MLB rumors: Yankees meet with another ace, Rays ready to trade more talent, Mike Soroka draws interest

The annual Winter Meetings are next week in Dallas and we’re in “any moment now” territory with Juan Soto. He is expected to agree to a deal by the end of the Winter Meetings at the latest, and possibly as early as this week. As I said, it could be any moment now, and once Soto comes off the board, the rest of the market will move. Here now are Thursday’s hot stove rumors.

Yankees meet with Burnes

One day after we learned the Yankees had a 90-minute Zoom call with Max Fried, the New York Post reports the Yankees also met remotely with Corbin Burnes. The meeting is said to have gone “very well,” though all these meetings go well. The next time we hear one of these meetings didn’t go well will be the first. We ranked Burnes as the second-best free agent available this offseason.

The Yankees meet with every top free agent every offseason out of due diligence, so it is no surprise they’ve met with Burnes (and Fried). They are of course focused on Soto, and it’s unclear whether they’re open to signing Burnes in addition to Soto, or view him as part of a Plan B. On paper, the Yankees have six starters for five spots (Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, Marcus Stroman), though Burnes would make any rotation better.

Rays willing to trade starters

The Rays are willing to trade their starting pitcher and have gotten inquiries about lefty Jeffrey Springs, according to ESPN. Tampa typically trades their most expensive players every offseason, and with matching $10.5 million salaries, Springs and infielder Brandon Lowe are scheduled to be the team’s highest-paid players in 2025. Springs is without question a trade candidate.

Springs, 32, had a 3.27 ERA in seven starts after returning from Tommy John surgery this past season. His breakout year was 2022, when he threw 135 ⅓ innings with a 2.46 ERA, including a 2.66 ERA in 125 innings as a starter. Starting pitching is very expensive these days, so even though elbow surgery limited Springs to 10 starts over the last two years, he’s appealing with $10.5 million salaries in 2025 and 2026, plus a $15 million club option for 2027.

Soroka drawing interest as starter

Free-agent righty Mike Soroka is receiving more interest as a starter than as a reliever, reports The Athletic. Still only 27, Soroka began last season in the rotation with the White Sox, though he was ineffective and moved to the bullpen in May. He was terrific in a relief role: 2.75 ERA while striking out 39.0% of batters faced. As a starter, it was a 6.39 ERA and 12.4% strikeout rate.

The move into the bullpen came with a change in pitch usage as well. Soroka scrapped his sinker and changeup, and became a four-seam fastball/slider reliever. He also had a velocity spike, which is not uncommon when starters become relievers. The question is whether Soroka can translate his bullpen success back into a starting role. Two Achilles tears have derailed his career since finishing second in the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Hanshin Tigers righty Koyo Aoyagi has officially been posted for MLB teams, the NPB club announced Wednesday. His 45-day posting window runs through Jan. 17. Aoyagi, 31 next week, had a 3.00 ERA with 78 strikeouts in 114 innings in 2024. As a sidearmer who sits in the upper-80s with his sinking two-seam fastball, Aoyagi projects as more of a depth arm or reliever than difference-making starter. He will command a much smaller contract than Shota Imanaga, never mind Yoshinobu Yamamoto.