8 Fresh Trade Ideas for the 2023 MLB Winter Meetings

Rumors, speculations and rumblings of hearsay have been flying around throughout this Major League Baseball offseason, but the ongoing winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, is where all of those trade ideas turn into actual, mind-blowing swaps.

Transactions are already transpiring, and we've got fresh trade ideas for teams to consider.

Most of these stem from recent rumors, which we'll mention where applicable. However, some are just potential packages for players that have long been assumed to be on the trade block.

These trade ideas are presented in no particular order, but let's kick things off with a big bang in Canada, eh?

Recent Rumor: "Alek Manoah's name has come up in Juan Soto trade talks with the Padres. Could be a good change of scenery guy." - @JonHeyman, Sunday night

San Diego's early asking price for Juan Soto is, understandably, skyscraper high. Initial trade talks with the Yankees seemed to hit an impasse when the Padres demanded a king's ransom for the OBP king with just one year of arbitration eligibility remaining—at an estimated cost of around $30 million—before hitting free agency.

With the Yankees at least temporarily pursuing alternate avenues to beefing up their roster, the Toronto Blue Jays have pulled up a chair at the Soto bargaining table.

Alek Manoah is an intriguing chip in a potential deal. He had a dreadful 2023 campaign, but he has a career 3.32 ERA and is still four years away from hitting free agency.

If the Padres are still trying to win it all in 2024, they need some starting pitching to replace Blake Snell, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Nick Martinez. At this point, their rotation consists of Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and three big question marks.

It certainly wouldn't be a one-for-one swap. Toronto would need to add another controllable asset or two to sweeten the deal, likely to include either pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann or slugging infield prospect Orelvis Martinez. But if the Padres believe Manoah can get back to what he was in 2021 and 2022, there might be something here.

The Trade: San Diego sends Juan Soto to Toronto for RHP Alek Manoah and IF Orelvis Martinez (MLB.com's No. 88 overall prospect)

Recent Rumor: "Isaac Paredes is one name to watch on the trade market this week. He's arbitration-eligible, which means the Rays will listen on him. He's of interest to the Mariners and Blue Jays, among other teams." - @jonmorosi, Sunday morning

The Mariners have already been quite active this offseason, trading Eugenio Suárez to the Arizona Diamondbacks and getting Luis Urías from the Boston Red Sox last month. They also dropped a medium-sized bombshell Sunday night, trading Jarred Kelenic, Marco Gonzales and Evan White to Atlanta.

The immediate reaction to that salary dump was a leap to Seattle making a run at Juan Soto. But that's wishful thinking.

Making room in the budget to get a few bats from Tampa Bay, though? That could be in the cards.

The Mariners already needed a corner outfielder to replace Teoscar Hernández, as well as an infielder to address their season-long effort to find a solution at second base. So why not Isaac Paredes and Randy Arozarena, who wouldn't be too expensive in arbitration and who each have several years remaining before hitting free agency?

This circles back to my speculation from the other day that the Rays might just throw in the towel on 2024. It's already common knowledge that they would love to not pay Tyler Glasnow's $25 million salary for next season, and they have so many other pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgery right now that it'll be tough for them to contend in the loaded AL East.

Even if they are kind of waving the white flag, it's more likely they would trade away Manuel Margot and Brandon Lowe, who might not be back in 2025 anyway. (Margot has a mutual option, while Lowe has a club option.) That means Seattle would need to swing big to pry away Paredes and Arozarena, who are under team control for four more and three more years, respectively.

But it does have the means to make that big swing with its surplus of starting pitchers and its highly touted prospects who are still early in their minor league careers.

The Trade: Tampa Bay sends IF Isaac Paredes and OF Randy Arozarena to Seattle for RHP Logan Gilbert, C Harry Ford (MLB.com's No. 39 overall prospect) and IF Tyler Locklear

Recent Rumor: "Dylan Cease trade market is robust as the winter meetings begin in Nashville. Dodgers, Braves, and Orioles are all involved, sources say, and other teams also remain engaged with the White Sox." - @jonmorosi, Sunday night

There has been a lot of speculation in recent days about Dylan Cease going to Atlanta, which would be a fun fit, if only for sake of having two mustachioed strikeout machines on the same pitching staff. (If the trade does happen and we don't eventually get Cease and Spencer Strider in cosplay as Mario and Luigi throwing fireballs, I will be VERY upset.)

But the Orioles have also been lingering as a suitor for Cease's services and should be very motivated to get two years' worth of a potential ace who will probably cost less than $9 million in arbitration for next season.

Because let's face it:

• Baltimore needs at least one more starting pitcher
• Baltimore does not want to pay the free-agent premium to get that starting pitcher

Yes, the O's would need to part with some of their loaded farm system to get Cease. But given the choice between giving up two prospects to get two years of Cease for around $20 million combined or spending $100 million for five years of Eduardo Rodríguez, it's kind of a no-brainer for this penny-pinching franchise.

The Trade: Chicago sends RHP Dylan Cease to Baltimore for IF Coby Mayo (MLB.com's No. 27 overall prospect), LHP Cade Povich and OF Jud Fabian

Recent Rumor: "The Twins are receiving interest in Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco. Christian Vázquez is also available." — Jon Heyman this past Thursday

If Minnesota didn't plan on keeping Kepler and Polanco, it could have just not exercised its club options on both of them. However, that would have meant setting ablaze a combined $2 million in buyout payments and not getting anything in return for letting them go.

At price points of $10.5 million for Polanco and $10 million for Kepler, they both should be valuable on the trade block. It also wouldn't be the end of the world if the Twins got "stuck" with either of them.

They have each been worth at least 2.0 bWAR in each of the past three seasons and ought to be extra motivated ahead of what might be their last chance to strike it rich, as each tursn 31 in 2024. (Polanco does also have a $12 million club option for 2025, so he won't hit free agency if he's too good this coming season.)

If the Mariners strike out in their attempts to get Isaac Paredes and Randy Arozarena from Tampa Bay, turning to Minnesota for Polanco and Kepler would be a great Plan B. (It might even be Plan A, but we'll assume there's something to the recent Paredes rumblings.)

But the other intriguing trade partner could be the same one the Twins struck a big deal with last winter: Miami.

The Marlins might be content with using some combination of Jon Berti, Xavier Edwards and Jacob Amaya as their middle infield in 2024, but if they swing a trade for Polanco and Kepler, what was one of the weakest lineups in the majors would become much more formidable.

It shouldn't cost anywhere near as much as it did to get Luis Arraez last offseason, either. Frankly, the combination of the salary relief it'd be getting in the deal and A.J. Puk's three remaining years of team control might be enough for a Twins team that does need bullpen help.

The Trade: Minnesota sends 2B Jorge Polanco and OF Max Kepler to Miami for RHP A.J. Puk and IF Nasim Nuñez

Recent Rumor: "According to a source, the Reds were pursuing Sonny Gray and were close before he went to the Cardinals on a reported 3-year, $75 million deal. Reds also have interest in Tyler Glasnow of the Rays. He's owed $25M in '24. TB is not wanting to rebuild and seeks MLB-ready starter." - MLB.com's Reds beat reporter Marc Sheldon, Nov. 27

There are more recent Tyler Glasnow-related rumblings than this one, but most of them are mainly about Tampa Bay's financial motivation to part with the oft-injured ace as opposed to any kind of scuttlebutt on where he might land.

But Glasnow to the Reds would make a lot of sense.

Even after the early free-agent additions of Nick Martinez and Emilio Pagan, they certainly need the pitching. And though Cincinnati has never spent more than $64 million on a free agent and has no hope of landing one of the big-name arms available, it could find a way to pay Glasnow's $25 million salary for one year with both the Joey Votto and Mike Moustakas $20-plus million salaries no longer weighing them down.

He would be a good fit from a home run-allowing perspective, too. Granted, nowhere near as nice as it would have been to get Sonny Gray after he led the majors in home run rate allowed in 2023, but Glasnow does a respectable job of keeping the ball in the yard and might be able to thrive at Great American Ballpark.

As far as cost is concerned, most of what Cincinnati is giving Tampa Bay here is salary relief. If the Reds take on Glasnow's full $25 million, they shouldn't need to give up any of their top-tier prospects. And trading for Lyon Richardson—a second-round pick in 2018 who had an 8.64 ERA in four appearances this season—before turning him into a usable starting pitcher sure seems like a classic Tampa Bay maneuver.

The Trade: Tampa Bay sends RHP Tyler Glasnow to Cincinnati for RHP Lyon Richardson

Recent Rumor: None

There has been plenty of speculation about a possible Eloy Jiménez trade dating back to Chicago's deadline fire sale, but there doesn't seem to be anything imminent on the horizon for the 27-year-old designated hitter.

Then again, who saw a Jarred Kelenic trade coming?

Before he even played a game in the majors, Jiménez signed a six-year, $43 million contract, which includes club options for a seventh and eighth season.

Two years into that deal, it looked like the White Sox had hit the jackpot. But over the past three seasons, Jiménez has been marginally above average and often unavailable, making this backloaded contract—he's due $13 million this season and has club options for $16.5 million (2025) and $18.5 million (2026) with $3 million buyouts—much less palatable, particularly for a franchise in the midst of a total makeover.

If we assume he's available, though, he's easily a top-10 bat on the offseason market, right?

Free agents Shohei Ohtani and Cody Bellinger and possibly-obtainable-via-trade Juan Soto are the clear top three, but if Jiménez is behind the likes of Rhys Hoskins, Matt Chapman, Teoscar Hernández and Jeimer Candelario, it certainly isn't by much. The remainder of his contract isn't pretty, but it's less than what he'd cost in free agency.

And unless they can pull off a minor miracle by re-signing Ohtani, the Angels will need a new DH.

For what it's worth, Jiménez has a career 1.080 OPS in eight games played at Angel Stadium.

The Trade: Chicago sends Eloy Jiménez to Los Angeles for RHP Jorge Marcheco and INF Werner Blakely

Recent Rumor: None

As with Eloy Jiménez, there haven't been any specific recent rumors about Shane Bieber. But we've assumed for months that he could be on the move since he has one year remaining before free agency and given Cleveland's deep stable of young arms.

Bieber has become sort of the forgotten arm among the four big pitchers on the trade block. Dylan Cease and Tyler Glasnow are constantly being mentioned, and Corbin Burnes comes up quite often as the best of the bunch—albeit probably the least likely to be traded. But Bieber is just sort of hanging around, with the elbow injury that sidelined him for most of the second half of 2023 perhaps scaring teams away from making him an early priority.

However, there is surely plenty of interest in the 28-year-old 2020 AL Cy Young winner who boasts a 3.07 ERA over the past half-decade. It's just a matter of figuring out which team will be most desperate to acquire the right-hander whose strikeout stuff has steadily dropped from elite to average over the past few years.

Perhaps the Boston Red Sox, who need to add at least one starting pitcher this offseason?

The assumption has been that Boston will be aggressive in its pursuit of free-agent pitchers, hoping to land Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell or frankly anyone in the market for a nine-figure deal. But they could also/alternatively trade for a starter, provided it doesn't cost them any of their upper-echelon prospects.

The Trade: Cleveland sends RHP Shane Bieber to Boston for OF Wilyer Abreu and RHP Angel Bastardo

Recent Rumor: "The Cardinals remain willing to move one of their controllable outfielders. After adding 3 starting pitchers, they aren't necessarily committed to acquiring immediate rotation help in return." - @jonmorosi, Monday morning

St. Louis has already signed veteran starters Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, but it has not yet done anything about its surplus of outfielders or its bullpen woes.

The Cardinals had eight players appear in at least 25 games in the outfield in 2023. Not only are all eight still under contract/team control, but the only one hitting free agency after 2024 is Tyler O'Neill.

It's a pretty serious logjam, and the Cardinals should be trying to turn at least one of those outfield arms into some bullpen help via trade. It might be Alec Burleson, Tyler O'Neill or even Brendan Donovan on the move, but Dylan Carlson seems like the best candidate.

He missed the final two months of 2023 with an oblique injury and had struggled before landing on the shelf, but with three more years of team control and the memory of how valuable he was in 2021, Carlson could be a coveted asset for any of the many teams looking for outfield help.

The Washington Nationals could be an intriguing trade partner. Outside of Victor Robles having a breakout year when they won the 2019 World Series, finding a center fielder who can hit the ball has been a struggle pretty much since baseball returned to the nation's capital. And while they aren't much of a candidate to contend in 2024, having Carlson for the next three years could get them somewhere.

They have solid bullpen arms in Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey, too, both of whom have two years remaining before hitting free agency and experience saving games.

The Trade: St. Louis sends OF Dylan Carlson to Washington for RHP Kyle Finnegan