Top Five Reunions That Would Make Baseball Better in 2025

As we continue on through the 2024-25 MLB offseason, there are a boatload of free agents available on the open market. Many more were added to the list on Friday night once the non-tender deadline rolled around.

Virtually every single top name remains unsigned through the first month or so of the offseason, but we’ve got our eyes on some free-agent reunions that not only make a lot of sense on paper, but ones that would be good for baseball.

In recent memory, we’ve seen Andrew McCutchen return to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Albert Pujols return to the St. Louis Cardinals and Zack Greinke return for another go-round on the Kansas City Royals.

These moves don’t always work out for the best (see: Greinke’s 2023 performance), but you’re lying if you say that seeing him back in that Royals uniform didn’t make your heart happy.

Taking a look around the league and identifying team’s needs, there are a few clear-cut instances of player-team reunions that make all the sense in the world. While there’s always risk that they could turn in a 2023 Greinke, McCutchen and Pujols both made it work in their second go-rounds on their respective clubs.

Let’s check out five of the most obvious reunion candidates for the 2025 season.

Five Reunions That Would Make Baseball Better in 2025

Paul Golschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks

When you think of “Diamondbacks sluggers”, Goldschmidt will forever be one of the first to come to mind, and rightfully so. The future Hall of Famer spent the first eight years of his career in Arizona, where he made six All-Star Games, earned three Gold Gloves and finished top-three in MVP voting three times.

Goldschmidt’s first MVP Award didn’t come until he was a member of the Cardinals, but he was in the desert when his name first burst onto the scene.

Now that the Dbacks are preparing for life after Christian Walker, there is an obvious hole at first base. Right now, 2017 first-rounder Pavin Smith is penciled in as the everyday option there for the upcoming campaign, but he has yet to show he can earn and keep a consistent role in the big leagues.

While there’s been little in the way of Goldschmidt being tied to the Cardinals so far this offseason, MLB.com’s John Denton said in late October that the “D-Backs and/or Astros are expected to pursue Goldschmidt and offer him more guaranteed cash [than the Cardinals], so the likelihood is that he moves on to a contender.”

This past season, Goldschmidt had the worst showing of his career. In 154 games, he showed that he’s still a machine who won’t miss any games, but he hit just .245 with a .716 OPS and 98 OPS+, recording 33 doubles, 22 home runs and driving 65 runs along the way.

The 12-year veteran continued to be a menace against left-handed pitching, though, recording a .295 average and .839 OPS against southpaws in 81 games. He also turned on the jets a bit as the year wound down, hitting .271 with nine home runs in 62 second-half games. This is enough to show that he’s still got some juice left in the tank.

At this point, the Dbacks can either get into a ridiculous bidding war for Walker with the likes of the Yankees, Mets or Astros; or they can bring back one of the most popular and successful players to ever wear their uniform. The choice seems like a simple one.

Teoscar Hernandez, Toronto Blue Jays

Hernandez and the Blue Jays lining up on a reunion isn’t quite the same as Goldschmidt’s, but it’s safe to say the Blue Jays are much more desperate for their reunion than the Dbacks are with theirs.

Hernandez broke into the league with the Astros in the form of a few small cameos in 2016 and 2017 before really coming into his own in Toronto at the 2017 trade deadline. From there, he had a highly successful six-year stint north of the border that saw him turn into a fan favorite.

During that run, Hernandez hit 22 or more home runs four times, made an All-Star Game and won two Silver Slugger Awards. Alongside Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., the Blue Jays appeared to have a solid offensive core for the foreseeable future.

Feeling that their team had begun to play too loose and was more worried about having fun than winning games, the Blue Jays shipped both Gurriel and Hernandez out of town during the 2023-24 offseason and their club has suffered ever since.

There’s been a major lack of power in that lineup that’s noticeable from a mile away, underscored by their 26th-place finish on the MLB leaderboard in team home runs in 2024.

In what could end up being his only year on the Dodgers, Hernandez recorded 32 doubles with 33 home runs and 99 RBI while making his second All-Star Game and winning the first World Series of his nine-year career. He’s expressed early interest in re-signing with the Dodgers, but he remains on the open market for a team like the Blue Jays to bring him back where he belongs.

David Robertson, New York Yankees

There are only three true guarantees in life: death, taxes and David Robertson annually finding a way to be one of the most reliable relief arms in the game.

Robertson, now 39 years old, is back on the open market once again but is a prime candidate to return to the Yankees, where he spent the first seven years of his career and even had a second stint there for another year-and-a-half.

This past season, the right-hander suited up for the Rangers and made 68 appearances, the most he’s had since 2018 with the Yankees. Robertson posted a 3.00 ERA and 2.65 FIP alongside a 132 ERA+ that put him 32% above league-average on the mound. His strikeout numbers remain sky-high (12.4 K/9 – 99 strikeouts in 72 innings) and he’s only allowing 6.6 hits per nine innings as he nears 40.

With the pending departure of Clay Holmes in free agency, the Yankees have an obvious vacancy in their bullpen. Robertson may not be a clear-cut closer anymore like he was from 2014-2017, but he can give the Yankees exactly what they need out of their ‘pen: flexibility and innings.

Robertson continues to defy Father Time and remains an electric arm. Since the Yankees have a hole (or two) in their bullpen, there’s no reason they shouldn’t see if they can get Robertson to finish his career where it started all the way back in 2008.

Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals

Thanks to deferrals in his contract, the Nationals are paying Scherzer $15 million per year through 2028, so why not bring him back and have that money count for something?

Teams continue to pay a ton of money to land Scherzer and either wind up with Luisangel Acuna as one of their top prospects (Mets) or World Series rings (Nationals, Rangers). Not to mention Scherzer himself is a living legend who’s headed for Cooperstown the minute he becomes eligible.

Across what’s turned into a 17-year career, Scherzer spent the middle seven leading the Nationals’ rotation, winning two Cy Youngs and finishing no lower than fifth in the voting every year outside of the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. He was an All-Star in every season and easily became one of the most successful players in this franchise’s history, Expos included.

To be clear, Scherzer is not quite the pitcher he once was. He’s now 40 years old and is coming off of an injury-shortened season that saw him make just nine starts for the Rangers. His strikeout numbers dipped a bit, but he finished with a 3.95 ERA, 4.18 FIP and 101 ERA+, which at the very least still makes him an above-average pitcher.

It remains to be seen just how much Scherzer’s got left in the tank, but there’s no better place for him to find out than back in D.C. where he previously had so much success.

While the 2024 Nationals faded in the standings as the year went on, they have an exciting young core that could use a veteran like Scherzer. The 2025 projected starting rotation will be led by MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin, while Mitchell Parker, DJ Herz, Jackson Rutledge, Cade Cavalli and Cole Henry are other 40-man options to fill out the starting-five.

This past year, Nationals starters finished 23rd in baseball with a 4.40 ERA. Replacing an unproven arm in the back-end of the staff with someone of Scherzer’s pedigree may go a long way to helping their next run to contention last longer than their failed bid in 2024.

Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers

Now that the Tigers have stumbled into their current contention window, they have a need in the starting rotation and filling that void with one of the best pitchers to ever wear their uniform would be a solid get.

Verlander spent the first 13 years of his historic career in Detroit. He’s fifth on their all-time list in starts, eighth in innings and second in strikeouts. The right-hander won a Cy Young and MVP Award with the Tigers and also made six All-Star Games.

After leaving the AL Central, Verlander’s made two stops in Houston – where he was also historically dominant – and one in New York with the Mets over the past eight years. Like Scherzer, Verlander is not quite the same pitcher as he once was, but he doesn’t have a long enough record of underperformance to suggest that he’s done.

While Verlander is going to turn 42 in February, it sounds like he still intends to take the mound every fifth day. His preference, of course, is to do so on a contending team. The Tigers are primed to be in the thick of things in the AL Central come 2025, and Verlander’s just-as-famous brother Ben seems to think there’s a chance Justin would be open to coming back to Detroit to finish his career where it all started. That’s got to mean something, right?