MLB Player News

McCullers hasn’t been able to throw a pitch in an MLB game since 2022, and suffered another setback in early July with renewed arm discomfort. The right-hander will attempt to get back on the mound in 2025, but it’s very possible his days of fantasy relevance are over.

He’ll receive a $1 buyout and will now enter free agency. Gibson will be 38 years old next season and is coming off a year in which he posted a 4.24 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and 151/68 K/BB ratio in 169 2/3 innings. He is likely to find a short deal somewhere.

Lynn has a $1 million buyout and will now enter free agency coming off a season in which he posted a 3.84 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, and 109/44 K/BB ratio in 117 1/3 innings. He should be able to find a prove-it deal somewhere.

Venable will be the 44th manager in White Sox franchise history. Venable played nine seasons in MLB, splitting time between the Padres, Rangers, and Dodgers before retiring after the 2016 season. He then served as a special assistant to Cubs president Theo Epstein, as well as a minor league first-base coach from 2018-2020. He then worked as the Red Sox bench coach during the 2021 and ’22 seasons and was an associate manager for the Rangers for the past two years. The Princeton graduate was involved in managerial interviews last season but decided to go back to Texas and will now take over his own team with plenty of work to be done. “Will is widely recognized as one of the premium managerial candidates within the game, and we are very excited to bring him into our organization as our new manager,” said general manager Chris Getz.

The 25-year-old Kemp has four home runs and a .310/.488/.759 slash line through his first 10 games in the Arizona Fall Leagues. Kemp hit .285/.392/.489 at four minor league levels this year, and his power has been his carrying tool so far. Since Kemp went undrafted out of Point Loma Nazarene, his ascent close to the big leagues is quite a story.

The 26-year-old announced his retirement from baseball on his Twitter account Monday morning, saying, “After nine seasons in professional baseball, I’m announcing my decision to step away from the game today...In my nine professional seasons, I’ve encountered numerous injuries, which led me to search for new ways to overcome the pain. These challenges have taken a toll on me mentally and physically; over time, I’ve realized that my passion for playing the game has shifted. Baseball demands an ‘all-in’ approach, something I’ve brought to every season. However, I can no longer give it the total commitment it requires.” A one-time top prospect, Kirilloff struggled through injuries and finished his career hitting .248 (198-for-799) with 40 doubles, five triples, 27 home runs, 116 RBI, 62 walks, two stolen bases, 92 runs scored, and a .721 OPS in 249 career games across four seasons.

After missing the entire 2024 season while recovering from surgery, Painter has looked electric in his recent AFL starts, with a 0.90 ERA in four outings. Painter used all four pitches on Wednesday for the first time this fall. His four-seam fastball got up to 99 mph while sitting 97, and he flashed his low-80s curve, harder, upper-80s slider, and also debuted a power change-up in the low-90s. “That’s something I’ve been working on. The changeup has been the last to come and something we were looking forward to working on here. There’s an outside chance Painter could compete in the spring for a shot in the Phillies 2025 rotation.

With the World Series over, reporters were quick to ask Soto about his offseason plans, and the 26-year-old said, “I don’t know what’s the teams that are going to come after me... I don’t have any doors closed. I’m gonna be available for all 30 teams.” While Soto may not be closing any doors, there are certainly countless teams that, for some indefensible reason, aren’t going to offer him a contract near his value. That means there will likely be a bidding war among the big-budget teams in baseball for his services, namely the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Phillies, Cubs, and Blue Jays. Where he ends up will certainly be the story of the off-season.

Hudson was a major contributor in the Dodgers’ World Series run after tearing his ACL in 2022 and missing most of the 2023, making 65 appearances and posting a 3.00 ERA. It seems that’s going to be it for him, though. Hudson won 16 games and pitched 222 innings as a 24-year-old for the Diamondbacks in 2011, but he blew out his elbow the following season and sent the rest of his career as a reliever. He finishes up with a 3.74 ERA in 61 starts and 486 relief appearances over 15 seasons. He pitched in the postseason just three times, but two of those earned him rings, as he was also a key reliever for the Nationals in 2019.

Freeman went without a dinger tonight, snapping his personal streak of consecutive World Series games with a homer at six (he homered in the final two games of the 2021 World Series with the Braves). He did, however, have a two-run single as part of the Dodgers’ fifth-inning comeback. He drove in 12 runs in the five games, tying Bobby Richardson’s World Series record.

The Dodgers overcame a 5-0 deficit in crazy fashion in the fifth, with Betts running hard on a squibber to first playing a key role. Anthony Rizzo looked like he’d be able to get the out by himself, causing Gerrit Cole not to cover first, but the ball was spinning away from him, and with Betts making no assumptions, he beat it out and plated the Dodgers’ first run of the game. He also knocked in the last on one of two eighth-inning sac flies. He’s not getting Series MVP honors after Freddie Freeman homered in the first four games, but he posted the best numbers of any Dodger this month, coming in at .290/.387/.565 with four homers and 16 RBI in 16 games.