MLB rumors: Shohei Ohtani news, the Yankees’ Juan Soto trade, and more from the Winter Meetings

MLB rumors: Shohei Ohtani news, the Yankees’ Juan Soto trade, and more from the Winter Meetings

This week is the MLB Winter Meetings in Nashville, and on Wednesday, the first major transaction of the offseason took place when Juan Soto was sent to the New York Yankees.

After pursuing the hitting outfielder through the summer, the Yankees and the Padres ultimately finalized their trade on Wednesday.

Baseball’s finest free agent, Shohei Ohtani, is still unsigned while the best trade candidate has been signed.

The American League MVP’s most serious suitors are starting to surface. Ohtani is allegedly in talks to re-sign with the Dodgers, Blue Jays, while Giants, while the incumbent Angel are still in the running to sign him.

Awaiting Ohtani’s decision, which is expected to be made by the end of the weekend, teams, agents, or players have found the Winter Meetings unusually sluggish, down to until the Soto trade.

Ohtani’s signing might significantly expand the available options for free agents, particularly for righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto of Japan.

A number of teams that are interested in Ohtani are also apparently interested in Yamamoto, who may get a contract for between $250 and $300 million.

Shohei Othani is still a free agent as Major League Baseball’s biannual winter meetings came to an end in Nashville on Wednesday.

Concurrently, negotiations are underway between the Padres and Yankees to move Juan Soto back to the Bronx.

There is now more speculation as to where he will land. San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels are still in the running for co-favorites for baseball’s two-way star, but the Los Angeles Dodgers the Toronto Blue Jays look to be leading contenders.

The Diamondbacks have reportedly expressed interest in right-handed people Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and Lucas Giolito.

The team is believed to have made a push at right-hander Sonny Gray prior to his signing with the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I have no doubt that we will put in a lot of effort to see something through to completion,” Hazen stated.

In many situations, you’re at mercy of both teams when discussing the free-agent and trade markets. However, I believe that starting pitching will eventually become available.

For a while now, the Yankees have wanted a left-handed slugger. They managed to land one of the sport’s most feared bats.

In recent years, the only dependable left-handed batters on the squad have been Anthony Rizzo or Matt Carpenter.

According to reports, the Yankees made a significant trade to acquire Padres outfielder Juan Soto, which instantly gave them one of the league’s most desirable lineups. However, I believe that starting pitching will eventually become available.

The Yankees’ desire to bring in a left-handed power bat has never been a secret. They have added sluggers like Jay Bruce, Franchy Cordero, Willie Calhoun, Joey Gallo, and Andrew Benintendi, but none of them have turned out to be the team’s ideal fit despite their best efforts to obtain options.

Of course, the main story is Soto’s journey to New York. With Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Judge, and Gleyber Torres—all of whom have at least 30 home runs into a single season—in the lineup, the Yankees are a formidable team. Judge is now backed by a feared bat.

Grisham offers the Yankees a lot of defense but not much in the way of offensive production. In his four complete seasons in the majors, he has blasted ten or more home runs.

His on-base percentage reached just as high as.315 in 2023, while his batting average dropped below.200 in the years 2022 and 2023.

Having earned two Gold Gloves (in 2020 and 2022), he should help offset New York’s deficiency of real center fielders.

Jhony Brito, the starter, had a fantastic start to his Major League Baseball career, allowing just one run in each of his two consecutive five-inning starts.

From then on, he had erratic outcomes but nevertheless had a strong rookie season, pitching an impressive 4.28 ERA across 25 games (13 starts) and 90.1 innings.

19.4% of batters were struck out by him, 7.5 percent were walked, and 1.39 home runs were allowed per nine innings by him.

During the season, he averaged 96 mph with his fastball and combined it with a respectable slider and changeup.

He’s a young pitcher (25 years old) that the Padres may immediately add to their rotation to take Nick Martinez’s spot as swingman.