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Assuming we get something resembling a normal offseason with the looming CBA negotiations threatening to halt MLB operations, it could be a busy winter on the trade market.
Behind Tarik Skubal, this is one of the thinner free-agent classes in recent memory, and that could push contenders to focus their attention on the trade block.
Contract situation, recent production, positional scarcity and supply/demand can all impact trade value, but at the end of the day, some players are simply untradeable.
Ahead we've highlighted the 10 most untradeable contracts in baseball, with remaining salary, diminishing production and in some cases injury concerns all playing a role in the selection process.
Don't expect to see any of these guys on the move this winter.
There are a few players who were not included in our top 10, but are still worth mentioning before we dive into the list:
-There are enough bad contracts with three or more years left on the books that anyone with two or fewer years remaining did not make the cut. That group includes Kris Bryant (two years, $54 million), José Berríos (two years, $48 million), Edwin Díaz (two years, $46 million) and Marcus Semien (two years, $46 million).
-High-profile stars like Manny Machado (seven years, $273.6 million), Francisco Lindor (five years, $162.4 million) and Corey Seager (five years, $157.5 million) could soon find themselves in this conversation, but all three are still capable of impact production at this point.
-The logistics of trading Juan Soto (13 years, $641.3 million) or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (13 years, $459.8 million) would be extremely complicated, but including them here felt like a different conversation.
Remaining Salary: 6 years, $55 million
The No. 4 prospect in baseball at the start of the 2025 season, Kristian Campbell made the Opening Day roster that year and debuted with a bang, posting a .972 OPS with three home runs through his first 17 games in the majors.
The Red Sox signed him to an eight-year, $60 million extension in the midst of that impressive debut, continuing the growing trend of handing out early, team-friendly extensions.
By June, he was hitting just .223/.319/.346 for an 86 OPS+ despite his scorching start, and he was optioned to the minors on June 20.
He has not appeared in a big league game since that demotion to the minors.
The 24-year-old spent the entire 2026 season at Triple-A, hitting .256/.383/.380 with eight home runs and 51 RBI in 109 games, and the former second baseman played exclusively in the outfield. Will he get another look in Boston any time soon?
Remaining Salary: 3 years, $71.5 million
The Blue Jays paid defensive whiz Andrés Giménez a combined $25 million during his first two seasons with the team after he was acquired from the Guardians, but his salary is set to spike over the final three years of his contract.
The three-time Gold Glove winner signed a seven-year, $106.5 million extension while he was still in Cleveland, but the bulk of that money will be paid out over the final three years of the deal, starting in 2027.
He has shifted from second base, where he was a Platinum Glove winner, to shortstop where his defensive metrics (2 DRS, 19 OAA) were still good enough to make him a Gold Glove finalist.
However, his offensive game has become a legitimate drain on his value, with a .230/.288/.340 line and 73 OPS+ in 877 plate appearances during his time in Toronto en route to a combined 2.2 WAR.
An AAV north of $20 million for a glove-only shortstop would be extremely difficult to move, even in a thin free-agent market at the position.
Remaining Salary: 4 years, $98.3 million
After a disastrous 2025 season where he struggled to a 6.01 ERA in 94.1 innings, Aaron Nola had a modest bounce-back season for the Phillies, logging a 4.67 ERA in 175.1 innings and 3.1 WAR.
However, his 4.87 FIP and a .328 batting average against his fastball inspire little confidence that he can be anything more than a back-of-the-rotation workhorse over the final four years of his contract.
He also served up an MLB-high 37 home runs in his 33 starts, and it was the third consecutive season that his home runs allowed per nine innings climbed.
Reading between the lines, diminished stuff has given him less margin for error if he makes a mistake, and that is unlikely to reverse course heading into his age-34 season.
With 116 wins, 2,053 strikeouts and 38.6 WAR over 12 seasons in the majors, Nola will go down as one of the best pitchers in Phillies history, but the final four seasons of his seven-year, $172 million deal are shaping up to be ugly.
Remaining Salary: 4 years, $140 million
If anyone on this list is going to prove he has no business being on this list next season, it's Corbin Burnes.
As recently as 2025, he posted a 2.66 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 63 strikeouts in 64.1 innings over his first 11 starts in a D-backs uniform, and he will still be just 32 years old for the entirety of the 2027 season.
However, he missed the second half of the 2025 season and almost the entire 2026 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, and he served up a 7.84 ERA in 10.1 innings while shaking off the rust over three starts in September.
The 2021 NL Cy Young winner could return to being a frontline-caliber starter with a full offseason of rest and a normal ramp-up to the season.
But is anyone willing to make a $140 million bet on that happening?
Remaining Salary: 4 years, $141.8 million
Coming off a bounce-back season where he eclipsed 3 WAR for the first time since 2022 while posting a 131 OPS+ and slugging 22 home runs in 142 games, Mike Trout looks like a more appealing trade chip right now than he has in years.
However, there are some significant hurdles to a deal actually coming together.
Given his franchise legend status and full no-trade clause, Trout would almost certainly have to request a trade to set the wheels in motion on moving him, and he did the exact opposite at the trade deadline when he openly supported the team's retooling efforts.
There is also the matter of his health.
He was diagnosed with a rare spinal condition in 2022 that is expected to impact him the remainder of his career, and while he has successfully navigated it the last two years, he averaged just 67 games per season from 2021-24.
That combination of potential complications is enough to make Trout's contract one of the most untradeable in baseball, even if the remaining money is not as untenable as it looked a few years ago.
Remaining Salary: 5 years, $140 million
After a rocky start to his first season with the Giants in 2025, Willy Adames righted the ship to finish with a 111 OPS+ and 30 home runs while tallying 3.7 WAR in 160 games.
His second season in San Francisco was significantly less encouraging.
While his 100 OPS+ and 21 home runs still represented solid offensive production on the surface, his .289 on-base percentage ranked 125th among the 135 players who qualified for the batting title.
His defensive metrics (-5 DRS, -17 OAA) were also the worst of his career, and a far cry from his peak when he was a legitimate standout at shortstop.
Even in a thin market for shortstops where J.P. Crawford and Mauricio Dubón represent the top options, Adames looks untradeable, and he stands as the worst contract on the books for a San Francisco organization with a few unsightly ones.
Remaining Salary: 6 years, $132 million
The story of Austin Riley's career so far can be told in three chapters.
The first is his rapid rise to stardom, culminating in three straight top 10 finishes in NL MVP voting from 2021-23 when he posted a 135 OPS+ while averaging 36 home runs, 99 RBI and 6.3 WAR.
The second is a pair of injury-plagued seasons in 2024 and 2025. During that stretch, he posted a 110 OPS+ and averaged 18 home runs, 55 RBI and 2.1 WAR while playing 110 and 102 games.
The third is what lands him on this list. He stayed healthy enough to play 159 games this past season, but hit .219/.290/.364 for an 80 OPS+ and 1.1 WAR, potentially showing some lingering effects of the core surgery that ended his 2025 season.
At 29 years old, can he return to elite-level production, or will he make a case for the No. 1 spot on this list in the not-too-distant future?
Remaining Salary: 3 years, $175 million
The elaborate nature of Kyle Tucker's contract, with so much money tied to a massive signing bonus and deferrals, might earn him the No. 1 spot on a ranking of the most confusing contracts in baseball.
However, the bottom line is he came nowhere close to justifying the ridiculous four-year, $240 million deal he signed in his first season in a Dodgers uniform.
He hit .233/.330/.385 for a 97 OPS+ with 17 home runs and 70 RBI in 154 games and struggled defensively (-9 DRS, -8 OAA), which was puzzling given his Gold Glove track record. The end result was a 0.7-WAR season that made him the worst value in baseball.
The 29-year-old was arguably the biggest name on the free-agent market last offseason, and a year later he holds one of the most untradeable contracts in baseball.
As CBA negotiations unfold this winter and a potential salary cap becomes a central focus, remember Tucker's contract.
Remaining Salary: 7 years, $175 million
Xander Bogaerts was No. 1 on this list a year ago, and while he has been knocked out of the top spot by a player from the same 2022-23 free-agent class, his production continues to fall short of his salary.
The 34-year-old hit .231/.332/.344 for a 90 OPS+ with 18 doubles, 13 home runs and 57 RBI, a far cry from the perennial .300 average and 120 OPS+ he posted during his time with the Red Sox.
To his credit, he was able to provide secondary value with his base running (22/23 SB) and defense (1,298.1 INN, 2 OAA) while starting 149 games at shortstop and tallying 2.2 WAR.
However, his contract runs through his age-40 season, and his baseline production has already dipped considerably from his peak performance in Boston.
The Padres will be paying him and Manny Machado a combined $64.5 million annually through the 2033 season, and if there is a salary cap instituted in the near future, that could be a significant hurdle in building a competitive roster.
Remaining Salary: 7 years, $190.9 million
Just one year ago, Trea Turner claimed the No. 2 spot in my year-end shortstop rankings, behind only Bobby Witt Jr.
He hit .304/.355/.457 with 53 extra-base hits, 36 steals and 5.4 WAR, winning the NL batting title while producing some of the best defensive metrics (2 DRS, 16 OAA) of his career.
What happened?
The 33-year-old hit .242/.297/.378 for an 81 OPS+ in 2026, which was a 40-point drop from the previous season. Those lackluster offensive numbers were backed by terrible defensive metrics (-17 DRS, -8 OAA), and that made him a negative-0.1 WAR player in 157 games.
The Phillies are on the hook for a $27.3 million annual salary through the 2033 season, when Turner will be 40 years old.
With a game built on speed and athleticism, Turner's contract could get a lot worse in the coming years, and a move off shortstop might be the next step in trying to offset the diminishing returns.
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