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Not coincidentally, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado remained stuck on the trade block.

Here is what we know at this writing:

• The Houston Astros put a six-year, $156 million offer on the table for Bregman back in November and never officially backed out of the bidding.
• The Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox have made offers of at least four years to Bregman. At the same time, the Red Sox have stayed in touch with the Cardinals on Arenado, waiting to see if Bill DeWitt Jr would kick in some more cash.
• The Chicago Cubs came along with an offer with a high annual average value for Bregman but for only three years. If Bregman is willing to take big money for 2025 and bet on himself with an opt-out clause, the Small Bears could be his best option.

Writing for ESPN, Jeff Passan noted that players of Bregman’s caliber won’t be abundant in the marketplace during the next few cycles:

“Signing Bregman, who has sought a deal of at least six years, is not just about what he does in 2025. Free agency often factors in future classes of available players — and the next two winters offer few infielders who have posted more than 4.0 wins above replacement at least once in the past five years.

“Next year, the players who reach that bar are shortstop Bo Bichette, second baseman Luis Arraez, infielder Ha-Seong Kim and third baseman Eugenio Suarez. In the winter of 2026-27, it’s second baseman Brandon Lowe, second baseman Nico Hoerner, second baseman Jonathan India and shortstop J.P Crawford. None has done it each of the past three seasons like Bregman has. Only Bichette and perhaps Philadelphia third baseman Alec Bohm have the potential to. The paucity of infield talent available for dollars — and not the bevy of prospects it typically takes to land such a player via trade — could cajole a team into ending the tap dancing around Bregman’s free agency.”

Writing for USA Today, Bob Nightengale noted that Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer should be a motivated buyer:

“Certainly, Hoyer realizes that life, much less his job security, would be a whole lot easier if he was permitted to offer a blank check to Bregman instead of having to rely on their best prospect, Matt Shaw, to be their everyday third baseman.“Hoyer, who has been with the Cubs for the past 14 years, is on the final year of his contract with no talks about a potential extension. If the Cubs win the NL Central, or at least earn a playoff berth, he’s expected to return. If they miss the playoffs again, Hoyer likely will be out of work. It’s the business of baseball.”

Meanwhile in the STL, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has accepted his lame-duck status and his budgetary constraints, so there will be less urgency in the front office.

Here is what folks have been writing about Our National Pastime:

• PASSAN, : “Why St. Louis hasn’t been more aggressive in dealing its bevy of talent — from Arenado to starters Sonny Gray and Erick Fedde to closer Ryan Helsley to young players (Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman) who have hit a wall — is confounding executives around the industry. If the Cardinals aren’t going to spend — and they haven’t spent a dollar in free agency — surely, the thinking goes, they should leverage the players they’ve got now and start building toward something more.

“Instead, they are seemingly content to run it back, even if that means the awkwardness of Arenado returning. The Cardinals have prepared for that possibility — and are content following a mediocre season in which they lost nearly 400,000 fans with another uninspiring winter. It’s an organization stuck in neutral.”

• WILL LEITCH, : “Sure, this team would have been better if it would have kept Cody Bellinger instead of flipping him to the Yankees in the wake of the Kyle Tucker acquisition. (The thing that’s nice about Bellinger is that you can play him all over the outfield and at first base, which might have come in handy.) But even so, no team in this division is more geared up to win than the Cubs. You don’t trade for Tucker a year before he reaches free agency if you aren’t planning on winning immediately.

“The Cubs also have transformed their bullpen and have added to their rotation, while the rest of the division has either stayed idle or actively gone backward. We’ll see if they can sign Tucker long term. But they have him in 2025. Which means there’s no excuse for this team not to reach the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2018.”

• JAY JAFFE, FanGraphs: “(Tommy) Pham, who will turn 37 on March 8, spent time with three different teams in 2024. Despite a very solid 2023 showing — .256/.328/.446 (109 wRC+) with 16 homers, 22 steals, and 1.9 WAR — with the Mets and Diamondbacks, he went unsigned through spring training before finally inking a deal with the White Sox in mid-April. He escaped their record-setting futility when he was traded back to the Cardinals (who originally drafted him in 2006) as part of the three-way swap that sent Michael Kopech and Tommy Edman to the Dodgers, and then was plucked off waivers by the Royals on August 31. At least he’s gotten back-to-back trips to the postseason thanks to all that moving around.

“Whether it was because he missed spring training, never stayed in one place for long, or was increasingly subject to the ravages of aging — spending time around those White Sox and Cardinals teams could take years off a man’s life — Pham did not play well in 2024. He hit just .248/.305/.368, setting career lows in on-base percentage and walk rate (7.3%) as well as a full-season low in slugging percentage. (He slugged .312 in 125 plate appearances during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.) He was basically replacement level in 2024, and his 91 wRC+ fit into the weird pattern he’s shown over the past half-decade, with above-average seasons in odd-numbered years and below-average seasons in even-numbered ones.”

• KEN ROSENTHAL, The Athletic: “At first glance, the Baltimore Orioles’ signing of outfielder Ramón Laureano to a one-year, $5 million contract looked curious. The team, prior to losing Anthony Santander as a free agent, made left fielder Tyler O’Neill its most expensive acquisition of the offseason and added switch hitter Dylan Carlson as a depth piece. ... O’Neill and Laureano are right-handed hitters. Cedric Mullins Jr., Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad bat left. The way the Orioles set up, O’Neill, Mullins and Cowser will be the three primary outfielders, with Kjerstad playing often against right-handed pitching.

“Laureano offers another option against left-handers, and along with Carlson, a right-handed hitting alternative in center. Jorge Mateo, who is expected back from elbow surgery early in the season, plays both infield and outfield. Carlson, who has minor-league options remaining, is the likely odd man out if everyone stays healthy. But O’Neill has played more than 113 games in a season only once in his seven-year career.”

Megaphone

“I think our fans somehow think we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have or the Mets have or the Yankees have, and we just keep it. It’s not true. We just try to break even every year.”

Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, crying poor.