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Previewing The 2024-25 Free Agent Class: Third Base

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MLBTR’s positional look at the upcoming free agent class continues with the hot corner. Last month, there looked to be a clear top two. The Matt Chapman extension leaves one player well above the rest. Teams that aren’t interested in dropping nine figures on the position may need to turn to the trade or non-tender markets for help.

Player ages are for the 2025 season. Stats are through play on September 22. Only players who have appeared in the majors this year are included.

Top of the Class

Bregman stands head and shoulders above the rest of the third base class. He’s arguably the #2 position player available (albeit way behind Juan Soto). The two-time All-Star has overcome a frigid start to run a .257/.313/.435 slash with 25 homers over 619 plate appearances. That includes a robust .266/.320/.479 line in more than 500 trips since the start of May. Bregman’s walk rate has fallen off sharply, but he’s still an excellent contact hitter with 20-30 homer pop who plays strong defense.

The Astros will make a qualifying offer, which he’ll decline. Houston GM Dana Brown has indicated the team will stay in touch with Bregman’s camp at the Boras Corporation. It’ll be tough to get a deal done. The Astros’ franchise-record contract was the five-year, $151MM extension in 2018 for Jose Altuve. That’s also the amount which the Giants paid (albeit over six years) to extend Chapman a few weeks ago. Bregman is a year younger and a more consistent offensive performer than Chapman is. That feels like the floor, and he’ll probably look for something nearer to or exceeding $200MM over seven-plus years.

Utility Types/Bench Bats

A career-long middle infielder, DeJong had never played third base before this season. He has logged more than 300 innings over 36 starts at the hot corner. Most of that has come since a deadline deal to the Royals in deference to Bobby Witt Jr. Public defensive metrics have rated him well in that tiny sample, little surprise for a player who has been a reliable defensive shortstop throughout his career. DeJong strikes out a ton and doesn’t get on base consistently. He’s hitting .230 with a .277 on-base percentage this year and has a .269 OBP in more than 1500 plate appearances since the start of 2021. That won’t cut it as an everyday player, but he’s just one home run shy of the third 25-homer season of his career. The righty power and ability to defend throughout the infield play well in a utility role.

Drury topped 25 home runs in both 2022 and ’23. He looked like one of the better power-hitting infielders in the game entering this season. This year has been a disaster. He’s hitting .167/.242/.230 with all of four longballs over 92 games. Drury’s hard contact rate has plummeted and his power completely evaporated. He can play any infield spot aside from shortstop but isn’t a great defender. The disappointing walk year might put him in minor league deal territory.

Farmer is a righty-hitting utilityman who has provided roughly league average offense in four straight seasons. This year’s .229/.308/.378 slash with five homers is a little below his typical standard, though that’s weighed down heavily by a terrible start. Farmer has a strong .286/.346/.473 career slash against left-handed pitching compared to a .236/.296/.357 mark without the platoon advantage. He has graded as a solid if unexceptional defender throughout his career, though that could drop off as he enters his age-34 season. Farmer’s deal with Minnesota contains a $6.25MM mutual option or a $250K buyout; the team is likely to decline its end.

Hernández has made a career off his defensive flexibility, clubhouse reputation and double-digit home run power. The Dodgers have used him most frequently at third base this season. Hernández entered the season with a little more than 250 MLB innings at the position. He has played 529 frames over 60 starts there in 2024. The right-handed hitter has a very poor average (.219) and on-base percentage (.272), but he’s got 11 homers in 373 plate appearances.

Iglesias spent all of 2023 in Triple-A. The former All-Star shortstop has had a resurgent return to the majors with the Mets since being called up at the end of May. Iglesias is hitting .337/.381/.459 over 265 plate appearances while splitting most of his time between second and third base. That huge offensive output is buoyed by a .380 average on balls in play that he’s unlikely to maintain over a larger sample. That said, he remains one of the more gifted pure contact hitters. He’s still a strong defender — he’d have gotten more opportunity at shortstop if not for Francisco Lindor — and has been a spark plug for the Mets’ clubhouse as part of their second half playoff push. He has certainly earned himself a major league deal during this trip to free agency.

Rosario has moved from an everyday shortstop role into a utility capacity. He was hitting .307/.331/.417 in 76 games with the Rays through the trade deadline. Tampa Bay flipped him to the Dodgers and things have gone downhill. Los Angeles surprisingly moved on from Rosario after just five games. He landed with the Reds on a waiver claim. In 21 games with Cincinnati, Rosario is hitting .161 with 23 strikeouts and just one walk over 58 plate appearances. His season batting line — .281/.307/.381 with three homers across 345 PAs — is now league average. Rosario has exactly 100 innings of third base work in his first season with MLB action at the hot corner. As is the case in the middle infield, he hasn’t graded highly in that minuscule sample.

Late-career Solano just hits. The righty-swinging infielder has been an average or better hitter in six straight seasons. Solano has carried that over in stints between the Giants, Reds, Twins and Padres. He’s sporting a .287/.342/.414 slash with seven homers through 292 plate appearances for San Diego this season. The market doesn’t value Solano’s skillset highly — he had to settle for a minor league deal last offseason — but he’s a nice player to have in a bat-first role off the bench. He has started 28 games and played more than 250 innings at the hot corner for San Diego.

Urshela was a productive everyday player for the Yankees for a few seasons. He didn’t hit for much power with the Angels last year and hasn’t made an offensive impact between the Tigers and Braves this season. He’s hitting .251/.287/.358 in a little more than 400 plate appearances. Urshela has been better with Atlanta than he was in Detroit. He should land a big league deal but is probably better suited for a utility role than everyday third base work as he enters his age-33 season.

Depth Players

A former regular with the Marlins, Anderson only had five plate appearances in three MLB games with Atlanta this year. He hit .237/.326/.365 through 84 contests in Triple-A.

Davis is in Triple-A with the Orioles, his fourth organization of the year. After being cut loose by the Giants in a late spring cost-saving move, he has slumped to a career-worst .218/.293/.338 line between the A’s and Yankees. Davis hasn’t hit at all in the minors either, striking out at a 44.5% clip while batting .147 in 30 games. He was a solid regular for San Francisco just last season and should be able to find a minor league deal somewhere.

Peterson started the season 1-22 with the Diamondbacks. He was released in April and has been a free agent for months. The lefty hitter turned in a .211/.304/.307 slash between the A’s and D-Backs a year ago.

Sanó was out of baseball in 2023 but returned on a minor league deal with the Angels last winter. He broke camp and appeared in 28 games, hitting .205 with two homers and a 37.9% strikeout rate in 95 plate appearances. The Halos released him around the All-Star Break.

The rebuilding Nationals and White Sox both took shots on Senzel. The former #2 overall draft pick continued to struggle, though, combining for a .195/.283/.331 slash across 267 plate appearances. Senzel is at 450+ games and more than 1600 plate appearances with production below replacement level in his career. He’s firmly in minor league deal territory.

Club Options

The White Sox are going to buy Moncada out for $5MM. He’ll be a free agent for the first time in his career. The switch-hitting infielder looked like he was making good on the immense prospect hype when he hit .315/.367/.548 and garnered down ballot MVP votes in 2019. His production dipped during the shortened season, rebounded with a strong ’21 campaign, and has fallen off sharply since then. Moncada combined for a .234/.288/.386 slash from 2022-23. He lost most of this season to an adductor strain and has been limited to a bench role with the Sox looking toward the future. Moncada only has 12 appearances on the season.

Suárez’s deal contains a $15MM option or a $2MM buyout. Three months ago, it looked like a lock to be bought out. Suárez was striking out at a near-30% clip and hitting .196/.279/.312 through the end of June. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo briefly planned to turn third base over to rookie Blaze Alexander and the D-Backs reportedly considered trading the veteran in what would’ve amounted to a salary dump.

They’re certainly glad they didn’t. Suárez has hit 23 home runs since July 1, tied with Brent Rooker for third in the majors behind Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. The veteran infielder is hitting .319/.362/.637 with an improved 24.9% strikeout rate over his past 301 plate appearances. Since the start of July, Suárez is 10th among qualified hitters in wRC+ and fifth in FanGraphs WAR — trailing only Witt, Judge, Lindor and Ohtani. The D-Backs presumably don’t expect him to continue playing like an MVP, but three months of elite play should make the option a relatively easy call to exercise. Even if the Diamondbacks are concerned about regression and/or want to turn third base over to prospect Jordan Lawlar next season, Suárez’s excellent run should give him surplus trade value on a $15MM salary.

Previous installments: catcher, first base, second base

Cody Bellinger Remains Undecided On Opt-Out

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Cody Bellinger has one of the more significant opt-out decisions of the offseason. The Cubs center fielder/first baseman needs to decide whether to bypass the remaining two years and $50MM on the three-year, $80MM contract he signed late last winter. If he foregoes this year’s opt-out, he’d have another out clause during the 2025-26 offseason (when there’ll be $20MM left on the deal).

Last weekend, Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote that Bellinger was “fully expected” to bypass this winter’s opt-out. That doesn’t seem to be set in stone, however. Patrick Mooney of the Athletic reported this evening that Bellinger has yet to decide whether he’ll test the market.

Bellinger is wrapping up a solid if slightly disappointing year. He’s hitting .268/.328/.432 with 18 home runs over 545 plate appearances. He has essentially maintained the career-best pure contact ability that he showed in 2023. Bellinger has fanned in 15.8% of his trips this year, marginally higher than the 15.6% strikeout rate he managed during his first season on the North Side.

The downturn has been in his power output. Bellinger had eight more home runs and 13 additional extra-base hits a year ago. He has another week to add to this season’s totals but isn’t going to make up that much ground. His slugging percentage is down more than .090 points from last year’s excellent .525 mark. The sustainability of last year’s power production was always the biggest question. Bellinger got to his impressive 2023 output despite a below-average 31.4% hard contact rate and 87.9 MPH average exit velocity. This year’s batted ball metrics are similarly middling and the results have indeed regressed.

There’s nevertheless still a lot to like in the profile. Bellinger has proven to be an above-average contact hitter. He’s another season removed from the dismal 2021-22 run that led the Dodgers to non-tender him before his final arbitration year. It’s safe to say that his 47-homer MVP form isn’t coming back, but Bellinger is a productive hitter. He’s still capable of playing center field, although the Cubs have used him increasingly in right field and at first base.

Bellinger has graded as an average defender in a little more than 400 center field innings. He has posted similar marks in more than 350 innings in right. The Cubs’ best outfield has defensive wunderkind Pete Crow-Armstrong in center. Another team could give Bellinger more consistent reps up the middle for at least a season or two.

The two-time All-Star remains one of the younger possible free agents in the class. Bellinger turned 29 in July. He’s more than a year younger than Harrison Bader, who’d probably be the top center fielder if Bellinger stays in Chicago. He’s nearly a year younger than Anthony Santander and about the same age as Tyler O’Neill. While there’s a decent amount of corner outfield talent — headlined, of course, by Juan Soto — the center field class is not strong. Bellinger declined a qualifying offer last winter and is no longer eligible to receive one, so there’d be no draft pick forfeiture this time around.

That’d work in Bellinger’s favor if he opted out. Between his age and decent all-around production, he’d have a decent argument for a four- or even five-year deal. If he simply wanted to maximize the guarantee, he shouldn’t have an issue beating the $50MM remaining on his current contract. That’d require taking a paycut next season though. Bellinger wouldn’t match next year’s $27.5MM salary on an annual basis over four or five years.

If Bellinger and his camp at the Boras Corporation expect his power to rebound, bypassing the opt-out would be the likely decision. He’d have another chance to retest the market in advance of his age-30 campaign in 12 months. Staying in Chicago may require playing right field for a full season in deference to Crow-Armstrong, though, potentially raising questions among other teams about his long-term viability in center field.

From the Cubs’ perspective, an opt-out would probably be the better outcome. That’d enable them to play Seiya Suzuki more frequently in right field instead of limiting him to designated hitter — where he’d need to play with Bellinger and Ian Happ flanking Crow-Armstrong. Michael Busch’s strong year lessens the need to have Bellinger around as a fallback at first base. The Cubs have questions at catcher, in the bullpen and at the back of the rotation.

How does the MLBTR readership expect things to play out?

 

NL Injury Notes: Glasnow, Hicks, Wicks, Kinley

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The Dodgers moved Tyler Glasnow to the 60-day injured list on Wednesday, all but officially ruling him out for the rest of the season. The lanky right-hander spoke with reporters (including Jack Harris and Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times) and essentially confirmed he won’t be back in the playoffs. Glasnow called it “extremely frustrating” to be dealing with an elbow sprain, though he indicated he’s confident he will not require any kind of surgical repair.

Glasnow tossed 134 innings across 22 starts in his first season with the Dodgers. He established new career marks in both categories, though the season-ending elbow injury isn’t going to quiet concerns about his durability. Glasnow remained effective as ever before the injury, turning in a 3.49 ERA with a 32.2% strikeout rate.

A few more Senior Circuit injury notes as noncompetitive teams shut some players down:

  • Shoulder inflammation sent Jordan Hicks to the injured list, ending his season. The Giants recalled Austin Warren to take his spot in the bullpen. Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that Hicks will go for an MRI tomorrow. The first season of his four-year, $44MM free agent deal was a mixed bag. Hicks moved to the rotation for the first extended stretch of his career. The sinkerballer pitched well early, carrying a 2.70 ERA in 12 appearances through the end of May. He seemed to wear down quickly thereafter, allowing a 6.37 ERA over his next eight starts. The Giants moved him back to the bullpen at the end of July, but he continued to struggle in relief. Hicks allowed nearly five earned runs per nine with six strikeouts and walks apiece over 11 frames out of the ’pen.
  • The Cubs placed left-hander Jordan Wicks on the injured list with a right oblique strain. Trey Wingenter is up from Triple-A Iowa in a corresponding move. Wicks had returned from a stint on the 60-day IL at the start of September. That was also on account of a right oblique strain, while the southpaw also missed time with an early-season forearm problem. It’s a frustrating second season for the former first-round pick. Wicks struggled when healthy enough to take the mound, allowing a 5.48 ERA across 46 innings in 11 appearances (10 starts).
  • Rockies closer Tyler Kinley landed on the shelf with elbow inflammation. Colorado recalled Jake Bird to take the open bullpen spot. It’s his second elbow-related IL stint in as many months. Kinley missed the second half of 2022 and most of last season after undergoing elbow surgery. He was healthy for most of this year but hasn’t found anything close to the success he enjoyed before the surgery two years ago. Kinley allowed a 6.19 ERA over 64 innings. He fanned a quarter of batters faced but walked more than 11% of opponents while struggling with the home run ball.

Guardians Outright Carlos Carrasco

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Carlos Carrasco is sticking with the Guardians. Cleveland announced this evening that the veteran right-hander accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus. The Guards had designated Carrasco for assignment on Tuesday when they needed a 40-man roster spot to add Myles Straw as a replacement for injured left fielder Steven Kwan.

Carrasco was on the injured list at the time of his DFA. He last pitched in the majors on August 7. A left hip strain sent him to the 15-day IL. Injured players cannot go on outright waivers, but Carrasco was on a minor league rehab stint at the time of his designation. That the Guards were permitted to outright him suggests he’s back to full strength. Cleveland announced that he’ll start tomorrow for Columbus.

This has been a tough year for the 37-year-old. Carrasco broke camp with the Guardians after returning to the organization on an offseason minor league deal. He’s taken the ball 21 times and is third on the team (behind Tanner Bibee and Ben Lively) with 103 2/3 innings. The results haven’t been great, as he’s allowed 5.64 earned runs per nine. Carrasco’s strikeout rate is a bit south of 20% and he has been far too prone to the home run ball (1.65 HR/9). The longball has been an issue for the past few seasons, the main reason Carrasco has allowed an ERA north of 5.00 in four of the last six years.

Carrasco has more than enough service time to decline a minor league assignment while collecting what remains of his $2MM base salary. He and the Guardians clearly have a strong relationship, so he’ll instead head to Columbus and hang around as depth for Cleveland’s playoff run. Carrasco wouldn’t have been eligible for postseason play elsewhere, meaning he’d have simply sat out the rest of the year had he elected free agency.

While Carrasco has clearly fallen down the organizational depth chart, the Guardians have one of the weaker rotations among playoff teams. Bibee, Gavin Williams and midseason pickup Matthew Boyd (2.52 ERA with a 27.2% strikeout rate in seven starts) project as Stephen Vogt’s top three starters. Deadline acquisition Alex Cobb landed on the IL last week with blister issues. He’d be in that mix if he’s healthy by the start of the playoffs. According to the MLB.com injury tracker, he was scratched from a scheduled simulated game yesterday as the blister lingers.

Lively would probably be the option right now if Vogt needs a fourth starter, but there’s very little depth after that. Carrasco and rookie Joey Cantillo project as the top depth options if any of the Guards’ top four starters were to suffer an injury. Vogt will look to get into his elite bullpen early and often once October rolls around.

Orioles Activate Danny Coulombe From Injured List

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The Orioles announced they’ve activated lefty reliever Danny Coulombe from the 60-day injured list. Baltimore placed Burch Smith on the 15-day IL, retroactive to September 18, to open a spot in the bullpen. Smith was diagnosed with a right adductor (groin) strain. The O’s already had a trio of openings on the 40-man roster, which sits at 38 following Coulombe’s reinstatement.

It’s a potentially big boost to Brandon Hyde’s bullpen with a little more than a week before the postseason. Coulombe has been out since the middle of June with an elbow injury that necessitated surgery to remove bone chips. Prior to the injury, the 34-year-old had been one of Hyde’s most trusted relievers. He’d rewarded that faith with 26 innings of 2.42 ERA ball behind a 30.4% strikeout percentage and a tiny 3.3% walk rate.

This was shaping up as a second straight excellent season for Coulombe. The O’s brought him aboard with little fanfare in Spring Training 2023. Coulombe had been in camp with the Twins on a minor league contract. Minnesota didn’t want to carry him on the MLB roster, so Baltimore acquired him for cash considerations and added him to their Opening Day club. He tossed 51 1/3 innings with a 2.81 earned run average and similarly strong strikeout (27.6%) and walk (5.7%) numbers. Coulombe owns a 2.68 mark over 77 1/3 frames in an O’s uniform.

The O’s have had a subpar second half, dropping four games back of the Yankees in the process. The bullpen has played a role in that. Baltimore relievers rank 24th in the majors with a 4.69 ERA since the All-Star Break. They’ve had a generally strong strikeout and walk profile but given up a few too many home runs. Coulombe has done a nice job avoiding the longball throughout his career, allowing less than one home run per nine innings. He joins Keegan Akin, Cionel Pérez and Gregory Soto as left-handed options in the late innings.

Braves Activate Ozzie Albies

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September 20: Atlanta has officially announced the reinstatement of Albies. Infielder Cavan Biggio was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett in a corresponding move. Biggio has more than five years of major league service time and therefore can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent, so he presumably has agreed to be sent down.

September 19: The Braves will welcome Ozzie Albies back tomorrow. Manager Brian Snitker confirmed after today’s 15-3 drubbing of the Reds that Atlanta will activate Albies from the 10-day injured list (link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). They’ve been without their star second baseman for almost two months because of a left wrist fracture. The Braves will need to create an active roster spot tomorrow.

Albies still feels discomfort when he hits from the left side. He’ll limit himself to the right-handed batter’s box as a result. That’s his far stronger side in general. Albies is a career .339/.364/.568 hitter against left-handed pitching. He has a roughly average .247/.309/.437 slash versus righties. His task as a right-handed batter will be more difficult without always having the platoon advantage (to say nothing of the challenge of jumping back to action after an eight-week absence). Still, if Albies had to choose a side of the plate, he’d certainly pick this one.

It’s crunch time for Atlanta. The Braves are 1.5 games behind the Diamondbacks and Mets for the final playoff spot in the National League (pending Arizona’s and New York’s results tonight). Atlanta holds the tiebreaker over Arizona. They’ve split the season series with the Mets and will decide that tiebreaker with a three-game set at home early next week. That looks as if it’ll be the biggest regular season series of the year for any team.

Atlanta is headed to Miami for a three-game weekend set. They’re off on Monday before closing their season with the Mets and three games against the Royals (who might be fighting for their own playoff lives) at home. The Mets are hosting the Phillies for four this weekend before closing their season with road sets in Atlanta and Milwaukee. Arizona has a four-game series in Milwaukee and will play host to the Giants and Padres for three apiece next week.

The Braves have had a middle-of-the-pack offense for the past couple months. They’re 13th in scoring since the Albies injury, with similarly middling showings in on-base percentage (16th) and slugging (12th). Atlanta second basemen are hitting .220/.319/.296 across 216 plate appearances in that stretch. That’s weighed down by dreadful small-sample performances from Luke Williams and prospect Nacho Alvarez Jr. The Braves have given most of the second base reps to Whit Merrifield, who has reached base at a strong .344 clip but hasn’t provided any kind of power since signing with Atlanta.

Merrifield has plenty of experience bouncing around the diamond. If Snitker wanted to keep him in the lineup, he’d probably kick him to third base and bench Gio Urshela. The veteran corner infielder is hitting .234/.258/.340 over 26 games as a Brave. Urshela signed a big league deal in the wake of Austin Riley’s injury, not long after Urshela was released by the Tigers.

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Nationals Activate Trevor Williams

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September 20: The Nationals announced today that Williams has officially been reinstated, as expected. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Zach Brzykcy and transferred Adon to the 60-day IL.

September 18: The Nationals are planning to reinstate Trevor Williams from the 60-day injured list on Friday, tweets Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. The right-hander will get the start at Wrigley Field in his first MLB outing since the end of May. They’ll need to create a 40-man roster spot but could move Alex Call or Joan Adon to the 60-day IL if they don’t anticipate either player returning this season.

That would position Williams to make a pair of starts before the end of the season. It’s a bigger development for the pitcher than it is for the team. Washington is only trying to play spoiler at this point, but Williams is an impending free agent. The 32-year-old has been out for more than three months after being diagnosed with a flexor strain in his throwing arm. There’s only so much he can do in two starts to answer teams’ questions about his durability. That said, getting back on the mound and showing the caliber of stuff he had early in the season is certainly preferable to ending the year on the shelf.

The injury cut short one of the best stretches of Williams’ career. He worked to a 2.22 ERA in 56 2/3 innings covering 11 starts. He punched out an average 21% of batters faced while getting ground-balls at a 46% clip. Williams isn’t overpowering but he throws a lot of strikes and had dramatically changed his home run fortunes. He led the National League with 34 home runs allowed en route to a 5.55 earned run average over 30 starts last season. He’d surrendered just two longballs (0.32 per nine innings) through the first couple months this year.

There was some level of luck with Williams’ early-season results. He probably wouldn’t have maintained an ace-caliber ERA over a full season. Williams had clearly taken a step forward relative to last year, though, an improvement that coincided with an increased reliance on his breaking stuff at the expense of his four-seam fastball. The injury also robbed the rebuilding Nationals of a chance to flip Williams at the deadline. He won’t be a candidate for a qualifying offer, so they wouldn’t get any kind of compensation if he walks in free agency.

Washington has a rotation consisting of Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker, DJ Herz and Patrick Corbin. Zuckerman notes that they’ll go to a six-man staff once Williams returns through season’s end. Corbin is playing out the final couple weeks of his $140MM free agent deal. The other four pitchers are under club control for an extended time.

Each of Irvin, Gore, Parker and Herz has turned in an ERA between 4.07 and 4.44 on the season. That group has tailed off in the second half, though, and none of them look like budding top-of-the-rotation arms. Gore probably has the highest ceiling, but he has yet to truly put everything together over an extended stretch. With Josiah Gray likely to miss next season and Cade Cavalli’s injury history, the Nats need to add at least one high-end starter if they hope to compete for a playoff spot in 2025.

Rizzo: Nationals Looking For Middle-Of-The-Order Bats

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The Nationals are wrapping up a fifth straight losing season. They jumped the Marlins to get out of last place for the first time since their 2019 World Series, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to pull out of the rebuild.

Longtime general manager and baseball operations president Mike Rizzo chatted with MLB.com’s Bill Ladson this week. In response to a question about pursuing first base help in the offseason, the GM indicated he’d take a wider approach to acquiring offensive impact.

“I wouldn’t keyhole us at first base,” Rizzo told Ladson. “We need some offense. We need a couple of bats that can hit in the middle of the lineup and take the onus off some of these good young core players and assist them in the run creation of our offense. We have the core players to be middle-of-the-lineup hitters. If we add a bat or two into that group, it takes a little bit of pressure off everybody and everybody can relax a little bit more and develop into the players we think they are going to be.”

Rizzo predictably didn’t identify specific targets, but mentioning a middle-of-the-order bat naturally leads to speculation about the market’s top free agent. Last week, MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored the notion of Washington making a run at bringing back Juan Soto. There’s enough long-term payroll flexibility to make that a possibility, albeit a long shot. Having future payroll space doesn’t necessarily mean ownership wants to dole out a contract that could approach or top $600MM. Soto will also certainly have offers from teams that are clearer contenders in the short term.

Soto is the crown jewel of the class but not the only player who’d qualify as a middle-of-the-order bat. Pete Alonso is one home run away from getting to 35 in all five full seasons of his MLB career. Anthony Santander hits the market with a career-best 41 homers and counting. Teoscar Hernández is probably going to get to 30 longballs amidst a resurgent .267/.334/.487 showing with the Dodgers.

Christian Walker is hitting .258/.342/.484 to go along with Gold Glove defense at first base. Tyler O’Neill has drilled 31 home runs for the Red Sox while obliterating left-handed pitching at a .315/.432/.756 clip. Alex Bregman is more of a well-rounded star than a true masher, but he’s certainly a good enough hitter to land in the middle of a lineup. Jurickson Profar has had a fantastic year in San Diego, while primary DH options J.D. Martinez, Joc Pederson and Justin Turner will be back on the market. There are fewer obvious trade candidates, but players like Jorge Soler, Brandon Lowe and Yandy Díaz could be available.

[Related: Previewing The 2024-25 Free Agent Class, First Base]

While Rizzo suggested they’ll cast a wider net than looking specifically at first base, that’s indeed a position of weakness. Washington first basemen have hit .240/.310/.378 this season, landing in the bottom third of MLB in all three slash stats. Things have been even bleaker at designated hitter, where the Nats are hitting .198/.268/.332. Only the Reds and Rangers have gotten less production out of the bat-only position.

Juan Yepez has hit well in a limited role, but he won’t stand in the way of an impact acquisition. Joey Gallo is headed to free agency and seems unlikely to be retained. Neither Andrés Chaparro nor Joey Meneses is a lock to hold a 40-man roster spot all offseason. The Nats could accommodate both a full-time DH and a first baseman.

They’re in a better spot elsewhere on the diamond. Dylan Crews and James Wood are flanking Gold Glove-caliber center fielder Jacob Young. Washington could certainly add an outfielder like Santander or O’Neill and rotate them through designated hitter while nudging Young into more of a fourth outfield role, but center field is no longer a huge weakness. Washington is unlikely to find an impact bat behind the plate, where they’re committed to Keibert Ruiz for the foreseeable future. The middle infield duo of CJ Abrams and Luis García is questionable defensively, but they’re both good hitters. José Tena seems like an adequate third base stopgap until the arrival of prospect Brady House. Bregman is the only marquee third baseman in the upcoming class.

The Patrick Corbin contract comes off the books this winter, giving the Nationals more financial room than they’ve had in a while. RosterResource calculates their 2025 commitments around $40MM. Their arbitration class — led by Kyle Finnegan, García and first-year salaries for Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Abrams — is manageable. There’ll be a lot of breathing room before reaching this year’s approximate $125MM season-opening payroll. It’s possible ownership is willing to push spending higher than that to exit the rebuild. The Nats will need to add at least one established starting pitcher and look to deepen the bullpen, so there’s a lot for the front office to weigh, but this should be their most interesting offseason in quite some time.

Blue Jays Outright Brian Serven

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The Blue Jays sent catcher Brian Serven outright to Triple-A Buffalo, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Toronto designated him for assignment on Monday when they brought Tyler Heineman back via waivers.

Serven has occupied a 40-man roster spot since the end of Spring Training. He has spent a chunk of the season on optional assignment, hitting .265/.390/.379 with a trio of homers in 40 games for Buffalo. Serven appeared in 28 MLB contests and ran a .179/.243/.222 slash over 71 plate appearances. He’s a career .187/.247/.293 hitter across 101 games split between the Jays and Rockies.

The Arizona State product owns a .244/.325/.435 mark over parts of four seasons in Triple-A. Serven isn’t much of an offensive threat, though he has graded highly by public defensive metrics in 730 career innings. As a player with multiple career outright assignments, he has the ability to elect free agency. Even if he sticks in the Toronto organization for the last week of the season, he’ll be a minor league free agent at the start of the offseason. Serven’s defensive reputation should land him a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.

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