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The Opener: Rule 5 Draft, Polanco, Relief Market

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As the Winter Meetings continue, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Rule 5 Draft today:

Baseball’s annual Rule 5 Draft is scheduled to take place at 1pm CT this afternoon. International players and high school draft picks who signed in 2020 and college draft picks signed in 2021 who have not yet been added to their club’s 40-man roster are vulnerable in today’s draft, where any club can select them for a $100K fee. If the player does not stick on their new club’s 26-man roster for the entire season, he must be offered back to his original club for $50K. Teams must have open space on their 40-man roster to select a player in the draft, meaning the Twins, Orioles, Braves, Rays, and Diamondbacks would each need to clear space on their 40-man roster before the draft begins in order to participate.

Players selected in the Rule 5 draft occasionally go on to impact their team in the future, as free agent outfielder Anthony Santander famously did following his selection in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft. 2025’s draft saw White Sox right-hander Shane Smith and Marlins catcher Liam Hicks stick with the clubs that drafted them on the 26-man roster through the entire year, while right-hander Mike Vasil was claimed off waivers by the White Sox and remained in Chicago for the whole year as well. Smith, in particular, is noteworthy for earning an All-Star appearance and down-ballot consideration in AL Rookie of the Year voting thanks to his 3.81 ERA in 29 starts for Chicago. Will a similarly valuable diamond in the rough be unearthed today?

2. Could the Pirates pivot to Polanco?

The Pirates were among the teams most aggressive in pursuing slugger Kyle Schwarber, but after he turned down the club’s four-year, $120MM offer they could still look to reallocate at least some of those resources to other pursuits in their efforts to upgrade the offense. Pittsburgh has been connected to infielder Jorge Polanco in the past, and Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reported yesterday that the Pirates were expected to put an offer on the table for the switch hitter’s services soon. Will Polanco be the big free agent fish Ben Cherington’s front office has been working to land, or will they end up looking elsewhere for offensive talent to support Paul Skenes and the rest of their excellent rotation?

3. Relief market buzzing:

The market for relievers has been the busiest part of free agency so far this winter, and yesterday was no exception as Edwin Diaz landed with the Dodgers on a three-year agreement. Diaz wasn’t the only significant name to come off the market yesterday either, as the Pirates signed southpaw Gregory Soto to a one-year deal and the Tigers re-upped with Kyle Finnegan on a two-year pact. That takes three more late-inning arms off the market and leaves the teams still in the market for top relievers running low on options. Robert Suarez is now the best option on the market and is drawing interest from a pair of new suitors, but he’s hardly the only interesting option available. Brad Keller, Luke Weaver, Tyler Rogers, Seranthony Dominguez, and Pete Fairbanks are all also still available after landing on MLBTR’s Top 50 MLB Free Agents list. Who will be the next to sign?

Astros Receiving “Minimal” Interest In Christian Walker

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The Astros kicked off the offseason by downplaying the idea that they would consider dealing away either third baseman Isaac Paredes or first baseman Christian Walker to clear the infield logjam the summer’s Carlos Correa trade created, but more recent reporting has suggested at least some discussions involving Paredes with the Red Sox. Chandler Rome of The Athletic discussed situation in Houston with more detail yesterday, noting that the club’s plans to use Yordan Alvarez as a regular DH and Jose Altuve at second base more frequently in 2026 leave the club with limited options to squeeze both Paredes and Walker into the lineup on a regular basis. That would seemingly indicate that a trade is likely to be in the cards, but Rome added that the club has received little interest in Walker’s services this winter.

That’s not exactly shocking news, given the lackluster inaugural season Walker put together with the Astros. In 154 games with Houston, Walker slashed just .238/.297/.421 with a wRC+ of 99 and 1.1 fWAR. The season wasn’t all bad, as Walker did hit .250/.312/.488 after the All-Star break. That second half performance saw him swat 15 homers in 263 plate appearances and post a 120 wRC+ that was exactly in line with what he had done in Arizona from 2022-24, offering some reason for optimism headed into the veteran’s age-35 season in 2026.

Even with that optimism, however, it’s easy to see why rival clubs wouldn’t be especially excited about taking on the final two years and $40MM owed to an aging first baseman who posted numbers just a tick below league average last year alongside his highest strikeout rate and lowest walk rate since becoming an MLB regular. Walker’s declining discipline would surely make it hard for the Astros to get a significant return for his services, which could leave the team better off hoping for a return to form and instead listening to offers on Paredes.

That would be a real blow to the team’s lineup, as Paredes delivered a .254/.352/.458 (128 wRC+) performance in 102 games before being sidelined by a hamstring injury shortly before the trade deadline. Losing that sort of offensive impact from a lineup that posted a pedestrian wRC+ of 100 last year would be difficult, but a healthy season from Alvarez would surely help to make up for the loss of Paredes even if quality regulars like Walker, Correa, and Altuve don’t bounce back. That could make a trade that ships out Paredes in exchange for pitching help sensible for the Astros, especially given the team’s logjam around the infield.

With star shortstop Jeremy Pena just two seasons from free agency and the market for quality shortstops this winter extremely thin, there’s been some speculation about his own availability in trades. While a trade of Pena could allow Correa to slide back to shortstop while Paredes reclaims his native third base, Rome reports that GM Dana Brown firmly shut that notion down. When asked if he was discussing Pena in trade talks, Brown was emphatic in his denial.

“No,” Brown said, as relayed by Rome. “His name has not come up and I think teams understand if you’re a winning team and you’re trying to go back to the postseason, there’s no way you can trade your starting shortstop.”

The team’s apparent plans leave increasingly limited options for the team to keep both first base options in the fold, and Rome suggests that Paredes learning left field could be the only way to fit both Paredes and Walker in the lineup on a regular basis next year. That assumes Alvarez will be an everyday DH and Altuve will return to second base on a regular basis, as comments from Brown and manager Joe Espada have suggested. That would leave room for occasional starts for Paredes at second base or DH on days off or during rare cameos for either player in left field, but it hardly seems likely to be a significant number of at-bats.

Rome’s suggestion of Paredes trying left field comes with real obstacles. The 26-year-old has zero experience anywhere in the outfield as a professional, which makes the possibility of a move to left seem fairly remote. Altuve had never played the outfield prior to picking up the position last spring, but moving to the outfield could come with additional considerations for Paredes so soon after a major hamstring injury. Perhaps playing time could be juggled between six players for five spots in the lineup even without Paredes spending time in left, though Rome noted that the players themselves might not be content with being asked to sit regularly.

Turning back to Walker, if the Astros were motivated to move him Rome suggests that he’s not unmovable. Walker’s track record, veteran presence, and strong second half were surely be enough to find a take for his services on the trade market in at least some capacity, though Houston would surely have to eat a chunk of his salary and/or accept a fairly minimal return in order to facilitate that sort of deal. The Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Padres are among the teams who could theoretically use help at first base this winter, though many of those clubs may prefer their internal options to swinging a trade for Walker.

Padres Not Inclined To Trade High Leverage Relievers

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The Padres are getting calls on their high leverage relievers, according to to a report from Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday afternoon. Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada, and David Morgan have all drawn interest from rival clubs, per Acee, though the report emphasizes that while the Padres have fielded calls on those players they aren’t inclined to move anyone from that group.

“There’s a lot of teams (from which) we have taken incoming calls,” president of baseball operations AJ Preller told reporters, as relayed by Acee. “…It’s nice when people are calling you, and they have interest in your players. At least then, you have some options. But I think the focus has been on the starting pitching and how do we fill that without taking away from the bullpen or from the lineup.”

Preller went on to double down on his desire to keep his team’s elite bullpen together.

“Anytime you have multiple people in one spot, you at least can listen to those types of conversations,” Preller said, per Acee. “But it’s not easy to find impact players, so you don’t take that for granted. And we have a lot of performers in our pen that have been impactful here the last couple years. It’s probably been why we’ve been in the playoffs the last few years. There’s a lot of reasons, but that’s been a big one. … So we don’t take that lightly. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we have a lot of really good pitchers, so we can afford to kind of take our level down in the bullpen.’”

That’s an understandable stance to take. San Diego had MLB’s best bullpen by ERA, xERA, and fWAR in 2025. Granted, that’s with Robert Suarez in the fold, but it also only accounts for half a season of Miller’s impact. While trading from that strength could make some sense to improve a rotation that’s losing Dylan Cease and Michael King, it’s worth remembering that none of the team’s top relievers has an especially high salary; Estrada and Morgan will play next year on a pre-arbitration salary, while Morejon and Miller are projected to make a combined $7MM total via arbitration in 2026 by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. With such negligible salaries, trading any of that quartet wouldn’t open up the sort of payroll space necessary to land an impactful starter.

Reluctant as the club may be to trade from its bullpen, the Padres do find themselves in a bind at this point. Acee notes that San Diego needs to add at least two starters this offseason to replace King and Cease, and the club is known to be planning to spend at a similar level to last year. Perhaps the team’s reported willingness to move players making more significant salaries like Jake Cronenworth and Nick Pivetta will allow them to shed the sort of salary needed to add a starter or two in free agency.

Failing that, however, it’s not inconceivable that the Padres could trade a reliever for a starter. The Marlins notably have starting pitchers (including Edward Cabrera and former Padre Ryan Weathers) that they’re willing to trade this winter, and are known to be in the market for a closer this winter. Bringing someone like Morejon or Estrada into the fold as the primary piece of the return for a starter’s services could allow Miami to bring in the closer they’re looking for without having to pay a premium for someone like Suarez or Pete Fairbanks on the open market.

As the Padres look to upgrade their rotation mix, Acee continues to report that Preller’s front office is working on a “blockbuster” trade. Neither the names involved in those discussions nor the other team (or teams) Preller is negotiating with are named, but Acee does emphasize that the Padres will not be trading Fernando Tatis Jr. this winter. While a Tatis trade would clear significant salary off the books and surely bring in a massive return, Tatis has shown himself to be a consistent five-to-six win player when healthy and losing him would be a brutal blow to the Padres’ goal of keeping their competitive window open headed into 2026. Tatis may not be on the move this winter, but Preller’s willingness to get creative and aggressive on the trade market make it impossible to completely rule out a trade involving virtually any other player on the roster or in the farm system.

Braves, Cubs Among Teams Interested In Robert Suarez

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Edwin Diaz came off the market on Tuesday when he signed a three-year deal with the Dodgers earlier today. Now that both he and Devin Williams are off the board, veteran right-hander Robert Suarez stands as the clear top option available on the market for closers this winter. It didn’t take long after Diaz’s deal was reported for MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand to report that Suarez’s market was starting to gain traction. Feinsand highlighted the Mets, Blue Jays, and Braves as the “most aggressive suitors” for the righty’s services. New York and Toronto have both been connected to Suarez already this winter, but Atlanta is a newly-reported suitor. Meanwhile, Francys Romero of BeisbolFR throws the Cubs’ name into the mix as well, reporting that Chicago is exploring the closer market and adding that Suarez is “one of the ideal candidates” for the club.

Suarez, 35 in March, has been an All-Star in back-to-back seasons. He’s sporting a 2.87 ERA and 3.17 FIP with 76 saves in 134 2/3 innings of work across those two campaigns. This year, he struck out 27.9% of his opponents with a 5.9% walk rate, giving him a 21.9% K-BB ratio that ranked 26th among qualified relievers this year. Those excellent numbers are enough to make him one of the league’s top relievers, although the right-hander’s age and imperfect track record (including a middling 2023 season where injury limited him to just 26 appearances) figure to limit the length of his contract somewhat. MLBTR predicted Suarez for a three-year, $48MM deal as the #21 free agent on our Top 50 MLB Free Agents list for the offseason.

That would be a hefty sum for a team like the Braves to pay for a closer when they already have longtime closer Raisel Iglesias in the fold, particularly when Atlanta is also in the market for help at shortstop and in the rotation. With that said, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time the club committed significant dollars to their bullpen. Iglesias, Joe Jimenez and Aaron Bummer are both on significant contracts already, and players like Pierce Johnson and Will Smith have been guaranteed significant dollars by Atlanta in the past.

The Cubs seem like a much clearer fit for Suarez, at least on paper. They’ve lost Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar, and Andrew Kittredge from their bullpen this offseason. While they signed Phil Maton last month and Daniel Palencia remains a viable closing option, that’s still a lot of talent to lose from the late-inning relief mix. That makes it unsurprising that Chicago would be in the mix for a player like Suarez, although it’s worth noting that the Cubs have typically shied away from large multi-year commitments to relievers. Maton’s two-year deal is actually the first multi-year guarantee the team has signed a reliever to since Craig Kimbrel back in 2019, but a deal for Suarez would be on another level entirely; his annual salary would surely rival the $14.5MM total guarantee Maton landed.

The Mets and Blue Jays remain as perhaps the most obvious fits for the righty. While New York did bring Williams into the fold, they remained in on Diaz even after that signing. Now that Diaz has settled on Los Angeles, the Mets pivoting towards Suarez to strengthen the back of their bullpen is easy to understand, particularly after Williams delivered inconsistent results in the ninth inning as a member of the Yankees last year. The Jays, meanwhile, have long been known to be in the market for another high leverage reliever to pair with Jeff Hoffman in the late innings.

The number of quality closers on the market is dropping quickly, and if Toronto is hoping to add a high-end reliever with closing experience Suarez is undoubtedly the top option at this point. Keller and Tyler Rogers are alternative impact options still available who lack that ninth inning track record, while closers like Pete Fairbanks and Luke Weaver are still available but are coming off far less impressive seasons than the one Suarez just delivered in San Diego. The Marlins and White Sox are among the other teams known to be involved in the closing market this winter, though it would be a surprise to see either spend aggressively enough to land someone of Suarez’s caliber.

Shane Bieber Dealt With Forearm Fatigue Late In 2025 Season

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One of the winter’s earliest surprises was Shane Bieber’s decision to pick up a $16MM player option for the 2026 season rather than take a $4MM buyout and return to free agency. That choice was viewed as a head-scratcher around the league at the time, as the former Cy Young winner’s track record and the 3.66 ERA he posted in 59 innings between the regular season and playoffs with Toronto was likely enough to justify a solid multi-year deal.

A report this evening from The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon offers a bit more perspective on Bieber’s decision. Towards the end of the 2025 campaign, Bannon reports that Bieber was dealing with forearm fatigue. Bieber has since begun rehab work, and Bannon notes that Ross Atkins told reporters that the right-hander is “in a strong position.” While the Jays are currently taking things week-to-week with Bieber’s recovery process, Atkins noted that Bieber being ready to pitch on Opening Day remains “a very realistic outcome” though he stopped short of definitively saying Bieber would be part of the Opening Day roster.

That Bieber was dealing with a forearm issue just 13 appearances into his return from Tommy John surgery certainly seems to help explain his decision to exercise his 2026 player option. While there’s little doubt that Bieber could have beaten the $12MM he would’ve left on the table by declining the option in terms of overall guarantee, it’s plausible that teams would have been hesitant to commit a substantial average annual value to a pitcher coming off elbow surgery who was already rehabbing a fresh ailment. By sticking with Toronto this winter, Bieber gives himself the opportunity to rehab with the Blue Jays rather continuing his rehab as a free agent, and can now look to enter free agency next winter with what he’s surely hoping will be a full season of starts under his belt in 2026 to allay any concerns about the health of his arm going forward.

With Bieber’s status somewhat uncertain for Opening Day, it’s all the more understandable that the Blue Jays have been aggressive in adding to their rotation. Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Cody Ponce, and Jose Berrios figure to make up the club’s Opening Day rotation if Bieber were to start the year on the injured list, though the depth provided by players like Yariel Rodriguez, Bowden Francis, and Eric Lauer is strong enough that the Blue Jays seem to be considering the possibility of trading Berrios this winter. Cease, Gausman, and Bieber are all surely locked into rotation spots when healthy, and Yesavage showed more than enough down the stretch and into the playoffs to warrant first crack at a rotation job headed into 2026.

That would leave just one spot available for Ponce, Berrios, and the team’s depth options to compete for in Spring Training, and so it would hardly be a shock to see the Jays make a move that ships a rotation piece out at some point this winter. At the same time, however, Bannon reports that the Jays remain interested in adding starting pitching even after landing both Cease and Ponce in free agency earlier this winter. While the team is overflowing with rotation options, not all of them are especially reliable. In addition to questions surrounding Bieber’s health, Ponce’s return from the KBO league this year will come with inherent question marks.

Meanwhile, Berrios struggled in the second half and was relegated to the bullpen for October while Yesavage is a young arm who threw a career high in terms of innings this past year between the majors, minors, and postseason. It seems unlikely the team would look to add another high-end arm to the rotation given their needs in the bullpen and lineup, but perhaps additional depth to join players like Francis and Lauer as depth pieces would be valuable, especially in the event that Berrios is traded or Bieber opens the season on the injured list.

Phillies Have Offer Out To J.T. Realmuto

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The Phillies secured a reunion with one of their key veteran free agents Tuesday morning when they signed Kyle Schwarber to a five-year deal, and now it appears their attention will return to their other veteran hitter who reached free agency last month. Philadelphia has an offer on the table for veteran catcher J.T. Realmuto, according to a report from Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. The details of that offer aren’t presently known, though The Athletic’s Matt Gelb adds that Realmuto is “expected” to ultimately return to Philadelphia in 2026 and suggests that he may do so on a two-year deal. Even so, Gelb makes clear that Realmuto is continuing to survey the free agent market.

The veteran backstop will play next season at the age of 35 and is coming off his worst season since his rookie campaign back in 2015. Realmuto slashed just .257/.315/.384 with a 94 wRC+ in 134 games this year. It’s the third-lowest on-base percentage and the lowest slugging percentage of his career, ignoring an 11-game cup of coffee during the 2014 season. Between Realmuto’s age and down season at the plate, it might seem likely that he would be poised to find a soft market in free agency this winter.

That’s not how things have played out, however. Realmuto has established a solid floor as a two-win regular behind the plate, and that’s allowed him to remain a valuable commodity due to a dearth of catching talent around the league. Danny Jansen and Victor Caratini are the next best options available in free agency behind Realmuto, but Jansen’s 72-game 2022 season is the only campaign in either player’s career where they’ve reached the 2.0 fWAR benchmark that Realmuto has established as a floor over the past three seasons.

Additionally, teams might be less concerned about Realmuto’s near-term future behind the plate given the fact that ABS is coming to the majors in 2026 by way of the challenge system; Realmuto has been a slightly below-average blocker and well above-average at controlling the running game behind the plate in recent years, but lackluster framing numbers have held back his overall defensive value. With the challenge system likely to reduce the impact of catcher framing, perhaps teams are a little more comfortable with using a catcher with a lackluster recent track record when it comes to pitch framing than they otherwise would have been.

Whether it’s Realmuto’s steady floor or the rule changes that will impact his job in 2026, he’s managed to garner some real interest around the league this winter. The Red Sox and Rangers are both known to have interest in Realmuto, though the fit in Texas has been downplayed by significant questions regarding the club’s ability to afford the expected price tag attached to the veteran. MLBTR predicted a two-year, $30MM guarantee for Realmuto, and as the Rangers look to cut payroll this winter it seems reasonable to expect that adding a $15MM salary to the books won’t be in the cards this winter barring a payroll-reducing trade elsewhere on the roster. The same is likely to go for other teams likely to pursue catching help this winter like the Rays and Padres.

That could make Realmuto’s market something of a two-horse race between Boston and Philadelphia, and with Carlos Narvaez locked in for the lion’s share of starts with the Red Sox next year it’s easy to see why the Phillies stand as the likely favorite. Should Philadelphia reunite with Realmuto this winter, however, both Zolecki and Gelb suggest that it might be difficult for the team to make other impact additions without first clearing salary elsewhere on the roster. Gelb notes that while Philadelphia is expected to carry a payroll north of $300MM in 2026, they’re already not too far off from that mark.

According to RosterResource, Philadelphia’s luxury tax payroll sits just under $289MM after the Schwarber deal. Assuming the Phillies plan on a payroll in the same vicinity as last year’s $314MM figure, that leaves the club with $25MM left to spend. Should Realmuto take up around $15MM of that money as the club projects, that would leave just $10MM for the team to use when revamping their outfield mix. That might not be enough to re-sign Harrison Bader, who the Phillies are known to have interest in, and could instead leave them looking at some of the lesser options available in a thin outfield market like Austin Hays, Mike Yastrzemski, Mike Tauchman, and Rob Refsnyder.

Of course, another option would be for the Phillies to look to shed payroll elsewhere on their roster in order to create financial flexibility. That the Phillies are planning to move on from Nick Castellanos this winter is one of the league’s worst-kept secrets. While they evidently plan to try and work out a trade involving the veteran in hopes of saving on at least some of his $20MM salary for next year, the club is lacking in leverage to get that sort of deal done and might wind up releasing him. Gelb suggests that a trade of someone like Alec Bohm or Matt Strahm could be a more likely way to save money, and either player would certainly have more value on the market than Castellanos.

Strahm is due $7.5MM in 2026 and has been a reliable setup man for the Phillies in each of the past three seasons, while Bohm has a 110 wRC+ at third base over the past two years and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for $10.3MM in his final trip through arbitration this winter. Trading both players would free up nearly $18MM in the budget, which would be more than enough to re-up with Bader and Realmuto while still leaving some money left over to add someone like Willi Castro or Yoan Moncada to the mix who could help Edmundo Sosa handle the hot corner until top prospect Aidan Miller is ready to step into the big league lineup. Zolecki notes that Miller could be ready as soon as this coming summer, while fellow top prospects Andrew Painter and Justin Crawford figure to have every opportunity to break camp with the team on Opening Day.

Giants Could Make Bryce Eldridge Available In Trade Talks

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TODAY: Speaking with Slusser and other reporters at the Winter Meetings, Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey said “we’ll listen” to offers on Eldridge, but “we listen on everybody” out of due diligence.  Posey stressed that “we like [Eldridge] a lot,” pointing out that “this guy has flown through the system…and I think he’s got a chance to be one of the biggest impact bats for the next 10 to 15 years in the big leagues.”

DECEMBER 7, 10:33PM: The Mariners and Red Sox are two teams known to have interest in Eldridge, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.  It isn’t known if Seattle’s interest has continued now that Josh Naylor has re-signed and locked up the first base position for the next five years, though the M’s could conceivably use Naylor and Eldridge in the same first base/DH mixture that the Giants currently have planned for Devers and Eldridge.

1:59PM: Top prospect Bryce Eldridge made his big league debut with the Giants in 2025, and while that cup of coffee in the majors lasted just ten games with lackluster results he still figures to be a major part of the San Francisco offense next year with the roster as presently constructed. Even with Eldridge’s on-paper importance to the future of the lineup, however, Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier today that Eldridge “isn’t off the table” in trade talks as the front office heads into this year’s Winter Meetings.

That, of course, doesn’t necessarily make a trade of Eldridge particularly likely. It’s somewhat rare for players and prospects to be completely unavailable in trade talks as the majority of modern front offices have developed a willingness to listen on virtually any player. With that being said, it’s not often that a prospect with Eldridge’s pedigree winds up moving. The 21-year-old was San Francisco’s first-round pick in the 2023 draft and is a consensus top-20 prospect in the entire sport at this point. The slugger crushed 25 homers in just 102 games between Double- and Triple-A this year while hitting .260/.333/.510 overall across both levels. Few up-and-coming youngsters possess the raw power potential of Eldridge, who is listed at 6’7” and 240 pounds.

Virtually any team would be naturally intrigued at the idea of adding him to the middle of their lineup, and that should include the Giants. With that being said, Eldridge isn’t without his flaws. He struck out at a 30.8% clip at the Triple-A level this past year, raising concerns about his ability to make consistent contact against MLB-caliber pitching. Even aside from those concerns, however, it’s worth remembering that the Giants’ midsummer trade for Rafael Devers gave them their first baseman of the future for the better part of the next decade. It would certainly be possible for the Giants to squeeze Eldridge into their lineup, but doing so would substantially limit the club’s flexibility by locking down both first base and DH long-term.

The combination of Eldridge’s imperfect fit with the Giants’ roster after they brought in Devers as well as the team’s noted desire to avoid longer-term contracts this winter when looking to upgrade their pitching staff have made Eldridge a logical trade candidate. Even so, the argument for simply keeping an extremely gifted slugger whose service time clock has barely been started is certainly a strong one. 51% of respondents to a poll of MLBTR readers earlier this week believed that the Giants should hold onto Eldridge, and just 23% of respondents believed that the Giants should consider trading him without bringing in another impactful bat to make up for his absence from the 2026 lineup.

Of course, an acknowledgment that trading Eldridge isn’t entirely off the table remains far from the same as actively shopping him. It’s entirely possible that the Giants would only consider including Eldridge in a deal for a high-end player like Hunter Greene or Tarik Skubal who may not be entirely available in trade talks themselves. Rubin noted that while players of that caliber have been floated as potentially available, the specifics of this winter’s market are not yet set in stone. That, too, goes for the Giants’ level of involvement, per Rubin, which would lend credence to the idea that the Giants might only consider dealing Eldridge for certain impact players.

With that said, there’s a number of enticing trade candidates that have been bandied about this winter, even with players like Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez likely to be off the market. Edward Cabrera, MacKenzie Gore, Freddy Peralta, Kodai Senga, and Mitch Keller are all on the list of names that could at least theoretically be had on the trade market this winter. While the Giants surely wouldn’t be interested in parting ways with Eldridge for many of those players, it’s far from impossible to see a team with a controllable, cost-controlled starter like Cabrera or Gore being able to convince the Giants to part with Eldridge in order to add another high-end arm to a rotation that already includes Logan Webb and Robbie Ray but is in major need of reinforcements.

Nationals Drawing Significant Interest In CJ Abrams

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The Nationals have been deep in a rebuild for quite some time, and that figures to continue under new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni. That’s meant plenty of trade rumors surrounding southpaw MacKenzie Gore, who is set to reach free agency after the 2027 season. He’s not the only trade chip that Toboni has to market, however, as Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report that the team is also “getting pushed aggressively” on infielder CJ Abrams. Sammon and Rosenthal write that the Nats are open to moving both players, though they’ve set a high bar to deal each of them.

Gore’s been all over the rumor mill in recent weeks, but the status of Abrams’s market is news. He’s long been a speculative trade candidate (even landing on MLBTR’s Top 40 Trade Candidates list last month) but has received much less buzz than Gore to this point in the winter. Some of that is because it would be easier for the Nationals to hold onto Abrams. The 25-year-old is under team control for three seasons and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a salary of just $5.6MM in 2026. That leaves the Nationals with minimal pressure to trade him this winter, as he’d still be one of the most controllable and affordable players available if held until the summer or even next offseason.

With that said, Abrams’s longer-term control and low price tag make him a player who would be fairly easy to fit onto virtually any club in need of infield help. Abrams plays shortstop in D.C. but has received poor grades from defensive metrics for his work there, suggesting that a move elsewhere on the dirt could behoove him. Teams like the Braves and Rays are known to be seeking help at shortstop, however, and in a thin market with few options beyond Bo Bichette and Ha-Seong Kim adding someone like Abrams despite defensive misgivings could make sense. Plenty of teams could look to use Abrams at either second or third base if they so chose. Teams like the Pirates, Mariners, Red Sox, Tigers, and Cubs have all been connected to the infield market this winter and there’s surely plenty of other teams who would be motivated to try and land Abrams to bolster their infield.

For all his defensive shortcomings, Abrams has the potential to be an impactful offensive player. Over the past two seasons, he’s slashed .252/.315/.433 with 114 extra-base hits and 62 stolen bases, good for a 107 wRC+ overall. The Diamondbacks were the only team in baseball last year to get a 107 wRC+ or better from each of third base, second base, and shortstop. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the other 28 teams in the league all have room for Abrams on their infield—the Dodgers, for example, certainly aren’t going to supplant Mookie Betts after just one down season with the bat—but it does highlight how many teams could upgrade their offense by bringing Abrams into the fold even if the 25-year-old doesn’t continue to develop in the coming years.

As good of a fit for a large number of teams as Abrams may be, however, it’s worth remembering that he’s arguably more of a complimentary player than a true star at this point. Abrams’s defensive lapses at shortstop severely limit his overall value, and while he turned in a three-win season this year it was the first of his career by fWAR. He also offers little in the way of on-base ability, with a career .306 OBP thanks to a walk rate that peaked at 6.6% in 2023. Even with those shortcomings, however, Abrams’s combination of power and speed are undeniable and should make him very intriguing to any infield-needy team as the Winter Meetings get underway.

Athletics, Michael Stefanic Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Athletics and infielder Michael Stefanic have agreed to a minor league deal, according to Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. The deal comes with an invite to big league Spring Training for the upcoming season.

Stefanic, 30 in February, has made cameos at the big league level in each of the past four MLB seasons. Signed as an undrafted free agent by the Angels back in 2018, Stefanic played in the lower levels of the minors for a little over the year before the cancelled minor league season in 2020 wiped out a year of development. When he returned in 2021, he looked nothing short of excellent in the upper minors with a .336/.408/.493 slash line between the Double- and Triple-A levels. He struck out at just a 13.9% clip while walking 9.4% of the time. He hit for a bit of power in addition to that discipline, swatting 17 homers and 26 doubles in 125 games.

Stefanic’s minor league numbers have generally been more of the same; in five seasons at the Triple-A level, he’s a career .332/.427/.454 hitter. While he hasn’t come close to showing as much power as he did back in 2021, his contact and discipline has remained excellent for his level and allowed him to succeed with a contact-over-power profile while playing primarily second base but logging time all over the infield. Unfortunately for Stefanic, his game simply hasn’t translated at the big league level in the limited opportunities he’s received.

The 30-year-old is a career .227/.314/.267 hitter across 99 games and 289 plate appearances in the majors. His best stint at the big league level came with the Angels in 2023, when he slashed a solid .290/.380/.355 across 25 games. Those are excellent on-base numbers, but he was helped by a .333 BABIP he hasn’t been able to replicate since thanks to a paltry 22.2% Hard-Hit rate and a barrel rate of 0.0%. That complete lack of power is difficult to make work in the majors; Luis Arraez is virtually the only player in the modern game to find any sort of sustained success with that sort of approach, although others like Nick Madrigal have been able to hold their own in smaller samples.

The A’s will bring Stefanic in as some much-needed infield depth behind a group that is largely unproven outside of AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Jacob Wilson. Max Muncy was unable to make an impact in 63 games for the club this year, while Zack Gelof hasn’t impressed at the big league level since his debut 2023 season due to injuries and ineffectiveness. Players like Darell Hernaiz, Max Schuemann, and Brett Harris could provide depth behind that group, but adding another option like Stefanic makes some sense given a thin market for infield talent this winter and the Athletics’ typical lack of resources. If the A’s don’t manage to bring in another infield bat to their mix this winter, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Stefanic compete with someone like Schuemann for a bench job headed into camp this spring.

Friedman: Less “Heavy Lifting” To Do For Dodgers This Winter

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The Dodgers are back-to-back World Series champions thanks to a massive financial outlay over the past two offseasons that allowed them to bring in Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and a number of other pieces that were key to their current core. As they attempt to make it a threepeat, however, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register writes that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman suggested to reporters that there’s “not as much heavy lifting required” this year as there was in previous winters, and acknowledged that the Dodgers may alter their approach somewhat as they look to avoid some of the perils that come with an aging core.

Andy Pages, Hyeseong Kim, and Dalton Rushing were the only three position players younger than 30 on the Dodgers’ roster this past year to appear in even 50 games. The pitching side has a bit more young talent thanks to the additions of Yamamoto and Sasaki, and homegrown arms like Emmet Sheehan, Ben Casparius, and Jack Dreyer all impacted the team as well. Even so, the Dodgers were already the oldest team in the majors this year (their Opening Day roster had an average age of 31.5). Freddie Freeman (36) and Mookie Betts (33) are under contract through their age-37 and -39 seasons, respectively. Snell is under contract through his age-36 campaign. Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani will play next year at age-31, but they’ll both be in Dodger blue until their age-38 seasons.

Long-term deals for free agents naturally come with a roster full of aging players as those deals progress. While Plunkett notes that the Dodgers feel the players they’ve invested in will age well, it’s not hard to see why concerns of eventual decline are present. That’s why Friedman said the age of the roster is something he’s keeping in mind as he makes decisions this winter. The Dodgers have a farm system rich with young talent, with seven top-100 prospects according to MLB.com including four at the Double-A level or higher. Friedman said that it will be important to be “thoughtful” about how those players are brought along at the big league level and made part of the team’s core.

It’s not always been easy for the team to find ways to plug in young talent. Rushing was viewed as ready to step into a big league role as early as last year by some in the industry, but has been blocked by Smith behind the plate. Pages was only able to step into an everyday role with the club this year thanks to a combination of injuries to Tommy Edman and ineffectiveness from Michael Conforto. Kim was signed primarily as a utility player and did not break out of that capacity. Alex Freeland is arguably big league ready at this point but is blocked by players like Edman, Betts, and Max Muncy headed into the 2026 season.

All of that is to say that there’s reason to believe reports that indicate the Dodgers may not be inclined to pursue a long-term deal with a star outfielder like Kyle Tucker. With well-regarded outfielders like Josue De Paula and Zyhir Hope coming up through the farm system, the outfield could be the team’s best opportunity to inject some youth into the roster. Signing Tucker (or even someone like old friend Cody Bellinger) on a deal that would last into his late thirties would be counter-productive to that goal, although the fit could make more sense if the Dodgers were to trade another aging player like Teoscar Hernandez, whose name has been rumored to be in play as part of trade talks this winter.

Of course, De Paula, Hope, and other young talents aren’t likely to be ready for the majors on Opening Day 2026. That means some sort of stopgap will be necessary, and Plunkett writes that the team could turn to the trade market to improve an outfield that stands out as the roster’s biggest weakness. Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan and Cardinals utility man Brendan Donovan stand out as among the best fits, though the Dodgers reportedly had some interest in Luis Robert Jr. last winter as well.

Plunkett also notes that, while the bullpen figures to be a focus for the Dodgers this winter after the departure of Michael Kopech, adding a surefire closer isn’t necessarily a high priority. While Tanner Scott’s first year in L.A. did not go as planned, Plunkett writes that Friedman expressed plenty of confidence in the lefty to be a “huge part” of the Dodgers in 2026. The Dodgers have been connected to Edwin Diaz and Robert Suarez this winter, but as the team looks to avoid adding aging players on long-term deals it’s possible they could instead look to pieces who could be had on short-term arrangements like Luke Weaver and Pete Fairbanks.

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