Table of Contents
As the holiday season approaches, some clubs seem content to wait until the new year to begin their offseasons.
With baseball’s winter nearly halfway over and just 97 days before Opening Day, the transaction records of many contenders remain relatively intact. As expected, deep-pocketed giants like the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees have been quite active, but smaller-budget operations like the Orioles, Guardians and A’s have also been aggressive.
Let’s jump in and investigate some clubs that have been disappointingly static so far this offseason.
This embedded content is not available in your region.
Atlanta Braves
The explanation for Atlanta’s poor 2024 season is simple and boring: injuries. Losing Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr., a top-five pitcher and hitter, for much of the season was fatalistic and damning. But while the Braves hope to have both back for much of 2025, this team needs improvements elsewhere.
However, so far this offseason, the Braves have been scandalously quiet. The most notable news from Truist Park has had to do with the departure of players from the organization. Atlanta declined a team option on veteran backup Travis d’Arnaud, non-tendered veteran outfielder Ramon Laureano and allowed top-line pitcher Max Fried to leave in free agency. Fried, a staple of this Braves era who pitched a gem in the deciding game of the 2021 World Series, didn’t appear to receive a competitive offer from the only major league team he had ever known.
All Atlanta has done so far this winter is add corner outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, one of baseball’s worst hitters in the second half of last season, to a split contract. The Braves need another outfield bat, particularly if Acuña is not healthy for Opening Day, and another starting pitcher to replace the likely departing Charlie Morton. Currently, they have Grant Holmes and Ian Anderson included in the five-man rotation until Strider returns.
Fortunately, there is some room to maneuver for the typically creative president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, even if there has been little indication that the Braves intend to spend big. Atlanta’s payroll currently sits at $201 million, $31 million below its season-ending figure. Still, a short-term deal for a veteran arm like Max Scherzer, Walker Buehler, Andrew Heaney or José Quintana to take Morton’s place seems the most likely path forward.
Anthopoulos often has something weird up his sleeve, but don’t expect a big-money move for Corbin Burnes or another top-tier free agent. And frankly, the Braves already have talented players on long contracts at so many positions that Anthopoulos can afford to focus on complementing the club on the sidelines.
Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays are at least trying, desperately, to improve their club.
The good thing is also that the pressure in the north is increasing. Toronto was one of the most disappointing stories of 2024, a soggy, underwhelming, depthless façade of a baseball club. Projected by many as playoff contenders, the Blue Jays managed just 74 wins, good enough for last place in a relatively lackluster American League East Division.
This current era of Jays baseball, led by team president Mark Shapiro, general manager Ross Atkins and cornerstone players Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, has not won a postseason game. All they have to show for this once-promising competitive window is a trio of wild-card round losses in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Now the clock is ticking. Guerrero and Bichette are one year away from free agency. Shapiro has one year left on his contract; Atkins has only two. Unless there is a heroic resurgence, this franchise and its fanbase will lament this particular era as a monumental missed opportunity.
Which explains why the Blue Jays have been linked to nearly every major free agent, all of whom, so far, have landed elsewhere. Currently, the Blue Jays are empty-handed, although that is not a result of passivity. Toronto was in the fight for Juan Soto, having made a serious offer of more than $700 million. They reunited with left-hander Max Fried, who ended up with the Yankees. They pursued Cody Bellinger via trade, but he also went to the Bronx.
Winter is not over. There are still plenty of big guns on the open market, including Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Roki Sasaki and Teoscar Hernandez. Toronto, if they want to seriously compete in 2025 and do something with this era, they need to have one of them.
San Diego Padres
Simply existing, for the San Diego Padres, is an expensive proposition.
Year-over-year contract increases for Fernando Tatis Jr., Yu Darvish, Jake Cronenworth, Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta add up to more than $21 million in additional expenses. Arbitration raises for Luis Arráez, Dylan Cease, Michael King and Jason Adam could exceed $17 million. As a whole, San Diego’s roster will be more than $30 million higher in 2025, despite losing Ha-Seong Kim and his $8 million annual salary in free agency.
For the Padres, who have reduced spending since the passing of beloved freeholder Peter Seidler, that’s a daunting prospect. GM AJ Preller deserves credit for his aggressive team-building strategy, but operating that way for so long is starting to leave cracks in the foundation. A trade of Cease or Arráez, both a year away from free agency, could be necessary to open up some spending room, similar to the deal the team made with Juan Soto last winter.
Apparently the big bright hope of San Diego’s offseason is Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki. Many in the industry see the Padres as co-favorites for the flamethrower’s services, along with the rival Dodgers, who dramatically bounced to San Diego in the 2024 NLDS. If Preller falters with Sasaki, it would give the Padres a factor of cheap and controllable difference and would allow them to hold on to Cease or Arraez. Otherwise, Preller might have to get creative to bolster his roster, which has a hole in left field created by the likely departing Jurickson Profar.
Detroit Tigers
After pulling off perhaps the most poignant upset of 2024, Detroit has yet to carry that momentum into a significant, momentous transaction this offseason.
The Tigers signed starting pitcher Alex Cobb to a one-year, $15 million contract, a sizable sum of money for a 37-year-old pitcher who threw just 16 1/3 regular-season frames in 2024. He’s a positive bet on an arm veteran, but Cobb is far from a sure option, particularly for a team like Detroit hoping to establish itself as a consistent contender.
Baltimore, Tampa Bay and the A’s are the only American League clubs currently projected to enter 2025 with lower payrolls than Detroit’s paltry $104 million. A whopping $35 million of that sum is invested in two expensive and aging roster obstructions: Kenta Maeda and Javier Báez.
The Tigers’ Cinderella story in 2024 was made possible by a deep, high-caliber roster of interchangeable contributors. That dynamic gives president of baseball operations Scott Harris plenty of options to improve his roster. Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Teoscar Hernández could fit positionally. And the Tigers should also look for another impact starting arm so they don’t have to rely on “pitching chaos” like they did in 2024.
Washington Nationals
There was reason to be hopeful about baseball in the nation’s capital last season, but the Nationals spent November and December in complete lethargy.
And it’s a shame because with a few additions, this team could be quite annoying. Washington’s payroll is currently projected at $86 million, the third-lowest in the National League, ahead of only Miami and Pittsburgh. Forty percent of that is due to Stephen Strasburg, the fallen and physically beleaguered hero of the World Series who will never throw another pitch for the club. But with Patrick Corbin’s considerable salary off the books, the Nationals should spend this offseason.
A gaping hole at first base seems perfect for Pete Alonso or one of the other free agent first basemen. Dylan Crews and James Wood are tantalizing talents in the outfield, but there’s room on the turf for a veteran presence alongside them. And although the Nationals gave starter Michael Soroka $9 million, they desperately need a more impactful presence to lead their young rotation.
It was no surprise that the Nationals did not meet with Juan Soto. But fans are understandably disappointed that their club, at no point, seemed seriously involved in the draw. The spending appetite of this ownership group remains a big unknown and will dictate how the next era of Nationals baseball plays out.