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Brewers Open To Trading From Outfield Depth

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The Brewers are exploring trades involving their depth outfielders, report Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. The report lists Isaac Collins and Blake Perkins as the two likeliest candidates to move.

Jackson Chourio certainly isn’t going anywhere. Christian Yelich is owed $84.5MM over the next three seasons (including a 2029 option buyout), so they’re unlikely to line up any kind of trade there. There’d be significant interest in Sal Frelick, but Milwaukee is unlikely to move him when he’s under club control for another four seasons. Frelick and Chourio should have two outfield spots secure, while Yelich is ticketed for primary DH work with occasional left field playing time.

That leaves one opening for a handful of players. Collins, Perkins and former first-round pick Garrett Mitchell would battle for playing time if they’re all on the roster. The Brewers have speedster Brandon Lockridge as a fifth outfielder and took a flier on Akil Baddoo on a split contract. They all have minor league options, so it’s not necessary to force a trade. There’s enough depth that they’re willing to move someone for help elsewhere on the roster. Rosenthal and Sammon write that Milwaukee could target a relief pitcher with minor league options who’d provide additional flexibility for a team that leans heavily on its bullpen.

Collins coming off a breakout season in which he finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting. The switch-hitting Collins batted .263/.368/.411 across 441 trips to the plate. He hit 22 doubles, three triples, and nine home runs. Collins stole 16 bases and walked at a 13% clip. He was Milwaukee’s primary left fielder and graded as a solid defender in a little over 800 innings.

That season was worth between two and three wins above replacement. Collins is under club control for five seasons and won’t qualify for arbitration for two more years. It’s fair to wonder whether he’ll be able to repeat that kind of season. Collins is already 28 and didn’t have particularly strong batted ball metrics. It’s a bit of a tweener profile since he’s not really an option to play center field. Yet the disciplined approach, contact skills, and solid glove in the corner should provide a reasonably high floor.

Perkins, 29, is a prototypical fourth outfielder. He’s a switch-hitter who has a middling .232/.314/.339 batting line in 773 career plate appearances. Perkins runs well and plays a plus center field. He also takes a lot of pitches and works a decent number of walks, albeit with more swing-and-miss than Collins has to his game. Perkins fell a little shy of the Super Two cutoff and will play next season for around the league minimum. He’ll be eligible for arbitration in 2027 and is under club control for four seasons.

Collins is probably the better all-around player, yet Perkins might hold broader appeal on the trade market. There are plenty of teams in need of center fielders and few options available in free agency. It’s unlikely many clubs would view Perkins as a regular, but teams like the Guardians, Angels and Giants should look for defensive upgrades up the middle.

A lot could depend on how the Brewers feel about Mitchell. He’s going into his age-27 season and still unproven at the MLB level. Mitchell is a fantastic athlete with plus speed, power and arm strength. He has the physical tools to be an impact center fielder. There’s also significant hit tool and health risk. Mitchell has punched out in more than a third of his 443 career plate appearances. He has gone on the 60-day injured list in three consecutive seasons: left shoulder surgery in 2023, a broken hand in ’24, an oblique strain and renewed shoulder pain this year. He underwent a second shoulder surgery in June and missed the rest of the season.

Mitchell is expected to be ready for Spring Training. If the Brewers remain confident that he’s their long-term answer in center field, that’d push Frelick and Chourio into the corners. Collins would make sense as the odd man out in that case because he’s stretched in center (though he has plenty of minor league second/third base experience). If they have more trepidation about Mitchell, they could pencil Frelick in as the center fielder with Collins back in left. That’d leave Mitchell and Perkins competing for playing time as the fourth outfielder with the latter potentially on the trade block.

Rockies Hire Brett Pill As Hitting Coach

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The Rockies announced the hiring of former MLB first baseman Brett Pill as their hitting coach. The 41-year-old joins Warren Schaeffer’s staff after six seasons with the Dodgers. Pill had spent three years as a Double-A hitting coach in the L.A. system before getting a promotion to minor league hitting coordinator in 2023.

Pill is best known for his three-year stint playing in MLB for the Giants. He appeared in 111 games between 2011-13. Pill spent parts of four seasons in Triple-A and finished his playing career with a three-year stint for the Kia Tigers between 2014-16. He remained in Korea for three years after that, working for his former KBO team as a scout before taking the Dodgers job.

This is Pill’s first major league coaching role. He’ll hopefully provide some stability in a position that was in flux in 2025. Colorado opened the season with Hensley Meulens as hitting coach. He was fired a couple weeks into the year. Clint Hurdle stepped in from the front office to take over, but he moved to bench coach once Bud Black and Mike Redmond were fired in May. Jordan Pacheco and Nic Wilson divided the hitting coach responsibilities for the rest of the season.

There should be nowhere to go but up after a 43-119 season. Colorado was by far the worst offensive team in MLB. They were ahead of only the Pirates in scoring despite playing half their games at Coors Field. They had an MLB-worst .293 on-base percentage thanks to the league’s lowest walk rate (6.7%). Only the Angels struck out more often. Colorado hitters have their work cut out for them in road games because of the difference in pitch movements at altitude. Even with that caveat, their .203/.259/.330 team batting line outside of Denver was abysmal.

It’s obviously not going to be fixed in one offseason. They’re not going to have a good lineup in 2026, but they can hope for process improvements from the likes of Ezequiel Tovar, Jordan Beck and (if he’s not traded) Brenton Doyle. They’ll hope for a repeat performance from 26-year-old catcher Hunter Goodman, one of the few bright spots from the ’25 team. Goodman popped 31 homers with a .278/.323/.520 batting line, tying Shea Langeliers for second among catchers in home runs.

Royals Sign Kevin Newman, Jose Cuas To Minor League Deals

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The Royals announced the signing of infielder Kevin Newman and reliever Jose Cuas to minor league contracts. The team only officially announced a non-roster invite to Spring Training for Newman.

Newman, 32, was a regular shortstop for the Pirates early in his career. He has played on different teams in each of the past four seasons, settling in as a light-hitting utility player. Newman batted .278 over 111 games with the Diamondbacks in 2024. That earned him a major league contract from the Angels last offseason, but he mustered only a .202/.209/.272 showing over 116 trips to the plate. The Halos designated him for assignment when they took a flier on former top prospect Oswald Peraza at the trade deadline.

The right-handed hitting Newman finished the season in Triple-A with the Tigers. He hit .296 with a .377 on-base percentage over 15 games but didn’t get an MLB look with Detroit. Newman puts the ball in play but rarely with any authority. He doesn’t walk very often and grades as a slightly below-average defender around the infield. He’ll try to win a bench spot in Spring Training behind Jonathan India, Bobby Witt Jr. and the newly-extended Maikel Garcia.

Cuas returns to Kansas City, where he first reached the majors in 2022. The righty turned in a 3.58 ERA across 37 2/3 innings as a rookie. An early-season spike in strikeout rate the following year caught the attention of the Cubs. The Royals dealt him to Chicago in a swap for young outfielder Nelson Velazquez. It didn’t work for either team, as both players struggled in their new environment. The Cubs waived Cuas less than a year after the trade, and he spent the 2025 season in the minors. He divided his time between the Phillies’ top affiliate and Atlanta’s Double-A club, posting a combined 5.20 ERA over 27 2/3 innings.

Rangers To Sign Danny Jansen

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The Rangers are in agreement with free agent catcher Danny Jansen on a two-year, $14.5MM deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The contract includes another $1MM in bonuses for the ISE Baseball client. Texas entered the night with 35 players on their roster and will not need to make any corresponding moves to accommodate this evening’s flurry of free agent activity.

It’s the second straight offseason in which the Rangers added a free agent catcher on a two-year contract. They signed Kyle Higashioka to a $13.5MM deal last winter. Jansen gets a nearly identical contract to split the playing time in 2026. Texas needed a catcher after non-tendering Jonah Heim on the heels of a second straight down year.

Jansen and Higashioka won’t match up in a strict platoon. They both hit from the right side. Neither player has huge platoon splits over the course of their careers. That’ll allow Skip Schumaker to divide the playing time based on comfort with each day’s starting pitcher. Higashioka and Jansen are similar players overall, though the latter is the more patient hitter. That provides a slightly higher floor from an on-base perspective even if neither player is likely to hit for a high average.

The 30-year-old Jansen (31 in April) was an underrated all-around catcher early in his career with the Blue Jays. He generally performed well in limited playing time but struggled to stay healthy for a full season. Jansen has avoided injuries over the past two years except for a small wrist fracture that cost him the first couple weeks of the 2024 campaign. His production on both sides of the ball dropped that year, though, leaving him to take an $8.5MM pillow contract with the Rays.

Jansen’s numbers rebounded to an extent in Tampa Bay. He hit .204/.314/.389 with 11 home runs across 259 plate appearances. It was at least a jump from a power perspective, as he connected on two more homers in that half-season than he had over 94 games in 2024. His defensive performance was mixed. Jansen is among the league’s best at blocking balls in the dirt, but his pitch framing numbers have declined over the past couple years. He doesn’t have great pure arm strength yet managed to throw out a solid 24% of baserunners after struggling in that regard in 2024.

Tampa Bay dealt him to the Brewers at the deadline. While it was surely a nice return home for the Appleton, Wisconsin native, that wasn’t an ideal landing spot a couple months before free agency. William Contreras plays as much as any catcher. Jansen only got 16 starts and tallied 78 plate appearances with the Brew Crew. He made the most of the sporadic playing time, adding another three homers and doubles apiece. He hit .254/.346/.433 in that limited look. While Jansen isn’t a high-end #1 option, he’s overqualified for a backup role behind one of the five best catchers in the game.

It was always going to be a brief stint in Milwaukee. They made the easy call to decline a $12MM option and look for a much cheaper backup catcher. Jansen finds a better landing spot in Arlington. He benefitted from a weak free agent class. The Rangers weren’t willing to spend what it’d take to add J.T. Realmuto. That left Jansen and Victor Caratini as the only real possibilities if they were going to sign a catcher. Everyone else in the class is a backup or organizational depth type.

RosterResource estimated the Rangers’ payroll around $167MM heading into the evening. Evenly distributing Jansen’s salaries would push that close to $174MM. Texas also agreed to one-year deals with Alexis Díaz and Tyler Alexander. Contract terms for the two pitchers are unreported, though it’s unlikely they cost more than a couple million dollars between the two of them.

The Rangers opened the 2025 season with a player payroll around $218MM. They’ve been clear that number is coming down, though it’s not known to what extent ownership is willing to go. It appears the front office will do its heavy lifting either in the lower rungs of free agency or via trade. They could use a mid-rotation starter and still need to add multiple relievers. Upgrading at least one of first or third base would also be ideal, though that’s a lot to accomplish on what appears to be a tight budget.

Image courtesy of Imagn Images.

Rangers To Sign Tyler Alexander

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The Rangers are signing left-hander Tyler Alexander to a one-year contract, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Salary figures for the SSG Baseball client haven’t been reported. Texas entered the night with 35 players on their roster. That’ll jump to 38 once they finalize their contracts with Alexander, Danny Jansen (covered here) and Alexis Díaz (covered here).

Alexander will provide a multi-inning arm out of Skip Schumaker’s bullpen. The 31-year-old logged 97 2/3 innings across 52 appearances between the Brewers and White Sox this year. He started five games, all but one coming with Milwaukee in the beginning of the season, but spent the bulk of the year pitching 3-4 inning stints in relief. While the Rangers could theoretically give him a look in the rotation, it’s more likely they’d view Jacob Latz as a true swing option while pitching Alexander in low-leverage relief.

The southpaw was hit hard over his few months in Milwaukee. He carried a 6.19 ERA in 36 1/3 frames when they designated him for assignment in June. Alexander cleared waivers but found an immediate MLB opportunity in Chicago once he hit free agency. He pitched well enough as a veteran bullpen piece to stick on the roster for the reminder of the season. Alexander worked to a 4.26 earned run average over 61 1/3 innings in a White Sox uniform. He had a modest 20.1% strikeout rate but limited the walks and hard contact reasonably well.

That was enough to earn another big league contract. It comes with the added bonus of being with his hometown club. Alexander is a Southlake, Texas native who played collegiately at TCU. He was a second-round pick by the Tigers in 2015 and has spent the majority of his career in Detroit. Alexander owns a 4.63 ERA over parts of seven seasons. He sits in the 90-91 MPH range but mixes five pitches and did a decent job staying off barrels this year.

The Rangers constructed their 2025 bullpen mostly with a series of cheap one-year free agent pickups. It worked as well as they could’ve hoped, as the relief corps turned in a 3.62 ERA despite ranking 20th in strikeout rate and finishing third from the bottom in average fastball velocity. It’s not going to be easy to replicate. They’re likely in for a similar effort this offseason.

RosterResource estimated the Rangers’ payroll around $167MM heading into the evening. Evenly distributing Jansen’s salaries would push that close to $174MM. Contract terms for the two pitchers are unreported, though it’s unlikely they cost more than a couple million dollars between the two of them. Texas opened the 2025 season with a player payroll around $218MM. They’ve been clear that number is coming down.

Image courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images.

Rangers To Sign Alexis Diaz

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The Rangers are in agreement with reliever Alexis Díaz on a one-year deal, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News first suggested that the sides were closing in on a deal, and has suggested the contract will be on the cheaper side.

With Phil Maton, Chris Martin, Jacob Webb, Hoby Milner, and Danny Coulombe all reaching free agency after the season, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young has to assemble a new bullpen once again.  He made a pair of relief additions within minutes of each other Friday night with the signings of Diaz and Tyler Alexander.

Diaz, 29, was a 12th round pick of the Reds out of a Puerto Rico high school a decade ago.  He skipped Triple-A to make the Reds’ Opening Day roster in 2022, making good on the promotion by posting a 1.84 ERA and earning a fifth place Rookie of the Year finish despite a bout with biceps tendinitis.  With a strong start to the 2023 season, Diaz earned an All-Star nod.  He finished third in the NL with 37 saves that year.  Diaz punched out 31.2% of batters faced during his first two seasons, 14th in baseball among relievers with at least 100 innings.  However, he also had the fourth-worst walk rate in that group at 12.8%.

Diaz was able to save another 28 games with a 3.99 ERA for the Reds in 2024, but his strikeout rate plummeted to 22.7% with the walks remaining a problem.  On the strength of his saves totals and early success, he landed a $4.5MM salary for 2025 as he entered the arbitration system.

The righty started 2025 on the IL with a hamstring injury, and things only went downhill from there.  Diaz was still under consideration for the Reds’ closing job when he made his mid-April season debut, but after a disastrous three-homer outing against the Cardinals on April 30th, he was sent back to Triple-A.

Diaz’s control issues continued at Triple-A, and by the end of May the Reds sent him to the Dodgers in a trade for minor league pitcher Mike Villani.  Diaz served in a low-leverage, up-and-down capacity for the Dodgers, who eventually designated him for assignment on September 4th.  He then joined the Braves in a waiver claim and made three appearances before being sent down.  Diaz elected free agency in early October.

Diaz’s nine-game stint with the Dodgers was easy to forget, but it ending up playing a role in the club signing his older brother Edwin a few days ago to a three-year, $69MM deal.  According to Edwin, “He told me the Dodgers are a really good organization. He made it easy for me.”

Alexis may be on the opposite end of the relief salary spectrum as compared to his older brother, but Chris Young had success last winter with bargain-basement relievers.  He let Kirby Yates and David Robertson depart for greener pastures, signing Armstrong, Webb, Milner, Martin, and Luke Jackson to one-year deals topping out with Martin’s $5.5MM.  All but Jackson had solid years.  Milner and trade deadline pickup Maton signed with the Cubs this offseason.  Southpaw Robert Garcia serves as the main holdover.

Mike Maddux departed for the Angels after three years as the Rangers’ pitching coach, leading the club to elevate Jordan Tiegs to the role under new manager Skip Schumaker.  According to Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News, “Tiegs, 38, ran the team’s bullpen last season in his first on-field role with the big league club, helped stabilize a group that was largely pieced together the previous winter and drew positive reviews from veteran relievers and organizational higher-ups.”

Tiegs will have his work cut out for him with Diaz.  The righty’s average fastball velocity slipped from 95.8 miles per hour as a rookie to 93.6 with his three teams this year, though it plays up with some of the best extension in the game.  It’s been two years since Diaz missed bats with a high spin rate fastball and one of the best sliders featured by any reliever.  His control is worse than ever.  Diaz has been able to dodge longballs until this year, but doesn’t really keep the ball on the ground.

Young’s active Friday evening included the signings of Diaz, Alexander, and catcher Danny Jansen in rapid succession.  He previously swapped Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo for an OBP boost.  With limited payroll flexibility, Young figures to continue adding to the pitching staff.

Phillies To Sign Bryse Wilson

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The Phillies have a deal in place with right-hander Bryse Wilson, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s unclear if it’s a major league or minor league pact for the Pro Edge Sports Management client. The Phils have multiple 40-man vacancies, so they won’t need to make a corresponding move even if this is a big league deal.

Wilson, 28 in December, has worked both as a starter and a reliever in his career. He has appeared in 163 games over the past eight big league seasons, 57 of those being starts, having suited up for Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and the White Sox. He has logged 461 innings over those eight seasons, allowing 4.82 earned runs per nine. His 16.6% strikeout rate is quite low but he has limited walks to a 7.5% clip.

He’s coming off a rough season. He signed a one-year, $1.05MM deal with the White Sox. He had just been cut loose by the Brewers and presumably hoped that signing with a rebuilding club would give him a path to carving out a nice role and showcasing his abilities. Instead, he posted a 6.65 ERA over 47 1/3 innings. He was passed through waivers unclaimed twice during the year. While in the minors, he posted better numbers. He tossed 48 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 4.25 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate, 5.5% walk rate and 53.8% ground ball rate.

It’s possible the Phils want Wilson to serve in a swing role, logging multiple innings out of the bullpen with the occasional spot start. They signed Spencer Turnbull for a role like this in 2024 and Joe Ross in 2025.

As of this moment, the Phillies have a rotation that consists of Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Taijuan Walker. It’s possible that Wheeler begins 2026 on the injured list while he recovers from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. While he’s out, prospect Andrew Painter could take a rotation job but Painter had a 5.40 ERA in Triple-A last year and still hasn’t made his major league debut.

It’s possible that the Phils get to the end of spring training and decide Painter needs more time in Triple-A. If Wheeler or anyone else needs some time on the injured list, then they would need someone else to step up. Wilson could potentially take a rotation spot and then bump into long relief when Painter forces his way in or Wheeler or whoever else gets healthy.

Wilson is out of options, meaning he can’t be sent to the minors easily. However, he has less than five years of big league service time. That means that, if he has a 40-man roster spot at the end of the year, the Phils could decide to retain him beyond 2026 via arbitration.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images

Mariners Closing In On Deal With Andrew Knizner

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5:05pm: The two sides are closing in on a deal, reports Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, but it’s still not finalized.

4:15pm: The Mariners are in conversations with free agent catcher Andrew Knizner on a deal, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. If they reach agreement on a big league contract, he’d be in line to back up Cal Raleigh.

Knizner spent the second half of the 2025 season with the Giants. He’d begun the season in Triple-A with the Nationals but was released in the middle of May. He signed a minor league deal with San Francisco and jumped onto the MLB roster a few weeks later. Knizner spent the rest of the season working behind Patrick Bailey. The presence of a two-time Gold Glove winner blocked him from getting much playing time, though he had a brief run as the starting catcher when Bailey missed a week and a half with a neck strain.

The 30-year-old Knizner (31 in February) started 28 of his 32 appearances behind the dish. He stepped to the plate 88 times and hit .221/.299/.299 with one home run. Knizner has played parts of seven MLB seasons between the Cardinals, Rangers and Giants. He owns a .211/.281/.316 batting line in a little under 1000 career plate appearances. The former seventh-round pick has a much better .292/.387/.443 mark across 583 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level.

Knizner has caught more than 2200 major league innings. His early-career defensive grades weren’t great, as public metrics weren’t favorable on his pitch framing. He has rated closer to average in that regard over the past two seasons, though his blocking hasn’t been as strong. His arm strength is middling, and he has thrown out a below-average 16.4% of baserunners in the last four years.

San Francisco opted not to tender Knizner a contract for his final year of arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected him for a modest $1.3MM salary, but the Giants want to leave the door open for rookie Jesus Rodriguez to win the backup job in camp. Seattle doesn’t have a second catcher on their 40-man roster. Mitch Garver hit free agency and they traded rookie Harry Ford for lefty reliever Jose A. Ferrer last week.

Knizner has five-plus years of MLB service and cannot be sent to the minors without his consent. If he signed a big league deal, he’d enter camp as the presumed #2 catcher. The Mariners will probably continue looking for depth options via waivers or minor league free agency to push him for that spot, but it’s not a position to which they need to devote many resources. Raleigh will be in the lineup almost every day at either catcher or designated hitter. He started 119 games and logged 1072 innings behind the plate this past season. Only J.T. Realmuto and William Contreras took a heavier workload.

Blue Jays Acquire Chase Lee

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The Tigers have traded right-hander Chase Lee to the Blue Jays in exchange for minor league lefty Johan Simon, according to announcements from both clubs. This move is likely to open a 40-man spot for the Tigers to make their signing of Kyle Finnegan official. The Jays had a 40-man vacancy but Lee takes up the final spot. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic first reported that Lee was headed to the Jays while Mitch Bannon of The Athletic first mentioned Simon as the return.

Lee, 27, doesn’t throw especially hard but is able to deceive batters with his sidearm delivery. Originally a draft pick of the Rangers, he was traded to the Tigers as part of the 2024 deadline deal which sent Andrew Chafin the other way.

In 204 2/3 minor league innings, Lee has allowed 4.13 earned runs pere nine, with a fairly average 8% walk rate but a strong 30.9% strikeout rate. The Tigers called him up to make his major league debut in 2025. He gave them 37 1/3 innings with a 4.10 ERA. His four-seam fastball only averaged 89.2 miles per hour while he also threw a sinker, slider and changeup. He struck out 24.3% of opponents while limiting walks to a 6.1% clip.

For the Jays, Lee adds some extra bullpen depth. He still has options and can therefore be sent to Triple-A Buffalo and back throughout the year. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet recently wrote a piece about how the Jays appear to be prioritizing different arm angles, so it’s possible they are particularly attracted to Lee’s sidearming abilities. He has less than a year of service time and is therefore years away from qualifying for arbitration and even further from free agency. If he’s able to carve out a meaningful role in the big leagues, he could be a long-term piece for the Jays.

To get Lee, the Jays are giving up Simon, an international signing out of the Dominican Republic. In 2025, he began at Single-A and then climbed to High-A and Double-A. Across those three levels, he tossed 71 relief innings with a 3.42 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and a massive 64% ground ball rate.

For the Tigers, they had a 40-man roster crunch and needed to lose someone. With this deal, they’ve lost a bit of immediate depth but replaced Lee with a non-roster arm who is only slightly farther away from the majors.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

Poll: Would You Rather Have Kyle Schwarber Or Pete Alonso?

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This year’s Winter Meetings were highlighted by two of the game’s premier sluggers signing two of the offseason’s biggest contracts so far: Kyle Schwarber re-upped with the Phillies for five years and $150MM, while Pete Alonso signed on with the Orioles for five years and $155MM. With such remarkably similar contracts and roles to play in the lineup, it’s fair to wonder which player would be better to roster in a vacuum.

Schwarber’s case is obvious, given that he’s coming off a career year where he bashed 56 home runs and finished second in NL MVP voting. Schwarber turned in a brilliant .240/.365/.563 (152 wRC+) slash line for the Phillies this year while playing in all 162 games. In addition to his massive home run total, the slugger added 23 doubles, 2 triples, and even managed to chip in ten stolen bases. That was good enough for 4.9 fWAR and 4.7 bWAR, an incredibly impressive total for a DH who fielded just 66 innings this year.

Alonso’s offensive numbers, while certainly strong, weren’t quite as impressive. The slugger hit .272/.347/.524 with a wRC+ of 141 while also playing 162 games for the Mets. While he hit “just” 38 home runs to Schwarber’s 56, he did manage to swat 41 doubles as well. His contributions on the bases were minimal, but he did play the field in 160 of his 162 games as the Mets’ everyday first baseman. Alonso’s 3.6 fWAR and 3.4 bWAR don’t quite measure up to Schwarber’s gaudy total, but his ability to play a defensive position on a regular basis did free up the DH slot in the lineup to allow the Mets the opportunity to rest their regulars and roster valuable pieces with defensive limitations like Starling Marte.

Digging in a little deeper, the comparison gets even more interesting. Advanced metrics indicate an even smaller gap between Schwarber and Alonso in terms of offense than the raw production does, as Schwarber’s .402 xwOBA eclipses Alonso’s .385 by just 17 points. On the other hand, Alonso benefited from a career-high .305 BABIP in 2025, while Schwarber’s own .253 figure was actually below his career norms. Schwarber’s time in Philadelphia has seen him produce a 133 wRC+ that’s almost a perfect match for Alonso’s own 131 wRC+ over the past four years, and while Alonso is two years younger than Schwarber, he also lacks some of the elite power projection that Schwarber offers. Schwarber’s incredible 54.2% hard-hit rate over the past five years trails only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, while Alonso’s 46.7% figure falls more in line with players a cut below that tier like Ryan McMahon and Max Muncy.

A look at how both players performed in the market would suggest that teams certainly value them similarly. The pair got the same number of years. Alonso signed for an additional $5MM in terms of total guarantee but Schwarber appeared to have a more robust market in terms of total suitors. The Pirates, Reds, and Orioles themselves were all known to have made offers of $120MM or more to Schwarber, with plenty of other teams such as the Mets, Giants and Red Sox rumored to be interested as well. Alonso, by contrast, saw his known suitors mostly limited to the Mets, Red Sox, and perhaps the Cubs in addition to the Orioles. Perhaps more teams simply had an opening at DH than at first base, but it’s also fair to wonder if more teams simply saw Schwarber as a game-changing talent.

Even if that’s true, however, Alonso’s ability to field a position at a competent (if below average) level on a regular basis and his relative youth would certainly be strong arguments in his favor. Schwarber will play the final year of his contract at the age of 37 and few players project well that late into their careers. Perhaps Schwarber’s elite and unique power capacity could make him an exception in the same vein as other great slugging DH-only bats like David Ortiz and Nelson Cruz, but that’s a much bolder gamble to make than expecting Alonso to remain productive through his 35th birthday.

How do MLBTR readers value the two sluggers? If your team had openings at both first base and DH, which one would you rather have installed in your lineup for the next five seasons? Have your say in the poll below:

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