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Angels Acquire Vaughn Grissom

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The Angels have acquired infielder Vaughn Grissom from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league outfielder Isaiah Jackson, according to announcements from both clubs. Prior to the official announcement, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the Grissom portion and Chris Cotillo of MassLive the Jackson part. The move drops Boston’s 40-man count to 39, perhaps allowing them to make a selection in tomorrow’s Rule 5 draft. The Halos’ 40-man count goes from 34 to 35.

If there’s a consistent theme in how the Angels are attacking this offseason, it is buying low on former top prospects. Their two biggest moves of the winter so far have been to sign Alek Manoah and acquire Grayson Rodriguez from the Orioles. Manoah and Rodriguez are both former first-round picks who are coming off a few years of injury struggles.

The situation with Grissom is somewhat analogous, though he is not a pitcher and didn’t have quite the same prospect pedigree. Atlanta took him in the 11th round of the 2019 draft but he put up huge numbers on his way up the minor league ladder. By the summer of 2022, he had become a top 100 prospect. He slashed .322/.411/.480 on the farm over the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Atlanta called him up in August of 2023, skipping him over the Triple-A level. He put up a big .291/.353/.440 line in his first 156 big league plate appearances.

Going into 2023, Atlanta let Dansby Swanson depart via free agency, signing with the Cubs. Grissom seemed to have a good shot at being the long-term answer there. There were questions about his defense but the bat seemed legit. Ron Washington, then on Atlanta’s coaching staff, worked with Grissom on his defense throughout the winter. At the end of spring training, Atlanta surprisingly decided to give Orlando Arcia the shortstop job. Grissom was optioned to Triple-A.

Atlanta called up Grissom a few times that year but he hit just .280/.313/.347 for a 79 wRC+ in his 80 plate appearances. But he still showed his offensive potential in the minors, as he hit .330/.419/.501 for a 138 wRC+ in Triple-A.

Going into 2024, Atlanta flipped Grissom to the Red Sox for Chris Sale. At the time, it seemed like a coup for the Red Sox. Sale had barely pitched from 2020 to 2022 due to injuries. He had made 20 starts in 2023 but with a 4.30 earned run average. Since he was going into his age-35 season, the final guaranteed season of his contract, the expectations weren’t high for him going forward.

That deal turned into a big bust for Boston. Sale posted a 2.38 ERA in 2024 and won the National League Cy Young award. Grissom, meanwhile, has mostly been stuck in Triple-A since being traded. Boston gave him 114 big league plate appearances in 2024 but he hit just .190/.246/.219 in those. He has still been putting up decent Triple-A numbers, but not quite as gaudy as before. Since the start of 2024, he has a .266/.357/.417 line and 106 wRC+ at the Triple-A level. He played all four infield spots during his time with Triple-A Worcester. He finished the 2025 season on the injured list due to plantar fasciitis.

Grissom exhausted his final option season in 2025, meaning he will be out of options going forward. The Sox have an uncertain infield picture at the moment but will likely address it with further moves this offseason. Since they just made the playoffs, they will be looking to compete again and surely didn’t want to rely on Grissom after a couple of uninspiring years.

For the Halos, they have been mired in mediocrity for a while now, having last made the playoffs over a decade ago. They need a lot to go right if they’re going to break that streak. They will probably make some more clear-cut upgrades at some point this winter but have thus far been taking chances on low-certainty upside plays.

Their infield has a couple of openings at the moment. They have Zach Neto locked in at shortstop and Nolan Schanuel at first base. Second and third base are up for grabs. At the hot corner, Anthony Rendon is technically signed for another season but is probably going to retire. The Angels gave Christian Moore a chance to grab the second base job in 2025 but he didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Denzer Guzmán, Oswald Peraza and Kyren Paris are also on the roster but no one in that group has a track record of major league success.

There’s a path for Grissom to perhaps earn some playing time at second or third, or perhaps as a bench/utility guy. It’s possible those paths get blocked with future moves but they are there for now. Grissom still has less than two years of service time. If he can thrive as an Angel, they can retain him for five full seasons before he would be slated for free agency. He is only 24 years old, turning 25 in January.

To get that shot on Grissom, they are giving up an outfielder from deep in their system. Jackson was just selected in the eighth round of the draft this summer. He has ten games of experience as a professional, which came at High-A, where he hit .219 /.324/.344. He turns 22 in May. For the Sox, they are likely happy to get any kind of return at all for a guy who was getting pushed off the roster anyway.

Photos courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

MLB Mailbag: Gore, Pivetta, Phillies, Santander

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As the Winter Meetings start to pick up, this week's subscriber mailbag gets into MacKenzie Gore trade proposals, more trade ideas involving this year's Cy Young winners, the trade value of Nick Pivetta and Anthony Santander, and much more.

Steve asks:

Assuming that MacKenzie Gore has not been traded as I write this, would either of these two deals be likely to work for the teams involved?

1. Gore and Luis Garcia, Jr. to the Giants for Bryce Eldridge and Carson Whisenhunt? or

2. Gore to the Red Sox for Triston Casas and Connelly Early?

Your thoughts?

Gustav asks:

Who’d say no in a Gore & Abrams for Sheehan, Freeland, Ferris & Hope?

Gore, 27 in February, has two more years of team control remaining.  He's had a couple of 3-WAR type seasons in 2024 and '25, but they came with extreme volatility.

The lefty made 32 starts in 2024.  He had a 14-start stretch in the middle where he posted a 6.18 ERA, 19.8 K%, and 11.4 BB%.  That 8.3 K-BB% was the fourth-worst in baseball among qualified starters during that June 3rd-August 17th period.  Before and after that, Gore pitched like an ace.  His velocity was up early in the season, spiking to 96.6 miles per hour from the beginning of the year through July 1st.  It was a full mile per hour slower from that point on.

Similarly, Gore entered a July 20th start against the Padres this year with a 3.02 ERA, 30.5 K%, and 7.7 BB%.  His was back in ace form, and earned his first All-Star nod.  From that point forward, though, Gore posted a 6.75 ERA, 20.7 K%, and 12.8 BB% over his final 11 starts.  This stretch was a bit more concentrated into three or four blow-ups.  Gore's velocity was back down to 95.3 this year, but was relatively consistent game-to-game.

A run through Gore's injury history:

  • 2018: IL time with blisters and fingernail issues
  • August 2019: rested for 26 days to manage workload
  • 2020: no minor league season; pitched at Padres' alternate site
  • 2021: Started year at Triple-A; moved to Padres' alternate site in June after struggling with blisters; remained there to work on his delivery.  Finished the year with two Double-A starts.
  • 2022: Made MLB debut in April when Blake Snell got injured.  July 26th: landed on IL with elbow soreness.  August 2nd: traded to Nationals.  Made four minor league rehab starts for the Nats.
  • 2023: Exited July start with a blister; made the following one.  Removed from August 16th start due to a blister; returned a week later.  September 9th: season ended due to blisters.
  • 2024: Avoided IL and known blister issues.
  • 2025: Exited May start due to leg tightness; made his next one.  August 30th: went on IL for shoulder inflammation; ended up going 16 days between starts.

The blister issues didn't seem to pop up after 2023.  Gore has never undergone Tommy John surgery.  His 2022 elbow soreness and his 2025 shoulder inflammation seemed minor.

So Gore's injury history is not bad, but he's been a pitcher of extremes the last two years.  It's difficult to value that, but I'm sure just about every organization would like to bring him in and try to smooth things out.

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Mets Reportedly Reluctant To Go Beyond Three Years For Pete Alonso

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As the Mets watched one stalwart depart in free agency this morning, they’re faced with the possibility of another. Longtime first baseman Pete Alonso is at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, sitting down with interested teams as he tests the free agent market for a second straight offseason. (Alonso opted out of the second season of a two-year deal with the Mets last month.) Many Mets fans are hoping, particularly with Edwin Diaz headed to Los Angeles, that a new deal with Alonso is in the cards. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand casts some doubt on that likelihood, reporting that the Mets may be “hesitant” to stretch beyond three guaranteed years to re-sign Alonso.

It’s a familiar scene. The Mets wound up re-signing Alonso last offseason after he rejected their qualifying offer, but only on a two-year contract that allowed him to return to the market this winter via an opt-out. The Mets never seemed keen on giving Alonso the long-term deal he sought following the 2024 season, and that apparently hasn’t changed much a year later.

Alonso is coming off a better season at the plate this time around than he was in 2024, but he’s (of course) also a year older. A three-year deal would cover his age-31 through age-33 seasons. That’s not all that deep into his potential decline years, but while Alonso enjoyed a small decrease in strikeouts and uptick in batted-ball quality, he also saw his already poor defensive grades dip even further. Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast’s Outs Above Average both dinged him at minus-9. Alonso is open to more DH time moving forward, but that apparently doesn’t make the team all that eager to lock Alonso in for his age-34 season or later.

Looking more generally at the current MLB landscape, the market simply hasn’t compensated first-base-only players with middling OBP skills much in recent years, regardless of power output. Alonso is an extreme version of that skill set — one of the most consistent power bats on the planet — but he typically walks at a 9-10% clip and posts an on-base percentage at or slightly above league-average. Defensive acumen and plate discipline can often boost a player’s floor in the eyes of modern evaluators; given that Alonso doesn’t stand out in either regard, there’s likely some real worry (from the Mets and other suitors) that an eventual decline could be precipitous in nature.

Any reluctance on stretching longer-term doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) stem from payroll concerns. The Mets’ payroll, while enormous, actually begins to open up in the not-too-distant future. They’re currently projected for $278MM in payroll and CBT obligations next season, per RosterResource. That drops to about a $176MM in roster allocations in 2027 (and $181MM in CBT obligations), and by the time we get out to 2028, they “only” have about $134MM on the books. Beginning in 2029, Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor are the only players guaranteed anything.

Today’s report doesn’t expressly rule out a reunion between Alonso and the Mets, but it’s long seemed that if the Mets were interested in signing Alonso to a true long-term contract, it’d have happened last offseason. The fact that it didn’t and that they’re again looking short-term this winter implies that if Alonso is to return to Queens, it’s likelier to happen later in the offseason — after other suitors have spent their money elsewhere, creating a similar set of circumstances to those that paved the way for the two parties’ previous reunion.

Tigers Interested In Ha-Seong Kim

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The Tigers are interested in free agent infielder Ha-Seong Kim, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. It was reported last week that the Tigers have renewed interest in free agent Alex Bregman, though Petzold reports this week that the club’s interest in Bregman has been lukewarm so far this offseason.

Kim would be a very different addition than Bregman. Kim’s ability to play multiple positions is nice but Bregman would be a much better surefire upgrade in the 2026 season. Bregman spent 2025 with the Red Sox and slashed .273/.360/.462 for a 125 wRC+, roughly in line with his career numbers. He also received solid grades for his third base defense. FanGraphs credited him with 3.5 wins above replacement even though injuries limited him to just 114 games. He had been a 4-6 WAR player in the previous three seasons and would have been in that range again in 2025 with a bit more health.

There would be much more uncertainty with Kim. He was once capable of 3-5 WAR seasons a few years ago, mostly based on his defense. From 2022 to 2024, he hit .250/.336/.385 for a 106 wRC+. He stole 72 bases and got strong marks for his glovework at second base, third base and shortstop. He was credited with 10.5 fWAR over those three seasons.

However, he required shoulder surgery at the end of 2024 and didn’t bounce back in 2025. He only got into 48 games with a tepid .234/.304/.345 line and 82 wRC+. In his 361 shortstop innings, he was given a minus-3 grade by both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average. His arm strength was only in the 45th percentile, according to Statcast, after being closer to 70th in his previous seasons.

Bregman is a more reliable upgrade for any team needing infield help but that should also be reflected in the eventual contracts for both players. MLBTR predicted Bregman could secure a $160MM deal over six years, whereas Kim was pegged for $30MM over two years.

The Tigers were willing to give Bregman a deal in range of that prediction last winter. They reportedly put a six-year, $171.5MM deal on the table, though with some deferrals knocking down the net present value. Bregman instead went to the Red Sox on a three-year, $120MM deal, though there were also notable deferrals in that pact. He had opt-outs after each season of his Boston deal and took the first one.

There are some reasons the Tigers may be less willing to do that kind of long-term deal now, one year later. The left side of their infield is still fairly open, with multi-positional guys like Javier Báez, Zach McKinstry, Colt Keith, Trey Sweeney and Jace Jung in the mix. However, shortstop prospect Kevin McGonigle is now lurking more than he was a season ago.

The 37th overall pick from the 2023 draft, McGonigle finished his 2024 season with 14 games in High-A and still seemed far away from the big leagues. In 2025, he tore through High-A and was promoted to Double-A, getting into 46 games at the latter level. He hit 12 home runs there and slashed .254/.369/.550 for a 162 wRC+. Basically every outlet now considers him one of the top three prospects in the game. He’s still just 21 years old and isn’t on the 40-man yet but he could be in Triple-A and pushing for a big league tryout in 2026.

If McGonigle is the long-term answer at short, perhaps the Tigers would opt for more of a short-term addition in Kim. On the other hand, despite the huge praise for his bat, some prospect evaluators feel McGonigle is stretched at short and doesn’t have the arm strength for third. If he is destined for second base, he could take over for Gleyber Torres there after 2026, as Torres is on a one-year deal. In that scenario, the Tigers would still be left with a hodgepodge of utility guys like Báez, McKinstry and Keith covering shortstop and third. With 2026 set to be the final year with Tarik Skubal, there’s an argument that’s Detroit should be more all-in and make the best short-term upgrade it can.

The position player market is expected to heat up now that Kyle Schwarber is reportedly going back to the Phillies. Kim’s market has been relatively quiet so far. He has been connected to Atlanta, who claimed him off waivers late in 2025. But he opted out of that deal, walking away from a $16MM player option. Atlanta then pivoted to acquire Mauricio Dubón from the Astros. That’s not expected to stop them from signing Kim but they have a better fallback plan now. As for Bregman, the Red Sox are interested in bringing him back but the Cubs appear to be involved as well.

Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images

Red Sox Have Had Talks With Eugenio Suárez

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As the Red Sox look to add power to their lineup, they’ve talked internally about the possibility of signing Eugenio Suárez and held some talks with his camp, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports. The team’s interest in Suárez is all the more notable with the market’s top slugger, Kyle Schwarber, off the board on a five-year deal that’ll keep in Philadelphia. The Red Sox were known to have interest in Schwarber.

Speier frames Suarez as something of a fallback at third base, should Alex Bregman sign elsewhere, or a possible piece of the first base (and, presumably, designated hitter) puzzle. Playing Suárez full-time or even semi-regularly at first base might be a stretch, though the D-backs and Mariners both gave him short looks there in 2025. That was a total of only six innings — the first of his career — but some have speculated that Suárez could slide across the diamond as he moves into his mid-30s. Regular work at DH would only be feasible if the Sox were to find a taker for Masataka Yoshida.

Suárez, 34, ranked fifth among all big leaguers with 49 home runs this past season, trailing only Shohei Ohtani, Schwarber, Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge. He hit .228/.298/.526 on the season as a whole, though that production was weighed down a bit by some struggles in the immediate aftermath of a trade from Arizona back to Seattle. Suárez stumbled out of the gate in his return to the Emerald City, slashing an anemic .141/.188/.266 in his first 69 plate appearances. To some extent, he turned things around thereafter, popping 11 homers over his final 151 plate appearances, but he did so with a huge strikeout rate and sub-.300 OBP.

That sort of stretch is par for the course with Suárez, a prodigious slugger who’s prone to strikeouts. In past seasons, his walk rate has helped to compensate for some of that swing-and-miss penchant. That’s not quite been the case in 2024-25, as Suárez’s walk rate has dipped to a slightly below-average 7.3%.

Suárez still makes tons of loud contact (90.2 mph average exit velocity, 47.6% hard-hit rate), but he chased off the plate at a career-high 31% clip last season — a significant problem for a hitter whose 39% contact rate on pitches off the plate was among the lowest in baseball. That poor contact rate when chasing isn’t a backbreaker in and of itself, but it is when coupled with such a prominent propensity to chase. Judge, for instance, had the worst contact rate among all qualified hitters on balls off the plate, per Statcast. However, he chased just 22.3% of such offerings.

Concerns about his OBP and strikeouts notwithstanding, Suárez clearly has some of the most power in the game. And, at 34 years of age (35 next July), he’s not going to exceed three years on his next contract and could plausibly command only two with a premium annual value. Suárez is also revered as a teammate, which played a role in the Mariners’ desire to reacquire him after originally trading him when ownership mandated payroll cuts following the 2023 season.

It doesn’t sound as though Suárez is Boston’s top option, but the Red Sox join the Cubs and incumbent Mariners as known teams intrigued by the righty-swinging slugger’s thunderous power so far this offseason.

Phillies Extend Rob Thomson

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The Phillies are getting the band back together. The club and manager Rob Thomson have signed an extension which runs through 2027. Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer was among those to relay the news.

The news is notable but unsurprising. Thomson took over as the Philly skipper in the middle of the 2022 campaign when Joe Girardi was fired. Since then, the club has been very successful and Thomson has received consistent praise for his handling of the star-laden roster.

The Phils finished that 2022 campaign with a modest 87-75 record but that was enough to nab a Wild Card spot. They then went on a deep postseason run, losing the World Series to the Astros in six games. They followed that up with a 90-win campaign in 2023. That led to another Wild Card spot and a trip to the NLCS. The two most recent seasons saw the Phils win 95 and then 96 games. They won the National League East in both of those, though they were felled in the NLDS each time.

The lack of postseason success seemingly hasn’t dampened the vibes from the team. Rather, it’s led to more of a “job’s not done” type of attitude. The Phils are also reportedly reuniting with designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and would like to do the same with catcher J.T. Realmuto.

The one player who has seemingly not gelled with Thomson is Nick Castellanos. The outfielder was benched for a game in June due to what Thomson referred to as “an inappropriate comment,” per ESPN. Later in the year, Castellanos publicly called out Thomson for what he called “questionable” communication. Castellanos remains on the roster but the Phils are reportedly hoping to trade or release him, which is perhaps an indication of how the club feels about the spat.

After the 2024 season, Thomson was going into the final season of his contract. Teams generally prefer their managers and front office personnel to not be in lame-duck status, so he and the Phils worked an extension running through 2026. One year later, finding themselves in the same situation, they have once again tacked an extra year onto the deal.

Though he’s relatively new to managing, Thomson has been in the game a long time and is now 62 years old. He was actually planning to retire in 2022 before getting to sit in the manager’s chair. It seems that he and the Phils are happy to keep things rolling forward but they have continually kept the deals fairly short, perhaps allowing Thomson to re-evaluate his long-term plans after each season.

For now, the Phils will opt for a good amount of continuity. As mentioned, things have generally been going quite well in recent years. Ideally, they can have another season of regular season success in 2026, perhaps with a bit of extra postseason magic.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin, Bill Streicher, Oncea-Imagn Images

Breslow: Red Sox Willing To Trade Controllable Starting Pitching

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The Red Sox began the offseason looking to add to the rotation. They’ve added a couple of arms and might now have enough rotation depth to trade some away. “We’ve got pitching depth, based on some of the inbound calls that we’ve received over the last couple of weeks,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said this week, per Sean McAdam of MassLive. “I think teams have recognized there’s appeal to controllable starting pitching. If there are opportunities to use some of that depth in order to address other areas of the roster, we’d be willing to do it.”

The Sox have already made a couple of notable trades to bolster the rotation. They acquired Sonny Gray from the Cardinals and Johan Oviedo from the Pirates. Those two now slot into the rotation with Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello. That only leaves one spot for a group that includes Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Hunter Dobbins, Patrick Sandoval, Kutter Crawford, Kyle Harrison and others.

No team gets through a full season using just five pitchers these days, so the Sox should want to hold onto some depth. But it’s possible the right trade emerges where the Sox feel they can move someone out of this group in order to upgrade another part of the roster while leaving the rotation picture still in decent shape.

It’s been reported that the Astros have interest in Early and Tolle. McAdams notes that the Sox have also fielded some interest in Crawford, Sandoval and Dobbins, though he doesn’t specify which teams made those calls. Crawford and Sandoval are in somewhat analogous situations, as both missed the 2025 season due to injuries. Though both pitchers have some major league success, it’s possible the Sox didn’t want to rely on them in 2026. Now that they have each been bumped down the depth chart in Boston, they could make more sense on another roster.

Crawford has thrown 392 1/3 innings for the Sox, allowing 4.57 earned runs per nine. His 23.8% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate are both a bit better than league average. He began 2025 on the injured list due to patellar tendinopathy in his right knee. Then right wrist pain led to surgery in June.

Missing the entire season obviously tamps down his trade value but his cost and control should help. He qualified for arbitration a year ago as a Super Two player and made $2.75MM in 2025. Arb-eligible players who miss an entire season often make the same salary the following year, so that could happen with Crawford in 2026. He could then be retained via arbitration through 2028.

Sandoval isn’t as cheap or controllable but his major league track record is longer. He required UCL surgery while with the Angels in 2024. He was non-tendered and then signed a two-year, $18.25MM deal with the Red Sox. He tried to get back on a big league mound late in 2025 but wasn’t able to do so. His deal was backloaded, so he is owed $12.75MM in 2026 and will be a free agent after that.

That’s a less appealing contractual situation than Crawford but Sandoval’s pre-injury track record is strong. He gave the Angels 536 innings with a 4.01 ERA. His 22.7% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate are a bit worse than Crawford’s but Sandoval also got ground balls at a strong 47.9% clip.

Dobbins is a different situation, as he has a much smaller track record but is therefore cheaper and more controllable. He has just 61 big league innings under his belt, with a 4.13 ERA. His 2025 season was ended by an ACL tear in July. He has less than a year of service time, meaning he’s still years away from even qualifying for arbitration and even farther from free agency. He also has options and can be kept in the minors as depth.

Given his limited big league action, an interested club would have to bet on his minor league track record. Across 2023 and 2024, he tossed 238 1/3 innings on the farm with a 3.36 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate.

Given the chatter around Crawford, Sandoval, Dobbins, Tolle and Early, there are many ways the Red Sox could go. Many expect the Sox to also trade one of Jarren Duran , Wilyer Abreu or Masataka Yoshida. They could also trade Triston Casas if they add a first baseman. Their outfield seems set but they have lots of ways they could upgrade the infield, with shortstop the only spot that seems locked down right now. Given all the possible permutations, there are infinite paths ahead.

One possibility that keeps coming up is Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks. He has already been in plenty of rumors, including a connection to the Sox. McAdam and Chris Cotillo of MassLive write that the two clubs have had some talks about Marte, with the Snakes focused on controllable starting pitching as the return.

It’s a sensible enough framework. Arizona traded Merrill Kelly at last year’s deadline and lost Zac Gallen to free agency. They recently signed Michael Soroka but that’s not enough to satisfy their needs. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Phoenix reported after the Soroka deal that the Diamondbacks are still looking for more arms. Owner Ken Kendrick has suggested the payroll should be dropping a bit relative to 2025, so turning to the trade market is logical.

That doesn’t mean a Marte-for-pitching deal is likely. Arizona’s general manager Mike Hazen has repeatedly tried to downplay the Marte rumors and did so again this week on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. He said that the Diamondbacks have been receiving trade interest in Marte annually for years. He attributed the interest and rumors to Marte’s superstar abilities and relatively team-friendly contract.

Over the past three years, Marte has slashed .283/.368/.519 for a 140 wRC+. His 11.2% walk rate an 16.7% strikeout rate are both strong figures. His glovework at second base is generally considered solid. FanGraphs credited him with 15.3 wins above replacement over that three-year span, making him one of the top 15 position players in the league.

Relative to other superstars, he is underpaid. He is guaranteed $102.5MM over the next six years, an average annual value of just over $17MM, in an age where most star players are earning more than double that on an annual basis. There are also notable deferrals in Marte’s deal, making it even more attractive.

Time will tell if anyone blows away the Snakes with a strong enough offer to pluck Marte away. The Sox are a possibility, given the arms they have on hand, though Marte has also been connected to the Mariners, Pirates, Rays, Tigers, Phillies and Blue Jays. If Boston can’t land Marte, they should have plenty of other options since starting pitching is in high demand around the league. McAdam reports that the Sox have had talks with at least three teams aside from the Diamondbacks.

Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Twins Looking To Add Bullpen Help, Power Bat

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The Twins tore down their bullpen in July, trading five relievers as part of a deadline fire sale that shipped a whopping 11 players out of the Twin Cities. They’re planning to hold onto stars Byron Buxton, Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan, however, and will be looking to make some additions via free agency and trade over the remainder of the offseason. Specifically, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll called out restocking that barren bullpen and adding at least one power bat to the lineup as areas of focus (links via Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Dan Hayes of The Athletic).

Minnesota carried one of the best bullpens in the entire sport into the trade deadline. Twins relievers posted a middling 4.29 ERA through July 29, but that number was skewed by some position players working mop-up duty and some brutal results from relievers who’d already been designated for assignment (e.g. Jorge Alcala). Minnesota’s top relievers had all been good to excellent. Jhoan Duran (2.01 ERA), Louis Varland (2.02), Griffin Jax (3.91 ERA but a 37 K%), Brock Stewart (2.38 ERA) and Danny Coulombe (0.90 ERA) formed a terrific nucleus. All were traded.

The returns from that bunch brough back a blend of well-regarded prospects (e.g. Eduardo Tait, Kendry Rojas) and controllable big leaguers (e.g. Mick Abel, Taj Bradley, Alan Roden). They also trimmed a few million dollars off the 2025 budget and nearly $13MM in projected arbitration salaries off the 2026 ledger.

Of course, the result of that dismantling was an MLB-worst bullpen down the stretch and a now-barren group that requires significant retooling. Cole Sands, Justin Topa and trade pickup Eric Orze are the only things close to established, MLB-caliber arms in the bullpen at present. Left-hander Kody Funderburk was terrific down the stretch (0.75 ERA in 24 post-deadline innings) but has a shakier overall track record in the majors.

The Twins aren’t going to spend at top-of-market levels. Initial reports surrounding their change in tenor have indicated that there’s room for modest payroll growth, but Hayes suggests 2026’s Opening Day payroll will probably still be at its lowest point in years (excluding the shortened 2020 season, of course).

Currently, Minnesota projects for a $95MM payroll, per RosterResource. That number would fall closer to $90MM if the team trades outfielder Trevor Larnach, who’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to make $4.7MM but is somewhat redundant on a roster also including Matt Wallner and the aforementioned Roden. The Twins’ top two prospects, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez, are also left-handed-hitting outfielders. Both could make their MLB debut in 2026.

Minnesota figures to add multiple arms to the bullpen. It’s also possible, if not likely, that some of the rotation candidates currently in a deep but unproven mix will wind up pitching meaningful relief innings. Ryan and Lopez are locked into the top two rotation spots. Right-hander Bailey Ober will look to bounce back from an injury-marred season. He’d been a quality third/fourth starter prior to 2025.

Abel, Bradley, Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa and Zebby Matthews will all vie for rotation jobs as well. All were top-100 prospects prior to their MLB debuts, but most of that bunch has struggled to varying levels. Woods Richardson, who’s out of minor league options and posted a flat 3.00 ERA in his final 14 starts last year (albeit averaging just five frames per start) probably has the biggest leg up at the moment, but spring training will be pivotal in determining the composition of the starting staff.

Even if two of those potential starters end up in the ’pen, there’s still room to add multiple arms. The Twins figure to traffic primarily in low-cost one-year deals, though that’s nothing new for this front office regime. Falvey has been running baseball operations in Minnesota for a decade now, and he’s only given one multi-year contract to a free agent reliever (Addison Reed, on a two-year deal). Pierce Johnson, Paul Sewald, Tommy Kahnle and Jacob Webb are among the notable one-year deal candidates in free agency. The trade market will obviously offer a much wider and harder-to-predict slate of possibilities.

With regard to the lineup, Zoll indicated that Minnesota would like “another bat or two with some thump, with some impact.” The Twins didn’t tip their hand as to potential areas of focus, but first base stands out as an obvious on-paper fit. The bulk of the other positions on the diamond are spoken for. Buxton will be back in center field. The outfield corners will be manned by a combination of Wallner, Larnach, Roden, Austin Martin and, eventually, previously mentioned prospects like Jenkins and Rodriguez (and possibly Gabriel Gonzalez, too). Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee and Luke Keaschall figure to line up at third base, shortstop and second base, respectively. Ryan Jeffers will be back behind the plate.

First base is far less certain. Minnesota could always try one of those corner outfield bats at first, but right now the top option on the depth chart is journeyman Kody Clemens. Affordable options in free agency include Nathaniel Lowe, Rhys Hoskins, Paul Goldschmidt and Josh Bell. The trade market could again present alternatives, with Triston Casas, Alec Burleson, Ryan Mountcastle and Mark Vientos among some of the plausible names to consider.

However things play out, a spending spree isn’t likely, even with the team sitting some $40-45MM shy of last year’s Opening Day payroll. The Twins haven’t and won’t give any indication as to a final budgetary target, but Hayes speculates that something in the $110MM range might be reasonable. Even if that’s closer to $115MM, the Twins would be looking at about $20MM in total 2026 spending (or closer to $25MM if Larnach is moved). It doesn’t leave a lot of space for additions and could push Falvey, Zoll and the rest of the front office to pursue trades more heavily than free agency, but Minnesota has a deep farm that should allow them to pursue the sort of “creative” scenarios both Falvey and Zoll said will be necessary under this new financial reality.

White Sox Sign Anthony Kay To Two-Year Deal

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December 9th: The White Sox officially announced the Kay signing today.

December 3rd: The White Sox and left-hander Anthony Kay are reportedly in agreement on a two-year, $12MM contract. The former first-round pick and top prospect, who’s represented by CAA, will be paid $5MM in each of the next two seasons and has a $2MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option for the 2028 season. He can earn another $1.5MM via incentives. Kay has spent the past two seasons pitching well for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

It’s a familiar page in general manager Chris Getz’s playbook: sign a former first-rounder to a two-year deal on the heels of a strong run pitching in one of the top leagues in Asia.

That strategy worked out reasonably well when Chicago signed Erick Fedde for two years and $15MM in the 2023-24 offseason following a terrific season in the Korea Baseball Organization; Fedde was traded to the Cardinals in a three-team swap in July 2024, netting the White Sox Miguel Vargas and minor league infielders Alexander Albertus and Jeral Perez. Vargas was a league-average bat for the South Siders in 2025 and is controlled another four seasons. Albertus and Perez rank within the top 25 prospects in the Sox’ system.

The Sox will hope for similar results in their similarly priced investment into Kay. The 30-year-old southpaw (31 in March) has pitched 291 2/3 innings since heading to Japan. In that time, he’s logged a 2.53 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 54.5% ground-ball rate in 48 starts out of the BayStars’ rotation.

Kay has changed his pitch repertoire since moving to NPB. He sat 94.1 mph with a four-seamer, 87.9 mph with a cutter and 86.2 mph with a slider during his limited big league work from 2019-23. He’s added about three miles per hour to that cutter and also begun throwing a sinker that he didn’t have during his last run in North America, which he credits with generating more soft contact. He’s still throwing a sweeper and occasional changeup, and the lefty has also dabbled with a curveball. (He spoke about those changes and more in an October chat with Fansided’s Robert Murray.)

From 2019-23, Kay pitched 85 1/3 innings between the Blue Jays, Cubs and Mets. It was the Mets who originally selected him 31st overall back in 2016, though they were actually the third team for whom he pitched in the majors. New York traded Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson to the Blue Jays in exchange for Marcus Stroman back in 2019, and Kay made his MLB debut not long after the swap.

Things never clicked for Kay in the majors. He’s been tagged for a 5.59 ERA with a solid 22.4% strikeout rate but an ugly 12% walk rate. Opponents averaged 1.27 homers per nine innings against him. He didn’t fare much better in terms of run prevention in parts of four Triple-A seasons, logging a 5.40 earned run average in 148 1/3 innings pitched.

As we saw with Fedde and with yesterday’s three-year, $30MM deal between the Blue Jays and Cody Ponce, what Kay did in his prior MLB work holds virtually no bearing on his newfound payday. He’s a different pitcher now than he was at any point in 2019-23, and the White Sox are paying him based on the their belief that the changes he’s implemented while pitching in Yokohama will beget better results back in Major League Baseball.

There’s inherent risk, but at this price point, it’s also hard to fault a White Sox club that’s still in the midst of a rebuilding effort. Kay will either pitch well, at which point he’d emerge as a nice trade chip, or he’ll continue to struggle and the Sox will be out a relatively modest $5MM per season. The overall scope of this commitment is less than the $15MM paydays we saw for aging veterans in their late 30s/early 40s last year (e.g. Charlie Morton, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Alex Cobb). It’s a life-changing deal for Kay but a small-scale gamble for the team.

Kay steps into a rotation mix that has plenty of options but is lacking when it comes to established contributors. Right-handers Shane Smith, Sean Burke and Davis Martin all pitched between 134 and 146 innings with ERAs between 3.81 (Smith) and 4.22 (Burke). None of the three has more than one full season of big league success. Smith was a Rule 5 pick at last year’s Winter Meetings and a rookie in 2025.

Those four are now favored to open the year in manager Will Venable’s rotation. Jonathan Cannon is tentatively penciled into the fifth spot for the time being, but he struggled greatly in 2025 and has minor league options remaining. Prospects Ky Bush and Drew Thorpe could be midseason options as they work their way back from Tommy John surgery performed last spring. Lefties Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith rank among the game’s top pitching prospects and could be ready at some point next summer as well.

There’s still room for the Sox to add some veteran innings. Getz has previously voiced a reluctance to commit to free agents beyond the 2026 season — though he did so with Kay, albeit in moderate fashion. There ought to be plenty of veteran arms looking at one-year deals, whether that’s a back-of-the-rotation innings eater (e.g. Michael Lorenzen, Patrick Corbin) or an upside play coming off an injury or poor performance (e.g. Nestor Cortes, Walker Buehler, Dustin May). The White Sox’ payroll currently projects at just $68MM, per RosterResource, so there’s room for Getz & Co. to bring in several additions to fill out the rotation, bullpen, outfield and infield.

Murray first reported that the two parties had agreed to a two-year, $12MM deal. The Athletic’s Will Sammon added details about the specific breakdown and incentives.

Red Sox Interested In Isaac Paredes; Astros Showing Interest In Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Mike Burrows

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With Framber Valdez now a free agent and the rotation still smarting from an injury-plagued season, the Astros are known to exploring the market for young, controllable starting pitching.  As per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, pitchers on Houston’s radar includes the Pirates’ Mike Burrows, and Red Sox left-handers Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.

Adding to the intrigue is Boston’s interest in Astros infielder Isaac Paredes, as Rosenthal writes that the Red Sox view Paredes as a candidate to play third base, or to cover first base if Alex Bregman re-signs with the team.  “Bregman still appears to be the Red Sox’s No. 1 target,” according to Rosenthal, but the Sox are casting a wide berth for other infield candidates in the event that Bregman signs elsewhere.

Paredes is projected for a $9.3MM salary via the arbitration process this winter, and he has one further year of arb control remaining as a Super Two player.  Between these two years of affordable control, Paredes’ ability to handle either corner infield slot as well as second base, and his potent bat makes him a valuable asset, though he has already been traded four times in his career, including twice within the last 18 months.  The Rays dealt Paredes to the Cubs at the 2024 deadline, and Chicago then included Paredes as part of the Kyle Tucker blockbuster last winter.

In his first season in Houston, Paredes spent two months on the injured list due to a severe hamstring strain, but mostly lived up to expectations by hitting .254/.352/.458 with 20 home runs over 438 plate appearances.  As such, Astros GM Dana Brown said last month that moving Paredes “would be weakening our lineup.  So right now, we have no interest in trading him.”

Of course, the “right now” left the door open, and the lure of one of Boston’s young southpaws could make the Astros more amendable to a trade.  Moving Paredes would have the side benefit of clearing some space within the crowded Houston infield, which has Paredes, Christian Walker, Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena, and Carlos Correa all lined up for four infield positions since the Astros are planning to primarily use Yordan Alvarez as the DH.  Dealing Paredes also shaves $9.3MM off of the payroll, freeing up more money for the Astros to address other needs.

Early and Tolle each made their MLB debuts in 2025.  A second-round pick in the 2024 draft, Tolle made it to the Show just 13 months after his draft date, thanks to some standout numbers at three different levels of Boston’s farm system.  It might have been a bit too much too soon for Tolle, as he posted a 6.06 ERA across his first 16 1/3 innings in the bigs, and the Sox soon transitioned him into a bullpen role both in September and for the Wild Card Series against the Yankees.

Early, a fifth-round pick from the 2023 draft, made the better first impression, delivering a 2.33 ERA, 46.7% grounder rate, 5.1% walk rate, and 36.1% strikeout rate across four starts and 19 1/3 innings.  Due in part to a lack of healthy rotation depth, the Red Sox even entrusted Early with the start in the pivotal Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, and the young southpaw was tagged for four runs (three earned) over 3 2/3 innings in a 4-0 New York victory that ended Boston’s season.

The Sox wouldn’t normally have much interest in moving either of these highly-touted young hurlers, and it might still be unlikely that either Tolle or Early are actually dealt.  However, the additions of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo have added to Boston’s rotation depth, and those two pitchers now look set to join Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello as the top four in the projected rotation.  This leaves Tolle and Early as two of several pitchers (i.e. Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval, Kyle Harrison and more) competing for perhaps just one rotation job.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier and other reporters that the club had indeed received calls about their starters, as “I think teams have recognized that there’s appeal to controllable starting pitching.  If there are opportunities to use some of that depth in order to address other areas of the roster, we’d be willing to do it.”

The Red Sox and Pirates lined up on a notable pitching-for-hitting trade earlier this week, as Oviedo was the primary return heading to Boston while the Bucs picked up a promising young outfielder in Jhostynxon Garcia.  In the wake of that trade, Rosenthal wrote that Pittsburgh was still willing to discuss trading other starters besides Paul Skenes, and Pirates GM Ben Cherington said the same Monday at the Winter Meetings.

“We’ll have a high bar” for such trades, Cherington told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Colin Beazley and other reporters.  “Will more likely consider that if [the return is] something that’s coming back immediately into our lineup.  [We’re] also open to adding pitching.  We’re not only engaged on position players; we’re talking about adding pitching, too.  If we did trade a starter, [it] probably increases the motivation to add back to the pitching also.”

Moving Burrows could therefore be the first step in a chain reaction of moves for the Pirates, who are intent on upgrading their lineup this offseason.  This has manifested itself in a surprising pursuit of Kyle Schwarber and interest in other notable free agents and trade targets like Kazuma Okamoto, Ketel Marte, Brendan Donovan, Jorge Polanco, Ryan O’Hearn, and more.

Entering his age-26 season, Burrows still has less than a full year of MLB service time under his belt.  The right-hander made his big league debut in the form a single-game cup of coffee in 2024, and then posted a 3.94 ERA over 96 innings with Pittsburgh this year, starting 19 of his 23 appearances.  Burrows backed up his ERA with a solid 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.

Over 291 1/3 innings in the Pirates’ farm system, Burrows had a 3.58 ERA, 27.2% strikeout rate, and 9.18 BB%.  He missed big chunks of the 2023-24 seasons while recovering from Tommy John surgery, which is probably why the righty hasn’t gotten as much attention as some of the other top-100 hurlers in the Pirates’ farm system.  This could conceivably make Burrows a little more available than the likes of Braxton Ashcraft or Thomas Harrington, though only the Bucs know how they’re internally ranking their various rotation candidates.

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