Dylan Cease is on the Toronto Blue Jays, Sonny Gray is on the Boston Red Sox, and the MLB offseason is fully cooking on the hot stove already and we're just at Thanksgiving. Obviously, we expect teams like the Red Sox and New York Yankees in the AL East to offer their respective (and likely expensive) responses. However, let's not forget the team that just outlasted the Jays in the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and how they could make a splash, perhaps on the trade market.
Let's check in on the latest MLB rumors around the league this offseason in the wake of the Cease trade and with so much in free agency and the trade market still yet to come.
Yankees considered the favorite to sign Kyle Tucker by MLB execs
While New York Post MLB insider Jon Heyman asserted that the Yankees remain focused on bringing Cody Bellinger back to the Bronx — and that's obviously still very much in play — executives around baseball aren't quite as convinced that New York isn't swinging just a bit harder in free agency. Namely, the belief is that Brian Cashman is going to sign Kyle Tucker.
ESPN recently released its offseason executive survey and posed the question (and the phrasing might be important here): Will Kyle Tucker get more than $400 million, and who will give it to him? And while just six of the 16 responses thought that the star outfielder's next contract will start with a "4", the more shocking revelation was that another six of the 16, more than for any other team, predicted that the Yankees will be the team that eventually signs Tucker.
Considering that Hal Steinbrenner just recently came out and talked about lowering the Yankees' payroll being the ideal option, those two things obviously don't compute. Even if Tucker doesn't get the full $400 million contract, the fact that such a number is part of the conversation doesn't jibe with what the ownership in New York is talking about.
That, of course, doesn't mean the Yankees won't end up spending big, or even that they won't sign Tucker. It does create a bit of confusion, however, when it comes to what New York's plan is and, maybe just as importantly, how other teams and their front offices around the league ultimately view them.
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Red Sox targeting two of five specific big bats on the market
Despite the clearly stated target on pitching this offseason, Red Sox fans were still a bit taken aback at the Sonny Gray trade. Part of that is because the veteran right-hander doesn't quite fit the No. 2 starter mold that Craig Breslow promised, which has led to the optimistic belief that Boston will still explore other rotation upgrades. Before they do that, though, it seems that adding a big bat to help the lineup is their primary order of business — and specifically, it appears that it's not just one, but two big bats that Breslow and Company are pursuing.
According to insider Jon Heyman and the New York Post, the Red Sox are "far from done" and are weighing "signing up to two" of the big bats that would fortify their lineup this offseason. Heyman even named the quintet that Boston appears to be shopping from, a group that includes the known targets of reuniting with Alex Bregman, Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso, but also mentioning Kazuma Okamoto and J.T. Realmuto.
Based on what we've been hearing from the Red Sox and the likelihood that the team won't try to go over the second luxury tax threshold, you can piece together a bit of what Breslow might be trying to do here. It would stand to reason that Boston won't accept leaving the offseason without one of the biggest ticket items offensively in Bregman, Schwarber and Alonso, but would also love to add a cheaper option like an Okamoto and Realmuto.
I'll admit, the Realmuto fit still seems a bit weird. However, Okamoto makes perfect sense paired with any of those options. His plus defense in Japan at both third and first base would give the Red Sox flexibility if they were to re-sign Bregman or sign Alonso, while he could fit the bigger need if it were Schwarber returning close to Waltham as the new DH.
In any case, though, it does seem that the Gray trade was merely just an appetizer for the Red Sox in a busy and crucial offseason.
Dodgers mulling Tyler Glasnow trade to shake up the roster
If you needed any more evidence that the job is never done in baseball when it comes to the top contenders in the sport, the Dodgers are giving us a reminder. Right off of capturing back-to-back World Series victory, Los Angeles is still aiming to upgrade their roster, even if they aren't prepared to go on another lucrative spending spree. They might need to get a bit more creative to avoid taking on crippling luxury tax penalties, which could lead to them trading an asset to supplement other parts of the roster.
Namely, the Dodgers could explore trading veteran right-hander Tyler Glasnow. In the ESPN executive survey, one of the voters told the panel of insiders that Glasnow is a "sleeper" trade candidate, explaining, "Feels like the Dodgers can go to Ohtani, Yamamoto, Snell, Sasaki, Sheehan and others and use Glasnow on the trade market to cover up holes.
This would be a quintessential Dodgers move, beyond the lunacy of when you look at a statement that says the team can trade one of MLB's most talented arms to "cover up holes". But in reality, they do have a surplus of pitching that they can deal from, and Glasnow, though immensely gifted, has continued to struggle with injuries, but could still fetch a nice price for a team in need of pitching this offseason.
Whether that would mean trading for a middle infielder, third baseman, or outfielder, we don't know, but those are all potential spots to upgrade if you're the Dodgers heading into 2026 eyeing a repeat. But it'll still hold quite a bit of sticker shock if we all get the alert that Glasnow has been traded.