2025-26 Offseason Around the League Thread

[wallus]

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

 

Will be a trade piece at the deadline for them

[markedman5]

 

[markedman5]

 

[wallus]

LOTS of interesting free agents left. Who is going to have the money to pay all of these guys yet? 

It will be interesting to see if the Brewers wait and surprise us with someone.

[markedman5]

 

[Frisbee Slider]

1 hour ago, markedman5 said:

 

Bregman is less valuable than Kyle Tucker. $35 million per season is a lot for an aging third baseman.

Arenado’s performance declined at age 32. Bregman turns 32 in March.

[wallus]

What a great night for us Wisconsin sports team fans

[long ball]

Realistically I’m more annoyed about the cubs landing Bregman than I am about the packers losing. 
 

I wonder if they shift shaw to a utility infielder for a year or if they end up trading Nico. Shaw was their top prospect so I don’t think they’d move on from him after 1 year. 
 

I think Bregman is a big get for a year or two at least, but like most free agent signings the down swing might be rough for the cubs. 

[brewmann04]

So most teams in the NL central making moves while the brewers remain pat well some things don’t change 

[markedman5]

Thats a lot of money and years for a 32 year old 3rd baseman 

[umphrey]

Bergman is good but it means they aren’t signing Tucker (or anyone else significant) and Tucker is better 

[Lathund]

Bregman is an improvement over Shaw, and Shaw improves their bench. Cubs are obviously better right now than they were yesterday. But I can't say I'm particularly bothered. He's not as good a hitter as Tucker is, and was for them last year. Been a pretty consistent 4 WAR player for the last few years. Good chance he is one in 2026 too if healthy. Maybe another year or two after that, even. 

But the Cubs paying $35m AAV for his age 32-36 season doesn't really bother me. They're not getting any kind of discount, it'll be your standard FA deal where they pay the market rate for good production for 2-3 years, and years 4 and 5 are the price for getting those first 3 years. 

They have 11 impending free agents (Or mutual options, essentially the same thing) after this year. Their team is really old (Which, tbf, the 11 free agents will take care of to some degree), they don't exactly have a great farm system with lots of talents knocking on the door. Theirs is a short window. They'll be a threat to the Brewers this year, even if their moves so far have mostly been replacing their losses so far (Cabrera aside). But they'll need to completely rebuild their team next year, without a great farm system to help them. 2026 might be their best shot this window, and they're really not looking like a team to challenge the top teams tbh. 

[sveumrules]

9 hours ago, brewmann04 said:

So most teams in the NL central making moves while the brewers remain pat well some things don’t change 

The Brewers have won the NLC each of the last three seasons, and four of the last five. You are right, that is some pretty impressive consistency.

[rccola42]

It's a good move for the Cubs. But I agree that he is a downgrade on what they had with Tucker last year. This isn't 2019 Bregman. Statcast tells the story of a professional hitter who knows exactly what he's doing at the plate, but doesn't impact the ball quite like he used to. Good player but not a needle mover that should freak anyone out.

 

[sveumrules]

In the PED testing era (2004 thru 2025) there have been 36 primary third basemen to get at least 400 PA in their age 32 season (Bregman's age in 2026). Of those 36 there were two above six WAR, three between 5.5 and 5.8 WAR, then eight more between 3.0 and 4.1 WAR.

Using the same parameters but moving it up to age 33 season, there are 35 primary third basemen on the leaderboard. One of those was above six WAR, another three were between 4.5 and 5.2 WAR, then another eight guys were between 2.9 and 4.2 WAR.

At age 34 the number of qualifiers drops off to only 23. Tops on the board is Aramis Ramirez with the Brewers at 5.4 WAR back in 2012 with 2013 Adrian Beltre half a win back at 4.9 WAR. After them there are another ten guys between 3.0 and 4.1 WAR.

By age 35 the number of qualifiers (even at the low 400 PA threshold) drops off to 13. Chipper Jones (a nice 6.9 WAR) and Beltre again (5.9 WAR) top the list with six more guys between 3.4 and 4.6 WAR.

Age 36 also had 13 primary 3B with at least 400 PA from 2004 to 2025. Chipper (7.1 WAR) was fractions better then there were four guys between 2.9 and 4.3 WAR.

All told, the best 3B from age 32 to 36 in the PED testing era have been Beltre (3102 PA | 133 wRC+ | 26.9 WAR), Chipper (2,610 PA | 152 wRC+ | 26.1 WAR) and A-Rod (2,681 PA | 132 wRC+ | 20.4 WAR).

After them it drops down to probably the best case scenario comp for Bregman with Justin Turner coming in at 2,305 PA | 139 wRC+ | 19.1 WAR. (From age 27 to 31 Bregman went for 2,909 PA | 124 wRC+ | 19.6 WAR for reference)

From there it's guys like Melvin Mora (3102 PA | 117 wRC+ | 16.8 WAR), Scott Rolen (2,249 PA | 108 wRC+ | 14.7 WAR), Casey Blake (2855 PA | 110 wRC+ | 14.4 WAR), Placido Polanco (2758 PA | 92 wRC+ | 12.4 WAR), Josh Donaldson (2069 PA | 119 wRC+ | 12.2 WAR), and Aramis (2,645 PA | 122 wRC+ | 11.7 WAR).

[wibadgers23]

11 hours ago, brewmann04 said:

So most teams in the NL central making moves while the brewers remain pat well some things don’t change 

I think we all knew this would be a quiet offseason for the Brewers.  Not a ton of holes to fill on the roster and they are coming off an NLCS appearance after winning the most games in MLB.  We could still see some moves (trading Freddy, etc) but this is pretty much what I expected.

[markedman5]

 

[patrickgpe]

Honestly If signing Bregman means they are out on Tucker, this is a win for the brewers. Also I’m curious on what they will do with Shaw 

[long ball]

If the cubs signed Bregman just to turn around and trade Nico I’d laugh. I know Nick is in the final year of his deal, but swapping out Tucker + Nico for Bregman + Ballesteros is almost certainly a major downgrade (especially since it probably lands Seiya back in RF when they basically said they don’t want him playing in the OF last season). 
 

Keep Nico at 2nd and move Shaw into the utility role. Shaw taking those 450 at bats instead of the likes of Turner, Berti, Castro, and Lopez is where this deal really gets good for the Cubs (at least in 2026). 

[TURBO]

The Athletic’s Keith Law suggests that INF Matt Shaw is “the most obvious candidate” to be traded after the Cubs signed Alex Bregman.

 

There was some thought that the Cubs would try to trade Nico Hoerner and move Shaw to second base, but Law suggests that Shaw may be wearing out his welcome in Chicago. After a poor rookie season, Law reported that Shaw has shown “resistance to help from the Cubs’ staff.” His approach at the plate in 2025 was “undisciplined and often defensive,” according to Law, and he wasn’t eager to make adjustments with the hitting coaches. If that’s the case, it’s easy to see why the Cubs would want to trade Shaw, but may limit his market if teams are worried about him taking the same approach in a new place.

 

Source: The Athletic

[TURBO]

The Athletic’s Chandler Rome reports that “trade interest in [Christian] Walker remains almost nonexistent.”

 

With Carlos Correa now back in town and Yordan Alvarez likely spending all of next season at DH, the Astros have a surplus of infielders and likely need to trade one of Walker or Isaac Paredes. The Astros would like to keep Paredes and play him at first base, but they would need to find a way to trade Walker. The 34-year-old did hit 27 home runs last season, but he has two years, $40 million left on his contract and has been declining offensively over the last couple of years. The Astros would likely get back far more in a trade for Paredes, so the question will be whether Houston prefers to make essentially a salary dump trade or tries to bring back players of value.

 

Source: The Athletic

[TURBO]

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Giants are “aggressively pursuing a second baseman and have been engaged with Chicago on Nico Hoerner and St. Louis on Brendan Donovan.”

 

The Yankees have also reached out to the Cubs about Hoerner, but all indications, for now, are that the Cubs would rather hold onto Hoerner and trade Matt Shaw. Both Hoerner and Donovan are high-contact rate hitters who would provide nice balance to a Giants infield that features power bats in Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, and Rafael Devers. Nothing appears imminent, but the Giants don’t appear comfortable beginning the 2026 season with Casey Schmitt or Christian Koss as their starting second baseman.

 

Source: Jeff Passan

[DR28]

Dbacks acquire Arenado from Cardinals.

[owbc]

56 minutes ago, DR28 said:

Dbacks acquire Arenado from Cardinals.

Seeing all the empty red seats in St. Louis is going to be delightful. 

[nate82]

Yankees trade for Weathers. 
 

This may eliminate the Yankees from the Peralta sweepstakes.