Worldwide Sports News

With the Brewers wrapping up the World Series last night, the first day of Hot Stove season is upon us, and with it comes a bevy of decisions on options – player, club, and mutual – across the league. In the Mariners’ case, they had three club options to resolve for Andrés Muñoz, Víctor Robles, and Bryce Miller, and the org announced this afternoon that they have picked up Muñoz’s for $10 million, while opting to decline both Miller’s and Robles’s at $6.075 million and $9 million, respectively.

None of these decisions should come as a surprise. While Muñoz battled through a career-worst season, blowing an eye-popping ten saves and seeing his ERA more than double from 2025’s 1.73 to 4.24, underlying numbers suggest a strong chance for a bounceback next year. He posted the best strikeout and walk rates (37.1% and 10.0% respectively) since his first full season with Seattle in 2022, which led to a FIP of 3.34 – nearly identical to his first All-Star season in 2024. A surprising homer problem was the main culprit of Muñoz’s struggles, as he allowed nine after serving up just two in 2025 despite his ground ball rate holding steady. An uptick in hard-hit rate in 2026 could be cause for concern, but with his kick change continuing to develop into a real weapon against left-handed hitters – his kryptonite for the first couple months of 2026 – it would come as no shock to see him as his usual self in 2027.

Víctor Robles stole the hearts of Mariners fans with a scintillating 2024 season upon his arrival to Seattle after the Nationals cut bait, bursting onto the scene with 3.2 fWAR and a 155 wRC+ across 262 plate appearances, while bringing tremendous baserunning and solid outfield defense. The M’s rewarded him with a two-year, $9.75 million extension with the aforementioned club option for 2027, but the injury hits kept coming for Robles over the next two seasons, as he limped to a composite 81 wRC+ and 0.3 fWAR over a combined 263 plate appearances. When healthy, however, he remained a strong baserunner, and it’s not out of the question that Seattle opts to bring him back on a cheaper deal or as a non-roster invitee. As things stand with Lázaro Montes and Michael Arroyo standing in the open doorframe, though, it seems likely that he will move on to a team with some more room in their outfield. If this is the end, thanks for all the memories, Vic.

Despite Bob Nightengale continuing to be Bob Nightengale, Bryce Miller remains under team control after the org declined his club option, opting to pay a $15K buyout. During negotiations last winter, Miller and the Mariners reached an agreement on a one year contract at $2.4375 million for 2026 alongside the club option. While he improved on an injury-wracked 2025 after returning from the IL in May, cutting his season ERA from 5.68 to 4.17 and FIP from 5.17 to 4.41, the wheels fell off in the second half as he posted a 6.05/5.63 ERA/FIP after the All-Star break, with a brutal August (9.00/6.35 ERA/FIP in 20 innings) doing much of the heavy lifting. With Kade Anderson making a strong first impression and Ryan Sloan waiting in the wings, Miller’s time as a starting pitcher in Seattle may be coming to an end. He’s set to enter his second year of arbitration, with MLB Trade Rumors projecting him to earn $3.9 million.

The Mariners’ 40-man roster currently sits at 35, with eight players on the 60-day injured list that will need to come off in the next several days.

The St. Louis Cardinals are set to begin one of the more intriguing off-seasons in recent memory now that the World Series is in the rear view mirror. Important internal roster decisions and an almost certain lockout loom on the near horizon.

Here are the important dates on the St. Louis Cardinals front office schedule as we head into the off-season:

November 1: Gold Glove winners announced on ESPN at 7pm central time

November 2: 8-person National Baseball Hall of Fame Contemporary Baseball Era ballot for managers, executives and umpires

November 2: Silver Slugger Award finalists announced at 1pm central time

November 2: BBWAA Awards Finalists announced – 5 – 7 pm central time (MLB Network) including Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and MVP

November 6: Heart & Hustle Award winners announced on MLB Network

November 6: Gold Glove Award winners dinner in NYC and Platinum Award winners announced

November 9 – 12: GM meetings in Las Vegas

November 10: Managers of the Year announced on MLB Network from 6p to 7p central time

November 11: Cy Young Awards and BBWAA relievers of year on MLB Network from 6p to 7p central time

November 11: MLB Awards Show – 8 to 10pm on MLB Network including All-MLB first and second teams , Hank Aaron Award winners , Comeback Players of year, Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman relievers of year and Edgar Martinez DH of year

November 12: MVP Award winners announced on MLB Network from 6p – 7p central time

November 16: Hall of Fame announces its 2027 ballot, 11 am central time – Writer’s ballot

November 17 – 19: Owner meetings in New York

November 17: Silver Slugger Award winners announced, Deadline for players to accept qualifying offers – 3pm central time, Rule 5 protection deadline (Players need to be added to 40-man roster to protect from the Rule 5 draft)

November 20: Non-tender deadline

December 1: CBA Expires 10:59 pm central time – Lockout begins

I would love to continue and say the Winter Meetings December 7-9 and Draft Lottery on December 8 would be happening, but the lockout will almost certainly delay those indefinitely. Let’s hope common sense kicks in sooner rather than later between owners and players so that the most important part of baseball isn’t damaged or lost – the fans.

Corbin Burnes will not be opting out of his contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, per reports.

This is one of the least surprising bits of news that we will have this offseason. Burnes signed a 6 year, $210 million deal with the D-Backs after the 2024 season, which included an opt-out after 2026.

Burnes suffered a torn UCL that resulted in him undergoing Tommy John surgery in the middle of the 2025 season. That cost him almost all of 2026 — he ended up pitching 10.1 innings over three starts for Arizona this season, allowing 9 runs, including 5 home runs, which is kind of impressive, if you think about it.

Burnes, the National League Cy Young Award winner for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2021, was acquired by the Baltimore Orioles prior to the 2024 season in exchange for DL Hall and Joey Ortiz. Both Hall and Ortiz were meaningful contributors to the Brewers’ championship team this season.

Burnes is guaranteed $35 million per year for the 2027-30 seasons, although $11 million per year of that is deferred, which reduces the overall value such that it is valued for luxury tax purposes at $32.911 million per year. Given he’s coming off of an injury and given the uncertain labor market this offseason, his declining the opt-out is a no-brainer.

Yesterday, I looked at the free agents who might fit the Giants’ lineup and last week I examined the free agent and trade markets for starting pitchers. Today, a far more respected entity, MLB Trade Rumors, offers up a list of potential trade targets for all the teams, pitchers and hitters alike. Right now, the San Francisco Giants have, for the first time in a long time, one of the best farm systems in Major League Baseball. Does that make it the right time to trade prospects for major league upgrades? Let’s evaluate the list and find out.

The Giants are suggested for five players: 3 hitters, 2 pitchers. The hitters are outfielders and the pitchers are starters. So far, MLB Trade Rumors is on the right track. Yesterday, I noted that the hitting group was pretty thin in the outfield, and that any notable move was likely to make the acquisition the best of the bunch. And, even if we all agree that the entire pitching staff needs to be reworked, grabbing a starting pitcher or two should be the first order of business in that process.

But of this group, only 2 players would be under team control beyond 2027. That’s important because the Giants aren’t one big trade away from being a playoff team, nor should they approach this offseason that way. If they’re going to expend prospect capital — or even somebody from their major league roster (MLBTR offers up four potential trade candidates from the Giants) — it ought to be somebody who will be around for at least a couple of years. There’s no compelling reason to do otherwise.

You’ve probably noticed by now that I haven’t named any of the players mentioned. I didn’t want to cannibalize their work for a post so fresh — although, it’s notable that they listed CJ Abrams as a trade candidate but did not include the Giants as a potentially interested team, even though they tried to trade for him last offseason. But beyond preserving some first 24 hour clicks for MLBTR, I don’t think the names are as important as the idea. Should the Giants trade prospects or major league talent to acquire major league talent that’s nearing the end of team control? The answer has to be no.

But MLB Trade Rumors’ article does list a Giant. Their rankings try to balance value and likelihood of a deal, and for those reasons, they’ve got Rafael Devers at #19. Now, the Giants made Devers available as recently as three months ago, so this isn’t outlandish. Just yesterday, I celebrated Devers’ season for how it flipped the narrative about him and demonstrated that he’s just a hitter who hits no matter where he is. Their reasoning is fine:

The Giants wouldn’t get much of a prospect return, but this might be their best chance to unload one of their long-term contracts and clear payroll room to spend on pitching or outfield help. 

If the money is equal, let’s say, then of the Adames-Chapman-Devers trio he’s the easiest to move. He’s the youngest, the best hitter of the bunch, and plays a position with a more predictable age/decline curve and one that points to a solid performance tale over the length of the contract. But there’s a massive however: in order to make the money equal, the Giants would have to get Adames ($155.7 million) and Devers ($211 million) at least down to what Chapman’s still owed ($100.67 million). MLBTR is in the range of $30-46 million in buydown.

But trading Devers for salary relief is a bad reason to trade Rafael Devers. And at the end of the day, whatever money that will be spent on free agency is likely to go towards paying a premium on players a great farm system could produce for far less of a cost or who will simply be adequate rather than significant improvements. They’re better off trading young hitters for young pitchers… but those are the trades with the highest difficulty.

Maybe the Giants have turned the corner in their player acquisition and development pipeline or maybe they just have a good crop. That’s what time will tell. What is an absolute certainty right now is that the major league roster needs a lot of improvement. So, rather than try to execute the most difficult kind of trade or try to clear massive salaries off the books, why not do the easiest thing and simply add payroll?

The Giants spent an estimated $189.76 million on their major league roster in 2026. They’re currently projected to be around $173.93 million to start next season, about a $15 million difference. They can double that without any trades just by getting out from Harrison Bader’s $13 million (easier said than done, sure, but they’re working on it) and non-tendering a couple of their arbitration guys. Committing to a payroll of $210 million, let’s say, gives them about $52 million to work with. That seems like a perfectly fine amount for a team that’s kicking off a whole new rebuild while not trying to tank. By the way, that’d be more in 1-year spending than the team committed in 2025 ($36 million) and 2026 ($44.95 million).

The final thought in all this is that the second-best use case with a farm system is being able to leverage it to acquire players in trades. They have an “excess” of middle infielders to offer and some intriguing upside pitching prospects, too, but the Giants haven’t had a farm system that just makes their team better in such a long time that it stands to reason letting it play out for that purpose is the best move right now.

With 2026 baseball officially behind us, and so much speculation and insecurity around 2027 baseball, we are now entering that liminal space between seasons that may wind up lasting far longer than any of us would like. We will be with you throughout all of it, however long it lasts, and to begin the official offseason coverage, we’re going to take a look at some important dates for the Mets and Major League Baseball as a whole.

Deadlines and Important Dates:

October 29:

Free Agents file

At the end of the season, the Mets had zero (0) free agents. Every single player that was due to hit free agency today was traded (or claimed off waivers) during the season. And so the 9am deadline came and went without any Mets activity at all.

November 2:

Free agency opens at 5 p.m. ET 

Last day to issue Qualifying Offer 

60-day Injured List reinstatement 

Contract options deadline 

In terms of the internal machinations, the Mets have no Qualifying Offers to issue. The Mets currently have three players on the 60-day Injured List who will need to rejoin the 40-Man roster (Tylor Megill, Reed Garrett, and Jorge Polanco). Bo Bichette is the only Met with a player option, so he will have to make a decision about his future in Queens by Monday evening.

With the lockout expected to begin less than a month from now, look for free agency to happen quite quickly.

November 9-12

GM Meetings in Las Vegas

These are usually fairly tame, in terms of trades and signings, compared to the Winter Meetings, but with those in question, look for the GM meetings to be a hotbed of activity.

November 17

Deadline for players to accept the Qualifying Offer, 4 pm ET

Rule 5 protection deadline (Players need to be added to 40-man roster to protect from the Rule 5 draft)

With the Mets needing to add some minor leaguers to their 40-man roster, expect a flurry of releases and trades to make some room before this deadline. Our Lukas Vlahos did a great job of outlining where the Mets’ roster stands at the end of the season.

November 17-19

Owners meetings in New York

Expect to see a lot of cigars lit with $100 bills and other signs of excess while crying poverty.

November 20

Non-tender Deadline

See the note about the Rule 5 deadline above.

December 1 

CBA Expires 11:59 pm ET – Lockout begins

This is the big one; even if things go better than any of us expect, there will likely still be a lockout starting on December 1st.

Likely to be postponed or cancelled

December 7-9: Winter Meetings in San Diego

December 8: Draft Lottery

December 9: Rule 5 Draft

January 8: Arbitration Figures Exchanged

The Winter Meetings almost certainly won’t happen, and the others in this category will be postponed until the lockout ends.

January 15

International Signing Period opens

This will be the only real activity between the lockout’s beginning and end.

Awards and Hall of Fame:

November 1

Gold Glove Awards announced

The Mets have three players – Luis Torrens, Nolan McLean, and Carson Benge – who are Gold Glove finalists. The award announcements will be exclusively revealed via ESPN at 9pm EST.

November 2

HOF eight-person Contemporary Baseball Era ballot for managers, executives and umpires

Silver Slugger Award finalists announced – 2 pm ET

BBWAA Awards Finalists announced

The Mets look to have at least one Rookie of the Year candidate, but seem unlikely have any finalists in any other categories (Cy Young, MVP, Manager of the Year). These will be announced on an MLB Network broadcast from 6pm-8pm.

November 6

Heart & Hustle Awards announced – TBD – MLB Network
Gold Glove Awards dinner in NYC – Platinum Glove winners announced

November 9

Rookie of the Year – 7-8 pm ET (MLB Network)

It seems likely that Carson Benge and/or Nolan McLean get votes in the Rookie of the Year category, with Benge being the Met frontrunner.

November 10

Manager of the Year – 7-8 pm ET (MLB Network)

The Mets had two managers this year and neither seems likely to grab any votes here.

November 11

Cy Young Awards and BBWAA relievers of year – 7-8 pm ET (MLB Network)

MLB Awards show – 9-11pm ET (MLB Network)

All-MLB first and second teams

Hank Aaron Award winners

Comeback Players of year

Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman relievers of year
Edgard Martinez DH of year

I suppose there is a chance that a Met picks up an honor on the first or second team, but that seems like the only likely Mets action here.

November 12 

MVP Award – 7-8 pm ET (MLB Network)

In what world would a 2026 Mets be an MVP candidate?

November 16 

Hall of Fame announces its 2027 ballot, 12 pm ET – Writer’s ballot

Bobby Abreu, David Wright, and Francisco Rodriguez will all be on this ballot, with potential ex-Mets Asdrubal Cabrera, Todd Frazier, and Jay Bruce potentially looking at debuts on the ballot.

November 17

Silver Slugger Awards

December 6

BBWAA announces Contemporary Baseball Era inductees

January 19

Hall of Fame announces BBWAA voting results & 2007 inductees, 6 p ET (MLB Network)

The Milwaukee Brewers are now your new World Series champions. The retrospectives are already here, as Andy McCullough of The Athletic has an article out today tracing their path to the franchise’s first World Series title. One note is particularly interesting for Tigers fans. According to this report, the Brewers made a very competitive offer for Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, and the Tigers had accepted it in principle. The Brewers front office thought they might have a deal done, only to watch as Zyhir Hope was pulled from his Double-A game and a deal between the Tigers and Dodgers was announced instead.

Well, kudos to the Brewers, who clearly didn’t need much help. The reported deal was for two top 100 position players in infielder Luis Pena and utility player Jett Williams, along with outfielder Josh Adamczewski. The Tigers wanted pitching, but the Brewers were unwilling to part with rookie left-hander Logan Henderson in a deal. So the offer was the best offer they were going to make when Scott Harris called to ask for their best package before moving to the Dodgers to get their final offer. Not long after, they noted the Hope news, and Harris called back to tell them he was going with a different offer.

Per McCullough,

“I appreciated the s— out of that,” Arnold said. “He was very transparent.” The timing allowed Milwaukee to pivot and trade for St. Louis reliever JoJo Romero and starter Dustin May. But they did not add an ace.

Instead, the Tigers accepted the deal for Zyhir Hope, who is similarly ranked to Williams, along with injured right-hander River Ryan and High-A pitching prospect Brady Smith. Smith and Adamczewski are pretty comparable, thought the latter is graded a notch higher by some prospect sites.

I’m a big fan of Luis Pena, so this pains me a little bit, but at the same time, the Brewers had to know the Tigers were hunting for pitching with both Skubal and Casey Mize headed to free agency. Someday this may be a very interesting what if, as the Brewers package was the stronger offer on paper. It just didn’t address the Tigers main need, which was pitching to fill the gap until their stock of A-ball level pitching prospects develops further. It really all comes down to Ryan, and whether he can finally put the injuries behind him and reach his potential as a frontline starter or potential ace reliever.

It’s an interesting little study in approach as well. Harris asked for the final best offers and picked the best package from his perspective. It’s tricky balancing need vs. overall value in all sports, but particularly in baseball. Maybe if Harris had acquired both Pena and Williams, he could turn entirely to pitching in free agency with a killer group of position prospects on their way to bolster what they already have in Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, and others. But adding pitching in free agency has not been a front office strength. As far as potentially trading Williams or someone else for cost-controlled pitching later on, the truth is that acquiring arm talent with significant team control is really difficult. No one wants to give up inexpensive pitching, even for a good position player generally ranked in the middle of many top 100 lists. Certainly not during the offseason.

We’ll see how it all shakes out in the long run, but it was interesting to get a bit more of a blow-by-blow of events than has been previously reported. Good to know Harris didn’t just string anyone along and potentially leave the Brewers scrambling in the final minutes. That’s the kind of thing that can really put other teams off from dealing with you again, but it’s certainly not mandatory to inform a team that their trade isn’t accepted. They sometimes don’t find out until a deal is already complete.

The report is a bit of housekeeping from a Tigers fans perspective, but we’ll take it as closure on the 2026 Skubal saga. Let the offseason begin.

The Milwaukee Brewers dispatched the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, their 4-1 victory in Game 5 of the World Series giving them their first title in franchise history. Up there in baseball Valhalla, Bob Uecker had the night of his afterlife.

That puts a wrap on the 2026 Major League Baseball season as a whole, meaning the Cincinnati Reds can once again peel themselves off the couch and begin preparations for a 2027 season that, mercifully, cannot possibly be as disappointing as the one that just ended. Baseball wastes little time in sprinting into administrative season, and that began this morning at 9 AM ET when players eligible for free agency were allowed to file.

That includes the likes of Tyler Stephenson of Brock Burke, two names in particular who need a spotlight right here. Though both could have filed for free agency as early as this morning, there’s a five-day window where their former team will be the lone club that can negotiate with them, and since both sure do look like players the Reds would like to have back in 2027 (and beyond), that means the two sides have five days to figure out what a contract would need to look like going forward for that to work. I don’t expect either to sign during this window, but at least there’s a little bit of a heads-up that the Reds will get prior to both getting the opportunity to talk to all 30 clubs beginning next week.

The end of that five-day window will also be the final chance for teams to issue a Qualifying Offer to any of their free agents who were not acquired mid-season. At one point in time that seemed like a discussion the Reds front office was having surrounding Brady Singer, though that has (thank the lord) gone silent amid his season-ending slump. That also marks the day where option decisions must be made, so by then we’ll know if Emilio Pagan has opted into his $10 million salary to remain with the Reds in 2027 or decided to test the free agent waters again. We’ll also have a resolution on the mutual option between the Reds and Eugenio Suarez, though those almost never get picked up by both sides anyway. It’s also the deadline to put players back on the roster from the 60-day IL, so there could be some DFA shuffling (or minor trades) to accommodate the likes of Hunter Greene and Spencer Steer needing 40-man spots once again.

November 1st will see the Gold Glove Awards given out to star defenders across the league. The Reds have no star defenders in the eyes of the powers that be, though – at least, not this year.

November 2nd will see Silver Slugger Award finalists announced, and here’s where we may see the sport’s spotlight swing back to Elly De La Cruz. The 2nd will also see the finalists for all the major BBWAA awards announced, of which Sal Stewart will surely be included in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

November 9th will be the day the Reds find out if Sal won the NL RoY, or not. While the honor itself is a glorious one, keep in mind that the Reds would be in line to get an extra draft pick at the end of the 1st round in 2027 if Sal takes home the prize – and the draft bonus pool boost that goes along with that.

November 9-12 will feature the GM meetings in Las Vegas, ones that will surely be interesting this season given the looming lockout that will be just three weeks later.

November 11th will be the day both the NL and AL Cy Young Award winners will be announced. Chase Burns won’t win the NL award this season despite being firmly in the mix for most of the year, but he’s going to end up with some down-ballot votes.

November 12th is the day the MVPs are announced in both leagues. Elly’s not going to win in the NL this year, but there’s a realistic chance he finishes within the Top 3.

November 16th is the date we’ll see who the BBWAA has included on their ballot for induction in the Hall of Fame, at which point in time social media will become a giant argument over who is worthy of a plaque in the hallway of an old building in an obscure and hard to reach town in upstate New York.

November 17th is the day Silver Slugger Awards are actually announced. It’s also the deadline day for players to accept QOs, if they’d received them. It is also-also the day teams must add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from potential selection in the Rule 5 Draft, which is typically held during the Winter Meetings in December…

…however, the Winter Meetings are currently scheduled for December 7-9th, and that’s after the current Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire on December 1st, and there’s zero indication whatsoever that the MLBPA and MLB itself will come to an agreement before that date to postpone an inevitable lockout.

There’s a lot that typically goes on between December 1st and the start of spring training in mid-February, but the dates when those events will occur (or be cancelled) are pretty meaningless at this juncture. Baseball will have to see the arbitration process dealt with in short order at some point, the Draft Lottery to determine the order for next June’s draft will need to take place, and who signs who will all have to fight what figures to be a long, dark transaction freeze until the two sides can figure out how to properly distribute their billions of dollars. It remains to be seen whether teams will make moves in a fury before the expiration date of the current CBA, or if they’ll roll the dice on getting lucky with what’s left after the fact.