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Phillies Hire Don Mattingly As Bench Coach

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The Phillies announced Monday that they’ve hired Don Mattingly as the new bench coach to manager Rob Thomson. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledged last month that he’d spoken to Mattingly about the vacancy. Last year’s bench coach, Mike Calitri, changed roles this offseason and became the team’s major league field coordinator. Mattingly has spent the past three seasons as the Blue Jays’ bench coach but chose not to return in that role for the 2026 season as he instead explored other opportunities.

“I am excited to welcome Don Mattingly to Philadelphia,” Thomson said in this morning’s press release. “Having known Don for years and having worked closely with him in New York, I know that his knowledge of the game and his character make him a great addition to our tremendous coaching staff.”

Notably, Mattingly joins an organization that employs his son, Preston, as its general manager. The younger Mattingly isn’t the top decision-maker in Philadelphia’s front office — Dombrowski still holds hat role as the team’s president — but he’s a key figure in baseball operations who spent several seasons as the team’s director of player development and an assistant general manager before being elevated to his current post.

As Thomson noted in his comment, the two men worked together in the Yankees organization, though they didn’t overlap on the team’s major league coaching staff. Thomson actually succeeded Mattingly as bench coach in 2008, after Mattingly accepted an offer to become Joe Torre’s hitting coach in Los Angeles. He’d been in the running for the managerial vacancy in the Bronx that ultimately went to Joe Girardi, who named Thomson his new bench coach.

Even if they weren’t on the same big league staff, however, Mattingly and Thomson worked together with the Yankees. Mattingly was a minor league instructor prior to being added to the big league staff as hitting coach in 2003. During that time, Thomson worked both as a minor league manager and as a key figure in the Yankees’ player development department, where the two aligned to work with the Yankees’ up-and-coming talent.

In addition to his work as a bench coach and hitting coach between the Bronx and L.A., the now-64-year-old Mattingly spent five years managing the Dodgers and another seven managing the Marlins. He then jumped to the Jays, where he was first hired as bench coach and then had the title “offensive coordinator” added to his position. In that role, Mattingly oversaw the hitting coaches up and down the entire organization.

Now bound for Philadelphia, Mattingly will serve as Thomson’s top lieutenant. There’s been some speculation as to how long Thomson will continue to manage, but he signed a one-year extension through the 2027 season following the 2025 campaign, so he’s locked in for at least two more years. Mattingly is actually two years older than Thomson, so he’s not exactly the prototypical younger heir-apparent in waiting, but if Thomson does step away after his current contract, the Phillies would have an experienced option in the organization already. If not, Mattingly simply adds another seasoned coach to a veteran staff full of several well-regarded names.

Angels, Anthony Rendon Restructure Contract; Rendon Will Not Return To Team

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The Angels and Anthony Rendon have agreed to a restructured version of his contract that will defer the $38MM he is still owed for the next three to five seasons, reports Sam Blum of The Athletic. Rendon will not return to the team. His tenure with the Angels is over.

Rendon is not officially “retiring,” Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register adds. He’ll still count against the team’s roster for the time being, although with the two sides agreeing to part ways, it stands to reason that the Angels could release him at any point. He’ll be paid regardless.

ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reported in late November that the two parties were working on a buyout of sorts regarding the final year and $38MM on the seven-year, $245MM contract Rendon signed following his monster 2019 season. It proved to be a catastrophic misstep for the Halos — one of the least-productive major signings in the sport’s history. Rendon played in only 257 games for Anaheim, slashing just .242/.348/.369 with 22 home runs in 1095 plate appearances. Of a possible 1032 games he could have played with the Angels, Rendon will wind up appearing in just under one-quarter of them.

It’s easy to forget, but Rendon’s Angels tenure started out quite well. He played in 52 of 60 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and slashed a robust .286/.418/.497 with nine homers, 11 doubles, a triple and more walks (16.4%) than strikeouts (13.4%). It was precisely the type of star-level output for which the Angels hoped when signing the 2019 postseason standout after a sensational run in Washington; from 2017-19, Rendon had slashed .310/.397/.556 with the Nationals.

Everything fell apart after that first season in Anaheim. Rendon’s 2021 season was cut short by hip surgery. His 2022 season ended early due to wrist surgery. He missed all of the 2025 season following a second hip surgery. Even in the 2023-24 seasons, when he avoided undergoing any kind of surgical procedure, Rendon was limited to just 90 games due to the combination of a fractured tibia (suffered when fouling a ball into his leg), a torn hamstring and an oblique strain.

As one would expect, as those injuries piled up, Rendon’s production wilted. Following his terrific 2020 campaign, he played in just 202 games with the Angels and hit .231/.329/.336 with poor defense. He was effectively a replacement-level player — and a frequently injured one at that. Rendon also sparked controversy off the field as well in 2023, when he was captured on video grabbing an A’s fan by the shirt after he’d been cussed at while leaving the field. Rendon swore at the fan and took a swipe at him after releasing his shirt. He was suspended for four games and fined by the league.

The Angels weren’t counting on any contributions from Rendon in 2026 anyhow, but the restructure and deferral of his weighty $38MM salary gives the team some extra spending power this winter. Details surrounding the nature of the deferrals and how much — if anything — they’ll pay Rendon in 2026 are unclear. Blum, however, suggests that the Angels could use the newfound financial freedom to pursue a higher-profile free agent this winter. That doesn’t necessarily have to be at third base, although in Alex Bregman and NPB star Kazuma Okamoto, there are a pair of notable options at the position.

Many of the top names on the free agent market remain unsigned to this point. In addition to Bregman and Okamoto, none of Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, Cody Bellinger, Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez or Tatsuya Imai have signed yet. Imai’s 45-day posting window closes on Jan. 2. Okamoto’s posting window closes two days later.

Prior to the Rendon buyout/restructure, RosterResource projected the Angels’ payroll at about $172MM, which is roughly $34MM shy of their 2025 level. Depending on how the new arrangement has been structured, the Angels could be anywhere from $40-70MM shy of last year’s season-ending mark, which would give general manager Perry Minasian and his staff plenty of room to further augment the club.

Red Sox Notes: Giolito, Bullpen

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Despite declining his end of a mutual option for the 2026 season, right-hander Lucas Giolito was and is very open to returning to the Red Sox, the pitcher himself told WEEI’s Rob Bradford in a guest appearance on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast. However, Giolito also was realistic about the slim chances of that happening in the wake of Boston’s acquisition of Sonny Gray (and Johan Oviedo). Asked if the trades for Gray and Oviedo were a signal that the team plans to move on, Giolito replied, “That’s what I think,” adding that the “writing is on the wall” with regard to the fact that a reunion is unlikely.

Giolito delved further into his free agent experience a second time around, explaining that he’s more focused on what he can control this time around instead of stressing over the day-to-day of the process. He’s upped his workout regimen and is experimenting with reincorporating a sinker into his repertoire. He hasn’t thrown a two-seamer since the 2018 season but is working out at Cressey Performance Center this winter and working on an updated version of the pitch.

Though Giolito will likely be taking that new-look sinker to another club, the Red Sox don’t figure to be done on the pitching front. Tim Healey of the Boston Globe breaks down the team’s bullpen, highlighting the lack of established options beyond Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock and Greg Weissert while noting that at least one, if not two external additions could be in the cards for Breslow in the final few months of the offseason.

The Red Sox are paying Jordan Hicks $12MM in each of the next two seasons, so he’ll surely have a leash of some note, but he’s coming off a lost season in which he was rocked for a 6.59 ERA while posting a career-worst 18.5% strikeout rate. Manager Alex Cora talked up Jovani Moran as a potential left-handed option, but the 28-year-old has struggled through injury and poor performance since a promising rookie campaign with the Twins back in 2022.

While Boston is lacking in established southpaw options, much of the free agent market has thinned out considerably in recent weeks. A reunion with veteran Justin Wilson would make sense, speculatively speaking, but each of Steven Matz (Rays), Gregory Soto (Pirates), Hoby Milner (Cubs), Caleb Thielbar (Cubs), Caleb Ferguson (Reds), Drew Pomeranz (Angels) and Sean Newcomb (White Sox) has already signed this winter. Wilson, Danny Coulombe, Taylor Rogers, Andrew Chafin and Brent Suter are all still available. JoJo Romero is the most obvious name on the trade market, if the Red Sox want to circle back for what would be a third trade with the Cardinals.

Kazuma Okamoto Travels To U.S. For In-Person Meetings With Teams

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Star Nippon Professional Baseball third baseman Kazuma Okamoto has traveled to the United States for a series of in-person meetings as he enters the final stretch of his 45-day posting window, per a report from Yahoo Japan (hat tip to Yakyu Cosmopolitan). Okamoto and agent Scott Boras are narrowing the field of interested clubs as Okamoto nears his early-January deadline for an agreement.

To this point, each of the Blue Jays, Pirates, Red Sox, Padres and Angels have been prominently linked to Okamoto, who’ll turn 30 next June. The longtime Yomiuri Giants star, who’d been their team captain prior to being posted, is one of the most consistent sluggers in Japan. He’s a career .277/.361/.522 hitter in NPB who has reached 30 home runs in all but two of his 11 seasons. That includes 2025, when injuries limited him to 69 games, and 2024, when he “only” hit 27 homers in 143 games.

However, despite hitting a career-low 15 home runs this past season due to an elbow injury, Okamoto had the best production of his excellent NPB tenure on a rate basis. In 293 trips to the batter’s box, he slashed .327/.416/.598 with a robust 11.3% walk rate that matched his minuscule 11.3% strikeout rate. His 24.3% line-drive rate from this past season was a career-high, and Okamoto’s .271 ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) was the second-best mark of his career, trailing only his 41-homer season from 2023.

Like countryman Munetaka Murakami, Okamoto is a corner infielder whose glovework concerns big league teams. He’s considered a better defender at third base than Murakami but is still viewed by many clubs as a player who’ll likely spend most (if not all) of his first MLB contract as a first baseman and/or designated hitter. Those defensive concerns contributed significantly to Murakami settling for a two-year deal that fell well short of industry expectations. Defensive concerns surrounding Okamoto aren’t as prominent, nor does he have the alarming swing-and-miss profile that also contributed to the bearish market for Murakami. However, Okamoto is four years older. Next year being his age-30 season will likely limit the length of his forthcoming contract (though perhaps not to the same extent as Murakami).

Of the teams connected to Okamoto thus far, there’s no clear favorite. The Blue Jays presumably still have Bo Bichette ahead of him on their wishlist — possibly Alex Bregman as well. Boston has also been pursuing both Bregman and Bichette (likely in that order). The Pirates have already acquired one first base option, signing Ryan O’Hearn, and have another in Spencer Horwitz. If they were to make a real push for Okamoto, they’d need to be confident in his ability to play third base. The Angels have a clearer path to playing time at the infield corners (particularly third base). The Padres won’t be displacing Manny Machado at third base, so Okamoto would need to play first base, with Jake Cronenworth manning second base and KBO acquisition Sung Mun Song shifting to the outfield or a utility role.

Of course, it remains perfectly plausible that other, yet-unidentified clubs are in the bidding. The A’s, Mariners, Twins, Rangers, D-backs, Marlins, Mets, Cubs and Nationals all have varying levels of questions at the infield corners. Not all of those teams have significant money to spend this winter — the Rangers, Twins and D-backs are all known to be reducing payroll relative to recent seasons — but any of the bunch could get creative with backloaded contract structures and/or shed payroll by another means to make room if Okamoto is deemed a sufficient upgrade. That’s a largely speculative list, to be clear, but given Okamoto’s track record in NPB, it’d be a surprise if “only” five MLB’s 30 teams had any interest in signing him.

It bears noting that while Okamoto was originally set to be posted on Nov. 19, MLBTR has confirmed that his posting didn’t become official until Nov. 21. That pushes his window to sign a contract with a big league club from the original Jan. 2 to Jan. 4. Whichever club signs him will owe the Giants a posting/release fee equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. That fee comes on top of the value of the contract itself. Subsequent earnings (club/player options, performance incentives, award bonuses, etc.) fall under that umbrella as well, once they’re officially reached.

Zach Eflin Scheduled For Bullpen Session Next Week, Aiming To Be Ready For Opening Day

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After an injury-ruined 2025 season, veteran right-hander Zach Eflin is back with the Orioles on a one-year deal. The 31-year-old (32 in April) underwent a lumbar microdiscectomy procedure in August. At the time, he and the team indicated that while the procedure can come with a recovery timetable of four to eight months, he was hopeful that he’d be able to have a normal offseason after roughly 12 weeks of recovery.

There hasn’t been much concrete information about his rehab window since that time, but on a Zoom call with the Orioles beat, Eflin revealed that he’s slated to throw his first bullpen session on Jan. 6 (via the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich). Eflin added that his goal is to be ready for Opening Day, though he noted that timetable is still very much subject to change. Obviously, his ultimate return point will hinge on how his ramp-up period goes now that he’s been cleared for his first post-op bullpen session.

A healthy Eflin would, at least on paper, give the Orioles a full rotation. He’d slot in alongside Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer and newly acquired Shane Baz. That’s a solid group if everyone’s healthy, but that’s a colossal “if.” Eflin pitched just 81 1/3 innings last year before that season-ending back surgery. Bradish pitched only 54 innings between the minors and the big leagues as he returned from Tommy John surgery. Baz tossed a career-high 166 1/3 innings but totaled only 106 1/3 major league frames across the three preceding seasons, due primarily to Tommy John surgery. Depth options like Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott and Brandon Young give the O’s some cover, but none of that trio has established himself in the big leagues just yet.

The Orioles have been connected to a wide swath of notable starters via both trade and free agency. Their pursuit of Miami righty Edward Cabrera has reportedly cooled, but Baltimore has been linked to free agents like Tatsuya Imai, Ranger Suarez and Framber Valdez throughout the offseason. Bringing Eflin back at a pretty reasonable rate shouldn’t stand as a major impediment to any subsequent additions. RosterResource projects Baltimore’s payroll for about $147MM as of this writing. That’s $13MM shy of their 2025 mark. It stands to reason that ownership is willing to at the very least replicate that level of spending, if not push the payroll further north.

Virtually no team makes it through a full season in today’s game with only five starting pitchers. The Orioles are even likelier to need extra arms than most. Bradish and Eflin will see their workloads managed to varying extents. Rogers and Baz have notable injury histories. Whether in spring training or throughout the marathon regular season, the Orioles are sure to incur injuries on their staff. They had eight pitchers start six or more games for them in 2025, and that includes free agent Tomoyuki Sugano, who started a team-high 30 games. They’ll likely have at least seven or eight pitchers with 10 or more games started.

Mariners Reluctant To Deal From Major League Roster

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The Mariners are still hoping to make at least one more notable splash between now and Opening Day, but Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times suggests that they’re reluctant to deal anyone from their big league roster to make it happen. Divish writes that the M’s are willing to move top pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje in a package for Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan but are less inclined to trade anyone from the big league roster to get him. He adds that president of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander have both “been adamant” about not wanting to trade an established big league starter as they look to bolster the lineup.

It’s a fairly similar approach to the one taken by Dipoto, Hollander & Co. last offseason. In the winter of 2024-25, the Mariners pursued multiple big-ticket trade items but found many clubs with players available in trade were seeking young big leaguers — not the top prospects that proliferate the top of a stacked Seattle farm system. There are more pure rebuilding clubs this winter, at least on paper, but the Cardinals have prioritized MLB-ready pitching in trades of Sonny Gray (Richard Fitts) and Willson Contreras (Hunter Dobbins). The D-backs reportedly want to add major league pitching (presumably multiple rotation candidates) in any deal for star infielder Ketel Marte.

While Seattle’s system is deep in high-end prospects — the M’s had eight players on Baseball America’s end-of-season top-100 prospect list, though they’ve since traded Harry Ford — the actual depth beyond the big league rotation is relatively thin. Each of Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo and George Kirby started at least 23 games in 2025. All pitched well — Kirby had a couple brutal outings but was largely strong — but only Castillo did so while avoiding an IL stint. Bryce Miller missed more than half the season due to elbow inflammation. The options beyond that pair are less encouraging.

Emerson Hancock is a former No. 6 overall pick but spent the latter part of the season as a reliever. He’ll head into camp as a starter but has been viewed as a more of a fifth starter candidate than one would expect based on that lofty draft billing. He’ll turn 27 in May and has a career 4.81 ERA with a poor 15.6% strikeout rate in 162 MLB innings. Twenty-four-year-old Logan Evans tossed 81 1/3 innings with a 4.32 ERA as a rookie this past season and briefly drew some top-100 fanfare before his own promotion to the majors. Like Hancock, he struggled to miss bats in the big leagues (16.9 K%, 7.8% swinging-strike rate). He also was hit hard in 11 Triple-A starts last year.

Depth options beyond those seven are thin. Jhonathan Diaz and Blas Castano are both on the 40-man roster but are already in their late 20s with no MLB track record of which to speak. The Mariners have plenty of notable pitching prospects, including Cijntje, Ryan Sloan and 2025 No. 3 overall pick Kade Anderson. Cijntje has all of seven Double-A starts under his belt, though, and could require more development time than most prospects given his status as an extremely uncommon switch-pitcher. Sloan hasn’t pitched above A-ball. Anderson didn’t pitch for a Mariners affiliate after last summer’s draft. Former prospects like Taylor Dollard and Michael Morales went unselected in this year’s Rule 5 Draft despite being eligible. The former has battled injury troubles. The latter was hit fairly hard and notched just a 16% strikeout rate in Double-A this season.

The Mariners could certainly deal from their rotation to improve the lineup and backfill with a lower-cost free agent signing, but it’s understandable if the front office is reluctant to at all jeopardize the team’s depth, given the shaky performances of Miller, Hancock and (to a lesser extent) Evans in 2025. If anything, one could argue that it’d be prudent to add to the current group by signing/acquiring some optionable depth or a swingman/sixth starter to plug into a long relief role to begin the year.

Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Steve Adams

  • Final Front Office chat of 2025! Hope the holiday season has been treating everyone well. As always, feel free to ask a question about any of the remaining free agents, possible trade scenarios, team outlooks and whatever other Hot Stove-related topics (or, frankly, other topics!) are on your mind!I'll get going at about 1:30pm CT. Looking forward to i!
  • Let's get underway!

Drake

  • What are your thoughts on the Soderstrom extension? I like it overall and hopeful the A’s can get at least one more of their core locked up too

Steve Adams

  • I'm a big Soderstrom backer, so for me, getting the deal done and buying out at least three free agent years for a sub-100 guarantee is a move well worth making. That's not to say Soderstrom sold himself short. A year ago, he looked like a fringe contributor, and now he's signed the eighth-largest extension of any player ever for his service class. Most of the guys ahead of him (Tatis, Witt, Posey, Trout, Yordan, Bregman) were already superstars when they put pen to paper.It's a good move all around. Soderstrom is definitely a guy I'd look to build around, particularly with how well he took to LF.

jrizz1e

  • biggest player traded between now and start of spring training?

Steve Adams

  • I don't know if Brendan Donovan counts as a "big-name" player among most MLB fans, but he's a big name for front offices and I think it's far likelier than not that he ends up traded.

Ben Cherrington

  • Can either ROH or Horowitz play 3B ? Meintakwicz(sp?) did this on the steel city a few years back.

Steve Adams

  • Doug Mientkiewicz played 33 games (30 starts) at 3B for the Pirates in the late 2000s and, as one would expect for a 34-year-old first baseman making that move for the first time, graded out terribly.
  • The Jays gave Horwitz 250ish innings at 2B, and he didn't fare all that well there. O'Hearn isn't playing 3B.
  • I think you'll just see the two split time at DH and 1B. O'Hearn could see some OF time, depending on injuries elsewhere on the roster.

JL

  • If the Os are serious about a TOR arm, is Eflin taking Kremers place in the rotation?  What is Dean Kremers trade value?

Steve Adams

  • They wouldn't move on from Kremer even if they add an Imai, Valdez, Suarez, etc.Kyle Bradish only pitched 54 innings between the minors and MLB last year. Eflin himself was under 90 IP. Injuries are an inevitability. We don't even firmly know when Eflin will be healthy enough to take the mound in a big league game.Bringing him back at $10MM was a relatively reasonably priced depth move with a decent bit of upside. Any big league team is going to need far more than five starters to get through a season. The O's will probably have 7-8 guys start 10+ games next season. The rotation will sort itself out.

Foley

  • As good as Logan Gilbert is the Mariners should consider trading him, realistically they won’t have the money to sign him and with two years of control they should get a haul that could help now and later

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Mets Sign Luke Weaver

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December 22nd: The Mets announced Weaver’s signing. They opened a 40-man roster spot by trading McNeil to the Athletics earlier today.

December 17th: The Mets are working to finalize a two-year, $22MM deal with free agent reliever Luke Weaver, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The two sides have an agreement in place, per Will Sammon of The Athletic. The deal is pending a physical. Weaver is repped by Excel Sports Management. The Mets have a full 40-man roster and will need a corresponding move to make this deal official.

The two-year, $22MM terms are the exact same ones as the just-agreed-upon deal between the division-rival Phillies and righty Brad Keller. Like Keller, Weaver is a starter-turned-reliever who’s found notable success pitching near the back of a big-market contender’s bullpen.

Weaver, 32, has spent the past two-plus seasons as a key late-inning arm over in the Bronx. A rocky finish to the 2025 season inflated his earned run average to 3.62 but since signing with the Yankees late in the 2023 campaign, Weaver touts a 3.22 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate in 162 innings of relief. He saved a dozen games and picked up 43 holds along the way, blowing only four other opportunities in that time. It’s presumably just coincidence, but the Mets now employ Weaver, Devin Williams and Clay Holmes (who’s moved into the rotation) — the Yankees’ three highest-leverage arms for the bulk of the 2024-25 seasons.

A first-round pick by the Cardinals back in 2014, Weaver debuted in the St. Louis rotation in 2016 and showed some promise as a starter there in 2017-18. The Cards flipped him to the D-backs as part of the return for star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, and Weaver looked to be on the cusp of a full-fledged breakout in 2019. He started a dozen games and pitched to a 2.94 ERA with plus strikeout and walk rates before a forearm strain ended his season. Subsequent shoulder and elbow injuries doomed the rest of Weaver’s D-backs tenure; from 2020-23, he pitched to a 5.95 ERA while bouncing between five clubs.

The last of those five stops, however, was in the Bronx. He made enough of an impression in three late-season starts to sign a $2.5MM big league deal in the offseason — one that contained a 2025 club option. It proved to be a raucous bargain for the team and a career-saving deal for Weaver, who rebuilt himself into a coveted bullpen arm and now lands the largest payday of his 12-year professional career. Despite that strong run in the Bronx and some reported interest in a reunion, the Yanks were not in the bidding for Weaver, per Sherman.

Back in September, Weaver expressed some openness to returning to a starting role if a team gave him a chance, but that doesn’t seem to be at play here. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com writes that Weaver will slot into the bullpen. It’s unclear if that’s sourced reporting or deduction but there hasn’t been anything to suggest the Mets plan on giving Weaver a rotation gig. The price of Weaver’s deal is right around expectations. At the beginning of the offseason, MLBTR predicted him for an $18MM guarantee over two years, an estimate that he has marginally beaten.

New York had a middling bullpen in 2025. Their collective 3.93 ERA was 15th in the majors. It was even worse later in the year as the season slipped away from the club. Over August and September, the relief corps had a collective 4.18 ERA. At season’s end, Edwin Díaz, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Soto, Ryan Helsley and others hit free agency, further thinning out the group. Those four have already signed with other clubs.

The Mets have signed Williams and now Weaver to fortify the group. They will slot in among incumbent arms like A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley, Huascar Brazobán and others. Presumably, there are still more bullpen moves to come.

RosterResource, assuming an equal distribution of Weaver’s guarantee over two years, now projects the Mets for a $305MM payroll and a $307MM competitive balance tax figure. Since they have paid the tax in at least three straight years, they face compounding taxation rates. The top tier of the tax in 2026 is $304MM, so this deal pushes them over. That means they will pay a 110% tax on any further spending, though that’s nothing new for them.

There are still several items on the to-do list for the Mets this winter. Sammon wrote earlier this week that the club is still looking for a front-of-rotation starter and an offensive upgrade. That could come via free agency but there have also been plenty of trade rumors surrounding Jeff McNeil, Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña. For now, Weaver upgrades the bullpen at market price.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Brad Penner, Imagn Images

Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Steve Adams

  • Good morning, and happy holidays to all! I'll get going a bit earlier than usual today, 11am CT. Feel free to start sending in questions ahead of time, as always.
  • Good morning! Let's get underway

Guarded Indian

  • Is Fairchild Cleveland's answer for the RH hitting OF help or do they actually spend on someone else?  If Clase and Ortiz come off the payroll could they afford Bader?  I don't want Hays (injured) or Andujar (not great one defense).

Steve Adams

  • He's just a minor league depth add -- not any kind of answer. Fairchild is only a slightly above-average hitter in his career versus LHP.Hays, Andujar, Randal Grichuk and Rob Refsnyder are all out there as RHH outfielders to join the outfield mix there. I think any of the bunch make sense as a reasonable addition. None will cost too much

Ross the Boss

  • What could I get back for Berrios if I toss in $36mil in cash in a trade?  He had a down year, but a innings eating #4/5 at $10mil/season is still a very valuable commodity.  Ponce is now my #5, it would be essentially no more money for ownership, and I could recoup something of value for Jose.

Steve Adams

  • It might be reasonable to think Berrios is worth $10MM annually, but I doubt he'd get that over three years in free agency this winter. Most teams would be looking at him for one or two years. I don't think paying him down to 3/30 is enough to get anything of value.Three of four seasons with a sub-20 K%. Walk rate jumped to 8% this past year (still solid but much higher than his 6.3% over the four preceding seasons). Career-low four-seam and sinker velos. Tons of home runs. Poor finish from July onward.I think you're overvaluing Berrios.

Anthony

  • which under the radar FA Pitcher is the best buy low high rewards candidate?  1year / $5 - 10million.

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Cardinals, Jared Shuster Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cardinals have agreed to a minor league contract with lefty Jared Shuster, reports MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. He’ll invited to major league camp next spring.

A first-round pick by Atlanta back in 2020, Shuster has pitched in parts of three big league seasons between the Braves and White Sox, combining to toss 141 2/3 frames. He’s been tagged for an ugly 5.27 ERA in that time. The 6’3″ southpaw has done a nice job avoiding hard contact to this point in his career (87.7 mph average exit velocity, 34% hard-hit rate) but doesn’t miss bats or limit walks at even average levels. He’s fanned only 15.5% of his opponents and issued walks at a 10.1% clip in the bigs.

Shuster, 27, sits 90-92 mph with his four-seamer as a starter and couples the pitch with a slider and changeup, both checking into the low 80s with their respective average velocities. He was averaging 92.6 mph on his fastball as a full-time reliever last year, but his results both in the majors and upper minors were rough.

The Cardinals have plenty of opportunity on the pitching staff, be it in the bullpen or the rotation. For now, the rotation figures to include Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy, Dustin May and Kyle Leahy. Andre Pallante will be a candidate to make starts but has also pitched in relief.

Trade acquisitions Richard Fitts (Sonny Gray) and Hunter Dobbins (Willson Contreras) join prospects Quinn Mathews, Brycen Mautz and Tink Hence as possible 2026 rotation candidates. In the bullpen, veteran JoJo Romero and 30-year-old rookie Nick Raquet (who tossed his first two MLB frames in 2025) are the only options on the 40-man roster — and Romero is very likely to be traded prior to spring training.

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