As we're now just about a week removed from the winter meetings with the holiday season looming, the MLB offseason will continue to sort itself out. There's been a steady trickle of news since the meetings and Carlos Correa signing a 13-year, $350 million deal with the Giants on Tuesday night was the biggest news in a bit.
Still, some prominent names remain on the free agency market (top 50 tracker here) while it's possible there are more trades in the works, too. Let's check out the rumors for the day.
Rodón, Yankees far apart
After re-signing Aaron Judge last week, the Yankees "top priority" is lefty ace Carlos Rodón, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Per the report, Rodón is looking for seven years and $210 million at minimum while the Yankees don't want to go that high in years and/or average annual value in dollars.
Rodón, 30, had to take a minor-league deal just two seasons ago, but he's been one of the best pitchers in baseball since then. In 2021, he was 13-5 with a 2.37 ERA (185 ERA+), 0.96 WHIP and 185 strikeouts in 132 2/3 innings. He was hampered down the stretch with a shoulder injury, so last offseason he settled for a two-year deal with an opt-out after the first year. He went out and made 31 starts for the Giants, going 14-8 with a 2.88 ERA (140 ERA+), 1.03 WHIP and 237 strikeouts in 178 innings.
He looks like a mid-prime ace, but there's baggage with all the shoulder injuries he's had in the past. It'll be interesting to see how things shake out, but the Yankees appear to be firmly in on him.
Padres still have money to spend
Free agent starting pitcher Chris Bassitt reportedly agreed to a three-year, $63 million deal with the Blue Jays. What does this have to do with the Padres? Well, Heyman reports that San Diego was one of the last teams involved in the bidding.
Now, sometimes sending this out through anonymous sourcing is a call for mockery ("we tried!"), but in the case of the Padres, it seems real because they've already landed Xander Bogaerts on an extremely aggressive contract and we know they have an open spot in their rotation behind Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell, with Nick Martinez slotting in at the backend.
All of that is to say we can speculatively keep them in mind on every free agent starter left, such as Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Johnny Cueto and, yes, Mr. Rodón.
Crawford to move to 3B for Correa
In signing Correa, the Giants were always going to be moving veteran shortstop Brandon Crawford to either second base or third base. Susan Slusser reports it'll be the hot corner. He'll likely be an asset there. Crawford has scored out as an above-average defensive shortstop for years with good range and arm strength readings have increased each of the last three seasons, too.
Right-handed reliever J.P. Feyereisen had shoulder surgery last week and is expected to out until August of 2023. The Rays ended up designating him for assignment to make room for recent signee Zach Eflin and before Feyereisen hit waivers, a trade happened. The Rays have shipped him to the Dodgers in exchange for minor-league reliever Jeff Belge, according to Marc Topkin.
Feyereisen, 29, had a 0.00 ERA (for real) in 24 1/3 innings last season. He posted a 0.49 WHIP and struck out 25 against five walks. He only allowed one of the 10 runners he inherited to score and racked up 1.4 WAR in a short time. It was just an absurdly good season. Assuming he recovers as expected, the Dodgers could be getting a late weapon for their bullpen next season.
