How soon is too soon for teams to consider locking up their young, controllable talent?
It's a question the Pittsburgh Pirates have to be asking themselves in the wake of Paul Skenes' meteoric rise to the big leagues in 2024. Less than a calendar year after being selected first overall, Skenes started for the National League in the All-Star Game and won the Rookie of the Year on the senior circuit.
But signing an extension hasn't been a priority for the six-foot-six righty just yet.
"I haven't given it too much thought," Skenes told reporters Sunday at Pirates Fan Fest when asked about the possibility of committing his future to Pittsburgh.
While Skenes isn't scheduled to hit free agency until the 2030 season wraps, the fact that the question is being asked shows just how important Skenes is to the Pirates' short- and long-term hopes.
It's not unprecedented for teams to commit to their up-and-coming stars long before they even get a sniff of free agency. The Milwaukee Brewers took a leap of faith last off-season, handing a then 19-year-old Jackson Chourio a record eight-year, $82 million contract before he stepped to the plate in an MLB game.
However, what baseball hasn't seen is young pitchers getting paid early into their careers at the same rate. Last March, the Boston Red Sox gave Brayan Bello a six-year extension after just 214.1 MLB innings before the right-hander struggled to a 4.49 ERA last summer, showing the inherent risk in betting on pitchers.
Skenes has clearly established himself as an ace-level talent, though, and at just 22 years old, offers a Pittsburgh franchise mired in a nine-year post-season drought a face to build around long-term.
As the baseball world gears up for spring training, the Pirates are far from the only team generating headlines. Now just 20 days until the first pitchers and catchers report, here are some of the most recent rumours from around MLB.
Sasaki's homework assignment
After Roki Sasaki made his decision on Friday, landing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the way his recruitment unfolded has slowly made its way out into the public.
Per a report from The Athletic on Saturday, Sasaki gave interested teams homework for their initial meetings.
The assignment? Figure out why his velocity fell off in 2024 while pitching with the Chiba Lotte Marines.
According to The Athletic, the process left some teams "wondering where they stood" after their visit with the 23-year-old Japanese star. Sasaki was reportedly most engaged during the meetings when pitching mechanics came up.
Seemingly the favourite to land Sasaki even before the Marines officially posted him for a transfer to MLB, the Dodgers zoned in on their organizational stability in their pitch and "laid out their development plan and how they hoped to make Sasaki better."
Los Angeles's recruitment also featured perhaps the ultimate advantage in any negotiation with a player coming over from Japan, of course, in Shohei Ohtani. According to one MLB official, Ohtani played a significant role in the Dodgers' effort, "driving the bus" to land his 2023 World Baseball Classic teammate.
Twins' trade conversations picking up
Coming off a late-season collapse, the Minnesota Twins haven't been very proactive in adding to their roster this winter.
The Twins have yet to sign a free agent to a major-league contract this off-season and have only made minor additions through trade and the Rule 5 Draft. With the team currently up for sale and the winning bidder not expected to be chosen until opening day, figuring out a 2025 payroll has been a challenge for Minnesota's front office.
But amid that challenge, the Twins could be poised to finally make a major move.
“You don’t know where things are going to land,” president Derek Falvey told The Athletic's Dan Hayes. “But I can tell you we’ve had more active conversations in the last couple of weeks than we’ve had prior. Hopefully it’s a signal of the same thing, that we have some traction on a few different ideas and concepts especially as teams start to turn, some to the trade market, some to the free-agent market. … I’m hopeful there’s still some opportunity there.”
Although there isn't any mandate from ownership to cut payroll, Hayes writes that the Twins "may be able to add a tiny amount" of salary but would "likely have to trade away a key player to free up enough money to make a significant addition."
He listed utilityman Willi Castro and right-hander Chris Paddack as potential trade candidates, with each owed over $6 million in 2025.
Catcher Christian Vazquez and ace Pablo López have both been speculative targets for other clubs, but with a core that should be able to compete in the AL Central, it is unclear just how far the Twins would go in shipping out major-league talent.
Right-handed bat remains Red Sox's 'top priority'
Even though the Boston Red Sox missed out in the Tanner Scott sweepstakes, the team still views adding a right-handed hitter as its top priority, according to MassLive's Chris Cotillo.
However, with the free-agent market slowly losing right-handed impact, Boston's options are becoming limited.
Cotillo writes that "free agent Alex Bregman and St. Louis Cardinals trade candidate Nolan Arenado remain the two big-name — yet imperfect — fits the Red Sox have considered."
At the current price either would cost, "Boston could be waiting on either Bregman (short-term deal?) or the Cardinals (salary dump?) to get desperate as spring training draws closer," Cotillo wrote.
As currently constructed, the Red Sox lineup is extremely lefty-heavy, with heart-of-the-order bats Rafael Devers, Jarren Duran, Triston Casas, Masataka Yoshida and Wilyer Abreu all digging into the left-handed batter's box. It has made sense all off-season for Boston to be in the running for a righty like Bregman, Arenado or Teoscar Hernández, but so far it has only been able to upgrade on the pitching side.
Cotillo identified free agent Randal Grichuk and Chicago Cubs trade candidate Seiya Suzuki as other potential targets for the Red Sox.
Quick hits
• Speaking of Suzuki, manager Craig Counsell commented on Chicago's positional alignment for 2025 over the weekend at Cubs Con, saying, "Seiya's going to DH a lot. That's what's going to happen." This comes despite Suzuki's agent, Joel Wolfe, sharing during the Winter Meetings that the Japanese outfielder did not want to be slotted as an everyday designated hitter.
• The New York Yankees' "biggest priority," according to The Athletic's Brendan Kuty, is adding a left-handed reliever, "with names such as Tim Hill, Brooks Raley and Andrew Chafin each being discussed."
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