Five Contenders Who Haven’t, and Won’t, Make Any Big Moves

For a number of different reasons, these five teams have mostly been quiet this offseason and will in all likelihood stay that way.

President of baseball operations and general manager AJ Preller of the San Diego Padres speaks to the media during a press conference prior to Game One of the Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves at Petco Park.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 01: President of baseball operations and general manager AJ Preller of the San Diego Padres speaks to the media during a press conference prior to Game One of the Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves at Petco Park on October 01, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

This week, snow got dumped across a stretch from Texas all the way over to Florida. It almost makes it hard to believe that we’re only a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training.

Next month, the sound of baseballs popping in mitts will return to spring training complexes across baseball. Soon after that, the crack of the bats will come back as well when the rest of the teams’ rosters report.

Many of those rosters will look quite different than they did in 2024. Since the Dodgers celebrated the franchise’s eighth world championship in late October, there have been all kinds of trades, free agent signings, and promotions that have taken place across the league.

Many teams expected to contend for a playoff spot, and even some on the outskirts of that tier, made big moves in an effort to play some October baseball.

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Other contenders, including the following five teams, haven’t given their fans big moves to get excited about and probably won’t between now and Opening Day.

1. San Diego Padres

The Padres were oh so close to not making this list. It’s been a pretty quiet offseason overall for the second-best team in the NL West last season but that would have changed dramatically if they’d managed to win the sweepstakes for the top international signee of the winter.

Stud pitcher Roki Sasaki from Japan had narrowed down his top three landing spots to the Padres, Dodgers, and Blue Jays. Ultimately, San Diego not only lost out on the ability to sign Sasaki, they saw him go to their NL West rivals in L.A.

A Sasaki signing would’ve been great for the Padres as they could’ve used some extra firepower in the rotation with No. 3 starter Joe Musgrove set to miss the season due to Tommy John surgery. Instead, their trend of a quiet offseason continues.

San Diego could use another starter in the rotation and lost two starters on offense in outfielder Jurickson Profar and infielder Ha-Seong Kim. And yet, they have basically stood pat all winter outside of some minor league signings and bringing back utility man Tyler Wade.

With Profar now off to Atlanta, there’s a chance the Padres could still go and re-sign Kim. But they probably won’t be doing much else whether they bring him back or not. San Diego is not projected to have much wiggle room in their payroll at a projected $208 million per FanGraph’s Roster Resource as things currently stand.

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The Padres don’t often go about the offseason this quietly, but that’s how things have shaken out up to this point. At this rate it’s how their offseason will finish as well.

2. Seattle Mariners

Playoff appearances have been very hard to come by for the Seattle Mariners over the years. Their postseason run in 2022 is their only one in the last 23 seasons.

They were almost able to add another one last year. The Mariners fought until the very end, closing out their season by winning four-straight and eight of 10 but finishing one game shy of the final AL Wild Card spot.

The 2024 Seattle team was built on pitching, both in the rotation and the bullpen. Overall, Mariners pitchers tied for the MLB-lead with a combined ERA of 3.49 with both units separately finishing in the top 10 as well.

The offense was more responsible for the team falling short. Seattle finished in the bottom third of the league in run production at 4.17 runs per game. They brought in outfielder Randy Arozarena around the deadline, which helped, but still had a group of primary starters that saw more players finish with an OPS+ below 100 than above.

A combination of players having down offensive seasons contributed to the problem. Among them were J.P. Crawford, Mitch Haniger, and Mitch Garver who each had an OPS+ under 100 but have a history of multiple above average offensive seasons.

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Apparently the Mariners are counting on bounce back seasons from them to get the offense back on track. The only real additions they made to the offense were Donavan Solano, who has a career 97 OPS+ , and Miles Mastrouboni who is at 54 in 272 career plate appearances.

Though they won’t be spending nearly as much as the aforementioned Padres, the Mariners wallets are stretched similarly thin. At a projected $145 million in payroll, they are already right at where they finished in 2024. Let’s hope those bounce backs actually happen.

3. Milwaukee Brewers

Every time it seems that the Milwaukee Brewers are going to take a step back, they seem to do the exact opposite. That was the case once again last year when experts had them picked them to finish as low as fourth in the NL Central before the season began.

But no Corbin Burnes? No problem. Injured Brandon Woodruff and Devin Williams? No problem. New manager after the old manager gets hired by your bitter rivals? Nope, no problem there either.

Battling injuries all season, the pitching staff finished fifth in MLB with a combined 3.65 ERA.

Trevor Megill stepped up in place of their injured All-Star closer to post 21 saves on the season. And it helped that the offense improved to the sixth-best in MLB at 4.78 runs per game. All of that combined for a second-straight division title.

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The Brewers did take a big hit to that run production this offseason. Shortstop Willy Adames expectedly became a free agent for the first time in his career and signed a huge deal with the San Francisco Giants.

They also took a big hit to the bullpen. With Williams set to hit free agency after the 2025 season and knowing they wouldn’t be able to sign him long-term, Milwaukee traded him to the Yankees for starter Nestor Cortes and infielder Caleb Durbin, who both fill areas of need.

That trade is really the only move of note that the Brewers have made this offseason, though they added to the roster in different ways.

Woodruff will return to the rotation, which will be a huge boost, while first baseman Rhys Hoskins exercised his contract option after his year of rebuilding value after injury didn’t quite go as planned.

Milwaukee relied on several young players, including new franchise cornerstone Jackson Chourio, to help lead the way in 2024 and will expect them to continue growth in 2025.

Even though the team has paid more in payroll in the past than they finished last year and are projected this year, it seems most likely that they’ll opt to stay put where they are and stick with the formula that worked last year.

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4. Minnesota Twins

Meanwhile, right across the border to the west, the Minnesota Twins were also trying to repeat as division champions in 2024. They unfortunately fell short of both that and the playoffs altogether as they ceded the AL Central crown to the Guardians.

The Twins didn’t struggle to find offense last year, largely thanks to a homegrown core. The team finished ninth in all of MLB with a combined 107 wRC+ while finishing 10th in the league in runs per game at 4.78.

Pitching struggled across the board, though. Twins pitchers combined for the ninth highest ERA in the league at 4.26. But was there some bad luck involved? T

hey were middle of the pack in opponents’ batting average at .242 while giving up the third-fewest walks (433) and striking out the second-most batters of any team (1,500).

Even if that were the case, the Twins could stand to use some reinforcements to the pitching staff as a whole. The problem is that Minnesota needs money to be able to do that and, well, extra dollars might be hard to come by.

Roster Resource already has the Twins projected to spend around $10 million more than last season. They have some contracts they could look to move, which they have reportedly tried to do per Robert Murray of FanSided, but they haven’t been successful thus far.

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As a result of their payroll pinch, the Twins haven’t made any big moves this offseason. Until they move some contracts, that won’t change any time soon.

5. Kansas City Royals

As one of the lower spending teams in MLB, the Royals have spent most of their time over the last few decades either in or near the divisional cellar. Just two years ago that resulted in them tying a franchise record with a 106-loss season.

But every once in a while, they build up enough talent to surprise everyone and make a playoff run. That was the case in 2014-15 when the Royals made back-to-back World Series, winning one in their second attempt.

It was also the case last year. Kansas City finished 86-76, their first season over .500 since they won it all, and secured the second AL Wild Card spot. They even advanced to the ALDS in their first playoff appearance in nine years.

The Royals have one of the most well-balanced teams on this list. They were top half of MLB in run production at 4.46 runs per game (13th) and had a top-10 pitching staff with a combined 3.76 ERA (8th).

And, like the Twins, they have a very homegrown roster. Seven of the nine players in the projected starting lineup are homegrown Royals players with 20 members of the 40-man roster falling into that category.

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So it makes sense why the Royals haven’t been very active this offseason. The lack of spending ability leads them to rely on homegrown talent so besides a swap of pitcher Brady Singer for infielder Jonathan India and re-signing Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen, they’ve been quiet.

And quiet they will continue to be as the traditionally frugal Royals are already set to outspend last year by about $9 million. Unless they find a way to shed some payroll, no big moves will likely happen between now and the regular season, though they probably don’t need any anyway.