MLB free agency is cruising right along, with many of the big names off the board. But some impact players are still available, and the trade market has been active.
Here’s a quick look at where things stand so far this offseason:
Blue Jays reportedly signing slugger Anthony Santander
After missing out on Roki Sasaki, the Toronto Blue Jays are reportedly in agreement with Anthony Santander on a five-year, $92.5 million deal, per multiple reports. Santander, 30, had a career season in 2024, smashing 44 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles while batting .235 with an .814 OPS.
He was ranked No. 11 on Yahoo Sports’ list of the Top 50 MLB free agents going into the offseason.
As a left-handed batter, Santander, a switch-hitter, hit .225 with a .793 OPS and 12 homers in 2024. But he did most of his damage as a power hitter batting right-handed, slugging 32 home runs with a .225 average and .822 OPS.
Roki Sasaki announces he’s signing with Dodgers
Roki Sasaki, the No. 2 player on Yahoo Sports’ Top 50 free-agent rankings, is headed to Los Angeles. He announced his decision on his Instagram. His signing bonus is reportedly $6.5 million, per The Athletic.
Sasaki’s other finalists were the Toronto Blue Jays, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers. According to The Athletic, the Blue Jays hosted Sasaki for a visit in January, and then the Dodgers hosted him for another visit that included star players. Apparently, the latter meeting was more successful.
The international signing period opened Jan. 15, and Sasaki had until Jan. 23 to make his decision.
Dodgers bolster their bullpen with Tanner Scott
Tanner Scott, the top reliever on the MLB free-agent market, got paid like it.
The former San Diego Padres southpaw has agreed to a four-year, $72 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to multiple reports. Scott joins an increasingly deep Dodgers bullpen and gets paid well to do it.
Scott, who was traded from the Marlins to the Padres at last summer’s deadline, posted a 2.73 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings with San Diego in the second half.
The deal is among the largest ever given to a reliever, with Edwin Díaz’s five-year, $102 million contract with the New York Mets still representing the high-water mark.
Yahoo Sports ranked the 30-year-old Scott as the No. 22 free agent on the market this offseason and the highest among the available relievers.
Required reading:
Follow along with Yahoo Sports as we track all the rumors, signings and more during MLB free agency:
The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their latest talent coup on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, officially introducing Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki as a member of the team.
After statements from Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, Sasaki introduced himself through an interpreter before facing questions from media for the first time as a Dodger.
The primary question concerned the influence of fellow Japanese Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on his decision.
Read the full story here.
Guardians sign reliever Paul Sewald to 1-year deal
The Cleveland Guardians are adding reliever Paul Sewald on a one-year, $7 million deal, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The contract includes a mutual option for 2026.
Sewald spent the past season and a half with the Arizona Diamondbacks after a 2023 deadline trade from the Seattle Mariners. In 2024, Sewald pitched 39 2/3 innings and posted a 4.31 ERA with 43 strikeouts.
Tim Anderson signing minor-league deal with Angels: Report
Former All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson signs a minor league deal with the Los Angeles Angels as he tries to revive his career with manager and infield guru Ron Washington.
The Dodgers will formally introduce Roki Sasaki at 3 p.m. PT on Wednesday.
Why Roki Sasaki signing with the Dodgers isn’t surprising
Welcome to Toronto, Anthony Santander
The Blue Jays did what they needed to do
The Toronto Blue Jays hadto do something.
After futile runs at multiple top free agents — Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Roki Sasaki all spurned Canada’s team this winter — the Jays found themselves in a position of desperation. Their roster, though capable of competing in 2025, remained incomplete and undermanned, particularly on offense. And with two of the club’s franchise cornerstones, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, just a year from free agency, the future was growing increasingly hazy. The pressure, for this franchise without a postseason win since 2016, had reached a fever pitch.
But on Monday, the Jays gave themselves some breathing room and a much-needed injection of power, with the club reportedly agreeing to terms with slugging outfielder Anthony Santander on a five-year contract. It’s an inevitable, obvious pairing between a team sorely lacking in pop and a free agent with immense juice.
Read the full column here.
Dodgers close to adding another reliever
After signing Tanner Scott, the reigning World Series champs are looking to add Kirby Yates to their bullpen.
Free-agent reliever Kirby Yates in serious discussions with Dodgers, source tells @TheAthletic. Any deal would be pending physical. Possibility first mentioned by @BNightengale.
Finally, some good news for Blue Jays fans. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports that Anthony Santander is headed to Toronto, pending a physical. The deal is for five years and $92.5 million, per multiple reports.
Santander spent his entire eight-year career in Baltimore and was a first-time All-Star in 2024 , slashing .308/.506/.814.
Read more here.
Anthony Santander and Blue Jays are in agreement pending physical, sources say. @MLBNetwork
Tanner Scott, the top reliever on the MLB free-agent market, got paid like it.
The former San Diego Padres southpaw has agreed to a four-year, $72 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to multiple reports. Scott joins an increasingly deep Dodgers bullpen and gets paid well to do it.
Scott, who was traded from the Marlins to the Padres at last summer’s deadline, posted a 2.73 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings with San Diego in the second half.
The deal is among the largest ever given to a reliever, with Edwin Díaz’s five-year, $102 million contract with the New York Mets still representing the high-water mark.
Yahoo Sports ranked the 30-year-old Scott as the No. 22 free agent on the market this offseason and the highest among the available relievers.
Read more here.
What’s next for the Blue Jays and Padres after missing out on Roki Sasaki?
Hope is a dangerous beast.
Or, in other words: Roki Sasaki is a Los Angeles Dodger, and few in the baseball industry are particularly surprised.
The 23-year-old Japanese hurler, one of the most promising talents in the nation’s storied baseball history, announced Friday on Instagram that he agreed to a deal with the defending World Series champs. For Dodgers fans, it’s cause for celebration. For the rest of the league, it’s a disappointing conclusion to a fascinating free agency and another reason to gripe and groan about the growing might of MLB’s new evil empire.
Frustration, from the fan bases and front offices that missed out, is justifiable and understandable. So, too, is the decision Sasaki made for himself.
Read the full story here.
What does the Dodgers’ rotation look like with the addition of Roki Sasaki?
It was just 15 months ago that the Los Angeles Dodgers crashed out of the NLDS at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Swept by a division rival that had won 16 fewer games than the Dodgers in the regular season, it was another maddening early exit from October for a franchise that had become all too familiar with such a feeling. Despite repeatedly assembling rosters seemingly fit for a championship run, Los Angeles kept coming up short.
Although the calendar would suggest otherwise, that abrupt, embarrassing elimination against Arizona now feels like a distant memory. Since that NLDS loss, which president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman deemed “an organizational failure,” the Dodgers have achieved an extraordinary amount of organizational success. Their latest triumph: the signing of 23-year-old Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki, a generationally gifted pitcher whose unique free agency became one of the biggest hot stove storylines MLB has seen in quite some time.
Many organizations coveted Sasaki, whose status as an international amateur made him available for a fraction of what he would’ve been worth had he waited until he turned 25 and come to MLB as a full-fledged free agent. This was not a player for whom the Dodgers could simply flex their financial muscles and outbid the competition; this was a matter of recruiting and selling a vision of a place where a young pitcher can maximize his big-league dreams. Ultimately — thanks in large part to the past year, in which the franchise supercharged its roster to new heights, won the World Series and cemented its reputation as a developmental powerhouse — the Dodgers offer a compelling pitch by those standards as well. And so, sure enough, Sasaki chose Los Angeles as the home for the first chapter of his highly anticipated major-league career.
Read the full story here.
Roki Sasaki gives Dodgers monster Japanese trio in rotation
Roki Sasaki was expected by many to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were right.
The flame-throwing right-hander from Japan agreed to a deal with the Dodgers on Friday, according to a post on his Instagram account.
The Dodgers beat out basically all of MLB for Sasaki, who met with several teams to evaluate what they could bring to the table beyond money. The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays were reported to be the finalists, with the Dodgers and Padres seen as the co-favorites for most of the process.
After receiving the signing bonus, Sasaki will have the same status as any other MLB rookie once he makes his debut, going through pre-arbitration and arbitration years before he hits free agency after six years of MLB service time.
Meanwhile, Sasaki’s NPB team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, will receive a posting fee worth 20% of the signing bonus. In four seasons with the Marines, Sasaki posted a 2.02 ERA and 0.883 WHIP with 524 strikeouts in 414 2/3 innings.
Read more here.
A’s continue to spend, sign RP José Leclerc
The 31-year-old Leclerc has pitched eight seasons in MLB, all with the Texas Rangers. In 2024, he made 64 appearances, striking out 89 batters and recording a 4.32 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in 66 2/3 innings pitched.
Right-handed reliever José Leclerc and the Athletics are in agreement on a one-year, $10 million contract, sources tell ESPN. First with the agreement was @ByRobertMurray.
Mets agree to 2-year, $22 million contract with lefty reliever A.J. Minter
The New York Mets keep growing their bullpen, adding left-handed reliever A.J. Minter on Friday, per multiple reports. Minter and the Mets agreed on a two-year, $22 million deal that includes an opt-out in the first season.
Minter, who spent the first eight seasons of his MLB career with the Atlanta Braves, threw 35 strikeouts in 34 1/3 innings for the Braves last season, recording a 2.62 ERA and 1.02 WHIP.
Red Sox, Jarren Duran agree on 1-year, $3.85M deal
The #RedSox today signed OF Jarren Duran to a one-year contract for the 2025 season, with a club option for 2026.
Boston has no remaining players eligible for salary arbitration.
Outfielder Jarren Duran and the Boston Red Sox are in agreement on a one-year, $3.85 million deal that includes a club option for $8 million in 2026, sources tell ESPN. The deal avoids an arbitration hearing, where the Red Sox had filed at $3.5 million and Duran at $4 million.
Jack Flaherty is waiting on Roki Sasaki just like the rest of us …
Blue Jays trade for outfielder Myles Straw
Per Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, Toronto also received $2 million in international bonus signing pool space in the trade, indicating they could still be in on Roki Sasaki.
OFFICIAL: We’ve acquired OF Myles Straw, cash, and international bonus signing pool space for the 2025 period from the Guardians in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
The Padres are reportedly beginning to focus on other international free agents, indicating that they could be out on prized Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki.
