MLB teams that need to make an offseason upgrade

What is your favorite team’s biggest need this offseason?

More lineup power? Bullpen reinforcements? A rotation ace? All of the above?! While every club has certain positions it must improve prior to next season, some roster needs are more obvious than others.

But for this article, we’re highlighting one team at each position — including three outfield spots — where an offseason addition is absolutely vital.

Note: We’ve tried wherever possible to stay away from position-team pairings where the obvious solution would be re-signing a player that team had during the 2025 season.

Catcher: Rays
A few team-position pairings in this story have been an issue for much longer than one year. Such is the case with Tampa Bay’s catching situation. Since the start of 2022 — the year after catcher Mike Zunino was an All-Star and hit 33 homers for the Rays — Tampa Bay has trotted out 12 different backstops, and they have combined for a .611 OPS and a 73 wRC+. In 2025, Danny Jansen, Hunter Feduccia, Nick Fortes, Ben Rortvedt and Matt Thaiss batted .185 behind the plate with an MLB-worst .592 OPS.

Feduccia and Fortes are the lone members of that bunch who remain on the roster, and they might head into 2026 as Tampa Bay’s catching tandem. However, president of baseball operations Erik Neander has said the club will keep looking to improve at the position. The Rays may not sign the top free-agent catcher (J.T. Realmuto) or trade for the Braves’ Sean Murphy, but any acquisition that brings them up from the bottom in offense at catcher to something closer to league average would be a significant win.

First base: D-backs
Arizona replaced the departing Christian Walker at first base last season with Josh Naylor, who posted good overall numbers but turned in a .399 slugging percentage through 76 games when acting as the D-backs’ first baseman before he was shipped out to Seattle. Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear — a top prospect acquired from Seattle for Eugenio Suárez prior to the Trade Deadline — tried to pick up the slack from there, but the D-backs finished the season with a .360 slug, the second lowest at the position in MLB and the worst at first base in a single season in franchise history.

Smith and Locklear will get their chances again in 2026, although the lefty Locklear may not be ready for Opening Day after undergoing surgery on his left elbow and shoulder. That has the club understandably looking to add at first base, preferably a right-handed bat. As of now, D-backs first basemen are projected by FanGraphs Depth Charts to register a .391 slugging percentage in 2026. Although that would be an improvement by definition, that’s tied with the Marlins for the lowest slugging percentage by any team at first.

Second base: Giants
The Giants made a big splash last offseason, bringing in Willy Adames on a seven-year deal to fill what had been a big void at shortstop. Now it’s time for San Francisco to finally solve second base. It’s a spot where the team has batted .219 with a .268 on-base percentage (worst at the position) and a 71 wRC+ over the past three seasons. A league-low .615 OPS over that span was right in line with the Giants’ .617 OPS and 73 wRC+ at second base in 2025. San Francisco may center its offseason moves around pitching and let Casey Schmitt, Christian Koss and others sink or swim at the keystone position. But in an infield that will feature All-Stars such as Adames, Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers, San Francisco’s underwhelming options at second base stick out.

Shortstop: Braves
Atlanta has already addressed this position this offseason, acquiring Mauricio Dubón from the Astros for Nick Allen. Although 31-year-old Dubón is not exactly a potent hitter (career 88 wRC+, 80 in 2025), he is better than Allen, who, while excelling with the glove, was the game’s worst offensive player by wRC+ (53) among all hitters with at least 400 plate appearances.

Dubón, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, recorded an impressive +8 outs above average in just 33 games at short this past season. But that stands as the most games he has played at short in any of his seven MLB seasons. He could open 2026 as Atlanta’s starter there, but his value really lies in his versatility, and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos recently said the club is “very open” to another move at short. Whether that leads to reeling in a marquee name such as Bo Bichette, re-signing Ha-Seong Kim or another trade, the Braves can do more to improve at a position where they have a .586 OPS since the beginning of 2024.

Third base: Tigers
With Gleyber Torres back in Detroit after accepting the qualifying offer, the Tigers could view their infield as Opening Day-ready, with Torres at second and Colt Keith at third base. It’s a position where Keith had limited experience as a pro entering 2025 and although his defense was below average (minus-2 outs above average), he did put up a .288 average and a .796 OPS through 37 games at the hot corner. So why do the Tigers need to make an upgrade there? Because they can still find at-bats for him elsewhere (read: DH) and augment an infield spot that, even with Keith’s solid numbers, contributed just 11 homers, a .628 OPS and 1.1 FanGraphs WAR this past season. Maybe it’s Alex Bregman, who almost signed with Detroit last offseason. Maybe it’s former Tiger Eugenio Suárez. But a headline-grabbing move at third would help optimize Detroit’s lineup.

Outfield: Royals
No matter if you looked at right field, center or left, the Royals ranked 24th or worse at each outfield spot by wRC+ in 2025. It added up to a 73 wRC+ for the group, making it the worst outfield in baseball. It’s an unwanted continuation for Kansas City, which finished 2023 and ’24 with an outfield wRC+ of 27th or worse. Some of the burden will fall on young slugger Jac Caglianone to take a big step forward in year two after a debut season in which he slashed .157/.237/.295 in 62 games.

Outfield: Guardians
Staying in the AL Central, the Guardians are set in left field with Steven Kwan, although teams will likely continue to call Cleveland to gauge the possibility of a trade, just as they did this summer. But in center and right field, the Guardians were anemic this year, combining for a .201/.263/.326 slash line across 1,132 plate appearances. Individually, the Guardians posted a 70 wRC+ in right and a 60 wRC+ in center. Chase DeLauter (the No. 58 prospect according to MLB Pipeline), George Valera and C.J. Kayfus will get their fair share of at-bats in the outfield, but since they all hit from the left side (along with Kwan, Kyle Manzardo and Bo Naylor in the everyday lineup), the Guardians should prioritize a right-handed hitter with some pop.

Outfield: Dodgers
What do you get the team that, for two years running, already has what every team wants? How about a left fielder? Or a right fielder after shifting your current right fielder over to left? Regardless, the Dodgers should feel fairly comfortable with Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages occupying two of the three spots on the grass in 2026 as they vie for a three-peat. But with those two most frequently manning right and center, respectively, Dodgers left fielders combined for a .229/.317/.385 slash line with 47 extra-base hits, tied for 20th in the Majors. Michael Conforto, who batted .202 with a .649 OPS across 471 plate appearances as a left fielder, was the biggest culprit.

Designated hitter: Padres
San Diego’s 152 home runs were not only the third fewest in MLB, they were the franchise’s fewest in a non-shortened season in a decade. Their DH production was a microcosm of the team’s overall lack of power. The Padres got 13 homers from their designated hitters; only the Rockies had fewer (12). Gavin Sheets handled the plurality of those plate appearances and although he had a strong year at the plate in general (111 wRC+), he batted .220 with a .639 OPS when operating as the DH. With Luis Arraez now in free agency, that opens up playing opportunities at both designated hitter and first base. San Diego could shift Sheets to first and hunt for a middle-of-the-lineup masher to take over at DH.

Starting pitcher: Cubs
The Cubs have been very up front about their desire to add difference-makers to their pitching staff this offseason. Right now, their rotation options include Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, Jameson Taillon, Justin Steele, who is aiming for an early-season return following Tommy John surgery, and Shota Imanaga, who accepted the qualifying offer last week. That’s not a bad quintet, but it is one with plenty of question marks and that lacks a true No. 1 starter. We’ve seen Steele and Imanaga fit into that role in the past, but the former needs to get healthy, and the latter allowed 40 earned runs and 20 homers over his final 69 2/3 regular-season innings in 2025.

The 34-year-old Boyd, who was the Cubs’ most effective starter, shouldered 179 2/3 innings after tallying 202 2/3 innings from 2021-24. Horton also saw a big workload bump as he pitched 147 frames between Triple-A and the big leagues during his rookie season after logging a total of 122 2/3 innings in the Minors from 2023-24. Chicago, which has already been linked to free-agent starters Dylan Cease and Michael King, should pull out all the stops to land the rotation leader it clearly needs.

Relief pitcher: Rangers
Just about every team with its sights set on the playoffs in 2026 would like to improve its relief corps. But not every team entered this offseason with almost 60 percent of its 2025 bullpen innings total on the free-agent market. That’s the reality facing the Rangers. Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong and Jacob Webb — their three leading relievers by innings this past season — are not under contract. Midseason acquisition Phil Maton is under contract now … with the Cubs, per a source. If there is any silver lining, it’s that Texas has been here before.

Milner, Armstrong, Webb and Chris Martin were all a part of the team’s bullpen rebuild last winter, all signed to one-year deals and were all important cogs for a unit that recorded a 3.62 ERA and a 3.97 FIP. President of baseball operations Chris Young has another ‘pen rebuild on his hands, but the reliever market is well-stocked this year, with the likes of Edwin Díaz, Robert Suarez, Devin Williams, Kenley Jansen, Pete Fairbanks and others available to clubs looking for a bona fide closer. That’s something the Rangers should be eyeing after they blew 29 saves — tied for the second-most in MLB — and ranked 25th with a 56.1% save percentage this past season.

Source link