Mets Among Teams Interested In Walker Buehler
Walker Buehler has been among the most popular targets on the rotation market for teams seeking upside on short-term deals, and Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds the Mets to the growing list of teams with interest in the longtime Dodgers righty. Buehler has also reportedly drawn interest from the Braves, Yankees and even the low-payroll Athletics.
The Mets stand to lose three members of their 2024 rotation, with Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana all reaching free agency this offseason. They’ll also be without Christian Scott, their top pitching prospect who made his MLB debut in ’24, for most or all of the 2025 season after he underwent UCL surgery. The Mets already replenished some of those innings with last night’s agreement to sign veteran righty Frankie Montas to a two-year contract, but there’s a clear need for some additional help.
Buehler, 30, was once one of the National League’s most promising young pitchers but has seen that trajectory slowed by injuries. He pitched just 65 innings in 2022 and missed all of the 2023 season while recovering from the second Tommy John surgery of his career. His World Series heroics still loom large in the minds of most fans, but Buehler’s 2024 results on the whole were generally dismal. He totaled only 75 1/3 innings and did so with a 5.38 ERA and the worst rate stats of his career. Even in his first postseason appearance, the Padres roughed him up for six runs in five innings during the National League Division Series.
Buehler’s velocity was down nearly two miles per hour from its 2020 peak, while his 18.6% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate were way off from his prior career levels (27% and 6.3%, respectively). This past season’s paltry 8.2% swinging-strike rate ranked 190th out of the 204 big league pitchers who tossed at least 70 innings on the year. His career rate coming into the year had been a sharp 11.6%.
Whether Buehler can recapture some or all of his 2018-21 form is a question someone will pay a good bit of cash to find out. Over those four years, he combined to log a 2.82 earned run average in 564 innings, fanning 27.7% of opponents against a 6.1% walk while sitting in the upper 90s with his heater. That upside is tantalizing, but it’s also been three years and one major elbow surgery since we’ve seen that version of Buehler with any real consistency. The Dodgers could’ve made him a $21.05MM qualifying offer in hopes of keeping him but instead declined to make that offer. The lack of draft pick compensation hanging over Buehler’s head will surely enhance his appeal, but it’s also perhaps a red flag that the team that knows him best opted against that one-year offer (despite possessing some of the deepest pockets in MLB).
Buehler fits Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns’ ostensible preference for shorter-term deals that maintain roster flexibility. As Sherman points out, Stearns inked ten free agents last year during his first season in control of the Mets and only guaranteed a second year to Sean Manaea (whose contract gave him the right to opt out of that second year, which he ultimately chose to do). During his time as the Brewers’ president of baseball ops, Stearns similarly avoided the deep waters of the free agent market.
It’s still not fully clear whether that prior mentality will continue to drive his moves in Queens, however. The Brewers never had anywhere near the level of spending capacity the Mets possess, so it’s only natural that Stearns eschewed risky long-term commitments to free agents during his time in Milwaukee. And while he did so last offseason with the Mets, that was in part because the 2024 season was largely viewed as a transitional year while the Mets waited for dead money from the Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and James McCann deals (among a few smaller-scale examples) to come off the books.
The Mets are now about $150MM shy of their 2024 spending levels, per RosterResource. A notable portion of that is earmarked for a hopeful signing of Juan Soto, of course, but there’s no reason the Mets couldn’t take a more aggressive stance elsewhere in free agency and broker some lengthier and more impactful deals for starting pitchers.
What type of deals Buehler commands could ultimately boil down to personal preference. Sherman suggests there are clubs with interest on one-year arrangements and others open to the idea of multi-year deals with opt-out opportunities. Speculatively speaking, Buehler would appear best-positioned if he takes a deal that allows him to return to the market next winter, whether that’s a straight one-year pact or two years with an opt-out. Doing so could position him as a candidate for a nine-figure deal if he bounces back in 2025. However, if he wants to max out right now, there could conceivably be teams willing to offer medium-length contracts with lighter annual values than he’d receive on a straight one-year deal or on a two-year pact with an opt-out.
Mets Re-Sign Grant Hartwig To Minor League Deal
The Mets have agreed to a minor league deal with righty Grant Hartwig after non-tendering him last month, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. He’ll be in camp on as a non-roster invitee next spring.
Hartwig, 27 later this month, pitched for the Mets in both 2023 and 2024 but missed a notable portion of the ’24 campaign after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. He was limited to 6 2/3 innings, during which time he yielded five runs. In a total of 42 major league frames, Hartwig has a 5.14 ERA with an 18% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 46.5% ground-ball rate.
Hartwig’s performance in the minors is a bit more encouraging. He’s pitched to a 4.34 ERA in Triple-A while fanning nearly one quarter of his opponents and keeping the ball on the ground at an above-average clip. He sits just shy of 95 mph with his sinker, running the pitch up to 97 mph at times. The 6’5″, 235-pound righty still has a pair of minor league options remaining, so if he’s added back to the Mets’ 40-man roster at any point, he can be shuttled freely between Queens and Syracuse without needing to be exposed to waivers.
Astros Have Shown Interest In Jorge Polanco As Fallback At Third Base
The Astros are focused on re-signing Alex Bregman but aren’t putting all of their eggs in that basket. They’ve been linked to Willy Adames — another likely nine-figure free agent — and have also checked in with a few contingency plans, including free agent Jorge Polanco, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Polanco, who’s coming off a down year in Seattle and underwent knee surgery in October, has typically been a middle infielder, first coming to the majors as a shortstop in Minnesota before moving over to second base due to defensive concerns. The 31-year-old does have a bit of experience at the hot corner, having logged a combined 180 innings there in two different seasons with the Twins (plus another 128 frames there as a minor leaguer). He played 103 innings at third base as recently as 2023 in Minnesota.
The 2024 season was a disaster for Polanco, who’s battled knee troubles for several seasons and saw those ongoing troubles culminate in offseason surgery. His lone year in Seattle produced a .213/.296/.355 slash in 118 games — a far cry from the combined .270/.338/.455 output Polanco posted in six years with the Twins from 2018-23. Polanco still cracked 16 home runs for the Mariners in 2024, but his strikeout rate spiked to a career-worst 29.2% and he posted some of the worst defensive grades of his career (-10 Outs Above Average).
Polanco underwent surgery to repair the patellar tendon in his left knee in early October. He’d previously had IL stints for that same knee in both 2023 and 2022, missing about seven weeks of action combined between the two instances. Given the recent knee struggles and ugly results in 2024, Polanco is likely ticketed for a one-year deal. At the very least, he’d be an affordable alternative to Bregman/Adames who could allow the ‘Stros to perhaps spend elsewhere.
At this stage of his career, however, asking Polanco to hold down third base regularly feels like a stretch. He’ll turn 32 next July, is coming off that knee surgery and already ranks poorly in terms of arm strength on his throws in the infield, per Statcast. While throws from second base and third base can’t simply be compared in apples-to-apples fashion — throws from third base are inherently going to come in at a higher velocity — Polanco is well below average even when compared strictly to other second basemen; his average velocity ranked 48th among the 63 players who made at least 100 throws as a second baseman in 2024. Perhaps a healthier lower half will lead to better life on his throws moving forward, but the recent trends don’t bode well for a move to third base.
That said, it’s a pretty thin market at the hot corner this offseason — at least in free agency. Bregman is the clear top option, though some teams might prefer Adames, who’s reportedly willing to move off shortstop in the right setting. Virtually everyone beyond Bregman and Adames falls into the rebound candidate bucket, with Polanco joining names like Josh Rojas, Gio Urshela, Yoan Moncada, Brandon Drury and Luis Urias (among others). The trade market includes Alec Bohm and the pricier Nolan Arenado, to name a couple of the most prominent candidates.
MLB Mailbag: Arenado, Bellinger, Phillies, Reds, A’s, Mariners, Brewers, More
It's time for another edition of the weekly MLB Mailbag here at MLBTR. I'm pinch-hitting for MLBTR owner Tim Dierkes this week.
We received more questions than usual, with a heavy focus on some recent rumors/reporting on big-name NL Central players like Nolan Arenado and Cody Bellinger. We'll address that, plus questions on the Phillies' options, the Reds' outlook following a few early moves, the recent wave of non-tendered players, how the A's can actually spend some money and more.
Onto the questions!
Mark asks:
Should the Cardinals not find a trade partner for Nolan Arenado (or one that he agrees to), how do they sort out the logjam? Gorman, Donovan, Saggese--and eventually Wetherholt--at 2B/3B, and 1B/DH is kind of occupied now with Contreras and Burleson. Seems like if they plan to let the younger guys play, tough to see how there is enough playing time to go around.
Eldon asks:
The Yankees are rumored to have interest in Nolan Arenado. Wouldn't this be too much like the Donaldson fiasco of just a very short time ago Hopefully Steinbrenner and/or Cashman wouldn't dare do that again...would they? An aging player with a big contract who seems to be in decline? Why?
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Mets Sign Genesis Cabrera To Minor League Deal
The Mets announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Genesis Cabrera to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training.
Cabrera, 28, has spent his career to date with the Cardinals and Blue Jays. The hard-throwing southpaw turned in 62 2/3 innings of 3.59 ERA for Toronto in 2024 but did so with a below-average 18.5% strikeout rate and bloated 10.7% walk rate. Command has consistently been an issue for Cabrera, who’s never walked fewer than 10% of his opponents in a single season.
Even with clear sub-par command, however, Cabrera has typically remained effective. He carries a 3.89 ERA in 275 2/3 big league innings and has often found himself in leverage spots, compiling 67 holds and five saves to this point. His 2024 season in Toronto featured a career-low average velocity on his four-seamer (95.9 mph), though his 96 mph average sinker was up slightly from his 2022-23 levels (but down from a 97.7 mph peak). Last year’s strikeout rate was the second-worst of his career.
The track record and velocity with Cabrera are both intriguing, even if his command has always been poor and his 2024 had some notable red flags. There’s no risk for the Mets to bring him to camp as a non-roster player and see if he pitches his way into a bullpen spot. At the moment, the only left-handed reliever on the Mets’ 40-man roster is Danny Young, so there’s certainly room to add some depth and possibly some additional certainty in that regard as the offseason progresses.
Latest On Juan Soto
While we’ve started to see some movement in the pitching market, with Blake Snell and Yusei Kikuchi both coming off the board this week, we’ve yet to see a prominent bat come off the board. Some of that is just the naturally slow pace of MLB’s free agency structure, but there’s also surely an element of Juan Soto holding things up to an extent. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear as though this will be a protracted free agent saga that lingers well into the new year.
Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media reported earlier this week that five clubs had made offers to Soto: the Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Dodgers. There’s been some back-and-forth reporting as to whether offers from each have been formally submitted, but semantics aside, that quintet appears to be the top set of bidders for Soto at the moment.
Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reports that Soto and agent Scott Boras asked for initial offers to be submitted by Thanksgiving, so even if one of those clubs hasn’t yet submitted a formal offer just yet, it’s likely only a matter of hours before said offer is presented. Per Blum, there’s a growing belief that Soto could make a decision at or even before this year’s Winter Meetings, which take place from Dec. 8-11 in Dallas.
It should be noted that the current wave of offers being submitted is not a collection of “best and final” offers. With any free agent of this magnitude, there will be plenty of back-and-forth negotiations. Brendan Kuty of The Athletic tweets that this initial wave of offers is considered “preliminary,” with an additional round of offers likely coming in next week. Talks will intensify as teams are weeded out in the run-up to the Winter Meetings. Kuty, like Blum, suggests that landmark offseason event as a likely endpoint to Soto’s free agency.
Of the five known suitors, the Dodgers are perhaps the least likely. That might’ve been true even before Los Angeles struck their five-year deal with Snelll last night — one that guarantees him $182MM (with some deferred salary but also a huge up-front $52MM signing bonus). ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported several weeks back that while the Dodgers will be in the mix they’re not expected to chase Soto at all costs. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic offered a similar thinking last night in his breakdown of the Snell deal, suggesting that while the Dodgers will of course remain apprised of where Soto’s bidding lands, they could also be simply trying to drive up the price for more serious bidders in New York, Boston and Toronto.
To that end, Jon Heyman of the New York Post wrote last night that the Red Sox are indeed quite serious in their pursuit of Soto. They’ve sought to sell Soto on the organization’s history of prominent left-handed hitters who’ve taken advantage of Fenway Park’s Green Monster and also enlisted franchise icons Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz to pitch the free agent slugger on the team’s history of touted stars from Soto’s native Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe adds that the Sox don’t view Soto and adding a top-of-the-rotation arm as an either-or scenario. Even if they succeeded in landing Soto, the Sox would do so in simultaneous pursuit of a top-end starter. Red Sox president Sam Kennedy already signaled a willingness to exceed the luxury tax, and Speier notes that the Sox don’t view the $241MM tax threshold as any sort of hard cap. They’re currently $70MM shy of that level, per RosterResource’s estimates.
It’s not yet clear whether any other clubs could jump into the mix late in the bidding process. Phillies owner John Middleton stated earlier in the winter that he didn’t mind being a “stalking horse” on Soto, and there were reports that the Phils planned to meet with him at some point, but USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported Monday that the Phillies have yet to even speak to Boras about Soto specifically. The Giants were an oft-speculated suitor heading into the winter, but they’ve not yet met with Soto and reports have since indicated they may actually scale back payroll rather than spend as aggressively as some anticipated.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Posting Window For Hyeseong Kim Likely To Begin Next Week
It’s already widely known that the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes will post infielder Hyeseong Kim for major league teams this offseason. An exact timetable, however, hadn’t come into focus until today. Kim himself tells Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency (X link) that he expects the posting to be formalized next week. He’s planning to travel to the United States early next week in advance of the process.
Kim, who’ll turn 26 in January, has long looked the part of an interesting entrant into the offseason free agent market. The former double-play partner of current big leaguer Ha-Seong Kim, he’s old enough and has enough experience in the KBO to be considered a “professional” under Major League Baseball’s international free agent parameters. That allows him to sign a major league deal of any length and for any amount (unlike, say, NPB star Roki Sasaki, who’ll be limited to a minor league deal with a bonus that falls within the guidelines of MLB’s hard-capped international amateur system).
The left-handed-hitting Kim has turned in four straight above-average seasons at the plate in the KBO, batting over .300 with an on-base percentage of at least .372 in each of those four seasons. He’s light on power but did connect on a career-high 11 home runs this past season, adding in 26 doubles and four triples. Hitting the ball over the fence has never been Kim’s calling card, however. He’s developed into a KBO star due to his outstanding bat-to-ball skills, plus speed and plus glovework. Over the past four seasons, he’s swiped 135 bases in 155 attempts (87.1% success rate) and lowered his strikeout rate each season, culminating in just a 10.9% strikeout rate in 2024.
Overall, Kim carries a .321/.381/.418 over the past four seasons, including a .326/.383/.458 batting line this past season. He’s regarded as a plus defensive second baseman who can handle shortstop and has ample experience at both positions. The Mariners have already been linked to Kim, and he ought to command a fair bit of interest from other teams once his free agency begins in earnest. The A’s, Royals, Pirates, Braves, Yankees and Brewers make varying levels of sense as speculative fits.
Once the Heroes formally post Kim, it will open a 45-day window during which he and his representatives at CAA Baseball can negotiate freely with all 30 major league teams. Any team that signs Kim will be paying not only the agreed-upon guarantee to the player himself, but a formal posting/release fee to the Heroes. That fee, which is in on top of the contract, is equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, plus 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. Additional earnings, such as performance bonuses/incentives or salaries on option years fall under that purview once they are unlocked or exercised.
Rangers Finalize 2025 Coaching Staff
The Rangers formally announced their coaching staff for the upcoming season today, including the additions of bench coach Luis Urueta, assistant pitching coach Dave Bush, bullpen coach Jordan Tiegs and hitting coach Justin Viele.
The 43-year-old Urueta served as the Marlins’ bench coach under Skip Schumaker and also held a bench coach position with the Diamondbacks prior to his time in Miami. The Rangers hired Schumaker as a senior advisor to president of baseball operations Chris Young earlier this month, and it was reported at the time that Urueta was expected to be named bench coach to manager Bruce Bochy. In addition to his time as a bench coach in Miami and Arizona, Urueta spent more than a decade coaching and managing in the D-backs’ minor league system.
Bush, 45, was the Red Sox’ pitching coach from 2020-23 and joined the Rangers as the organization’s director of pitching strategy back in January. He worked with both the coaching staff and front office in that role, and Bush even stepped in as interim pitching coach during the 2024 season when pitching coach Mike Maddux was briefly away from the club.
Tiegs, 37, will be suiting up on a big league coaching staff for the first time but has spent six years in the Rangers organization already. He’s been a pitching coach at multiple minor league levels and worked with the Rangers’ player development staff as the team’s minor league pitching coordinator. He’s also coached college ball at two different schools in his native Indiana (University of Indianapolis and Indiana State University).
Viele’s hiring was first reported back on Nov. 1. The 34-year-old had been an assistant hitting coach with the Giants and overlapped with current Rangers offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on San Francisco’s staff in 2020-21.
Bochy will be returning to the Rangers for his third year as manager. In addition to Urueta, Bush, Viele and Tiegs, the Rangers will welcome back Ecker, first base coach Corey Ragsdale, third base coach Tony Beasley, catching coach Bobby Wilson, assistant hitting coach Seth Conner and quality control coach Brett Hayes.
Jake Cave Signs With KBO’s Doosan Bears
The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization announced this week that they’ve signed outfielder/first baseman Jake Cave to a one-year, $1MM contract (hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Cave, a client of the Ballengee Group, will head overseas for the first time in his career and earn the maximum salary for a first-year foreign player in the KBO.
A veteran of seven big league seasons, Cave spent the 2024 season with the Rockies and hit .251/.290/.396 with seven home runs in 346 plate appearances. The Rockies passed Cave through waivers following the season, and he elected free agency once he went unclaimed.
Cave, 32 next month, has spent the bulk of his career with the Twins but was also with the Phillies in 2023 and the Rox this past season. Overall, he’s a lifetime .236/.292/.400 hitter in the majors (85 wRC+). Contact, or a lack thereof, has been a notable issue for him. Cave has fanned in 30.8% of his career plate appearances. He does have a knack for making decent contact when he puts the ball in play, with nearly 25% of his career batted balls being line drives. That’s several percentage points north of league-average, but his lack of contact offsets that penchant for solid contact.
Cave has logged more than 1000 big league innings at each of the three outfield spots. The Phillies also gave him 122 innings at first base in 2023. He spent a good bit of time in center field with Minnesota early in his career but has worked primarily in the corners in recent seasons, drawing solid grades for his glovework. Statcast credits him with above-average sprint speed and above-average arm strength in the outfield, ranking him in the 60th and 61st percentile of MLB players this past season, respectively.
As Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency points out, Cave will round out the Bears’ international signings for the year. KBO clubs are permitted to carry three foreign players, and Doosan already signed pitchers Cole Irvin and Thomas Hatch earlier in the offseason.