The 2024-25 Major League Baseball offseason is well underway, and already notable free-agent names are off the board. With the Winter Meetings mere days away, we’re being treated to an almost daily supply of rumors regarding free agency, trades, and the like. Speaking of all that, Tuesday’s supply of scuttlebutt – scuttlebutt! – can be found just below.
Arenado trade more likely than not
Veteran third baseman and potential future Hall of Famer Nolan Arenado has an uncertain future with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals are pivoting toward a “reset,” and that means they’re open to trading veterans who may wish to move to a team with better odds of contention in 2025. The 33-year-old Arenado is one such player. While he has yet to formally request a trade out of St. Louis, he’s given the Cardinals the go-ahead to explore trade options. If they’re able to find a potential match, they’ll bring it to Arenado, who then must decide if he’s willing to waive his no-trade clause. Other complications to an Arenado deal include the deferred money in his contract plus the signs of offensive decline he showed last season. Even so, Katie Woo of The Athletic reports that some in the know think an Arenado trade this offseason is a strong possibility. Woo writes:
“There remains a scenario in which the Cardinals keep Arenado, though multiple league sources believe the odds of St. Louis trading him to be higher than the odds of retaining him.”
Arenado is owed $74 million over the next three seasons, although $10 million of that tab will be paid by his former team the Colorado Rockies. In anticipation of a possible Arenado swap over the winter, we at CBS Sports not long ago looked at some potential trade fits for the decorated third baseman.
Many teams in on Kahnle
According to the New York Post, eight teams, including the incumbent New York Yankees, have interest in free-agent reliever Tommy Kahnle.
Kahnle, 35, is coming off a 2024 season for the Yankees in which he pitched to a 2.11 ERA with 46 strikeouts and 18 unintentional walks in 42 ⅔ innings. He’s put up a sub-3.00 ERA in each of the last three seasons, albeit across a limited sample of innings thanks to arm problems. For his career, Kahnle has an ERA+ of 125 and an FIP of 3.62 across parts of 10 big-league seasons.
