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A’s To Give Tyler Soderstrom Reps In Left Field

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The Athletics’ promotion of first base prospect Nick Kurtz, the No. 4 overall pick from last year’s draft, gives the team three middle-of-the-order but defensively limited sluggers: Kurtz, first baseman Tyler Soderstrom and designated hitter Brent Rooker. Soderstrom and Rooker have primarily handled first base and DH, respectively, in 2025, but GM David Forst tells reporters that Soderstrom is now expected to see some time in left field (link via Martin Gallegos of MLB.com). Rooker could also see occasional corner outfield time; he’s briefly appeared in both left field and right field already this season.

Kurtz, listed at 6’5″ and 240 pounds, is unlikely to see any time on the grass. He was a bat-first selection by the A’s last year, and his performance in Triple-A this season has largely mirrored that of Soderstrom on the big league roster. Through 97 plate appearances, he’s slashing .321/.385/.655 with seven homers and seven doubles. Kurtz has fanned in 26.8% of his plate appearances but also walked at a 10.3% clip.

Though he’s not likely to see time in the outfield, that doesn’t mean Kurtz is without defensive value. Baseball America tabs him as a potential plus defender at first base, noting that he moves better than one might expect given his size and that he has reliable hands. MLB.com agrees, calling him an “excellent” first base defender despite lacking the speed or range necessary to play other positions.

With Kurtz seemingly ticketed for regular work at first base or designated hitter, Soderstrom and Rooker will be forced to see more regular time in the outfield. Soderstrom has slightly above-average sprint speed, per Statcast, and scouting reports have long credited him with an above-average arm — as one would expect from a former catcher. He probably won’t be a plus defender in the outfield, but he also hasn’t graded well at first base anyhow. If he can continue at even 75% of his current .298/.362/.643 pace, the A’s probably won’t care much about the defense — regardless of which position he’s manning.

It’s a similar story with Rooker. He’s played first base and the outfield corners in the past, never drawing positive grades at any spot. For a player who’s sporting a .268/.343/.523 batting line and 75 home runs over his past 1240 plate appearances, however, that’s a secondary consideration.

If all three of Rooker, Soderstrom and Kurtz are hitting anywhere close to their full capabilities, the A’s suddenly look like one of the most formidable lineups in the American League. Leadoff man Lawrence Butler, who signed an extension prior to the season, is out to a terrific start after a big finish last year. He’s batting .289/.340/.534 (150 wRC+) in 424 plate appearances dating back to last June. JJ Bleday, who hit .243/.324/.437 with 20 homers last year, has begun to heat up after a cold start. Shortstop Jacob Wilson, the No. 6 overall pick in 2023, doesn’t have much power but has some of the league’s best contact skills and has hit .299/.332/.402 in his first 185 plate appearances. Catcher Shea Langeliers isn’t likely to hit for a high average, but he popped 29 homers last season and already has five in 2025.

Athletics To Promote Nick Kurtz

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The Athletics are going to promote top prospect Nick Kurtz, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. The A’s already have a 40-man vacancy, so they will only have to make a corresponding active roster move to make this official. Alden González of ESPN reports that Kurtz actually won’t be activated until Wednesday since he’s a left-handed hitter and the club is facing a lefty starter tomorrow, after today’s off-day.

Kurtz, 22, is one of the top prospects in baseball. He put up a .333/.510/.725 line in three seasons for Wake Forest, which led the A’s to select him fourth overall in last year’s draft. Since going pro, Kurtz has continued to mash.

He has appeared in 32 minor league games thus far, with appearances at Single-A and Double-A last year, followed by a jump to Triple-A this year. Combined, he has 147 plate appearances. His 24.5% strikeout rate is a bit high but he’s also drawn walks at a huge 15% clip and launched 11 home runs. He has a combined .336/.432/.689 line across those levels with a 171 wRC+, indicating he’s been 71% better than league average.

Coming into this year, before he even started mashing at Triple-A, Kurtz was considered one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America initially gave him the #34 spot, though he has since jumped up to #32. FanGraphs put him at #31, MLB Pipeline has him at #35, ESPN at #52 and Keith Law of The Athletic at #35. All outlets generally heap praise on his combination of power and his work covering the plate. While he’s only capable of playing first base, he is considered likely to be a strong defender at that spot.

It’s a pretty aggressive promotion, with Kurtz having just been drafted less than a year ago, but his numbers certainly suggest he’s ready for the show. The question is now is how the A’s will line up defensively. Tyler Soderstrom has been the regular at first base so far this year and he’s having a great campaign. He and Cal Raleigh are tied atop the major league home run leaderboard with nine. That has helped him produce a .298/.362/.643 line and 191 wRC+ so far this year.

Using the designated hitter spot would be an easy way to get both Kurtz and Soderstrom into the lineup on a regular basis, except that Brent Rooker is the DH most days. Rooker has been a huge power bat for over two years now, launching 30 homers in 2023 and 39 last year. He already has six so far this year. He does strike out a lot but the overall contributions are still huge. The A’s clearly agree, as they signed him to a five-year, $60MM extension in January.

Rooker does have 955 career innings in the outfield corners but with poor numbers out there. He has tallied -17 Defensive Runs Saved and -16 Outs Above Average in that time, which is why the A’s have used him as the DH so often.

Soderstrom came up as a catcher but there were questions about whether he could stick back there defensively. The A’s haven’t shown much interest in moving him back behind the plate, especially with Shea Langeliers performing well back there.

Gallegos recently suggested that the A’s have considered putting Soderstrom at third, though that would be a pretty bold in-season move since he’s never played the position. The simplest solution for now would be to live with Rooker’s defense in left field, cutting into the playing time of Seth Brown and Miguel Andujar out there, with JJ Bleday in center and Lawrence Butler in right.

Time will tell how the A’s line it up. There are no guarantees that Kurtz will hit the ground running, as even the top prospects sometimes struggle when first promoted to the majors. For now, it seems to be the latest exciting development in a gradually coalescing position player core for the A’s. Recent years have seen guys like Rooker, Butler and Langeliers cement themselves as solid core pieces. This year, Soderstrom seems to be doing the same, alongside Jacob Wilson. The group has been coming together nicely, which made the A’s a somewhat trendy underdog pick for a playoff spot coming into 2025. If Kurtz is able to thrive quickly, that would obviously help.

The pitching group is perhaps a bit behind the hitters and the rebuild is still a bit of a work in progress, with the club currently 10-12. That puts them last in the American League West but it’s still early and they’re only three games back of the lead. It’s been a dreary stretch in the club’s history, with three straight losing seasons from 2022-24 and the agonizing bolt from Oakland. But there are now reasons for optimism during their detour in West Sacramento, so things seem to generally be trending well as the club gets ready to make a new home in Las Vegas in a few years.

At this stage of the season, Kurtz can’t earn a full year of major league service time, at least not the traditional way. That means the A’s will not be in position to earn an extra draft pick via the prospect promotion incentive, regardless of how Kurtz performs in awards voting. But as a top prospect, Kurtz can be retroactively awarded a full service year if he’s able to finish in the top two in American League Rookie of the Year voting this year.

Assuming for now that he doesn’t pull that off, the A’s will be able to control him for six seasons after this one, meaning he won’t be slated for free agency until after 2031. If he stays up from now on, he would be a lock for Super Two status after 2027, meaning he would have four passes through arbitration instead of three.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

A’s Outright Angel Perdomo

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The Athletics announced that Angel Perdomo cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Las Vegas. The southpaw has the right to elect free agency since this is his second career outright, though the team did not provide any indication that he plans to do so.

Perdomo was designated for assignment over the weekend. He’s out of minor league options, so the A’s needed to get him through waivers in order to send him to Triple-A. The A’s had grabbed him off waivers from the Angels, who’d DFA him before Opening Day. Perdomo struggled through four appearances, giving up four free passes (three walks and a hit batter) in 3 1/3 innings. He recorded two strikeouts and allowed a pair of runs.

This was Perdomo’s first major league work in a year and a half. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery in the second half of the 2023 season while a member of the Pirates. That led Pittsburgh to waive him at the end of the year. Perdomo landed with the Braves, who non-tendered him but brought him back on a major league contract to keep him on the injured list for all of 2024.

Atlanta gave Perdomo a look in Spring Training. He pitched eight times, running a pedestrian 6:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 8 1/3 innings. The Braves concluded that he wouldn’t break camp and traded him to the Angels. Perdomo pitched twice in Spring Training for the Halos before they decided not to carry him on the Opening Day roster either.

Before the elbow injury, Perdomo showed interesting ability to miss bats. He fanned more than 37% of opposing hitters with a 3.72 ERA over 29 innings for Pittsburgh two seasons ago. Perdomo has a career 34.2% strikeout rate at the major league level, though his effectiveness has been undercut by a 16% walk rate.

Luis Severino Discusses Offseason Talks With Mets

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Luis Severino is scheduled to start for the Athletics on Sunday when the Mets and A’s face off in Sacramento, and as the veteran righty gets set to face his old team, Severino opened up about New York’s limited pursuit of a reunion last winter when Severino was a free agent.  Severino told SNY and other media members that he had interest in re-signing with the Mets last winter, and said he “told my agent that I’d stay for two years and $40MM.”

This is notably less than the three years and $67MM than Severino received from the Athletics, but the righty was open to the lesser payday.  “I knew it was going to be less money, but I just liked the environment there,” Severino said.  “The trainers were unbelievable, everything there, it was good.  So I was trying to sacrifice more money by staying in a place that I know…I can get better.  But by the end, like I said, I was not in their plans.”

From the Mets’ perspective, the club had some level of interest, though apparently only at an even lesser price.  Severino said he heard from his agent that the Mets’ “only offer they were going to give me was the same deal that they gave [Frankie] Montas.  So I think for me that was not fair.”

New York signed Montas to a two-year, $34MM deal that allows Montas the ability to opt out of the contract following the season.  (Severino’s deal with the A’s also has an opt-out clause following the 2026 season.)  The $17MM average annual value of that contract is also well below the $22.333MM AAV Severino is getting from the Athletics, and also less than the Mets’ one-year, $21.05MM qualifying offer that Severino turned down last fall.

Even if Severino was willing to drop to a $20MM AAV with his proposed two-year, $40MM contract, a further haircut down to $17MM was a bridge too far for the 31-year-old, especially given the interest he was garnering from other teams.  The Cubs and Blue Jays were publicly linked to Severino’s market before he surprised many by joining the low-payroll A’s, whose uncharacteristic spending spree this winter was more than a little related to the team’s desire to post a minimum luxury tax number related to its revenue-sharing recipient status.

Apart from the unique circumstances of the Mets’ record-setting splurge to add Juan Soto, president of baseball operations David Stearns was otherwise relatively measured in his offseason transactions, as evidenced by the lengthy staring contest of a negotiation with Pete Alonso before the slugger returned to the fold.  It could be that Stearns simply didn’t value Severino beyond a particular price point, or that the Mets prioritized Alonso and Sean Manaea (who both also received qualifying offers) moreso than Severino.

The QO perhaps factored into the Mets’ decision process in another fashion, as the Mets ended up down one draft pick overall for the winter despite having three players rejecting QOs.  The compensatory pick the Mets received for Severino ended up being one of the two picks the Mets had to surrender as compensation for signing Soto.  Of course, the club didn’t get any compensation for re-signing their own free agents — Alonso re-upped for two years and $54MM (with an opt-out after this season), and Manaea for a three-year, $75MM deal that contains $23.75MM in deferred money, dropping the current value in terms of luxury tax numbers to roughly $22MM per season.

Severino signed a one-year, $13MM deal with New York in the 2023-24 offseason, which he viewed as a bounce-back contract after several injury-plagued years with the Yankees.  The plan worked out well, as Severino had a solid 3.91 ERA over 182 innings with the Mets that paid off in the form of his three-year commitment from the Athletics.  It proved to be a win from the Mets’ perspective as well, as Severino provided steady rotation work for a team that made the NLCS, and New York even get an extra draft pick back for its investment.

Time will tell if the A’s made a wise move in locking up Severino, or if the Mets made a good call in letting him walk.  In the short term, however, some second-guessing is inevitable since both Manaea and Montas are hurt.  Manaea will be out until late May at the earliest after suffering an oblique strain and then a setback in his rehab, while Montas also figures to be out until roughly mid-May after a lat strain cost him all of Spring Training.  Severino has a modest 4.74 ERA over his three starts in an Athletics uniform, but he is at least healthy and on the mound, whereas the Mets have already had their rotation depth stretched in the early going.

Athletics Designate Angel Perdomo For Assignment

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The Athletics announced that left-hander Angel Perdomo has been designated for assignment.  Right-hander J.T. Ginn was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding roster move, and Ginn will get the start today against the Mets in West Sacramento.

Perdomo has only been in West Sacramento for two weeks, after the A’s claimed him off waivers from the Angels following another DFA.  This brief stint saw Perdomo make four relief appearances for the Athletics, posting a 5.40 ERA across 3 1/3 innings of work.  Perdomo pitched in yesterday’s game (albeit with only nine pitches in one-third of an inning), so he was the odd man out given the Athletics’ need to open up a roster spot for Ginn today.

Perdomo is out of minor league options, so the A’s had to designate him and expose him to the waiver wire before sending him to Triple-A.  If he does clear waivers, Perdomo has the ability to reject an outright assignment and become a free agent, since he has been previously outrighted off a 40-man roster during his career.

Tommy John surgery kept Perdomo off the mound entirely in 2024, and his return to action hasn’t seen an answer to the control problems that have plagued the southpaw for much of his limited MLB career.  Perdomo has a 16% career walk rate across his 52 career big league innings with the Brewers, Pirates, and Athletics, and a 5.54 career ERA reflects the lack of control.  Perdomo has only two strikeouts in 19 batters faced this year, but owns a whopping 34.2% strikeout rate over his time in the majors.

This ability to miss bats has gotten Perdomo attention from multiple teams.  The Braves took a flier on Perdomo with a split contract in the wake of his 2023 TJ procedure, but after getting a look at him in action this spring, Atlanta dealt Perdomo to the Angels late in camp.  The lefty’s time in the Angels’ camp was also limited to just a few days before he was designated and claimed away by the A’s.  It could be that another team in need of southpaw depth could be willing to make a claim and take a shot at fixing Perdomo’s control, since even an average amount of walks combined with his strikeout power could make him an interesting bullpen weapon.

Octavio Dotel Dies In Roof Collapse Tragedy

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Former major leaguer Octavio Dotel has died in a tragic accident, Major League Baseball confirmed. The news was first reported by multiple outlets in the Dominican Republic, including Diario Libre. The roof of the Jet Set club in Santo Domingo collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning. As of Tuesday night, at least 98 people have lost their lives while nearly 200 more were injured, according to The Associated Press. Dotel was 51 years old.

Exact details of the tragic situation are difficult to pin down, but it appears hundreds of people were in the venue for a concert when the collapse happened. Dozens of people have been pulled out alive but many have died and the figures are likely to change. Dotel was reportedly trapped for about 11 hours before being rescued and initially survived, but was declared dead after being taken to a hospital.

Dotel was well known to baseball fans because he pitched in the majors for over a decade and bounced around to various teams. He made his major league debut with the Mets in 1999, working in a swing role. He was traded to the Astros ahead of the 2000 season and continued to work both out of the rotation and the bullpen for a while.

He eventually moved into a primary relief role and had more success. Though his earned run average was over 5.00 in both 1999 and 2000, he posted a 2.66 ERA in 2001. He tossed 105 innings over 61 appearances, only four of those being starts.

He continued working as a solid reliever for years after that, bouncing to the Athletics, Yankees, Royals, Braves, White Sox, Pirates, Dodgers, Rockies, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Tigers. He finished his career with a 3.78 ERA in 758 games. He recorded 109 saves and 127 holds. He won the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011. He was a part of a combined no-hitter with the Astros in 2003. He retired in 2014.

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our deepest condolences to Dotel’s family, friends and fans, as well as the hundreds of others who have been impacted by this awful event.

Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images

Athletics Select Jason Alexander

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The Athletics announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Jason Alexander. In corresponding moves, righty Joey Estes was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas while left-hander Brady Basso was placed on the 60-day injured list.

Alexander, 32, is known for inspiring many George Costanza GIFs to be shared on social media but is also a baseball player. His major league track record is fairly limited. In 2022, he tossed 71 2/3 innings with the Brewers over 11 starts and seven relief appearances. He allowed 5.40 earned runs per nine, struck out 14.3% of batters faced, issued walks to 8.7% of opponents and got grounders on 50.2% of balls in play.

He hasn’t been in the big leagues since then. A shoulder injury hampered him throughout the first half of 2023. He started a rehab assignment in June but then the Brewers outrighted him off their roster in July. He had a 6.14 ERA in the minors that year and then elected free agency ahead of 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox and logged 138 1/3 innings for their Triple-A club with a 4.42 ERA.

He also signed a minor league deal with the A’s ahead of this season. He tossed 9 2/3 innings over five spring appearances, allowing six earned runs. He then reported to Vegas and made one start, tossing 3 1/3 innings with one earned run allowed.

The A’s were in Denver over the weekend, which is always challenging for a pitching staff. Friday’s game went 11 innings with the A’s using five relievers. On Saturday, they used only three, but they all had pitched in Friday’s contest as well. Yesterday, Estes lasted only three innings, which led to Mitch Spence tossing 4 1/3 innings in relief. Overall, the relief group is fairly taxed and Spence is probably going to be unavailable for a few days, so Alexander is up to give them another arm capable of eating multiple innings.

Estes, meanwhile, will look for a reset in Vegas. He posted a 5.01 ERA last year and earned a rotation job out of camp this year. However, his first two starts have led to 12 earned runs allowed in seven innings, so he’s currently sitting on a bloated 15.43 ERA. His optional assignment opens a rotation hole but they may not need to fill it right away. The A’s have an off-day on Thursday and then another on Monday. They then play six in a row before another off-day on the 21st.

After that, they will play 16 straight games, but they can perhaps skate by with a four-man staff for now. It’s also possible that Spence could be given the gig, since he was kept in the majors while Estes was sent down.

As for Basso, he was shut down in early March due to a shoulder strain and started the season on the 15-day IL. His status is unclear but it seems the A’s don’t expect him back before late May, based on this transfer.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Dodgers Acquire Esteury Ruiz

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The Athletics announced that they have traded outfielder Esteury Ruiz to the Dodgers for right-hander Carlos Duran. Prior to that official announcement, Alden González of ESPN reported that Ruiz was headed to the Dodgers. The outfielder was designated for assignment by the Athletics a few days ago. The Dodgers will option him to Triple-A. Right-hander Kyle Hurt has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Hurt required Tommy John surgery in July and won’t be an option until later in the season.

Ruiz, now 26, long been known for his wheels but has always had questions about his bat. He burst onto the major league scene with the A’s in 2023, topping the American League by stealing 67 bases. At the plate, he slashed .254/.309/.345 for a wRC+ of 85. Despite his speed, his glovework received mixed reviews. He was credited with two Outs Above Average but -20 Defensive Runs Saved.

The stolen bases weren’t enough to get buy-in from the A’s. They optioned him to the minors early in 2024. He was recalled but then suffered a strained left wrist which kept him on the IL for months. He also underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in September. He was in camp with the A’s this spring but was optioned in mid-March and bumped off the 40-man when they claimed left-hander Angel Perdomo off waivers this past weekend.

The minor league offense has been better in recent years. Dating back to the start of 2022, Ruiz has a line of .337/.444/.535 on the farm. However, most of that was in his breakout 2022 season. He was in the majors in 2023 and mostly hurt in 2024. His minor league production was more middling prior to that. He slashed a combined .247/.318/.391 from 2017 to 2021 across various minor league levels for a 97 wRC+.

It’s been up-and-down overall. His huge 2022 showing got him a lot of attention. The Padres traded him to the Brewers that year as part of the infamous Josh Hader deal. Milwaukee then flipped Ruiz to the A’s as part of the three-team Sean Murphy trade. The A’s clearly were making a big bet on Ruiz at that time but apparently soured on him after his middling offensive performance in 2023 and then injury-marred 2024.

For the Dodgers, they effectively had a 40-man roster spot open due to Hurt’s surgery. There’s little harm in bringing Ruiz aboard to see how he looks after last year’s injuries. Even if the bat doesn’t come around, he could perhaps prove to be useful as a pinch-running specialist. Any offensive developments would be a nice bonus.

Duran, 23, has been working as a starter in the minor leagues with some decent numbers but health concerns. Despite primarily working as a starter in the minors, he’s never topped 81 innings in a season.

In March of last year, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him the #22 prospect in the Dodgers’ system, noting that Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 and he also had some shoulder troubles on his track record. He returned to the mound last year and gradually built up to toss 53 1/3 innings across 19 starts. He had a 3.71 earned run average, 29.4% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate. He reached Triple-A in the process and will give the A’s some non-roster pitching depth at the upper levels.

Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images.

Poll: Who Will Win The AL West?

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Opening Day has finally arrived, and teams all around the league are gearing up for another pennant chase in hopes of being crowned this year’s World Series champion. Of course, there’s still another seven months to go before someone raises the Commissioner’s Trophy. Until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. We’ll be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. That series has already covered the National League, with the Dodgers, Cubs, and Phillies each coming out on top in their respective divisions. Now, the series moved on to the American League with a look at the AL West. Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.

Houston Astros (88-73)

The only club to make the playoffs from the AL West last year, the Astros enter the 2025 season on the heels of a postseason that snapped their nearly decade-long run of trips to the ALCS. After a winter where the team parted ways with longtime franchise stalwarts such as Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Justin Verlander, and Ryan Pressly, the team is looking very different than it has in previous years. There’s some clear signs of weakness, most notably the fact that the club’s outfield depth is thin enough that their starters in the outfield corners are two infielders: longtime second baseman Jose Altuve has moved to left, while top third base prospect Cam Smith is patrolling right field with just five games of experience outside of A-ball.

Flawed as the club’s roster may be, there’s still plenty to like about the Astros in 2025. Christian Walker is an upgrade at first base and Isaac Paredes is an All-Star caliber hitter who should benefit greatly from the Crawford Boxes as he steps into the third base job vacated by Bregman. Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown have a chance to form a strong front-of-the-rotation duo, while few teams boast a pair of arms better than Josh Hader and Bryan Abreu at the back of their bullpen. Whether that will be enough to maintain a stranglehold over the AL West in 2025 even after this winter’s departures remains to be seen, however.

Seattle Mariners (85-77)

2025 ended in soul-crushing fashion for Mariners fans as they missed the playoffs by just one game for the second consecutive season. The club’s offseason was similarly disappointing as well; despite rumors of trades that would’ve sent players like Triston Casas, Nico Hoerner, and Alec Bohm to the Pacific Northwest making their way through the rumor mill this winter, the club was content to simply re-sign Jorge Polanco and bring in veteran infielder Donovan Solano to augment a lineup that was in the bottom ten for runs scored last year.

Fortunately, there’s still some reason for optimism headed into 2025. The club’s elite rotation remains in place, and a quintet of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller, and Luis Castillo should still give them an excellent chance to win on any given day, particularly with a strong bullpen that features fireballers like Andres Munoz and Matt Brash on the back end. A big year from Julio Rodriguez would go a long way to correcting last season’s offensive woes, but even if Rodriguez starts out slowly again in 2025 he’ll have support from a full season of deadline addition Randy Arozarena, who posted strong numbers down the stretch after being acquired from the Rays last summer. Will that be enough to get the club their first division title since 2001?

Texas Rangers (78-84)

When looking at clubs that finished below .500 in 2024, there’s arguably no team with more helium entering the 2025 campaign than the Rangers. The 2023 champs didn’t have the most explosive offseason, but nonetheless enter the season with an overhauled bullpen highlighted by Chris Martin and Robert Garcia as well as a pair of solid additions to the lineup in Joc Pederson and Jake Burger. The upside a healthy season from Jacob deGrom could offer the rotation is impossible to overstate, and the middle infield tandem of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien once again figures to be among the best in the sport.

If there’s a flaw in the club’s present construction, it’s a heavy reliance on youth. The club’s vaunted Vanderbilt duo of Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker are supremely talented and were always expected to be a big part of the team in 2025, but leaning on both youngsters as members of the Opening Day rotation is a tall ask given the pair’s inconsistency and inexperience at the major league level and highlights the lack of reliability in the club’s rotation outside of Nathan Eovaldi. In the lineup, meanwhile, Wyatt Langford appears to be as good as bet as any sophomore player can be to have a big year, but both he and Evan Carter struggled to stay healthy in 2024. Will those youngsters be able to carry the Rangers back to the playoffs?

Athletics (69-93)

West Sacramento’s temporary baseball team showed signs of life for the first time in a while during their final months in Oakland, even ending the season with a solid 32-32 record after the All-Star break. After departing Oakland, the club aggressively attempted to improve this winter. They signed right-hander Luis Severino and traded for southpaw Jeffrey Springs to bolster the rotation while adding Gio Urshela to the lineup and Jose Leclerc to the bullpen. That group of additions join a solid core featuring Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Mason Miller, and Shea Langeliers.

As solid as that collection of talent is, however, the A’s will need a lot more to go right in order to compete this year. Steps forward from homegrown arms like JP Sears and Joey Estes would go a long way, as would former and current top prospects in the lineup like Tyler Soderstrom, Max Muncy, and Jacob Wilson breaking out and playing up to their ceilings. It’s certainly not impossible to imagine most of that happening. And if it did, the team surprising and making it back to the postseason for the first time since they tore down their core from the late 2010s should be on the table.

Los Angeles Angels (63-99)

Anaheim’s first year post-Shohei Ohtani could hardly have gone worse. Franchise face Mike Trout played just 29 games last year, and very few things went right for the club as they narrowly avoided a 100-loss season. That didn’t stop them from making an effort to improve this offseason, however. The club added Jorge Soler to the lineup for a stable source of power, with Yoan Moncada, Travis d’Arnaud, and Tim Anderson filling out the bench. Meanwhile, Yusei Kikuchi, Kyle Hendricks, and Kenley Jansen were added to the pitching staff to deepen the rotation and bring a proper closer into the bullpen.

Kikuchi, Soler, and Jansen are all solid pieces, but the club will need more than those ancillary additions to bounce back from a dreadful 2024 campaign. Trout putting together his first fully healthy season in half a decade would go a long way, and the club’s decision to shift him to right field could help in that goal. Outside of that, the club will need its young position players like Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto, and Logan O’Hoppe to step up and put together big seasons if it has any hope of catching up to the top dogs in the AL West.

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Just two seasons after the top three AL West clubs finished within a game of each other in 2023, that same trio appear set to jockey for the top spot in the division once again. After years of being the prohibitive favorite on paper, the Astros look more vulnerable than ever. Will their offseason additions be enough to keep them on top, or will the Mariners’ impressive rotation or the Rangers’ infusion of young talent be enough to finally overtake Houston? Or, perhaps, you think the Athletics or Angels will surprise with their respective collections of offseason additions and talented youngsters. Have your say in the poll below:

Athletics Claim Angel Perdomo, Designate Esteury Ruiz For Assignment

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The Athletics announced this afternoon that they’ve claimed left-hander Angel Perdomo off waivers from the Angels. In a corresponding move, center fielder Esteury Ruiz was designated for assignment. The Angels separately announced that left-hander Jose Quijada as cleared waivers and been assigned outright to the minor leagues.

Perdomo, 31 in May, signed with the Blue Jays out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut back in 2012. He didn’t end up cracking the big leagues until the shortened 2020 season, however, at which point he was a member of the Brewers. Perdomo struggled badly across parts of two seasons in Milwaukee, with an 8.24 ERA and a 6.43 FIP in 19 2/3 innings of work across 22 appearances. While his 33.7% strikeout rate was nothing short of excellent, Perdomo was held back by a massive 23.5% walk rate.

The southpaw went on to spend the 2022 season in the Rays farm system, where he pitched quite well at the Triple-A level, before signing a minor league deal with the Pirates for the 2023 season. He pitched solid for Pittsburgh that year, with a 3.72 ERA and 3.01 FIP in 29 innings of work as he struck out a sensational 37.6% of his opponents. Unfortunately, elbow issues cut Perdomo’s season short and he ultimately required Tommy John surgery during the offseason. That led the Pirates to designate the lefty for assignment, at which point he was claimed by Atlanta and signed to a split deal for the 2024 season.

Perdomo ultimately did not pitch in 2024, however, and though he stuck with the club over the offseason he was ultimately traded to the Angels earlier this month. He was DFA’d by Anaheim prior to Opening Day, and now finds himself headed north to West Sacramento where he’ll get the opportunity to join the A’s bullpen if he can prove he’s healthy and effective. The southpaw’s Spring Training was something of a mixed bag, as he impressed with a 1.80 ERA but walked (6) nearly as many batters as he struck out (8). If he pitches as well as he did for Pittsburgh, however, Perdomo could wind up being a solid complement to Mason Miller from the left hand side in the late innings.

Making room for Perdomo on the 40-man roster is Ruiz. The center fielder is most famous for being the centerpiece of the return the Athletics received in a controversial three-team trade that sent franchise catcher Sean Murphy to Atlanta and promising young backstop William Contreras to Milwaukee. While Contreras has gone on to put himself on the shortlist for the title of best catcher in baseball with the Brewers, the return the A’s received for Murphy has largely failed to produce in the majors. That includes Ruiz, who appeared in 132 games in 2023 as the club’s regular center fielder and swiped a league-leading 67 bases in 80 attempts. Impressive as his wheels were on the basepaths, however, he was a pedestrian defender in center field and failed to hit enough to justify his everyday job, slashing just .254/.309/.345 in 497 trips to the plate.

The 2024 season saw Ruiz open the season with the club but get optioned to the minor leagues in fairly short order. Overall, he hit just .200/.270/.382 with five steals in nine attempts across 29 games with the A’s during their final season in Oakland before missing the majority of the season with a wrist sprain and ultimately undergoing knee surgery in September. Ruiz came into camp with a chance at a job with the A’s this year, but hit just .121/.171/.152 in Spring Training, leaving the club to option him to the minor leagues. Evidently, the A’s feel he no longer has much of a future with the organization following the emergence of pieces like Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday. Going forward, they’ll have one week to work out a trade involving Ruiz or else he’ll need to be placed on waivers. Should he pass through waivers unclaimed, the club will have the opportunity to outright him to Triple-A to serve as non-roster depth going forward.

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