MLB Rumors: Rangers holding Seager, Jarren Duran suitor, Murakami's cold market

We've reached a curious phase of the MLB offseason: The glow of the Winter Meetings has faded, but as we enter the Christmas season, there still isn't a ton of urgency for teams to come together either with each other or with free agents to hammer out a deal. Everyone's content to sit back, relax and play the waiting game rather than risk what could turn out to be an overpay.

Case in point: Our latest batch of MLB rumors is focused more on what isn't happening than what is. Teams with trade pieces to shop are presenting a strong front, desperate to convince their peers around the league that they're holding the leverage here, while the free agent market remains largely bottled up despite a couple big deals at the Winter Meetings.

Rangers seemingly shut down Corey Seager trade rumors

When the offseason began, word out of Texas was that the Rangers — fresh off a second straight disappointing season after their World Series run in 2023 — had a mandate from ownership to trim what had become a bloated payroll. Naturally, this kicked off a round of Corey Seager trade speculation: Seager had the biggest payroll hit on Texas' books, and figured to command the most significant return as an All-Star bat at a premium position.

Word from the Winter Meetings were that just about any would-be contender was asking around as t Seager's status. But unfortunately for the likes of the Red Sox, Yankees and others, it seems like we can now close this door for good.

“While I understand teams checking in, I think that’s been overblown,” Rangers president Chris Young told MLB Network. “We are not shopping Corey Seager, we want Corey Seager to help us win our next championship.”

Swapping Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo both trimmed the team's short-term payroll a bit (Semien's AAV was a few million higher than Nimmo's) and left Texas ill-suited to shipping out another middle infielder. This is far from a true teardown, which is what a Seager trade represents, although it remains to be seen whether Young can acquire the pitching he needs for a bounce-back year — or whether he can find answers at first base, DH and elsewhere to repair what was a moribund lineup.

Royals driving hard after Jarren Duran, but Red Sox asking price is steep

The Kansas City Royals finally took the lid off the trade market over the weekend, acquiring Isaac Collins (and reliever Nick Mears) from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for lefty reliever Angel Zerpa. But Kansas City can't afford to rest on its laurels; this was the worst offensive outfield in the sport last year by a country mile, and if they want to return to the postseason, they need to keep adding.

So it's no surprise that, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the Royals are among the most aggressive teams in pursuit of Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran. Not only would he be the top-of-the-order bat K.C. desperately needs in front of Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino, but he's cost-controlled and has enough speed to navigate the spacious confines of Kauffman Stadium.

The one problem: Boston's asking price appears to be very high at the moment. Rosenthal adds that the Royals came away from initial talks "under the impression Duran would cost them left-hander Cole Ragans," which feels pretty close to a non-starter. Granted, it's still early in the offseason; there are months to go until spring training, and this is the time when teams ask for the moon — especially for players they don't strictly need to part ways with. Of course, Boston's outfield logjam isn't going to clear itself, and maybe the calculus changes as we get into January. If you're hoping your favorite team makes a run at Duran, though, brace yourself.

Will a suitor emerge for Munetaka Murakami?

For years, fans in the States had looked forward to the day whwen Munetaka Murakami, the single best power hitter in NPB, finally came to the Majors. So it's a bit of a shock that, with less than two weeks to go in Murakami's posting window, there's been ... pretty much zero word on his market so far.

Even Rosenthal has hardly anything to add in his latest column, writing that "his destination remains a mystery". Maybe someone is lurking in the shadows, but from here it sure seems like teams are awfully skeptical about his transition to the big leagues given his sky-high swing and miss rate in Japan. (Murakami's career strike out rate sits at 25 percent, a very high number in a league that's much more contact-oriented than MLB.)

Murakami's youth and raw power are working in his favor, and he presumably doesn't want to have to go back to Japan if he doesn't reach a deal by 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 22. But there are real questions about whether he can make enough contact to survive in the States, especially considering that he brings next to no value as a fielder or base-runner.