November 12: We signed all our arb-eligible guys except McClanahan, Andrew Vaughn and Diego Cartaya, all of whom wanted long-term, big-money deals. Mac still has this year and next under team control while this is Vaughn's last year, and Cartaya has two more after this year. I was interested in signing Cartaya to a longer deal but he wants something like 8/85 and I'm not ready to go there yet.
Around MLB some young arb-eligible guys got locked up to big deals. Among them were Jonathan India (CIN, 4/68), Nolan Gorman (ARI, 8/115), Oneil Cruz (PIT, 8/105), Grayson Rodriguez (BAL, 5/84), Keibert Ruiz (WAS, 4/59), CJ Abrams (SD, 8/100), Nick Lodolo (CIN, 5/52), and Max Meyer (MIA, 5/62).
November 16: Awards season is underway. Christian Vazquez won his 2nd straight Gold Glove as the only Ray to receive the honors. The Giants also traded young starter Will Bednar to San Diego for a couple of prospects as the 48-114 Giants go on a deep rebuild.
November 17: Reliever of the Year was today, and amazingly Pete Fairbanks, who led all of MLB in relief WAR at 3.7, was named only on my ballot in first place. I know WAR isn't everything but he had a great season. Instead, the AL nod went to Baltimore's DL Hall, 9-5, 1.31 with 2 saves, 114 whiffs in 89 IP and 2.4 WAR while in the NL the winner was Milwaukee's Josh Hader, who took 29 of 30 first-place votes after a 43-save season with a 1.71 ERA, 118 whiffs in 73 IP and 3.2 WAR.
November 18: We took a couple of Silver Sluggers with Ozzie Albies (2B) and Kyle Tucker (RF) recognized.
November 19: Casey Schmitt finished a distant second to Elly De La Cruz in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting. De La Cruz, who received 28 of the 30 first-place votes, came over early in the season from Cincinnati in a trade and had 37 HR and 111 RBI, all but 3 and 9 of them with Detroit. Schmitt got my first-place vote (the only one he got), Josh Mears finished third, and someone gave Taj Bradley the other first-place vote as he finished 5th. The NL award went unanimously to San Diego's Cesar Damian, an independent league signee last winter who hit 279/342/462 with 15 HR and near-Gold Glove defense, earning 3.6 WAR.
November 21: Jacob deGrom won his second consecutive Cy Young with the Yankees after winning two earlier with the crosstown rival Mets. deGrom, a unanimous winner, was 19-8, 2.74 with 293 Ks in a whopping 265 IP, good for 8.6 WAR. Our Shane McClanahan was a distant sixth and Luis Castillo was right behind him in seventh. And former Ray Blake Snell has now won Cy Youngs in both leagues thanks to a 16-9, 2.85 season with St. Louis which was capped by a big postseason and a World Series ring. He took 27 of 30 first-place votes. deGrom and Snell were both winners in 2018 in the other league.
In a trade Oakland sent defensive wizard Christian Pache to Milwaukee, trading the CF for four minor leaguers.
November 22: MVP time and to nobody's surprise Juan Soto won his 2nd straight AL award after winning with us last season. This year the Yankee was unanimous again after a monster 337/491/674 season with 39 HR and 128 RBI, leading the Bombers to the World Series. Our Kyle Tucker finished a close 3rd behind Adley Rutschman. And there was no doubt in the NL either as Triple Crown winner Bryce Harper was also unanimous after a 315/435/694 season with 58 HR and 143 RBI. It was Harper's 4th MVP, his second consecutive and third in five seasons.
November 30: Arbitration hearings were held. Diego Cartaya and Andrew Vaughn lost, while Shane McClanahan won his hearing and will make $10.6M instead of the $8.9 we offered him, so there's $1.7M off the budget.
December 1: Free agency filings were today, and the Dodgers shipped out a couple of pitchers, sending Dustin May to Atlanta for a couple of minor leaguers and Tony Gonsolin to Detroit for prospect Izaac Pacheco. To nobody's surprise Kyle Tucker declined our qualifying offer, so we'll collect a comp 1st rounder.
December 11: It seems I was mistaken about the Dodgers having Will Smith locked up. They didn't, he was a free agent and he signed a whopping 7/195 deal with the Cubs. Having traded Cartaya to us, it seems their catcher right now is a rookie named Carson Taylor who's rated a 35 defensively. Maybe they'd be interested in Christian Vazquez!
December 14: Kyle Tucker has signed - and he's back with Houston! The Astros re-acquired him on a massive 7/279 deal, which is just under $40M/year. We'll take the supplemental pick.
December 16: Some more free agents signed: The Mets inked 2B Jorge Polanco to a 5/94 pact, Alex Verdugo joined Texas for 3/37, and Marcus Stroman takes his talents to Philadelphia for 3/20.
December 23: Good-sized deal as Toronto sent SP Kevin Gausman, who missed all of 2024 and 2025 with injuries but is still rated well, to San Diego for prospects including 3B Jackson Merrill, who had a huge year in AAA last season.
December 24: Placed 1B Junior Caminero, IF Brooks Lee, OF Marcell Ozuna, and Ps Yoniel Curet and Andri Tavarez on the 40-man roster. Designated C Drew Romo for assignment.
Rule 5 protection time, with all but Ozuna among our top prospects and Ozuna right now penciled in as our DH after spending the year with Durham. Romo was an intriguing pickup late last year but the Cartaya acquisition gave us five catchers on the 40-man.
Meanwhile 3B Gio Urshela signed a 4/73 deal with the White Sox.
December 26: Claimed OF Lonnie White from Philadelphia in the Rule 5 Draft.
Well we may have found our CF in an unlikely place. White had an excellent season last year mostly in AA where he earned 4.6 WAR and won both the platinum stick and glove wizard awards in the Eastern League:
The glove will play in the majors right now, the bat is an iffier proposition. Right now my thought is to play Zach DeLoach in CF, he's a 50 there but White could platoon with him. Of course White will have to stay on the roster we'll see.
Only 3 players in all were taken in Rule 5 including White, and one interesting name that was available was Cooper Kinney, the key prospect we sent to Texas in the Luis Castillo deal. Kinney is still Texas's though as he went undrafted despite being the top-ranked player available.
December 31: As we end the year (and Part 1 of this offseason outlook), we're in negotiations to bring back Pete Fairbanks. It seems his big hangup is a no-trade clause in a 3-year deal and we're willing to give it to him so we'll see how it goes.