The hot stove means we know big changes are coming to some teams.
Hot stove season means we know that a lot of changes will be coming to teams around baseball, either by offloading talent to save money and stock up the farm system, or attempting to bolster their rosters and make a run for the 2025 offseason.
Blake Snell signed a deal late last night (details and link below), and some of the big names in discussion this week are (of course) Juan Soto, but also Nolan Arenado (who might be willing to change his position to facilitate a trade), and Willy Adames.
In other news, Madison Bumgarner might be headed back to San Francisco; Kim Ng is making a push to boost competitive softball; an Astros rookie invites you to Thanksgiving; and the Rays’ are making all sorts of adjustments to their schedule.
Let’s jump into it.
- The first one off the board is left-hander Blake Snell, who signed a five-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers.
- Ben Clemens explains why 2024 was a great year for bunts.
- Which three teams could be looking to acquire Willy Adames? (MLB)
- Jayson Stark looks at what Madison Bumgarner’s return to the Giants might look like—spoiler, it won’t be on the field. (The Athletic subscription required.)
- David Adler looks at the free-agent hitters with the best tools.
- Kim Ng is looking to make competitive softball the next big thing.
For the first time since its founding in 2020, Athletes Unlimited (AU) is organizing a traditional team-based league meant to be Major League Baseball for softball.
And former Marlins GM Kim Ng is leading the charge.
www.nytimes.com/athletic/594…
— The Athletic (@theathletic.bsky.social) 2024-11-25T15:38:35.065Z
- Brian Murphy spotlights KBO star Hyeseong Kim, who could be MLB-bound.
- Matt Gelb shares the moving story of how Phillies’ Ned Rice and his family leaned on their baseball village to deal with a brain cancer diagnosis. (The Athletic subscription required)
- Michael Baumann looks at how aging first basemen can still be a huge asset to their teams.
- Will Juan Soto choose his team before Winter Meetings? (MLB)
- In regards to Soto, apparently five different teams have made him offers. Story by Karl Rasmussen.
- Jay Jaffe has begun his breakdown of the Hall of Fame candidate cases and gives us the JAWS case for no-doubt Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki.
- In Hall of Fame news, it’s time to start getting fired up about bad ballots.
Ballot #5 is from a voter who wishes to remain anonymous. CC and Ichiro get checks in their first year and are tracking at 100%. As with all anonymous ballots, we are unable to report on any gained or lost votes, if any, though here there are clearly no adds.
In the Tracker: tracker.fyi
— Anthony Calamis (@tonycal.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T17:18:53.992Z
- Six potential suitors for Roki Sasaki. (MLB)
- How much money does a player get for winning the World Series? Evan Drellich looks at the pocket change Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani brought home. (The Athletic subscription required.)
- Is Nolan Arenado headed for the trade block? (MLB)
- While an Arenado trade might be looming, the man himself says he’s open to a position change. Story by Tim Capurso.
- The Rays and Twins made an unusual trade: they swapped schedules. Story by Blake Silverman.
- More information on the schedule swap explains the moves that will allow the Rays to avoid more rain-heavy periods now that they will be playing in an open-air stadium. (AP)
- In additional Rays’ news, they have until Sunday to announce their intention to move forward with their new stadium build or not. (Field Level Media)
- Yusei Kikuchi is headed to the Angels and Leo Morgenstern assesses the move.
- It’s not a home plate season ticket to the Pirates, but rookie card rewards are becoming a thing.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.