Steve Adams
- Good afternoon! I'll get going at 3pm CT, give or take a minute or two. If you've got questions about our Top 50 agent list, our Top 40 trade candidate list, or anything more broadly pertaining to the offseason, let's discuss!
- Greetings! Let's get goingn
- going, eve
- Oh my
- Going, even*********
- Bad omen for the chat today, ha
Rangers13
- What would Padres want for Campusano?
Steve Adams
- I assume Campusano can be had for little to no return at this point. He's a non-tender candidate. He demolished AAA pitching all season while the Padres trotted out Elias Diaz and Martin Maldonado ... then traded for another light-hitting, glove-first catcher at the deadline (Freddy Fermin)
- If they had any faith he could catch in the majors, he'd have gotten another look this summer
Dana Brown
- what type of return could the Astros get if they pick up half of Christian Walker's salary, and what type of return for Jake Meyers if he is available?
Steve Adams
- Picking up half of Walker's contract still means he'd cost $20MM over two years, which is more than I think he'd get in free agency right now. I don't think they can move him if they're only eating half the deal (and, if they did find a taker at that price point, there'd be zero return)Meyers is cheap with a solid to good glove in CF, an average-ish bat and above-average baserunning contributions. He's two years from free agency. I don't think he's going to command a massive haul, but I think they could flip him for a back-end option in the rotation that's more or less ready right now.
Blue Jays
- Aside from Bo, who do you think are the main blue jays targets this offseason (trade or free-agent)?
Steve Adams
- I fully expect the Blue Jays to be in on basically every prominent free agent, including Kyle Tucker. They can accommodate him on the payroll. They don't have a set option in right field. (Barger can play 3B.) They just came two outs away from a World Series and have a bunch of extra revenue as a result.They also have multiple rotation vacancies -- and they were gifted a playoff-caliber starter when Shane Bieber exercised a player option that was somewhere around 10% of his market value (net $12MM for him). Still can't believe that.
They're flush with cash, vibes are good, fan support through the roof. Free agents will want to go there after the WS appearance. No one's off the table.
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Royals Add Marcus Thames To Coaching Staff
The Royals are hiring former big league outfielder and veteran coach Marcus Thames as a hitting coach, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com. He’ll join recently hired Connor Dawson, 32, as a second hitting coach under senior director of hitting Alec Zumwalt. Kansas City did not renew the contracts of now-former assistant hitting coaches Joe Dillon and Keoni DeRenne at season’s end.
Thames, 48, enjoyed a decade-long career in the big leagues as an outfielder and designated hitter from 2002-2011. Shortly after his playing career ended, he took a job as a minor league hitting coach in the Yankees’ system. Within three years, he’d been promoted to the major league staff in the Bronx.
From 2016-21, Thames was an assistant hitting coach or hitting coach with the Yankees’ big league staff. He’s since jumped to the Marlins, Angels and White Sox, holding hitting coach titles within each system. The Mississippi native spent the past two seasons as the hitting coach for the White Sox but was let go as part of a coaching staff shakeup at season’s end.
Thames played in 640 major league games and totaled 2016 plate appearances as a big leaguer. In that time, the former 30th-round pick slashed .246/.309/.485 with 115 home runs, 83 doubles, four triples, a 7.9% walk rate and a 25.3% strikeout rate. Thames’ bat was particularly potent against left-handed pitching in his playing days, as evidenced by a .260/.328/.496 line in his career. The 2026 season will mark his eleventh consecutive year on a big league coaching staff.
Giants Hire Bruce Bochy For Special Assistant Role
Nov. 10: The Giants formally announced Bochy’s hiring as a special assistant to the baseball operations department.
“Having Boch back in the organization means a great deal to all of us,” Posey said within this morning’s press release. “His experience, leadership, and feel for the game are unmatched, and his perspective will be invaluable as we continue building towards sustained success.”
Nov. 5: Bruce Bochy is nearing a deal to return to the Giants in an advisory role. CEO Greg Johnson first told Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday that the sides were working on a deal. Bochy confirmed to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic this evening that he’s in the process of finalizing a special assistant position. He’ll be on hand as an excellent resource for first-year manager Tony Vitello. Bochy will join another future Hall of Fame manager, Dusty Baker, as special assistants in San Francisco.
The 70-year-old Bochy has spent the past three seasons managing the Rangers. He led Texas to a World Series in 2023, the fourth title of his career. Bochy famously led the Giants to three World Series in a five-year span between 2010-14. President of baseball operations Buster Posey was a face of the franchise for most of Bochy’s 13 seasons at the helm. Only Hall of Famer John McGraw, who managed for 31 years between 1902-32 when the team was still in New York, has won more games in Giants’ history.
This might close the book on Bochy’s managerial career. “I would say that’s where I’m at right now,” he told Baggarly when asked if he expects that his stint with the Rangers would be his last one in the dugout. “I’ll add you don’t ever rule anything out. You don’t, you know? But I’m content with what I’m doing now. … This is what I want to do. I want more time for myself and family but also to contribute to a game that I love.”
Bochy is sixth all-time with 2,252 managerial wins between his stints with the Padres, Giants and Rangers. He and Baker are the only two skippers within the top 10 who have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame. That’s only because both men were managing within the past couple seasons. It’s a matter of time before they’re in Cooperstown. (The same is true for Terry Francona, who is 12th on the all-time list and now the winningest active manager with Bochy back in an advisory role.)
Managers are only inducted into Cooperstown via the Era Committees. Managers who are 65 and older are eligible for Hall of Fame consideration six months after they retire. Baker and Bochy would only be up for consideration by the Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Players Committee. That’ll come up during the 2026-27 offseason. Baker should get into the Hall next winter. Bochy could be eligible for that cycle if he officially retires within the next few months, but it seems he prefers not to shut the door entirely just yet.
There’s also some news on Vitello’s coaching staff. Baggarly reports that Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler has agreed to join the San Francisco staff in some capacity. He’ll bring a decent amount of experience, as he managed the Padres between 2020-21 and had been Rocco Baldelli’s top lieutenant in Minnesota for the last four years. The Twins fired Baldelli and hired Derek Shelton to manage, so it’s not surprising there’ll be some coaching turnover. Tingler and Vitello go back more than two decades. They were teammates at the University of Missouri in the early 2000s.
Justin Turner Plans To Play In 2026
The 2025 season was a tough one for two-time All-Star Justin Turner, who batted just .219/.288/.314 in 191 plate appearances with the Cubs. Between that rough showing and Turner’s looming 41st birthday later this month, some have wondered whether he’ll continue playing. Agent Greg Genske of Vayner Sports tells Jon Morosi of MLB Network that Turner indeed is intent on playing in what would be his 18th major league season in 2026.
The 2025 season was the first below-average season Turner has had at the plate since establishing himself as a big league regular. He hit .259/.354/.384 between Boston and Seattle in 2024 and was 16% better than average at the plate in both ’23 and ’24, by measure of wRC+. This year’s downturn in production was steep, but it came in a relatively minimal sample and wasn’t accompanied by a glaring uptick in punchouts Turner’s strikeout rate did climb from 17.6% to 19.4%, but his contact rate — specifically his contact rate on balls within the strike zone — was largely unchanged.
Virtually all of Turner’s struggles in 2025 came against right-handed pitching. He tallied 109 plate appearances versus lefties and delivered a solid .276/.330/.429 batting line (112 wRC+). Against right-handed opponents, he was one of the worst hitters in MLB: .141/.232/.155 in 82 plate appearances (a gruesome 16 wRC+). At least some of that is attributable to a .179 BABIP against righties, though his struggles can’t be blamed solely on poor fortune. Turner’s 39.7% ground-ball rate was his highest since 2014, and he posted career-worst marks in pop-up rate, line-drive rate and hard-hit rate.
Based on Turner’s age and last year’s lack of production, anything more than a modest one-year deal seems unreasonable. Turner’s one-year deal with the Cubs paid him a guaranteed $6MM, and he’ll almost certainly need to take a pay cut on that sum. Last year’s struggles will make a club reluctant to offer him regular at-bats, but a team with payroll concerns and a left-handed option at first base/DH could view him as an affordable veteran roll of the dice who brings plenty of clubhouse benefits to the fold. Clubs like the Padres (Gavin Sheets), Rangers (Joc Pederson), Guardians (Kyle Manzardo, C.J. Kayfus) and Royals (Vinnie Pasquantino) all have lefty-hitting first base and/or designated hitter options that struggled against southpaws in 2025.
Enter The MLBTR Free Agent Prediction Contest
The MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest is now open! Click here to enter your picks for the destinations for our top 50 free agents. The deadline for entry is Thursday, November 13th at 11pm central time. You can edit your picks until then. Further contest info:
- After the window to make picks has closed, we’ll post a public leaderboard page so you can see who’s winning the contest as players sign with teams. We’re going to use entrants’ full names on it. So, if that concerns you, please do not enter the contest. Entries with inappropriate names will be deleted.
- We are also collecting email addresses, which I will use to notify winners.
- If a player signs between now and the close of the contest, that player will be excluded from the contest.
- After you submit your picks, you’ll receive an email from Google Forms. In that email, you’ll see a button that allows you to edit your picks.
- We will announce the winners on MLBTR once all 50 free agents have signed. We will award $500 to first place, $300 to second place, and $100 to third place. We will also be giving one-year memberships to Trade Rumors Front Office for everyone who finishes in the top 15. Winners must respond to an email within one week.
- The winners of this contest will be declared on March 25th, 2026, and any unsigned players will be excluded from the competition.
- Ties in the correct number of picks will be broken by summing up the rankings of the free agents of the correct picks and taking the lower total. For example: Tim and Steve each get two picks correct. Tim gets Kyle Tucker (#1 ranking) and Robert Suarez (#21 ranking) for a total of 22 points. Steve gets Framber Valdez (#6) and Michael King (#14) for a total of 20 points. Steve’s total is lower and he’s ahead of Tim for tiebreaker purposes.
If you have any further questions, ask us in the comment section of this post! Otherwise, make your picks now!
Mets, Jose Rojas Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mets agreed to a minor league deal with infielder/outfielder Jose Rojas, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Gaeta Sports client will be invited to major league camp this spring and would be paid $820K if he makes the roster.
Rojas, 32, hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2022 but is coming off a monster 2025 season with the Yankees’ Triple-A club. The lefty-swinging slugger popped 32 home runs last year, tops in the Triple-A International League, and slashed .287/.379/.599 overall (153 wRC+). Since his last MLB appearance with the ’22 Angels, he’s spent a year in the Korea Baseball Organization (.253/.345/.474 with the Doosan Bears) and bounced between the Triple-A affiliates for the Pirates and Yankees.
All of Rojas’ big league experience has come with the Angels. He’s struggled considerably, hitting just .188/.245/.339 with a 28.6% strikeout rate — albeit in a relatively small sample of 241 plate appearances. He’s consistently torched Triple-A pitching in a much larger sample of 2050 plate appearances.
Defensively, Rojas is experienced at all four corner positions and, to a lesser extent, second base (865 innings). He played the outfield exclusively during his 2023 season in the KBO and has primarily played the infield and outfield corners since returning to North American ball. He’ll vie for a bench spot in camp and give the Mets some thump to stash in Triple-A if he doesn’t make the roster. Rojas also has a minor league option remaining, so if he’s selected to the 40-man at any point he can be shuttled between Syracuse and Queens without needing to be exposed to waivers.
The Opener: Rookie Of The Year, NPB Postings, Clase/Ortiz Indicted
Here are a few things to monitor around the baseball world heading into this week:
1. Rookie of the Year awards announced tonight
It’s awards week! The league’s top honors will be handed out each day, starting with Rookie of the Year tonight and concluding with Most Valuable Player on Thursday. The ROY finalists on the American League side are first baseman Nick Kurtz of the Athletics, shortstop Jacob Wilson, also of the Athletics, and outfielder Roman Anthony of the Red Sox. Catcher Drake Baldwin of the Braves leads the way on the National League side, followed by Cade Horton of the Cubs and Caleb Durbin of the Brewers. Kurtz and his 36 home runs are considered the favorite for the AL. Baldwin, who slashed .274/.341/.469 as Atlanta’s primary backstop, is considered the favorite in the NL. The winners will be announced on MLB Network at 6 pm CT.
2. Big Japanese stars headed to the big leagues
A pair of NPB heavyweights are making the jump to MLB. The Yakult Swallows officially posted third baseman Munetaka Murakami on Friday. The 25-year-old has been one of the top power hitters in Japan over the past seven seasons. Murakami hit a single-season record 56 home runs in 2022. Contact has been an issue at times, and it’s unclear whether he’ll stick at third base, but Murakami immediately becomes one of the top bats on the market. The Saitama Seibu Lions announced they have accepted right-hander Tatsuya Imai’s request to be posted. The 27-year-old has a fastball approaching triple digits and a plus slider. Imai posted a 3.15 ERA over 963 2/3 innings across eight NPB seasons. He earned three All-Star selections. Imai will join Dylan Cease and Framber Valdez as one of the top starters on the market. Murakami, and Imai once officially posted, will have 45 days to work out a contract with an MLB team.
3. Cleveland pitchers indicted on gambling charges
It had been a couple of months since we had an update on the sports betting investigation regarding Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz. The big news dropped on Sunday, as Clase and Ortiz were indicted by prosecutors on charges including “wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy, for their alleged roles in a scheme to rig bets on pitches thrown.” The alleged scheme involved Clase and Ortiz purposely throwing balls so gamblers could bet on pitches being balls or strikes, per the indictment. The pitchers face up to 65 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images.
Tatsuya Imai To Be Posted For MLB Teams This Offseason
The Saitama Seibu Lions announced (Japanese language link) on their official team website that they have accepted Tatsuya Imai’s request to be posted to Major League teams. Once Imai is officially posted, he’ll have 45 days to work out a contract with a big league team, or else he’ll return to the Lions for the 2026 Nippon Professional Baseball season.
It has been over two months since reports first surfaced about the likelihood of Imai’s availability this winter, and today’s news officially confirms the three-time NPB All-Star as one of the most intriguing arms of the 2025-26 free agent class. Imai has a 3.15 ERA over 963 2/3 career innings with the Lions, with a 22.31% strikeout rate and a 11.52% walk rate. While that career walk rate is on the high side, Imai has reduced that number in each of his last four seasons, and he had a very solid 7.02% walk rate over 163 2/3 innings in 2025.
Imai is only 27, and doesn’t turn 28 until May. Between his age and an intriguing four-pitch arsenal (headlined by a fastball in the 95-99mph range and a plus slider), there’s a lot to like in terms of how Imai’s success in NPB might translate against Major League hitters. This upside led MLBTR to place Imai seventh on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, and we’re predicting a six-year, $150MM deal even though some evaluators feel Imai projects as a back-end starter or even as a reliever in the majors.
Imai qualifies for full free agency next offseason, so the Lions may feel that they can at least earn some money back via a posting fee by letting Imai go now rather than 12 months from now. As per the terms of the MLB-NPB posting system, any Major League team that reaches an agreement with Imai will owe the Lions a staggered fee depending on the size of the deal, and on any future earnings (i.e. options, bonuses, etc.) attached to that initial contract.
The Lions will get 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the contract’s next $25MM, and 15% of any money above the $50MM mark. So if Imai were to sign a deal matching MLBTR’s $150MM projection, his new team would owe the Lions a $24.375MM posting fee on top of Imai’s $150MM salary.
Lucas Giolito Wants To Return To Red Sox, Says He’s “Fully Healthy” After Late-Season “Freak Injury”
After UCL surgery cost him the entire 2024 season, Lucas Giolito returned in 2025 to post solid results (3.41 ERA in 145 innings) in the Red Sox rotation before the injury bug arose just prior to the start of Boston’s Wild Card Series with the Yankees. Right flexor irritation and a bone issue kept Giolito off the playoff roster and unable to do anything besides watch as the Sox were eliminated in three games.
Adding to Giolito’s frustration was the fact that after getting the diagnosis and beginning some rehab work, “within three days, my elbow felt 100 percent fine again,” the right-hander told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford on the latest edition of the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast (partial transcript here). With no UCL damage discovered and the inflammation subsided, Giolito planned to quickly start a throwing program with the intention of returning later in the playoffs, except Boston’s run was cut short early.
As the offseason and Giolito’s free agency now begins, he said that is now “fully healthy,” even though he understands the complications that bought on by his late flexor issue. He said he is “happy to prove that I’m fully healthy in any way possible” to any skeptical front offices, and that the injury is completely behind him.
“There’s no injury, or whatever injury there was is gone. It was a weird, freak thing that popped up at the worst possible time, not only for the Red Sox but for myself and in general,” Giolito said. “Just the worst possible time. It makes my free agency harder. It prevented me from pitching in the playoffs where I had been a part of the rotation pretty much the entire year. It was just a very, very tough one to swallow. I still don’t like thinking about it.”
Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5MM deal with the Red Sox during the 2023-24 offseason that broke down as an $18MM salary for 2024 and then a player option for a $19MM salary in 2025. Giolito’s internal brace procedure made it an easy call for him to exercise that $19MM option and remain in his Sox contract, and remaining in the deal also added a club option for 2026 worth at least $14MM. Since Giolito then tossed at least 140 innings in 2025, the club option was converted to a $19MM mutual option with a $1.5MM buyout, giving Giolito the right to test free agency again if he declined his end of the mutual option.
That is exactly what happened earlier this week, and Giolito finds himself on the open market again. He doesn’t have the qualifying offer attached to his services since the Sox didn’t issue him the one-year, $22.025MM offer. Giolito told Bradford that he didn’t expect the QO due to his injury: “You end of the year hurt, it puts a bad taste in the team’s mouth. It is what it is. Now, the fortunate side is that it was like the most benign, weird, freak injury that went away after a few days. So, now I’m like, great. I’m having a fully healthy, amazing offseason.”
Sour ending notwithstanding, Giolito still viewed his 2025 campaign as “really, really positive” given his own success and Boston’s success in returning to the playoffs. He is also hoping for an encore performance at Fenway Park in 2026 and beyond.
“I made it clear to everybody. I would love to come back here and continue to play for the Red Sox. It’s the most fun I have ever had having a season with a team in the big leagues,” Giolito said. “I felt like the way it ended left such a bad taste in my mouth, and the rest of the team, particularly me not being able to pitch in that playoff series. It really sucked. I was like I really hope I can come back, and it goes better for us next time.”
MLBTR ranked Giolito 27th on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, and projected the right-hander to land a two-year, $32MM contract. There was a bit of flexibility within that projection since some teams may feel comfortable enough in Giolito’s health to add a club/vesting option for a third year, or perhaps even just a fully guaranteed third year.
This mid-range price tag should put Giolito on the radar for a lot of clubs, and a return to Boston certainly seems plausible since the Sox are still in need of pitching. The expectation is that the Red Sox will pursue a frontline arm to team with Garrett Crochet atop the rotation, but adding this hypothetical ace and Giolito would only deepen the rotation and make the Sox better equipped for a longer postseason run.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Mark P
- It’s the first official Weekend Chat of the 2025-26 offseason! Let’s take a minute for some questions to roll in, and then get….uh, rolling
John
- Has the window to trade Coby Mayo closed?
Mark P
- It’ll take a lot more than 340 plate appearances before the Orioles (or other teams) decide that the Mayo has gone bad. Mayo started to hit a lot better in September, indicating perhaps that he was starting to figure it out against MLB pitching.
- If the O’s did want to move Mayo for a more proven talent, there would be plenty of takers
Guest
- Do the Jays sign any of their FAs?
Mark P
- They already kinda have, if you count Bieber as a free agent. And I think we all did, since nobody had Bieber passing on the opt-out on our bingo cards.
Bringing back one of Scherzer or Bassitt is a possibility. IKF/France/Dominguez are all likely gone, with Dominguez maybe the only one who’d draw some interest for a reunion since the Jays still need relief help. Of course Bichette is the big question, and his choice will determine the rest of Toronto’s offseason
Armand
- what happens first a big free agent signing or a big trade?
Mark P
- Trade. I guess it’s a matter of what you’d consider a “big” signing or trade, but most of the top free agents will wait a while to gauge their offers. A larger trade could technically happen at any time.
Oz
- What is your opinion of the Braves decision to not pick up the options on Pierce Johnson and Tyler Kinley?
Mark P
- Pretty surprised, since when I wrote the Atlanta offseason outlook, I saw it as basically a foregone conclusion that both would be retained.
- The Braves could pursue a reunion at a lower price tag with either pitcher, but seemingly just in the name of saving some money, declining both options left the Braves with even more to address in their pen
Guest
- Chris Sale extension for ATL?
Mark P
- Possible, but the Braves might’ve already been learned their lesson about committing extra money to a pitcher with Sale’s injury history.
Bart G.
- You said “Mayo has gone bad” on purpose! I saw you!
Mark P
- I swear I’m not trying to steal Jacob Wysocki’s thunder as Mr. Mayo
HARRIS
- Without a doubt my staff is thin. how much grace and goodwill would I recover after last summers debacle would I achieve if I sign J.V. for the back end of the rotation. we can certainly afford the 10-11 mill I believe. I mean I gave Cobb 15 and got nothing. Smart move for the club and the fan base?
Mark P
- (The name refers to Tigers PBO Scott Harris, btw)
A Verlander reunion would make a lot of sense for both the Tigers and presumably JV himself if he wants to pitch for a clear-cut contender. It’d be such a fun storyline to see Verlander try and complete some unfinished business in winning Detroit a ring
