MLB Rumors: Braves-Roki Sasaki link, Dodgers building dream rotation, Crochet asking price

The champagne has dried and the confetti has been swept away from the Los Angeles Dodgers' World Series celebration. The early offseason clerical work — contract options, opt-ins, opt-outs, qualifying offers — have all been settled. The main event is finally here: It's Hot Stove season, baby, and it's shaping up to be a historic winter.

All eyes will be on Juan Soto, who might be about to make a run at Shohei Ohtani's historic $700 million megadeal from last offseason. But even beyond Soto, big names abound: Players like Roki Sasaki, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Teoscar Hernandez have hit free agency, while other stars like Luis Robert Jr., Garrett Crochet, Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and more could be made available via trade. The landscape of the league figures to look a whole lot different by the time next spring rolls around.

Who will end up where over the next few weeks? Here's the latest from around the MLB rumor mill.

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MLB Rumors: Braves among teams linked to Roki Sasaki

It's beginning to look like the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes might be a bit more complicated than we first thought. The Athletic's Jim Bowden poured a bit of cold water on the notion that the Los Angeles Dodgers are a foregone conclusion, and now another interesting contender has emerged: the Atlanta Braves, who Bowden name-checks as an intriguing landing spot.

Because Sasaki is considered an international amateur free agent, money won't be a deciding factor here; every team is pulling from their international bonus pool, which means that every contract offer will be about the same. What will differentiate prospective suitors is what they can offer Sasaki in every other area, from comfort to competitiveness to career development. And in that last category, the Braves match up well against just about anyone: Atlanta has been churning out quality starting pitchers for years now, whether international free agents or draft picks or free agent signings.

Just look at the team's top three starters entering 2025. Chris Sale was on the decline with the Boston Red Sox, Reynaldo Lopez seemed to have already flamed out as a starter and Spencer Schwellenbach was a second-round pick off of most prospect radars. But all three of them excelled under Atlanta's tutelage, and Alex Anthopoulos will be very motivated to sell Sasaki on the same if Max Fried walks in free agency.

MLB Rumors: Dodgers might not stop at Roki Sasaki

Of course, just because the Dodgers aren't a slam dunk doesn't mean that they're not to be taken very seriously. They're going to put the full-court press on Sasaki, and they might not stop there: According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, L.A. "will try for one more big pitcher" even assuming they manage to land the Japanese righty. There are plenty of candidates to choose from, including California natives Corbin Burnes and Max Fried and lefty Blake Snell.

If eying not just one but two frontline starters seems like overkill for a team that just rolled to a World Series title, consider the adversity the Dodgers had to overcome to win that ring. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, James Paxton, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Bobby Miller were all hampered by injuries in 2024, and two of the pitchers who carried Los Angeles in the postseason, Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty, are now free agents.

The cupboard is hardly bare, with Yamamoto and Glasnow back and Shohei Ohtani returning to the mound, but just about everyone in the team's rotation at the moment comes with some health concerns. Sasaki would help mitigate those concerns, but if there's one thing the Dodgers learned from this past season, it's that you can never have enough pitching. Especially when money is no object.

MLB Rumors: White Sox want top prospect and then some for Garrett Crochet

Whichever teams miss out on the likes of Burnes, Fried and Snell could turn to Chicago, where White Sox GM Chris Getz appears open for business on All-Star lefty Garrett Crochet. Crochet was sensational in 2024, but with Chicago at the start of yet another rebuild, it makes sense to flip him now with two full years of team control remaining.

And when Chicago does choose to move him, they're likely to get a haul in return. Getz was open at the GM Meetings about wanting position players in any Crochet package, and Heyman adds that rival executives believe the White Sox will get "a blue-chip prospect, and probably more" in any deal. Lefties with Crochet's stuff and two cost-controlled years left don't come around very often, and Chicago can use that leverage to ask for a king's ransom.

The Dodgers (Gavin Lux, Dalton Rushing among others), New York Mets (Luisangel Acuna, Jett Williams) and Baltimore Orioles (Jackson Holliday) are all teams that could use starting pitching help and have young position players that could entice Getz, while the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies also figure to be interested but might not have enough ammunition to get a deal done.