• The Phillies successful the World Collection (nailed it!)• The A’s and Rays each making the playoffs (bingo!)• The Cubs buying and selling for Sandy Alcantara (boomshakalaka!)
On the danger of ruining my successful streak, it’s time as soon as once more to leap aboard the daring predictions prepare … simply earlier than it crashes into actuality.
Right here’s a beginning 9 of daring outcomes I envision for the 2025-26 Sizzling Range market.*
*Accuracy not assured. Inaccuracy nearly assured.
I don’t need this to occur. The Tigers needs to be extending Skubal, not buying and selling him … although it looks as if the probabilities seem like slim proper now.
Sans extension, the Tigers ought to nonetheless be maintaining Skubal for an earnest World Collection run, even when it means shedding him in free company with solely a compensation decide to indicate for it. We speak a giant recreation this time of 12 months in regards to the “haul” a crew can get for a star participant, however the actuality is {that a} participant with just one 12 months of contractual management can solely web you a lot.
(Check out this record of “prime prospect hauls of all-time” and word that the deservedly maligned Mookie Betts commerce made by the Purple Sox in February 2020, one season forward of his free company, truly deserves a point out. There simply aren’t many fashionable examples of promoting groups crushing it when dealing away an elite expertise.)
The early Sizzling Range reporting signifies that the Tigers are way more more likely to hold Skubal than commerce him. That’s good!
However earlier this 12 months, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris dismissed the concept of the Tigers having a championship window revolving round Skubal as an “phantasm.” Then, when the Tigers fell quick within the ALDS, Harris doubled down on his crew’s gentle Commerce Deadline exercise by saying he had no regrets about how that course of performed out.
The above alerts to me a entrance workplace that isn’t inclined towards massive swings and doesn’t think about itself a completely Skubal-oriented enterprise. The Tigers appear extra inclined towards maximizing their property and attempting for a number of bites on the apple. And for those who’re not going to go all-in on Skubal’s closing 12 months of management in 2026, then, sure, you need to a minimum of think about gives for him.
No crew can be extra motivated than the Mets, who had been victims of their very own try and go for wile over model of their rotation final 12 months and who’ve the sources to signal Skubal for no matter he desires long-term.
In all probability the one approach the Tigers might commerce Skubal and nonetheless have a look at you with a straight face and say they’re contending is that if they received a bundle again that’s fronted by somebody of the ilk of early NL Rookie of the Yr favourite Nolan McLean.
I don’t know if both crew would do it. I doubt both fan base would adore it. However the headline says “daring predictions,” so right here you go.
Amid all of the choices seemingly on the desk, the Tucker-to-Toronto chatter makes probably the most sense to me. Although the Jays whiffed on some current first-in-class free brokers, they’ve organizational momentum now that they didn’t have then, and he would match their lineup fantastically. That he’s from Tampa, a stone’s throw from their Spring Coaching facility in Dunedin, Fla., is an added bonus. I hope it occurs, to be sincere.
Ah, however the Dodgers at all times appear prepared to face in Toronto’s approach. They did it after they signed Shohei Ohtani, and once more after they signed Roki Sasaki … and once more in Sport 7 of this 12 months’s World Collection. They will do it as soon as extra through the use of the roughly $40 million they’ve coming off the books to land a man who fills considered one of their few holes.
3) However the Dodgers WON’T land any of the Japanese stars.
After buying Shohei Ohtani in his stateside free company, in addition to each Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki of their much-publicized strikes from Nippon Skilled Baseball to MLB, it may appear a fait accompli that the Dodgers will land a minimum of one — or possibly even all three — of nook infielders Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto and beginning pitcher Tatsuya Imai.
It’s been too lengthy because the Yankees asserted themselves on this explicit worldwide market. Murakami has large pull energy to go together with swing-and-miss and defensive considerations. If that’s not a Yankee, I don’t know what’s.
Imai will go to the Cubs, who want his pitching upside as they attempt to go from good to nice.
And Okamoto would be the crown offseason jewel for a Pirates crew that wants offense any approach it may well get it however gained’t be enjoying within the free-agent market’s deepest waters.
Wait, did I simply predict that not one of the prime three Japanese free brokers will land with a crew in a West division? That feels daring, too!
I’m certain I’m in all probability incorrect in regards to the particular crew, however I do have this sense Alonso winds up someplace off the crushed path.
Whereas Alonso’s free-agent standing is healthier now than it was a 12 months in the past (not simply because his numbers had been higher in 2025 however primarily as a result of he’s not connected to a qualifying provide), the actual fact of the matter is he’s nonetheless a bat-first participant getting into his age-31 season — a profile that groups are much less keen to pay a premium for in at the moment’s recreation.
If big-market contenders just like the Yankees (Cody Bellinger), Purple Sox (Alex Bregman) and Phillies (Kyle Schwarber) prioritize bringing again their outstanding free brokers and the Mets are critical about prioritizing run prevention, you don’t must squint exhausting to see a state of affairs through which the Polar Bear seeks shelter elsewhere.
The Orioles, Rangers and Diamondbacks are among the many also-rans from 2025 that would actually stand to improve at first base. So regulate all of them. However the Reds are at the moment projected effectively south of previous franchise-record payrolls and desperately want some thump.
Did the Reds herald a 60-something future Corridor of Fame supervisor in Terry Francona simply to attempt to squeak into the playoffs yearly? No! They’re attempting to go the space. And whereas Middletown, Ohio, native Schwarber is the higher sentimental match, I see him going again to Philly.
Although I’ve predicted Tucker to land elsewhere, this could nonetheless be an lively offseason for the Blue Jays. I see Bo Bichette coming again, for certain. Past that, I see them spending on a more in-depth and shifting Jeff Hoffman out of that prescribed position. Perhaps not spending Edwin Díaz cash, however maybe Robert Suarez cash?
As for the rotation, the Blue Jays don’t have to take a giant swing after Shane Bieber’s choice to come back again, however they’ll nonetheless want extra depth. It says right here that Scherzer will depart to rejoin his outdated College of Missouri pitching coach Tony Vitello in San Francisco, whereas Verlander, who was the extra sturdy of the 40-something future Corridor of Famers this previous season, will chase one other ring and one other handful of wins with the Jays.
This could be Verlander’s first non-orange-wearing crew, by the way in which. That’s daring!
6) The Giants will entrance the free-agent pitching market.
No, not by signing Scherzer as a depth piece. However by inking each Framber Valdez, who’s arguably the open market’s prime starter, and Díaz, who’s definitively its prime reliever.
The Giants started to reassert their spending energy — their sleeping Big standing, if you’ll — by taking over the Rafael Devers contract this summer season. Now it’s time to fortify the pitching workers fronted by Logan Webb and Robbie Ray.
7) The Orioles will commerce for an additional Milwaukee ace.
Inside this supposed championship-caliber period for the Orioles, they’ve taken one massive exterior swing — their pre-2024 commerce for Corbin Burnes.
That commerce labored effectively for each golf equipment in 2024. Burnes completed fifth within the AL Cy Younger voting for Baltimore, whereas younger Joey Ortiz had a stable season on the sizzling nook for the Brewers.
Alas, one other fast playoff exit that 12 months was adopted by an uninspiring offseason through which Baltimore didn’t adequately deal with a pitching workers that misplaced Burnes in free company. The O’s had been out of it earlier than Memorial Day.
The Orioles can’t let this core go to waste, they usually want pitching. Perhaps, within the second 12 months of a brand new possession, they’ll deal with the rotation and bullpen by some aggressive work in free company, however their general historical past says in any other case.
After restocking the farm system with a sequence of summer season swaps, it is perhaps extra life like to see the O’s swing a take care of a Milwaukee crew that’s at all times right down to deal and one way or the other grows pitching on timber.
Beavers. Brewers. Shut sufficient, proper?
Anyway, I’m certain these two golf equipment can determine one thing out. They’ve performed it earlier than, in any case.
8) The Marlins might be lively
In our fast-moving world, September already seems like ages in the past. However the actual ones keep in mind the Marlins had been in rivalry for an NL Wild Card spot late within the season.
Miami was already recognized to have high quality arms (and Alcantara started to look extra like himself after the membership declined to deal him on the Deadline) and now has some intriguing core items in outfielders Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee and catcher Agustín Ramírez. The Marlins don’t have anything vital on the books for 2026 aside from Alcantara’s $17.3 million and nothing agency on the books for 2027 (they’ve an possibility on Alcantara that 12 months).
With all that as a backdrop, I’m envisioning a winter through which the Marlins emerge as gamers for somebody like Ryan O’Hearn or possibly even Eugenio Suárez if his market will not be what folks anticipate it to be after a sluggish (versus slugging) second half in Seattle. Maybe they may swing a deal for Yandy Díaz with the Rays. Or they may conceivably go for just a few short-term free-agent options that, collectively, add as much as an intriguing offseason — a Rhys Hoskins right here, a Marcell Ozuna there and a pair high quality relievers.
Admittedly, this is perhaps a proposition, however a crew with an rising and inexpensive base that completed with a greater 2025 document than the Braves is — in idea, in any case — in place to shock some folks with its exercise.
All of us see it. Everyone knows what can occur right here. Ranger Suárez is a free agent, and the Rangers are a baseball crew. It could make a lot sense … if it truly made sense.
Alas, the already pitching-oriented Rangers have to allocate the majority of their monetary sources towards offense, not Ranger, who will wind up with that Tigers crew attempting to win all of it with out Skubal.
But when a short-term deal is on the desk, possibly the “Walker (Buehler), Texas Ranger,” risk is in play. Perhaps Steven Matz returns to the Mets. Or that very same crew in Queens lands Michael King. Or somebody pairs King with Ryan Pressly, leaving us all shook up. Or the crew that indicators Jon Grey additionally trades for Sonny Grey. Or the Twins signal twins Tyler and Taylor Rogers. Or the Reds pair Brady Singer with Sung Mun Music (who is anticipated to come back over from the Korea Baseball Group).
