8 MLB Stars Most Likely to Be Traded in 2024-25 Offseason
The excitement of MLB's summer trading season is gone, and the winter market won't open for a few more months.
Yet even if it's too early to know for sure, it's possible to at least make educated guesses about eight stars who could be traded during the 2024-25 offseason.
Reporting from those in the know will be referenced when necessary, but understand that this is mostly a speculative exercise meant to zero in on players who fit certain types.
Some stand to get more expensive in 2025. Some are on rebuilding teams that must look to the future. Others have value that would be better cashed in sooner rather than later. And some, of course, check two or more of these boxes.
In any case, let's start with a certain slugging first baseman north of the border.
8. 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays
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Age: 25
2024 Stats: 110 G, 480 PA, 22 HR, 2 SB, .318 AVG, .390 OBP, .539 SLG
This one is a reach, as both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays want their partnership to continue.
Despite waves of speculation that Toronto would trade the four-time All-Star ahead of the July 30 deadline, the team ultimately shut the door on all the players it controls beyond 2024 and Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that Guerrero is game to sign an extension.
From what Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said in June, the interest is mutual:
What could conceivably make things interesting, though, is if no agreement materializes between Guerrero and the Blue Jays.
He's only under club control for one more season, and arbitration figures to result in a substantial raise on the $19.9 million he's making this year. Yet trading Guerrero wouldn't necessarily be a case of the Blue Jays simply cutting payroll. With his production back where it should be in 2024, they could likely turn him into a young player or two.
It's in these ways that Guerrero is different from Bo Bichette, who's had a lost season and is locked in for a reasonable $17.6 million salary in 2025. This is not to say it would be an easy trade to make, but it's not out of the question that it could be made regardless.
7. 3B Ryan McMahon, Colorado Rockies
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Age: 29
2024 Stats: 108 G, 458 PA, 16 HR, 3 SB, .256 AVG, .344 OBP, .432 SLG
The odds of a Ryan McMahon trade probably aren't good either.
Nightengale and Jorge Castillo of ESPN reported during the run-up to the trade deadline that the New York Yankees approached the Rockies about McMahon, only to get turned away.
Which isn't too surprising, really. Some exceptions aside, the Rockies have a history of being stubbornly loyal to guys they like. And they darn well should like McMahon, who's broken out as an All-Star in 2024 after so many teases that such a breakout was in him somewhere.
Yet barring an injury or a huge drop-off in McMahon's performance, the opportunity to sell high on him will still be there for the Rockies this winter. His value is only helped by his contract, which will pay $44 million between 2025 and 2027.
Frankly, it would be a dereliction of duty if the Rockies didn't at least listen to offers this winter.
The franchise is in a deep rut, as it's on pace for a second straight 100-loss season and it only has MLB's No. 14 farm system, as ranked by B/R's Joel Reuter. And with average attendance down by 6,421 fans from 2019, fans aren't showing up to Coors Field like they used to.
6. DH Brent Rooker, Oakland Athletics
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Age: 29
2024 Stats: 97 G, 402 PA, 27 HR, 7 SB, .290 AVG, .366 OBP, .586 SLG
It seemed like a no-brainer that the A's would trade Brent Rooker. That is, right up until it didn't.
Indeed, you could practically hear the record scratch when Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported this on July 27:
This reeked of a negotiation tactic in the moment, but it either didn't work or the A's were actually serious. In the end, Rooker remained an A.
"I'm thrilled," Rooker said. "This is where I want to be. I love the guys in this room. I believe in what we've got going on here."
It's hard to be upset about the optics. Rooker is the best hitter the A's have by several orders of magnitude, and the team has made quick strides since losing 112 games in 2023.
This is nonetheless another case where it would be a dereliction of duty if the A's didn't at least listen on Rooker this winter. Even if they are better, they're still a decidedly bad team with a middling farm system, to boot.
Plus, Rooker is about to get more expensive in the first of three seasons of arbitration-eligibility in 2025. And let's just say the A's won't be getting much gate revenue for those seasons.
5. LHP Jesús Luzardo, Miami Marlins
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Age: 26
2024 Stats: 12 GS, 66.2 IP, 61 H (9 HR), 58 K, 22 BB, 5.00 ERA
Though Jesús Luzardo was still nominally a trade chip leading up to the deadline, the chances of him getting moved basically went up in smoke on June 22.
That was the day when the Marlins placed him on the injured list with a lumbar stress reaction, an injury that typically requires at least four weeks to heal. It's now six weeks later, and he still doesn't have a clear return date.
Meanwhile, the Marlins are hunkering down for a rebuilding phase. Just in the last couple of months, they've traded Luis Arraez, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trevor Rogers, Bryan De La Cruz and Tanner Scott.
If they can trade Luzardo this winter, they should. That will depend largely on him, and specifically on how he bounces back from his injury.
If he doesn't pitch well, it could be in the Marlins' interest to hold him into 2025 in hopes that he'll rebuild value. If he does, there won't be any excuses not to trade him.
Luzardo is one of the game's more electric lefties when he's on, after all, and his value is further heightened by arbitration-eligibility through 2026.
4. RHP Devin Williams, Milwaukee Brewers
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Age: 29
2024 Stats: 1 G, 1 GF, 1.0 IP, 1 H (0 HR), 1 K, 1 BB, 0.00 ERA
The Brewers made the biggest trade of last winter when they dealt Corbin Burnes, and there were indications then that Devin Williams would be next.
Yet it wasn't just two stress fractures in his back that took Williams off the market. Whereas the Brewers weren't favored to win the NL Central coming into the year, they're in first place and stronger now following Williams' return off the IL last Sunday.
Nonetheless, there are good reasons to suspect that the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star will return to the block this winter.
One concerns Milwaukee's pragmatism. Burnes got traded in large part because the Brewers knew they weren't going to keep him beyond 2024. The same concern may well apply to Williams, who has a $10.5 million club option for 2025 and is then set for free agency.
Assuming he has a healthy, effective walk year, Williams will stand to make elite closer money on the open market. Per the Josh Hader and Edwin Díaz contracts, we're potentially talking nine figures. The Brewers have never done such a deal in free agency.
Besides, this winter's free-agent market won't have a Hader or a Díaz on it. The Brewers would stand to capitalize that by trading Williams.
3. 1B Yandy Díaz, Tampa Bay Rays
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Age: 32
2024 Stats: 101 G, 447 PA, 10 HR, 0 SB, .276 AVG, .331 OBP, .410 SLG
It is honestly shocking that the Rays did not trade Yandy Díaz.
They traded pretty much everyone else, after all, effectively starting with Randy Arozarena and continuing with Zach Eflin, Isaac Paredes, Jason Adam and Amed Rosario. Díaz was a candidate to get moved in his own right, especially with his bat nice and warm.
Well, he didn't. But just wait.
There isn't technically any hurry for the Rays to trade Díaz, as the reigning AL batting champion is signed for 2025 with a club option for 2026. But at least until they move into their new stadium, the $22 million he stands to earn across those two years is a bit steep by this team's standards.
Díaz otherwise isn't getting any younger. He'll turn 33 on Thursday, making him less of a building block and more of a centerpiece in an otherwise dilapidated house.
Because this winter's free-agent market will have two really good first base options in Pete Alonso and Christian Walker, the situation won't exactly be ideal for the Rays. It'll nonetheless be a surprise if they don't shop Díaz anyway.
2. CF Luis Robert Jr., Chicago White Sox
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Age: 27
2024 Stats: 57 G, 236 PA, 12 HR, 15 SB, .214 AVG, .284 OBP, .433 SLG
The White Sox are another team that sold off plenty of wares before the deadline, including Erick Fedde, Tommy Pham, Michael Kopech, Paul DeJong and even Eloy Jiménez.
Luis Robert Jr. was also a candidate to go, but reality began to shift even before the deadline came and went on July 30. The day before, reports came out that he was likely to stay put.
That Robert indeed stayed put isn't too surprising. He's the kind of guy you need to sell high on, and the White Sox just weren't in position to do that.
Robert was an All-Star and one of the best outfielders in baseball in 2023, but this season began with him missing two months with a hip injury and has otherwise seen him take his lumps at the plate. He's been worth all of 1.1 WAR.
Yet the White Sox will need to try again with Robert this winter. Even after all their trades, they're still a dismal team in need of young talent. And Robert is about to get expensive, as he's owed $15 million in 2025 with $20 million club options for 2026 and 2027.
As for prospective suitors, the idea would be to try to pick up Robert on a relative discount and hope he returns to being a superstar.
1. LHP Garrett Crochet, Chicago White Sox
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Age: 25
2024 Stats: 23 GS, 118.1 IP, 90 H (12 HR), 162 K, 30 BB, 3.19 ERA
Whereas Robert was an iffy trade candidate on paper, the stars seemed perfectly aligned for the White Sox to cash in Garrett Crochet.
He has spent 2024 making the transition from relieving to starting look easy, firing fastball after fastball by hitters to grab the American League lead for strikeouts. And he would have been no rental, as he's making only $800,000 with club control through 2026.
But then this happened:
Because Crochet was also on an innings limit, these demands weren't solely responsible for killing his trade market. They didn't help, though.
"It definitely created some questions, [and those] short-term and long-term consequences are unknown," White Sox GM Chris Getz said of how his discussions with other teams had been affected.
It's possible that the White Sox will extend Crochet this winter, but they already gave that a try and their failure is precisely why the lefty ended up in trade talks. So unless they want to try again, it seems inevitable that Crochet will be back on the block this winter.
And this time, what he wants won't take anyone by surprise and there won't be any pesky innings limits for rival executives to fret about. He'll merely be a highly talented, highly valuable pitcher on a team that should move on without him.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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