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Yankees Did Not Make Offer To Gleyber Torres In Free Agency

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Second baseman Gleyber Torres saw his first foray into free agency come to a close yesterday when he landed a one-year, $15MM contract with the Tigers. According to a report from Chris McCosky of The Detroit News, however, Torres had multi-year offers on the table that he turned down in favor of signing with Detroit. McCosky goes on to note that Torres highlighted the Nationals and Angels as teams who made offers to him before he signed with the Tigers, while the incumbent Yankees did not make him an offer.

“I’ve got great friends there, great communication with the entire organization,” Torres said of his longtime club. “I feel proud of myself for being with the Yankees for seven years, but now I’m with Detroit and just really happy they gave me the opportunity to play next year. I think they have other priorities and I’m not on the list. I’m good.”

It’s not necessarily a major shock that the Yankees opted not to make an attempt to bring back Torres. The 28-year-old joined the club prior to his MLB debut as part of the trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs at the 2016 trade deadline and debuted with the club back in 2018. After back-to-back All-Star seasons in 2018 and ’19, Torres’s production took a step backwards. He’s slashed just .261/.332/.411 (109 wRC+) while playing average to below average defense at second base. It’s solid enough production for a big league regular but a far cry from the numbers the Yankees surely hoped they were getting when their consensus top-5 prospect in baseball posted a 123 wRC+ in the first two seasons of his big league career.

Torres actually began to look something more like his early-career self in 2023, when he slashed a strong .273/.347/.453 (120 wRC+) and put up 3.6 fWAR. Unfortunately, though, he followed that up with a lackluster 2024 season that saw his wRC+ drop down to just 104, the second-lowest figure of his career. That weak overall number is thanks in large part to a slow start to the season, as Torres hit just .215/.289/.248 in his first 32 games of the season. From May 2 onward, however, he slashed a much more respectable .268/.341/.412 (115 wRC+), including an excellent .292/.361/.419 (124 wRC+) after the All-Star break.

That strong finish wasn’t enough to save his role with the Yankees, however, as the club had already traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr. at the trade deadline over the summer. While Chisholm shifted to third base in deference to Torres down the stretch, the Yankees have eyed potential third base additions such as Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado rather than a reunion with Torres as they consider moving Chisholm back to his natural position. Even so, Torres’s excellent numbers late in the season grabbed the attention of a few clubs aside from the Tigers, with Torres himself highlighting the Nationals and Angels as teams who showed interest in him this winter.

Both clubs were previously reported to have interest in Torres this winter, so it’s hardly a shock that either club made him an offer. With that being said, Torres’s ability to remain at his natural position of second base with the Tigers may have made them a more attractive option than either D.C. or Anaheim. The Nationals were explicitly interested in Torres as a third baseman given the presence of Luis García Jr. at the keystone, while the Angels currently have Luis Rengifo penciled in as their everyday second baseman. It’s unclear whether Angels brass were hoping to move Torres to third base as well or if they’d have instead had Rengifo take up the super-utility role he’s handled often throughout his career, but the Tigers moving Colt Keith to first base in deference to Torres surely made it easy for the 28-year-old to feel comfortable that he would be able to put his best foot forward with the club this year before returning to free agency next winter.

With Torres now off the board, the Angels and Nationals will have to look elsewhere if they hope to upgrade their infield mix this winter. Washington already landed first baseman Nathaniel Lowe in trade with the Rangers earlier this week but could also stand to make an upgrade at the hot corner. The Angels, meanwhile, have been connected to several third base options ranging from known trade candidates like Nolan Arenado and Alec Bohm to more surprising options like Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez. Aside from those trade market possibilities, the third base market in free agency is led by Bregman but also includes lower-tier options like Yoan Moncada and Josh Rojas.

Charlie Maxwell Passes Away

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Two-time All-Star Charlie Maxwell has passed away, the Tigers announced today. The longtime Detroit outfielder was 97 years old.

A lifelong Michigan resident, Maxwell played college ball at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, working primarily as a pitcher during that time. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1945 and spent two years in the military before being discharged and joining the Red Sox minor league system as a pitcher, though he appeared in just ten games before converting to the outfield. Maxwell made his major league debut in 1950 with a three-game cup of coffee that saw him draw a walk and score a run but strike out three times without recording a hit in nine trips to the plate.

Maxwell bounced between the big league Red Sox and the club’s minor league system with lackluster results at the big league level for a number of years, hitting just .203/.289/.285 in parts of four seasons with the club while finding himself unable to secure a regular role. That all changed in 1955, when the Red Sox sold him to the Orioles. He made just four trips to the plate in Baltimore before being sold a second time, this time to his hometown Tigers. Maxwell’s career took off virtually from the moment he set foot in Detroit. Though he only appeared in 55 games for the club during the 1955 campaign, he made the most of every opportunity given to him with a solid .266/.325/.541 slash line that included 18 home runs in just 122 trips to the plate.

That substantial power earned Maxwell the Tigers’ starting left field job the following year, and he responded with the first All-Star appearance of his career. The slugger slashed an excellent .326/.414/.534 with 28 homers and more walks (79) than strikeouts (74). While standout performances from teammates Al Kaline and Frank Lary somewhat overshadowed Maxwell’s fantastic season, he nonetheless managed to earn some down-ballot consideration for the AL MVP award. The 1956 season was more of the same in many ways for Maxwell. While his numbers (.276/.377/.482 in 138 games) took a bit of a step back from his first season as a regular, Maxwell earned another All-Star appearance and some down-ballot AL MVP consideration despite being outmatched by fantastic seasons from teammates Kaline and Jim Bunning.

Those back-to-back All-Star campaigns were the strongest of Maxwell’s career, and he found himself comparing favorably with some of the league’s best players at the time. His 52 home runs across those two seasons were good for the 15th highest total in the majors, leaving him sandwiched between Hall of Famers Yogi Berra (54) and Kaline (50) on the league leaderboard. His 13.2% walk rate was the tenth-highest figure in the majors over those two seasons, and had more advanced metrics like wRC+ existed at the time Maxwell’s 140 figure for those two years would’ve put him just a hair behind the production of Hall of Famer Frank Robinson (141) over that same period.

Maxwell’s efforts over the remainder of his tenure in Detroit never quite resulted in a season that dominant again, but he still held his own at the plate with a solid .250/.348/.440 slash line with the Tigers from 1958 to 1961, a stretch which included a 31-homer campaign in 1959 and a third season where he garnered down-ballot MVP consideration in 1960. Maxwell’s tenure with the Tigers came to an end in 1962, however, as he hit just .194/.273/.269 in 30 games with the club before being traded to the White Sox.

Maxwell enjoyed something of a late-career resurgence upon arriving in Chicago and slashed a respectable .269/.382/.441 across three seasons as a part-time player for the club before hanging up the spikes two games into his age-37 season in Chicago. In all, Maxwell appeared in 1,133 games during his time in the majors while collecting 532 RBI, 148 home runs and 856 hits. He was a lifetime .264/.360/.451 hitter in 3,796 big league plate appearances. MLBTR sends our condolences to Maxwell’s family, friends, and loved ones.

Tigers Sign Gleyber Torres

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The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve signed free agent infielder Gleyber Torres to a one-year, $15MM contract. Torres, an Octagon client, is expected to be Detroit’s regular second baseman in the upcoming season. The Tigers, one of the rare teams to publicly disclose contract terms themselves, added that Torres’ contract has a one-time, $500K assignment bonus (in the event that he’s traded to another club).

Torres, who turned 28 earlier this month, has spent his entire big league career to date in Yankee pinstripes. The once-vaunted top prospect looked like a breakout star in 2019 when he socked 38 home runs in just 144 games, but Torres wound up settling in as a solid regular at second base rather than the superstar shortstop he appeared to be on the cusp of becoming in ’19. Since that stellar 2019 campaign — which came in MLB’s juiced-ball season — Torres has slashed .261/.332/.411. That’s about 9% better than average, by measure of wRC+ (which weights for home park and league run-scoring environment in a given season).

The 2024 season was shaping up to be a career-worst showing for Torres at the halfway point. Through his first 80 games, he turned in an anemic .215/.294/.333 slash (81 wRC+) with a 23.9% strikeout rate that was well north of the 19.3% mark he’d posted over the prior five seasons. Torres righted the ship in late June, however, and rebounding to the tune of a .298/.365/.421 slash with a much-improved 17.3% strikeout rate down the stretch.

It’s perhaps possible that Torres could’ve landed a multi-year deal at a lower rate, but given his age and track record, it’s not a shock to see him take a pure one-year pillow deal. MLBTR predicted back in November that he’d ink a two-year deal with an opt-out, as the priority for him always seemed likely to be getting back to the market next winter. The demand seemingly wasn’t there to push to that range, however, and Torres will head to Comerica Park as an eminently reasonable one-year roll of the proverbial dice. With a strong enough showing, he’ll have the added benefit of being a potential qualifying offer candidate for the Tigers next offseason.

Torres steps into a Detroit infield that’s lacking in any real certainty. Colt Keith, who hit .285/.330/.429 in 445 plate appearances after a terrible start to his rookie season, appears to be the only other infield lock. He played second base in 2024 but has experience at the hot corner as well. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press writes, however, that the organization prefers not to play Keith at third due to some injury concern regarding his right shoulder. Keith has taken reps at first base, and while he’s yet to play there in a professional game, he could get further work there this spring in the event of a potential position shift.

Meanwhile, Javier Baez is signed for three more seasons at $24MM per year, but he’s played himself out of a starting role and will eventually be a release candidate if he can’t rebound to at least some extent (though the Tigers have suggested this winter that they still see a role for Baez in ’25). Former top pick Spencer Torkelson belted 32 homers in 2023 but flailed through an ugly 2024 campaign and has yet to establish himself as a viable big league regular. Trey Sweeney showed a big league-ready glove at shortstop but didn’t hit in 36 big league games during last year’s second-half debut. Top prospect Jace Jung drew heaps of walks (16%) in 94 plate appearances late last season but is probably ticketed for Triple-A work or (speculatively speaking) some exposure to left field. Matt Vierling could factor in at the hot corner as well, though he can play in the outfield, too.

The glut of infield options, even with many of them unproven, gives the Tigers some flexibility with regard to how they handle the rest of the offseason. Young players like Sweeney and particularly Jung would command considerable trade interest. Torkelson stands as a viable change-of-scenery candidate, especially if the Tigers indeed plan to give Keith a prominent role at first base. Torkelson could still factor into the first base/DH mix, but he’s hardly a lock to do so after hitting .221/.300/.392 through his first 361 big league games.

The Tigers have been connected to free agent third baseman Alex Bregman, though that’d be a considerably larger signing than they’ve made at any point under current president of baseball operations Scott Harris. Some of the link there is surely due to the presence of former Astros skipper A.J. Hinch in the Detroit dugout. Petzold reported earlier in the week that Bregman has become more of a priority for the Tigers as the offseason has worn on, but the addition of Torres clouds the infield mix a bit more. A fit could still come together, particularly if the Tigers are keen on moving someone like Jung in a deal for rotation help.

In terms of payroll, there’s no reason to think the Tigers can’t make another prominent addition after adding Torres. They entered the offseason with only Baez, Keith and Kenta Maeda on guaranteed deals for the upcoming season. Torres and fellow free agent pickup Alex Cobb have pushed the team to a projected a $109MM payroll, per RosterResource’s projections. That’s nowhere near the team’s franchise-record $200MM payroll from 2017. And while that level of spending came under the ownership of the late Mike Ilitch, even Ilitch’s son, Chris, has authorized payrolls as high as $135MM in recent seasons (2022).

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported that Torres had agreed to a deal with the Tigers. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first reported the terms and that Torres was expected to be the Tigers’ starting second baseman.

Tigers, Dietrich Enns Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Tigers agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Dietrich Enns. The 33-year-old southpaw announced the news on social media last week.

Enns is trying to work his way back to the majors for the first time since 2021. He tossed 22 1/3 innings across nine relief appearances for Tampa Bay that season. Enns turned in a 2.82 earned run average in that limited sample. That caught the attention of the Seibu Lions in Japan. Seibu finalized a deal to purchase his contract. Enns spent two seasons there, combining for a 3.62 ERA through 176 1/3 innings at the NPB level.

The Central Michigan product changed countries but stayed in Asia for the ’24 season. Enns signed with the Korea Baseball Organization’s LG Twins. He started 30 times and logged 167 1/3 frames of 4.19 ERA ball. Enns struck out 22% of opponents against a 7% walk rate. After the season, the Twins brought in Yonny Chirinos and re-signed Elieser Hernández to serve as their foreign-born pitchers for 2025.

Enns figures to open the season with Triple-A Toledo. He can start or work in long relief on a Detroit staff that’ll place a premium on flexibility. A.J. Hinch used plenty of openers and bulk relievers behind Tarik Skubal this past season. That’ll presumably continue in the final two rotation spots after Skubal, Reese Olson and Alex Cobb.

Tigers Moving Colt Keith To First Base

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Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris met with reporters this afternoon, shortly after the team finalized its one-year deal with Gleyber Torres. The team provided video of the 16-minute media session.

Harris confirmed the Tigers will play Torres at second base. Colt Keith will move to first base. Harris indicated that Keith could return to the keystone in future years but noted that “for 2025, our best team has Gleyber at second base and Colt at first base.” Keith spent the entire ’24 campaign at second base, where he logged nearly 1100 innings as a rookie.

Keith’s defensive grades were mixed. Statcast rated him as a slightly above-average second baseman. Defensive Runs Saved was a lot less enthusiastic, estimating he was eight runs below par. Scouting reports on the 6’2″, 211-pound infielder have pegged him as a bat-first player. Keith may be a capable defender at the keystone but wasn’t likely to develop into a Gold Glove winner.

That was the youngster’s first full season as a second baseman. Keith was drafted as a third baseman and continued playing the hot corner until midway through the ’23 campaign. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press wrote this morning that the Tigers weren’t willing to move Keith back to third base because of concerns about a prior labrum injury in his throwing shoulder.

Keith’s bat guarantees him a spot in the starting lineup. The lefty hitter had a .260/.309/.380 slash with 13 homers. Those numbers are weighed down by a terrible first few weeks. Keith had a .154/.222/.165 showing through the end of April. He hit .282/.328/.426 in 457 plate appearances from the start of May onward. Keith managed solid production against pitchers of either handedness. He should be in the lineup against almost all right-handed pitchers. Skipper A.J. Hinch could shield him from a few lefties, but the Tigers are unlikely to relegate Keith to a strict platoon role.

If the Tigers aren’t willing to play Keith on the left side of the infield, the Torres deal essentially forced him to first base. Torres has been a full-time second baseman since the Yankees moved him off shortstop in 2022. The Nationals showed interest in moving him to third base. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported last night — before Torres signed with Detroit — that the infielder rebuffed Washington because he didn’t want to change positions.

Between the infield shakeup and some early offseason chatter about the Tigers potentially pursuing a veteran first baseman, it’s fair to wonder if former first overall pick Spencer Torkelson still has a role on the roster. Unsurprisingly, Harris suggested publicly that remains the case. Detroit’s front office leader said he spoke with Torkelson before the Tigers announced the Torres signing. “My message to Tork was: ’if you have a big offseason and a big spring training, there’s a role for you on this team.’ This team needs more right-handed power and we’ve seen Tork do that in the past,” Harris said.

The Tigers have sought right-handed hitting since the start of the offseason. Torres addresses that to some extent, though he’s more a solid hitter than a great one. His 38-homer showing from 2019 looks like a clear outlier. Torres respectively hit 24 and 25 homers in 2022 and ’23. That dropped to 15 round-trippers this year, in part because of an ice cold April in which he didn’t hit a single home run.

Torkelson connected on 31 homers with a .233/.313/.446 slash line in 2023. A strong second half provided optimism coming into this year. Instead, he stumbled to a .219/.295/.374 mark with 10 homers through 92 games — struggles that led the Tigers to option Torkelson to Triple-A Toledo for a stretch. A change-of-scenery trade still seems a distinct possibility.

Kerry Carpenter should get the bulk of playing time at designated hitter. The lefty-swinging Carpenter will be in the lineup at either DH or in the corner outfield against all righty pitching. He’ll probably be shielded from left-handers, but carrying Torkelson as a short-side platoon bat with limited defensive value isn’t a great use of a roster spot. Harris said today that the Tigers don’t view Torkelson as a candidate for any reps at third base or in the corner outfield, though he opined that “with the DH plate appearances and opportunity at first base, there are still plenty of plate appearances for him.”

Justyn-Henry Malloy, a righty hitter, is also in the DH/first base mix. Malloy has been a high-OBP bat in the minors. He hit just .203/.291/.366 with eight homers in 71 MLB games as a rookie. He still has a full slate of minor league options, but he’s another hitter without a clear defensive fit and a limited major league track record.

The Tigers are one of a handful of teams that has been recently linked to the top unsigned position player, Alex Bregman. While the Torres signing doesn’t directly impact third base, it deepens the infield more generally. Harris declined comment on Bregman, as the CBA prohibits team personnel from saying whether they’re in or out on specific free agents.

He indicated there’ll be more moves on the horizon while suggesting he’s encouraged by how the roster is shaping up. “The roster isn’t done yet. It’s not even 2025 yet. There’s still some time in the offseason to fully flesh out our roster. But when I stare at our group right now, this is the deepest we’ve ever been — on both sides of the ball,” Harris said.

Since signing Alex Cobb, the Tigers have downplayed their desire for another starting pitcher. The exception is their pursuit of NPB star Roki Sasaki, who’ll be limited to a signing bonus below $10MM because of his status as an international amateur. Harris said that the Tigers have presented an initial presentation to Sasaki’s representatives at Wasserman. He indicated that the Tigers are awaiting a response from Sasaki’s camp as to whether they’ll get an in-person meeting after the holidays.

Agent Joel Wolfe suggested at the Winter Meetings that Sasaki, who took preliminary meetings with a handful of teams last week, would begin narrowing the field after returning to Japan for the holiday. The Tigers don’t seem a likely landing spot for Sasaki, but they’d certainly welcome an opportunity to make a pitch to the 23-year-old righty.

Tigers Designate Bailey Horn For Assignment

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The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve designated left-hander Bailey Horn for assignment. He’ll be the corresponding 40-man roster move for newly signed infielder Gleyber Torres, whose one-year, $15MM deal with the Tigers is now official.

Horn, 26, was claimed off waivers out of the Red Sox organization a month ago. He’ll now be traded to another club or claimed off waivers within the next week. He made his big league debut in Boston last season, pitching 18 innings and yielding 13 earned runs (6.50 ERA) on 22 hits and 10 walks with 13 strikeouts.

It wasn’t the best first impression in the majors, but Horn was sharper for Boston’s Triple-A club, rattling off 29 1/3 innings of 2.15 ERA ball with a 29.2% strikeout rate against a bloated 11.7% walk rate. Horn has missed bats in droves in the minors, fanning 29% of his career opponents, but he’s also walked nearly 13% of his opponents along the way. He’s a former fifth-round pick of the White Sox who’s been traded multiple times, most notably going from the Sox to the Cubs in exchange for Ryan Tepera back in 2021.

Horn’s ability to miss bats, coupled with a heater that averages 95 mph and a pair of minor league option years still remaining, could prompt another team to take a look.

Third Base Rumors: Bregman, Arenado, Yankees, Tigers, Astros

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With the Yankees in need of infield help, both Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado have been linked to the club this offseason, with the idea being that one would become New York’s new third baseman and Jazz Chisholm Jr. would become the full-time second baseman.  However, during an edition of the YES Network’s “Yankees Hot Stove” show earlier this week, Jack Curry said that the Bronx Bombers weren’t in on either Bregman or Arenado, and pushed back on the idea that the Yankees ever had interest in trading for Arenado.

This runs counter to last week’s report (from MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, John Denton, and Bryan Hoch) that the Yankees offered Marcus Stroman to the Cardinals as part of a trade package for Arenado, though St. Louis rejected the deal.  As always with seemingly contradictory offseason reports, the truth could lie somewhere in the middle.  Hypothetically, it could be that New York’s interest in Arenado was limited to this scenario that would’ve seen Stroman’s salary moved off the team’s books.

Whatever the depth of the Yankees’ interest in Arenado might be, it could be a moot point if Arenado himself isn’t interested in joining the team.  The Yankees aren’t one of the six clubs (the Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Phillies, Mets, Red Sox) Arenado is reportedly willing to waive his no-trade protection to join, and Arenado has already vetoed a proposed deal to the Astros.  There was speculation that New York’s deal with Paul Goldschmidt was made in part to entice Arenado to accept a trade to the Bronx to join his old teammate, yet Curry’s report seems to close the door on that possibility.

In addition to signing Goldschmidt and Max Fried, the Yankees have also traded for Cody Bellinger, Devin Williams, and Fernando Cruz, as GM Brian Cashman has aggressively reloaded the roster after Juan Soto left to sign with the Mets.  Even with some holes left to be addressed, New York is projected (by RosterResource) for a luxury tax number of $303.2MM, and thus the team is already over the maximum penalty threshold of $301MM.

The Yankees could reduce their tax bill by trying to move Stroman or another unfavorable contract, yet the payroll situation might hint at why Arenado or Bregman aren’t (or no longer are) on the radar.  Signing Bregman would require a far higher investment than taking most or all of Arenado’s contract in a trade, plus since Bregman rejected Houston’s qualifying offer, the Yankees would need to give up two draft picks and $1MM in international bonus pool money.  Since the Bombers already paid that extra penalty to sign another qualified free agent in Fried, the club would very likely prefer to avoid further depleting its draft pool and bonus pool by adding Bregman.

If the Yankees are indeed out on Bregman, that leaves the Phillies, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Mets, and Tigers as teams known to have some level of interest in Bregman’s services this winter.  Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press shed a little more light on the Tigers’ link in the latest edition of the Days of Roar podcast, noting that “there has been an increase in the Tigers’ prioritization of Bregman” as the offseason has developed, with “more dialogue, more conversation” between the club and Bregman’s camp.

Heading into the offseason, Detroit was viewed as a logical landing spot for Bregman for multiple reasons — his past history with manager A.J. Hinch, the lack of long-term money on the Tigers’ books, and the perception that the Tigers were going to be aggressive in the wake of their Cinderella run to the ALDS last season.  The latter point hasn’t played out to date, as Alex Cobb’s one-year, $15MM deal represents the Motown team’s only major investment of the winter.

Bregman’s reported asking price of at least $200MM appears to be the hold-up, as the Tigers aren’t willing to spend to that level.  What remains unclear is if Detroit is willing to at least approach Bregman’s demands, or if the team is aiming lower overall.  Most of the free agents or trade targets publicly linked to the Tigers in rumors this winter (i.e. Goldschmidt, Carlos Santana, Walker Buehler, Kirby Yates, Erick Fedde, Steven Matz, Andrew Heaney, Kyle Gibson) are either already under contract on short-term deals, or would likely require only one- or two-year investments.  Apart from Bregman, Jack Flaherty and Ha-Seong Kim are the other free agents on the Tigers’ list of targets that would require bigger contracts, and even Kim’s situation is fluid due to the lingering uncertainty surrounding his shoulder surgery.

Bregman already turned down a reported six-year, $156MM offer from the Astros earlier this winter, which was the first step towards what now looks like the end of a reunion possibility between the third baseman and his longtime team.  Acquiring corner infielder Isaac Paredes in the Kyle Tucker trade left open the possibility that Bregman could still be re-signed and Paredes could play first base in Houston, but the Astros’ three-year, $60MM deal with first baseman Christian Walker has now addressed the team’s needs in the corner infield.

While not officially stating that the Astros were now out on Bregman, GM Dana Brown left things pretty clear by stating “Paredes is going to play third and Walker is going to play first” when speaking with reporters (including the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara) earlier this week.  Brown felt “the negotiations stalled” with Bregman’s camp, leaving the Astros in search of an alternative.

“I thought we made a really competitive offer and showed that we wanted [Bregman] back,” Brown said.  “But we had to pursue other options, we couldn’t just sit there.  We locked in Paredes early in that trade knowing that he could play third or first. And then when the opportunity to add another bat [Walker] came up, we just jumped on it.”

Gary Sutherland Passes Away

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Former major league infielder Gary Sutherland passed away on December 16 at age 80. His obituary was provided by a Monrovia, California funeral home.

Sutherland was an L.A.-area native who attended USC. He signed with the Phillies out of college. The right-handed infielder debuted during his age-21 season. He appeared in parts of three seasons for Philadelphia. The Phils lost him to the Expos in the 1968 expansion draft. Sutherland was the everyday second baseman on the inaugural Montreal team. He played three years for the Expos, hitting .234/.287/.299 over 368 games.

Montreal dealt Sutherland to the Astros after the ’71 season. He barely played over two years in Houston before he was on the move again. The Tigers acquired him during the 1973-74 offseason. Sutherland took a career-high 672 plate appearances during his first season in Detroit. He hit 20 doubles with a .254/.282/.313 showing. He played three years in Detroit. Sutherland finished his playing career with brief stints between Milwaukee, San Diego and St. Louis.

Over a 13-year playing career, Sutherland picked up 754 hits with a .243/.291/.308 batting line. He appeared in more than 1000 major league games between seven teams. Sutherland remained in the game after his playing days as a scout and worked as a special assistant in the Angels’ front office into the 2010s. MLBTR sends condolences to his family, loved ones and friends.

Mariners Made Two-Year Offer To Carlos Santana

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The Guardians made a splash over the weekend by signing first baseman Carlos Santana to a one-year deal worth $12MM, bringing the long-time Cleveland staple back into the fold for the third time in his career. With that being said, however, it wasn’t the only contract offer Santana received during his free agency. According to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic this morning, the Mariners extended an offer to Santana that came with more guaranteed money than the one he landed in Cleveland. Rosenthal also cited the Yankees, Mets, Tigers, Diamondbacks, and Rangers, and Padres among clubs that had interest in the switch-hitter before he ultimately landed in Cleveland.

Regarding Seattle’s offer, Rosenthal specifies that not only did the deal come with more guaranteed money, but it actually involved a player option for the 2026 season, allowing Santana to either opt out and return to free agency or remain with the club. It’s somewhat surprising to hear that a club was willing to guarantee a second guaranteed year to Santana, who will celebrate his 39th birthday in early April. Rosenthal describes the Mariners as Santana’s “initial priority” until the Guardians realized that they could trade Josh Naylor to another Santana suitor, the Diamondbacks. At that point, the Guardians offered Santana (who had coincidentally just sold his Cleveland area home) the one-year deal he went on to sign.

The Mariners briefly acquired Santana from the Phillies during the 2018-19 offseason but flipped him to Cleveland shortly thereafter, before he ever suited up for the club. He eventually returned to the organization in 2022 after being traded there by the Royals, and this time his stay lasted 79 games. In 294 trips to the plate for Seattle, Santana hit .192/.293/.400. Despite that sub-Mendoza Line batting average, Santana’s performance was actually good for an above-average 103 wRC+ thanks to a strong 11.9% walk rate and the 15 home runs he clobbered down the stretch for the club.

That half-season stint evidently made enough of an impression with the Mariners that they were interested in a reunion as they searched for first base help this winter. Earlier this winter, the Mariners were reportedly pursuing a reunion with either Carlos Santana or Justin Turner at first base. Turner is still available, though it’s unclear whether that interest on Seattle’s end has persisted as the first base market has shifted in recent days. Of the six teams besides Cleveland that Rosenthal noted had interest in Santana’s services, three of them have found solutions in the days since: the Rangers replaced Nathaniel Lowe with Joc Pederson, the Yankees signed Paul Goldschmidt, and of course the Diamondbacks traded for Naylor and opened the door for Santana to re-sign in Cleveland.

For the Mariners, Mets, and Padres, there’s still a number of interesting first base options available. Turner has been a reliably above average hitter 11 consecutive seasons now but celebrated his 40th birthday last month, a reality that could give some teams pause about committing to him as a regular option if they can’t offer significant time at DH as well. Pete Alonso is of course the top free agent available at first base, though barring a sudden change in plans by the Padres or Mariners it seems unlikely he would fit the budgets rumored to be in play for San Diego and Seattle. Anthony Rizzo, Mark Canha, Josh Bell, and Yuli Gurriel are among a number of veteran options at the position who could likely be had on a low-cost deal, and the trade market offers the possibility that the Giants could part ways with LaMonte Wade Jr. or perhaps even a deal with the Rays involving Yandy Diaz, who hasn’t been the subject of many trade rumors this winter but appeared to be available prior to this summer’s trade deadline.

Tigers Sign Jordan Balazovic To Minors Contract

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The Tigers have signed right-hander Jordan Balazovic to a minor league deal, according to Just Baseball Media’s Aram Leighton.  Balazovic returns to North American baseball after a brief stint with the Doosan Bears of the KBO League, as Balazovic signed with the Bears after he was released by the Twins last July.

A fifth-round pick for Minnesota in the 2016 draft, Balazovic earned some looks at the back of top-100 prospect lists during his climb up the ladder of the Twins’ farm system.  However, most of his success happened in the lower rungs of the ladder, as Balazovic has a 6.35 ERA in 151 2/3 career innings of Triple-A ball.  Despite those struggles, the Twins gave him a look at the big league level in 2023, and Balazovic posted a 4.44 ERA, 15.7% strikeout rate, and 11.1% walk rate across his first 24 1/3 innings in the Show.

The Twins opted to designate Balazovic for assignment last February and then released him, though he was quickly re-signed to another minor league contract.  More struggles at Triple-A led to Balazovic being released again so he could pursue his opportunity in South Korea, and Balazovic had a 4.26 ERA and a strong 27.6% strikeout rate in 57 innings with the Bears, starting 11 of his 12 games.

Balazovic still had an 11.2% walk rate with the Bears, which is a bit higher than his 9.01% career walk rate in the minors.  His control worsened as Balazovic faced higher levels of competition in the minors, while his strikeout and grounder rates were generally pretty solid, albeit with some variance within the small sample sizes of bouncing to different minor league levels.

Balazovic is only 26, so there’s logic in the Tigers taking a flier on a former notable prospect to see if another change of scenery helps the right-hander unlock any potential.  Detroit has also signed the likes of Matt Gage, Brendan White, and Ryan Miller to minors deals in recent days, as the Tigers are lining up some depth arms to evaluate in spring camp.  These types of signings are common practice for any team, of course, and won’t preclude Detroit from taking a run at bigger-name bullpen options like reported target Kirby Yates.

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