MLB's Offseason Continues to Creep Forward

Despite the slow pace of actual signings, there is a lot of news about this winter's free agency market starting to come out

Major League Baseball is one of the best sports from the viewers’ perspective - there are enough games where you simultaneously have plenty of contests to fill the time on a daily basis, but enough where missing one here and there does not leave you scrambling to understand what’s going on with the team.

But the downside of the sport becomes evident right about now: Unlike its peers in the NFL and the NBA, it’s incredibly hard for one player to ‘take over’ a game and so free agency proceeds slowly. Players have been able to sign for a week, and by my count, exactly two have signed: Outfielder Leody Tavares signed a one-year, $2M deal with the Baltimore Orioles, while swingman Nate Pearson signed for one year and $1.35M with the Houston Astros.

But just because virtually no one has signed doesn’t mean nothing is happening. The General Manager meetings have just wrapped up in Las Vegas, meaning we’ve learned a lot about what several teams plan to do. Let’s wrap the week with some of the Braves-adjacent news that can influence the direction of Atlanta’s offseason.

Braves are focused on shortstop and starters

We know the Braves need to rebuild a bullpen that’s losing three to four key pieces for the second consecutive season, but that’s on hold while Alex Anthopoulos and the front office focus on the team’s hole at shortstop and their desire to bolster the rotation.

“I would say starting pitcher and shortstop are what we’re spending the most time on right now,” Anthopoulos told the media in Las Vegas.

And as much as the Braves enjoyed having Ha-Seong Kim on the team for the season’s final month after claiming him on waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays, the Korean shortstop declining his $16M player option for 2026 has Anthopoulos trying to play it cool. The team’s President of Baseball Operations intimated to reporters, including David O’Brien of The Athletic, that they could live with an inferior option up the middle in 2026.

“No, because I think you’ve seen teams — and I don’t want to disparage other players — but you’ve seen teams win a World Series with guys that are not considered elite at shortstop or maybe slightly below average, and they can still play the position,” Anthopoulos said. “I think everyone will tell you, they want to be strong up the middle defensively. But it’s a sliding scale. At what point do you take the defense over the offense? Does your third baseman have great range, your second baseman? I think you can work around some things, so you just have to decide what’s the bar that you need to clear.”

If the Braves were forced to stick with light-hitting Nick Allen at shortstop for a second season, it’s still a pretty decent ‘worst-case scenario’ for 2026. CJ Nitkowski, analyst on the Braves broadcast, told me on the Braves Today podcast on Thursday that the strategy can work, but it’s not up to Allen. “The component there, though, that has to happen is then the rest of the lineup has to hit, right? We saw it a couple years ago (2023) and how deep this lineup can really be. So, from that standpoint, now we’re talking one through eight. You kind of know what you’ll get from Nick Allen. He’ll give you some good at-bats here and there. He’ll put the ball in play, hit it the other way. He’s not going to necessarily slug. But it’s a plus glove, so as a worst-case scenario, it’s not a terrible one at all.”

Superagent Scott Boras, who represents Kim, made it clear at the GM Meetings that Kim’s the most desirable option on the board for several teams. “I think the availability of defensive premium shortstops in this market is very, very slim. So if you’re looking for a premium defensive shortstop to play, I think it’s HSK.”

With several teams looking at Bo Bichette from the perspective of immediately moving him to second base, Kim is likely to get more interest from teams than potentially expected…the few who need a shortstop, that is.

Less starting pitchers available via trade?

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, one of MLB’s premier droppers of intel, wrote a dispatch from the GM Meetings that threw a bucket of cold water on the availability of elite arms available via trade this winter.

None of the most desirable options by either skill (Tarik Skubal), price (Freddy Peralta, Joe Ryan), or reputation (Sandy Alcantara) are likes to move. Skubal and Peralta are both almost certainly staying put, while Alcantara and Ryan aren’t locks to move this winter because both teams are discussing dedicating more money to payroll this winter and building around those guys.

And unfortunately for Atlanta, some of the most likely pitchers to be moved this winter are in their own division, making a trade more complicated. If Miami does move Alcantara or teammate Edward Cabrera, does GM Peter Bendix consider the Braves a viable destination? Number one on MLB Trade Rumors’ Top 40 trade candidates list is lefty MacKenzie Gore of the Washington Nationals. Does Paul Toboni make an intradivision trade? (Which is doubly of relevance since he also holds potential shortstop trade acquisition CJ Abrams, who is from the Atlanta area.)

Outside of Rosenthal’s intel, POBO Nick Krall of the Cincinnati Reds downplayed the chances that the team moves on from ace Hunter Greene, while Luis Castillo of the Seattle Mariners has been speculated as available by writers, but the team has not given any indication this is actually the case.

However, the Central divisions may be of help to Atlanta. There are several starters rumored to be available this winter, from Ryan and teammate Pablo López to Brady Singer of the Cincinnati Reds, Kris Bubic of the Kansas City Royals, and Mitch Keller of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Braves may be able to get a package deal done, if they play their cards right.

St. Louis or Minnesota for a package deal?

We got two bits of ‘waiving my no-trade clause’ news this week with the revelations that starter Sonny Gray of the St. Louis Cardinals and outfielder Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins are both open to waiving their standing no-trade clauses in certain situations.

This should be of interest to Atlanta, as the Braves were connected to Gray (a Tennessee native) before he signed with St. Louis as a free agent and inquired about Buxton (a Georgia native from Baxley) at the last trade deadline.

While the Braves aren’t required to make a multi-player trade, there are options with both clubs to add multiple pieces to a roster that has a quality core, but needs a high-quality supplemental talent or two. Gray could be paired with either outfielder Lars Nootbaar or Gold Glove utilityman Brendan Donovan, a career .282 hitter who’s spent time at six different defensive positions and has two affordable years of arbitration before reaching free agency. Buxton could be paired with either Ryan or Lopez to check off two of Atlanta’s desired adds this winter.

Both trades have financial factors that would need to be resolved, however. A Cardinals trade is the most complicated, with Gray’s $35M salary and $5M buyout for 2027 meaning the acquiring team is taking on a $40M salary commitment. The Cardinals have indicated a willingness to pay a “significant portion” of the remaining salary to facilitate a trade, per Katie Woo of The Athletic, but that’s still something to be worked out before any deal can be done. The Minnesota money isn’t as complicated, as López is making less than $22M a year, Ryan is still under arbitration for two seasons, and Buxton’s contract is a modest $15.1M annual salary but paired with up to $11M in performance and award bonuses every season.

Reunion with Jeremy Hefner?

Another avenue the Braves could take is acquiring a pitcher that’s worked with new pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, formerly of the New York Mets. Starter Luis Severino, who just finished the first of a three-year deal with the Athletics, secured that bag thanks to a resurgent season under Hefner’s tutelage in 2024 and is rumored to be available via trade this winter.

Coming off of a difficult final season with the Yankees, one in which Severino went 4-8 with a 6.65 ERA in 18 starts and 89.1 innings, he signed a one-year deal to work with Hefner across town and found his groove again. He struck out 161, lowering his OPS allowed by 225 points and his home rate by 2.5%.

While he’s not looked like the same guy in Sacramento with the Athletics, partly due to the placement of the home clubhouse beyond the outfield wall, he pitched to a 3.10 ERA after the All-Star Break with only four homers allowed in 49.1 innings and a strikeout rate of 23.1% despite missing most of August with an oblique strain. He’s owed $20M for 2026 and has a $22M player option for 2027, although Atlanta could ask the Athletics to either pay down the salary somewhat, include a piece coming back, or take a bad contract of Atlanta’s to offset it (like reliever Aaron Bummer and his $9.5M salary).

If the Braves wanted to try and work out a deal with New York directly, starter Kodai Senga is believed to be available. He’s a phenomenal starter when healthy, putting up a 3.00 ERA in his first 52 MLB starts, but has pitched just 146 innings in the last two years and was demoted late last season when he lost his mechanics and needed a ‘reset’. While it’s unlikely a deal would actually happen between division rivals, calling on both Senga and out-of-options utilityman Luisangel Acuña (Ronald’s little brother) is a move I expect the Braves to at least look into.

On the reliever front, there are several bullpen arms that Atlanta could go after to reunite with Hefner. We’ve already seen them do it once with the Thursday night claim of lefty Josh Walker off of waivers; he spent 2023 and 2024 going up and down between Queens and Triple-A Syracuse. Righty Ryne Stanek spent the last season-plus with Hefner in Citi Field, as did free agent Drew Smith and trade deadline acquisition Tyler Rogers. The big relief ‘prize’ of the free agent market is former Mets closer Edwin Díaz, but he’s both expected to reject a qualifying offer and looking to re-up his five-year, $102M deal he opted out of with New York.