A Bunt Won the Fall Stars Game, and the Hot Stove Stayed Frozen on the Eve of Vegas

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. The best young players in the Arizona Fall League played a showcase game on Sunday night, and it turned on the smallest play in baseball. With the Fall Stars Game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, San Diego Padres prospect Justin DeCriscio — who only made the National League roster by winning a fan vote for its final spot — dropped down a squeeze bunt for a single that brought home the go-ahead run and lit the fuse on a three-run inning. The NL beat the AL 7-4 at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, in a game managed on the winning side by the Brewers' Rafael Neda.

The MVP trophy went to a player who did not start. Cincinnati Reds outfielder Yerlin Confidan came off the bench to take over in right field in the sixth inning, then doubled, and in the eighth he drew a bases-loaded walk in the rally DeCriscio's bunt had started. He finished 1-for-1 with a double, a walk and an RBI. It was a sharp turnaround from his Saturday: Confidan entered the Fall League Home Run Derby that night and managed one home run — it traveled 454 feet, but one was not enough to advance. The derby itself belonged to Toronto Blue Jays prospect Aaron Parker, a late replacement for the Dodgers' Chase Harlan, who piled up 19 home runs on the night, beat Cardinals prospect Tai Peete 2-1 in the final, and hit his title-clinching shot 477 feet.

The scoreboard flattered nobody's pitching line, and the NL will take it. The winners scored seven runs while collecting only three RBIs as a team, helped along by three AL errors. The bottom of the ninth was played out even with the home team ahead so that the scheduled pitchers and hitters all got their work in — a small, sensible mercy that only a prospect showcase would think of. The Fall League regular season has two games left before its playoffs, which wrap up with a championship game on Saturday.

The market that will not move

While the prospects played, the sport's front offices packed for Las Vegas, where the GM meetings run Monday through Thursday. They arrive at a winter that has produced almost nothing. ESPN's preview of the meetings put it plainly: free agency has been open a week with not one major signing or trade of consequence. The weekend's only notable movement was an extension — Washington's four-year, $23 million deal with center fielder Jacob Young, which we covered in Friday night's roundup — and an extension is not a splash. The reason for the freeze hangs over every conversation this week: the collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on December 1, and when it goes, signings, trades and even contact between teams and players stop until there is a new deal.

That makes Tarik Skubal the one name everyone is waiting on, and on Sunday his winter finally got a shape — from one side of the table, at least. SNY's Chelsea Janes, speaking on the Mets Mailbag, said she believes the Mets will make Skubal an offer built around seven years and $340 million. Do the math the way the market will: that is a $48.57 million average annual value, which would clear Zack Wheeler's $42 million mark as the richest ever for a pitcher, while stopping well short of the nine- and ten-year, $400 million-plus projections making the rounds. Janes' read is that the Mets will pay record money but will not go past six or seven years, while Skubal may want nine or ten. No offer has been reported as made — this is an insider's picture of one club's posture, not a bid on the table. ESPN's reporting still points the same direction it has all week: Skubal is expected to sign before December 1 for a record contract, with the Dodgers and the Mets the names heard most, and the Yankees, per Kiley McDaniel, thinking about a run. If he signs, the dam breaks. If he does not, this winter may simply wait for a labor deal.

The lockout is shaping individual winters, too. Max Scherzer, 42, told the New York Post's Jon Heyman that he plans to pitch in “lockout games” near his Florida home this winter to judge whether a 20th major league season is in him. Scherzer made 18 starts around injuries for Toronto in 2026 and finished with a flourish, striking out seven over seven innings of one-run ball in Game 162. MLB Trade Rumors noted that he did not sign until March the last time around, so a late, short deal with a starter-needy team is the shape to expect if the winter games convince him. Elsewhere on the wire, right-hander Michael Soroka declined his mutual $10 million option with Arizona and is a free agent after going 9-5 with a 3.41 ERA in 22 games, 21 of them starts, for the Diamondbacks. The Fubon Guardians of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League have posted right-handed reliever Jyun-Yue Tseng for MLB clubs, per the Associated Press — his formal signing window runs to December 22, though the expected lockout makes December 1 the real deadline. And first baseman Ty France is drawing interest from multiple teams, according to The Athletic, with MLB Trade Rumors projecting him at two years and $32 million.

Awards week starts Monday

The one part of this winter running exactly on schedule is the hardware. The BBWAA winners roll out on MLB Network at 7 p.m. ET each night this week, and the finalists — the top three finishers in voting that took place before the postseason — set up four good arguments. Monday's Rookie of the Year race has the Tigers' Kevin McGonigle, the Guardians' Parker Messick and the Red Sox's Payton Tolle in the American League, and the Mets' Carson Benge, the Reds' Sal Stewart and the Cardinals' JJ Wetherholt in the National League.

Messick's name is the one to watch, because it appears twice: the Cleveland pitcher is also an AL Cy Young finalist, alongside Toronto's Dylan Cease and the Yankees' Cam Schlittler. Wednesday's NL Cy Young race matches the Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski — the ace of the World Series champions — against Philadelphia's Cristopher Sanchez and Atlanta's Chris Sale. Wednesday also brings the first BBWAA Reliever of the Year awards: Bryan Baker of the Rays, Cade Smith of the Guardians and Louis Varland of the Blue Jays in the AL; Jhoan Duran of the Phillies, Trevor Megill of the Brewers and Mason Miller of the Padres in the NL. Manager of the Year lands Tuesday, and Thursday closes the week with the MVPs: Yordan Alvarez, Junior Caminero and Bobby Witt Jr. in the AL, and Pete Crow-Armstrong, Shohei Ohtani and Brice Turang in the NL. Crow-Armstrong's 40-40 season is the engine of his candidacy, and he already collected the Platinum Glove on Friday night. The full leaderboards behind every race live in the Stats Hub.

After Thursday, the calendar keeps squeezing toward December 1. Qualifying-offer answers and the Rule 5 protection deadline land November 17, the tender deadline follows on November 20, and then the sport hits the date it has been circling since the confetti fell in St. Petersburg. The prospects in Scottsdale got to simply play baseball on Sunday night, bunt and all. Everybody in Las Vegas this week is doing arithmetic instead — three weeks of it, against a clock that does not care who is ready.