. Duran would also have a steeper acquisition cost than Meyers.
Of course, trading Meyers would create a center field void for the Astros themselves. They got some nice production out of 25-year-old Zach Cole in his 15-game debut late in the season, but it’s worth taking with a heavy grain of salt. Cole hit .255/.327/.553 with four homers in just 52 plate appearances, but he also fanned at a 38.5% clip. If that alarming strikeout rate were unique to his big league tenure, perhaps it could be chalked up to simple small-sample noise — but that’s not the case. Cole went down on strikes in a colossal 35.1% of his 416 minor league plate appearances in 2025 as well. He punched out in more than 38% of his Double-A plate appearances in 2024, too.
Impressive as Cole’s brief debut was, he’s not going to be able to cut it as a big league regular with such a glaringly deficient hit tool. Former top prospect Jacob Melton gives the ’Stros another potential option, but he was limited to just 67 games between Triple-A and the majors thanks to injuries this past season. He hit very well in 150 Triple-A plate appearances (.286/.389/.556) and quite poorly in 78 major league turns at the plate (.157/.234/.186, 37.7 K%). Taylor Trammell, an older and more traveled former top prospect, didn’t fare much better in 135 plate appearances (.197/.296/.333).
The Astros gave 2023 first-round pick Brice Matthews nine games in center field at the Triple-A level last season. He’s traditionally been a middle infielder, but with Carlos Correa joining an infield mix that also includes Jeremy Pena, Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve, there’s no room in the middle infield. Matthews hit .260/.371/.458 (118 wRC+) in 498 Triple-A plate appearances last year but just .167/.222/.452 with a 42.6% strikeout rate in 47 MLB plate appearances.
If the Astros feel confident that some combination of Matthews, Melton and Cole can hold down the fort in center field next season, then trading Meyers becomes easier to stomach. However, it’s also fair to wonder what type of arm Houston could acquire in return for Meyers. He certainly has trade value, but two years of a slick-fielding, light-hitting center fielder isn’t likely to net a pitcher who can fill the shoes of the outgoing Framber Valdez. The Astros could likely bring in a back-of-the-rotation arm or perhaps some kind of rebound/upside play with multiple seasons of club control, but even if they deepen the rotation by way of a Meyers trade, they’ll be counting on Cristian Javier and/or Lance McCullers Jr. to return to their pre-injury form after shaky 2025 comebacks.
4,604 people entered the MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest this year. To date, eight of MLBTR’s top 50 free agents have signed, including four who accepted a qualifying offer.
MLBTR’s readership is off to a great start, particularly with those QO players. So far, three contestants have predicted seven of eight correctly, and many people have five or six correct. Click here to check out the contest leaderboard, which will be updated as more top 50 free agents sign.
You can search for a contestant name in the leaderboard, and clicking on a name shows you that person’s picks. There’s also a “view all” link next to “staff entry,” which allows you to see picks by the MLBTR writing staff. The contest closed on November 13th at 11pm central.
This leaderboard is accessible under the Tools menu for those on the desktop version of the website, and under the flame icon in the upper left for mobile web users.
To see the most popular choices for each player, click here.
As the calendar flips to December here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world:
1. Imai heading stateside:
Right-hander Tatsuya Imai is coming over from Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB this winter, and in doing so he’s made himself one of the top free agent starters available. The righty will be just 28 years old next season and is coming off a banner year in Japan, where he pitched to a 1.92 ERA across 163 2/3 innings of work. His combination of youth and a high-octane fastball should make him enticing to the majority of clubs hunting for rotation help this winter, and (as reported by Francys Romero of BeisbolFR) Imai is expected to come to the United States in the first few days of December to meet with MLB teams. An early-December deal can’t be entirely ruled out, though many NPB players wait until closer to the end of their posting window to make a decision; Imai’s posting window began on Nov. 19 and runs through Jan. 2.
2. What’s next for the Orioles after their first splash?
The Orioles will be without Felix Bautista next year, and as a result entered the offseason with a hole at the back of their bullpen. Baltimore wasted little time filling that vacancy, inking right-hander Ryan Helsley to a two-year, $28MM deal that gives Helsley an opt-out opportunity after the 2026 season. Helsley will slide into the closer role with his new club, joining righty Andrew Kittredge and lefty Keegan Akin as late-inning options. Helsley and outfielder Taylor Ward are both notable additions to the Orioles’ roster, but their biggest need remains unaddressed. The club floundered last year without Corbin Burnes leading the rotation, and at least one front-end arm to pair with Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers seems necessary if the O’s hope to get back into contention in 2026.
3. Red Sox facing a tight budget?
The Red Sox have been connected to a lot of free agency’s top bats after strengthening the rotation with their Sonny Gray acquisition. Reports have indicated that the club is not only in on the likes of Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso, and Alex Bregman but also interested in signing multiple well-regarded free agent bats. Despite all of that buzz, however, financial realities could make that difficult. Reporting over the weekend suggests that the team might not be willing to spend much farther than the first luxury tax threshold this winter, which would leave them with a roughly similar payroll to 2025. Barring a change of heart from ownership, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow will either need to use the trade market to add some lower-cost bats and/or shed some salary via trade. Boston is currently about $21MM shy of the first tax threshold, per RosterResource.
The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced the signing of right-hander Matt Manning to a one-year, $1MM contract. Manning was outrighted off the Phillies roster in September, and he elected minor league free agency earlier this month.
Manning was once one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, and he was a fixture of top-100 prospect rankings in the years following his selection as the ninth overall pick of the 2016 draft. He posted solid numbers on his way up the Tigers’ minor league ladder until his MLB debut in June 2021, but the strikeout ability Manning displayed in the minors didn’t translate to his work in the Show. Over 254 innings and 50 starts with Detroit from 2021-24, Manning posted a 4.43 ERA, 7.8% walk rate, and only a 16.4% strikeout rate.
Some injuries hampered Manning during this time, but the Tigers eventually decided to move on entirely from the right-hander. Manning spent the entire 2025 season in the minors, first with Triple-A Toledo and then with the Phillies’ Double-A affiliate in Reading after the Tigers designated Manning for assignment and traded him to Philadelphia just before the trade deadline.
Manning turns 28 in January, so between his relative youth and his past pedigree as a top prospect, it is a little surprising that he didn’t draw interest from any MLB teams on a minor league contract. The fact that Manning inked his deal with the Lions relatively early in the offseason, however, perhaps suggests that he wasn’t interested in waiting perhaps several more weeks to land a non-guaranteed deal, and then going through the grind of another season in the minor leagues. Manning is also now out of minor league options, so even if he did make a big league roster, he might’ve been facing more DFAs and outrights, plus potential moves to other teams on waiver claims or trades.
Rather than ride this carousel, Manning will get a $1MM payday from the Lions. The KBO League is generally a hitter-friendly league, yet the lesser level of competition might help Manning get his career on track. There have been several instances of pitchers who have used stints in the KBO to rework their pitching repertoire, post some strong numbers, and get back onto the radar of big league teams, so chances are we haven’t seen the last of Manning in a Major League organization.
The Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball announced the signing of left-hander Jose Castillo. The Mets chose to non-tender Castillo earlier this month, passing on the southpaw’s projected $1.7MM arbitration salary.
The move overseas to Japan may seem like small potatoes given the transactional maelstrom that was Castillo’s 2025 season. He saw big league action for four different teams (the Diamondbacks, Mets, Mariners, and Orioles) while compiling a 3.94 ERA over 32 innings. Beginning the season on a minor league deal with Arizona, Castillo was designated for assignment in May and then traded to the Mets, and he subsequently bounced around on a series of waiver claims. Castillo actually had three separate stints with the Mets, with the latest coming in early November when he was claimed off Baltimore’s waiver wire.
Castillo is out of minor league options, making him a necessary DFA candidate whenever a team wants to move him off its active roster. He would probably be facing another round of designations, outright assignments, and waiver wire visits if he’d signed a minor league deal with a Major League team this winter, so it perhaps isn’t surprising that Castillo has opted for the relative security (and a guaranteed salary) of this deal with the Marines.
Though Castillo has pitched in parts of five MLB seasons, that resume consists of his 32 innings in 2025, 38 1/3 innings with the Padres in his 2018 rookie season, and just two innings spread over a single game with the Padres in each of the 2019, 2022, and 2023 campaigns. Multiple injuries (including a Tommy John surgery) shelved Castillo for almost the entirety of the 2019-21 seasons, and he pitched primarily in the minors with the Padres, Marlins, and Diamondbacks from 2022-24.
While a small sample size of big league work, Castillo’s career 4.11 ERA, 27.1% strikeout rate, and 9.6% walk rate are all respectable for a pitcher with such a journeyman resume. He also has a 4.21 ERA over 130 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level. Control has been an issue for Castillo, but he has always been able to rack up strikeouts and generate grounders. Castillo doesn’t turn 30 until January, so there’s still plenty of time for the left-hander to explore a future move back to North American baseball depending on how things work out during his Marines tenure.
The Blue Jays had “at least preliminary interest” in Ryan Helsley before the right-hander signed with the Orioles, The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon reports. Toronto has shown past interest (both last offseason and at the trade deadline) in trading for Helsley when he was still a member of the Cardinals, so it tracks that the Jays would’ve again considered Helsley in free agency. As it turned out, the Blue Jays will now have to deal with Helsley pitching for a division rival while Toronto’s own search for bullpen help continues.
Such pitchers as Helsley, Raisel Iglesias, Phil Maton, Edwin Diaz, and Pete Fairbanks have been linked to the Jays thus far, and the first three of those names have already come off the board. Given how Ross Atkins’ front office is known for casting a wide berth in its free agent explorations, it’s probably safe to guess that the Jays have called about most or all of the top relievers on the market, ranging from set-up men to proven closers like Diaz. Atkins said after the season that the team was open to the possibility of moving Jeff Hoffman into a set-up role, thus opening the door for Toronto to seek out another top saves candidate.
Of course, the Jays’ biggest winter moves to date have come in the rotation, not the bullpen. Shane Bieber made the first move himself when he decided against opting out of the final year of his contract, and then the Jays made the priciest free agent signing in franchise history by inking Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210MM contract. Within less than a month after the end of the World Series, the Blue Jays rotation suddenly went from a question mark to all but settled.
The projected starting five looks like Cease, Bieber, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, and Jose Berrios, with Eric Lauer on hand as a swingman. Adam Macko, Ricky Tiedemann and Bowden Francis are further depth options. It’s a deeper group with a higher ceiling than the starting pitching mix that got the Jays to the World Series, though it’s possible another starter could still be added.
To make room in the rotation for a higher-caliber arm, the Jays could consider trading Berrios. Bannon (in a piece for the Athletic) and the Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm each floated the concept, as Berrios ended up being the odd man out of the starting mix even before a bout of elbow inflammation kept him sidelined for the Blue Jays’ entire playoff run. The Jays planned to transition Berrios to bullpen work prior to the postseason, and Berrios made all of one relief appearance before hitting the injured list.
Trading Berrios would be tricky for a few reasons — his eight-team no-trade clause, the three years and $66MM remaining on his contract, and the opt-out clause Berrios holds after the 2026 season. There’s also the fact that Berrios was pretty unspectacular in 2025, posting a 4.17 ERA and a set of below-average Statcast numbers across 166 innings. Any Berrios suitor would be counting on a bounce-back, naturally, but primarily might be interested in the veteran righty as a durable source of innings.
Berrios’ ability to eat innings makes him valuable to the Jays as well, considering how their pitchers added more mileage during an extended postseason run. Moving Berrios would open up some payroll space for Toronto as well, though in limited fashion. It’s pretty unlikely that the Jays would find a team willing to take the entirety of Berrios’ $66MM salary, plus spending capacity might not really be a concern for a Blue Jays club that already shown it is willing to stretch its payroll even further in search of a championship.
Turning to other topics from Chisholm’s mailbag piece, he believes the Blue Jays might’ve already finalized extensions for Atkins, team president Mark Shapiro, and manager John Schneider if the club hadn’t still been playing on November 1. Regardless, it just seems like a matter of time before the trio are all officially retained. Shapiro’s contract is already technically up, and Atkins and Schneider’s deals are up after the 2026 season (the Jays already exercised their club option on Schneider for 2026).
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Giants team chairman Greg Johnson and general manager Zack Minasian have each downplayed the idea that the team will be pursuing long-term (and therefore more pricier) pitching signings this offseason, due to both the risk associated with such contracts and the number of lengthy and expensive contracts already on San Francisco’s books. As such, it probably isn’t a big surprise that “a lot of their market pitching inquiries have been for more modestly priced arms,” according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.
The context of Olney’s report comes in the context of speculation that the Giants could be a suitor for Tatsuya Imai, as it would seem the Giants might not be willing to meet Imai’s asking price. There is a widespread belief that Imai’s eventual contract will run deep into the nine figures — MLB Trade Rumors projects a six-year, $150MM deal for Imai, who ranked seventh on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents.
If the Giants were going to make a longer-term commitment to a pitcher, Imai might fit the bill given his relative youth (he doesn’t turn 28 until May) and naturally his excellent track record in Nippon Professional Baseball. Imai’s recent interview on the Hodo Station show also caught the attention of Giants fans, as Imai suggested that while he’d enjoy playing with the Dodgers, “winning against a team like that and becoming a world champion would be the most valuable thing in my life. If anything, I’d rather take them down.”
Still, Imai’s ability to carry his success over to Major League Baseball isn’t seen as a sure thing amongst evaluators. If San Francisco was going to splurge on a top-end starter, spending big on a pitcher who’s more proven against MLB hitters would seem to carry more appeal to a Giants organization that wants to minimize risk in its rotation investments (that is, if the Giants decided to spend big on any pitcher at all).
While there’s no such thing as having too much frontline pitching, the Giants are already ahead of a lot of teams by having a clearcut ace in Logan Webb. Robbie Ray also pitched well in 2025 after missing most of the 2023-24 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. This duo gives the Giants two starters they can count on to take the ball in a playoff series, plus homegrown starter Landen Roupp also pitched well in his first extended taste of big league action in 2025. However, there isn’t any proven depth beyond this group, making the rotation a priority for Buster Posey’s front office this winter.
If the Giants are primarily looking at second- or third-tier options, there’s still plenty of talent to be had amongst veteran arms who might be limited to shorter-term contracts based on their age alone. Signing Justin Verlander to a one-year, $15MM deal last offseason worked out for the team, so re-signing Verlander or perhaps seeking out this winter’s version of a “Verlander contract” with another pitcher is more the Giants’ speed. Inking at least one veteran to eat innings and stabilize at least one rotation spot would allow San Francisco’s younger pitchers some space to compete amongst themselves for a fifth starter’s role, and ideally one could emerge as Roupp did last year.
Though there’s some sound reasoning behind the Giants’ approach to starting pitching, the strategy probably isn’t going to sit well with Bay Area fans wondering why the team isn’t willing to spend at a higher level. The Giants have exceeded the luxury tax threshold just once in the last eight seasons, as after paying a minimal tax bill in 2024, the club ducked back under the line again in 2025. Johnson’s non-committal stance towards paying the tax or even exceeding $200MM in payroll space also doesn’t lend itself to the idea that San Francisco is planning anything truly substantial on the spending front this winter, and certainly not on the pitching side.
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