The Baseball Buffet for 11/5/2025

Issue #447

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

I’ll leadoff today with some notable decisions made the past couple days around player and club options going into free agent season. The following notable players did not accept their option and so are hitting the market as free agents:

• NYM Pete Alonso

• NYY Cody Bellinger

• BOS Alex Bregman

• NYM Edwin Diáz

• BOS Lucas Giolito

• SDP Michael King

• SDP Robert Suarez

• MIL Brandon Woodruff

• ATL Ha-Seong Kim

• CHC Shota Imanaga (club also declined its option, per source)

In addition, the following players are now free agents as their club’s declined their options:

• MIL Jose Quintana

• MIL Rhys Hoskins

Some players have opted-in or declined their opt-out, or their club exercised their option to keep them, or the player has otherwise have signed deals to stay with their current clubs, including notables such as:

• KCR Salvador Perez (signed a 2-year deal)

• TOR Shane Bieber (source, not yet club confirmed)

• MIL Freddy Peralta

• BOS Trevor Story

• DET Jack Flaherty

Today’s Trivia Question

Steven Kwan just won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove Award for his magnificent defense in the outfield. Another Cleveland OF won four consecutive Gold Glove Awards—can you name him?

Trivia answers are at the bottom of each newsletter.

New Managers

As there is each offseason, we’ve already seen a flurry of new managers hired. So far this includes:

• ATL Walt Weiss (ATL bench coach, and former MLB SS)

• WAS Blake Butera (only 33-years old, youngest MLB manager since 1972)

• MIN Derek Shelton (former Twins bench coach, and former PIT Manager)

• BAL Craig Albernaz (former Guardians associate manager)

• LAA Kurt Suzuki (former MLB catcher)

• SFG Tony Vitello (former University of Tennessee coach)

• TEX Skip Schumacher (former MLB OF and 2B, and manager of the Marlins)

I think that just leaves two teams who are still looking for their manager for 2026, both in the NL West: the Padres and the Rockies.

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On November 5…

• 1968: Denny McLain is unanimous winner of the AL MVP Award. "Pitcher Denny McLain, a 31-game winner for the American League champion Detroit Tigers, is the unanimous choice as American League Most Valuable Player."

• 1976: The A's trade their manager for a catcher. "The Oakland Athletics make an unusual trade by sending manager Chuck Tanner to the Pittsburgh Pirates for catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000. Sanguillen will play only one season in Oakland before returning to Pittsburgh. Tanner will lead the Pirates to the World Championship in 1979.”

• 1976: New teams in Toronto and Seattle select their initial players. "The new franchises, the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays, select 30 players apiece from other American League teams in the expansion draft. The Mariners take outfielder Ruppert Jones with their first choice, while the Blue Jays tab infielder Bob Bailor with their initial pick. Among those to be selected are Ernie Whitt, Rico Carty, Jim Clancy and Pete Vuckovich."

• 1999: Randy Johnson wins his fifth Cy Young Award. "Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson wins the National League Cy Young Award, his fifth overall and fourth in a row. Johnson is the first NL player since the Mets' Dwight Gooden to win the pitching triple crown, going 24-5 with 334 strikeouts and a 2.37 ERA. Johnson also led the major leagues in strikeouts for the ninth time.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Johnny Damon (1973)

• First-round draft pick (35th overall) in 1992 by the Royals

• 18-year major league career, spanning from 1995-2012, mostly with the Royals, Red Sox, and Yankees

• Played a mix of CF and LF, and was a good run scorer with 100+ runs in ten seasons, including an AL-leading 136 runs in 2000

• Had 25+ SB ten times, including a career high and and AL-leading 46 in 2000

• Had modest power, with 20+ HR three times

• Overall had 235 HR, 408 SB, 1,668 Runs, a .284/.352/.433 slash line, and a 104 OPS+

Javy López (1970)

• 15-year major league career, spanning from 1992-2006, mostly as a catcher for the Braves

• Had 20+ HR six times, with highs of 34 HR and 106 RBI in 1998, and then 43 HR and 109 RBI in 2003

• Three-time All-Star

• Overall had 260 HR, a .287/.337/.491 slash line, and a 112 OPS+

Lloyd Moseby

• First-round draft pick (2nd overall) in 1978 by the Blue Jays

• 12-year major league career, spanning from 1980-1991, mostly as a CF with the Blue Jays

• Led the AL with 15 triples in 1984, and also had 18 HR, 97 runs, 92 RBI, and 39 SB

• Was an All-Star in 1986 with 21 HR and 32 SB

• Had 30+ SB five times

• Overall had 169 HR, 280 SB, a .257/.332/.414 slash line, and a 102 OPS+

Pete Donohue (1900)

• 12-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1921-1932, mostly with the Reds

• Had a strong first half of his career, including a 96-61 (.611) record, a 3.30 ERA, and a 118 ERA+ from 1922-1926

• Had 20+ wins three times, and led the NL with 27 complete games in 1925

• Was a good hitting pitcher, with a .246 average, 6 HR, and 87 RBI in 798 plate appearances

• Overall had a 134-118 (.532) record, a 3.87 ERA, and a 103 ERA+

Currently active players who were born on November 5 include HOU Bryan King, SEA Ben Williamson, and Jon Gray.

Baseball Quote of the Day

One of the new features I’m starting up during the offseason is a baseball-related quote of the day. These will include quotes by players or managers that are insightful or funny, and interesting quotes from others about the game itself. I’ll try to mix it up over time.

Mark Kolier, author of Almost Cooperstown, wrote a piece today that reminded me of this classic quote, and it seemed very appropriate to kickoff this new feature today:

“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” - Rogers Hornsby

⚾ I hope you enjoyed the newsletter today! ⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

Cleveland’s Kenny Lofton won four consecutive Gold Glove Awards in the OF from 1993-1996.

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• The 11 biggest storylines to keep a close eye on this offseason, by Mark Feinsand at MLB, 11/4/2025

• Ranking '25 rookies based on long-term value, by Jim Callis at MLB, 11/4/2025

• Who could be next year's Trey Yesavage?, by Jim Callis at MLB, 11/4/2025

• These are the top players from NPB, KBO to look for in Majors in 2026, by Jon Paul Marosi at MLB, 11/4/2025

• 4 ways Yankees could address their outfield this offseason, by Thomas Harrigan at MLB, 11/4/2025

• The Hall of Fame Case for Dale Murphy, by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 11/4/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

This newsletter was produced with beehiiv, an outstanding platform for creating email newsletters and blogs. If this might be of interest for your own creative work, get a 30-day trial and 30% off your first three months!