MLB Rumors: Dylan Cease trade dead, Gerrit Cole on Soto, Alex Bregman deferred money

After nearly lulling the entire baseball world to sleep toward the end of January, Hot Stove season has gone out like a lion over the last week or two, as Pete Alonso re-signed with the New York Mets and Alex Bregman spurned the Houston Astros for the Boston Red Sox just after the start of Spring Training. And with teams around the league reporting to Florida and Arizona this week, the rumor mill shows no signs of slowing down.

What's making news on Thursday? The San Diego Padres made some free-agency noise of their own on Wednesday, while Gerrit Cole reopens some old Subway Series wounds and more details emerge about Bregman's contract with Boston.

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MLB Rumors: Padres leaning toward keeping Dylan Cease after Nick Pivetta signing

The Padres had been deathly quiet for much of the offseason, the team in a holding pattern as a bitter ownership fight tied up its payroll. But on Wednesday evening, just a couple of hours before news of Bregman's signing broke, San Diego finally got on the board, agreeing to a four-year, $55 million deal with talented righty Nick Pivetta.

The news came as a bit of a surprise, considering that most of the chatter around the Padres in recent weeks had centered around whether, and how much, money the team would shed going into the 2025 season. Without Peter Seidler to foot the bill, San Diego's bloated payroll was becoming more and more of an issue, putting pending free agents like Dylan Cease, Michael King and Luis Arraez on the chopping block. And sure enough, Pivetta's contract is heavily back-loaded, paying him just $4 million in 2025 before jumping up to $19 million in 2026 — the year in which Cease, King, Arraez and others will be coming off the books.

It seemed like the writing was on the wall. But not so fast: It seems like GM AJ Preller has no intention of blowing up a team that he clearly still thinks is good enough to compete for a World Series this season.

On the one hand, you have to admire the approach from Preller, who's never been one to shy away from going for it. On the other, San Diego seems a bit farther away from the Los Angeles Dodgers than they were last season, and if 2025 doesn't result in an NL pennant, they'll likely be left facing a bit of a rebuild in 2026 and beyond — without the cost-controlled young talent that Cease and other assets could fetch in a trade.

MLB Rumors: Gerrit Cole calls Juan Soto's Mets contract 'good for the game'

Cole has officially arrived at New York Yankees camp, and he made some headlines on his first day. Not for anything to do with his health or performance in 2025, but for his take on former teammate Juan Soto's decision to sign with the New York Mets this offseason for a record 15 years and $765 million.

Unsurprisingly, Cole was unwilling to bury a guy who just helped him get to the World Series a few months ago, opting for diplomacy instead.

“I only got to know Juan for one year," Cole said, per The Athletic. "He’s a magnificent player and a great teammate. Juan is going to make the best decision for Juan. While we were going into it, it’s hard to say what exactly is going on from my perspective. I just tried to remain indifferent and not get my hopes up one way or the other.”

It was what he said next, though, that will raise some eyebrows both in New York and around the league.

“It’s a very large amount of money,” Cole said about Soto's deal. “It’s hard to underestimate great players and hard to underestimate Scott (Boras), too. He does a good job at what he does.”

“It’s good for all players. It’s good for the game. Obviously, the Mets and the Mets’ fanbase is thrilled about it, too. It was exciting. I think the anticipation was always about how high it’s going to get.”

This is hardly shocking coming from Cole, who traded his Astros cap for a Boras Corp. cap immediately upon becoming a free agent following the 2019 season and thanked both former MLBPA executive director Marvin Miller and free agency pioneer Curt Flood at his introductory press conference with the Yankees. He spent years as a union rep himself, and he's keenly aware of how a rising tide can lift all boats.

That doesn't mean Yankees fans will be thrilled by it, or that most fans will agree that Soto's megadeal is good for the game overall. At this point, the jury is very much out as to whether Boras remains a value-add for his clients, and while Soto is undoubtedly thrilled with how his free agency went, it doesn't figure to do a whole lot for the large swath of players occupying the league's middle class.

MLB Rumors: Alex Bregman's Red Sox contract includes 'significant' deferrals

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's Boston's stance toward how the Los Angeles Dodgers have been doing business recently, at least if Bregman's new deal is any indication. According to ESPN's Buster Olney, the three-year, $120 million contract includes "significant" deferrals, which ease Boston's burden a bit and turn the actual value of the deal into something closer to $90 million.

In reality, deferrals have been around forever, and probably aren't quite the loophole that fans assume (although Shohei Ohtani's certainly took it to its extreme). This allows everybody to claim a win: Boras and Bregman get to crow about resetting the third-base market, at least from an AAV perspective, while Boston gets something a bit more in line with what it's already paying Rafael Devers on a yearly basis.