Brewers, Pat Murphy Agree To New Contract
6:50pm: Murphy’s deal comes with $8.95MM in new money, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN.
5:50pm: The Brewers and manager Pat Murphy have agreed to a new deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It’s a three-year contract with a club option for 2029. Murphy was previously going into the final season of a three-year deal he signed ahead of the 2024 campaign. This deal reworks the final year of his previous pact, adds two more guaranteed seasons and the option.
It’s not at all surprising that the Brewers and Murphy have worked out a deal to keep their relationship going. Murphy took over two seasons ago after Craig Counsell surprisingly departed for the division-rival Cubs. The Brewers didn’t miss a beat, going 93-69 in 2024 and winning the National League Central division crown. Murphy won N.L. Manager of the Year honors in his first season at the helm. The club was eliminated in the Wild Card round but awards voting takes place before the playoffs.
It was more of the same last year. The Brewers increased their win total to 97, which was enough for them to repeat as division champs and was actually the best record in the majors. Murphy took home Manager of the Year honors yet again. The club advanced as far as the NLCS but were felled by the Dodgers.
As mentioned, Murphy had initially signed a three-year deal when taking over for Counsell and had already gone through two thirds of that pact. Teams generally don’t like their managers or executives to be serving in lame-duck status. Given Milwaukee’s success during Murphy’s tenure, it seemed highly likely that his contract status would change before the 2026 campaign kicked off.
While there is consistency in the manager’s seat, the roster has seen turnover. Most notably, Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers were traded to the Mets for Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat. Another big deal saw Caleb Durbin shipped to the Red Sox as part of a trade including six players and a draft pick.
Murphy has had experience guiding the club through such changes. The Brewers traded Corbin Burnes to the Orioles ahead of Murphy’s first season. Ahead of the 2025 campaign, Willy Adames left for the Giants via free agency and Devin Williams was traded to the Yankees. Despite the notable departures, the club has continued to have success in the regular season.
Going into 2026, the club surely expects more success but the division will be tougher. The Cubs and Reds both snagged Wild Card spots last year and have made big moves to upgrade for 2026. The Cubs have added Alex Bregman and Edward Cabrera, among others. The Reds were able to add Eugenio Suárez. The Pirates have one of the best farm systems in baseball and have brought in Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna this winter.
Despite the stronger field, the Brewers will go into 2026 as one of the favorites for another strong performance. Murphy will look to get them back to the playoffs yet again and, ideally, take them farther into the postseason.
Photos courtesy of Kirby Lee, Mark Hoffman, Imagn Images
Bruce Meyer Elected MLBPA Executive Director
The Major League Baseball Players Association has announced that Bruce Meyer has been unanimously elected the interim executive director of the union. Previously the deputy director, Meyer will take over for Tony Clark, who surprisingly resigned yesterday as news emerged that he had an “inappropriate” relationship with his sister-in-law, who was working for the MLBPA. Matt Nussbaum is now the interim deputy director. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported Meyer’s election prior to the official announcement.
Meyer will continue to act as the MLBPA’s chief negotiator through the upcoming collective bargaining agreement talks, with the current CBA set to expire December 1st. Another lockout is widely expected and the last one dragged into March, so it seems Meyer is positioned to potentially lead the union for a year or more, despite the interim tag.
Ever since the Clark scandal emerged yesterday, it seemed likely that the union would pivot to Meyer. He has been the MLBPA’s clear #2 and top negotiator for years. With the season about to begin and the big CBA deadline less than a year away, maintaining stability seemed like an easier path than undergoing a lengthy search for a replacement. Left-hander Brent Suter, a member of the union’s eight-player executive subcommittee, framed it that way yesterday. “We’re going to have an interim [director] and keep everything as stable as we can this year,” Suter said.
Clark took over the job in December of 2013 after the death of Michael Weiner. Clark was the first former player to hold the job, as the previous executive directors had been career union officials or attorneys.
The 2017-2021 CBA, the first under Clark, was generally viewed as poor for the players. The base threshold of the competitive balance tax barely moved, going from $189MM in 2016 to $195MM in 2017. That number would creep up over the course of the CBA but two extra tiers of increased taxation were added at $20MM increments above the base threshold. The 2016 minimum salary of $507.5K nudged up to $535K in 2017.
Meyer was hired in 2018 to serve as the union’s lead negotiator, with Clark staying on as executive director. At that time, Meyer had three decades of experience working with the player unions of the NBA, NHL and NFL. The next round of MLB CBA negotiations proved to be more contentious. The league instituted a lockout in December of 2021, the first work stoppage since the 1994-95 strike. That lockout lasted 99 days and was resolved in March, just in time to still play a 162-game schedule in 2022.
That CBA was viewed by some as better than the previous agreement. The base CBT threshold jumped from $210MM in 2021 to $230MM in 2022, though a fourth tier of the tax was added, another $20MM over the previous high. The minimum salary went from $555K in 2021 to $700K in 2022, with $20K increases in each year. It also added a new feature, a $50MM bonus pool paid for by all teams and to be distributed annually to pre-arbitration players based upon a version of wins above replacement agreed upon by both MLB and the MLBPA.
The agreement didn’t lead to perfect harmony within the union, however. In March of 2024, an attempt was made to replace Meyer, an event often referred to as an attempted coup. Some players tried to pressure Clark to replace Meyer with Harry Marino. The latter was previously the head of Advocates For Minor Leaguers and helped unionize minor leaguers under the MLBPA umbrella. A minor league CBA was negotiated with the league in 2023. Meyer and Marino both worked for the MLBPA at that time and reportedly had a strained relationship.
The attempted coup eventually flamed out, with Clark and Meyer staying in their positions. The players reportedly connected to the coup were voted off the executive subcommittee in December of 2024.
More trouble emerged this year with Clark coming under the microscope of federal investigations that alleged he had given himself equity in organizations funded by MLBPA licensing money. The union hired a law firm to conduct an internal investigation in response to those allegations. That internal probe reportedly uncovered messages between Clark and his sister-in-law, which led the union to seek his resignation.
Meyer will now take the reins and try to keep the players united at a significant time. Financial imbalances in the game have led to owners and many fans calling for the league to implement a salary cap. The union has long been opposed to such a measure, with Clark and Meyer both frequently speaking out against it. As mentioned, the CBA expires December 1st and another lockout is likely. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred spoke positively about the effect of lockouts about this time last year.
With the interim tag on Meyer, it’s unknown how things will proceed after the upcoming CBA negotiations. Presumably, his interest in staying in the job more permanently will depend upon how things develop in the coming year, as would the players’ interest in keeping him in the gig.
Nussbaum has worked for the MLBPA since 2011. He was promoted to deputy general counsel in 2017 and then general counsel in 2023. Prior to joining the MLBPA, he had worked for the NHLPA.
Photo courtesy of Greg Lovett, Imagn Images
Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep To Undergo Elbow Surgery
Braves righty Spencer Schwellenbach underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his right elbow today, manager Walt Weiss told the team’s beat this morning (link Mark Bowman of MLB.com). Fellow righty Hurston Waldrep, who was also diagnosed with loose bodies in his elbow this spring, will undergo a similar operation on Monday. Weiss and the Braves have not put a formal timetable for a return on either young righty. Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day injured list, and Waldrep will surely join him there whenever Atlanta needs to open another 40-man spot.
Neither revelation is especially surprising, but both are notable all the same. Schwellenbach suggested that an arthroscopic procedure was likely last week when he was placed on the 60-day injured list. He said at the time that he was unsure what the recovery time period for such a procedure would be, and the team provided no further details today. Beyond the fact that he’ll miss at least the first 57 days of the seasons — the Opening Day IL placement can be backdated by three days — Schwellenbach can just be considered to be out indefinitely.
It’ll be the same story for Waldrep, who was cleared of structural damage to his ulnar collateral ligament in a recent MRI but found to have loose bodies in his elbow as well. As with Schwellenbach, Waldrep implied that surgery was likely when telling reporters that the loose bodies in his elbow “probably need to be dealt with.”
Heading into camp, Schwellenbach and Waldrep looked like locks for rotation spots. Schwellenbach missed time last summer with an elbow fracture but had completed five to six bullpen sessions, by his own estimate, before feeling pain at the end of a session a bit more than two weeks ago. The 2021 second-rounder has been brilliant since making his MLB debut in 2024, pitching to a combined 3.23 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate and 4.4% walk rate in his first 234 1/3 MLB innings.
Waldrep just debuted last season and wasn’t quite as cemented on the starting staff, but he was the heavy favorite for Atlanta’s fifth starter gig. In 56 1/3 innings last year (nine starts, one relief appearance), the 2023 first-rounder posted a tidy 2.88 ERA with a 24% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate. He also posted a 4.42 ERA in 19 Triple-A starts, shaking off a rocky stretch early in the season with a pristine 1.99 ERA over his final seven minor league starts before being promoted.
With Schwellenbach and Waldrep sidelined indefinitely, Atlanta’s rotation includes Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes. It’s a talented quartet, but Sale has a lengthy injury history and has only had one fully healthy season since the 2017 season wrapped. He won the NL Cy Young Award in that lone (mostly) healthy year, but there’s considerable injury risk for the lefty, who’ll turn 37 next month.
Strider, meanwhile, posted pedestrian results and rate stats during last year’s return from UCL surgery. Lopez made only one start in 2025 due to arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Holmes suffered a UCL tear last summer but has been rehabbing it without surgery and is said to be full-go this spring.
All four of the Braves’ set-in-stone rotation members come with some combination of injury, performance and/or workload concern. Be that as it may, the organization continues to downplay the possibility of bringing in further help from outside the organization. Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently wrote that the Braves’ previously reported interest in Chris Bassitt (who’s since signed in Baltimore) and Lucas Giolito (still unsigned) was overstated. There’s been speculation that perhaps president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is simply at or close to the budgetary limit set by ownership, though the team obviously wouldn’t publicly disclose that even if it were true.
In-house options to round out the staff include Bryce Elder, Joey Wentz, José Suarez, prospect Didier Fuentes (still just 20 years old) and non-roster veterans Martín Pérez, Carlos Carrasco and Elieser Hernández.
Tony Clark Steps Down As MLBPA Executive Director
The Major League Baseball Players Association officially announced that executive director Tony Clark has resigned. Clark did not provide a statement in the press release. He had held the role since 2013.
According to multiple reports, Clark resigned after an internal investigation revealed he had an “inappropriate” relationship with his sister-in-law, who was hired to work for the player’s union back in 2023. Evan Drellich, Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough of The Athletic and Jeff Passan and Don Van Natta Jr. of ESPN each suggest that deputy director Bruce Meyer is most likely choice to take over. The Athletic notes that Meyer recently helped Tarik Skubal in his arbitration case where he defeated the Tigers and has been working the phones today to firm up his support among the players.
The union met this afternoon but did not vote on the matter. Chris Bassitt, a member of the eight-player executive subcommittee, told The Athletic they didn’t want to rush and wanted to take time to update the union’s 1200 members. Bassitt suggested everything would be wrapped up in 24 hours or so, with a vote on Meyer reportedly expected tomorrow. Angels lefty Brent Suter, another member of the subcommittee, told The Athletic’s Sam Blum that the union had an interim director in mind and was not planning to commence an external search at this time. “We’re going to have an interim [director] and keep everything as stable as we can this year,” says Suter.
The 53-year-old Clark and the union had been under investigation since last summer due to purported improprieties regarding the usage of licensing money. Specifically, Clark has previously been alleged to have given himself equity in OneTeam Partners — a joint venture between the MLBPA and NFLPA — and failed to have sufficiently disclosed the level of resources being dedicated to Players Way, an MLBPA-owned youth baseball initiative that is under federal investigation. The union hired a law firm to conduct an internal investigation in response to those allegations. That internal probe reportedly uncovered messages between Clark and his sister-in-law, which led the union to seek his resignation.
Clark had been scheduled to begin a tour of spring visits to the game’s 30 teams just this morning, but the first of those meetings (with the Guardians) was abruptly canceled. The timing of the move is of particular note. Major League Baseball’s current collective bargaining agreement expires in just over nine months. The last wave of collective bargaining talks between the Clark-led union and the Rob Manfred-led league/owners collective was contentious enough to result in a 99-day offseason lockout and transaction freeze.
An even more vitriolic battle is expected by many this time around, with several owners publicly digging in their heels regarding their belief that the sport needs to adopt a salary cap. Any sort of cap — even if accompanied by a salary floor — has been a nonstarter for every previous iteration of the players association; Clark has made no secret of his adamant anti-cap stance at virtually every given opportunity, and Meyer has been in lockstep with that mentality as the union’s lead negotiator and No. 2 executive.
Evan Drellich, Ken Rosenthal and Andy McCullough of The Athletic first reported that Clark was resigning. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the “inappropriate relationship.”
Padres, Walker Buehler Agree To Minor League Deal
February 17th: According to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Buehler will make $1.5MM if added to the roster and could also access performance bonuses worth $2.5MM on the deal.
February 16th: The Padres are adding Walker Buehler on a minor league contract, reports Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune. The Excel Sports Management client will aim to win a rotation job during Spring Training.
San Diego continues to stockpile potential back-end starters. The Padres agreed to big league deals with Griffin Canning and Germán Márquez over the weekend. Buehler settles for a non-roster invitation, which seemingly puts him behind the other two veteran righties as camp gets underway. Canning is coming back from a June Achilles tear. He might begin the season on the injured list but should be in the rotation once he’s healthy.
The Friars have three locks for the Opening Day rotation: Nick Pivetta, Michael King and Joe Musgrove. First-year skipper Craig Stammen implied last week that righty Randy Vásquez has a leg up on the fourth starter role after a solid finish last year. Márquez, Canning (if healthy) and JP Sears are the top options on the 40-man roster for the fifth starter job. Matt Waldron also remains on the 40-man but is out of options and coming off a rough season in Triple-A. Buehler joins Triston McKenzie and Marco Gonzales among the non-roster invitees.
A two-time All-Star, Buehler was a borderline ace for most of his time with the Dodgers. He hasn’t been the same since undergoing the second Tommy John surgery of his career in 2022. The surgery cost him the entire ’23 season, and he returned with a 5.38 ERA across 16 regular season starts the following year. Buehler pitched well in the postseason and wound up closing out the 2024 World Series. The Red Sox bet that was the beginning of a return to form, but his $21.05MM free agent deal with Boston was a disappointment.
Buehler was rocked for a 5.45 ERA across 23 appearances with the Red Sox. They flirted with a move to the bullpen before pulling the plug altogether, releasing him at the end of August. Buehler latched on with the Phillies and made three appearances to close the regular season. While he tossed 13 2/3 innings of one-run ball in Philadelphia, he only struck out eight of 57 batters faced (14%).
Opponents destroyed his four-seam fastball, hitting .277 with a .553 slugging percentage against the pitch. Buehler’s 94 mph average velocity was down a tick from the previous season and almost three miles per hour below where it had been between 2019-20. The spin rates on his four-seam fastball and knuckle-curve have dropped precipitously since his peak. He has had a much more difficult time missing bats, both within and outside the strike zone. Hitters have done a better job laying off stuff outside the zone, leading to a career-high 10.8% walk rate last season.
Although the trend lines aren’t encouraging, Buehler is only 31 and still has league average velocity. The Padres aren’t committed to a roster spot or a guaranteed salary, so there’s no harm in gauging his form during Spring Training. It should be mostly an open competition for at least one rotation spot.
Buehler might not begin the season in Triple-A if he doesn’t win the job. He was an Article XX(b) free agent — a player with six years of service time who finished last season on an MLB roster. Those players who sign minor league deals at least 10 days before Opening Day have a trio of opt-out dates under the collective bargaining agreement: five days before Opening Day, May 1, and June 1. Buehler can trigger an out clause and explore other opportunities during the final week of Spring Training if the Padres don’t commit to carrying him on the active roster.
Padres Sign Germán Márquez
February 17th: According to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Marquez gets a $1MM salary followed by a $750K buyout on the mutual option. Marquez will also have the chance to unlock an extra $3.25MM in performance bonuses.
February 16th: The Padres announced Monday that they’ve signed right-hander Germán Márquez to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027. The L.A. Sports Management client is reportedly guaranteed $1.75MM. San Diego placed righty Jhony Brito, who underwent internal brace surgery last May, on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
The team was known to be looking for low-cost rotation pieces and a complementary bat, per comments from president of baseball operations A.J. Preller a few days ago. They achieved the latter by bringing in Nick Castellanos on a one-year deal upon his release from the Phillies. Now, they’ve addressed the rotation side through one-year-deals for Márquez and fellow right-hander Griffin Canning. Canning is coming off an Achilles injury and projects as a back-end starter once he is healthy enough to return. Márquez figures to serve as back-of-the-rotation depth as well.
The 30-year-old (31 later this month) is coming off a ten-year major-league run with the Rockies. After a brief debut in 2016, he settled in as one of the team’s most reliable starters from 2017-21. In that span, he totaled 793 2/3 innings over 135 starts and posted a 4.25 ERA, a 24.0% strikeout rate, and a 6.9% walk rate. Márquez excelled through a combination of control and strong groundball tendencies. He was worth 15.5 fWAR in those five years and continually posted groundball rates in the mid-40s and low-50s, including a career-high 51.6% in 180 innings in 2021.
His performance began to wane from 2022 onward. He still made 31 starts in 2022, but his strikeout rate fell below 20% for the first time since his 20 2/3-inning sample in 2016. His run prevention slipped as well, with Márquez posting a below-average 4.95 ERA and elevated peripheral stats. He then underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2023, costing him the rest of that year and the first few months of 2024. His return in July 2024 only lasted one start, and he spent the rest of the season on the injured list with elbow inflammation, although his UCL was reportedly fine.
In 2025, Márquez pitched 126 1/3 innings over 26 starts but was clearly working with diminished stuff. His four-seamer was down to 94.8 MPH after averaging 95.6 MPH in his most recent healthy season in 2022. His sinker, which used over 20% of the time, also slipped from 95.1 MPH to 94.3 MPH. Statcast graded his fastballs in just the first percentile by run value, while his knuckle curve, formerly his best pitch, also earned career-worst grades. The strikeouts dried up even further, with Márquez’s 14.0% strikeout rate ranking third-worst among starters with at least 100 innings. The Rockies decided to move on as Márquez reached free agency.
Perhaps a change of scenery will help Márquez recover some of his strikeout and groundball tendencies as he moves further from injury. He’ll get that chance with the Padres, who now have a decent amount of rotation depth. The team saw Dylan Cease depart for the Blue Jays but re-signed Michael King on a three-year deal in December. Yu Darvish will miss 2026 while recovering from an internal brace procedure, and he is reportedly contemplating retirement. Joe Musgrove is returning from Tommy John surgery and will be guaranteed a spot if healthy. That leaves King, Nick Pivetta, and Musgrove in the top three spots, with some combination of Márquez, Canning (when healthy), Randy Vásquez, and JP Sears taking the last two spots.
Each of King, Musgrove, Márquez and Canning comes with injury risk, though the Padres always seemed likelier to stockpile depth than bring a big-name starter at this stage in the offseason. Zac Gallen was the last impact starter in free agency before re-signing with the Diamondbacks. Either way, his $18.7MM luxury tax number might have been too much given the team’s reported payroll constraints. Low-cost signings like Canning and Márquez seem easier to accommodate, barring a potential buyout agreement for Darvish.
RosterResource has the team at a $264.7MM luxury tax payroll for 2026, putting them in the second tier of penalization. The Padres paid the luxury tax in 2025 and would count as second-time payors in 2026. Thus, any money guaranteed to Canning and Márquez would come with an additional 42% surcharge.
Alden González of ESPN first reported the Padres were signing Márquez to a one-year deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the mutual option. The Associated Press reported the $1.75MM guarantee. Photo courtesy of Kelley Cox, Imagn Images
Padres Sign Griffin Canning
February 17th: The Padres made it official today, announcing that they have signed Canning to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027. Mutual options are almost never picked up by both sides, so that provision just allows the Padres to kick part of the payment into the future in the form of a buyout. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Canning is guaranteed $2.5MM in the form of a $1MM salary and $1.5MM buyout on that option, with another $1.5MM available via performance bonuses. Outfielder Tirso Ornelas has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move for Canning.
February 14th: The Padres have signed right-hander Griffin Canning, as initially reported overnight by the Divine Sports Gospel. Canning’s deal will be official once he passes a physical, according to FanSided’s Robert Murray. San Diego has a full 40-man roster in the wake of the Nick Castellanos signing, so the Padres will have to make another move to open up 40-man space for Canning, who is represented by Wasserman.
It’s something of a SoCal homecoming for Canning, who was born in Mission Viejo and played his college ball at UCLA. The 29-year-old also spent his first first Major League seasons with the Angels, posting a 4.78 ERA over 508 innings (starting 94 of 99 games). This was less than was expected of a pitcher who was once viewed as a top-100 prospect, and the Angels parted ways with Canning via a trade with the Braves last offseason for Jorge Soler. Atlanta then chose to non-tender Canning, since the Braves’ chief goal of the trade was to unload Soler’s contract.
Canning then signed a one-year, $4.25MM contract with the Mets that initially looked like it was going to be a steal, as the righty posted a 2.47 ERA over his first nine starts in New York. Some struggles over his next seven outings boosted his ERA to 3.77, yet that’s unfortunately where Canning’s story ended, as he suffered a season-ending ruptured Achilles tendon in late June.
Reports from earlier this offseason suggested that Canning is hoping to be ready for Opening Day, or at least relatively early in April. He was feeling good enough to throw for scouts in a showcase last week, and his velocity was up to 93mph even at this relatively early stage in the preseason ramp-up process. The Mets, Cardinals, and White Sox were all linked to Canning earlier this winter, but he’ll now be part of San Diego’s rotation mix.
The Padres’ starting pitching situation has been a key issue for the team all winter, as Dylan Cease left for the Blue Jays in free agency and Yu Darvish will miss all of 2026 while recovering from an internal brace procedure. Re-signing Michael King helped the Padres restore some stability, and Canning joins a list of arms that consists of King, Nick Pivetta, Randy Vasquez, JP Sears, and Joe Musgrove in his return from Tommy John surgery. Assuming everyone is healthy, Canning will probably push Vasquez or Sears into a relief or depth role once Canning is ready to pitch.
While 76 1/3 innings isn’t the largest of sample sizes, Canning’s 2025 season saw him post a 50.9% grounder rate, in a marked change for a pitcher who had only a 39.5% groundball rate during his time in Anaheim. Keeping the ball out of the air helped somewhat counter-act all of the hard contact Canning was allowing, as his 45.7% hard-hit ball rate was only in the 11th percentile of all pitchers. Canning’s 10.7% walk rate was the highest of his career, and his 21.3% strikeout rate was nothing special.
Pivetta’s breakout in 2025 is evidence that the Padres can help pitchers unlock their potential, but for now, Canning projects as a back-end starter with some upside. How Canning responds to his Achilles injury is another x-factor, and his health history also includes a stress fracture in his back that cost him the entire 2022 season.
Terms of Canning’s deal aren’t yet known, though it is fair to assume he’ll earn something close to the $4.5MM he received from New York in 2025. The price tag was surely attractive to the Padres, who have been operating within a seemingly limited budget this offseason. Not counting Canning’s deal, San Diego is projected (by RosterResource) for roughly a $220.9MM payroll and a $265.48MM luxury tax number — both are slightly up from 2025, when the Padres had a $211.1MM payroll in 2025 and a $263MM tax number. The addition of Canning’s contract now puts San Diego over the second tier ($264MM) of tax penalization.
Pablo López Diagnosed With UCL Tear
The Twins received brutal injury news this morning, as right-hander Pablo López has been diagnosed with tearing in his right elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament, general manager Jeremy Zoll announced to reporters (via Dan Hayes of The Athletic). He’s going for a second opinion, but season-ending surgery is on the table for López.
López felt some elbow discomfort following a recent bullpen session. The Twins sent him for imaging but framed that as a precautionary measure. The situation has obviously taken a dramatic turn for the worse. The vast majority of UCL tears require surgical repair, whether it’s an internal brace to repair/strengthen the existing ligament or a full reconstruction (“Tommy John”) procedure. Either situation would end López’s season before it begins.
The 29-year-old López missed considerable time with injury in 2025, making it into only 14 games and pitching 75 2/3 innings. A Grade 2 strain of López’s teres major muscle was the primary issue, but he finished the 2025 campaign on the shelf due to a forearm strain. He was excellent when on the field, working to a 2.74 ERA with a 23.4% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate in 75 2/3 frames.
Now-former president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said early in the offseason that López could have kept pitching through what the team described as a mild forearm strain had the club been in postseason contention. The veteran righty, who’ll be 30 early next month, had a normal offseason. It seems the UCL tear is a new injury that popped up in camp (although even if there was a quiet inkling of a UCL issue late last season, the timing would remain largely unchanged; López would’ve been expected to miss the 2026 season regardless).
López’s injury is a gut-punch to an already thin Twins roster. Starting pitching depth is an organizational strength, but many of the options in camp are well-regarded young hurlers who’ve not yet established themselves in the big leagues. The López injury puts righty Joe Ryan in line as Minnesota’s Opening Day starter. He’ll be followed by bounceback hopeful Bailey Ober (who was hobbled by a hip injury last year) and out-of-options righty Simeon Woods Richardson — a former top prospect who had a nice 14-start finish to his 2025 season after being optioned earlier in the year.
The Twins are deep in rotation upside beyond that trio. Right-handers David Festa, Zebby Matthews, Taj Bradley (acquired at the deadline for Griffin Jax) and Mick Abel (acquired at the deadline for Jhoan Duran) ranked as top-100 prospects prior to their big league debuts. Left-hander Connor Prielipp is currently on a handful of top-100 lists himself. Righty Andrew Morris (the Twins’ fourth-rounder in 2022) and southpaw Kendry Rojas (the headliner in the Twins’ trade of Louis Varland) are both well-regarded arms who rank among the top 15 or so of the team’s prospects and aren’t terribly far from MLB readiness.
Any of those younger arms could step up as a contributor in one of the final two spots in Minnesota’s rotation, but it’s unlikely any of the bunch can replace what a healthy López would bring to the table. The right-hander has a solid 3.61 ERA over his past 141 major league starts (795 innings) and has fanned 26% of opponents against a 6.3% walk rate in that time. López’s blend of plus strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates with the Twins has led to slightly better marks from metrics like SIERA (3.41) and FIP (3.44). The 2023 All-Star hasn’t put everything together for a truly dominant ace-caliber season yet, but most fans and pundits believed him to be capable of doing so; he finished seventh in AL Cy Young voting during that ’23 campaign.
The Twins signed López to a four-year, $73.5MM extension shortly after acquiring him. That deal covered the 2024-27 seasons. López is signed for 2026 and 2027 at $21.75MM apiece, making him the highest-paid player on a stripped-down Twins roster that traded 11 players at last year’s deadline and has only made modest (at best) additions to the roster this winter. The Twins have signed Josh Bell, Victor Caratini and Taylor Rogers to big league deals and also added relievers Anthony Banda and Eric Orze via trade. They have a long list of recognizable veterans in camp on non-roster deals: Gio Urshela, Orlando Arcia, Andrew Chafin, Liam Hendriks, Dan Altavilla, Matt Bowman and Julian Merryweather.
Newly installed executive chair Tom Pohlad, who took over for his younger brother Joe earlier in the winter, has recently spoken openly about the Twins’ ability to further add to the payroll. He recently confirmed to The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman that his club took a late run at Framber Valdez after the lefty lingered on the market and put forth a multi-year offer that was outbid by the division-favorite Tigers.
That certainly doesn’t mean the Twins will go out and make an external addition, but there are still some options if they hope to do so. Right-handers Lucas Giolito and former Twin Zack Littell are among the more notable names who do not yet have a home for the upcoming 2026 season. The Twins are deep in lefty-swinging outfielders and could try to strike up a deal with an Astros club that has long been trying to acquire just that, and there’s a handful of other veteran starters whose names have at least loosely surfaced in trade chatter throughout the winter (e.g. Brady Singer, Patrick Sandoval).
It’s not clear how high the newest Pohlad family member holding the executive chair position is willing to bump the team’s payroll, but the late run at Valdez at least suggests some openness. That should only be natural, however, as the Twins’ payroll is down more than $30MM from last season and more than $50MM from its 2023 peak, when they approached $160MM. There ought to be room to add someone like Giolito, Littell, Sandoval, etc. without breaking the bank. If the team doesn’t stay afloat in the standings through the first few months, that player could be marketed ahead of the trade deadline alongside other veteran trade options.
Pirates Sign Marcell Ozuna
Feb. 16: Pittsburgh has officially announced the Ozuna deal. Outfielder Jack Suwinski was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot for the new DH.
Feb. 9: The Pirates and slugger Marcell Ozuna are reportedly in agreement on a one-year, $12MM contract, pending a physical. The CAA client will be paid a $10.5MM salary this year, plus a $1.5MM buyout on a $16MM mutual option for the 2027 season. A mutual option hasn’t been exercised by both parties since 2014, so that option effectively just kicks a portion of the guarantee down the road by a year.
Ozuna turned 35 in November. The 2025 season was a down showing by his standards, but he was still a better-than-average offensive performer overall down in Atlanta. He batted .232/.355/.400 with a career-high 15.9% walk rate, a 24.3% strikeout rate, 21 homers and 19 doubles in 592 plate appearances. That overall line was weighed down by a brutal stretch in the middle of a roller-coaster season. Ozuna raced out to a scorching start in April and May, was one of the league’s worst hitters in June, and then settled in as a slightly above-average hitter for the season’s final three months.
The downturn in production dovetailed with a hip injury through which Ozuna continued to play at less than 100%. It’s impossible to say for certain whether that, age, or a combination of both was the driving factor in last season’s dip in bat speed, but Statcast measured his bat speed at 75 mph in 2023 (86th percentile of MLB hitters), 74 mph in 2024 (81st percentile) and 72.9 mph in 2025 (64th percentile). Accordingly, his typically elite exit velocity and hard-hit rate both fell. Ozuna averaged 89.9 mph off the bat and logged a 44.4% hard-hit rate in 2025. Both are still decent marks, but they’re down considerably from the 92.2 mph and 53.3% marks he posted as recently as 2024.
While Ozuna ought to be an upgrade to Pittsburgh’s lineup overall, the fit isn’t exactly perfect. Beyond the fact that PNC Park is perhaps the worst environment in MLB for right-handed power, the Buccos’ roster is a bit cluttered with corner bats who could use some of the DH time that Ozuna will now command on an everyday basis. Spencer Horwitz and Ryan O’Hearn had been lined up to share time at first base and designated hitter, with O’Hearn perhaps seeing some time in left. Horwitz, after a slow start to his season in 2025, finished the year out on a blistering .314/.402/.539 tear in his final two-plus months of play. He’s locked into an everyday role. O’Hearn can play in the outfield corners, but Bryan Reynolds has one of those two spots locked down.
Signing Ozuna, who has hasn’t played in the field at all in either of the past two seasons (and only logged 14 innings in 2023), likely pushes O’Hearn into an everyday role in the outfield. He has plenty of experience on the grass but rates as a sub-par defender there, whereas he’s an above-average defender at first base. Horwitz does have 604 professional innings in left field to his credit, so he could perhaps be on option in left as well, but all 604 of those frames have been in the minors — half of them back in 2019 and 2021. He’s played some second base, too, but that was a short experiment and the Pirates already acquired Brandon Lowe to man that position.
Presumably, the primary alignment moving forward will have O’Hearn in left field, Lowe at second, Horwitz at first base and Ozuna at designated hitter. It’s not Pittsburgh’s ideal setup from a defensive standpoint, but the Pirates will make that sacrifice in the name of getting some quality bats into the middle of what has typically been one of MLB’s weakest lineups over the past decade-plus. Newcomers O’Hearn, Lowe and Ozuna will join holdovers like Reynolds, Horwitz and Oneil Cruz, giving the Bucs a potentially strong top six in their order at the very least — and that’s before counting shortstop Konnor Griffin, who is the sport’s consensus No. 1 overall prospect and should debut in 2026.
Bringing Ozuna into the fold also seems to formally put an end to Andrew McCutchen‘s second act in Pittsburgh. He could feasibly be a right-handed bench bat who takes some occasional corner outfield reps, but McCutchen played 120 games at designated hitter in 2025. Signing Ozuna clearly displaces him from that role, and it’s hard to see the two fitting together on the same roster. McCutchen recently met with Pirates owner Bob Nutting, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported last week — a meeting that came on the heels of the franchise icon voicing some frustration with the manner in which the team had handled offseason talks.
Adding Ozuna pushes the Pirates’ payroll to $102.25MM, per Ethan Hullihen, which will somewhat remarkably establish a new franchise-record for Opening Day payroll. It’s still a very modest total relative to the rest of the league, but the Bucs have spent more than $50MM in free agency overall and also taken on Lowe’s $11.5MM salary in a trade with the Rays. It’s possible there are additional moves to come. The Pirates have been in the market for third base upgrades as well. That market has been largely picked over, but there are still surely some creative options they can pursue on the trade market.
It’s not clear exactly how much more ownership is willing to boost the payroll, but the team’s reported four-year, $120-125MM offer to Kyle Schwarber and the flurry of subsequent additions pretty clearly indicates that Nutting is willing to spend at levels he has not considered approaching in the past. The Bucs currently have a plus defender at the hot corner in Jared Triolo, but he’s a well below-average hitter who’s capable of fielding multiple spots around the infield, so he could fit nicely in a utility/bench role if GM Ben Cherington can find a third base acquisition to his liking on the trade market.
Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported Ozuna and the Pirates agreed to a $12MM deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the $10.5MM salary and $1.5MM buyout on a $16MM mutual option.
Padres Sign A.J. Preller To Multi-Year Extension
The Padres and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller have agreed to a multi-year contract extension, per a team announcement. The exact terms of Preller’s new deal are not yet known.
Preller, 48, was entering the final year of his contract in 2026 but now figures to continue his work at the helm in San Diego for the foreseeable future. He began his tenure with the Padres late in the 2014 season, and while it took several years for him to pull the organization out of the basement of the National League they’ve become one of the NL’s premier teams during the 2020s. The team has gone to the playoffs four times in the last six seasons, with a 470-400 record during that time that’s good for a .540 winning percentage. The Padres have only made it to the NLCS once in that timeframe, but it’s still undeniably the most successful stretch in franchise history given that the organization had just five postseason appearances under its belt in the 45 years it existed prior to Preller joining the team.
After more than a decade leading the Padres, Preller has become well-known among fans all across baseball as the league’s most free-wheeling executive. He pilots the Padres with dynamic energy, frequently making the sort of aggressive trades that most front office leaders around the game would shy away from. The results, in terms of stars brought into the fold, have spoken for themselves. In recent years, Preller has traded for Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Josh Hader, Joe Musgrove, Mason Miller, Dylan Cease, and Juan Soto at the height of their careers in order to augment a lineup built around likely future Hall of Famer Manny Machado and homegrown star Fernando Tatis Jr.
Impressive as Preller’s work to turn the Padres franchise into one of the premier organizations in the majors has been, it’s not been without flaws. Extensions for players like Machado, Tatis, Darvish, Musgrove, and Jake Cronenworth (as well as the free agent deal signed by Xander Bogaerts) have contributed to a bogged-down payroll that has limited the team’s flexibility in recent seasons and forced some creative moves such as trading away Soto ahead of his final year under team control, as well as signing players like Nick Pivetta and Michael King to unorthodox contracts in order to fill out the rotation. Preller and his front office have managed to pull off the balancing act of keeping the team’s spending under control without trading away Tatis or another major asset under long-term club control from the big league club so far.
It’s a task that figures to only get more difficult as time goes on. For now, though, Preller has managed to keep his house of cards in San Diego from collapsing well enough to earn himself the opportunity to continue the work, and it’s not terribly hard to see why ownership would have confidence in his abilities. Preller’s penchant for trading away top prospects (including CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, James Wood, and Leo De Vries) has been compensated for by a knack for consistently churning out high-rated prospects, a few of which (such as Tatis and Jackson Merrill) have even made their way to the majors as impactful pieces of the club. Preller has also developed a knack for putting together talented bullpens stocked with high-end talent. Even after losing players like Hader and Robert Suarez, the team can still field an elite relief corps thanks to Miller, Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, and others.
Notably, the vote of confidence Preller is receiving from ownership comes at a time when the team is in the midst of a transition at its highest levels. Longtime owner Peter Seidler abruptly passed away from cancer back in 2023, and since then the team has been under the control of a variety of Seidler’s family members and associates are various points in time. After some internal drama regarding the future of the franchise, things appear to be headed towards a potential sale of the franchise as the Seidler family announced that they’re exploring that possibility back in November. It’s unclear whether a sale will come to fruition at all, much less if progress is being made on that front. With that said, if a sale were to occur in the next couple of years, this extension ensures that Preller will remain in place to help guide the team through that transition on the field and provide some stability to the hypothetical new ownership group as they get settled in.