Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Braves Rumors

Ha-Seong Kim Could Return In Early May

By | at

Just over a month after signing a one-year, $20MM deal to come back to the club, Braves shortstop Ha-Seong Kim went down with a torn tendon in his finger. The team announced the initial recovery timeline to be four to five months. Kim is trending toward an earlier return. General manager Alex Anthopoulos told reporters, including Mark Bowman of MLB.com, that there’s hope Kim could come back in early May.

Kim popped up as an option on MLBTR’s list of 60-day IL candidates, though he was more of a long shot. Atlanta will likely do what it can to avoid making that move if there’s any chance Kim can be back on the early end of the timeline. The recent update from Anthopoulos makes a 60-day IL placement all the more unlikely.

The Braves scooped up Kim off waivers from Tampa Bay late last season, with the Rays looking to duck the shortstop’s $16MM player option. Atlanta wasn’t able to get Kim back on the player option, but did convince him to sign for an extra $4MM as a free agent. He was set to return as the club’s starting shortstop.

Kim delivered solid production in his final three seasons in San Diego, including a 17-homer, 38-steal season in 2023. He also netted a Gold Glove award that year. Kim then landed in Tampa Bay as a free agent. The Rays gave him a two-year, $29MM deal with an opt-out, despite the fact that Kim was recovering from right shoulder surgery. He played just 24 games with the team.

Atlanta will likely patch together the shortstop position until Kim is healthy. The team acted quickly after the news broke, signing utilityman Jorge Mateo the very next day. Mateo has bounced around defensively in his six-year career, but he’s spent the most time at shortstop (294 appearances). The Braves acquired Mauricio Dubón in a trade with the Astros. Nick Allen, Atlanta’s primary shortstop last season, went the other way in the deal. Dubón is a candidate to mix in at the position. The Braves also re-acquired Brett Wisely as additional infield depth.

Led by the defensive-minded Allen, the Braves finished dead last in OPS at shortstop in 2025. Allen put up a .530 mark in 408 plate appearances. Orlando Arcia, Vidal Bruján, and Luke Williams were even worse. Kim slashed a middling .253/.316/.368 in two dozen games with Atlanta.

Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images

Braves Like Current Rotation, Open To Adding “Playoff Starter”

By | at

Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said in November that starting pitching was one of the areas “we’re going to focus on” this winter, and such hurlers as Freddy Peralta, Zac Gallen, Chris Bassitt, and Lucas Giolito were linked to the team over the last few months.  Apart from a few veterans on minor league deals (i.e. Martin Perez, Carlos Carrasco), however, Atlanta has yet to bolster its rotation in any meaningful way, and the internal mix took a hit since Spencer Schwellenbach will begin the year on the 60-day injured list due to elbow inflammation.

Speaking with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Chad Bishop and other reporters yesterday, Anthopoulos said his club continues to search “for a playoff starter,” as in a pitcher who can be comfortably penciled into a postseason rotation right now.  “You can always make room for a front-line starter, right?  That’s the one commodity or the one asset in this game that is not blocked.  If you have five guys and you have someone that’s gonna slot in the top three, you make room for those guys.  That was always the goal for us,” Anthopoulos said.

Since the Braves have yet to find anyone who presents a clear-cut upgrade over their current starters, the team has stood pat, since Anthopoulos feels comfortable with at least his rotation’s top four starters.  Anthopoulos named Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, and Grant Holmes as “four guys [who] are set in our rotation,” and with Schwellenbach sidelined, the team will have various internal candidates like Perez, Carrasco, Hurston Waldrep, Bryce Elder, or Didier Fuentes all competing for the fifth starter’s role.

The situation is still fluid if Anthopoulos can find an acceptable trade for a pitcher who raises the rotation’s ceiling, but there’s enough depth on hand that the PBO isn’t too interested in adding another depth starter to just raise the floor.  This is in part because Anthopoulos is loyal to his current starters and excited to see what they can bring to the table following an injury-marred season for most of the team.  The health uncertainty that centered around Lopez and Holmes in particular has dissipated to some extent, Anthopoulos said, so the rotation needs that seemed like a must in November are less critical now that Spring Training is underway.

“We’re so much more removed now [from November],” Anthopoulos said.  “We’re sitting here in the middle of February with those guys specifically, and we just know more about Holmes and Lopez, who we were checking on all offseason.”

Shoulder surgery limited Lopez to just one start in 2025.  Holmes pitched well over 115 innings (starting 21 of 22 games) last season, but his year was ended in late July by a partial UCL tear, and Holmes is attempting to pitch through the injury without a Tommy John or internal brace surgery.  Since Sale and Strider also have notable injury histories, adding even a depth arm would still seem like a worthwhile endeavor for the Braves, especially since acquiring a front-of-the-rotation arm is always difficult.

Anthopoulos is known for swinging surprise trades out of the blue, so we can’t close the door on the Braves’ chances of finding a prominent arm.  That said, it’s particularly tricky at this stage of the offseason to think of pitchers who might both be realistically available in trade talks, and who might be the kind of postseason-caliber starters Anthopoulos is seeking.  It is also fair to think that Anthopoulos is engaging in some gamesmanship by downplaying his team’s need for a back-end rotation type, if he is in discussions with rival clubs about such types of pitchers.

Of the aforementioned names on Atlanta’s target list, Giolito is still available, but Gallen has re-signed with the Diamondbacks, Bassitt signed with the Orioles, and the Brewers traded Peralta to the Mets.  Gallen and Bassitt just joined their new teams within the last few days, and it isn’t known if the Braves were still pursuing either of those pitchers right down to the wire.

Braves Notes: Jimenez, Holmes, Alvarez

By | at

It’s been more than a year since right-hander Joe Jimenez pitched in a big league game. The now-31-year-old righty was terrific for the Braves in 2023-24, pitching to a combined 2.81 ERA and compiling 40 holds and three saves while fanning 30.1% of opponents against a 7.2% walk rate. Jimenez missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing surgery to repair cartilage in his left knee and underwent a second “cleanup” procedure this past November.

Atlanta transferred Jimenez to the 60-day injured list as soon as camp opened — thereby clearing a roster spot for the reacquisition of infielder Brett Wisely — but it sounds like the team is bracing for a potential absence much longer than two months. Manager Walt Weiss told the team’s beat yesterday that Jimenez is dealing with a “very complex injury” while explaining that he’s not sure whether Jimenez will be available at all during the upcoming season (link via Mark Bowman of MLB.com).

Obviously, there’s no timetable for Jimenez’s return at present. His absence is both a notable loss in the bullpen — where he’d join Robert Suarez as a key setup arm for closer Raisel Iglesias — and a weight on the club’s payroll. Jimenez signed a three-year, $26MM contract immediately following the 2023 season. He gave Atlanta one excellent year in 2024 but could now miss the entirety of years two and three on that contract. He’s being paid $9MM this year for a Braves club that’s about $20MM over the luxury threshold, per RosterResource. Jimenez will become a free agent at season’s end.

There’s better news on the health front when it comes to righty Grant Holmes. The 29-year-old was diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow last July and opted to rehab the injury rather than the more commonly taken route of UCL surgery (be it Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure).

Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Holmes is full-go in spring training and hasn’t had any setbacks in his recovery. He expects to build up as a starting pitcher but said he’ll be open to whatever role the organization has in store for him. President of baseball ops Alex Anthopoulos tells Bishop that Holmes had a “normal” offseason and called his progression a “significant change” relative to where things stood back in July.

Holmes’ health will be all the more pivotal in the wake of continued elbow troubles for fellow righty Spencer Schwellenbach, who’s already been placed on the 60-day IL due to bone spurs in his elbow and implied this week that he will  likely require an arthroscopic procedure.

A former first-round pick, Holmes joined the Braves as a minor league free agent back in 2022. He’s since re-signed on a pair of minor league deals and eventually pitched his way onto the big league roster. He hasn’t looked back. Holmes broke out with a 3.56 ERA and terrific rate stats through 68 1/3 innings with the ’24 Braves and followed up with 115 frames of 3.99 ERA ball out of the rotation last season. His results and his command eroded over his final few starts, however, prompting the team to take a look at his elbow and discover the damage. If he’s back to full strength, he’ll give the Braves a rotation option alongside Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, Hurston Waldrep and others; Atlanta is also actively exploring the market for veteran starters.

Elsewhere in camp, infielder Nacho Alvarez Jr. is adding a new and unexpected skill to his repertoire. In a separate piece, Bishop writes that the 22-year-old third baseman (23 in April) quietly began working out as a catcher during the Arizona Fall League. He’s still only acclimating to the position and isn’t going to be a catching option come Opening Day, but Alvarez said he views the experiment as a means of putting “an extra tool in the toolbox” as he looks to carve out a big league role.

“It’s a nice piece to have, for us, and for (Alvarez) — for his career, really,” Weiss tells Bishop. “We look at him as an infielder, first, but we’re just introducing it to him and he’s handling it well so far.”

Alvarez is clearly blocked at the hot corner by Austin Riley, who’s entering the fourth season of a ten-year, $212MM contract. He’s played plenty of shortstop in the minor leagues, but the Braves used him exclusively at third base and second base last season despite lacking an obvious big league answer at short, likely indicating they don’t feel he can be a real option there.

In 240 big league plate appearances, Alvarez carries a tepid .216/.277/.298 batting line. The 2022 fifth-rounder shot quickly through the minor leagues, however, and is still younger than most big leaguers when they make their debut despite already having 66 games under his belt. In the 82 games he’s played at the Triple-A level, Alvarez touts a stout .288/.399/.440 slash with 11 homers, 12 doubles, a triple, 10 steals and nearly as many walks (48) as strikeouts (60), so it’s easy to see why Atlanta is eager to expand his versatility and find additional ways to mix him in at the big league level. There’s no telling when or even whether he’ll be even an emergency catching option in the majors, but it’s nonetheless notable that the team is embarking on the experiment.

Braves Place Spencer Schwellenbach On 60-Day Injured List

By | at

Feb. 11: Schwellenbach details (video link via Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) that he felt strong throughout the offseason and had thrown off a mound four or five times without issue before experiencing discomfort right at the end of a 20-pitch bullpen session about ten days ago. He’s since undergone imaging that led to his diagnosis and 60-day IL placement. Schwellenbach says he might require arthroscopic surgery — nothing is scheduled yet — and isn’t sure what the recovery period would be from that procedure.

Feb. 10: The Braves opened camp this morning with an unwelcome update on talented young righty Spencer Schwellenbach. He’s been placed on the 60-day injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com.

The team’s hope is that the 25-year-old is dealing with bone spurs and not something more nefarious. Regardless, since the “60-day” term begins on Opening Day (and can only be backdated a maximum of three days), Schwellenbach will miss at least two months of action to begin the season. His IL placement should open space on the roster for catcher Jonah Heim, who agreed to a one-year deal with Atlanta earlier today.

Injuries to the pitching staff were the hallmark of Atlanta’s 2025 season, and their 2026 campaign isn’t starting out much differently. The Braves have already been on the lookout for rotation help — perhaps already knowing that Schwellenbach would be sidelined — with reported interest in Chris Bassitt and Lucas Giolito, among others. Atlanta has already had to make one late-offseason pivot, signing Jorge Mateo and Kyle Farmer (the latter on a minor league deal) after Ha-Seong Kim suffered a torn tendon in his hand when he slipped on some ice and fell in a fluke off-field injury. He’ll need four to five months to recover from the subsequent surgery. Schwellenbach’s injury seems to set the stage for another late addition.

The Braves had already been facing workload and health concerns in the rotation. Chris Sale missed significant time with a ribcage fracture last season and has a lengthy injury history. Spencer Strider’s return from UCL surgery produced results that were nowhere close to his star-caliber performance prior to injury. Schwellenbach missed months due to an elbow fracture. Reynaldo Lopez only made one start last year due to shoulder surgery. Promising young righty AJ Smith-Shawver was shelved after a handful of starts due to his own Tommy John procedure.

Entering the year, the Atlanta rotation figured to include Sale, Strider, Schwellenbach, Lopez and one of Hurston Waldrep, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Didier Fuentes or an external addition such as Giolito or Bassitt. The Braves are down to three established veterans (Sale, Strider, Lopez), none of whom is coming off a peak season in terms of both health and performance. There ought to be a fair bit of urgency to add another starter to help keep pace in a perennially competitive National League East.

How much space the Braves do or don’t have to make that rotation addition happen isn’t fully clear. RosterResource projects an actual cash payroll around $268MM and a CBT payroll about $10MM less than that. That puts the Braves around $6MM shy of the second tier of luxury tax penalization. They’d owe a 20% tax on any dollars up to the $264MM luxury mark and a 32% tax on anything from $264MM to $284MM. That’s presumably the point at which Atlanta would prefer to halt its spending, given that crossing the $284MM third-tier threshold is the point at which a team’s top draft pick is dropped by 10 places.

Rays Trade Brett Wisely Back To Braves

By | at

The Braves announced they’ve reacquired infielder Brett Wisely from the Rays for cash. Atlanta placed reliever Joe Jiménez on the 60-day injured list with what they termed a “left articular cartilage injury” to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Atlanta had traded Wisely to Tampa Bay a month ago.

Wisely finished the ’25 season in Atlanta. The Braves had claimed him off waivers from the Giants with a couple weeks remaining in the season. He appeared in four games, starting three of them at second base, and went 0-6 with three walks. The rest of Wisely’s MLB work came in San Francisco, where he hit .217/.263/.324 across 457 plate appearances spanning three seasons.

The lefty-hitting infielder has a better minor league track record. He’s a .275/.372/.433 hitter in more than 800 Triple-A plate appearances. Wisely has shown decent contact skills and a reasonable plate approach but doesn’t have much power in a 5’9″ frame. His exit velocities are at the lower end of the league and he has seven home runs in 168 career games.

Wisely is stretched defensively at shortstop but has logged nearly 300 career innings there. He has experience throughout the infield and in both left and center field. Second base is his most natural position, and both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have graded him well in a little more than 700 innings.

The 26-year-old is out of minor league options, meaning the Braves need to keep him on the big league club or send him back into DFA limbo. They designated him for assignment a month ago and flipped him to the Rays, the team that initially drafted him back in 2019. Tampa Bay squeezed him off the roster when they traded for outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. last week.

The intervening acquisition of utility player Ben Williamson in the Brendan Donovan trade made it unlikely Wisely would break camp. There’s a better opportunity in Atlanta with Ha-Seong Kim beginning the season on the injured list. That pushed Mauricio Dubón into the starting shortstop spot. Jorge Mateo is their top utility option, but Wisely could push Nacho Alvarez Jr. for the final bench spot.

The corresponding move confirms that Jiménez is in for another extended absence. The big righty missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee the previous November. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos announced early this offseason that Jiménez required another procedure. Anthopoulos called that a “cleanup” but didn’t provide any kind of return timeline.

Jiménez evidently isn’t going to be available before the end of May at the earliest. He’s making $9MM in the final season of a three-year free agent contract that started promisingly but has been beset by the injuries. The Braves also placed starter Spencer Schwellenbach on the 60-day IL this morning after revealing that he experienced elbow inflammation during his preparation for Spring Training. AJ Smith-Shawver, Danny Young and Kim are 60-day IL candidates themselves, so the Braves will probably be busy on the waiver wire and potential DFA trades over the next few weeks.

Dylan Lee Wins Arbitration Hearing Over Braves

By | at

Lefty reliever Dylan Lee has won his arbitration hearing over the Braves, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. He’ll earn the $2.2MM salary sought by his representatives at PSI Sports Management as opposed to the team’s $2MM filing figure.

Lee is quietly one of the better lefty setup arms in MLB. He owns a 2.82 ERA in just shy of 200 career appearances. That includes a 3.29 mark across a career-high 68 1/3 innings a season ago. Lee fanned almost 29% of batters faced against a tidy 5.3% walk percentage. He paced Atlanta pitchers with 19 holds and collected a pair of stray saves, although Raisel Iglesias held the closer role all year.

The Braves will enter the season with Lee and Aaron Bummer as their top two left-handers in front of what they hope to a lethal back-end duo of Iglesias and Robert Suarez. Lee has just under four years of service time and will be eligible for arbitration twice more. He made $1.025MM last season after qualifying for early arbitration as a Super Two player.

This was Atlanta’s only arbitration case that went to a hearing. Players have had a strong year in aggregate in the process, winning seven of the first nine outcomes that have been announced.

Braves Sign Jonah Heim

By | at

3:59 pm: The Braves have officially announced the deal. As expected, Heim will take the vacated roster spot opened up after Spencer Schwellenbach hit the 60-day IL. Heim’s deal is for $1.5MM, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

9:11 am: Veteran catcher Jonah Heim is at Braves camp this morning, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. The team hasn’t formally announced a deal, but MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports that the two parties are in agreement on a one-year, major league contract. Heim is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Heim, 31 in June, was a key factor in the Rangers’ World Series victory during the 2023 season, breaking out with a .258/.317/.438 batting line (107 wRC+) and swatting 18 home runs. He coupled that better-than-average offense — particularly relative to his position — with top-of-the-scale defensive grades; Heim nabbed 29.3% of the runners who attempted to swipe a base against him (well above that season’s average 20.6%), was solid in terms of blocking balls in the dirt, and was the fourth-best catcher in the sport in terms of pitch framing, per Statcast.

Given that the league-average catcher tends to be about 10-12% worse than the league-average hitter at the plate, having a plus defender behind the dish with 15- to 20-homer pop and better-than-average rate stats is immensely valuable. Heim rated as a plus defender in both 2021 and 2022, and his offensive improvements in ’23 looked to have thrust himself into the conversation for one of the most valuable all-around catchers in the game.

Instead, all aspects of his skill set have taken a step back in the two seasons since. He’s drawn league-average framing grades since 2023 and seen his throwing drop off considerably, with just a 13.7% caught-stealing rate in 2024-25. His pop time behind the plate has crept north of two seconds, and his average velocity on throws to second base dipped from 81.1 mph in ’23 to 79.5 mph in ’25.

Heim’s offensive decline has been even more glaring. He’s taken 924 plate appearances since that standout 2023 campaign but turned in an awful .217/.269/.334 batting line that checks in about 29% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+. His strikeout rate hasn’t changed much at all, but he’s lost a couple percentage points off his walk rate and seen declines in terms of average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard-hit rate. He’s also seen his line-drive rate fall a couple percentage points while his grounder rate and infield fly rate have crept north.

None of the changes in those key offensive rate stats are particularly large on their own, but a couple ticks in the wrong direction for that many rate stats has a significant cumulative effect. That’s especially true for a player who was only a bit above average with the bat in the first place. The Rangers, looking to scale back payroll, non-tendered Heim in November after failing to find a trade partner willing to take him on at his expected arbitration price. (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $6MM salary for the 2026 season.)

Heim now joins a Braves club looking for a short-term backup to reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin. Baldwin and veteran Sean Murphy looked locked in as Atlanta’s catching tandem last summer — until Murphy required surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip. A timetable for his return remains a bit murky. Bowman suggests that Murphy is hoping to be ready at some point in May, though it’s not clear whether that’s early in the month or closer to Memorial Day weekend. The team figures to provide one in the near future with pitchers and catchers reporting to camp this week (today, in the Braves’ case).

Baldwin and Murphy are the only catchers on Atlanta’s 40-man roster at the moment. With Murphy expected to be sidelined to begin the season, backup options for Baldwin have included non-roster invitees Chadwick Tromp, Sandy Leon and Jair Camargo. Heim adds a higher-upside option and, after signing a big league deal, is the immediate front-runner for the backup job to Baldwin.

Heim has more than five years of major league service time, so once Murphy is ready for activation, Heim cannot be optioned without his consent. Those five years of MLB service also are enough that he can reject an outright assignment to Triple-A Gwinnett and retain any remaining guaranteed money on his contract.

Braves, Kyle Farmer Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Braves have agreed to a minor league contract with infielder Kyle Farmer, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. The BHSC client will be in camp as a non-roster player this spring, where he’ll compete for a bench job.

Farmer, 35, was the Reds’ starting shortstop in 2021-22 and had a nice 2023 showing with the Twins. Across those three seasons, he slashed a collective .258/.316/.402 (94 wRC+) while playing solid defense at shortstop, third base and second base (the latter two more so in Minnesota than in Cincinnati). He’s never been great against right-handed pitching but sports a career .279/.341/.464 batting line (117 wRC+) in 792 plate appearances against lefties.

The past two seasons haven’t gone nearly as well for Farmer. He hit .214/.293/.353 during his second season with Minnesota in 2024, prompting the Twins to decline an option and make him a free agent. Farmer signed a big league deal with the Rockies last offsseason but slashed just .227/.280/.365 despite the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field.

Even coming off a pair of down seasons, he’s a sensible pickup for a Braves club that thought it had its shortstop situation settled when re-signing Ha-Seong Kim on a one-year, $20MM contract. Kim suffered a freak injury last month when he slipped on some ice, landed on his hand and suffered a torn tendon, however. That injury required surgery that could keep him out for the first couple months of the season. Atlanta quickly pivoted to bring Jorge Mateo in on a one-year deal, and Farmer now joins the infield group on as a non-roster invitee.

The Braves have Mauricio Dubon lined up to start at shortstop in Kim’s absence, though the versatile Dubon can play all over the diamond and could spell free agent signee Mike Yastrzemski in the outfield against lefties. On those days — or when Yastrzemski is lifted for a pinch-hitter — Farmer could step into shortstop as Dubon slides to the outfield.

Of course, Farmer will have to play well enough this spring to break camp with the club. The presence of Mateo already gives Atlanta at least one shortstop alternative to Dubon, Mateo can play multiple positions, including the outfield, but like Farmer he’s a righty-swinging veteran who can’t be optioned, so the two of them could be seen as redundant when the Braves are making their final roster decisions. For now anyway, Farmer provides some depth and would seem to have a real chance to make the club.

MLB To Take Over Broadcasts For Six Additional Teams

By | at

4:37pm: Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reports that the Tigers, Angels and Braves are all moving on from Main Street Sports as well. Friend writes that it’s likely that the Detroit and Los Angeles clubs will also turn their broadcasts over to MLB, although they haven’t closed the door on working out some kind of independent streaming deal on a different platform than MLB.tv.

Friend’s reporting is most interesting regarding the Braves. He writes that the team could launch its own network rather than turning distribution to the league. The Rangers went that route when their deal with Diamond collapsed last offseason. The Texas franchise created its own network that negotiated directly with distributors to set up cable, satellite and streaming deals on different platforms.

The Braves haven’t made anything official, though they’ve more or less confirmed they won’t be returning to Main Street. “The Atlanta Braves are aware of the reports regarding Main Street Sports Group,” the team said in a statement. “While disappointed with this development, we have been actively preparing for this outcome and are well on our way towards launching a new era in Braves broadcasting. … We look forward to sharing our path forward in the coming weeks.”

1:10pm: Major League Baseball will take over the broadcasts of six new teams in 2026, reports John Ourand of Puck. The six clubs are the Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Cardinals and Reds. That represents six of the nine clubs who terminated deals with Main Street Sports last month. That leaves the Braves, Tigers and Angels as the three clubs from that group of nine who still need to formalize broadcast plans for this year.

The company has seemingly been hanging by a thread for a long time. Cord cutting and streaming have been eroding the regional sports network (RSN) model for years. Previously known as Diamond Sports Group and operating under the Bally Sports logo, the company was in bankruptcy for most of 2023 and 2024. When they emerged from bankruptcy late in 2024, they changed the company name and switched to the FanDuel Sports branding. More trouble emerged recently as they reportedly missed payments to several teams, which is what prompted the nine teams to walk away last month.

In recent years, MLB has handled the broadcasts of several other clubs who saw RSN deals collapse. The Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Twins and Guardians were with the league in 2025. In those instances, the league largely kept TV broadcasts the same, retaining most of the personnel. For fans, this arrangement worked better as it did not involve local blackouts. Customers without cable packages could buy streaming packages directly from the league.

For teams, this expanded viewership but the financial situation wasn’t as good. Instead of a guaranteed fee from the RSN, they instead got a fungible amount of money based on streaming numbers. Clear numbers haven’t been made available but the industry consensus is that teams bring in less money via this model than they did via the previous RSN system. Travis Sawchik of MLB.com says the new model only brings in about 50% of the previous RSN set-up.

This often has on-field implications. Some of those teams, particularly the Padres and Twins, saw their player payrolls decrease in recent years. The lower spending capacity seemingly had an impact on Juan Soto being traded from the Padres to the Yankees a couple of years ago and Carlos Correa getting traded from the Twins to the Astros last summer, among other moves.

It was reported in September that ESPN would be acquiring the local rights for those five teams for the next three years. It’s unclear how that will impact local customers who have been paying the league directly to stream games. Also in September, it was reported that the Mariners would also be moving to the league. Last month, the Nationals announced that they would be moving to the MLB model.

Assuming the league will still be selling streaming packages for the five teams it was handling last year, then the league will have at least 13 teams in its portfolio in the coming season. With three clubs still outstanding, it’s possible MLB could get to more than half the league.

Commissioner Rob Manfred has previously spoken of his desire to market a streaming package like MLB.TV but without local blackouts. Controlling the rights for roughly half the league will make that more viable. Expanding the portfolio even further will be challenging. Most of the larger-market clubs still have pretty healthy RSN situations and would have less interest in jumping into a pooled system with these clubs.

That is part of a broader league strategy that will come into play in the next few years. A large number of the league’s broadcast deals expire after 2028. Manfred’s hope is to maintain as much flexibility as possible until then, at which point he could try to sell companies packages of combined rights. As an example of how this might play out, ESPN’s deal recently fell apart but then MLB pivoted to split it up and sell it to various companies. ESPN bought back some bits and acquired some new ones, while Netflix and NBC/Peacock acquired other components.

It will take a few years to see how that all plays out. In the shorter term, it could impact the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The current CBA expires December 1st of this year. Presumably, MLB doesn’t want those talks to lead to canceled games in 2027. Ratings and attendance have been up lately, with the faster pace of the pitch clock a possible explanation. Missed games due to a lockout would hurt that momentum, which wouldn’t help the league in selling rights the following year.

For fans of the teams involved in today’s news, new information about broadcast options should be forthcoming. The Cardinals already announced their streaming prices, which are $19.99 monthly or $99.99 for the full season. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald outlined the situation for Marlins fans today, with some more details still to be determined.

This could also impact player payroll for some clubs. Though the streaming model is a less certain source of revenue, these teams now at least have some clarity on what kind of money should be coming in this year. As of less than two weeks ago, the Reds were reportedly interested in players like Eugenio Suárez but reluctant to make more moves until they figured out the broadcast puzzle. They reportedly reached an agreement with Suárez yesterday.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images

Players Who Could Move To The 60-Day IL Once Spring Training Begins

By | at

Most of the clubs in the league currently have a full 40-man roster, which means that just about every transaction requires a corresponding move. Some extra roster flexibility is on the way, however. The 60-day injured list goes away five days after the World Series but comes back when pitchers and catchers report to spring training.

Most clubs have a slightly earlier report date this year due to the World Baseball Classic. Last year, the Cubs and Dodgers had earlier report dates because they were had an earlier Opening Day than everyone else as part of the Tokyo Series. Gavin Stone was the first player to land on the 60-day IL in 2025, landing there on February 11th. According to MLB.com, every club has a report date from February 10th to 13th this year.

It’s worth pointing out that the 60 days don’t start being counted until Opening Day. Although a team can transfer a player to the 60-day IL quite soon, they will likely only do so if they aren’t expecting the player back until late May or beyond. A team also must have a full 40-man roster in order to move a player to the 60-day IL.

There are still plenty of free agents still out there, including big names like Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen, Justin Verlander, Chris Bassitt, Lucas Giolito, and more. Perhaps the extra roster flexibility will spur some deals to come together. It could also increase the ability of some clubs to make waiver claims or small trades for players who have been designated for assignment. If a team wants to pass a player through waivers, perhaps they will try to do so in the near future before the extra roster flexibility opens up.

Here are some players who are expected to miss some significant time or who have uncertain recovery timelines from 2025 injuries.

Angels: Anthony Rendon, Ben Joyce

Rendon’s situation is unique. He underwent hip surgery a year ago and missed the entire 2025 season. He is still on the roster and signed through 2026. He and the club have agreed to a salary-deferment plan and he is not expected to be in spring training with the club. His recovery timeline is unclear, but general manager Perry Minasian said earlier this month that Rendon would be “rehabbing at home,” per Alden González of ESPN. If they were going to release him, they likely would have done so by now, so he seems destined for the injured list.

Joyce underwent shoulder surgery in May and missed the remainder of the 2025 season. His current status is unclear. In August, he told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he didn’t know if he would be ready for spring training. He would only land on the 60-day IL if the Halos don’t expect him back before the end of May.

Astros: Hayden Wesneski, Ronel Blanco, Brandon Walter

All three of these pitchers underwent Tommy John surgery in 2025. Wesneski was first, with his surgery taking place on May 23rd. Blanco followed shortly thereafter in early June. They will likely be targeting returns in the second half. Walter’s procedure was in September, meaning he will likely miss the entire season. All three should be on the 60-day IL as soon as Houston needs roster spots for other transactions.

Athletics: Zack Gelof

Gelof underwent surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder in September, with the expectation of him potentially being healthy for spring training. At the end of December, general manager David Forst told Martín Gallegos of MLB.com that Gelof would be “a little bit behind” in spring. He would only land on the 60-day IL if the A’s think he’ll be out through late May.

Blue Jays: Jake Bloss

Bloss underwent surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in May. He was on optional assignment at the time and stayed in the minors for the rest of the season. Going into 2026, the Jays could keep him in the minors but they could also call him up and place him on the major league IL. Doing so would open up a roster spot but would also mean giving Bloss big league pay and service time.

Braves: Ha-Seong Kim, AJ Smith-Shawver, Danny Young, Joe Jiménez

Kim recently fell on some ice and injured his hand. He underwent surgery last week, and the expected recovery time is four to five months. The shorter end of that window only goes to mid-May, so perhaps Atlanta will hold off on making a decision until they watch his recovery, especially since they have other guys with clearer injury timelines.

Smith-Shawver underwent Tommy John surgery in June, so he shouldn’t be back until the second half and is therefore a lock for the 60-day IL once Atlanta needs a spot. Young underwent the same procedure in May, so he should also be bound for the IL.

Jimenez is more of a question mark. He missed the 2025 season due to left knee surgery. He required a “cleanup” procedure on that knee towards the end of the season. His timeline isn’t currently clear.

Brewers: None.

Cardinals: None.

Cubs: Justin Steele

Steele will probably be a bit of a borderline case. He underwent UCL surgery in April but it wasn’t a full Tommy John surgery. The Cubs described it as a “revision repair”. Steele had undergone Tommy John in 2017 as a minor leaguer.

Since Steele’s more recent procedure was a bit less serious than a full Tommy John, the club gave an estimated return timeline of about one year, putting him in line to potentially return fairly early in 2026. Given his importance to the Cubs, they would only put him on the 60-day IL if his timeline changes and he’s certain to be out through late May.

Diamondbacks: Corbin Burnes, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., A.J. Puk, Justin Martínez, Blake Walston, Tyler Locklear

The Snakes were hit hard by the injury bug in 2025. Burnes, Walston and Martínez all underwent Tommy John surgery. Burnes and Martínez had their procedures in June, so they should be targeting second-half returns and be easy calls for the 60-day IL. Walston would be a bit more borderline because his surgery was around Opening Day in late March last year. Puk had the slightly less significant internal brace procedure in June, so he could also be a borderline case.

Turning to the position players, Gurriel tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in September. He required surgery which came with a return timeline of nine to ten months, so he should be out until around the All-Star break.

Locklear should be back sooner. He underwent surgery in October to address a ligament tear in his elbow and a labrum injury in his shoulder. The hope at the time of that procedure was that he would be game ready to go on a rehab assignment around Opening Day and would therefore miss only about the first month. He would therefore only hit the 60-day IL if he doesn’t meet that timeline for some reason.

Dodgers: Brock Stewart

Stewart underwent shoulder debridement surgery in September. His timeline for 2026 isn’t especially clear. He will likely start the season on the IL but it’s unclear if he’ll be out long enough to warrant landing on the 60-day version.

Giants: Randy Rodríguez, Jason Foley

Rodríguez underwent Tommy John surgery in September, so he’s a lock for the 60-day IL and might even miss the entire 2026 campaign. Foley’s status is a bit more murky. He underwent shoulder surgery in May while with the Tigers. Detroit non-tendered him at season’s end, which allowed the Giants to sign him. He is expected back at some point mid-season. The Giants may want to get more clarity on his progress during camp before deciding on a move to the IL.

Guardians: Andrew Walters, David Fry

Neither of these guys is a lock for the 60-day IL. Walters had surgery to repair his right lat tendon in June with a recovery estimate of eight to ten months. Fry underwent surgery in October due to a deviated septum and a fractured nose suffered when a Tarik Skubal pitch hit him in the face. His timeline is unclear. It’s possible one or both could be healthy by Opening Day, so relevant updates may be forthcoming when camps open.

Mariners: Logan Evans

Evans required UCL surgery just last week and will miss the entire 2026 season. He was on optional assignment at the end of 2025, so the Mariners could keep him in the minors. Calling him up and putting him on the big league 60-day IL would open up a 40-man spot but would also involve Evans receiving big league pay and service time for the year.

Marlins: Ronny Henriquez

Henriquez underwent internal brace surgery in December and will miss the entire 2026 season, so he’s a lock for the 60-day IL.

Mets: Tylor Megill, Reed Garrett, Dedniel Núñez

All three of these pitchers underwent Tommy John surgery late in 2025 and are likely to miss the entire 2026 season, making them locks for the 60-day IL. Núñez went under the knife in July, followed by Megill in September and Garrett in October.

Nationals: Trevor Williams, DJ Herz

Williams underwent internal brace surgery in July. That’s a slightly less serious variation of Tommy John but still usually requires about a year of recovery. Herz underwent a full Tommy John procedure in April. Since that surgery usually requires 14 months or longer to come back, both pitchers are likely out until around the All-Star break and therefore bound for the 60-day IL once the Nats need some roster spots.

Orioles: Félix Bautista

Bautista underwent shoulder surgery in August, and the club announced his recovery timeline as 12 months. He’s a lock for the 60-day IL and may miss the entire season if his recovery doesn’t go smoothly.

Padres: Yu Darvish, Jhony Brito, Jason Adam

Darvish underwent UCL surgery in November and will miss the entire 2026 season. Instead of going on the IL, he may just retire, but it seems there are some contractual complications to be ironed out since he is signed through 2028.

Brito and Adam could be borderline cases. Brito underwent internal brace surgery in May of last year. Some pitchers can return from that procedure in about a year. Adam ruptured a tendon in his left quad in early September. In November, he seemed to acknowledge that he wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day. As of now, a trip to the 60-day IL seems unlikely unless he suffers a setback.

Pirates: Jared Jones

Jones required UCL surgery on May 21st of last year. The Bucs announced an expected return timeline of 10 to 12 months. The shorter end of that window would allow Jones to return fairly early in 2026. If it looks like he’ll be on the longer end of that time frame, he could wind up on the 60-day IL.

Phillies: Zack Wheeler

Wheeler underwent surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome in September, with a timeline of six to eight months. As of now, it seems unlikely Wheeler would require a trip to the 60-day IL, but it depends on how his ramp-up goes. He’s also approaching his 36th birthday, and the Phils could slow-play his recovery.

Rangers: Cody Bradford

Bradford required internal brace surgery in late June of last year. He recently said he’s targeting a return in May. That’s a pretty aggressive timeline, but perhaps the Rangers will delay moving him to the 60-day IL until that plan is strictly ruled out.

Rays: Manuel Rodríguez

Rodriguez underwent flexor tendon surgery in July of last year and is targeting a return in June of this year, so he should be a lock for the 60-day IL.

Reds: Brandon Williamson, Julian Aguiar

Both of these pitchers required Tommy John surgeries late in 2024, Williamson in September and Aguiar in October. They each missed the entire 2025 season. Presumably, they are recovered by now and could be healthy going into 2026, but there haven’t been any recent public updates.

Red Sox: Tanner Houck, Triston Casas

Houck is the most clear-cut case for Boston. He had Tommy John surgery in August of 2025 and will miss most or perhaps all of the 2026 season. Casas is more borderline. He’s still recovering from a ruptured left patellar tendon suffered in May of last year. It doesn’t seem like he will be ready by Opening Day, but his timeline apart from that is murky.

Rockies: Jeff Criswell, Kris Bryant

Criswell required Tommy John surgery in early March of last year. With the normal 14-month recovery timeline, he could be back in May. Anything slightly longer than that would make him a candidate for the 60-day IL. Bryant’s timeline is very difficult to discern. He has hardly played in recent years due to various injuries and is now dealing with chronic symptoms related to lumbar degenerative disc disease. Updates will likely be provided once camp opens.

Royals: Alec Marsh

Marsh missed 2025 due to shoulder problems and is slated to miss 2026 as well after undergoing labrum surgery in November.

Tigers: Jackson Jobe

Jobe required Tommy John surgery in June of last year. He will miss most or perhaps even all of the 2026 season.

Twins: None.

White Sox: Ky Bush, Drew Thorpe, Prelander Berroa

These three hurlers all required Tommy John surgery about a year ago, Bush in February, followed by Berroa and Thorpe in March. Given the normal 14-month recovery period, any of them could return early in 2026, but they could also end up on the 60-day IL if the timeline pushes slightly beyond that.

Yankees: Clarke Schmidt, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Anthony Volpe

Schmidt is the only lock of this group. He required UCL surgery in July of last year and should miss the first half of the 2026 season. Cole is recovering from Tommy John surgery performed in March of last year. His target is expected to be late May/early June, so he has a decent chance to hit the 60-day. However, given his importance to the club, the Yankees probably won’t put him there until it’s certain he won’t be back by the middle of May.

Rodón had surgery in October to remove loose bodies in his elbow. He’s expected to be back with the big league club in late April or early May, so he would only hit the 60-day IL if his timeline is pushed. Volpe required shoulder surgery in October. He’s not expected to be ready by Opening Day, but his timeline beyond that doesn’t seem concrete.

Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top