Yankees Have Reportedly Made Offer To Cody Bellinger
The Yankees made a formal contract offer to Cody Bellinger this week, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Specifics of the proposal aren’t known.
General manager Brian Cashman has made no secret of the team’s desire to keep Bellinger. The former MVP’s first year in the Bronx was excellent. He hit .272/.334/.480 with 29 home runs, his most in a season since 2019. Bellinger’s bat played very well at Yankee Stadium, where he put up a .302/.365/.544 line with 18 longballs.
New York acquired Bellinger from the Cubs last winter in what amounted to a salary dump. They parted with journeyman righty Cody Poteet while assuming all but $5MM of the remaining two years and $52.5MM on Bellinger’s contract. As he ended up opting out, the Yankees paid $27.5MM for that excellent year. It might require a five- or six-year commitment to bring him back as he enters his age-30 season.
The Yankees have had a quiet first couple months of the offseason. Their only move of significance was issuing the qualifying offer to Trent Grisham. He surprisingly accepted and is back in center field on a one-year deal at $22.025MM. Bellinger was ineligible to receive the QO after getting one from the Cubs over the 2023-24 offseason.
Grisham’s salary accounts for the majority of the $29.025MM they’ve spent in free agency so far. The remaining $7MM has been divided among a trio of one-year deals to bring back Paul Blackburn, Amed Rosario and Ryan Yarbrough. Their only MLB acquisition from outside the organization has been Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest.
That certainly won’t be the Yankees’ entire offseason. They presumably expected Bellinger’s free agency to carry well into the winter. The top two free agent hitters, Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette, each make sense on paper if Bellinger heads elsewhere. Signing one of Tucker or Bellinger would allow them to rotate their outfielders through the designated hitter spot if Giancarlo Stanton spends any time on the injured list. Bellinger could spell Ben Rice at first base and/or take playing time in left field from Jasson Domínguez, who still has a pair of options remaining.
An outfielder isn’t an absolute necessity, but it’s probably the cleanest path to adding an impact position player. Shortstop would be the primary alternative. Bichette is the only real solution there and faces questions about his defensive fit. He could be an option to handle shortstop for a season and move over to second base once Jazz Chisholm Jr. hits free agency a year from now. The Yankees have reportedly made Chisholm available in trade conversations, but that’d swap out one of their better all-around position players in the process.
The other option would be to make a rotation splash with Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt opening the season on the injured list. Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez and Zac Gallen are the best remaining free agent starters now that NPB righty Tatsuya Imai is off the board on a three-year deal with Houston. The Yankees were one of the teams linked to Imai when he was a free agent, but both Heyman and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com wrote after the signing that the Yanks were not seriously involved in the bidding.
RosterResource projects the Yankees for a $286MM luxury tax number. Owner Hal Steinbrenner has spoken generally about a desire to stay below the $300MM mark in the past, though Cashman suggested in November that’s not a firm limit this offseason. The Yankees had a $320MM luxury tax payroll at the end of the 2025 season.
The Best Fits For Tatsuya Imai
Decision time nears for Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai. He needs to finalize a contract with an MLB team by Friday at 4:00 pm Central if he's to make the move stateside this year. There's no indication that he's considering sticking with the Seibu Lions, meaning an agreement should be imminent. While there's a little over 48 hours to make the deal official, Imai must agree to terms with enough margin to complete a standard physical.
The 27-year-old (28 in May) is conducting in-person meetings with interested teams in Los Angeles this week. The 5’11” righty has been one of Japan’s best pitchers over the past two seasons. He’s coming off a 1.92 ERA showing with 178 strikeouts across 163 2/3 innings. Imai has an NPB-best 27% strikeout rate since the start of 2024. He sits in the mid-90s with a promising slider. Command was an issue earlier in his career, but his strike-throwing has progressed as he has gained experience. This past season’s 7% walk rate was a personal low and better than the MLB average.
Whichever team that signs Imai will owe a release fee to the Lions. That’s proportional to the contract value: 20% of the first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of all further spending. Imai isn't expected to come close to the $325MM deal that Yoshinobu Yamamoto commanded two offseasons ago. He's a few years older and simply not as good. Yet it's generally believed that he'll command a nine-figure guarantee, perhaps into the $150MM range, from a team that feels he's a mid-rotation arm.
Which clubs are best positioned to make that investment? Salary projections are courtesy of RosterResource.
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Each Team’s Free Agent Activity So Far
The New Year serves as a symbolic halfway point of the offseason. It has been just under two months since the Dodgers came back in Toronto to repeat as World Series champions. We’re exactly six weeks away from pitchers and catchers beginning to report to Spring Training.
Twenty eight of MLBTR’s top 50 free agents have come off the board, though most of the marquee names remain. Seven of the top 10 are unsigned. We’re less than two days away from resolution on #7 free agent Tatsuya Imai, whose posting window closes on Friday afternoon. The overall volume of free agent activity is similar to last offseason, when 26 of our top 50 players were off the board on New Year’s Eve. However, a lot of last winter’s early activity was concentrated at the top of the market, as five of our top six free agents had signed before the close of December. Dylan Cease and Munetaka Murakami are the only two of our top eight who have signed so far this offseason.
Using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker (a tool available to Front Office subscribers), we can find every team’s free agent activity thus far. Players who accepted the $22.025MM qualifying offer are treated as free agent signings. Four contracts negotiated between the end of the regular season and November 6 — the Guardians’ deal with Austin Hedges, Baltimore’s signing of Dietrich Enns, the Royals’ deal with Salvador Perez, and the Cubs’ contract with Colin Rea — are excluded. Those all came before those players were permitted to speak with other teams and are thus extensions rather than free agent contracts.
As always, this is not meant as an exhaustive look at a team’s offseason activity. The Royals (Maikel Garcia) and Athletics (Tyler Soderstrom) have each signed a significant contract extension. The Red Sox are one of two teams that has yet to sign an MLB free agent contract, but they’ve taken on nearly $40MM in 2026 salary via trades for Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Johan Oviedo. This is strictly a look at what teams have so far accomplished through free agency.
For this exercise, we’ll take the total amount even if the contract includes deferred money. Teams are ordered by overall spending.
1. Toronto Blue Jays
Total guarantees: $277MM
- RHP Dylan Cease: Seven years, $210MM
- RHP Tyler Rogers: Three years, $37MM
- RHP Cody Ponce: Three years, $30MM
2. Baltimore Orioles
Total guarantees: $195.1MM
- 1B Pete Alonso: Five years, $155MM
- RHP Ryan Helsley: Two years, $28MM
- RHP Zach Eflin: One year, $10MM
- OF Leody Taveras: One year, $2.1MM
3. Philadelphia Phillies
Total guarantees: $182MM
- DH Kyle Schwarber: Five years, $150MM
- RHP Brad Keller: Two years, $22MM
- OF Adolis García: One year, $10MM
- RHP Zach Pop: One year deal, salary unreported
4. New York Mets
Total guarantees: $113MM
- RHP Devin Williams: Three years, $51MM
- INF Jorge Polanco: Two years, $40MM
- RHP Luke Weaver: Two years, $22MM
5. Atlanta Braves
Total guarantees: $106.25MM
- RHP Robert Suarez: Three years, $45MM
- OF Mike Yastrzemski: Two years, $23MM
- SS Ha-Seong Kim: One year, $20MM
- RHP Raisel Iglesias: One year, $16MM
- RHP Joel Payamps: One year, $2.25MM
- LHP Danny Young: One year split contract
- RHP Ian Hamilton: One year non-guaranteed deal
6. Seattle Mariners
Total guarantees: $99.75MM
- 1B Josh Naylor: Five years, $92.5MM
- OF Rob Refsnyder: One year, $6.25MM
- C Andrew Knizner: One year, $1MM
7. San Diego Padres
Total guarantees: $91.2MM
- RHP Michael King: Three years, $75MM
- INF Sung-mun Song: Four years, $15MM
- LHP Kyle Hart: One year, $1.2MM
- RHP Ty Adcock: One year deal
- RHP Daison Acosta: One year deal
8. Los Angeles Dodgers
Total guarantees: $74.5MM
9. Detroit Tigers
Total guarantees: $59.025MM
- 2B Gleyber Torres: One year, $22.025MM qualifying offer
- RHP Kyle Finnegan: Two years, $19MM
- RHP Kenley Jansen: One year, $11MM
- RHP Drew Anderson: One year, $7MM
10. Chicago Cubs
Total guarantees: $53.525MM
- LHP Shota Imanaga: One year, $22.025MM qualifying offer
- RHP Phil Maton: Two years, $14.5MM
- RHP Hunter Harvey: One year, $6MM
- LHP Caleb Thielbar: One year, $4.5MM
- LHP Hoby Milner: One year, $3.75MM
- RHP Jacob Webb: One year, $1.5MM
- 1B Tyler Austin: One year, $1.25MM
11. Chicago White Sox
Total guarantees: $50.5MM
- 1B Munetaka Murakami: Two years, $34MM (plus $6.575MM posting fee to NPB’s Yakult Swallows)
- LHP Anthony Kay: Two years, $12MM
- LHP Sean Newcomb: One year, $4.5MM
12. Arizona Diamondbacks
Total guarantees: $50.25MM
- RHP Merrill Kelly: Two years, $40MM
- RHP Michael Soroka: One year, $7.5MM
- C James McCann: One year, $2.75MM
13. Pittsburgh Pirates
Total guarantees: $36.75MM
14. San Francisco Giants
Note: Salary terms on San Francisco’s one-year deal with Tyler Mahle remain unreported. Once finalized, that’ll likely push them into the mid-$30MM range. Their placement above the Yankees assumes Mahle’s guarantee is north of $4MM.
Total guarantees: More than $25.4MM
- RHP Adrian Houser: Two years, $22MM
- RHP Jason Foley: One year, $2MM
- LHP Sam Hentges: One year, $1.4MM
15. New York Yankees
Total guarantees: $29.025MM
- OF Trent Grisham: One year, $22.025MM qualifying offer
- LHP Ryan Yarbrough: One year, $2.5MM
- INF Amed Rosario: One year, $2.5MM
- RHP Paul Blackburn: One year, $2MM
16. Cincinnati Reds
Total guarantees: $25.9MM
- RHP Emilio Pagán: Two years, $20MM
- LHP Caleb Ferguson: One year, $4.5MM
- OF JJ Bleday: One year, $1.4MM
- RHP Keegan Thompson: One year split deal
17. Tampa Bay Rays
Total guarantees: $25MM
18. Milwaukee Brewers
Total guarantees: $22.025MM
19. Texas Rangers
Total guarantees: $20.625MM
- C Danny Jansen: Two years, $14.5MM
- RHP Chris Martin: One year, $4MM
- LHP Tyler Alexander: One year, $1.125MM
- RHP Alexis Díaz: One year, $1MM
20. Miami Marlins
Total guarantees: $15MM
21. Los Angeles Angels
Total guarantees: $12.95MM
- RHP Kirby Yates: One year, $5MM
- LHP Drew Pomeranz: One year, $4MM
- RHP Jordan Romano: One year, $2MM
- RHP Alek Manoah: One year, $1.95MM
22. St. Louis Cardinals
Total guarantees: $12.5MM
23. Cleveland Guardians
Total guarantees: $7.9MM
- RHP Shawn Armstrong: One year, $5.5MM
- RHP Colin Holderman: One year, $1.5MM
- RHP Connor Brogdon: One year, $900K
- RHP Pedro Avila: One year split contract
24. Minnesota Twins
Total guarantees: $7MM
25. Kansas City Royals
Total guarantees: $6.15MM
26. Washinton Nationals
Total guarantees: $5.5MM
27. Houston Astros
Total guarantees: $3.95MM
28. Athletics
Total guarantees: $2.85MM
T-29. Boston Red Sox/Colorado Rockies
Total guarantees: $0
- Boston and Colorado have yet to sign a free agent to a major league deal this offseason.
Kona Takahashi’s Posting Window Nearing Conclusion
Most of the focus this week has been on the concluding posting windows for NPB stars Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto. They’re not the only two Japanese free agents whose situations will be resolved within the next few days. Right-hander Kona Takahashi will also need to sign this week if he’s going to make the jump to MLB this offseason.
As MLB.com’s Brian Murphy noted at the time, Takahashi was formally posted by the Seibu Lions on November 21. That’s the same date as Okamoto’s posting. Both players have until Sunday, January 4 at 4:00 pm Central to sign. Imai was posted two days earlier, so his 45-day window closes on Friday afternoon.
Imai and Okamoto are reportedly meeting with clubs in Los Angeles this week. There’s little doubt that both players are going to sign before the end of their posting deadlines. That’s less clear with Takahashi, who doesn’t have nearly the same swing-and-miss upside that Imai brings to the table. Takahashi struck out only 14.3% of batters faced across 24 starts in 2025. He has never recorded a strikeout rate higher than 20% in an NPB season.
Takahashi is headed into his age-29 season. He has been an effective control artist in Japan, walking fewer than 7% of batters faced in consecutive seasons. He posted a 3.04 earned run average over 148 innings last year and owns a 3.39 mark over parts of 11 NPB campaigns. James Fegan and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote in October that Takahashi projected as a fifth starter in MLB. FanGraphs grouped him alongside Anthony Kay and Foster Griffin in that tier. Kay went on to sign a two-year, $12MM deal with the White Sox. Griffin signed a one-year deal at $5.5MM with Washington.
A Japanese-language report from Sanspo in the middle of December indicated that Takahashi’s camp was in contact with three unnamed teams. It’s not known if he has received any MLB offers, nor is it clear that Takahashi would make the move to affiliated ball if teams are only willing to put minor league proposals on the table. If he doesn’t sign with an MLB club, he’d remain with the Lions.
Alexander Canario Signs With NPB’s Seibu Lions
The Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced the signing of outfielder Alexander Canario earlier this month. He had been non-tendered by the Pirates at the end of the season.
Canario, 25, heads overseas for the first time in his career. A notable prospect during his time in the Cubs system, he plateaued in the upper minors because of increasing strikeout concerns. Canario never got much of a big league look in Chicago and bounced around a bit last winter. The Cubs traded him to the Mets in February. New York designated him for assignment on Opening Day and flipped him to Pittsburgh for cash considerations.
The Bucs kept the out-of-options Canario on their roster all season. He played in a little over half their games and tallied a career-high 234 plate appearances. Canario struggled to a .218/.274/.338 slash while striking out 80 times (34.2%). Among hitters with 200+ trips to the dish, only Luke Raley, Gabriel Arias, Michael A. Taylor and Christopher Morel swung and missed more frequently. Canario graded well defensively in his 521 innings split between the three outfield spots, but the lack of offense and roster flexibility led the Bucs to drop him.
Canario takes a career .252/.345/.521 Triple-A batting line to NPB. He has connected on 32 home runs in 120 games at the top minor league level. He’s an above-average runner with a plus arm and significant raw power. It’s the kind of profile that generally plays better in foreign leagues, where the average velocity and strikeout rate is lower than it is MLB. Canario would have been limited to minor league offers had he remained in affiliated ball, and his out-of-options status meant he’d likely have bounced around the waiver wire even if he hit his way back onto a team’s 40-man roster.
A’s Have “Ongoing Conversations” On More Potential Extensions
The Athletics announced their seven-year, $86MM extension with left fielder Tyler Soderstrom from their future home site in Las Vegas. That franchise-record deal followed last winter’s significant investments in DH Brent Rooker and outfielder Lawrence Butler.
Katie Woo and Will Sammon of The Athletic wrote this week that the A’s were interested in exploring extension talks with other players. General manager David Forst confirmed as much at yesterday’s presser, revealing without specifics that the team has opened some discussions.
“The idea of taking this group of young players and locking them up into a new ballpark has been something we’ve talked about for a long time,” Forst said (link via Mark Anderson of The Associated Press). “We were able to get Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler signed last year, Tyler now, and there are ongoing conversations with others. So this is kind of the blueprint for how we want to do this and how we want to open the ballpark in ’28.”
While Forst didn’t identify which players the A’s were trying to extend, there are a few obvious targets. Shea Langeliers has three seasons of arbitration eligibility. Respective Rookie of the Year winner and runner-up Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson have five years of club control. Langeliers is one of the best offensive catchers in MLB. Kurtz and Wilson look like franchise cornerstones at first base and shortstop, respectively.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Langeliers for a $5.1MM salary. His power production should pay well in the arbitration process, and he’d make between $20-25MM over the next three years if he continues at his recent pace. Langeliers is controlled through his age-30 season. Sean Murphy (six years, $73MM) and Cal Raleigh (five years, $99.4MM) have signed recent extensions in the same service bracket.
Langeliers wouldn’t match Raleigh even though that deal was signed before the Seattle backstop’s record-setting 2025 season. His camp could look to beat the Murphy contract, though. The former Athletic was a superior defender but didn’t match Langeliers’ power ceiling. Murphy was accordingly starting from a lower projected base in arbitration than Langeliers will be.
Extending Wilson and certainly making a run at Kurtz would require new franchise records. Wilson is well beyond the $65MM range for which Ezequiel Tovar and Butler signed with one-plus service year. He doesn’t have the same power potential that Jackson Merrill and Roman Anthony showed to command early-career deals of at least $130MM. That said, he’s an up-the-middle defender with elite contact ability who was 21 percentage points better than a league average hitter in his first full season. He’s arguably closer to Merrill/Anthony than he is to Soderstrom, and a nine-figure asking price wouldn’t be outlandish.
Kurtz would be the most difficult of the group to lock up. On a rate basis, only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were better hitters this year. Kurtz has already banked a $7MM signing bonus out of the draft and collected nearly $1.3MM from the pre-arbitration bonus pool. He’s also a client of Excel Sports Management, an agency which has almost no history of signing pre-arbitration extensions. It’d likely require the A’s to offer more than double the Soderstrom contract just to get talks underway if they want to buy out multiple free agent years.
The A’s extension candidates beyond that trio would all be much cheaper but completely speculative fliers. Defensive stalwart center fielder Denzel Clarke and young starter Luis Morales showed promise but have very limited big league résumés. None of their top prospects — infielder Leo De Vries nor lefties Gage Jump and Jamie Arnold — have even reached Triple-A, and there has never been a pre-debut extension for a pitcher.
Reds, Yunior Marte Agree To Minor League Deal
The Reds are in agreement with reliever Yunior Marte on a minor league contract with an invite to big league Spring Training, reports Francys Romero. The righty would lock in a $1.05MM base salary if he breaks camp.
Marte is back in affiliated ball after spending the 2025 season in Japan. The Dominican-born hurler signed with NPB’s Chunichi Dragons last winter. He divided his time between the top level and their minor league club. Marte managed a 1.95 earned run average with a pair of saves and 11 holds over 32 1/3 innings for the NPB team. That came with a modest 19.1% strikeout rate and was heavily reliant on a .213 average on balls in play against him.
The 30-year-old (31 in February) pitched in the big leagues each year from 2022-24. Marte made 39 appearances for the Giants as a rookie and spent the next two seasons as an up-and-down middle reliever for the Phillies. He has a big arm, sitting in the 96-98 MPH range with his sinker. Marte missed a decent number of bats in the minors but has a below-average 20.1% strikeout percentage over 102 big league appearances. He owns a 5.64 ERA in 113 1/3 career frames.
Cincinnati has a solid late-inning group led by re-signed closer Emilio Pagán, Tony Santillan, Graham Ashcraft, Connor Phillips and Caleb Ferguson. They have a few openings in the middle innings and don’t have a ton of minor league depth. Tejay Antone is their only other currently healthy non-roster invitee who has MLB experience, though they’ll presumably try to get Keegan Thompson through waivers after he was designated for assignment last week.
Tatsuya Imai Meeting With Teams In Advance of Friday’s Signing Deadline
The next couple days will see at least two big-ticket free agents come off the board. Japanese stars Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto are nearing the end of their respective 45-day posting windows. Imai has until Friday at 4:00 pm Central to sign; Okamoto’s contract must be finalized by the same time on Sunday.
Reporting out of Japan over the weekend revealed that Okamoto was traveling to the U.S. for a final round of in-person meetings. Imai is evidently doing the same. Katie Woo and Will Sammon of The Athletic wrote last night that Imai had spoken with multiple teams and would continue to do so throughout the week. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com relays that Imai and Okamoto — both of whom are represented by the Boras Corporation — are conducting in-person interviews in Los Angeles (link via MLB.com’s Brian Murphy). Scott Boras is based out of Southern California, so the location of the meetings shouldn’t be viewed as an indication that the Dodgers or Angels are favorites.
Imai has been publicly tied to the Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Phillies and Orioles since his posting period began. While a recent Yahoo! Japan article listed the White Sox as another possibility, MLB.com’s report downplays the likelihood of the White Sox landing the right-hander. Chicago shockingly added Munetaka Murakami last week, but that only came after the slugger’s market cratered because of concerns about his strikeout rate. Murakami wound up settling for a two-year, $34MM contract. Imai is expected to do far better given the cost of high-upside starting pitching.
The 5’11” righty has been one of Japan’s best pitchers over the past two seasons. He’s coming off a 1.92 ERA showing with 178 strikeouts across 163 2/3 innings. Imai has an NPB-best 27% strikeout rate since the start of 2024. He sits in the mid-90s with a promising slider. Command was an issue earlier in his career, but his strike-throwing has progressed as he has gained experience. This past season’s 7% walk rate was a personal low and better than the MLB average.
Imai is headed into his age-28 season. His contract needs to be finalized by Friday, so it’s likely he’ll agree to terms by tomorrow or Thursday. That’d leave time for a standard physical. The team that signs him will owe a posting fee to the Seibu Lions. That’s proportional to the contract value: 20% of the first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of all further spending.
A’s, Nick Hernandez Agree To Minor League Deal
The A’s are in agreement with reliever Nick Hernandez on a minor league contract, reports Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News. The righty celebrates his 31st birthday with a new landing spot after electing free agency at the beginning of the offseason. The A’s also added Brooks Kriske on a minor league deal earlier this month, according to the MLB.com transaction log.
Hernandez is a Houston-area native who played his college ball with the Cougars. He was drafted by his hometown club in the eighth round in 2016 and pitched parts of seven seasons with the organization. He topped out at Triple-A and qualified for minor league free agency over the 2022-23 offseason. Hernandez signed a minor league deal with the Padres and cracked the majors at the end of the ’23 campaign. San Diego traded him back to the Astros the following year.
Over the past two seasons, Hernandez got into 15 MLB games. He was tagged for 13 runs across 18 2/3 innings. He posted consecutive sub-3.00 ERA showings in Triple-A. That included a 2.12 mark behind an excellent 33.7% strikeout rate over 46 2/3 minor league innings this year. The Astros never gave him much of a look at the big league level, though, largely because of his middling velocity.
Hernandez averages around 91 MPH on his fastball. He also features a low-80s slider and splitter. Hernandez has missed a lot of bats in the minors but doesn’t have the pinpoint control generally needed to succeed with below-average velocity. He walked nearly 12% of Triple-A opponents for the second straight year. Hernandez has given up eight home runs in 21 2/3 career MLB innings, magnifying the damage of giving away too many free passes. Houston designated him for assignment in the final weekend of the season and cut him loose after he went unclaimed on waivers.
Kriske, 32 in February, divided the 2025 season between the Cubs and Twins. He combined for 18 innings of 7.50 ERA ball. Kriske walked 15 of the 88 hitters he faced and has issued free passes at a near-17% clip over 39 2/3 career innings. Like Hernandez, he missed bats at a huge rate in Triple-A. Kriske fanned more than 34% of opponents while leaning mostly on a 93-94 MPH fastball and a low-80s splitter. He was around the strike zone in Triple-A this year but has had well below-average command throughout his career, as issue that again cropped up in his MLB work. He was outrighted by Minnesota in September and qualified for minor league free agency at year’s end.
The A’s entered the offseason with almost no experienced arms in their bullpen. They’ve added Mark Leiter Jr. on a cheap big league contract while stockpiling non-roster depth with minor league deals for Joel Kuhnel, Nick Anderson, Wander Suero, Matt Krook, Geoff Hartlieb and Ben Bowden. Kriske and Hernandez join the mix and figure to get invitations to big league camp. Sutter Health Park is a difficult venue in which to pitch but the lack of established relievers on the roster makes the A’s a solid landing spot for depth arms trying to impress in Spring Training.
Hazen: Ketel Marte Trade Talks Won’t Last All Offseason
The big question of the D-Backs offseason has been whether to trade Ketel Marte. They’ve reportedly fielded calls from upwards of a third of the league with teams like the Mariners, Red Sox and Reds most prominently linked. Although general manager Mike Hazen called a trade of a star hitter “mostly unlikely” at the GM Meetings in early November, they’ve kept the line of communication open given their needs around the roster.
According to Hazen, they’re not going to maintain that posture for the entire offseason. “We’re very likely to put an end to (Marte trade talks) shortly,” the GM told Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. When pressed for specifics on the timeline, Hazen said that he “(hasn’t) figured that out yet” but said they can’t afford to remain in a holding pattern for much longer. He implied they were likelier to take Marte firmly off the table rather than nearing agreement on a deal.
“We need to focus our offseason. Again, my gut this whole time was that (a trade) wasn’t going to happen, and I think it seems likely that that’s the case and we want to focus on other things we need to do,” Hazen said. The GM added that talks to date haven’t gotten “anywhere near” the significant asking price they’ve set to move their star second baseman.
On one hand, it’s easy enough to write this off as a general manager trying to pressure interested clubs to raise their offers. Even if Hazen isn’t setting a public deadline, the Snakes could do so internally to get teams to make their best and final trade proposals. At the same time, this generally aligns with the GM’s stance on Marte trade rumors dating back to the summer. Speculation has abounded since August when multiple reports emerged about some of Marte’s teammates being frustrated with the number of off days that he took.
Hazen spoke with Wolf & Luke of Arizona Sports at the time and was naturally asked about the possibility of a trade. “Ketel is one of, if not our best player,” the GM said then. “He’s a superstar in this league. You win with superstars in this league. Yes, I do know it’s a team game and putting a team together to win baseball games is also equally important. That’s on us to figure out what the right mix of players is.
We went to the World Series with this player on our team (in 2023). … So this mindset of where he is on our team and his inability or ability to help us win is hard for me to just take that. … Where this lays down at his feet and where it’s coming from now is a little bizarre to me. I’m not ignoring the inconsistencies with some of the things that have happened. He’s addressed those things. We’ve addressed those things with him.
We’re not blind to having an imperfect clubhouse and an imperfect roster. … I’m also in a job and position to put players on the field that can win you baseball games, because ultimately that’s what this comes down to. We are going to put the best team on the field every single day we can.”
The D-Backs have nevertheless heard teams out as the clearest way to acquire controllable starting pitching. They’re expected to scale back payroll from this past season’s franchise-record $195MM mark. RosterResource currently projects them for $168MM in spending. Marte is set for a $15MM salary next season, but $6MM of that is deferred until 2036. They’re not under any financial pressure to move him, nor are they entering even a soft rebuild. The goal in trade talks would be to acquire multiple MLB or near-ready pieces who could deepen the overall roster.
Despite the payroll limitations, Arizona has addressed the rotation with a pair of free agent pickups. They brought back Merrill Kelly on a two-year, $40MM deal and added swingman Michael Soroka for a $7.5MM guarantee. They could certainly still upgrade a rotation comprising Kelly, Ryne Nelson, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Soroka. It’s not as pressing a need as it was two months ago, however.
The bigger focus now should be the bullpen, which was decimated by injuries last summer and is still without top two arms Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk. The Snakes also need to decide whether they’re content with Jordan Lawlar as an everyday player (either at third base or in the outfield) and could upgrade in center field or at first base. The Marte trade rumors have come alongside reporting that the Snakes could make a surprise run at Alex Bregman.
“We’re going to need to start focusing on our position player group at some point a little more specifically,” Hazen noted to Gilbert. “That’s the other reason to finalize what we’re doing with other players, so we have a little more direction on what we can do and what it might look like.” Readers are encouraged to check out the MLB.com column for the full scope of Hazen’s comments.