Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos spoke to reporters today, including David O'Brien of The Athletic, covering a variety of topics. The head man in Atlanta offered details on the club's plans at DH, along with some health updates on a couple of pitchers. While Anthopoulos didn't rule out bringing back Marcell Ozuna, he said the team prefers to leave DH open and split the role among multiple players.

Bader's chief calling card is his glove, as public defensive metrics indicate consistently good-to-great numbers for Bader over his nine big league seasons. 2025 was no exception, as he received +6 Defensive Runs Saved and +3 Outs Above Average over 568 2/3 innings as a center fielder, and +7 DRS and +3 OAA for 496 innings as a left fielder.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hears from sources on rival teams that the Cardinals don't seem to be "actively seeking to trade" outfielder Lars Nootbaar. This doesn't necessarily mean that Nootbaar won't be dealt, of course, but there are also some obvious reasons why the Cardinals might want to wait until beyond this offseason to move the 28-year-old.

Listening does not mean shopping. Listening is what all teams do on probably 99.9 percent of players with the exception honestly being Shohei Ohtani,

Much of the buzz surrounding the Phillies this winter has concerned their efforts to re-sign one or both or Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. Since either of those free agents might well end up leaving Philadelphia for another team, the Phils have also been doing their due diligence on other major free agents or trade targets, including Tatsuya Imai and Ketel Marte.

Major League Baseball began investigating Pete Rose in 1988, the year before it launched the full-blown, publicly announced probe that resulted in his banishment, according to newly released FBI documents. MLB, however, suspended its investigation at the request of federal law enforcement officials who were investigating Rose's finances at the time. The documents show that MLB suspected in 1988, months before the public became aware of any investigation, that Rose was betting on baseball and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Those three teams were the final suitors for Bregman last offseason. Detroit reportedly put forth a six-year, $171.5MM offer - albeit with deferred money that would have reduced the net present value - with an opt-out after the second season. The Cubs offered a four-year contract which various reports put at either $115MM or $120MM that included opt-out chances after the second and third season.

The Toronto Blue Jays addressed their pitching by signing Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce and also had Shane Bieber take the option on his contract to play with Toronto in 2026. Both the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles have also made moves with the former grabbing Sonny Gray in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals, and the latter picking up reliever Ryan Helsley off the free agent market while also getting Taylor Ward in a trade with the LA Angels.

The Tigers and right-hander Drew Anderson have agreed to a deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It's a one-year pact with a club option for 2027. The salary figures haven't yet been publicly reported. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic reports that the Tigers expect the righty to be a starter, as he has been doing in Korea for the past couple of years. The Tigers have a 40-man vacancy and won't need to make a corresponding move.

The Orioles have claimed outfielder Will Robertson off waivers from the Pirates, according to Jake Rill of MLB.com. There wasn't any previous indication Robertson was on the wire but it seems the Bucs tried to sneak him through waivers in order to open a 40-man spot. The Orioles swooped in to grab him, so Pittsburgh loses Robertson but they do open a roster spot, going from 39 to 38.

Throughout Springer's 2024 season, he just couldn't find his rhythm offensively, and it certainly looked like the six-year, $150-million contract was trending in the wrong direction. To his credit though, his defensive excellence never wavered. He finished 2024 with a career-worst .220/.303/.371 slash line and a .674 OPS across 145 games, placing him among the least productive qualified hitters in the league.

The flamethrowing 27-year-old has until Jan. 2 to negotiate a deal with interested MLB clubs. The Mets, Cubs and Orioles have each been linked to the right-hander so far. The Cubs, in particular, are expected to be a "strong" player in Imai's market, per Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. They also made an offer to Dylan Cease before the former Cy Young runner-up (and former Cubs draftee) signed with the Blue Jays last week, according to Levine.

The Mets have been perusing the trade market in hopes of bolstering their rotation and have their eye on Twins right-hander as one of several targets, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. He adds that the Twins like young Mets righty - hardly a surprise, given that Tong is widely regarded as one of the sport's top pitching prospects.

However, the Blue Jays hope in landing an elite bullpen arm could significantly take a bigger hit if the latest prediction by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com ends up coming to fruition. Feinsand has top free agent closer Edwin Diaz signing with the reigning World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers this winter. Blue Jays fans should roll their eyes at this Dodgers prediction