Can you believe it is December 1st on Monday. We are now in the final weekend of November. For most baseball executives, the day after Thanksgiving has few “Black Friday” shopping opportunities.

There are some bargains that are out there for most teams as is normal with minor leaguers, lower level players, retreads, and finding players looking for rebound contracts. Three years ago on this day, the Washington Nationals did sign Jeimer Candelario after Thanksgiving in 2022. Candelario was coming off of a rough 2022 campaign in which he hit just .217 with a .633 OPS. That signing worked out very well for the Nats. Candelario did well in the 2023 season and was flipped at the July trade deadline for DJ Herz and Kevin Made.

Most Nats’ fans do not want to see the Nats shopping in that rebound aisle of the store because for every bounceback player that works, like Candelario and Jesse Winker, you have players like Lucas Sims, Nick Senzel, Eddie Rosario, and Joey Gallo that might not work. Nats fans want President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, shopping at the luxury stores in this offseason.

So far in this offseason, Dylan Cease seems like he is headed to Toronto, and Raisel Iglesias and Josh Naylor have signed new deals. Four more accepted their qualifying offers that includes Brandon Woodruff, Trent Grisham, Shota Imanaga, and Gleyber Torres and that leaves 43-names remaining in the MLB Trade Rumors Top-50 rankings.

One year ago, there was a credible rumor that the Boston Red Sox had offered Juan Soto a 13-year deal for $625 million. There were also some non-credible rumors that were shot down by Jeff Passan of ESPN in which a self-proclaimed reporter said that the deal was done with the Red Sox. Clearly it was not at this point. Passan posted this tweet on Thanksgiving last year:

I am thankful for reporters who don’t make up stories.

I am also thankful that Juan Soto has not agreed to any contract, which means you can get off Twitter and go spend the holiday with your family.

Happy Thanksgiving.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 28, 2024

You knew that Mets’ owner, Steve Cohen, got some Thanksgiving indigestion reading the headlines on Soto offer(s). Of course Soto was the top free agent chip out there last year. Well, Soto’s marketing team got him a deal with Pepsi’s Celsius for a social media troll job. You have to believe Soto got paid a lot to do this.

This year the biggest name out there is Kyle Tucker and once again Alex Bregman is getting the most chatter after Tucker, and then you have some Japanese players making things interesting. Bo Bichette, Cody Bellinger, Pete Alonso, and Kyle Schwarber round out the rest of the big bats out there. They are the luxury items for sure.

Really, we are just in wait and see mode. We have no idea as to what direction Toboni will go in at this time. We are just nine days until the Winter Meetings open up in Orlando, Florida. There are literally no rumors out there on potential signings for the Nationals. In fact, the only rumors are on whether the team trades MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams who both happen to be acquired by the Nats in the Soto blockbuster deal at the trade deadline in 2022.

Maybe the only signings we will see for the Nationals will be new coaches. Plenty have been rumored to be signing with the Nats. Have any hit snags? It has been well over two weeks since the Washington Post reported that Bobby Wilson was going to be the team’s catching coordinator.

In some parts of life, they say silence is golden. In the Hot Stove offseason, silence leads to a sense of boredom. Patience grasshopper.

Related