The Opener: Eovaldi, Cubs, SP Market

With the Winter Meetings now behind us, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:

1. Eovaldi presser:

The Rangers officially re-signed right-hander Nathan Eovaldi yesterday on a three-year deal worth $75MM. Today, both Eovaldi and Texas president of baseball operations Chris Young will be available to the media at a press conference that’s scheduled for 11am CT. Even after landing Eovaldi (and trading for infielder Jake Burger), Young has his work cut out for him this winter as he tries to facilitate a rebound from an 84-loss 2024 campaign while also ducking under the first luxury tax threshold of $241MM. At the very least, a bullpen that lost Jose Leclerc, David Robertson, and Kirby Yates to free agency last month will need to be addressed. Besides that, there’s been some indications the club could look to add a left-handed slugger like Joc Pederson.

2. Cubs in the thick of trade talks?

The Cubs find themselves in an interesting position on the trade market, operating as both buyers and sellers. That’s hardly an unusual reality in an offseason where few teams are explicitly rebuilding, but what makes Chicago’s situation notable is that both sides of those trade talks seemingly revolve around one position: right field. Ian Happ is entrenched as the club’s everyday left fielder, while dynamic rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong has staked his claim as the club’s center fielder of the future. That leaves Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki vying for playing time in right. Down the stretch last year, Chicago utilized Bellinger’s superior glove and put Suzuki at DH, but the club has spent the winter aggressively shopping Bellinger and his $27.5MM salary.

Dealing Bellinger has long made sense for the Cubs if they can manage it. Suzuki has expressed a preference for playing the outfield as opposed to serving as a full-time DH, and the Cubs have a number of up-and-coming prospects like Matt Shaw, Owen Caissie, and Kevin Alcantara for whom a trade of Bellinger could open up playing time. All those reasons for entertaining a Bellinger trade have only served to make recent reports that Chicago is among the more aggressive suitors for Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker more surprising. Tucker would immediately become the most talented hitter in the Cubs lineup but comes with only one year of team control. The situation becomes even trickier to navigate for the Cubs when one considers that the Yankees are simultaneously the team most connected to Bellinger and a candidate to land Tucker themselves. Could the weekend bring movement on either front?

3. Will the hot SP market spur trades?

It’s no secret that the market for starting pitching has been extremely robust. Every one of the nine pitchers featured on MLBTR’s annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list has signed for more money than predicted, although some such as Blake Snell and Yusei Kikuchi did so only nominally. In any case, that strong demand for pitching led a great many clubs to become involved in the bidding for now-former White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet, who was dealt to the Red Sox as the Winter Meetings came to a close.

Could that hot market for pitching change the plans of teams with starters they could dangle? The Mariners have long indicated that they have no interest in dealing from their rotation this winter but have received an increasing volume of calls about veteran righty Luis Castillo. Meanwhile, the Padres are at least entertaining the possibility of trading Dylan Cease. Even the Pirates have seemingly expressed willingness to consider offers on their talented young arsenal of pitchers (though Paul Skenes is obviously off limits). Will any of those teams deal from their rotation? Will other teams join them in considering deals from their own rotations?