Pirates To Hire Brent Strom As Assistant Pitching Coach
The Pirates are hiring Brent Strom as an assistant pitching coach, as first reported by Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The veteran coach was dismissed from the lead pitching role with the Diamondbacks at the outset of the offseason.
It comes as something of a surprise that Strom accepted an assistant pitching coach role. He’d been a team’s top pitching voice for more than a decade. The Astros hired him as pitching coach going into the 2014 season. He quickly secured a reputation as one of the sport’s top coaches. Houston had quite a few developmental success stories among their young arms over his eight-year tenure. Arizona hired Strom during the 2021-22 offseason. He held a role on Torey Lovullo’s staff for three years.
Strom will now work alongside pitching coach Oscar Marin in Pittsburgh. (The Bucs also still need to hire a bullpen coach after dismissing Justin Meccage in September.) Marin and Strom will work with one of the sport’s most talented young staffs. Paul Skenes and Jared Jones already look like top-of-the-rotation starters as they go into their second seasons. Mitch Keller is a quality mid-rotation arm who might still have untapped potential. Bailey Falter and Luis Ortiz have the final two rotation spots on paper, though the Bucs could graduate prospects Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington before long.
Strom is Pittsburgh’s second notable hire of the day. The Bucs tabbed Matt Hague as hitting coach this morning. The bullpen coach may be the final remaining decision as Derek Shelton builds his 2025 staff.
Rich Hill Open To Pitching In 2025
Free agent left-hander Rich Hill is representing the United States in the Premier12 tournament, scheduled to start Thursday night’s game. But he’s open to returning to Major League Baseball in 2025, which would be his age-45 season.
“I obviously love the game of baseball, I love the work and competition or I wouldn’t be doing this,’’ Hill says to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. “But we’ll see what the future holds as far as playing. I’m not sure if this will be it or not. I think we’ll probably know in a month or so. I’d love to play another year and have an opportunity to get into the postseason and win a World Series. That’s everybody’s dream. I’ve been close a couple of times, but it’s not like anything I’ve experienced in the game. Playing in the postseason, there’s nothing like it. Nothing at all like it.’’
Despite that willingness to keep taking the mound, he also seems to be aware the opportunity might not come. “I know I can still provide innings,” he says. “But, if not, and that’s it, I can call it on my own terms, knowing I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of really cool experiences in this game.’’ If Hill doesn’t get the playing opportunity he’s looking for, Nightengale relays that Hill would be open to non-playing roles, perhaps in coaching or some other off-field position.
Hill is coming off an experimental 2024 season that didn’t go especially well. He tried to follow through on a creative plan wherein he would intentionally sit out the first half of the season. The idea was that he could spend time with his family and keep his arm fresh for a stretch run, then pick his landing spot based on how the season was playing out.
It was an unorthodox script but one with some thought behind it. Hill signed with the Pirates in 2023 and pitched decently, posting a 4.76 earned run average. But he then got flipped to the Padres before his results backed up and the club fell from contention. The idea behind his 2024 plan was that he would save his gas for later in the year, as opposed to running out in the late summer. He would also theoretically reduce his chances of playing out the final days of the season on a club out of the race.
Unfortunately, the theory turned out to be better than the praxis in this case. Hill followed through on his plan by keeping his arm ready on his own time. But then he settled for a minor league deal for the Red Sox, a fringe contender, in the middle of August. They did add him to their roster in late August but let him make just four relief appearances, in which he posted a 4.91 ERA, before designating him for assignment and then releasing him.
Presumably, Hill is considering a move back to a more traditional timeline for next year, since he says he’ll probably know “in a month or so” whether he’s coming back or not. The 2024 season doesn’t give him much to market to clubs, but he was a fine innings eater for the first half of 2023 and had an ERA around 4.00 in the two prior campaigns. He tossed 158 2/3 innings in 2022 with a 3.86 ERA and then a 4.27 ERA over 124 1/3 innings in 2023.
Given Hill’s age, it’s remarkable that continuing to pitch is even a consideration, but his career arc has rarely taken the obvious path. He had some early career success almost 20 years ago now, including throwing 195 innings in 2007 with a 3.92 ERA. But injuries and underperformance led to a decade of him toiling away without much to show for it. From 2008 to 2014, he was only able to throw 153 big league innings with a 5.41 ERA, bouncing around to various clubs.
But then he had an amazing career resurgence that started in 2015. He parlayed a strong showing with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League into a deal with the Red Sox. A tiny 1.55 ERA in four starts with Boston led to a $6MM guarantee on a one-year pact with the Athletics for 2016. He would post a 2.12 ERA that year between Oakland and the Dodgers, getting traded midseason. That led to a three-year, $48MM deal to return to Los Angeles, a contract that started in his age-37 season, an amazing time for a pitcher to get his big payday.
He gave the Dodgers 327 innings with a 3.30 ERA over the course of that deal. His time with the Dodgers was also when he got most of the postseason experience that he clearly treasures. He did toss three playoffs innings for the Cubs way back in 2007 but then 50 postseason frames for the Dodgers from 2016 to 2019. Unfortunately, a ring eluded him in that time. The Dodgers finally won it all in 2020, their first title since 1988, but Hill signed with the Twins that year.
The results haven’t been as good lately, but that’s not really too surprising, considering his age. Perhaps Hill can again defy the odds and engineer another comeback. If not, one of the more unique trajectories will finally wind down.
Rockies Reportedly Willing To Trade Brendan Rodgers, Justin Lawrence
The Rockies are open to trading second baseman Brendan Rodgers and right-hander Justin Lawrence, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Being open to a trade doesn’t necessarily mean one will come together, but it’s perhaps a notable stance since the Rockies have generally had a relatively low willingness to make their players available.
The outside perception of the Rockies has often been that they’ve been too confident in their internal assessments. In recent years, players like C.J. Cron, Elias Díaz and Daniel Bard were signed to ill-fated extensions instead of being dealt while they still had some trade value. Trevor Story wasn’t moved as his club control dwindled, departing for modest compensation after he declined a qualifying offer. Jon Gray didn’t even get the QO as the club seemingly believed they could re-sign him, but he went to the Rangers instead, with Colorado getting no compensation whatsoever. Owner Dick Monfort infamously stated that he thought the club could play .500 ball in 2023, a season they went on to finish 59-103.
But perhaps there is more realism now. The club did do a bit of selling at the deadline a few months ago, flipping relievers Nick Mears and Jalen Beeks. They finished 2024 with a record of 61-101, their second straight campaign with their loss tally in triple digits. There are some encouraging developments on the roster but perhaps the club is aware that short-term contention is a long shot.
There’s little reason for the club to be clinging too tight to Rodgers, as he is entering his final season of club control. He also hasn’t done much to establish himself as a core player, despite his past pedigree as a third overall pick and former top 100 prospect. He has taken over 1800 trips to the plate and has a line of .266/.316/.409, which translates to a wRC+ of 86, indicating he’s been 14% below league average overall.
The reviews of his defense have been mixed. Outs Above Average has given him a -5 grade for his career. He was above par in 2022 and 2023 but then dipped back down again this year. He has 12 Defensive Run Saved in his career but in bizarre fashion. He has been below average by that metric in most of his seasons but had a massive +22 showing in 2022, a figure that looks like a clear outlier.
He got his salary up to $3.2MM in 2024 and is due for one more raise in 2025, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $5.5MM next year. Given that price point and his performance, it makes sense the Rockies would be open to moving him rather than keeping him for one more year in which they are unlikely to compete.
But at the same time, the interest won’t be terribly high. Last year, free agents like Adam Frazier and Amed Rosario signed one-year deal for less money than the projected arb salary for Rodgers. Those two guys are back on the market now, as are second basemen like Brandon Drury, Enrique Hernández, Whit Merrifield and others. With those options, it’s hard to imagine a team giving up anything of value for Rodgers at this point.
Lawrence is perhaps a more intriguing trade candidate. He still has four years of club control and the Rockies could consider keeping him. But on the other hand, he’s a bit of late bloomer, turning 30 years old next month.
Relievers tend to be volatile, as Lawrence himself as shown. He seemed to have a nice breakout over 2022 and 2023, striking out 24.4% of batters faced and and getting ground balls on 49.4% of balls in play. His 11.2% walk rate was on the high side but he managed to post a combined 4.44 earned run average over those two seasons, not too bad for a guy spending half his time at Coors Field. He also seemed to grab a leverage role, earning 11 holds and saves apiece in 2023.
But in 2024, his strikeouts disappeared, falling to a 16.1% rate. He still got grounders but his walk rate also stayed high and the total package resulted in a 6.49 ERA for the year. He only secured two saves and five holds, falling down the pecking order.
He just qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player, but with a projected bump to just $1MM next year, barely over the $760K minimum. For four years of affordable control, some club might be intrigued by the possibility of what Lawrence could do away from Coors. For his career, he has a 6.96 ERA at home but a 3.86 mark on the road. But for the Rockies, a 30-year-old reliever with a growing salary isn’t someone you have to build around when you’ve just eclipsed 100 losses two years in a row, so they could listen to offers and see what’s out there.
Red Sox To Name Chris Holt Bullpen Coach
Former Orioles pitching director Chris Holt has reached an agreement to become the Red Sox’ new bullpen coach, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Holt has already received a formal offer, and the hiring could become official next week, per Kubatko.
Holt departed Baltimore’s staff at the end of the season as the organization underwent a coaching overhaul in the wake of a limp to the finish line and a second consecutive quick postseason exit. He was one of several coaches/instructors to be replaced, joining hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte.
Baltimore general manager Mike Elias was familiar with Holt from the pair’s time together in the Astros organization. He hired Holt away as the Orioles’ new minor league pitching coordinator in 2019. Holt rose to the title of major league pitching coach and was eventually bumped up even further, being tasked with overseeing the entire organization’s pitching practice. Holt held those roles concurrently in an effort to form a cohesive top-down vision throughout the team’s big league staff and pitching development efforts.
Holt will join the Red Sox staff with a narrower focus in his responsibilities. He’ll join a revamped pitching practice in Boston that began when Craig Breslow, a former big league reliever who’s entering his second season as the team’s chief baseball officer, hired former Sox reliever Andrew Bailey away from the Giants to serve as the club’s new pitching coach. Holt will also work closely with another Breslow hire from last offseason: Red Sox director of pitching Justin Willard (the same role Holt held in Baltimore and that Breslow himself held with the Cubs before landing the top job in Boston).
Holt fills a role that was vacated when the Sox dismissed six coaches, including bullpen coach Kevin Walker, at season’s end. Walker had been in place since being hired by former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom back in 2020.
Rangers Sign Luis Curvelo To Major League Contract
November 13: The Rangers made it official today, announced they signed Curvelo to a major league deal. Their 40-man roster count climbs to 37.
November 10: The Rangers are closing in on a deal with right-handed reliever Luis Curvelo, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. It will be a major league contract for the 24-year-old hurler.
Earlier this month, Morosi reported that Curvelo was “one of the most popular free agents” at the annual GM Meetings in San Antonio. To be clear, that doesn’t necessarily mean that teams preferred Curvelo to any of the top relievers on the market. More likely, it means they viewed him as a low-risk, high-reward target who could provide meaningful innings at a fraction of the price of a proven big league pitcher.
The Venezuela native signed with the Mariners as an international free agent in 2018 and worked his way up to Double-A Arkansas in 2024. Over 49 games (66 2/3 IP) this past season, he produced the best numbers of his career to date, pitching to a 2.57 ERA and 3.03 FIP. An unusually low 7.8% home run-to-fly ball ratio and an unsustainable .227 BABIP are signs that he’s due for some regression, but even so, it’s hard not to be impressed by his performance – especially his 30.6% strikeout rate.
Curvelo has been a full-time reliever since his age-18 season, which partially explains why he was never a highly-ranked prospect in Seattle’s system. However, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs liked what he saw enough to rank Curvelo as the no. 31 prospect in the Mariners organization this past July. Longenhagen was unconvinced by the righty’s fastball but had nothing but praise for his slider. For what it’s worth, Curvelo was even better from July onward, putting up a 1.86 ERA, a 2.44 FIP, and a 33.6% strikeout rate over his final 29 innings pitched.
As for why Seattle would let Curvelo walk after such a strong season? He was eligible for minor league free agency this offseason, and the Mariners would have had to add him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from leaving. Morosi suggests they simply didn’t have space on the 40-man, and evidently, they weren’t willing to make space either. The Rangers currently have four open spots on the 40-man, giving them plenty of room to add Curvelo to the mix. There’s a good chance he’ll begin the 2025 campaign at Triple-A Round Rock (he still has all of his minor league options remaining), but presumably, Texas is hoping he’ll play a role in the big league bullpen at some point next year.
By almost every metric, the Rangers’ bullpen was one of the worst in the league this past season. Collectively, Texas relievers ranked 26th in ERA, 23rd in SIERA, and 25th in FanGraphs WAR. To make matters worse, those poor numbers came in spite of phenomenal performances from veterans Kirby Yates and David Robertson, both of whom are now free agents. So are swingman José Ureña and Rangers bullpen mainstay José Leclerc. If this team is planning to get back into contention in 2025, and there’s no reason to think they aren’t, the bullpen is an obvious area for improvement. However, owner Ray Davis is reportedly hoping to get back under the $241MM luxury threshold, which means president of baseball operations Chris Young will have limited funds at his disposal. Thus, it makes perfect sense that Young would target the relatively inexpensive upside of Curvelo.
Angels Release Ryan Miller
November 13: Miller has been released by the Angels, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
November 7: The Angels designated righty reliever Ryan Miller for assignment, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. That’s the associated 40-man roster move for the Kyle Hendricks signing.
Miller, 28, earned his first major league call in August. He made 13 appearances late in the year. Miller gave up seven runs (six earned) while striking out 11 and issuing eight walks across 13 innings. The Clemson product showed a fairly typical sinker-slider combination, averaging just under 94 MPH on the fastball. While he didn’t miss many bats in his brief MLB look, he’s coming off a nice year in Triple-A. Miller tossed 62 1/3 innings of 2.45 ERA ball in Salt Lake. He struck out around a quarter of opponents while keeping his walks to a tidy 5.6% clip.
The Halos acquired Miller last offseason, grabbing him from the Red Sox in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. They have five days to explore trade possibilities but are likelier to try to run him through outright waivers.
Guardians Promote Grant Fink To Hitting Coach
The Guardians have made a few notable changes to their coaching staff, as relayed on X by Mandy Bell of MLB.com. Grant Fink is the new hitting coach, replacing Chris Valaika, who departed to join Terry Francona in Cincinnati. Also, bench coach Craig Albernaz is still on the staff but with a promotion to assistant manager.
Fink, 34 next month, had a brief professional playing career. He was drafted by Cleveland in 2013 and played with them in the minors through 2015, but never climbed higher than Single-A. He transitioned into a coaching role in the minors in 2017 and has spent the past three years as minor league hitting coordinator. With Valaika being whisked across the state by Francona, Fink will get a chance to come up to the major league coaching staff.
Albernaz, 42, has been a popular name in managerial searches lately. He was connected to the skipper vacancies of the Marlins and White Sox and was reportedly a finalist for both jobs, but the Sox went will Will Venable and Albernaz withdrew himself from consideration for the Miami job.
Instead, he will stick with the Guardians with a title change and perhaps a salary bump, though that’s pure speculation. Albernaz spent four years on the staff of the Giants, working as bullpen/catching coach, before coming to the Guardians a year ago. After one year as bench coach in Cleveland, he had enough respect around the game to be a hot commodity in managerial rumors, but he’ll stick around as manager Stephen Vogt’s top lieutenant.
Pirates To Hire Matt Hague As Hitting Coach
The Pirates are hiring Matt Hague away from the Blue Jays to fill their vacant hitting coach position, reports Scott Mitchell of TSN. He served as Toronto’s assistant hitting coach in 2024.
Prior to his time on the Blue Jays’ major league staff, Hague served as the hitting coach at three minor league levels in Toronto’s system. The 39-year-old played in parts of three major league seasons — all with the Jays and Pirates — but only appeared in 43 games and took just 91 plate appearances.
The Pirates drafted Hague in the ninth round back in 2008, and he played in parts of 10 minor league seasons in addition to a season in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and multiple stints in the Dominican Winter League. Though Hague never got much of a big league look, he posted a career .298/.376/.423 line in nearly 800 Triple-A games.
Hague departs one coaching staff that’s undergoing turnover in the hitting department for another. Toronto parted ways with lead hitting coach Guillermo Martinez in late September and hired David Popkins, who’d been the hitting coach in Minnesota but was also cut loose at season’s end, a few weeks later. The Pirates, meanwhile, dismissed hitting coach Andy Haines back on Oct. 2 after a three-year stint in that role.
Pirates fans looking to learn more about their new hitting coach will want to be sure to read David Laurila’s Q&A with Hague from this past July over at FanGraphs. The former corner infielder spoke thoughtfully about the differences between his perspective as a player and a coach, the ongoing battle hitters face in adapting to ever-changing pitch trends in the industry, and some of the technology he favors in helping hitters prepare for various paths of attack from opponents.
Twins Re-Sign Daniel Duarte To Minor League Deal; Three Others Elect Free Agency
The Twins quickly re-signed right-hander Daniel Duarte to a minor league contract after passing him through outright waivers, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Three other players who were outrighted elected free agency, including right-hander Scott Blewett and former top prospects Josh Winder and Yunior Severino.
Duarte, 28 next month, bounced from the Rangers to the Reds to the Twins via the DFA circuit last winter but wound up sticking in Minnesota and getting an early-season look after a nice showing in 12 1/3 spring training innings (2.92 ERA, 12 strikeouts, no walks). He made two appearances in the season’s first week, tossing a total of four innings and allowing one run with three strikeouts and a walk, but Duarte hit the injured list with an elbow issue shortly thereafter. A month later, it was announced that he’d require season-ending elbow surgery.
Duarte has pitched 38 1/3 innings in the majors and turned in a 3.99 ERA, albeit with a sub-par 17% strikeout rate and a bleak 14.5% walk rate. Duarte showed considerably better command in his brief look with the Twins, however, walking just one of the 61 batters he faced between spring training and the regular season. He also flashed a heater that averaged 96.1 mph. It’s a small sample, obviously, but if any of the gains in command prove sustainable, Duarte is fairly intriguing as a mid-20s reliever with a strong fastball and a career 47.3% grounder rate. On a minor league flier, he’s a sensible depth add.
Blewett came to the Twins on a minor league deal last offseason and wound up pitching well both in Triple-A and the majors. The former Royal logged a 3.79 ERA, 22.7% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate in 54 2/3 innings with the Twins’ Triple-A club in St. Paul and added another 20 1/3 MLB frames with a 1.77 ERA. His strikeout and walk rates were both worse than average, however, and he benefited from a 90.5% strand rate that isn’t sustainable over a longer sample. Even with some expected regression, fielding-independent metrics felt he was a solid arm (4.00 FIP, 4.05 SIERA).
Winder, 28, once ranked comfortably within the Twins’ top 10 prospects and even drew some top-100 fanfare back in 2022, placing 78th on FanGraphs’ rankings. The 2018 seventh-rounder raced through the minors with standout showings in 2019 and 2021. However, a series of shoulder injuries has regularly set the 6’5″ hurler back. He’s posted a respectable 4.39 ERA in 110 2/3 MLB frames, fanning a below-average 18% of opponents against a sharp 7% walk rate. He’s also been on the injured list four times since 2022, owing to a shoulder impingement, shoulder strain (twice) and a stress fracture in his shoulder.
Severino, 25, once ranked as highly as tenth among Twins farmhands at Baseball America. He belted 35 homers between Double-A and Triple-A as recently as 2023 but did so with an alarming 32.8% strikeout rate. He cut back a bit in 2024, fanning in 27.6% of his plate appearances, but also saw a downturn in power, with 21 round-trippers on the season. Severino is a .249/.337/.450 hitter in two Triple-A seasons. He clearly has plus raw power but is a below-average defender and runner whose longstanding strikeout issues still remain problematic.
MLBTR Podcast: Roki Sasaki, Cole’s Non-Opt-Out, And Cardinals Rumors
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 Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Roki Sasaki to be posted for MLB clubs (1:45)
- Gerrit Cole‘s weird non-opt-out situation with the Yankees (17:50)
- The Cardinals might trade Nolan Arenado but might keep Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray (24:20)
- The Braves and Angels swap Jorge Soler and Griffin Canning (33:05)
- The Dodgers are moving Mookie Betts back to the infield (41:50)
Check out our past episodes!
- Breaking Down The Top 50 Free Agents List – listen here
- The Mets’ Spending Power, Juan Soto Suitors, And The Rangers’ Payroll Limits – listen here
- The World Series, The White Sox Reportedly For Sale, And Tropicana Field – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!