6 days Ago By Kerry Miller
Thus far in this Major League Baseball offseason, trades have been few and far between. Really just Atlanta making a pair of swaps with projected AL West basement dwellers—Jorge Soler to the Angels for Griffin Canning, and Jared Johnson to the A's for Nick Allen. That's business as usual for the first few weeks of the offseason, though.
It shouldn't be long before business picks up, as it was on Nov. 17 last year that Atlanta sent five players to the White Sox for Aaron Bummer to jump-start its winter-long trading spree. Once that hot stove begins to intensify, there are going to be some major names dangled in trade discussions.
From former Cy Youngs and Rookies of the Year to multiple players who were All-Stars in 2024, we've got 11 key players who may well be on the move in the next few months. Players are presented in alphabetical order by last name. 2024 Stats : N/A (Tommy John surgery) When Sandy Alcántara won the NL Cy Young award in 2022, it was the first season of an escalating five-year, $56M contract.
A bargain on par with Tarik Skubal only costing the Detroit Tigers $2.65M this past season, the Sandman was merely a $3.8M hit on the Marlins' payroll that year.
But now that the escalating has occurred, he's due $17.3M in 2025, $17.3M in 2026 and has a $21M club option (or $2M buyout) for 2027.
For a deep-pocketed contender? That's nothing. Even fresh off a season lost to TJ recovery, Alcántara plausibly could fetch double that salary on a long-term deal if he were a free agent right now. For the Marlins, though? A team that has an ample supply of viable options for its starting rotation, virtually no hope of making the 2025 postseason and an average Opening Day payroll of $74.
1M over the past 12 seasons? That's too much, and it feels almost inevitable that they're going to make him available to the highest bidder. The market for Alcántara will be intriguing to monitor. The teams that can afford to get in the bidding wars for Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Blake Snell might not be particularly interested in a guy who might not be the same post-surgery.
But teams like the Reds, Tigers and Orioles should be all-in on two or three years of an affordable ace they normally wouldn't be able to sign. (If it is the Orioles going back to where they acquired Trevor Rogers a few months ago, we might as well start calling them the Fightin' Tommy Johns. They should have Félix Bautista back at closer by Opening Day, they might get both Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells by the end of the year and it wouldn't be surprising if they re-sign John Means on the cheap as he rehabs from his TJ.
Maybe go sign Shane Bieber, too, and just have an entire surgically-repaired pitching staff.) 2024 Stats : .280/.
332/.448, 15 HR, 97 RBI, 3.0 bWAR Alec Bohm was one of the biggest reasons the Philadelphia Phillies raced out to their insurmountable lead in the NL East.
When they were 58-30 and 10 games clear of Atlanta at the end of play on July 5, Bohm had just been named the NL's starting third baseman in the All-Star Game, sitting at a .300 batting average with a slugging percentage just a shade below .500.
After the All-Star Break was quite the different story, though, with Bohm becoming somewhat of a scapegoat for the team's sudden mediocrity. He slugged .382 over his final 49 games of the regular season, including missing the first half of September with a hand injury.
Going 1-for-13 with one single (getting thrown at second trying to stretch it into a double, no less), no runs scored or driven in and 10 runners left on base in the NLDS loss to the Mets was quite the final straw. Bohm has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, but the trade rumors have quickly blossomed into questions of 'where' he'll ultimately be dealt, rather than questions of 'if' the Phillies are looking to trade him—fueled in some small part by recent talk that they might be in play for Alex Bregman. As far as that 'where' is concerned, plenty of surely interested parties in the American League.
The Yankees, Astros, Tigers and Mariners all won at least 85 games this past season, with Houston the only one that didn't do so in spite of a sizable question mark at the hot corner—but now does have one, unless/until it manages to re-sign Bregman. The Blue Jays and Royals would also be very much in the mix. So would perhaps the entire NL Central.
Joey Ortiz was great at 3B for the Brewers, but he probably slides to shortstop to replace Willy Adames. And while the Cardinals do have Nolan Arenado at 3B, Bohm can play 1B, where the Red Birds now have a major vacancy with Paul Goldschmidt out of the picture. (Though, St.
Louis might be in "calculated tanking" mode, as we'll get to shortly.) 2024 Stats : 146.0 IP, 3.
58 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 12.9 K/9, 4.
1 bWAR Not exactly breaking any news here. Garrett Crochet has been maybe the single biggest name popping up in trade conjecture since somewhere in the early-to-mid May vicinity. We've already done an entire " Cooking up Trade Packages " article for Crochet this offseason, as the latest rumblings suggest it's more likely than not that Crochet will be celebrating New Year's Day as a member of a franchise that isn't hopelessly moribund.
Crochet has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, and they're likely to come absurdly cheap. Both MLB Trade Rumors and Spotrac project his 2025 salary at $2.9M, which is a hilarious bargain after the breakout season he just had.
What won't come cheap, though, is the acquisition cost. While anyone and everyone could afford his salary for the next two years, only a handful of teams can put together the type of 'multiple top-tier position-player prospects' trade package that it's likely going to take to grease the wheels with the White Sox. One of those teams, though, is the other set of Sox, as Boston has both a dire need for starting pitching and five position players ranked No.
52 overall or better by our Joel Reuter . And get the "He can't keep getting away with it!" gifs ready, as the Los Angeles Dodgers are also among the teams that could drum up a tantalizing package. However, they might just hang onto their prospects and instead focus on making Roki Sasaki their comically underpaid ace, if he's available this offseason.
Brandon Lowe's 2024 Stats : .244/.311/.
473, 21 HR, 58 RBI, 2.4 bWAR Yandy Díaz's 2024 Stats : .281/.
341/.414, 14 HR, 65 RBI, 1.6 bWAR Tale as old as time.
Song as old as rhyme. Rays shed salary. Unloading Lowe ($10.
5M in 2025 with an $11.5M club option or $500k buyout for 2026) and/or Díaz ($10M in 2025 with a $12M club option or no buyout for 2026) isn't quite the sure thing for Tampa Bay that it was last year with Tyler Glasnow's $25M salary, but you just know the Rays are at least asking other teams if there's any interest in their highest-priced* assets. Though it was Díaz who won a batting title in 2023, Lowe might be the more intriguing one that Tampa Bay is likely dangling.
He has been frequently banged up, but has averaged 33 home runs and 96 RBI per 162 games played over the course of his career. That's quite a lot of pop from a second baseman, where only Ketel Marte (36) and Marcus Semien (23) had more dingers than the 21 Lowe accumulated in 107 games played. Seattle would surely make an offer.
The Mets, Dodgers and Giants would all be more than a little interested. And while the Rays would presumably prefer not to make a trade within the division, the Gleyber Torres-less Yankees would at least make Tampa Bay say no. In fact, the Yankees would probably offer to take both guys off the Rays' hands, considering their current 1B/2B plan appears to be Ben Rice and Oswaldo Cabrera.
*Jeffrey Springs also has two years and $21.75M left on his contract, but that one figures to be a tough sell after he made just seven starts following Tommy John surgery before landing back on the IL with elbow fatigue. 2024 Stats : 166.
1 IP, 3.84 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 11.
0 K/9, 1.8 bWAR Before the ink had even dried on the 2024 regular season, the St. Louis Cardinals announced plans to reduce payroll for 2025, planning to focus on youth and player development as they prepare to pass the President of Baseball Operations torch from John Mozeliak to Chaim Bloom next winter.
On the one hand, they've already done it. Just between declining the club options on both Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn and having Paul Goldschmidt's contract expire, they shaved darn near $50M from their 2024 payroll. But if they're looking to slash a good chunk more than that, Sonny Gray will be on the trade block.
He was great in the first season of his three-year, $75M deal, posting a 2.82 xFIP that ranked second only to Chris Sale among qualified pitchers. It was the type of year good enough to make a few teams more than happy to take on his back-loaded contract.
Gray is owed $25M this coming season, $35M the following year, plus a $30M club option (or $5M buyout) for 2027. That means, at this point, it's either a two-year, $65M contract or a three-year, $90M contract, depending on the option. That's a lot, but good luck landing a pitcher of Gray's caliber in free agency for a salary less than $35M.
It's also a contract with a full no-trade clause, so he might not be going anywhere if he's happy in St. Louis. But it's not a full no-dangling clause.
The Cardinals will probably see what they can get for Gray, and then find out if he's willing to relocate. 2024 Stats : .248/.
357/.392, 15 HR, 58 RBI, 13 SB, 1.7 bWAR If Jonathan India got paid a dollar for every time he was mentioned as a trade candidate over the past two years, it would come close to rivaling the $5.
45M salary he is due in 2025 in his next-to-last season before free agency. If it ain't broke, though, don't fix it. And now that Matt McLain's left shoulder ain't broke anymore, it might finally be time to part with the 2021 NL Rookie of the Year.
The big question is how much the Reds believe in the young tandem of Noelvi Marté and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. In theory, that duo and Jeimer Candelario will hold down the 1B/3B/DH fort, with McLain and Elly De La Cruz handling middle infield duties. However, all three parts of that trio had a rough 2024, due to some combination of injury, underperformance or a PEDs suspension followed by underperformance.
As such, trading away India and going into next season with pretty much just Santiago Espinal on the "list" of infield reserves might not be in the cards for the Reds. If they're willing to move him, though, India is probably a top-five middle infielder up for grabs this winter, alongside free agents Willy Adames, Gleyber Torres and Ha-Seong Kim, as well as the aforementioned Brandon Lowe. That positional scarcity could make India worth a decent starting pitcher, and embracing a question mark in infield depth would be a small price to pay to improve this pitching staff.
2024 Stats : 117.0 IP, 6.23 ERA, 1.
65 WHIP, 6.4 K/9, -1.4 bWAR New Year's Day cannot come soon enough for Jordan Montgomery, who would love to put the entirety of 2024 in his rearview mirror.
The first few months of the year were spent in free agency limbo, waiting for the long-term contract offer that never materialized. Then, after a delayed start to the season, it all unraveled in a hurry with an ERA of 7.00 or worse in each of May, June and July.
He spent time on the IL. He lost his job in the starting rotation. Arizona's owner all but called signing Montgomery the biggest mistake he ever made.
It was a rough go for the southpaw who played a big role in Texas winning the 2023 World Series. Can he bounce back to the not-quite-ace-but-solid-No.-2-starter that he was from 2021-23, making 94 starts with a 3.
48 ERA? If the Diamondbacks are willing to eat a decent chunk of his $22.5M salary for 2025 in order to send him packing, surely there are a few teams willing to bet that he can right the ship. Among those interested parties? Probably the Atlanta Braves, who need to add at least one starting pitcher this offseason and who forever love a buy-low trade candidate.
They probably aren't looking to spend over $20M on a starter, but if they can flip the Snakes a prospect and convince them to keep half of Monty's salary in the deal, Alex Anthopoulos will find a way. 2024 Stats : .271/.
308/.425, 13 HR, 63 RBI, 2.6 bWAR With Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo making their MLB debuts last season and with C/1B Samuel Basallo not terribly far behind them, the Orioles have a serious surplus of IF/DH options.
Even if we remove 1B/DH Ryan Mountcastle from the list, they could roll with Mayo at 1B, Holliday at 2B, Gunnar Henderson at SS, Jordan Westburg at 3B, Adley Rutschman at C, Ryan O'Hearn at DH and still have Ramón Urías, Jorge Mateo, Emmanuel Rivera and eventually Basallo as reserves. It's why we kept suggesting over the past couple of years that they could trade Mayo—a top 25 overall prospect at one point—if it meant acquiring an ace-caliber starting pitcher. But now that Mayo has arrived, it's likely they go the opposite route and part with Mountcastle, who has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining and an estimated salary of $6M for the upcoming season.
The return for Mountcastle will be nowhere near what they could have gotten for Mayo, but there's also no shortage of teams in need of a first baseman. Baltimore might need to wait until all of Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Christian Walker, Anthony Rizzo and Carlos Santana sign as free agents, but there are easily more than five teams looking for one. If they can get an affordable outfielder or a back-of-the-rotation starter for Mountcastle, it's worth pursuing.
2024 Stats : .224/.278/.
379, 14 HR, 35 RBI, 23 SB Luis Robert Jr. is way less of a sure thing to be traded than Garrett Crochet is. Not only did he just struggle through yet another season marred by an injury, but his salary is a substantial consideration.
He'll make $15M in 2025, has a $20M club option (with a $2M buyout) for 2026, and has another $20M club option (with a $2M buyout) for 2027 that will trigger if the first one is exercised. He'd still be of interest to a contender in need of outfield help, though, and it'd be silly of the White Sox to not trade him away. This isn't an Andrew Benintendi situation where they are just stuck with a bad contract for the next three years.
They could and should get something solid in return for Robert, probably without retaining any of his contract. Despite the injuries, Robert has a .474 slugging percentage since the start of 2020.
That's virtually identical to those of Anthony Santander (.476) and Tyler O'Neill (.472), whose values in free agency will be determined soon enough.
Robert is a better baserunner and a better asset on defense (certainly than Santander), but it's an interesting comp from a slugging perspective. [Spotrac puts O'Neill's market value at three years, $48.7M, and Santander's market value at five years, $88.
7M.] As far as interested parties go, the Phillies and Mariners were the obvious candidates heading into the July 30 trade deadline and still look the most likely to target Robert. Put the Cincinnati Reds firmly on that list, too, after they got a whole lot of nothing from their outfield in 2024.
If he goes there, stays moderately healthy and cranks 30+ home runs with a home venue where balls love to soar, he could be the difference that makes them the NL Central champs. 2024 Stats : 21.2 IP, 14 saves, 1.
25 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 15.8 K/9 Dating back to the beginning of 2020, there are two pitchers in all of baseball with at least 150 innings pitched and a sub-2.
00 ERA: Emmanuel Clase (1.62 ERA in 289.1 IP) and Devin Williams (1.
70 ERA in 222.0 IP). Given Williams' vastly superior K/9 rate (14.
6 to Clase's 8.7), one could easily make the case that he has been the most dominant relief pitcher over the past half-decade. Well, most dominant reliever from April through September , at any rate.
October has been a drastically different story, which is part of why the Brewers might be willing to deal Williams with one year remaining before free agency—much like they did Corbin Burnes last winter, or Josh Hader with 1.5 years remaining the previous summer. We shall see whether Trevor Megill—who entered 2024 with a career ERA of 5.
23—can replicate the incredible job he did as temporary closer while Williams recovered from a broken back. There are certainly worse ninth-inning options out there, though, and handing the keys to Megill for what could be the next three years while turning Williams into a quality prospect or two might not be a terrible idea. Now for the fun part: Who wants him? It legitimately might be quicker to list the teams that wouldn't bother trying to acquire Williams, as even the contenders with an already established closer wouldn't mind adding some elite depth to their bullpen.
At the very least, the Red Sox, Royals, Rangers, Phillies, Giants and Diamondbacks all have question marks at closer, and would be very interested in one year of Williams' services..
