The Marlins’ starting rotation has been a frequent topic of trade rumblings throughout the offseason. In early December, reports emerged that the club was listening to offers for all of its starters, beyond Eury Perez. Sandy Alcantara has been the subject of frequent rumors in recent seasons, while Cabrera and Ryan Weers have recently been put forward as possible trading chips. It would take a huge bid to land Alcantara, Jackson notes.
The Orioles were specifically linked to Cabrera a few weeks ago. The club is linked to virtually every high-end name in free agency and on the trade market Framber Valdez And Ranger Suarez Unpleasant Freddy Peralta And MacKenzie Gore. President of baseball operations Mike Elias secured a significant rotation upgrade last week, flipping several prospects and a right-hander draft pick Shane Baz. Elias has said the organization will continue to work on strengthening the rotation, although the recent trade may have ended their Cabrera pursuit given the capital it took to pry Baz from Tampa Bay.
Baltimore and Miami joined forces for a deal at the 2024 trade deadline that worked for both teams. The Marlins sent left Trevor Rogers to the Orioles for outfielder Kyle Stowers and infielder Connor Norby. Rogers broke out as Baltimore’s top starter this past season, while Stowers delivered an All-Star campaign with his new team.
Houston has been looking for young, controllable starting pitchers this season. The club’s rotation was devastated by injuries in 2025 Ronel Blanco, Hayden WesneskiAnd Brandon Walter they all need Tommy John surgery and Luis Garcia going down with another elbow injury. With Valdez hitting free agency, the Astros entered the offseason with Hunter Brown and a slew of unproven options for filling out the workforce.
Like the Orioles, the Astros made a notable move last week to address their pitching needs by making an acquisition Mike Burrows from the Pirates in a three-team trade headlined by Brandon Lowe. Like Baltimore, Houston spent significant prospect capital to land a young starter. Outfielder Jacob Melton and right-handed Anderson Brito went to the Rays in the deal. Melton was among the organization’s top prospects, while Brito was an emerging name, albeit with minimal professional experience. The parting ways with both Melton and Brito to land Burrows likely impacted Houston’s ability to put together a Cabrera package.
After periods of brilliance often cut short by injuries, Cabrera finally put together a long run of strong results in 2025. The 27-year-old posted a 3.53 ERA in a career-high 137 2/3 innings last season. Cabrera maintained a solid 25.8% strikeout rate while pushing his walk rate into single digits for the first time.
Cabrera suffered a sprained elbow in early September, but returned for a pair of outings in the final week of the season. The brief comeback could have been an audition for trade candidates, showing interested teams that Cabrera was ready for 2026. The righty is under team control until 2028. Matt Swartz, MLBTR contributor, expects Cabrera to earn $3.7 million in arbitration. An acquiring team would have him for three seasons at a reasonable price.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
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