Tuesday’s NHL slate features ten games packed with marquee matchups, promising high-energy action, dramatic finishes, and highlight-reel moments. One of the night’s most intriguing contests pits the rising Detroit Red Wings against one of the Western Conference’s elite, the Vegas Golden Knights, with a familiar face from Detroit’s past, former Toronto Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner, adding extra intrigue.
For those new to our betting challenge, here’s the deal. We start with a modest bankroll and aim to grow it through smart, data-driven picks. In previous runs, we’ve turned just $10 into triple-digit returns. Tonight, our same-game parlay centers on the Detroit-Vegas matchup, offering a prime opportunity to build on our current bankroll of $264.60. With our first major milestone of $1,000 within reach, a mark we’ve hit before, we’re looking to ride this hot streak all the way back.
All betting lines are from BetMGM Sportsbook and are subject to change. Hockey is a difficult sport to predict so please gamble responsibly.
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Picks: Golden Knights ML + Mitch Marner Anytime Goal (+240)
The Red Wings have managed to edge out two wins in their last three games, both in shootouts against the Sharks and Kings. However, their luck may run out when they face a Golden Knights team coming off three days of rest and led by superstar winger Mitch Marner, who has historically given Detroit trouble.
For those looking to play it safe tonight, a bet on Marner recording a point and a Golden Knights win would be ideal. Unfortunately, BetMGM currently doesn’t offer that option, so the focus shifts to Marner’s goal-scoring prowess, which has been on full display against Detroit. In 28 career games versus the Red Wings, Marner has 18 goals and 19 assists (37 points), including 11 multi-point performances and a streak of five straight games with points heading into Tuesday’s matchup. Over his last 12 games against Detroit alone, he’s tallied 12 goals and 11 assists (23 points), scoring in nine of his last 14 contests.
This season, Marner has only scored in two games, totaling three goals, but he’ll look to take advantage of a familiar foe. Detroit, while winning games, has struggled defensively, allowing 27 goals over its last seven contests, the second-most in the league over that span.
The Red Wings will likely keep this game competitive, riding the momentum from winning four of their last five, including a remarkable six-goal comeback against the St. Louis Blues after trailing 4-0 in the second period. With an 8-5 record against the spread this season, Detroit could cover again, but Vegas is expected to eke out a narrow victory, fueled by Marner’s offensive firepower.
A $264.60 wager on the Golden Knights and Marner to score at +240 odds cashed for a $635.04 profit, pushing the total payout to $899.64 in return. With a loaded NHL slate ahead, it’s the perfect time to ride the momentum and keep stacking that bankroll.
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It's been a long time since the Detroit Red Wings had won eight games in the month of October. In fact, the last time it happened was 18 years ago in 2007, which was the beginning of their most recent Stanley Cup-winning season.
In fact, before this October, the Red Wings had won eight games during that month only four times in their century-long history. Three of those occasions resulted in a Stanley Cup win.
Currently, the Red Wings are 4-3 away from Little Caesars Arena through their first seven road games. The last time they had a winning record on the road was the 2015-16 campaign, which was both the rookie season for Dylan Larkin and also the last time the Red Wings played beyond the 82nd game of the regular season.
Their ongoing road trip has been a success, having won three of four games with one last tilt on deck on Tuesday evening at T-Mobile Arena against the Vegas Golden Knights (10:00 p.m. ET, ESPN+).
Just because they're assured a winning record during the five-game trip regardless of Tuesday's result doesn't mean they're already looking ahead, however.
“The trip’s not over, it’s like we’re putting a bow on it, and there’s nothing worse than that," head coach Todd McLellan said.
“You classify it as a successful trip to this point, but there’s a lot of teams in the league that will go 3-2 on a five-game road trip and you just become average if you just blend in.”
The Red Wings have been determined not to be a team that simply just blends in this time around. They were directly challenged by McLellan following their disappointing 5-1 loss in their Home Opener, and they responded with five straight wins.
While it hasn't been completely smooth sailing since then, their 9-4 mark through 13 games is good for second overall in the Atlantic Division. They have the same number of points (18) as the Montreal Canadiens, who have a game in hand.
Nothing is a sure thing in the NHL these days. The Red Wings proved that last month against the St. Louis Blues, who held a 4-0 lead on Oct. 25 before Detroit stormed back with six unanswered goals, just the fifth time in their history that they claimed victory after initially trailing by four goals.
But the fact that the Red Wings have now twice accomplished something that had previously occurred only four previous times in their history bodes well for what they could potentially accomplish in their centennial campaign.
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A league that hasn’t won a national championship in two decades and scraps for a piece of the spotlight that shines brighter on the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference is basking in the possibility.
The 25-year-old right winger didn't crack the Canucks' lineup out of training camp, instead playing 10 games for their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford, B.C. He put up a goal and three assists for four points and a minus-7 rating.
The ninth overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft has bounced between Russia and the NHL over the years, but just hasn't replicated his scoring from overseas in North America.
In his draft year, Kravtsov cracked Chelyabinsk's KHL lineup after producing well in the junior and second-tier levels. In the following campaign, he had 21 points in 50 KHL games, as well as six points in seven matches at the 2019 world juniors for bronze-winning Team Russia.
Fast forward to 2020-21, and after playing most of the season in the KHL, recording 24 points in 49 games, he got his first shot in the NHL with the New York Rangers in April 2021.
In his rookie NHL campaign, however, the former top prospect had only two goals and two assists for four points and a minus-6 rating in 20 games while logging 12:24 of ice time per game.
In 2021-22, Kravtsov returned to the KHL, recording 13 points in 19 games. But he got another shot in the NHL in 2022-23, appearing in 28 matches for the Blueshirts.
On Feb. 25, 2023, the Rangers traded Kravtsov to the Canucks in exchange for William Lockwood and a seventh-round draft pick. Kravtsov had three goals and six points in 28 games by that point in the season.
But in Vancouver, Kravtsov's ice time fell from 11:25 to 10:50 per game, and he had a goal and an assist in 16 games.
In 2023-24 and 2024-25, Kravtsov played in the KHL for Chelyabinsk, posting 34 and 58 points, respectively. He even had the KHL's best plus-minus last year, at plus-31.
On Aug. 5 of this year, Kravtsov signed a one-year, two-way contract to return to the Canucks organization. In two pre-season games for Vancouver, he had five shots and a minus-two rating.
Now, it's uncertain whether the 6-foot-3, 186-pound right winger will ever play in the NHL again and expand on his six goals and 12 points in 64 career games.
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Fans lined the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the Dodgers' World Series championship parade and celebration. (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Out in Wisconsin's state capital, where the orange leaves are falling and every other person seems to wear the red and white of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, the pride and pain of rooting for the Dodgers in 2025 played out in the household of Carolina Sarmiento and Revel Sims.
They're urban planning professors, Southern California natives — he's from Eagle Rock, she's from Santa Ana; they met at UCLA — and longtime friends of mine who have lived in Madison for a decade but are still involved in immigrant and anti-gentrification activism back home. I visited them recently as part of a speaking tour of Midwestern colleges and found myself in the middle of a debate that passed through the lives of too many people we know back home.
It's one that's unlikely to completely fade away no matter how many rings and parades the Boys in Blue rack up:
Is it OK to, well, revel, in this year's World Series champs?
On one hand the Dodgers won back-to-back titles for their first time ever and became the first team to do so in a generation. The squad looked like Los Angeles at its best: people from across the world who set aside their egos to win and bring joy to millions of Angelenos in a most difficult year for the City of Angels.
L.A., a city long synonymous with winning — the weather, the teams, the people, the food — has suffered a terrible losing streak that started with the deadly and catastrophic Eaton and Palisades fires and continues with mass deportations that the Trump administration vows to escalate.
That's where the rub came for Sarmiento and other Dodgers fans. For them, the actions and inactions of the team this year have been indefensible.
"For me, it started when the Dodgers went to the White House," said the 45-year-old as we drove to their blue-and-white house. She especially took issue with shortstop Mookie Betts, who skipped a White House visit in 2019 when he was with the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox but shook Trump's hand this time around, describing his previous snub as "very selfish."
"Who got in his ear?" she exclaimed, bringing out dried mangoes for us to snack on as we waited for Sims to come home. "Since when has standing up for injustice been about you?"
Sarmiento didn't grow up a Dodgers fan but bought into the team once she and Sims became a couple. They and their two young sons usually attended Dodgers games on trips back home and regularly caught the Dodgers in Milwaukee whenever they played the Brewers. One time, manager Dave Roberts "happily" signed a jersey for them when the family ran into him at a hotel, Sarmiento said.
In Madison, she long wore a Dodgers sweatshirt emblazoned with the Mexican flag that Sims bought for her because "it was a way to represent home. But not anymore. I tell Revel, 'Babe, I'm not asking you to boycott the Dodgers forever, but they gotta give us something back.'"
Sure, the Dodgers blocked federal agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot in June just after la migra raided a Home Depot facility. Shortly after, the team donated $1 million to the California Community Foundation to disburse to nonprofits assisting families affected by Trump's deportation Leviathan.
But as the summer went along, Sarmiento grew frustrated that only Dodgers outfielder Kiké Hernández spoke out against immigration raids and Trump's deployment of the Marines and National Guard. She also wondered why Dodgers chairman Mark Walter wouldn't address charges that companies he has investments in do business with Trump's deportation machine. One has a stake in a private prison company that contracts with the federal government to run immigrant detention centers; another has a joint venture with Palantir, which ICE has contracted to create data surveillance systems that would make the Eye of Sauron from "The Lord of the Rings" series seem as innocuous as a teddy bear.
"After a while, it's like a woman who knows her partner is a cheater but keeps saying, 'He's not a cheater, he's not a cheater' and then gets upset when he cheats on her again. At that point, all you can say is, 'Girl...'"
I brought up how many Dodgers fans I know saw the team's World Series win as a giant middle finger to Trump.
The heroes of Games 6 and 7, outfielders Kiké Hernández and second baseman Miguel Rojas, come respectively from Puerto Rico and Venezuela, a commonwealth Trump has neglected and a country he's salivating to invade. The team's most popular player, Shohei Ohtani, still proudly speaks in his native Japanese despite being in the U.S. for eight years and knowing some English. Tens of thousands of fans came out for the Dodgers victory parade and celebration at Dodger Stadium, many of them undoubtedly immigrants.
Isn't it OK to let folks be happy?
"It's like community benefit agreements," Sarmiento responded, referring to a tactic by neighborhood groups that sees them win commitments from developers on issues like open space, union contracts and affordable housing with the threat of protests and lawsuits. "You know what's coming, so you try to get something out of it. This year was a political moment that fans could've taken and they didn't, so the Dodgers gave nothing."
We greeted Sims as he walked in. The two of us walked down to the basement, where he watched the World Series in exile on a big-screen TV.
"It's a little lonely being a Dodgers fan out here," joked the 48-year-old, although he was heartened to have seen a fellow University of Wisconsin professor decked out in a Freddie Freeman jersey earlier in the day. Sims grew up going to Dodger Stadium with his father and remembered going to games on his own in the mid-2000s "when it wasn't a pretty time."
He brought up the Dodgers' owner from that era: Frank McCourt, who raised ticket and concession prices seemingly every year and who still partially owns the parking lots surrounding Dodger Stadium. Fans responded to his disastrous regime by protesting before and during games. "It was disheartening to not see that in the stadium this year, when there was an even bigger problem going on."
Sims felt "conflicted" rooting for the Dodgers this year. He watched every game he could but admitted he found the team celebrating ethnic pride nights "hollow" as raids increased across Los Angeles and the Trump administration attacked the rights of groups that the Dodgers were honoring.
"It would've been easy [for the Dodgers] to make a bland statement — 'We're a team full of immigrants in a city of immigrants and we're proud of us all' — and you wouldn't have to go any further. They have a historical obligation to do that because of their history."
But not rooting for the Dodgers was never an option.
Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands onstage at the World Series celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday. (Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
"I want to see L.A. people happy. The parade! It's a free holiday. People just ditch work and don't get in trouble for it. We're the only city — not New York, not Boston, not San Francisco — with a chant against us. We're despised and misunderstood. So if the Dodgers win, L.A. wins."
Sarmiento joined us. "She's my better political half," Sims cracked. "Caro said to pick another sport."
"No I didn't!" she kindly replied. "I just said to take a pause, just for now. A political pause."
Sims admitted that that a vintage jacket that he used to bring out every October as the Dodgers made another playoff run and Wisconsin turns cold was still in the closet. "I haven't worn any gear all year."
"When you went to the game!" Sarmiento shot back, referring to a visit to Milwaukee earlier this year with his local softball team.
"I went with a Valenzuela jersey to represent L.A.," Sims responded as Sarmiento shook her head.
He laughed.
"I love the team. I just don't like this team for not saying anything. But it's what I signed up for."
CHICAGO — Left-hander Shota Imanaga became eligible for free agency when the Chicago Cubs declined an option to keep his contract by guaranteeing $57 million for the 2026-28 seasons and he turned down a $15.25 million option for 2026, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the decisions.
Imanaga agreed in January 2024 to a contract guaranteeing $53 million. He wound up earning $23.25 million over two seasons, including a $250,000 escalator for 2025 by finishing fourth in 2024 NL Cy Young Award voting.
Chicago had to decide whether to exercise its option for $20.25 million each in 2026 and ’27 and $17.25 million in 2028, figures that increase by $250,000 each because of the escalator.
Once the team declined, he had the decision on a 2026 option. If he had exercised that option, it would have triggered club options for $24.25 million in 2027 and $15.25 million in 2028.
The Cubs could still extend Imanaga a qualifying offer of $22,025,000 for 2026. If he declines and signs with another team before the amateur draft, the Cubs would receive a draft pick as compensation.
Imanaga, 32, was an All-Star in 2024, when he went 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA, finishing fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
He was 9-8 with a 3.73 ERA in 25 starts this year, when he was sidelined between May 24 and June 26 by a strained left hamstring.
The 9-3-0 Winnipeg Jets have hit the ice in Los Angeles for their morning skate in advance of their late-night contest against the 5-4-4 Kings.
Hopefully, sleep isn't something you plan to get much of over the next two weeks, as the Jets have begun their lengthiest road trip of the season, and it is all within the NHL's westernmost cities - meaning much later start (and end) times than are typical of Winnipeg's 7:00 PM central home puck drops.
The Jets will kick things off against Los Angeles at 9:30 PM on Tuesday, before facing the Sharks at 9:00 PM on Friday. They will wrap up their California swing against the Ducks at 9:00 PM on Sunday, before heading further north to Vancouver for a 9:00 PM start on Tuesday. They conclude the six-game heater with 9:00 PM starts against Seattle and Calgary next week on Thursday and Saturday.
Winnipeg will finally return home on November 18 to host the Columbus Blue Jackets before Nikolaj Ehlers returns to Manitoba on Friday the 21st.
The Jets will look a little different on this road trip - maybe even from game to game.
The biggest news on the injury front is that captain Adam Lowry has recovered from offseason hip surgery and is set to make his season debut. Fellowed injured running mates Cole Perfetti and Dylan Samberg are both getting close to their returns, but head coach Scott Arniel says they will still need a bit more time.
Morgan Barron and Gustav Nyquist who are now both injured from incidents during gameplay are each expected to sit out at least the first game or two of the trip.
Winnipeg Jets expected line combinations for Tuesday, November 4 vs. the Los Angeles Kings:
The Winnipeg Jets begin their California road trip on Tuesday with an opening matchup against the LA Kings, who are looking to bounce back after losing three of their last five games. The contest will be particularly notable for Jets fans, as it marks the return of captain Adam Lowry, who has been sidelined since offseason hip surgery. Lowry will look to help the Jets secure two much-needed points as they sit just one point behind the Colorado Avalanche for the top spot in the Central Division.
The Kings, meanwhile, are focused on the playoffs. Sitting one point out of a wild card position, they will be eager for a win to get back into the postseason picture. This game will be the 49th all-time meeting between the Jets and Kings. Los Angeles holds the advantage in the series with a 25-14-9 record, strengthened by victories in six of their last nine matchups against Winnipeg.
The most obvious storyline surrounding the Jets organization is the return of Adam Lowry, but beneath that is an interesting subplot involving who will play alongside him. His signature third-line trio is no longer intact, as longtime Jet Mason Appleton departed in free agency, leaving a vacancy on the right wing. Lowry will continue to center Nino Niederreiter on the left, and for the first game, it appears Tanner Pearson will take over the right side.
Pearson is not the same physical, net-front presence that Appleton was, but he should complement the line’s puck movement more effectively. The previous unit was successful because of its ability to shut down opponents’ top lines while also contributing timely offense. One memorable example came when Lowry scored the game-winning goal in Winnipeg’s Game 7 victory over the St. Louis Blues in last year’s first round.
This new version of the line may lean more toward generating offense. Lowry will continue to provide his steady and defensively responsible play down the middle, a quality that remains underrated across the league. Pearson’s experience and puck-handling ability should help improve puck possession and flow alongside Niederreiter, even if the group loses some of the grit and forechecking intensity that defined the old trio.
The bottom line was also be a point of focus as the rookie duo of Parker Ford and Brad Lambert recreated a moment out of their days with the Manitoba Moose in the AHL as the duo combined on the Jets' second goal in their 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday for Lambert's first goal of his career. The hope is they can continue to quietly produce together in clutch spots like they did on Saturday.
In Los Angeles, this could be one of the final chances for Winnipeg fans to see veteran center Anze Kopitar in action. The longtime Kings captain is set to retire after this season, closing out a remarkable career highlighted by two Stanley Cup championships. Kopitar is skating alongside several new additions to the Kings’ roster, including seasoned veterans Corey Perry, Joel Armia, Brian Dumoulin, and Cody Ceci, all acquired through free agency. However, the defensive results have been disappointing.
Once known as a defensive powerhouse similar to the Jets, Los Angeles has struggled in its own zone. Dumoulin has been on the ice for 12 goals against, with nine coming at even strength and three on the power play. Ceci has surrendered nine at even strength and two more while short-handed. Another veteran defenseman, Joel Edmundson, has been on for nine goals against as well, split between five on the power play and four at even strength. Even with goals scored while they are on the ice balancing out their plus/minus ratings somewhat, Ceci still holds the worst even-strength goal differential on the team at minus five, with Dumoulin close behind at minus four.
What was once a marquee defensive matchup between two elite teams now looks different, as Winnipeg will try to take advantage of the Kings’ current struggles in their own end.
The Kings are coming off back-to-back losses and will need to bring their intensity on Tuesday to bounce back. Earlier this season, their defense surrendered three goals to the Jets, and over the past ten games, they’ve allowed 29 goals. Much of that total stems from three games in which they gave up four goals each against the Blues, Blackhawks, and Stars. Outside of those matchups, the Kings have still conceded four or more goals in six of the remaining ten games. Vezina finalist Darcy Kuemper has struggled as well, posting a 3-3-3 record with a .891 save percentage this season. If the Jets can capitalize, the Kings will need to respond quickly.
Recent matchups between Winnipeg and Los Angeles have been low-scoring affairs, with under six total goals in four straight meetings. Tuesday’s game, however, feels poised to break that trend. Offensively, the Kings have scored 23 goals in their last eight games, hitting the three-goal mark in six of those contests. Historically, LA has also found ways to penetrate Winnipeg’s stingy defense, outscoring the Jets 36-28 in their last ten encounters.
Much of the Kings’ offensive firepower comes from Adrian Kempe. Although he has just five goals this season, he also has ten assists for 15 points in 13 games. Kempe has consistently torched Winnipeg, tallying four goals and five assists for nine points in his last five matchups, including four consecutive multi-point games with a goal in each.
Winnipeg will counter with the league’s top scorer, center Mark Scheifele, who has nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 12 games. The 32-year-old from Kitchener has historically performed well against the Kings, recording eight goals and six assists for 14 points in his last 13 games versus LA.
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Micky van den Ven scored an amazing solo goal for Spurs, while Luis Diaz hit two and was sent off for Bayern in Paris
Thomas Frank has called for better support from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium crowd after revealing that Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence had apologised to him for their reaction to the 1-0 home defeat against Chelsea on Saturday.
Van de Ven and Spence were incensed when the full-time whistle sounded and the Spurs fans booed, as they had done at half-time with their team trailing to João Pedro’s 34th‑minute goal. The defenders stormed past Frank towards the tunnel, ignoring their manager’s attempts to get them to acknowledge the supporters in the South Stand – a bad look at the end of another bad Premier League day at the stadium.
Alexis Mac Allister’s second-half header secured Liverpool a deserved victory, as Trent Alexander-Arnold copped some expected flak on his return
1 min: Liverpool are playing towards the Kop in this first half. They prefer it the other way round; Xabi Alonso has clearly given his captain Federico Valverde the heads-up on that.
Liverpool get the ball rolling. The Anfield faithful chant the name of Andy Robertson in the pointed style. His old full-back friend looking on from the benches.
ATLANTA — There were times during the Atlanta Braves’ 33-day search for a new manager that Walt Weiss thought “that ship had sailed” regarding his chances to move up from bench coach and replace Brian Snitker, who is transitioning to an advisor role with the franchise.
He got the call he was hoping for from Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos.
“We all know Alex, how thorough he is and how stealthy he is,” said Weiss, who spoke to reporters for the first time as Braves manager after eight years as bench coach. “He likes to work under the cover of darkness, and so you know this process would be like that at times. But yeah, I couldn’t be more excited yesterday when I got that call.”
In addition to his eight years as Snitker’s bench coach, during which the Braves reached the postseason seven times, Weiss played the final three years of his 14-year MLB career in Atlanta from 1998-2000. He was an All-Star for the only time in his career in 1998 under Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox.
There was speculation the Braves would go outside the Cox tree for this opening after hiring Fredi González (2011) and Snitker (2016). Anthopoulos did not specify how many formal interviews he conducted, though he said he spoke to “a lot” of candidates and other people about the opening. Ultimately, he stayed in house.
“It is important for us to get it right,” Anthopoulos said. “It was a rare opportunity for us to really canvas the entire league, talk to as many people and do as much background work as we could. And ultimately, that search came back to Walt, and I couldn’t be more excited his experience, his character, his work ethic. (It) is exactly what we want here.”
Weiss won a World Series with Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa in Oakland and either played or worked under Don Baylor, Rene Lachemann, Clint Hurdle and Snitker. He said he has learned from all of them and will incorporate that into how he works his second stint as an MLB manager, which lasted from 2013-16 in Colorado. He had a 283-365 record (.437).
“I’ve evolved from my first job in Colorado,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot. The game has changed. I’m sure I’ve changed and hopefully (I’m) wiser.”
Weiss said any team outside of the Dodgers would sign up for what the Braves have accomplished the last eight years under Snitker and he understands the brand of the franchise and what it means to the fanbase. He also said his familiarity with the players and the organization will allow him to hit the ground running during his first season when the Braves try to rebound from a 76-86 season that had a mix of costly injuries and some underperformance of established players.
“It takes a better part of a year to truly understand your team,” Weiss said. “I’m talking about getting to know them on a deep level. What makes them tick? What situations (do) they thrive in, even down to their body language? So that’s a process that takes the better part of a year. And I think the fact that I’ve been here, a lot of those things are already established.”
The Braves did not have any announcements regarding Weiss’s staff, but that is a “front-burner” issue for Anthopoulos, who said he has already discussed it with Weiss. He also made it clear what the expectations are moving forward.
“(Making the playoffs), that’s just a standard that we’ve set here,” Anthopoulos said. “And that’s a credit to Snit, to Bobby Cox, to (former general manager) John Schuerholz that have set the standard here. You know, you guys like Nick Saban, the standard is the standard, and it is. We expect to be in the playoffs year in and year out. So, you know, this is a real responsibility, and we owed it to make sure that we left no stone unturned and were as thorough as we could be, even if it was someone that was already internal.”
Tour’s name partly based on Roman numeral reference
Leading players want better preparation for majors
LIV Golf has surprisingly backtracked on one of its founding principles by announcing tournaments in the fourth season of the Saudi Arabian-backed league will be played over 72 holes. Until now, LIV has proudly operated over 54 holes and three days, with the name itself partly based on a Roman numeral reference point. Could a rebrand to LXXII be imminent?
The dramatic shift, which is believed to have come after pressure from players, means LIV will soon mirror the schedule traditional golf tours it once tried to upstage. LIV will, however, continue to run both individual and team competition elements.
Much different than last season, Pete Alonso is entering free agency coming off a tremendous season at the plate. Will that be enough to finally get him paid though?
The league consensus seems to be that he’s destined to be a designated hitter sooner rather than later and that lumbering sluggers like him aren’t worth long-term commitments. Let’s see if that’s really the case.
Stars like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Cody Bellinger join headliners Kyle Tucker, Dylan Cease, and Bo Bichette in a 2025–26 MLB free agent class loaded with impact bats and arms.
Don’t forget: Check out theRotoworld player news feed for all the latest news, rumors, and transactions as MLB’s Hot Stove gets underway!
▶ Alonso in Review
Alonso has been one of the most prolific run producers in the league since he debuted in 2019. He set the all-time rookie home run record that season with 53 and has never hit fewer than 34 in a full season since.
Overall, only Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber have more homers than Alonso since he entered the league and no player has driven in more runs.
Yet, he’s still had some major ebbs and flows in his overall consistency as a hitter. He put up career lows with a .217 batting average and .318 on-base percentage in 2023 with a shockingly low hard-hit rate that dipped below the major league average.
He followed that up with another lackluster season by his own standards setting career lows in homers and RBI. Many of his quality of contact metrics did tick back up though, just without enough consistent contact being made.
It was nice to see those regular season doldrums not carry into the playoffs where he had a .999 OPS, 10 RBI, and four homers in 13 games including this dramatic blast to give the Mets an improbable win over the Brewers to advance to the NLDS.
Despite those heroics, the two worst seasons of his career back-to-back didn’t put him in a good position as his contract expired after last year. He floundered on the market until early February before begrudgingly signing a two-year deal with an opt-out to return to the Mets.
This season was much better. Alonso got back to hitting the ball incredibly hard and was eighth in the league with a 141 wRC+ partially fueled by a career-best .272 batting average. He made more contact, that contact was consistently of higher quality, and he maintained what has always been elite bat speed plus elite swing decisions.
His future at first base is in question, but Alonso is still absolutely an elite hitter and can likely sustain as such through his mid-30s.
▶ Market Outlook
A huge bounceback campaign without being saddled by a qualifying offer will surely help Alonso get closer to the long-term deal he sought last offseason. Early word from agent Scott Boras is that they’re seeking a seven-year contract.
This will probably more serve as an anchoring point rather than a firm line. The only first baseman in the league who signed for more than three years are Freddie Freeman, Matt Olson, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Alonso is either older, less consistent, or simply not on the same level as the members of that trio.
Still, a four- or five-year deal could make sense given a skill set – top of the league bat speed and excellent swing decisions – that should keep him as a high-end power hitter until his mid-30s.
A lot of the conversation will come back to his overall value though, which is dragged down by a poor glove. That likely makes him best fit as a part-time designated hitter now and possibly close to a full time one within a few years. Also, the way we’ve seen similarly built powerful first baseman fall apart quickly as they’ve aged.
Everything you need to know about MLB free agency, including key dates, the top names on the market, qualifying offers, and draft pick compensation.
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▶ Best Fits
Mets: The most obvious fit given his long history with the club and lack of a fill-in at first base if he were to sign elsewhere. He’s the franchise’s all-time home run leader, a fan favorite, and is coming off one of the best seasons of his career. Yet, the Mets were unwilling to give him a long term contract last winter so it’s very possible they once again balk if a bidding war takes Alonso’s deal to five years or more.
Red Sox: Desperate for both a power bat and first baseman, Alonso fits the bill for a team that could be aggressive this winter after a surprise playoff appearance. Triston Casas is still (somewhat) in the picture though, so it’s unclear if they’d commit many years to Alonso.
Phillies: Let’s get crazy. Is there a world where Bryce Harper can move back to the outfield to acquiesce Alonso at first base? It was apparently on the table last offseason and the Phillies are desperate to get over the hump, with or without Kyle Schwarber. Taking a huge bat out of the Mets’ lineup would be an added bonus.
Then, it’s about whether certain power-hungry teams actually want to spend money.
ThePirates should be a great fit if they ever decide it’s time to try and win baseball games. Same goes for the Mariners if Josh Naylor winds up elsewhere and they’re willing to open up the checkbook. Maybe the Rangers as well if they believe they’re still in their competitive window. Do the Reds want to tie their lineup together with a true masher? Then boom, Alonso is a fit there too.
Yet, we’ll never be certain who is actually willing to spend money in any given offseason.
Contract Prediction
Once again, Alonso’s market could be softer than he and Boras hope and if they overplay their hand once again, the Mets will be sitting back and ready for a compromise. Plus, Alonso is so embedded in the Mets’ culture that all parties likely want to wind up back together.
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D.J. Short