Blue Jays Place Alejandro Kirk On 10-Day Injured List, Recall Brandon Valenzuela
The Blue Jays are placing catcher Alejandro Kirk on the 10-day injured list with a left thumb fracture, according to Mitch Bannon of The Athletic. Catching prospect Brandon Valenzuela is being recalled from Triple-A in a corresponding move, per Hazel Mae of MLB International. Keegan Matheson of MLB.com was first to report that Valenzuela is in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse this morning.
Kirk exited last night’s game against the White Sox in the tenth inning after taking an Austin Hays foul tip off his thumb. Tyler Heineman took over behind the plate, and Kirk was promptly sent for X-rays. Although the results weren’t known until this morning, some kind of IL placement was expected for Kirk. In the end, the X-rays revealed the fracture as well as a dislocation, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. Kirk will meet with a specialist on Monday to determine whether surgery is necessary. Based on similar injuries, the Jays can expect to lose Kirk for at least six to eight weeks if he undergoes surgery.
Any extended absence would be a blow to the Jays as they look to make another deep postseason run. The team is currently 4-3 and in second place in the AL East, although they’ve been outscored by their opponents 33-31. In addition, Kirk is arguably the team’s second-most valuable player behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. After below-average offensive seasons in 2023-24, he rebounded last year to post a 116 wRC+ along with career highs in home runs (15) and runs batted in (76). The 116 wRC+ was more in line with his 110 career wRC+ and makes him well above average for a catcher. Indeed, Kirk’s 4.7 fWAR was second only to AL MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh at that position.
As good as his offense is, Kirk is also an otherworldly defender. He was worth 9 Defensive Runs Saved in 2025, which tied for third among qualified catchers behind the Giants’ Patrick Bailey and the Red Sox’ Carlos Narváez. According to Statcast, he graded out in the 100th percentile in blocks above average (21) and in the 98th percentile for framing. While his caught stealing and pop time are closer to average, those are very minor points in what is otherwise an outstanding defensive profile. Altogether, Kirk was the second most-valuable defensive catcher in the majors last year, based on Statcast’s Fielding Run Value metric.
Further updates will come after Monday’s visit with the specialist. Obviously, the club will hope that surgery is not needed and that Kirk’s absence will be kept to a minimum. In the meantime, Toronto will rely on Heineman and Valenzuela behind the plate.
Heineman is purely a backup at this stage of his career, but the club may give him the lion’s share of starts in the short term. His offense last year was surprisingly strong, with Heineman posting a 120 wRC+ in 174 plate appearances. That was far off from his career norms and partly the product of good luck, as evidenced by his .342 batting average on balls in play. On the other hand, Heineman accrued 10 DRS behind the plate, and he ranked in the 80th percentile or better for blocks, caught stealing, and framing. Thus, even if his offense regresses, his defense should help him out as a temporary starting catcher.
As for Valenzuela, the 25-year-old was acquired in a trade with the Padres last July and is one of Toronto’s top 30 prospects according to MLB.com. The team added him to the 40-man roster in November. Manager John Schneider said yesterday that Valenzuela would be called up if Kirk needed to miss time. That has now come to pass, and Valenzuela will get his first taste of the big leagues.
Valenzuela participated in major-league Spring Training this year and performed admirably, batting .304/.370/.478 with a home run and three runs scored in 27 plate appearances. He first reached Triple-A in 2024 with the Padres and returned to that level following his trade to the Blue Jays. Valenzuela was slightly above average at Double-A, though his performance at Triple-A has not been quite as strong. That’s largely due to contact issues. In 105 PA with Toronto’s top affiliate last year, he struck out at a 30.5% clip and graded out 23% worse than average by wRC+. He has shown some improvement early in 2026, cutting his strikeout rate to 17.6%. Still, his offense hasn’t been his strong suit at the top level of the minors.
Rather, Valenzuela’s value comes from his work behind the plate. His MLB.com scouting report gives him well-above-average arm strength and control of the running game. He has a 33.8% caught-stealing rate since the start of 2024, including a 35.7% rate at Triple-A, and he is also noted for his ability to work with a pitching staff. His offense may keep him from being a big-league starting catcher, but his glovework gives him a decent ceiling as a backup. For now, Heineman’s stronger recent offense probably gives him the starting job. Valenzuela has three option years remaining and could easily return to Triple-A when Kirk eventually returns.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
2026-27 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings: April Edition
The 2026 season is underway and last offseason is officially in the books. While free agency hasn’t completely closed — Lucas Giolito continues to wait for an offer he and his camp find acceptable — we’ll take our first look at next winter’s class.
As a reminder, these lists are based on our predictions of a player’s market value. This isn’t strictly looking at the most valuable free agents. Players in their mid-to-late 30s are going to have a difficult time cracking the top 10 because they’re naturally limited to shorter-term deals. Even in what is shaping up as a weak class, everyone in the top five and arguably the top eight have a path to a nine-figure contract.
MLBTR publishes our first free agent power ranking each April. A player’s walk year performance is the biggest factor in what they make, but their play over one week of the ’26 season doesn’t have much of an impact on their initial ranking. At this point, we’re going more off age and career track record — particularly the past couple seasons. There’s a lot of volatility this far out.
That’s especially true for the 2026-27 class. In recent offseasons, it has been fairly easy to identify the top free agent hitter at least a year in advance. Over the past five years, the respective top free agents on our first in-season rankings were Kyle Tucker, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Corey Seager. Seager signed for $325MM, while the other four all set records for overall guarantee and/or average annual value.
This year also features a clear No. 1 free agent, but it’s a pitcher for the first time in years. Pitchers occupy the top two spots, in fact, and Jesús Luzardo would have made three of the top four if not for his recent extension with Philadelphia. Pitchers are riskier bets than an elite free agent hitter because of the ever-present worry of an injury that could wipe out a season or more.
There simply isn’t an impending free agent position player of Tucker’s or Seager’s caliber, much less an Ohtani or Judge. Nico Hoerner had an argument as the best or second-best free agent position player before signing a six-year extension with the Cubs last week. It’s the weakest hitting class in recent memory.
[Related: Who Will Be The Top Free Agent Hitter?]
The likelihood of a lockout looms over any projection of the 2026-27 offseason. It seems inevitable that MLB and the Players Association will not reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement before the expiration of the current CBA on December 1. MLB would immediately implement a lockout, freezing all roster movement and communication between teams and players until a new agreement is reached. The 2021-22 lockout brought the sport to a halt for 99 days.
The anticipated lockout isn’t a factor for this list. It’s too early in the process to predict specific contracts. It also doesn’t seem that last winter’s group of free agents feared the work stoppage. Four players accepted qualifying offers, setting the stage for a return to the open market during the expected lockout offseason. A handful of others took short-term deals at higher annual values with opt-out opportunities this winter. The CBA will be the defining story of next offseason, but it has no bearing on the first ranking of the class.
We’ll refresh these rankings at least twice more during the season as injuries and players’ performances change their market value. There’s frequent turnover in the back half of these lists throughout the season. A lack of top-end talent means that’ll be particularly true this year.
One final note: players whose contracts contain opt-out clauses or mutual options are considered for these rankings. Those whose deals have club options are not. For instance, there’s no scenario in which Ronald Acuña Jr. signs a massive free agent contract next offseason. The Braves are all but certain to exercise their $17MM option for the 2027 season. It’d take some kind of catastrophic injury for Atlanta to buy him out.
Onto the rankings:
1. Tarik Skubal, LHP, Tigers
Skubal enters his walk year on track for the largest pitching contract of all time. He’s probably the best pitcher in the game right now, no lower than second after Paul Skenes. Skubal is the two-time defending Cy Young winner in the American League.
Going back to the start of the 2024 season, he carries a 2.25 earned run average that ranks second among qualified pitchers behind Skenes. He’s third in strikeout rate after Garrett Crochet and Chris Sale, each of whom has thrown fewer innings. Only Logan Webb has logged a heavier workload. Skubal has been even more dominant in October, turning in a 2.04 ERA while striking out 38% of opponents in six career playoff starts.
Skubal has a prototype workhorse build and sits in the 97-98 mph range on his fastball. He dominates hitters from either side of the plate and has no issue working deep into games. The only potential concern is that Skubal has twice undergone elbow surgeries: a 2017 Tommy John procedure while in college and a ’22 flexor repair that cost him a year. Skubal has not missed a start since returning from the latter surgery.
As long as he stays healthy, he should shatter the record for the largest pitching contract ever. Excluding the Ohtani deal, that’s currently held by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who got to $325MM over 12 years. Skubal turns 30 in November, so he’s not signing for 12 years, but he could land a nine- or 10-year pact that beats the $43.33MM record average annual value for a pitcher. We’re probably looking at the sport’s first $400MM arm and the clear prize of the winter.
Skubal and agent Scott Boras have already broken new contractual ground. They were rewarded for a bold arbitration filing, resulting in a record salary ($32MM) and the largest single-year jump (nearly $22MM) via that process. He’ll be attached to a qualifying offer unless the Tigers unexpectedly face plant and trade him at the deadline (which makes a player ineligible for the QO). That’s irrelevant for players this good. Teams will happily forfeit a couple draft choices and international bonus pool money to install Skubal atop their rotation for the better part of the next decade.
2. Freddy Peralta, RHP, Mets
Peralta has been one of the best and most consistent starting pitchers in the majors for over five years now. From 2021 to 2025, he has thrown 738 1/3 innings, allowing 3.30 earned runs per nine. His 9% walk rate in that time is around league average while his 29.6% strikeout rate is tied for 16th among 208 qualified pitchers. He has a four-pitch mix consisting of a four-seamer, changeup, slider and curveball, getting good results will all four.
For that span, he has been credited with 14.8 wins above replacement from FanGraphs, making him one of the 20 most valuable pitchers in the league. He hasn’t had a major injury in that time. A lat strain limited him to 18 appearances in 2022, but he has made at least 30 starts in each season since.
After the Mets acquired Peralta from the Brewers this offseason, many expected an extension to keep him in Queens. However, it seems there may be a misalignment of priorities. President of baseball operations David Stearns prefers short-term deals, for all players but especially for pitchers. Including his time with the Brewers as well as with the Mets, he has only twice gone beyond three years for a pitcher. In both cases, they were five-year extensions for pitchers early in their careers. One was for Peralta himself, a $15.5MM deal signed before he was established. The other was a $20.5MM deal for Aaron Ashby.
The Mets would presumably offer Peralta a very high average annual value, but it seems he would prefer a more traditional long-term deal. He has publicly said he is hoping to sign a deal of seven or eight years in length. He would have a case for such a pact. His profile lines up fairly nicely with Dylan Cease, who just got a seven-year deal worth $210MM from the Blue Jays, though deferrals knocked the net present value down to the $180-185MM range. Here are the two pitchers from 2023 to 2025:
Peralta: 95 starts, 516 innings, 28.9% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate, 38.5% ground ball rate, .265 BABIP, 79.8% strand rate, 13% HR/FB, 3.40 ERA, 3.88 FIP, 3.63 SIERA
Cease: 98 starts, 534 1/3 innings, 28.8% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate, 37.5% ground ball rate, .304 BABIP, 69.3% strand rate, 10.3% HR/FB, 4.18 ERA, 3.45 FIP, 3.72 SIERA
The strikeout, walk and ground-ball profiles are extremely close. Peralta had a bit better luck in terms of batted balls and sequencing, giving him an edge in the ERA department, but advanced metrics put them much closer together. Front offices these days tend to overlook ERA, as Cease’s deal shows.
Peralta will be one year older than Cease, in baseball terms. Cease signed his deal with the Jays going into his age-30 season. Peralta turns 30 this June, so 2026 will technically be his age-30 campaign. However, the difference is actually just six months. Cease turned 30 in late December, about three months before his first start with the Jays. Peralta will turn 30 about nine months before the start of the ’27 season. Like Cease, he’ll be attached to a qualifying offer but shouldn’t be impacted by draft forfeiture.
3. Bo Bichette, 3B, Mets
Bichette was just one of the top free agents of the past offseason but has a chance to be in that position again. Though he did receive at least one long-term offer — the Phillies reportedly bid around $200MM — he opted to go for a short-term deal with an extremely high average annual values and opt-outs.
With a healthy season, Bichette could return to the open market with fewer questions. He finished last season injured and with an uncertain defensive future. He was never considered an excellent shortstop and then suffered a sprained PCL in his left knee late in the 2025 season. He finished the campaign on the injured list and missed the first few rounds of the Blue Jays’ playoff run. He was activated for the World Series but was clearly not 100% and was limited to second base and designated hitter duty.
Despite the question marks, Bichette still had a robust market thanks to his bat. He doesn’t walk much but is also tough to strike out. He generally has 20-plus homer power, giving him an intriguing contact/power combo. He has a .292/.335/.466 batting line in his career, resulting in a 121 wRC+, indicating he’s been 21% better than league average overall. Before the knee injury in 2025, he hit 18 home runs and slashed .311/.357/.483 for a 134 wRC+.
Bichette’s largest total offer this winter came from the Phillies, who put forth a seven-year framework worth around $200MM. Instead, he signed a three-year deal with the Mets. The $126MM guarantee is well shy of the Philly offer but allows Bichette to bank $42MM this year. If he decides to opt-out, he will collect a $5MM buyout on his way out the door. While turning down $200MM isn’t easy, Bichette can return to free agency with about a quarter of that money already under his mattress.
It’s also theoretically possible he could get an even better long-term offer this coming winter. He will be a year older but still relatively young, as he will turn 29 in March of 2027. The Mets are playing him at third base this year. Moving down the defensive spectrum hurts his earning power, but that was already the expectation for him. Having one year of experience should at least give him some proof of concept at a new position. Ideally, he won’t go into the coming offseason with any health issues. He was a $200MM guy a few months ago and should still be that a few months into the future. He’s ineligible for the qualifying offer after receiving one from Toronto last winter.
4. Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B, Yankees
There’s a clear tier break between the Nos. 3 and 4 players in the class. Chisholm seems to have the highest ceiling of the non-Bichette group of position players. He’s a lefty-hitting middle infielder with plus bat speed and athleticism. Chisholm was one of seven players to go 30-30 last season, setting a career-high with 31 home runs. His matching stolen base total was the second highest of his career.
The hangup is the amount of swing-and-miss in his game. Chisholm has fanned at a higher than average rate in every season of his career. He punched out in 28% of his plate appearances a year ago, batting .242 in the process. A personal-high 10.9% walk rate resulted in a solid .332 on-base percentage, but he has a more pedestrian .315 mark over his career. Chisholm’s career .247/.315/.451 batting line is around eight to nine points better than league average, in the eyes of park-adjusted metrics.
Free agency has generally been unkind to second basemen in recent years. Hoerner’s $141MM extension could be a nice boost for the position, but he may have gotten interest as a shortstop if the Cubs had let him hit free agency. That’s less likely for Chisholm, who is a solid but not elite second baseman and hasn’t played shortstop in five years. He could be an option for teams seeking third base or outfield help, though a downward trend in his sprint speed means he’s probably not returning to the everyday center field work he logged with Miami between 2023-24.
Chisholm will be eligible for qualifying offer. He wouldn’t have much delay in declining it if he repeats last season’s production. He’s one of the younger players in the class, not turning 29 until next February. Matching his 2025 numbers could set him up for a nine-figure contract.
5. Trevor Rogers, LHP, Orioles
The past 12 months have represented a remarkable turnaround for Rogers. Baltimore’s 2024 acquisition of the former All-Star lefty for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby was heavily scrutinized. He was bombed over his first four starts as an Oriole and optioned to Triple-A to end the ’24 season. He began last season on the injured list and was on optional assignment to Triple-A into the middle of June.
From the time of his final recall through the end of the season, Rogers ripped off 17 starts with a 1.92 ERA. He fanned a slightly above-average 24.4% of opponents against a 7.2% walk rate while holding hitters to a .185/.246/.272 line. Within a half-season, Rogers went from a depth piece to Baltimore’s Opening Day starter. He has opened this season with a pair of quality starts, allowing two runs with an 8-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first 13 innings.
Rogers’ dominant run prevention hasn’t come with a huge amount of swing-and-miss. He has good but not elite strikeout and whiff rates. His 93 mph average fastball isn’t overpowering on the surface. He gets a lot of weak fly-balls on the heater while using his changeup and sinker as ground-ball offerings. Rogers picked up a sweeper last year to build out the arsenal.
There are obvious red flags to which Rogers’ detractors could point. He’s not going to match last season’s .226 average on balls in play, even if it’s reasonable to expect him to sustain a lower-than-average BABIP based on hitters’ struggles squaring him up. Durability is the other big concern. Rogers has yet to reach even 140 innings in a big league season. He missed time early in his career due to back, lat and biceps issues. A right knee subluxation cost him the first six weeks of the ’25 campaign.
Rogers is among the highest variance players in the class. He could hit the market as a 29-year-old coming off a season and a half of ace-caliber production. Another injury or a slight drop in velocity or whiffs could quickly drop him back into prove-it territory.
There’s a lot of projection in slotting him this high, but it’s also a reflection of how few pitchers in this class are hitting the market in their primes. There are a handful of pitchers below Rogers on this list who have much longer track records, but they’re mostly into their early-mid 30s. Rogers has a chance at a five-plus year deal that most of the older, more established arms do not. He’ll be eligible for a qualifying offer.
6. Michael King, RHP, Padres
King can return to the market by opting out of the final two seasons of his three-year, $75MM deal. The right-hander had a fairly robust market last winter despite being limited to 15 starts, largely by a nerve issue in his shoulder. However, King was unlikely to command five or six years coming off that platform, so he opted for three years with opt-outs to return to the Padres.
This is almost entirely dependent on health. King performed at a borderline ace level throughout 2024 and the first two months of the ’25 season. He struggled down the stretch after returning from the nerve injury and an August IL stay due to a minor knee issue. After a shaky spring, he worked around four walks across five scoreless frames versus the Tigers in his season debut. His 94 mph average fastball was at typical levels.
King won’t be eligible for another qualifying offer. He turns 31 in May, so a free agent deal would begin with his age-32 season. Five-year deals for starting pitchers at that age aren’t common. A healthy season could get him to four years at a strong enough annual value to reach nine figures. Injuries could take him off the market entirely by leading him to forego the opt-out.
7. Daulton Varsho, CF, Blue Jays
Varsho missed the final month of the 2024 season due to a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery. The rehab from that operation, coupled with a separate hamstring strain, limited him to only 71 games in 2025. Despite that considerable time off, he still ranks fifth among all major leaguers, at any position, in Defensive Runs Saved over the past three-plus seasons at 44. The four players above him have all played at least 1000 more innings. Varsho’s 22 Outs Above Average tie him for 23rd in baseball in that same span. The Ultimate Zone Rating metric isn’t as commonly used as it was 15 years ago, but no player in MLB (min. 1000 innings) has been a better defender than Varsho since 2023 by measure of UZR/150.
A former catcher, Varsho took shockingly well to center field and now stands as one of baseball’s premier defensive players. He’s far from a one-trick pony, however, even if his glove is his best asset. The second-generation big leaguer has been a perennial threat for 20-plus home runs, but his power output exploded in 2025. Varsho belted 20 round-trippers in only 271 turns at the plate. He chipped in three more homers in 81 postseason plate appearances. If he’d maintained that regular season pace over the same 562 plate appearances he averaged in the three preceding seasons, Varsho would’ve topped 40 home runs.
That type of power output was a new development, and whether he can sustain anything close to it will go a long way toward determining the extent of his earning potential this coming winter. If Varsho can somehow maintain anything close to last year’s breakout .310 ISO (slugging minus batting average), he could be in line for a nine-figure contract. If his power comes back down to Earth, things are less certain. Varsho is a good player, but he’s strikeout prone and typically has only an average walk rate. That’s led to a career .295 on-base percentage, which many teams will see as a glaring red flag.
There’s a wide range of outcomes here, but Varsho is going to reach free agency as a 30-year-old. He’ll turn 31 in July of year one on his new contract. A plus-plus center field defender with 20-homer pop should, at the very least, command three to four years in free agency. If he can sustain last year’s power output, Varsho can more credibly look for a contract of five years, which might be enough to push him into nine-figure territory. It’d be a big bet to place on someone with such paltry OBP skills, but 40-homer pop and a poor OBP netted Anthony Santander a $92.5MM deal (albeit with heavy deferrals). Varsho should be more appealing if he can stay healthy and deliver a career-best performance in the power department. He’ll be attached to a qualifying offer.
8. Tatsuya Imai, RHP, Astros
Imai’s market didn’t materialize the way many expected last offseason. Despite several predictions of a nine-figure contract — MLBTR included — the Japanese righty wound up settling for somewhat of a prove-it deal. He signed a three-year, $54MM guarantee with the Astros which included opt-outs after the first two seasons.
The Astros also paid a $9.975MM posting fee to NPB’s Seibu Lions. In a sense, Houston was willing to spend nearly $28MM for one year of Imai’s services. That’s a decent amount, but scouts had enough trepidations about Imai’s command and the quality of his secondary pitches that teams weren’t willing to make a long-term commitment.
That’d probably change if he pitches at a mid-rotation level as a rookie. Imai is the youngest starter of note in this class, as he won’t turn 28 until May. He has a plus fastball that averaged 95.6 mph in his MLB debut. It was a rocky start overall, as he walked four batters and couldn’t escape the third inning, but one poor outing doesn’t say much about the caliber of pitcher he’ll be moving forward. (Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up five runs and lasted all of one inning in his own MLB debut.)
Imai probably won’t be in this spot on the next iteration of the free agent rankings. If he’s pitching well, he could jump into the top five based on the youth and velocity. If he struggles, he could drop off the list equally quickly. He would be eligible for a qualifying offer if he opts out of his current contract.
9. Randy Arozarena, LF, Mariners
Arozarena is an above-average everyday left fielder. He has been between 14 and 27 percent better than average at the plate in five straight seasons. He hit a career-high 27 homers while stealing 31 bags last year. Arozarena has gone at least 20-20 in each of the last five years and is a lifetime .250/.344/.433 hitter.
That blend of power and speed comes with some swing and miss. Arozarena has struck out a near-26% clip in his career and punched out in 26.9% of his trips last year. Defensive Runs Saved has graded him as a league average left fielder, while he’s generally a little worse than par by measure of Outs Above Average.
Arozarena will hit the market at age 32, likely with a qualifying offer attached. A high-AAV three-year deal seems likelier than four guaranteed seasons. His camp would probably try to beat the $66MM Teoscar Hernández contract if he has his usual year.
10. Seiya Suzuki, RF/DH, Cubs
Much of the Arozarena writeup also applies to Suzuki. The righty-hitting slugger owns a .269/.346/.472 slash over four big league seasons since signing out of NPB. He popped 32 homers with a .245/.326/.478 mark over 651 plate appearances last season.
Suzuki has plus power and takes a lot of walks. It comes with some strikeouts but not enough to prevent him from slotting into the middle of a lineup. Suzuki is probably a slightly better offensive player than Arozarena, but he faces more questions about his position fit and injury history.
The Cubs have used Suzuki frequently as a designated hitter over the past couple seasons. He has the speed and arm strength to play right field, where the public metrics have graded him as a slightly below-average defender. He missed time in 2023 and ’24 with oblique strains and began this year on the shelf with a minor PCL sprain in his right knee suffered during the World Baseball Classic.
Suzuki will be eligible for a qualifying offer. Like Arozarena and teammate Ian Happ, he’ll hit free agency as a 32-year-old corner outfielder. They’re all consistently good but not top-tier hitters, and clubs could reasonably order them in any way. They each have a shot at three years and more than $20MM per season. A fourth year for any of the three isn’t a complete stretch but also shouldn’t be considered likely. As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows, the only free agent deals of four or more years for outfielders 32 or older in the past decade have been for Starling Marte (four years, $78MM) and Lorenzo Cain (five years, $80MM) — both of whom played center field in their platform seasons.
Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically): Bryan Abreu, David Bednar, Shane Bieber, Kris Bubic, Jack Flaherty, Zac Gallen, Kevin Gausman, Trent Grisham, Ian Happ, Shota Imanaga, Brandon Lowe, Casey Mize, Adrian Morejon, Nick Pivetta, Brady Singer, Gleyber Torres, Taylor Ward, Brandon Woodruff
Respective images courtesy of Imagn Images.
Pirates Promote Konnor Griffin
April 3: Pittsburgh has formally selected Griffin’s contract, per a club announcement. Infielder Enmanuel Valdez was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.
April 2: The Pirates are calling up shortstop Konnor Griffin, the top prospect in all of baseball, to make his major league debut in tomorrow’s home opener, Pirates insider Jason Mackey reports. The team has confirmed Griffin’s promotion but has not yet formally selected his contract to the 40-man roster. They’ll need to do so and make corresponding 26-man and 40-man transactions prior to first pitch tomorrow.
Griffin was in the mix to break camp on Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster but was reassigned to minor league camp late in spring training. The two parties have continued talks on what would be a record-setting contract extension — expected to be both the largest ever for a player with little to no major league service time (surpassing Colt Emerson‘s recent eight-year $95MM deal with the Mariners) and the Pirates’ franchise-record contract ($100MM for Bryan Reynolds).
It’s possible the Bucs simply wanted Griffin to make his debut at home, popping ticket sales throughout the weekend and further boosting excitement for fans after an uncharacteristically aggressive offseason. It’s also feasible that the two parties have become close enough on a long-term contract that the Pirates are making the move to promote him now and will announce an extension not long after his debut. The benefits in that scenario are straightforward. Players who sign extensions before making their MLB debut are not eligible to net draft picks for their club under MLB’s prospect promotion incentives; players who sign extensions after debuting remain PPI eligible. So long as any contract is finalized after Griffin has debuted, he’d net the Pirates an extra draft pick either by winning 2026 NL Rookie of the Year honors or with a top-three finish in MVP voting in 2026-28. (A player can only generate one total PPI pick for his team.)
Griffin is still three weeks away from his 20th birthday, but the 19-year-old phenom will get his chance to prove he’s ready for the big time. A physical beast already standing 6’3″ and weighing 225 pounds, Griffin is perhaps the most touted No. 1 overall prospect in recent memory. He draws plus (60) to plus-plus (70) grades on the 20-80 scale for all of his tools across the board. Griffin is an elite runner who scouts believe can stick at shortstop while hitting for both average and power.
Selected with the No. 9 overall pick in 2024, Griffin has played just one full professional season, and the results were borderline comical. He sprinted through the minors last year, climbing from Low-A to Double-A and absolutely raking at each of his three stops. Griffin totaled 563 plate appearances overall and slashed .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs, 23 doubles, four triples and an eye-popping 65 stolen bases in 78 tries (83.3%). He walked at an 8.9% clip and struck out at a 21.7% rate.
Those numbers are staggering on their own. By measure of wRC+, Griffin was 65% better than an average hitter across those three levels. That ignores the context that the Mississippi native was among the youngest players — if not the youngest player — at all of those stops. Griffin hit just .171 in 46 spring plate appearances with the Pirates but still popped four home runs. He’s taken 21 plate appearances in Triple-A to begin this season and gone 7-for-16 with three doubles, three steals, five walks and only four strikeouts.
With the Pirates, Griffin will immediately step in as the team’s everyday shortstop. That’ll push Jared Triolo to a bench role for which he’s probably better suited. Triolo is an adept defender at multiple infield spots but carries just a .234/.319/.343 slash in 1054 plate appearances at the major league level. He can mix in at any of the four infield spots now, though he’s not going to supplant starters Spencer Horwitz (first base), Brandon Lowe (second base) or Nick Gonzales (third base) unless there’s an injury or a prolonged stretch of poor play from Gonzales as he acclimates to the hot corner.
Griffin steps into a big league lineup that has been substantially revamped since last season. The Pirates didn’t get the biggest fish they pursued this winter (e.g. Kyle Schwarber, Josh Naylor, Kazuma Okamoto), but they still brought in several established veteran bats who’ve unequivocally bolstered the offense. Lowe and outfielder Jake Mangum came over from the Rays alongside lefty reliever Mason Montgomery in a three-team trade sending young righty Mike Burrows to Houston. Ryan O’Hearn signed a two-year, $29MM in free agency. Marcell Ozuna later came aboard for a year and $12MM. Griffin now joins newcomers like Lowe, O’Hearn and Ozuna in the heart of a vastly improved lineup that Pirates hopes will better support the team’s excellent young pitching staff.
Service time considerations seemingly weren’t a factor in Griffin’s promotion. He’s still being called up in time to get a full year of major league service even without a Rookie of the Year win. His timelines for reaching arbitration and free agency would be rendered moot if Griffin eventually signs an extension, as many expect, but as things currently stand he’d be on track for arbitration eligibility following the 2028 season and free agency following the 2031 season, when he’d be just 25 years old (and going into his age-26 season). Griffin is so young that even a record-setting extension could still position him to reach the open market well ahead of his 30th birthday.
Griffin is the first of many young Pirates hitters who could impact the team this season. Pittsburgh also picked up touted outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia in a trade with the Red Sox, and he should get a look in the majors before too long. Infielder Termarr Johnson‘s stock has dipped in recent seasons, but he’s still just 21 years old and coming off a nice 2025 showing in Double-A. Catcher/first baseman Rafael Flores Jr., another trade acquisition (from the Yankees in last summer’s David Bednar swap) had a big season between Double-A and Triple-A last year and could hit his way into a bigger audition in 2026 as well.
For now, all eyes are on Griffin — both to witness the debut of one of the best prospects in recent memory and also to see whether he signs a franchise-altering extension that’d lock him in beyond his original six seasons of club control.
Pirates, Konnor Griffin Reportedly Working On Extension
April 2nd: Olney now reports that the sides are working on a nine-year deal worth $140MM, though he cautions that the deal isn’t done as they are still working on some things.
April 1st: The Pirates and prospect Konnor Griffin are reportedly deep into extension negotiations, per Buster Olney of ESPN.
It doesn’t appear that anything is done or agreed to yet but it seems the two sides aren’t too far apart. Olney’s report frames Pittsburgh as hoping to get something done that is comparable to Corbin Carroll‘s $111MM eight-year deal with Arizona while Griffin’s camp is targeting Roman Anthony‘s $130MM eight-year pact with Boston. Given that the gap is less than $20MM, perhaps something can get done. A couple of weeks ago, Jon Heyman of The New York Post suggested the Pirates could be willing to get to the $110MM range. Last week, Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the two sides had indeed discussed an eight-year deal worth $110MM.
Griffin is not yet 20 years old and hasn’t played in the majors yet but he is the top prospect in the game right now and many consider him the best prospect seen in years. Last year, he slashed .333/.415/.527 while hitting 21 home runs and stealing 65 bases.
He topped out at Double-A yet seemed to have a chance at breaking camp with the club here in 2026. He hit four home runs in spring training but his other numbers were not great, as he slashed .171/.261/.488. Part of that was a .125 batting average on balls in play but Griffin also struck out at a 28.3% clip and only drew a walk in 4.3% of his plate appearances.
That surely didn’t do anything to dampen the club’s long-term hopes for Griffin but the Pirates decided to start the season with him at the Triple-A level. He has a .462/.588/.692 slash in four games to start the season.
Extensions for players with little or no major league experience have become far more common in recent years. Earlier this week, Colt Emerson and the Mariners set a new benchmark for pre-debut guys, signing an eight-year deal with a $92MM guarantee.
Emerson is one of the 10 to 15 top prospects in the league but, as mentioned, Griffin is the clear #1 and is perhaps the best prospect in quite some time. With that in mind, he should sail past Emerson’s guarantee and it seems like the talks are already past that point.
For extensions signed quite early in a player’s career, Carroll and Anthony are some of the most notable. Carroll and Anthony each signed within two months of their respective debuts. Julio Rodríguez has the record for a deal for a player with less than a year of service time. Towards the end of his rookie season, he and the Mariners signed a convoluted deal with a $210MM guarantee and multiple club/player options.
The largest contract in Pittsburgh’s franchise history is the $100MM deal they signed with Bryan Reynolds a few years back. It seems they are willing and hoping to break that record to lock up Griffin as part of their core. The longer they wait, the harder that will become. Young players generally gain earning power as they push further into their careers and closer to free agency, as the Rodríguez deal shows. For guys with two years of service time, Bobby Witt Jr. got a $288.8MM guarantee while Fernando Tatis Jr. got $340MM. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got $500MM when he was just a few months from free agency.
It’s been over a decade since the Pirates last made the playoffs but it’s possible better days are ahead. They have already graduated a number of exciting young players onto their major league roster in recent years, headlined by Paul Skenes. Their farm system is currently ranked by many outlets as the best in the majors. That’s in large part due to Griffin but they also have Edward Florentino, Seth Hernandez and other exciting young prospects on the way. They had a busy offseason, adding Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, Marcell Ozuna and others as they try to take a step forward.
Griffin will be a key part of the competitive window that appears to be opening but the Bucs would naturally love to extend the relationship if they can. From Griffin’s perspective, he would have to be willing to delay his path to free agency. Going year to year could potentially mean hitting the open market after his age-25 or -26 season. Signing a deal now would lock in an upfront guarantee while perhaps still giving him a chance to become a free agent before his 30th birthday.
Without a deal officially signed, there’s a notable ticking clock with Griffin’s service time. A major league season is 187 days long but a player only needs 172 days in the majors to be credited with a full year of service time. That means Griffin can still hit that one-year mark if called up in the next week. If he does so without an extension in place, he would be eligible to earn the Pirates an extra draft pick via the Prospect Promotion Incentive, though players who sign pre-debut extensions are not PPI eligible. If Griffin is still in the minors by the end of next week, he wouldn’t be able to get a full year of service the old-fashioned way but would be credited with one year retroactively if he is eventually called up and places in the top two in National League Rookie of the Year voting.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Mariners Sign Colt Emerson To Eight-Year Extension
The Mariners announced the signing of top shortstop prospect Colt Emerson to an eight-year extension that includes a club option for the 2034 campaign. Emerson, an ACES client, is reportedly guaranteed $95MM — a record for a player who has yet to make his MLB debut.
The signing comes with a full no-trade clause and includes another $35MM+ in escalators. There’s reportedly an $8MM signing bonus. Emerson will make $1MM and $2MM respective salaries over the next two seasons. That’ll climb to $9MM in 2028 and between $12-18MM per season from 2029-32. The club option is valued at $25MM.
Emerson will remain in Triple-A, where he has nine games of experience. Seattle needed to select him onto the 40-man roster to finalize his major league contract but immediately optioned him back to the Triple-A level. The 20-year-old’s deal tops the previous record guarantee for a player without any MLB service time (previously held by Jackson Chourio) by $13MM.
It’s not hard to see why the Mariners are giving him a guarantee that nearly reaches nine-figures before even seeing him take a single MLB at-bat, however. The youngster is a consensus top-15 prospect in the sport and rocketed through the minors last year. After starting 2025 at the High-A level, he walked at an excellent 13.1% clip and swatted 32 extra-base hits in just 90 games. That forced the issue enough to earn him a promotion to the upper minors and, across 40 games between Double-A Arkansas and Triple-A Tacoma, Emerson slashed .293/.383/.470 in 188 plate appearances. That would be an impressive slash line for any player, but even more so for a 19-year-old who plays quality defense all over the infield.
The Mariners made the decision to let Eugenio Suarez and Jorge Polanco depart in free agency over the offseason, and Emerson’s emergence was surely part of that calculus. For now, the club has an infield mix that appears full on paper, with J.P. Crawford at shortstop, Cole Young at second base, and the recently-acquired Brendan Donovan at third base.
Crawford is currently on the injured list with a bout of shoulder inflammation, but he’s expected to return relatively quickly from that injury. The Mariners preferred to use utilityman Leo Rivas as a fill-in rather than call Emerson up for a week or two only to option him back to Tacoma. With Crawford on track to hit free agency after the 2026 season, the position will probably belong to Emerson in the long term.
That’s not to say he’ll need to wait until 2027 to make his MLB debut. Young is a former top prospect himself and is well-regarded by the Mariners, but he’s ultimately unproven at the big league level and could open up playing time at the keystone if he struggles or sits against tough lefties. Donovan was acquired in no small part thanks to his elite versatility. The super-utility man is primarily an infielder but has plenty of experience on the outfield grass as well. Emerson could assume the regular third base job at some point this season. That would bump Donovan to right field, thereby displacing either Dominic Canzone or Luke Raley from the starting lineup.
While a spot could be made for Emerson in the majors, it’s understandable that the club is holding off on promoting him for now. This extension is a big bet on his ability and removes the consideration of service time from the equation, but Emerson’s development must still be considered. While MLB Pipeline notes that his defensive metrics last year suggested he was an above-average defender at short, he has just 111 1/3 innings of work at third base for his career and just 75 at the keystone, so it would be understandable if the team wanted to get him additional looks at those positions before giving him a full-time role in the majors.
As for his offense, Emerson has just 43 total games in the upper minors. That’s not a lot of time afforded for his development, and while some top prospects are able to jump right in at the big league level with minimal minor league experience, the Mariners should remember all too well the struggles that outfielder Jarred Kelenic faced when he was promoted to the majors after just 51 games in the upper minors (including 30 at Triple-A). The front office surely has no interest in risking Emerson’s development on calling him up before he’s ready, particularly given the fact that Emerson is now slated to receive the fourth-largest guarantee on Seattle’s entire roster behind Julio Rodriguez, Luis Castillo, and Cal Raleigh.
Regardless of when Emerson ultimately reaches the majors, this deal locks up a key piece of Seattle’s core for the future. With Emerson now under club control through the end of the 2034 season, he joins Raleigh, Rodriguez, Josh Naylor, and Young as key players under control through at least 2030. That positional core is complemented by impact pieces like Donovan, star closer Andres Munoz, and of course the club’s vaunted starting rotation of Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, and Bryce Miller. All five of those starters are set to hit free agency between the 2027-28 offseason and the 2029-30 offseason, so perhaps the club’s long-term planning can now focus on the future of the rotation now that key positional assets like Raleigh and Emerson are locked up for the long haul.
Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Emerson and the Mariners had agreed to an eight-year, $95MM contract with a club option, more than $35MM in escalators, and a no-trade clause. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that Emerson would be optioned back to Triple-A. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times had the signing bonus and salary range. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reported the $25MM option value and more salary specifics.
Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.
Cody Ponce Diagnosed With ACL Sprain
5:22pm: The Jays have officially placed Ponce on the 15-day IL and recalled Estrada, per a club announcement.
3:25pm: Blue Jays manager John Schneider provided an update on right-hander Cody Ponce, who departed yesterday’s game with an injury. Ponce has a sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He has avoided a full tear and it’s still to be determined whether surgery will be necessary. Even if he does avoid surgery, he will miss “significant time” regardless, though the Jays are holding out hope he can pitch later in the year. Hazel Mae of Sportsnet and Mitch Bannon of The Athletic were among those to relay the information.
Time will tell exactly how it plays out as the Jays are still gathering medical opinions but it seems like Ponce is likely to miss a few months even in a best-case scenario. It’s a brutal blow for Ponce and the team. Ponce had spent the past few years overseas. He had an excellent 2025 season in Korea, giving the Hanwha Eagles 180 2/3 innings with a 1.89 ERA.
He parlayed that into a three-year, $30MM deal with the Blue Jays but that deal has begun in one of the most agonizing ways possible. Ponce was making his team debut last night when he tried to field a grounder in the third inning. He fell to the ground in obvious pain and was later carted off the field. The team initially announced his injury as right knee discomfort. It now appears he will miss the majority of the 2026 campaign, meaning his triumphant return to the majors will have to wait.
For the Jays, this adds another layer to the challenges they have been facing with their rotation depth. Each of Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber and José Berríos began the season on the injured list. The Jays were able to start the season in decent shape even without those guys, having a five-man group consisting of Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Eric Lauer, Ponce and Max Scherzer.
Now that Ponce is out, the Jays will have an opening, at least for the short term. Yesavage, Bieber and Berríos are all throwing and could potentially be back in the mix in the near future. Yesavage seems to perhaps be the closest, as he is expected to throw 45 innings over three innings in a simulated game this week.
Until one of those three is ready to return, the Jays will need a fifth starter. Per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, the Jays don’t plan to use their off-days to run a four-man rotation, so they’ll need someone to take Ponce’s spot on Sunday. Ricky Tiedemann won’t be an option since he is also injured at the moment. The same goes for Bowden Francis, who will miss all of 2026 due to Tommy John surgery. Jake Bloss is recovering from last year’s surgery. Schneider listed Lazaro Estrada, Adam Macko, CJ Van Eyk and Chad Dallas as possibilities to start Sunday’s game.
Estrada seems likely to be recalled today, as Francys Romero of BeisbolFR reported last night. Multiple reporters, including Bannon, noted today that Estrada has a locker in the clubhouse. Ponce hasn’t been officially placed on the IL but it seems like Estrada will be recalled when that does happen. Whether Estrada is available to pitch on Sunday perhaps depends on if he is needed to log any innings between now and then. He made two appearances for the Jays last year, allowing seven earned runs in 7 1/3 innings. He also posted a 5.73 ERA in Triple-A last year.
Macko is another option already on the 40-man, although he hasn’t yet made his major league debut. He had a 5.06 ERA at Triple-A last year, pitching in a swing role. He pitched two innings of relief for Buffalo on Friday.
Van Eyk and Dallas are not on the 40-man roster, though that shouldn’t be an issue. The Jays already have two vacancies with Leo Jiménez and Angel Bastardo getting designated for assignment last week. They effectively have two more open spots since Anthony Santander and now Ponce are candidates to be moved to the 60-day injured list. Van Eyk had a 4.79 ERA in 126 Triple-A innings last year. Dallas had a strong 2023 on the farm, posting a 3.65 ERA. However, his ERA spiked to 6.21 in 2024 in a season that was cut short by injury, ultimately requiring Tommy John surgery. He just pitched three innings on Sunday, his first official game action since July of 2024.
The Jays will hope that whoever takes the spot in the coming days will be bumped out after a few turns, making it a short-term issue. The Ponce injury could also impact them in the long term. Each of Gausman, Bieber, Scherzer and Lauer are slated for free agency after this season. Berríos can opt out of his deal, though that seems unlikely at the moment. That means the 2027 rotation currently projects to include Cease, Yesavage, Ponce and Berríos, with some of the aforementioned young guys potentially stepping up.
In a perfect world, Ponce would have had a strong 2026 and established himself as a legit MLB arm going into 2027. If he ends up missing most or all of the remainder of the schedule, he will still be a question mark going into next season.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
Cubs, Nico Hoerner Agree To Extension
The Cubs and infielder Nico Hoerner have agreed to a six-year contract extension. Hoerner was slated for free agency after this year, with 2026 being the final season of his previous extension. Hoerner will make $141MM as part of his new deal, which starts in 2027 and will cover Hoerner’s age-30 to age-35 seasons before concluding in 2032. The Apex Baseball client receives a $5MM signing bonus as part of the deal, which also includes a full no-trade clause.
He will make $23MM per year in 2027 and 2028, then $22.5MM per year from 2029 through 2032. $2.5MM of Hoerner’s annual salary in the 2029-32 seasons is deferred. The deferred money in the deal knocks the net present value down to $137.5MM.
Hoerner’s pact is in the range of free agent deals for middle infielders. Trevor Story and Javier Báez each got $140MM over six. Hoerner just barely goes past those two, while coming in a bit under Marcus Semien‘s $175MM, Swanson’s $177MM and Willy Adames‘s $182MM, which were all seven-year deals.
Hoerner, 29 in May, has been the a key part of the Cubs for several years now. He doesn’t have a ton of power but provides strong offense with a consistent contact approach. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has almost 2500 plate appearances. His 6.4% walk rate and 10.2% strikeout rate are both well below league average. He only has 33 home runs in that time. But the contact approach has resulted in a .284/.339/.389 line and 105 wRC+ for that span. He finished each of those four seasons with a wRC+ from 102 to 109.
He combines that offense with strong attributes in other facets of his game. He has stolen 123 bases in that four-year span, with at least 20 in each season. Defensively, he is considered to be good enough to handle shortstop but has been bumped to the other side of the bag by the presence of Dansby Swanson. That has made him one of the best defensive second basemen in the league. Dating back to the start of 2023, the year he moved to second base, he has 32 Defensive Runs Saved and 35 Outs Above Average. The DRS total is behind only Andrés Giménez and Brice Turang, while the OAA number is behind only Giménez and Marcus Semien.
The combination is a valuable one. FanGraphs has credited him with a little more than four wins above replacement per year for a total of 17.4 fWAR since the start of 2022. He didn’t finish any of those four seasons lower than 3.8 fWAR.
Three years ago, the Cubs and Hoerner agreed to their first extension, a three-year deal worth $35MM. That was a bit of an odd deal, as it bought out Hoerner’s two arbitration seasons and then just one free agent year. Hoerner delayed his path to the open market for a relatively modest price.
As that deal played out, Hoerner became a plausible trade candidate for a few reasons. For one, he was getting closer to free agency, which often leads to increased trade speculation with many players. The Cubs also had some infield prospects pushing towards the majors, with Matt Shaw making his major league debut last year. The Cubs could have traded Hoerner to address another area of the roster, then put Shaw at second base. Given that another club could have put Hoerner at shortstop, perhaps that would have increased the trade return.
Instead, the Cubs are locking in another piece of their core. Third baseman Alex Bregman is signed through 2030 and Swanson through 2029. They agreed to a long-term deal with Pete Crow-Armstrong just a few days ago, so he’s going to be signed through 2032. Assuming this Hoerner deal starts in 2027, it will also run through 2032.
After 2026, the Cubs were facing a potentially huge amount of roster turnover. Hoerner, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Hoby Milner, Dylan Carlson, Michael Conforto and Tyler Austin are all impending free agents. Matthew Boyd, Hunter Harvey, Carson Kelly and Caleb Thielbar all have mutual options for 2027 but those are almost never picked up by both sides, so they should all be considered impending free agents as well. That is still something the club will have to plan for but locking in Hoerner takes one thing off the to-do list.
One player who could be impacted by this deal is Shaw. He played third base last year but the Bregman signing bumped him into a utility role for 2026. With Hoerner’s impending free agency, it was possible to imagine that being a one-year arrangement, as Shaw could then take over at the keystone starting in 2027. That’s no longer possible.
Shaw is going to be playing some outfield this year, so perhaps he could take over a corner next year with the impending departures of Happ and Suzuki, though that depends on him proving viable on the grass. He is still under club control for six seasons, so it’s also possible to imagine him being a future trade chip, if he could find a better path to infield playing time with another club.
Hoerner would have made for a fascinating free agent case. Second basemen normally don’t get massive paychecks in free agency but Hoerner could have marketed himself as a shortstop and perhaps some clubs would have viewed him as one. Teams also normally pay more for power than contact. A speed-and-defense profile can get paid but it’s also risky since those attributes fade over time. It would have been a unique free agency test case but that’s moot now.
The 2026-27 free agent class is particularly light in terms of hitters. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently took a look at the group in a post for Front Office subscribers. While recent offseasons have had clear standout bats like Corey Seager, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker, the upcoming winter doesn’t quite have that kind of star power. Franco highlighted Bo Bichette, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Daulton Varsho and Hoerner as the top position players in the class.
Hoerner certainly would not have been the best hitter in that bunch but the speed and defense put him up there in terms of overall value. Teams looking for middle infield help next winter will have to cross one name off what was already a somewhat flimsy list.
As of this writing, the numbers on the deal have not been reported. That makes it difficult to assess the long-term impact for the Cubs. What can be said is that they do have a good amount of payroll space available in the future. As mentioned, they have long-term commitments to Swanson, Bregman and Crow-Armstrong but that’s essentially it. Phil Maton and Shelby Miller are the only other players with guaranteed deals for 2027. By 2028, it’s just Bregman, Swanson and Crow-Armstrong.
Photos courtesy of Michael McLoone, David Banks, Imagn Images
Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation was first to report that Hoerner and the Cubs had an agreement in place. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that the deal was for six seasons, while Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the $141MM guarantee. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that there was deferred money in the deal, while Joel Sherman of The New York Post first reported the contract breakdown. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first to report that the deal includes a full no-trade clause.
Brewers To Recall Jeferson Quero For MLB Debut, Place Andrew Vaughn On IL
2:06pm: Vaughn has been diagnosed with a fractured hand and will miss four to six weeks due to the injury, as relayed by McCalvy. He figures to undergo hamate surgery in the coming days.
11:16am: The Brewers are set to recall catching prospect Jeferson Quero for his MLB debut, per Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. A corresponding active roster move has not been announced, though MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports that first baseman Andrew Vaughn is headed for the injured list due to a hand injury.
Quero, 23, was signed out of Venezuela by the Brewers as an international amateur and made his pro debut in the Arizona Complex League back in 2021. Since then, he’s climbed the minor league ladder fairly steadily but enjoyed a breakout season in 2023 that put him on the map as a prospect to watch. That year, he hit a very impressive .262/.339/.440 across 90 games at the Double-A level as a 20 year old while showing the ability to handle the catcher position. That was enough to make him a consensus top-40 prospect in the sport.
Since then, Quero’s star has lost some of its shine thanks to injuries. He played in just one game during the 2024 season due to a significant shoulder injury that wound up requiring surgery. He returned to the field of play last year, but a hamstring injury helped limit him to just 68 games, only 59 of which were at the Triple-A level. In the 250 plate appearances he did receive at Triple-A, the then-22-year-old Quero hit just .255/.336/.412. His 10.0% walk rate and 14.0% strikeout rate show solid plate discipline and contact ability, but he didn’t hit for much power to speak of with just 21 extra-base hits and six homers in that time. That 101 wRC+ showing, in conjunction with injury woes and questions about his arm strength following shoulder surgery, was enough to knock Quero off most top-100 prospect lists this offseason.
Still, it’s fair to remember that Quero hasn’t really struggled much at the plate throughout his minor league career to this point and has shown the skills necessary to be a quality catcher. It would surprise no one if he becomes an impressive partner to William Contreras in the Milwaukee catching tandem in the fairly near future. With that being said, that end goal appears relatively far off given the presence of Gary Sanchez on the club’s 40-man roster. He serves as Contreras’s primary backup and, as a veteran who has been a roughly league average offensive player for several years now, he should have a considerable leash in that role.
For now, however, the Brewers are going with a three-catcher roster due to Vaughn’s injury. Though only a league average hitter for his career, Vaughn slashed a sensational .308/.375/.493 in 63 games with Milwaukee last year after being acquired from the White Sox midway through the year. That showing was enough for the Brewers to hand Vaughn the keys to the first base job, but after he left yesterday’s game due to a hand injury he’s evidently now ticketed for a trip to the shelf. It’s unclear just how long Vaughn will be out of commission at this point, and while he’s gone adding Quero to the roster should free Sanchez up for some starts at first base. Quero, as another right-handed hitter, also keeps a righty bat in the club’s bench mix.
Of course, Sanchez isn’t likely to be the only one in the first base mix while Vaughn is out. Switch-hitting Luis Rengifo could see some time there, creating an opportunity to get more playing time as he shares third base with David Hamilton. Another option would be to get lefty-swinging outfielder Jake Bauers in at first base, which would then open the door for one of Rengifo, switch-hitter Blake Perkins, or righty hitter Brandon Lockridge in the outfield mix. Bauers is the most experienced first baseman on the roster at this point, with over 2000 innings at the position in the majors throughout his career.
Orioles Sign Shane Baz To Extension
The Orioles announced that they have signed right-hander Shane Baz to a five-year deal covering the 2026 to 2030 seasons. The Cornerstone Baseball Group client will reportedly be paid $68MM in that span. He was previously slated to reach free agency after the 2028 season and had agreed to a $3.5MM salary for 2026. This deal adds four more guaranteed years for $64.5MM in new money. MLBTR has learned that Baz will get a $4MM signing bonus and $1MM salary in 2026, followed by salaries of $7MM, $10MM, $21MM and $25MM in the next four years.
Baltimore is evidently quite confident in their ability to get the best out of Baz, a pitcher who is clearly talented but who still comes with some question marks. Baz is a former first-rounder and top prospect but injuries had held him back to the point where he had barely 100 big league innings going into 2025. He did pitch 166 1/3 innings last year but with an uninspiring 4.87 earned run average. Despite that, the O’s surrendered a package of four prospects and a draft pick to get him a few months ago and are now making a big financial commitment to him for years to come.
The Pirates took Baz with the 12th overall pick back in 2017. Before reaching the majors, he was flipped to the Rays in the 2018 Chris Archer trade. Baz debuted with the Rays late in 2021, making three starts. In the minors that year, he posted a 2.06 earned run average while striking out 37.9% of opponents and limiting walks to a 4.4% clip.
Going into 2022, he was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the sport but he required arthroscopic elbow surgery in April of that year. He came back later that season and made a few more starts but then elbow issues popped up again. He underwent Tommy John surgery in September and missed the entire 2023 season.
He was still rehabbing at the beginning of 2024 but eventually got back on the mound and showed some promise. He made 14 starts for the Rays that year with a 3.06 ERA, though his 21.6% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate were both around average. Going into 2025, Baz was finally healthy after many years of elbow issues, which had limited him to 119 2/3 career innings. He made 31 starts and logged 166 1/3 innings in 2025. Unfortunately, the overall results weren’t good. As mentioned, Baz had a 4.87 ERA on the year.
There are some reasons for optimism under the hood. The Rays were playing in a minor league park last year due to hurricane damage to Tropicana Field. It’s possible Baz may have been impacted by that, as he had a 5.90 ERA at Steinbrenner Field but a 3.86 ERA on the road. Normally, about 12% of fly balls turn into home runs at the major league level. For Baz, that number was 18.9% at home and 11.1% on the road last year.
For the whole year, home and away, Baz struck out a solid 24.8% of batters faced. His 9% walk rate was around average. His 46.7% ground ball rate was a few ticks better than par. His 3.95 SIERA was optimistic that he deserved to have an ERA about a run better than where it actually ended up. His fastball averaged 97 miles per hour on the year while he also mixed in a cutter, slider, curveball and changeup.
The Orioles are clearly of the mind that Baz still has his best days ahead of him. Back in December, they sent prospects Slater de Brun, Caden Bodine, Michael Forret and Austin Overn to the Rays, along with a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick, to get Baz and his three remaining years of club control. Three of those four prospects were taken in the first three rounds of recent drafts. The other, Forret, was a 14th-round pick but had become arguably the best prospect in the bunch. The draft pick will be the 33rd overall pick this summer.
There are some parallels to Baltimore’s journey with Trevor Rogers. He was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2021 after he posted a 2.64 ERA over 25 starts for the Marlins. Then Rogers was injured and/or struggling for many years, diminishing his stock. From the start of 2022 to the 2024 deadline, Rogers only tossed 230 1/3 innings with a 4.92 ERA. The O’s felt they could get him back on track and sent Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby to the Marlins to get Rogers when he still had two-plus years of control remaining.
It took a while for that bet on Rogers to pay off but it did. He struggled with the O’s late in 2024 and had a knee injury at the start of 2025. After that, he was brilliant. He eventually made 18 starts for Baltimore last year with a 1.81 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46% ground ball rate. He got the Opening Day nod yesterday against the Twins and earned a win by throwing seven shutout innings.
Like with Rogers, Baz was plucked away from his Florida club, with Baltimore sending a notable prospect package down the coast. Both pitchers had displayed talent but had gone through some injury challenges and posted some underwhelming numbers. The Rogers pick-up has worked out very well. The O’s clearly feel good about getting similar results out of Baz.
Baz is currently 26 but this will be his age-27 season, with his birthday coming up in June. He was set to hit free agency a few months after his 29th birthday. He could have been in line for a nice payday at that point if he pitched well over the next three years. But all pitchers are aware of the potential for injuries, with Baz having direct experience in that department. Rather than betting on his own health, he is cashing in on a robust deal right now.
He will therefore delay his path to free agency by two years but could still be in line for a really nice payday at that point. In recent years, position players in their early 30s have seemingly had far less earning power than their late-20s counterparts. When it comes to pitching, you can still get paid if you’re still putting up numbers. Dating back to the 2021-2022 offseason, there have been seven free agent deals with an average annual value of $25MM or more for position players 31 or older. That number is 13 for pitchers.
In terms of recent extensions for pitchers between three and four years of service time, Baz is coming in under Logan Webb‘s $90MM, which is the top of the class. That’s understandable since Webb had already been established as a frontline pitcher at that point. Cristopher Sánchez is next on the list but that was a different case since he was already locked up via a previous extension. Baz is just a bit above Cristian Javier‘s $64MM deal with the Astros and Sandy Alcantara‘s $56MM deal with the Marlins. Both of those pitchers had better career numbers than Baz does now, but the deals are also a few years old at this point, so Baz seemingly creeps beyond them with some inflation.
For the Orioles, they have been a bit more aggressive in terms of spending money lately. Mike Elias was hired to run the front office in 2018 when the club was rebuilding and owned by the Angelos family. Since then, they have become a contender and are now owned by David Rubenstein. For a long time, Elias never signed anyone to a deal worth $50MM or more. In the past eight months, the O’s signed free agent Pete Alonso $155MM, gave Samuel Basallo a $67MM extension and now this deal with Baz.
It’s now possible that Baz is the key cog in their long-term rotation. Rogers, Chris Bassitt and Zach Eflin are all slated for free agency after 2026. Kyle Bradish is under club control through 2028. Dean Kremer will be slated for free agency after 2027 as long as he gets at least 60 days of service time here in 2026. As those guys depart, they could perhaps be replaced by prospects like Trey Gibson or Luis De Leon, while external additions will presumably be brought in from time to time. As the picture fluctuates, Baz will be a fixture of the group, if Baltimore can push him down the same upside path as Rogers.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides were finalizing a five-year deal worth $68MM which would override his one-year deal for 2026. Photos courtesy of Morgan Tencza, Katie Stratman, Imagn Images
Jason Heyward Announces Retirement
After spending parts of 16 seasons in the majors, outfielder Jason Heyward is calling it a career. The five-time Gold Glove winner and 2016 World Series champion announced the end of his playing career this morning in an appearance on MLB Network (video link).
“After 16 major league seasons, I’m going to announce my retirement,” Heyward said. “I’m glad and happy to be stepping to the other side of the game. I look forward to being a potential mentor to any of the young players coming up — anybody that’s in the game right now. I feel like the game is in good hands. I look forward to being a fan and seeing what other ways I can give back. … Thank you to everybody that’s been there to support [me]. The fans, teammates, coaches, staff, ownership groups — thank you for allowing me to live out my dream.”
A Georgia native selected by Atlanta with the No. 14 overall draft pick back in 2007, Heyward debuted for his hometown Braves as a 20-year-old back in 2010. He entered that season ranked by Baseball America as the Game’s No. 1 overall prospect and wasted little time announcing his presence in the big leagues; with two men aboard in the first at-bat of his career, Heyward deposited a 2-0 fastball from Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano into the Braves’ bullpen and circled the bases with the first of his 186 major league home runs (video link).
Heyward hit .277/.393/.456 as a rookie and spent the next four seasons starring in his home state as a key force in the middle of the lineup. With Atlanta rebuilding in 2015 and Heyward only a year from free agency, the Braves flipped him to the Cardinals in a deal bringing young right-hander Shelby Miller to Atlanta.
That swap worked out nicely for both clubs. Heyward posted one of his best seasons with St. Louis in 2015, slashing .293/.359/.439 with elite defense. He rejected a qualifying offer following the season, and the Cardinals netted a compensatory draft pick. The Braves, meanwhile, got an All-Star season out of Miller before trading him to the D-backs for Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte.
Heyward went on to sign an eight-year, $184MM contract with the Cubs — a record deal for the team that still stands as the largest contract in franchise history. Though he’s credited for rallying the team during his now-infamous rain delay speech during Game 7 of the World Series, that eight-year commitment certainly didn’t pan out as the Cubs envisioned. He hit .230/.306/.325 in year one of the contract, and while his 2018-20 numbers were solid (.261/.347/.419), Heyward was released as the contract’s seventh year drew to a close. He won a pair of Gold Gloves in Chicago but batted only .245/.323/.377 in 2836 plate appearances as a Cub.
A 2023 pairing with the Dodgers brought about a resurgent season. Heyward, still playing out the eighth year of that Cubs contract (but in a different uniform) slashed .269/.340/.473 and popped 15 homers in 377 plate appearances with the Dodgers. He re-signed in L.A. but struggled, finishing the season with the Astros and eventually signing a one-year deal with the Padres ahead of the 2025 season. San Diego released him after 95 unproductive plate appearances.
Though Heyward never developed into the offensive force most expected, he finished his career with a lifetime .255/.306/.408 batting line — about four percent better than league-average production, by measure of wRC+. He swatted 186 home runs, swiped 126 bases and tallied 306 doubles, 41 triples, 879 runs scored and 730 runs batted in.
It’s often easy to understate just how excellent Heyward was with the glove. He won five Gold Gloves in his career and very arguably should have won more. He has the sixth-most Defensive Runs Saved (159) of any player at any position since the stat was introduced.
Thanks to his superlative defensive acumen, solid overall offense (looking at his career as a whole) and positive contributions on the basepaths, Heyward retires with 34.8 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, and 41.2 WAR by Baseball-Reference’s version of the stat. Not including his draft bonus, Heyward took home more than $211MM in salary. Focusing solely on his level of performance relative to the expectations associated with his free agent contract undersells the quality of Heyward’s play throughout his 16-year career. Few players ever achieve this level of accolade and production. Congratulations to Heyward on a very fine tenure in the big leagues, and best wishes in whatever the game has in store for him in the future.