Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Newsstand

Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Red Sox Among Teams Interested In Willy Adames

By | at

Willy Adames is drawing “very broad” interest in free agency, with MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (X link) naming the Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, and Red Sox as clubs looking at the shortstop.  The Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees are also mentioned in a somewhat more speculative fashion, under the general premise that teams with infield needs — rather than specific shortstop needs — have Adames on their radar.

Reports surfaced a couple of weeks ago that Adames was open to moving off shortstop if the situation warranted, thus further opening up his market of potential suitors.  Looking at Morosi’s list, the Braves would seemingly be the only one of the four clubs that would be looking at Adames as a shortstop, since Atlanta has a clear need at the position.

Orlando Arcia struggled through a very rough year at the plate in 2024, and replacing Arcia with Adames at shortstop would provide a huge upgrade to the Braves’ lineup.  Signing Adames would represent a new frontier for Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, as Marcell Ozuna’s four-year, $65MM deal from the 2020-21 offseason is the largest free agent contract Anthopoulos has handed out over his seven-plus years running the Braves’ front office.

Adames’ expected contract would more than double Ozuna’s deal.  MLBTR predicted a six-year, $160MM contract for Adames.  Adding somewhere in the range of $26.6MM in average annual value onto the Braves’ books would continue to boost a payroll that has plenty of long-term commitments in place, though Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias are both free agents after the 2025 season, and technically Chris Sale could be as well if Atlanta doesn’t exercise a club option on his services for 2026.

Signing with Boston would open up several defensive possibilities for Adames.  Trevor Story is the incumbent shortstop and still an excellent defender, even if injuries have limited Story’s offense and playing time altogether over his three seasons with the Red Sox.  Story is still owed $77.5MM through the 2027 season, and while he can opt out of his contract after the 2025 campaign, an opt-out doesn’t seem at all likely given the veteran infielder’s last few years.

The Sox used Story at second base in 2022 when Xander Bogaerts was still on the team, so Story could shift over to the keystone again to accommodate Adames.  Or, perhaps the simplest answer is just to install Adames as the regular second baseman, hopefully finally ending the revolving door that has been Boston’s second base position in recent years.

Star prospects Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell could slot into the infield mix as early as 2025 if Campbell isn’t utilized as an outfielder.  Once the Sox see what they have in the youngsters and need to find playing time, the Red Sox could them perhaps use Adames as a third baseman, bumping Rafael Devers into a first base or DH role.  There are plenty of moving parts defensively, yet Adames would provide a clear boost to a lineup in sore need of a big right-handed bat.

Bo Bichette is coming off a miserable 2024 season, yet he remains Toronto’s everyday shortstop heading into his final year of team control.  With Bichette in the fold, the Jays could use Adames at second or (more likely) third base, as the Blue Jays’ collective of in-house young infielders are almost all better suited defensively to the keystone than the hot corner.

If Bichette was to leave in free agency next winter, Toronto could explore simply moving Adames back to shortstop, thus addressing a major position in relatively easy fashion.  Second and third base could then be occupied on a more permanent basis by one of the Blue Jays’ incumbent infielders, depending on which stood out during the 2025 season.  Again, the offensive upgrade is obvious, since Adames, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and what the Jays hope will be a resurgent Bichette form a powerful lineup core on paper.

It is worth mentioning that Adames has played virtually his entire MLB career at the shortstop position, and he hasn’t played anywhere else on the diamond since making 10 appearances as a second baseman during his 2018 rookie season with the Rays.  Moving to third base would therefore represent an entirely new challenge for the 29-year-old, which provides an interesting backdrop to the Astros’ pursuit.

Since Jeremy Pena and Jose Altuve have the middle infield positions covered, Houston would therefore be looking at Adames as a third baseman if Alex Bregman signed elsewhere.  Astros GM Dana Brown has described re-signing Bregman as “our biggest priority,” so while Bregman’s departure is far from a foregone conclusion, the Astros surely have some backup plans in mind if their longtime third baseman did leave.

Replacing Bregman with another high-priced free agent infielder would count as a bit of a surprise, given how Brown has said his club “may have to get a little bit creative” in managing the payroll this winter.  The same applies to the Blue Jays, as Toronto already posted a team-record high payroll in 2024 with only a last-place finish in the AL East to show for it.  The Red Sox have plenty of payroll room open, and while the team has shied away from major free agents in the last few years, Boston has already been linked to a wide range of top names (Juan Soto, Max Fried, Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Snell), so the Sox seem to be signaling that they are ready to again shop in the high-rent district.

Since Adames is sure to reject the Brewers’ qualifying offer, a new team would face some sort of penalty for signing him.  The Braves and Astros both exceeded the luxury tax in 2024, and thus signing Adames or any qualified free agent would cost the club $1MM in international bonus pool money, plus their second- and fifth-highest picks in the 2025 draft.  It is a steep penalty to pay, though the draft hit could be slightly lessened in the form of a compensatory pick after the fourth round if either the teams’ own qualified free agents (Houston’s Bregman, Atlanta’s Fried) signed elsewhere.

The Blue Jays (just barely) and Red Sox stayed under the tax threshold this season, so both would have to give up $500K of international bonus pool money as well as their second-highest 2025 draft selection.  The Sox also have a qualified free agent of their own in Nick Pivetta, and if Pivetta departed, Boston’s compensatory pick could come before the start of the third draft round.

Nick Martinez Accepts Qualifying Offer From Reds

By | at

Nov. 18: Martinez has now formally accepted the QO, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. He adds an update to a prior report, adding that talks on a multi-year deal are not expected to continue.

Nov. 17: Veteran right-hander Nick Martinez is planning to accept the qualifying offer from the Reds, according to a report from Francys Romero. Martinez will remain with Cincinnati for the 2025 season on a one-year, $21.05MM deal.

Martinez, 34, was a somewhat surprising recipient of the QO after a strong inaugural season with the Reds. The right-hander joined the club on a two-year, $26MM guarantee last winter after both he and the Padres opted out of their simultaneous options for the 2024 campaign, making him a free agent. The deal with Cincinnati proved to be something of a coup for the Reds, as Martinez turned in an excellent 3.10 ERA and 3.21 FIP over 142 1/3 innings of work in a season that saw him split his time between the starting rotation and the bullpen.

While the righty posted utterly dominant numbers in relief, sporting a 1.86 ERA in 53 1/3 frames out of the bullpen, his 3.84 ERA across 16 starts saw him flash the ability to be a quality rotation piece. A closer look at Martinez’s work this season reveals that he struggled badly out of the rotation early in the year, with a 5.46 ERA through the end of April. He ended the year on a dominant note after returning to the rotation in early August, however, with a 2.42 ERA in 63 1/3 innings across 11 starts down the stretch. That excellent late-season performance could inspire more confidence in Martinez’s abilities as a rotation piece looking ahead to 2025, although it’s worth noting that his strikeout rate (22.5% vs 19.1%) and groundball rate (42.8% vs 33.7%) were both better out of the bullpen than the rotation this year.

Of course, part of Martinez’s value since returning to MLB following a four-year sojourn to Japan (where he posted a 3.02 ERA in 378 1/3 NPB innings) is his ability to shift from the rotation to the bullpen based on the needs of his team. The right-hander has worked as a swingman in each of the last three seasons, logging 184 innings across 35 starts in the rotation and and 175 innings over 117 relief outings. On the heels of a season that saw Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott all miss time due to injury, it’s easy to imagine the Reds placing additional value on Martinez’s flexibility as they attempt to map out a plan for their young rotation arms. That’s especially valuable given the presence of top prospect Rhett Lowder, who looked dominant in a late-season call-up but may not be ready to jump straight into a wire-to-wire big league season in 2025.

That combination of production and versatility convinced the Reds to extend Martinez the QO, even though $21.05MM constitutes a raise of more than $7MM over his 2024 salary. The sides reportedly discussed a multi-year extension in the days leading up to the QO deadline earlier this month, but did not ultimately come together on a deal. Given Martinez’s age, it’s likely that his earning power on the open market would be tamped down in any multi-year pact. That reality surely made accepting the QO an attractive option for Martinez, and that’s exactly what MLBTR predicted he would do in our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list.

While adding Martinez to the club’s pitching staff for 2025 is sure to improve the team, that hefty raise might cause some complications for the club’s budget. RosterResource estimates the club’s current payroll for 2025 to be just under $81MM. While the Reds are committed to a payroll “at or above” their 2024 level, the club spent just $100MM on payroll last year and the addition of Martinez’s $21.05MM salary would push the Reds to $102MM, just over that mark. Potential non-tender candidates like Santiago Espinal and Jake Fraley could help the club save a few million dollars here and there, but it seems as though Cincinnati will need to exceed their 2024 payroll by a notable amount in order to make further additions this winter.

As for the free agent market overall, this winter’s market remains deep in interesting mid-to-back of the rotation options even with Martinez off the board. Yusei Kikuchi, Nathan Eovaldi, and Nick Pivetta are among the mid-rotation arms expected to pursue multi-year deals in free agency this winter, while bounce-back candidates like Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer could provide significant upside as they look to re-establish themselves on one-year, high-AAV deals similar to Martinez’s.

Rays’ 2028 Stadium Deal In Jeopardy

By | at

The Rays will play their 2025 home games at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field — the Yankees’ spring training home — in the wake of damage wreaked on Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton. There’s been an ongoing debate about whether “the Trop” will be repaired in the interim, as the current site was planned to be the site of a new Rays stadium set to open in 2028. Recent events have put that 2028 deal in jeopardy, John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times reports, and Rays owner Stu Sternberg is again referencing relocation as a possible outcome.

As Romano outlines, Hurricane Milton and the ensuing damage prompted the city council and county commission to postpone scheduled bond votes that were key to securing financing for the redevelopment plan. Those delays pushed the vote back by one month, but in doing so pushed them back beyond the November election, meaning the very composition of the boards who are voting on the requisite bonds has changed. Romano adds that the timeline to break ground in 2025 was already “tight” and carried “very little wiggle room.”

“Last month, the County Commission upended our ballpark agreement by not approving their bonds, as they promised to do,” Sternberg told the Times. “That action sent a clear message that we had lost the county as a partner. The future of baseball in Tampa Bay became less certain after that vote.”

Sternberg pledged to “exhaust all [options]” to keep the Rays in the area but eventually conceded that relocation is “not an unlikely conclusion.” Pinellas County commissioner Chris Latvala, per ABC Action News’ Chad Mills, recently blasted the team for committing to play the 2025 season at Steinbrenner Field rather than a facility located within Pinellas County, such as Clearwater’s BayCare Ballpark (the spring home of the Phillies). Clearwater mayor Bruce Rector offered similar criticism to Romano.

Romano points out that Steinbrenner Field has a larger capacity and much more recently upgraded facilities, setting the stage for a smoother transition and lesser revenue losses. Latvala and Rector contend that Pinellas County taxpayers are committing $1 billion in public funding, and thus the Rays should have felt obligated to play their games at a stadium within Pinellas County, rather than nearby Hillsborough County, where Steinbrenner Field is located.

There’s no indication that the Pinellas County Commission will now vote against the previously approved bonds, but Latvala didn’t sound particularly motivated to speed the process along, regardless of the redevelopment’s tight timeline: “If we want to take our time, we can take our time,” he told Romano. “…I don’t think we should be rushed. And if the bonds fall through, so be it.”

It’s possible the delays could already be enough to push back breaking of ground and delay the stadium’s readiness into 2029. That could come with increased construction costs, which Romano speculates could put the Rays on the hook for more than $100MM in additional expenses — all at a time when they’ll be taking in reduced revenues from 2025-28 due to playing games at a smaller site. That will also play a major role in the team’s decision on whether to remain in Florida or more aggressively pursue a relocation bid.

Brusdar Graterol To Miss First Half Of 2025 Due To Shoulder Surgery

By | at

Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol announced today (Spanish-language X post) that he underwent shoulder surgery yesterday, though without a return timeline. The club later announced that Graterol underwent right shoulder labrum surgery and isn’t expected back on the mound until the second half of the 2025 season.

The news doesn’t come as a shock, as Graterol trudged through an injury-marred 2024 season, primarily due to that shoulder. He went on the injured list at the beginning of the season with a combination of hip tightness and right shoulder inflammation. The shoulder issue was significant enough that he wasn’t able to return until August. In his very first game of the season, he suffered a right hamstring strain that sent him back to the IL. He was activated in September but then went back on the IL yet again with more shoulder inflammation. He missed most of the postseason but was activated for the World Series.

The righty finished the year with less than 10 innings pitched. He tossed 7 1/3 frames in the regular season and then added another 2 1/3 in the World Series. Though he fought through the issue enough to get on the mound a few times, he was never able to stay healthy for long and it’s now clear the issue required surgical attention.

Prior to 2024, Graterol had established himself as a key piece of the Dodger bullpen. He posted a 2.69 earned run average over 171 appearances from 2020 to 2023. His 18.9% strikeout rate in that time was below average but his 5.5% walk rate was quite low and he got grounders at an elite rate of 62.5%. Among pitchers with at least 170 innings pitched in that time, only Clay Holmes, Andre Pallante and Framber Valdez has better grounder rates.

Though he was able to contribute to the World Series victory and get himself a ring, 2024 was mostly a lost season for Graterol and he will now miss at least half of 2025 as well. He still has two arbitration seasons left but the injuries will prevent him from significantly raising his salary. He made $2.7MM this year and MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for the same figure in 2025. His ability to push that farther north in 2026 will depend on how much time he ultimately misses in the coming season and how he performs when healthy.

For the Dodgers, it’s possible that this surgery increases their desire to add to their pitching staff. They are already expected to start 2025 with Kyle Hurt, River Ryan, Emmet Sheehan and Gavin Stone on the injured list due to surgeries performed earlier in 2024 and now Graterol’s name can be added to that list. They just lost Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Joe Kelly, Blake Treinen and Daniel Hudson to free agency. Kershaw will almost certainly re-sign but also just underwent surgery, while Hudson certainly won’t re-sign since he’s now retired.

Juan Soto Rumors: Red Sox, Yankees, Jays, Dodgers

By | at

Juan Soto’s free agency will be the primary narrative this offseason until he chooses his next landing spot, though there’s no indication that things are close. The 26-year-old superstar began meeting with teams this week but is still in the early stages of the process. For instance, Sean McAdam of MassLive.com reports that while the Red Sox feel their three-hour meeting with Soto and agent Scott Boras was “productive,” it was more introductory and informative than anything else. The two sides did not discuss years and dollars; the Sox pitched Soto on their plans for the future, their upcoming wave of high-end prospects and other aspects of the organization, while Soto sought to learn about their player evaluation methods, Fenway Park’s facilities, etc. It’s common for early meetings of this nature for top-end free agents to be introductory in nature, so this isn’t necessarily unique to Soto.

The Red Sox haven’t been involved in the deep waters of free agency in recent offseasons. Trevor Story is the lone nine-figure expenditure for the Sox in the past five years. Since signing David Price in 2015, the Red Sox have only gone beyond two years on a free agent four times (Story, J.D. Martinez, Masataka Yoshida and Nathan Eovaldi). Given that, it’s not surprising to see one of the elements Soto hoped to gauge (per McAdam) was the team’s “commitment to winning.”

That said, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com tweets that the Red Sox are approaching their pursuit of Soto with a level of “intent” that we’ve not seen from Boston “in some time.” Intent alone won’t win the bidding, of course, but the Sox have not been characterized as major players for top-end free agents in recent years. All indications this offseason seem to signal a shift in direction.

The incumbent Yankees and crosstown Mets are still perceived by many as the favorites to win the Soto bidding, once formal offers begin rolling in. To this point, it doesn’t seem the process has reached that point. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the Yankees are comfortable going to 13 years and topping Aaron Judge’s $40MM annual salary in order to keep Soto, placing their baseline comfort level somewhere in the $520MM range overall. Most expectations are that Soto will exceed that mark by a fair margin, but it’s a notable starting point all the same.

Meanwhile, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet takes a look at at the Blue Jays’ interest in Soto, noting that as was the case with Shohei Ohtani last offseason, ownership views him as an exception to any other offseason budgetary plans. Toronto’s pursuit of Soto is not an indication that if the Jays miss out on the star slugger, they’ll pivot and spend $500-700MM elsewhere in free agency. Within his previously referenced column, Heyman doubles down on prior reporting that the Blue Jays plan to be aggressive in their pursuit of Soto.

That’s not necessarily the case with all of his expected suitors. ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote this week that the Dodgers “won’t chase after Soto,” having already committed to nine more years of Ohtani and thus potentially restricting them in the event that Soto eventually needs to spend more time at designated hitter. They’ll be opportunistic and perhaps jump into the fray if the market doesn’t develop as Soto hopes, though that seems unlikely, given the robust demand for his services and a potential Bronx-versus-Queens bidding war.

Up until last winter, with Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, that was generally how Los Angeles had approached the market under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. Though they regularly fielded one of the game’s largest payrolls and most star-studded rosters, most of the Dodgers’ star power over the years was acquired on the trade market (e.g. Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow) or developed in-house (e.g. Will Smith, Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager prior to his free agent departure). Freddie Freeman was the lone big-ticket free agent acquisition, and he came on board with a deferral-laden deal after an extended stay on the open market. That scenario almost certainly won’t happen with Soto.

As it stands, there’s still no expected timetable for when Soto might reach a decision or when offers might be presented in earnest. The fact that the Red Sox didn’t even delve into numbers speaks to the current preliminary stage of the bidding process. It’s always possible Soto could decide he wants to accelerate the process and have a team by the end of the month, but a decision at some point in December feels likelier.

Rays To Play 2025 Season At George M. Steinbrenner Field

By | at

The Rays have decided on their temporary home for the 2025 season: George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. Steinbrenner Field is the spring training home of the Yankees and the regular season home of the Tampa Tarpons, New York’s Single-A affiliate. Colleen Wright and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times were the first to report the news.

The Rays explained their decision, describing Steinbrenner Field as “the best-prepared facility in the Tampa Bay region to host regular-season Major League Baseball games” (per Topkin). Yankees managing partner Hal Steinbrenner weighed in on the decision with his own statement:

“We are happy to extend our hand to the Rays and their fans by providing a Major League-quality facility for them to utilize this season. Both the Yankees organization and my family have deep roots in the Tampa Bay region, and we understand how meaningful it is for Rays players, employees and fans to have their 2025 home games take place within 30 minutes of Tropicana Field. In times like these, rivalry and competition take a back seat to doing what’s right for our community — which is continuing to help families and businesses rebound from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.”

The Yankees will continue to play their spring games at Steinbrenner Field, per the league, and the Rays will be business-as-usual in March as well, hosting their games at their annual home in Port Charlotte.

With regard to the regular season, Tim Kephart of the Associated Press reports that the Tarpons will use other fields at the spring facility. There will be upgrades made to the stadium prior to Opening Day to “ensure fans continue to have a wonderful experience,” per the league’s press release. Recent improvements have already been made to the facility itself, including upgraded lighting, a larger home locker room, and improved training and rehab setups. The Yankees, according to Kephart, will receive an additional $15MM in revenue for agreeing to host the Rays in 2025. That won’t come at the cost of the Rays’ revenue but rather insurance and other yet-unreported avenues.

Rawlings Gold Glove Winners! (Sponsored)

By | at

This is a sponsored post from Rawlings.

Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc., announced the winners for the 2024 Rawlings Gold Glove Award®, honoring the best individual fielding performances at each position in the American League® and National League®. The winners were unveiled on Nov. 3rd.

Recognized as the best defensive players at their respective positions, this year’s class of honorees includes six previous winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and 14 first-time winners.

Of this group, Matt Chapman has earned the most awards during his career thus far with five at the third base position.

Several teams had multiple winners: the Cleveland Guardians, Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners in the American League; and the Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers and San Francisco Giants in the National League.

“The art of defense is something we’ve deeply admired and treasured over the 67-year history of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award, and this year’s winners are truly masters of their craft,” said Mike Thompson, chief marketing officer for Rawlings.

“It’s evident, from this year’s stacked lineup of Rawlings Gold Glove Award finalists to the newly announced winners, that superior defensive excellence is what differentiates the good from the great in this game.”

How Gold Glove Winners are Selected:

To determine the winners of the 18 defensive position awards, each team’s manager and up to six coaches on his staff voted from a pool of qualified players in their league and could not vote for players from their own team. Additionally, Rawlings includes the SABR Defensive Index™ (SDI) as part of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award selection process, which influences approximately 25 percent of the overall selection total, with the managers’ and coaches’ votes continuing to carry the majority.

To identify the utility award winners, Rawlings collaborated with SABR to create a specialized defensive formula separate from the traditional selection process for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award position winners. Utilizing the SABR formula and additional defensive statistics, Rawlings selected one utility winner from each league.

“We truly value our role in providing the quantitative metrics used to assist in determining the winners of a career-defining honor such as the Rawlings Gold Glove Award,” said Scott Bush, chief executive officer for SABR. “The 20 Rawlings Gold Glove Award recipients this year certainly took defense to a new level, and we congratulate them on their golden achievement this season.”

The Winners!
Below is the complete listing of the 2024 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners from each league and the number of Rawlings Gold Glove Awards each player has won in his career:

AMERICAN LEAGUE:

  • P: Seth Lugo – Kansas City Royals (1)
  • C: Cal Raleigh – Seattle Mariners (1)
  • 1B: Carlos Santana – Minnesota Twins (1)
  • 2B: Andrés Giménez – Cleveland Guardians (3)
  • 3B: Alex Bregman – Houston Astros (1)
  • SS: Bobby Witt Jr. – Kansas City Royals (1)
  • LF: Steven Kwan – Cleveland Guardians (3)
  • CF: Daulton Varsho – Toronto Blue Jays (1)
  • RF: Wilyer Abreu – Boston Red Sox (1)
  • Utility: Dylan Moore – Seattle Mariners (1)

NATIONAL LEAGUE:

  • P: Chris Sale – Atlanta Braves (1)
  • C: Patrick Bailey – San Francisco Giants (1)
  • 1B: Christian Walker – Arizona Diamondbacks (3)
  • 2B: Brice Turang – Milwaukee Brewers (1)
  • 3B: Matt Chapman – San Francisco Giants (5)
  • SS: Ezequiel Tovar – Colorado Rockies (2)
  • LF: Ian Happ – Chicago Cubs (3)
  • CF: Brenton Doyle – Colorado Rockies (2)
  • RF: Sal Frelick – Milwaukee Brewers (1)
  • UT: Jared Triolo – Pittsburgh Pirates (1)

“I’m honored to have won my very first Rawlings Gold Glove Award alongside such a talented group of athletes, including my own teammate, which makes it even more special for me,” said Cal Raleigh, catcher for the Seattle Mariners. “I can’t wait to wear the iconic Rawlings gold patch on my gear and glove as Gold Glovers like Johnny Bench, Yadier Molina and Salvador Perez have done throughout their impressive careers as catchers.”

About the Rawlings Gold Glove Award®:

The Rawlings Gold Glove Award® is a registered trademark owned by Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc. The award is correctly identified as the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. The name should not be shortened, abbreviated, or otherwise misused. Proper identification of this service mark using the registration symbol and the Rawlings name is important to protect the integrity of the program and perpetuate this worthy tradition. For more information including how players qualify for the Award, please visit www.Rawlings.com.

About Rawlings®:

Established in 1887, Rawlings is an innovative leading global brand and manufacturer of premium baseball and softball equipment, including gloves, balls, and protective headwear. Rawlings’ unparalleled quality, innovative engineering and expert craftsmanship are the fundamental reasons why more professional athletes, national governing bodies and sports leagues choose Rawlings.

Rawlings is the official glove, baseball, helmet and faceguard, and base of Major League Baseball, the official baseball of Minor League Baseball and the official baseball and softball of the NCAA and NAIA, and the official softball of the NJCAA. For more information, please visit www.Rawlings.com.

Links To MLBTR’s Team Social Media Pages

By | at

If you prefer your MLBTR fix limited to only your favorite team, we’ve got you covered.  Below are links to our team Facebook, X, and RSS pages and feeds.  Our previous Braves Facebook page got lost to the ether, so we’ve created a new one here.  The Cardinals Facebook page needed a jumpstart, but it should be fine moving forward.  If you see anything else amiss, please let us know in the comments or through our contact form.

AL East

AL Central

AL West

NL East

NL Central

NL West

Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

MLB To Take Over Reds’ Broadcasts In 2025

By | at

MLB announced today that it will take over the distribution of local broadcasts for the Reds in 2025. Fans of the club will still be able to watch on television as they have in the past but there will also be a direct-to-consumer streaming option with no blackouts.

Largely due to cord cutting, the regional sports network (RSN) model has been collapsing in recent years. Several clubs have seen their TV deals dropped or expire without being renewed. In some of those cases, Major League Baseball has stepped in to keep things running more or less as before, keeping those teams on TV while also adding the streaming option.

In 2024, MLB handled the broadcasts of the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies. Fans of those clubs who watched them on cable could continue to do so, but it was also possible for people without cable subscriptions to simply pay for the ability to stream the games directly without blackouts for $19.99 per month or $99.99 for the year.

Two of those clubs (San Diego and Arizona) were previously with Diamond Sports Group, the owners of the FanDuel Sports networks, which were previously under the Bally Sports brand. DSG filed for bankruptcy in March of 2023 and it was reported earlier today that they will be able to emerge from the bankruptcy process, though with their portfolio reduced to just six teams.

In early October, it was reported that DSG planned to cut ties with all but one club, the Atlanta Braves. They were open to new deals with other clubs, but with the fees renegotiated down to lower levels. MLB announced shortly thereafter that it would be taking over the broadcasts of the Twins, Guardians and Brewers, bringing them up to six clubs for whom they were handling the broadcasting.

The Cardinals, Marlins, Angels, Tigers, and Rays subsequently agreed to new deals with DSG, giving them the rights for six clubs going into 2025. But it was reported earlier this week that the Reds could not come to terms with DSG on a new deal. Today’s announcement revealed that they will go with MLB, so the league is now handling the broadcasts of seven clubs.

For fans, the biggest change is the streaming option. The league has been streaming games for years through MLB.TV, but fans were blacked out from watching clubs in their area as part of those RSN deals. Watching the club on cable was previously the only legal option but streaming is now on the table as well. Details and pricing of the streaming option will surely be forthcoming in the coming weeks and months.

For the club, it’s probably not good news in the short term. The RSN model was a solid source of revenue for a long time, as many people signed up for cable packages even if they didn’t watch baseball. The Reds reportedly got about $60MM annually as part of their deal with DSG. The direct-to-consumer streaming option cuts out the middleman but also requires fans to actively sign up, cutting out the passive part of the cable money.

Perhaps the streaming model will gain momentum over time but the short-term impact has clearly been negative for clubs. The Padres and Twins have already scaled back payroll while the Cardinals and Rangers are planning to do so for the coming season. How the Reds proceed will remain to be seen. RosterResource projects them for a $79MM payroll next year, $21MM below last year’s $100MM figure.

Diamond Sports Group Emerges From Bankruptcy

By and | at

A bankruptcy judge has approved the plan put forward by Diamond Sports Group for the company to return from bankruptcy. The Athletic’s Evan Drellich was among those to first report the news.

Today’s confirmation hearing was the last step in a long-drawn-out process for DSG to return to business as usual, or at least some semblance of such. The company remains the broadcast home of the Braves, Cardinals, Marlins, Angels, Tigers, and Rays for 2025 and beyond. However, it will no longer host the Twins, Guardians, Brewers, Rangers, and Reds. The Royals could also be looking elsewhere for a broadcast deal; their relationship with DSG is still up in the air. Further changes include a new name for DSG’s regional sports networks (RSNs), FanDuel Sports Networks, and a deal to make DSG’s RSNs available on the Amazon Prime streaming service (for an additional fee).

The Braves and Major League Baseball filed an objection to DSG’s proposal last Friday, but Drellich noted that they later withdrew the objection. The United States Trustee Program also issued an objection, but Judge Christopher Lopez approved the plan regardless.

Reports emerged about two years ago, in the early days of 2023, that the company was in financial trouble. Cord cutting had delivered a big blow to the RSN model, impacting DSG and several other companies. DSG officially filed for bankruptcy in March of 2023 and it seemed at times as though they might not survive as their deals with teams fell apart one-by-one.

They have continued to hang on, though with a diminished portfolio. DSG used to have deals with the Padres and Diamondbacks, though both were dropped by DSG last year as part of the bankruptcy process. MLB took over the broadcasting, leaving things relatively unchanged for TV viewers while also opening up a direct-to-consumer streaming option. The Twins, Guardians and Brewers will be going down that path in 2025 as well. The Rangers and Reds are also cutting ties with DSG, though the future broadcast situation with those two clubs is less clear.

DSG will see if a pivot to streaming can help them. Many of their previous deals were only for in-market television broadcasting but Drellich relays today (X link) that the Braves have granted DSG streaming rights, meaning that the company now has those rights for each of the clubs that it still has deals with.

Whether that can that business model is sustainable in the long run for DSG remains to be seen. MLB expressed concern that the club would fall back into bankruptcy in the near future, so time will tell if that line of thinking is correct or not.

Whether it’s through DSG or MLB, these teams are generally expected to be receiving less revenue for the short term. It’s possible that streaming will eventually grow and make up some of the difference, but it’s impossible to know what those revenue streams will look like down the line. Some clubs, such as the Padres and Twins, have already lowered their payrolls in the wake of this paradigm shift. The Cardinals and Rangers plan to follow suit in 2025. That seemingly contributed to the weak offseason a year ago, so it’s an important facet of the baseball landscape and something to monitor going forward, for teams and players alike.

For fans of the clubs still with DSG, they can maintain the status quo if they like, as watching the games through a cable package will still be an option. But fans of many of these teams who are cord cutters will also now have the option of streaming the games without blackout restrictions, such as through the FanDuel app or an add-on to Amazon Prime.

Commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed a desire to market a multi-team streaming bundle one day, something akin to MLB.TV but without local blackouts. If DSG had not been able to emerge from bankruptcy, then MLB would have had a base of almost half the league to include in that bundle. That didn’t end up coming to pass but perhaps the league could work out a deal with the company involving the few remaining clubs still connected to DSG.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top