Didn't waste any time making a deal for a starter and shipping out our trade bait players:
Orze is a back-end starter (55/50/55) who was 9-13, 4.01 with the Mariners but earned a solid 3.0 WAR with a 67/181 BB/K ratio in 184 IP. Right now he'll slot it as our #4.
November 10: Claimed RP Joey Stock on waivers from Boston.
Stock seems interesting at 65/45/55 and he was free. He had an 8/62 BB/K ratio in 46 IP at AA/AAA in Boston's system with 24 saves.
Retirements: There were numerous big names calling it quits with the most notable being Paul Goldschmidt, whose #46 was retired by Arizona, and Jose Alutive, who had his #27 retired by Houston. Others of note included Michael Brantley, Anthony Rizzo, Freddie Freeman, Sal Perez, Eugenio Suarez, Kyle Hendricks, Mike Soroka, Kenley Jansen, Aroldis Chapman, Craig Kimbrel, Charlie Blackmon, Patrick Corbin and Joc Pederson. Former Rays retiring included Ji-Man Choi, Matt Duffy and Christian Vazquez.
Awards Season:
Gold Glove: LOL, we didn't win any.
Reliever of the Year: Detroit's Will Vest won in the AL after a brilliant 3.9 WAR season which saw him put up an 18/119 BB/K ratio in 76 IP, save a league-best 45 games and turn in a 1.89 ERA. In the NL Milwaukee's Josh Hader won for the second straight year and sixth time in his career after saving 41 with a 1.83 ERA and 112 whiffs in 68 IP.
Silver Slugger: Our keystone combo of 2B Ozzie Albies and SS Wander Franco both won, as did Spencer Torkelson at DH.
Rookie of the Year: Baltimore's Coby Mayo was an unanimous AL winner as the first-sacker hit .281-26-80, good for 2.3 WAR. The NL winner was unanimous as well with Cubs indy-league discovery Stephon McNeill hitting .265-40-92, earning 4.3 WAR.
Cy Young: Jacob deGrom has turned out to be of the Yankees' all-time great free agent signing and he won his third consecutive AL Cy Young for the Yanks after going 15-11, 3.57 and leading the league in pitcher WAR at 6.1. He took 23 of 30 first-place votes with the other 7 going to our Shane McClanahan, who finished second with 133 points to deGrom's 189. Freddy Peralta of Milwaukee was a unanimous winner in the NL after a 17-4, 2.65 season with 275 Ks in 217 IP and a majors-best 6.5 pitcher WAR. Perlata is a pending free agent whom I'm sure we won't be able to afford. (Update: Yup, he's asking $32M/year). So is deGrom, who won't be ready until Opening Day due to shoulder inflammation.
MVP: Stop the presses!
Wander's triple crown numbers (.314-30-90) were all career-highs and he lapped the field. Tork finished 4th but 2nd in first-place votes with 3.
The NL nod went to Colorado 2B Yunior Severino, who hit .311-41-120 and nosed out former Ray and current Phillie Alex Bregman who was .283-38-111. Severino had 16 first-place votes to Bregman's 11 and outpointed him 345-319 in close voting. Severino was released by the Pirates in 2024, a move they certainly regret.
November 27: Boston signed 2B Trevor Story to a 4/57 extension, which will keep him under contract with the club through age 38.
December 9: At least we won't have to see very much of Jacob deGrom anymore as the Phillies signed him to a 2/66 deal. We'll see how much they get out of him as the 38-year-old battles back from shoulder inflammation.
December 11: A couple of huge trades took place with Houston sending Carlos Correa to Arizona for #69 overall prospect CF Simon Juan and rookie CF Druw Jones, the 2nd overall pick back in 2022. Meanwhile it was a crosstown deal in Chicago with the Cubs sending veteran starter Aaron Nola to the White Sox for a prospect.
December 14: Keston Hiura, who blossomed in the last two seasons with Philadelphia hitting 82 homers, parlayed that career renaissance into a 6/153 deal with the Angels. And it appears that LA is all-in on 2027 as they also acquired veteran IF Xander Bogaerts from the Cubs for a prospect.
December 15: Veteran IF Jake Cronenworth, who had an underwhelming stretch run with the Rays in 2023 but was part of the deal which brought Juan Soto to the club in 2024, turned his 3 good years with Washington into a 5/80 deal with the free-spending Phillies. Also Josh Fleming, who had spent most of the last decade in our system, elected minor league free agency after a nice year in Durham and signed a minor league deal with a major league option with the Royals.
December 16: The Phillies appear to have an unlimited budget as they inked 1B Garrett Cooper, coming off a monster .274-30-100 year with Milwaukee, to a 3/35 pact.
December 17: The Dodgers signed SP Trevor Rogers, who spent the past few years with Boston after a trade from Miami, to a 6/135 deal. Also the Cardinals acquired starter Jared Jones from Pittsburgh. Jones is coming off a rough year with a 5.82 ERA and 104 walks but was a BABIP victim (.335) and has good stuff to go with his iffy control.
December 18: Reigning NL Cy Young winner Freddy Peralta found his riches in San Francisco, joining the Giants on a 6/185 deal. At least the Yankees didn't sign him.
December 20: Top closer James Karinchak signed a 2/19 deal with the Dodgers while former Ray Jonathan Loaisiga will no longer be on a division rival as Toronto dealt him to San Diego for a couple of prospects.
December 23: The Phillies continue to add to their roster as they dealt for veteran starter Jose Berrios, sending Toronto an outfield prospect.
December 26: Added IF RJ Austin to the 40-man roster.
Rule 5 time. It's probably an indictment of our system that there really weren't any players that were must-adds to the 40-man with Austin, our first-round pick in 2022, the only choice and he projects as a utility infielder. And we still have 3 open spots so who knows, maybe we find someone like Lonnie White in this year's draft to add.
December 26: Lost SS Alika Williams and SP Ian Seymour to the Cubs in the Rule 5 Draft.
The Cubs did us dirty, taking a pair of guys who had spent some big-league time with us. It hurts a little depth-wise but we'll survive. They were 2 of only 7 players taken.