The Rockies have claimed right-hander Keegan Thompson off waivers from the Reds, according to announcements from both clubs. Cincinnati had designated him for assignment last month. Colorado’s 40-man roster count climbs from 38 to 39.
More to come.
Transactions
Orioles Claim Marco Luciano
The Orioles have claimed outfielder Marco Luciano off waivers from the Pirates, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. The Bucs designated him for assignment last month. The O’s will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man spot.
DFA limbo is normally capped at one week but the rules are clearly different around the holidays, even if the specifics of the exceptions aren’t publicly known. Luciano was bumped off Pittsburgh’s roster on December 19th, almost three weeks ago.
The 24-year-old Luciano was once one of the top prospects in baseball. The Giants gave him a $2.6MM signing bonus in 2018 as an international amateur out of the Dominican Republic. He flashed huge power potential from the shortstop position and Baseball America ranked him the #12 prospect in the league in 2021. Since then, his glovework tailed off to the extent that he was moved to left field, putting more pressure on him to provide value with the bat. Unfortunately, significant strikeout issues have plagued him since reaching the upper levels of the minors.
He has taken 939 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level over the past two years. His 16% walk rate in that sample is massive but he’s also been punched out at a 29.1% clip, leading to a .229/.354/.400 line and 101 wRC+. He also has 126 big league plate appearances with a 35.7% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate, .217/.286/.304 line and 68 wRC+.
Luciano exhausted his final option season last year, pushing him to a fringe roster position. The Giants put him on waivers in early December. The Pirates scooped him up but he was nudged off their roster a few weeks later.
The Orioles are one of the most aggressive clubs when it comes to claiming players off waivers, often putting the same players back on the wire later on. The ideal outcome in that scenario is that the player stays in the organization without taking up a roster spot. He can then be retained as depth and be added back to the roster if he earns a spot.
The best-case scenario in that situation is Ryan O’Hearn. The O’s acquired him from the Royals in January of 2023 and then designated him for assignment a few days later. He cleared waivers but eventually hit his way back onto the roster and was a productive member of the club for over two years.
That is perhaps the plan with Luciano, as it’s hard to see a path for him earning a regular role on the current roster. The Orioles have an outfield mix consisting of Colton Cowser, Taylor Ward, Dylan Beavers, Tyler O’Neill, Jeremiah Jackson, Leody Taveras, Heston Kjerstad, Reed Trimble and Jhonkensy Noel. The designated hitter spot doesn’t provide much relief as the O’s are likely going to have Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo sharing the catching duties. There’s also the first base group consisting of Pete Alonso, Coby Mayo and Ryan Mountcastle, which should spill into the DH spot.
Luciano has fewer than three years of service time and hasn’t been outrighted in his career. That means he would not have the right to elect free agency if he eventually clears outright waivers. That may be his fate with the Orioles or some other club but he gets a roster spot for now after a long holiday in limbo.
Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
Guardians Re-Sign Dom Nuñez To Minor League Deal
The Guardians announced Wednesday that they’ve re-signed catcher Dom Nuñez to a minor league contract. The ALIGND Sports client will be in major league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.
Nuñez, 31 later this month, has spent the past two seasons with the Guardians, mostly with their Triple-A affiliate. He briefly appeared in majors in 2025, going 2-for-7 with a pair of singles in two games, but has taken 561 plate appearances and caught nearly 900 innings with their Columbus club dating back to 2024. He became a free agent after the season when Cleveland passed him through outright waivers.
Originally a sixth-round pick by the Rockies back in 2013, Nuñez has appeared in parts of four big league seasons but owns just a .182/.280/.371 slash (58 wRC+) in 354 trips to the plate. He hasn’t hit much in five Triple-A seasons either (.206/.333/.383, 27.6% strikeout rate) but has shown a knack for drawing walks and has some pop in his bat when he does make contact.
Nuñez, however, has a sound defensive reputation. He’s posted solid framing and blocking marks in the minors and majors alike, and he’s nabbed a strong 29% of would-be thieves on the bases in his minor league career. Cleveland clearly places immense value on catcher defense — hence the team’s repeated re-signings of Austin Hedges — and Nuñez will give them a quality defender to plug into the depth chart in the upper minors.
On the big league side of things, Hedges will reprise his role as backup to Bo Naylor (another plus defender with a light bat), but that pair increasingly looks like a placeholder for top prospect Cooper Ingle. The 23-year-old Ingle hit .260/.389/.419 with more walks than strikeouts in 510 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A last year. Ingle played only 28 games in Triple-A last season, so the Guards seem likely to send the 2023 fourth-rounder back to Columbus for a bit more seasoning, but a debut in 2026 seems likely as long as he stays healthy.
Astros, Christian Roa Agree To Minor League Deal
The Astros reached a minor league agreement with right-hander Christian Roa, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. It’s a homecoming for the Houston native and Texas A&M product.
Roa was a second-round pick of the Reds in 2020. Cincinnati added him to the 40-man roster three years later to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Roa struggled in Triple-A during the ’24 season. He sustained a season-ending shoulder injury in August without reaching the majors. The Reds tried to sneak him through waivers at year’s end, but the Marlins stepped in with a claim.
Miami succeeded in getting Roa through waivers a couple weeks later. The 26-year-old spent the bulk of the season at Triple-A Jacksonville. He had a nice year, working to a 2.60 earned run average while striking out 26.1% of batters faced. Miami called him up in the final few weeks. Roa got into his first two big league contests, tossing three scoreless innings. He struck out and walked three batters apiece. The Fish outrighted him again at the end of the season, leading him to elect minor league free agency.
Roa has a four-seam fastball and sinker that each sit around 96 MPH on average. He leans mostly on the heaters and a mid-80s slider, only sporadically mixing in a changeup. Roa had starting experience early in his minor league career but has been a full-time bullpen arm for the last two seasons. His command never developed to a passable level to start. Last year’s 11.4% walk percentage was still an issue but represented a step forward from his 14-17% marks of the previous three seasons.
Tigers, Dugan Darnell Agree To Minor League Deal
The Tigers agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Dugan Darnell, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press reports that Darnell will receive a non-roster invite to MLB camp. He’d make a little more than the $780K league minimum if he cracks the big league roster.
Although Darnell will be with the club in camp, he’s not going to see any game action. The 28-year-old underwent surgery to repair a labrum tear in his left hip at the end of September. That came with an eight-month recovery timetable that’ll sideline him into May. He’ll presumably head to Triple-A Toledo at that point and look to pitch his way onto the MLB roster.
Darnell is a native of Northville, Michigan, who played collegiately in the state at Division III Adrian College. He went undrafted and pitched in the independent ranks before getting a professional look with the Rockies. Darnell pitched to a 3.74 earned run average across 200 minor league appearances in the Colorado organization. That included 53 2/3 frames of 3.19 ERA ball in a very difficult environment at Triple-A Albuquerque last season. Darnell earned his first MLB call as a result, allowing five runs over 11 2/3 innings until suffering the injury.
The righty has a three-pitch mix led by a 93-94 MPH fastball. He uses a splitter as his top secondary offering against left-handed hitters while relying more evenly on the split and a slider against righties. Darnell didn’t show enough in his limited MLB look to hold an offseason 40-man spot with Colorado. He bounced to Pittsburgh and Detroit on waiver claims. The Tigers non-tendered him shortly after but succeeded in bringing him back in a non-roster capacity. They did the same with non-tendered receivers Jack Little, Tyler Mattison, Tanner Rainey and Sean Guenther.
Meanwhile, Petzold reported yesterday that Detroit reached minor league deals with each of Dylan File, Woo-suk Go and Wandisson Charles. None of that trio received an invite to Spring Training, however. That indicates they’re viewed purely as organizational depth arms. All three of those pitchers have had stints on a team’s 40-man roster in the past, but none has gotten to the MLB level.
File is coming off a 4.70 ERA between the top two minor league levels in the Seattle farm system. He’s a starter who owns a 4.33 ERA over seven seasons in the minors. Go was a closer in his native South Korea. He signed a two-year, $4.5MM contract with the Padres over the 2023-24 offseason. Go failed to break camp and was quickly traded to the Marlins as a salary offset in the Luis Arraez deal. He has kicked around the upper minors over the past two years, including 20 appearances in the Detroit system a year ago. Charles is a 29-year-old reliever with a 98 MPH fastball who has never been able to find the strike zone. He has pitched in the A’s and Baltimore systems and spent the 2025 campaign in Mexico.
Angels Sign Kirby Yates
January 6: Los Angeles officially announced the signing on Tuesday evening. Their 40-man roster count climbs to 38.
December 30: The Angels have reportedly agreed to a one-year, $5MM contract with free agent reliever Kirby Yates. The veteran right-hander is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
Yates gives the Angels yet another veteran reliever with some closing experience who’s in need of a rebound — in his case, ahead of what’ll be his age-39 season. The Halos will hope to finally get a full workload out of Robert Stephenson in the final season of his three-year, $33MM contract. They’ve also signed former Jays closer Jordan Romano and veteran reliever Drew Pomeranz to low-cost, one-year contracts this offseason as well.
If healthy — a major caveat, given the injury history in question here — Yates could be the best of the bunch. The two-time All-Star led the NL with 41 saves back in 2019 and has twice posted full seasons with an ERA shy of 1.20, including as recently as the 2024 season with Texas.
Since an age-30 breakout with the Padres, the late-blooming Yates has pitched 355 innings with a 2.84 earned run average, 97 saves, 65 holds and only 13 blown save opportunities. He’s fanned a whopping 35.1% of his opponents along the way (backed by a huge 15.7% swinging-strike rate) and walked 9.6% of the batters he’s faced. Coincidentally enough, the Angels were the team from which the Padres claimed Yates off waivers. They’d picked Yates up themselves via waivers the prior October. He pitched only one inning as an Angel and was tagged for two runs.
Yates now returns for a second stint with the Angels. The signing reunites him with veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux, who was Yates’ pitching coach with the ’24 Rangers. Yates saved 33 games and posted an immaculate 1.17 ERA with a 36% strikeout rate that season.
That performance was enough to land him a hearty $13MM guarantee on a one-year deal with the Dodgers. But while Yates landed the first World Series ring of his career, the marriage didn’t go particularly well. He was thrice placed on the injured list — twice for hamstring strains and once due to a lower back injury — and pitched only 41 1/3 innings. The veteran righty’s 5.23 earned run average was one of the worst marks of his career, and his 92.8 mph average four-seam velocity was his lowest since 2013. Yates still punched out an excellent 29.6% of his opponents, but he was doomed by home runs, yielding an average of 1.96 round-trippers per nine frames.
While Yates has typically been excellent when healthy, he’s had his share of injuries. He pitched only 4 1/3 innings in 2020 due to bone spurs in his elbow. He signed with the Blue Jays in free agency that offseason but never pitched an inning for Toronto. He required Tommy John surgery at the end of spring training. From 2020-22, Yates pitched only 11 1/3 innings in the majors.
The Angels will bet on Yates’ track record and hope for better help. Between Yates, Stephenson, Romano and Pomeranz, they certainly aren’t lacking talent at the back end of the bullpen — but there’s a clear lack of consistency and durability. They’ll hope to add flamethrower Ben Joyce to that mix at some point this season, though his timetable for a return from last May’s surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder remains murky.
It’s not entirely clear where the Yates signing takes the Angels’ payroll. RosterResource projected them for a payroll around $172MM this morning, but that was before the Angels and Anthony Rendon agreed to defer the payment of the final year and $38MM on his contract for a reported three to five seasons. Details surrounding that still-fresh arrangement have yet to surface in full, but it’s clear that the Angels are quite a bit south of the roughly $206MM payroll figure at which they ended the 2025 campaign.
Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News first reported that Yates was signing a one-year deal with the Angels. Jon Heyman of The New York Post had the $5MM guarantee.
Phillies To Sign Tucker Davidson To Minor League Deal
The Phillies and left-hander Tucker Davidson have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. Sammon doesn’t mention whether or not the ISE Baseball client will be in big league camp in spring training.
Davidson, 30 in March, pitched in the majors from 2020 to 2024. He logged 129 2/3 innings for the Braves, Angels, Royals and Orioles, allowing 5.76 earned runs per nine. He had better minor league numbers in that span, tossing 219 Triple-A frames with a 3.86 ERA, striking out 24.5% of batters faced against an 8% walk rate while also getting grounders on about half the balls in play he allowed.
With the lack of big league success, he exhausted his option seasons in that span. Instead of sticking around in North America for minor league opportunities, he took an offer to go overseas. Going into 2025, he signed with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization. That stint in the KBO seemed to go well, based on the numbers. He made 22 starts for the Giants with a 3.65 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate.
Despite those decent results, the Giants decided to make a switch in August. They signed Vince Velasquez and bumped Davidson off their roster. Davidson then landed a minor league deal with the Brewers. He made six starts for their Triple-A club with a 4.68 ERA, 22.9% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. His fastball averaged under 90 miles per hour but he also featured a splitter, sinker, slider and curveball.
The Phillies have a bit of rotation uncertainty going into the season. They will have Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Taijuan Walker in four spots. Zack Wheeler will certainly be in there if he’s healthy but he’s recovering from surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome and may not be ready by Opening Day.
If Wheeler is on the shelf or anyone else gets hurt, Andrew Painter could step up. However, he still has no major league experience and posted a 5.40 ERA in Triple-A last year. Other inexperienced depth options on the roster include Yoniel Curet, Jean Cabrera and Alan Rangel. Davidson gives the Phils some more depth without taking up a roster spot.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Giants Designate Justin Dean For Assignment
The Giants have designated outfielder Justin Dean for assignment, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. That’s the corresponding 40-man roster move for their signing of right-hander Tyler Mahle.
Dean, 29, has never played for the Giants. He was only just claimed off waivers from the Dodgers in early November, shortly after he won the World Series with Los Angeles. The Dodgers mostly used him as a pinch runner and defensive replacement. He played in 18 games last year, making his major league debut, but only made two plate appearances. He then appeared in 13 postseason games without a plate appearance.
In the minors, Dean has been good for double-digit steals in each season of his career going back to 2018, with the exception of the canceled 2020 season. However, he’s never reached double digits in the home run department. He has 2,038 minor league plate appearances from 2021 to 2025 with a solid 12.1% walk rate but a high strikeout rate of 28.6%.
There was some recent improvement in terms of the punchouts, as he only struck out in 23.6% of his minor league plate appearances in 2025, a noticeable improvement compared to prior years. That helped him slash .289/.378/.431 for a 110 wRC+ in Triple-A last year while stealing 27 bases in just 90 games.
It’s the profile of a decent bench outfielder, as a floor. The Giants were intrigued enough to grab him off the wire a couple of months ago but he’s now been squeezed off their roster. Perhaps they are hoping he can be passed through waivers this time around, which would allow them to keep him as non-roster depth. He doesn’t have three years of big league service time nor a previous career outright, so he wouldn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.
He does have a full slate of options, so perhaps he will appeal to other organizations looking for a depth piece of the speed-and-defense variety. He’ll be in DFA limbo for a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Giants could take five days to field trade interest.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Cardinals Acquire Justin Bruihl, Designate Zak Kent For Assignment
The Cardinals have acquired left-hander Justin Bruihl from the Guardians in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. Bruihl had been designated for assignment by Cleveland last month. Right-hander Zak Kent has been designated for assignment by the Cards today in a corresponding 40-man roster move.
It’s the second cash deal of the winter for Bruihl, who will turn 29 in June. The lefty began the offseason with the Blue Jays but was bumped off the roster when Toronto signed right-hander Tyler Rogers last month. The Guardians sent some cash north of the order to grab Bruihl but then designated him for assignment three days later when they signed Shawn Armstrong. DFA limbo normally lasts a maximum of one week but there are different rules around the holidays, so Bruihl was hanging out there for almost three weeks.
He now finally has some resolution and it could be a good spot for him to carve out some big league playing time. Bruihl posted good numbers in 2025 but exhausted his final option season, which pushed him to the fringes of Toronto’s roster. The Jays have been busy upgrading their pitching staff for another run at competing in 2026 and bumped Bruihl off. Cleveland had one of the best bullpens in the league last year and was also going to have a tough time keeping the southpaw around for long.
But the Cardinals are rebuilding and should therefore have a bit more breathability in their relief group. JoJo Romero is currently the top lefty in their projected bullpen but he is one year away from free agency, making him likely to be traded in the coming weeks. If Romero is dealt, that would leave Bruihl and Nick Raquet as the two lefty relievers on the St. Louis 40-man roster. Raquet was called up late in the 2025 season and has just two big league innings under his belt.
Bruihl has thrown 89 2/3 innings over multiple seasons between the Dodgers, Rockies and Blue Jays. Toronto only let him throw 13 2/3 big league innings in 2025 but he fared decently, despite posting a 5.27 earned run average. His 10.8% walk rate was a bit high in that small sample but his 27.7% strikeout rate and 46.2% ground ball rate were both a few ticks better than average. He also logged 42 Triple-A innings last year with a 3.43 ERA, 27.8% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 58.4% ground ball rate.
The Cards could perhaps sign some veterans before Opening Day but it’s a decent landing spot for Bruihl to get some more time in the majors. If he succeeds with the Cardinals in 2026, they could keep the relationship going. He currently has one year and 112 days of service time, meaning he’s five years away from free agency. He would also be affordable for the rebuilding club, as he is still in his pre-arbitration years.
Kent, 28 in February, has never pitched for the Cardinals. He was just claimed off waivers from the Guardians a month ago. He made his major league debut with the Guards last year, posting a 4.58 ERA in 17 2/3 innings. His 21.1% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate and 37.3% ground ball rate were all a bit worse than league average.
He does have some interesting minor league numbers. He tossed 38 Triple-A innings last year with a 2.84 ERA. He got grounders on 54% of balls in play at that level and struck out 31.4% of batters faced, though he also gave out walks at a high clip of 13.2%.
Like Bruihl, Kent is out of options, though Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last month that he is eligible for a fourth option year. Perhaps that will help him latch on somewhere else. The Cards will now have seven days of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next for Kent. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so they will have a maximum of five days to field trade interest.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
Jon Duplantier Signs With NPB’s Yokohama BayStars
January 6th: Duplantier’s deal is for $3MM, per Yakyu Cosmopolitan.
January 5th: The Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced the signing of right-hander Jon Duplantier. The 31-year-old will remain in Japan for a second season after spending the ’25 campaign with the Hanshin Tigers.
A former highly-regarded prospect with the Diamondbacks, Duplantier was set back by injuries. He wound up making just 19 appearances between 2019-21. A lat strain led Arizona to drop him from the 40-man roster midway through the 2021 season. The Rice product subsequently bounced around on minor league contracts with Arizona, San Francisco, Philadelphia, the Mets, Dodgers and Milwaukee without getting to the majors. The Brewers granted him his release to pursue an NPB opportunity last year.
Duplantier’s first season in Japan could hardly have gone better from a performance perspective. He struck out 32.4% of opponents against a 5.7% walk rate while working to a 1.39 earned run average. Health was again the caveat, as he was limited to 15 starts and 90 2/3 innings by a lower body injury. His numbers were impressive enough that there was some thought he could return stateside. He evidently found a superior offer to join a new NPB club instead. If he can put together a full season at anywhere near his ’25 level of production, he should be in position to command a big league contract next offseason.
