Marlins Notes: Infield, Outfield, Mack
The Marlins didn’t make the playoffs in 2025 but are entering the winter with a bit more optimism compared to a year ago. Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald took a look at the Miami position player mix and provided some details on the club’s aspirations for the winter.
Jackson had previously reported that the club was likely going to be targeting a veteran bat this winter. In today’s reporting, he adds that first base is the most likely place for them to make that addition, though third base and the outfield corners are mentioned as other possibilities.
First base is a sensible spot to target, as the Fish don’t really have anyone locked in there. Seven different players spent some time at that spot in 2025, though Eric Wagaman got the bulk of the action. Wagaman hit just .237/.281/.375 for a wRC+ of 79. That indicates he was 21% below league average at the plate. Teams generally hope to get above-average offense out of the first base spot, so that’s a natural spot to look for more production.
The free agent class is headlined by guys like Pete Alonso, Josh Naylor and Ryan O’Hearn. The Marlins have occasionally thrown out notable multi-year deals but president of baseball operations Peter Bendix has largely kept his wallet in his pocket since getting his job. Two offseasons ago, his big signing was one year and $5MM for Tim Anderson. Last winter, it was $3.5MM for Cal Quantrill.
Perhaps he will get more aggressive with the Marlins coming off a respectable 2025 season, though it may be more likely he goes for guys who can be had on short-term deals such as Rhys Hoskins or Paul Goldschmidt. The non-tender deadline will shake loose a few more guys, with Nathaniel Lowe and Ryan Mountcastle some of the possibilities there. Christian Walker and Alec Burleson are speculative trade candidates.
Signing a third baseman is also a possibility but Jackson reports that the most likely scenario is Connor Norby and Graham Pauley battling for the job, or perhaps even forming a platoon. Pauley seems to have a decent floor as a strong defender. In 390 innings at the hot corner this year, he was credited with three Defensive Runs Saved and six Outs Above Average. Offensively, he slashed .224/.311/.366 for a wRC+ of 90. Perhaps there’s more to come with the bat. His 11.4% walk rate and 19.6% strikeout rate were both above average and he may have been held back by an unfortunate .262 batting average on balls in play. But even with offense close to average, he could be a valuable player thanks to the glove.
Norby, on the other hand, received grades of -5 DRS and -4 OAA at third this year. He didn’t make up for that with the bat, as he slashed .251/.300/.389 for a wRC+ of 90. However, he has slashed .293/.369/.493 at the Triple-A level going back to the start of 2023, which translates to a 123 wRC+. Bringing that kind of production to the majors would be great but he’ll be a bit of a question mark until that happens.
As for the platoon possibility Jackson mentions, Norby is right-handed and Pauley left-handed. Both players have reverse splits in their big league careers thus far but the sample size is still pretty small for both. Neither had huge splits in the minors but major league pitching might be a different story in the long run.
In the outfield, Jackson suggests the investment is likely to be small, suggesting it could be similar to the club signing Heriberto Hernández to a minor league deal last winter. They should have Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee in two spots, with room for guys like Hernández, Griffin Conine, Dane Myers, Joey Wiemer and others.
Behind the plate, Bendix already gave a public vote of confidence to Agustín Ramírez, despite his poor defensive metrics. If he is going to get another shot behind the plate next year, that could leave Joe Mack in Triple-A. Jackson reports that the club would prefer Mack to start the year in Jacksonville, but he will have a chance to earn a job in spring training.
Mack is one of the top catching prospects in the league. He’s not yet on the 40-man roster but would be eligible for this winter’s Rule 5 draft if not added, so the Fish will surely give him a spot in order to protect him from being selected. He’s considered a strong defender and he slashed .250/.320/.459 for a 108 wRC+ in 99 Triple-A games this year.
Promoting him to the majors seems justified at this point, but if Ramírez is going to get the bulk of the playing time as the Marlins continue to give him a shot to improve defensively, then perhaps Mack would be better served staying in Triple-A to get regular playing time.
It seems like there’s even less chance of a move up the middle, as Jackson reports the club is happy with the Otto López and Xavier Edwards tandem. López has produced subpar offense but the move to shortstop has worked well. He was credited with 7 DRS and 4 OAA at that spot this year. He can also steal 15-20 bases a year, adding to his value. Edwards got poor grades at short but has been great since kicking over to the other side of the bag. He tallied 12 DRS and 9 OAA at the keystone this year, with 27 steals and roughly average offense.
Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images
New Rays Owners Discuss Stadium Plans
One week ago, the Rays officially changed hands, with a group led by Patrick Zalupski stepping in for Stuart Sternberg. An introductory press conference was held today, featuring Zalupski and other key personnel, with Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times reporting on the proceedings.
With the Rays, the natural focus is stadium plans and that was indeed the case today. Sternberg had been trying for years to get a new stadium plan in place. There was a plan to knock down Tropicana Field and replace it with a new stadium complex. That plan appeared to be on the proverbial one-yard line before hurricane damage to the Trop threw the plan off course. The subsequent squabbling between Sternberg and government officials scuttled the plan and soured the relationship to such a degree that this sale was the result.
The new ownership group is naturally going to resume that search for a future home. The Trop may be repaired to a playable state by the start of the 2026 season. Even if that does come to pass, the club’s lease there only runs through 2028, leaving the future up in the air.
The Zalupski group said today that it plans to pursue an “aggressive and perhaps audacious” plan which would include a fixed roof stadium as part “world class live/work/play experience” in a complex of over 100 acres which would open in time for the 2029 season. The Battery complex which surrounds Atlanta’s Truist Park was cited as “the gold standard” for what the group has in mind.
This type of project has become more popular for sports franchises in recent years. By having non-sports businesses in a larger interconnected network of commerce including things like office towers, hotels and restaurants, it diversifies the portfolio and lessens the pressure on the team to be successful. Even if the club is performing poorly and there’s a drop in terms of attendance and/or television ratings, the owners could still be making money off the other elements of the complex.
What’s still to be determined is the financing for this plan. Per Topkin, the group acknowledged the need for public contributions. That’s another element that modern sports owners love, as it’s obviously a much nicer arrangement if someone else is putting up the money for your real estate projects. Government officials often feel compelled to comply with such plans out of fear that opposing them will hurt at the ballot box. Just last year, Royals owner John Sherman essentially admitted that he bluffed a threat to take that team out of Kansas City because he thought it would help him sway voters in a ballot measure about stadium funding.
Securing that government funding will likely be a key storyline for the Rays in the coming weeks and months. As mentioned, Sternberg’s worsening relationships with public officials made it essentially impossible for him to move forward as owner, which led to this sale. Sternberg’s plan was set in St. Petersburg, meaning he was dealing with officials in that city and officials from Pinellas County.
Zalupski’s group is expected to target Tampa, meaning a different city council and also a different county, as Tampa is in Hillsborough County. That could provide some optimism about getting something done but Sternberg also previously explored Tampa without much success. Tampa mayor Jane Castor was present at the press conference today and said the city is “not going to spend tax dollars on building” a stadium. Topkin notes that Zalupski’s group will be meeting with officials from both Tampa and St. Petersburg, perhaps indicating they are keeping their options open or maybe just doing due diligence. Topkin’s report also adds some specific locations which could be fits.
If the group is successful in getting a stadium and larger complex built, Zalupski suggests that would be good for the team on the field. “It’s what you have to have in today’s Major League Baseball to be successful,” Zalupski said. “We think without that revenue generation, it’s going to be really, really challenging or nearly impossible to compete with the major markets. So for us, this is critical to building a championship team.”
The Rays are well established as one of the lower-spending clubs in the majors. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, their payroll has been in the bottom third of the league for over 20 years. They have still found some success despite that investment, which is often attributed to the club’s cutting-edge approach to analytics. They made the playoffs five straight years from 2019 to 2023, though they’ve dropped to just below .500 in the past two seasons.
Combining the club’s analytical bent with some more resources would be a nice boost, though that may take years to come to fruition. At this point, there’s no real way to tell if the Rays owners are genuine in that plan to make more meaningful investments in the team, but Zalupski did elaborate.
“We’ve got to deliver this world-class development, generate the revenue to produce a consistent champion,” Zalupski said. “You don’t want to be one year great and five years bad and have to go all in. We want to build a sustainable championship team. I think the revenue generation that can come out of this development, will provide that.”
For what it’s worth, Atlanta did ramp up spending after Truist Park opened in 2017. According to Cot’s, their payroll has moved into the top ten recently, after being more middle-of-the-pack in the preceding decade. On the other hand, it was also hoped that the Twins would open up a new era of spending when Target Field opened in 2010, but Cot’s shows that didn’t really happen.
It’s unclear what would happen if the new stadium cannot be ready by the start of 2029. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch has said the city would be open to a Trop extension but they are also planning new developments of the site which could involve the Trop being torn down, per Colleen Wright of The Tampa Bay Times.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement, Imagn Images
Nic Enright To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
With the Guardians having been eliminated from the postseason, some details about their offseason are now coming to light. Per Tim Stebbins of of MLB.com, right-hander Nic Enright will undergo Tommy John surgery in the coming weeks. That will mean he’ll miss the entire 2026 season. Also, designated hitter David Fry will be undergoing surgery for a deviated septum and a fractured nose. His timeline was not specified.
It’s a challenging situation for Enright, a young player who has already been through a lot. He announced in February of 2023 that he was undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He had been with the Marlins at that time after that club took him from the Guardians in the Rule 5 draft a few months earlier. He was returned to the Guardians in June of that year.
In 2024, a lat strain limited him to just 17 Triple-A innings, though the results were good. He only allowed two earned runs on nine hits and five walks while racking up 32 strikeouts. The Guards gave him a 40-man spot in November of that year, to prevent him from being scooped up in the Rule 5 yet again.
That allowed him to make his major league debut this year, which went quite well. While frequently being shuttled to Triple-A and back, he logged 31 innings in the big leagues with a 2.03 ERA, 23.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. He also had a 1.38 ERA in 13 Triple-A frames.
He was placed on the major league injured list in September due to right elbow/forearm inflammation. Presumably, he has spent the past month exploring his options, which has led him to the surgeon’s table. If the Guardians keep him on the 40-man roster through the winter, he could spend all of 2026 on the 60-day injured list. However, there’s no IL in the offseason, so he would need to hold a spot until then.
It has also been a challenging year for Fry. He seemed to break out in 2024, hitting 14 home runs in 122 games, leading to a .263/.356/.448 line and 129 wRC+. But shortly after that season ended, he required surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That was going to cause him to miss time in 2025 and be limited to DH duties when he did return.
He was reinstated from the IL at the end of May. He struggled badly, putting up a .171/.229/.363 line this year. His season was then ended in scary fashion when a pitch from Tarik Skubal hit him in the face. It was initially reported that he would recover in six to eight weeks without the need for surgery, though that plan has evidently changed. Ideally, he can heal up in time for a healthy offseason and spring training but perhaps more updates will be forthcoming throughout the winter.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Previewing The 2025-26 Free Agent Class: First Base
A number of teams (and their fanbases) have already turned their attention towards the offseason. Identifying free agent targets is a big part of that prep work, so it’s worth taking a look at the players who’ll be available at each position. Ages listed are for the 2026 season.
Previous entries in this series: catcher
The Top Guys
- Pete Alonso (31)
Alonso is signed through 2026 but he has an opt-out and has already said that he will use it, so he’ll be back on the open market for a second year in a row. That’s the outcome he and his representatives at the Boras Corporation were hoping for. Last winter, he couldn’t find a satisfactory long-term commitment, so he pivoted to the short-term, opt-out path. The hope with that strategy as that a better platform year and a lack of qualifying offer would lead to a more robust market.
The lack of QO is already assured, as a player can only receive one in his career. Alonso also held up his end of the bargain by having a better walk year. His home run total went from 34 to 38. His batting average climbed from .240 to .272 and his on-base percentage from .329 to .347. His strikeout rate dropped as his batted ball data at Statcast improved. That led to a wRC+ jump from 121 to 141. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 3.6 wins above replacement this year, almost double last year’s 2.1 tally.
That improvement should help him in free agency but it’s still unknown if a long-term contract will be out there for him. In the past seven years, Freddie Freeman is the only free agent first baseman to get a deal longer than three seasons. There have been some long extensions, including for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Matt Olson, but those players were still in their 20s. Alonso’s defense has never been strong and has been especially poor in the last two years. Now that he’s about to turn 31 in December, teams may be wary about how he will age into his mid-30s.
Concerns aside, Alonso will be one of the best bats available. The Mets seemed genuinely willing to let him depart last winter, so the teams outside of Queens should have a legitimate shot at getting him.
- Josh Naylor (29)
Naylor doesn’t quite have the offensive ceiling as Alonso but he’s pretty solidly above average at the plate. He hit 20 home runs this year, his fourth straight season of getting that number to at least 17. He doesn’t walk a ton but doesn’t strike out either. His 13.7% strikeout rate this year was barely half of the 22.2% league average. His .295/.353/.462 line translated to a 128 wRC+, indicating he was 28% better than the league average hitter overall. That makes four straight seasons for Naylor with a wRC+ between 118 and 128.
Like most lefties, he’s better against right-handed pitching, but his splits aren’t extreme. His wRC+ against southpaws has been between 104 and 126 in each of the past three seasons, perfectly acceptable production.
He also has other intriguing qualities. The reviews on his glovework are mixed but not awful. He has 12 Outs Above Average at first base in his career. Defensive Runs Saved has him at -5 overall but that includes a -6 grade in 2024 which looks like an outlier. He’s been close to par in every other season of his career.
He’s not a burner on the basepaths, with Statcast crediting him with second percentile sprint speed, but he has shown a knack for stealing bases regardless. He swiped six to ten bags in the three prior seasons coming into 2025. This year, he cranked that way up to 30, including a shocking 19 steals after being traded to the Mariners at the deadline.
On top of his skills, Naylor’s market should be helped by his relative youth and the fact that he can’t receive a qualifying offer as a player traded midseason. As mentioned in the Alonso section, big league teams haven’t given many long deals to free agent first basemen recently, but Naylor’s reliability and relative youth could help him buck that trend.
- Ryan O’Hearn (32)
A few years ago, O’Hearn looked like a lost cause with the Royals. However, he’s now coming off a strong three-year run as an above-average regular, mostly with the Orioles but also with the Padres after a deadline trade.
He hit 17 home runs this year and slashed .281/.366/.437 for a 127 wRC+. Going back to the start of 2023, he has a .277/.343/.445 line and 121 wRC+. Like Naylor, he doesn’t have Alonso’s huge offensive upside but he’s been a consistently strong contributor. Similar to Naylor, he’s a lefty without strong platoon concerns. O’Hearn had a 108 wRC+ against southpaws in 2023. That dipped to 74 last year but he brought it up to 135 this year. Overall, he has a .261/.326/.442 slash and a 116 wRC+ against lefties over the past three years.
O’Hearn’s glovework seems acceptable as well. He has four OAA at first base in his career. His -12 DRS total isn’t pretty but most of that came earlier in his career. He was credited with 4 DRS here in 2025. He can also play a corner outfield spot in a pinch.
Due to his late breakout, O’Hearn is older than both Alonso and Naylor. That will limit his market to shorter deals but he should be helped by a lack of a QO. Since he was traded midseason, he’s ineligible to receive one.
Everyday Players
- Luis Arráez (29)
The book on Arráez is well known at this point. He hardly ever walks but he’s also almost impossible to strike out. There’s not a ton of power but he’s the best contact hitter in the league. His 3.1% strikeout rate this year was easily the best in the majors among qualified hitters. Jacob Wilson came a distant second with a 7.5% rate.
However, Arráez’s overall production has been trending down lately. In 2022 and 2023, he had a combined .335/.384/.445 batting line and 131 wRC+. He had a .347 batting average on balls in play but that actually wasn’t too high for him personally. His swing seems perfectly designed to drop singles in between the infield and the outfield, so he has regularly had BABIPs in the .320 to .370 range, even though league average is usually around .290.
Over the past two years, he’s dropped down to a combined .303/.337/.392 line and 107 wRC+. The cause of that could be debated. He was playing through a torn thumb ligament last year and only hit four home runs. He’s never been a huge power guy but he’s usually good for eight to ten long balls a year. This year, this thumb has presumably healed and he hit eight homers, but his BABIP dropped to .289. That’s probably not all luck, as his average exit velocity, hard hit rate and barrel rate have all dropped in recent seasons.
He’s not a burner on the basepaths and isn’t especially well regarded on defense. He does have 2 DRS at first in his career but his -14 OAA mark is dreadful. His best trait is the ability to put the bat on the ball. He’s still doing that but with lesser results over the past two years. Put it all together and it’s one of the tougher markets to predict, but some team will find a lineup spot for him.
- Josh Bell (33)
Bell is one of the most hot-and-cold bats in the majors, but he always seems to find his way to a solid season in the end. He signed a one-year, $6MM deal with the rebuilding Nationals coming into 2025. His first half was rough but he finished strong. The end result was a .239/.326/.421 line and 109 wRC+ over 533 plate appearances.
It’s been a long time since he was an All-Star, but Bell has never been on the injured list for more than a few days. He has appeared in at least 140 games in every full season going back to 2018. He hasn’t been a flashy player for a few years now but has still been solid. In the past three seasons, he hit between 19 and 22 home runs with respectable strikeout and walk rates. His wRC+ finished between 101 and 109 in all three of those campaigns.
His defense isn’t great and he hasn’t stolen a base since 2018. But for clubs who want a plug-and-play first baseman/designated hitter who should be in the lineup and contributing from time to time, Bell will be there and won’t be expensive.
- Rhys Hoskins (33)
Hoskins had a strong run with the Phillies as one of the most consistent power hitters in the league. However, his recent career has been more tumultuous. He suffered a torn ACL during spring training in 2023 and missed that entire season. He became a free agent and signed a two-year, $34MM deal with the Brewers, with an opt-out chance halfway through.
Both Hoskins and the Brewers were likely hoping for him to rebound after his lost year and then return to free agency. It hasn’t played out that way. His 2024 started strong, but he faded later in the year and finished with a .214/.303/.419 line and 101 wRC+. After that tepid year, he decided not to opt out and returned to the Brewers for 2025. He was a bit better this year on a rate basis, with a .237/.332/.416 line and 109 wRC+.
Unfortunately, a thumb sprain put him on the IL in July. While he was out, Andrew Vaughn took his job and ran with it. Hoskins was reinstated from the IL with about three weeks left in the season but hardly played, with Vaughn at first base and Christian Yelich in the DH spot most days. Hoskins was not included on Milwaukee’s NLDS roster. He’ll head into free agency without a lot of juice since his recent seasons haven’t been great, but he’s still been an above-average hitter on the whole. His deal has a mutual option for 2026 but it’s been more than a decade since a mutual option was picked up by both sides.
Platoon and Part-Time Bats
- Wilmer Flores (34)
Flores battled knee troubles throughout 2024 and put up awful numbers. He bounced back somewhat in 2025, with production close to league average, though he didn’t get a ton of playing time in the second half as San Francisco’s acquisition of Rafael Devers squeezed Flores into a short-side platoon role with Dominic Smith. A right-handed hitter, Flores has been better against lefties in his career but had reverse splits this year. He finished the season with a .241/.307/.379 line and 95 wRC+.
- Ty France (31)
France had a strong run from 2020 to 2023 but he’s now had two straight years of subpar offense. He signed a one-year deal with the Twins coming into 2025 and got flipped to the Blue Jays as part of the Louis Varland deadline deal. France finished the regular season with a .257/.320/.360 line and 92 wRC+. He finished the season on the IL due to an oblique injury and was left off Toronto’s ALDS roster.
- Paul Goldschmidt (38)
The Yankees signed Goldschmidt to a one-year, $12.5MM deal in the offseason. He got out to a hot start but quickly ran out of gas. He had a .338/.394/.495 line and 148 wRC+ at the end of May but then slashed .226/.277/.333 for a 69 wRC+ the rest of the way. As he struggled, he got bumped into the short side of a platoon, with Ben Rice starting against most righties and Goldschmidt mostly facing lefties. Goldy had a 74 wRC+ against righties this year but a 169 wRC+ against lefties. Based on his track record, he could still get an everyday job somewhere. But considering his age and widening platoon splits, he might fit best as a veteran mentor and lefty masher/bench bat.
- Carlos Santana (40)
Santana has defied the aging curve by remaining a solid player into his late 30s, but 2025 wasn’t his best year. He slashed .219/.308/.325 for a wRC+ of 82. The Guardians released him in late August. He latched on with the Cubs but didn’t play much. Santana consented to an optional assignment late in the year and wasn’t on the club’s playoff roster. He’s still a great defender and the plate discipline is still good, so he could garner interest even as a 40-year-old coming off a rough year at the plate.
- Dominic Smith (31)
Smith spent the first few months of the season with the Yankees on a minor league deal. He opted out of that pact in the summer and signed with the Giants. He finished his season strong with a .284/.333/.417 line and 111 wRC+ in 63 games with San Francisco. Almost all of that production came against righties. The Giants only let him face southpaws 27 times and he had a .200/.259/.280 line in those matchups.
- Donovan Solano (38)
Solano has been a pretty solid big league hitter going back to 2019 but is coming off a down year. He was released by the Mariners in September and briefly latched on with the Rangers. Between those two clubs, he hit .247/.291/.337 for an 82 wRC+. He is capable of playing other positions but only got very brief looks at second and third base this year.
- Rowdy Tellez (31)
Tellez also split his time between the Mariners and Rangers in 2025. He hit a combined .228/.276/.443 for a 101 wRC+. He finished with a bit of momentum, as he slashed .259/.315/.457 with the Rangers down the stretch for a 115 wRC+ with that club. Still, it’s been two straight years with poor plate discipline and overall production around league average.
- Justin Turner (41)
Turner has been staying away from Father Time throughout his late 30s but seems to finally have been caught. He signed a one-year, $6MM deal with the Cubs but hit .219/.288/.314 for a 71 wRC+ this season. He is on the Cubs’ playoff roster but hasn’t played much. His deal has a mutual option for 2026, but that won’t be picked up.
- LaMonte Wade Jr. (32)
Wade had a strong run with the Giants from 2021 to 2024 but just had the worst season of his career. He slashed .167/.271/.254 in 242 plate appearances in 2025. He was designated for assignment by the Giants in June and landed with the Angels, but the latter club released him in early August. He didn’t sign anywhere else in the final two months of the season.
Options
- Salvador Perez (36)
Perez is primarily a catcher but has been spending more time at first base in recent years. It’s a fairly moot point for the free agent market, as Kansas City isn’t going to let its captain go. He is a franchise legend and he can be kept around for 2026 via a $13.5MM club option with a $2MM buyout, making it a net $11.5MM decision. Royals general manager J.J. Picollo has already essentially said Perez will be back in next year, so it seems the Royals will either pick up the option or work out a new extension.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bigig, Imagn Images
N.L. Notes: Horton, Chourio, Bader
Cubs right-hander Cade Horton is potentially making some progress. According to Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, he will throw off a mound this week as the club decides whether or not to include him on the NLCS roster, if they advance that far.
Horton debuted this year and hit the ground running. He logged 118 innings for the Cubs with a 2.67 earned run average. Unfortunately, his season ended on a sour note. Horton suffered a rib fracture in September and it was immediately apparent that he would miss at least one playoff series. The Cubs survived the Wild Card round without him but he still wasn’t on the roster for their NLDS matchup against the Brewers.
The Chicago rotation is feeling thin at the moment, composed of Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon. Boyd just got rocked by the Brewers on Saturday. He was charged with six runs, only two of them being earned, as he failed to get out of the first inning. The Cubs went on to lose 9-3. Imanaga and Taillon were both decent this year but both had subpar strikeout rates. If the Cubs can hang on for a best-of-seven NLCS, getting Horton in there to take some pressure of those guys could be a difference maker.
Mooney also adds that the Cubs expect Horton to earn a full year of service time, which is understandable. As a top prospect who was promoted late enough that he wasn’t slated to get a full service year, he can earn that full year retroactively by finishing top two in N.L. Rookie of the Year voting. Horton and Atlanta catcher Drake Baldwin are considered the frontrunners for that award, so Horton will likely get that full service year. That would put him on track to reach free agency after 2030 instead of 2031.
Some other injury updates from around the league…
- Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio is in tonight’s lineup, batting leadoff against the Cubs. Chourio left the first game due to some right hamstring tightness. A subsequent MRI led to results which Pat Murphy described as “inconclusive,” adding that it’s “not a serious hamstring strain.” That implied that Chourio did indeed strain his hamstring, though the club is apparently comfortable running him out there tonight. Murphy said today, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that Chourio is not 100% and they’ll take him out of the game if it appears necessary.
- Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader was removed from his club’s first NLDS game against the Dodgers due to a groin injury. He’s not in tonight’s Game Two lineup but he could be available to pinch hit. Manager Rob Thomson passed the new on to reporters, including Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bader is an excellent defender and he hit .305/.361/.463 after being acquired from the Twins at the deadline, so the Phillies will obviously want him back in there as soon as possible. The Phils have Otto Kemp, Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos in the lineup tonight from left to right. Max Kepler is also in the mix, though he’s probably not starting tonight since lefty Blake Snell is on the bump for the Dodgers.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images
Dodgers Notes: Smith, Ohtani, Glasnow
The Dodgers took the first game of their NLDS matchup against the Phillies. As they gear up for the second contest, manager Dave Roberts revealed some notes about the roster. Notably, Roberts said that Will Smith could start behind the plate in Game Three, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
The club has largely been without Smith for about a month. He took a foul ball off his throwing hand in early September, suffering a hairline fracture, and hasn’t played much since. He has been on the club’s postseason roster but hasn’t started a game yet. He did enter the first game against Philly as a pinch hitter, striking out twice and getting hit by a pitch. Ben Rortvedt has taken up the lion’s share of playing time with Smith out and is in the starting lineup again tonight but it seems possible Smith is trending towards retaking that playing time.
That’s potentially a huge boost for the Dodgers. Smith had a massive .296/.404/.497 line and 153 wRC+ this year. Rortvedt has managed a massive .500/.571/.667 line in the playoffs this year, but in a tiny sample of just three games. He’s obviously not going to maintain that production, especially when considering his .190/.279/.270 line in his regular season career. Even though Smith is getting healthier, he may not be immediately available to resume his previous level of production, so his condition could be an ongoing storyline as long as the Dodgers stay alive.
Roberts also confirmed the club’s rotation plans. Game one starter Shohei Ohtani will take the ball in game five, if necessary, and won’t be available out of the bullpen before then. Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register was among the reporters to pass that along.
It’s quite common for starting pitchers to be available in the bullpen during the playoffs. More off-days allow clubs to shrink their rotations, which leads to some guys getting nudged out. Also, the “all hands on deck” nature of playoff baseball makes teams and players push things beyond normal comfort levels.
The idea of Ohtani making relief appearances has been kicked around but it’s understandable why the Dodgers would lean against it. For one thing, his workload is already double that of the normal player, given his status as a two-way player. Adding in some extra relief work would only tax him further.
There’s also the in-game strategy component of it. MLB implemented a rule in 2022 that would allow a starting pitcher to be removed from his pitching duties but stay in the game as the designated hitter. This basically only applies to Ohtani, so it’s often referred to as the “Shohei Ohtani rule”. But if Ohtani is not the starting pitcher and enters as a reliever, then is removed, he would have to either come out of the game or play a defensive position.
Taking all that into consideration, it’s understandable that the Dodgers are keeping things simple. Blake Snell is starting game two tonight with Yoshinobu Yamamoto taking the ball in game three. It seems likely that Tyler Glasnow will start game four, though he did make a relief appearance on Saturday. He came in after Ohtani and logged an inning and two thirds, throwing 34 pitches in the process. Despite that relief outing, Roberts said yesterday that Glasnow was in line to start Game Four, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Ohtani would then start Game Five, though Snell would also be on normal rest by then and could be a factor.
Photo courtesy of Kiyoshi Mio, Imagn Images
Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast
On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.
The 2025 regular season is now over and the playoffs are in full swing. Do you have a question about the season which just ended? The postseason? The upcoming offseason? If you have a question on those topics or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.
Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.
In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
14 Players Elect Free Agency
Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents. Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.
To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back. These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.
We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion. These free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.
Catchers
- Jason Delay (Braves)
- José Herrera (Diamondbacks)
Infielders
- Jacob Amaya (White Sox)
- Trenton Brooks (Padres)
- Zack Short (Astros)
Outfielder
- Sam Hilliard (Rockies)
Pitchers
- Luarbert Árias (Marlins)
- Luis Castillo (Orioles)
- Mike Clevinger (White Sox)
- Chris Devenski (Mets)
- Joe Jacques (Mariners)
- Tyson Miller (Cubs)
- José Quijada (Angels)
- Jake Woodford (Diamondbacks)
Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images
Astros’ Luis Garcia Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
The Astros announced to reporters, including Chandler Rome of The Athletic, that right-hander Luis Garcia underwent elbow surgery on Wednesday. That surgery included a reconstruction of his ulnar collateral ligament, the procedure commonly known as Tommy John surgery. It will be his second Tommy John surgery in the past three years. The righty’s flexor tendon was also repaired this week.
Last month, the Astros announced that Garcia would be undergoing some sort of elbow procedure which would prevent him from pitching in 2026. They didn’t provide the details on that operation until today.
Today’s update is not surprising but provides some specificity on what’s ahead for Garcia. Elbow issues have been haunting him for several years now. He made just six starts in 2023 before requiring his first Tommy John surgery. He was expected to return to the club in 2024 but repeatedly hit setbacks and eventually missed that whole season.
More setbacks came in 2025 and he didn’t make it back to the big league club until September 1st. He made one good start, throwing six innings of three-run ball against the Angels. But in his second outing in Toronto, he called out the trainers in the second inning and ominously departed the game. He was placed on the 15-day injured list the next day due to elbow discomfort. Just a few days later, he was already on the 60-day IL. A few weeks later, the Astros already made it public that his 2026 was over.
Garcia just finished his second arbitration season. He can be retained for one more but there’s no reason for the Astros to tender him a contract since he’s going to miss the year. They could theoretically work out a two-year deal. It’s fairly common these days for a pitcher facing a lengthy injury absence to get a two-year pact. The player gets to bank some money while rehabbing. The team gets no return on the first year but is hoping for enough production in the second year to justify the entire investment.
Whether Garcia can secure that kind of expenditure remains to be seen. He has a strong track record, with a 3.60 earned run average in 359 2/3 big league innings, but there has to be a lot of doubt about his future. Even if he is healthy at some point in 2027, he’ll be coming off four effectively lost years.
A likely scenario is that Garcia is non-tendered or outrighted off the roster in the coming weeks. He could then try to find a two-year deal with the Astros or any other club. Astros fans will perhaps be familiar with José Urquidy‘s departure. He required Tommy John surgery in June of last year. The Astros outrighted him off the roster at season’s end and he became a free agent. He then signed with the Tigers, a one-year deal which paid him $1MM in 2025 with a $4MM club option for 2026. Garcia could try to follow that path but he should have less appeal to a signing club since his surgery is occurring later in the year and his health history is worse.
Photo courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images
Report: Cardinals Ownership More Willing To Include Money In Trades
Everything coming out of St. Louis suggests that the Cardinals are at a major pivot point for the franchise. They are entering what could be a multi-year rebuild period as they focus on player development more than short-term contention. That has been the case for about a year already but all signs suggest the club will be leaning harder in that direction. Katie Woo of The Athletic reports that the ownership will now be more willing to eat money in trades, in order to extract greater returns.
That reporting aligns with comments this week from Chaim Bloom, the new president of baseball operations. “As far as cash being a lever on the trade front, that should never be off the table,” he said, per Woo. “Obviously, you’d prefer not to do that, but you could end up in a situation where adding cash to make a preferred deal work just makes sense.”
Between Bloom’s comments and Woo’s reporting about ownership, it seems the franchise is aligned. That should only add to the sense that highly-paid players like Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray are more likely to be moved this offseason than they were last winter.
A year ago, the Cards made it clear that they were beginning this reset period. That initially made it seem likely that veteran players like Arenado, Gray and Willson Contreras could be logical trade candidates. However, Gray and Contreras quickly indicated that they wanted to stay in St. Louis. Arenado was a bit more open to a trade but had a narrow list of five clubs he considered acceptable landing spots and ultimately wasn’t traded.
The club’s rebuilding plans now seem to be more firmly in place and both Arenado and Gray have publicly expressed a greater willingness to waive their no-trade clauses this time around. Contreras seems less interested in leaving but didn’t completely discount the possibility.
That’s a good start for the Cardinals but eating money will be helpful to getting deals done. Gray is still a good pitcher and just wrapped a solid season, middling earned run average notwithstanding. Though he allowed 4.28 earned runs per nine over 180 2/3 innings, his .329 batting average on balls in play probably inflated that a bit. His 26.7% strikeout rate, 5% walk rate and 43.9% ground ball rate were all strong marks. ERA estimators like his 3.39 FIP and 3.29 SIERA suggest he was more his old self than the ERA itself would indicate.
Even if clubs are willing to overlook the ERA, the contract is an obstacle. His three-year, $75MM deal with the Cardinals was heavily backloaded. He made just $10MM in 2024 and $25MM this year. He’ll then make $35MM next year, followed by a $5MM buyout on a $30MM club option. If that option is picked up, Gray can then opt out.
At this point, there is just one more guaranteed season left on the deal but with $40MM still to be paid out. The option doesn’t really add any extra upside because of that opt-out. Despite Gray’s talents, $40MM for one year of a pitcher is a lot. That kind of average annual value has been reserved for ace-type pitchers. Even if it were a fair price for Gray’s services, eating more money to extract more prospect capital is a sensible tactic for a club focused on the long term.
Arenado is going to make $27MM next year, though the Rockies are going to pay $5MM of that and $6MM is deferred. He’ll then make $15MM in 2027. That works out to less than $20MM annually but his stock is down after some rough years at the plate. He hit just .237/.289/.377 for a wRC+ of 84 this year and was barely above league average in the prior two campaigns. He still gets good grades for his glovework but isn’t the MVP candidate he once was.
Other teams will have different valuations of what they expect from him going forward, but as mentioned with Gray, any money that the Cardinals are willing to eat should increase what teams are willing to give up.
With Contreras, as mentioned, a trade seems less likely before even considering the money but it could happen. He is still owed $41.5MM over the next two years. That’s an $18MM salary next year, $18.5MM in 2027, and then a $5MM buyout on a $17.5MM club option for 2028.
He has been moved from the catcher position to first base. He got decent grades for his glovework there this year, getting credit for six Outs Above Average, while Defensive Runs Saved had him just below par at -1. The bat is still strong, as he hit .257/.344/.447 this year for a 124 wRC+. Those numbers are all close to his career marks, where he has a .258/.352/.459 batting line and 122 wRC+.
Though he’s going into his age-34 season, the deal isn’t bad. Christian Walker just got $60MM over three years from the Astros going into his age-34 campaign. But even if the Contreras deal isn’t underwater, other teams may not give up much for it unless the Cards pay it down somewhat.
Last winter, the Cards seemed to be more motivated by salary relief. Arenado was still owed roughly $60MM over three years when they lined up a trade with the Astros. Arenado vetoed that deal but reporting indicated the Cards were only going to eat about $5MM per season, leaving the Astros on the hook for about $45MM. It’s unknown what the Cards were going to receive in that trade but is was likely going to be a salary dump deal. Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. later said they would have to find cuts elsewhere if they didn’t move Arenado, though that didn’t really end up happening.
Per RosterResource, the Cardinals had a $144MM payroll in 2025. Thanks to some trades and some expiring contracts, they are projected for just $75MM next year. Arbitration salaries for players like Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar could push that up but those players are themselves candidates to be traded this winter. Perhaps that lighter payroll is what opened the path for the Cards to worry less about cost savings this time, which could increase their chances of adding meaning young talent to their pipeline.
There will be non-payroll expenditures, however. Woo reports that the club is planning to make more investments in the fields of analytics, player development and scouting. There’s also some uncertainty with the club’s TV deal. The Cards reached a new agreement with Main Street Sports, formerly known as Diamond Sports Group, to be on the FanDuel Sports Network in 2025. Woo writes that the deal contains option provisions after each season. She says that no major shake-up is expected but that some renegotiations could take place.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images