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’ve been treated to an almost daily supply of rumors regarding free agency, trades, and the like. Speaking of all that, Saturday’s supply of scuttlebutt — scuttlebutt! — can be found just below.
Giants in on Burnes
Veteran right-hander Corbin Burnes is the most coveted starting pitcher on the free-agent market this offseason, at least until Roki Sasaki is posted. Not surprisingly, interest in Burnes is brimming, and now you can add the San Francisco Giants to the growing list. Mark Feinsand recently reported that the Giants and first-year lead exec Buster Posey are believed to have “significant interest” in Burnes after Blake Snell signed with the Dodgers.
Burnes, 30, is coming off yet another ace-grade season in 2024. With the Orioles this past season, he pitched to a 2.92 ERA/128 ERA+ and an FIP of 3.55 in 194 1/3 innings of work. For his efforts, Burnes earned his fourth straight All-Star selection and finished in the top 10 of the Cy Young vote for the fifth straight year. For his career, Burnes has an ERA+ of 129 and a WAR of 17.0 across parts of seven MLB seasons. Burnes won the NL Cy Young Award as a member of the Brewers in 2021.
Cardinals will listen to trade offers on Helsley, Matz
The Cardinals are in the midst of a self-described “reset” in which they focus on improving their player-development infrastructure and clearing paths to playing time for younger players. As part of this, multiple veterans may be dealt this offseason. While some of those veterans have no-trade clauses, two notable hurlers do not — closer Ryan Helsley and swingman Steven Matz. As Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, the Cardinals are expected to listen to trade offers for both of those arms.
Helsley, as a lockdown closer coming off perhaps the best season of his career (2.04 ERA, 79 strikeouts in 66 1/3 innings, a franchise-record 49 saves), figures to be one of the most coveted relief arms available in trade. The 2025 season will be his walk year, and very likely, the window for any possible contract extension with St. Louis has passed. As for Matz, his time in St. Louis has been largely disappointing, but he has been quite effective in limited relief innings. Matz can also serve as a stop-gap starter should circumstances require it. He’s going into the final year of his contract and is owed a $12.5 million salary for 2025.
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