Major League Baseball’s hot stove period is off to a frothy start this offseason, with much more activity expected in the next several weeks.

This week’s winter meetings concluded with three major deals that helped frame the initial player market and provide a likely path forward for both players and teams. Among the key trio of pacts:

• The Orioles’ $155 million signing of first baseman Pete Alonso, with the five-year pact representing the second-largest player contract in franchise history.
• The Phillies’ $150 million signing of designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, keeping this year’s runner-up for National League Most Valuable Player in Philadelphia, where he’s rooted himself, for another five seasons.
• The Dodgers’ $69 million deal with reliever Edwin Díaz, with the back-to-back defending champions both burnishing their own bullpen and perhaps weakening the Mets, a top rival of Los Angeles and where the pitcher previously played. 

Each of those pacts was above financial levels generally expected for the trio entering the offseason and set various milestones for their age, position, or team. The initial contract movement, particularly Philadelphia’s deal for Schwarber, is now likely to further loosen up what is expected to be a robust offseason—even without the presence of a megastar in free agency, such as Shohei Ohtani in 2023 and Juan Soto last year. 

A large collection of teams, including the low-spending Pirates, that had inquired about Schwarber are now projected to be in on a notable group of free agents still available, including outfielders Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger, third baseman Alex Bregman, and shortstop Bo Bichette. 

In addition, a group of Japanese players posted by that country’s Nippon Professional Baseball, including slugger Munetaka Murakami and pitcher Tatsuya Imai, have yet to make their decisions.

Wheeling and Dealing

Beyond that, the trade market is also expected to become active, with the eyes of baseball particularly focused on Detroit. The Tigers are evaluating whether to move ace pitcher Tarik Skubal, winner of the last two American League Cy Young Awards, a year before he hits free agency and is set to receive a blockbuster contract. 

Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said this week there are no “untouchables” on the roster, raising expectations there will be a megadeal involving Skubal.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman, under rising pressure, this week lamented what he saw as a player market moving at a “glacial speed,” but his counterpart at the crosstown Mets said he sees a lot of behind-the-scenes work happening in preparation for deals soon to arrive, particularly trades.

“The trade market, in general, agnostic of position, is pretty active,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “I think there’s a lot of chatter, and has been throughout the offseason. Teams in general are maybe a little bit more open and will be creative, to talk about different types of structures than maybe we’ve seen over the past couple of years, at least.”

While Michigan looks for a replacement for fired coach Sherrone Moore, the program will be led by a former hedge fund manager. 

Moore was fired for cause on Wednesday after a school investigation found that he was in an inappropriate relationship with a university staffer. Associate head coach Biff Poggi will be the interim head coach for the Dec. 31 Citrus Bowl against Texas.

Poggi went 2–0 as interim coach earlier this season, while Moore served a suspension for the program’s sign-stealing scandal. 

Poggi’s background is as unique as his name. The 66-year-old former offensive lineman co-owned a hedge fund with his father-in-law called Samuel James Limited, which was founded in 1986. Although Poggi’s exact net worth is not known, multiple outlets have reported that the hedge fund was worth “hundreds of millions” of dollars when he stepped away from day-to-day operations in the 2010s.

Somehow the Wolverines have Larry Ellison—one of the richest men in the world—cutting NIL (name, image, and likeness) checks and, for now, a head coach who could afford to pay for the roster himself. 

Poggi coached high school football in Maryland for decades while running his hedge fund. He spent 20 years as the head coach of the Gilman School, worked for Jim Harbaugh for one year in 2016, and then returned to the Maryland high school ranks in 2017 to coach Saint Frances Academy. The school became a national powerhouse in his four years there, producing several NFL players and inspiring an HBO documentary. While at the school, Poggi poured his wealth into the team, funding 65 scholarships with his own money and investing $2.5 million into the program. Poggi then returned to Ann Arbor in 2021 to serve as Harbaugh’s associate head coach for two years. 

“He’s kind of like the consigliere,” Seahawks head coach and former Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald said of Poggi. “He’s really the only guy that is willing to hash it out with [Harbaugh].”

In 2023, Poggi was hired to coach Charlotte but was fired after two seasons, having gone just 6–16. Moore, who had just replaced Harbaugh as Michigan’s head coach, quickly brought him back on staff as associate head coach. 

Poggi has said he doesn’t want to be a head coach again, which takes him off the Wolverines’ hot board, even if he wasn’t a serious candidate. But even if he isn’t retained by the next coaching staff, he’ll be the rare coach who doesn’t have to lean on their buyout money while he figures out what’s next. 

The complex history of three different National Hockey League team relocations is intertwined in a petition from the Jets regarding its franchise history.

Winnipeg and its owner, Mark Chipman, have asked the league to consolidate their records, a move that could have widespread ramifications for a team operating in the NHL’s smallest market. 

The original Jets franchise relocated to Arizona in 1996 to become the Coyotes, only to leave there in 2024 and become what is now the Utah Mammoth. The franchise records of the original Jets, however, are now in a state of limbo. As opposed to a straight team relocation, the Coyotes’ hockey operations were sold to Mammoth owner Ryan Smith and his partners, the Arizona franchise was deactivated, and the records of the Coyotes and the original Jets remained in Arizona. 

That was in the hopes of reviving an NHL franchise there. Former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo, however, later relinquished his rights, and there is no active plan to restore NHL play in the Phoenix area.

The current Jets franchise, meanwhile, was created out of the relocation of the former Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg in 2011. The Jets’ current records also account for the Thrashers’ achievements, similar to other team relocations, but now Chipman would like to fold in those of the original Jets as well.

“It’s not as simple as just doing it. … It’s something we’re looking into,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “It’s not so much a process as it’s what the end result would look like and can we make it make sense?”

Consolidating the records could create a more streamlined accounting of the full history of the NHL in Winnipeg, and allow the Jets to more freely market and celebrate the achievements of their top stars. Jets icon and Hockey Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk, for example, has a statue outside of Canada Life Centre, the team’s home arena, and he is beloved across Manitoba. His records, however, still lie with the nonexistent Arizona franchise, as he was with the original Jets between 1981 and 1990. 

There is some precedent elsewhere in pro sports in this area. In the NBA, the original Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans in 2002 and, later, became the Pelicans. The league then returned to Charlotte, and the franchise there ultimately regained the Hornets name, and in 2014, the records of the original franchise there—retroactively making the Pelicans, in effect, an expansion team. 

A similar thing happened in the NFL when the Baltimore Ravens, formerly the original Cleveland Browns, left behind their franchise records upon their move to Maryland, and a new version of the Browns claimed them when they started play in 1999.