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The Opener: Trade Market, Bullpen Market, Coaching Staffs

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:

1. Trade market buzzing:

On the heels of this week’s GM Meetings, there’s been plenty of rumors about the trade market that will be worth monitoring as the offseason progresses. Cardinals super utility man Brendan Donovan, Royals southpaw Kris Bubic, and Mets veteran Jeff McNeil have all drawn interest from rival teams in recent days. All of those pieces appear to have real potential to move this offseason, but there are other longer shot trade candidates floating around the rumor mill as well. The Diamondbacks are getting plenty of calls on star infielder Ketel Marte, and the Mets are getting interest on mercurial right-hander Kodai Senga. Even with teams like the Reds and Astros publicly taking big names like Hunter Greene and Isaac Paredes off the table, there’s still plenty of early intrigue on the market.

2. Bullpen market heating up?

Yesterday, a report from Francys Romero of BeisbolFR suggested that the market for relievers could start moving in the early part of the offseason. That would be a sharp contrast to last winter, when top relief arms like Tanner Scott lingered on the market into January and even the earliest signings for veteran closers didn’t start until the Winter Meetings. There have already been plenty of rumors about the offseason’s top relief arms this winter.

Right-hander Brad Keller is garnering interest as a starter after a dominant year in the bullpen with the Cubs. The Red Sox, Reds, Dodgers and Marlins have been connected to Devin Williams, and the Dodgers have also been connected to Raisel Iglesias as they look to bolster a middling bullpen that forced them to move Roki Sasaki into a ninth inning role this October. One other interesting wrinkle in the bullpen market this year is the presence of Edwin Diaz, who wasted no time in signing during his last trip to free agency when he inked a deal with the Mets in early November back in 2022. Could he or another top relief arm follow suit with a November deal this year?

3. Coaching staff additions continue:

While most of the focus is on free agency and the trade market at this point, teams are still doing the little things in the background to prepare for the 2026 season. That includes making alterations to and finalizing their coaching staffs. Just in the past few days, the Orioles, Twins, Reds, and Astros have all made significant coaching moves. More will surely continue to trickle in throughout the offseason, especially from the many teams that have hired new managers this winter. That’s also to say nothing of the Rockies, who still have to hire a manager after naming Paul DePodesta their president of baseball operations last week.

Looking For A Match In A CJ Abrams Trade

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The Nationals are in a new era. Their stalled rebuild led ownership to fire president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez. Paul Toboni is now leading a front office for the first time, while the club brought in a rookie manager in 33-year-old Blake Butera. It's easy to imagine Toboni making a couple significant trades to add a needed influx of talent to the farm system.

"We're in the business right now of just bringing in as much value as we can to the organization," the new baseball operations president said from the GM Meetings (link via Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post). "However that may look, we’ll stay disciplined to that." The most obvious place would be to entertain conversations on left-hander MacKenzie Gore and shortstop CJ Abrams. Gore is down to two years of arbitration control and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $4.7MM salary. Abrams' $5.6MM projection is a little higher, but he has three years of remaining control.

This feels like the opportune time to move Gore. Any team in a short-term contention window could be interested. He's at least a mid-rotation arm with the upside of a #2 starter. The Nationals could hear from two-thirds of the league about his availability.

Whether to trade Abrams is a tougher call. The Nats presumably expect to compete for a playoff spot within three years. There's less injury risk with a position player than there is with a pitcher. The Nationals could view the 25-year-old shortstop as the kind of core piece whom they're more or less unwilling to trade. At the same time, Abrams has been maddeningly inconsistent over the past couple seasons. He's a gifted athlete who is nevertheless prone to defensive miscues. This may just depend on how a Toboni-led front office that didn't acquire Abrams views the player.

Abrams is coming off a .257/.315/.433 line with 19 home runs through 635 plate appearances. He has hit between 18-20 longballs in each of the past three seasons. Abrams has stolen 31 bases in consecutive seasons and ranks sixth in MLB with 109 steals since the start of 2023. He won't walk much, but he puts the ball in play with middle-of-the-road exit velocities. At his best, he looks the part of a top-of-the-order spark plug. He's coming off a second straight season in which he was only at that level for a few months. Abrams was a star-level performer in the first half of each of the past two years, but he slumped after the All-Star Break both times.

He's not much easier to pin down defensively. Abrams certainly has the frame and athleticism of a shortstop. He has been far too mistake-prone, however, with only Elly De La Cruz committing more errors over the past few seasons. Most of them have been related to poor accuracy. Abrams was charged with 18 throwing errors this year, three more than anyone else. He has committed 38 throwing errors over the past three seasons. As one might expect given all the easy misses, Statcast has graded Abrams as by far the sport's worst defensive shortstop in that time.

Other teams could have differing views on Abrams' defensive projection. There are presumably some who feel he's non-viable at shortstop and would only consider him at second base or as a potential center field conversion. Others could feel the throwing issues can be cleaned up with mechanical tweaks. They could also be motivated out of some amount of desperation considering the lack of alternatives. Bo Bichette could command upwards of $200MM and faces his own defensive questions. Only one team can sign Ha-Seong Kim, and he doesn't have anywhere near the same offensive ceiling that Abrams has flashed. There aren't many clear options on the trade front.

If the Nationals were to trade Abrams, which clubs should make the biggest push? Let's split them into a few groups. Teams are listed alphabetically within each tier.

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Rockies Notes: Monfort, Front Office, Outfield

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The Rockies introduced new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta at a press conference on Thursday. Owner Dick Monfort and executive vice president Walker Monfort also took part. While the executives spoke mostly in generalities, Dick Monfort revealed that he plans to scale back his involvement in baseball operations now that a new front office leader is in place.

Dick Monfort is one of the leading figures on the owner’s side in labor negotiations with the MLB Players Association. The 71-year-old pointed out that he’ll have more work to do on that end with the collective bargaining agreement expiring a little over a year from now. “I have a lot more responsibility with the league over the next year, so I have to allocate time there. Plus, I’m getting older,” he told reporters (including Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post). “Walker came to me and said he was interested in taking on (a bigger role). He can handle it.”

It is generally believed that Monfort will be one of the leading proponents of a salary cap push by the owners. The MLBPA has maintained that’s a non-starter, setting the stage for another round of contentious negotiations. The sides recently opened preliminary talks, but they’re almost certainly going to negotiate throughout the entire 2026 season. Commissioner Rob Manfred has already indicated he expects offseason lockouts to be a norm. A lockout would only come into play if there’s no new deal in place by December 1, 2026, and it seems both sides are pessimistic on the odds of things getting resolved that smoothly.

Walker Monfort, Dick’s son, has taken on a much bigger role with the Rox over the past few months. While he has worked for the franchise for more than 15 years, he was promoted to executive vice president in June. The 38-year-old played a significant role in the DePodesta hiring, and he indicated he’ll oversee a lot of the day-to-day operations of the club. “Obviously, everybody reports upward, to our chairman and CEO, my father, Dick. Basically, from there, I will still be in charge of oversight of the entire organization,” Walker Monfort said. “So Paul will report to me, and those that he hires will report to him.”

The most significant of those hires will a general manger and a manager. DePodesta said there’s no timetable for either hire. The Rockies are the only team without a permanent manager in place. Jon Morosi of The MLB Network reported last week that the Rox would like to have a GM by next month’s Winter Meetings.

Colorado’s search for a baseball operations head dragged a little longer than ownership probably anticipated. They’d reportedly narrowed to two finalists, Amiel Sawdaye and Matt Forman, before both men took themselves out of consideration. Dick Monfort said the team evaluated around 30 candidates in the search.

Any hire was going to have his work cut out for him. DePodesta takes over one of the worst teams in MLB history. They’re coming off a 119-loss season and have very little talent anywhere on the roster. A pitching staff that allowed nearly six earned runs per nine innings is in particularly rough shape. Speaking at the GM Meetings earlier this week, DePodesta implied he was open to trading hitting for rotation help (link via Thomas Harding of MLB.com).

“I want to stop short of naming a particular position group – I have one in mind, for sure – but I do think there’s some depth. Now what I have to do is understand what the other 29 teams think, and what players they are attracted to from our organization,” DePodesta said. “We need to be open-minded about that, and if we need to shift assets around – take a little away from this area to bolster another – then we’ll have to do that.”

Harding writes that a trade of an outfielder could be one way to add pitching. Center fielder Brenton Doyle regressed offensively, hitting .233/.274/.376 across 538 plate appearances. He’s a plus defensive outfielder, though, and teams would surely have interest with his four remaining years of arbitration control. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Doyle for a $3.2MM salary as a Super Two player.

Mickey Moniak had terrible defensive metrics but is coming off a career season at the plate. He popped 24 homers while hitting .270/.306/.518 in 461 trips. He’s projected at $4.2MM and controllable for two seasons. Most teams probably see him as a fourth outfielder, but he has flashed some of the offensive promise that made him the first overall pick nine years ago.

Tyler Freeman has good bat-to-ball skills, speed and some defensive versatility. He could be a serviceable utility player. None of Jordan Beck, Yanquiel Fernández or Zac Veen have been good MLB players to date, but they all had prospect pedigree and remain in their pre-arbitration seasons. They’d have modest trade value but could have some fans in other clubs’ scouting departments.

Twins To Hire Keith Beauregard As Hitting Coach

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The Twins are hiring Keith Beauregard as their new hitting coach, reports Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune. He’ll replace Matt Borgschulte, who held the position for the 2025 season. Nightengale writes that assistant hitting coaches Rayden Sierra and Trevor Amicone are expected back in the same positions.

Beauregard makes the jump to the Twin Cities after three seasons with a division rival. He’d been a hitting coach with the Tigers between 2023-25. The 42-year-old had previously been a collegiate hitting coach and a minor league hitting instructor in the Dodgers organization. His stint on A.J. Hinch’s staff was his first in the big leagues. Beauregard worked as a co-hitting instructor with Michael Brdar, who’ll remain in that role for a fourth season in Detroit.

The Tigers hit .247/.316/.413 this past season. They ranked in the middle third of MLB in all three slash stats and finished 10th with 198 home runs. They were 11th in scoring. A few of their hitters (e.g. Riley Greene, Gleyber Torres, Javier Báez, Zach McKinstry) got out to excellent starts but collapsed in the second half. Detroit had the sport’s third-highest strikeout rate (25.1%) and is expected to emphasize putting more balls in play next season.

Individual coaches only have so much sway over player performance, of course. Greene, Kerry Carpenter and Dillon Dingler have developed into quality position players over the past couple seasons. Former first overall pick Spencer Torkelson has been up and down but is coming off his best season. He hit .240/.333/.456 while matching his career high with 31 home runs.

Borgschulte is seemingly out after just one season as Minnesota’s top hitting coach. That’s always a possibility when a team makes a managerial change, as the Twins did in dismissing Rocco Baldelli in favor of Derek Shelton. Minnesota had a below-average offense in 2025. They ranked 23rd in scoring while batting .238/.310/.397. Byron Buxton is a star and second-year infielder Luke Keaschall looks like a building block. The Twins will need a lot more from former top picks Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee than they got this past season.

Shelton’s first staff in Minnesota is coming into place. Pitching coach Pete Maki, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez, and third base coach Ramon Borrego join the assistant hitting coaches as holdovers from last season. They’ve already brought in Grady Sizemore as first base coach and LaTroy Hawkins to oversee the bullpen. They need to replace bench coach Jayce Tingler, who departed to take a position on the Giants staff. Catching coach Hank Conger and quality control coach Nate Dammann were also let go. Minnesota is reportedly hoping to get James Rowson, the runner-up in the managerial search, to accept the bench coach position.

Rays Outright Brian Van Belle

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The Rays announced that right-hander Brian Van Belle went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Durham. Tampa Bay had designated him for assignment last week when cutting their roster down to 40.

Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times reports that Van Belle underwent elbow surgery that will cost him the entire 2026 season. The 29-year-old had finished the year on the injured list with what was initially diagnosed as elbow inflammation. That was apparently serious enough to necessitate surgery that’ll prevent Van Belle from building off this year’s brief MLB debut. The Miami product made four appearances after being acquired from the Reds as part of the three-team Zack Littell deadline deal. He gave up five runs over 8 1/3 innings while picking up his first win.

Van Belle will remain in the farm system without occupying a 40-man roster spot next season. He could get a look in Spring Training in 2027. He’s coming off a cumulative 3.17 ERA in 105 Triple-A innings between the Red Sox, Reds and Rays systems. Van Belle’s fastball sits around 90 MPH, but he has a plus changeup and excellent control.

Jacob deGrom, Ronald Acuna Jr. Named Comeback Players Of The Year

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The main event of Thursday’s award revelations came with the BBWAA’s announcement that Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge repeated as MVP winners. Major League Baseball also conducted its award ceremony tonight, revealing a handful of honors that are not decided by the writers.

Most notably, the league named Jacob deGrom and Ronald Acuña Jr. the respective Comeback Players of the Year. deGrom’s comeback from Tommy John surgery technically occurred at the end of the 2024 season. The two-time Cy Young winner made three late-season appearances last year. He took the ball 30 times this past season and worked to a 2.97 earned run average with 185 strikeouts across 172 2/3 innings. He earned his fifth All-Star nod and finished eighth in AL Cy Young balloting in his age-37 season.

Acuña bounced back from the second ACL tear of his career. The 2023 NL MVP had suffered the season-ending left knee injury on May 26, 2024. He made it back almost one year to the day later. The Braves activated Acuña from the injured list on May 23. He’d return to superstar form, hitting .290/.417/.518 with 21 homers in 95 games. Acuña went back on the injured list around the trade deadline with right Achilles tightness. He only missed a couple weeks and came back to hit .268/.402/.437 down the stretch despite an injury-riddled Atlanta team being well out of contention. It’s the second straight season in which a Brave was named NL Comeback Player of the Year. Chris Sale received that honor last season.

MLB announced a few other honors. Ohtani and Judge repeated as the respective Hank Aaron Award winners as the league’s best hitters. Ohtani yet again won the Edgar Martinez Award as MLB’s best designated hitter. Aroldis Chapman and Edwin Díaz won the respective Reliever of the Year honors. Díaz is free agency’s top reliever coming off a 1.63 ERA across 62 appearances. Chapman turned in a 1.17 ERA over 61 1/3 frames in what is arguably the best season of his fantastic career. He re-signed with the Red Sox on a $13MM deal in August. The BBWAA will reintroduce its own Reliever of the Year Award in 2026.

Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold was named Executive of the Year for the second consecutive season. Milwaukee won an MLB-best 97 games and advanced to the NL Championship Series despite having an Opening Day payroll around $115MM. That was the eighth-lowest mark in the majors.

MLB also announced its 1st and 2nd teams. These are not league specific and are designed to honor the best players at each position. Those are as follows:

1st Team

2nd Team

MLBTR Free Agent Prediction Contest Now Closed

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The MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest is now closed.  Over 4,600 people made picks!  In the coming weeks, MLBTR will publish a leaderboard for the results.

Further contest info:

  • After the window to make picks has closed, we’ll post a public leaderboard page so you can see who’s winning the contest as players sign with teams.  We’re going to use entrants’ full names on it.  So, if that concerns you, please do not enter the contest.  Entries with inappropriate names will be deleted.
  • We are also collecting email addresses, which I will use to notify winners.
  • If a player signs between now and the close of the contest, that player will be excluded from the contest.
  • After you submit your picks, you’ll receive an email from Google Forms.  In that email, you’ll see a button that allows you to edit your picks.
  • We will announce the winners on MLBTR once all 50 free agents have signed.  We will award $500 to first place, $300 to second place, and $100 to third place.  We will also be giving  one-year memberships to Trade Rumors Front Office for everyone who finishes in the top 15.  Winners must respond to an email within one week.
  • The winners of this contest will be declared on March 25th, 2026, and any unsigned players will be excluded from the competition.
  • Ties in the correct number of picks will be broken by summing up the rankings of the free agents of the correct picks and taking the lower total.  For example: Tim and Steve each get two picks correct.  Tim gets Kyle Tucker (#1 ranking) and Robert Suarez (#21 ranking) for a total of 22 points.  Steve gets Framber Valdez (#6) and Michael King (#14) for a total of 20 points.  Steve’s total is lower and he’s ahead of Tim for tiebreaker purposes.

If you have any further questions, ask us in the comment section of this post!

Guardians Hire Tony Arnerich As Bench Coach

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The Guardians announced this afternoon that they’ve hired Tony Arnerich as bench coach for the 2026 season. Zack Meisel of The Athletic reported the news before it was finalized. He’ll replace Craig Albernaz as Stephen Vogt’s top lieutenant in Cleveland. Albernaz, who’d held the title of associate manager, left to become the Orioles manager last month.

Arnerich, 45, had spent the last two seasons as bullpen coach with the Mariners. Seattle hired former catcher Austin Nola to fill that position earlier this week. The M’s did not make an announcement on Arnerich’s future at the time as they waited for his deal with Cleveland to be finalized. They obviously knew he’d be moving on at the time they reached agreement with Nola.

This is the second time this week that the Guardians have hired a coach away from Seattle. They tabbed Andy McKay as field coordinator on Tuesday. Vogt had spent the ’23 campaign on Seattle’s staff as bullpen coach. He surely worked with McKay, who was in the front office. Arnerich was on the MLB staff as a co-hitting coach at the time. He moved to the bullpen role once Vogt departed to take charge in Cleveland.

Arnerich had a brief professional playing career in the minors and independent ranks in the 2000s. He spent nearly a decade as a college coach, mostly with the Cal Golden Bears, before joining the M’s organization as a minor league instructor. He worked on both the hitting and pitching sides over his time on the Seattle staff.

Mets Fielding Interest In Jeff McNeil

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The Mets are taking trade inquiries on Jeff McNeil, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The veteran utilityman is recovering from thoracic outlet surgery, which complicates conversations with other clubs. McNeil’s agent, Paragon’s Garrett Parcell, told The Post’s Joel Sherman that he is expected to be full go for Spring Training.

McNeil is entering the final guaranteed season of the four-year, $50MM extension he signed during the 2023-24 offseason. He’s set for a $15.75MM salary and guaranteed a $2MM buyout on a matching club option for the ’27 season. It’s essentially a one-year, $17.75MM commitment. (An acquiring team would also owe him a $500K assignment bonus.) That’s more than he’d get on the open market coming off a .243/.335/.411 line and heading into his age-34 season. Something like a two-year deal in the $18-20MM range would be reasonable, but he wouldn’t command that kind of money on a one-year term.

At the time of the extension, McNeil was coming off a batting title. He hasn’t maintained those heights over the past three seasons. He combined for a slightly below-average .257/.323/.381 slash line between 2023-24. This year’s numbers were better but also came with injury questions. McNeil missed the first few weeks of the season with an oblique strain. He hit well over the next few months, running a .256/.348/.451 line with as many walks as strikeouts in nearly 400 plate appearances through the end of August. His bat wilted as the team collapsed in September, as he finished with a .187/.274/.240 showing in the season’s final month.

Playing through thoracic outlet syndrome offers an explanation for the late-season struggles. At the same time, that also raises questions about what teams can expect going into 2026. TOS generally isn’t as damaging for hitters as it can be for pitchers, yet some clubs could prefer to see McNeil play before taking on a notable chunk of money. His strikeout rate ticked up in the final two months of the season, while his average exit velocity plummeted in September.

McNeil has primarily been a second baseman in his career. He’s a capable if unspectacular defender there. McNeil has a decent amount of corner outfield experience, where he has received solid defensive grades. He added a little more than 200 innings in center field this past season, albeit with mediocre marks from Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average. McNeil is a below-average runner and shouldn’t be counted on for more than part-time work in center field.

While the contract and injury are obstacles, McNeil could be appealing to some teams if the Mets pay down part of the contract. The Astros don’t have an everyday second baseman and need a left-handed bat. The Angels could also use a lefty hitter and could bounce McNeil between second and third base. The Royals got nothing out of second base this year and generally prefer high-contact hitters of his ilk. The Giants, Athletics, Pirates and Tigers (if Gleyber Torres rejects the qualifying offer) could all look to upgrade at second base. Those teams would probably prefer to acquire Brendan Donovan, but the prospect cost would be much higher for the St. Louis utilityman.

If the Mets were to trade McNeil, they could kick Brett Baty over to second base. That’d perhaps enable them to make a run at a free agent third baseman or try to sign Ha-Seong Kim as a multi-positional player who’d upgrade the infield defense. McNeil’s contact comes with a $12.5MM luxury tax hit for New York, meaning they’re paying $13.75MM in taxes on it as a third-time payor in the highest bracket. The CBT hit would recalculate to reflect the remaining money on the backloaded deal if he’s traded. It’d be a $17.75MM luxury tax number — minus any cash considerations the Mets include, which would remain on their CBT ledger — for an acquiring team.

Roansy Contreras Signs With NPB’s Rakuten Eagles

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The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced they’ve signed right-hander Roansy Contreras for the 2026 season. The Rep 1 Baseball client had been on the Rockies’ 40-man roster. Colorado announced this afternoon that he was being released to pursue an overseas opportunity, dropping their roster count to 38.

Contreras is a former top pitching prospect who has spent parts of five seasons in the big leagues. He was a key part of the Pirates’ return from the Yankees in the Jameson Taillon trade and found a bit of early success out of the Pittsburgh rotation. Things went off the rails in the 2023 season, though, and he has bounced around as a journeyman reliever over the past few seasons. Contreras has pitched for four clubs over the last three years. He owns a 5.48 earned run average across 149 1/3 big league frames in that time.

The 26-year-old spent most of this past season in Triple-A in the Baltimore system. Contreras started 14 of 28 outings for their top affiliate in Norfolk, working to a 3.73 ERA despite a middling 17.8% strikeout rate in 91 2/3 innings. Baltimore called him up at the end of August but put him back on waivers after one appearance. Colorado claimed him for the final month of the season. Contreras gave up eight runs over 8 1/3 innings before suffering a season-ending hand contusion.

There’s a decent chance the Rockies would have pushed him off the 40-man roster this offseason. He’s out of options, so even if he held the roster spot all winter, he would’ve needed to win a bullpen job out of camp or be placed back on waivers. It’s understandable he’d rather take the guaranteed payday and try his luck in Japan rather than battle for low-leverage work at Coors Field. Contreras is young enough to be an interesting MLB free agent a couple years from now if he misses more bats in NPB.

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