There has been a huge Thanksgiving week signing and it was Blake Snell to the Dodgers on Tuesday night. The fallout from the signing will drive most of the rumors we get here on Wednesday, or Thanksgiving Eve, but it’s always possible we get some more action.
Without further ado …
Red Sox hot after Soto
The Red Sox are putting the full court press on free-agent superstar Juan Soto, apparently. They are “increasingly seen as a legitimate contender” for Soto and are “stepping up their efforts to lure” Soto away from the divisional rival Yankees, reports the New York Post. The report says the Red Sox are working hard to sell Soto on his fit in Fenway Park in addition to the history of the franchise.
The five known bidders for Soto right now are the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Blue Jays. There’s always the chance that others will enter the fray, but the expectation all along has been that one of the two New York teams will sign Soto. The Red Sox could be working hard to break that up.
Soto, 26, finished third in AL MVP voting this season when he hit .288/.419/.569 (178 OPS+) with 31 doubles, four triples, 41 home runs, 109 RBI, 128 runs and 7.9 WAR.
The Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles were all in on the Blake Snell bidding, reports MLB.com. The big takeaway there is that those teams should, at least in theory, continue looking for high-end starting pitching this offseason.
The top remaining free-agent starting pitchers are Corbin Burnes, Max Fried (a lefty like Snell), Roki Sasaki, Jack Flaherty, Sean Manaea, Nathan Eovaldi, Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber. Obviously, there are varying levels of bidding in there and the only pitchers left overly likely to get deals even close to Snell are Burnes and Fried (Sasaki is limited by his status as an amateur free agent).
The Yankees have Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman in the rotation with Nestor Cortes as a sixth option.
The Red Sox currently have Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello, Cooper Criswell and Richard Fitts while they await possible returns from Lucas Giolito and Garrett Whitlock (later in the season).
The Orioles had Burnes last year, but right now appear to have a rotation of Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, Albert Suárez and Trevor Rogers.
Obviously, more teams will be in on the bidding of Burnes and Fried, but these are three teams to watch.
Dodgers likely out on Buehler, Flaherty?
In the wake of the Snell signing, I wouldn’t count the Dodgers out on Sasaki. Given the situation, the door will still be open. For veteran free agents Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler — two of the Dodgers’ three playoff starters — however, it probably doesn’t make sense to circle back there. Sure enough, Jon Morosi on MLB Network says the Dodgers are “probably” going to let the duo walk.
Flaherty took a one-year deal with the Tigers last season and was traded to the Dodgers in July. Overall, he went 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 194 strikeouts in 162 innings.
Buehler returned from his Tommy John surgery to go 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA and 1.55 WHIP. He did close the playoffs with 13 straight scoreless innings, though.
