MLBTR's Steve Adams hosted a live chat today, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers.
The Blue Jays came up short on most (but not all) of their many pursuits of star free agents this winter, and the ship may have already sailed on the team's efforts to sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a contract extension. Amidst all the pessimism surrounding the Jays' future, the team did make some notable moves to try and reload the roster after a disappointing 2024 campaign.
Major League Signings
2025 spending: $59MM (not counting Tate/Walker)
Total spending: $156MM
Option Decisions
Trades & Claims
Notable Minor League Signings
Extensions
Notable Losses
Toronto hitters combined for only 156 home runs and a .389 slugging percentage in 2024, so a 44-homer bat like Anthony Santander should bring some much-needed thunder to the lineup. The Blue Jays made a hefty $92.5MM investment that Santander can build on the career year that saw him hit .235/.308/.506 over 665 plate appearances for the Orioles, while handily topping his previous high of 33 homers (in 2022).
Santander's overall hitting profile is a concern, as evidenced by the low batting average and OBP. However, Santander still posted an above-average walk rate despite the low on-base number, and his strikeout rate remained above average in 2024 even though chasing pitches has been an issue for his entire career. The switch-hitter is certainly a power-first (if not quite a power-only) type of batter, yet the profile fits for a Jays team lacking in pop and in left-handed hitting balance.
Santander will step right into the lineup as the everyday left fielder, and he'll probably get a decent share of DH time given that his glovework is considered only passable. As defense-focused as the Blue Jays have been over the last couple of years, they continued to move in that direction with a surprising trade for arguably the sport's best defensive second baseman.
The Royals began the offseason with a three-year signing to keep their excellent rotation intact. They traded from that starting staff a month later to acquire a new leadoff hitter. Kansas City hoped to follow up with an impact offensive acquisition that never materialized. They instead turned to the relief market late in the winter to add a veteran closer.
Major League Signings
2025 spending: $35MM
Total spending: $80MM
Option Decisions
Trades and Claims
Extensions
Notable Minor League Signings
Notable Losses
The Royals were perhaps the most surprising playoff team of 2024. Kansas City had a 30-win improvement relative to the preceding season. They held the Orioles to one run in two games to sweep their Wild Card series. The Yankees knocked K.C. off in the Division Series, but the Royals' window has reopened after a nine-year postseason drought.
They remain one of the more top-heavy contenders. Kansas City's success was built around an elite rotation and an MVP-caliber season from Bobby Witt Jr. They preserved a crucial piece of that rotation just before free agency opened. Kansas City signed Michael Wacha to a three-year, $51MM extension to keep him from opting out and testing free agency. The veteran righty rejoins Seth Lugo as the 2-3 arms behind breakout left-hander Cole Ragans.
The D-backs followed up their 2023 World Series appearance with a narrow playoff miss and responded by making the biggest free agent signing in franchise history. Now brandishing one of the best one-two starting pitching punches in the sport, they'll look to ride a powerhouse rotation back into October baseball.
Major League Signings
2025 spending: $46.35MM
Total spending: $216.35MM
Option Decisions
Trades and Waiver Claims
Notable Minor League Signings
Extensions
Notable Losses
Arizona's playoff hopes in the 2024 season stayed alive until the very end, but they ultimately watched from home after missing the postseason by the literal narrowest margin possible. It was a bitter pill for the club and its fans to swallow -- particularly since the offseason promised considerable turnover. Star first baseman Christian Walker hit free agency, as did slugger Joc Pederson on the heels of what was arguably a career-best season. Closer Paul Sewald and key role players like Randal Grichuk and Kevin Newman also returned to the open market.
That all left plenty of work to be done, and not a ton of payroll space to make it happen -- or so it seemed initially, anyhow. General manager Mike Hazen publicly stated in November that he anticipated a payroll in the same range as 2024's $173MM figure. With Jordan Montgomery exercising a $22.5MM player option on the heels of a down year, the D-backs lost plenty of flexibility. There was still a decent amount of room, but they ostensibly needed to replace their first baseman, designated hitter, closer and multiple bench pieces.
As he set those payroll expectations, Hazen also made clear that bolstering the back end of his bullpen was a key priority. For the first third or even half of the offseason, the general expectation was that Arizona would seek high-end bullpen help and perhaps a more affordable replacement for Walker, who seemed destined for multiple years with an average annual value in the $20MM range.
The Cubs added star power in the Kyle Tucker trade, but otherwise made modest additions despite several other big swings.
Major League Signings
2025 spending: $33.25MM
Total spending: $56.25MM
Option Decisions
Trades and Claims
Notable Minor League Signings
Extensions
Notable Losses
Much like the previous winter with Marcus Stroman, this Cubs offseason kicked off with a pivotal player option decision that would affect their financial flexibility. This time, Cody Bellinger elected to take the $27.5MM owed to him in 2025 in lieu of a $2.5MM buyout, which also preserves a $25MM option on 2026 with a $5MM buyout. Bellinger's decision was not surprising, as he's now positioned himself to decline the '26 option having collected a total of $32.5MM for '25.
The Athletic's Patrick Mooney suggested a couple of times early in the offseason that the Cubs were seeking a starting pitcher who "could be trusted in a playoff game." Nonetheless, it wasn't long before Mooney's colleague Sahadev Sharma wrote that "the top tier of the starting pitching market has been ruled out" for the club. Blake Snell, Max Fried, and Corbin Burnes would go on to sign contracts ranging from $182-218MM (though some included deferred money), and the Cubs were seemingly never a factor on them due to what I assume are philosophical objections to five-plus year commitments to thirty-something-aged free agent starters.
Instead, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer made a pre-Winter Meetings strike for 34-year-old southpaw Matthew Boyd. Boyd was available on a two-year contract because of his age and injury history. After totaling 355 2/3 innings for the 2018-19 Tigers, Boyd has not reached 80 innings in a season since.
The rebuild continued in South Beach, as the Marlins continued to move experienced talent for prospects.
Major League Signings
2025 spending: $3.5MM
Total spending: $3.5MM
Option Decisions
Trades & Claims
Notable Minor League Signings
Notable Losses
Miami's offseason began with a big internal housecleaning, as the Marlins parted ways with their entire coaching staff, and several behind-the-scenes employees ranging from the team's dietician to the traveling secretary. The headline name among all the Marlins' new hires was Clayton McCullough, chosen for his first big league managerial position after a long career as a coach and coordinator in the Dodgers' organization, and as a manager at multiple levels of the Blue Jays' farm system.
McCullough's history of working in player development and with players at both the Major and minor league levels bodes well for his stewardship of a Marlins team that continues to look towards the future. Of all the players on the Marlins' 40-man roster, only Sandy Alcantara and new signing Cal Quantrill have more than four years of MLB service time, as president of baseball operations Peter Bendix has already significantly overhauled the roster after a little over 16 months on the job.
MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today, exclusively for Front Office subscribers!
While not the blockbuster offseason some fans expected from the Giants' new front office, a couple of big names landed in San Francisco.
Major League Signings
2025 spending: $36MM
Total spending: $197MM
Option Decisions
Trades & Claims
Notable Minor League Signings
Extensions
Notable Losses
Willy Adames' $182MM contract represents the largest deal in Giants history, and perhaps marks an end to the narrative that the franchise is unable to attract top-tier talent to the Bay Area. Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Carlos Correa (though that situation was rather unique), and Shohei Ohtani are a few of the major free agents who the Giants pursued but were unable to sign when Farhan Zaidi was the club's president of baseball operations, leaving fans perpetually frustrated at Zaidi's roster-building endeavors.
Things changed even before Zaidi was officially replaced by Buster Posey last September, as Posey (then acting in his capacity as a member of the Giants board of directors) took a very direct role in negotiating Matt Chapman's six-year, $151MM contract extension. It is rare to see such extensions signed when a player is as close to Chapman was to the open market, and finalizing that deal indicated that Posey might be moving with more aggressiveness once he took the reins as the new PBO.
The Dodgers followed up their World Series win with another aggressive offseason, making many headline-grabbing additions as well as some less splashy moves. Despite years of playoff disappointments, they now go into 2025 viewed as a juggernaut that is despised by all other fan bases around the league.
Major League Signings
2025 spending: $185.5MM
Total spending: $398.5MM
Option Decisions
Trades and Claims
Notable Minor League Signings
Extensions
Notable Losses
Things change fast in baseball. The Dodgers finished 2023 on a down note, having been swept out of the NLDS by the Diamondbacks. Though that was their 11th consecutive postseason appearance, many of them had ended in heartbreaking fashion. Fans of the club were in MLBTR's mentions, calling for manager Dave Roberts and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman to be fired. Fans of other clubs were taunting them for their failed attempts to "buy" a World Series. But they then signed Shohei Ohtani to a heavily-deferred deal, as well as grabbing Yoshinobu Yamamoto and many others, eventually winning it all in 2024.
The club therefore went into the 2024-25 offseason with the wind in their sails and they didn't slow down. Within a few months of their parade, they had signed one of the top free agent starters, a few of the top relievers, some solid outfielders and the most notable international amateur since Ohtani.
MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today for Front Office subscribers.
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