Best fits for top potential MLB pitching trade candidates - ESPN

In 2025, 369 pitchers started a game in MLB, for an average of 12.3 per team. Only 53 started at least 30 games, an average of fewer than two seasonlong starters per team. More injuries, more shuffling of players on and off the roster, more six-man rotations and rest days: It all means rotation depth is more important than ever — and harder to find.

As one agent recently told ESPN's Buster Olney: «What I'm hearing when I talk to teams is pitching, pitching, pitching. Everybody is looking for pitching.»

We've already seen three trades for starting pitchers this offseason, with the Boston Red Sox acquiring Sonny Gray from the St. Louis Cardinals and Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Baltimore Orioles trading Grayson Rodriguez to the Los Angeles Angels for outfielder Taylor Ward.

Trading for an established starter requires an exchange of talent, but trades can be viewed as less risky than a team signing a free agent to a long-term, nine-figure contract. (Consider the Arizona Diamondbacks signing Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210 million contract last offseason, but then he had Tommy John surgery after 11 starts.)

So, what other starting pitchers might get traded? With MLB's winter meetings underway, let's use Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan's ranking of the top trade candidates to find the best fit for some of the potentially available pitchers. (We'll also include their predicted chance of that player getting traded.)

Best fit: Seattle Mariners

State of the Mariners' rotation: A rotation that ranked 13th in the majors in ERA and 14th in fWAR in 2025 will return all seven starters who made at least 15 starts. This group was much better in 2024, though, as Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller all spent