Disaster Watch For 8 MLB Teams Terrifying Their Fanbase This Offseason
In case any MLB fans are panicking over their team's lack of activity this winter, here's a reminder that the offseason doesn't end when spring training opens in February. It can go right up to Opening Day.
That said, each tick of the clock is only ratcheting up the tension, and it's worse for some fanbases than it is for others.
We're going to dive right into eight teams that have been pushing their fans closer and closer to a breaking point throughout the winter. These clubs should be throwing their weight around, but just haven't been for various reasons—some good, but mostly bad.
We'll count 'em down from least to most disappointing so far.
8. Milwaukee Brewers
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2025 Record: 97-65, 1st in NL Central
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
The Brewers have earned a bit of grace. Well, OK, a lot of grace. They have won the NL Central in four of the last five years despite a constantly changing roster.
Yet their offseason started in an odd fashion when they extended a qualifying offer to Brandon Woodruff. He was always an obvious candidate to accept one, and the Brewers are now on the hook to pay him $22.025 million after he did exactly that.
Milwaukee is expected to spend $13 million more on its Opening Day payroll than it did on its year-end 2025 payroll. That could mean they're stuck for now, and it raises the question of how much they'll be able to add throughout the 2026 season.
Still another question is whether running it back was ever the right idea. Though the Brewers did have the best record in the NL last year, the goal should be to build a team that can beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in October.
How They Can Save Themselves
The most likely move the Brewers will make involves a subtraction, specifically of Freddy Peralta from their rotation. Even if such a move brought back a ready-made replacement, it would probably only heighten anxieties in Milwaukee.
What would really help quell them is if the Brewers went out and got a power bat. A splurge on Eugenio Suárez in free agency could be possible, and they shouldn't be counted out on a trade for Ketel Marte either.
7. Cleveland Guardians
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2025 Record: 88-74, 1st in AL Central
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
Yeah, yeah. It's the Guardians. They're not exactly known for loud offseasons, so maybe nobody has any right to be alarmed that they have done only $11.9 million worth of free-agent deals and sat out the trade market.
Still, though, shouldn't there be more urgency in Cleveland than...this?
The Guardians just won the AL Central for the third time in four seasons, but this last one was as much due to the Detroit Tigers' collapse as the Guardians' strong play down the stretch. This offseason needed to be about getting better.
That was supposed to be the idea, notably where the outfield was concerned. Yet the club has largely been silent, even though it can spend another $23 million before its 2026 payroll eclipses its 2025 payroll.
How They Can Save Themselves
The word from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic in December was that the Guardians are specifically looking for a right-handed-hitting outfielder. They still have options on the open market, including Harrison Bader, Austin Hays and Miguel Andujar.
The other option is to go for broke on a righty slugger such as Eugenio Suárez, who could split time at DH and first base and even spell José Ramírez at third base as needed.
6. Detroit Tigers
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2025 Record: 87-75, 2nd in AL Central
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
Frankly, the Tigers deserve a spot on this list just for playing with their fans' emotions by allowing Tarik Skubal trade rumors to flourish.
Since they won't be able to extend the two-time Cy Young Award winner past 2026, trading him now is perhaps the right thing to do on paper. But at the same time, it's generally a good idea not to trade your best player while your contention window is wide open.
Meanwhile, there's what the Tigers have done to flesh things out around Skubal. They have retained Gleyber Torres and Kyle Finnegan and brought aboard Kenley Jansen and Drew Anderson, all of which feel like marginal improvements.
This is not so much a better team as the same team, just slightly different. After what happened in 2025, the Tigers' ambitions should be higher than that.
How They Can Save Themselves
For starters, it's about time Scott Harris came out and declared Skubal isn't going anywhere. He could have done that in December, but hemmed and hawed instead.
Second of all, the Tigers are overdue for a big splash. They still have a chance to make one, whether it's on Alex Bregman to play third or a co-ace who could become their ace in the post-Skubal years. To the latter end, Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez are still out there.
5. San Diego Padres
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2025 Record: 90-72, 2nd in NL West
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
The Padres haven't been totally quiet this winter. They did well to retain Michael King on a $75 million deal, and Korean infielder Sung Mun Song on a $15 million contract has a chance to be a steal.
But you know who's gone? Dylan Cease. Oh, and Robert Suarez and Ryan O'Hearn. And potentially Luis Arraez as well—though how bad that would be depends on your opinion of the three-time batting champ's value.
It's therefore hard to make the case that the Padres are a better team now than they were at the end of the 2025 season. They might even be worse, and that is the last thing they can afford to be in their never-ending game of catchup to the Dodgers.
Yes, money is tight in San Diego. But A.J. Preller's creativity tends to be unlimited, so Padres fans have every reason to expect him to bail the team out once again.
How They Can Save Themselves
The Padres still need at least one starter and at least one bat, which is a tall order for a club that is already set to surpass the first luxury-tax threshold in 2026.
There could be a way to add and subtract in a trade, however, particularly one involving an albatross deal such as Jake Cronenworth's. The Padres could also just go for broke, as they may have been willing to do with Kazuma Okamoto.
4. Chicago Cubs
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2025 Record: 92-70, 2nd in NL Central
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
OK, maybe the Cubs haven't had a bad offseason. They've been pretty active, particularly on the pitching front.
Retaining Shota Imanaga might not have been their goal when they made him a qualifying offer, but he's back all the same. The Cubs have also added four new relievers, and they made a major addition to their rotation with a trade for Edward Cabrera on Wednesday.
And yet, you can't look at this roster and not see the Kyle Tucker-shaped hole in the lineup. It's hard to simply shrug that off, and that much more so when you remember that we're not talking about the Tampa Bay Rays here.
Per Forbes, only the Dodgers and Yankees pulled in more revenue than the Cubs in 2024. Them not spending is not a reality of their situation. It's a choice.
How They Can Save Themselves
On paper, the best way the Cubs can fill that Tucker-shaped hole is by simply re-signing Tucker. But since the odds of that seem somewhere between slim and none, alternative options will have to do.
According to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Cubs are reportedly interested in Alex Bregman and Bo Bichette. Either would do nicely, though Bregman is more of a natural fit for their lineup.
3. Boston Red Sox
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2025 Record: 89-73, 3rd in AL East
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
The Red Sox are another one for the "They're Not Really Having a Bad Offseason" folder, and it has to do with how they've pilfered the NL Central.
In three separate trades, they scored Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras from the St. Louis Cardinals and Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Gray and Oviedo are part of a deep well of starters, while Contreras profiles well as a Fenway Park hitter.
But just as the Cubs have a Kyle Tucker-shaped hole in their lineup, the Red Sox have an Alex Bregman-shaped hole in theirs. And there's more than production at stake, as Bregman's clubhouse presence would be sorely missed if he left.
Granted, the Red Sox don't have as much revenue to pull from as the Cubs do. But faced with a much more difficult environment to survive in the AL East, there's more pressure on Boston to milk this winter for all it's worth.
How They Can Save Themselves
The obvious thing for the Red Sox to do is simply re-sign Bregman, and ESPN's Buster Olney wrote that they have a "willingness to pay him big money."
There are alternative options if it doesn't work out, and not just Bo Bichette on the free-agent market. Given their wealth of pitching, the Red Sox might line up better than any team on a trade for Ketel Marte.
2. New York Mets
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2025 Record: 83-79, 2nd in NL East
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
It's not that the Mets haven't done anything this winter. It's whether all the moves they've made have turned them into a better team.
Yes, Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, Devin Williams and Luke Weaver are solid additions, but do they really offset the losses of Pete Alonso, Edwin Díaz, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil? You could make the case, but the vibes point to "no."
Otherwise, it's just plain weird to see the Mets in a position to dramatically cut their payroll from 2025 to 2026. It's always bad form whenever any contender does that, much less one whose owner is the wealthiest in the league by several orders of magnitude.
Oh, and that owner? Remember when he said back in 2020 that he would be disappointed if he didn't deliver a World Series within five years? That time has already come and gone, so a little urgency would be nice.
How They Can Save Themselves
Per Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Mets "remain seriously interested" in adding a starter. Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez are among their remaining options on the open market, and they can aim higher at Tarik Skubal or Freddy Peralta on the trade market.
Another bat never hurt anyone, and the Mets also line up well as a trading partner for Ketel Marte on account of their plentiful young pitching.
1. New York Yankees
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2025 Record: 94-68, 2nd in AL East
Why They're Flirting with Disaster
Elsewhere in New York, the Yankees' offseason has had more lowlights than highlights so far.
Offering Trent Grisham a qualifying offer only for him to accept the $22.025 million was a self-own. And then, in what feels like an annual rite of passage, owner Hal Steinbrenner groused about payroll and how unfair it is to be expected to spend.
Sorry, Hal, but your franchise is the most valuable one in the sport and it pulled in more revenue than any AL club in 2024. And since nobody knows how much longer Aaron Judge's prime will last, urgency should be the name of the game.
Instead, the Yankees have done close to nothing since retaining Grisham. Just small deals with spare-part types, and they're fresh off suffering a big L on Wednesday when the Cubs snatched Edward Cabrera from under their gaze.
How They Can Save Themselves
The most straightforward thing the Yankees can do is re-sign Cody Bellinger. He should certainly want to go back to New York, as Yankee Stadium was the factor in his return to form in 2025.
If not Bellinger, then perhaps Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette. And after whiffing on Cabrera, it should be Freddy Peralta-or-bust on the pitching front.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
