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Latest On Mariners’ Trade Targets

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This week’s trade sending Nolan Arenado from St. Louis to Arizona and the Cubs’ weekend signing of Alex Bregman figure to accelerate the market surrounding various trade and free agent scenarios. One club that could directly be impacted is the Mariners, who’ve spent the bulk of the winter trying to add another infielder after re-signing Josh Naylor on a five-year contract early in the offseason.

Seattle’s interest in Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan is no secret. They were linked to him last offseason and have been reported to be one of his most prominent suitors this winter. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat reports that in addition to Donovan, the Mariners have had “ongoing” discussions with the Cardinals about left-handed reliever JoJo Romero throughout the winter. Seattle already added one southpaw arm for the bullpen, acquiring Jose A. Ferrer from the Nationals in December, and they have a second outstanding option in Gabe Speier, who enjoyed a breakout year in 2025 (and was just added to the Team USA roster for the upcoming World Baseball Classic).

Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports that Donovan is the Mariners’ top target on the trade market but adds that the M’s also have interest in Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner. The veteran Hoerner’s name has come up in trade speculation since the Bregman signing, though it seems unlikely a deal will actually come together. Chicago appears willing to listen as a matter of due diligence but would presumably need to be overwhelmed and receive substantial big league talent to trade Hoerner coming off a .297/.345/.394 season that saw him swipe 29 bases, win his second Gold Glove and finish sixth in the National League with 6.2 wins above replacement, per Baseball-Reference (or 15th with 4.8 fWAR, for those who prefer FanGraphs’ version of the statistic).

[Related: Giants Aggressively Pursuing Second Base Upgrade]

At this point, the fit between Donovan and the Mariners has been explored at length. He’s an affordable ($5.8MM in 2026) high-contact bat with good on-base and defensive skills who can handle either of the two currently unsettled positions in the Seattle infield: second base or third base. The M’s have plenty of highly touted prospects who could emerge at those positions — Colt Emerson, Cole Young, Michael Arroyo among them — but Donovan could also move to an outfield corner if those promising young players force the issue. He’s under control through the 2027 season via arbitration.

Romero was previously linked to the Mariners, but that was before the team acquired Ferrer. It’s notable that Jones implies there have been talks even after that swap. The 29-year-old lefty has been a mainstay in the Cardinals’ bullpen for three-plus seasons now and has steadily shown year-over-year improvement. In 2025, he tossed a career-high 61 innings with a career-best 2.07 earned run average. Romero saved eight games, tallied 24 holds and blew only one opportunity. He fanned a slightly below-average 21.6% of his opponents against a bloated 11.4% walk rate that stands as a major outlier relative to the career 7.7% walk rate he carried into the ’25 season. The lefty also kept a hefty 54.5% of batted balls on the ground.

The Cardinals signed Romero to a $4.26MM contract for the upcoming season — his final year of club control. While last year’s hiccup in terms of command is of at least some concern, the broader track record is quite strong. Since joining the Cardinals, Romero boasts a flat 3.00 ERA (3.61 SIERA) with a 23.4% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate, 53.7% ground-ball rate, 57 holds and 12 saves. The Orioles and Yankees are among the others to show interest in Romero, though it’s a veritable certainty that the field of interested clubs is much larger than just these three.

Echoing previous reporting from The Athletic’s Katie Woo, Jude suggests that at least a pair of top-100 prospects — switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje and outfielder Lazaro Montes — have been discussed in talks with the Cardinals. The exact permutations of those talks remains murky. There’s no firm indication that St. Louis has sought both in the same package for Donovan, just as there’s no certainty that Seattle has offered both. It’s certainly possible that Romero’s name has come up as part of a package talk involving one or both those ballyhooed young players. Whatever shape those negotiations have taken, they (obviously) have yet to culminate in a deal.

Hoerner, much like Donovan, is a straightforward fit for the Mariners. The previously mentioned Cole Young is currently in line to open the season at second base for the M’s. He’s a former first-round pick and top-50 prospect, but Young hit just .211/.302/.305 in his first 77 MLB games last year. He won’t even turn 23 until late July, so there’s plenty of time for him to develop into a quality regular, but the Mariners are built to win right now. Hoerner, a free agent next winter who’s signed for $12MM in 2026, would give the Mariners an immediate upgrade while affording them the luxury of additional development time for Young. As a bonus, Seattle could extend a qualifying offer to Hoerner next November, netting them a compensatory draft pick in the event that he signs elsewhere.

Again, the Cubs are not outright shopping Hoerner but are willing to hear other clubs out. They’re almost certainly not going to trade him for prospects who are years from MLB readiness; doing so would offset most or even all of the wins gained by bringing Bregman into the fold. It’s hard to come up with a direct exchange that would benefit both parties equally, but the Mariners are nothing if not aggressive and creative on the trade front.

At present, RosterResource projects the Mariners for just under $157MM in 2026 payroll. That’s a bit shy of the franchise-record $158MM Opening Day payroll and a ways south of the roughly $167MM figure at which they ended the 2025 campaign. Given the win-now push in Seattle and the extra revenue from a deep playoff run that saw the Mariners advance to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, it stands to reason that ownership is willing to push payroll beyond those marks.

Orioles Interested In JoJo Romero

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The Orioles have shown interest in Cardinals left-hander JoJo Romero, reports Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The O’s join the Yankees and Mariners as club connected to Romero this month.

Romero, 29, is one of the most straightforward trade candidates of the offseason. He is slated for free agency after the upcoming campaign. With the Cardinals rebuilding, there’s little sense in hanging onto him. They could wait to trade him at the deadline but that path carries risks, as the Cards know. They held onto Erick Fedde and Ryan Helsley going into 2025 and saw both pitchers decrease their respective trade values with poor performances. Even if Romero keeps performing, any pitcher can get hurt at any time, which is another reason to cash him in now.

Since being acquired from the Phillies in 2022, Romero has tossed 171 innings for the Cards, allowing exactly three earned runs per nine. His 23.4% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in that time are both pretty close to typical league averages but his 53.7% ground ball rate is quite strong. He averages around 94 miles per hour with his four-seamer and sinker while also mixing in a slider, cutter, curveball and changeup. He has recorded 12 saves and 64 holds.

Romero isn’t an overpowering bullpen arm by today’s standards but his results have been consistently solid. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $4.4MM salary next year, very affordable in the current landscape.

The Baltimore bullpen has changed a lot in the past six months. They fell out of contention this year and went into seller mode at the deadline. They flipped Gregory Soto, Seranthony Domínguez and Andrew Kittredge to other clubs. In August, Félix Bautista required shoulder surgery, a procedure with an estimated recovery time of 12 months. This offseason, they have re-acquired Kittredge from the Cubs and signed Helsley.

They currently have four lefty relievers on the 40-man roster, in Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns, Grant Wolfram and Josh Walker. Akin has had some solid years with the Orioles but had an uncharacteristic 12.3% walk rate this year. Enns is about to turn 35 and worked as a swingman in 2025 after a few years pitching in Asia. Wolfram and Walker each have fewer than 30 big league innings pitched. Romero would immediately jump to the top of that group if the O’s were able to acquire him.

The lefty relief market has been surging a bit lately. In the past two weeks, Soto, Hoby Milner, Tyler Alexander, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Ferguson and Caleb Thielbar have signed free agent deals. On the trade market, Jose A. Ferrer, Ángel Zerpa and Matt Strahm have been flipped. Free agency still features guys like Sean Newcomb, Justin Wilson, Danny Coulombe, Andrew Chafin, Brent Suter and others. There are many theoretical trade candidates but Romero is the most obvious one.

Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images

Yankees Interested In JoJo Romero

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The Cardinals have been getting a lot of calls about left-hander JoJo Romero, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Yankees are one of the teams showing interest.  The Mariners were the only other team publicly known to be in on Romero, though it isn’t known if Seattle is still involved now that Jose A. Ferrer has been acquired from the Nationals.

Romero is projected to earn $4.4MM in 2026, which is his final season of arbitration control before free agency.  With the Cardinals in rebuild mode, Romero is a logical trade candidate, and moving him now rather than at the trade deadline allows St. Louis to both land a larger return and avoid the risk of an in-season injury to the 29-year-old southpaw.

From New York’s perspective, Devin Williams and Mark Leiter Jr. have both departed in free agency, and Luke Weaver is still on the open market.  Ryan Yarbrough was re-signed to add more left-handed depth to the pen, though Yarbrough is more of a swingman than a true reliever.  Veteran Tim Hill is expected to hold down one lefty spot in the relief corps, and Brent Headrick and Jayvien Sandridge are other left-handers on the 40-man roster.

There’s certainly room here for the Yankees to add some left-handed experience to the mix, and Romero would be a nice fit after three seasons of success in the Cardinals’ bullpen.  Romero began his career in the Phillies organization but didn’t start putting things together until he landed in St. Louis as the return in the trade deadline swap that brought Edmundo Sosa to Philadelphia in 2022.

Romero has a 2.93 ERA over 156 2/3 innings for the Cards since Opening Day 2023, and his ERA has gotten progressively better in each season.  His sparkling 2.07 ERA over 61 innings in 2025 was the highlight, though a 4.10 SIERA reflects Romero’s lack of strikeouts and his mediocre 11.4% walk rate.  The latter number was by far Romero’s highest over his three seasons with the Cards, and is something of an ominous callback to the control problems that clouded his time with the Phillies.

Still, Romero’s bread-and-butter is inducing grounders and soft contact.  Romero has a 53.7% grounder rate over his MLB career, and his 35.1% hard-hit ball rate in 2025 was a personal best over a full season.  While his homer rate has been known to fluctuate, Romero did a great job of keeping the ball in the park last year, with just two homers allowed over his 60 frames.  Romero’s 22.8% career strikeout rate is respectable enough that Romero isn’t a complete groundball specialist, even if he doesn’t miss a ton of bats.

Some teams may balk at the lack of strikeouts, but overall, it makes sense that there’s broad interest in an inexpensive left-handed reliever with Romero’s track record for leverage work.  That said, it isn’t a lock that Romero will be dealt, as Goold writes that the Cardinals themselves are looking for experienced relief help in their bullpen.  If none can be found in free agency or on the trade market, it is possible St. Louis might just stick with Romero in lieu of a particularly attractive trade offer, and perhaps wait until the season begins to restart trade talks.  Or, if the Cardinals land another veteran reliever sooner rather than later, the Cards might feel secure enough to start more readily shopping Romero.

Latest On Mariners’ Bullpen Targets

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Mariners general manager Justin Hollander publicly admitted a few weeks back that the club would be looking for bullpen upgrades. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reports that Seattle plans to add two relievers and hopes to have one locked down by the end of the Winter Meetings next week. Adding a lefty is a priority and Jude lists five names they are considering, with four of them being southpaws. They are Matt Strahm of the Phillies, JoJo Romero of the Cardinals, Jose A. Ferrer of the Nationals, as well as free agents Tyler Rogers and Hoby Milner. Rogers is the lone right-hander in that group. Jude also mentions that the Mariners had interest in right-hander Phil Maton before he signed with the Cubs.

Seattle had a decent bullpen group in 2025. Their relievers had a collective 3.72 earned run average, which was ninth in the majors. Andrés Muñoz is one of the better closers in the game. But just about any club can add an extra leverage arm or two and bump other guys down a peg. That’s particularly true for the Mariners from the left side, as Gabe Speier is their only established southpaw reliever at the moment. Robinson Ortiz is the other lefty reliever on the 40-man but he hasn’t yet made his major league debut.

It’s unlikely that the club will spend a lot on the relief group. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto suggested that the M’s will likely begin 2026 with a similar payroll to where they were at the end of 2025. RosterResource estimates that they are currently about $15MM shy of that target. They already re-signed Josh Naylor but could look to further bolster the infield by re-signing Jorge Polanco or Eugenio Suárez. Jude unsurprisingly suggests the M’s aren’t likely to go after a big name reliever like Edwin Díaz or Robert Suarez.

Strahm, 34, is the most established of the bunch. He now has ten big league seasons under his belt. Though he has pushed into his mid-30s, he has remained effective. He just tossed 62 1/3 innings for the Phils this year, allowing 2.74 earned runs per nine. His 7.8% walk rate was a bit better than average and his 27.3% strikeout rate was quite strong. He triggered a vesting option in his contract and will make $7.5MM next year.

All that makes him attractive for the Mariners but also valuable for the Phillies. It’s possible the Phils may be willing to move a lefty due to a relative surplus. They have reportedly received some trade interest since they have Strahm, José Alvarado and Tanner Banks. The Phils have a lot they want to accomplish this winter, including re-signing Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto while also remaking their outfield and perhaps bolstering the rotation. They have some money to spend but perhaps trading one of their lefties could leave them less reliant on spending their cash.

Romero, 29, is a much more straightforward trade candidate. The Cardinals are rebuilding and he is just one year away from free agency. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a salary of $4.4MM next year. Over the past three years, he has tossed 156 2/3 innings for the Cards with a 2.93 ERA, 22.9% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and 53.3% ground ball rate.

Ferrer, 26 in March, is also on a rebuilding club. However, he’s under club control for four more years and hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration, so the Nats don’t really need to trade him anytime soon. They are surely hoping to return to contention within his window of control but they may be open to a trade anyway, given that a pitcher can get hurt at any time and reliever performance tends to be volatile.

In Ferrer’s career, he has an unimpressive 4.36 ERA but that might mask his true skills. He is a ground ball guy and the Nats have been one of the worst defensive clubs in recent years, so perhaps a change of scenery would help him unlock a new gear in terms of run prevention. In 76 1/3 innings for the Nats this year, his 21.9% strikeout rate was just shy of league average. His 4.9% walk rate and 62.6% ground ball rate were both excellent. His 4.48 ERA doesn’t look great but his 3.03 FIP and 2.85 SIERA provide more optimism about him thriving in a different environment.

Milner, 35 in January, has a somewhat similar grounder-heavy profile to Ferrer. He has logged at least 64 innings in four straight seasons now. Over that 2022-25 span, he has thrown 264 frames with a 3.55 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, 5.8% walk rate and 51.1% ground ball rate. Despite the solid track record, he was only able to secure a one-year, $2.5MM deal from Texas last winter. Perhaps he’ll have some extra earning power after finishing another solid season but he’s also a year older.

Rogers, 35 this month, is one of the most unique pitchers in the game. Not to be confused with his lefty brother Taylor, Tyler is the submarining righty. He doesn’t rack up strikeouts but he is one of the best in the game when it comes to staying healthy, avoiding walks and inducing grounders as well as soft contact. He has logged at least 70 innings in five straight campaigns. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has 378 1/3 innings with a 2.71 ERA, 17% strikeout rate, 4.4% walk rate, 56.3% ground ball rate and consistently strong numbers in terms of exit velocity allowed. He is a free agent for the first time and should be in high demand but some teams may be scared off by his age and lack of velocity, as he can barely even get into the 80s with his fastballs.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin, Oncea-Imagn Images

Cardinals’ JoJo Romero Generating Trade Interest

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The Cardinals moved the first of what’ll surely be several veterans earlier today when they traded right-hander Sonny Gray (and $20MM) to the Red Sox for a pair of younger pitchers and a player to be named later (or cash). There’s no telling right now the order in which their offseason dominos will fall, but Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat reports that left-handed reliever JoJo Romero has been drawing trade interest throughout the first few weeks of the offseason.

Romero is about as straightforward as trade candidates get. He’s a productive, affordable reliever on a rebuilding club who’ll be a free agent this time next year. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects a $4.4MM salary in 2026, which is Romero’s final season of club control.

The 29-year-old Romero came to the St. Louis from Philadelphia in 2022 and established himself as a staple in the Cardinals’ bullpen beginning in 2023. Over the past three years, he’s worked 156 2/3 frames with a 2.93 ERA and roughly average strikeout and walk rates (22.9 K%, 8.5 BB%). He sat 93.7 mph with his sinker this past season and kept 53% of his opponents’ batted balls on the ground en route to a sparkling 2.07 ERA.

Romero has been one of the Cardinals’ top leverage relievers, evidenced by a dozen saves and 57 holds across the past three seasons. He also posted career-best numbers against righties in 2025, limiting them to just a .220/.327/.315 batting line.

[Related: Top 40 Trade Candidates of the 2025-26 MLB Offseason]

The Cardinals’ case for trading Romero is bolstered by a generally weak class of left-handed relievers on the free agent market. There are some relatively solid options out there, including Caleb Ferguson, Danny Coulombe, Hoby Milner, Justin Wilson, Caleb Thielbar, Drew Pomeranz and Sean Newcomb (who quietly enjoyed a career-best season in the bullpen). Most of those southpaws will pitch next season in their mid-to-late 30s, however. Ferguson is 29, but Coulombe, Milner, Wilson, Pomeranz and Thielbar are all 35 or older. Newcomb is 33 but has minimal track record in recent seasons.

Romero is younger and more consistent than most of the options available in free agency. His projected $4.4MM price tag is probably less than what the majority of those free agent options will command, too. The Cardinals found themselves in a similar situation with closer Ryan Helsley last offseason but bizarrely opted to hang onto him, hoping that demand for Helsley would increase and net a larger return in July, when the supply of impact relievers was more limited. Instead, Helsley had a first half that was solid but not quite up to his elite standards the two prior seasons. The Mets still swung a trade to acquire him, but it’s fair to wonder whether the Cards would have done better had they flipped him last winter.

It doesn’t seem likely that the Cardinals, under new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, will repeat the approach that predecessor John Mozeliak took with Helsley. Bloom has already shipped out Gray, and the general tone in all of his offseason media sessions has been one of improving the player development department and taking a long-term approach to building the Cardinals back up. The return for Romero isn’t going to be franchise-altering, but he ought to command a prospect or two that the Cards can plug into their minor league ranks. Holding onto him runs the risk of an injury or poor first-half performance tanking Romero’s stock; a trade at some point this offseason feels quite likely.

Latest On Cardinals’ Offseason Plans

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With Chaim Bloom now officially at the helm of the Cardinals’ baseball operations department, the rebuilding phase that the team has been expected to undergo since it was announced that Bloom would take over for John Mozeliak this offseason now looks likely to begin in earnest. That means exploring possibilities on the trade market, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cardinals told agents during the GM Meetings this past week that their interest in at least some free agents will hinge on the team’s ability to clear salary in trades.

The big name so far in this winter’s rumor mill has been super utility man Brendan Donovan. Donovan has already been connected to Royals, Guardians, and Astros with other teams expected to be involved as well. Robust as the market for the 28-year-old’s services appears to be, clearing his salary (which MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects to land at $5.4MM in 2026) off the books won’t do much for the team’s bottom line. Of course, Donovan is far from the only name on the trade market from St. Louis. Six Cardinals appeared on MLBTR’s list of the Top 40 Trade Candidates for this offseason.

That includes three veterans making significant money: right-hander Sonny Gray, third baseman Nolan Arenado, and catcher-turned-first baseman Willson Contreras. Ownership is reportedly willing to include cash in trades of higher priced veterans, and the club’s trio of veterans with no-trade clauses have all expressed a willingness to be more lax with their no-trade protections than they were last winter. Goold writes that the Cardinals are “actively seeking “fits”” for both Arenado and Gray on the trade market. That’s hardly a surprise between St. Louis’s efforts to move Arenado all throughout last winter and the $40MM payout that Gray is guaranteed between his $35MM salary in 2026 and a $5MM buyout on his 2027 option.

Even if some salary is retained, moving Gray and Arenado would open up the club’s finances considerably. RosterResource projects the Cardinals for a $124MM payroll in 2026. While that’s down about $20MM from last year and nearly $40MM from two years ago, ownership and the front office have been candid about the plan to scale back payroll in recent years. If trading both Gray and Arenado can clear $30MM to $40MM off the Cardinals’ books this year, however, that should give them a lot more flexibility when perusing free agency for short-term upgrades who could either help the club compete next year or become trade chips themselves over the summer.

Notably absent from Goold’s roundup of rumors is Contreras. That’s an interesting development, as Contreras would likely be the easiest of the three to move in theory. With that being said, he’s also the one most hesitant to waive his no-trade protection. While he’s indicated he would be willing to consider possible trades, his preference remains to stay in St. Louis and serve as a veteran leader in a clubhouse that figures to get a lot younger as the team retools the roster. A surprise trade of Contreras could lessen the pressure to move both Gray and Arenado or open up even more possibilities on the trade market for St. Louis, but it’s fair to expect that the Cardinals will spend most of their energy on trying to move the veterans most willing to waive their no-trade clauses.

Looking beyond the club’s pricey veterans, Donovan is joined by players like Lars Nootbaar and JoJo Romero as potential trade chips Goold writes that the Cardinals told rival clubs they were willing to listen on. Goold notes all three of those players are within two years of free agency, a fact that’s also true of both Gray and Arenado. The only other players with less than three years of team control remaining in the organization are John King, who was reportedly a trade candidate over the summer, and post-deadline waiver claim Jorge Alcala. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see King’s name come back up in the rumor mill at some point, though Alcala seems unlikely to have any real trade value after posting an ERA north of 6.00 this past year.

In terms of the return for the players they look to deal, Goold adds that the Cardinals have made clear to rival clubs that they’re prioritizing pitching help and looking towards the future. Kansas City and Cleveland, as previously mentioned, are already known to be in the mix for Donovan and have the sort of young, controllable pitching available that could intrigue the Cardinals. The same could be true of teams like the Yankees and Dodgers who have previously expressed interest in Donovan as well. One intriguing fit could be with the Pirates.

In-division trades typically aren’t especially common, but Pittsburgh GM Ben Cherington has shown himself to be comfortable dealing with the Cardinals in the past, such as when the sides came together on a trade involving Jose Quintana and Johan Oviedo at the 2022 trade deadline. The Pirates have plenty of young pitching and are in need of help in the outfield that both Donovan and Nootbaar could potentially provide. Bloom’s old stomping grounds of Boston also have a rich collection of young pitching, though their existing glut of left-handed outfield talent could make them a less than ideal fit for someone like Donovan and especially Nootbaar.

Cardinals Notes: Romero, King

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Cardinals left-hander JoJo Romero was a logical trade candidate this summer but wasn’t moved. In a chat with readers this week, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that “at least one team” was in touch with the Cardinals, looking for a lefty reliever. However, Goold relays that the Cards let that team know they would be willing to listen to offers on John King, seemingly preferring to make him available as opposed to Romero.

The interest in Romero is understandable. His career strikeout and walk rates of 23% and 8.3%, respectively, are both pretty close to league average. His 53.1% ground ball rate is quite strong. He has a 3.70 earned run average in his career and that number is down to 1.98 here in 2025. He is making just $2.26MM this year and can be retained via arbitration for 2026. The Padres were connected to Romero prior to the deadline but there were likely plenty of other clubs interested without that interest being made public.

It seems the Cards didn’t have much interest in making him available, as they tried to put King out there as an alternative. King is somewhat akin to Romero as a lefty grounder specialist, but his numbers aren’t quite as strong. His 62.2% ground ball rate is better than Romero’s but he has only punched out 15.1% of opponents. That’s a notable difference, especially in the modern era where front offices love strikeouts. King has a 3.87 ERA in his career but is at 5.18 this year. He is making $1.605MM this year and can be controlled via arbitration for two more seasons. That’s one extra year compared to Romero but King is two years older, about to turn 31 while Romero is almost 29. King landed on the IL with a strained oblique just before the deadline.

Ultimately, neither player moved, so the Cardinals presumably didn’t get an offer they considered compelling enough in either case. What will be interesting to monitor going forward is if there will be a shift once their regime change takes the next step.

It was almost a year ago, in late September of 2024, that the impending front office change was announced. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak would stay through 2025 before handing the reins over the Chaim Bloom. In the interim, Bloom would be focusing on the club’s player development systems, occasionally advising on front office moves as well.

The Cards were also open about 2025 being a transition year where they would be less focused on investing in the big league roster, with more of an emphasis on those player development elements. It was widely expected that they would make veteran players available last offseason, particularly the expensive ones. However, guys like Willson Contreras, Miles Mikolas and Sonny Gray showed little to no interest in waiving their respective no-trade clauses. Nolan Arenado was more open to trade possibilities but blocked a deal to the Astros and ultimately wasn’t moved.

The club could have then pivoted to trading other guys in the offseason, such as Erick Fedde or Ryan Helsley, but ended up mostly staying pat. Their most notable move of the winter was signing Phil Maton for one year and $2MM.

Their deadline, too, was modest. They made a few trades but only moved impending free agents like Fedde, Helsley, Maton and Steven Matz. They reportedly got interest in controllable guys like Romero, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan but held all of them.

What remains to be seen is if those decisions were a function of the weird limbo year. Perhaps Mozeliak preferred to leave the decisions on those controllable guys to his successor. If so, then maybe it’s possible those guys will be more available this winter once the keys are handed over to Bloom.

It also depends on various other factors. What sort of payroll parameters will Bloom get from ownership? Will the club wait for expensive contracts to expire before spending on the team again? How does Bloom feel about the system he’s been monitoring for the past year? Does the club still want to keep giving playing time to players like Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman despite lackluster results in 2025?

The decisions to not move Fedde and Helsley in the winter seemed to backfire. Both players posted worse results in 2025 than in 2024, which presumably led to lesser trade returns this summer than if they had been moved a few months earlier. Perhaps Bloom will look to avoid the same path with guys like Romero this winter, though his decisions should be impacted by the answers to the questions surrounding the franchise.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images

Padres Interested In JoJo Romero

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The Cardinals’ bullpen should look quite a bit different in 36 hours than it does now. Closer Ryan Helsley is one of the most coveted available relievers and is very likely to move. Phil Maton and Steven Matz are impending free agents who should be traded as well. There hasn’t been as much public attention on southpaw JoJo Romero, but he’s another trade candidate.

Katie Woo of The Athletic reports that the Padres are among the teams to show interest in Romero. St. Louis has presumably received interest from a few clubs on the 28-year-old lefty, who carries a 2.12 ERA across 34 innings. Romero has fanned 24% of batters faced with a 52.9% ground-ball rate. He has collected 16 holds without blowing a lead all year, and he’s coming up on three months of quiet excellence.

Romero had a rocky April, allowing eight runs (seven earned) with seven walks and strikeouts apiece in 10 1/3 innings. He has allowed just four runs, one earned, since that point. Romero owns a 0.38 ERA with a 28.1% strikeout rate while keeping opposing hitters to a .200/.277/.271 slash line over his past 27 appearances. While he’s obviously not going to maintain that level of dominance, he has fired 93 innings of 2.90 ERA ball while picking up 46 holds over the past season and a half. He has gotten plus ground-ball marks with solid swing-and-miss rates while sitting around 94 MPH on his fastball.

Unlike the trio of more frequently mentioned rentals in the St. Louis bullpen, Romero is under club control for another season. He’s playing on a $2.26MM salary this year and should land in the $4-5MM range for his final arbitration campaign. The Cardinals should nevertheless look to move him to a clearer contender this summer, especially if they lower their already diminished playoff odds by trading Helsley and Maton.

San Diego has a trio of left-handers in the bullpen. Adrian Morejon is among the best in baseball. Romero would be a more reliable second option than Wandy Peralta or Yuki Matsui. Adding to the bullpen could be viewed as a luxury buy for a team with clearer holes in left field and throughout the bench. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller has left the door open to further adding to an already excellent relief group. It’s also possible they could acquire a leverage reliever while dealing away one of their current late-inning arms (most likely closer Robert Suarez) for outfield or rotation help.

Ryan Helsley Expects To Be Traded

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Ryan Helsley has stood as a logical trade candidate for upwards of ten months now, dating back to the Cardinals’ declaration that they planned to reduce payroll heading into the 2025 season and focus on creating opportunities for young players. St. Louis surprisingly held onto Helsley all offseason and up into deadline season. After holding a Wild Card spot earlier this summer, they’ve gone dropped 13 of their past 19 games and now sit nine games out of the division lead. They’re still just two and a half games back in the Wild Card scene but have three teams to leapfrog.

With the team’s recent slide, indications have been that they’ll wind up operating primarily on the sell side of the market. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported in the past couple days that the Cards are listening on not only Helsley but also relievers Phil Maton and Steven Matz. Goold wrote this morning that the Cardinals aren’t necessarily turning away interest in lefty reliever John King or infielder Nolan Gorman — among other unnamed, more controllable pieces. (Presumably, southpaw JoJo Romero, who’s controlled through just the 2026 season, is obtainable as well.)

The reality seems to be setting in on the roster. Helsley told The Athletic’s Katie Woo tonight that the “likelihood is probably as great as it’s ever been for me to get traded” before going on to add: “I would say it’s 90 percent I go, 10 percent I stay.” Helsley made clear that his preference would be to remain with the Cardinals and win in St. Louis, but that’s not a decision that’s under his control at the moment.

At least five clubs have shown interest in Helsley, per Woo and colleague Will Sammon. The Dodgers are known to have interest in the 31-year-old flamethrower, and the Phillies were connected to him earlier this season. Back in the offseason, the Blue Jays were among the teams with interest, and it stands to reason now that they’re clear deadline buyers, they could revisit their pursuit of the impending free agent.

Helsley is earning $8.2MM in his final season of club control. The Cardinals could make him a qualifying offer and recoup a compensatory pick in the 2026 draft if he turns it down and signs elsewhere, though that would presume continued health and production from Helsley down the stretch. Neither is a guarantee. The most surefire way to extract some future value from the former All-Star is to trade him within the next week.

Helsley is having a nice season relative to the average big league reliever but a down year by his standards. He’s pitched 35 innings and logged a 3.09 ERA but has already blown five saves — more than he did all of last season (four). Helsley’s 25.5% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate have both trended in the wrong direction. He punched out 34.6% of his opponents from 2022-24, but his strikeout rate has now dipped for a third consecutive season. His walk rate is up from both the 8.6% and 8.4% marks he posted in 2024 and 2022, respectively, though it’s better than the 11.6% mark he logged in 2023 and right in line with his overall 2022-24 rate. He’s still averaging better than 99 mph on his fastball, though even his 99.3 mph average represents a modest dip from last year’s 99.6 mph.

That’s not to say Helsley doesn’t have much trade value. He’s one of the most talented relievers on the market, and the asking price on him will be considerably lower than on other marquee relievers like Emmanuel Clase, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and David Bednar — all of whom are controlled at least one additional season (one for Bednar, two for Duran and Jax, three for Clase). Contending clubs covet power arms with high-leverage track records this time of year, and Helsley still checks those boxes, even if his results have dipped.

If the Cards string together several wins, perhaps they’ll ultimately wind up holding onto Helsley and plan to make him a qualifying offer. As things stand, however, the pitcher himself is bracing for a trade within the next week — and it sounds like several other Cardinals could end up on the move as well.

The Cardinals’ Trio Of Bullpen Trade Candidates

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The Cardinals’ direction is one of the key storylines of the offseason. The franchise has made clear they’re prioritizing the future while giving more playing time to young players in 2025. They’ve pushed back on initial chatter about a complete teardown, at least in part because a couple veterans with no-trade clauses prefer to see things through in St. Louis.

Even if they’re not in a complete rebuild, the Cardinals should gauge interest on players with limited windows of contractual control. That’s especially true in the bullpen. Their star closer will get the most calls from other teams, but St. Louis has a few relievers who could come up in talks. Projected salaries are courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

  • Ryan Helsley (eligible for arbitration through 2025, $6.9MM projected salary)

The Cards are down to one year of control over Helsley. If they’re not all-in for 2025, he should move either this winter or at next summer’s deadline. An offseason deal would give an acquiring team a few extra months of Helsley’s services and allow them to consider a qualifying offer when he hits free agency.

Katie Woo of the Athletic wrote last week that the Cardinals were already receiving quite a bit of interest. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggested the Cards may need to be “overwhelmed” to deal the righty, but they should be able to weigh multiple compelling offers.

Helsley is among the best few relievers in MLB. He’s coming off three straight fantastic seasons. Helsley broke out with a 1.25 earned run average across 64 2/3 innings in 2022. A forearm strain wiped out a few months of his ’23 campaign, but he posted a 2.45 ERA through 36 2/3 frames when able to take the mound. Helsley’s arm held up over a completely healthy season this year. He fired a career-best 66 1/3 innings with a 2.04 mark over 65 appearances.

After beginning his career in a setup role, Helsley proved himself an elite closer this past season. He led the majors with 49 saves while surrendering only four leads. He paced the National League with 62 games finished. Helsley punched out nearly 30% of opposing hitters against a tolerable 8.6% walk rate. Going back to the start of the ’22 season, he carries a 1.83 ERA with a huge 34.6% strikeout percentage through 167 2/3 innings.

Helsley has the kind of overpowering arsenal teams want in the late innings. His four-seam fastball sits above 99 MPH. Opponents had a surprising amount of success against that heater this year, but the ability to reach back for triple digit heaters makes it tough for hitters to adjust to his wipeout slider. Opponents whiffed on more than half their swings against the Helsley slider in 2024. He got swinging strikes at a 17.3% clip overall, a top 15 mark among relievers with at least 20 innings.

Alongside Devin Williams, Helsley is one of this winter’s top two bullpen trade candidates. He’d fit for any contender. Teams that already have a closer could push him into the eighth inning. Clubs like the Phillies, Rangers and Red Sox have seen their closers hit free agency. The Blue Jays, Yankees, Orioles, Royals and Diamondbacks are other potential suitors.

  • JoJo Romero (eligible for arbitration through 2026, $1.9MM projected salary)

Romero has had a nice two-plus year run at Busch Stadium. Acquired from the Phillies at the 2022 deadline for utility player Edmundo Sosa, Romero has emerged as skipper Oli Marmol’s top lefty reliever. He has posted consecutive seasons with a sub-4.00 ERA, turning in a career-best 3.36 mark through 59 innings this year.

There are some concerns. After striking out 28.6% of batters faced in 2023, he posted a middling 21% strikeout rate this year. Romero had a much more difficult time missing bats within the zone in 2024. That’s an issue for a pitcher who has never excelled at getting batters to chase off the plate. Romero has intriguing stuff, pairing a 94 MPH sinker with a slider and changeup. The breaking ball is by far his best offering and served as the putaway pitch for 40 of his 51 strikeouts this year.

As one might expect given that profile, Romero has been much better against same-handed hitters. Lefties have a .172/.267/.270 slash against him in his career, while right-handed hitters have teed off at a .280/.337/.472 clip. His 2024 platoon splits are just as extreme. Romero might be best suited for a situational role, but perhaps another team feels there’s a tweak they can make to get better production against righty hitters. While Romero has increased the usage on his slider in every season since 2021, he still only used it about a third of the time this year.

Romero finished the year on the injured list due to forearm inflammation. The Cardinals announced that he isn’t expected to require surgery and should have a normal offseason. Assuming that’s the case, he should attract interest.

John King (eligible for arbitration through 2027, $1.5MM projected salary)

The 30-year-old King isn’t as well known as Helsley or Romero, but he’s coming off a nice season. The southpaw turned in a 2.85 ERA through a career-high 60 innings spanning 56 appearances. King is a pure ground-ball specialist. He kept the ball on the ground at a massive 61.7% rate this year and has a career rate just north of 62%. Among the 160 relievers who threw at least 50 innings, only three (Tim Hill, Clay Holmes and Yennier Cano) had a higher grounder percentage.

King doesn’t miss bats, but he’s a situational lefty who should appeal to teams looking to deepen their middle relief group. (The Yankees make for a speculative fit considering New York’s love of relievers with plus grounder rates.) King is cheaply controllable for another three seasons and has held left-handed batters to a .250/.300/.320 slash over 308 career plate appearances. While the Cardinals aren’t under any contractual pressure to deal him, this isn’t the type of player that St. Louis would refuse to entertain in trade talks. If the Cards could pull a mid-level prospect or two, King could be on the move.

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The Cards have two other bullpen arms who’d attract interest, though they’re less likely to move. Rule 5 pick Ryan Fernandez had a strong rookie season. With five more years of team control, St. Louis probably prefers to hold him in a leverage role. Former top prospect Matthew Liberatore looks to have found a home in relief. He’s also still controllable for five seasons. The Cardinals aren’t likely to find an offer that pushes them to move the 25-year-old southpaw this early in his career.

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