Cubs Hire Dixon Machado As Minor League Manager
The Cubs announced they’ve hired Dixon Machado to manage their Arizona Complex League affiliate. That seemingly brings an end to his playing career after 17 seasons in pro ball.
Machado spent the majority of that time in the minors. He played nearly 1300 minor league games, more than half of which came at the Triple-A level. The Venezuelan-born infielder had a four-year MLB run with the Tigers between 2015-18. He spent the ’19 campaign in the Cubs’ system before moving to Korea as a member of the Lotte Giants for two seasons. Machado came back to affiliated ball in 2022 and made a brief return to the big leagues that year, playing in five games as a member of the San Francisco Giants.
That would be Machado’s final MLB work, at least as a player. He has spent the last three years in Triple-A on minor league contracts with the Astros and Cubs. He appeared in 84 games for Chicago’s top affiliate in Iowa last season, hitting .221 with four home runs. Rather than continuing seeking minor league contracts, he’ll move into coaching as he nears his 34th birthday.
Machado appeared in 177 major league contests. He batted .226/.285/.292 with a pair of home runs and 107 hits. Machado was a .256 hitter in a little over 3000 Triple-A plate appearances and batted .279/.357/.392 over his two years in the KBO. The Cubs evidently valued him as an organizational mentor, as they signed him to a trio of minor league contracts despite never calling him up. They’ll keep him around in his first coaching opportunity, where he’ll manage a rookie ball team that’ll comprise mostly teenagers whom they’ve signed out of Latin America. Congratulations to Machado on a lengthy playing career and all the best in the next chapter of his career.
Blue Jays Claim Ben Cowles
The Blue Jays announced that they have claimed infielder Ben Cowles off waivers from the Cubs. Chicago had designated him for assignment a few days ago when they signed Shelby Miller. Toronto has placed Bowden Francis on the 60-day injured list to open a spot for this claim.
Cowles, 26, is still looking to make his major league debut. The Cubs added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2024 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He was kept in the minors on optional assignment until being designated for assignment in early September. He went to the White Sox via waivers but then the Cubs claimed him back in January. Now the Cubs have lost him via the wire a second time.
He has a decent floor as a speed-and-defense type. He has lots of minor league experience at the three infield spots to the left of first base. He has posted double-digit stolen base totals in each of the past four minor league seasons.
The bat is more of a question mark. He had a really good year at the plate in 2024, slashing .286/.372/.457 at the Double-A level for a 141 wRC+. The Cubs acquired him from the Yankees that summer as part of the Mark Leiter Jr. trade and then gave him a roster spot at season’s end. His 2025 was far less impressive, as he slashed .235/.300/.371 at the Triple-A level for a 71 wRC+. Though he had drawn walks at a 10.4% rate in 2024, that figure dropped to 7.2% last year. His strikeout rate also jumped from 17.7% to 28.8%.
That dip at the plate has pushed Cowles to the waiver wire a few times but clubs clearly still like the profile enough to keep picking him up. For the Jays, they had a roster spot to use since Francis is going to miss 2026 due to Tommy John surgery, so they’ve used it to add some infield depth.
It’s possible Cowles ends up back on waivers at some point, but for now, he provides the Jays with some optionable depth for an infield that should look different than last year. Bo Bichette departed via free agency, signing with the Mets. Andrés Giménez should take over the shortstop job, as he did while Bichette was hurt late in 2025. Ernie Clement will likely become the regular at second base. The Jays signed Kazuma Okamoto to cover third base, which should push Addison Barger into a more regular corner outfield role. Davis Schneider should be on the bench in a short-side platoon role, able to play second base or an outfield corner.
Leo Jiménez is still on the 40-man roster but is out of options, meaning he’d need to be kept on the big league squad or passed through waivers. Since Cowles still has options, that could give him a leg up over Jiménez in hanging onto a roster spot as a depth infielder.
As for Francis, he’ll spend the entire season on the 60-day IL. No pitcher wants to miss an entire season but the upside is that he’ll collect a full year of big league pay and service time. He’ll cross three years of service this year and will be eligible for arbitration going into 2026, but he’ll be a non-tender candidate after so much missed time. He also missed the second half of 2025 due to a shoulder impingement.
Photo courtesy of Cody Scanlen, Imagn Images
Happ, Suzuki: No Recent Extension Talks With Cubs
It’s common for baseball teams to spend the winter focusing on new acquisitions and then pivot to extensions during spring training. Nothing seems urgent with a couple of Cubs, as outfielders Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki both tell Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times that they have not yet heard from the club on the extension front.
It’s possible that a big pivot is coming up in the club’s position player mix. Kyle Tucker just departed via free agency. After the 2026 season, the Cubs are slated to see Happ, Suzuki and second baseman Nico Hoerner hit the open market. Carson Kelly‘s deal has a 2027 mutual option but those provisions are almost never picked up by both sides, so he should be considered an impending free agent as well.
That gives the Cubs a good amount of future spending capacity. Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman are the only players guaranteed more than $6MM next year. RosterResource projects them for just $76.25MM in spending next year. That number will come up with arbitration-eligible and pre-arb players but there’s a big gap between that figure and the $231MM they’re spending on the 2026 squad.
The flipside is that there are holes. The outfield has a lot of long-term uncertainty with Happ and Suzuki slated to depart. Pete Crow-Armstrong should be a fixture in center field since he remains under club control through 2030 but the corners would need to be addressed.
That could happen internally, in theory. Matt Shaw could get some outfield work this year and could be a potential factor. His most logical long-term fit would be second base, with Hoerner’s potential departure, though a Hoerner extension is another thing the Cubs could consider. Owen Caissie once looked like a long-term outfield solution but he was dealt to the Marlins in the Edward Cabrera trade. Kevin Alcántara is still in the mix but has struck out in almost 30% of his Triple-A plate appearances thus far, lowering his stock a bit. Justin Dean is on the roster but profiles more as a speed-and-defense depth outfielder. James Triantos and Pedro Ramírez are on the 40-man and have some minor league outfield experience but have mostly played the infield and neither has cracked the majors yet.
If the Cubs don’t believe in that internal group, there would be sense in pursuing extension talks with Happ or Suzuki. They already got one extension done with Happ. Back in 2023, Happ and the Cubs agreed to a three-year deal worth $61MM. That was a bit of a surprising deal at the time, with Happ just a few months from hitting free agency as a 29-year-old. Instead, he locked in some guaranteed money and is now slated to hit the open market shortly after his 32nd birthday in August.
The switch-hitter has been remarkably consistent at the plate. He has appeared in nine big league seasons now. In the seven campaigns where he played at least 60 games, his wRC+ finished between 105 and 122. He’s generally good for 15 to 25 home runs with solid on-base marks thanks to strong walk rates. The defensive grades have been mixed but he can steal a few bags and FanGraphs has considered him to basically be worth three-to-four wins above replacement in recent years.
Suzuki has been more of a bat-first player. He has a .269/.346/.472 line and 127 wRC+ over his four seasons with the Cubs. Defensive metrics have considered him to be subpar in the field and he saw a lot of time as the designated hitter last year. Tucker’s departure seemingly opens the door for him to be a more regular outfielder, with Moisés Ballesteros perhaps taking up a decent chunk of the DH at-bats.
External solutions could also be considered, as always. Next year’s free agent class doesn’t have a superstar outfielder. Happ and Suzuki should be two of the top options, alongside guys like Randy Arozarena, Daulton Varsho, Trent Grisham and others. The Cubs could perhaps wait and issue qualifying offers to Happ and/or Suzuki and try to lure them back that way, a situation which recently played out with left-hander Shota Imanaga. There could also be trade opportunities that develop in the next year or so.
The fact that no talks have taken place doesn’t mean they won’t in the future, so it will be interesting to see if the Cubs pick up the phone in the coming weeks or if they’d prefer to play the waiting game. As mentioned, the club has long-term spending capacity, meaning they could get something done now if they wanted to. The two players are in the same boat age-wise, as they were born within a week of each other in 1994, Happ on August 12th and Suzuki on August 18th.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
NL Central Notes: Saggese, Grichuk, Steele, Urias
The Cardinals are known to be looking for outfield help, and preferably a right-handed bat given previous statements from president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom. Adding a free agent is still a possibility, though Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cards “have not expressed much interest in” Randal Grichuk, and target Austin Hays chose the White Sox over the Cardinals in part because Chicago was offering more playing time.
Rather than bring in a new player, the Cards are also exploring internal options by using Thomas Saggese and Jose Fermin as outfielders this spring. This isn’t anything new for Fermin, who has played six MLB games and 19 minor league games as an outfielder in addition to his larger amount of playing time at second, third and shortstop. For career infielder Saggese, he told Goold that he hasn’t played in the outfield since he was 10 years old.
Nonetheless, adding to his defensive versatility should help Saggese in his bid for more playing time. Saggese drew some top-100 prospect attention prior to his big league debut in 2024, though he has hit only .250/.292/.336 over the small sample size of 347 Major League plate appearances. Sticking in the infield could be tricky with Masyn Winn at shortstop, top prospect JJ Wetherholt on the verge of his MLB debut (likely at second base), and Nolan Gorman penciled in for third base. It could be that St. Louis is trying to mold Saggese into a right-handed hitting version of the now-traded Brendan Donovan, as a super-utility option who can be bounced around the diamond.
More from around the NL Central…
- Justin Steele told Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times that his rehab work has progressed to 30-pitch bullpen sessions, and he is planning to return to the Cubs rotation in May or June. Steele underwent a UCL revision surgery last April that included the installation of an internal brace in his elbow, and “as I started throwing again, it felt the same. There was no difference — whereas the first Tommy John I had [in 2017], it felt like I had a new arm, I had to re-learn how to use it.” It remains to be seen if Steele can immediately recapture his old form once he returns, but having a former All-Star back should provide a nice boost for the Cubs in their request to return to the postseason.
- Before Luis Rengifo was signed to a one-year, $3.5MM guarantee on Friday, the Brewers also had interest in free agent infielder Ramon Urias, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Since Milwaukee apparently plans to use Rengifo primarily as a third baseman, Rosenthal notes that the signing was “somewhat curious” from a glovework perspective — Urias was the AL Gold Glove winner at third base in 2022, and his career defensive metrics at both second and third base are far superior to Rengifo’s numbers. The Brewers are the first team known to have interest in Urias since the Astros non-tendered him in November rather than pay a projected $4.4MM in arbitration salary. Urias had a 108 wRC+ (from a .262/.328/.408 slash line) over 1465 PA in part-time action with the Orioles from 2020-24, but he slumped to an 87 wRC+ and a .241/.292/.384 slash in 391 PA with Baltimore and Houston in 2025.
Cubs Designate Ben Cowles For Assignment
The Cubs officially announced their signing of right-hander Shelby Miller today, and in a corresponding move designated infielder Ben Cowles for assignment.
Cowles, who celebrates his 26th birthday today, has not yet made his MLB debut. He was a tenth-round pick by the Yankees back in 2021 and climbed his way through the minors before being traded alongside right-hander Jack Neely to the Cubs in exchange for right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. at the 2024 trade deadline. Cowles was injured at the time of the trade and appeared in just four games with the Cubs organization that year, but was promoted to Triple-A headed into the 2025 season.
His age-25 campaign wasn’t anything to get excited about. Cowles hit a middling .238/.304/.382 in 462 trips to the plate with the Iowa Cubs, with nine homers and 16 steals while playing mostly shortstop and also getting occasional reps at second and third base. He was designated for assignment by the Cubs in September to make room for Carlos Santana on the 40-man roster, and was claimed by the crosstown rival White Sox shortly thereafter. Cowles appeared in just 15 games for the team’s Triple-A affiliate down the stretch and was DFA’d once again in January to make room for Munetaka Murakami on the 40-man roster.
That allowed the Cubs to reclaim him, and while he doesn’t have a clear path to a bench role in the majors at this point given the presence of Matt Shaw on the roster, it wouldn’t have been a shock to see him make his big league debut in a bench role for Chicago at some point this year in the event of an injury somewhere on the big league club. Now, however, Chicago will have one week to either trade Cowles to try to pass him through waivers. If he gets through waivers unclaimed successfully, he’ll be assigned outright to Triple-A and serve as non-roster depth for the Cubs going into the season. Should he be claimed, he’ll join the claiming team’s 40-man roster and depart the organization for the second time in the past six months.
Even without Cowles, the Cubs have decent infield depth behind Shaw for a bench role if needed. Scott Kingery and Owen Miller are veterans who joined the organization on minor league deals this winter, while prospects James Triantos, B.J. Murray, and Pedro Martinez all figure to start the year at Triple-A but could be depth options for the Cubs at some point this year if a need should arise.
Cubs Sign Shelby Miller
FEBRUARY 15: The Cubs made Miller’s deal official today, and designated Ben Cowles for assignment.
FEBRUARY 13: The Cubs and right-hander Shelby Miller are finalizing a multi-year, major league contract, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports that a deal is in place and that Miller is guaranteed $2.5MM over two years but can boost that further based on 2027 incentives. The Excel Sports client is expected to miss the 2026 season after undergoing UCL and flexor surgery in mid-October. As such, it’ll likely be a backloaded two-year arrangement that allows Miller to rehab with the Cubs in 2026 with an eye toward joining their bullpen in 2027.
Miller, 35, has had an unusual career arc. The 2009 first-rounder was a top prospect with the Cardinals and finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting back in 2013. He spent two seasons with St. Louis before being traded to Atlanta for Jason Heyward in the 2014-15 offseason. The Braves got 33 excellent starts out of Miller in 2015 before trading him to the D-backs in a lopsided blockbuster that sent Dansby Swanson — just six months removed from being the No. 1 overall pick in the draft — Ender Inciarte, and former first-rounder Aaron Blair back to Atlanta. Miller’s time in Arizona was an injury-plagued nightmare; he pitched to a 6.35 ERA in 139 innings over the course of three seasons before being cut loose.
Miller bounced around the league for several seasons without much success — including a two-inning stint with the 2021 Cubs, where he was tagged for seven runs — but he’s found a second act to his career as a late-inning reliever. Over the past three seasons, he’s suited up for four clubs, including a much more successful return tour with the D-backs in 2025. Since Opening Day ’23, he’s posted a 3.13 ERA with a strong 25.3% strikeout rate, an 8.2% walk rate, 13 saves and 17 holds in 143 2/3 innings.
Last offseason, Miller and the D-backs agreed to a one-year pact that yielded outstanding results. He pitched 36 1/3 innings for Arizona and turned in a dominant 1.98 earned run average with a 28% strikeout rate. The reunion was cut short by a forearm injury, and the Brewers traded for Miller at the deadline while he was still on the 15-day IL.
Miller went on to make 11 appearances with Milwaukee, pitching well in August before making one lone appearance in September. He faced two hitters, allowing both to reach base, and called for a trainer after feeling what he described as a “pop” in his elbow. Miller later told the Brewers’ beat that an internal brace procedure and flexor repair was presented as an option when he was first placed on the injured list with the Diamondbacks. He wanted to continue to try to pitch that season, knowing he’d likely need eventual surgery and that doing so could mean a full Tommy John procedure, which comes with an even longer rehab window than an internal brace.
The Brewers were aware of the risk at the time they traded for Miller, which is why they didn’t send a prospect back to Arizona but rather just took on $2MM of the $22.5MM Arizona was paying left-hander Jordan Montgomery last year (while Montgomery was rehabbing his own Tommy John procedure). Miller ultimately had Tommy John surgery in October — the second of his career. His first came during that original run with Arizona.
Miller will turn 36 in October, right around the one-year anniversary of his second UCL reconstruction. He’ll have to go on the Cubs’ 40-man roster when the deal is finalized — players cannot be signed and placed directly on the 60-day injured list — but he’ll move to the 60-day IL as soon as Chicago needs to free up another roster spot. He’ll be 16 months removed from surgery by the time pitchers and catchers report to spring training in 2027 (pending a potential lockout related to the expiring 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement).
Ballparking A Nico Hoerner Extension
In the aftermath of the Alex Bregman signing, one of the immediate questions was whether it changed how the Cubs would proceed with Nico Hoerner. Bregman pushed second-year infielder Matt Shaw into a utility role, but he'd be capable of stepping in at second base. The Giants, Red Sox and Mariners were among the teams seeking a trade match for a player of Hoerner's profile. Would the Cubs flip him before his walk year?
That's almost certainly not happening now. There was no reason for the Cubs to entertain the possibility unless they were blown away by the kind of prospect that other teams would not entertain for a rental (e.g. Connelly Early, Bryce Eldridge). Hoerner is a much better player than Shaw in the short term, and the Cubs have as strong a chance as anyone to take the NL Central. Boston traded for Caleb Durbin, while the Giants signed Luis Arraez to play second. Seattle acquired Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals.
As Spring Training gets underway, the focus might now swing to an extension. March is the most common time of year for those conversations. If the Cubs are able to get a long-term deal done with Hoerner this spring, that could make them more comfortable dangling Shaw in deadline talks if any top-of-the-rotation starters come available. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic wrote this week that Hoerner has emerged as a pillar in the clubhouse. The relationship between team and player is strong enough that it'd be a surprise if they didn't have some conversations before Opening Day about what it'd take to keep him off the market.
Let's try to narrow down what that might cost:
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Cubs To Sign Kyle Wright To Minor League Deal
Right-hander Kyle Wright is joining the Cubs on a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The CAA client is looking to make it back to the majors for the first time in three years.
Wright is a former fifth overall pick who won an MLB-high 21 games for the Braves in 2022. He finished 10th in Cy Young balloting behind 180 1/3 innings of 3.19 ERA ball with nearly a strikeout per inning. He seemed to be a foundational piece in Atlanta before injuries set his career off course. Wright was limited to nine appearances in 2023. He underwent shoulder surgery at year’s end and the Braves pulled the plug, flipping him to the Royals over the 2023-24 offseason.
The 30-year-old spent two seasons in the K.C. organization without throwing a major league pitch. He missed the entire ’24 campaign rehabbing the surgery, as the Royals knew he would at the time. Last season was supposed to be his rebound year, but he battled some lingering shoulder fatigue early and remained on the injured list into late June. The Royals optioned him to Triple-A and he went back on the IL after suffering an oblique injury.
This is little more than a dart throw for the Cubs after Wright’s trio of injury-plagued seasons. His fastball in Triple-A last year was down at 92 mph, three ticks below where it had been when he was a rotation fixture for Atlanta. Chicago will see how the stuff looks if he’s able to string together some starts at Triple-A Iowa.
Cubs Agree To Minor League Deals With Vince Velasquez, Owen Miller
The Cubs have added another pair of veterans on minor league deals, agreeing to terms with righty Vince Velasquez and infielder Owen Miller, according to the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. They’ll likely be in camp as non-roster players. Velasquez is a CAA client, while Miller is represented by ALIGND Sports.
Velasquez, 33, has pitched in parts of nine major league seasons in addition to some time with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants in 2025. The 2010 second-round pick (Astros) was a well-regarded prospect prior to his 2015 debut and has at times shown the ability to pitch at the back of a big league rotation but has lacked consistency. In 763 2/3 innings in the majors, he carries a 4.88 earned run average, a 24.9% strikeout rate, a 9.3% walk rate and a 35.4% ground-ball rate.
Home runs have been Velasquez’s primary undoing in the big leagues. He’s served up an average of 1.48 homers per nine frames and seen just over 14% of the fly-balls he’s allowed in his career leave the yard. That susceptibility has offset his otherwise decent rate stats.
Velasquez’s most recent MLB work came with the Pirates in 2023. He logged a solid 3.86 ERA in eight starts, the final two of which lasted only a combined five innings. The righty hit the injured list with elbow troubles shortly thereafter, and the Bucs announced in early June that he’d require elbow surgery which would sideline him for around 11 months. Velasquez didn’t pitch at all in 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Guardians last offseason and was selected to the major league roster at the end of April, but Cleveland designated him for assignment just two days later, before he’d pitched in a game. He was outrighted to Triple-A and eventually given his release so he could finish out the season in the KBO.
The 29-year-old Miller has suited up in parts of five big league seasons, primarily with Cleveland and Milwaukee. He briefly appeared in nine games for Colorado last season but tallied only 17 plate appearances.
In 1032 plate appearances at the MLB level, Miller is a .238/.287/.342 hitter with 15 homers, 52 doubles, a triple, a 5.8% walk rate and a 21.3% strikeout rate. He’s a right-handed hitter who’s hit right-handed pitchers better than he has lefties throughout his time in the majors.
Miller doesn’t have a great track record in the majors, but he’s posted a respectable .281/.346/.432 line in 1144 trips to the plate as a Triple-A player. He’s also capable of playing all over the infield. Since being selected by the Padres in the third round of the 2018 draft, he’s logged 1839 innings at second base, 1545 innings at shortstop, 1445 innings at first base and 942 innings at third base between the minors and majors. He’s played all three outfield spots as well, albeit more sparingly, and even tossed two innings of mop-up relief for the ’24 Brewers.
Poll: Who Will Sign Zac Gallen?
The impact position players are off the market for the most part at this point, and yesterday the top starter remaining followed suit as Framber Valdez landed with the Tigers on a three-year, $115MM deal. That leaves right-hander Zac Gallen as both the final remaining qualified free agent and the best starting pitcher still available. Gallen’s market has been a bit deflated coming off the weakest season of his career, though with a lifetime 3.58 ERA and 3.65 FIP across 1007 1/3 big league innings there’s no doubt that he could still impact a rotation-needy team if he can get back on track. Which teams would the right-hander be the best fit for, and where will he ultimately land? A few of the most likely options:
Arizona Diamondbacks
For a qualified free agent who lingers on the market, sometimes a homecoming simply makes the most sense. The Diamondbacks are the only team in the majors that wouldn’t forfeit a draft pick in order to bring Gallen into the fold, and that alone makes them a sensible fit. Beyond that, the Arizona pitching staff is in serious need of help. Adding Gallen would be prudent, given the team’s lack of experienced rotation depth and a fifth starter (Michael Soroka) who has had durability concerns. His addition could push some of those depth starters into the mix for a bullpen that lacks impact options with Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk both set to open the season on the injured list. The biggest obstacle for a reunion between Arizona and Gallen is money; ownership hasn’t been shy about their desire to bring down a payroll that has sat in the $190MM range over the past two years, and unless ownership makes an exception for a beloved longtime D-back, the Snakes are more or less at their limit.
Baltimore Orioles
The O’s entered the season with a need to upgrade the rotation. They’ve acquired Shane Baz and re-upped with Zach Eflin, but neither is a surefire front-of-the-rotation arm. That’s also true of Gallen after that shaky 2025 showing, but at his peak he’s been the type of arm Baltimore seeks. Adding Gallen to a rotation including Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Baz, Eflin and Dean Kremer would be a more aggressive approach than the O’s took last winter when signing back-end veterans like Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton to one-year deals. Baltimore’s payroll is still nearly $20MM shy of last year’s Opening Day mark, so there shouldn’t be any major financial hurdles.
Chicago Cubs
The Cubs have already had a big offseason, headlined by their Alex Bregman signing and a trade for Marlins righty Edward Cabrera. The Cabrera trade has given the Cubs a deep cache of starting pitching options that’s pushed Colin Rea and Javier Assad into depth roles, and even more help figures to be on the way when rehabbing southpaw Justin Steele returns at some point in the first half. Even so, the team’s starting pitching options all have worrisome injury histories. That includes Cabrera, who briefly went on the IL with an elbow issue back in September. Adding a healthy workhorse like Gallen could make plenty of sense to raise the floor, and with talented arms like Steele, Cabrera, and Cade Horton in the mix Gallen might be under less pressure to deliver the ace-level results he’s flashed in the past.
San Diego Padres
The Padres have been clear about their desire to add another starter, and Gallen could be just the sort of high-upside arm the team needs to credibly replace Dylan Cease. It wouldn’t be the first time president of baseball operations A.J. Preller pulled off a major move in the final months before Opening Day. Cease was acquired in March of 2024, while righty Nick Pivetta signed with San Diego last February. The biggest obstacle to Gallen following in their footsteps could be financial, as it’s unclear just how much wiggle room the Padres have left. Perhaps the team working out the details of veteran righty Yu Darvish‘s possible exit from the club could create the budget space necessary to land Gallen.
Other Options
While the aforementioned quartet of clubs are perhaps the most likely destinations for Gallen, they aren’t the only ones. Detroit could have made sense as a Gallen suitor, but their agreement with Valdez surely takes them out of the starting pitching market at this point. The Angels have been connected to the right-hander recently, but they’re viewed as a bit of a long-shot and are by far the least competitive team among this group. Atlanta is known to be shopping for a veteran starter, but it’s unclear if the team has the stomach for the sort of $20MM+ annual salary for which Gallen figures to be searching. The Blue Jays were connected to Valdez shortly before he signed, suggesting a willingness to continue adding to their rotation, but Gallen might not be viewed as impactful enough to justify pushing Cody Ponce and Jose Berrios out of the fifth starter job. The Giants were also connected to Gallen earlier in the winter but have since signed Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle. President of baseball ops Buster Posey downplayed the idea of adding another starter last week, but the San Francisco rotation has both injury and workload concerns behind ace Logan Webb.
Where do MLBTR readers think Gallen will ultimately land? Have your say in the poll below:
Who will sign Zac Gallen?
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Arizona Diamondbacks 24% (3,339)
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Baltimore Orioles 22% (3,053)
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Chicago Cubs 17% (2,315)
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San Diego Padres 9% (1,221)
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Other (Specify In Comments) 7% (990)
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San Francisco Giants 6% (862)
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Atlanta Braves 6% (808)
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Los Angeles Angels 5% (716)
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Toronto Blue Jays 3% (463)
Total votes: 13,767