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Tigers Designate Alex Lange For Assignment

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The Tigers announced that they have claimed right-hander Dugan Darnell off waivers from the Pirates. The Bucs designated him for assignment last week. To open a roster spot for Darnell, the Tigers designated righty Alex Lange for assignment.

Lange, 30, is not too far removed from being Detroit’s closer. He notched 26 saves for the club in 2023. He pitched 66 innings that year, allowing 3.68 earned runs per nine. He struck out 27.4% of batters faced and got grounders on 50.6% of balls in play, though his massive 15.6% walk rate was worrisome.

The bottom fell out from there. His 2024 started out poorly. Through 18 2/3 innings, he had a 4.34 ERA. That wasn’t an atrocious jump but there were worse signs under the hood. His grounder rate fell to 45.8% and his strikeout rate to 23.3%. His walk rate, which was already awful, climbed to 18.9%. The Tigers optioned him to the minors in May of that year. A few weeks later, he suffered an injury and required lat surgery. He missed the final few months of the season and began 2025 on the 60-day injured list. He wasn’t reinstated from the IL until August.

A few days after coming off the IL, he was optioned to the minors and spent the rest of the year there. That burned his third option, meaning he will be out of options going forward. He’s also eligible for arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $900K salary next year. He was likely going to be non-tendered next week but the Tigers have instead bumped him off the roster today to make this claim.

Lange will be in DFA limbo for a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Tigers could take five days to explore trade interest. They probably won’t find much, given that Lange has been injured for most of the past two years. His work in Triple-A this year resembled his past self, not in a great way. He logged 23 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2025 with a 4.63 ERA, 29.6% strikeout rate and 54.7% ground ball rate but a 14.3% walk rate.

If he were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency. He doesn’t cost much and still has three years of club control, so perhaps some rebuilding club could take a shot on him and hope for a bounceback.

Darnell, 28, still has a limited track record. He made nine appearances with the Rockies in 2025, logging 11 2/3 innings. In September, he underwent surgery to address a torn left hip labrum. The timeline given at that time was eight months. The Pirates claimed him off waivers in October but have now lost him to the Tigers.

Since the major league track record is so shallow, the Bucs and Tigers were presumably more interested in his work on the farm. He has 255 1/3 minor league innings under his belt with a 3.74 ERA. That includes 53 2/3 Triple-A innings this year, in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, with a 3.19 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 43.5% ground ball rate. He can give the Tigers some extra bullpen depth whenever he has recovered from his hip surgery.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

Mariners, Randy Dobnak Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners and right-hander Randy Dobnak have agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The righty is represented by Gaeta Sports Management.

Dobnak, 31 in January, just got to the end of an early-career extension that didn’t really pan out. Once an undrafted free agent who was playing indy ball and driving an Uber, he landed with the Twins and climbed all the way up to the majors. Over the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he tossed 75 innings for Minnesota, allowing 3.12 earned runs per nine. His 15.7% strikeout rate was pretty low but he posted a 5.7% walk rate and also got grounders at a high rate of 58.8%.

At the start of the 2021 season, the Twins and Dobnak agreed to a five-year, $9.25MM extension. From the team perspective, that was a tiny amount of money, even for a lower-spending club like the Twins. But for Dobnak, considering his humble origins, that was massive.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out for the club. Dobnak’s ERA shot up to 7.64 in 2021. He has largely been kept in the minors since then. He didn’t pitch in the big leagues at all in 2022 or 2023, followed by just five appearances last year and one in 2025. The Twins shipped him to the Tigers at the deadline as part of the Chris Paddack trade, seemingly just to get the remainder of the money owed to Dobnak off their books. The Tigers kept him in the minors and then declined a club option for 2026, giving Dobnak a $1MM buyout instead.

For the Mariners, there’s no harm in bringing him aboard via a minor league deal, giving them some non-roster pitching depth. Dobnak’s recent minor league work hasn’t been great but he has continued to get grounders on roughly half the balls in play he’s allowed. If he’s added to the 40-man roster at any point, he’s still optionable. That’s because the Twins usually outrighted him completely off the 40-man roster, as opposed to just optioning him to the minors.

Photo courtesy of Tim Vizer, Imagn Images

Royals Acquire Mason Black

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The Royals announced that they have acquired right-hander Mason Black from the Giants. Minor league righty Logan Martin heads in the other direction. The Giants designated Black for assignment last week. The Royals’ 40-man roster count climbs from 36 to 37.

Black, 26 next month, joins a new organization for the first time in his career. The Giants took him with a third-round pick in 2021. As he climbed the minor league ladder, he was generally regarded as one of the club’s top ten prospects.

He hasn’t yet delivered much at the big league level. Between 2024 and 2025, he tossed 40 1/3 innings for the Giants, allowing 6.47 earned runs per nine. His 8% walk rate in that time was around average but his 19.1% strikeout rate subpar.

His work in the minors has been better but he’s coming off a poor season. From 2022 to 2024, he logged 320 minor league frames with a 3.77 ERA, 28.2% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate. In 2025, he pitched 119 1/3 Triple-A innings but with a 5.81 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He struck out 21.5% of opponents and walked them at an 11.7% pace. That got him bumped off San Francisco’s roster but Kansas City will take a shot on him.

Black still has one option season remaining, so the Royals don’t need keep him on the big league roster. He could be kept in Triple-A Omaha as rotation depth. It’s also possible they experiment with him in a relief role. Black has mostly been a starter in his career but his final five appearances in 2025 were out of the bullpen for Triple-A Sacramento. In those, he faced 25 batters, striking out six while giving out two walks.

To get Black aboard, the Royals are parting with Martin. He was their 12th-round pick in 2023. Last year, he tossed 102 innings at the Single-A level with a 3.62 ERA, 22.9% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. This year, he moved up to High-A and logged 91 1/3 innings with a 3.45 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate. He has been pitching in the Arizona Fall League of late, though with 12 earned runs allowed in 11 innings. Back in May, Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan of FanGraphs gave Martin an honorable mention on their list of the top prospects in the Royals system.

Martin is a bit of a lottery ticket since he hasn’t yet reached Double-A but the Giants are surely happy to get any kind of chance at a return for a player they designated for assignment. Martin will be Rule 5 eligible a year from now, so the Giants can use that time to decide if he’s worth a roster spot. The Royals, meanwhile, weren’t going to get anything from Martin in the near term whereas Black has a chance to contribute to the big league club in 2026. The Royals presumably also hope that Black has the greater upside as a former third-round pick and notable prospect.

Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images

Pirates Outright Michael Darrell-Hicks

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The Pirates have sent right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. The Pirates will get to keep him as non-roster depth.

Darrell-Hicks, 28 on Thursday, was acquired from the Angels via the waiver wire in June. Between the Bucs and the Halos, he has 9 2/3 innings pitched in the big leagues. In that time, he has allowed eight earned runs via ten hits, four walks, one hit batter and two wild pitches, while striking out eight opponents.

His minor league track record is more interesting. From 2022 to 2024, he tossed 180 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.79 earned run average. He struck out 26.3% of batters faced and only gave out walks at a 7.2% clip.

2025 saw him post a nightmarish 8.45 ERA in 38 1/3 Triple-A innings, though it’s possible that he was extremely unfortunate. His 22.1% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate were close to average but his .415 batting average on balls in play and 61.9% strand rate were both far to the unlucky side. His 21.1% home run to fly ball ratio was also far higher than his previous work.

The Pirates liked him enough to grab him this summer, though he got squeezed off the roster this week. They are probably glad to keep him around in a non-roster capacity. He doesn’t have the right to elect free agency since he doesn’t have three years of service or a previous career outright. He will look to earn his way back onto the roster next year.

Photo courtesy of Raymond Carlin III, Imagn Images

Orioles Sign Enoli Paredes To Minor League Deal

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4:35pm: The O’s officially announced that they have signed Paredes to a minor league deal.

12:54pm: The Orioles are in agreement on a minor league deal with free agent righty Enoli Paredes, reports Ari Alexander of 7News. He’ll be in major league camp as non-roster invitee next spring.

Paredes, who turned 30 in September, is no stranger to Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias. He originally signed with the Astros as an amateur back in 2016, when Elias was the scouting director in Houston. Elias had already jumped to Baltimore by the time Paredes had emerged as one of Houston’s more notable pitching prospects and then made his subsequent MLB debut, however.

In parts of four major league seasons between the Astros, Brewers and Cubs, Paredes has totaled 54 innings with a tidy 3.00 ERA but far more concerning rate stats. He’s fanned a slightly below-average 21.7% of his opponents but walked a ghastly 16.8% of the hitters he’s faced in the majors. Paredes keeps the ball on the ground at a solid clip, has averaged better than 95 mph on his four-seamer and has done a nice job avoiding hard contact, but the lack of command is a glaring flaw.

In 2025, Paredes spent the season with Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett. He tossed 57 1/3 frames with a 4.40 earned run average, a strong 27.6% strikeout rate and an ugly 11.5% walk rate (plus another seven plunked batters and four wild pitches). Paredes posted sub-3.00 ERAs in Triple-A in both 2024 and 2022, but he’s consistently logged sky-high walk rates in both Triple-A and MLB.

The O’s have plenty of uncertainty in their bullpen after Felix Bautista underwent shoulder surgery that’ll keep him out for all of 2026. They further thinned out their relief corps at the July trade deadline, shipping out Seranthony Dominguez, Gregory Soto, Bryan Baker and Andrew Kittredge — though they’ve since reacquired Kittredge from the Cubs. Dominguez and Soto were free agents anyhow, but Baker was under club control through 2028. Yennier Cano’s uneven season and poor cumulative results this year make it hard to count on him heading into ’26 as well.

Kittredge, Cano, Keegan Akin and Albert Suarez are the only relievers on Baltimore’s roster with even two years of big league service. Given the lack of defined options in the late innings, the Orioles will be active in bringing in bullpen help — both in the form of established arms and also in the form of low-cost depth grabs like today’s Paredes deal.

Rays Trade Kameron Misner To Royals

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The Rays announced Monday that they’ve traded outfielder Kameron Misner to the Royals in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. Tampa Bay had designated Misner for assignment last week. The Royals’ 40-man roster count climbs to 36.

Misner, 28 in January, has received limited big league action with the Rays over the past two seasons. Overall, he has 232 big league plate appearances. 34.1% of those ended in a strikeout and 6.9% resulted in a walk, both subpar figures. That has led to a .203/.260/.325 batting line. He got squeezed off Tampa’s roster last week.

Despite that tepid offensive showing thus far, there are reasons why the Royals would be interested. His sprint speed was ranked in the 75th percentile this year and he stole eight bases in nine tries. His work in the outfield this year resulted in five Defensive Runs Saved and three Outs Above Average.

It’s also possible that there’s more in the bat than he has shown so far. From 2023 to 2025, he took 1,203 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level. In those, he slashed .233/.358/.449 for a wRC+ of 106, with a really strong 15.7% walk rate. His 31.7% strikeout rate in that time wasn’t great but he at least showed signs of improvement. When he first arrived at Triple-A in 2023, he was punched out at a massive 35.8% clip, but he got that down to 29.3% and then 26.1% in the two most recent seasons.

The Royals have been struggling to put together a good outfield group for years. In the 2025 season, the club’s outfielders posted a collective .225/.285/.348 line. The resultant wRC+ of 73 was dead last in the majors.

Misner still has an option remaining, so he doesn’t need to be guaranteed a job on the big league roster. Currently, the Royals project to have Jac Caglianone, Kyle Isbel, John Rave, Dairon Blanco, MJ Melendez and Drew Waters. They front office will likely be on the lookout for more meaningful upgrades throughout the offseason. For now, Misner gives them another option to at least bolster the floor with his speed and defense. If his bat takes a step forward, he could separate himself from the pack. If not, he can at least be in Triple-A as depth.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Mets, Jose Rojas Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Mets agreed to a minor league deal with infielder/outfielder Jose Rojas, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Gaeta Sports client will be invited to major league camp this spring and would be paid $820K if he makes the roster.

Rojas, 32, hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2022 but is coming off a monster 2025 season with the Yankees’ Triple-A club. The lefty-swinging slugger popped 32 home runs last year, tops in the Triple-A International League, and slashed .287/.379/.599 overall (153 wRC+). Since his last MLB appearance with the ’22 Angels, he’s spent a year in the Korea Baseball Organization (.253/.345/.474 with the Doosan Bears) and bounced between the Triple-A affiliates for the Pirates and Yankees.

All of Rojas’ big league experience has come with the Angels. He’s struggled considerably, hitting just .188/.245/.339 with a 28.6% strikeout rate — albeit in a relatively small sample of 241 plate appearances. He’s consistently torched Triple-A pitching in a much larger sample of 2050 plate appearances.

Defensively, Rojas is experienced at all four corner positions and, to a lesser extent, second base (865 innings). He played the outfield exclusively during his 2023 season in the KBO and has primarily played the infield and outfield corners since returning to North American ball. He’ll vie for a bench spot in camp and give the Mets some thump to stash in Triple-A if he doesn’t make the roster. Rojas also has a minor league option remaining, so if he’s selected to the 40-man at any point he can be shuttled between Syracuse and Queens without needing to be exposed to waivers.

Tatsuya Imai To Be Posted For MLB Teams This Offseason

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The Saitama Seibu Lions announced (Japanese language link) on their official team website that they have accepted Tatsuya Imai’s request to be posted to Major League teams.  Once Imai is officially posted, he’ll have 45 days to work out a contract with a big league team, or else he’ll return to the Lions for the 2026 Nippon Professional Baseball season.

It has been over two months since reports first surfaced about the likelihood of Imai’s availability this winter, and today’s news officially confirms the three-time NPB All-Star as one of the most intriguing arms of the 2025-26 free agent class.  Imai has a 3.15 ERA over 963 2/3 career innings with the Lions, with a 22.31% strikeout rate and a 11.52% walk rate.  While that career walk rate is on the high side, Imai has reduced that number in each of his last four seasons, and he had a very solid 7.02% walk rate over 163 2/3 innings in 2025.

Imai is only 27, and doesn’t turn 28 until May.  Between his age and an intriguing four-pitch arsenal (headlined by a fastball in the 95-99mph range and a plus slider), there’s a lot to like in terms of how Imai’s success in NPB might translate against Major League hitters.  This upside led MLBTR to place Imai seventh on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, and we’re predicting a six-year, $150MM deal even though some evaluators feel Imai projects as a back-end starter or even as a reliever in the majors.

Imai qualifies for full free agency next offseason, so the Lions may feel that they can at least earn some money back via a posting fee by letting Imai go now rather than 12 months from now.  As per the terms of the MLB-NPB posting system, any Major League team that reaches an agreement with Imai will owe the Lions a staggered fee depending on the size of the deal, and on any future earnings (i.e. options, bonuses, etc.) attached to that initial contract.

The Lions will get 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the contract’s next $25MM, and 15% of any money above the $50MM mark.  So if Imai were to sign a deal matching MLBTR’s $150MM projection, his new team would owe the Lions a $24.375MM posting fee on top of Imai’s $150MM salary.

Christian Roa Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Christian Roa has elected free agency, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. The Marlins recently outrighted Roa to Triple-A Jacksonville. As a player who has been outrighted before, he had the right to elect free agency rather than accept the assignment.

Roa, 26, was a second-round draft pick by the Reds in 2020 and remained in their system through the 2024 season. The Marlins claimed him off waivers in November of that year, though he spent most of 2025 in the minors before eventually having his contract selected in September. He made his big-league debut on September 6 and made two appearances for the Marlins, logging three innings and three strikeouts without allowing an earned run, although he did issue three walks. Roa was optioned back to Triple-A on September 15 and eventually outrighted on November 6 before electing free agency.

During his time at Triple-A, Roa relied on a sinker-slider combination, with the former accounting for 39.7% of his pitches and averaging 95.6 mph. He used the slider 31.2% of the time, while his 96.0 mph four-seamer was his third-most used pitch at 21.1%. Across 60 1/3 innings over 50 appearances, Roa posted a 2.83 ERA with a solid 26.1% strikeout rate. However, that output came in the International League, which is considered the more pitcher-friendly of the two Triple-A leagues. He also walked 11.4% of hitters, and his .225 BABIP allowed suggests that Roa benefitted from good luck.

Still, the solid ERA and high-velocity pitch mix might be intriguing for teams in need of bullpen depth. Roa has less than a year of big-league service time, so he would come with several years of team control. He also still has two minor-league options remaining and could be shuffled between the majors and Triple-A if needed.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Pirates To Sign Joe La Sorsa

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The Pirates are expected to sign left-hander Joe La Sorsa, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. It’s a minor league deal with an invite to MLB Spring Training.

La Sorsa has pitched in parts of three MLB seasons with three different teams. He debuted with the Rays in 2023. La Sorsa was most recently with Cincinnati. He made five appearances with the Reds last season.

Tampa Bay drafted La Sorsa in 2019. He tossed 36 1/3 innings at Low-A that same year. La Sorsa delivered a 3.60 ERA across 31 appearances in 2021, striking out nearly a batter per inning. He took a step forward the following season, with an elite 36.3% strikeout rate leading to a Double-A promotion. Minor leaguers hit just .191 against La Sorsa in 2022. He posted a 2.33 ERA across a career-high 73 1/3 innings.

La Sorsa was designated for assignment after just two games with the Rays in 2023. He was quickly scooped up by the Nationals via waiver claim. La Sorsa logged 23 appearances out of Washington’s bullpen that season. He limited walks and kept the ball in the yard, but finished with a 4.76 ERA. After a half-season with Triple-A Rochester, La Sorsa was back with the Nationals in August of 2024. He delivered similarly tepid results and was released in the offseason.

Cincinnati had La Sorsa traveling back and forth from Triple-A Louisville to Great American Ball Park all summer. He was recalled to the big-league club on four separate occasions, including three times in June. La Sorsa was knocked around for eight earned runs in 6 2/3 innings with the Reds. He allowed four home runs in his five outings with the team.

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