TBNL: Mets and Rangers swap stars; Cubs sign Phil Maton

Well, I don’t think anyone saw this one coming. The New York Mets and Texas Rangers agreed to a surprising one-for-one trade on Sunday evening, sending Brandon Nimmo to Texas and Marcus Semien to New York. The Mets are also sending $5 million to the Rangers to help offset some of the difference between the two players’ contracts.

Nimmo is due $101.25 million over the next five years. Semien is due $72 million over the next three years. The Rangers may be taking on more overall financial burden in the deal, but will see a smaller hit for CBT purposes (where the AAV of the remaining contract comes into play; Semien is due $24M per year, where Nimmo’s figure comes to $19.25M when factoring in the $5M the Mets included in the deal).

The trade marks a surprising ending to Nimmo’s tenure with the Mets. The 32-year-old (he’ll turn 33 on Opening Day) outfielder has long been a fan favorite in Queens, and it looked like he’d spend his whole career with the club after agreeing to an eight-year, $162 million extension in December 2022. He had to waive his no-trade clause for the deal to happen.

Nimmo has been a .262/.364/.438 (124 OPS+) hitter through his ten years with the Mets. Some injury troubles plagued him early in his career, but he’s been one of the most durable players in the league over the last four seasons (appearing in at least 151 games each year). Defensively, however, he’s coming off one of the worst seasons of his career, and “improving run prevention” has been a constant refrain from Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns since the start of the offseason.

Stearns told reporters during Monday’s news conference, including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, that the trade was part of “a recognition that what we did last year wasn’t good enough, and running back the exact same group wasn’t the right thing to do.”

Perceived defensive struggles aside, adding Nimmo provides a big upgrade to the Rangers’ outfield that saw Adolis García bat a mere .227/.271/.394 (93 OPS+) in 547 PA last season, which resulted in García being non-tendered. Nimmo is expected to handle right field in Texas, with Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford joining him in the outfield.

Semien, who just turned 35 in September, won his second Gold Glove Award in 2025 but had his worst offensive season since joining the Rangers during the 2021-22 offseason, hitting just .230/.305/.364 (97 OPS+) in 534 PA. He’s been a .253/.321/.435 (109 OPS+) hitter over his 13-year career.

Semien spent the first part of his career playing mostly shortstop, but slid over to second base with the Rangers to play alongside Corey Seager. Now, he’ll form one of the league’s top double-play duos with Francisco Lindor in New York. His addition will likely push Jeff McNeil either to left field (if prospect Carson Benge doesn’t win the job or the team doesn’t sign someone in free agency) or the trade block. The team still has an overloaded infield (with Luisangel Acuña, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, and even Jett Williams all now in flux).

The Cubs struck early to address their bullpen, signing right-hander Phil Maton to a two-year, $14.5 million deal (with a team option for a third year). The 32-year-old split the 2025 season between the Cardinals and Rangers, posting a 2.79 ERA (143 ERA+) with 81 strikeouts (11.9 K/9, 32.7 K%) with five saves over 61.1 IP.

Maton has always shown strikeout stuff (10.3 K/9, 26.7 K% — league average was 22.5) over his nine seasons in the big leagues. Still, his overall results have been particularly strong over the last three seasons, including a 3.15 ERA (130 ERA+) over 191.1 IP.

With multiple openings on the 40-man roster and a clear need in the bullpen, expect the team to add at least one more reliever before the offseason concludes.

Brady Anderson, who spent 14 of his 15 seasons in the majors with the Baltimore Orioles and once hit 50 home runs during the 1996 season, has been named the Angels’ hitting coach under first-year manager Kurt Suzuki. This is the 61-year-old Anderson’s first coaching job.

Left-hander Sam Long has signed with the NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines, per an announcement from the team. Long, 30, has a 4.65 ERA (89 ERA+) in 211.0 IP over the last five seasons with the Giants, A’s, and Royals.

Right-hander Freddy Tarnok has signed with the Hiroshima Carp. The 27-year-old has a 3.97 ERA (112 ERA+) over 22.2 IP in parts of three seasons. He allowed just two runs in 7.1 IP over five appearances for the Marlins last year, collecting his first career save. Control issues have plagued him throughout his minor league career (4.4 BB/9 in 161.0 IP at Triple-A). The Carp also re-signed corner infielder Elehuris Montero for another season. Montero, 27, hit .255/.301/.391 with 9 HR and 41 RBI in 396 PA for the team last season.

Canada’s Intercounty Baseball League has decided to rebrand, citing “a surging fan base over the past three years,” per an announcement from the league. The league will change its name to the Canadian Baseball League (CBL) and also announced plans to extend the season from 42 to 48 weeks. 64 players with prior MLB or MiLB experience played in the CBL last season.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez has been named the captain for Team Venezuela in the upcoming WBC. The United States (Aaron Judge) and Puerto Rico (Francisco Lindor) have also named captains already.

Red Sox right-hander Garrett Whitlock confirmed reports that he will join Team USA for the WBC.

There are several players to star in the KBO (Cody Ponce, Lewin Díaz, and Sung Mun Song) who MLB teams should be pursuing this offseason. (Díaz re-signed with the Samsung Lions after this was published)

Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai doesn’t want to join the Dodgers; he wants to beat them. At least, that’s what he told Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Let’s revisit something I first tried last December. Maybe we’ll do this a little more often.

Collecting baseball cards has been an interest since I was a kid, although I admittedly don’t spend money on them like I once did (adulting is expensive). Still, there are some 52,000+ cards in my collection at last count, so I thought it could be fun to pick one at random now and then.

The 2018 Topps flagship set was released in two series, totaling 700 base cards. Card no. 134 in the set featured St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn.

With Topps finalizing their set and releasing Series 1 early in the spring, it’s not uncommon for players to be featured on cards with the uniform of teams they played for during the prior season. That was the case with Lynn, as he departed St. Louis (the only club he’d known) in free agency (signing with Minnesota) just weeks before the cards hit retailer shelves.

Lynn was 10-10 with a 4.77 ERA (89 ERA+) over 156.2 IP with the Twins and Yankees during the 2018 season.

His career would take him to Texas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and then back to St. Louis before he retired following the 2024 season. Lynn posted a 3.74 ERA (111 ERA+) with 2,015 strikeouts (9.0 K/9, 23.7 K%) over 2006.1 IP during his 13-year career, totaling 30.8 WAR, while making two All-Star appearances and recording three Top 10 finishes in AL Cy Young Award voting.