National League Central5 of 7

3B/DH Eugenio Suárez signs one-year, $15M deal with Cincinnati Reds
Grade: A+

Without a doubt, Cincinnati needed some lumber in its lineup. Rookie Sal Stewart could provide some pop at first base. Maybe JJ Bleday does some damage from the outfield. But neither one is a sure thing, and this team didn’t have a single player make at least 120 plate appearances with an OPS north of .777.

They sent him packing during the 2021-22 offseason after a very uncharacteristic OPS+ of 82, but he has bounced back with 132 home runs over the last four years, particularly mashing the cover off the ball this past season with the Diamondbacks.

He’ll pretty much exclusively serve as the DH with Ke’Bryan Hayes entrenched at the hot corner. But that’s fine. His glove was never his strongest suit.

DH Marcell Ozuna signs one-year, $12M deal with Pittsburgh Pirates
Grade: A-

It’s nowhere near the Kyle Schwarber splash they were talking about at the beginning of the offseason, but Ozuna could be a mighty fine final piece of the offseason puzzle. Prior to Ozuna, the Pirates had already added Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, Jhostynxon Garcia and Jake Mangum to a lineup that might actually be able to provide Paul Skenes with some run support for a change.

RHP José Urquidy signs one-year, $1.5M deal with Pittsburgh Pirates
Grade: C

Urquidy missed all of 2024 and essentially all of 2025 to Tommy John surgery, but the Pirates are hoping (for less than double a league minimum salary) he can bounce back to something resembling the guy who had a 3.74 ERA in 342.0 innings pitched across 2019-22. If Urquidy shows any sort of potential of doing so in spring training, he’ll likely break camp as the Pirates No. 5 starter, at least until Jared Jones returns from the 60-day IL.

C Gary Sánchez signs one-year, $1.75M deal with Milwaukee Brewers
Grade: B+

With this one move, the Brewers more than doubled their offseason-to-date spending on free agents. Signing Sánchez was a bit of a necessary move, though, in case it becomes clear over the next six weeks that Jeferson Quero isn’t ready to serve as No. 2 behind William Contreras on the Brewers depth chart. Sánchez filled the backup DH/C role admirably for the Brewers in 2024.

IF Luis Rengifo signs one-year, $3.5M deal with Milwaukee Brewers
Grade: B

Once again, with this one move, the Brewers more than doubled what they had spent up until that point. And once again, it was a bit necessary, as their third-base situation was looking mighty suspect after trading Caleb Durbin to the Red Sox. If Rengifo can bounce back from a rough 2025 to resume producing like he did from 2022-24, he may well be their primary starter at the hot corner.

RHP Shelby Miller signs two-year, $2.5M deal with Chicago Cubs
Grade: C

The deal also includes incentives based on performance/availability in 2027, but Miller is most likely going to miss the entire 2026 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. As such, sure, we’ll give this a C for now and keep an ear out for any rehab news.