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Jeff McNeil Underwent Thoracic Outlet Procedure

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Mets infielder Jeff McNeil underwent a procedure to address thoracic outlet syndrome following the season, agent Garrett Parcell of Paragon Sports International tells Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Parcell noted that McNeil is expected to be a full participant in spring training.

It’s an out-of-the-blue revelation and a relatively alarming one at that. Parcell called the procedure “minor,” though the majority of TOS cases throughout the majors come with notable recovery periods. There are two types of TOS, however: vascular and neurogenic. The latter is most common among pitchers and has a tougher recovery period, whereas the former is a more serious medical condition but also has a better success rate. For instance, right-hander Merrill Kelly underwent a vTOS procedure back in Sept. 2020 and was back on the mound at full strength the following season, taking the ball on April 2 and starting 27 games over the course of the season. (The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan explored the distinction between the two TOS types at the time in 2020.)

Regardless of the specifics, it’s a notable operation for the Mets’ longtime second baseman/outfielder. McNeil, who’ll turn 34 next April, is coming off a solid rebound campaign after a couple down seasons at the plate. He hit .243/.335/.411 (111 wRC+) with a dozen homers and nearly as many walks (10.6%) as strikeouts (11.9%) in 122 games and 462 plate appearances this season. His offensive contributions were far more robust through the end of August, though it seems the TOS symptoms crept up in the season’s final month and dragged his numbers down.

McNeil was sporting a hearty .266/.357/.457 line (128 wRC+) with more walks than strikeouts as deep into the season as Sept. 3. Over his final 71 plate appearances, he turned in an awful .125/.211/.172 batting line with an elevated 19.7% strikeout rate. His average exit velocity when he did make contact in those final three-plus weeks was down a whopping 4.5 mph over his previous levels.

The hope for the Mets and McNeil will be a return to full strength next season. He’s entering the final guaranteed season of a four-year, $50MM contract extension. That contract will pay McNeil $15.75MM next season. There’s also a 2027 club option with a matching $15.75MM salary or a $2MM buyout.

McNeil figures to reprise his role as the Mets’ primary second baseman next year, although he did slide into more of a true utility role in ’25. McNeil still spent 79 games at second base but also made 34 appearances in center field, 10 in left field, seven in right field and even logged two innings at first base.

Given the glut of young infielders on the Mets’ roster (Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuña, Ronny Mauricio, Mark Vientos), that expanded versatility will again give manager Carlos Mendoza some flexibility when writing out his lineup card each day, though it doesn’t sound like he’ll be viewed as a regular option in the outfield. President of baseball operations David Stearns said at this week’s GM Meetings that he envisioned “probably less” time in center field next year. Stearns touted McNeil’s versatility and didn’t rule out occasional outfield reps but said he’s not expecting the outfield to account for a “significant” portion of McNeil’s playing time next year.

Tony Gonsolin Elects Free Agency

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The Dodgers announced Wednesday that right-hander Tony Gonsolin went unclaimed on waivers and elected free agency. He was designated for assignment last week. Gonsolin underwent a flexor repair and internal brace procedure on his right UCL back in August. The procedure came with a recovery timetable of eight to ten months.

Now 31 years old, Gonsolin looked like a potential rotation stalwart with the Dodgers early in his career. From 2019-22, he pitched a combined 272 2/3 innings with a 2.51 ERA while fanning nearly one quarter of his opponents and posting a solid 8.5% walk rate. A pair of IL stints due to shoulder inflammation, plus time off due to an ankle sprain and forearm inflammation, limited Gonsolin’s workload in that four-year period. (As did the shortened 2020 season, of course.)

Still, Gonsolin avoided major injury until the 2023 season, when recurring elbow troubles limited him to 103 frames with a 4.98 ERA. He eventually required Tommy John surgery, sidelining him for the entire 2024 campaign. A back injury hobbled him early in 2025, but Gonsolin did return to the mound for the Dodgers in late April. He started seven games, totaled 36 innings and posted a 5.00 ERA before landing back on the injured list with renewed elbow discomfort in early July. By mid-August, he was going back under the knife.

The 93.5 mph Gonsolin averaged on his fastball in this year’s return is a ways off from its 95.1 mph peak in 2020, but it’s also a bit higher than the right-hander managed to average in 2022-23. This year’s 12.2% swinging-strike rate and 24.2% strikeout rate were both comfortably better than league average. Gonsolin struggled with his command, both in terms of missing the strike zone entirely (11.5% walk rate) and lacking precision within the zone itself (2.25 HR/9), but there were some moderately encouraging signs even amid his struggles.

Given that he’s now facing another lengthy rehab that will extend from somewhere between next April and June, he’ll be capped on a short-term deal. Opportunistic clubs may look to buy low on a one-year deal, and we’ve seen pitchers in similar situations command even modest two year pacts.

Two years would be a surprise, given Gonsolin’s recent injury track record and just 36 MLB innings over the past two seasons, but it’s not entirely implausible. He could opt to increase his earning potential by waiting until he’s healthy to re-sign, but he should have interest from clubs this offseason and will be viewed as someone who could be a midseason reinforcement to a club’s pitching staff and/or a trade chip for a rebuilding club.

At Least Seven Teams Have Inquired On Ketel Marte

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While general manager Mike Hazen has characterized the trade of a star hitter from his roster as “mostly unlikely,” teams are still going to make an effort to pry second baseman Ketel Marte loose this winter. John Gambadoro of 98.7 Arizona Sports reports that at least seven teams have inquired with the D-backs about Marte’s availability in recent days. Hazen has said publicly that he’ll at least hear interested teams out as a matter of due diligence — “I still have to do my job,” he told Gambadoro just yesterday — but that’s far from the same as calling other clubs and initiating Marte conversations on his own.

Marte, 32, is coming off a trio of monster seasons in Arizona. Dating back to 2023, he’s slashed a combined .283/.368/.519 with 89 home runs, 77 doubles, 11 triples, 19 steals (in 24 tries), an 11.2% walk rate and just a 16.7% strikeout rate. Marte’s paltry 14.9% strikeout rate in ’25 was his lowest since a 13.7% mark back in 2019. On top of that excellent production, he’s owed $102.5MM over the next six seasons — an eminently affordable rate in today’s game. (The sixth year on that commitment is an $11.5MM player option.)

All of that makes a compelling case for Arizona to simply keep Marte and continue to build around him, outfielder Corbin Carroll and shortstop Geraldo Perdomo. All three have cemented themselves as star-caliber talents, thanks in no small part to Perdomo’s sensational breakout showing in 2025. All three are signed long-term and locked in through at least the 2030 season.

At the same time, the D-backs have a crowded payroll and need significant help on the pitching side of the equation. Corbin Burnes will miss most or all of 2026 following Tommy John surgery performed back in June. Zac Gallen is a free agent. Merrill Kelly was traded at the deadline. The D-backs’ top two relievers, A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez, both had UCL surgery earlier this year as well.

Presently, their rotation includes veteran Eduardo Rodriguez, coming off back-to-back seasons with an ERA just over 5.00, and 27-year-old righties Ryne Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt. Nelson had a breakout performance in 2025, but Pfaadt’s longstanding home run troubles continued as he pitched to a 5.25 ERA in 176 2/3 innings. The D-backs don’t have any other healthy starters who’ve logged even a full season at the MLB level. Twenty-eight-year-old Tommy Henry, who had UCL surgery back in June, is the only other starting pitcher on the 40-man roster with more than 105 MLB innings under his belt. He has a 5.07 ERA with worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates.

By all accounts, the D-backs still hope to contend around a core including Carroll, Perdomo, Marte, Nelson and standout catcher Gabriel Moreno. They’ll need to add at least two starting pitchers to the equation and bring in multiple relievers. They also lack clear solutions at the two infield corners and could use another outfielder — particularly with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. sidelined by a late ACL tear.

It’s a daunting task on the surface — and one that’s made even trickier by the fact that owner Ken Kendrick has already acknowledged that payroll will drop below last year’s franchise-record levels. Thanks largely to their surprising signing of Burnes, the Snakes logged an Opening Day payroll north of $190MM. RosterResource currently projects them for about $143MM in 2026 commitments, though that number could drop depending on what happens with their arbitration class. Puk, projected for a $3.3MM salary, will likely be non-tendered given that he’ll be a free agent next winter and had UCL surgery in late June. Right-hander Kevin Ginkel ($3MM projection) and outfielders Jake McCarthy ($1.9MM) and Alek Thomas ($2.2MM) could all be non-tender or trade candidates after disappointing seasons.

Those arbitration decisions won’t move the needle all that much, however — not when there are this many holes to fill. Trading Marte wouldn’t be popular but could net multiple big leaguers — presumably at least one in the rotation — and trim $15MM from next year’s payroll. The D-backs would be hard-pressed to claim they’re better in 2026 without Marte than they are with him, however, and they understandably appear to prefer keeping him and building out the club with a lighter payroll target than in ’25. Robust interest notwithstanding, it seems likely that they’ll hang onto Marte barring a massive return that also frees them to more aggressively attack the free-agent market.

Orioles To Name Donnie Ecker Bench Coach

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The Orioles are hiring former Reds, Giants and Rangers coach Donnie Ecker as their new bench coach, reports the Baltimore Sun’s Jacob Calvin Meyer. Ecker was the Giants’ hitting coach in 2020-21 and worked alongside new O’s skipper Craig Albernaz on that staff. Following that stint, he was the hitting coach in Texas before being promoted to bench coach and offensive coordinator. The Rangers fired Ecker back in May after a disappointing start to the season for the Texas lineup.

The 39-year-old Ecker was a 22nd-round draft pick by the Rangers back in 2007 and spent a couple seasons as a second baseman in their system before moving onto a two-year stint on the independent circuit. Since calling it quits as a player, he’s coached in the college ranks, worked on the Cardinals’ player development staff and held several coaching roles (assistant hitting coach, hitting coach, bench coach, offensive coordinator) between the Reds, Giants and Rangers.

Ecker will be the top lieutenant for a new-look Orioles coaching staff. Beyond the hirings of Albernaz and Ecker, Baltimore has brought in Jason Bourgeois as a first base/outfield coach and hired Dustin Lind as a hitting coach. Bourgeois, a former big league outfielder who played with Albernaz in the minors, has spent the past two seasons as the White Sox’ first base coach. Lind also coached with Albernaz on the 2020 Giants. He’s been an assistant hitting coach with either San Francisco or Philadelphia in each of the past five seasons.

The Orioles still have a handful of vacancies to fill on the staff. While Lind is the top hitting coach, they’ll likely add at least one assistant after former assistant hitting coaches Tommy Joseph and Sherman Johnson were not retained.

There could also be an opening at third base coach. Buck Britton held that role after former third base coach Tony Mansolino was elevated to interim manager following Brandon Hyde’s dismissal in May. Mansolino interviewed for the full-time managerial post but was not selected for the job and has since been hired to the Braves’ coaching staff. The O’s have interest in retaining Britton, per MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, but nothing has been finalized. There’s been no formal word on whether pitching coach Drew French, assistant pitching coach Ryan Klimek or Mitch Plassmeyer will be retained.

Twins Add Grady Sizemore To Coaching Staff

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The Twins have hired former big league outfielder and former White Sox coach/interim manager Grady Sizemore to their coaching staff, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He’ll serve as new manager Derek Shelton’s first base coach and will also be the team’s primary outfield and baserunning instructor. Last year’s first base coach, Ramon Borrego, will slide across the diamond and coach third base. Borrego will also continue working with the team’s infielders.

Now 43 years old, Sizemore tormented the Twins as a division-rival in Cleveland during his days as a player — particularly early in his career. From 2004-08, Sizemore looked like he was on a Hall of Fame trajectory. He made three straight All-Star teams, won two Gold Gloves and took home a Silver Slugger — a testament to his well-rounded excellence. By the time Sizemore was headed into his age-26 campaign, he’d already appeared in 682 MLB games and slashed .279/.370/.491 (127 wRC+) with 111 home runs and 117 doubles in 3109 plate appearances. Baseball-Reference valued his age-21 through age-25 seasons at nearly 26 wins above replacement. FanGraphs was more bullish, crediting him with more than 28 WAR.

Of course, injuries would derail that scintillating start to Sizemore’s career. After missing only a combined nine games from 2005-08, Sizemore never topped 106 games in a single season again. He underwent elbow surgery in 2009, knee surgery in 2010 and back surgery in 2012. Sizemore played sporadically from 2009-15, hitting a combined .238/.309/.393 in just 1615 plate appearances before retiring.

After several years away from the game, Sizemore wanted back into the sport badly enough that he took an internship with the Diamondbacks. A year later, he interviewed for and landed a job on the White Sox’ coaching staff. When Chicago fired then-manager Pedro Grifol late in the 2024 season, Sizemore served as the interim manager down the stretch. He was a candidate for the managerial vacancy that went to Will Venable last offseason but was still retained in 2025, holding the title of White Sox’ offensive coordinator.

Sizemore is the latest addition to what’ll be a largely revamped Minnesota coaching staff. Borrego and pitching coach Pete Maki have been retained, but much of the rest of the staff will look different under Shelton than it did under former skipper Rocco Baldelli. Former Twin LaTroy Hawkins has already been tabbed as the team’s new bullpen coach, and the Twins have moved on from third base coach Tommy Watkins, bench coach Jayce Tingler, catching coach/assistant bench coach Hank Conger and bullpen coach Colby Suggs. They’re reportedly eyeing Yankees hitting coach James Rowson as a potential bench coach under Shelton. Rowson was also the Twins’ hitting coach from 2017-19.

Reds’ Krall Further Downplays Chances Of Hunter Greene Trade

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Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall has already downplayed the idea of trading from his rotation this winter, but the fact that he didn’t expressly state he will not trade ace Hunter Greene led to some fan bases, and surely some rival teams, clinging to the faint hope that Cincinnati’s top starter might be available. At this week’s GM Meetings, Krall again downplayed the idea of trading a starting pitcher and was a bit more forceful with regard to Greene in particular (link via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer). Krall still declined to speak in absolutes but came close when speaking about the possibility of trading Greene, specifically:

“…[T]hat’s a hard one to actually say, ’Hey, we’re going to trade the guy that has a chance to be the ace of your staff and top-of-the-rotation guy going into the postseason.’ We’re looking to figure out how to get better, but right now that’s not on the table.”

Greene, 26, is signed for another three seasons and owed a guaranteed $41MM in that time. His contract contains a club option that, if exercised, would bring his four-year earnings total to $60MM. He could slightly boost his 2028-29 salaries via All-Star nominations and Cy Young voting.

Cy Young consideration is hardly far-fetched for Greene. Early in the 2025 season, he looked squarely in the National League mix. A pair of groin strains wound up limiting him to 19 starts and dashing those hopes, but when he was healthy Greene turned in a 2.76 ERA with a 31.4% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate in 107 2/3 innings. A year prior, he gave the Reds 150 1/3 frames of 2.75 ERA ball.

Greene, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft, is one of baseball’s hardest throwers and clearly one of the most talented overall pitchers in the NL — if not in all of MLB. Among the 78 pitchers who have tossed at least 250 innings since 2024, his 2.76 ERA ranks sixth, trailing only Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Zack Wheeler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. His 29.2% strikeout rate ranks eighth among that same set of pitchers, and the 21.1-point differential between his strikeout and walk percentages sits 11th in the sport.

The Reds could extract a king’s ransom for Greene, but it’s never seemed likely that they’d pull the trigger on moving a potential four years of control over a Cy Young-caliber arm who only just turned 26 — particularly coming off a late run to the postseason. The Reds need to add multiple bats to their lineup, and the front office isn’t expecting much of a payroll bump, but teams generally balk at trading this much affordable control over a player this talented.

The safe bet will be to expect Greene to again head up one of the game’s best rotations. He’ll be joined by Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo and Brady Singer, with top prospect Chase Burns (another former No. 2 overall pick) the early favorite for the final spot. Top prospects Chase Petty and Rhett Lowder, both former first-rounders themselves, loom in the upper minors. Lefty Brandon Williamson and righty Julian Aguiar are on the mend from 2024 Tommy John surgery and should be options in 2026.

Given that wealth of pitching, other clubs will surely try to pry some arms loose. Singer has just one year of relatively pricey club control remaining (projected $11.9MM salary), making him the most prototypical trade candidate of the bunch. Lodolo has two years of arbitration control. Abbott has three. The potential return the Reds could extract from another club would improve with every additional year of control they’re willing to surrender, but as Krall has said in the past, dealing from the established group might simply necessitate signing a veteran to backfill those lost innings.

If the Reds are indeed loath to part with pitching talent, they could look into trading a controllable young position player for a more established hitter that’s closer to free agency. Shortstop Elly De La Cruz isn’t going anywhere, and the Reds only just traded for third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes at the deadline. But the Reds also have Matt McLain, Sal Stewart, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Spencer Steer on the roster and won’t find regular at-bats for the whole bunch. (Encarnacion-Strand’s stock is in the tank after two injury-marred, unproductive seasons.) Prospects Cam Collier and Edwin Arroyo aren’t too far from MLB readiness themselves.

There are ways to go about trading for an offensive upgrade without sacrificing much or any of the current rotation depth, and while the payroll isn’t set for a big increase, there’s still room to splash around some cash on the open market, too. The Reds currently have a payroll projection of about $97.5MM, per RosterResource. That’s before factoring in potential trades or non-tenders of arbitration-eligible names like Gavin Lux (projected $5MM salary), Will Benson ($1.7MM projection) and Sam Moll ($1.2MM projection). Cincinnati opened the 2025 season with a roughly $112MM payroll and finished close to $120MM. They could use a bullpen arm or two as well, but there should be space to sign at least one prominent bat in free agency.

Padres Notes: Rotation, Arraez, Adam

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The Padres’ top priority in the offseason was plain for anyone to see. Even before the announcement that Yu Darvish would miss the 2026 season following UCL surgery, San Diego was already faced with the potential losses of Dylan Cease and Michael King to free agency. Nick Pivetta, meanwhile, has an opt-out opportunity next offseason. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller removed any modicum of doubt about his to-do list at this week’s GM Meetings, telling Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune that “especially with King and Cease in free agency and Darvish’s injury, [starting pitching] is probably our top need going into the offseason.”

More notably, Acee reports that San Diego seems unlikely to play at the top of the market in its quest for rotation help. The Padres have already been exploring the trade market for potential options, per the report. King and Cease both received qualifying offers and seem likely to reject in search of more lucrative multi-year deals. Acee suggests that the Padres will “almost certainly” be moving on from both pitchers. Assuming that’s the case, San Diego will get a pair of draft picks as compensation — though their status as a luxury tax payor means those picks will come after the fourth round rather than after the first round.

At present, the Padres’ rotation includes Pivetta, Joe Musgrove (returning from 2024 Tommy John surgery) and a slew of question marks. JP Sears struggled after coming over from the A’s in the Mason Miller blockbuster. Randy Vasquez posted a solid-looking 3.84 ERA but did so with one of MLB’s worst strikeout rates. Metrics like FIP (4.85) and SIERA (5.43) feel he’s due for major regression. Matt Waldron couldn’t replicate his 2024 form. The rest of the depth was thinned out when Preller traded Ryan Bergert, Stephen Kolek, Braden Nett and Henry Baez in deadline trades to acquire catcher Freddy Fermin (Bergert, Kolek) and the aforementioned Miller (Nett, Baez).

Preller acknowledged to both Acee and Dennis Lin of The Athletic that the Padres could again consider moving a reliever to the rotation, as they’ve successfully done in the past with King, Kolek and Seth Lugo. It’s something the club will explore, but Preller noted that in past instances of the Padres making such a move, he only did so when the reliever in question was enthusiastic about the move. Acee notes that moving a reliever to the rotation seems unlikely at present. He lists Miller and Adrian Morejon as possible candidates, as does Lin, who adds righty David Morgan as a possibility for the switch. However, Preller cautioned against depleting the strength of his bullpen, which is already losing Robert Suarez, and noted that it’s important to make sure his club doesn’t end up with “two mediocre units” (referring to his rotation and bullpen).

Though the focus is on the rotation, it’s not the Padres’ only need. Preller tells Robert Murray of FanSided that his club has interest in retaining first baseman Luis Arraez, who’s a free agent for the first time this winter.

The 28-year-old Arraez (29 in April) spent most of the 2024 season and all of 2025 in San Diego after being traded over from Miami. This past season was arguably Arraez’s worst in seven major league seasons. He yet again posted a quality batting average, but not to his usual extent, and he did so with even lesser on-base and slugging marks than usual. Arraez’s .292/.327/.392 is well shy of the career .323/.372/.418 line he carried into the 2025 season.

Arraez feels more like a luxury than a need for the Padres, who could plug in Gavin Sheets at first base as an affordable option or utilize Jake Cronenworth at first and give Sheets more of a DH role. That’d allow the club to pursue middle infielders, with Xander Bogaerts capable of handling either shortstop (as he did in 2025) or second base (as he did in 2024). Arraez doesn’t seem likely to break the bank given the lack of punch and on-base heft behind his perennially strong batting average, but if the Padres plan to focus primarily on rotation help, even a relatively modest two- or three-year deal for Arraez might not be in the cards.

One other question facing San Diego this winter is the health of setup man Jason Adam. The right-hander suffered a season-ending tendon rupture in his quadriceps in early September but is on the road to recovery. Adam tells Jeff Sanders of the Union-Tribune that there’s a chance he’ll be ready for Opening Day, though he could be cutting it close. Adam says he expects to pitch at some point in spring training but may not be “right on time.” He and the team aren’t ruling out Opening Day, which is a clear goal, but he cautions that he “won’t be stupid about” his recovery and risk a setback.

The 34-year-old Adam has risen from relative obscurity to staking a legitimate claim as one of MLB’s top setup arms. Dating back to 2022, he’s pitched to a combined 2.07 ERA, including three seasons with a sub-2.00 mark (and a 2.98 ERA in his “down” year in 2023). Along the way, Adam has fanned 29.2% of his opponents against an 8.4% walk rate. Since 2022, only three relievers — Tyler Rogers, Bryan Abreu, Griffin Jax — have more holds than Adam’s 92.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $6.8MM salary for Adam next season. That’s his final year of club control, so if he were expected to miss a notable portion of the season, Adam would’ve been a natural non-tender candidate, despite his excellence. The fact that he’s now citing Opening Day as a realistic target makes it far likelier that he’s back, though if the Padres are particularly crunched for payroll space — a 2026 budget remains unclear — then they could feasibly look to move Adam for a modest return and reallocate those dollars toward the rotation.

Even with Suarez opting out and Adam in limbo health-wise, the Padres still boast a deep late-inning group with Miller, Morejon (2.08 ERA), Morgan (2.66 ERA as a rookie) and Jeremiah Estrada (3.45 ERA, 35.5 K%) all still in the fold. A healthy Adam would give San Diego one of the best bullpens in MLB, if not the best.

Kodai Senga Garnering Trade Interest

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Mets right-hander Kodai Senga has already garnered trade interest from multiple clubs, Will Sammon of The Athletic reports. The Mets aren’t known to be outright shopping the 2023 Rookie of the Year runner-up, but they’ve at least held discussions as they’ve been approached by interested teams.

Those who don’t follow the Mets closely might raise an eyebrow at the idea of a win-now club like the Mets trading a pitcher who carries a flat 3.00 ERA in 285 innings across 52 MLB starts. That includes a tidy 3.02 ERA in 113 1/3 innings this past season. However, Senga’s standing in the organization fell in the second half of the 2025 campaign. After a shoulder injury limited him to just one start in 2024, Senga returned on a hot streak, posting a 1.74 ERA in his first 13 trips to the mound.

That superlative production never appeared fully sustainable. Senga’s 23.9% strikeout rate was good but not great, and his 10.6% walk rate was nearly two percentage points higher than average. His .251 average on balls in play and 88% strand rate both seemed ripe for regression. Still, metrics like FIP (3.24) and SIERA (4.28) felt he was still a quality or at least serviceable arm even if his ERA was bound to take some steps back.

Senga sustained a calf strain in mid-June that sent him to the injured list for nearly one month. It’s a fairly innocuous-sounding injury, but whether he rushed back too soon or simply developed some bad mechanical habits while compensating for the resulting discomfort, the rest of Senga’s season was a nightmare. From July 11 through Aug. 31, he took the ball nine times and turned in a 5.90 ERA with a diminished 20.6% strikeout rate and an even more problematic 12.7% walk rate. And after allowing just 0.59 homers per nine innings in his first 13 starts, Senga’s HR/9 mark more than tripled during that miserable nine-start stretch (1.82).

The Mets optioned Senga to Triple-A — a move to which the right-hander had to consent — in hopes of getting him back on track. Senga, however, didn’t return to the majors in the season’s final month. The Mets rode a contingent of rookies down the stretch, leaning heavily on Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat in the rotation as they eventually narrowly missed a return to postseason play.

The fact that Senga didn’t return to the majors leaves him as something of a question mark. He made two starts in Triple-A following his demotion: one very good (six innings, one run, eight strikeouts, no walks) and another very poor (3 2/3 innings, four runs, two walks, one hit batter, four strikeouts). It’s difficult to glean exactly which version of Senga will show up. Outstanding as he was during his rookie season, injuries and this year’s second-half struggles have limited him to a total of 146 innings (majors and minors combined) across the past two seasons.

If the Mets had four healthy, mostly established other options in the rotation, it’d be easier to simply hope for a Senga rebound. They lack that stability, however. New York’s rotation will surely include McLean, who dazzled as a rookie. Veteran David Peterson finished with a respectable 4.22 ERA but faceplanted down the stretch, pitching to an 8.42 ERA over his final nine starts. Reliever-turned-starter Clay Holmes had a successful move to the rotation but only pitched beyond five innings four times in his final 18 appearances and posted ugly strikeout and walk rates in that time (15.8 K%, 10.6 BB%). Sean Manaea posted a 5.64 ERA in just 60 2/3 frames thanks to injuries. Frankie Montas and Tylor Megill both had UCL surgery. Tong and Sproat have sizable upside but remain unproven.

Given all that tumult in the starting staff, rotation help is a natural priority for the Mets this winter. That only makes uncertainty surrounding Senga all the more confounding. On the one hand, selling low on a pitcher who has often looked like a top-of-the-rotation arm and is at least ostensibly healthy seems like a risk the team can ill afford to take. On the other hand, Senga’s uneven 2025 season is a driving factor behind the Mets’ current rotation instability. If they’re not confident he can get back on track, moving him now would be prudent. It’d only become more difficult to deal Senga if he suffers an early injury or pitches poorly despite a clean bill of health.

The Mets owe Senga $14MM in both 2026 and 2027. If he suffers a major elbow injury that requires surgery, a conditional $15MM club option would be tacked onto the deal. A total guarantee of two years and $28MM is eminently affordable, although the Mets are effectively paying double that amount since they’re being hit with a 110% tax on all dollars spent over the top tier of the luxury tax threshold.

Senga’s contract included a full no-trade clause covering the first three seasons of the five-year pact. That’s now shrunk to a limited 10-team no-trade list for the final two years of the deal. The list of teams to which he can block a move isn’t clear at present, but the Mets have more latitude to trade him than in the past.

New York certainly isn’t going to just dump the remainder of Senga’s contract for no return. There’s far too much upside, particularly relative to his modest salary. Any team looking to pry Senga loose will have to offer up some actual talent, though clearly not as much as Senga would command were he coming off a healthy, successful season. Then again, if Senga were coming off that type of season, the very idea of trading him would be a nonstarter for the Mets. Questions about his health, mechanics and results have at least nudged Senga onto the periphery of the trade market, but those same factors also make him an incredibly tricky asset on which to find common ground with another club.

Cherington: Paul Skenes “Is Going To Be A Pirate In 2026”

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Every offseason there are at least a handful of high-profile players other clubs and their fans dream upon as the trade market begins to ramp up. Pirates ace and likely NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes may be coveted by every other team and fan base in the league, but general manager Ben Cherington was quick to stomp out any trade chatter before it even picked up. Speaking with FanSided’s Robert Murray, Cherington plainly stated that he will not trade his ace this offseason. Skenes “is going to be a Pirate in 2026,” Cherington said.

There’s little reason to think the Pirates would move Skenes at this juncture anyhow, save for owner Bob Nutting’s typically frugal habits. Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick from the 2023 draft, burst onto the scene early in the 2024 season, started the All-Star Game just a couple months later, won ’24 NL Rookie of the Year honors and is now poised to win the first of what could very well be multiple Cy Young Awards in his career.

Since taking a major league mound for the first time, Skenes has started 55 games and posted a comical 1.96 earned run average (1.96 ERA in 2024, 1.97 in 2025). He’s punched out 31% of his opponents against just a 5.9% walk rate and has only allowed 21 home runs in 320 2/3 innings (0.59 HR/9). Forty-seven percent of his batted balls have been grounders, and opponents have averaged a paltry 87.7 mph off the bat against him. He’s already staked a defensible claim to being the best pitcher in the National League, and were it not for the fact that Tigers ace Tarik Skubal is poised to win his second straight Cy Young Award in the AL, Skenes might well be the consensus top pitcher in the sport.

Trading Skenes somewhere down the road feels almost inevitable. If he continues this trajectory, he’ll have the opportunity to shatter contract precedents for starting pitchers. He already has two full years of big league service and won’t turn 24 until next May. He’ll reach free agency heading into his age-28 season. The thrifty Pirates almost certainly aren’t going to put forth a record-breaking extension offer, which is presumably already what it’d take to extend Skenes.

That said, Skenes is still under club control for four more seasons, and he won’t even reach arbitration until after the 2026 season. At least the first of his arb years will be affordable even by Pirates standards, and for a pitcher of this caliber it wouldn’t be surprising to see them hold Skenes later than some of the prior pitchers they’ve traded away with two years of club control remaining (e.g. Gerrit Cole, Joe Musgrove).

There was never really any expectation that Skenes would be traded this offseason — we didn’t include him on our list of the offseason’s top 40 trade candidates — but it’s nevertheless notable to hear the team’s baseball operations leader so definitively say a trade won’t happen. Most front office leaders tend to avoid speaking in absolutes of this nature, after all.

Beyond that, Cherington’s comment comes at a time when the Pirates are widely expected to make a bit more of a push for a return to contention. The 2026 season will be year six of Cherington’s GM tenure, and the team hasn’t topped 76 wins during his time running the club. Pittsburgh already dismissed manager Derek Shelton back in May — he’s since been hired as the Twins’ new skipper — and the baseball ops leader tends to be next on the chopping block after a manager is shown the door.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal said earlier today in an appearance on Fair Territory that agents he’s spoken to have already received signals from the Pirates that they’re planning to be more active on the open market this winter (video link). That doesn’t mean the Bucs are going to play at the top of the market, of course, but the 2025-26 offseason could see them step out of the bottom tiers of free agency where they tend to reside. Cherington himself told Murray that he has “more flexibility than we’ve had in [any] other offseasons I’ve been in Pittsburgh.”

As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows, it’s been nearly a decade since the Pirates have signed a free agent to a multi-year contract. That’s not an indication that they haven’t made any multi-year offers, but the Pirates certainly haven’t been aggressive during Nutting’s ownership, whether under Cherington or predecessor Neal Huntington.

In an appearance on the MLB Trade Rumors podcast late in the season, Cherington acknowledged that he’s made multi-year offers to free agents — specifically free agent position players. Obviously, those offers have been rebuffed. Still, the sixth-year Pittsburgh GM made clear that he plans to continue those efforts, and there are now multiple indicators that he might have the financial latitude to be a bit more aggressive as he looks to line up on such a deal to add some offense to the lineup.

The Bucs could still trade some pitching to add a big league bat(s), but veteran Mitch Keller or 26-year-old Mike Burrows seem like more plausible candidates than Skenes, Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft or Jared Jones (on whom they’d be selling low as he finishes off his rehab from UCL surgery).

Angels Add John Gibbons, Adam Eaton To Coaching Staff

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The Angels are hiring former Blue Jays manager John Gibbons as their bench coach under new manager Kurt Suzuki, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. They’re also hiring former big league outfielder Adam Eaton as their first base coach, per the report.

Gibbons, 63, has managed 11 seasons in the majors — all with the Blue Jays. That lengthy history of running a dugout and clubhouse will prove valuable for a Suzuki, who’s not only a rookie manager but has never even coached prior to his hiring as the Angels’ new skipper. In two separate stints as Toronto’s manager, Gibbons holds a 793-789 record. His Blue Jays reached the American League Championship Series in back-to-back seasons in 2015-16 but failed to advance to the World Series either year, falling to Kansas City and Cleveland in those respective seasons.

Over the past two seasons, Gibbons has served as the bench coach for the Mets under another rookie skipper: Carlos Mendoza. He’s also coached in the majors with the Blue Jays and Royals in addition to minor league managerial stints with the Mets and Padres organizations.

Eaton, 37 next month, was playing in the majors as recently as 2021. He spent a decade in the majors between the White Sox, Nationals, Diamondbacks and — briefly at the end of his career — the same Angels club for which he’ll now be coaching. That stint with the Halos in 2021 surely familiarized him with the organization and with general manager Perry Minasian. He and Suzuki were teammates for two years with the Nationals as well, including during the team’s 2019 World Series victory.

Fletcher notes that Eaton has spent the past two seasons as the director of player development at Michigan State University, but this will be his first coaching assignment in pro ball. In addition to his work as first base coach, Eaton will be an outfield instructor. He finished his career with strong defensive grades, due in no small part to some stellar early seasons in the field — particularly a 2016 campaign in which he likely should have won a Gold Glove after posting a stunning 28 Defensive Runs Saved and 18 Outs Above Average in right field for the White Sox.

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