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Blue Jays Interested In Alex Bregman, Luis Severino

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The Blue Jays are known to be in the Juan Soto bidding, but like all teams, they have to consider backup plans. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet takes a look at their Soto pursuit and notes that they also have interest in Max Fried, Luis Severino, Anthony Santander and Alex Bregman. MLBTR has previously covered their interest in Fried and Santander.

Bregman, 31, is one of the top free agents available this winter. He has a career batting line of .272/.366/.483, which translates to a 135 wRC+, indicating he’s been 35% better than league average at the plate overall. His strikeout rate hasn’t been higher than 13.6% in any of the past six full seasons, barely half of league average. His walk rate dipped a bit in 2024 but has been above par for most of his career.

He also gets strong grades for his third base defense and is willing to move to second if he signs with a club that has a greater need there. His clubhouse and leadership qualities are often lauded by those who have played with him. MLBTR predicted Bregman for a seven-year deal worth $182MM at the start of the offseason. It’s well established that the Astros want him back, but he’s also been connected to the Tigers, Red Sox, Phillies and now Blue Jays.

For the Jays, third base and second base are both fairly unsettled. Ernie Clement was the primary option at the hot corner in 2024 and he had a serviceable season. His .263/.284/.408 batting line was slightly below average, translating to a 94 wRC+. But he also stole 12 bases and got strong grades for his glovework at third and shortstop, as well as brief looks at second base and left field.

The total package added up to 2.2 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs and Clement is still on the roster, but he shouldn’t stand in the way of someone like Bregman coming aboard. If Bregman took over as the everyday guy at the hot corner, it could move Clement into a utility role, which could still allow him to contribute fairly regularly.

At second base, Spencer Horwitz and Davis Schneider got decent chunks of the playing time, alongside the now-departed Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Horwitz has hit well in his major league career so far but is not a natural second baseman, only moving there since his first base spot is taken by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. A lot of the designated hitter plate appearances went to Justin Turner in 2024, who is no longer with the team. Perhaps that frees up Horwitz and Guerrero to share that spot and first base in 2025, depending on what other moves the Jays make this winter. Schneider is coming off a down season and can also play left field.

The Jays have some other players on the roster capable of playing either third or second base, including Addison Barger, Orelvis Martínez, Will Wagner and Leo Jiménez, but no one in that group has even 70 games of major league experience. With the Jays looking to quickly bounce back from a poor 2024 campaign, there’s logic in going for an established major leaguer like Bregman as opposed to hoping that someone in that group takes a step forward. The Jays have also been tied to shortstop Willy Adames, who is reportedly willing to move to third base with his new club if they already have a shortstop. The Jays have Bo Bichette at short but he’s only one year from free agency, so that’s a move that could potentially help in the short and long term.

The interest in Severino aligns with the club’s other rotation pursuits. As mentioned, they’ve been tied to Fried as well as Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell, though Snell is now off the board due to his agreement with the Dodgers. Severino once seemed like a budding ace with the Yankees but he didn’t pitch much from 2019 to 2021 due to injuries. He was able to pitch partial seasons in 2022 and 2023 but with inconsistent results.

He’s coming off a solid bounceback year with the Mets. He made 32 starts and tossed 182 innings, his first time throwing more than 102 innings since 2018. On top of the quantity, there was also some quality, as Severino allowed 3.91 earned runs per innings. His 21.2% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 46% ground ball rate were all pretty close to league average.

Severino isn’t as exciting as Burnes or Fried but he also won’t cost as much. MLBTR predicted Burnes for a $200MM guarantee and Fried a bit behind at $156MM. Severino, on the other hand, was projected for a three-year deal worth $51MM.

The Jays have a veteran rotation nucleus consisting of José Berríos, Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt. Another spot is likely ticketed to Bowden Francis after his strong second half. Options for the fifth spot include Yariel Rodríguez and Jake Bloss but there’s sense in the Jays adding. Rodríguez has plenty of relief experience and the Jays need help in the bullpen, so he could be pushed there, at least until an injury opens up a need in the rotation. Bloss has less than 12 big league innings and only 112 in the minors, so he could get some more seasoning in Triple-A until a big league opportunity arises.

On the financial side of things, RosterResource projects the Jays for a payroll of $189MM next year. President Mark Shapiro has suggested the club will end up with a roughly similar payroll as they did in 2024. Cot’s Baseball Contracts pegged their Opening Day figure at $225MM last year, so that could leave them with about $35MM of wiggle room.

Adding one of these notable free agents could certainly fit into that window, though Soto would be a unique case. The average annual value of his contract will certainly eclipse that number but it’s been reported by Nicholson-Smith that the Jays would make an exception for Soto, willing to stretch the budget further than they would otherwise.

Each of Soto, Bregman, Severino, Fried, Burnes, Santander and Adames rejected a qualifying offer, so the associated penalties will also have to be a consideration. The Jays seemingly ducked under the competitive balance tax in 2024 with their midseason selloff, though it’s not yet official. If that proves to be the case, the Jays would have to surrender their second-best pick in the upcoming draft as well as $500K of international bonus pool space for signing one of these players.

Matt Davidson Re-Signs With KBO’s NC Dinos

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The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization are re-signing infielder Matt Davidson to a $1.5MM deal with a club option for 2026 valued at $1.7MM (h/t Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News).

Davidson, 34, first signed with the Dinos back in January. Once a first-round pick in the 2009 draft by the Diamondbacks and a regular on top-100 prospect lists in the early 2010s, Davidson has appeared in parts of six big league seasons but has never quite been successful in establishing himself in the majors. He played just 31 games total at the big league level for Arizona. While he hit a decent .237/.333/.434 in that time, he was shipped to Chicago in the deal that brought Addison Reed to the Diamondbacks the following offseason.

After arriving in Chicago, Davidson was relegated to the minor leagues in the first few years of his time with the organization, where he hit quite well; the slugger is a career .253/.335/.479 hitter at the Triple-A level and demonstrated 20-homer power for the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. He received semi-regular playing time with the White Sox from 2017 to 2018 and hit a respectable .224/.291/.435 with 46 home runs during that time, though he also struck out at an untenable 35.1% clip. Since the end of the 2018 season, Davidson has appeared in just 33 games at the big league level. Most recently, he hit .167/.167/.292 in an eight-game stint with the Athletics in 2022.

2023 saw Davidson head overseas to try his hand at playing baseball in Asia, though he initially did not head to the KBO. First, he went to Japan to play for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hiroshima Carp. He hit a middling .224/.288/.452 overall in 117 games for the Carp. While he slugged 21 homers, his high strikeout rates and lackluster on-base percentage led the club to part ways with him. That led him to the Dinos, and his first season in Korea could’ve hardly gone better. While serving as his club’s primary first baseman, Davidson slashed an excellent .306/.370/.633 in 131 games. He slugged a KBO-leading 46 homers, and his 1.003 OPS ranked third in the league.

That dominant performance clearly got the Dinos’ attention, and they were quick to lock him up for the next two seasons after his power helped to keep the team somewhat competitive during a disappointing 61-81 season. While Davidson’s deal guaranteed him just $700K last winter, this year he’s been guaranteed more than double that figure and could earn more than $3MM total over the life of the contract if the option for next year is picked up. Given Davidson’s age, it’s unclear whether attempting a comeback in the majors could be in the cards for him when his contract with the Dinos ends, though if he continues hitting as he did last year he could follow in the footsteps of Eric Thames and look to revive his stateside career after years of posting otherworldly numbers in KBO play.

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Brown, Cardinals

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The Pirates are making some changes to their front office, per a report from MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf notes that director of coaching and player development John Baker is moving into a new role with the club that will see him oversee the club’s performance team. While the move has not been announced by the club to this point, Stumpf adds that the search for a new farm director is already underway as Baker vacates the position.

A former player who spent parts of seven seasons in the big leagues, Baker retired from his playing career in 2015 and caught on with the Cubs in their front office that offseason as a special assistant. Baker eventually stepped into the role of mental skills coordinator with Chicago and remained in that role with the club until he departed for Pittsburgh during the 2020-21 offseason to take on his aforementioned role as director of coaching and player development. As Stumpf notes, the Pirates began implementing more individualized development plans for their players under Baker’s leadership.

With Baker now changing roles, the Pirates will need to fill both the farm director role. As Stumpf notes, that’s not the only high-level role that’s as of yet unfilled in Pittsburgh as the club will also need to hire a new director of pro scouting after moving him to a different, unspecified role within baseball operations. Those yet-to-be-named farm and pro scouting directors will join a wave of personnel hires by the Pirates this winter that already includes international scouting director Max Kwan, VP of research and development Kevin Tenenbaum, hitting coach Matt Hague, and assistant pitching coach Brent Strom.

More notes from around the NL Central…

  • Cubs fans received some good news yesterday when Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported that right-hander Ben Brown has been cleared for a normal throwing program this offseason. The 25-year-old was acquired by the club at the 2022 trade deadline in the deal that sent right-hander David Robertson to Philadelphia but didn’t make his big league debut until this year. The youngster looked quite good for the Cubs early in the season with a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 55 1/3 innings of work while swinging between the rotation and bullpen. He struck out 28.8% of opponents faced against a walk rate of 8.6% but saw is time in the majors cut short by a stress reaction in his neck that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Chicago reportedly plans to add a starting pitcher to the rotation alongside Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, and Jameson Taillon this winter, which could leave Brown to either compete with Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring or else spend the year in the bullpen.
  • The Cardinals are hiring Matt Pierpont as their director of pitching, as Pierpoint himself noted on X (h/t to Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). Pierpont, 33, pitched in the minor leagues for seven seasons before catching on with the Mariners as a coach prior to the 2021 season. Since then, he’s risen within the organization to the role of pitching coordinator. Now, he’s been promoted again as he moves on to St. Louis, where he’ll be tasked with working to improve the club’s internal pitching options. Andre Pallante and Sem Robberse are among the young pitchers at or near the major leagues, while top prospect Tink Hence dominated the Double-A level and could also look to make his big league debut at some point in 2025.

Angels Notes: Detmers, Further Additions, Anderson

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With the Angels’ recent signing of left-hander Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal now officially announced, GM Perry Minasian spoke yesterday to reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) about the club’s 2025 rotation and their plans for the rest of the winter.

Of note, Minasian suggested that with the addition of Kikuchi and fellow offseason addition Kyle Hendricks to the club’s rotation mix, the Angels currently have those two veterans, Tyler Anderson, and Jose Soriano penciled into the first four spots in their rotation for 2025. Notably, that leaves left-hander Reid Detmers fighting for a spot in the rotation alongside less established arms like Chase Silseth and Jack Kochanowicz. 2024 was a brutal season for Detmers, as the lefty surrendered a disastrous 6.70 ERA across 17 big league starts.

Weak as that production was, however, Detmers’s underlying metrics suggest his performance may have been slightly better than it looks on paper. His 27.9% strikeout rate was actually the best of his career, while his 9.7% walk rate was certainly elevated, but more or less in line with his 2023 performance. Detmers’s 4.72 FIP was “just” 13% worse than league average by measure of FIP-, and some metrics were even more bullish on his underlying numbers. His 3.86 xFIP was actually 6% better than league average, and a 3.77 SIERA actually places Detmers 43rd among 138 starting pitchers who threw at least 80 innings out of the rotation this past season.

While underlying metrics that compared Detmers to Corbin Burnes (3.75 SIERA) and Gerrit Cole (3.79 SIERA) in 2024 certainly don’t tell the whole story by themselves, they do provide enough optimism about Detmer’s future that it’s a surprise to hear he isn’t guaranteed a rotation spot next year. After all, the lefty posted a solid 4.15 ERA and 3.97 FIP across 53 starts in 2022 and ’23, and is just a few years removed from being the Halos’ first-round draft pick when they selected tenth overall in 2020. With that being said, it’s easy to imagine Detmers’s performance after coming back to the majors back in September raising red flags in the front office’s mind. While he struck out an eye-popping 34.2% of opponents in five starts down the stretch, he also struggled badly with the long ball, surrendering 8 homers and an untenable 15.6% barrel rate.

Minasian also didn’t rule out making further additions to the club’s rotation. “We’ll continue to look, from a free agent standpoint, from a trade standpoint,” he said, as relayed by Fletcher. “If there’s an upgrade, from a rotation standpoint, we’ll look to do it.”

With that being said, it seems as though upgrades to the rotation may take a backseat to upgrading other areas of the roster as the Angels look ahead to the remainder of the winter. Specifically, Minasian noted that they’d like to add depth to their bench and bullpen while focusing on lengthening the lineup with another bat. The club has already added Jorge Soler as an everyday DH and Travis d’Arnaud poised to act as a backup to Logan O’Hoppe behind the plate, but holes remain in a lineup that posted just a 90 wRC+ that was 25th in baseball last year.

Nolan Schanuel, Luis Rengifo, and Zach Neto figure to have regular roles on the infield, with Schanuel in particular seemingly locking up first base. Neto is sure to be the everyday shortstop when healthy, but he could miss the start of the season after going under the knife earlier this month. Kevin Newman and Scott Kingery have already been brought in to shore up the club’s infield depth on the bench, but another infield bat could help lessen the club’s reliance on oft-injured Anthony Rendon while also backing up Neto early in the season.

There’s also room in the outfield for another bat. Taylor Ward figures to be the club’s everyday left fielder, and Mike Trout will of course be an everyday player in the outfield when healthy enough to take the field. Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell currently figure to platoon in right field when everyone’s healthy, but upgrading that spot in the lineup could improve the roster, particularly if the addition was capable of playing center at least occasionally to lessen the defensive workload on Trout.

One other possibility Fletcher floats is the Angels considering a trade of Anderson. Anderson came up in the rumor mill ahead of the trade deadline over the summer, but no deal ultimately came together as the Angels reportedly preferred to hold onto players controlled beyond the 2024 season. Given that hesitance just a few months ago, it’s unclear if trading Anderson is something the Halos would seriously consider this winter, and it would hardly be a surprise to see him stay put.

The veteran southpaw is entering the final year of his contract with the Angels in 2025 following a decent season in 2024 where he posted a solid 3.81 ERA despite lackluster peripherals. Even if clubs project him to post numbers closer to his 4.66 FIP and and 4.37 xERA next year, his ability to eat innings (179 1/3 frames across 31 starts in 2024) could make him an attractive back-of-the-rotation candidate to teams in need of pitching and a deal would clear the final year and $13MM of his contract off on the Angels’ books to address other areas of the roster.

Of course, moving Anderson would be a step backwards in terms of depth for an Angels club that has already parted ways with Griffin Canning and Patrick Sandoval this winter. Removing Anderson from the club’s rotation would leave them with Kikuchi, Hendricks, Soriano, and Detmers as their front four starters with Kochanowicz, Silseth, and depth options like Sam Aldegheri in the mix for the fifth spot. With that being said, it’s at least plausible the club could listen to offers on him if they were to land a third external starter to join Kikuchi and Hendricks in the Anaheim rotation next year, whether that be in trade or free agency.

Braves Re-Sign Ray Kerr, Royber Salinas To Minor League Deals

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The Braves have re-signed left-hander Ray Kerr and Royber Salinas to minor league deals, according to the transaction trackers on the pair’s profile pages at MLB.com. According to that same source, the Braves have brought left-hander Kolton Ingram into the organization on a minor league deal.

Kerr and Salinas were both non-tendered by the Braves prior to last week’s deadline, but the duo will now return to the organization as non-roster depth. Kerr began his big league career with the Padres and posted solid numbers for San Diego in 2023, with a 4.33 ERA and 4.18 FIP in 27 innings that saw him strike out an excellent 30.3% of opponents. That relatively small sample of success was enough to convince the Braves to trade for him last winter, and the club took on the final year of Matt Carpenter’s underwater contract with San Diego in order to facilitate the deal. Unfortunately, Kerr struggled to a 5.64 ERA in 10 early season appearances before undergoing Tommy John surgery back in June. Now that he’s back with Atlanta, he’ll be able to rehab with the organization as he eyes a possible second-half comeback in 2025.

As for Salinas, he only joined the Braves organization earlier this month after being claimed off waivers from the A’s. It’s not Salinas’s first stint in the organization, however, as he actually signed out of Venezuela with Atlanta as an international amateur. After spending the first years of his pro career with the Braves, Salinas was traded to the A’s as part of the Sean Murphy deal prior to the 2023 season. The right-hander’s two year sojourn to Oakland saw him struggle to establish himself in the upper minors. After struggling to a 5.48 ERA in his first taste of Double-A action last year, he saw improved results (including a 3.68 ERA) in a repeat of the level this year but was torched to the tune of seven runs in 6 1/3 Triple-A frames. Looking ahead to 2025, Salinas figures to serve as non-roster depth for the club’s bullpen, which currently stands to be without A.J. Minter after the lefty hit free agency earlier this month and Joe Jimenez after the right-hander underwent surgery that will cause him to miss at least the majority of the 2025 campaign.

That role of non-roster depth also figures to apply to Ingram, who spent the 2024 season shuffling between four different organizations at the Triple-A level. In 51 2/3 innings of work at the level across the affiliates of the Giants, Mets, Rangers, and Cardinals, Ingram posted a solid 3.66 ERA while striking out 23.7% of opponents. The southpaw received his only big league exposure in 2023 as a member of the Angels. While he had impressed with a 2.95 ERA at the Double- and Triple-A levels that year, he was shelled to the tune of an 8.44 ERA in 5 1/3 frames during his first cup of coffee in the majors. Now more than a year removed from that frustrating debut, Ingram figures to look for an opportunity to break back into the big leagues with Atlanta next season.

Orioles Sign Franklin Barreto To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced earlier this week that they’ve signed infielder Franklin Barreto to a minor league deal. It’s unclear whether or not the deal includes an invitation to big league Spring Training next year.

Barreto, 28, signed with the Blue Jays as an amateur out of Venezuela and made his pro debut in 2013. He quickly rose among the prospect ranks in the early years of his career and was a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport by the time Toronto shipped him to Oakland in the Josh Donaldson trade back in 2015. He remained a consensus top-100 prospect over the next several years even as his offense took a step back after reaching the upper minors.

After hitting a solid .281/.340/.413 in 507 trips to the plate at the Double-A level in 2016, Barreto found himself promoted to Triple-A where he failed to put up big numbers despite the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League. Impressive as his .290/.339/.456 slash line at Triple-A in 2017 may look without context, it was actually just 3% better than league average by measure of wRC+. Barreto’s peripheral numbers were also lackluster as his strikeout rate jumped nearly ten points from where it was in Double-A, leaving his overall slash line propped up by an unsustainable .384 BABIP.

Despite those red flags, the A’s promoted Barreto to Oakland for his big league debut in 2017. The cup of coffee did not go especially well, as Barreto hit just .197/.250/.352 with an eye-popping 43.4% strikeout rate in 76 trips to the plate. That performance was 40% worse than league average by wRC+, and left the infielder once again relegated to shuttling between the Triple-A and big league levels the following year in 2018. That season, Barreto improved on his first taste of big league action the year prior to hit a respectable .233/.253/.493 with a 102 wRC+. While Barreto’s five home runs in 75 plate appearances helped to prop up his overall numbers, a 38.3% strikeout rate and a walk rate of just 1.3% suggested he still did not have the necessary plate discipline to be a regular contributor in the majors.

Things took a turn for the worse for Barreto from there, as he didn’t hit a lick in 68 big league plate appearances for the club over the next two years. The A’s eventually cut bait on the infielder partway through the 2020 season, when they shipped Barreto to Anaheim in exchange for veteran infielder Tommy La Stella. He made another 18 trips to the plate for the Angels down the stretch that year, but struck out at a 44.4% clip while hitting .118/.167/.118. That brief stint with the Angels represents Barreto’s last action in the big leagues. Since then, he’s spent time in both the Astros and Nationals organizations on minor league deals before departing affiliated ball for the Mexican League’s Diablos Rojos del Mexico earlier this year.

Barreto’s time in Mexico actually went quite well, as he lit up opposing pitching to the tune of a .343/.430/.576 slash line in 372 trips to the plate across 76 games. That evidently caught the attention of the Orioles, who have brought him into their organizational fold as a non-roster depth option for the club. Barreto figures to primarily act as injury insurance given Baltimore’s crowded infield mix that already features Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo, Ramon Urias, and Jorge Mateo. He primarily plays shortstop but has plenty of experience at second base and center field to go along with at least occasional work everywhere on the diamond except catcher.

Padres Sign Oscar González To Minor League Deal

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The Padres have signed outfielder Oscar González to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A El Paso for now but will presumably receive an invite to major league spring training.

González, 27, seemed to have a breakout with the Guardians in 2022. He made his major league debut that year and hit 11 home runs in 91 games. His 3.9% walk rate was less than half of league average but his 19.6% strikeout rate was solid and the homers helped propel him to a .296/.327/.461 batting line and 123 wRC+. He also became a fan favorite by using the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song as his walk-up music and hitting a walk-off, series clinching home run to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 15th against the Rays in the Wild Card round (YouTube link from MLB).

But his performance dipped in 2023. His strikeout rate climbed to 25.6% and his walk rate fell even further to 2.8%. He hit just two home runs in 54 games and slashed .214/.239/.312 for a wRC+ of 48. He’s not considered a strong defender, so a lack of offense like that made it impossible for him to provide any value.

The Guardians put him on waivers after that season, with the Yankees claiming him, though the Yanks later passed him through waivers unclaimed prior to the 2024 campaign. González went on to have a decent year in Triple-A, around a few stints on the injured list. He got into 78 games and hit eight home runs. His 20.3% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate were similar to his big league campaign in 2022. He hit .294/.333/.469 for the RailRiders for a 106 wRC+.

That wasn’t enough to get him back to the majors, as the Yankees had an outfield mix consisting of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Trent Grisham and Jasson Domínguez for much of the year. González was able to elect free agency at season’s end and now has a new opportunity with the Padres.

For the Friars, they just lost Jurickson Profar and David Peralta to free agency. They have Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. in two outfield spots but left field is fairly open at the moment. Tirso Ornelas, Eguy Rosario and Brandon Lockridge are on the 40-man roster but each of those three guys has less than 50 games of major league experience.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Padres and Profar reunite, given the mutual affection between them, but it’s possible he has priced himself out of San Diego. He is coming off a tremendous season and could look to cash in, while the club has had ongoing financial concerns in recent years.

Whether the Padres can upgrade left field this winter or not, González will give them a bit of non-roster depth. He hasn’t yet accrued enough service time to reach arbitration, so he’d be a cheap option for them if he can earn his way onto the roster. He also still has options, meaning he would have some roster flexibility if he gets a spot.

Elieser Hernández, Austin Dean Re-Sign With KBO’s LG Twins

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The LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization are bringing back right-hander Elieser Hernández and first baseman Austin Dean for 2025. Per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (X link), Hernández will make $1.3MM while Dean will get $1.7MM.

Hernández, 30 in May, was a midseason replacement for the Twins. Once a potential rotation building block with the Marlins, he missed significant time due to injuries, including the entire 2023 season. He returned in 2024 to get limited looks with the Dodgers and Brewers before heading overseas to join the Twins in late July.

He went on to log 47 innings for them over 11 appearances, including nine starts. He allowed 4.02 earned runs per nine with a 28.2% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and 51.2% ground ball rate. Yoo adds that Hernandez also tossed 11 scoreless innings in the postseason. The club clearly liked what they saw and will bring Hernández back for another season.

For Dean, 31, this will be his third season as a Twin. He played in parts of five MLB seasons from 2018 to 2022 but never got more than a part-time role. He has found a regular gig in Korea and has made the most of it. He hit 23 home runs last year and slashed .313/.376/.515, then followed that up with 32 home runs and a .319/.384/.573 line in 2024.

The MLB minimum salary is going to be $760K next year, so both players have gotten themselves up into a higher level of earning power, and likely with some extra job security as well. For the Twins, they also signed right-hander Yonny Chirinos this week, so this fills their quota of foreign-born players. Each KBO team is allowed three such players, with a maximum of two pitchers.

Diamondbacks To Add Wellington Cepeda To Coaching Staff

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The Diamondbacks are going to add Wellington Cepeda to their coaching staff, reports Isaac Azout of Fish on First (X link). He will serve as bullpen coach and assistant pitching coach for the Snakes.

It’s a homecoming for Cepeda, as he has spent many years in the Diamondbacks’ system. As a player, he pitched for them in the minors from 1997 to 2000, though he didn’t reach higher than the High-A level. After his playing days were done, he moved into the coaching ranks, spending many years working for minor league clubs in Arizona’s system.

Going into the 2020 season, he got his first big league opportunity, but it was with the Marlins. He spent the past five years as the bullpen coach in Miami, though that organization has been undergoing a massive overhaul recently. Last month, it was reported that the Marlins were getting rid of their entire coaching staff as well as the clubhouse attendants, performance staff and more.

The Diamondbacks are doing a bit of a coaching shuffle as well, though not to the same degree as the Marlins. The Snakes parted ways with pitching coach Brent Strom, bullpen coach Mike Fetters and assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson last month. Brian Kaplan was later hired to replace Strom as pitching coach and now Cepeda will come back to the Diamondbacks as part of Kaplan’s staff.

Arizona pitchers struggled in 2024, as the staff had a collective 4.63 earned run average. That number was 27th out of the 30 clubs in the majors, ahead of only the White Sox, Marlins and Rockies. They clearly feel that a shakeup is needed, so they’re making a number of changes to their coaching staff on the pitching side.

The Best Fits For Corbin Burnes

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Last week, MLBTR's Steve Adams ran through every team's chances of landing Juan Soto in a post for Front Office subscribers. In the wake of last night's Blake Snell deal, let's continue that exercise by examining where each club stands on the market's top pitcher.

With Snell off the board on a deferred $182MM deal, Corbin Burnes is the only remaining pitcher who might break the $200MM threshold. He just turned 30 and should be in line for seven or potentially eight years. Burnes hasn't been quite as dominant over the past two seasons as he was during the 2020-22 stretch. His strikeouts have trended down in consecutive years, settling at a slightly above-average 23.1% rate this past season. Burnes managed a 2.92 earned run average despite the drop in whiffs. He has an excellent durability record and has reached 32 starts in three straight seasons.

Burnes should at least easily beat the seven years and $172MM which Aaron Nola secured last winter. We predicted him for an even $200MM over seven seasons when we ranked him the top non-Soto free agent on our Top 50. Which teams are best positioned to make that kind of offer?

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