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Rockies Add Gabe Ribas, Matt Buschmann To Coaching Staff

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The Rockies finalized their previously reported hiring of Alon Leichman as pitching coach. They’ve also announced the hiring of Gabe Ribas as an assistant pitching coach and Matt Buschmann as bullpen coach.

Ribas gets his first job on an MLB staff. The 45-year-old has spent the last five seasons with the Tigers as their director of pitching. Ribas had previously worked in the Dodgers farm system and at a handful of college programs. He’d also had a brief professional playing career, topping out at the Double-A level in the San Diego system in 2004.

Buschmann, 41, reached the highest level as a player — albeit very briefly. He made three appearances for the 2016 Diamondbacks. The remainder of his 11-year playing career came in the minors. Buschmann has some experience as a big league bullpen coach. He held that role with the Blue Jays between 2019-22. He has spent the past two seasons with the Cubs as an advisor in their player development department.

Former big league catcher Dustin Garneau served as Colorado’s bullpen coach in 2025. The Rox had a 5.18 earned run average out of their relievers, beating only Washington’s 5.59 figure. Rox relievers were last in strikeout rate (19.7%) despite landing in the middle of the pack in whiffs. Garneau departed to become Atlanta’s catching coach after the season. Buschmann will get to work with a few big arms (e.g. Victor Vodnik, Seth Halvorsen, Juan Mejia) at the back of the Colorado bullpen.

Royals Have Received Interest In Ryan Bergert, Stephen Kolek

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Royals president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo is on record about the club’s willingness to trade from their rotation for outfield help. Most of the focus has been on left-hander Kris Bubic, who is down to his final season of arbitration. Even if Bubic remains the likeliest candidate, K.C. has predictably gotten hits on their controllable arms as well.

Anne Rogers of MLB.com writes that the Royals have gotten calls on each of Noah Cameron, Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek. (The Cardinals are among the teams known to like Cameron, who is coming off a 2.99 ERA across 24 starts as a rookie.) Bergert and Kolek are less established but also have extended windows of club control. Bergert has yet to reach a full service year and is under control for six seasons; Kolek has a little over one year of service, so he’s controllable for five years.

The two right-handers landed in Kansas City over the summer in the same deadline trade. The Royals picked up both arms in a trade sending backup catcher Freddy Fermin to the Padres. It was a nice bit of business for Picollo and his staff. Bergert combined for a 3.66 earned run average with a solid 22.6% strikeout rate over his first 19 MLB appearances. He sits in the 93-94 MPH range and has an above-average slider. If he can develop a better changeup or add a cutter against left-handed hitters, he could be a mid-rotation arm.

Kolek is a former Rule 5 selection who moved back to the rotation after spending his rookie year working out of San Diego’s bullpen. He’s also in the 93-94 MPH range with his fastball and uses six pitches with regularity. Kolek’s stuff has never played for many whiffs, but he got ground-balls at a strong 51.4% clip over 19 starts this year. He tallied 112 2/3 innings of 3.51 ERA ball, and while that’s better than his peripherals suggest, he looks like a fine fourth/fifth starter.

As it stands, neither Bergert nor Kolek project as one of the top five starters on the depth chart. Cole Ragans, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Bubic and Cameron would be the front five if everyone’s healthy. Bergert and Kolek have minor league options, so they could begin the season in Triple-A. Bailey Falter is out of options and probably ticketed for long relief if he sticks on the roster all offseason.

The Royals are unlikely to trade Wacha or Lugo, each of whom recently signed significant extensions. They’ll probably hear teams out on Cameron, but the asking price would be significant even if his middling 20.5% strikeout rate suggests he’s unlikely to turn in another sub-3.00 season. The only pitcher whom the team is all but firmly taking off the table is Ragans.

“We’re in a really good spot, so if the right trade comes along, and it costs us a starting pitcher, we have to look at it. It’s just not going to be Cole,” Picollo told Rogers. He subsequently left the door ever so slightly open with the caveat that another team could offer “something crazy,” but he pointed out that they’d be selling low on an ace-caliber pitcher who missed a good chunk of the season with a rotator cuff strain.

“We have to ask ourselves: Is this his max value right now? Probably not,” Picollo said. “If Cole pitches like he did in ‘24, who knows what his value is going to be? We just think right now, three years of control on a really good starting pitcher, it would have to be something crazy, something that’s like, ‘How can we pass this up?'”

The focus for Kansas City remains acquiring multiple outfielders, one apiece in trade and free agency. Rogers writes that they’re specifically after a right-handed hitter who can play center field. Harrison Bader is the top free agent center fielder, while Jake Meyers fits that bill on the trade front. The Royals have unsurprisingly been linked to both players this week. Speculatively speaking, Colorado’s Brenton Doyle is another possibility — though he’s coming off a terrible offensive season and might be too redundant to another glove-only player in Kyle Isbel. High-end talents Byron Buxton and Luis Robert Jr. are unlikely to move at all this offseason, and that’s before getting into the difficulty of lining up a trade within the division.

In free agency, Rogers lists JJ Bleday, Adolis García and Lane Thomas as players whom the front office has considered. All three are reclamation targets, and none should be an everyday option in center field. García is a full-time corner outfielder. Bleday and Thomas have played up the middle but fit better in right field, especially in a spacious outfield. García will be the most expensive of that trio but they’re all likely to take one-year deals.

While the outfield is still the priority, Picollo called adding a reliever a “secondary” goal. Bringing in another lefty to join Angel Zerpa and Daniel Lynch IV would be preferable. It’s a rough class for free agent lefty relievers, but the Royals are facing budgetary constrains and weren’t likely to spend big on that either way. Danny Coulombe, Hoby Milner, Caleb Ferguson, Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz are among the available free agents. The Cardinals’ JoJo Romero is the most obvious bullpen trade candidate of the winter. Tanner Banks, Keegan Akin and Brandon Eisert are a few other players who could be available for a modest trade return.

White Sox Win Draft Lottery

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The White Sox have won the MLB Draft Lottery and earned the first pick. They had the best odds to land the top spot at 27.73%. Chicago will be followed by the Rays and Twins.

Here’s the first round order:

  1. White Sox
  2. Rays
  3. Twins
  4. Giants
  5. Pirates
  6. Royals
  7. Orioles
  8. Athletics
  9. Braves
  10. Rockies
  11. Nationals
  12. Angels
  13. Cardinals
  14. Marlins
  15. Diamondbacks
  16. Rangers
  17. Astros
  18. Reds
  19. Guardians
  20. Red Sox
  21. Padres
  22. Tigers
  23. Cubs
  24. Mariners
  25. Brewers

This is the fourth edition of the draft lottery. The system was introduced through the most recent collective bargaining agreement to deemphasize tanking. The top six overall selections are determined by the lottery. There are limitations on picking in the lottery in multiple years. Clubs that aren’t revenue sharing recipients are barred from getting lottery picks in consecutive years, and no team can pick in the lottery three years in a row. Those parameters knocked out the Rockies, Nationals, and Angels this year.

Record still has weight when it comes to the draft order, which propelled the 60-win White Sox to the top of the odds board for the No. 1 selection. The Twins had the second-highest odds to earn the first pick at 22.18%, followed by the Pirates at 16.81%. No other team had better than a 10% chance to win the lottery.

This is the second time the team with the best odds received the top pick. The Pirates, along with two other teams, had the top odds when they won the 2022 lottery and earned the right to select Paul Skenes. The Guardians were a long shot to win in 2023, and the Nationals had the fourth-best odds in 2024.

The Giants and Royals came out as big winners, finding themselves with lottery picks after winning 80+ games last season. San Francisco went .500 and finished just two games out of a Wild Card spot. Kansas City ended up above .500 for the second straight year.

The Cardinals had a significant drop, falling from the eighth-best odds down to the 13th pick. The Marlins also fell five spots, going from the ninth-best odds to the 14th pick.

UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is widely regarded as the top prospect in the 2026 draft. High school shortstop Grady Emerson and Alabama infielder Justin Lebron are candidates to be selected with early picks.

D-backs Rumors: Marte, Johnson, Front Office

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Even as general manager Mike Hazen continues to downplay the possibility of a trade, Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte is one of the most talked-about players around baseball’s Winter Meetings at the moment. Hazen has called a trade unlikely, stating that despite far more public chatter this offseason, the amount of interest he’s receiving in Marte is in line with the robust interest he’s received in past offseasons. Like most front office leaders around the sport, Hazen has said that it’s his job to at least hear out inquiring teams on virtually any player, Marte included.

Arizona’s asking price has been reported to be anywhere from high to exorbitant. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic adds more detail, reporting that one club who inquired with the Diamondbacks came away with the belief that it’d take an “established, well-regarded” starting pitcher and multiple additional pieces of value — presumably, controllable young big leaguers or nearly MLB-ready prospects.

While Marte has been connected to a litany of teams thus far, not all are in serious pursuit. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports that while the Blue Jays have checked in, their interest is more a case of due diligence than one of aggressively trying to make a deal happen. The starting point of an established young rotation piece would be hard for the Jays to include in their offer, Nicholson-Smith notes, and Trey Yesavage is really the only player on the roster who fits that role (and that would very likely be an understandable breaking point for the Jays). Similarly, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe suggests that while the Red Sox have looked into the possibility, Boston hasn’t been all that aggressive when discussing Marte with the D-backs.

Marte, 32, is owed $102.5MM over the next six seasons, though the sixth year on his contract is a player option valued at $11.5MM. That’s a hefty commitment but also less than he’d receive in free agency right now, coming off a .283/.368/.519 showing over the past three seasons (.283/.376/.517 in 2025). Moving Marte would, in theory, net the Diamondbacks an immediate rotation piece, multiple young players and $15MM in immediate payroll flexibility that could be used to help fortify the bullpen and/or infield corners (or, perhaps, to add even more rotation depth).

That said, the team is pursing those goals even while listening on its star infielder. Moving Marte, or shedding salary in general, isn’t any sort of prerequisite for the Diamondbacks to further round out the roster. RosterResource currently projects them for a $151MM payroll following yesterday’s $7.5MM deal with starting pitcher Michael Soroka. Owner Ken Kendrick has said payroll will decrease this season, but no firm number has been given. The D-backs are more than $35MM shy of last season’s Opening Day mark. There’s room to spend even if the budget will scale back.

The Soroka deal speaks to that, as do some of the team’s other pursuits. Arizona and right-hander Merrill Kelly reportedly have mutual interest in a reunion. The Snakes are reported to have interest in closer Pete Fairbanks. Just this morning, Piecoro reported that former Braves reliever Pierce Johnson is also of interest to the Diamondbacks.

Johnson, 35 in May, has spent the past two-plus seasons in Atlanta after going from the Rockies to the Braves at the 2023 trade deadline. He turned things around amid a brutal ’23 season following that swap, pitching to a 0.76 ERA down the stretch for his new club and earning himself a two-year, $14.25MM extension. Overall, Johnson totaled 139 innings and logged a tidy 2.91 earned run average during his time calling Truist Park home.

The Braves somewhat surprisingly declined a 2026 club option on Johnson, valued at $7MM, in favor of a $250K buyout. Given Johnson’s results in Atlanta and the modest (net) price tag of $6.75MM, there was a strong case to pick the option up.

Perhaps Atlanta was concerned about Johnson’s poor finish to the season. Nearly half the runs he allowed on the year came over the final month of play. From Aug. 25 onward, Johnson was rocked for nine runs on 19 hits and three walks. Four of those 19 knocks left the yard. His strikeout rate dropped nearly three percentage points, and his average fastball dipped by about 0.4 mph.

That could set the stage for Johnson to sign a one-year deal — or perhaps a two-year pact at a lighter AAV than the $7MM turned down by Atlanta. That sort of price point would work nicely for a D-backs club that’s trying to add multiple starters and multiple relievers in relatively affordable fashion. One move that won’t garner as many headlines but could still yield notable dividends to the team’s pitching hopes happened on the front office side of things earlier today, however.

Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported this morning that Jeremy Bleich, the Pirates’ director of pitching development, is leaving the organization to join the Diamondbacks as an assistant general manager.

Bleich, 38, is a Stanford product whom the Yankees selected with the 44th overall pick back in 2008. He made one big league appearance on the mound with the 2018 Athletics but ended his playing career after the 2019 season. Bleich has been with the Pirates since 2020 and has played a role in helping to cultivate the organization’s enviable pipeline of young pitching talent. Paul Skenes was likely to develop into an ace wherever he landed, but the Bucs have had a high conversion rate on second- and third-round picks like Braxton Ashcraft, Jared Jones, Bubba Chandler and Hunter Barco, among others, and have seen lower picks (e.g. 11th-rounder Mike Burrows) develop into quality big league contributors. The Diamondbacks, conversely, have struggled to finish the development of their top pitching prospects in recent seasons.

Diamondbacks prospects who’ve ranked among the top of their system but have yet to pan out in the majors in recent years include Brandon Pfaadt, Bryce Jarvis, Blake Walston, Corbin Martin and Drey Jameson, to name a few. Since 2019, Ryne Nelson is the only pitcher the D-backs have drafted and received even three total WAR from in the majors. Bleich obviously can’t be solely credited with the Pirates’ success in pitcher development, but it’s not at all surprising to see the Snakes pry a prominent name in pitching development away from a rival club as they look to improve their fortunes moving forward.

Dodgers To Hire Rocco Baldelli As Front Office Assistant

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The Dodgers are bringing Rocco Baldelli into their front office, reports Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star Tribune. He will be a special assistant to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, per Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic.

As noted by Nightengale, Friedman and Baldelli overlapped in the Rays organization many years ago. Baldelli spent almost his entire playing career with the Rays. He was drafted by that club in 2000 and retired with them in 2011, though he had a brief stint with the Red Sox in 2009. After retiring as a player, he transitioned into coaching with the Rays, having various titles over a number of years. Friedman worked with the Rays from 2004 to 2014 before joining the Dodgers.

Baldelli jumped from the Rays to the Twins to become the manager in Minnesota, beginning with the 2019 season. The initial returns were very good. The Twins went 101-61 in 2019 and won the American League Central. Baldelli was given American League Manager of the Year honors. They repeated as division champs in 2020. Then came a bit of a swoon, with the Twins dipping beneath .500 in 2021 and 2022. They bounced back by winning the Central again in 2023.

Things tailed off again more recently. In both 2024 and 2025, Minnesota was contending for a while but finished poorly. In 2024, they were holding onto a playoff spot for much of the year but mounting injuries knocked them down late in the schedule. They finished 82-80 and outside the playoff picture. In 2025, they hovered near contention for a few months but fell back in the summer, prompting the front office to engineer a big deadline sell-off. The club finished 70-92. The Twins fired Baldelli at the end of the season.

There will be differences of opinion when it comes to how much blame Baldelli deserves for those poor results. The manager surely has some impact but he can only work with the players he is given and Twins ownership also scaled back spending in recent years.

Baldelli has said he is interested in managing again. Shortly after being fired by the Twins, he was connected to the vacancies with the Angels and Nationals, though those jobs went to Kurt Suzuki and Blake Butera respectively. Perhaps Baldelli will consider similar opportunities in the future. For now, he will take a job with the reigning champs.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Angels Acquire Vaughn Grissom

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The Angels have acquired infielder Vaughn Grissom from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league outfielder Isaiah Jackson, according to announcements from both clubs. Prior to the official announcement, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the Grissom portion and Chris Cotillo of MassLive the Jackson part. The move drops Boston’s 40-man count to 39, perhaps allowing them to make a selection in tomorrow’s Rule 5 draft. The Halos’ 40-man count goes from 34 to 35.

If there’s a consistent theme in how the Angels are attacking this offseason, it is buying low on former top prospects. Their two biggest moves of the winter so far have been to sign Alek Manoah and acquire Grayson Rodriguez from the Orioles. Manoah and Rodriguez are both former first-round picks who are coming off a few years of injury struggles.

The situation with Grissom is somewhat analogous, though he is not a pitcher and didn’t have quite the same prospect pedigree. Atlanta took him in the 11th round of the 2019 draft but he put up huge numbers on his way up the minor league ladder. By the summer of 2022, he had become a top 100 prospect. He slashed .322/.411/.480 on the farm over the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Atlanta called him up in August of 2023, skipping him over the Triple-A level. He put up a big .291/.353/.440 line in his first 156 big league plate appearances.

Going into 2023, Atlanta let Dansby Swanson depart via free agency, signing with the Cubs. Grissom seemed to have a good shot at being the long-term answer there. There were questions about his defense but the bat seemed legit. Ron Washington, then on Atlanta’s coaching staff, worked with Grissom on his defense throughout the winter. At the end of spring training, Atlanta surprisingly decided to give Orlando Arcia the shortstop job. Grissom was optioned to Triple-A.

Atlanta called up Grissom a few times that year but he hit just .280/.313/.347 for a 79 wRC+ in his 80 plate appearances. But he still showed his offensive potential in the minors, as he hit .330/.419/.501 for a 138 wRC+ in Triple-A.

Going into 2024, Atlanta flipped Grissom to the Red Sox for Chris Sale. At the time, it seemed like a coup for the Red Sox. Sale had barely pitched from 2020 to 2022 due to injuries. He had made 20 starts in 2023 but with a 4.30 earned run average. Since he was going into his age-35 season, the final guaranteed season of his contract, the expectations weren’t high for him going forward.

That deal turned into a big bust for Boston. Sale posted a 2.38 ERA in 2024 and won the National League Cy Young award. Grissom, meanwhile, has mostly been stuck in Triple-A since being traded. Boston gave him 114 big league plate appearances in 2024 but he hit just .190/.246/.219 in those. He has still been putting up decent Triple-A numbers, but not quite as gaudy as before. Since the start of 2024, he has a .266/.357/.417 line and 106 wRC+ at the Triple-A level. He played all four infield spots during his time with Triple-A Worcester. He finished the 2025 season on the injured list due to plantar fasciitis.

Grissom exhausted his final option season in 2025, meaning he will be out of options going forward. The Sox have an uncertain infield picture at the moment but will likely address it with further moves this offseason. Since they just made the playoffs, they will be looking to compete again and surely didn’t want to rely on Grissom after a couple of uninspiring years.

For the Halos, they have been mired in mediocrity for a while now, having last made the playoffs over a decade ago. They need a lot to go right if they’re going to break that streak. They will probably make some more clear-cut upgrades at some point this winter but have thus far been taking chances on low-certainty upside plays.

Their infield has a couple of openings at the moment. They have Zach Neto locked in at shortstop and Nolan Schanuel at first base. Second and third base are up for grabs. At the hot corner, Anthony Rendon is technically signed for another season but is probably going to retire. The Angels gave Christian Moore a chance to grab the second base job in 2025 but he didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Denzer Guzmán, Oswald Peraza and Kyren Paris are also on the roster but no one in that group has a track record of major league success.

There’s a path for Grissom to perhaps earn some playing time at second or third, or perhaps as a bench/utility guy. It’s possible those paths get blocked with future moves but they are there for now. Grissom still has less than two years of service time. If he can thrive as an Angel, they can retain him for five full seasons before he would be slated for free agency. He is only 24 years old, turning 25 in January.

To get that shot on Grissom, they are giving up an outfielder from deep in their system. Jackson was just selected in the eighth round of the draft this summer. He has ten games of experience as a professional, which came at High-A, where he hit .219 /.324/.344. He turns 22 in May. For the Sox, they are likely happy to get any kind of return at all for a guy who was getting pushed off the roster anyway.

Photos courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

MLB Mailbag: Gore, Pivetta, Phillies, Santander

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As the Winter Meetings start to pick up, this week's subscriber mailbag gets into MacKenzie Gore trade proposals, more trade ideas involving this year's Cy Young winners, the trade value of Nick Pivetta and Anthony Santander, and much more.

Steve asks:

Assuming that MacKenzie Gore has not been traded as I write this, would either of these two deals be likely to work for the teams involved?

1. Gore and Luis Garcia, Jr. to the Giants for Bryce Eldridge and Carson Whisenhunt? or

2. Gore to the Red Sox for Triston Casas and Connelly Early?

Your thoughts?

Gustav asks:

Who’d say no in a Gore & Abrams for Sheehan, Freeland, Ferris & Hope?

Gore, 27 in February, has two more years of team control remaining.  He's had a couple of 3-WAR type seasons in 2024 and '25, but they came with extreme volatility.

The lefty made 32 starts in 2024.  He had a 14-start stretch in the middle where he posted a 6.18 ERA, 19.8 K%, and 11.4 BB%.  That 8.3 K-BB% was the fourth-worst in baseball among qualified starters during that June 3rd-August 17th period.  Before and after that, Gore pitched like an ace.  His velocity was up early in the season, spiking to 96.6 miles per hour from the beginning of the year through July 1st.  It was a full mile per hour slower from that point on.

Similarly, Gore entered a July 20th start against the Padres this year with a 3.02 ERA, 30.5 K%, and 7.7 BB%.  His was back in ace form, and earned his first All-Star nod.  From that point forward, though, Gore posted a 6.75 ERA, 20.7 K%, and 12.8 BB% over his final 11 starts.  This stretch was a bit more concentrated into three or four blow-ups.  Gore's velocity was back down to 95.3 this year, but was relatively consistent game-to-game.

A run through Gore's injury history:

  • 2018: IL time with blisters and fingernail issues
  • August 2019: rested for 26 days to manage workload
  • 2020: no minor league season; pitched at Padres' alternate site
  • 2021: Started year at Triple-A; moved to Padres' alternate site in June after struggling with blisters; remained there to work on his delivery.  Finished the year with two Double-A starts.
  • 2022: Made MLB debut in April when Blake Snell got injured.  July 26th: landed on IL with elbow soreness.  August 2nd: traded to Nationals.  Made four minor league rehab starts for the Nats.
  • 2023: Exited July start with a blister; made the following one.  Removed from August 16th start due to a blister; returned a week later.  September 9th: season ended due to blisters.
  • 2024: Avoided IL and known blister issues.
  • 2025: Exited May start due to leg tightness; made his next one.  August 30th: went on IL for shoulder inflammation; ended up going 16 days between starts.

The blister issues didn't seem to pop up after 2023.  Gore has never undergone Tommy John surgery.  His 2022 elbow soreness and his 2025 shoulder inflammation seemed minor.

So Gore's injury history is not bad, but he's been a pitcher of extremes the last two years.  It's difficult to value that, but I'm sure just about every organization would like to bring him in and try to smooth things out.

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Mets Reportedly Reluctant To Go Beyond Three Years For Pete Alonso

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As the Mets watched one stalwart depart in free agency this morning, they’re faced with the possibility of another. Longtime first baseman Pete Alonso is at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, sitting down with interested teams as he tests the free agent market for a second straight offseason. (Alonso opted out of the second season of a two-year deal with the Mets last month.) Many Mets fans are hoping, particularly with Edwin Diaz headed to Los Angeles, that a new deal with Alonso is in the cards. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand casts some doubt on that likelihood, reporting that the Mets may be “hesitant” to stretch beyond three guaranteed years to re-sign Alonso.

It’s a familiar scene. The Mets wound up re-signing Alonso last offseason after he rejected their qualifying offer, but only on a two-year contract that allowed him to return to the market this winter via an opt-out. The Mets never seemed keen on giving Alonso the long-term deal he sought following the 2024 season, and that apparently hasn’t changed much a year later.

Alonso is coming off a better season at the plate this time around than he was in 2024, but he’s (of course) also a year older. A three-year deal would cover his age-31 through age-33 seasons. That’s not all that deep into his potential decline years, but while Alonso enjoyed a small decrease in strikeouts and uptick in batted-ball quality, he also saw his already poor defensive grades dip even further. Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast’s Outs Above Average both dinged him at minus-9. Alonso is open to more DH time moving forward, but that apparently doesn’t make the team all that eager to lock Alonso in for his age-34 season or later.

Looking more generally at the current MLB landscape, the market simply hasn’t compensated first-base-only players with middling OBP skills much in recent years, regardless of power output. Alonso is an extreme version of that skill set — one of the most consistent power bats on the planet — but he typically walks at a 9-10% clip and posts an on-base percentage at or slightly above league-average. Defensive acumen and plate discipline can often boost a player’s floor in the eyes of modern evaluators; given that Alonso doesn’t stand out in either regard, there’s likely some real worry (from the Mets and other suitors) that an eventual decline could be precipitous in nature.

Any reluctance on stretching longer-term doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) stem from payroll concerns. The Mets’ payroll, while enormous, actually begins to open up in the not-too-distant future. They’re currently projected for $278MM in payroll and CBT obligations next season, per RosterResource. That drops to about a $176MM in roster allocations in 2027 (and $181MM in CBT obligations), and by the time we get out to 2028, they “only” have about $134MM on the books. Beginning in 2029, Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor are the only players guaranteed anything.

Today’s report doesn’t expressly rule out a reunion between Alonso and the Mets, but it’s long seemed that if the Mets were interested in signing Alonso to a true long-term contract, it’d have happened last offseason. The fact that it didn’t and that they’re again looking short-term this winter implies that if Alonso is to return to Queens, it’s likelier to happen later in the offseason — after other suitors have spent their money elsewhere, creating a similar set of circumstances to those that paved the way for the two parties’ previous reunion.

Tigers Interested In Ha-Seong Kim

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The Tigers are interested in free agent infielder Ha-Seong Kim, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. It was reported last week that the Tigers have renewed interest in free agent Alex Bregman, though Petzold reports this week that the club’s interest in Bregman has been lukewarm so far this offseason.

Kim would be a very different addition than Bregman. Kim’s ability to play multiple positions is nice but Bregman would be a much better surefire upgrade in the 2026 season. Bregman spent 2025 with the Red Sox and slashed .273/.360/.462 for a 125 wRC+, roughly in line with his career numbers. He also received solid grades for his third base defense. FanGraphs credited him with 3.5 wins above replacement even though injuries limited him to just 114 games. He had been a 4-6 WAR player in the previous three seasons and would have been in that range again in 2025 with a bit more health.

There would be much more uncertainty with Kim. He was once capable of 3-5 WAR seasons a few years ago, mostly based on his defense. From 2022 to 2024, he hit .250/.336/.385 for a 106 wRC+. He stole 72 bases and got strong marks for his glovework at second base, third base and shortstop. He was credited with 10.5 fWAR over those three seasons.

However, he required shoulder surgery at the end of 2024 and didn’t bounce back in 2025. He only got into 48 games with a tepid .234/.304/.345 line and 82 wRC+. In his 361 shortstop innings, he was given a minus-3 grade by both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average. His arm strength was only in the 45th percentile, according to Statcast, after being closer to 70th in his previous seasons.

Bregman is a more reliable upgrade for any team needing infield help but that should also be reflected in the eventual contracts for both players. MLBTR predicted Bregman could secure a $160MM deal over six years, whereas Kim was pegged for $30MM over two years.

The Tigers were willing to give Bregman a deal in range of that prediction last winter. They reportedly put a six-year, $171.5MM deal on the table, though with some deferrals knocking down the net present value. Bregman instead went to the Red Sox on a three-year, $120MM deal, though there were also notable deferrals in that pact. He had opt-outs after each season of his Boston deal and took the first one.

There are some reasons the Tigers may be less willing to do that kind of long-term deal now, one year later. The left side of their infield is still fairly open, with multi-positional guys like Javier Báez, Zach McKinstry, Colt Keith, Trey Sweeney and Jace Jung in the mix. However, shortstop prospect Kevin McGonigle is now lurking more than he was a season ago.

The 37th overall pick from the 2023 draft, McGonigle finished his 2024 season with 14 games in High-A and still seemed far away from the big leagues. In 2025, he tore through High-A and was promoted to Double-A, getting into 46 games at the latter level. He hit 12 home runs there and slashed .254/.369/.550 for a 162 wRC+. Basically every outlet now considers him one of the top three prospects in the game. He’s still just 21 years old and isn’t on the 40-man yet but he could be in Triple-A and pushing for a big league tryout in 2026.

If McGonigle is the long-term answer at short, perhaps the Tigers would opt for more of a short-term addition in Kim. On the other hand, despite the huge praise for his bat, some prospect evaluators feel McGonigle is stretched at short and doesn’t have the arm strength for third. If he is destined for second base, he could take over for Gleyber Torres there after 2026, as Torres is on a one-year deal. In that scenario, the Tigers would still be left with a hodgepodge of utility guys like Báez, McKinstry and Keith covering shortstop and third. With 2026 set to be the final year with Tarik Skubal, there’s an argument that’s Detroit should be more all-in and make the best short-term upgrade it can.

The position player market is expected to heat up now that Kyle Schwarber is reportedly going back to the Phillies. Kim’s market has been relatively quiet so far. He has been connected to Atlanta, who claimed him off waivers late in 2025. But he opted out of that deal, walking away from a $16MM player option. Atlanta then pivoted to acquire Mauricio Dubón from the Astros. That’s not expected to stop them from signing Kim but they have a better fallback plan now. As for Bregman, the Red Sox are interested in bringing him back but the Cubs appear to be involved as well.

Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images

Red Sox Have Had Talks With Eugenio Suárez

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As the Red Sox look to add power to their lineup, they’ve talked internally about the possibility of signing Eugenio Suárez and held some talks with his camp, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports. The team’s interest in Suárez is all the more notable with the market’s top slugger, Kyle Schwarber, off the board on a five-year deal that’ll keep in Philadelphia. The Red Sox were known to have interest in Schwarber.

Speier frames Suarez as something of a fallback at third base, should Alex Bregman sign elsewhere, or a possible piece of the first base (and, presumably, designated hitter) puzzle. Playing Suárez full-time or even semi-regularly at first base might be a stretch, though the D-backs and Mariners both gave him short looks there in 2025. That was a total of only six innings — the first of his career — but some have speculated that Suárez could slide across the diamond as he moves into his mid-30s. Regular work at DH would only be feasible if the Sox were to find a taker for Masataka Yoshida.

Suárez, 34, ranked fifth among all big leaguers with 49 home runs this past season, trailing only Shohei Ohtani, Schwarber, Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge. He hit .228/.298/.526 on the season as a whole, though that production was weighed down a bit by some struggles in the immediate aftermath of a trade from Arizona back to Seattle. Suárez stumbled out of the gate in his return to the Emerald City, slashing an anemic .141/.188/.266 in his first 69 plate appearances. To some extent, he turned things around thereafter, popping 11 homers over his final 151 plate appearances, but he did so with a huge strikeout rate and sub-.300 OBP.

That sort of stretch is par for the course with Suárez, a prodigious slugger who’s prone to strikeouts. In past seasons, his walk rate has helped to compensate for some of that swing-and-miss penchant. That’s not quite been the case in 2024-25, as Suárez’s walk rate has dipped to a slightly below-average 7.3%.

Suárez still makes tons of loud contact (90.2 mph average exit velocity, 47.6% hard-hit rate), but he chased off the plate at a career-high 31% clip last season — a significant problem for a hitter whose 39% contact rate on pitches off the plate was among the lowest in baseball. That poor contact rate when chasing isn’t a backbreaker in and of itself, but it is when coupled with such a prominent propensity to chase. Judge, for instance, had the worst contact rate among all qualified hitters on balls off the plate, per Statcast. However, he chased just 22.3% of such offerings.

Concerns about his OBP and strikeouts notwithstanding, Suárez clearly has some of the most power in the game. And, at 34 years of age (35 next July), he’s not going to exceed three years on his next contract and could plausibly command only two with a premium annual value. Suárez is also revered as a teammate, which played a role in the Mariners’ desire to reacquire him after originally trading him when ownership mandated payroll cuts following the 2023 season.

It doesn’t sound as though Suárez is Boston’s top option, but the Red Sox join the Cubs and incumbent Mariners as known teams intrigued by the righty-swinging slugger’s thunderous power so far this offseason.

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