While there are several starting pitchers available in free agency, the trade market also offers an array of opportunities for teams looking to make multiple additions.
That includes the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have been linked to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell, along with trade candidates Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease. Of Burnes and Cease, there’s a belief the Chicago White Sox are more motivated to make a move compared to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Elsewhere on the trade front, the Cleveland Guardians will listen on Shane Bieber trade offers, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan:
The White Sox will entertain entreaties on Dylan Cease. Same for Cleveland and Shane Bieber.
Guardians general manager Mike Chernoff recently said the expectation was Bieber would be part of the team’s starting rotation during the 2024 season. However, Chernoff also did not fully dismiss a potential Bieber trade this offseason.
The right-hander is under team control for a final year via salary arbitration. Bieber and the Guardians previously avoided arbitration for the 2023 season by agreeing to a one-year, $10.01 million contract.
MLB Trade Rumors projects Bieber to receive a $12.2 million salary in 2024.
Bieber is coming off a season in which he went 6-6 with a 3.80 ERA, 3.87 FIP and 1.23 WHIP in just 21 starts. Included in that was a career-worst 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings.
The 28-year-old missed two months because of right elbow inflammation, but got through two starts at the end of September that suggested his health was back in order.
Despite some of the injury concern, Bieber reportedly is drawing interest from multiple teams and is considered a likely trade candidate because of the Guardians’ pitching depth and his rising salary.
New Guardians manager
This offseason has already seen the Guardians usher in a new era with the hiring of Stephen Vogt as their new manager with Terry Francona retiring.
Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough reportedly impressed in his interview with the Guaridans.
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