Cardinals Still Interested In Rotation Addition
The Cardinals added a fresh arm to their rotation this week by signing Dustin May. Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cards are still interested in adding another starter, but it would likely be more of an innings-eating veteran type to provide stability.
May doesn’t fit the bill of a veteran innings eater. He’s had notable injury problems in his career. From 2019 to 2024, he never topped 56 innings in any individual season and also missed the entirety of the 2024 campaign. He was healthy-ish in 2025, getting to 132 1/3 innings, but finished the season on the injured list due to right elbow neuritis.
The St. Louis rotation is lacking in certainty overall at the moment. Erick Fedde was traded to Atlanta in July. Miles Mikolas became a free agent at season’s end. Sonny Gray was recently traded to the Red Sox. That means they’ve lost three of the five guys who gave them 100 innings or more in 2025.
The other two were Matthew Liberatore and Andre Pallante. Liberatore had a decent 4.21 earned run average in his first full season in the majors. Pallante had a decent first half but then faded and ended the season with a 5.31 ERA.
Michael McGreevy will probably get a rotation spot after he posted a 4.42 ERA in 95 2/3 innings this year but his 14.5% strikeout rate was quite low. Richard Fitts, acquired in the Gray deal, has some okay numbers so far but in just 65 2/3 big league innings. Kyle Leahy may get a rotation audition but he has been a reliever to this point in his big league career. Tink Hence and Brycen Mautz are on the 40-man but haven’t made major league debuts yet. Prospect Quinn Mathews has reached Triple-A but walked 17.5% of batters he faced at that level this year.
Mathews isn’t on the 40-man yet. Of everyone else mentioned, May and Leahy are the only two who can’t be optioned to the minors. As of right now, three spots would probably go to May, Liberatore and Pallante. If they make an external addition, that would leave one spot available for McGreevy, Leahy, Fitts, Hence, Mautz or Mathews. If Leahy doesn’t win a job out of camp, he can be in the bullpen. Anyone else who doesn’t get a job can go to the Triple-A rotation.
This is all theoretical and assuming everyone is healthy. These days, no team makes it through a season with just five starters. Injuries are inevitable and will open up further opportunities for anyone who doesn’t have a rotation spot initially. May is on a one-year deal and will likely be traded this summer if he’s pitching well. The same could be true of whichever veteran is added in the coming months. That would leave more starts for the unproven guys in the final months of the 2026 season.
As for who the Cards add, there are many possibilities. Guys like Jose Quintana, Patrick Corbin, Tyler Anderson, Tomoyuki Sugano, Nick Martinez, Martín Pérez, Andrew Heaney, Michael Lorenzen and many others are free agents.
The trade market has fewer of these types. The Cubs may look to move a back-end guy if they sign a front-end type but intra-divisional trades are always tricky to pull off. The Red Sox may be looking to flip Patrick Sandoval but he’s not exactly stable as he missed all of 2025 recovering from surgery. The Jays may be looking to get out from under the José Berríos deal but the Cards don’t make sense as a landing spot for that contract unless the Jays are willing to give up meaningful prospect talent just to make the deal go away. The Rockies may be willing to trade Kyle Freeland but they need innings themselves.
Time will tell how it pans out but it’s a sensible goal for the Cards. Their offseason to-do list is mostly about subtracting, having already traded Gray and with potential deals for Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero and others still possible. But they do need to get through the 2026 and have a lot of question marks in their rotation mix. They will want to have chances available for their in-house guys but having a sturdy veteran presence to keep things steady is logical.
Photo courtesy of Paul Rutherford, Imagn Images
Giants Have Shown Interest In Nico Hoerner
The Giants are known to be looking for upgrades at second base. Earlier this week, they were reported as one of the frontrunners for Brendan Donovan of the Cardinals and were also connected to Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that they have checked in on Nico Hoerner of the Cubs. She also lists Brandon Lowe of the Rays as one of their targets.
It’s an understandable target for the Giants. Most of their playing time at the keystone went to Tyler Fitzgerald, Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss in 2025. All three of those guys had underwhelming seasons at the plate. Schmitt was the closest the league average offensively but with the weakest defensive grades.
Free agency doesn’t offer huge upgrades over that group. Bo Bichette is out there and reportedly willing to play second, but the Giants have downplayed their desire to sign another long-term deal this winter. Ha-Seong Kim, Jorge Polanco and Gleyber Torres are all off the board. Utility types like Ramón Urías, Willi Castro and Isiah Kiner-Falefa don’t move the needle much over the in-house options.
On the trade market, Marte has been in plenty of rumors but it’s still unclear if the Diamondbacks will move him. Even if they decide to pull the trigger, it would be a surprise to see him sent to their division rivals in San Francisco. Donovan is widely expected to move since he is on a rebuilding club and two years from free agency, but the asking price should be huge. Since he can play all over the diamond, he can fit on many clubs and the demand is widespread. Though the Giants are apparently one of the finalists, half the teams in the league have shown in interest.
Hoerner and Lowe have very similar contractual situations. Both players are only signed through 2026 and would therefore be rentals. Lowe will make a $11.5MM salary next year and Hoerner $12MM.
But they have opposite profiles and their team situations are very different. Lowe is injury prone, doesn’t run well and isn’t a great defender. His strikeout and walk profile has been poor in each of the past two years. However, he’s a clear source of power. He has hit 21 home runs four separate times, including a 31-homer season in 2025. It’s common for the Rays to trade away players as they get more expensive and closer to free agency. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Tommy Pham are some of the many examples.
Hoerner, however, does not have huge power. He has never hit more than ten home runs in a season. However, he’s better than Lowe in basically every other aspect. He hasn’t been on the injured list in years. He’s one of the faster guys in the game and is generally good for 30ish steals a year. He’s one of the toughest guys in the game to strike out. He’s a good enough defender to play shortstop. The only reason he’s at second is because the Cubs have Dansby Swanson.
The Cubs shouldn’t be especially motivated to move him. He is affordable and has been good for about four to five wins above replacement per year, according to FanGraphs. He has reportedly drawn trade interest but the Cubs should be able to set a high asking price since he’s valuable to them as well. His salary isn’t onerous and the Cubs don’t appear to have any kind of payroll crunch.
It’s at least possible to imagine a scenario where the Cubs think about it. As mentioned, Hoerner is an impending free agent. The Cubs could extend him again but he also could get more interest elsewhere. Looking at next year’s free agent class, Hoerner could potentially market himself as the best available shortstop. His competition would be J.P. Crawford and Kim. Crawford is a decent player but his glovework has been poor in recent years and he’ll be going into his age-32 season in 2027. Kim could bounce back from an injury-marred 2025 but he has a similar profile to Hoerner and is a year older. Kim will be 31 in 2027. Hoerner will turn 30 in May of that year.
Perhaps Hoerner expects to get paid big shortstop bucks next winter and the Cubs don’t see a path to keeping him with Swanson signed through 2029. They have been connected to free agent third basemen Alex Bregman and Eugenio Suárez. In that scenario, perhaps Matt Shaw becomes available on the trade market or he could move to second with Hoerner traded. Shaw mostly played third in the majors this year but has second base experience. He got six big league innings at the keystone in 2025 and has close to 300 minor league innings there in his career.
Trading Hoerner and moving to Shaw to second would be a defensive downgrade. That’s not really a knock on Shaw, who graded out well at third this year, just a reflection of Hoerner being arguably the best defensive second baseman in the game today. But adding a big bat like Bregman or Suárez could make up for the Cubs losing Kyle Tucker to free agency. Whether that upgrades the club in 2026 would be debatable but it would certainly help in the long run if the Cubs don’t expect to retain Hoerner beyond 2026.
It’s unknown whether the Cubs have any interest in such a scenario. It also doesn’t seem like the Giants are primarily focused on second base. Slusser writes that pitching and the outfield are the club’s current priorities. Since Donovan can also play the outfield, the Giants probably have him above Hoerner on their target list. With the number of moving pieces in the second base trade market, perhaps someone needs to blink and knock over the first domino. If the Cardinals pull the trigger on Donovan, for instance, teams could then pivot to the other options.
Photo courtesy of Sergio Estrada, Imagn Images
Nationals To Hire Anirudh Kilambi As General Manager
The Nationals are going to hire Anirudh Kilambi as general manager, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Kilambi, who had been with the Phillies as an assistant general manager, will be the second-in-command in the Washington front office under president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.
Kilambi, 31, began working for the Rays back in 2015 when he was in his early 20s. He worked his way up that organization to the position of assistant director of baseball research and development. In November of 2021, the Phillies hired him as assistant general manager when he was just 27 years old.
The Nationals have been busy overhauling their franchise. Their recent rebuild wasn’t showing enough progress, so president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were fired midseason. Toboni and Blake Butera have since been hired to take on those roles and Butera has also made a number of coaching changes. Since Toboni was hired, it has been reported that he would eventually hire a GM to be his top lieutenant, with Kilambi now tapped for the gig.
A key feature of the new regime has been youth. Toboni is 35 years old and Butera 33. New pitching coach Simon Mathews is 30. New first base coach Corey Ray is 31, as is Kilambi. “That wasn’t on purpose,” Butera recently said of the youth of his staff, per Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. “We weren’t trying to get young staff. Someone made a joke like, ‘Did you tell Paul when you got hired that the staff has to be under 40 years old?’ You might not believe me, but no.”
While the Nats are surely looking at attributes other than age, it does make for an interesting symbol of the changing of the guard. Many in the industry viewed the Nats as behind the curve when it came to data and analytics as the front office was run by Rizzo, who is now 65 years old. Kilambi has a strong research and development background and is the latest injection of fresh blood as the Nats try to charge forward into what they hope is a bright future.
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Orioles Sign Albert Suárez To Minor League Deal
The Orioles announced that they have signed right-hander Albert Suárez to a minor league deal. The righty will presumably receive an invite to big league camp in spring training, though the O’s didn’t explicitly say so.
Suárez, now 36, signed a minor league deal with the Orioles ahead of the 2024 season. At that time, he had spent a number of years pitching in Japan and South Korea. The deal worked out well for Suárez and the O’s last year. He was added to the roster in April and gave Baltimore 133 2/3 innings as a swingman with a 3.70 earned run average.
Unfortunately, 2025 wasn’t as pleasant. A subscapularis strain in his throwing shoulder put him on the shelf after just one appearance. He came off the injured list in September and made four appearances before going back on the IL, this time due to right elbow discomfort. The team announced in October that Suárez had a mild flexor strain and would avoid surgery.
Suárez crossed three years of service time in 2025, qualifying him for arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for just $900K, barely above next year’s $780K league minimum. The O’s decided not to tender him a contract after his injury-marred season. That sent him to free agency without being exposed to waivers, allowing them to re-sign him in a non-roster capacity.
Assuming he’s healthy in the spring, he can try to earn his way back onto the roster. Baltimore’s current rotation mix includes Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, Cade Povich, Tyler Wells, Chayce McDermott and Brandon Young. The O’s are expected to add to that group before the offseason is out. As the season goes along, injuries will surely pop up and Suárez may be needed for a spot start or a long relief role.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
Royals Sign Lane Thomas
December 17th: The Royals have officially announced their signing of Thomas.
December 11th: The Royals and outfielder Lane Thomas are reportedly in agreement on a one-year contract. The Wasserman client receives $5.25MM with another $1MM available via incentives. Kansas City has a couple of open 40-man spots and won’t need to make a corresponding move once the deal is official.
Thomas and the Royals will be looking for a bounceback season, as he just suffered through an injury-marred 2025 campaign with Cleveland. Early in the season, he missed about a month due to a right wrist bone bruise. In the latter months of the season, he went on the injured list a couple of times due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. He required surgery in September with a projected recovery time of three to four months. Around those IL stints, he got into 39 games and hit just .160/.246/.272.
Prior to that, he had a solid run as a decent regular in the bigs, suiting up for the Cardinals, Nationals and Guardians. From 2021 to 2024, he got into 510 contests, hitting 67 home runs and stealing 66 bases. He produced a .248/.313/.426 line over that four-year span, which translated to a 103 wRC+, indicating he was 3% better than league average.
He was slightly better in the second half of that stretch. Over 2023 and 2024, he hit 43 home runs and stole 52 bases. His combined .255/.312/.439 line in those two seasons translated to a 105 wRC+. FanGraphs credited him with 4.3 wins above replacement, a bit better than two wins per year.
His defense has been more of a question mark. Outs Above Average has given him a minus-16 ranking for his career, but oddly considered him league average in center and subpar in the corners. Defensive Runs Saved has put a minus-18 mark on him, but most of that due to an odd minus-13 grade in 2024 alone.
He clearly has some wheels, as his sprint speed has been ranked in the 93rd percentile or above since he became a regular. With a bit of pop in the bat as well, he has been able to engineer some decent results when healthy.
The Royals have been struggling for years to get production from their outfield. In 2025, they got a collective .225/.285/.348 line from the grass. That resulted in a 73 wRC+, the worst such mark of any team in the majors.
Obviously, upgrading the outfield was going to be a priority this winter. It was recently reported that the club would be looking to add one outfielder via trade and another via free agency, with a right-handed hitter who can play center field being a specific target. The Royals currently project to have an outfield consisting of Jac Caglianone, Kyle Isbel and John Rave. All three hit from the left side. Caglianone was a top prospect coming into 2025 but he didn’t hit at all in his first 232 plate appearances in the big leagues. Rave has just 175 big league plate appearances without much success either. Isbel has more experience but is a glove-first center fielder. They picked up Kameron Misner, another lefty, from the Rays in a trade a few weeks ago.
Thomas has pretty strong platoon splits in his career. He has been punched out in 28.2% of his plate appearances against righties with a .220/.287/.383 line and 84 wRC+. With the platoon advantage, his strikeout rate drops to 19.3%. He has a .292/.359/.500 line against southpaws for a 135 wRC+.
The Royals shouldn’t be done adding to their outfield. As mentioned, they have been looking to make two additions. This at least gives them a short-side platoon guy who can be slotted into any of the three outfield positions, while also perhaps coming off the bench for pinch-running opportunities. His health may be a bit of a question mark with the aforementioned surgery, but the estimated timeline should allow him to be healed up by spring training.
It’s a modest free agent add but the Royals apparently didn’t have much to spend. Owner John Sherman said a couple of months ago that the 2026 payroll would likely be similar to what they had in 2025. RosterResource currently projects them for a $139MM payroll in 2026. That’s already above where they finished in 2025, before even adding Thomas onto the ledger. Perhaps the next move will come on the trade market. There have been plenty of rumors suggesting the club may be looking to deal from its starting depth in order to get another bat.
Will Sammon of The Athletic first reported the Royals were signing Thomas. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the $5.25MM guarantee and $1MM in bonuses.
Photos courtesy of David Richard, Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images
Guardians Acquire Justin Bruihl, Designate Jhonkensy Noel For Assignment
The Guardians have acquired left-hander Justin Bruihl from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. The Jays had designated the lefty for assignment earlier this week. To open a 40-man spot, the Guards designated outfielder Jhonkensy Noel for assignment.
Bruihl, 29 in June, signed a minor league deal with the Jays ahead of the 2025 campaign. He eventually earned a roster spot and had a decent season, in some ways. His 5.27 earned run average in the majors doesn’t look nice, but that came in a small sample of 13 2/3 innings. He also had a strong 27.7% strikeout rate and 46.2% ground ball rate in that time. His 10.8% walk rate was a bit high but he was really held back by a .459 batting average on balls in play. ERA estimators such as his 4.16 FIP and 3.42 SIERA were far more optimistic.
His minor league numbers look more like those latter metrics than his big league ERA. He tossed 42 innings for Triple-A Buffalo with a 3.43 ERA, 27.8% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 58.4% ground ball rate.
Bruihl doesn’t throw especially hard. His two-seamer averaged just 90.2 miles per hour this year. He also mixed in a cutter at 87.5 mph and a 78.4 mph slider. He nonetheless managed to punch guys out and avoid hard contact. The Jays sent him between Triple-A and the majors this year but he was enough of a factor to be on their ALDS roster against a lefty-heavy Yankee lineup. He wasn’t carried on the roster for subsequent rounds.
Despite some intriguing numbers this year, he got squeezed off Toronto’s roster this week. He exhausted his final option in 2025 and will be out of options going forward. With the Jays also having lefties Brendon Little, Mason Fluharty and Eric Lauer on the roster, they designated Bruihl for assignment.
The Guards are intrigued enough to bring him aboard. Their southpaw relief contingent is currently headlined by Erik Sabrowski and Tim Herrin but those two each walked more than 15.5% of batters faced in 2025. Joey Cantillo could be in the mix but he’s more of a long reliever. With Bruihl’s option status, he’ll have to perform but there’s a path for him to earn a job in the Cleveland bullpen. He has under two years of service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration and can be controlled for five full seasons if he can hold a roster spot.
The unfortunate side effect of adding Bruihl is that the Guards have cut “Big Christmas” from the roster barely a week before the holiday he’s named after. Noel has shown some big power in his career but also has a poor approach at the plate. In his 351 big league plate appearances, 32.8% of them have ended in a strikeout while he has only drawn a walk 4.8% of the time.
Despite hitting 19 home runs, his .193/.242/.401 batting line translates to a 79 wRC+. He’s not a good defender nor is he a burner on the basepaths, so he really needs to hit to provide value. The homers help but the overall offense has been lacking.
Like Bruihl, he exhausted his final option season in 2025. That was going to make it harder for the Guards to keep him on the roster, especially with guys like Chase DeLauter and George Valera reaching the big leagues this year.
He’ll head into DFA limbo and see if the Guards can line up a trade or if anyone wants him on waivers. If he lands somewhere else, he can be controlled for five full seasons. Since he has less than three years of service and doesn’t have a previous career outright, he will not have the right to elect free agency if he is passed through outright waivers unclaimed.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
Orioles Outright Maverick Handley
December 17th: The Orioles announced today that Handley has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. Romo was claimed by the Mets earlier today.
December 11th: The Orioles announced that catcher Maverick Handley has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for their signing of first baseman Pete Alonso, which has now been made official.
Handley, 28 in March, got to make his major league debut in 2025. The O’s began the season with Adley Rutschman and Gary Sánchez as their catching duo but both of those two suffered a few injuries during the campaign. Baltimore had to dip into some depth, which led to Handley getting 47 plate appearances across 16 games, but he struck out in 38.3% of those while walking just 4.3% of the time and put up a .073/.133/.073 line.
The O’s called up catching prospect Samuel Basallo late in the season and signed him to an extension. Rutschman can still be retained via arbitration through 2027. Those two should be the primary backstops in Baltimore for the time being. As of a few days ago, Handley and Drew Romo were on the 40-man as optionable depth. However, Romo was designated for assignment yesterday, so the O’s now have just two catchers on the roster and two potential depth guys in DFA limbo.
Handley does not have a previous career outright, nor does he have three years of big league service time. That means he would not have the right to elect free agency if he were passed through waivers unclaimed. The same is true of Romo. If one or both clear waivers, the O’s might be content with their catching depth situation. If they lose one or both, that should increase the chances of Baltimore looking for extra depth via the waiver wire or minor league deals.
For now, they have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next for Handley. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so they could take five days to talk trades with other clubs. His big league track record thus far is obviously unimpressive but in a tiny sample size. Dating back to the start of 2023, he stepped to the plate 765 times in the minors with solid 14% walk rate but only nine home runs. His .227/.352/.323 line led to a wRC+ of 87, which is not bad for a backup/depth catcher. If he lands with another club, he still has options and less than a year of service time.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
Giants Still In The Market For Pitching
The Giants made a couple of additions to the pitching staff this week. They signed reliever Jason Foley and reportedly have an agreement in place with starter Adrian Houser. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Giants are still in the market for pitching additions, both in the rotation and the bullpen.
That’s not especially surprising. Foley is recovering from shoulder surgery and is expected to start the season on the injured list. The bullpen was a strength for San Francisco in 2025 but they traded Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers at the deadline. Randy Rodríguez required Tommy John surgery in September. Joey Lucchesi was non-tendered last month. The Giants have subsequently signed Sam Hentges and Foley but that’s not going to make up for what they’ve lost.
In the rotation, Justin Verlander became a free agent at season’s end. The Houser signing will make up for that loss to some degree but the Giants will understandably want to do more. The club’s rotation had a collective 4.10 ERA this year, putting them 17th among big league teams. As of now, Logan Webb and Robbie Ray are the front two. Houser and Landen Roupp should have two more spots spoken for.
That leaves one spot for a group consisting of Kai-Wei Teng, Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell, Trevor McDonald, Carson Seymour, Hayden Birdsong and Keaton Winn. That’s a lot of arms and they all have their varying levels of appeal but no one in that group is fully established as a viable big leaguer. Each of them has less than 108 big league innings and they can all still be optioned to the minors.
The club might want to leave a path open for one guy in that group to separate himself from the pack but that should happen anyway. No team gets through a full season these days without a few notable injuries on the pitching staff. Even if the Giants start the season with those guys all blocked from a rotation gig, there will be opportunities throughout the campaign.
The question will be how aggressive they plan on being in upgrading the rotation. Chairman/owner Greg Johnson and general manager Zack Minasian have both suggested the Giants would prefer to avoid long-term deals for pitchers.
The top end of the free agent pitching market is one area that has moved fairly slowly. Dylan Cease was quickly snapped up by the Blue Jays but Tatsuya Imai, Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez, Zac Gallen and Michael King are all still available. Despite the club’s apparent preference to avoid lengthy deals, they have nonetheless been connected to Valdez and Gallen, so perhaps there is a scenario where they get involved there. If they go for another signing in line with their Houser deal, guys like Zack Littell, Chris Bassitt and Nick Martinez are out there.
There is also the trade market to consider. If the Giants want to avoid lengthy free agent deals, they could pursue guys like MacKenzie Gore of the Nationals, Kris Bubic of the Royals, Edward Cabrera of the Marlins, Kodai Senga of the Mets, Mitch Keller of the Pirates or many others.
Those guys have varying degrees of trade value. For instance, Bubic shouldn’t be too costly since he is a rental and finished 2025 on the injured list. Gore, on the other hand, pitched like an ace for much of this year and is still cheaply controlled for two seasons. The Giants are reportedly willing to consider trading prospect Bryce Eldridge. That doesn’t mean that they will actually move him but perhaps a notable trade is possible.
RosterResource currently pegs the Giants for a payroll of $180MM and a competitive balance tax figure of $203MM next year. It’s unclear where they want to end up but they are more than $40MM shy of the base threshold of the tax, which will be $244MM next year.
They are also on the lookout for upgrades at second base and the outfield. Whatever spending capacity they do have, they probably won’t dedicate all of it to pitching, but they could also address some of their other targets via the trade market. They are reportedly one of the frontrunners for the Cardinals’ Brendan Donovan, alongside the Mariners.
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MLBTR Podcast: The Mets Sign Jorge Polanco, And The Braves, Blue Jays And Royals Make Moves
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Mets signing Jorge Polanco (2:40)
- The Braves making three signings: Robert Suarez, Mike Yastrzemski and Ha-Seong Kim (17:15)
- The Blue Jays signing Tyler Rogers and Cody Ponce (31:40)
- The Royals extending Maikel Garcia, signing Lane Thomas and trading Ángel Zerpa to the Brewers for Isaac Collins and Nick Mears (46:10)
- The Tigers making three signings: Kenley Jansen, Kyle Finnegan and Drew Anderson (57:25)
Check out our past episodes!
- Winter Meetings Recap – listen here
- An Agent’s Perspective with B.B. Abbott – Also, Cease, Williams, Helsley, And Gray – listen here
- Some “Classic Baseball Trades,” Nimmo For Semien, And Ward For Rodriguez – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images
Cubs Sign Hoby Milner
December 16th: The Cubs have officially announced Milner’s signing.
December 11th: The Cubs and left-hander Hoby Milner are reportedly in agreement on a one-year deal. The MVP Sports Group will make $3.75MM plus incentives. The Cubs have multiple 40-man vacancies and don’t need to make a corresponding move.
Milner, 35 in January, is an unusual but effective southpaw. He doesn’t throw very hard, averaging in the high 80s with his fastball and sinker. But he nonetheless manages to get outs with an unorthodox sidewinding delivery, with his arsenal also featuring a slider and a changeup.
Over the past four seasons, Milner has thrown at least 64 innings in each campaign. Put together, he has logged 264 innings in that span, allowing 3.55 earned runs per nine. His 22.6% strikeout rate in that time was close to average while his 5.8% walk rate and 51.1% ground ball rate were both notably better than par. His Statcast data in that span has also been better than league average, with Milner having an 87 mile per hour exit velocity, 5.4% barrel rate and 35.5% hard hit rate. He earned one save and 49 holds over that four-year stretch.
That span did feature a fluky ERA spike, as Milner posted a 4.73 ERA with the Brewers in 2024. The Brewers could have retained him for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $2.7MM salary, but they non-tendered him instead. The Rangers scooped him up with a deal for $2.5MM plus incentives and benefitted from a bounceback, as Milner posted a 3.84 ERA in 2025.
The Cubs have now given him a slight raise in the hopes that he can keep things rolling in 2026. Cubs manager Craig Counsell is plenty familiar with Milner’s abilities, as he was the skipper in Milwaukee when Milner established himself as a viable big league reliever.
Chicago had a decent relief corps in 2025. Their relievers had a collective ERA of 3.78, putting them just outside the top ten of MLB clubs. But at season’s end, Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar, Drew Pomeranz, Taylor Rogers, Michael Soroka, Aaron Civale and Ryan Brasier all became free agents. The Cubs flipped Andrew Kittredge to the Orioles in the early days of the offseason, getting cash considerations back in return.
The Cubs generally prefer to build their bullpens on the cheap. From 2020 until last month, they didn’t sign any free agent relievers to multi-year deals, part of the reason why they just lost so many arms to free agency. They broke that pattern recently by signing Phil Maton to a two-year deal, but Milner is another low-cost, short-term commitment to the relief group.
The southpaw contingent of the bullpen was particularly lacking before this move, with Thielbar, Pomeranz and Rogers all departing for the open market. That left Luke Little as the top option, despite having just 35 1/3 career innings with an 18.2% walk rate. Milner is now the most experienced lefty in the group, though the Cubs could make further additions before the offseason is through.
This move brings the Cubs to a $184MM payroll and $199MM competitive balance tax figure, according to RosterResource. It’s unclear where the Cubs want the payroll to end up. The base threshold of the CBT is $244MM next year, meaning the Cubs are $45MM away. They went narrowly over the tax line in 2024 but ducked back below in 2025. They are still on the hunt for a big rotation upgrade. They’ve been connected to free agent Alex Bregman. They will presumably be looking for more relievers. How it all plays out will depend on how much dry powder the Cubs have.
Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation was first on the deal. Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic noted it would be for one year. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the guarantee. Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Benny Sieu, Imagn Images