Transaction season has officially arrived.

As the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their latest World Series title, the rest of the baseball community has shifted its attention to the off-season, and it wasn’t long before front-office executives began igniting the hot stove on Thursday.

In fact, we already have our first trade of the winter.

As you might expect, this move surprised many throughout the industry.

Atlanta moving on from Soler three months after acquiring him from San Francisco isn’t what caught most people off guard. It was that the Los Angeles Angels were trading for him, and in return, they were sending right-handed starter Griffin Canning — a free agent after 2025.

The deal made plenty of sense for the Braves, who would’ve been on the hook for $26 million of the $32 million remaining on Soler’s contract over the next two seasons. A heavy price tag for someone who, despite blasting 36 home runs in 2023, finished with 21 this past season while slashing .241/.338/.442.

Rather than hoping for a bounce-back performance in ’25, general manager Alex Anthopoulos wisely swapped out the inconsistent slugger for a veteran starter in Canning, who provides an extra layer of protection with Max Fried and Charlie Morton expected to enter free agency next week.

As for Los Angeles’ front office, however, many remain confused about their franchise direction. If they were planning to trade Canning, why not do so ahead of this past season’s trade deadline? Furthermore, if you were going to head down that path, where’s the sense in acquiring a DH-type in Soler when outfielder Mike Trout — who’s played fewer than 100 games in three of the four previous seasons — probably needs to spend more days off his feet moving forward?

It’s probably safe to assume how this latest head-scratcher will turn out for the Angels — incredibly bad.

St. Louis is hitting the reset button this off-season, and with that usually follows payroll shedding, which began Thursday.

The Cardinals, who featured a 2024 payroll of approximately $183 million per FanGraphs’ Roster Resource, started slashing that figure by declining club options on starters Kyler Gibson ($12 million) and Lance Lynn ($12 million) and reliever Keynan Middleton ($6 million) — all of whom will receive $1 million buy-outs.

Gibson, in particular, appears to be the most intriguing arm from that trio. Though next year will be his age-37 season, he’s remained extremely durable throughout the latter stages of his career, making at least 30 starts each season since 2021. The right-hander would be a quality addition for any team seeking a back-end starter, like the Toronto Blue Jays, for example.

What comes next for the Cardinals remains the bigger mystery. With their salary-shedding off-season expected to continue, the likes of Nolan Arenado (signed through 2027), Sonny Gray (signed through ’26) and Ryan Helsley (free agent after ’25) could be next on the move.

As expected, Montgomery won’t become a free agent this winter after exercising his $22.5-million player option for next season, providing himself with financial certainty as he aims to bounce back following a miserable 2024 campaign.

The 31-year-old lefty struggled to a 6.23 ERA and posted the second-highest walk rate (8.3 per cent) of his career across 21 starts and four relief appearances — undoubtedly a byproduct of signing with Arizona in late March. He accounted for a measly 0.6 fWAR, significantly down from his career-high 4.3 rating that saw him lead the Texas Rangers to a World Series title in ’23.

Whether or not Arizona attempts to trade Montgomery this off-season remains to be seen. But they’d almost certainly have to retain part of his salary to facilitate a deal. Nevertheless, with next season’s financial situation determined, he can focus on correcting his woes ahead of a pivotal ’25 campaign.

Adding to Thursday’s news cycle, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported several other players had their club options declined by their respective teams, including Milwaukee’s Wade Miley ($12 million), Minnesota’s Manuel Margot ($12 million) and Kyle Farmer ($6.25 million) and Kansas City’s Adam Frazier ($8.5 million).

Feinsand also reported that the Royals exercised outfielder Hunter Renfroe’s ($7.5 million) and reliever Chris Stratton’s ($4.5 million) club options for next season.

Teams and players have until 5 pm ET on Monday to finalize their 2025 contract options.

While this next one isn’t a transaction, it’s a pretty significant development from Major League Baseball: the automated ball-strike challenge system will be tested during spring training next year.

The details have yet to be finalized, at least publicly. But commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed players will be able to challenge balls and strikes this spring during an interview with YES Network’s Jack Curry earlier this week.

Manfred said in May that he doesn’t expect the ABS challenge system to arrive in the majors as early as next season. Still, this is a step in the right direction towards eliminating human error from home-plate umpires during at-bat-defining counts.

The triple-A level provided each club with three ball-strike challenges per game in 2024 before reducing that number to two from June 25 onward. That date also marked the switch from using the challenge system only three days a week to six for the remainder of the season, eliminating the full ABS system — where balls and strikes were fully automated on every pitch.