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Dayan Viciedo Signs With Yokohama DeNA BayStars

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Veteran infielder Dayan Viciedo has signed a contract with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars for the 2026 season, per an announcement from the BayStars.

Viciedo, now 36, is a Cuban slugger who played in parts of five seasons in the majors with the White Sox from 2010 to 2014. Considered to be among the league’s best prospects after hitting well in the Cuban National Series as a teenager before defecting to play in the majors, Viciedo impressed in a 38-game cup of coffee when he hit .308/.321/.519 across 106 plate appearances for the White Sox in 2010. That seemed to portend a promising future, but Viciedo wouldn’t enjoy a full season at the big league level in 2012. In parts of three seasons as a big league regular for the White Sox, he hit just .250/.294/.425 with a wRC+ of 95.

While he did flash consistent 20-homer pop with the bat, Viciedo was held back by a free-swinging approach that led him to walk in just 5.3% of his trips to the plate during his years as a regular. A 95 wRC+ is hardly unplayable at the big league level, but Viciedo primarily played the outfield corners during his time with the White Sox and received poor grades for his fielding on the grass. Given that, it was hardly a surprise when the White Sox cut him loose prior to the 2015 season. He spent 2015 in the A’s and White Sox farm systems before making the jump to NPB’s Chunichi Dragons in 2016.

Viciedo has done quite well for himself overseas. In 1001 NPB games over the years, he’s managed to hit .287/.352/.458 with 141 career homers. Things began to take a turn for the worse for Viciedo in recent years, however, as he began to struggle in Central League play. After difficult back-to-back seasons for the Dragons in 2023 and ’24, Viciedo actually departed Japan and signed with the Mexican League’s Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos. In 38 games for his new club, Viciedo looked like his old self and slashed .276/.359/.462 with eight homers.

That was enough to catch the attention of the BayStars, and he signed with them back in July to finish out the 2025 season in Japan. He hit .259/.322/.383 in 43 Central League games last year and now will return to the BayStars for a full season in 2026 as he looks to re-establish himself in NPB. He was joined by former big leaguers Mike Ford, Tyler Austin, and Yoshi Tsutsugo in the BayStars’ lineup during the 2025 season. While Viciedo played primarily the outfield corners during his time in the majors, he’s primarily been a first baseman in NPB and will likely fill a first base/DH role for the BayStars in 2026.

Marlins Notes: Cabrera, Alcantara, King

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The Marlins are gearing up for what could be their busiest offseason in years, as all indication point to at least some willingness to spend in free agency this winter coming off a 79-win campaign in 2025 where the team enjoyed the emergence of players like Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee as valuable pieces. At the same time, they’ve got plenty of holes that could make it difficult to compete in what figures to be a stacked NL East next year with the Mets, Phillies, and Braves all expected to try and improve this winter.

That leaves Miami in a difficult spot where they figure to simultaneously try and improve while also building for the future. That could leave the team hesitant to deal away some players that were looked at as likely trade assets even a few months ago. According to Kevin Barral and Isaac Azout of Fish on First, right-handers Edward Cabrera and Sandy Alcantara are hardly locks to be traded this winter. Alcantara, in particular, is someone that the organization “expects” to still be in Miami on Opening Day.

There’s certainly some logic in that, as the 2022 NL Cy Young award winner was one of the league’s best pitchers in the not-too-distant past. A season where Alcantara pitched to a 5.36 ERA across 31 starts surely lowered his value, but if the Marlins still believe in the 30-year-old there’s no reason to sell low. That’s especially true because he’s one of the few players on the Marlins’ roster making significant money. There have been some indications recently that the Marlins could be worried about a potential grievance from the MLBPA due to their lack of spending, and trading Alcantara away would be counterproductive to any efforts to prove that the club is using revenue sharing dollars on the on-field product.

That leaves 27-year-old Cabrera as the more likely piece to move of the pair, though Barral and Azout both note that the Marlins would need to receive an “overwhelming return” to pull the trigger on a trade. That’s a sensible stance to take. Cabrera enjoyed a breakout season in 2025, with a 3.53 ERA and 3.83 FIP across 26 starts. He struck out 25.8% of his opponents against a walk rate of just 8.3% this year, and his fastball average 97.0 mph on the radar gun, the fastest velocity of his career so far. A young starter on the upswing with three years of team control would surely be one of the hottest commodities on the trade market, and the Marlins have no reason to rush a trade for that reason. The Mets and Cubs were among the teams connected to Cabrera when he was on the market over the summer, and both appear to be in the market for rotation help again this winter.

Trading an impact starter may not necessarily be in the cards for Miami this winter, and if they don’t they’ll retain a frightening on-paper rotation of Alcantara, Cabrera, Eury Perez, Braxton Garrett, and Ryan Weathers with players like Max Meyer, Robby Snelling, Janson Junk, and Ryan Gusto providing depth behind that group. There’s enough health questions within that group of arms that it’s not impossible to fit another starter into the mix, and there’s been previous connections drawn between the Marlins and right-hander Michael King. Barral and Azout suggest that a reunion with the club’s 12th-round pick from the 2016 draft is “highly unlikely,” however.

That’s perhaps not too much of a surprise. While King is coming off a down season where he made just 15 starts due to shoulder issues, MLBTR predicted that he’d land a four-year, $80MM contract in free agency this offseason. That would be quite a step up for a Marlins team that hasn’t spent much beyond the $53MM contract they gave to Avisail Garcia back in 2021 in recent years, at least via free agency. Adding a player like King at that sort of price tag would be a bold move, especially given the fact that the starting rotation is already a strength for the club. The Cubs and Orioles have both been tied to King in free agency this offseason already, and more teams are surely interested in the right-hander after he flashed ace-level potential with the Padres in 2024.

Marlins Interested In Pete Fairbanks

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The Marlins are interested in right-hander Pete Fairbanks, according to a report from Kevin Barral and Isaac Azout of Fish on First. Barral and Azout add that the Marlins continue to show interest in Devin Williams, who Barral previously linked to Miami last month.

Fairbanks, 32 next month, is a player president of baseball operations Peter Bendix is very familiar with from his years in the Rays’ front office. A ninth-round pick by the Rangers back in 2015, he made his big league debut with Texas back in 2019 but was traded to the Rays in exchange for prospect Nick Solak after just eight appearances. Then 25, Fairbanks finished an uneven rookie year with a 6.86 ERA and 5.07 FIP across 21 innings of work but emerged in the shortened 2020 as one of the league’s most exciting up-and-coming relievers, as he turned in a 2.70 ERA while striking out 33.3% of his opponents in across 27 appearances.

That strong 2020 campaign kicked off a stretch where Fairbanks became one of the Rays’ most reliable relief arms. From 2021 to ’22, he pitched to a 2.70 ERA with a 35.2% strikeout rate and picked up 13 saves along the way before being installed more firmly as the Rays’ closer for the 2023 campaign. In his three years as Tampa’s full-time closer, Fairbanks has turned in brilliant results with a 2.98 ERA and 3.31 FIP in 151 innings of work while collecting 75 saves. With that said, his peripheral numbers have begun to flag somewhat.

Over the past three years, Fairbanks has taken a step back from striking out a third of his opponents and instead punched out 27.9% against a 9.0% walk rate. That’s fallen even further when looking at the last two years, when his strikeout rate has fallen to 24.0% as his average fastball velocity has dipped from its 99 mph peak to just 97.3 this year. That’s still premium velocity, of course, but the dip in velocity and declining strikeout rate headed into Fairbanks’s age-32 season leave some questions in his profile that weren’t present even two years ago. All those red flags led the Rays to decline their $11MM team option on Fairbanks’s services for the 2026 season, though it’s fair to expect that a team with a larger budget might have happily picked up that option given the relatively low price tag on a one-year commitment.

Since he became a free agent, Fairbanks has gotten attention from teams like the Dodgers and Blue Jays as they seek to fortify their bullpens. That’s surely not anything close to a comprehensive list of the teams interested in his services, as teams like the Cubs, Mets, Mariners, and Yankees all figure to be heavily involved in the bullpen market as well. That’s a lot of big market teams for the Marlins to be doing battle with, but the good news for the club is that some top-flight relief arms like Edwin Diaz, Robert Suarez, and Ryan Helsley seem likely to draw the attention of some of those big market teams.

That could leave someone like Fairbanks, who doesn’t figure to get a deal close to that of someone like Diaz, for the Marlins to scoop up. He’d be very likely to come much more cheaply than Williams, who has already been explicitly connected to eight different teams and remains likely to command a hefty deal due to that interest even after a down season in New York. While the Marlins are known to be involved in that market too, MLBTR predicted Williams to land a four-year, $68MM contract this winter. It would be a shock to see Fish spend at that level on a reliever, and the two-year, $18MM deal predicted for Fairbanks is surely much more appealing even as the team is apparently looking to spend.

Angels Re-Sign Gustavo Campero To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have re-signed outfielder Gustavo Campero to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Campero’s MLB.com profile page.

Campero, 28, signed with the Yankees out of Colombia back in 2017. He was selected by the Angels in the minor league phase of the 2020 Rule 5 Draft and joined the organization for the 2021 season. He’s played for the Angels exclusively in the half decade since then, gradually climbing the minor league ladder before reaching the majors for a brief cup of coffee in 2024. Campero has served as a reserve outfielder for the Angels in each of the past two seasons, hitting .202/.272/.346 across 41 games and 114 plate appearances, but was non-tendered by Anaheim earlier this month.

He now returns to the club on a minor league pact as a non-roster depth piece. Following the trade that sent Taylor Ward to Baltimore in exchange for Grayson Rodriguez, the Angels lack much certainty in their outfield. Jo Adell, Jorge Soler, and Mike Trout appear likely to split the outfield corners and DH between themselves next year, but that leaves a hole in center that would likely be filled by Bryce Teodosio and Kyren Paris if the season began today. An external addition seems likely, with players like Cody Bellinger and Cedric Mullins standing out as obvious fits in free agency, but the team would likely remain thin on outfield depth even after making that sort of addition.

That’s because Soler and Trout both battled injuries throughout the 2025 season and have checkered injury histories that make it hard to pencil either one in for anything close to 162 games next year. Adell, for his part, hasn’t faced significant injury woes over the years but just enjoyed his first above average season by wRC+ in 2025. That leaves the possibility of regression on the table, and having more outfield depth could help the Angels protect against both a step back from Adell and injuries to Soler and Trout.

Campero figures to be part of that depth, though the career .311/.394/.440 hitter across two seasons at Triple-A has not yet proven himself a capable hitter at the big league level. While pieces like Campero and Teodosio are decent enough depth options, it seems sensible to expect the Angels to continue searching for additional depth for their outfield mix as the winter progresses. That could come with a particular focus on left-handed bats; Campero and Teodosio are both switch-hitters, but Adell, Trout, and Soler are all right-handed bats and could certainly use a left-handed complement in the outfield.

Reds Notes: Lineup, Free Agent Pursuits, De La Cruz

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The Reds enter this offseason on the heels of a playoff berth that ended almost as quickly as it came, having been swept by the eventual World Series champion Dodgers in two games during the NL Wild Card series. There’s still reason for optimism headed into next year thanks to a fantastic rotation led by Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott, but Cincinnati’s offense could clearly use some help. It can be hard for a team with the Reds’ small market budget to make substantial upgrades via free agency, but Ken Rosenthal, Will Sammon, and Katie Woo of The Athletic write that the club can be flexible as it tries to upgrade the lineup thanks to their existing players’ significant positional versatility.

According to Rosenthal et al., the Reds’ lineup only has three truly locked down positions as things stand: recently acquired third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and star shortstop Elly De La Cruz are locked into the left side of the infield, and Noelvi Marte appears to be set as the club’s everyday right fielder going forward. Setting catcher (where the trio of Tyler Stephenson, Jose Trevino, and Ben Rortvedt seem fairly entrenched) aside, that leaves two outfield spots, two infield spots, and the DH slot for a host of players to jockey for playing time in. Spencer Steer, Sal Stewart, Matt McLain, Gavin Lux, TJ Friedl, Will Benson, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand makes seven players currently on the roster for five spots in the lineup, before any external additions. Steer and Friedl seem like the best bets of that group to be locked into regular playing time, though Stewart will surely get an extended opportunity as well coming off an impressive cup of coffee in the big leagues down the stretch.

Friedl has been one of Cincinnati’s best hitters in recent years. While he was limited to just 85 games by injuries in 2024, he earned some down-ballot MVP consideration for a four-win 2023 season where he hit 18 homers, stole 27 bases, and posted a 117 wRC+ in 138 games. This past year saw him look more or less recovered from his injury-plagued 2024, hitting .261/.364/.372 with less power and speed than he flashed in 2023 but a career-best 11.8% walk rate to make up for it. Friedl’s .364 on-base percentage ranked 17th in the majors among all qualified hitters this year, and he’s sure to be an asset to the Reds’ offense whether he ultimately ends up in left field or center field. Steer, meanwhile, has been more of a league average hitter in the past two seasons after enjoying a strong 2023 season, but has average 21 homers and 16 steals over the past three seasons.

Rosenthal et al. suggest that Steer could wind up at either first base or in left field, while Stewart could play either first or second base. With Friedl capable of playing either open outfield spot, Lux experienced at both second base and in left field, and McLain able to handle both the keystone and center, there’s plenty of room for moving parts in the Reds’ lineup. That’s good news for a team that needs to add offense, as the Reds can afford to be opportunistic and not worrying as much about positional fit. If an infielder like Jorge Polanco becomes available, it would be easy enough for the Reds to simply plug him into second base, leaving McLain and Lux to move around the diamond in utility roles while Stewart takes over first base, Steer slides to left and Friedl handles center. Alternatively, a first baseman like Ryan O’Hearn could push Stewart over to second, or an outfielder like Cedric Mullins could push Steer to first base.

Speculatively speaking, that would appear to leave McLain, Lux, Benson, and Encarnacion-Strand without a position headed into 2026, although Rosenthal et al. did suggest the possibility that Benson could platoon with an outfielder acquired in free agency, which could be sensible if the Reds were to land a right-handed bat with significant platoon splits like Rob Refsnyder. Keeping those players in the fold as depth to protect against injuries and under-performance would be a valid path to take for the Reds, though it’s also possible that a trade or two could be made at some point this winter that would help to thin the glut of positional talent jockeying for playing time.

Even as the team looks for external help in the lineup, there’s reason to believe improvements could be on the horizon internally next year, as well. Manny Randhawa and Mark Sheldon of MLB.com recently relayed comments from club GM Nick Krall regarding De La Cruz’s health this offseason. While Krall had previously suggested that De La Cruz played through a “partial tear” of his quadriceps late in the 2025 season, he later clarified that it was actually a quad strain that De La Cruz was dealing with. Quad strains are defined as a partial tear of the muscle, but Krall noted that his wording suggested the injury was more severe than it actually was.

Whatever the specifics of De La Cruz’s injury may have been, the fact that he was playing through something helps to explain his repeated defensive miscues at shortstop in the final months of the 2025 campaign, as well as his lackluster .236/.303/.363 slash line after the All-Star break this season. That creates some reason for optimism that De La Cruz will be able to rebound and turn in a performance closer to his 2024 form (when he hit 25 homers, stole 67 bases, and finished 8th in NL MVP voting) next year. For a Reds club that seems unlikely to broach the top of the market for hitters like Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber, having De La Cruz performing at a star level to anchor the lineup is all the more important.

Pirates Re-Sign Beau Burrows To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates have signed right-hander Beau Burrows to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Burrows’s MLB.com profile page. Burrows had already spent the 2025 season in the organization on a minor league deal.

Burrows, 29, last pitched in the majors back in 2021. A first-round pick by the Tigers in the 2015 draft, Burrows was a one-time top 100 prospect in the sport who made his big league debut during the shortened 2020 season. The right-hander has just 11 MLB appearances on his resume between the 2020 and ’21 seasons. He posted an 8.64 ERA in six appearances for the Tigers at the big league level before being plucked off waivers from the Twins in 2021 and turning in a 12.54 ERA across 9 1/3 frames for Minnesota. Burrows has identical 12.5% strikeout and walk rates for his career and has allowed eight home runs in 17 2/3 career innings of work.

It’s an ugly big league resume, brief as it may be. Burrows hasn’t appeared in the majors since, but spent the next few years shuffling between various minor league systems. He pitched for the Dodgers’, Braves’, and Phillies’ Triple-A affiliates between 2022 and ’24 before he found himself released by the Phillies in June of 2024. He caught on in the independent American Association for the remainder of the 2024 campaign but struggled even at that level, leaving him with an uncertain path as 2025 began. Burrows managed to find an opportunity in the Mexcian League and signed on with the Tecos de los Dos Laredos for the 2025 campaign.

Burrows didn’t perform especially well in the Mexican League, but scouts at the time suggested that his velocity and quality curveball caught the attention of MLB clubs. That was enough to get Burrows a path back into affiliated ball, and he signed a minor league deal with the Pirates back in May. He pitched to a 2.94 ERA in 49 innings of work across four levels of the minors for Pittsburgh. While he struggled in his 16 appearances at Triple-A late in the season, he was utterly dominant at Double-A with a 0.44 ERA and a 28.4% strikeout rate. Now, Burrows is set to rejoin the Pirates and continue the development work he spent 2025 in the organization working on.

Burrows’s first task in 2026 will surely be to finally conquer the Triple-A level, where he’s posted a career 6.10 ERA. If the 29-year-old can show some mastery over the highest level of the minors this year, it wouldn’t be a shock if the Pirates found a way to get him back into the big leagues for the first time in half a decade given how good he looked throughout the lower levels of the minors this year, as well as the tantalizing ability scouts felt Burrows flashed during his time in the Mexican League earlier this year. Joe La Sorsa, Noah Murdock, and Michael Darrell-Hicks are among the other non-roster relief arms the Pirates have in the organization at Triple-A headed into next year.

Red Sox Sign Vinny Capra To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox have signed infielder Vinny Capra to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Capra’s MLB.com profile page.

Capra, 29, has played in the majors in parts of four seasons since making his big league debut back in 2022. A 20th-round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2018 draft, Capra climbed the minor league ladder until he made an eight-game cameo in Toronto throughout the 2022 campaign. He was non-tendered shortly thereafter, and while he re-signed with Toronto on a minor league deal he was traded to Pittsburgh in exchange for catcher Tyler Heineman in April of the 2023 campaign. Capra has been riding the waiver wire ever since, with brief stints in the majors and longer track records at Triple-A for each of the Pirates, Brewers, and White Sox organizations.

He spent the 2025 campaign with Milwaukee, Chicago, and the White Sox Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. This season was by far Capra’s largest opportunity in the majors, as he appeared in 47 MLB games with 105 trips to the plate between the Brewers and White Sox after topping out at nine games and 21 trips to the plate across his three previous years as a big leaguer. Unfortunately, Capra didn’t do much with the opportunity as he hit just .125/.157/.177 in that time, with a 23.8% strikeout rate against a microscopic 2.9% walk rate and just three extra-base hits.

It wasn’t exactly a strong impression, but Capra’s ability to capably handle second and third base as well as shortstop and even occasional work in the outfield still makes him a solid depth piece for virtually any team on a minor league deal like this one. While he’s yet to break through in the majors, his numbers at Triple-A are quite respectable, including a .286/.384/.440 slash line with Charlotte this year. That lifted his career line at Triple-A to .272/.368/.389 across 257 games.

For the Red Sox, Capra is unlikely to be much of a consideration for a big league bench job headed into Spring Training. The team seems likely to add at least one infielder, whether that be a reunion with Alex Bregman or the addition of a new bat like Kazuma Okamoto. That new addition will likely join Trevor Story and Marcelo Mayer as regulars on the infield, with players like Kristian Campbell, David Hamilton, Romy Gonzalez, Nate Eaton, Vaughn Grissom, Nick Sogard and Tristan Gray all also in the mix for time on the infield among players on the club’s 40-man roster. If injuries or a 40-man roster crunch thin out that group, perhaps then Capra could enter Spring Training in competition for a bench spot alongside players like Gray, Sogard, Grissom, and Eaton.

Poll: Will The Cubs Sign A Big Bat This Winter?

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It’s not often that the top free agent doesn’t get much attention from the team they’re departing but that might end up being the case this winter. Even amid an up-and-down season where he was dogged by injuries, Kyle Tucker was a key piece of the team that got the Cubs back into the NLDS for the first time since 2017. While Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer praised Tucker and suggested he’d be in contact with the outfielder’s camp this winter, virtually all reporting on the subject suggests the Cubs aren’t going to pursue a reunion in a serious manner.

The team’s focus appears to be on pitching, at least for the time being. They’ve already signed right-hander Phil Maton to help bolster their bullpen. After bringing southpaw Shota Imanaga back on a qualifying offer, they still figure to explore the market for top-of-the-rotation pitching options. A deal for someone like Michael King, Ranger Suarez, or Tatsuya Imai would certainly make sense for a team that ran out of pitching in October due to injuries to Cade Horton and Justin Steele. A trade also can’t be ruled out, with players like Edward Cabrera, Sandy Alcantara, Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez, and MacKenzie Gore all expected to be at least somewhat available this winter.

Even as the focus appears to be on the top of the rotation, however, the void Tucker figures to leave in the lineup is undeniable. The superstar delivered his fifth consecutive season worth at least 4.0 fWAR in 2025 as he slashed .266/.377/.464 with a 136 wRC+ in 136 games. That sort of production would be very difficult to replace internally, even with talented youngsters like Moises Ballesteros, Owen Caissie, and Kevin Alcantara knocking on the door of the majors. Ballesteros looked the best of the bunch in his cup of coffee with the big league club last year, hitting an impressive .298/.394/.474 across 66 trips to the plate in 20 games. Strong as that production was, however, it would be unreasonable to expect a 22-year-old rookie to replicate that over a full season.

Perhaps it would be understandable to roll the dice on those internal options if the Cubs had more certainty around the rest of the diamond, but the question marks are undeniable. Carson Kelly seems unlikely to recreate his career year at the plate (115 wRC+) from 2025 headed into his age-31 campaign. Matt Shaw began to show signs of life in the second half but his 93 wRC+ on the season was subpar. Dansby Swanson (99 wRC+) delivered his second consecutive below-average offensive season last year.

One big x-factor is Pete Crow-Armstrong. The budding superstar delivered a 30-30 season in 2025 and finished 9th in NL MVP voting off the back of a brilliant campaign, but his OPS dropped more than 200 points between the first half and the second half. Counting on the 23-year-old to lead the Cubs’ offense in place of Tucker next year would be a risky gamble. Also, Hoerner, Happ and Seiya Suzuki are slated for free agency next winter. Adding a reliable bat to the lineup could go a long way to preventing a step back headed into the 2027 season while also providing reinforcements for a 2026 team that will face lots of questions without Tucker in the fold.

The question, of course, becomes the team’s budget. The Cubs have been very hesitant to spend beyond the competitive balance tax for the past several years, treating it as a soft cap on spending. RosterResource projects them for a $197MM CBT figure in 2026 as things stand. The base threshold of the tax will be $244MM next year, giving them a bit more than $45MM of wiggle room.

With needs in the bullpen and the rotation, that could dry up in a hurry. Signing someone like Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, or Kyle Schwarber wouldn’t leave a ton of room for pitching additions. Even a less expensive addition like Kazuma Okamoto or Eugenio Suarez might be challenge to make work if the team is unwilling to spend beyond the first threshold of the luxury tax.

How do MLBTR readers think the Cubs will proceed with their offense headed into 2026? Will they hope an offensive nucleus of Crow-Armstrong, Suzuki, and Michael Busch will be enough to weather the loss of Tucker? Or will they bring in an impact hitter to improve the lineup? Have your say in the poll below:

The Opener: Cardinals, Red Sox, Pre-Thanksgiving Deals

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

1. Cardinals’ rebuild in full swing:

The first shot of St. Louis’s rebuild was fired yesterday when the club traded right-hander Sonny Gray (and $20MM cash) to the Red Sox for right-hander Richard Fitts, left-hander Brandon Clarke, and a player to be named later or cash. The return restocks the club’s pitching coffers, which the Cardinals haven’t been shy about making a goal of this winter. There’s plenty of additional work for the club to do even with half of Gray’s money off the books, however. The team still hopes to trade Nolan Arenado, and a host of young left-handed bats (led by Brendan Donovan) are known to be available as well. Less clear is the status of Willson Contreras, who would certainly be a logical trade candidate but has indicated a preference to stay in St. Louis.

2. What’s next for the Red Sox?

Entering the offseason, the Red Sox made it clear that a top priority for the club was to add a front-of-the-rotation arm to pair with Garrett Crochet and slot in ahead of Brayan Bello. They arguably did that with the Gray trade, as the veteran was a second-place Cy Young finisher as recently as 2023 in Minnesota. However, Gray hasn’t pitched at that same level in 2024-25, so it’s debatable whether he truly accomplishes this goal. Regardless, it seems that Boston will be turning its attention to bolstering the offense for the time being. That could come in a lot of different forms. Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and even Kyle Schwarber have been frequently linked to the Red Sox this offseason, and there’s been some reporting that they’re looking at J.T. Realmuto as well. Outside of free agency, the club has yet to trade from its glut of left-handed outfield talent, and Boston also has plenty of MLB-ready pitching to dangle (and even fewer innings for those young arms after adding Gray).

3. Will more pre-Thanksgiving deals shake loose?

While deals on Thanksgiving itself are somewhat rare, the days leading up to the holiday often create a bit of a rush of activity as players and teams look to push some deals across the finish line prior to holiday festivities. We’ve already seen some major trades between yesterday’s Gray deal and the weekend’s swap of Brandon Nimmo and Marcus Semien. Phil Maton and Jake Fraley have both wrapped up free-agent deals within the past couple days, with the former headed to the Cubs and the latter signing back with Tampa Bay just days after being non-tendered.

Last year, we saw both Blake Snell and Yusei Kikuchi sign within 48 hours of Thanksgiving (as you can see using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker). The year prior, each of Aaron Nola, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Reynaldo Lopez closed free agent deals in in the days leading up to the holiday. In 2022, the Hunter Renfroe trade between the Angels and Brewers came together the day prior to Thanksgiving. Another deal or two on either the trade or free agent market could come to fruition before tomorrow.

Poll: Will The Pirates Make A Splash In Free Agency?

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The Pirates enter this winter on a quest to augment their offense in a way that could allow them to contend while superstar hurler Paul Skenes is still in town. Skenes is backed by a solid group of pitching options, including veteran Mitch Keller as well as young arms like Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler in the rotation along with closer Dennis Santana in the bullpen. That deep array of pitching options has virtually no support from the offense, however; while Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz certainly have the capability of being quality regulars in the lineup, only Spencer Horwitz (119 wRC+) and Joey Bart (101 wRC+) were actually above average hitters for Pittsburgh this year.

That leaves the team in need of help in the lineup, and they appear to be unusually willing to dip into free agency to get it. The team had interest in Josh Naylor before he re-upped with the Mariners and has even shown interest in star slugger Kyle Schwarber. A deal at or approaching $100MM would be virtually unheard of for the Pirates in their team history. Reynolds’ $100MM extension is the only nine-figure deal in history, and their next two richest deals (the $70MM range for Mitch Keller and Ke’Bryan Hayes) were both extensions as well. Francisco Liriano’s three-year, $39MM deal from the 2014-15 offseason remains the largest free agent expenditure in team history more than a decade later.

While the Pirates have indicated they have more financial flexibility than previous offseasons and their interest in Schwarber indicates at least some willingness to spend, it would be understandable for fans in Pittsburgh to take the stance that they’ll believe ownership would greenlight that sort of financial outlay when they see it. Adding a top-ten free agent in this year’s class isn’t the only way the Pirates could improve this winter, however. Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported yesterday that Pittsburgh is also looking at players like Ryan O’Hearn, Jorge Polanco, and Kazuma Okamoto as “perhaps more realistic options” to bolster their lineup via free agency.

All three clock in well below Schwarber’s five-year, $135MM prediction from MLBTR’s Top 50 MLB Free Agents list. Okamoto is predicted for a four-year, $64MM deal, while Polanco is predicted for three years and $42MM and O’Hearn is predicted for two years and $26MM. Of that trio, only O’Hearn wouldn’t represent a new record in free agency for the Pirates, and given the fact that the Pirates entered 2025 with three $70MM+ contracts on their books it’s hardly out of the realm of possibility that they could stomach a deal on one of those levels. Any of those hitters would substantially improve the Pittsburgh lineup as well and could combine with Horwitz, Bart, Reynolds, and Bart to create a much more competent offense than the team had this season.

With that said, Rosenthal and Drellich caution that it could be difficult for the Pirates to convince even mid-level free agents like those to sign on in Pittsburgh if they get similar offers from teams with clearer paths towards contention. MLBTR’s Top 40 Offseason Trade Candidates list holds intriguing names like Brendan Donovan, Jarren Duran, Brandon Lowe, and Alec Bohm, all of whom would substantially improve the Pirates’ offense in their own right and allow them to do so without spending significant dollars or the player having the opportunity to turn them down. Of course, a trade wouldn’t necessarily preclude a free agent signing; in fact, if they were to acquire an affordable piece like Donovan, it might actually make them more likely to sign a free agent if players begin to view their path to contention in 2026 as more credible.

How do MLBTR readers view the hints of spending in Pittsburgh this winter? Will they make a splash in free agency this winter? Or, if not, will they at least sign a credible enough free agent to break the record held by Liriano’s deal from more than a decade ago? Will they go high enough to surpass the $70MM range of the Hayes and Keller deals? Have your say in the poll below:

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