AL Central Notes: Hunter, Willis, Melton
Torii Hunter spoke with Twins president Derek Falvey last week, but the longtime Minnesota outfielder specified to Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that it was just an informal chat, and not an interview in regards to the team’s open managerial position. However, Hunter said he already has a coaching staff mostly lined up if he ever gets a chance to become a manager, and he seems open to the possibility of a return to Minnesota.
“I guess they’re slow-rolling the process right now; I’m just sitting waiting. If the opportunity presents itself, then it would be something I would look into, think long and hard about…..Now it’s about a conversation to see where they’re headed, what their thoughts are, and then I’m pretty sure they’re going to see what I want to do with the team, who I’m going to bring aboard, my staff,” Hunter said.
Hunter already surfaced as a candidate in the Angels’ managerial search before the team hired Kurt Suzuki — like Hunter, a veteran ex-player with no formal managerial/coaching experience who had been working as a special assistant in the Halos’ front office. Despite Hunter’s interest, it isn’t clear if the Twins are still considering him or any other candidates, as the team has reportedly settled on at least four finalists (Ryan Flaherty, James Rowson, Scott Servais, and Derek Shelton) in their search.
More from around the AL Central….
- Carl Willis will be back as the Guardians‘ pitching coach next season, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. It will be Willis’ 16th overall season in the job, over two separate stints (2003-09, and 2018-present) in Cleveland. The widely-respected Willis is viewed as one of the key reasons the Guards have been so good at developing their pitchers into successful or even elite starters at the MLB level. There had been some speculation that Willis could be considering retirement as he approaches his 65th birthday in December, but he’ll instead continue a baseball career that has lasted for over four decades as a player and coach.
- Troy Melton was “a popular name in trade talks” for rival teams calling the Tigers prior to his big league debut in July, MLB.com’s Jason Beck writes. Rather than deal Melton for a more proven pitcher at the deadline, Detroit instead relied on Melton himself to deliver, and the rookie posted a 2.76 ERA over 45 2/3 innings in the regular season and then a 5.40 ERA in 8 1/3 playoff frames. Typical of Detroit’s “pitching chaos” strategy, Melton (a starter in the minors) worked out of the bullpen in 15 of his 20 overall games in the Show. Now lined up for a full-time starting role in 2026, Melton would seem to have a good shot at winning a spot in the Tigers’ rotation.
Mets Hire Troy Snitker As Hitting Coach
The Mets are hiring Troy Snitker to serve as their next hitting coach, according to a report from Andy Martino of SNY.
Snitker, 36, is the son of former Braves manager Brian Snitker. Drafted in the 19th round of the 2011 draft by Atlanta, he spent three seasons catching in the minors for the organization. After retiring as a player, he joined the Astros organization as a hitting coach for the club’s Double-A affiliate in Corpus Christi before being promoted to the big league staff prior to the 2019 season.
Snitker spent seven seasons as a hitting coach for the Astros and won a World Series with the club in 2022. He was among a number of coaches and front office staff the team parted ways with following a disappointing 2025 season where Houston missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Even with last year’s playoff loss, it’s hard not to be impressed by the Astros’ offense during Snitker’s tenure with the club. The team hit .259/.329/.435 during his tenure, with the second-highest wRC+ (111) behind the Dodgers and the lowest strikeout rate in the majors.
He didn’t wait long to find his next position, as he’s now joining the Mets following their own overhaul of their coaching staff following a frustrating 2025 campaign where they narrowly missed the playoffs themselves. New York already brought in Jeff Albert to run the team’s hitting program in 2026, and Snitker will work under Albert in that regard. Together, Albert and Snitker will be tasked with reworking a hitting program that performed well overall, with a 112 wRC+ that ranked fifth in baseball in 2025.
Much of that production was thanks to stars Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, and Francisco Lindor, however, and disappointing seasons from young members of the team’s supporting cast like Mark Vientos and Luisangel Acuna suggest there could be some room for improvement when it comes to the development side of things. That’s something Snitker could help with, seeing as his time in the organization coincided with the development of Astros stars like Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, and Jeremy Pena.
Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast
On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.
The 2025 regular season is now over and the World Series will be done soon as well. Do you have a question about the season which just ended? The postseason? The upcoming offseason? If you have a question on those topics or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.
Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.
In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
The Opener: World Series, Orioles, Manager/GM Searches
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. World Series heads to Los Angeles:
The World Series departed Toronto yesterday all tied up after a dominant complete game from right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and now both teams have arrived in L.A. for Game 3. On the mound for the Dodgers is right-hander Tyler Glasnow (3.19), while the Blue Jays will counter with veteran righty Max Scherzer (5.19 ERA). The future Hall of Famer had an uneven year, but he did manage to strike out five in 5 2/3 innings while surrendering two runs in a start against Seattle in Game 4 of the ALCS. Glasnow, meanwhile, pitched 1 2/3 scoreless frames in Game 1 of the NLDS before firing off six scoreless in Game 4 of that series. He went on to allow one run in 5 2/3 innings of work against the Brewers. Tonight’s game is scheduled for 5pm local time in Los Angeles.
2. Orioles have their manager:
Per reporting last night, it was reported that the Orioles are finalizing a deal to make Guardians associate manager the new manager in Baltimore. Albernaz, who celebrates his 43rd birthday later this week, was promoted to associate manager under Stephen Vogt this year after spending his first season in Cleveland as his bench coach. He previously worked on the Giants’ big league coaching staff and worked in the minor leagues as a manager for the Rays.
Now that he’s poised to get his first big league opportunity, the news takes a highly coveted candidate off the board for other organizations. It also creates a vacancy on the Guardians’ coaching staff that will need to be filled, and comes with some level of intrigue regarding whether or not the Orioles will retain Tony Mansolino as a part of their coaching staff under Albernaz. Mansolino served as the club’s third base coach for years before being promoted to interim manager for the majority of the 2025 season.
3. Managerial, GM vacancies still to be filled:
While the hiring of Albernaz takes another managerial gig off the board, there’s still plenty of hirings left to happen this winter. The Twins are known to have a group of four finalists for their manager job, while the Rockies are known to have at least two finalists in their search for the team’s next head of baseball operations. The Padres are known to have conducted some interviews, including one of future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols. The Nationals have interviewed former Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, and there are managerial vacancies in Atlanta and perhaps Colorado as well. Which franchise will next set course for their future with a major hire?
Red Sox Sign Jason Delay To Minor League Contract
The Red Sox have signed catcher Jason Delay to a minor league deal, according to Just Baseball Media’s Aram Leighton. Presumably the contract contains an invitation for Delay to attend Boston’s big league Spring Training camp.
Delay was a fourth-round pick for the Pirates in the 2017 draft, and he had spent his entire pro career in Pittsburgh’s organization before he was traded to the Braves back in April. Atlanta wanted a bit of extra catching depth while Sean Murphy was on the injured list, but Delay ended up not getting any action at the big league level. Delay instead hit .200/.261/.257 over 251 plate appearances at the Double-A and (mostly) Triple-A levels before he was outrighted off the 40-man roster at the end of July.
Though Delay could’ve opted for free agency since he had a past outright on his record, he chose to stick it out with Triple-A Gwinnett for the rest of the season and then elected to become a free agent in early October. It didn’t take long for Delay to line up his next team, as he’ll now become the third catcher in Boston’s organization with any MLB experience.
The first two of those backstops are Carlos Narvaez and Connor Wong, who project as the starting and backup catcher in 2026. That said, Wong is coming off a rough 2025 season and he underwent hand surgery a couple of weeks ago, plus Narvaez also had a minor knee surgery. Both backstops are expected to be ready for Spring Training, yet Delay’s addition gives the Red Sox some guard against any rehab setbacks, or the possibility that the Sox could move on Wong entirely.
Delay received a good chunk of playing time with the Pirates in 2022-23 before Joey Bart, Yasmani Grandal, and Henry Davis pushed Delay down the depth chart in 2024. Over 373 career PA in the majors, Delay has hit .231/.295/.315 with two home runs.
Tomas Nido, Jose De Leon Elect Free Agency
Catcher Tomas Nido and right-hander Jose De Leon both recently elected to become free agents, as per the MILB.com transactions log. The Red Sox outrighted De Leon off their 40-man roster last week, while Nido was outrighted off the Tigers’ 40-man roster back in May and was never added back. These outrights and the fact that both players have over three years of MLB service time allowed the duo to test the open market.
A veteran of nine Major League seasons, Nido appeared in 10 games with the Tigers after inking a minor league pact last offseason, and hit .343/.361/.343 over 37 plate appearances on the active roster. Jake Rogers suffered an oblique strain in April that opened the door for Detroit to select Nido’s contract, and the Tigers then designated Nido for assignment and outrighted him once Rogers was healthy. Nido could’ve declined the outright assignment and become a free agent then, but instead chose to stay at Triple-A Toledo in a depth role, suiting up in 48 games for the Mud Hens and hitting .209/.267/.331 over 189 PA.
Nido is a classic glove-first backstop, with only a .215/.249/.310 slash line to show for his 982 PA in the majors (895 of them with the Mets). The 31-year-old will surely land another minor league deal this winter with another team looking for experienced catching depth, though it’ll likely require another injury further up the depth chart for Nido to get any significant MLB playing time in 2026.
The Red Sox signed De Leon to a minor league contract last winter, and selected him to the active roster to make a start in Boston’s very last game of the regular season, as the Sox were saving their regular starters for the playoffs. De Leon tossed a quality start (6 2/3 IP, three ER on eight hits and three walks, with eight strikeouts) to earn his first big league win since the 2019 season, when De Leon was still a member of the Rays.
De Leon was one of baseball’s more highly-touted pitching prospects during his minor league days, but he has amassed only 72 MLB innings over parts of seven seasons since making his debut in the Show in September 2016. A pair of Tommy John surgeries and several other injuries were roadblocks in De Leon’s career, and the second of those TJ procedures (in June 2023) cost the righty the entire 2024 season. De Leon has a 7.13 ERA over his 72 innings in the bigs, and some major control problems contributed to his 6.93 ERA in 75 1/3 frames with Triple-A Worcester in 2025.
Yankees Hire Desi Druschel To Coaching Staff
7:47PM: Either Claiborne or Druschel will be the Yankees’ new bullpen coach, SNY’s Andy Martino reports.
6:53PM: Desi Druschel is returning to the Yankees as an assistant to pitching coach Matt Blake, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. He worked in that same capacity during the 2022-24 seasons, and is now back in the Bronx after a one-year sojourn across town as an assistant pitching coach with the Mets. Druschel wasn’t fired by the Mets, but Passan writes that the team gave him permission to speak with other teams about jobs.
The Mets’ coaching staff has already undergone quite an overhaul in the month since the team’s disappointing season came to an end. Druschel joins bench coach John Gibbons, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes, infield coach Mike Sarbaugh, and retiring catching instructor Glenn Sherlock as members of the 2025 staff who won’t be returning in 2026. Two vacancies have already been filled, as the Amazins hired Kai Correa as Carlos Mendoza’s new bench coach, and Jeff Albert is the team’s new director of Major League hitting (with a more traditional hitting coach still to be hired).
Hefner’s departure was the first sign of an overhaul to the pitching department, so it isn’t a shock that Druschel is also on the way out. The Mets’ rotation and bullpen were the primary reasons for the team’s second-half fade, as between injuries and ineffectiveness, the Amazins had trouble finding enough arms to just cover innings down the stretch, let alone effectively post results. Forty-six different players took the mound for the 2025 Mets for a team that finished 18th in baseball with a 4.04 team ERA — after the All-Star break, the Mets’ 4.74 team ERA was the sixth-worst in baseball.
It is unfair to lay the blame entirely on the coaching staff, of course, and obviously the Mets’ pitching struggles didn’t prevent Druschel from quickly landing a job back with his old club. The 50-year-old Druschel had a long collegiate coaching career, including stints as the Iowa baseball program’s director of operations and pitching coach before was hired by the Yankees in 2019 as their minor league manager of pitching development.
Preston Claiborne was hired as Druschel’s replacement in the assistant pitching coach role last winter. It isn’t known if the Yankees will keep both men as Blake’s assistants, or if Claiborne could potentially be on his way out. In other Yankees coaching news, first base/infield coach Travis Chapman, bullpen coach Mike Harkey, and assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler are on the way out (though Roessler may return in another job), and former hitting coordinator Jake Hirst will join Druschel as new members of Aaron Boone’s staff.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Mark P
- The Weekend Chat is upon us! We’ll wait a minute for the questions to start piling up, then get cracking….
Guest
- Reds trading front of line pitcher this off-season?
Mark P
- If by “front of the line” you mean Greene, Abbott, or Lodolo, probably not. Petty and Burns likely aren’t going anywhere either, so Singer might be the most realistic starter Cincinnati would deal to obtain some real hitting help
Angela
- Want do you see the phillies doing this off-season
Mark P
- Well, my outlook on the Phillies offseason could be summed up as….
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/10/offseason-outlook-philadelphia-… - The TL;DR version is that my guess is that the Phils re-sign Schwarber and Realmuto, Suarez departs, Bohm is non-tendered or traded, and the team brings in a significant everyday outfielder to replace Castellanos (who will probably be released, in lieu of a salary-dump trade)
- Now, whether or not this “significant everyday outfielder” is more of a stopgap or, say, Kyle Tucker or someone more eye-opening remains to be seen
Guest
- Does Luis Arraez make more or less than 12 million AAV in free agency?
Mark P
- Less. I admit that Arraez is a tricky player to evaluate, but most modern front offices will look at his lack of defensive utility and lack of overall offensive production rather than just his batting averages
Jonny Venters
- You’re the GM of the Pirates, and Bob Nutting has told you he intends to raise the payroll as high as $210 million in 2026(don’t laugh!). What moves do you make this offseason to put PIT in contention?
Mark P
- First I get up off the ground, since that news would’ve caused me to faint.
Then, heck, sign Tucker, sign Schwarber, go all out on bats.
Dan
- Who do you believe is the favorite to be the next Braves manager?
Mark P
- The Braves are purposely keeping news quiet, but Mark Bowman of MLB.com had an interesting report the other day pointing towards Danny Lehmann as a name under increasingly serious consideration.
Hard to call Lehmann the “favorite,” per se, but given the lack of other names, I guess it’s maybe him by default? Just as notably, Bowman reported that guys like Ross, DeRosa, and Gibbons weren’t being considered
Extension Candidate: Pete Crow-Armstrong
Few players captured more attention throughout the 2025 season than Pete Crow-Armstrong. The young center fielder seemed to launch himself into superstardom in the first half this year, with 20 doubles, 21 homers, and 25 steals through the end of June. That worked out to a .263/.299/.537 slash line, good for a 128 wRC+ with elite defense in center field that made him an early rival for Shohei Ohtani in this year’s MVP race. He followed up that brilliant performance with a far less exciting second half, as he slashed just .228/.274/.412 (86 wRC+) with 17 doubles, ten home runs, and ten steals from July 1 onward.
Crow-Armstrong’s second-half slump was enough to knock him far out of the MVP conversation, but his season-long numbers remain impressive. In 157 games, the 23-year-old hit .247/.287/.481 (109 wRC+) with 35 steals in 43 attempts and an MLB-best +24 Outs Above Average for his work in center field. All of that combined to be worth 6.0 bWAR and 5.4 fWAR, good for 11th and 15th respectively among qualified hitters this year. A five- or six-win season from a 23-year-old who entered the year with less than 150 games of big league experience is hard to view as anything other than an exciting success, and that’s how Jed Hoyer characterized it in his end-of-season press conference shortly after the Cubs’ season came to a close in Game 5 of the NLDS.
“In totality, he had a great year,” Hoyer said of Crow-Armstrong, as relayed by Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Hoyer went on to describe Crow-Armstrong as “the best defensive player in baseball” and noted that “when he’s hitting, he’s a superstar.”
All of that rings true based on his performance this season, and as the Cubs head into an offseason where Hoyer acknowledged they hope to have extension conversations with several players, Mooney writes that locking up the team’s star center fielder “figures to be the top priority.”
It won’t be the first time the Cubs and Crow-Armstrong talk about extending his stay in Chicago beyond his years of team control. The sides discussed an extension towards the beginning of the year, before his standout first half, and Crow-Armstrong passed on a deal that reportedly would’ve maxed out around $75MM with a guarantee in the $60MM-$70MM range. Crow-Armstrong, of course, rejected that offer, and while Hoyer expressed an openness to discussing an extension with the youngster’s camp during the season no further progress on the topic was reported throughout the year. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given the unusual year Crow-Armstrong just had.
If the Cubs do intend to reopen extension talks with their budding star, what could a sensible contract look like? After entering 2025 just barely short of a full year of MLB service time, Crow-Armstrong currently remains under control through the end of the 2030 season. At that point, he figures to be ticketed for free agency ahead of his age-29 campaign. A look at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker offers a wide range of comparable players in recent years. Players like Ke’Bryan Hayes, Lawrence Butler, and Ezequiel Tovar had less than two years of MLB service when they signed their deals, like Crow-Armstrong. They all landed extensions in the $60MM to $70MM range that the Cubs reportedly offered prior to this season, but those deals were blown out of the water by the $134.2MM guarantee Jackson Merrill landed in his eight-year extension with the Padres back in April.
Merrill is a year younger than Crow-Armstrong, meaning he signed his deal at the start of his age-22 season while Crow-Armstrong would be signing ahead of his age-24 season this offseason. Both players had five seasons left under club control before free agency, however, and were coming off similarly elite platform seasons; Merril’s 130 wRC+ outshone Crow-Armstrong, but his lesser defense and baserunning left him with a roughly comparable 5.3 fWAR. They also play the same position, making Merrill’s recent deal a logical point of reference for Crow-Armstrong overall.
It’s the second-highest guarantee an outfielder with less than two seasons of MLB service time has received in MLB history, behind the $210MM guarantee the Mariners offered Julio Rodriguez that can max out at $470MM over 17 years if all incentives are reached and options are exercised. Given that Rodriguez was in the midst of posting a 148 wRC+ with 5.7 fWAR and 6.2 bWAR in just 132 games as a 21-year-old rookie when he signed his extension, it’s safe to expect that a deal for Crow-Armstrong would come in closer to Merrill’s contract.
A contract similar to the one signed by Merrill could make some sense, and an eight-year, $140MM contract would beat Merrill’s contract in terms of both guarantee and average annual value. However, the Cubs may not be interested in such a large guarantee for only three additional seasons of team control, while Crow-Armstrong may not want to head into free agency at the tail end of his physical prime as a player who derives as much value from speed and defense.
Then, perhaps, the sides could get together on a longer contract that would buy out more free agent years. An 11-year deal that runs through the 2036 season would keep Crow-Armstrong in town for the rest of his prime and buy out six free agent years. An 11-year, $187MM guarantee would narrowly eclipse Merrill by both guarantee and AAV, while also narrowly beating out the eight-year, $184MM contract the Cubs gave Jason Heyward during the 2015-16 offseason for the largest deal in franchise history.
It would be a risky investment given Crow-Armstrong’s lackluster plate discipline, which left him with the third-highest swinging-strike rate in the majors this year. Given that risk and the fact that Crow-Armstrong is not set to even reach arbitration until next winter, it would be understandable if the Cubs decided to wait and see how the 2026 season played out before committing that sort of money to their center fielder.
On the other hand, the upside in Crow-Armstrong’s profile is obvious and Chicago’s reluctance to spend at the top of the market on free agents in recent years could mean that waiting another year could put Crow-Armstrong out of Chicago’s price range entirely. Rolling the dice on an extension for Crow-Armstrong could be the team’s best bet of securing a long-term, star-caliber talent. Meanwhile, it would be understandable if Crow-Armstrong was motivated to lock in long-term financial security ahead of a 2026-27 offseason where a contentious round of collective bargaining over the sport’s economic future is widely expected.
Lars Nootbaar May Start 2026 Season On Injured List Following Surgery
Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar was among the players that St. Louis brass announced underwent surgery earlier this month, as he went under the knife on October 7 to shave down Haglund’s deformities on both heels. At the time, Nootbaar’s timetable for a return to action was unclear, but today president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom revealed to Matt Pauley of KMOX Sports in a radio interview that Opening Day is neither entirely off the table nor entirely guaranteed for Nootbaar following his surgery. Bloom adds that they don’t intend to rush the rehab process in order to get him back on time for the start of the season, but that if he were to miss time to open the season the absence would be limited.
As far as timelines for offseason surgeries go, Nootbaar’s doesn’t seem too worrisome. It would naturally be less than ideal if he were to miss time to open the 2026 campaign but, with the Cardinals headed into a likely rebuilding phase as it is, the handful of games Nootbaar is at risk of missing at the start of the season are unlikely to be the difference in the club’s postseason chances next year. Given that Nootbaar is coming off a career-worst season where he hit just .234/.325/.361 (96 wRC+) following three consecutive seasons where he posted a wRC+ of 114 or higher, a few extra days missed at the start of the season would be well worth it for the Cardinals if it means that Nootbaar puts his best foot forward as he tries to return to the more robust offensive form he had flashed in previous seasons.
The 28-year-old is under team control with St. Louis for two more seasons before he’s slated to reach free agency during the 2027-28 offseason. For a Cardinals team that might not return to contention until Nootbaar is already a free agent, he’s certainly a logical trade candidate. Today’s news about Nootbaar’s uncertain status for Opening Day might make a trade slightly less likely to come together, but the impact on his market is likely at least relatively negligible.
After all, clubs already knew Nootbaar would be rehabbing from surgery this offseason and his dip in performance last year might have made the Cardinals hesitant to deal him before giving him the opportunity to rebound and improve his stock following his recent surgery. St. Louis has little incentive to risk selling low on Nootbaar given that he could theoretically be dealt at the 2026 trade deadline and still be available to an interested club for two pennant races and eligible for a Qualifying Offer following the 2027 season, should the QO still exist after the next round of collective bargaining negotiations next winter.
Looking at the Cardinals’ current depth chart, the possibility of losing Nootbaar for a few games to open the year shouldn’t be too much of a problem if the rest of the team’s positional corps remains healthy. Jordan Walker, Victor Scott II, Alec Burleson, and Brendan Donovan could all see time in the outfield next year, to say nothing of potential depth options like Nathan Church and Michael Siani behind that primary group. Donovan is generally viewed as more likely to spend time on the infield next year, especially if the club manages to trade Nolan Arenado this winter, but Nolan Gorman and Thomas Saggese should be able to fill in for Donovan when he plays the outfield.