Bradford DoolittleCloseBradford DoolittleESPN Staff WriterMLB writer and analyst for ESPN.com Former NBA writer and analyst for ESPN.com Been with ESPN since 2013 and David SchoenfieldCloseDavid SchoenfieldESPN Senior WriterCovers MLB for ESPN.com Former deputy editor of Page 2 Been with ESPN.com since 1995Multiple AuthorsFeb 10, 2026, 02:50 PM ET
Mets land All-Star Peralta in blockbuster with Brewers
Mets pivot after missing out on Tucker, sign Bichette
Dodgers — again! — nab winter’s biggest free agent, agree to deal with Tucker
After missing out on Bregman, Red Sox pay for Suarez
Jays make another splash by signing Japanese 3B Okamoto
Red Sox solve first base, acquire Contreras from Cardinals
Mets sign Weaver, adding another ex-Yankees reliever
Phillies sign two-time All-Star Garcia for outfield
D-backs, Kelly reunite after midseason trade to Texas
Tigers sign Kenley Jansen for reliever’s 17th season
Red Sox make another rotation add in trade with Pirates
Blue Jays sign Korean League MVP Ponce for rotation
Blue Jays make first big pitching splash with Cease signing
Orioles deal former top prospect for Halos power bat
It’s hot stove season! The 2025-26 MLB offseason is officially here, and we have you covered with grades and analysis for every major signing and trade this winter.
Whether it’s a big-money free agent signing that changes the course of your team’s future or a blockbuster trade, we’ll weigh in with what it all means for next season and beyond.
ESPN MLB experts Bradford Doolittle and David Schoenfield will evaluate each move as it happens, so check back in for the freshest analysis through the start of spring training.
This is the signing we were all hoping for: Justin Verlander going back to the Detroit Tigers, the team that drafted him second overall out of Old Dominion in 2004, the team he won AL Cy Young and MVP for in 2011, the team with which he won the first 183 games of his Hall of Fame career.
Verlander obviously isn’t the innings-eater he was his first time around with the Tigers, when he topped 200 innings eight seasons in a row from 2007 to 2014, but he did log 152 innings with the Giants, which would have ranked third on the Tigers in 2025 behind Tarik Skubal and Jack Flaherty. The Tigers have now addressed that innings issue with the signings of Verlander and Framber Valdez, who agreed to a three-year, $115 million deal last week.
Overall, I like the signing. He’s not a top-of-the-rotation starter, but he doesn’t have to be with Skubal and Valdez. He might not even be a guy you want starting a playoff game, but he can help the Tigers get there. We’ll give this a B for value on a one-year deal and an A++++ for seeing him once again in a Tigers jersey. — Schoenfield
Ah, an old-fashioned trade: Your stuff for my stuff, nothing related to salaries or trading a player because he’s close to free agency or a rebuilding team dumping a high-price contract. It’s not a blockbuster, but it’s an interesting deal to break down.
I’m giving this a high grade, not so much because I expect Durbin to be making the All-Star team or anything, but because the trade makes the Red Sox better, improves their lineup balance and depth, and they didn’t give up anyone who was expected to be a key contributor for 2026. Harrison and Drohan were way down the depth chart as options for the rotation. Oh — and the Red Sox still have all four of their outfielders, which is the good kind of problem to have.
Although his strikeout rates as a minor leaguer were impressive, he has never completely curbed some of the control issues that plagued him, so maybe he eventually ends up as a reliever so his fastball can play up from 92-93 to 95 mph. He’s still just 24, however, and the Brewers have certainly had success taking pitchers from other organizations and fixing them. Just last year, they acquired Quinn Priester from the Red Sox, and Priester won 13 games for the Brewers.
Drohan has an even better arm and fanned 77 batters in 54 innings at Triple-A with an elite 38% whiff rate, but he has a long list of injuries (he’s now entering his age-27 season). He had shoulder surgery in 2024 and then missed three months in 2025 with a forearm issue and didn’t throw hard when he returned. He has starter stuff and is major league ready, but health is the big question.
That seems to leave Williams and Joey Ortiz for shortstop and third base — and Williams hit just .209 after his promotion to Triple-A while Ortiz was one of the worst-hitting regulars in the majors last season. I can see where Harrison and Drohan were too intriguing to pass up, but offense at third base and shortstop could be a big problem for the Brewers in 2026. — Schoenfield
“With the additions, the offense is better but it’s not there yet. The biggest need is for a power bat, a need shared by a number of teams as you’ve read by now. It’s tricky to make it work from a positional standpoint, but from a pure offensive perspective, [Marcell] Ozuna would be perfect.”
Those words, written by me for last month’s Stock Watch, more or less pin me down on this grade. How could I slam the Pirates for making the very move I thought they needed to make? I can’t, nor do I want to. Had they given Ozuna a Kris Bryant-to-Colorado deal, that would be different. But that’s not what happened, and all is well on the banks of the Allegheny.
Even with Ozuna on board, the Pirates don’t feature an elite offense, but they don’t need one in order to get back into the playoff conversation, of which they have not taken part this decade. Ozuna projects as Pittsburgh’s best hitter by wRC+, making this quite a pickup given that Pittsburgh’s pitchers and catchers report in two days.
The grade is influenced not just by my prior prescription, but also because Ozuna was probably the last best free agent option in a picked-over market for power hitters. You can quibble with that observation, but, still, it’s to their credit that the Pirates filled a vital need without breaking the bank (and let’s face it, the Pirates’ bank is more like a piggy bank than a vault).
Still, you can’t have it all, and the improvement on offense will have to outweigh the likely defensive woes, and the sterling pitching staff will need to rack up the whiffs — which it is capable of doing.
Ozuna is 35 and coming off a poor season undermined by a nagging hip issue. Let’s face it, there’s a reason this deal is for $12 million. Ozuna looked better-ish during the latter stages of last season, and if that portends a regression toward the hitter he was in 2024 — when he finished fourth in NL MVP voting — the Pirates will be swimming in gravy.
If Ozuna has simply launched headlong into an irrevocable decline, well, it was worth a shot. Not just any shot, but precisely the gamble the Pirates needed to make. This is the capper to a fine offseason for a team with a chance to be really interesting in 2026. — Doolittle
The bigger negative, which might explain the lack of longer-term offers, might be Valdez’s shaky second half last year. He went 3-7 with a 5.20 ERA, including a 6.05 ERA over the final two months, and the Astros faded and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016. His velocity was fine and he has otherwise been durable and consistent, so for now it just looks like a two-month blip in an otherwise excellent four-year run.
With Skubal and Valdez leading the way — followed by Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, Anderson, Reese Olson and Troy Melton — the Tigers now have the second-highest projected WAR of any rotation via FanGraphs, behind only the Boston Red Sox (and, yes, just ahead of the Dodgers). The Tigers will now be considered the heavy favorite in the AL Central.
Cardinals get: RHP Jurrangelo Cijntje (from SEA) OF Tai Peete (from SEA) OF Colton Ledbetter (from TB) Two Comp Round B picks
Oh, Donovan can also play the outfield, so while spring training essentially leaves Young (a top 100 prospect a year ago) and Emerson (the No. 6 overall prospect this year) perhaps battling each other for a starting job, it also means if Emerson and Young both deserve to start at some point in the season, Donovan can move to the outfield, where Victor Robles is a potential offensive liability.
The Mariners should love the overall versatility and depth of this lineup now, with multiple good alternate options available if someone isn’t hitting or if there’s an injury — well, except for backup catcher, as Cal Raleigh needs to stay healthy, and another Superman performance would be nice as well. It allows Seattle to play it conservatively with Emerson, given that he’s just 20 years old and has only 40 games above Single-A.
There isn’t much downside here for the Mariners. They gave up a good pitching prospect in Cijntje but still have two higher-rated ones in Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan. Williamson is a good glove at third base but Ke’Bryan Hayes at the plate. The one negative is Donovan didn’t hit lefties last year and hasn’t been that good against them throughout his career, but that’s a minor inconvenience. The Mariners just got better.
Cijntje is famous for being a switch-pitcher, although a recent report said he was going to focus on throwing just right-handed this spring, the side where his fastball runs into the upper 90s. That clearly appears to be his future, as he wasn’t even effective in lefty-on-lefty matchups in the minors last season, allowing a .596 OBP and 1.114 OPS, walking 16 of the 47 batters he faced.
Indeed, while he has that explosive fastball that carries well up in the zone, plus a wipeout slider, Cijntje wasn’t that effective on right-on-lefty matchups either, as left-handed batters hit .252/.372/.473. The fastball/slider combo absolutely crushed right-handed batters (.480 OPS), but add it up and the issues against lefties plus suspect control (4.2 walks per nine) mean there’s a lot of reliever risk here.
Still, this is the kind of pitcher the Cardinals should be going after. Their rotation has lacked premium velocity and strikeout pitchers for a long time, and if Cijntje can improve his command and changeup, he has a chance to be that strikeout starter the Cardinals need.