by As the holiday season approaches, some ball clubs appear content to wait for the New Year to jumpstart their offseason.
With baseball’s winter almost halfway over and just 97 days until Opening Day, many competitors’ transaction logs remain relatively untouched. As might be expected, deep-pocketed giants like the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees were quite active, but lower-budget clubs like the Orioles, Guardians and Athletics were also aggressive.
Let’s jump in and examine a few clubs that have been disappointingly static so far this offseason.
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Atlanta Braves
The explanation for Atlanta’s subpar 2024 season is simple and boring: injuries. The loss of Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. — a top-five pitcher and a top-five hitter — for much of the season was catastrophic and devastating. But while the Braves expect to have both back for much of 2025, this team needs improvement elsewhere.
But so far this offseason, the Braves have been outrageously quiet. The most notable news out of Truist Park had to do with players leaving the organization. Atlanta declined a team option for longtime backstop Travis d’Arnaud and non-tendered veteran outfielder Ramon Laureano and allowed frontline hurler 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 sign corner outfielder Bryan De La Cruz — one of the worst hitters in the second half of last season — to a split contract. The Braves need another outfield bat, especially if Acuña isn’t healthy on Opening Day, and another starting pitcher to replace the likely departing Charlie Morton. Currently, Grant Holmes and Ian Anderson are slated to be in the five-man rotation until Strider returns.
Luckily, there is some wiggle room for typically creative baseball president Alex Anthopoulos, even if there are few signs that the Braves intend to spend big. Atlanta’s payroll currently stands at $201 million, $31 million below where it ended the season. Still, a shorter-term deal for a veteran arm like Max Scherzer, Walker Buehler, Andrew Heaney or José Quintana to take Morton’s place seems like the most likely path forward.
Anthopoulos often has something unconventional up his sleeve, but don’t expect a big commitment for Corbin Burnes or another top free agent. And frankly, the Braves already have talented players with long-term contracts at so many positions that Anthopoulos can afford to focus on adding to the club’s sidelines.
Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays are at least trying – desperately – to improve their ballclub.
That’s a good thing, because the pressure in the north is increasing. Toronto was one of the most disappointing stories of 2024, a sodden, disappointing, bottomless facade of a ball club. Considered by many to be playoff contenders, the Jays managed just 74 wins, good enough for last place in a relatively lackluster AL East.
This current era of Jays baseball — led by team president Mark Shapiro, GM Ross Atkins and cornerstones Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette — has not won a postseason game. All they have to show for this once-promising competitive window are three wildcard losses in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Now the clock is ticking. Guerrero and Bichette have both been free agents for a year. Shapiro’s contract runs for one year; Atkins only has two. Unless a heroic resurgence occurs, this franchise and its fanbase will come to regret this particular era as a monumental missed opportunity.
That explains why the Jays have been tied to almost every major free agent – all of whom have ended up elsewhere so far. The Jays are currently empty-handed, but that can’t be attributed to passivity. Toronto was in the game for Juan Soto, having made a serious offer well over $700 million. They faced left-hander Max Fried, who ended up becoming a Yankee. They pursued Cody Bellinger via trade, but he also went to the Bronx.
Winter is not over yet. There are still a plethora of big fish on the open market, including Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Roki Sasaki and Teoscar Hernández. If Toronto wants to seriously compete in 2025 and make something of this era, it needs to tackle one of these.
San Diego Padres
Just existing for the San Diego Padres is an expensive proposition.
Year-over-year contract extensions for Fernando Tatis Jr., Yu Darvish, Jake Cronenworth, Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta add up to more than $21 million in additional spending. The arbitration claims against Luis Arraez, Dylan Cease, Michael King and Jason Adam could total over $17 million. Overall, San Diego’s 2025 roster will be more than $30 million larger, despite the loss of Ha-Seong Kim and his $8 million annual salary in free agency.
It’s an impressive prospect for the Padres, who have reduced spending since the death of their beloved, freewheeling owner Peter Seidler. GM AJ Preller deserves credit for his aggressive team-building strategy, but proceeding this way for so long is starting to leave cracks in the foundation. A move for Cease or Arraez, both of whom are out of free agency for a year, could be necessary to create spending room, similar to the team’s move for Juan Soto last winter.
The big hope for San Diego’s offseason appears to be Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki. Many in the industry see the Padres as co-favorites for the flamethrower’s services, alongside the rival Dodgers, who had a dramatic upset over San Diego in the 2024 NLDS. If Preller brings in Sasaki, it would give the Padres a cheap, controllable difference maker and give them the opportunity to hang on to Cease or Arraez. Otherwise, Preller may have to get creative to bolster his roster, which has a void in left field left by the likely departure of Jurickson Profar.
Detroit Tigers
After delivering perhaps the most heartwarming upset of 2024, Detroit has yet to translate that momentum into a meaningful, landmark transaction this offseason.
The Tigers have signed starting pitcher Alex Cobb to a one-year, $15 million contract, a hefty sum for a 37-year-old pitcher who played just 16 1/3 regular-season frames in 2024. But Cobb is by no means a sure thing , especially for a team like Detroit that is hoping to establish itself as a consistent contender.
Baltimore, Tampa Bay and the Athletics are currently the only American League clubs projected to enter 2025 with payrolls lower than Detroit’s meager $104 million. A whopping $35 million of that sum is tied up in two expensive, aging squad cloggers: Kenta Maeda and Javier Báez.
The 2024 Tigers’ Cinderella story was made possible by an extensive, high-profile roster of interchangeable contributors. This dynamic presents baseball president Scott Harris with a variety of opportunities to improve his roster. Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and Teoscar Hernández could all fit positional. 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 for baseball hope in the nation’s capital last season, but the Nats spent November and December in complete silence.
And that’s a shame, because with a few new additions this team could become quite troublesome. Washington’s payroll is currently estimated 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, physically damaged World Series hero who will never throw another pitch for the club. But with Patrick Corbin’s big salary not on the books, this is where the Nats should spend this offseason.
A gaping hole at first base seems like a perfect fit 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 for a veteran alongside them on the field. And even though the Nats gave starter Michael Soroka $9 million, they desperately need a more impactful presence to lead their young team.
It wasn’t a shock that the Nationals didn’t reunite with Juan Soto. But fans are understandably disappointed that their club never appeared to be seriously involved in the draw. This ownership group’s willingness to spend remains a big unknown and will determine how the next era of Nationals baseball unfolds.
