With the offseason quickly approaching, a number of players elect minor league free agency on a regular basis. Separate from MLB free agents, who reach free agency five days after the World Series by accumulating six years of service time in the big leagues, eligible minor league players can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season comes to a close. Each of these players were outrighted off of their organization’s 40-man roster at some point during the season and either have been outrighted previously in their career or have the service time necessary to reach free agency since they were not added back to their former club’s rosters. For these players, reaching free agency is the expected outcome, and there will surely be more in the coming weeks. Here at MLBTR, we’ll provide occasional updates as players continue to elect minor league free agency.
Here is the next batch, courtesy of the transaction tracker at MiLB.com:
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Pitchers
Burdi has massive potential if he can get healthy.
Agreed. Hoping he gets a steady opportunity in majors.
We looking at the same guy? Dude can’t stop walking people and his FB velo continues to fall. He basically has 2 pitches. With the slider use ballooning up to over 60% only a matter of time before he’s hurt. Someone will take a flyer on him but they won’t be expecting much
I am surprised no team has ever really given Edwin Rios a shot. Not saying he’s a future star or anything, but he hasn’t done bad in his brief time in the Majors, and I can’t imagine he’d be any worse than what the Nationals, Royals, or Rockies trotted out at 1B and DH.
Edwin Rios, Matt Beaty was pretty decent IMHO in their stint with the Dodgers. Kinda weird that they cant translate their success with the Dodgers when they move to other clubs.
Well, they still can move to Japan though. Pretty sure Yakult can upgrade their foreign hitter squad with Rios and Beaty, because Jose Osuna only hitting .253/.309/.437 with 23HR in 134 games and Domingo Santana hit slightly better at .300/.360/.484 with 18HR
I don’t know if it’s an issue of whether or not he can translate his talents to MLB, rather than not been given a fair shot yet. Rios had a 110 OPS+ and 20 home runs with the Dodgers, but that was in 291 plate appearances spread across four seasons. Also, I’d say wouldn’t say that Santana only hit ‘slightly’ better than Osuna. There’s a pretty large difference in a .253/.309/.437 slash and .300/.360/.484 slash. That’s a near 100 point difference in OPS, and a near 50 point difference in BA.
Small Sample Size Kings.
WOW !!!
With all that available free agent talent,
Expansion should be just moments away !!
We are going to have some major production declines in the next few years because the COVID cohort missed key development time and won’t ever realize their full potential.
Rios->Rays->ASG?
Congratulations on their retirement
Claudio is going to get scooped up pretty quickly, I’ve always liked him in relief. I think Austin Voth is also a guy that become a good no.4 in the right circumstances, he has decent stuff. Can see Tampa Bay taking a flyier on him
Claudio could return to Texas. Chapman, Smith, and Stratton are all free agents this offseason.
“21 bums become free agents”
Calling them bums, they who has played professionally, what level of baseball did you play?
Not mentioned here but I’d like some teams to look at Dayson Croes. Still fairly young and hitting the ball off the cover at essentially AA level from the American Association. Again, not an instant impact player but worth taking a flyer on in the minors. Plays 3B & 2B too.
He has Luis Arraez’s walk to strikeout numbers and contact ability. That’s impressive.
This is probably the roster for the 2025 Montreal Monarchs expansion team.
Please no more explanation! There are not enough good players to go around now. It would just water down the MLB even more…
I chose free agency too, but no one cared.
Might be the same for some of these guys.
Voth. In 22, often the Os didn’t have a 5th rotation piece. So the Birds did that pitching by committee thing. Austin would kick things off as the SP … and with results. In 23, as a RP, oof. Fell off a cliff. Tampa Bay has recent history of that by committee approach. Rays bound?
Everyone cannot be a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.
If the terms are right, watch out!
Pirates are chomping at the bit for these suspects.
Five of them have already played in the organization.
Other than your implication that the Pirates play cheap by trying to catch lightning in a bottle with minor league free agents, what leads you to believe that anyone on this list is a clear upgrade to what they have in their system?
This offseason, the Pirates won’t be fishing for MLB players in the bargain bin, but every organization knows they need depth – the guys on this list are a lot of “in case of emergency, break glass” types. Sorry to say, but even teams with infinite payroll sometimes get to the 5th or 6th option at a position and need to call up someone they know can’t cut it as a regular.
A reflection on the relief pitching of the NL East team the last few years, with some of these guys having NYM or WAS in their most recent histories ( 2020-2023 ).
But the truth is every team needs some of these scrubeenies in their system to take over when those max effort stars go down with their “forearm strains” each season.
Eastern – Your statement could not be more true. There are not enough stars, average players, or below average players to go around!! Most if not all the MLB teams had players on the field who really were not good enough to be in the MLB yet there they were.
I can certainly see why these players hang on as minimum pay is $3900 per day (@55,000 in 2 weeks).
Cubs need to re sign Burdi and prob will. He was looking good before his appendix burst.
What is the story with Erasmo Ramirez? The couple of times I have seen him, he has been lights out.
Don’t know if he would be worth a flyer or someone’s reclamation project. Anyone got the goods on this guy?
He was pretty decent the first go-around with TB. Not so much this season. Good luck with that.
I can bet Erasmo will be the first one to find a job. I don’t know how or who his agent is but he always finds a job