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Latest On Blue Jays’ Pursuits

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The Jays came so close to winning it all in 2025 and all signs point to them being aggressive in reloading for 2026. From the General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas, Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet as well as Mitch Bannon of The Athletic report that all signs point to the Jays being strongly involved in various markets, including starting pitchers, relievers and position players.

That’s not surprising framing. The Jays have been one of the more active clubs in recent winters, which has included pursuits of big names like Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and others. Though they missed on those guys, they have signed seven different free agents to deals of at least three years in length over the past five years. Those were George Springer, Anthony Santander, Kevin Gausman, Yariel Rodríguez, Jeff Hoffman, Yusei Kikuchi and Chris Bassitt. They are fresh off a deep playoff run that presumably swelled the coffers a bit and could reinvest some of that into the roster.

Adding to the bullpen would be a logical move, as Toronto’s relief corps was middling this year. The club’s relievers had a collective 3.98 earned run average, which placed them 16th out of the 30 major league teams. They added Seranthony Domínguez and Louis Varland at the deadline but Domínguez is now a free agent. The closer, Hoffman, posted a 4.37 ERA and could be open to moving to a setup role.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the Jays and Dodgers are two clubs expected to pursue Pete Fairbanks, who just became a free agent when the Rays declined his player option. Though the Dodgers just won the title, they did so despite their bullpen falling apart throughout the year. Manager Dave Roberts leaned heavily on his starters through the playoffs, which included using all of Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game Seven of the World Series.

Fairbanks would make sense on a lot of clubs but the Dodgers and Jays are certainly two of them. He spent the last three years as the closer in Tampa, saving at least 23 games in each of those seasons. He also finished each season with an ERA below 3.58, including a 2.83 mark in 2025.

However, there are some yellow flags with Fairbanks. Injuries have been a big part of his career. 2025 was the first time he ever reached the 50-inning plateau in a season. Though he has continued to have good results in the ERA department, other numbers are less encouraging. Over 2022 and 2023, he struck out 39.1% of batters faced, but he was down to 24% over the two most recent seasons. His velocity also dropped two ticks, as he was around 99 miles per hour with his fastball in 2022-23 but has been closer to 97 mph since then.

Teams should still be interested in Fairbanks but the declines have presumably impacted his market. The Rays had an $11MM club option with a $1MM buyout, a net $10MM decision. They presumably tried to trade Fairbanks before declining that and didn’t find too much interest. Teams are usually wary of committing money so early in the offseason but someone would have jumped if they felt that was a bargain.

He could get a one-year deal somewhere in the vicinity of that option price but a multi-year pact at a similar annual value is also possible. The Dodgers and Jays, as well as almost any other club, could easily afford that.

But Fairbanks is just one of dozens of options on the relief market. Bannon mentions Phil Maton and Tyler Kinley as possible fits, seemingly in speculative fashion. Maton has been putting up good numbers for years but the market hasn’t paid him, presumably because he barely gets his velo over 90 mph. His past two trips to free agency have led to modest one-year deals. He got $6.5MM from the Rays going into 2024 and $2MM from the Cardinals last winter.

Dating back to the start of 2022, Maton has thrown 257 innings with a 3.33 ERA, 27% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 43% ground ball rate. He was even better in 2025, with a 2.79 ERA, 32.7% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 44.4% grounder rate. He’s generally one of the best pitchers in the league in terms of minimizing hard contract, which was still the case this year. His average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard hit rate were all in at least the 98th percentile of pitchers, according to Statcast. That strong season should earn him a raise but the market has already shrugged him off twice, so he shouldn’t break the bank.

Kinley has spent most of his career pitching for the Rockies, so he has some big ERAs on his track record. However, he finished 2025 strong. Atlanta acquired him at the deadline and then Kinley posted a 0.72 ERA over 25 innings once he was away from Coors Field. There was some good luck in there but his 23.4% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate were decent figures. Despite that finish, Atlanta turned down a $5.5MM club option, going for a $750K buyout instead. If that’s any indication of how the market perceives him, he should be very affordable for the Jays or any club.

Turning to the rotation, general manager Ross Atkins has already indicated that starting pitching will be a target. There are many ways to do that and Bannon reports that the Jays are going after the guys at the top of the market.

As Bannon mentions, the top free agent starters available are guys like Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez and Tatsuya Imai. MLBTR predicted those four to each get deals of at least five years with a guarantee of at least $115MM. The Jays have gone to that range with a pitcher before, as their aforementioned Gausman deal was for $110MM over five years. Depending on how the markets for these pitchers play out, landing one might require stretching a bit farther. MLBTR predicted Cease to get $189MM over seven years, while Valdez and Imai each got $150MM predictions, Valdez over five and Imai over six.

The Jays got a gift when Shane Bieber decided not to opt out of his deal. He took a $16MM salary for 2026 instead of a $4MM buyout, effectively taking $12MM while spurning the chance to head to free agency in search of more. That leaves the Jays with a rotation core of Gausman, Bieber and Trey Yesavage. They should have José Berríos at the back somewhere, as he is expected to be healthy by next year.

Guys like Eric Lauer, Bowden Francis, Ricky Tiedemann, Adam Macko, Lázaro Estrada and others could compete for a final spot, but the club would be in a better position if they brought in someone else. Lauer could be bumped to #6 and a long relief role if everyone is healthy, while the others could pitch in Triple-A. It would also make sense to sign someone beyond 2026, as Gausman and Bieber are slated for free agency a year from now, while Berríos will have an opt-out chance at that point as well.

A big strike on the position player side is also an option. Bringing back Bo Bichette is already known to be on the table. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported this week that Bichette is getting a lot of interest as a shortstop but also from clubs who need help at second and third base. Bichette’s shortstop defense has never been strong and he has dealt with numerous lower-body injuries in recent years. He finished 2025 playing second base for the Jays in the World Series, after missing several weeks due to a knee injury.

It’s unknown if Bichette will have strong preferences about his defensive home or if he just wants to secure the biggest payday. For the Jays, they probably prefer to keep Andrés Giménez at short since he’s a slick defender, but it’s unknown if they would be willing to put Bichette back at that spot in order to lure him back to Toronto.

There’s also a bit of smoke about a run at Kyle Tucker. Bob Nightengale of USA Today mentioned the possibility a few times in a column earlier this week. Both Bannon and Nicholson-Smith/Davidi column address the Tucker rumors but both suggest pitching is likely to be a bigger priority.

The Jays certainly could go after Tucker, even though he is likely to be quite expensive. MLBTR predicted he could land a $400MM guarantee over 11 years. As mentioned up top, the Jays have made strong runs at players above that stratosphere before and they gave Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a $500MM extension.

The current outfield mix includes Springer, Santander, Daulton Varsho, Nathan Lukes, Myles Straw, Joey Loperfido, Addison Barger and Davis Schneider. They don’t need Tucker in there but he would make the group stronger. Loperfido still has options while Barger and Schneider can play the infield. Springer, Varsho and Straw are all slated for free agency after 2026. Straw’s deal has club options for 2027 and 2028 but they might be a bit pricey for a bench outfielder like him. By 2027, it’s possible those three are gone with Santander moving into the designated hitter spot. It’s possible that guys like Yohendrick Pinango or RJ Schreck could come up and fill the void by then but Tucker would give the Jays more long-term certainty on the grass/turf.

At this stage of the offseason, there are still many paths available to the Jays. The report from Nicholson-Smith and Davidi characterizes them as involved everywhere but not desperate, so perhaps it’s not wise to expect their aggression to lead to a quick deal. They may slow-play things and look for opportunities to open up to them, depending on how the various markets develop.

An unknown factor is how much they will have to spend. RosterResource projects them for a $235MM payroll in 2026, which gives them more than $20MM of wiggle room relative to the $258MM payroll they had at the end of 2025. President Mark Shapiro has said that he doesn’t expect the payroll to go down next year. Around $20MM would not be enough to do everything mentioned here, but it’s possible the deep playoff run in 2025 will prompt the Jays to nudge the payroll up a bit.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Latest On Cubs, Shota Imanaga

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The Cubs are headed into this offseason prioritizing pitching additions, as president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told reporters (including Robert Murray of FanSided) yesterday. Hoyer noted that the club already has “a lot of position players,” which will lead them to prioritize giving a boost to both the rotation and bullpen.

It’s not necessarily a shocking update. While star outfielder Kyle Tucker’s free agency leaves a hole in the middle of Chicago’s lineup, it’s long seemed as though he was likely to end up elsewhere upon reaching free agency given the Cubs’ hesitance when it comes to giving out top-of-the-market contracts. Jason Heyward’s $184MM contract signed back during the 2015-2016 offseason remains the largest deal in Cubs history, and Tucker is expected to at least double that figure. While Hoyer told Murray that he’ll “be talking to” Tucker’s representation and was effusive in his praise of the four-time All-Star, a focus on pitching makes more sense given that hesitance to spend at the top of the market and Chicago’s roster outlook.

The Cubs already have everyday players locked into the majority of the spots on their roster. Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson are one of the league’s top middle infield duos, Ian Happ is the franchise’s longest-tenured player who just earned his fourth consecutive Gold Glove in left field, while Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong have cemented themselves as core pieces at first base and in center field. Seiya Suzuki is also sure to be in the lineup on an everyday basis, whether that’s in right field or as the team’s DH. Things seem more or less settled behind the plate as well after a career year for Carson Kelly, with Miguel Amaya and Reese McGuire both in the fold to help back up the veteran as well.

If the Cubs were going to make an addition to the lineup, adding a corner outfielder or DH (wherever Suzuki isn’t playing) or a third baseman would make the most sense. Even then, however, the Cubs have a group of up-and-coming young position players who could get full-season looks next year like Matt Shaw, Owen Caissie, Moises Ballesteros, and Kevin Alcantara. Shaw’s 93 wRC+ in 126 games last year, including a 130 wRC+ after the All-Star break, makes it easy to justify giving him runway at the hot corner next year. While none of Caissie, Ballesteros, or Alcantara has received substantial playing time in the majors yet, between the three of them it’s not unreasonable for Chicago to think they could mostly handle one spot in the lineup.

By contrast, the pitching staff clearly needs work. Shota Imanaga is now a free agent, and with Justin Steele’s return date uncertain coming off Tommy John surgery the only pitchers locked into rotation spots for Opening Day next year are mid-rotation veterans Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon as well as Rookie of the Year runner-up Cade Horton. Even among that group, there’s some red flags. Boyd has a lengthy injury history and only just enjoyed his first healthy season since 2019. Horton ended the season on the injured list and missed nearly all of 2024 due to a shoulder strain. Taillon missed around two months due to calf and groin issues. While players like Colin Rea and Javier Assad are viable starters in their own right, they’re best served as swing options.

That leaves room for a rotation addition or two, and there’s plenty of interesting arms who could make an impact for the Cubs this winter. Dylan Cease and Framber Valdez might price themselves out of the Cubs’ comfort zone, but either would still be far less expensive than Tucker. Chicago has done well courting NPB talent in the past, so perhaps right-hander Tatsuya Imai could be a fit. Ranger Suarez, Michael King, Brandon Woodruff, and Zac Gallen are among the many names who the Cubs could look to bring into the fold.

That doesn’t mean a reunion with Imanaga can be ruled out, however. The Cubs extended the southpaw a qualifying offer at the outset of the offseason last week, and he’ll need to decide in the coming days whether or not to accept that one-year, $22.05MM offer. Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes that Imanaga is expected to decline that offer, but that wouldn’t necessarily rule out a return even if he does so. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score suggests that the sides could look to reunite on a two-year deal this winter, which could come either before or after the QO deadline next week.

Reuniting with Imanaga would be a gamble, given the uncertain nature of Wrigley Field’s park factors and Imanaga’s struggles with keeping the ball in the park. Even so, however, it’s at least plausible that being attached to draft pick compensation dampens Imanaga’s market enough that a return to the Cubs makes sense for him. Chicago seems unlikely to participate in a bidding war for his services after declining a three-year, $54MM option on his services at the outset of the offseason, but if Imanaga were considering accepting the QO a two-year deal could theoretically allow the Cubs to lower the hit they’ll face for luxury tax purposes while also creating some additional security for Imanaga.

As for the bullpen, the Cubs are in need of reinforcements there most of all. Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar, and Andrew Kittredge were all key high leverage arms for the team this season but are no longer with the club; the former three are free agents, while the latter was traded to Baltimore to avoid the buyout on his club option. That leaves Chicago with little certainty in the bullpen outside of Daniel Palencia, but reporting has suggested they won’t be very involved on top free agent relief arms like Edwin Diaz and Devin Williams. That still leaves a number of interesting veterans who could be had a one- or two-year deals, however, like Kenley Jansen and Pete Fairbanks.

Latest On Dodgers, Kyle Tucker

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Kyle Tucker is the top free agent in this year’s class. That more or less guarantees that he’ll be linked to the two-time defending champions. Jon Heyman of The New York Post wrote last month that the Dodgers were likely to make a run at Tucker this offseason.

That may well be the case, but Jeff Passan of ESPN writes that the Dodgers don’t seem inclined to make a decade-long commitment to the star outfielder. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic wrote last night that while the Dodgers aren’t ruling out a Tucker pursuit, they’re also not opposed to making a short-term outfield move while awaiting the arrival of internal reinforcements.

In the short term, the Dodgers’ biggest weaknesses are the outfield and late-inning relief. Michael Conforto certainly won’t be back after his one-year free agent deal busted. Kiké Hernández, their primary left fielder in the postseason, is also a free agent. Andy Pages had a poor second half that carried into a dreadful playoffs. Tommy Edman battled an ankle injury late in the season that led the Dodgers to prefer him at second base. (He’s undergoing surgery and is expected to be full go for Spring Training.) Even Teoscar Hernández was a relative weak point in right field. He hit .247/.284/.454 while playing very poor defense.

Assuming the Dodgers intend to keep Mookie Betts at shortstop, the outfield isn’t currently in great shape. It’d probably line up with Pages, Edman and Hernández as the primary options. Alex Call and Ryan Ward — the latter of whom was just added to the 40-man roster to keep him out of minor league free agency — could platoon in left field if the Dodgers want Edman in the infield.

They’ll need to make some kind of external acquisition, but it’s understandable if they don’t want to make an extended free agent play. The long-term outfield picture is more promising than the current mix. In August, Baseball America included four Dodgers outfielders (Josue De Paula, Zyhir Hope, Mike Sirota and Eduardo Quintero) among the sport’s top 60 overall prospects. That doesn’t include top catching prospect Dalton Rushing, whose path to playing time behind the plate is blocked by Will Smith. Rushing didn’t play any outfield during his rookie season but has logged a little less than 300 career innings as a left fielder in the minors.

Of the aforementioned prospects, only Rushing will be in the mix for an MLB roster spot early in 2026. Sirota and Quintero have yet to reach Double-A. De Paula and Hope have played a combined 10 games at that level. None of the four have any Triple-A experience. It’s unlikely all four will pan out given the attrition rate of prospects who are that far from the majors, but the Dodgers will want to have long-term opportunities available for each of them.

The balance could be to turn to the trade market. Steven Kwan, Lars Nootbaar (recovering from heel surgeries), Brendan Donovan and Wilyer Abreu are among the outfield-capable players who might be available. The Dodgers were tied  to Kwan and Donovan at last summer’s deadline. They certainly have the farm system to make a strong offer for a controllable outfielder. Rushing could be a trade chip if the Dodgers don’t feel he’d be an above-average regular in left field, for instance.

The Dodgers obviously have the spending capacity to make a run at any free agent as well. They’ve generally preferred making shorter-term commitments at huge annual rates to offering decade-long deals, though. They’ve broken that precedent for Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but both were special cases. Ohtani is the best player in the world and Yamamoto was a 25-year-old ace. Tucker is an excellent player but not that kind of unique free agent. The Dodgers would probably be more amenable to a five- or six-year deal at a premium AAV if Tucker winds up going that route, but it stands to reason his camp will try to pull a ten-plus year commitment in the early part of the offseason.

13 Players Receive Qualifying Offers

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Thirteen players have received a qualifying offer this year, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The list is as follows:

This year’s QO is valued at $22.025MM. All 13 players will have until Nov. 18 to decide whether to accept that one-year offer or decline and become a free agent. They can spend that time gauging the open market to determine interest in their services. If a player accepts the QO, he’ll be treated as a free agent signing and thus will be ineligible to be traded without his consent until June 15 of next year. If he declines, any team that signs him will be subject to draft and/or international bonus forfeitures, depending on its revenue-sharing and luxury tax status.

The bulk of the list was generally expected. Every recipient other than Torres and Imanaga was pegged as likely or a no-doubter to receive the QO on MLBTR’s annual lists of qualifying offer previews for position players and for pitchers. Torres was viewed as something of a long shot, at least on the MLBTR staff. He’s coming off a nice season in Detroit but struggled through a poor finish — perhaps in part due to injury — and wasn’t hit with a QO last offseason when coming off a comparable year at the plate in the Bronx.

Imanaga was listed as a borderline call on our preview as well. The Cubs declined a three-year, $57.75MM option on Imanaga last week. He subsequently declined a $15.25MM player option (which came with an additional player option at $15.25MM) — effectively opting out of a remaining two years and $30.5MM. The Cubs are banking on Imanaga also turning away one year at just over $22MM after turning down that remaining $30.5MM in guaranteed money.

The qualifying offer is determined each year by taking the average of the game’s 125 highest-paid players. We’ve already covered the penalties that each team would face for signing a qualified free agent, as well as the compensation each club would get for losing a qualified free agent to another team.

Among the notable free agents to not receive a qualifying offer are Lucas Giolito, Robert Suarez, Devin Williams and Jorge Polanco. Giolito might have received one had it not been for a late elbow issue that ended his season. Suarez has been excellent and just opted out of the remaining two years and $16MM on his contract, but he’ll be 35 next year. The Padres have been reducing payroll in recent seasons and likely didn’t want to risk Suarez locking in that weighty one-year sum. Williams would have received a QO with a typical season, but he struggled throughout much of the season’s first four months before a dominant finish. Polanco enjoyed a terrific rebound campaign but is 32 years old and was limited to DH work for much of the season due to ongoing injury issues.

The qualifying offer grants each of these free agents the chance at a notable one-year payday, though the majority of them will reject without much thought. Players like Tucker, Bichette, Schwarber, Valdez, Cease, Suarez and Diaz are likely to see comparable or larger (much larger, in Tucker’s case) salaries on multi-year deals in free agency. Even players like Grisham, who probably won’t land a $22MM annual value over multiple years, are still likely to reject. Major league free agents typically — though not always — prioritize long-term earning over short-term, higher-AAV pacts. A three- or four-year deal worth $14-16MM per year, for instance, is typically viewed as preferable to accepting one year at a higher rate.

There’s risk in declining the offer, of course. Teams are more reluctant to sign players who’ll cost them valuable draft picks and/or notable portions of their hard-capped bonus pool for international amateurs. Every offseason, there are a handful of free agents whose markets are weighed down by the burden of draft pick compensation. That typically applies to the “lower end” of the QO recipients. For top stars like Tucker, Bichette, etc. — draft/international forfeitures are simply considered the cost of doing business and don’t tend to have much (if any) impact on the player’s earning power.

The Case For The Reds To Sign A Big Bat

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The Reds’ immediate exit from the playoffs makes it easy to forget the successes of the regular season. Cincinnati snapped a four-year postseason drought in manager Terry Francona’s first season. They won 83 games for just the second time since 2013. This team has something to build on heading into 2026, and now is the time to make a splash in free agency.

As MLBTR’s Anthony Franco explored in Cincinnati’s Offseason Outlook for Front Office subscribers, improving the offense will be key this offseason. The club did not have the depth or high-end talent to compete with the best of the National League. Cincinnati could make smaller moves around the margins, as they’ve done in recent seasons, but why not take a bigger swing?

Financially, the team is in a decent spot. FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool has the Reds with an estimated payroll of around $94MM heading into next season. They were close to $120MM this past season, and have been above $130MM in each season from 2020 to 2022. The biggest current commitment for 2026 is the $13MM owed to Jeimer Candelario. While it stings to be shelling out that amount to a player no longer in the organization, Candelario is the only one on the books for eight figures right now, assuming the team declines Austin Hays’ $12MM mutual option. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz has Brady Singer projected to earn $11.9MM in arbitration, but the righty will likely be the only significant commitment coming from the arbitration process.

Cincinnati’s largest free agent contract by total value is a tie between Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas at $64MM over four years in 2020, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. The club will have to go well beyond a $16MM average annual value to entice Kyle Schwarber or Pete Alonso, but maybe combining the outlay on Castellanos and Moustakas would be enough to make an interesting offer.

Part of the reason for the offense being the offseason focus is that the pitching staff was excellent in 2025. Hunter Greene looked like an ace when healthy. Andrew Abbott delivered a breakout season. Singer and Nick Lodolo provided stable innings. Chase Burns posted electrifying strikeout numbers upon getting called up. Cincinnati ranked ninth in starting pitcher ERA. Only six other starting staffs had more strikeouts.

The success on the mound is made more impressive by Cincinnati’s home venue. Great American Ball Park ranks third in StatCast’s Park Factor metric. It’s the second-highest rated park for home runs. The strides made by the starting pitching unit make the shortcomings of the offense harder to swallow, especially given the favorable hitting environment.

Though they snuck into the playoffs after chasing down the Mets, the Reds finished third in the NL Central. They haven’t been better than third in the division since winning it in 2012. This might be the perfect time to buck that trend.

Pittsburgh and St. Louis are in rebuilding mode, making this a three-horse race heading into next season. Milwaukee and Chicago both won 90+ games in 2025, but could be facing significant losses. Kyle Tucker is a free agent. He would fit the bill as a significant splash for Cincinnati, though he’s likely out of their price range. The more likely impact is removing a key contributor from the middle of the Cubs’ lineup. Speaking of important losses, Milwaukee could be considering a Freddy Peralta trade. It would be a massive loss for a rotation without much proven depth and some health questions.

The Brewers and Cubs are still likely the favorites to win the NL Central next season, but the Reds can close the gap. Their finances make a big move possible, and their pitching staff deserves better support. Schwarber said it would be “cool” to suit up for his hometown team. The Reds might as well try to make that happen.

Dodgers Expected To Pursue Kyle Tucker This Offseason

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The Dodgers are back in the World Series to defend the title they won last year after sweeping the Brewers out of the NLCS, but while they wait to see which of the Mariners and Blue Jays will emerge from the ALCS to challenge them for the commissioner’s trophy it appears their front office has already directed one eye towards the coming offseason. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports this evening that Los Angeles is expected to target star outfielder Kyle Tucker when free agency opens up following the World Series.

The news is hardly a surprise, as the Dodgers are routinely involved with the game’s marquee free agents. They famously won the sweepstakes for both Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the 2023-24 offseason, and while last winter saw them miss on young superstar Juan Soto after landing as one of five finalists for his services, they still went on to spend plenty in free agency as they brought in Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, and Tanner Scott among a number of other signings and re-signings.

Impressive as the Dodgers have been this year, one of the team’s few major flaws is their production in the outfield. Andy Pages (113 wRC+) has emerged as a legitimate regular in center field, but Teoscar Hernandez (102 wRC+) took a significant step back last year relative to his first season in Los Angeles and the Michael Conforto experiment ended disastrously as he posted a wRC+ of just 83 with negative WAR in 138 games before being left off the club’s postseason rosters. With Conforto headed back into free agency this winter, there’s an opening on the grass in Los Angeles that Tucker could fit into quite nicely.

Tucker, 28, is a four-time All-Star who is the consensus pick for this winter’s top free agent. He broke out with the Astros back in 2021, and since then he’s hit a sensational .277/.365/.514 (143 wRC+) across five seasons of work. His resume was impressive enough that the Cubs were convinced to surrender top prospect Cam Smith and All-Star third baseman Isaac Paredes (alongside young starter Hayden Wesneski) in a three-player package to acquire Tucker ahead of his final year under team control. Tucker was everything the Cubs were hoping for in the first half this year, as he slashed .291/.295/.537 with 17 homers in 83 games through the end of June.

At that point, Tucker seemed likely to find himself at the center of discussions about whether or not he’d join Ohtani, Soto, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in landing a guarantee of more than $500MM this winter. Things took a turn for the worse in the second half, however. Tucker made two trips to the injured list and hit just .225/.348/.342 in 53 games from July 1 onward, leaving him with fewer homers (22) in 136 games this year than he managed in 78 games during his injury-shortened 2024 season (23).

Heyman writes that Tucker’s tough second half has knocked down his expected price tag somewhat, but that a $300MM contract could still be realistic with even $400MM as a possible goal for the outfielder’s camp. That’s the type of price tag that’s sure to give pause to plenty of suitors, should it come to fruition. That’s unlikely to be the case for the Dodgers, who have a payroll of $395MM this year according to RosterResource and will see that figure drop to $329MM next year without making offseason additions. Even if Los Angeles isn’t willing to surpass this year’s payroll (and there’s been no indication that’s the case to this point), they’d still have plenty of room in the budget to add Tucker if they so chose.

Looking at other potential suitors, the Cubs have indicated at least some interest in bringing Tucker back into the fold next year. With that said, it should be noted that they’ve never spent more than the $184MM they gave Jason Heyward during the 2015-16 offseason on a contract in club history. That would be a significant jump out of the club’s apparent comfort zone under chairman Tom Ricketts and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, though it could be argued that trading for Tucker in the first place was similarly out of character.

Heyman also suggests that the Red Sox, Phillies, and Giants could be in the mix for Tucker’s services, though none of those potential landing spots are quite as obvious fits as Los Angeles is. Boston has a very crowded outfield mix as it is, with Jarren Duran, Roman Anthony, and Wilyer Abreu all left-handed outfielders under long-term team control who belong in everyday roles and profile best in a corner. The Phillies have made it clear their top priority this winter is retaining star DH Kyle Schwarber, and it remains to be seen if the Giants are interested in adding another corner bat on a massive contract after trading for Rafael Devers back in June.

Cubs Notes: Tucker, Imanaga, Horton, Coaching Staff

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The Cubs had a solid season in 2025 but it came to an end on Saturday when they dropped Gave Five of the Division Series to the Brewers. That turns the focus to the offseason and some upcoming decisions. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer held an end-of-season press conference yesterday but largely avoided tipping his hand about anything. Reporters such as Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic and Jordan Bastian of MLB.com provided dispatches from the presser.

Kyle Tucker’s impending free agency will be a big storyline this winter and Hoyer provided some boilerplate comments about trying to retain the player. “Everyone can use a guy like Kyle Tucker. Everyone gets better by having a player like that,” Hoyer said. “We’ll certainly be having those conversations.”

The Cubs obviously think highly of Tucker. Back in December, they gave up Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wesneski and Cam Smith in order to acquire Tucker’s final year before free agency. They saw Tucker near his best for a while. He slashed .291/.395/.537 through the end of June for a 157 wRC+ while stealing 20 bases.

But his results tapered off as the season went along. A finger fracture suffered in early June didn’t immediately slow him down but seemed to catch up with him eventually. A calf strain also popped up later in the season. From July through the end of the season, Tucker slashed just .225/.348/.342 for a 103 wRC+. He had a .259/.375/.370 line and 118 wRC+ in the postseason.

Despite the tepid finish, Tucker has shown remarkably well-rounded production when healthy and should still be in high demand this winter. From 2021 to the present, he has a combined .277/.365/.514 line and 143 wRC+. He stole 105 bases in there with strong defensive grades, though the glovework seems to be trending down. FanGraphs credited him with 23.4 wins above replacement, making him one of the ten most valuable position players in that stretch.

Though he is limping towards free agency, it’s still possible Tucker’s market will be strong enough that he could secure something like a ten-year, $400MM deal. The Cubs could do that, in a sense. They are a big-market club and their future payroll is quite clean, with Dansby Swanson the only guy really locked in beyond 2026. However, they would need to shatter precedent, as the largest contract in franchise history is Jason Heyward’s $184MM deal from a decade ago.

One other guy who is technically on the books beyond 2026 is left-hander Shota Imanaga, thanks to his convoluted contract. In the next few weeks, it will be determined if he stays on the books or not. The Cubs will soon have to decide whether or not to trigger a three-year, $57.5MM club option for the 2026-28 season. If they turn that down, Imanaga has a $15.25MM player option for 2026. If he triggers that, after 2026, the Cubs have to decide on a two-year, $42.5MM club option. If that is turned down, Imanaga would get another $15.25MM player option.

Hoyer technically responded to a question about Imanaga yesterday but without really answering anything. “When we signed Shota, if you’d shown us his production over the last two years, we would have taken that in a heartbeat,” Hoyer said. “So not only has he produced for us, but he’s just a great teammate and terrific asset to the organization. Obviously we have decisions to make and discussions to (have). Over the next two or three weeks we’ll do that, but I’ve got nothing but positive things to say about Shota.”

After Imanaga’s MLB debut in 2024, the club option seemed like a no-brainer. He posted a 2.91 earned run average over 29 starts. Despite his fastball averaging just 91.7 miles per hour, he was able to strike out 25.1% of batters faced and only gave out walks 4% of the time. But his results backed up here in 2025. As he averaged just 90.8 mph on his fastball, he posted a 3.73 ERA with a 20.6% strikeout rate and 4.6% walk rate. That includes a rough second half with a 4.70 ERA.

Since Imanaga is now 32 years old and his trends aren’t great, it’s possible the Cubs may look to quit while they’re ahead. Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Cade Horton will have spots in next year’s rotation. Horton finished the season on the injured list due to a rib fracture but is healthy now. He actually would have been on the NLCS roster if the Cubs had advanced, per Bastian. Justin Steele will be back from his UCL surgery at some point. Colin Rea can be retained via a $6MM club option, which has a $750K buyout. Guys like Ben Brown, Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks will be in the mix.

Subtracting Imanaga from the group would further thin out a group that already looks lacking. On the other hand, adding Imanaga back in there would leave the rotation feeling decent but lacking in upside. There’s an argument that they should turn down their option and use the money saved to pursue more of a front-of-rotation arm. This winter’s free agent market will feature guys like Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, Tatsuya Imai, Ranger Suárez and others. The trade market could feature MacKenzie Gore, Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray and others.

As for the coaching staff, Hoyer noted they would all be invited back. That makes it possible the Cubs face minimal turnover this winter but it’s also possible some staffers get poached by other clubs. There are eight managerial vacancies and bench coach Ryan Flaherty has already been connected to a few of them. Once those new managers are hired, they will likely have some ability to make coaching decisions. That should lead to a lot of coaching musical chairs this winter, so time will tell if that impacts anyone with the Cubs.

Photo courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel, Imagn Images

Cubs Activate Kyle Tucker, Option Carlos Santana

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11:49am: The Cubs have officially activated Tucker from the injured list. He’s hitting cleanup and serving as the designated hitter today. In a corresponding move, veteran first baseman Carlos Santana has consented to be optioned. He’ll be on the team’s taxi squad for the playoffs next week, per Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Santana is a free agent at season’s end.

10:16am: After spending more than three weeks on the injured list due to a calf strain, Kyle Tucker is back for the final regular season series of the year. The Cubs outfielder himself tells ESPN’s Jesse Rogers that he’s in the lineup today — his first game since Sept. 2. The team hasn’t formally announced the move or a corresponding transaction yet.

The Cubs have already clinched a postseason berth, but these final three games will give Tucker a tune-up for their return to October baseball. The impending free agent has had a terrific season overall but will end up playing in, at most, 136 of the team’s 162 games due primarily to this calf strain. He’s hitting .270/.381/.472 (139 wRC+) with 22 home runs, 25 doubles, four triples, 25 steals and a matching 14.7% walk rate and 14.7% strikeout rate.

Tucker’s offensive numbers would likely be even more impressive had he not suffered a hairline fracture in his hand back in June. He gutted it out and played through the injury, which only came to light nearly three months later, after it had healed. Tucker hit well in June but saw his numbers drop precipitously in July. There’s no definitive way to know how much the small fracture impacted him, but he surely wasn’t playing at 100% throughout the entirety of the summer.

While Tucker was on the shelf, the Cubs went with a regular outfield of Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki, the latter of whom had most frequently served as the team’s designated hitter. That alignment opened the door for top catching prospect Moisés Ballesteros to step into the designated hitter spot on a regular basis, and he’s stepped up as one of the team’s most productive hitters this month. The 21-year-old slugger has taken 42 plate appearances since Tucker went down and turned in a stout .314/.429/.571 batting line. Ballesteros has been so productive, in fact, that he may have hit his way onto Chicago’s postseason roster.

“Moisés is playing at a really high level,” manager Craig Counsell tells Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. “Where he’s hitting in the lineup should tell you a lot. He’s contributing offensively significantly. That’s real. That matters. Absolutely, we’re taking note of it.”

Ballesteros has batted fourth or fifth in each of his past ten games and hasn’t hit lower than sixth since being recalled from the minors prior to the team’s game on Sept. 12. The Cubs have shielded him from left-handed pitching, giving him only three plate appearances versus fellow southpaws. Presumably, if he were indeed to secure a spot on the playoff roster, he’d be utilized in a platoon capacity. With a full complement of Happ, Crow-Armstrong, Tucker and Suzuki ticketed for outfield/designated hitter work and Carson Kelly standing as the everyday catcher, Ballesteros probably wouldn’t be in the starting lineup much, but he could provide a potent left-handed bat off the bench.

Cubs Hoping To Reinstate Kyle Tucker On Friday; Daniel Palencia Reinstated Today

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The Cubs are hoping to have outfielder Kyle Tucker back in the lineup on Friday. “I think we’re trending towards that,” manager Craig Counsell said today, per Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Tucker is on the 10-day injured list and would need to be officially reinstated, which would require a corresponding active roster move.

Tucker is one of the better players in the league, when healthy. That qualifier has become more significant in recent years. He hardly missed any time from 2020 through 2023. Last year, a fractured shin limited him to just 78 games.

Here in 2025, he has played far more, though it appears some minor injuries have been impacting his production. He was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his right hand in June, though that issue didn’t become publicly known until August. He had a huge .284/.395/.524 slash line through June 1st when he jammed his finger sliding into a base. His production continued to be strong in the initial wake of that injury, as he hit .311/.404/.578 in June. But it seemed to catch up to him in July, as he hit .218/.380/.295 that month and .244/.346/.389 in August.

After appearing in just two September games, a left calf strain put him out of action. He wasn’t immediately placed on the IL, as the club seemingly held out hope of him quickly bouncing back. That didn’t come to pass, so he hit the shelf September 9th, retroactive to September 6th. It was hoped that he could make a fairly quick return but that also hasn’t come to pass, as the issue has now lingered for about three weeks in total.

The Cubs have already clinched a playoff spot but won’t be able to secure a first-round bye since the Brewers have the Central sewn up. That means the Cubs will be playing in the Wild Card round, which begins on Tuesday. Ideally, Tucker can indeed be activated on Friday, which would give him three contests to get reacquainted with major league game speed before the playoffs begin.

Given his talents, Tucker’s return will be very important for the Cubs as they look to engineer a deep playoff run. It’s also incredibly important for him personally, since he’s an impending free agent. From 2020 through 2023, he slashed .277/.350/.516 for a 136 wRC+ with 77 stolen bases and strong outfield grades. Last year, even though he missed time with the shin fracture, he had an even better .289/.408/.585 line and 179 wRC+.

He seemed to be trending towards a massive contract this winter, with some even suggesting he could top $500MM on a deal of a decade or longer. This year’s nagging injuries have cut into his momentum. His season-long line of .270/.381/.472 still translates to a strong 139 wRC+ but, as mentioned earlier, he was better before getting banged up. Quickly getting back on track and cranking out a few timely hits under the bright lights of the postseason would surely help ease any sudden doubts that teams may have about making a long commitment to him.

Elsewhere on the Cubs’ roster, the pitching staff is getting a boost. Right-hander Daniel Palencia has been reinstated from the IL today, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, with left-hander Jordan Wicks optioned out in a corresponding move.

Palencia hit the IL a couple of weeks back due to a shoulder strain. Prior to that, he was having a breakout season and took over the closer’s role in the process. He currently has 51 innings pitched on the year with a flat earned run average of 3.00. He has struck out 28.1% of batters faced while giving out walks at a 7.6% clip, recording 22 saves in the process.

Getting him back just before the playoffs is a nice bump for the playoffs but the pitching staff could also lose a notable member. Righty Cade Horton, who departed his most recent start due to back tightness, is set to undergo an MRI. Counsell relayed that update on 670 The Score, per Bruce Levine.

Horton has had an excellent debut this year with a 2.67 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 42.3% ground ball rate. If healthy, he would be in the mix for playoff starts alongside Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd. A notable injury would obviously take that off the table and lead to Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad and Colin Rea jumping up the depth chart.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images

Cubs Place Owen Caissie On 7-Day Concussion IL

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The Cubs announced this afternoon that they’ve placed outfielder Owen Caissie on the 7-day concussion-related injured list. Outfielder Kevin Alcantara was recalled from Triple-A to replace Caissie on the active roster.

The move comes just one day after the Cubs recalled Caissie to the big league roster and optioned Alcantara to the minors. Caissie started yesterday’s game against the Rays but exited the game after hitting his head against the outfield wall at Wrigley Field while making a catch. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Vinnie Duber of the Chicago Sun Times) that Caissie was being put through the concussion protocol after yesterday’s game. Evidently, Caissie’s symptoms were severe enough that they opted to place him on the shelf and get him time to recover.

That decision well might bring Caissie’s first season in the big leagues to an end, depending on the severity of his concussion symptoms. If that’s the case, he’ll end 2025 with just 12 games and 27 plate appearances in the big leagues, during which he collected five hits (including a double and a homer) and one walk against eleven strikeouts. That cup of coffee pairs with a strong performance with Iowa this year, where he slashed .286/.386/.551 with 22 homers and 28 doubles in just 99 games. A consensus top-50 prospect in the game, Caissie could get a lot more runway with the Cubs come next season if Kyle Tucker departs the club via free agency in the offseason.

For now, however, his roster spot will go to Alcantara. A fellow top Cubs prospect generally viewed as sitting near the back of the league-wide top 100, Alcantara has appeared in just three games this year. He’s gone 1-for-7 with three strikeouts this year and figures to serve mostly as a bench piece for the Cubs in the coming weeks, though injuries could offer him more opportunities. Both Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki are currently unavailable; Suzuki due to an illness that has left him day-to-day in recent days, and Tucker due to a calf issue that’s sent him to the injured list. Fellow top prospect Moises Ballesteros (7-for-28 with three extra base hits) is getting a look at DH at the moment, and that leaves right field open for some combination of Alcantara and Willi Castro until Suzuki is ready to return to games. Once Suzuki is back, Alcantara, Ballesteros, and Castro will all be competing for playing time until Tucker’s eventual return to the lineup.

That might not be for a while, as Counsell told reporters (including Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic) on Friday that Tucker returning as soon as he’s eligible to be activated on Tuesday is “unlikely right now.” Perhaps that stance could change in the coming days, but Tucker has not yet resumed running since he was placed on the injured list. While the Cubs aren’t in danger of losing their playoff spot at this point, getting the star’s 140 wRC+ bat back into the lineup with enough time for him to get settled in before the playoffs begin seems sure to be a top priority for the Cubs over the season’s final two weeks.

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