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Nationals, Andrew Knizner Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Nationals are in agreement with catcher Andrew Knizner on a minor league contract, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. The CAA client will get a non-roster invitation to MLB Spring Training.

Knizner, 30 next month, was drafted by the Cardinals in 2016. He’d converted to catching during his college days at North Carolina State. The right-handed hitter has produced offensively in the minors but hasn’t made much of an impact over parts of six big league campaigns. Knizner hit just .216/.290/.331 in nearly 800 trips to the plate with the Cardinals. St. Louis cut him loose last offseason.

The Rangers inked Knizner to a $1.825MM free agent deal last winter. He spent most of the year as Jonah Heim’s backup, but he didn’t perform especially well. Knizner hit .167/.183/.211 over 35 games. Texas acquired Carson Kelly at the deadline and designated Knizner for assignment not long after. He landed with the Diamondbacks via waiver claim. His time in Arizona consisted of 22 Triple-A games. The Snakes outrighted him off their 40-man roster without getting him into a big league contest. Knizner qualified for minor league free agency at the end of the season.

While Knizner hasn’t hit much at the MLB level, he owns a solid .271/.351/.424 slash over 454 career Triple-A plate appearances. There isn’t a huge bar to clear offensively for a backup catcher. Most backup catchers are well-regarded defensively. Knizner has struggled behind the plate, at least in the view of public metrics. Statcast has graded him as a below-average pitch framer. He also ranked in the bottom 10 among qualified catchers in average pop time (time to throw to second on a stolen base attempt).

There’s no risk for the Nationals in giving Knizner a non-roster look in camp. Keibert Ruiz has the starting job secure despite a difficult 2024 season. Riley Adams is the favorite for the backup job, a role he has held for the past three seasons. He is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors without going on waivers. Drew Millas is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. Knizner is out of options himself, so if the Nats call him up at any point, they’d need to keep him in the big leagues or risk losing him to another team.

Braves Claim Amos Willingham, Designate Allan Winans

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The Braves have claimed right-hander Amos Willingham off waivers from the Nationals, per a team announcement. Righty Allan Winans was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Washington had designated Willingham for assignment last week.

Willingham, 26, is a Georgia native and Georgia Tech product who’s pitched in the majors in each of the past two seasons with the Nats. He’s totaled only 25 1/3 innings and been torched for a 7.11 ERA in that tiny sample, but the 6’4″, 223-pound righty has enjoyed plenty of success in the upper minors. Willingham was unscored upon in the brief 10 2/3 innings he spent at the Double-A level and carries a combined 3.47 ERA in parts of two Triple-A seasons (93 1/3 innings). He’s punched out a solid 23.3% of his Triple-A opponents — albeit against a more problematic 10.8% walk rate.

The claim of Willingham adds a power arm to the Braves’ depth chart — one who still has a minor league option year remaining. Willingham has averaged 95.9 mph on his heater in the majors and ran it up to 98 mph in his lone big league outing this past season. Though his strikeout rate in Triple-A was roughly in line with the major league average, his 13.1% swinging-strike rate against minor league opponents was well north of MLB’s 11.1% average. He pairs that heater with a 90 mph cutter and 85 mph slider.

Winans, 29, has pitched in the majors in each of the past two seasons as well. He’s similar to Willingham — beyond their identical ALW initials — in that both have struggled in the big leagues but pitched well in Triple-A. Winans has an ugly 7.20 earned run average with a 20.9% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate in the majors. In parts of three Triple-A campaigns, however, he touts a 3.26 ERA, 21.8% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. That’s come in a sample of 256 innings, as Winans has operated primarily as a starting pitcher. Both pitchers also have one minor league option remaining.

The similarities broadly stop there. Winans sits just 90-91 with his four-seamer and 89-90 with his sinker. He pairs those modest fastballs with an upper-70s slider and a changeup that sits 82-83 mph. He’s generally gotten by in the minors with sub-par velocity thanks to strong command and a knack for inducing weak contact. Big league hitters haven’t made a lot of hard contact on average, but when they do square Winans up, the results haven’t been pretty. He’s yielded a 10% barrel rate and been tagged for an average of 1.80 home runs per nine innings pitched.

The Braves will have five days to look for a potential trade partner for Winans. At that point, they’d have to place him on outright waivers, which take an additional 48 hours to process.

Nationals Sign Franchy Cordero To Minor League Contract

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The Nationals signed outfielder/first baseman Franchy Cordero to a minor league contract, according to Aram Leighton of Just Baseball Media.  There are conflicting reports over whether or not the deal includes an invitation to the Nats’ big league spring camp, as Leighton writes that Cordero got an invite while the Washington Post’s Andrew Golden writes otherwise.

Cordero returns to North American baseball after a year spent with the Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball.  More specifically, most of Cordero’s time was spent with the Lions’ top minor league affiliate, as he played only 23 games with the Lions and struggled to a .129/.151/.200 over 73 NPB plate appearances.

It was hardly the performance Cordero was hoping for in his trip to Japan, which could be why (as per Golden’s report) Washington only issued him an invite to its minor league Spring Training site.  Regardless of the exact nature of Cordero’s contract, the minor league deal is a no-risk move for the Nationals to look at Cordero first-hand and see what he can still bring to the table as he enters his age-30 season.

Cordero hit .217/.283/.395 with 27 home runs over 797 PA and 251 games with the Padres, Royals, Red Sox, and Yankees from 2017-23.  Despite the lack of production, it was easy to see why so multiple teams kept taking chances on Cordero, as his power potential, exit velocity numbers, and plus speed gave the impression that a breakout was just around the corner. However, Cordero’s 34.9% career strikeout rate minimized his impact, as pitchers were often able to turn Cordero’s aggressive approach at the plate into a minus rather than a plus.

Defensively, Cordero has experience at first base and at all three outfield positions, though he isn’t considered to be much of a fielder.  Washington’s minor league depth chart doesn’t have many players with MLB experience at first base or in the outfield, so the Nationals could be viewing Cordero solely as a Triple-A backup plan.

Nationals Outright Joan Adon

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that right-hander Joan Adon passed through waivers unclaimed after he was designated for assignment last week. He’ll remain with the organization and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. Washington designated Adon to clear roster space for free agent signee Amed Rosario.

The 26-year-old Adon has logged big league time with the Nats in each of the past four seasons. He’s totaled 132 1/3 innings but sports a 6.66 earned run average in that time. He’s fanned 19% of his opponents, issued walks at an 11.3% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a 45.3% rate. Both those strikeout and walk rates are worse than league-average, but Adon’s grounder rate is a few percentage points above par and he averages about 95 mph on his heater.

Adon has been durable in the upper minors, typically working as a starter, but he’s also gotten some bullpen work in recent seasons as his big league results have been lackluster. Given that he sits nearly 95 mph as a starter when he’s facing lineups multiple times, it’s fair to wonder how high that velocity might trend upward if he were to move to short relief stints.

Adon was out of minor league options, so the Nationals would’ve had to either break camp with him on the Opening Day roster or jettison him from the 40-man by way of trade or DFA at some point during spring training. Now that he’s cleared waivers, he’ll head to big league camp this spring as a non-roster invitee. If he doesn’t pitch his way back into the big league plans, he’ll start the year in Rochester and bide his time while waiting for another opportunity.

Washington’s rotation mix is deeper after signing Michael Soroka and re-signing Trevor Williams. That pair will join MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker, Jake Irvin and DJ Herz — all four of whom delivered some encouraging performances in 2024 (albeit with some late fades as that group surpassed previous career-high workloads). With that group of six starters in the fold and top prospect Cade Cavalli hoping for a healthy 2025 campaign, Adon has been pushed a ways down the depth chart. A full-time look in the ’pen could be interesting, but it’s not yet clear how the Nats will utilize him moving forward.

MLBTR Podcast: The Jeff Hoffman Situation, Justin Verlander, And The Marlins’ Rotation

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Nationals Sign Jorge Lopez

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The Nationals have signed right-hander Jorge Lopez, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Lopez will receive $3MM in guaranteed money in the one-year contract, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports, plus some more money is available in incentives. The Nats have officially announced the signing, and also announced that right-hander Amos Willingham was designated for assignment to create roster space for Lopez.

Lopez, 32 next month, spent the first several years of his big league career as a below-average swingman. He made his big league debut with the Brewers back in 2015, and in parts of six seasons with Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Baltimore he posted a 6.04 ERA (76 ERA+) with a 5.15 FIP in 102 appearances, 58 of which were starts. After posting ERAs north of six in three consecutive seasons as a swingman from 2019 to 2021, the Orioles converted Lopez to short relief full-time ahead of the 2022 season.

From there, his career has taken a major step forward. His breakout began with a sterling 1.68 ERA in the first half while collecting 19 saves as their closer. He was traded to the Twins ahead of that summer’s trade deadline and faded somewhat down the stretch, but still finished the season with an excellent 2.54 ERA (155 ERA+) and 3.42 FIP in 71 innings of work. While his 10.4% walk rate left something to be desired, he combined it with a solid 24.2% strikeout rate and a fantastic 57.8% groundball rate, giving him strong peripherals that suggested he could have a future in the late innings.

Unfortunately, Lopez was unable to recreate that excellent 2022 season the following year. He took a massive step back in 2023 while spending time on the injured list for mental health reasons, and when he was on the mound he pitched to a 5.95 ERA in 59 innings of work. Nonetheless, Lopez managed to latch on with the Mets last year on a big league deal. His tenure in Queens was brief, as while he posted decent middle relief numbers (including a 3.76 ERA in 26 1/3 innings of work) he was designated for assignment in late May following a controversy regarding a post-game interview where he seemingly referred to the Mets as the “worst team” in the league, though in the aftermath of the incident it appeared that Lopez had actually referred to himself as the “worst teammate” in the league.

That rocky exit from the Mets, in conjunction with his difficult 2023 season, left Lopez to catch on with the Cubs on a minor league deal. He made the most of the opportunity, however, and looked every bit like the dominant late-inning arm he had been for the Orioles in 2022. In 26 2/3 innings of work for Chicago last year, Lopez posted an excellent 2.03 ERA. He struck out 29.2% of his opponents during that stretch with a walk rate of just 7.5%, and his 59.1% groundball rate was nothing short of elite. Taking that fantastic work on the north side together with his time in Queens paints a picture of Lopez as an intriguing, if somewhat risky, late-inning option as he posted a 2.89 ERA and 3.94 FIP in 53 innings of work with a 23% strikeout rate and 51% groundball rate.

Lopez is now headed to the Nationals, where he appears likely to be tasked with the closer role barring another external addition. That role had belonged to Kyle Finnegan in recent years, but the club non-tendered him back in November due to his rapidly escalating price in arbitration. Finnegan was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for an $8.6MM salary in 2025, and Lopez is signing in D.C. for just over a third of that amount after posting better rate numbers than Finnegan did in 2024.

The addition of Lopez brings the Nationals’ payroll up to a projected $110MM for 2025 according to RosterResource. That’s $20MM below the club’s 2024 payroll, meaning they should have room for further upgrades to the roster should opportunities arise in trade or on the free agent market. That said, it’s already been a fairly busy winter for the Nationals. Lopez joins rotation additions Trevor Williams and Michael Soroka on the pitching staff, while Josh Bell and Nathaniel Lowe were brought in to bolster the club’s lineup. There’s still room for improvement, however, particularly in the bullpen and at third base.

As for Willingham, the right-hander has been and up-and-down reliever for the Nationals over the past two seasons. To this point in his career, he’s posted a 7.11 ERA in 25 1/3 innings of work at the major league level with just one appearance for Washington in 2024. He posted a decent 3.69 ERA for Triple-A Rochester last year, however, and it’s not impossible to imagine a rival club having some interest in Willingham as optionable relief depth. Going forward, the Nationals will have one week to either work out a trade involving the right-hander or try to put him through waivers. If he clears waivers unclaimed, the Nationals will have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues as a non-roster depth option.

17 Players Exchange Filing Figures

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This evening’s deadline to exchange filing figures has come and gone. The majority of arbitration-eligible players agreed to contracts to avoid going to a hearing. There were 17 instances where the player and team did not come to terms.

Technically, nothing prevents players and teams from continuing to negotiate. However, virtually every team takes a “file-and-trial” approach to the process. Clubs will mostly refuse to continue talks about one-year deals after this date. They’ll often make exceptions for discussions involving multi-year contracts or one-year deals with a club/mutual option. It’s unlikely that all of these players will end up getting to a hearing, but the majority probably will.

If the sides go to a hearing, a three-person arbitration panel will either choose the player’s or the team’s filing figure. They cannot pick a midpoint. That’s designed to prevent the parties from anchoring by filing at extremely high or low figures. Teams’ preferences for the file-and-trial approach follows a similar logic. The idea is to deter players from submitting a higher number from which they could continue to negotiate until the hearing begins.

The list of players who could go to a hearing this winter (service time in parentheses):

Angels

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Dodgers

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Pirates

Rays

Red Sox

Yankees

—————————————

Tucker and the Cubs have the biggest gap in filing figures at $2.5MM. He’s one of the top two free agents in next year’s class and is unlikely to sign an extension, so they’re almost certainly headed to a hearing. King, who will be one of the best pitchers on the open market next winter, is the only other player with more than $1MM at stake depending on the results of the hearing. The smallest divide is the paltry $150K gap between Rengifo’s and the Angels’ respective filing figures. Hearings are scheduled to begin on January 27 and could run through February 14.

MLBTR Podcast: Brent Rooker’s Extension, Gavin Lux, And Catching Up On The Holiday Transactions

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Nationals Sign Amed Rosario

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Amed Rosario to a one-year contract. Right-hander Joan Adon was designated for assignment to make space on the roster. Rosario will earn $2MM on the deal, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’s represented by Octagon.

Rosario, 29, was a solid regular in Cleveland from 2021-22, serving as the Guardians’ everyday shortstop and posting a combined .282/.316/.406 batting line (106 wRC+) with terrific baserunning but subpar defense at his position.

In 2023, however, Rosario fell into a prolonged slump and was eventually designated for assignment and traded to the Dodgers, for whom he filled a utility role down the stretch. He signed on with the Rays on a $1.5MM deal to hold down a similar multi-position role in 2024 before again being traded to the Dodgers at the deadline. His second stint in L.A. lasted only days, however, as he was designated for assignment and landed with the Reds thereafter.

Over the past two seasons, Rosario has still managed to hit .270 thanks to his speed and bat-to-ball skills, but it’s been a hollow batting average accompanied by paltry marks in on-base percentage (.305) and slugging percentage (.379). He’s essentially been a singles hitter who does most of his damage against lefties while contributing shaky defense at multiple positions. Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have both panned his work at shortstop for some time, and he’s since dabbled at second base, third base and in all three outfield positions. Second base is the only position at which he’s drawn passable grades by measure of those two public metrics.

Though it’s been a lackluster couple years for Rosario all around, he still possesses plus speed (91st percentile of MLB players, per Statcast) and showed improved life on his throws last year (72nd percentile arm strength). He draws poor grades for his range despite that footspeed. Rosario has fanned in 19.3% of his plate appearances since 2023 — right in line with his career 19.6% mark. He’s all but allergic to drawing a walk, evidenced by a career 4.3% rate and a career-low 2.6% mark in 2024. However, he makes enough contact and runs so well that he’s capable of sustaining quality batting averages at the very least.

With the Nats, Rosario again figures to slide into a utility role. Washington has Luis Garcia Jr. at second base and CJ Abrams at shortstop. Rosario could factor into the competition at third base, where Jose Tena and Trey Lipscomb are also in the mix for the Opening Day job. However, prospects Brady House and Cayden Wallace are both in the upper minors. House, a former first-round pick and consensus top-100 prospect, hit well in Double-A last year but struggled in his first exposure to Triple-A pitching. Wallace, acquired at the deadline in the trade sending Hunter Harvey to the Royals, topped out in Double-A and is a bit further behind House in his minor league progression. With a strong start to the season, either could plausibly find his way to the majors and earn a look at the hot corner.

It’s also plausible that Rosario could be deployed in a straightforward platoon with Garcia. He’s a career .298/.337/.460 hitter against southpaws compared to Garcia’s lifetime .250/.269/.356 slash against lefties. Garcia has been far better against righties, hitting .277/.313/.428 in his career — including a personal-best .288/.326/.469 during last year’s breakout season.

Washington’s signing of Rosario will come at the expense of the 26-year-old Adon, who’s pitched for the Nats in each of the past four seasons. A 2016 international signee out of the Dominican Republic, Adon has logged 132 1/3 innings in the majors but never found consistency; he carries a career 6.66 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate and 45.3% ground-ball rate. He ranked as highly as No. 7 among Nationals’ prospects back in 2022, per Baseball America.

Adon averages nearly 95 mph on his heater and has been a durable rotation member in the upper minors, but he’s never replicated the strong 2019 season that put him on the prospect map in the first place. He’s had some work as a reliever in the minors recently, and he has enough velocity as a starter to create some intrigue about how he’d work as a power-armed bullpen piece. Command has been a consistent issue for the big righty, however, and he’s out of minor league options — meaning the Nats would’ve had to carry him on the Opening Day roster or else designate him for assignment a few months from now anyway.

Washington will have five days to trade Adon. At that point, he’d need to be placed on waivers (a 48-hour process). If he clears, he could be retained as non-roster depth. Within a week’s time, he’ll know the outcome of today’s DFA.

Latest On Financial Dispute Between Nationals And Orioles, MASN

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The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) is co-owned by the Orioles and Nationals, although the Orioles have a controlling stake. Since the network was established in 2005, the two clubs have regularly fought over how much money the Nationals should receive in rights fees each season. These disagreements have led to several court battles over the years.

Earlier this week, the Nationals filed a petition with the Supreme Court of New York, requesting that the court confirm a decision from MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee. The committee found that the Orioles and MASN owe the Nationals approximately $320.5MM in TV rights fees to cover the 2022-26 seasons (per Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun). That would mean around $203.9MM in backpay for the past three seasons ($72.8MM for 2022 and ’23 and $58.3MM for ’24) and another $58.3MM in 2025 and ’26. To put those numbers in context, RosterResource estimates the Nationals spent around $130MM on player payroll in 2024.

As Weyrich points out, a quick resolution to this petition would mean the two clubs will be in agreement on a deal that holds for multiple years to come for the first time since 2012. As for whether or not the two sides will be able to stay out of court in 2027 and beyond? That remains to be seen. Orioles majority owner David Rubenstein previously spoke about his desire to move these discussions “away from the lawyers” but stopped far short of making any promises. “I don’t have an easy answer yet,” he said. “If it was easy, it would have been resolved” (per Weyrich).

The Nationals have been active this offseason, trading for Nathaniel Lowe, signing Josh Bell and Michael Soroka, and re-signing Trevor Williams. However, they have not made the kind of big splash (or even medium splash) that some thought they’d make this winter. With a projected 2025 payroll that is still $22MM below last year’s final figure and the possibility of more financial certainty if this $320.5MM agreement is confirmed, perhaps the Nationals will continue adding this offseason to supplement a roster full of talented but unproven young players.

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