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Mets To Sign Mike Baumann

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The Mets and right-hander Mike Baumann have agreed to a deal, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Heyman doesn’t specify whether it’s a major or minor league deal for the CAA Sports client. The Mets have a full 40-man roster and would need to open a spot for Baumann if he’s going on there.

It would be quite a shock if Baumann landed a major league deal. The 30-year-old spent the 2025 season with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He wasn’t exactly dominant over there. He tossed 15 innings at the top NPB level with a 4.20 earned run average and 11 innings in the minors with a 4.09 ERA.

At the top level, he did strike out 25.3% of batters faced in that small sample but he also gave out walks to 16% of opponents. In the minors, he had a 20.9% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate.

If it’s just a minor league deal, then it’s fine for the Mets. It adds some depth without using up a roster spot. Baumann has a bit of major league experience. He tossed 167 1/3 innings over the 2021 to 2024 seasons with a 4.95 ERA, 20% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 42.7% ground ball rate.

Those numbers weren’t elite but Baumann’s arsenal clearly intrigued teams. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged in the upper 90s. He also featured a low-90s slider in addition to a knuckle curve and a changeup which both averaged in the high-80s.

He began the 2024 season with the Orioles, the club he had played for since being drafted in 2017. But he exhausted his final option season in 2023, meaning his grip on a roster spot had loosened. Over the course of the 2024 season, he went from the O’s to the Mariners, Giants, Angels and Marlins via small trades or waiver claims.

After that hot-potato season, he tried to find a bit more security by heading to Japan. It didn’t pan out, so he has come back to North America and will join the Mets. Assuming this is a non-roster pact, he will try to pitch his way onto the club’s roster. Even if he does so, hanging onto his spot will be tricky on account of his aforementioned out-of-options status.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

MLBTR Podcast: Three-Way Trade, Murakami’s Short-Term Deal, And Willson Contreras To Boston

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

  • The Mets Sign Jorge Polanco, And The Braves, Blue Jays And Royals Make Moves – listen here
  • Winter Meetings Recap – listen here
  • An Agent’s Perspective with B.B. Abbott – Also, Cease, Williams, Helsley, And Gray – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images

Mets Interested In Austin Hays

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The Mets have interest in free agent outfielder Austin Hays, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Hays was previously connected to the Royals but that was before Kansas City signed Lane Thomas and acquired Isaac Collins. They are reportedly still exploring the outfield market but might have less urgency in that pursuit now.

For the Mets, adding to the outfield seems like an inevitability. They had nine players take more than one plate appearance as an outfielder in 2025. Seven of them are gone. Cedric Mullins, Starling Marte, Jesse Winker, Jose Siri and José Azócar became free agents at season’s end. This offseason, Brandon Nimmo was traded to the Rangers and Jeff McNeil to the Athletics.

That leaves the Mets with Juan Soto and Tyrone Taylor as holdovers. Soto is obviously part of the plans in 2026 but Taylor should be on shakier ground. Taylor has a decent floor from his speed and his defense but he has had subpar offense for three years running now, including a .223/.279/.319 line and 70 wRC+ in 2025.

The Mets have already avoided arbitration with Taylor, signing him for $3.8MM in 2026. Despite that commitment, he would ideally be bumped into a bench role.

It’s possible that prospect Carson Benge eventually takes the center field job from Taylor. President of baseball operations David Stearns has said Benge will get a chance to earn a job out of camp. Benge can play all three outfield spots but the Mets presumably want to give him a chance to stick in center, where he would have more value.

Hays wouldn’t be the best available option for filling that spot, especially with Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger still on the open market, but he has a decent track record.

He has generally been good for offense a bit above average. He has a .262/.313/.435 line in his career, which translates to a 105 wRC+. His 2025 season was in line with that, as he hit .266/.315/.453, also for a 105 wRC+.

He has been graded as a good defender in his career but less so in the past two seasons. He’s been slapped with a minus-10 grade from Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-2 from Outs Above Average dating back to the start of 2024. He’s also had a few injury challenges and hasn’t been able to get beyond 103 games played in those two seasons.

Hays has his attributes but is a better fit as a complementary player than a full-time solution. He swings from the right side and has been a subpar hitter against righty pitchers in his career. However, he has a .282/.340/.479 line and 124 wRC+ with the platoon advantage. The split was even more extreme in 2025, with Hays batting .319/.400/.549 for a 155 wRC+ against southpaws.

An outfielder who can crush lefties is still worth something. The Mariners just gave Rob Refsnyder $6.25MM for a similar profile.

Benge is a lefty and he showed notable splits in the minors this year, with a .232/.407/.326 line against lefties compared to a .295/.379/.512 line against righties.

The Mets have also been frequently connected to Luis Robert Jr. in rumors. He has flashed a borderline MVP upside but has been fairly Hays-ian in the past two years. He has struggled to stay on the field and provided subpar offense but with big numbers against lefties.

Robert is going to earn $20MM next year and would require the Mets to send prospects to the White Sox in return. Chicago might be willing to eat some of the money but that would only increase their demands in the prospect department.

Perhaps the Mets view Hays as a more affordable alternative to Robert. Hays hasn’t played center since 2023 but did so fairly regularly before his mounting injuries in recent seasons. Perhaps a short-side platoon role would help him stay healthy and maximize his contributions.

That could bump Taylor down into a fifth outfielder role where he could be used as a pinch runner and defensive replacement. Taylor is also a righty swinger but has fairly even splits in his career, making him less of a fit as a platoon guy.

Even if Hays is brought aboard, that shouldn’t finish the club’s work in the outfield. They’ve been connected to Bellinger and are a logical fit for Tucker. They’ve also reportedly shown interest in trade candidates such as Lars Nootbaar and Ramón Laureano. They presumably have interest in a number of other outfielders even if they haven’t been connected to them publicly.

Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images

Athletics Acquire Jeff McNeil

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The Mets have traded infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil to the Athletics along with cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. The Mets receive right-hander Yordan Rodriguez in return. The A’s designated left-hander Ken Waldichuk for assignment to open a 40-man spot, which you can read more about here. New York is reportedly sending $5.75MM to cover part of McNeil’s $15.75MM salary in 2026 and will cover the $2MM buyout on McNeil’s $15.75MM club option for 2027 if the A’s don’t pick it up.

Once again, the Mets are moving on from a long-tenured player as they overhaul their roster this offseason. They traded Brandon Nimmo to the Rangers last month. In recent weeks, Pete Alonso signed with the Orioles and Edwin Díaz with the Dodgers. Díaz was acquired by the Mets in a trade ahead of the 2019 season. Nimmo, Alonso and McNeil were all drafted by the Mets, Nimmo back in 2011, McNeil in 2013 and Alonso in 2016.

McNeil debuted in the big leagues in 2018 and played in eight different seasons as a Met. Through the 2022 campaign, McNeil had appeared in 516 games, stepping to the plate 2,039 times. He established himself as one of the hitters most likely to put the ball in play. His 6.8% walk rate was a bit lower than league average while his 11.9% strikeout rate was barely half of par. He showed a bit of pop with 46 home runs in that span, though 23 of those were in the 2019 juiced-ball season. Put it all together and McNeil slashed .307/.370/.458 for a 130 wRC+ over those five seasons, indicating he had been 30% better than league average on the whole.

In addition to his skills at the plate, he swiped a few bags and provided the Mets with a good amount of defensive versatility. He spent most of his time at second base but also appeared at third base and the outfield corners, generally getting good marks for his glovework. FanGraphs credited him with 15.3 wins above replacement in that span.

Going into 2023, the Mets signed him to a four-year, $50MM contract extension, just ahead of his age-31 season. That deal hasn’t been a disaster but McNeil’s production has declined since then. Up until he signed that pact, he had a .332 batting average on balls in play. That’s roughly 40 points better than typical league averages, a tremendous boost for a guy who puts the ball in play so often. But in the past three seasons, his BABIP has been just .269, which has led to a .253/.326/.389 line and 102 wRC+. Thanks to his glovework, he’s still been worth about two fWAR per year over the course of his extension so far.

The infield picture in Queens has become jumbled in recent years. Francisco Lindor has been a mainstay at shortstop since 2021. McNeil has been at second a lot but has also been moved around as the Mets have tried to find time for a crop of younger infielders consisting of Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña.

As those players have been earning more playing time, to varying degrees, trade rumors around McNeil have picked up. The Mets further loaded up the infield by acquiring second baseman Marcus Semien from the Rangers as the return in the Nimmo trade.

McNeil’s defensive versatility meant the Semien trade didn’t completely kick him out the door but it was perhaps telling that the Mets acquired one of the most reliable, everyday guys to cover the position McNeil has played most often. Since McNeil will turn 34 years old in April and has just one guaranteed year remaining on his contract, a deal did feel likely. The Jorge Polanco signing added even another layer. He is expected to primarily play first base and serve as the designated hitter but some time at second or third base is possible as well.

The trade possibility was complicated by the fact that McNeil’s health is at least somewhat in question. It was reported in November that McNeil underwent a thoracic outlet procedure at the end of the 2025 campaign. His agent characterized the procedure as minor and said the expectation would be for McNeil to be back to normal in time to be a full participant in spring training.

The procedure doesn’t seem to have dissuaded the A’s, who have been looking for upgrades at the second and/or third base positions. The A’s have been rebuilding for a while and have had a lot of success at developing their young position player prospects. They have almost a full lineup of controllable players but they came into this offseason with some room to add on the infield. Jacob Wilson is the club’s shortstop and Nick Kurtz the first baseman, but the other two spots were wide open.

Zack Gelof flashed some home run pop when he debuted in 2023 but his strikeout problems have worsened since then and he was injured for most of 2025. Various other young players have received sporadic auditions while veterans like Luis Urías and Aledmys Díaz have also floated through.

McNeil will likely be the club’s regular second baseman in the upcoming season but his flexibility also allows them to pivot as things develop. Wilson is not an especially strong defender at shortstop, so he could end up pushed to second or third. He will probably stick at short for the time being but prospect Leo De Vries, acquired in the Mason Miller trade, is looming. He’s only 19 years old but he is one of the best prospects in the league and has already played in 21 Double-A games.

Wilson’s arm strength was ranked by Statcast in the 80th percentile this year, so handling the hot corner is a possibility, though the A’s might prefer to have him stick up the middle. As they sort that out, guys like Max Muncy, Darell Hernaiz, Max Schuemann, Brett Harris and Gelof will be trying to earn playing time as well. Injuries and further acquisitions will inevitably change the situation but McNeil can move around as circumstances dictate. He even played a bit of center field this year, so he can give the A’s some coverage for Denzel Clarke, who is an elite fielder but questionable hitter.

The A’s could have turned to the free agent market and tried to do so. They reportedly offered Ha-Seong Kim $48MM on a four-year deal, which works out to $12MM per year. Instead, Kim decided to bet on himself with a one-year, $20MM deal with Atlanta, as he will hope to return to free agency with a better platform.

Once Kim was gone, the A’s weren’t left with amazing options. Bo Bichette is still out there but the A’s are not going to meet his asking price and he wouldn’t want to play in a minor league park even if they did. Alex Bregman and Eugenio Suárez shouldn’t be quite as expensive as Bichette but those situations would be somewhat comparable. Below that tier, the top free agents are utility types like Ramón Urías, Willi Castro and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

McNeil has a better track record than those guys and isn’t prohibitively expensive. Since the Mets are covering $5.75MM of his salary in 2026, the A’s will only have to pay him $10MM, a bit less than they were willing to pay Kim annually. If McNeil has a good year, they can pick up his $15.75MM club option for 2027 but they can also walk away for nothing since the Mets have agreed to cover his buyout.

RosterResource estimates that the A’s are slated to spend $87MM on next year’s club. It’s unclear where they want the budget to be but that’s already $8MM higher than last year. They could still use some pitching but it’s unclear how much more they are willing to spend.

The A’s are also parting with a lottery ticket prospect. Rodriguez is a Cuban righty who just signed with the A’s this year for a $400K bonus. He tossed 15 1/3 innings in the Dominican Summer League with 20 strikeouts but eight walks and two wild pitches. He’s still only 17 years old, turning 18 in January, and isn’t properly on the prospect radar yet. Baseball America says he was not going to be one of the Athletics’ top 30 prospects for the upcoming year. If he’s ultimately able to contribute anything for the Mets, it won’t be for quite some time.

The Mets will take the flier on Rodriguez and see if they can cash him in later. For now, it’s about moving some money off the payroll and likely opening themselves up for further transactions. It’s unclear what their next moves will be but an outfield acquisition feels inevitable after sending out both Nimmo and McNeil. Vientos, Polanco and Baty are projected to share the infield corners and the DH spot unless the Mets shake things up with an external addition. Further moves on the pitching side are surely forthcoming.

Time will tell how it all plays out but it’s the latest sign that there’s a changing of the guard taking place in Queens. Semien isn’t a young player but he’s only signed for three years as opposed to Nimmo’s five, so that move was at least somewhat about avoiding long-term commitments to aging guys. Letting Díaz and Alonso walk while trading McNeil could also be moves about preventing the club from getting too old. The Mets are looking for rotation help but reportedly don’t want to commit to top free agents on lengthy deals.

Owner Steve Cohen has an almost unmatched willingness to spend but that led to inconsistent results in the first few years of his regime. He presumably brought in president of baseball operations David Stearns to make the tough, analytical decisions about how to use the resources. So far, the results under Stearns have also been uneven but it’s only been two seasons.

Clearly, there’s a desire to avoid long-term pitfalls. Apart from the Juan Soto deal, which was an exceptional situation due to his youth, Stearns hasn’t signed a contract longer than three years with the Mets. He has let fan favorites walk away in free agency and has also sent them packing himself. The fan base doesn’t appear too happy at the moment, especially after the disappointing 2025 campaign, so it will have to work out in the long run for Stearns to win them back.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the details of the trade. Photos courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Jasen Vinlove, Imagn Images

Reds Among Teams Showing Interest In Luis Robert Jr.

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Last offseason, the Reds were among the teams linked to Luis Robert Jr. in trade conversations. The White Sox surprisingly held onto their center fielder both last winter and beyond the trade deadline. They’ve been content to keep him into 2026 but aren’t closed off to talks.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer each report that the Reds have resumed discussions with the Sox. Nightengale also lists the Mets as a possibility. Robert has been more loosely tied to Pittsburgh, San Diego and Philadelphia at points throughout the offseason.

The Reds have yet to upgrade a lineup that ranked 14th in scoring despite playing half its games at Great American Ball Park. Their park-adjusted offense was eight percentage points below league average. That tied them with the Angels and Rangers for fifth-worst in MLB. Cincinnati made a run at Kyle Schwarber but reportedly viewed the Ohio native as a unique free agent. There’s no indication they’re going to reallocate the $25MM annual salary that they offered Schwarber elsewhere on the free agent market.

Robert will make $20MM next season. Wittenmyer writes that the White Sox may be willing to eat roughly half that salary to facilitate a trade. There’s a matching club option for the 2027 campaign. Chicago’s seeming willingness to pay down part of the contract would be conditional on getting a package of controllable talent that they like. Robert isn’t a pure salary dump. If the Sox had viewed him as a negative value asset, they would have bought him out for $2MM at the beginning of the winter.

Cincinnati has a quality center fielder in TJ Friedl. They don’t have an everyday option in left, where Friedl’s below-average arm strength would be less of a concern. Robert would certainly upgrade the outfield defense, though it’s less clear whether he’s a consistent enough hitter to be Cincinnati’s marquee offseason pickup. He has been a well below-average hitter since his 38-homer campaign two years ago. Robert owns a .223/.288/.372 batting line with a near-30% strikeout rate in 856 plate appearances since the start of 2024. He looked like he was turning a corner in the second half of ’25 but suffered a season-ending hamstring strain in August.

The Mets have a clearer need in center field. Tyrone Taylor projects as the starter despite hitting .223/.279/.319 across 341 plate appearances this past season. Top prospect Carson Benge is looming but struggled in his first 24 Triple-A contests after raking up through Double-A. He’s likely to begin the year in the minors. Left field is wide open following the Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil trades.

New York is virtually certain to add an outfielder. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic write that they’re looking to add a right-handed bat somewhere in the lineup. Robert qualifies and is coming off a strong season against left-handed pitching. He was terrible against southpaws in 2024 but raked against them in every other season and has a lifetime .293/.367/.505 slash with the platoon advantage.

Mets Sign Luke Weaver

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December 22nd: The Mets announced Weaver’s signing. They opened a 40-man roster spot by trading McNeil to the Athletics earlier today.

December 17th: The Mets are working to finalize a two-year, $22MM deal with free agent reliever Luke Weaver, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The two sides have an agreement in place, per Will Sammon of The Athletic. The deal is pending a physical. Weaver is repped by Excel Sports Management. The Mets have a full 40-man roster and will need a corresponding move to make this deal official.

The two-year, $22MM terms are the exact same ones as the just-agreed-upon deal between the division-rival Phillies and righty Brad Keller. Like Keller, Weaver is a starter-turned-reliever who’s found notable success pitching near the back of a big-market contender’s bullpen.

Weaver, 32, has spent the past two-plus seasons as a key late-inning arm over in the Bronx. A rocky finish to the 2025 season inflated his earned run average to 3.62 but since signing with the Yankees late in the 2023 campaign, Weaver touts a 3.22 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate in 162 innings of relief. He saved a dozen games and picked up 43 holds along the way, blowing only four other opportunities in that time. It’s presumably just coincidence, but the Mets now employ Weaver, Devin Williams and Clay Holmes (who’s moved into the rotation) — the Yankees’ three highest-leverage arms for the bulk of the 2024-25 seasons.

A first-round pick by the Cardinals back in 2014, Weaver debuted in the St. Louis rotation in 2016 and showed some promise as a starter there in 2017-18. The Cards flipped him to the D-backs as part of the return for star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, and Weaver looked to be on the cusp of a full-fledged breakout in 2019. He started a dozen games and pitched to a 2.94 ERA with plus strikeout and walk rates before a forearm strain ended his season. Subsequent shoulder and elbow injuries doomed the rest of Weaver’s D-backs tenure; from 2020-23, he pitched to a 5.95 ERA while bouncing between five clubs.

The last of those five stops, however, was in the Bronx. He made enough of an impression in three late-season starts to sign a $2.5MM big league deal in the offseason — one that contained a 2025 club option. It proved to be a raucous bargain for the team and a career-saving deal for Weaver, who rebuilt himself into a coveted bullpen arm and now lands the largest payday of his 12-year professional career. Despite that strong run in the Bronx and some reported interest in a reunion, the Yanks were not in the bidding for Weaver, per Sherman.

Back in September, Weaver expressed some openness to returning to a starting role if a team gave him a chance, but that doesn’t seem to be at play here. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com writes that Weaver will slot into the bullpen. It’s unclear if that’s sourced reporting or deduction but there hasn’t been anything to suggest the Mets plan on giving Weaver a rotation gig. The price of Weaver’s deal is right around expectations. At the beginning of the offseason, MLBTR predicted him for an $18MM guarantee over two years, an estimate that he has marginally beaten.

New York had a middling bullpen in 2025. Their collective 3.93 ERA was 15th in the majors. It was even worse later in the year as the season slipped away from the club. Over August and September, the relief corps had a collective 4.18 ERA. At season’s end, Edwin Díaz, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Soto, Ryan Helsley and others hit free agency, further thinning out the group. Those four have already signed with other clubs.

The Mets have signed Williams and now Weaver to fortify the group. They will slot in among incumbent arms like A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley, Huascar Brazobán and others. Presumably, there are still more bullpen moves to come.

RosterResource, assuming an equal distribution of Weaver’s guarantee over two years, now projects the Mets for a $305MM payroll and a $307MM competitive balance tax figure. Since they have paid the tax in at least three straight years, they face compounding taxation rates. The top tier of the tax in 2026 is $304MM, so this deal pushes them over. That means they will pay a 110% tax on any further spending, though that’s nothing new for them.

There are still several items on the to-do list for the Mets this winter. Sammon wrote earlier this week that the club is still looking for a front-of-rotation starter and an offensive upgrade. That could come via free agency but there have also been plenty of trade rumors surrounding Jeff McNeil, Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña. For now, Weaver upgrades the bullpen at market price.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Brad Penner, Imagn Images

Mets Outright Brandon Waddell

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The Mets assigned left-hander Brandon Waddell outright to Triple-A yesterday, as noted by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Waddell had been designated for assignment earlier this week to make room for catcher Drew Romo on the 40-man roster.

Waddell, 31, returned to the majors for the first time since 2021 this year. Prior to the 2025 season, Waddell had pitched 12 2/3 MLB innings across four different organizations during the 2020-21 seasons. He posted a 5.68 ERA and 6.41 FIP during that time. His results were much better this time around, as he delivered a solid enough 3.45 ERA with a 4.54 FIP across 31 1/3 innings of work as a long relief arm for the Mets this year. While Waddell’s top-level run prevention numbers weren’t bad, the peripherals told a different story. A 16.4% strikeout rate left much to be desired, and the lefty’s 37.4% ground ball rate, 10.0% barrel rate, and 8.2% walk rate were nothing to write home about either.

Waddell’s time with the Mets came on the heels of a three-year run of solid work in the KBO league, where he pitched for the Doosan Bears. In 43 KBO starts, Waddell posted a 2.98 ERA while posting a respectable 21.1% strikeout rate and generating grounders on more than 50% of his batted balls. It was a much more encouraging profile over all than the one he flashed in the majors with the Mets this past year, and Waddell’s 5.02 ERA in 75 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2025 offer little encouragement headed into 2026. While the lefty might not look to be a solid rotation option like other KBO pitchers (such as Erick Fedde and his quality performance for the White Sox and Cardinals in 2024) have proven themselves to be in the past, he’s a perfectly useful non-roster depth piece for the Mets.

That’s what he’ll be headed into 2026, though given the uncertain state of the Mets’ pitching staff it’s not impossible to imagine injuries allowing Waddell to force his way back onto the MLB roster at some point next year if he can turn his numbers at Triple-A around. Of course, that will depend on the club’s moves going forward this winter. It’s possible the team could make rotation additions that would push youngsters like Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat into depth roles themselves, minimizing Waddell’s opportunities to get back to the majors. With that said, it’s also not impossible to imagine those same young hurlers getting discussed in trade talks, and a trade of one or both of those young righties could make Waddell one of the team’s top non-roster depth arms alongside Robert Stock.

Nine Teams Exceeded Luxury Tax Threshold In 2025

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Major League Baseball has finalized its calculations of teams’ competitive balance tax payrolls for the 2025 season. As first reported by The Associated Press, nine teams surpassed the $241MM base threshold. In a separate post, The AP lists the finalized CBT numbers for all 30 teams.

The payments are as follows:

  • Dodgers: $169.4MM
  • Mets: $91.6MM
  • Yankees: $61.8MM
  • Phillies: $56.1MM
  • Blue Jays: $13.6MM
  • Padres: $7MM
  • Astros: $1.5MM
  • Red Sox: $1.5MM
  • Rangers: $190K

Teams pay escalating penalties for exceeding the threshold in consecutive seasons. The Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Phillies and Rangers have all paid the tax in at least three straight years — subjecting them to the highest escalator fees. The Astros went over the line for the second straight season. The Blue Jays, Padres and Red Sox had gotten below in 2024 and are categorized as first-time payors.

This is the second straight year in which nine teams paid the CBT. The Braves, Giants and Cubs had gone over the line in ’24 but dipped below this year, which resets their status going into 2026. Atlanta’s active offseason puts them in position to go back into tax territory next year, when the base threshold climbs to $244MM. San Francisco and Chicago each have projected CBT numbers more than $40MM below that right now.

While public estimates from RosterResource and Cot’s Baseball Contracts offer an excellent approximation of teams’ payroll commitments, the official numbers are not available during the season. It’s not uncommon for rounding errors in those calculations to vary by a few million dollars. That generally isn’t a big deal but can matter for teams that are hovering very close to the tax line. Each of the Red Sox ($249MM payroll), Astros ($246MM) and Rangers ($241.38MM) were believed to have gone narrowly beyond the $241MM cutoff, but that wasn’t 100% established until this evening — particularly in the case of Texas.

The Dodgers ($417MM), Mets ($347MM), Yankees ($320MM), Phillies ($314MM) and Blue Jays ($286MM) all had payrolls above $281MM. That was the third tier of penalization and marked the point at which a team’s top draft pick is dropped by 10 spots. The Mets were the only of those five that didn’t make the playoffs. Their top pick drops from 17th to 27th. The Yankees, Philadelphia, Toronto and L.A. all have their first-round pick dropped to between 35th and 40th.

Teams that paid the CBT are entitled to the lowest level of compensation for losing free agents who declined a qualifying offer. They receive a draft choice after the fourth round for each qualified free agent who walks. They’re charged the heaviest penalty — their second- and fifth-highest picks in 2026 and $1MM from their ’27 international bonus pool — for signing a qualified free agent from another team.

San Diego and the Mets receive a pick after the fourth round for losing Dylan Cease and Edwin Díaz, respectively. Toronto (Bo Bichette), Houston (Framber Valdez) and Philadelphia (Ranger Suárez) would receive the same if their free agents sign elsewhere. The Dodgers surrendered their second- and fifth-round selections for Díaz. Toronto is slated to do the same for Cease, but if Bichette walks, they’d give up that compensatory pick instead and get their fifth-rounder back.

The Dodgers’ combined payroll and tax bill for the 2025 season lands north of $586MM. The two-time defending champions’ tax hit alone is higher than the payrolls of the bottom 12 teams in the league. There were 14 clubs that had a CBT number above $200MM. The Braves, Cubs, Giants, Angels, Diamondbacks and Mariners were the other six teams above the median. All but Seattle spent more than $200MM.

On the other end, the Marlins ($87MM) and White Sox ($92MM) were the two teams with payrolls below $100MM. The Rays ($103MM), Pirates ($109MM) and Athletics ($118MM) rounded out the bottom five — followed by the Guardians, Nationals, Twins, Brewers and Reds.

Overall, the league will collect just under $403MM in taxes. Teams must make the payments by January 21. The first $3.5MM will be used to fund player benefits. Half the remaining money goes to players’ retirement accounts, while the other half is used for revenue sharing distribution from MLB to teams.

Mets Re-Sign Kevin Herget To Minor League Deal

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The Mets are in agreement with reliever Kevin Herget on a minor league contract, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. The Paragon Sports International client will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Herget returns to the organization after electing minor league free agency at the start of the offseason. The New Jersey native was on and off the roster a few times throughout the season. Herget pitched in six games as a Met and made one appearance for the Braves. He tossed 12 innings of five-run ball (four earned) with six strikeouts and three walks. The 34-year-old righty has worked 55 2/3 frames of 4.20 ERA ball over parts of four seasons.

A former 39th-round draftee, Herget has spent eight seasons in Triple-A. He turned in a 3.09 earned run average across 46 2/3 innings there between the New York and Atlanta affiliates in 2025. He struck out an above-average 26.1% of opponents with a sub-6% walk rate. He’s a sensible depth pickup who can compete for a long relief role in camp.

Herget has exhausted his minor league option years. If the Mets call him up at any point, they’d need to keep him on the MLB roster or designate him for assignment.

Mets Claim Drew Romo, Designate Brandon Waddell

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The Mets have claimed catcher Drew Romo off waivers from the Orioles and, in a corresponding move, designated left-hander Brandon Waddell for assignment, per a team announcement. Baltimore designated Romo for assignment last week.

The 24-year-old Romo was the No. 35 overall draft pick by the Rockies back in 2020 and previously ranked not only as one of Colorado’s best prospects but one of the top 100 prospects in Major League Baseball. He’s a well-regarded defender with a cannon of an arm, but Romo’s bat stalled out after a solid 2023 season split mostly between High-A and Double-A. His offensive output has declined in consecutive seasons. After a league-average offensive showing at Triple-A in 2024, his bat dwindled in 2025 as his strikeout rate ballooned from 17.8% to 25.8%.

Romo has gotten some brief looks in the majors with the Rox but has just 56 plate appearances under his belt. He’s a .167/.196/.222 hitter with a 37.5% strikeout rate in that minuscule sample. Romo carries a solid-looking .286/.337/.466 slash in parts of three Triple-A seasons, but that’s propped up a bit by his stronger 2024 performance. In 2025, he hit .264/.329/.409 with the Rockies’ top affiliate. Again, that looks solid on the surface, but given the immensely hitter-friendly environments in the Pacific Coast League — Albuquerque, in particular — Romo was actually 25% worse than a league-average hitter, by measure of wRC+.

Romo still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so he’ll give the Mets some flexible depth behind the plate. He has a long way to go in terms of offensive development, but a good defender with a plus arm is a nice third or fourth catcher to be able to stash in Triple-A alongside Hayden Senger. Francisco Alvarez, of course, is the starter in Queens and is slated to be backed up by journeyman Luis Torrens in 2026.

Waddell, 31, tossed 31 1/3 innings with the Mets in 2025 — his first big league look since 2021. That came on the back of a three-year stint with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization, where he generally pitched well out of the Bears’ rotation. Waddell’s MLB return produced a nice 3.45 ERA, though his poor strikeout rate (16.4%), good-not-great command (8.2% walk rate) and good fortune in terms of both strand rate (82%) and balls in play (.260 BABIP) caused metrics like SIERA (4.64) and FIP (4.54) to take a more bearish outlook.

Waddell is out of minor league options. He sat 90.7 mph with his four-seamer last year and coupled the pitch with a sinker of comparable velocity and a changeup and slider in the low 80s. The former fifth-rounder out of the University of Virginia tossed 244 2/3 innings of 2.98 ERA ball during his time in the KBO and also had a nice 12-start run in Taiwan’s CPBL in 2023. He’s spent parts of five seasons pitching in Triple-A and has an ERA north of 5.00 there, although that was skewed by a 2019 season in which he yielded 59 runs in 61 frames. He’s posted a 4.22 ERA at the Triple-A level since.

Waddell will be traded to another club or placed on outright waivers within the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process. His DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.

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