By Manuel Polanco
We’re about 50 days away from the start of the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) season and the historic off-season is coming to an end.
Coming off their World Series championship, The Dodgers are set to bolster their already championship-level roster in the coming off-season. They started by re-signing outfielder Teoscar Hernandez to a three-year 66 million-dollar contract with a team option (meaning the team can decide to pick up his contract) for 2028 and 2029. Hernandez signed with The Dodgers on a one-year contract back in 2024, resulting in a great year for him where he hit a career-high 33 home runs in the regular season. To add to an already great year, Hernandez was an all-star, home run derby champ, and earned a silver slugger during his first year in Dodger blue.
Their offseason was highlighted by signing 23-year-old Japanese rookie pitcher Roki Sasaki to an MLB contract and he will be under contract for the next six years, joining fellow Japanese teammates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Dodgers now have a rotation full of aces and potential Cy Young winners. A Cy Young is an award given to the best pitchers of the American and National League.
Continuing with their plethora of signings, the Dodgers re-signed NLCS hero, Tommy Edman, to a team-friendly five-year contract, worth 74 million dollars with a team option presented until 2030. The team bolstered their rotation by signing two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a five-year 139.47 million dollar contract with a team option for 2030. Former Mets player Michael Conforto inked a one-year deal with the team and veteran pitcher Blake Trinen re-signed with the club as well. To top it off, they signed hard-throwing lefty reliever Tanner Scott and KBO second baseman Hyeseong Kim to a three-year deal worth 12.5 million dollars. That’s a lot of money spent in one off-season and it raised much controversy, causing many fans to argue for the inclusion of a salary cap.
A salary cap is a limit on what each team can spend in the offseason to keep things fair and balanced. Many teams who would be in favor of this come from small markets where they cannot spend as much for whatever reason and implementing this cap would allow them to still be competitive while also not spending as much. This too is an issue as many of these low-spending teams would rather sell high on many of their players than pay them.
When Yankee owner George Steinbrenner bought the team, one key initiative of his was his increased expenditure on good players to cement the team’s successes. This helped the Yankees create a dynasty, in which they won the World Series for five consecutive years from 1996-2000. It’s no secret the Dodgers modeled their spending after Steinbrenner, and if it works, why change it?
The Dodgers weren’t the only team spending big as the New York Mets had a memorable off-season for many fans. The team inked Soto to a 15-year 765 million dollar contract, which included a $75 million signing bonus. Before Soto signed with the Mets, the Yankees offered him a contract worth 16 years and $760 million but it seems the Mets offer connected with him more.
This deal was historic, making Juan Soto the highest-paid player in the game, beating out Dodgers Shohei Ohtani for the largest contract in MLB history. A contract like that sets high expectations for his future career as a Met, and many critics will surely be watching.
The Mets continued restocking the team by re-signing lefty ace Sean Maneaa, signing pitcher Frankie Montas, and re-signing DH Jesse Winker amongst other moves as well. While the Mets bolster their team, the Yankees did the same after losing Juan Soto. They Traded for Closer Devin Williams, Outfielder and First Baseman Cody Bellinger, and veteran First Baseman Paul Goldschmidt.
The Toronto Blue Jays signed future hall of fame pitcher Max Scherzer to a one-year 15 million dollar deal as well as signing switch-hitting outfielder Anthony Santander to a five-year 92.5 million dollar contract with a club option for 2030.
This year’s off-season went by fairly quickly and many teams have yet to make big moves and or make under-the-radar signings. Many star players are still on the market and many players’ futures are undecided, as they ponder if they will be traded or not. The new season approaches and new storylines and icons will present themselves.