January 1: Two-time former Ray Alex Vesia signed a 1/3.4 deal with Kansas City.
January 3: 39-year-old Xavier Bogaerts signed a 3/37 deal with St. Louis after spending the last three years with division rival Milwaukee.
OK Bill, thanks for the update.
January 7: Another year with nobody elected to the Hall of Fame:
Also surprising since this year's class was particularly weak with Stephen Strasburg's 8.6% the best showing from a debutant.
January 13: IF Brennon McNair, who spent a couple of months on our active roster last year and hit .089 in a reserve role, signed a minor league deal with Colorado.
January 16: Another former Ray with a new home is Osvanni Gutierrez, who pitched in middle relief for us from 2025-2028 as he lands in Detroit on a 3/9.3 deal.
January 18: 1B Ryan Mountcastle, who had his best season in the bigs with Oakland, hitting .310 with a Gold Glove and 3.1 WAR, parlayed that career year into a 4/46 deal with San Diego.
January 19: 36-year-old SP Dylan Cease signed a 1/13 contract with the Phillies. He has 70 stuff but is "wrecked".
January 23: 39-year-old star 3B Jose Ramirez was dumped by Milwaukee to Cincinnati in a deal in which they retained his entire $22M salary, netting an 18-year-old prospect. Father Time appears to have caught up with Ramirez, who dropped to 1.1 WAR last year after 4.5 in 2030.
January 25: One of the better leadoff men in the game has a new home as 31-year-old career .300 hitter Corbin Carroll has left the only team he's known, Arizona, for a 4/45 deal with Texas.
January 26: And there it is, a month after the original offer:
Contreras isn't Realmuto, offensive or defensively, but he's the next best thing that was available out there. The deal is for 4 years with a player option for Year 4 which I'd be thrilled if he declined meaning he was so good during the first three. He is coming off a fine 299/386/445 season in which he earned 3.1 WAR. That is great for a catcher until you realize Realmuto earned 6 WAR last year before he decided to go out on top.
Now I can re-focus on what else is out there.
January 31: After leaving us to join the Mets for a year, lefty Wennington Romero is headed to Seattle on a 2/14 deal.
February 12: Matt Manning parlayed his good comeback year with us and Miami into a 4/36 deal with St. Louis. Also veteran slugger Rowdy Tellez is finally departing Toronto where he tormented us to sign a 1/12 contract with the Cubs.
February 15: Shane Bieber is still getting it done these days, and after a good multi-year stint in San Francisco where he put up his usual 200+ IP and 200+ Ks, he joined Philly on a 1-year, $24.8M deal.
February 25: Matt Olson is alive and kicking, and signed a 2/21 contract with the Giants.
March 3: RIP Stu Sternberg:
Danny sounds delightful.