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Mariners Sign Brian O’Keefe To Minor League Deal

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Catcher Brian O’Keefe is heading to MLB Spring Training with the Mariners, the team announced Friday. O’Keefe joined the organization on a minor league pact that same day, per his MLB.com transaction tracker.

The agreement is a homecoming of sorts for O’Keefe. The veteran catcher made his MLB debut with Seattle back in 2022. He appeared in 10 games with the Mariners from 2022 to 2023. O’Keefe went to Spring Training with the Twins the following year, but was cut in March. He landed in Kansas City as a minor league free agent. He launched 18 home runs with a 130 wRC+ in 72 games with Omaha in 2024. The strong performance earned O’Keefe a Spring Training invitation with the Royals, but he ended up back with the Storm Chasers. He hit .158 in 43 games with the team this past year and was released in June.

St. Louis took O’Keefe in the seventh round of the 2014 draft. He was a well-above league-average hitter in the Cardinals system, but never made it beyond Double-A. O’Keefe ended up in Seattle’s organization in December 2019. A Curt Casali trip to the paternity list led to O’Keefe’s first callup. He spent a bit more time with the big-league club following a Tom Murphy injury.

Seattle has a rock-solid option in Cal Raleigh handling most of the reps behind the plate, though the club’s depth options have shifted this offseason. The Mariners dealt Harry Ford to the Nationals in a trade that netted reliever Jose A. Ferrer. A reunion with free agent Mitch Garver was mentioned in December, but nothing came of it. Seattle instead signed Andrew Knizner, traded for Jhonny Pereda, and handed Spring Training invitations to former big leaguers O’Keefe and Jakson Reetz.

Photo courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images

Giants, Luis Arraez Agree To One-Year Deal

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The Giants and infielder Luis Arraez are in agreement on a one-year contract, according to Jorge Castillo of ESPN. Arraez will earn $12MM and is expected to play second base, according to Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. The deal is pending a physical. Arraez is a client of MVP Sports Group.

Arraez entered the offseason seeking a multi-year deal and was reportedly prioritizing teams that would play him at second base. He now gets his wish, as the Giants will slot him in at the keystone to round out their infield mix. Arraez passed up multi-year offers from other teams in order to play second base, according to multiple reports, including from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. We at MLBTR projected Arraez for a two-year, $24MM contract at the start of the offseason. This deal matches that in terms of annual value and allows Arraez to return to free agency following the 2026 season.

The addition of Arraez brings the Giants’ 2026 payroll to $206MM, according to RosterResource, nearly $30MM above last year’s payroll. Their CBT payroll for 2026 now stands at $232.7MM, which leaves about $11.3MM for future additions before the Giants reach the first luxury tax threshold. Arraez represents the second eight-figure signing this week for the club, after they inked Harrison Bader to a two-year, $20.5MM deal on Monday.

Arraez will add a contact-oriented bat to a power-heavy infield. Matt Chapman and Willy Adames combined for 51 home runs last season. Rafael Devers added 20 homers in his 90 games with the team. Top prospect Bryce Eldridge is waiting in the wings to add another big bat to the mix. Each of those hitters comes with varying degrees of strikeout concerns, and Arraez should help balance out some of the swing-and-miss in the middle of the lineup.

The 28-year-old Arraez is coming off a relatively poor season by his lofty batting average standards. He hit .292 in his lone full season in San Diego. That mark still ranked in the top five in the National League, but it was the lowest of his seven-year career. A .289 BABIP could be to blame for the dropoff, though Arraez’s batted ball profile also took a step back.

Arraez has never hit the ball hard, instead relying on a ridiculously low strikeout rate and an all-fields approach to rack up hits. He reached new depths with the hard-hit rate in 2025, ranking dead last among qualified hitters at 16.7%. His previous career low was a 22.7% hard-hit rate as a rookie with Minnesota. He still squared the ball up at one of the highest rates in the league (42.6%), but that doesn’t mean much when you have an extremely low bat speed. Arraez’s average bat speed was about 9 mph below league average last season.

The defensive fit is an unsettling one. Arraez earned poor grades in the field in 2023 and 2024, combining for -26 Outs Above Average across the two seasons. He served as Miami’s primary second baseman in 2023, but moved to first base after getting dealt to the Padres in May 2024. The vast majority of Arraez’s defensive reps came at first base this past season. He posted -9 OAA, though Defensive Runs Saved had him at +3. Arraez will now slot in alongside Devers, who has also earned ugly fielding grades over the past few seasons. Scouts are not excited about Eldridge’s defensive ability, either.

As multiple Cardinals reporters pointed out, including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, the addition of Arraez might remove the Giants from the Brendan Donovan trade discussion. The same goes for Nico Hoerner of the Cubs. San Francisco was known to be working hard on finding a second base upgrade and had engaged in trade talks for both players.

The club’s second basemen finished 26th in OPS in 2025. Tyler Fitzgerald, Casey Schmitt, and Christian Koss handled the majority of the at-bats at the position. Schmitt is the only one trending toward a role with the big-league club next season, assuming he’s recovered from offseason wrist surgery. Given his defensive versatility and underwhelming production at the plate, he’s best-suited for a utility role. Schmitt could conceivably earn second base starts over Arraez against lefties, though his .674 career OPS vs. southpaws is nearly identical to Arraez’s .673 mark.

Photos courtesy of David Frerker and William Liang, Imagn Images

Mariners Sign Michael Rucker To Minors Contract

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The Mariners signed right-hander Michael Rucker to a minor league deal earlier this month, according to Rucker’s MLB.com profile page.  Rucker’s contract included an invitation to the Mariners’ big league spring camp, as per the list of non-roster invites Seattle released yesterday.

Rucker began his college career at Gonzaga, so this deal with the M’s could represent a return to the Pacific Northwest if the righty is able to break camp with the team.  After transferring to BYU later in his NCAA days, Rucker was an 11th-round selection by the Cubs in the 2016 draft, and he broke into the bigs with Chicago in 2021.  Over 123 1/3 MLB innings from 2021-23, Rucker posted a 4.96 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, 46.6% grounder rate, and 9.4% walk rate out of the Cubs’ bullpen.

These uninspiring numbers weren’t enough to keep Rucker on the roster, as Chicago designated him for assignment in February 2024 and soon traded him to the Phillies in a cash deal.  He was limited to 30 2/3 minor league innings for the Phillies and Nationals in 2024 due to an arterial vasospasm in his pitching hand.  The Nats outrighted Rucker off their 40-man roster following the 2024 campaign, and he then didn’t pitch at all in 2025.

As he enters his age-32 season, Rucker is looking to revive his career and show what he can do in the Mariners’ Spring Training camp.  Rucker is probably more of a candidate to pitch at Triple-A Tacoma than he is to win a spot on Seattle’s Opening Day roster, but he can provide the M’s with some experienced bullpen depth.  The righty has a 4.01 ERA, 25.64K%, and 7.54% walk rate over 107 2/3 career innings at the Triple-A level.

White Sox To Sign Austin Hays

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9:46AM: Hays will earn $5MM in salary in 2026, and there is a $1MM buyout on a mutual option for 2027, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes.  Another $375K is available for Hays in incentive bonuses based around plate appearances.

8:42AM: The White Sox have agreed to a deal with outfielder Austin Hays, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports.  The one-year deal will pay Hays $6MM, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, and the contract will be official following a physical.  Chicago’s 40-man roster is full, so the team will also have to make a corresponding transaction before the signing is finalized.  Hays is represented by the MAS+ Agency.

Earlier today, Heyman reported that Hays was “said to be deciding this weekend” about his next landing spot.  Heyman listed the White Sox, Cubs, Padres, Tigers, and Rangers as teams who had showed some level of interest in Hays at some point during the offseason.  These five clubs were new to Hays’ market, as previous reports this winter linked the Royals, Reds, Mets, Yankees, and Cardinals to the 30-year-old outfielder.  The Athletic’s Zack Meisel also wrote that the Guardians “put out feelers on” Hays’ services.

Playing time was an apparent priority for Hays, as Meisel wrote that the outfielder was looking for “a situation in which he could play every day.”  That didn’t come in Cleveland since the Guardians didn’t want to block any of its up-and-coming younger outfielders, but Hays will now land with another AL Central team that has plenty of at-bats on offer.  Hays figures to step right into at least semi-regular duty in right field, and he might also get time in his regular left field position depending on how the White Sox approach Andrew Benintendi’s playing time.  Brooks Baldwin, Derek Hill, Tristan Peters, Everson Pereira, and Jarred Kelenic are among the names in Chicago’s outfield mix, plus Luisangel Acuna is likely to get a lot of time in center field.

Hays has held his own defensively over 483 career MLB innings as a center fielder, though he hasn’t played the position since 2023.  With both glovework and health in mind, Hays is probably better suited for a corner outfield slot, and some DH at-bats are probably also a consideration for a player who has taken six separate trips to the injured list over the last two seasons.  Four of those six IL stints were due to left calf and hamstring strains, and Hays also missed a few weeks last season due to a left foot contusion.

It was almost exactly one year ago that the Reds signed Hays to a one-year, $5MM guarantee, which broke down as $4MM in salary and a $1MM buyout of a $12MM mutual option for the 2026 season.  As with virtually all mutual options, Hays was cut loose following the 2025 campaign, though he had a respectable .266/.315/.453 slash line and 15 homers over 416 plate appearances for Cincinnati.

On a team that struggled to generate consistent offense, Hays’ 105 wRC+ was the third-highest of any Reds player who had at least 111 trips to the plate.  Though Hays was again hampered by injuries, it was least a step upwards from the uncertainty of the kidney infection that plagued him for much of the 2024 campaign, and cratered his numbers altogether after a deadline trade to the Phillies.

Since Opening Day 2021, Hays has a 106 wRC+ over 2348 PA, and he played in basically an everyday role with the Orioles from 2021-23.  Despite the decent production, Hays has never walked much or made a lot of hard contact, and his strikeout rates have shot upwards over the last three seasons.  Hays’ viability for an everyday role will probably hinge on how much he can hit right-handed pitching, as his splits have made him look like most of a lefty-masher in recent years.

The Reds hung onto Hays last summer both because they needed him for their own playoff push and probably in part because his injuries hurt his trade market, but it certainly seems possible the Sox could shop Hays at the upcoming deadline.  The focus remains on the future for the rebuilding White Sox, and plenty of teams would figure to have trade interest in a veteran bat who has a 160 wRC+ against left-handed pitching over the last two seasons.

The Hays signing is the latest intriguing move for a White Sox team that is planning to be more competitive in 2026, even if a full-fledged run at a playoff berth remains at least a year away.  Trading Luis Robert Jr. to the Mets freed up $20MM in payroll space, and the Sox reinvested that money into a two-year, $20MM deal for Seranthony Dominguez to become Chicago’s next closer.

Since Dominguez is only getting $8MM of that money in 2026, the White Sox have now been able to sign Hays and ostensibly still have $6MM more to spend from the $20MM hole Robert left in the team’s budget.  A pitching addition may be more likely than another position-player add given Chicago’s needs in the rotation and bullpen.

Inset photograph courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas — Imagn Images

Diamondbacks Sign Junior Fernandez To Minors Contract

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The Diamondbacks released their list of Spring Training invites, and right-hander Junior Fernandez is one of the names attending Arizona’s big league camp.  Fernandez inked his minor league deal with the D’Backs back in November, as per the righty’s MLB.com profile page.

It has been over three years since Fernandez last pitched in a Major League game.  He had a brief stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2024 but his time in Japan was mostly spent recovering from injury.  Beyond that cup of coffee in NPB, Fernandez pitched at the Triple-A level with the Blue Jays and Nationals in 2023, and with the Royals’ and Mets’ top affiliates last season.  Over 43 combined Triple-A innings in 2025, Fernandez posted a 4.40 ERA and a very impressive 29.5% strikeout rate, but also an inflated 14% walk rate.

This has essentially been the story of Fernandez’s career, as his control problems have kept him from maximizing his upper-90s velocity.  At the MLB level, Fernandez has continued to issue walks but hasn’t been able to miss many bats — he has a 5.17 ERA, 18.7% strikeout rate, and 13.9% walk rate over 54 big league innings with the Cardinals and Pirates from 2019-2022.

Fernandez turns 29 in March, and it remains to be seen if he still has any late-bloomer potential.  Since his type of velocity isn’t easy to find, it’s easy to see why the D’Backs and other teams keep giving Fernandez chances, and there’s no risk for Arizona in bringing him to camp and seeing if a fix can finally be found for the right-hander’s command issues.  A non-roster deal for Fernandez obviously won’t address Arizona’s stated need for bullpen help, but finding a hidden gem would be a huge boost to the team’s relief corps.

Athletics Extend Jacob Wilson

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The A’s have extended another member of their young core, announcing a seven-year contract, plus a club option for an eighth year, for shortstop Jacob Wilson. The PSI Sports Management client will reportedly be guaranteed $70MM.

Wilson, 23, was the sixth overall pick in the draft in 2023. He made his big league debut with a late cup of coffee the following season but broke out as an All-Star in 2025. The second-generation star — his father is longtime Pirates infielder Jack Wilson — finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting behind his own teammate, Nick Kurtz. Wilson slashed .311/.355/.444 with 13 home runs, 26 doubles, five steals and a tiny 7.2% strikeout rate.

Wilson’s pure hit tool is nearly unrivaled. Among the 560 big leaguers who took even 40 plate appearances this past season, his 7.5% strikeout rate was the second-lowest, behind multi-time batting champion Luis Arraez. Like Arraez, the quality of contact when Wilson puts the ball in play is generally not great. He averaged just 84.6 mph off the bat with a paltry 2.2% barrel rate and 24.1% hard-hit rate. That penchant for weak contact hasn’t stopped him from racking up singles. His hitter-friendly home park in West Sacramento probably overstates his modest power, but Wilson did connect on six round-trippers away from Sutter Health Park and could be reasonably projected to hit around 10 homers per season.

Though he doesn’t post off-the-charts chase rates, Wilson does swing more often than the average hitter (both off the plate and within the zone). He’s an aggressive hitter whose preternatural bat-to-ball skills and frequent swings lead to plenty of early contact. That limited Wilson to just a 5.2% walk rate in his first full season, which is pretty well in line with the 5.9% walk rate he’s posted in his limited minor league time thus far. Even if he never posts a high walk rate, though, Wilson figures to continue posting strong on-base percentages simply due to his knack for collecting hits.

Defensive metrics don’t paint him in an especially favorable light at shortstop. He was dinged for minus-10 Defensive Runs Saved and minus-2 Outs Above Average in his first full season of shortstop work at the major league level. Statcast credits him with well above-average arm strength but below-average range.

An eventual move to second or third base might yield better defensive results, but that likely won’t happen until lauded prospect Leo De Vries pushes for a look at shortstop. He’s still only 19 years old with just 21 Double-A games under his belt, so at least for the time being, Wilson will be expected to reprise his role as the Athletics’ shortstop. Questions about his range have persisted since his prospect days, but scouting reports praise his solid hands and he showed a clear knack for flashy, acrobatic plays during his debut campaign.

The A’s already controlled Wilson for another five seasons. Today’s agreement locks in two free-agent years and gives the team an option over what would have been a third. Wilson wouldn’t have been arbitration-eligible until the 2027-28 offseason.

The seven-year, $70MM term aligns closely with but also surpasses recent extensions for Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar (seven years, $63.5MM) and Wilson’s own teammate, Lawrence Butler (seven years, $66.5MM) when both were in the same service bucket in which Wilson currently resides (between one and two years). His $70MM guarantee falls a bit shy of Michael Harris II’s $72MM deal over in Atlanta, but that was an eight-year pact compared to Wilson’s seven.

As can be seen in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker (available to Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers), Wilson’s extension stands as the eighth-largest guarantee ever made to a player with under two years of big league service. It’s the second-largest deal in Athletics franchise history, trailing only the recent seven-year $86MM extension for teammate Tyler Soderstrom, who scored a larger deal due to the fact that he has an extra year of service time over Wilson.

Wilson’s extension is the latest step in the Athletics’ ongoing effort to lock up their exciting core of position players. Wilson, Soderstrom, Butler and slugger Brent Rooker (five years, $60MM) have all put pen to paper on long-term deals over the past 15 months. The A’s picked up control of multiple free agent years for each of those players.

The A’s have yet to come to terms on a deal with the aforementioned Kurtz, whose price tag will surely be higher. Kurtz played in just 117 games and took 489 plate appearances but still bashed 36 home runs while logging a sensational .290/.383/.619 slash line (170 wRC+). Even if the A’s can’t come to terms on a long-term deal with the 2024 No. 4 overall pick, he’s under control for another five seasons. Plus, this slate of affordable long-term deals for his young teammates will make it easier to stomach what will surely be enormous arbitration paydays if Kurtz continues on his current trajectory.

With several young players now under contract for the long haul, the Athletics shouldn’t have to worry about any potential grievances regarding their use of revenue-sharing funds. The A’s reportedly needed to push their CBT payroll up to $105MM or more last winter or else face potential ramifications, but they’re now at $139MM in that regard, per RosterResource.

Impressive as the Athletics’ collection of young bats is, the team’s pitching still leaves plenty to be desired. They’ll hope to change that this coming season when top prospects like Gage Jump and Jamie Arnold make their climbs through the system. Both rank within the game’s top 50 or so prospects. Jump, a 2024 second-rounder, already reached Double-A this past season. Arnold has yet to throw a professional pitch, but the Florida State standout was one of the top arms in last year’s draft class, coming off the board with the No. 11 pick.

The Athletics still have another two seasons to play in West Sacramento before their targeted 2028 move to their new home on the Las Vegas strip. So long as the group of Wilson, Soderstrom and Butler remain healthy, the A’s should have an exciting young core to market as they look to attract new fans in their new home.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the agreement and the terms of the contract.

Phillies, Dylan Moore Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Phillies reached agreement with utilityman Dylan Moore on a minor league contract, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. The Klutch Sports client receives a non-roster invitation to MLB camp.

Moore is a veteran of seven big league seasons. He’d spent his entire MLB career with the Mariners until they released him last August. Moore signed a minor league deal with the Rangers and was quickly called up after Corey Seager needed an appendectomy. Moore spent the final month of the season on the MLB roster and appeared in 18 games as a Ranger.

That was a homecoming for the Central Florida product, who began his professional career as a seventh-round pick by the Rangers in 2015. Texas traded him to the Braves before he made it out of A-ball. Moore bounced around the minors before establishing himself in Seattle upon signing there as a minor league free agent.

A right-handed hitter, Moore has done the majority of his damage against left-handed pitching in his career. A .216 batting average against southpaws isn’t going to turn many heads, but he has walked at a 12% rate and has 28 homers in 819 career plate appearances with the platoon advantage. Moore didn’t produce against pitchers of either handedness last season, yet he was a decent role player for the majority of his time in the Pacific Northwest.

His offensive approach skews heavily toward the three true outcomes, particularly strikeouts and walks. Moore has a trio of double digit home run seasons and has stolen at least 11 bases in all but one year of his career. He’s not a burner but has generally done well to take extra bases when opportunities present themselves.

Moore will vie for a multi-positional role off Rob Thomson’s bench. He has experience everywhere on the diamond except catcher. He shouldn’t play much shortstop or center field but rates as a solid or better defender anywhere else. Edmundo Sosa will be the top utility infielder, while Otto Kemp has a similar defensive skillset to Moore and also hits right-handed. Depth outfielders Johan Rojas and Pedro León, plus non-roster invitee Bryan De La Cruz, also bat from that side. The Phils will have a lot of competition for potential platoon partners for Brandon Marsh and prospect Justin Crawford, who’ll go into camp with a good chance to win the center field job.

Dodgers, Ryder Ryan Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers and right-hander Ryder Ryan have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. He’ll make $800K if he cracks the big league roster.

The older brother of fellow Dodgers righty River Ryan, Ryder is a 30-year-old reliever who’s pitched in parts of two major league seasons. He saw time with the ’23 Mariners and the ’24 Pirates, combining for 21 2/3 innings during that brief pair of looks. He yielded 13 runs (5.40 ERA) on 21 hits and 10 walks with 19 strikeouts.

The elder Ryan brother spent the 2025 season with Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate, working to a 4.73 ERA with a 19.7% strikeout rate and 12.3% walk rate in 72 1/3 innings. That marked his fifth season pitching at the Triple-A level, where he sports a career 4.42 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate in 272 2/3 innings.

Ryan sat 93 mph flat on both his four-seamer and sinker this past season in Indianapolis. He threw those pitches a combined 44% of the time, but it was his 85 mph slider that proved to be his go-to offering, clocking in at a hefty 48.8% usage rate. Ryan also mixed in a very occasional changeup (6.8%), which sat at 88.8 mph this past season.

The Dodgers’ bullpen is stuffed with veterans, leaving little in the way of early opportunity for the older Ryan brother. Edwin Diaz, Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen and Anthony Banda are all locked into spots and can’t be optioned.

The Dodgers presumably want to give Roki Sasaki another crack at starting, but the manner in which he excelled as a reliever during last year’s postseason could tempt them to keep him there for the time being, depending on the health of their other starters. Will Klein, Edgardo Henriquez, Ben Casparius, Jack Dreyer, Paul Gervase, Ronan Kopp and Bobby Miller are all on the 40-man roster and could be bullpen options, as could starters like Kyle Hurt, Gavin Stone, Landon Knack and River Ryan, who don’t appear to have clear paths to rotation work in the majors. Given the crowded nature of the Dodgers’ roster, there’s a good chance that the Ryan brothers will open the season on the same pitching staff in Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Royals, Vinnie Pasquantino Avoid Arbitration

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The Royals and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino will avoid an arbitration hearing. Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports that he and the club have agreed to a two-year deal worth more than $11MM, with a chance for him to max out close to $16MM via incentives. Exact figures have not yet been publicly reported.

Pasquantino just qualified for arbitration for the first time going into 2026. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a salary of $5.4MM. He was one of 18 players who did not have a deal in place through the arbitration filing deadline earlier this month. He and his camp filed at $4.5MM while the Royals filed at $4MM.

Most teams these days adopt a “file and trial” approach, which means they cut off negotiations of one-year deals after the filing deadline. This is to give them leverage in pre-deadline talks and also to prevent players from filing absurdly high numbers in an attempt to set out an aggressive bargaining stance. An arbiter can only pick the player’s or the team’s number, not a midpoint. Even if a team does have a “file and trial” policy, exceptions are made for deals that are longer than one year.

Arbitration hearings are generally viewed as a normal part of the business but occasional situations have occurred where the relationship between a player and a team have been damaged. Corbin Burnes said as much after his hearing with the Brewers three years ago. Pasquantino and the Royals have avoided that situation by agreeing to this multi-year pact, covering the first two of his three arbitration years. He will also be eligible for arbitration in 2028, before he’s slated to reach free agency.

There will now be no more than 14 hearings across the league this year. As mentioned, 18 players didn’t have a deal as of the deadline. Since then, Cade Cavalli, Bryce Miller, Joe Ryan and now Pasquantino have reached new deals to avoid hearings. The Royals still have one potential hearing on the docket, as they don’t yet have an agreement in place with left-hander Kris Bubic, who was projected for a $6MM salary. He filed at $6.15MM and the team at $5.15MM.

More to come.

Logan Evans Undergoes UCL Surgery

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The Mariners announced that right-hander Logan Evans has undergone surgery to reconstruct the ulnar collateral ligament in this throwing elbow with an internal brace. They announced his return timeline as 12 months, so he’ll miss the entire 2026 season.

It’s obviously rough news for both the club and Evans himself. The righty made his major league debut last year, tossing 81 1/3 innings for the Mariners, allowing 4.32 earned runs per nine. He struck out 16.9% of opponents faced, gave out walks at an 8.9% clip and induced grounders on 40% of balls in play. Instead of building on that in 2026, he’ll have to sit out the entire season while recovering. He’ll look to get back on track during the 2027 season. He’ll turn 26 in June of that year.

For the Mariners, they have now lost arguably their best optionable depth starter. Seattle has a strong core five in the rotation, including Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller, but things drop off after that. That’s especially true now that Evans is out for the year.

The Mariners acquired Cooper Criswell from the Mets a week ago. He is out of options and projects to be a long reliever to start the season if he’s still on the roster by Opening Day and everyone else is healthy. Without Evans, the optionable starters on the 40-man roster are Emerson Hancock and Blas Castano. Hancock was the sixth overall pick in 2020 but he hasn’t lived up that pedigree with a 4.81 ERA and 15.6% strikeout rate in his career so far. Castano is 27 years old, has just one major league appearance under his belt and had a 5.19 ERA in Triple-A last year.

In terms of non-roster depth, lefty Jhonathan Díaz was outrighted this week but his transactions tracker at MLB.com indicates he elected free agency yesterday. That leaves Randy Dobnak, Dane Dunning and Casey Lawrence as non-roster options with some big league experience. Switch-pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje is on the way but isn’t a near-term option since he hasn’t yet reached Triple-A and only has seven starts at the Double-A level. Perhaps the Evans surgery will lead the Mariners to add some more depth in the coming weeks.

Evans finished the 2025 campaign on optional assignment, so the Mariners could keep him there throughout 2026. Calling him up and placing him on the major league 60-day injured list would allow them to open up an extra 40-man roster spot but that would involve giving Evans a full year of big league pay and service time.

Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images

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