What’s the next big domino to fall at the 2025 Winter Meetings? (Latest on Ketel Marte, Pete Alonso)

Patience is bitter, but the fruit is sweet. We got the announcements today, Schwarber and Edwin Diaz, by the way, Aristotle said that Aristotle not available a great baseball insider, but instead you’re stuck tonight with Morosi sherman Haman and Fine Sand Joe. We’ll start with you. Now that Schwarber is a Philly. Now that Diaz is a Dodger. What next of these winter meetings to quote play do? I’m not. I if I had a guess and it’s a guess at the next significant position player to change teams , I would go a trade with Kell Marte. I think, uh there’s a lot of teams on him, including some that were involved on Schwarber. So that clarified he has the kind of contract that almost any team can play on, not just big market but teams like the Pirates if they want to get in on it. I do think the Diamondbacks are kind of like committed to the idea of turning him into pieces , including pitching and freeing up the money that he would bring to also pursue some pitching. So I’ll go with Ketel Marte as the next Domino to fall. I’m gonna say robert Suarez. Um you know, we just saw Diaz Go Suarez is clearly the next best closer, uh, no competition there. There are good closers out there , but he left the league in saves. I do think we’re going to look at Toronto, the Mets. There are other teams involved, but it’ll be interesting to see if he gets a three year deal. Not at the price that Diaz got. Certainly, but this is an outstanding pitcher and I do expect him to go by the end of the week. I’m gonna go to the position player. I’m going to say Pete Alonso, there was no player whose market was bigger to respond to with the Schwarber signing than Alonso. He was the other big power bat on the market. It seems like there are three teams that have focused in on him, the Mets, the Red Sox, the Orioles. Uh the Mets may not want to give him as many years as he wants, which could open the door for the Red Sox and Orioles. So I think Pete Alonso could be the next position player to come off the board. Hear a lot right now. Mark about the Orioles to and John reported a lot about the Orioles interest in kyle Schwarber. So it does seem like the Os a disappointing 2025. They certainly want to answer in a big way. Now entering 2026 and Mark John touched on this a moment ago, the relief pitching market, Robert Suarez, good news for him in that Edwin Diaz goes to the Dodgers. You now have the highly motivated Mets and the big spending Blue Jays, potentially the two leading teams there. What do you see happening next in that relief pitching market? I agree with John. I think if you’re talking about the reliever, Suarez is going to be the next guy to fall. He’s the best guy out there, Pete Fairbanks also getting a lot of traction as well, but I think Suarez will be the next big guy. Those teams you mentioned are in the Braves could be a team in the Suarez. I think Diaz is now set the market in terms of the top value of A AV we’ve seen some other really good contracts for relievers. It’s a very healthy market this off season. So I think Suarez will do very well. Yeah, back in bullpen, I think is the best market that there is. Obviously Diaz has gone. Now, I’ve already predicted on Suarez. Kenley Jansen Fairbanks, Finnegan. All very good Keller also, you got luke Weaver. It’s a pretty deep list, pretty impressive deep list. Finnegan has been talking to the Tigers. Maybe that will happen. Certainly Fairbanks is going to have his teams. It is interesting that Tampa did not give him the $11 million or so option. Uh I think he’ll get that. II I really do and Kenley Jansen the chasing the hall of fame. I think that’s very interesting. As well. Uh, ditto to everything. So I’ll add one more. Uh, I reported on yesterday, I do think the Brewers are going to trade Trevor mcgill, uh, who’s a strong, you know, the 2.5 years he’s been with, with Milwaukee. He’s been one of the best relief pitchers in the sport. I think that before this offseason is over him and Peralta probably go, they do the restocking thing. The Brewers are good at so a quick follow up there. You do think that freddie Peralta and mcgill both will I do. I do because I, I ultimately think we saw them do this with Corbin Burns with a year left and like Marte, because Peralta’s number is a relatively low $8 million. Everyone could be in on it who needs a starting pitcher. I agree in that there’s a higher chance perhaps of Peralta moving than we initially thought. I still think that Tarik Skubal stays put ultimately in Detroit and of, of the starters we’re talking about and Mark was on this yesterday. Mackenzie Gorgeous makes the most. I tend to think that that’s exactly right now, talking about the National League East, we’ll start with Joel, the New York Mets a little bit of pressure. We just saw Williams come up and we thank Devin for his time, but the Mets add Devin Williams, but now they lose Diaz from the pen. There’s gotta be a lot of pressure. Right, joel for them. To resign, Pete Alonso, especially from their fan base. What’s pressure squared because they had a lot of pressure. They, they had arguably the most disappointing season of any team last year and in a litany of disappointing seasons for the franchise, one of the worst ever for them. So there already was pressure. They just lost the guy to the Dodgers for what Steve Cohen could probably find in his cup holder in his car. So I don’t really understand why that happened. Uh, you know, for a player they wanted. So my suspicion is they’re probably thinking, can we get two guys, Suarez and Weaver, for example, for a while, Diaz would have caused an in a volatile air bullpen have two and hope one or both pitch. Well, but to Mark’s point, if it’s not Alonzo back to them, if he goes to Boston or Baltimore, they got to find a bat, especially a right handed bat. They need at least one starting pitcher. By the way, even if they had two relievers, they need another one. And if it’s not an outfielder that’s a bat, they need at least one, maybe two outfielders. They can’t line up and play today. They have a lot to do and they just lost a player who worked for them on the field and in the clubhouse and their clubhouse wasn’t great last year in Edwin Diaz. I actually think Joel painted too rosy a picture. Joel is, is known for his optimism, by the way. Silver lining, Joel, I think Plato said that first. Also. Maybe Socrates go on. I’m serious. I mean, you know, they’re gonna need a right handed bat. I don’t see who else it could be. I don’t think Bregman really fits. I think Beatty was one of the positives of last year. So I think he’s the third baseman. So I think it pretty much needs to be Alonzo unless they go to Akimoto, which I don’t think the fans are gonna like the switch to Devin Williams and Akimoto from Alonzo and Diaz. I don’t think that will really fly. Uh Right now they got half a bullpen, not nearly as good as it was. Uh, you know, Diaz was the one shining star in that bullpen, you know, and he’s now gone. This is a really bad day for the Mets, you know, they could put a smile on it and say, well, Devin Williams is very talented. It’s not a good day and they better get Alonzo, they better get an outfielder. I think they need to dive into that starting pitching market to make up for all this that’s gone on so far. I mean, Derek School, they do have great prospects. They do. Let’s see if they can get Derek SBA or somebody of that ilk. I would have to think that for Scoble to make sense for the Tigers perspective to make that trade mclean has to be in the, in the deal. Mclean. No, I think you can do that deal without mclean. I mean, look, Mookie Betts was traded for Alex Bardugo and a few other guys. Right. It’s one year to go. Uh, obviously he’s the best pitcher, certainly in the American League, probably in major league baseball. But, you know, one year to go, you’re not going to give up a mclean. You may, you may give up a tongue but not a mclean for you. Mark Bellinger Alonso. Do you think either one winds up in New York with the Mets? I think Bellinger might wind up in New York, not with the Mets. I think Alonso is the one that they have to focus on. The question for me is, as I said before, I don’t know that they’re willing to go much more than three years, but will Steve Cohen see the pressure from the fan base right now. They traded Nimmo, one of the fan favorites. They lost. Diaz, a fan favorite. Alonso is a fan favorite. Losing all three of those guys is going to be a gut punch to that fan base. Maybe Steve Cohen says to David Stearns. I know you don’t want to give him more than three years. I don’t care. We’re bringing Pete back. Let’s get this deal done.

Jon Morosi, Joel Sherman, Jon Heyman and Mark Feinsand discuss rumors surrounding Ketel Marte, the relief pitching market, Mets’ focus going forward and more

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