All the news and rumors for the Astros and from around MLB – it’s in here! The second offseason Crawfish Boil of 2026! Here’s what’s happening:

Tatsuya Imai, Astros’ New Jersey Number “45” Decided; 23 Pitchers Including Ace Cole and NPB Veterans Have Worn It in the Past; To Be Unveiled at Tomorrow’s Press Conference on the 6th (Daily Sports) – Yahoo! News https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/269f25b34c9507bd71173491949455a13fa4b82d The jersey number for Tatsuya Imai, the former Seibu pitcher who agreed to a 3-year, $54 million (approximately 8.4 billion yen) deal with the Astros, has been set to “45.”

DeJong will make $1M if he makes the club out of Spring.

Now 32, DeJong is long removed from his fantastic rookie season of 2017 when he finished 2nd in NL ROY and had 25 HR and an .857 OPS. DeJong still has power and positional flexibility, but his AVG, OBP and OPS have all cratered over the last 5 seasons.

Bloom did a lot of buttering up for a guy he’s wanted to trade going on 2 years now. He knows he has to eat a bunch of money to make it happen, but it’s time. Arenado had an all-time great run as a 3B, with 6 Top-8 MVP finishes (and it’s mind blowing he never won), 10 straight Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Sluggers, and 8 All Star appearances. That being said, unless he gets on whatever Albert Pujols got on at the end, Arenado is at the very end of the line. Bloom is right though, he is absolutely a Hall Of Fame player at 3B.

There have been previous reports about bad relationships between SS Francisco Lindor and now former Met Jeff McNeil, and that Lindor and OF Juan Soto are not exactly friends. The reports of Mets clubhouse tension won’t go away, and these comments from Blackburn just confirm the reports that the Mets clubhouse was not a fun one last season. This would also help explain the Mets decisions to move on from so many players this offseason (Alonso, Nimmo, McNeil, etc) and they may still want to move on from at least one more (Senga). Those moves allow them to bring in a lot of new blood that will be playing important roles for the team.

The Cubs have been reportedly in on several big name players, but they haven’t spent any big name money and their owner Tom Ricketts doesn’t seem inclined to write any big name checks. They have a top prospect in Matt Shaw at 3B, Dansby Swanson at SS and Nico Hoerner (who reportedly could be available) at 2B. Hoerner is a 2x Gold Glover who makes good contact with little power but terrific speed. He also rarely strikes out (49K in 649 PA). 1B Michael Busch hit 34 HR with an .866 OPS last season.

That would make Bellinger as an OF more interesting and a better fit than Bregman or Bichette, and it would allow the Cubs to keep playing Seiya Suzuki at DH (he hit 32 HR and had an .804 OPS last season, but he prefers to play the field and not DH).

The Cubs previously had interest in Pete Alonso and Kazuma Okamoto but were not truly in the bidding, and they have already conceded they will not try to retain OF Kyle Tucker.

So it definitely remains to be seen if the Cubs are buyers or window shoppers, and currently they have the look of the latter.

The financial terms were not released as yet.

Ohh—the Imai effect is already kicking in On SanjaPo (Japanese TV) Dave Spector mentioned Astros! Thank you so much!