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Cubs To Promote Owen Caissie For MLB Debut

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The Cubs are planning to promote top prospect Owen Caissie, as reported by Kiley McDaniel and Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The young outfielder is already on the 40-man, and he will presumably take Miguel Amaya’s spot on the active roster. Amaya sprained his ankle tonight and will require an IL stint. As for Caissie, the Ontario native is expected to make his MLB debut tomorrow against the Blue Jays.

The Padres selected Caissie in the second round of the 2020 draft, and they flipped him to the Cubs that winter as part of the trade package that brought Yu Darvish to San Diego. He has since worked his way up Chicago’s minor league system, turning into one of the team’s most promising prospects. Baseball America ranked him 21st in the organization in 2021, eighth in 2022, 13th in 2023, fifth in 2024, and second in 2025. He has also ranked among BA’s overall top 100 prospects in each of the past three years. Not every source was quite as high on Caissie entering the 2025 campaign; FanGraphs dropped him off their top 100 list after ranking him 65th in 2024, while The Athletic’s Keith Law has never included Caissie among his top 100 prospects. Yet, none ever doubted Caissie’s huge raw power – the question was whether he could translate that power into success at the highest level.

That question loomed larger than ever after Caissie slashed .278/.375/.472 with a .195 isolated power and a 115 wRC+ in his season at Triple-A in 2024. Those are solid but hardly earth-shattering numbers, especially not for a bat-first corner outfielder. However, the lefty slugger has taken a massive step forward this year, with 22 home runs and 50 extra-base hits in 92 games for the Iowa Cubs. His .281 ISO and 145 wRC+ both rank fifth among qualified hitters in the International League. His strikeout rate is still high – that has always and probably will always be an issue – but a 28.0% K-rate certainly isn’t fatal, at least not if he keeps drawing his walks and crushing home runs.

None of this is to say that Caissie is a sure-thing, middle-of-the-order jolt for the Cubs’ lineup. He’s still just a 23-year-old prospect who has to prove his swing-and-miss issues won’t sink him against MLB pitching and, in particular, left-handed MLB pitching. Still, it’s exciting that he’s joining the team for the stretch run as they look to hold on to the NL’s top Wild Card spot and try to challenge the seemingly unstoppable Brewers for the NL Central crown. Any offensive boost he can provide will be much appreciated. The Cubs rank among the league’s best offensive teams on the season, but they’ve struggled as of late, scoring just 34 runs in 11 games since the trade deadline.

With that said, it’s worth wondering where Caissie would fit into Chicago’s lineup. He can play the corner outfield or DH, and the Cubs are set at those positions with Kyle Tucker, Ian Happ, and Seiya Suzuki. Tucker bats lefty like Caissie, while Happ is a switch-hitter with stronger splits against righty pitching. Suzuki bats right-handed, but he doesn’t have any trouble facing same-handed pitching. Ultimately, as the cliché goes, this is the best kind of problem for manager Craig Counsell to have. He can take advantage of Caissie’s presence on the roster to give his veterans a bit more rest, particularly the slumping Tucker. As long as Caissie hits, it will work out quite nicely. On the other hand, this means there’s quite a bit of pressure on the youngster to perform right away. The Cubs are as competitive as they’ve been in several years, and they can’t afford to take away reps from Tucker, Suzuki, and Happ if Caissie isn’t producing.

The roster fit isn’t perfect, but the Cubs only had four healthy minor leaguers on the 40-man roster to choose from, and it’s hard to argue that Caissie didn’t earn this opportunity over fellow top prospects Kevin Alcántara and Moisés Ballesteros, or the less-heralded Ben Cowles.

Image in post courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports.

Astros Place Josh Hader On Injured List Due To Shoulder Strain

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August 13: Espada provided a vague yet ominous update today. Hader is seeking a second opinion on his shoulder and will be on the IL beyond the minimal stint. “This is going to take a little bit longer than the two weeks,” he said, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com.

August 12, 11:59 pm: Espada says he won’t name a new closer in Hader’s place, suggesting he will instead take a mix-and-match approach to filling the late innings (per Kawahara).

4:14 pm: Espada tells the Astros beat that Hader will receive additional testing (link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). The team has not yet ascertained the severity of the strain and thus do not have a firm timeline on his potential return.

3:15 pm: The Astros announced that closer Josh Hader has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left shoulder strain. An immediate timetable for his return was not revealed. Houston recalled lefty Colton Gordon from Triple-A in a corresponding roster move. The Astros also reinstated righty Shawn Dubin from the injured list and opened a roster spot by designating veteran reliever Hector Neris for assignment.

Remarkably, this is the first time Hader has ever been placed on the major league injured list (excepting a brief 2021 placement on the Covid-related IL). He’s not only been one of the sport’s most dominant relievers but also its most durable reliever. Dating back to Hader’s midseason debut in 2017, only Raisel Iglesias (who spent the entire ’17 season in the majors) has more innings pitched. (Somewhat ironically, Neris ranks third among all relievers in innings pitched during that time.) From 2018-25, only two innings separate Iglesias (466 2/3) and Hader (464 2/3) for the MLB lead.

After an up-and-down first year with Houston in 2024, Hader has been back to his typically dominant self in 2025. He’s totaled 52 2/3 innings and worked to a 2.05 earned run average while piling up 28 saves and punching out an outstanding 36.9% of his opponents against a quality 7.6% walk rate. Hader’s sinker is averaging 95.5 mph, down about a half-mile from last season, and he’s throwing his slider more than ever before — at a 41.4% clip. His colossal 21.1% swinging-strike rate is tied with Mason Miller for tops among all big league pitchers — starters and relievers alike — with at least 10 innings pitched this season.

Hader is in the second season of a five-year, $95MM contract he signed as a free agent in the 2023-24 offseason. It’s the second-largest contract ever for a reliever, both in terms of total guarantee and average annual value, trailing only Edwin Diaz (in both regards). That contract pays him an evenly distributed $19MM annually from 2024-28.

As for the 36-year-old Neris, he’s pitched for the Astros, Angels and Braves this year but struggled with all three. The right-hander has pitched a combined 26 2/3 innings with just a 6.75 ERA to show for it. Much of the damage against him came early in the season with Atlanta, but Neris posted a 5.14 with the Angels and is at 5.40 in 11 2/3 frames during what’s been his third stint as a member of the Houston bullpen.

While Neris has never exactly been a flamethrower, this year’s 92.4 mph average four-seamer is a career-low, falling shy of last year’s career-low 93 mph average. The 92.6 mph he’s averaging on his sinker is also a career-low. Neris is generating fewer whiffs, chases and grounders than ever before on his go-to splitter as well.

Since the trade deadline has passed, the Astros’ only course of action with Neris will be to place him on outright waivers or release waivers. They’re effectively the same thing for a player in Neris’ situation at this point, as he has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency anyhow and is quite likely to do so. If another club can get the veteran righty back on track, he’d be postseason-eligible with that new team so long as he was signed prior to Sept. 1.

With Hader on the shelf and Neris off the roster, the Houston bullpen will now look to righty Bryan Abreu as its anchor. He’s the immediate favorite to pick up saves in Hader’s place. Lefties Bryan King, Bennett Sousa and Steven Okert all have a 3.10 ERA or better on the season and figure to collect the majority of setup opportunities while Hader is out.

Since the Astros don’t have another shutdown righty beyond Abreu, it’s at least possible that Abreu could see work in the eighth inning if the Astros’ opponent has a run of tough righties, which would thus leave the ninth inning for one of that trio of lefties. That said, both King and Okert have been terrific against both righties and lefties. That gives manager Joe Espada plenty of options late in the game, but the loss of Hader is nonetheless a crucial blow as Houston tries to fend off a surging Mariners club that has rattled off seven straight wins to pull within one game of the AL West lead.

Mets To Promote Nolan McLean

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The Mets will call up top pitching prospect Nolan McLean to make his MLB debut this Saturday, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. He’ll step into the rotation spot vacated by Frankie Montas’ move to the bullpen. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported earlier this morning that righty Paul Blackburn was also headed to the bullpen when he’s ready to be reinstated from the injured list, setting the stage for either McLean or fellow prospect Brandon Sproat to make his debut.

As we noted yesterday when the Mets moved Montas to the ’pen, the Saturday start aligns far better with McLean’s turn in the Triple-A rotation than with that of Sproat. McLean has also simply outpitched Sproat this season, though both well-regarded prospects have excelled recently.

The timing of the move likely isn’t a coincidence. Saturday marks the first day on the calendar where there’s not enough time remaining for players to accrue enough service to exhaust their rookie eligibility. By waiting until Saturday to promote McLean, the Mets have ensured that he’ll still qualify as a rookie next season and therefore still be able to earn the Mets potential future draft picks via the league’s Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) program. In all likelihood, McLean is just one of several top prospects around the league who’ll be promoted after Aug. 15.

McLean, 24, was the Mets’ third-round pick in 2023. He’s rated as one of the system’s more promising young arms since that selection, but his stock has exploded in 2025 as he’s ripped through Double-A and Triple-A lineups. McLean has pitched a combined 113 2/3 innings between those two levels and compiled a tidy 2.45 ERA while punching out 27.2% of his opponents. His 10.7% walk rate is still too high, but his huge 54.7% ground-ball rate can help to erase a few of those free passes by way of the double-play ball.

This year’s terrific run has not only vaulted McLean toward the top of the Mets’ in-house prospect lists — it’s made him a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport. He sits 37th among all big league prospects at MLB.com, 40th at Baseball America and 53rd at FanGraphs on each outlet’s post-deadline reranking of the sport’s top young talents.

The 6’2″, 215-pound McLean is an Oklahoma State product whose athleticism draws plenty of praise. He was a two-sport star in high school, playing both baseball and football, and he was a two-way player at OSU, where he was a third baseman and outfielder in addition to his work on the mound. He’s since dialed in only on pitching and experienced an uptick in velocity, now sitting 95 mph with a four-seamer that can climb to 98 mph when he needs to reach back for a bit extra. MLB.com’s report on McLean calls his sweeper a “monster” of a pitch with “elite” spin rate. He’s sitting 85.5 mph with that pitch and also mixing in a sinker, cutter and seldom-used changeup.

Because McLean will retain rookie eligibility going into next year, he could earn the Mets a draft pick down the line. If McLean were to win National League Rookie of the Year or finish top-three in NL MVP voting next season, the Mets would gain that pick. Even if McLean doesn’t hit either of those goals, the fact that he’ll be a top-100 prospect who accrued a full year of service as a rookie opens a three-year window for him to net the Mets a compensatory pick based on award voting. If McLean were to land any top-three finish in Cy Young or MVP voting before reaching arbitration, the Mets would still gain a pick. Players can only net their team one pick under the league’s PPI program, but the timing of his promotion means McLean could do so at any point from 2026-28.

Setting aside the PPI aspect of the promotion, McLean’s promotion comes at a time when he cannot accrue a year of service this season. He’ll be controllable for at least six full years beyond the current campaign — potentially more than that, depending on whether he’s optioned at any point in the future. The earliest he could become a free agent would be after the 2031 season, and the earliest McLean could qualify for arbitration would be following the 2028 season.

Pohlad Family No Longer Pursuing Sale Of Twins

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The Twins have effectively been for sale for the better part of the past year, but it seems the current ownership group is instead embarking on a new path. Executive chair Joe Pohlad announced in a press release this morning that his family is no longer pursuing a sale of the majority stake in the franchise and will instead sell minority stakes to a pair of new parties.

“Over the past several months, we explored a wide range of potential investment and ownership opportunities. Our focus throughout has been on what’s best for the long-term future of the Twins. We have been fully open to all possibilities,” Pohlad said in a prepared statement. “After a detailed and robust process, our family will remain the principal owner of the Minnesota Twins. To strengthen the club in a rapidly evolving sports landscape – one that demands strong partnerships, fresh ideas, and long-term vision – we are in the process of adding two significant limited partnership groups, each of whom will bring a wealth of experience and share our family values.”

The surprising 180-degree turn comes less than two weeks after the Twins gutted their roster in a trade deadline punctuated by slashing payroll. The Twins traded a whopping 11 players, including the five best relievers in what was a strong bullpen and shortstop Carlos Correa, who’d signed the largest contract in Twins history (six years, $200MM). The Twins sent Correa back to the Astros, including $33MM of cash to offset some of the remaining $103.5MM on his contract, and effectively receiving no return.

The entire slate of players traded by the Twins was fairly remarkable. Not only were rental players like Harrison Bader, Willi Castro, Danny Coulombe, Chris Paddack and Ty France shipped out, but so were controllable players like Correa and relievers Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Brock Stewart. The Twins dumped the remainder of Randy Dobnak’s contract on the Tigers as part of the Paddack trade as well. In all, Minnesota trimmed nearly $83MM in guaranteed money while also shrinking an arbitration class that would’ve called for notable 2026 raises for Duran, Jax and Stewart.

In the immediate aftermath, the general expectation was that the fire sale, which extended far more broadly than anyone anticipated, had been done as a means of increasing the appeal for potential buyers. Perhaps that’s still partially the case in reference to the incoming minority owners who are joining the group, but that’s a far different scenario than anyone anticipated — particularly after Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred voiced confidence at the All-Star break that a sale of the Twins would still come together sooner than later.

Following the Twins’ deadline teardown, the thinking has been that if the Pohlad family came to terms on a sale of the team quickly enough, new ownership might put a halt to further stripping down the roster in the offseason. Today’s announcement dashed any such hopes, meaning that Minnesota’s remaining appealing players will enter the offseason as prime trade candidates.

All-Star center fielder Byron Buxton said he planned to be a Twin for life when asked about his no-trade clause earlier this summer and doubled down on his desire to remain in Minnesota even after the deadline. There’s no reason to expect him to change that thinking. However, catcher Ryan Jeffers (controlled through 2026 via arbitration), right-hander Joe Ryan (controlled through 2027 via arbitration) and righty Pablo Lopez (signed through 2027 for $21.75MM annually) can all freely be traded, as can arb-eligible players like Trevor Larnach and Bailey Ober.

If the teardown was only about making the prospect of retaining ownership more palatable for the current group, there’s little reason to think the Pohlad family won’t push the front office to further reduce expenses. MLB.com ranked the Twins as the No. 2 farm system in the sport just this morning, after factoring in every team’s deadline dealings. Baseball America ranked them fourth on this morning’s post-deadline update. Offseason swaps involving some combination of Ryan, Lopez and/or Jeffers (among others) could vault them to the top spot in the game. That’s little consolation for a fanbase was riding high after the team snapped its postseason losing streak in 2023 — only to see Pohlad mandate a payroll cut amid uncertainty surrounding the team’s television broadcast rights.

The Pohlads have owned the Twins for more than 40 years. Carl Pohlad purchased the franchise for $44MM back in 1984. The Twins won the 1987 and 1991 World Series but quickly spiraled into a tumultuous state as Pohlad first looked to sell the team in the late 90s before nearly agreeing to his team’s contraction around the turn of the century before the Hennepin County District Court intervened. Carl Pohlad passed away in 2009, at which point his son Jim took over as the face of the team’s ownership group.

Jim remains the team’s chairman to this day but turned day-to-day oversight of the ownership group to his nephew, Joe, in November of 2022. There was some optimism among the fanbase in the months that followed. The Twins re-signed Correa to that franchise-record $200MM contract — a move that didn’t feel like it would ever have come together under the previous iterations of the Pohlad family ownership. Minnesota subsequently traded for Lopez and quickly signed him to a $73MM contract extension. Payroll climbed to a franchise-record $154MM on Opening Day 2023, and the Twins went on to reach the postseason and topple the Blue Jays, ending a two-decade drought in terms of postseason wins.

Those brief halcyon days now feel like a distant memory, and the immediate outlook for Twins fans is a grim one. Prospective buyer Justin Ishbia went from the perceived front-runner to purchase the club back in January to instead abandoning that pursuit as he instead agreed to increase his stake in the White Sox — where he was already a minority owner — with a path to majority control down the road. The Twins continued to explore potential sales even after Ishbia backed down, but with a reported $1.7 billion asking price and more than $400MM in debt, it seems no buyers materialized.

Instead, the Pohlad family will remain at the helm for at least the foreseeable future, placing the Twins alongside the Angels and Nationals as clubs that recently were put up for sale and pulled off the market after sufficient bids never manifested. The forthcoming additions to the ownership group are still pending the approval of Major League Baseball, per the Twins’ press release, and details won’t be made public until that league has signed off on the changes.

Joe Pohlad added in today’s statement that the Twins owners “see and hear the passion from our partners, the community, and Twins fans,” adding that said passion “inspires us.” It’s the type of boilerplate ownership speak that will ring hollow for a fanbase that has, for quite some time now, been desperate for changes that apparently aren’t coming anytime soon.

Felix Bautista, Zach Eflin Done For The Season

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Orioles closer Felix Bautista and starter Zach Eflin are done for the remainder of the season, interim manager Tony Mansolino announced to the team’s beat Tuesday (link via Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun). Eflin is undergoing a lumbar microdiscectomy procedure, and the news on Bautista is even more ominous. Mansolino revealed that his closer, who was originally placed on the IL with shoulder inflammation on July 24, has sustained a “significant shoulder injury.” The team is still in the process of formalizing a diagnosis and treatment plan. He has another appointment to evaluate the injury later this week.

It’s a brutal development for the 30-year-old Bautista, who’s in his first season back after missing the 2024 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. He’s posted excellent results, logging 34 2/3 innings of 2.60 ERA ball, though there have been some modest red flags in his broader profile. Bautista averaged 99.5 mph on his four-seamer before surgery but has scrapped that pitch entirely in favor of a sinker that’s sitting more than two miles per hour shy of that prior velo mark (97.2 mph average). Meanwhile, his already high 11% walk rate from 2023 has exploded to 16.2% in his return campaign.

The obvious hope is that Bautista can avoid undergoing a second major surgery. To be expressly clear, Mansolino did not suggest that shoulder surgery is presently being considered, though any time a team official describes a “significant” injury for a pitcher and second opinions are being sought, that type of fear is natural. Ideally, Bautista could take the remainder of the regular season and the offseason to rest and rehab ahead of the 2026 campaign, but the outlook will remain uncertain while the O’s gather additional opinions.

The Orioles control Bautista through the 2027 season. He’ll finish out the current season with exactly four years of major league service time. Bautista is earning $1MM this year and will be owed a raise in arbitration. Even if the injury impacts his availability for Opening Day 2026, the O’s are still all but assured to tender him a contract, given that he’d be affordably priced for the 2027 season as well.

As for Eflin, the forthcoming back surgery ends what’s been a nightmare season for the talented righty. The 31-year-old is in the final season of a three-year, $40MM contract originally signed with the Rays. He pitched to a 3.54 ERA in 353 innings over the first two seasons of the pact but has only made it to the mound 14 times this year due to back and lat injuries. He’s been rocked for a 5.93 ERA in 71 1/3 innings when healthy enough to pitch — his worst production since an 11-start run with the Phillies in 2017, before he’d established himself as a credible big league starter.

Eflin is slated to reach free agency for the second time in his career at season’s end. There’s no immediate timetable for his recovery, but ending a dismal season with a lower back surgery isn’t the way any free agent wants to head back to the open market. He’ll be relatively young for a second-time free agent who’s already signed one multi-year deal, with his 32nd birthday in April, but Eflin seems likely to be in line for a short-term deal that’ll demonstrate his health and allow him to get back to the market next winter.

Shane McClanahan Undergoes Season-Ending Arm Procedure To Address Nerve Problem

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Shane McClanahan’s 2025 season is officially over, as Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters that the southpaw underwent a surgery on his throwing arm today, intended to try and fix a long-lingering nerve problem.  The procedure officially closes the book on whatever chance there was that the southpaw could return to the majors before season’s end.

Troublingly, Cash indicated that there isn’t any guarantee that the surgery will solve the issue once and for all.  “[The doctor] is not sitting there saying ’he’s fixed.’  That’s not the case,” Cash told media, including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  “It’s, ’this is one step, and we’ll see how this goes.’  And hopefully we get good results.  And if we don’t, then let doctors decide what else is needed, if anything.”

The uncertain nature of nerve-related injuries has now led to months of frustration for McClanahan, and cost him another year of his promising career.  It was almost exactly two years ago that McClanahan underwent a Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for all of 2024, though it seemed like he emerged from that rehab in good shape, as he tossed seven scoreless innings in Spring Training and looked well on his way being part of the Opening Day rotation.

However, late in camp, the nerve problem in McClanahan’s left triceps emerged.  He began the year on the 15-day injured list, and was shifted to the 60-day IL near the end of April.  McClanahan was feeling well enough to begin a minor league rehab assignment in July and pitched in three games before his rehab was shut down due to biceps tendinitis.

During a radio interview on Friday, Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said McClanahan’s nerve problem was “still in play just enough” to keep the left-hander from resuming his throwing progression, with “no huge setbacks, but also no huge progress or breakthroughs.”  Neander also made note of the unique nature of the injury, saying “this is a new one to all of us really, and in many regards to the baseball community.  So we’re learning as we go.”

McClanahan’s best-case scenario is now a clean bill of health for Opening Day 2026.  While this gives McClanahan six months of recovery time until the start of Spring Training, it is clear that no timeline will be established until McClanahan is examined post-surgery.

Losing McClanahan in 2023 was a big blow to a Rays team that reached the postseason, but was swept out of the wild card series by the eventual World Series champion Rangers.  Tampa Bay went 80-82 in 2024 and, at 57-62 entering today’s action, is on pace for another losing record, as some early-season success was undone by a brutal slump in July.  One can only guess as to how the last three seasons might’ve differed for the Rays if they’d had a pitcher who was emerging as the ace of the rotation.

In a rare case of a player getting his first taste of MLB action in the playoffs, McClanahan’s first four games came during the 2020 postseason, as he posted an 8.31 ERA in 4 1/3 relief innings for a Rays team that reached the World Series.  McClanahan made his official debut in 2021, and hit the ground running in 2021 by finishing seventh in AL Cy Young Award voting.  He was then named an All-Star in both 2022 and 2023, and the 2022 campaign (McClanahan’s only full big league season) saw him finish sixth in AL Cy Young Award voting.  Over 404 2/3 regular-season innings, McClanahan has a 3.02 ERA, 46.8% grounder rate, 28% strikeout rate, and 7.1% walk rate.

Tampa signed McClanahan to a two-year, $7.2MM deal in January 2024 that allowed the two sides to avoid arbitration for the lefty’s first two years of eligibility.  As a Super Two player, McClanahan is arb-eligible both this winter and during the 2026-27 offseason, though his 2026 salary won’t be very high given his two years on the IL.  Injury uncertainty notwithstanding, there would seem to be very little chance the Rays would non-tender McClanahan given his modest price tag, and his upside if he is able to return healthy for 2026.

2025-26 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings: August Edition

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While the collective baseball world — MLBTR included — eyes the final stages of the season and gears up for exciting postseason pushes, we’re also of course keeping an eye on the offseason to come. Performances both good and bad in 2025 will naturally impact the asking price of free agents this winter. We’ve done two iterations of our annual Free Agent Power Rankings series so far this year — one in April, one in late May — and it feels like a good opportunity to refresh the list once more.

As a reminder, our power rankings at MLB Trade Rumors are not a straight ranking of the best free agents in the upcoming class. There are plenty of older veterans who can make significant impact on short-term deals. Our rankings are based on total earning power, which means older vets like Paul Goldschmidt are rarely going to crack the top 10, regardless of how strong their performance is. Their age will simply limit them to a shorter-term pact that caps their earning power and leaves them with smaller guarantees than less-productive (but still quality) contributors who can more push for longer-term deals.

As we’ve seen with recent mega-deals for Juan Soto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., age is king when it comes to unlocking the richest deals MLB has to offer. The best way a player can position himself for a monster contract is to get to free agency at as young an age as possible — and, of course, do so while turning in excellent results at the plate or on the mound.

Onto the rankings!

1. Kyle Tucker, OF, Cubs

There’s no change up top. Tucker remains the cream of this year’s free agent crop. He’s not enjoying as much production, on a rate basis, as he did last year but has been healthier than last year. Tucker’s .271/.384/.474 slash is 41% better than league-average, per wRC+, and he’s just two homers shy of a fifth straight 20-homer season. He’s averaging 90.4 mph off the bat with a 42.4% hard-hit rate and has never posted an average exit velocity under 90 mph or a hard-hit rate under 41.9%. Tucker’s 23 steals in 2025 have him on pace to top his career-high 30. He’s only been caught twice. Given Tucker’s 26th-percentile sprint speed, that’s a testament to his baserunning acumen.

Tucker will play all of next season at age 29. He’s on track for a fifth straight season where he’s at least 30% better than average at the plate and a second straight year with more walks than strikeouts. This year’s 14.4% strikeout rate is the second-lowest of his career and sits lower than his 15.2% walk rate (the second-highest of his career).

Tucker is a quality defensive right fielder with above-average arm strength and plus accuracy. Teams with needs in either outfield corner will be interested in Tucker, and he’s the type of talent for whom a team would look to create roster space via the trade market. Tucker won’t approach Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani territory, but he’ll have a case to top $400MM and could try to take aim at Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s $500MM mark with a big enough finish to the regular season and/or postseason performance. He’ll receive and reject a qualifying offer, but that won’t be a deterrent of any note in his market.

2. Bo Bichette, SS, Blue Jays

Bichette has shaken off a pedestrian start to the season and, more importantly, made last year’s lack of production in an injury-ruined campaign feel like a distant memory. He’s hitting .300/.341/.468 in 508 plate appearances overall, but that jumps to a stout .306/.347/.508 when looking at his past 380 plate appearances. Bichette’s power was M.I.A. for the season’s first five weeks or so. All 15 of Bichette’s home runs this season have come since May 3. He’s been on an otherworldly tear of late, hitting .404/.449/.633 over the past month.

He’s still not walking much (5.3%), but Bichette’s 14.8% strikeout rate is the lowest of his career. He’s averaging 91 mph off the bat with a hearty 48.6% hard-hit rate. It’s still a swing-happy approach (hence the lack of walks), as evidenced by a 33.9% chase rate on balls of the plate. That’s about six percentage points higher than average but stands as the lowest mark of Bichette’s career. Even with those swings, however, Bichette’s contact rate is plus. That’s particularly true when Bichette zeroes in on balls over the plate; his 91.2% contact rate on balls in the strike zone ranks 19th in all of baseball.

Bichette has slowed down noticeably in recent seasons. He’s swiped just five bases this year, 20 short of his career-high 25 set back in 2021. It’s unlikely Bichette will ever return to those levels of thievery. His average sprint speed back in ’21 was 28 feet per second — faster than nearly four out of five big leaguers. This year, he’s averaging 26.2 ft/sec and sitting in just the 22nd percentile of MLB players, per Statcast.

Defense is going to be the biggest knock on Bichette in free agency. He’s never been a great defensive shortstop, and some teams will probably prefer him at second base from the jump. Both Defensive Runs Saved (-6) and Outs Above Average (-6) feel he’s been well below average with the glove this year.

Bichette can probably handle shortstop for another couple seasons, but it’s not likely that he’ll finish a long-term contract at the position. He’s not the same type of defender as well-compensated shortstops Willy Adames (seven years, $182MM), Dansby Swanson (seven years, $177MM), Javier Baez (six years, $140MM) and Trevor Story (six years, $140MM). However, he’s hitting the market earlier than any of those players did — ahead of his age-28 season. That extra year of his prime should allow Bichette, who’ll reject a qualifying offer, to land in the range of those other recent top-tier shortstops in free agency. If he sustains his absurd summer production (or anything close to it), he could push for $200MM or more.

3. Alex Bregman, 3B, Red Sox

Bregman isn’t technically a free agent yet, but barring some form of major injury in the final two months, he’s all but guaranteed to opt out of the remaining two years and $80MM on his contract. He’s not likely to secure another $40MM annual value — though you can argue that he didn’t truly get there anyhow, thanks to deferred money — but topping that remaining $80MM will be no problem.

This past offseason, Bregman spurned six-year offers from his incumbent Astros and the Tigers in order to take a short-term, opt-out laden deal that could get him back to the market after a strong year.

Mission accomplished.

He missed more than a month due to a quadriceps strain, but he’s shown minimal ill effects since returning. Bregman is hitting .295/.373/.533 in 295 plate appearances. He’s popped 15 home runs and picked up 20 doubles. The uncharacteristically low 6.9% walk rate he showed last year is back up over 9%, and his perennially low strikeout rate is sitting at 16.9%. His 18.8% chase rate on balls off the plate is eighth-lowest in MLB (min. 250 plate appearances), and his 86.8% contact rate ranks 22nd.

Bregman is a plus defensive third baseman who could certainly handle second base and could likely fill in at shortstop if needed. Front offices, coaching staffs and teammates all rave about his makeup, leadership and clubhouse impact. None of that is easily quantified, but there will unquestionably be teams who value him even more than his raw numbers suggest due to that intangible profile.

Bregman’s market was relatively limited last year as he came off a mixed bag of a season and contended with a qualifying offer. That won’t be the case this time around. The Red Sox will want him back, but the Tigers, Cubs, Dodgers, Mets, Phillies and Mariners could all jump into the fray.

As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows, the only position players in the past decade to secure contracts of five-plus years beginning at age 32 are Lorenzo Cain, DJ LeMahieu and Freddie Freeman. LeMahieu’s contract was stretched to six years for luxury tax purposes. Freeman got six years but with deferred money. Even on a five-year deal, Bregman would have a case for $150MM or more. Six years could very well be attainable, as could $200MM. Regardless, Bregman has a chance to top Freeman’s $162MM guarantee and take home the largest free agent deal we’ve ever seen for a player starting in his age-32 season.

4. Framber Valdez, LHP, Astros

Speaking of 32-year-olds in line for prominent paydays, Valdez has left little doubt that he’s the top arm in this year’s class. He’s on his way to what would be a third sub-3.00 ERA in four years, having piled up 140 innings of 2.83 ERA ball. Valdez’s 25.4% strikeout rate would be the highest of his career in a 162-game season, and his 7.9% walk rate is better than league average for a fourth straight year (and south of 8% for a third straight).

On top of the consistency and strong strikeout-to-walk numbers, Valdez is one of the sport’s top ground-ball pitchers. This year’s 60.9% mark trails only the Angels’ Jose Soriano for the MLB lead not just among qualified starters, but among the 225 pitchers who’ve tossed at least 10 innings as a starter. He’s sitting 94.4 mph with his sinker, down from his 95.3 mph peak but up from last year’s average of 94.1 mph.

Valdez gives up more hard contact than the average starter, but so much of it comes on the ground that it’s more easily mitigated. Since moving into the Astros’ rotation full-time, he’s never allowed more than 0.86 homers per nine innings in a given season — this despite being a lefty whose home park features a short left-field porch for righty bats who hold the platoon advantage against him. And, in an era of five-inning starters and teams who are reluctant to let starters turn a lineup over for a third time, Valdez is a throwback. He’s averaged 6 1/3 innings per start not just in 2025 but over his past five seasons combined.

Were it not for the fact that Valdez will turn 32 in November, he’d be the No. 2 free agent on this ranking and comfortably projected for a $200MM contract. As it stands, he’ll be angling to become just the fourth pitcher to secure even a five-year deal in free agency beginning with his age-32 season (Contract Tracker link). A four-year deal for Valdez would surely clock in well over $100MM, but he should be expected to land five years and will have a real chance to join Zack Greinke as the only 32-year-old starter in recent memory to reel in six years. A deal in the $150-180MM range shouldn’t be a surprise, even after he inevitably rejects a qualifying offer.

5. Cody Bellinger, OF/1B, Yankees

Through a series of one-year deals and opt-out opportunities, Bellinger keeps finding his way onto MLBTR’s Power Rankings. He was just off the early-season edition of this year’s rankings but has risen to the middle of the pack due to some down years from other free agents but, more importantly, a very strong all-around performance of his own.

Bellinger looked lost at the plate from 2021-22 while returning from shoulder surgery, but this is his third straight strong year with the bat. He entered play Wednesday slashing .276/.328/.496 with 20 homers and 10 steals. Bellinger has continually whittled away at his strikeout rate in recent years, to the point that he’s now one of the toughest strikeouts in the sport, sitting at just 12.9%. He doesn’t post the type of gaudy exit velocity numbers toward which today’s front offices gravitate, but he’s been a consistently above-average hitter for three years now despite a middling quality-of-contact profile.

The Yankees have used Bellinger across all three outfield positions and at first base. He’s graded out roughly average in center but is a plus in either outfield corner. Bellinger has only played 19 innings at first base this season, but he received strong grades when he played 431 innings there for the 2023 Cubs (+5 DRS, +1 OAA).

Bellinger holds a $25MM player option for the 2026 season. It comes with a $5MM buyout that he’ll receive if he declines. Even if it were a true $25MM decision rather than a net $20MM decision, Bellinger would easily turn the option down. He can’t receive a qualifying offer this time around, and despite how many straight offseasons he’s been a fixture on the free agent market, he’ll play the bulk of next season at just 30 years of age.

Bellinger would only be 35 at the completion of a five-year deal or 36 after a six-year pact. An annual salary north of $20MM for a 30-year-old corner outfielder who’s posted a .283/.337/.481 slash in nearly 1600 plate appearances since 2023 — particularly one who can capably handle center field or first base — should be attainable, which means Bellinger has a real chance to sign for more than $100MM on the open market this time around.

6. Dylan Cease, RHP, Padres

Cease hasn’t had the season he hoped in his final year of club control. He’s still showing the durability, plus velocity and swing-and-miss arsenal that make him so appealing, but the results haven’t been there for the former AL Cy Young runner-up. In 123 1/3 innings, he’s pitched to a 4.60 ERA that would stand as the highest of his career (excluding a partial season in his 2019 MLB debut).

That said, Cease’s 97.1 mph average four-seamer is his best since the shortened 2020 season and the second-best of his career. He’s generating more chases off the plate than ever before, and this year’s 15.9% swinging-strike rate is the largest of his career. Command issues plagued him for much of his time with the White Sox, but this is now two seasons with the Padres and two seasons with a walk rate comfortably south of 10%. He may “only” have average command (perhaps a slight bit below), but Cease is a durable flamethrower who misses bats with the best in the league. He’s punched out 30.6% of his opponents. Metrics like FIP (3.52) and SIERA (3.33) feel he’s as good as — if not better than — he’s ever been.

Cease is also incredibly durable. He’s never been on the major league injured list outside of a short stay on the Covid-related list in 2021. Since 2020, he leads Major League Baseball with 165 games started and is ninth with 897 2/3 innings pitched.

Cease will be 30 in December. A five-year deal would “only” run through his age-34 season. With a big season, he and agent Scott Boras could perhaps have pushed for a seven-year contract in excess of $200MM. This year’s uneven performance presents multiple paths he could pursue. Cease will receive a qualifying offer and is almost certain to reject. If he looks to max out, he could perhaps still secure a long-term deal but probably not for close to the money he’d hoped entering the year. We’ve seen Boras clients like Carlos Rodon and Blake Snell go the short-term/opt-out route in the past, and Cease is young enough that he could still command a notable long-term deal following the 2026 season if he went that route.

Still, these rankings are based on earning ceiling, and there’s a scenario where Cease finishes strong, looks to max out and winds up with six years and a hearty annual value. For power arms who can miss bats like this, teams are increasingly willing to look past a rocky ERA.

7. Ranger Suarez, LHP, Phillies

Though not as durable as Valdez has been, Suarez pitches deep into games and keeps runs off the board just like his fellow southpaw. He allowed five runs in a 6 1/3-inning start just this afternoon, one of his worst outings of the year, but still carries a 2.94 ERA in 107 frames. He averaged 5 1/3 innings per start back in 2022, jumped to about 5 2/3 innings per start in 2023-24 and is up to nearly 6 1/3 innings per appearance in 2025.

Suarez has been consistently good along the way, with roughly average strikeout rates, good command and well above-average grounder rates. In many ways, he’s a “lite” version of Valdez. He’s fanned 21.8% of opponents since 2022, issued walks at a 7.8% clip and turned in a 51.5% ground-ball rate. Back, hamstring and elbow injuries have limited his workload in that time, keeping him to 538 innings of regular season work.

The 2025 season has been Suarez’s best in terms of results. It’s also his second straight season with notable time missed due to a back injury, however. Suarez opened the season on the injured list due to lower back pain and wound up missing more than a month. His lower back also cost him a month in 2024 and two weeks in 2022. He’s an immensely talented pitcher, but three IL stints for his lower back in a span of four years isn’t ideal — especially since he’s had other injuries mixed in (most notably a 2023 elbow strain that cost him six-plus weeks).

Suarez doesn’t throw as hard as Valdez, sitting at a career-low 90.2 mph with his sinker this season. The declining velocity and recent troubles with back injuries are limiting factors, but Suarez is a steady No. 3 starter who’ll pitch nearly all of next season at age 30. There’s no reason he shouldn’t handily top Eduardo Rodriguez’s four-year, $80MM contract, and a five-year deal that pushes up closer to the Kevin Gausman/Robbie Ray territory of $110-115MM feels attainable.

8. Kyle Schwarber, OF/DH, Phillies

Schwarber is going to break plenty of precedent this offseason. He’s nominally an outfielder but has played 107 games at designated hitter this year. Maybe a team would plug Schwarber into left field early in a new contract, but a full-time move to DH probably isn’t too far down the road. Players with such minimal defensive value generally aren’t compensated well in free agency. Nelson Cruz and Victor Martinez got four-year deals as designated hitters … back in 2014. J.D. Martinez got five years and $110MM with the Red Sox back in 2018, but deal came with the expectation of at least some part-time outfield play. He logged 493 innings in year one of the deal and 330 in year two.

Players with negligible defensive value like this have a hard time finding big money in free agency, but Schwarber is going to be an exception. He’s not “just” a designated hitter — he’s one of the best hitters on the planet. He still strikes out more than you’d prefer (26.9% after three punchouts on Wednesday), but he’s also belted 40 homers in just 506 plate appearances — his third 40-homer effort in the past four years. (He hit “only” 38 bombs in 2024.) Schwarber has walked at a 14.8% clip as well, and he’s hitting .256/.376/.585 overall — a massive 63% better than average, by measure of wRC+.

Statcast ranks Schwarber in the 99th or 100th percentile in each of the following categories: bat speed, average exit velocity, barrel rate, hard-hit rate, expected slugging percentage and expected wOBA.

Earlier in his career, the book on Schwarber was that lefties could get him out. That’s not the case anymore — far from it. Schwarber has been well above-average against lefties dating back to 2021, including a colossal .278/.394/.656 slash (186 wRC+) in left-on-left matchups this season. He’s a .242/.341/.468 hitter in his past 1059 plate appearances versus southpaws.

On top of the gaudy on-base numbers and nearly unmatched power output, Schwarber is a beloved clubhouse presence whose teammates and coaches rave about what he brings to the team off the field. He’s going to be 33 next March, and while some teams will want to keep him to a high-AAV three-year contract, the offensive contributions have reached a point where it’s hard to envision less than four years. A fifth year isn’t even completely out of the question, even though he’ll receive and reject a qualifying offer.

9. Pete Alonso, 1B, Mets

The 2025 season has been a rollercoaster, but at the end of the day Alonso is having one of the best seasons of his career. He’s hitting .264/.352/.507 with 25 homers already, making him all but a lock to yet again top 30 homers — a feat he’s reached in each 162-game season of his career. Alonso’s walk rate is holding steady around 10%, and he’s cut a couple percentage points off his strikeout rate, which sits at 22.9%.

That’s far higher than the 14.6% clip he showed in a superhuman month of April, but it’s still right in line with the league average. Alonso did a lot of the heavy lifting for his season in March/April, but he also had a huge performance in June and is out to a nice start in August. July was his only truly bad month of the year from an offensive production standpoint.

Alonso is making more hard contact than ever (52.8%) and sporting career-high marks in average exit velocity (93.7 mph) and barrel rate (20.4%). His defensive limitations are obvious, and he’s never going to contribute much value on the bases. At the same time, he’s as reliable a source of 30-plus homers as nearly anyone in the game. Since he received a qualifying offer last winter, he’s ineligible to receive another one.

The two-year, $54MM contract Alonso signed last winter paid him $30MM this season with a $24MM player option for the 2026 campaign. If he and the Mets don’t agree to a longer-term deal between now and the time that option decision comes due, he’s a lock to turn it down and head back to the market. Much has been made of Alonso rejecting a seven-year, $158MM extension from the Mets several years ago. He’s already pocketed $50.5MM in salary in two years since turning that down, however, and bringing home another $107.5MM over the next five years doesn’t at all feel out of the question. We saw a 34-year-old Christian Walker land three years and $60MM last winter. He’s a better defender, but Alonso will play 2026 at age 31. A four-year deal worth around $25MM annually or a five-year deal in the $22-23MM range seems plausible.

10. Brandon Woodruff, RHP, Brewers

A new entrant on the list, Woodruff recently returned from a more than yearlong absence due to 2023 shoulder surgery. His velocity is down noticeably, but his results are elite and largely commensurate with his outstanding big league track record. It’s only a sample of 28 1/3 innings so far, but the 32-year-old righty has a 2.22 ERA, a 35.6% strikeout rate and just a 3.8% walk rate.

In the five seasons preceding his shoulder injury, Woodruff pitched to a combined 2.93 ERA in just under 600 innings. His strikeout and walk rates were both excellent, though not to the extent in his five-start sample this year. Woodruff averaged 96.3 mph with his fastball during that time, compared to just 93.2 mph in 2025, but it’s not unreasonable to think he could continue adding velo as he shakes off some rust. Woodruff’s four-seamer averaged 94 mph in his most recent start against the Nationals, for instance — his best in any start of 2025.

A 32-year-old who had a recent, major surgery is going to be capped in terms of contract length, but that could result in a bit of a bidding war when it comes to annual value. Nathan Eovaldi just got three years and $75MM beginning with his age-35 campaign this past offseason. Woodruff will be two years younger this offseason than Eovaldi was last winter.

This all hinges on how Woodruff finishes out the year, but if he keeps gaining velocity and/or wraps up his return campaign with an ERA in the low-to-mid 2.00s, there will be plenty of teams interested in adding a premium arm on a deal on a relatively short-term deal (three or four years). Woodruff technically has a $20MM mutual option, but he’ll receive a $10MM buyout when he declines his end in search of a long-term deal in free agency. The Brewers can then make him a qualifying offer, which he’d decline if he can sustain anything close to his current pace.

Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically): Edwin Diaz (opt-out), Jack Flaherty (opt-out), Zac Gallen, Lucas Giolito (’26 club option becomes mutual option at 140 innings this year) Trent Grisham, Ryan Helsley, Michael King, Tyler Mahle, Munetaka Murakami (NPB), Cedric Mullins, Josh Naylor, Ryan O’Hearn, Eugenio Suarez, Robert Suarez (opt-out), Gleyber Torres, Luke Weaver

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Red Sox Extend Roman Anthony

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The Red Sox locked up another budding star, signing outfielder Roman Anthony to an eight-year extension covering the 2026-33 seasons with a club option for 2034. The Frontline Athlete Management is reportedly guaranteed $130MM on a deal that also includes significant escalators based on Rookie of the Year, MVP and All-Star voting.

Anthony receives a $5MM signing bonus. The salary breaks down as follows:

  • $2MM in 2026
  • $4MM in 2027
  • $8MM in 2028
  • $15MM in 2029
  • $19MM in 2030
  • $23MM in 2031
  • $25MM in 2032
  • $29MM in 2033
  • $30MM club option (no buyout) in 2034

The escalators apply to the 2032 and 2033 seasons. They would also apply to the 2031 season if he finishes top two in Rookie of the Year voting in 2025. Anthony’s salaries will increase by $1MM if he comes first or second in Rookie of the Year voting. The salaries would also increase by $2MM for each MVP win in any previous year, $1MM for coming second or third in MVP voting, $750K for a fourth or fifth in MVP voting, $500K for finishing sixth through tenth in MVP voting and $200K for any All-Star appearance. Those same escalators would apply to the club option except the top-two ROY finish would add $2MM instead of $1MM.

As things stand, the deal buys out all six of Anthony’s initial seasons of club control, plus two free-agent years with an option over a third free-agent season. However, if Anthony finishes top two in American League Rookie of the Year voting, he’d receive a full year of service for the current season, thus meaning the deal would lock in three free-agent years with a club option over a fourth.

Regardless of the exact number of free-agent years being bought out, the Sox now control Anthony all the way through 2034 — what will be his age-30 season. He’ll still be able to become a free agent ahead of his age-31 campaign, positioning him for another potential nine-figure contract down the road.

Anthony’s deal draws plenty of parallels to the eight-year, $111MM extension Corbin Carroll signed with the D-backs in January of 2023. Both outfielders were regarded as the top prospect in the sport when they debuted in their age-21 seasons. Both found immediate success and quickly signed eight-year deals beginning with their age-22 seasons.

As can be seen in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Anthony’s contract becomes the third-largest guarantee ever given out to a player with under one year of major league service time. Julio Rodriguez’s $210MM deal with the Mariners currently tops the list, though that agreement came when Rodriguez was much further into what would eventually be a Rookie of the Year-winning campaign in 2022.

Selected with the No. 79 overall pick in the 2022 draft, Anthony stormed through the minor leagues, breaking out with a huge performance in High-A as a 19-year-old and never looking back. By measure of wRC+, he was at least 40% better than league-average with the bat at every stop from High-A through Triple-A, and he’s carried over his outstanding production through his first 46 major league games.

In 190 plate appearances as a big leaguer, Anthony is hitting .283/.400/.428 with a pair of homers, 15 doubles, a triple, two stolen bases, a 13.7% walk rate and a 24.7% strikeout rate. He’s averaged a scorching 94.1 mph off the bat and seen a whopping 58% of his batted balls exit the bat traveling at least 95 mph. His overall power output has been muted by a 55.4% ground-ball rate, but Anthony elevated the ball more in the minors and figures to do so as he continues to acclimate to big league pitching, at which point he’ll get to more of his plus-plus power. For now, the walk-heavy approach and plethora of doubles is getting the job done just fine; Anthony has been 33% better than average in the batter’s box since arriving in the big leagues.

Anthony doesn’t possess elite contact skills but does make excellent swing decisions. His 73.1% overall contact rate and 81.6% contact rate on pitches within the zone are both four points below league-average, but Anthony’s chase rate on balls off the plate (just 20.1%) is eight percentage points lower than average. Among the 292 hitters with at least 190 plate appearances in the majors this year, he’s tied for the 19th-lowest chase percentage, per Statcast.

On the defensive side of things, Anthony has split his time between the two outfield corners but spent more time in right. He’s seen time in center field in the minors, but scouting reports on Anthony typically pegged him for a long-term home in one of the corners. His arm isn’t elite but is at least average, if not a tick better. Anthony has drawn strong defensive grades for his work thus far (+5 Defensive Runs Saved, +4 Outs Above Average). He gives the Sox another talented defender to join the trio of Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu, all of whom are plus defenders in their own right.

That glut of outfield talent — plus Masataka Yoshida’s presence at DH — has long prompted speculation about a potential trade from the group. Duran and Abreu have seen their names kicked around the rumor mill dating back to the offseason. Boston would surely welcome the opportunity to escape some of the final two-plus years on Yoshida’s five-year contract, which runs through 2027, but with $18.5MM salaries in each of the next two seasons, doing so is a tall order. Anthony was never going to be traded, and this new long-term arrangement only further solidifies him as a foundational piece for the Red Sox.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Red Sox and Anthony were finalizing an eight-year, $130MM deal with a club option for 2034. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported the $30MM option value. Alex Speier of The Boston Globe had the specific salary and escalator structure.

Buxton: Still No Plans To Waive No-Trade Clause

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With rumors of the Twins potentially operating as deadline sellers swirling amid this year’s All-Star break, star center fielder Byron Buxton publicly indicated that he had no desire to waive his full no-trade clause and looked forward to being a Twin for the rest of his career. Minnesota indeed went the route of the seller and did so with far more vigor than anyone might’ve foreseen. The Twins shipped out ten players, including shortstop Carlos Correa (signed through at least 2028) and a quartet of controllable relievers: Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland and Brock Stewart. Even after their aggressive roster purge, Buxton has doubled down on his full intention to remain in Minnesota.

“Just because we go through these tough roads … it is what it is,” Buxton told reporters two days after the trade deadline (video link via Twins.TV). “We’ll be better once we get on the other end of it and figure things out a little bit more. End of the season, we’ll talk a little bit more, but I ain’t going nowhere.”

Some may latch onto Buxton’s comment about talking “a little bit more” at season’s end, but Buxton was even more emphatic when chatting with Dan Hayes of The Athletic:

“It’s always good to be wanted. Don’t get me wrong. But the only place I want is Minnesota. All of my choices are easy. I ain’t got but one place on my mind. That’s how it’ll be.”

Hayes reports that six or more teams reached out to Buxton’s agent to gauge the outfielder’s willingness to waive his no-trade protection as Minnesota embarked on a far broader-reaching teardown than anyone anticipated heading into the deadline. Both the Braves and the Mets had particularly strong interest, per Hayes. Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets that the Padres were also among the teams to inquire, as one would expect, given president of baseball operations A.J. Preller’s tendency to check in on virtually every high-profile name that hits the market. Obviously, Buxton was uninterested in pursuing a change of scenery.

Buxton, 31, is in the fourth season of a seven-year, $100MM contract extension that covers the 2022-28 seasons. He’s being paid $15MM annually, though the contract contains up to $8MM of yearly incentives based on MVP voting and a potential $2.5MM of annual bonuses based on plate appearances. Of course, if the talented but oft-injured Buxton were ever to stay healthy for a full season and max out those incentives with an MVP win, he’d still be a bargain even at the inflated $25.5MM in that given season.

The 2025 season is among the best of Buxton’s career to date. He’s hitting .282/.343/.561 with 23 home runs, 14 doubles, four triples, 17 steals (in 17 tries), an 8% walk rate and a 26.6% strikeout rate in 364 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, he’s been 45% better than league-average from an offensive standpoint, and Statcast’s Outs Above Average (+4) views him as a continually strong defender (though Defensive Runs Saved has a -1 mark on him — the first negative of his career). Statcast measures Buxton’s average sprint speed (30.2 ft/sec) as second best in the game, trailing only Bobby Witt Jr.’s 30.3 ft/sec.

Perhaps down the road, Buxton will eventually soften his stance on that no-trade provision, but even in the wake of seeing nearly 40% of the major league roster traded elsewhere, he sounds intent on staying in the Twin Cities.

It’s still not clear how far the Twins’ roster teardown will span when the offseason rolls around. The Pohlad family, which has owned the team for four decades, is exploring a sale of the franchise. That clearly played a major role in the team’s deadline flurry — particularly in the move to trade away Correa (a move that trimmed more than $70MM off the long-term payroll). If there’s a new owner in place or an agreement to sell the club, perhaps the new group will be willing to spend and make a renewed push for contention next year. If the Pohlads remain in place, it seems plausible that veterans like Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Ryan Jeffers and Bailey Ober could all find themselves on the market with an eye toward further scaling back the financial commitments a new owner would be inheriting.

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