Rotating depth is the strength of this MLB free agent class, and while it seems like there's been a fair amount of starting pitcher activity, the remaining options are still plentiful.
The Twins may feel uniquely affected right now, because two of their free agent starters have landed elsewhere. Kenta Maeda signed a two-year, $24 million contract with Detroit, while Sonny Gray just reportedly landed in St. Louis for three years and $75 million.
The Cardinals had already signed Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn to one-year deals, so there's been a steady stream of activity in an area where the White Sox would be expected to have interest. Then you look at all the remaining pitchers from MLB Trade Rumors' top 50 free agents list, and it explains why this pool's been the only one making waves.
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3)
- Blake Snell (4)
Aaron Nola (5)- Jordan Montgomery (6)
Sonny Gray (9)- Shota Imanaga (10)
- Eduardo Rodriguez (11)
- Lucas Giolito (17)
- Marcus Stroman (18)
- Seth Lugo (19)
- Jack Flaherty (22)
- Michael Wacha (24)
Kenta Maeda (25)- Yariel Rodriguez (28)
Reynaldo López (29)- Mike Clevinger (30)
- Michael Lorenzen (34)
- Sean Manaea (35)
- Tyler Mahle (37)
- Frankie Montas (44)
- Jakob Junis (47)
- Luis Severino (48)
(Gibson and Lynn finished in the honorable mention section.)
That's one big-assed game of musical chairs, so it doesn't make much sense for one of these tertiary pitchers to hold out for the best possible deal if they receive a fair-sounding offer from an agreeable destination. Detroit and St. Louis count as such. Maeda joins a Tigers team that might be on the upswing -- especially if Minnesota is cutting payroll and hoping for the best from the holdovers -- while the Cardinals are the first team to do their shopping in bulk, which signals a desire for improvement at the very least.
The White Sox have no designs on contending in 2024, which could create a lack of urgency on both sides. Nobody's rushing to board a sunken ship, and the White Sox might be waiting to see whether they trade for anybody who can immediately step in instead of signing a low-upside free agent who'd serve the same purpose (Mike Soroka and Jared Shuster aren't great bets to be those guys, but they're in the picture).
Along those lines, Bob Nightengale tweeted a pseudo-update about Dylan Cease:
Josh and I talked about Atlanta as a potential trade partner in this morning's podcast. You can construct an OK return if pitching's what you want, but the possibility fails to excite me for secondary reasons. There's the idea that the White Sox could've simply drafted Hurston Waldrep instead of trading their second-best player for him, and when combining it with the 5-for-1 deal for Aaron Bummer, I'm a little wary of Chris Getz's first offseason being a heaping bowl of "Oops! All Braves!" cereal.
But this could just very well be a White Sox source feeding Nightengale some material to stoke interest. Cease makes sense for a lot of teams, because while Tyler Glasnow and Corbin Burnes offer similar or greater upside on the trade market, Cease has two years of team control remaining, and he's a much smaller hit on the 2024 payroll.
As for the Twins and Tigers, their rotations have a different look after Maeda shifts from one AL Central team to another. The Twins had a host of playable sixth-starter candidates outside last year's rotation -- Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack, Louie Varland -- and if they're not in position to spend considerable money on any player, then they'll be looking to graduate those guys for good to replace Maeda and Gray.
For Detroit, Maeda partially fills the vacancy Eduardo Rodriguez opened when he opted out of his deal, because the Tigers need guys with enviable strikeout rates. However, Maeda hasn't thrown 150 innings since before the pandemic due to Tommy John surgery, and while he's a year removed from UCL repair, he'll also be 36, so one factor could cancel out the other. If he's the second pitcher they add this winter, they'll be in great shape. If he's the main man, then they'll have to hold out hope for smooth recoveries from injuries elsewhere.
