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Rangers To Acquire MacKenzie Gore

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The Nationals are sending left-hander MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers for a package of five prospects, per various reports. The five players are shortstop Gavin Fien, right-hander Alejandro Rosario, first baseman/outfielder Abimelec Ortiz, infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald and outfielder Yeremy Cabrera. Gore and Ortiz are the only players with 40-man spots, so no corresponding moves should be necessary with one 40-man guy going in each direction.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported Gore was headed to Texas. Jeff Passan of ESPN first laid out the five-for-one framework. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News first reported Fien’s inclusion. Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post first mentioned Rosario. Grant then reported Ortiz and Fitz-Gerald, followed by Andrew Golden of The Washington Post adding Cabrera.

Gore, 27, has been one of the more obvious trade candidates of this offseason. Back at the start of November, MLBTR’s list of the top trade candidates of the winter had him in the #1 spot. That was partly due to Gore’s appeal as a potential budding ace and also the team’s situation.

The Nationals have been stuck in a rebuild for quite a while now. They won the World Series in 2019 but haven’t finished above .500 since then. They traded players like Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Juan Soto in 2021 and 2022. It was hoped that Washington could be back to relevance by now but the rebuild stalled out. Things dragged to such a degree that heads rolled. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were both fired during last season.

Paul Toboni, previously an assistant general manager with Boston, was hired to replace Rizzo as the front office leader. The general expectation in the industry is that he will get some time to turn the ship around and get the Nats into contention again, as opposed to having the pressure of trying to win immediately. Gore is only two years away from free agency, making him a trade candidate in those circumstances. As a Boras Corporation client, a contract extension was probably going to be hard to put together.

On top of all that, there’s Gore’s track record and affordability. He was once a top prospect, getting selected third overall by the Pades in 2017. He was flipped to the Nats as part of the aforementioned Soto trade. Gore hasn’t quite lived up to his potential yet, with a 4.19 earned run average in 532 1/3 innings. However, he looked on the verge of a huge breakout for most of 2025.

More to come.

Latest On Red Sox’ Infield Pursuits

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The Red Sox pivoted quickly after losing out on third baseman Alex Bregman, bringing lefty Ranger Suárez in to join an already deep rotation. They’re still in the market for help on the infield, and comments from chief baseball officer Craig Breslow at Suárez’s introductory press conference perhaps shed some light on the potential moves they could yet have in store (links (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, Rob Bradford of WEEI and Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic).

“I don’t think there’s a question anymore that the identity of our team and the strength of our team is going to be our pitching and our ability to prevent runs,” Breslow said .

Breslow, unsurprisingly, wouldn’t comment directly on whether any subsequent additions are on the horizon. The third-year baseball ops leader acknowledged (via Bradford) that “teams call about some of our depth” but added that it’s “hard to tell” whether anything will come together in the near future, just given the sudden nature with which offseason negotiations can either accelerate or crumble at any given point.

Regarding the team’s in-house options, McCaffrey reports that the organization prefers Marcelo Mayer at third base rather than at second base. That’s not necessarily set in stone, and the Sox would presumably be open to Mayer at second base if an unexpected opportunity arose at the hot corner, but it’s nevertheless notable that that’s where they’d lean, all else being equal. Breslow emphasized that the Red Sox “will be very mindful of the defensive skill set” of any addition to the infield. McCaffrey suggests that the ideal target for the Red Sox would be a plus defensive second baseman.

That’s not great news for Eugenio Suárez, who has drawn some level of interest from Boston, Pittsburgh and the incumbent Seattle. (Surely, others are also in the mix to varying extents.) The 34-year-old is fresh off a 49-homer campaign and would absolutely give the Sox the power bat they said they were targeting early in free agency, but Breslow’s comments following the Bregman pivot seem more focused on defense, and Suárez was dinged for negative grades by both Defensive Runs Saved (-6) and Outs Above Average (-3) between the D-backs and Mariners this past season.

On the flip side, it only further strengthens the idea of Boston taking a genuine run at Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner or, to a lesser extent, Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan. Hoerner is the premier second base defender in MLB and is earning $12MM in the final season of his contract. He hit .297/.345/.394 with a microscopic 7.6% strikeout rate and 29 steals this past season. The Cubs have at least heard out interested teams on Hoerner, particularly after signing Bregman, but they’d need immediate MLB-ready help on the pitching side of things to even consider moving him. It’s also feasible that they could listen on young infielder Matt Shaw, but he’d also come with a lofty ask given his six years of remaining club control.

Circling back for a third separate trade with the Cardinals, where Breslow’s predecessor Chaim Bloom is running baseball operations, would be highly unusual — but the fit is sensible. Bloom obviously is quite familiar with many of Boston’s farmhands, and the Cardinals are looking to max out Donovan’s trade value while he still has two seasons of club control left. Donovan is a left-handed hitter and isn’t as strong defensively as Hoerner, making him a lesser fit, but the multiple seasons of control and ability to pretty seamlessly slide to third base or left field — depending on team health/needs — is certainly appealing.

Payroll-wise, there shouldn’t be much off the table for the Sox. RosterResource pegs them at about $197MM in actual cash payroll, which is down from 2025’s mark and not close to the franchise-record $236MM Opening Day mark. Their $265MM luxury tax ledger is far heftier, thanks in large part to backloaded deals for Suárez, Roman Anthony, Brayan Bello, Kristian Campbell and Ceddanne Rafaela. They’re second-time payors who are currently in the second penalty tier, thus subjecting them to a 42% tax on the the next $19MM or so that they spend.

If the Red Sox were to add another $20MM or more to the CBT ledger, that’d bump the tax rate to 75% for subsequent additions and, more notably, drop their top pick in the 2026 draft by ten spots. That’s probably the primary deterrent to spending beyond that point, though with the possible exception of Eugenio Suárez, none of the potential infield targets in question would thrust Boston into the third tier of penalization anyhow.

Readers — Red Sox fans in particular — are encouraged to check out the three linked pieces in full, as each has more extensive quotes from Breslow on the team’s offseason goals and the team’s pursuit of (Ranger) Suárez.

Marlins Acquire Prospect Carlos Martinez From Giants

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The Marlins have acquired minor league catcher Carlos Martinez from the Giants, according to announcements from both clubs. The Giants receive international bonus pool space in return. The amount of pool space changing hands wasn’t specified. No corresponding move is necessary since Martinez wasn’t on the 40-man roster.

Under the international bonus pool system, each team has a finite amount they can spend on international amateurs each year. Broadly speaking, the bigger-market teams get smaller pools and vice versa, in the name of competitive balance. Teams are allowed to trade pool space in increments of $250K but no team can increase its initial pool size by more than 60%.

Per Ben Badler of Baseball America, Miami started with a relatively larger pool of about $7.3571MM. The Giants began with the smallest pool of $5.44MM, tied with three other clubs. That was because they paid the competitive balance tax in 2024 and then signed Willy Adames, who had rejected a qualifying offer from the Brewers, ahead of the 2025 season.

The Giants gave out the biggest bonus for any individual player in this class when they signed Venezuelan shortstop Luis Hernandez for $5MM, using up the vast majority of their pool. This deal gives them a bit more wiggle room for other signings, though it’s unclear exactly how much. Conversely, the Marlins don’t appear to have given any one player more than $1MM, at least with the deals Badler has tracked at BA.

The amount traded isn’t likely to be huge, as Martinez isn’t a top prospect. The 18-year-old was just signed by the Giants as part of last year’s international class and was given a modest bonus of $47.5K. He slashed .143/.259/.242 in 27 games in the Dominican Summer League last year.

It’s the second year in a row that these two clubs have lined up on a swap of this nature. Last year’s deal featured a player much closer to the majors, as the Giants sent right-hander William Kempner to Miami for pool space. Kempner was going into his age-24 season and pitched well enough in the minors last year to get a spot on Miami’s 40-man roster in November.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Friedman: Dodgers Roster “Feels Pretty Set”

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The Dodgers held a press conference yesterday to officially introduce recent signee Kyle Tucker. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke to the media and downplayed the possibility of anything else really notable happening in the remainder of the offseason. As relayed by reporters such as Jack Harris of The California Post and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, he said the roster “feels pretty set” and that no further “seismic” moves are forthcoming. When asked if they are in the market for starting pitching, he said “We are not.”

It’s always possible that Friedman could be withholding information for the purposes of negotiating with other clubs or free agent players, as front office executives are known to play loose with the truth from time to time. For a Dodgers-specific example, about a year ago, general manager Brandon Gomes downplayed the possibility of a Gavin Lux trade after the club signed Hyeseong Kim. Lux was traded to the Reds three days later.

But it also wouldn’t be a shock if the Dodgers were indeed done with major moves at this point. The roster was already really good, as they just won the World Series. Most of that roster is still intact, as none of the core guys reached free agency at season’s end. They have already made two major upgrades by adding Edwin Díaz to the bullpen and Tucker to the outfield. They have few weak points, if they have any at all.

Looking at the rotation specifically, there’s plenty of talent on paper. They have Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Emmet Sheehan as the likely top six names on the chart at the moment.

The argument for adding would be related to the uncertainty in that group. Yamamoto was the only one of those six to eclipse 91 innings pitched in the regular season last year. Ohtani didn’t pitch in 2024 while recovering from UCL surgery, then he underwent surgery on his non-throwing shoulder at the end of that season. Sheehan underwent Tommy John surgery in 2024. Both returned to the mound in June of 2025. Snell, Glasnow and Sasaki have notable injury histories and missed time due to shoulder troubles last year.

Given the question marks in there, it could be compelling to add. The Dodgers were connected to Freddy Peralta earlier this month and were reportedly still engaged as of two days ago. He’s no longer an option for the Dodgers, however, as the Brewers traded him to the Mets last night. For the record, Friedman’s comments were made before that trade went down. Even with Peralta off the board, free agency still has Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen and others. MacKenzie Gore is one of a few theoretical trade candidates potentially still available.

Hoping for all their projected starters to stay healthy would be a risky move for the Dodgers but their depth should be better than last year. River Ryan and Kyle Hurt both underwent Tommy John surgery 2024, Ryan in August and Hurt in July. Gavin Stone missed 2025 due to shoulder surgery. Those three should be better positioned health wise going into 2026. They all have options and could be in the Triple-A rotation alongside guys like Justin Wrobleski and Landon Knack.

If Friedman is being genuine and plans to hold with the incumbent group of starters, that would be defensible since the group has the chance to be healthier than in 2025. So many of these guys were recovering from surgery for at least part of the 2025 season but those procedures are all now a bit further in the rear-view. On the other hand, new injuries are inevitable, so adding some depth via minor moves could be in order.

Photo courtesy of Kiyoshi Mio, Imagn Images

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Tigers, Corey Julks Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have agreed to a minor league contract with free agent outfielder Corey Julks, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll presumably be in big league camp as a non-roster player.

Julks, 30 next month, has seen big league time in three consecutive seasons — albeit just 13 plate appearances with the White Sox this past season. He’s played roughly the equivalent of one full major league season, appearing in 165 games and tallying 565 plate appearances as a big leaguer. In that time, he’s slashed .234/.288/.337 with nine homers, 23 doubles, 20 steals (in 25 tries), a 7% walk rate and a 24.4% strikeout rate. Julks became a free agent after the White Sox passed him through outright waivers following the 2025 season.

It’s middling big league production, but Julks has a long history of producing at the Triple-A level, where he’s spent parts of four seasons and slashed .279/.365/.486. Julks belted 31 homers and swiped 22 bags with the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate back in 2022, and by measure of wRC+, he’s been at least 18% better than average at the plate in all four of his Triple-A campaigns.

Julks doesn’t have a significant platoon split in his fairly limited MLB time — he’s been below average against both lefties and righties — but he’s a right-handed bat who’s pummeled lefties in recent minor league seasons. He slashed .301/.377/.484 against southpaws this past season and hit them at a .297/.381/.424 clip the year prior.

Defensively, Julks has experience at all three outfield spots but has primarily played the corners. He was credited with above-average sprint speed and arm strength in 2023-24 but below-average range in the outfield. He’s also played 415 innings at third base and another 28 at second base in the minors, but he’s primarily a corner outfielder who at best can make an emergency cameo at another spot on the diamond.

Twins To Sign Taylor Rogers

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The Twins are bringing old friend Taylor Rogers back on a one-year, $2MM contract, per Ken Rosenthal and Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic. Rogers, who’s represented by Frontline Athlete Management, spent the 2016-21 seasons in Minnesota, spending the latter three as their closer and earning an All-Star nod in 2021. Minnesota has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to create space for Rogers (and another one for recently signed catcher Victor Caratini).

A reunion with the 35-year-old Rogers makes sense for a Twins club that’s in dire need of steady arms in the bullpen. While the left-hander isn’t close to the peak form he showed late in his original run with Minnesota, he pitched to a solid 3.38 ERA with an above-average 24% strikeout rate in 50 2/3 innings between the Reds and Cubs in 2025. Rogers’ 10.4% walk rate was the second-highest of his lengthy career and more than double the 4.3% mark he posted over his best three seasons as a Twin (2019-21), but he was a useful middle relief arm in both Cincinnati and Chicago this past season.

Beyond the decline in command, Rogers has seen a fundamental decline in the strength of his repertoire. He averaged 95.7 mph on his sinker and 84 mph on his slider back in 2021. In 2025, those pitches were carried respective average velocities of 92.7 mph and 78.4 mph. Accordingly, Rogers has seen a notable drop in his swinging-strike rate and significant upticks in his opponents’ contact rate.

Rogers was traded from the Twins to the Padres just prior to Opening Day in 2022 — a deal that brought Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan back to Minnesota. (Brent Rooker was also shipped to San Diego in that deal, but he was cut loose by both the Friars and Royals before breaking out with the A’s.) He went on to sign a three-year, $33MM deal with the Giants, who traded him to the Reds late last offseason.

The Giants seemed to quickly sour on using Rogers in high-leverage spots. He collected a dozen holds and a pair of saves while pitching decently in year one of his contract but was moved to a middle-relief capacity the following season. In terms of leverage index, Rogers has worked primarily in low-leverage spots over the past two seasons. On the whole, the results over the life of that three-year contract were sound (3.16 ERA), but Rogers’ rate stats have faded steadily.

Even a lesser version of Rogers than the one remembered and beloved by many Twins fans will be an improvement to a Minnesota bullpen that was gutted at last year’s trade deadline. The Twins traded five relievers — Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Brock Stewart — as part of a fire sale that netted a combination of MLB-ready young players (e.g. Mick Abel, Taj Bradley, Alan Roden) and well-regarded prospects (e.g. Eduardo Tait, Kendry Rojas). That slate of trades decimated what had been one of the best bullpens in the sport; Twins relievers posted the fourth-worst ERA in the sport following last year’s deadline.

There’s virtually no certainty in the Twins’ bullpen at present. Rogers immediately becomes the most experienced member of the group and, for now anyway, could be an option for high-leverage spots or even save opportunities. He’ll join Justin Topa, Cole Sands and Kody Funderburk (who excelled down the stretch following last year’s fire sale) as the only current members of the bullpen with even one full year of major league service time.

The Twins have a deep collection of young starters, several of whom could end up in the ’pen over the long run, but there’s clearly room to add another veteran arm here — if not multiple arms. Rogers’ modest $2MM guarantee bumps Minnesota’s payroll to just under $109MM, per RosterResource’s estimates.

That’s around $25MM lower than last year’s mark, so even with ownership scaling back payroll, the front office should still have sufficient resources to bring in another arm. Hard-throwing righty Seranthony Dominguez is among the relievers to whom the Twins have reportedly spoken, while other yet-unsigned relief options of note include Michael Kopech, Nick Martinez, Tommy Kahnle, Paul Sewald and Coulombe.

The Opener: Mets, Yankees, Rotation Market

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:

1. Mets land their top-end starter:

A busy week for the Mets got even better last night when the team swung a deal with the Brewers to acquire right-hander Freddy Peralta. New York surrendered two top prospects (Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat) in order to land Peralta (and righty Tobias Myers), but in doing so they’ve finally addressed their long-discussed need for a top-of-the-rotation talent. Peralta finished fifth in NL Cy Young voting this past year and is a two-time All-Star.

That pedigree is enough to make him a great choice to pair with Nolan McLean at the top of the rotation, but questions remain about what’s next for the Mets. Could the team look to make another addition, perhaps to add some insurance behind Carson Benge and Luis Robert Jr. in the outfield? New York still has a glut of starting pitching talent to dangle in subsequent trades. McLean’s dominant 2025 debut makes him a lock for the rotation. Veteran options include Peralta, David Peterson, Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, and Sean Manaea. Myers, top prospect Jonah Tong and former top prospect Christian Scott, who’s returning from 2024 Tommy John surgery, could all pitch in a big league rotation as well, though every member of that trio has at least one minor league option remaining.

2. Yankees land Bellinger:

The Yankees finally reunited with Cody Bellinger yesterday when he agreed to a five-year, $162.5MM deal that affords him the opportunity to opt out after the 2027 and ’28 seasons. The move helps to solidify the team’s outfield, setting the Yanks up to once again rely primarily on a trio of Bellinger, Aaron Judge, and Trent Grisham on the grass. That begs the question of what happens with young outfielder Jasson Dominguez and top prospect Spencer Jones, though both could certainly be kept as depth given that Grisham is on a one-year deal. It’s unclear at this point if the Yankees are done; Bellinger was the big fish the club was looking for, but they were also involved in the Peralta market prior to Milwaukee’s deal with the Mets. It’s possible they pivot elsewhere, though the Yanks have already deepened the rotation by acquiring lefty Ryan Weathers from the Marlins.

3. Post-Peralta rotation market:

Peralta’s trade to the Mets not only takes the top starting pitcher off the trade market, it also takes the most obvious suitor for high-end pitching off the table. That’s an interesting state of affairs given that the rotation market still boasts two starters with front-of-the-rotation pedigree: lefty Framber Valdez and, to a lesser extent given his down season in 2025, righty Zac Gallen. The Orioles have been known to be in the market for a front-end starter this winter, and while swinging a deal for Shane Baz added some upside, they haven’t landed a more established arm. The same can be said for the Cubs, who made a deal for promising righty Edward Cabrera earlier this month. Atlanta could use another arm but doesn’t typically spend at Valdez levels in free agency. The D-backs may not have payroll space. The Angels saved significant money with Anthony Rendon’s contract restructure but haven’t yet been prominent players in free agency.

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