Monday was a slow day at the MLB Winter Meetings, but things finally started moving on Tuesday when two of the top available free agents signed new deals, one with his incumbent team and one with a new one.
The MLB draft lottery also happened late this afternoon. Here are today’s most notable news items:
- Kyle Schwarber signed a five-year, $150 million contract with the Phillies, for whom he has played the last four years. Schwarber is getting older (he turns 33 in March) and he has serious limitations as a player (he can’t play the field anymore, he doesn’t run well), but for the past several years he has been one of the league’s premier three-true-outcomes players. He’s led the National League in homers twice since joining the Phillies, including a league-wide best 56 in 2025, when he finished as the runner-up to Shohei Ohtani in NL MVP voting.
- Closer Edwin Díaz signed a new deal, but not with his incumbent team, the New York Mets. Instead, he’ll delight baseball fans across the land and join the Los Angeles Dodgers on a three-year, $69m contract. LA tried to throw money at its bullpen issues last offseason, but the high-profile signings of Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates and the re-signing of Blake Treinen all went shockingly poorly. Of course, it didn’t prevent the Dodgers from winning their second straight World Series. Díaz, the reigning NL Reliever of the Year, was fantastic in 2025 won that award for the third time in his career. He’ll be 32 in 2026, and while he could be entering the decline phase of career (there were some slight indicators to that effect last season), he is still likely to be one of the league’s elite relievers.
- The other big news today was the MLB draft lottery, which the Chicago White Sox—who came in with the best odds—won. The biggest jumpers were the Rays, who moved from #7 to #2, the Royals, who went from #13 to #6, and the Giants, who went from #12 to #4. The biggest fallers were the Cardinals, Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Rangers, who moved from the #8-11 slots to #13-16.
- Last night, the Tampa Bay Rays signed reliever Steven Matz to a two-year deal.
- Also last night, the Braves signed righty James Karinchak, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2023, to a min0r-league deal.
- This afternoon, the Angels acquired infielder Vaughn Grissom—a former hot prospect who hasn’t hit at all in 95 major-league games spread across the last four years (none of which were in 2025)—from Boston for Isaiah Jackson, their eighth-round pick in last summer’s draft.
- In Brewers-related news, several new players were announced for World Baseball Classic rosters today… and that included Brice Turang, who will play for team USA.
- As far as the rumor mill, we haven’t heard much else about the Brewers after yesterdays notes that teams are, predictably, checking in on both Freddy Peralta and Trevor Megill. In more eye-opening news, there seems to be some scuttlebutt around Tarik Skubal, though nothing seems to be remotely close.
- Finally, Paul Hoynes, who has written about Cleveland baseball since the early 1980s for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and Cleveland.com, received the BBWAA’s Platinum Pen award and will go into the writers’ wing of the Hall of Fame next year.
