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Kyle Tucker Visits Blue Jays’ Spring Facility

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The Blue Jays welcomed Kyle Tucker to their Dunedin complex this afternoon, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Murray writes that the Jays continue to have interest in both Tucker and Bo Bichette.

Toronto has been the most aggressive team in the first month of the offseason. Their seven-year deal with Dylan Cease is the biggest signing to date. They agreed to a three-year contract with KBO MVP Cody Ponce to deepen the rotation. None of that is expected to take them out of the mix on a top free agent hitter. It’d be stunning to see them sign Tucker and Bichette — who’ll probably join Cease in receiving the three largest contracts of the offseason — but the Jays appear firmly in play for either of free agency’s two best hitters.

Re-signing Bichette would be the more straightforward move, but Tucker is the better all-around player. He’s a lifetime .273/.358/.507 hitter and is coming off a .266/.377/.464 showing in his lone season with the Cubs. Even if the Jays don’t really need a corner outfielder, Tucker is the caliber of player for whom any team can make room. ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote last month that some executives with other clubs considered the Jays the likeliest landing spot. That preceded the Cease signing but hasn’t closed the door on the possibility.

MLBTR predicted Tucker to receive an 11-year, $400MM contract as he enters his age-29 season. He declined a qualifying offer and is attached to draft pick compensation. The Jays already forfeited their second- and fifth-highest picks in next year’s draft, plus $1MM from their 2027 international bonus pool, to sign Cease. Signing another qualified free agent would cost them their third- and sixth-highest picks as well. That would not apply to their own qualified free agent in Bichette (though they’d give up their right to receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round).

RosterResource projects the Jays around a $282MM competitive balance tax figure. They’re already on track for the highest payroll in team history. Adding another top free agent would push them beyond the $304MM final luxury tax threshold. There’s no indication that the budget is tight at this point, though the Jays could try to shed some of the remaining three years and $66MM on the José Berríos deal. Toronto is seeking a high-leverage reliever on top of their pursuit for a big bat.

Mets Sign Devin Williams To Three-Year Deal

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December 3: The Mets have officially announced their signing of Williams.

December 1: Another free agent reliever has come off the board. The Mets are reportedly in agreement with Devin Williams on a three-year deal that guarantees the Klutch Sports client $51MM, though the net present value is knocked down by $15MM in deferrals.

Williams receives a $6MM signing bonus that’ll be paid in $2MM installments. He receives $15MM annual salaries, $5MM of which is deferred each season. (Signing bonuses are paid even in the event of a work stoppage, while players would not receive salaries for any games lost to a 2027 lockout.) There’s also reportedly a $1MM assignment bonus in the event of a trade.

A second-round pick by the Brewers in 2013, Williams took a while to climb through the minor leagues as a starting pitcher. He took off after being moved to the bullpen in 2019, climbing from Double-A to the big leagues by the end of that season. Williams emerged as one of the sport’s best late-game weapons by his first full big league season. He turned in a 0.33 ERA across 27 innings during the shortened 2020 schedule and claimed the National League Rookie and Reliever of the Year Awards.

The righty continued to dominate over the next few seasons, forming a lethal back-end duo with Josh Hader. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns had a front row seat as Milwaukee’s front office leader for most of that tenure. Williams stepped into the ninth inning when Milwaukee sent Hader to San Diego at the ’22 deadline. He reeled off 36 saves in 40 tries with a 1.53 ERA to win his second career Reliever of the Year honors a year later.

Over his first four full seasons, Williams pitched to a 1.75 ERA while striking out 40.5% of opposing hitters. Heading into 2024, there was a decent argument for him as the best reliever in MLB. He hit his first real setback that Spring Training, as testing revealed two stress fractures in his back. He didn’t make his season debut until shortly before the trade deadline. Williams looked every bit as dominant during the regular season, reeling off 21 2/3 frames of three-run ball with 38 strikeouts to finish the year. His season ended in heartbreak fashion, as he surrendered a go-ahead homer to Pete Alonso in the final game of the Wild Card Series.

That wound up being Williams’ final action in a Milwaukee uniform. Before his last year of arbitration, the Brewers flipped him to the Yankees for starter Nestor Cortes and rookie infielder Caleb Durbin. The Yankees felt they were acquiring one of the ten best relievers in the sport. Williams’ results, at least, didn’t come close to those expectations.

The 31-year-old righty had an inconsistent lone season in the Bronx. He was terrible early on, giving up multiple runs in three of his first 10 appearances. Consecutive poor outings at the end of April led the Yankees to move him to a setup role and put Luke Weaver back into the ninth inning. Williams had one more rough appearance in early May before settling into a groove over the next few weeks. He returned to closing when Weaver landed on the injured list at the beginning of June.

Williams was lights out from that point through the All-Star Break. He gave up runs in seven of his first nine appearances of the second half, though, and the Yankees pushed him out of the closer role for good when they acquired David Bednar at the trade deadline. Williams posted a 5.06 ERA in the second half despite striking out nearly 40% of batters faced — the second-best rate among qualified relievers behind Mason Miller. He worked in a setup capacity late in the season and into the playoffs. Williams tossed four scoreless frames with four strikeouts in the postseason.

The end result was a career-worst 4.79 earned run average over 67 appearances. The Mets are placing a decent sized bet that the poor run prevention was a fluke. Opponents had a .339 batting average on balls in play when runners were on base. That’s easily the highest mark in Williams’ career (aside from his brief 2019 debut). He had a very difficult time stranding runners as a result. While relievers certainly need to be able to work out of tough situations, that had never previously been an issue.

Batted ball metrics can be volatile, especially for relievers who only throw 60-70 innings in a season. Williams’ stuff still grades out extremely well, and he remains capable of missing bats at a level that few other pitchers can match. He struck out 34.7% of opponents behind a 16.8% swinging strike rate. Those are down slightly from his usual marks but remain among the best in MLB. Among relievers with 50+ innings, Williams finished eighth in strikeout rate and 10th in whiffs.

Williams has two pitches which he has used at roughly equal rates over the past couple seasons. His fastball sits around 94 MPH and while it’s a good pitch, his standout offering is his unique “Airbender” screwball/changeup. The pitch still moves unlike any other changeup in the league, and opponents have hit below .200 against it in every full season of his career.

The underlying numbers made Williams a popular “buy-low” target among teams and fanbases. That is borne out in the contract to an extent. Williams might have been in the running for a $100MM deal had he posted another sub-2.00 ERA season. It didn’t force him to settle for a pillow contract, as he’s still being paid as a high-end reliever. Williams falls well short of the four years and $72MM which Tanner Scott commanded last winter, but he’s within the $46-58MM range in which closers Robert Suarez, Liam Hendriks and Raisel Iglesias have found themselves over the past few offseasons. He came up shy of the four years and $68MM which MLBTR had predicted in ranking him the second-best reliever in the class.

While an ugly walk year ERA still has some impact on a pitcher’s market, Williams is the third example this offseason of teams placing a decent amount of emphasis on stuff and whiffs in spite of that. Dylan Cease commanded a seven-year deal from the Blue Jays coming off a 4.55 ERA over 32 starts. Ryan Helsley pulled $14MM annually from the Orioles on a two-year contract with an opt-out despite a brutal finish to his 2025 season with the Mets. It’s easier for clubs to place that kind of bet on pitchers coming from a different team. The Mets were never likely to bring back Helsley, and while the Yankees reportedly kept in contact with Williams’ camp, they also opted not to issue him a $22.025MM qualifying offer that probably would have kept him around on a one-year deal.

The Mets obviously don’t feel that Williams is incapable of succeeding in New York. He’ll slot into a key late-inning role in Carlos Mendoza’s bullpen. He projects as the closer for now but could slide back into a setup capacity if the Mets bring back Edwin Díaz, which they’re reportedly still considering. If the Mets allow their longtime closer to walk, they’ll need to bring in multiple right-handed setup arms to bridge the gap to Williams in the ninth.

RosterResource projects the Mets’ 2026 payroll and luxury tax commitments in the $277-280MM range. They’re likely to end up beyond the $304MM final surcharge threshold by the time they address the rotation, bullpen, and/or first base and the corner outfield. The estimate from FanGraphs currently has them in the second tier of penalization — just below the $284MM cutoff for Tier 3. They’re taxed at a 62% rate for spending between $264MM and $284MM, so the Williams signing comes with an approximate $8-10MM tax hit depending on the calculation of the net present value. They’ll pay a 95% tax on spending between $284MM and $304MM and a 110% bill on any money beyond $304MM.

Will Sammon of The Athletic reported that the Mets and Williams had agreed to a three-year deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan noted that the guarantee was above $50MM, while Jon Heyman of The New York Post had the salary/bonus/deferral breakdown. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was first on the assignment bonus.

Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images.

Blue Jays, Cody Ponce Agree To Three-Year Deal

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The Blue Jays are reportedly in agreement with free agent starter Cody Ponce on a three-year, $30MM contract. The deal is pending a physical and has yet to be announced by the team. The Jays have two openings on the 40-man roster and do not need to make a corresponding move. Ponce, a client of Excel Sports Management, returns to the majors after an MVP-winning season in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Toronto continues to load up in the rotation on the same day they finalized their seven-year contract with Dylan Cease. They already had a strong top four with Cease, Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Shane Bieber. Ponce and José Berríos project as the fifth and sixth starters in what looks like one of the strongest rotations in baseball. Eric Lauer, who pitched to a 3.18 ERA over 104 2/3 innings in a swing role this year, is down to seventh on the depth chart.

The three-year deal and $10MM average annual value suggests the Jays view Ponce as a starter. He doesn’t have much rotation experience in the big leagues, starting five of 20 appearances with the Pirates between 2020-21. Ponce struggled in that first look but has reinvented himself since moving to Asia. He pitched parts of three seasons in Japan before a breakout 2025 season with the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles.

Ponce took the ball 29 times and turned in a 1.89 earned run average across 180 2/3 innings. He recorded a league-best 36.2% strikeout percentage against a tidy 6% walk rate. Ponce led the league with 252 strikeouts overall and was the only KBO pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA in more than 100 innings.

The numbers alone would have been enough for Ponce to get back on the MLB radar. The more important factor for his contract was that his stuff has taken a matching jump. Ponce averaged 93.2 MPH on his fastball during his big league look, but a scout with a non-Toronto team told MLBTR in October that his velocity had climbed into the mid-90s. Eno Sarris of The Athletic wrote earlier this week that his average heater was in the 95 MPH range, and he has been clocked up to 98. Ponce has reportedly picked up a splitter — the carrying pitch for Yesavage and Gausman as well — and mixes in a cutter and curveball.

Ponce throws harder and has better secondary stuff than Erick Fedde did when he returned to North America after his own MVP season in Korea. As a result, the 31-year-old gets an extra year and doubled the $15MM guarantee that Fedde received from the White Sox over the 2023-24 offseason. Fedde, for what it’s worth, pitched well in his first year back before his numbers cratered this past season.

It’s a strong deal for Ponce, who tops MLBTR’s prediction of two years and $22MM. It’s by far the biggest payday of his career. Ponce received a signing bonus a little north of $1MM as a second-round pick by the Brewers in the 2015 draft. He did not come close to the service time to qualify for arbitration in his first stint in MLB and played on a $1MM contract with the Eagles.

The salary breakdown hasn’t been reported, but an even distribution of $10MM annually would push Toronto’s projected payroll to roughly $272MM (courtesy of RosterResource). The $10MM average annual value pushes their luxury tax projection above $280MM. The Jays are in the second tier and are taxed at a 42% rate on spending between $264MM and $284MM. That means they’ll pay $4.2MM in taxes for the first season of the Ponce contract. That’s a relative drop in the bucket given the amount the Jays are spending, but the payroll only seems likely to climb. They’d like to re-sign Bo Bichette and will almost certainly add a high-leverage reliever to join Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland at the back end.

Spending beyond the $284MM mark would raise their tax penalties and result in their top pick in the 2027 draft being moved back 10 spots. That doesn’t appear to be much of a deterrent for a team that forfeited its second and fifth-highest picks in next summer’s draft and $1MM from its international bonus pool to sign Cease. The Jays are all in after coming tantalizingly close to their first World Series in three decades.

If payroll does become an obstacle to re-signing Bichette or adding to the bullpen, the Jays could look to shop Berríos. He’s making $18MM next season and will need to decide whether to opt out of the remaining two years and $48MM on the deal after 2026. It’s not an egregious contract but looks above market for what’ll be ages 32-34 on a pitcher who has struck out fewer than 20% of batters faced in consecutive seasons. Berríos is a solid source of back-of-the-rotation innings, but the Jays would probably need to pay down some of the money and/or take back a slightly underwater deal in a trade.

The simpler path would be to keep everyone and open the season with a six-man rotation if no one suffers an injury during Spring Training. No team gets through an entire season using only five starters. The pitching staff logged a lot of innings this fall. Gausman and Bieber will be free agents after next season, and while Berríos doesn’t look like he’s trending towards an opt-out, that could change with a strong platform year. Lauer will also return to the open market next winter.

Aside from Yesavage, the Jays don’t have much in the way of upper level pitching prospects. Former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann is on the 40-man roster and will probably make his MLB debut in 2026, but he missed the entire ’25 season and has pitched 140 innings since being drafted in 2021. The durability concerns might push him to the bullpen, and even if the Jays want to give him another chance as a starter, they’re certainly not going to let him throw 150 innings. Jake Bloss is unlikely to be a factor until the second half after undergoing elbow surgery in May. The Ponce signing probably rules the Jays out on bringing back Chris Bassitt or Max Scherzer but doesn’t make a Berríos trade a foregone conclusion.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Ponce and the Jays were finalizing a three-year deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had the $30MM guarantee.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Astros Have Received Interest In Jesus Sanchez

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The Astros are losing Framber Valdez to free agency, leaving them in need of multiple starting pitchers behind ace Hunter Brown. Houston has taken cheap one-year fliers on former top prospect Nate Pearson and KBO returnee Ryan Weiss to compete for spots at the back of the staff. Those are fine dice rolls, but they’ll need to acquire someone whom they can comfortably slot alongside Cristian Javier in the middle of the rotation.

If owner Jim Crane remains loathe to cross the luxury tax line, the front office won’t have much flexibility to add free agent starting pitching. Chandler Rome of The Athletic writes that the club is indeed more likely to address the rotation via trade. One of the league’s weakest farm systems won’t do them any favors, so they might be looking at dealing from the MLB roster to accomplish that.

Houston is reportedly open to dealing standout defensive center fielder Jake Meyers for pitching. Meyers is coming off a career-best season at the plate and is controllable via arbitration for two seasons. He’s the best trade chip in the Houston outfield, but he’s not the only candidate to move this offseason. Rome reports that the Astros have gotten interest from other clubs in right fielder Jesús Sánchez as well.

That could explain why Sánchez remains on the roster at all. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $6.5MM salary in his third of four trips through the arbitration process. It came as a surprise that Houston tendered him a contract. Sánchez had a very poor finish to the 2025 season, batting .199/.269/.342 over 160 plate appearances after being acquired from Miami at the trade deadline. Combined with the escalating salaries and the payroll restrictions, it made him a non-tender candidate.

General manager Dana Brown acknowledged at last month’s GM Meetings that he was open to trade inquiries on Sánchez. Even if they’re not especially interested in paying him $6-7MM, it seems they found enough interest that they didn’t want to let him go for no return.

Sánchez isn’t going to net a mid-rotation arm, but it’s possible they swap him for a back-end starter. Teams like the Royals, Pirates, Guardians and Phillies could look to the trade market for a corner outfielder. While Sánchez has never lived up to his billing as a top prospect, he was an alright everyday player throughout his time with the Marlins. He was a league average hitter between 2021 and the ’25 deadline, hitting .246/.312/.432 in nearly 1900 plate appearances. He has plus bat speed and has typically posted strong exit velocities, though his batted ball metrics also collapsed in Houston.

Even if the Astros are unlikely to swap Sánchez for their biggest rotation pickup of the offseason, a change-of-scenery deal would create a bit of spending room. Trading both Sánchez and Meyers would leave them very thin in the outfield, and dealing the former would subtract one of their few left-handed bats. While Dana Brown has already said they’re not interested in moving Isaac Paredes, that might be something the front office needs to consider later in the offseason if they can’t find a mid-rotation arm in a different way.

Latest On Kyle Schwarber’s Market

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The Reds remain in the market for Kyle Schwarber, writes Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. That has been a frequent connection because Schwarber grew up a Reds fan not far outside Cincinnati. The club also needs to add an impact bat, though it remains to be seen if they’re willing to make a competitive offer.

Cincinnati finished 14th in MLB in scoring despite playing in one of the sport’s most hitter-friendly venues. They had a .245/.315/.391 slash line and finished 21st in home runs. Elly De La Cruz was the team leader with 22 homers, and their only two hitters who slugged at least .450 in more than 100 plate appearances (Miguel Andujar and Austin Hays) are free agents. The Reds need offense generally and would benefit from a power bat in particular.

Schwarber is the best slugger available. He’s coming off a 56-homer season in which he hit .240/.365/.563 while starting all 162 games for the Phillies. He hasn’t hit fewer than 30 homers in a full season since 2018 and is tied with Shohei Ohtani for second in MLB (behind Aaron Judge) in longballs over the last four years.

Cincinnati doesn’t have anyone locked into the everyday DH role. They’ll probably want to give 22-year-old Sal Stewart more time to see if he can be a serviceable defender at first base. Spencer Steer could play left field more frequently or simply be shopped in trade if the Reds were to add Schwarber (or Pete Alonso, a long speculated potential fit).

While it’s a clear fit from a roster perspective, it’d require an unusually bold commitment from ownership. Schwarber is expected to handily surpass a $100MM guarantee and could land $30MM+ annually. The Reds have given out two nine-figure contracts in franchise history: $225MM for Joey Votto and $105MM to Homer Bailey. Those were both extensions. Their largest free agent deals were the matching four-year, $64MM terms to Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas. Those $16MM average annual values were the most for any multi-year free agent signing. Schwarber might require twice that amount.

President of baseball operations Nick Krall said last month that the Reds expect to run a similar payroll to this past season’s level. They opened ’25 with a payroll around $116MM. They have around $40MM in guaranteed contracts but have a hefty arbitration class that MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects to cost roughly $45MM.

Filling out the roster with players making the league minimum would leave them with roughly $20-25MM to spend. They’ll certainly add a bat of some significance, but a Schwarber signing might require ownership to push the budget beyond where they seemingly prefer to set it. The other option would be to shed money from the arbitration class by shopping one or more of Brady Singer ($11.9MM projection), Tyler Stephenson ($6.4MM), Gavin Lux ($5MM), TJ Friedl ($4.9MM), Nick Lodolo ($4.3MM) or Steer ($4.5MM).

In a less obvious connection, Jon Morosi of The MLB Network relayed this morning that the Giants have also been in contact with Schwarber’s camp. That’s a much more difficult fit from a roster perspective. San Francisco has Rafael Devers under contract through 2033. Even if they’re confident he’ll be a capable everyday first baseman, they’d need at-bats at designated hitter for top first base prospect Bryce Eldridge. There’s an argument for the Giants to bring in a short-term first baseman/DH to give the 21-year-old Eldridge more time in Triple-A, but that wouldn’t apply to a four- or five-year contract for Schwarber.

The Giants presumably wouldn’t have any interest in using Schwarber as an everyday outfielder. There’d only be any kind of fit if they trade Eldridge for a starter. They’ve already downplayed their desire to make a nine-figure commitment to a starter despite calling pitching their top priority. It’d be a huge surprise if they committed that kind of money to a DH.

Schwarber rejected a qualifying offer, so whichever team signs him will forfeit draft compensation. Philadelphia has made no secret of their desire to bring him back. The Orioles and Red Sox are both in the market for an impact bat and have shown interest, while the Pirates have been mentioned as an extreme long shot after making an unsuccessful attempt to lure Josh Naylor away from Seattle.

Cubs Sign Scott Kingery To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs signed utility player Scott Kingery to a minor league contract, the team informed reporters (including Maddie Lee of The Chicago Sun-Times). He’ll be in MLB camp as a non-roster invitee.

Kingery returned to the majors this past season, getting into 19 games with the Angels. It marked his first MLB action in three years. His 29 MLB plate appearances were the most he logged in a season dating back to 2020. The former top Phillies prospect recored four hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts. He has a lifetime .227/.278/.382 batting line in nearly 1200 career plate appearances, almost all of which came in Philadelphia from 2018-19.

Now 31, Kingery spent most of this year at Triple-A Salt Lake. He batted .228/.284/.402 while striking out in a quarter of his trips to the plate. It was a step back from his more impressive ’24 season with the Phillies’ top affiliate, when Kingery had a 25-25 season in the minors.

The Cubs won’t expect much offensively from the right-handed hitter. Kingery provides defensive versatility and plays anywhere on the diamond aside from first base and catcher. He’s an above-average runner who’ll compete for a spot on Craig Counsell’s bench during Spring Training.

Tigers Have Interest In Michael King

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The Tigers have expressed interest in free agent starter Michael King, reports Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press. King has also been tied to the Yankees, Cubs, Blue Jays and Marlins — though the latter two teams are unlikely fits. Toronto is probably done adding to the rotation now that they’ve agreed to a three-year deal with Cody Ponce. Miami has bigger priorities on the infield and in the bullpen and always seemed a long shot to spend at this level.

King is coming off an injury-shortened season in which he was limited to 15 starts. A nerve issue in his throwing shoulder proved a lot more irritating than initially expected and wound up costing him two and a half months. He also had a minimal injured list stint due to knee inflammation. King looked shaky when he returned in September, allowing 10 runs with a modest 11:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 15 2/3 innings.

That adds some risk to his first career trip through free agency. A fully healthy version of King is one of the best pitchers in MLB, though. He finished seventh in NL Cy Young balloting during the 2024 season. King turned in a 2.95 earned run average across 173 2/3 innings in his first full season as a big league starter. He was out to an even better start this year, working to a 2.59 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate over 10 appearances before the nerve injury.

There wasn’t any structural damage. King finished the season healthy, though the Padres didn’t trust him enough to start over Yu Darvish in an elimination game in the Wild Card Series. They were content to make him a qualifying offer, which probably would not have been the case if they felt the injury might impact him in 2026. King rejected in search of a multi-year contract. He’s generally not expected to return to San Diego.

The Tigers are in the market for starting and relief help. They don’t have a clear #2 starter behind Tarik Skubal. That’d probably fall to Reese Olson, but he missed the final two months of 2025 to a shoulder strain. Jack Flaherty is back after exercising his $20MM player option following an up-and-down year. Casey Mize pitched well overall but is more of a #3 or high-end fourth starter than someone the Tigers would want directly behind Skubal in a playoff series. Jackson Jobe won’t be available until the second half after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June.

Rookie righty Troy Melton, who pitched out of the MLB bullpen down the stretch, would probably be the fifth starter if the season opened tomorrow. Keider Montero and Sawyer Gipson-Long lead a thin collection of depth arms. Everyone from that group has minor league options and could work from the bullpen. All teams use more than five starters, so the Tigers certainly need at least one or two additions to protect against injuries.

Mets Not Ruling Out Edwin Diaz Reunion Despite Williams Signing

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Dec. 2:  While the Mets do still hope to re-sign Díaz, there’s been a gap in talks. Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that while Díaz has indeed been seeking a five-year pact, the Mets’ preference has been to limit the commitment to a three-year term (presumably at a top-of-the-market annual value).

Dec. 1: The Mets are adding Devin Williams to the back of their bullpen on a three-year contract. That gives them an established closer if Edwin Díaz signs elsewhere, but it apparently won’t completely shut the door on Díaz staying in Queens.

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to report that the Mets still have interest in re-signing Díaz. It seems Williams is on board with that plan, as DiComo writes that the new signee is open to pitching in a setup capacity if the Mets bring back their incumbent closer. Díaz rejected a qualifying offer and is reportedly seeking a deal in the five-year, $100MM range. At last month’s award ceremony, the three-time All-Star put the chance of a reunion around 50-50. “If they came with the best deal for me, I’d enjoy to stay with them,” Díaz told reporters at the time, “but at the end of the day, I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

The Williams signing presumably reduces the odds of a Díaz return. The Mets might feel more comfortable walking away and collecting a compensatory draft pick now that they no longer need a closer. Yet they certainly still need to add in the late innings. Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley, Gregory Soto and Ryne Stanek also all hit free agency. If Williams were penciled into the ninth, Huascar Brazoban would be their most established right-handed setup man. They should bring in another two high-leverage relievers at least.

Díaz is also simply an upgrade over Williams in the ninth inning. While there’s reason for optimism in the latter’s track record and underlying metrics, he’s a bit of a gamble coming off an uneven year with the Yankees. Díaz has no such concerns, as he posted a 1.63 earned run average while striking out 38% of opponents across 66 1/3 innings last season. He went 28-31 in save chances. That’ll be reflected in their respective contracts, but the bullpen would look a lot more formidable with Williams in the eighth and Díaz back in the ninth.

The Blue Jays are the only other team that has been publicly linked to Díaz this offseason. Teams like the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, Tigers, Red Sox, Cubs, Diamondbacks and Angels could also be in the mix for high-leverage bullpen help.

Dave Morehead Passes Away

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Former big league pitcher Dave Morehead passed away last week, according to a report from J.P. Hoornstra of Newsweek. He was 82.

Morehead was a San Diego native who signed with the Red Sox as a 17-year-old. He was in the big leagues two years later, winning 10 games and pitching 174 2/3 innings in his age-19 season. The 6’1″ righty threw a complete game shutout with 10 strikeouts to beat the Washington Senators in his MLB debut. Morehead would go on to record 136 punchouts with a 3.81 earned run average in what was arguably the best season of his career.

He’d hold a rotation spot in Boston for the next two seasons. Morehead’s ERA spiked north of 4.00 in each of the next two years, though he started 30+ games and topped 130 strikeouts in both seasons. The highlight of his career came at the end of the ’65 season. Morehead fired a no-hitter in a 2-0 win over Cleveland that September. He fanned eight and only allowed one baserunner (a second-inning walk to Rocky Colavito) to outduel Luis Tiant. It was the 14th no-hitter in franchise history.

Morehead battled injuries and was limited to a combined 33 regular season appearances over the next three seasons. The Sox won 92 games to claim the AL pennant in 1967. Morehead got into two games during the Fall Classic, working around four walks to toss 3 1/3 scoreless frames. Boston came up just short of a title, as Bob Gibson won three times to push the Cardinals to a seven-game Series win.

After the ’68 season, Morehead went to Kansas City in the expansion draft. He pitched two seasons with the Royals to finish his career. Morehead pitched to a 4.15 ERA with 627 strikeouts over 819 1/3 innings in parts of eight campaigns. MLBTR sends our condolences to Morehead’s family, friends and loved ones.

Latest On Giants’ Offseason Targets

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The Giants are among the teams looking to upgrade at second base, write Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of The Athletic. The keystone and right field are the obvious needs on the position player side for Buster Posey’s front office.

Tyler Fitzgerald entered the season as San Francisco’s starting second baseman. He’d hit .280/.334/.497 over 96 games during an impressive 2024 rookie campaign. A 32% strikeout rate always made him a clear regression candidate, however, and the Louisville product stumbled to a .217/.278/.327 line this past season. Fitzgerald lost his hold on the starting job by the end of June and spent most of the second half in Triple-A.

Casey Schmitt now holds the top spot on the depth chart. Schmitt had a league average .237/.305/.401 slash line over 348 plate appearances. That’s carried largely by a scorching two-week stretch in June, and he hit .227/.282/.402 after the All-Star Break. Light-hitting utility player Christian Koss is the only other option on the 40-man roster. Giants second basemen had a .217/.273/.343 showing on the season overall.

There’s not a whole lot available in free agency. There’s a clear roster fit for Bo Bichette if he’s willing to move to the other side of the second base bag, but the Giants already have three long-term deals in the infield for Matt Chapman, Willy Adames and Rafael Devers. They could make a run at Ha-Seong Kim, who declined a $16MM player option and is one of the better shortstops available in a barren class.

Jorge Polanco’s knee injuries make him an iffy bet for everyday playing time at second base. The Giants won’t have many designated hitter at-bats available barring a surprising Bryce Eldridge trade. Luis Arraez would be an offensive upgrade but has been pushed mostly to first base over the past two seasons because of his lack of range. Utility pieces Willi Castro, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Luis Rengifo and Adam Frazier have limited upside.

There’s a little more available on the trade market. The Rays are willing to consider offers on Brandon Lowe, who’ll make $11.5MM in the final year of his contract. More than half the league should have interest in Cardinals utilityman Brendan Donovan. The Giants have an interesting group of controllable but not quite proven arms (e.g Landen Roupp, Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, Blade Tidwell, Carson Whisenhunt) that could get the ball rolling in talks with the Cards, who are focusing on pitching in their trade returns. That’s theoretically also true if they want to make a push for Ketel Marte, though it’d be shocking if the Diamondbacks deal him within the division.

San Francisco is balancing the positional questions against their needs on the pitching staff. Posey called pitching the priority at the beginning of the offseason. Chairman Greg Johnson and general manager Zack Minasian each subsequently downplayed the team’s desire to make a long-term investment on the pitching side. ESPN’s Buster Olney suggested over the weekend that the club was more involved on mid-tier free agent starters.

This afternoon, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic also downplayed the likelihood of a huge splash for a starter. Baggarly writes that the Giants do not expect to sign Tatsuya Imai and are unlikely to make a nine-figure commitment to any other top-tier starter (e.g. Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez). That aligns with Olney’s reporting about the Giants playing in the middle of the market.

Baggarly adds that the Giants are also looking to rebuild a bullpen that was hit hard this summer. They traded away Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers (though the latter would have been a free agent anyhow) and lost breakout righty Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. Their only acquisition so far this offseason has been a one-year flier on lefty reliever Sam Hentges, who hasn’t thrown an MLB pitch since July 2024 because of shoulder and knee surgeries.

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