Worldwide Sports News

The Cubs boast one of the three finalists for the National League’s Most Valuable Player award in Pete Crow-Armstrong.

But Chicago won’t be adding two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal to the roster this winter, according to The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma.

The MLB General Manager Meetings kick off Tuesday in Las Vegas, which is usually a place for teams to lay the groundwork on potential offseason moves. But the Cubs likely won’t enter a bidding war with spending juggernauts such as the Dodgers and Mets amid labor uncertainty.

Skubal spent the second-half of the 2026 season with Los Angeles after being traded from the Tigers at the deadline, where he posted a 2.61 ERA with 70 strikeouts across 62 innings pitched.

While he had a successful campaign with the Dodgers, he also enjoyed his brief tenure with the organization. Skubal’s affinity for the team could very well play a leading role in his free agency process this winter.

The Cubs were poised to be one of the most dominant NL teams in the postseason, but were eliminated by the red, hot Padres in the wild-card round.

Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman’s bats went cold in the two-game sweep, but Chicago will likely focus on adding starting pitching this offseason.

But Skubal appears to be out of the team’s spending range, giving the Dodgers a clearer path to the left-hander’s return for 2027 and beyond.

Sources: Phillies eyeing free-agent infielder Ha-Seong Kim for important role originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

LAS VEGAS – Dave Dombrowski began the offseason with a challenge for shortstop Trea Turner.

Improve your defense or move off the position.

“We were very clear,” Dombrowski said last month. “He knows he has to be better at shortstop. I told him that’s really mandatory.

“If he plays shortstop like he did in ‘25, he can play shortstop. But if he plays it like he did in ‘26, he can’t.”

So, what happens if Turner doesn’t live up to the challenge and is moved to second base, third base or the outfield?

Or what happens if Turner is traded, a huge long shot considering the 33-year-old has a full no-trade clause and is signed for seven more years at $190 million.

Who plays shortstop?

Edmundo Sosa? Maybe he becomes a possibility later in the winter, but he’s out of the picture for now as he’s become a free agent and is seeking a long-term contract on the open market.

Bryson Stott could be a possibility. He was drafted as a shortstop and played there on a World Series team as a rookie in 2022.

It’s possible that the Phillies could push a prospect like Aidan Miller or Bryan Rincon into action at the position, but Miller could be more likely to play third base as Alec Bohm has moved on to free agency.

Any way you look at it, the Phillies need to add infield insurance, a player capable of slotting in at three positions with the ability to handle shortstop if the team needs to make a quick move on Turner.

According to sources, the Phillies are eyeing that type of player in free agent Ha-Seong Kim. The veteran infielder has played mostly shortstop during his six seasons in the majors. The Atlanta Braves signed him to a one-year, $20 million contract last December and planned to use him as their regular shortstop in 2026. That plan collapsed a month later when Kim tore a tendon in the middle finger of his right hand when he slipped on ice in his native South Korea. The injury required surgery and Kim was limited to just 51 games.

Mauricio Dubon filled much of the Braves’ void at shortstop and had a strong season, helping the club hold off the Phillies to win the NL East. Dubon is also a free agent. He would have the versatility the Phillies need, but he’s looking for a multi-year deal and the Phillies seem to prefer a shorter deal for a bounce-back candidate in the role.

Kim, 31, would fit that description.

A right-handed hitter, Kim put up strong seasons in San Diego from 2021 through 2024. He registered a bWAR of 5.0 and 5.4 in 2022 and 2023, respectively. He won a Gold Glove while playing three positions in 2023. Injuries (shoulder surgery in 2025 and hand surgery in 2026) have contributed to back-to-back down years.

All this makes him the bounce-back candidate/insurance policy the Phillies are looking for as the offseason gets humming at the general managers’ meetings this week.

Of course, the team has other more pressing needs, led by a bullpen upgrade and a right-handed run producer. Phillies officials, headed by Dombrowski, the team’s president of baseball operations, are one site, trying to fill those needs.

Major League Baseball’s general managers meetings start on Monday and run though Thursday in Las Vegas, a chance at a large chunk of the baseball world to congregate in one area. While these meeting don’t usually lend themselves to spurring transactions.

The winter meetings is usually the place where deals happen or start happening, but those might not even happen this year, with a lockout expected just after the collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1 at 8:59 p.m. PT.

Tarik Skubal is the big prize on the free agent market, but will he sign somewhere in these next three weeks before the darkness comes?

Five years ago, a handful of large deals got done just under the wire before the lockout. Corey Seager signed for $325 million with the Texas Rangers, Max Scherzer set a pitcher record for average annual value with his three years, $130 million with the New York Mets, and Kevin Gausman signed for five years, $110 million with the Toronto Blue Jays, among other deals.

The Dodgers’ big deal at the time was retaining Chris Taylor for four years, $60 million. Not every transaction pays off.

In a relatively week market and Skubal the clear top target, the right-hander is sure to command a princely sum with his next contract. Kiley McDaniel last week at ESPN said he expected Skubal to sign for somewhere between $325-400 million, surpassing Yoshinobu Yamamoto for largest total pitching contract ever if not also setting a new high mark for average annual value.

Jeff Passan at ESPN last week said, “the expectation is he will sign before the Dec. 1 lockout.” Both Passan and McDaniel listed the Dodgers and Mets as the top suitors for Skubal’s services.

Signing deals before the lockout suggest at least some confidence that such a deal would still work under whatever the labor landscape is under the next collective bargaining agreement. The owners have been angling for a salary cap for months, including in last week’s proposal which pushed back a salary cap to 2028, giving teams time to adjust. For a team like the Dodgers with the highest payroll in the sport, adding Skubal would make it harder to eventually reduce payroll to get under a potential cap, if there is one. Then again, Skubal is probably good enough to take the risk anyway.

Scott Boras, who represents Skubal and who represented Scherzer five years ago, talked with Andy McCullough at The Athletic in October about the coming offseason:

“For many teams, I can make an argument it’s clearly best for them to sign players currently, before the (new) CBA, than it is after,” agent Scott Boras said. “Because they have more freedom to do what they’re going to do. They can react later. Now they can get the talent. They can get what they want.”

At the very least, it would at least be funny to see the handwringing across the sport if the Dodgers were to sign Skubal, even if, as we saw in October, nothing is guaranteed.

Today’s question: When will Tarik Skubal signs his next contract? Pick the date that the deal becomes official.

In what promises to be a uniquely challenging winter, the Atlanta Braves will once again be in the market for starting pitching. Whether Alex Anthopoulos chooses to address the need for innings via free agency or trade, the Braves simply cannot afford to let this box on their offseason shopping list go unchecked.

Before we get started, let me be clear: pitching is not this club’s only need. A large portion of blame for the Braves’ most recent October ouster should be placed at the feet of a largely unproductive lineup. That is a group with its own set of needs and questions to answer.

Where will the Braves rotation get its innings from in 2027?

While Atlanta routinely finds ways to cover innings in the regular season, the rotation was routinely undone by untimely injuries in each of its past five trips to the postseason. There is no way to prevent or even predict the injury issues, but recognizing the possibility is essential. Failing to add proven reinforcements has certainly contributed to this annual issue.

After mixing and matching their way through bullpen-heavy usage this October, the Braves’ rotation situation moving forward appears to have reached a tipping point due to the uncertainty about several of their internal options and the lack of proven veterans after ace Chris Sale.

Anthopoulos stated his desire to add a playoff-caliber starter last winter. That need is once again front and center as the club looks to build a World Series contender.

On the surface, it would be fair to say Atlanta got more than adequate production from its rotation in 2026. Braves starters finished sixth in Major League Baseball with a 3.76 ERA, ranked 11th in innings pitched with 839.1 IP, and produced a composite 10.7 fWAR, which ranked 16th in baseball – Sale (5.8 fWAR) accounted for more than half of that, however.

Of course, Atlanta seems to traverse each winter with an ever-present uncertainty about the names that will comprise their starting five. The current lack of clarity underscores their need for continuity, consistency, production and upside. All of the above in some order.

Atlanta has a bevy of rotation candidates but just as many questions surrounding where the innings will actually come from and just what the quality of those innings will be. We’ll delve into roughly a dozen names, but many, if not most, come with conditional concerns.

The Braves simply cannot count on several of the in-house options that have been unable to stay healthy and contribute.

The Veterans: Chris Sale, Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes

Everything good about the Braves rotation starts with Chris Sale. They’re just hoping it doesn’t end there. Sale has been everything Atlanta could have imagined and then some since coming over from the Boston Red Sox in a trade in the winter of 2023.

In three seasons in a Braves uniform, Sale has pitched to a 2.36 ERA – tops in MLB since 2024 – while posting a 15.9 fWAR in 76 starts. Only Tarik Skubal (18.0) and Cristopher Sanchez (17.4) boast a higher fWAR, with each throwing significantly more innings than Sale (466 IP), who missed a couple of months in 2025 after suffering a fractured ribcage while diving to make a play. Sale, who is MLB’s all-time leader among pitchers with at least 2,000 innings with 11.1 K/9 during his 17-year career, has been even better with Atlanta. His 11.39 K/9 trails only Garrett Crochet (11.82) and Dylan Cease (11.59) over the past three years.

Sale led the Braves with 162.2 IP last season and will enter his age-38 season in 2027. While he is showing no signs of slowing down, can Sale continue to produce at a Hall of Fame level as he continues a career that should lead him to Cooperstown? Atlanta certainly needs him to.

Beyond their ace left-hander, the Braves received 300.2 IP from the righty combo of Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes. Holmes (151.2) actually ended up finishing second on the team in innings, due in part to Elder’s late-season knee surgery. He finished with 149 IP as a result. The two provided a 3.77 ERA across 55 starts, but that came along with a 4.68 FIP and 7.0 K/9.  

Holmes chose to rehab the torn UCL that ended his 2025 season in July rather than undergo Tommy John surgery that would’ve sidelined him for up to 18 months and cost him the chance to pitch at all last year. It would appear that decision was a sound one, but will he continue to hold a spot in the rotation for another full season?

Elder has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride since debuting in 2022. At his best, he’s a capable starter who takes the ball every fifth day and keeps the rotation on track. Unfortunately, the results aren’t always there and his performance can swing wildly from effective to erratic. Over the past two seasons, Elder led all Atlanta pitchers with 305 innings but turned in a 4.72 ERA and 2.1 fWAR in 54 starts.

Atlanta expects Elder to be ready to pitch in Spring Training, so he will likely factor into the plans in some form or fashion. Despite having surgery in September to clean up some bone fragments that caused swelling in his right knee, Elder was hoping to pitch again in 2026 had the Braves continued to advance in the postseason. Whether or not he would have is unclear and ultimately a moot point.

When he’s operating at the back end of the rotation, Elder is a serviceable starter for the most part. Where the team and Elder seem to run into trouble is when he is forced into a larger role.

The Unknowns: Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Reynaldo Lopez

Easily the most frustrating aspect of Atlanta’s rotation issues is the fact that two All-Stars and a third pitcher who was well on his way to establishing himself as a front of the rotation arm are all facing significant questions about their futures.

Spencer Strider, now 28 years old, was supposed to be well into his prime years as a staff ace. After an incredible rookie season, Atlanta signed Strider to a six-year, $75 million contract extension that runs through 2028 and includes a club option for 2029. He rewarded the club by winning 20 games in 2023 and leading the major leagues with 281 strikeouts – a new Braves franchise record. Strider appeared poised to lead the rotation for the remainder of the decade.

All of that momentum came to a screeching halt in 2024 when he was forced to undergo elbow surgery in April to correct an issue with his previously replaced UCL. Strider made just two starts that season and then missed an entire year. He returned in April of 2025 but has been enigmatic at best. With his arsenal clearly not playing the same, Strider has struggled to regain his form and avoid various injuries that cost him even more time over the past two years.

Last season, Strider made just eight starts and pitched to a 5.31 ERA. He allowed nine home runs in just 39 innings while posting a career-worst 4.6 BB/9. Strider’s fastball has become more hittable over the past three seasons as velocity dipped, leading to a decrease in four-seamer usage and reliance on secondary pitches that have not made up the difference in whiff rate.

Strider made his final start on June 12 against the Mets at Citi Field. He was rocked for seven earned runs and three homers in just three innings of work. He was pulled from the game after his fastball velocity suddenly dropped into the high-80s. Strider was examined for both elbow and shoulder soreness but no structural problems were found. He was placed on the injured list but eventually resumed throwing bullpen sessions by season’s end according to Anthopoulos. 

After missing the final 3 1/2 months of 2026 with elbow inflammation, the questions surrounding Strider are louder than ever. What version of Strider will we see going forward? Can he finally get his career back on track? How much can the Braves bank on his contributions in 2027?

Those same questions surround the future of Spencer Schwellenbach. 

The talented right-hander quickly established himself as one of the best young pitchers in baseball during his 2024 rookie season and appeared to be taking his game to the next level in 2025. Over the course of 234 innings in his first two years, Schwellenbach posted a 3.23 ERA (3.27 FIP) and fanned 235 batters while issuing just 41 walks. 

Schwellenbach works with a six-pitch mix, one of the many impressive things about the way he carved up opposing lineups. With his four-seamer touching 100 mph as 2025 wore on, it truly appeared everything was coming together for Schwellenbach. Then a fractured elbow put him on the shelf for the remainder of that season and kept him off the mound again in 2026.

After rehabbing the fracture, Schwellenbach encountered issues with the elbow again in Spring Training. He underwent surgery to remove bone spurs in February and encountered more pain when he ramped up throwing later in the season. After a lost season, Schwellenbach ultimately had a screw surgically inserted in his previously fractured elbow. This is a procedure that very few pitchers have returned from. That places even longer odds that Schwellenbach can resume his promising career.

Alex Anthopoulos had the following to say when updating the status and expectations for Strider and Schwellenbach as the team makes its pitching plans this winter.

“I think from a planning standpoint, I don’t think it’d be responsible to sit here and say those guys are going to start 30 games and throw 180 innings. So, that’s something we’re definitely going to have to account for and talk about where we’re going to get our innings for next season,” Anthopoulos said.

“I remember telling Grant Holmes last offseason at the beginning, how he progressed was going to tell us what his potential role would be and how we would bank him and so on in terms of anything. So, if you sit here today, I don’t think you’re going to see us come in and say that we expect [Strider and Schwellenbach] to be locks in the rotation with Sale.”

Another arm that the Braves cannot count on is Reynaldo Lopez. He turns 33 years old in January and enters the final year of a re-worked contract and is due $8 million next season. 

Lopez underwent shoulder surgery after making just one start in 2025. Upon returning this year, he struggled to regain his velocity, often citing mechanical adjustments as the main culprit. While Lopez occasionally showed flashes of the pitcher who turned in a 1.99 ERA in 25 starts during his All-Star campaign in 2024, he did not enjoy that kind of success.

After just five starts last season, the Braves shifted Lopez to the bullpen for two months. He returned to the rotation in late June and finished with a 4.54 ERA in 79.1 IP. The fastball velocity that was once routinely in the high 90s dipped to a career-low 94.4 mph on average with opponents batting over .300 against the pitch for the first time in his 11-year career.

Could he start for Atlanta in 2027? Sure, he could be asked to do so. Whether or not he should start may be the better question. If Lopez moves back to a relief role, there is a chance he could provide more benefit to the pitching staff. A successful reliever for several years before signing with the Braves, Lopez expressed a desire to start again and Atlanta was open to the idea and rewarded with a fine season in 2024. Given the shoulder surgery, lost time and inconsistent results that followed, Lopez simply may not be able to recapture that magic.

We’ll have more to talk about in a follow-up piece to this article tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

Practically every permutation of this Dodgers’ offseason starts with a pursuit to re-sign Tarik Skubal.

Where the club could go from there is where things might get even more interesting.

Despite failing in their bid for a third-straight World Series this year, the Dodgers already have the makings of a title favorite again in 2027. All nine of their regular position-player starters are still under contract for next season.

Skubal is the only notable potential loss from the starting rotation. And while the team has holes in the bullpen and on the bench, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman couldn’t have been more bullish when looking ahead to next year at his end-of-season press conference last month.

“If we started the season tomorrow,” he declared, “we feel really good about the roster and team that we have.”

For the Dodgers, however, roster-building decisions are never made with only the short-term future in mind.

One of Friedman’s most common mottos during his tenure in Los Angeles has been ensuring the team never “falls off a cliff,” committed to maintaining contender status for as far as they can see out.

And right now, with the Dodgers possessing the oldest lineup in the majors and facing what is likely to be more substantial roster transition in the next 2-3 years (against the looming backdrop of a new CBA that could also bring drastic changes to the sport’s spending rules), their longer-term outlook appears increasingly in flux.

That’s why, even if the Dodgers feel well-positioned for 2027, they will almost assuredly proceed through this offseason with an eye on the bigger picture, as well.

They know that, at some point soon, they need to start getting younger and more athletic. And that, as things currently stand, Andy Pages is their only established core piece entering his prime, not slowly fading out of it.

Thus, this winter could present an opportunity for them to be “opportunistic” –– another of Friedman’s favorite sayings –– and seek acquisitions who can not only help next year, but spearhead a new generation of Dodgers dominance too.

“It’s about us being as prepared as we can be, depending on what opportunities pop up, to be able to pounce,” Friedman said. “We feel good about our jumping-off point of where we are. That being said, to the extent that we can keep raising the bar, raising the talent level, and increasing our championship odds, we’re going to be aggressive to do so.”

Those efforts, of course, will begin with Skubal; who will be the center of attention at MLB’s General Manager Meetings in Las Vegas beginning on Tuesday.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner is far and away the best player in this year’s otherwise weak free-agent class. He was a seamless fit in the Dodgers’ clubhouse after arriving in a trade-deadline blockbuster from the Detroit Tigers.

Granted, the Dodgers’ preference (as usual) might be for a shorter-term, higher-annual-average-value deal –– as opposed to the longer-term, potentially $400-plus million guarantee many prognosticators have pegged the left-hander to receive.

But, they are nonetheless seen as co-favorites (along with the Mets) in this winter’s sweepstakes for the soon-to-be 30-year-old ace.

Skubal or not, though, expect the Dodgers to be on the lookout for other star-level, in-their-prime players.

And while free agency might be short on alternative options, the trade market could present intriguing possibilities.

Maybe the Reds will listen to offers on Elly De La Cruz, having thus far failed to lock up the uber-talented 24-year-old shortstop (who has three years of team control left) to a long-term contract extension.

Perhaps the Astros’ Jeremy Peña (a Gold Glover and former World Series MVP who is entering his final year before free agency) or the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson (who is two years removed from a top-five MVP finish and two years away from hitting the open market) will be made available as their clubs try to retool their rosters.

At a bare minimum, Zach Neto of the Angels and CJ Abrams of the Nationals, two dynamic middle infielders entering their age-26 seasons, figure to be bandied about in trade rumors the same way they were at this year’s deadline.

For now, all of those targets are merely speculative (especially with the Dodgers still having Mookie Betts at shortstop and Tommy Edman at second base). The trade market, in particular, might be slow-moving this winter until teams know what the new CBA entails, following a lockout all but certain to begin on Dec. 1.

But if any of them become possibilities before next season, it would likely pique the Dodgers’ interest.

After all, the club boasts a highly-ranked farm system that will make them contenders in any marquee trade talks. They have the ability to deal from their current MLB roster if needed (something they might try to do anyway this winter to create more opportunities for some of their top young prospects).

And they also won’t want to find themselves facing too sudden of a personnel turnover in a couple years, either, as some of their older stars have their contracts expire and others move into less-productive phases of their careers.

So, for as much as this winter will be about bolstering their World Series hopes in 2027, it could also offer a chance to jumpstart their transition into a new era.

Re-signing Skubal is one way of accomplishing both. But, in an offseason that is still taking shape, it might not be the only pathway the Dodgers could explore.

Let’s do some free agent polls!

These polls are less fun when the Ray Davis is acting like he’s broke, but hey, let’s do some anyway.

We are starting with Jazz Chisholm, Jr. Chris Young wants the Rangers to get younger and more athletic? In the free agent market, Chisholm is one of the best bets there. He’s a year removed from a 30/30 season, and had a career high 41 stolen bases in 50 attempts in 2026 despite an overall down offensive season. He’s played second base since being traded to the Yankees by the Marlins, also has graded out well there via OAA, but also has experience in center field. The Rangers could look at putting him back in center field, or could put him at second base with Ezequiel Duran playing center.

The Yankees did not make a qualifying offer to Chisholm, which is somewhat surprising, and perhaps indicative of a desire by the team to move on.

This is a weird free agent market, and the projections are all over the map with many players, Chisholm included. On the high end, Baseball America has Chisholm at 3 years/$110 million or 7 years/$185 million. Over at Fangraphs, both Ben Clemens and the median crowdsource has Chisholm at 4 years, $92 million. Kiley McDaniel, meanwhile, has Chisholm at 2 years, $46 million with an opt-out. MLB Trade Rumors has Chisholm at 2 years, $40 million with an opt-out.

I’m going to go with McDaniel’s projection for the purposes in this poll, in part because I think the higher end offers are unlikely to materialize, and in part because if they do materialize, I don’t see the Rangers paying him in the neighborhood of $100 million or more.

So we ask you…would you want the Rangers to sign Jazz Chisholm, Jr. to a two year, $46 million deal with an opt-out?

Cast your vote below…