Corbin Carroll (back) expected to return on Friday

Before the 2021-22 lockout, Major League Baseball amended its previous agreement with Nippon Professional Baseball to allow Japanese players 45 days to sign with an MLB team once they’ve been posted. The league will not alter that deadline this season. That means NPB players who are posted, like Teruaki Sato, Hiromi Itoh, and Kaima Taira, have until December 15th to sign; however, with a potential lockout beginning on December 1st, that likely means that all NPB players will have to sign before the lockout or return to their teams in Japan.

Ausmus previously managed the Tigers and Angels and has a 386-422 (.478) record in his five seasons. His first season with the Tigers in 2014 was his best season, and the only one in which Ausmus made the playoffs as a manager.

This isn’t a big surprise, but it’s noteworthy to hear it reported so bluntly. The Yankees will need to find replacements both at second base and center field, and the internal options for both, as Castillo reports, are uncertain, so the team may be looking to free agency for both positions.

Hernández signed a three-year, $66 million contract last offseason and hit .267/.334/.425 in 125 games with 16 home runs, 64 RBI, and a 27.5 percent strikeout rate. His defense has also declined over the last three seasons, which makes it difficult for the Dodgers to field a lineup with him and Shohei Ohtani, who is also in the lineup as a strict DH.

Megill has one more year of team control under arbitration and then will be a free agent. Typically, that has been when the Brewers look to facilitate a trade if they don’t feel that they can afford to re-sign a player when they enter free agency. Since Abner Uribe is under team control through the 2030 season, the Brewers have a built-in replacement if the team does decide to make a deal.

This will be the case for many free agents, who will look to lock in multi-year contracts before a new collective bargaining agreement may change the financial landscape of the league. Skubal is likely the number one option on the market, and Passan reports that the Dodgers, Mets, and Cubs are all highly interested in the left-hander, but that the Cubs “are skeptical that they will be willing to compete at the sort of dollars Skubal is expected to get.”

Rea pitched 137 innings for the Cubs this season, making 19 starts. He posted a 4.34 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, and 101/47 K/BB ratio. He has been a reliable arm in a variety of roles over his career, so he is bound to get another shot somewhere as a depth option for a pitching staff.

We always hoped Reyes would surface again in MLB, but it doesn’t seem that’s going to happen with the Fighters making a record commitment to keeping him; this appears to be the biggest contract ever given to a NBP player, foreign or domestic. Reyes, now 31, led the Pacific League in homers and RBI in 2025 and won a batting title while hitting .313/.375/.571 last season. Reyes slugged 37 homers for the Padres and Guardians in 2019 and 31 for Cleveland in 2021, but he left for Japan after struggling in 2022 and then spending much of 2023 in the minors. He hit .249/.310/.464 with 108 homers in 548 major league games.

The other NL winners were P Nolan McLean, C Gabriel Moreno, 1B Matt Olson, 2B Brice Turang, SS Geraldo Perdomo, 3B Alex Bregman, LF Jackson Chourio, RF Corbin Carroll and UT Mauricio Dubón. Crow-Armstrong and Olson are the only two returnees here from last year, though Dubón did win the AL utility Gold Glove last year. Fernando Tatis Jr. probably would have won again if left alone in right field, but his time at second base ruled him out there. Masyn Winn also had a really good case for repeating, but Perdomo got the nod at short.

Abreu has won all three years since becoming Boston’s right fielder. The other AL Gold Glove winners were P Tanner Bibee, C Dillon Dingler, 1B Christian Walker, 2B Cole Young, SS Taylor Walls, LF Cody Bellinger and UT Ezequiel Duran. The win by Walls snaps Bobby Witt Jr.'s two-year streak at shortstop.