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Happy Monday, Razzball Nation! Oh, how I’ve missed you!

Yes, it’s me! Your friendly neighborhood MarmosDad is back again for another trip through the world of starting pitching news, notes, and lists. 

As of today, we are officially live for ‘25! The preseason player rater is up! Grey’s rankings will be coming out today! Our first wave of writers is chomping at the bit to bring you as much information as we can to get you primed for the most wonderful time of the year…SPRING TRAINING!

I floated the method to my madness out to Truss earlier in the month and I’ll give y’all a quick rundown of how I plan to roll all of this stuff out. Hopefully, it can provide some information to help you prepare for your fantasy baseball drafts this spring.

Today, I’ll give you a full listing of the free-agent starting pitchers and where they decided to take their talents when presented with the choice this off-season. Some re-upped with their 2024 teams, some decided to high tail for ‘sunnier shores’ (and plumper cash bags), and some others…well, let’s just say that there are some other arms that are still very well rested as they sit by the phone and hold out hope that a team comes calling soon.

After today’s divisional break-downs and write-ups, I’m going to take our list from the final week of 2024 and put it up beside Rudy’s shiny new 2025 player rater. THEN we’ll get into finalizing the preseason 2025 list itself and look a bit more closely at some names. Both from my list and each 100-ish section of the preseason player rater.

Without further ado…or adieu if you like your sucre with café and crème

AL EAST

TEAM NEW SIGNING/TRADE NOTES
Baltimore Charlie Morton

Tomoyuki Sugano

Charlie Morton should provide innings, but this is not a splashy signing to ‘replace’ Corbin Burnes. Sugano has been called “The Japanese Greg Maddux” and walked just 16 of 608 batters faced in the NPB last year. If he transitions well, he could be a bargain for the Orioles at $13 million for one year. For what it’s worth, a friend texted, “Let’s go Baltimore!” last night and I replied with, “Tell me they flipped an infielder for an SP,” before I realized he was talking about football. Oops.
Boston Garrett Crochet

Walker Buehler

Patrick Sandoval

More below.
New York (Yankees) Max Fried Awarding Fried with an 8-year $218 million deal shortly after Soto bolted for the Mets sure felt like a knee-jerk reaction by the pinstripes brass. Fried had a forearm issue that shelved him in late July. He threw 7+ innings in just 4 of the 11 GS after he returned on August 4th. I won’t be drafting him at an overall ADP of 41 (NFBC).
Tampa Bay Nope 6 starters in-house, even after the Springs trade (to ATH). Health questions (McClanahan/Rasmussen), command issues (Taj Bradley), and stamina concerns (Ryan Pepiot) make this rotation a pretty big risk/reward pond to fish in.
Toronto Nope More below.

 

Boston Red Sox – Stop me if you’ve heard this before…Red Sox front office loses out on big-time free agent pitching talent. Boston’s GM calls the Chicago White Sox to inquire about the availability of their tall, lanky, mid-20s ace left-hander with a nasty power slider and a 12+ K/9. Boston trades a package of highly ranked, hot-shot prospects, and a pale-hosed SP1 changes the color of his “shoe underwear”. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Garrett Crochet. But he’s going off the board as the 5th-ranked Starting Pitcher at the 32nd pick…overall (NFBC). Ok, so maybe Crochet isn’t exactly lanky when he’s weighing in at 245 lbs. And maybe I’m wrong when I say that I have a bad feeling about Crochet increasing his innings total, but I’d rather pick Rafael Devers (at 31) or Matt Olson (at 33) instead.

Speaking of having a bad feeling…

Toronto Blue Jays – I’ll be joining Mike and Jeremy this week to record the AL East preview on their Cards & Categories pod, so I won’t get too far into this one here. But when it comes to the disappointment and continued turmoil of Blue Jays fans…well…it’s been quite a ride. Last year’s Shohei “Plane-Gate” and the subsequent unveiling of his dog’s name, “Decoy”, was a nice stinger for Jays fans. The Soto sweepstakes this year was equally disappointing. When the news broke late last week that the Padres were “out” of the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes and the last two teams were the Dodgers and Blue Jays? Well, there were a few of us northern baseball fans who were not going to fall for the old banana in the tailpipe, Charlie Brown football kick yet again. And when I say a few, I literally mean fewer than ten. The good news for the ever-hopeful but often delusional Jays fans? Kevin Gausman hasn’t entirely fallen off a cliff yet, Chris Bassit is still serviceable, and, despite a dip in his K/9, Jose Berrios had a strong second half. Bowden Francis should continue to develop into a good pitcher and I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaped over at least two of the guys on that depth chart as early as this May. Signing one more good starting pitcher (Jack Flaherty?) would ease the most recent kick to the figurative groin, but the pickings are getting slimmer than an Ozempic office Christmas party.

 

AL CENTRAL

TEAM NEW SIGNING/TRADE NOTES
Chicago

(White Sox)

Martin Perez

Tyler Gilbert

Let’s play MLB Jeopardy, White Sox edition.

Answer: “Two free-agent pitchers who will make the rotation but guarantee to not finish with a winning record or sub-4.00 ERA.”

Cleveland Shane Bieber

Luis L Ortiz

Slade Cecconi

“Not Justin” might “Not Pitch Until July”. Oof. The other two youngsters coming in are probably excited to drink from the Guardians’ jug of magic ‘young pitcher tonic’, though.
Detroit Alex Cobb More below.
Kansas City Michael Lorenzen “Wacha, Lorenzen, and Lugo” sounds like a law firm. These three are about as shifty and deceptive as a bunch of lawyers. If Cole Ragans leads the way again with a 10.77 K/9, the Royals are in pretty good shape. If you want an even bigger eye-opener, have a peek at Kris Bubic’s numbers from last year’s 30 IP. Wowza.
Minnesota Nope More below.

 

Detroit Tigers – To be honest, I’m kind of surprised there isn’t more buzz about a Jack Flaherty reunion. There’s more than enough Ilitch pizza money to go around and outside of superstar Tarik Skubal, I’m not convinced the rest of the rotation is ready to make that playoff push again. Casey Mize, once considered the best of the ‘Big Three’ of Detroit’s young SPs, took a big step back. Reese Olson put up some strong numbers but increased his 2023 innings total by just 8.2 IP (112.1 IP). Jackson Jobe’s four MLB innings were as small a sample size as you can get. Enter Alex Cobb. Yes, the 37-year-old pitcher that Cleveland left off its playoff roster because of recurring back issues. Looking back on his other injuries last year, I guess the fact that the hip/elbow/shoulder problems that he had from April to July changed to hip/shoulder finger is at least a tiny bit encouraging. I don’t know. I swear to you that I don’t hate the Tigers, but it feels like their front office has looked at the impressive run they made in the second half of the year and is not ready to funnel more money into the 2025 club believing in a repeat of that unlikely run to make the playoffs. And while I’m here, where the heck is Matt Manning?!

Minnesota Twins – The three-headed monster that is Pablo Lopez-Joe Ryan-Bailey Ober is a group that should rival any team’s Top 3. I’m a bit surprised that we haven’t heard much of any news from the Twins. Maybe they’re content with Simeon Woods-Richardson and Chris Paddack at the back of their rotation. Maybe they’ve got a lot of faith in Zebby Matthews, David Festa, and Louie Varland as reinforcements if anything goes wrong with their starting five. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Twins sign one of the remaining ‘average-tiered’ free agents. Jose Quintana, Lance Lynn, or a Kyle Gibson reunion come to mind. I’m not convinced that Edouard Julien is as much of an untouchable as he used to be either, now that Brooks Lee is up. Maybe they deal one of their IFs for an SP before Spring Training is done. 

 

AL WEST

TEAM NEW SIGNING/TRADE NOTES
Athletics 

(Do I just write Sacramento?)

Luis Severino

Jeffrey Springs

People can say a lot about the team formerly known as the Oakland Athletics, but you can’t say they aren’t trying. Kind of. Cool Whip will tell you that he’d rather have Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs than the guys that the Angels ended up with. I guess that’s something.
Houston Hayden Wesneski Astros fans had better hope that Isaac Paredes brings the boomstick this spring because I saw more than one Cubs fan who was pulling their figurative hair out over Wesneski and his potential vs production last year.
Los Angeles (Angels) Yusei Kikuchi

Kyle Hendricks

More below.
Seattle Nope More below.
Texas Nathan Eovaldi

Adrian Houser

(MiLB deal)

I had hoped that the Jays would be in on Eovaldi. If deGrom comes back healthy (please…stop laughing) and the back end of their rotation surprises like some think they will…Texas’ rotation will be in good shape. I wouldn’t rule out a Clayton Kershaw surprise either, now that the Dodgers don’t have room for him.

 

Los Angeles Angels – The Jays bias, and Lisa Loeb appreciation, keep me from slandering Yusei Kikuchi. To be honest it’s not a bad signing for LAA as Kikuchi caught fire after the trade to the Astros.

Going 5-1 with an 11.4 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 is a pretty good way to win over your new club (and its fan base). I was a bit surprised that Houston didn’t extend Kikuchi, but you know what they say…actually I don’t. It was just a good way to play off his name. Tyler Anderson, Kyle Hendricks, and Reid Detmers are never going to make people think this is the Atlanta Braves’ 1992 rotation, but it could be worse (?). I’m sorry, Angels fans. I’ve got nothing. 

Oh, and long live Jo Adell.

Seattle Mariners – It seems like they’re ready to move Luis Castillo for any kind of ‘good’ return. When you have 4 stud starters, you don’t need a fifth. Some teams would be thrilled with a 1-2 punch of Bryce Miller and Marmo-darling Bryan Woo, and the M’s are rolling those two out at the back of a rotation. An embarrassment of riches, indeed. If the Twins called Seattle and offered Edouard Julien, Matt Wallner, an arm like Brock Stewart for Luis Castillo, and a backup bat like Samad Taylor…who says no?

 

NL EAST

TEAM NEW SIGNING/TRADE NOTES
Atlanta Nope More Below.
Miami Nope They DID finally trade a starter (Luzardo), and they FINALLY have Sandy Alcantara coming back from TJS. But I don’t know what kind of positivity we can find here. Ryan Weathers? Max Meyer has arrived? Kind of? Edward Cabrera? Yeesh.
New York (Mets) Clay Holmes

Sean Manaea

Frankie Montas

Griffin Canning

More below.
Philadelphia Jesus Luzardo

Joe Ross

Jesus saves! Well, hopefully, Romano saves. But that’s another story. This rotation is as solid as they come and if Luzardo is their 5th starter…Look out.
Washington Mike Soroka

Trevor Williams

Whether it’s Mike or Michael, Soroka should at least be healthy. And he’s Canadian so I’m sure he won’t mind me calling him Mike. The rest of the rotation? It makes me wonder if Miami is the most volatile rotation in the NL East.

 

Atlanta Braves – Jethro Tull and a guy who shares his name with the rarely referenced female Beastie Boy? Sign me up! Any rotation headed by a healthy Chris Sale is off to a good start. I hate to continually bag on White Sox fans, but it must sting to see Sale win a Cy Young AND Reynaldo Lopez, a guy who was touted as a future difference maker for what seemed like forever, making huge strides of improvement. Alas, sometimes this is how it goes. As far as more Braves information, I wanted to share a pretty cool clip from Rob Friedman that I found a few weeks ago. 

Everyone’s favorite Braves sleeper just got a couple more Marmo-points with this one.

 

New York Mets – I’m sure Yankees fans are furious about the Mets stealing their favorite free agent out from under their noses. At least Clay Holmes should get a long leash in his transition to the rotation. What? Oh, you thought I meant that other free agent? If the Jays weren’t landing Soto, I’m just glad he went anywhere but the Yankees. Can you tell I’ve been watching the 2004 Red Sox documentary on Netflix?

As far as the Mets rotation is concerned, Sean Manaea showed he was a capable leader last year. Kodai Senga should be back as a very strong SP2. The rest of the rotation might look underwhelming, but they do provide the Mets with SEVEN pitchers who have experience as starters. They may not get a lot of flash from guys like Griffin Canning, Jose Butto, or Tylor Megill but having a long list of arms who can fill in when injuries inevitably strike is a good thing. And don’t think I forgot about a little Sproat who should be peeking through the minor league soil sooner than later.

 

NL CENTRAL

TEAM NEW SIGNING/TRADE NOTES
Chicago (Cubs) Matthew Boyd

Colin Rea

Cody Poteet

More below.
Cincinnati Nick Martinez

Brady Singer

Brady Singer for Jonathan India was a nice, old-school ‘baseball trade’ of strengths to address needs. I’m not optimistic about Singer in Cincy, though.
Milwaukee Nestor Cortes Nasty Nestor drove me nuts last year, but if Freddy KBB keeps on trucking, Brandon Woodruff comes back healthy, and Tobias Myers builds on his breakout season in 2024, Cortes at the back end of the rotation should work out just fine.
Pittsburgh Nope More below.
St. Louis Nope Well, it’s Sonny Gray and…a lot of soft-tossing 30+-year-old veterans. Methinks any Nolan Arenado trade talks must include at least one good starting pitcher coming to Missouri. But, hey, maybe they bring back Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson. *dodges hurtling barrels of rotten tomatoes thrown by every Cards fan*

 

Chicago Cubs – Matt Boyd and the funky bunch? Shota Imanaga is a true ace going around 75 overall (NFBC) and Justin Steele is better than I usually give him credit for. If a couple of the kids excel in spring training and the veterans stay healthy, the Cubbies should be in good shape. I imagine the younger Cody (Poteet) gets a long look in spring training as the lone return for old Cody (Bellinger). I’ve given up hope that former Jays flamethrower Nate Pearson will ever be transitioned back into a starting pitcher, but there are other names to sift through in the Windy City. Let’s not forget Cade Horton is slated to come back this spring too (in AAA to start the season).

Pittsburgh Pirates – Oh, you know exactly where we’re going here. How can we not? I mean…would YOU use a first-round pick on Paul Skenes? In a 12-team draft? How about a 15-teamer? Just know that if you won’t, there’s likely someone in your league who will. That’s what makes me so sad about Paul Skenes. He likely won’t be on any of my rosters this year unless I can make a lopsided trade offer with a ton of talent in one of my mixed keeper leagues. Aside from Skenes, though, how good is this Pirates rotation heading into 2025? Well, Jared Jones should be back. I like that. Mitch Keller? He drives me absolutely crazy, but he’s a name that I refuse to give up on. (See: Adell, Jo above). Maybe Bailey Falter continues to provide meaningful innings. And maybe the Pirates skim the bottom of the barrel for a starter with some experience. Andrew Heaney? Marco Gonzales? Patrick Corbin? Any of those guys should cost the notorious penny pincher Bob Nutting…well, next to nothing. The good news for Pirates fans is any of the bargain arms they sign to round out the rotation are keeping a spot warm for any of the kids who are on the cusp of breaking through. When four of your top overall prospects are slated to be starting pitchers in AAA in April, there’s a pretty good chance at least one is ready to show what he’s got in the bigs well before June 1st.

 

NL WEST

TEAM NEW SIGNING/TRADE NOTES 
Arizona Corbin Burnes See below
Los Angeles Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki See below
San Francisco Justin Verlander I wouldn’t bet against Mr. Kate, but at 42 years old it’s tougher to believe that he’s rolling into camp feeling groovy this February. When someone misses two months with ‘neck soreness’ (June 18 – August 15)? Welcome to the over-40 club, Justin.
San Diego  nope There are whispers that the Dads are looking to shed payroll. I would assume that involves trading out guys like Manny Machado, Luis Arraez, or Xander Bogaerts, though, and not pitching. For what it’s Cronenworth, they would love it if someone took on Jake’s contract.
Colorado nope Oh, what could have been. As a couple of our folks pointed out in the writers’ Discord, the puns involving the Colorado “Rokis” would have been something to behold. Alas, see: Dodgers, Los Angeles.

 

Arizona Diamondbacks – The Diamondbacks didn’t seem like a logical landing spot for Burnes based on need. With a solid Top 5 of Zac Gallen, Brandon Pfaadt, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, and…um…Jordan Montgomery? Ok. Maybe they’re not as solid as we thought they were. Ryne Nelson likely loses out unless they make the rotation 7 arms deep. If the D-backs can’t find someone to take their “biggest mistake” off their hands, I assume they’ll have to keep giving Jordan Montgomery the ball every 5 days just to get some sort of return on their $22 million-dollar investment (for 2025). As for Burnes, there were a lot of Blue Jays fans preparing themselves for yet another “Toronto is interested” story to turn into the player signing elsewhere, but it sounds like Burnes chose Arizona to be close to his family. When that is the most important factor in a free agent’s process, you can’t really fault the player or any team that loses out in its pursuit of him.

Los Angeles Dodgers – What is there to say here that hasn’t already been said? I sent this to a few friends in a group chat and said I don’t remember seeing a projected rotation that looks like an All-Star Game photo. I mean…come on.

 

Predicting that Sasaki would land with these guys wasn’t too tough. I had that magic 8-ball nod locked in for my Razzball Christmas gift to y’all right here. All sadness about Roki’s Toron-tease aside, this group is absolutely filthy. Even if we assume that Shohei doesn’t pitch more than 90 innings, can you honestly put any group up against this one and say they’re better than the Dodgers without cracking a smile? And this isn’t even taking into account that they have Dustin May healthy again. “I bet their minor league teams are empty!” Well, no. They still have Landon Knack and Nick Frasso slated to open 2025 at AAA. Heck, I even forgot about Bobby Miller until Itch mentioned him the other day. They have three very good young arms on the IL, too! Can you imagine what this team would look like with a healthy Emmet Sheehan, Riv Ryan, and Gavin Stone? Maybe they sign Kershaw again just for kicks and move Ohtani to the closer role. They can have Kopech pitch the 7th, Tanner Scott throws the 8th, and Shohei comes in for the 9th. He’d be good for 50-60 saves, no? Oh boy. I need to sit down.

 

Well, that’s all she…er, he wrote for today! I hope you enjoyed it. What started as a quick, short, note-filled write-up ended up a lot longer than I expected.

As always, if you have anything to share or comment on feel free to drop it in the comments here. I’ll be recording with Mike and Jeremy for the AL East Cards & Categories this week, and I’ll be sure to plug the link in next Monday’s article. Come back next week when I compare last year’s final list with Rudy’s preseason rankings for 2025.

I’ll see you next Monday! Have a great week!

Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social

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mudhen11
mudhen11
16 days ago

Thanks MarmosDad — great stuff!! And welcome back / it’s great to be back!

Tommy Herr
Tommy Herr
16 days ago

What are the chances the Cardinals make a move to shore up their pitching staff by brining in former NL ERA champ Joe Magrane?

Hutch
Hutch
16 days ago

Thank you! that was a great read!!

Tommy Herr
Tommy Herr
16 days ago

What are the chances the Cardinals bring back former NL ERA champion Joe Magrane to the rotation?

Philip
Philip
17 days ago

Pretty sure the Mariners say no to that ragtag bucket of chum.

Chuckie Miller
Chuckie Miller
17 days ago

Loved this entire post. Good stuff.

Grey
Admin
17 days ago

that Pablo meme is perfect and now stolen

Grey
Admin
Reply to  Grey
17 days ago

also you got Santander, so be happy…until 2026 when the deal is an anchor

Grey
Admin
Reply to  MarmosDad
17 days ago

Oh, by year three he’s Pujols…By which I mean, current Pujols who is 67 years old

Grey
Admin
Reply to  MarmosDad
17 days ago

Is he still under contract? He could be an interesting DH bat

Grey
Admin
Reply to  MarmosDad
17 days ago

Gotcha!

Grey
Admin
Reply to  MarmosDad
17 days ago

It’s a good yoinking