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Braves, Enoli Paredes Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves are in agreement with reliever Enoli Paredes on a minor league contract, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X link). Paredes will get a non-roster invite to major league camp.

It was a short free agent stay for the 29-year-old righty. The Cubs sent him through outright waivers last week. He elected free agency at that point but apparently emerged as a priority depth target for the Atlanta front office. Paredes posted strong numbers in a limited sample with the Brewers and Cubs this year.

In 21 2/3 innings between the two teams, he combined for a 1.66 earned run average. Discouraging peripherals led teams to pass on claiming him off waivers last week. Paredes only managed an 18.4% strikeout rate and walked more than 11% of opponents. Throwing strikes has always been an issue. Paredes posted double digit walk rates as a member of the Astros between 2020-22.

While he hasn’t missed many bats at the big league level, Paredes posted monster strikeout numbers with Milwaukee’s Triple-A team. He fanned nearly 40% of hitters en route to a 1.73 ERA over 26 innings at the top minor league level. He sits in the 94-95 MPH range with his fastball and features a mid-80s slider as his secondary pitch.

Paredes is out of options. If he pitches his way to an MLB job in Atlanta, the Braves would need to keep him on the roster or send him back into DFA limbo. They have a solid high-leverage core but a few spots up for grabs in the middle innings. A.J. Minter hit free agency while Joe Jiménez underwent knee surgery that might cost him the entire season.

Braves Acquire Nick Allen

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The Braves added infield depth on Monday night, acquiring shortstop Nick Allen from the Athletics. Atlanta sent minor league reliever Jared Johnson back in a one-for-one swap. The acquisition pushes Atlanta’s 40-man roster count to 38.

Allen has exhausted his option seasons, which likely motivated this move. Going forward, he needs to either be on an active roster or else removed from the 40-man entirely. All teams are going to be soon facing roster crunches, as the Rule 5 protection deadline is just over a week away.

As a prospect, Allen got plenty of attention for his glovework. The question was whether or not he would hit. He certainly hasn’t produced with the bat at the major league level thus far, as he currently sports a line of .209/.254/.283 in his 760 plate appearances. He has received strong reviews for his shortstop defense, also spending some time at second and third base, but that offensive production translates to a wRC+ of just 53.

The results in the minors have been far more encouraging. Over the past two years, Allen has stepped to the plate 541 times at the Triple-A level, turning in a .341/.428/.503 batting line. The former third-round pick doesn’t need to hit much to be a viable utility option given the strength of his glove. His Triple-A numbers are surely inflated by the hitter-friendly nature of the Pacific Coast League, but they offer hope that there’s a little more potential with the bat than he’s shown in the majors.

Allen has bottom-of-the-scale power. Even his big production in the minors has come with just 12 home runs in nearly 200 games. He has solid bat-to-ball skills, making contact at a higher than average rate in both Triple-A and the majors. Allen walked more often than he struck out this year in Triple-A. The Braves have acquired similar players, Nicky Lopez and David Fletcher, in recent seasons. Neither spent much time on the MLB roster.

The 26-year-old Allen could have a better opportunity to stick around. Orlando Arcia had a dreadful offensive year in his own right, hitting .218/.271/.354 across 602 plate appearances. That’s still better than what Allen has shown in his major league career, but Arcia’s hold on the position probably isn’t strong. Atlanta should remain in the market for clearer upgrades.

From an A’s perspective, they’re moving on from a player who once ranked among the better position player talents in the system. That’s disappointing but not surprising given Allen’s lackluster production to date. They’re hopeful that Jacob Wilson is the long-term answer at shortstop, while Darell Hernaiz had also surpassed Allen on the infield depth chart.

Johnson, 23, spent this past season in High-A. He had a nice year in the later innings, turning in a 2.60 ERA across 52 frames. The former 14th-round pick fanned 26.4% of opponents but walked nearly 12% of batters faced. He’s a lottery ticket bullpen piece who will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft unless the A’s add him to their 40-man roster next week.

Image courtesy of Imagn.

Mets Hire Desi Druschel As Assistant Pitching Coach

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The Mets have hired Desi Druschel as assistant pitching coach, per Andy Martino of SNY (X links). Druschel has had that same assistant pitching coach title with the Yankees for the past three years but will now move across to town to work for the Mets under pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. Yankee manager Aaron Boone said earlier today that there was one change coming to his coaching staff, so perhaps this was what he was referring to.

Druschel has been coaching for years, working for high schools and colleges starting back in 1996. In 2019, the Yankees hired him away from the Iowa Hawkeyes, giving him the job of minor league manager of pitch development. He was promoted to the major league staff after the 2021 season, working as assistant pitching coach under pitching coach Matt Blake.

It’s impossible to separate player performance from the contributions of a coach, but for what it’s worth, the Yankees had good pitching during Druschel’s time with the club. Yankee pitchers had a collective 3.68 earned run average over the past three seasons combined. That’s fourth in the majors for that stretch, behind only the Astros, Dodgers and Mariners.

The Mets had a collective 3.96 ERA in 2024, 15th in the league. There should be plenty of roster turnover by the time the 2025 season starts, as each of Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Adam Ottavino, Ryne Stanek, Drew Smith and Brooks Raley became free agents at season’s end. President of baseball operations David Stearns should be busy this winter in finding new arms in free agency or the trade market. However it shakes out, Druschel will join Hefner in trying to help the Mets get the best out of them.

Boone: No Extension Talks With Yankees Right Now

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The Yankees picked up Aaron Boone’s 2025 club option last week, ensuring that he’d be back at the helm for an eighth season, but there’s still no certainty in place beyond what’s now effectively a one-year pact. Boone told the Yankees beat this morning that as of this moment, there are no conversations with the Yankees about an extension that would keep him in the Bronx beyond the 2025 season (video link via SNY). Boone also revealed that there will be at least one change to his coaching staff next year but wasn’t prepared to publicly divulge any names (also via SNY).

The 2024 season proved to be the most successful under Boone, whose club reached the World Series for the first time since 2009, albeit in what proved to be a losing effort to the Dodgers. The Yankees’ 94 wins during the regular season were only Boone’s fourth-highest total in a single season, but he’d never experienced a playoff run of this magnitude in the past.

On the heels of that showing, it seemed increasingly likely that Boone would indeed stick around, be it simply via that club option or on a new multi-year extension. It’s still possible the two sides come to terms on a lengthier arrangement, but the Yankees did let Boone play out the entire 2021 season as a “lame-duck” manager on a one-year deal with nothing guaranteed beyond that particular season until late October.

Boone also touched on a number of offseason-centric topics, though he generally provided expected answers. He confirmed that he’ll be in attendance for the upcoming meeting between owner Hal Steinbrenner, Juan Soto and agent Scott Boras. Boone spoke generally of his hopes to be a player in the market for star Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki but offered little beyond praising the 23-year-old as a special and gifted talent whom the organization has been scouting for years.

Perhaps most interestingly to Yankees fans, Boone was asked about infield prospect Chase Durbin and offered a glowing review, calling him a “stud” and noting that he expects the 24-year-old second baseman/third baseman to play a “big” role on the 2025 club. Adding either a second baseman or third baseman has been expected thus far, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. likely slotting in at the other position.

It seems unlikely the Yankees would hand the other spot right to Durbin, but he’s coming off a 2024 season during which he slashed .287/.396/.471 with more walks (12.5%) than strikeouts (9.9%) in 375 Triple-A plate appearances. The former 14th-rounder, who came to the Yankees from the Braves in 2022’s Lucas Luetge trade, also smacked 10 homers and swiped 31 bases in just 82 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Boone touted Durbin’s “great bat-to-ball” skills and “elite ability on the bases” and noted that the club has been working to improve his versatility with reps at second base, shortstop, third base and in the outfield because the organization is bullish on Durbin’s chances of helping the big league club sooner than later. None of that precludes an infield acquisition in the next few months, but it does make it a virtual certainty that Durbin will be selected to the 40-man roster before next week’s Rule 5 protection deadline.

Orioles, Vimael Machin Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles are signing infielder Vimael Machin to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, reports ESPN’s Jorge Castillo. The former A’s infielder spent the past two seasons playing in the Mexican League and last appeared in a big league game during the 2022 season. Machin is a client of Usus Sports Management.

Machin, 31, was the Athletics’ Rule 5 pick out of the Cubs organization back in 2019. He held a roster spot in the shortened 2020 season, tallying 74 plate appearances, and picked up another 15 MLB plate appearances in 2021. Machin’s career-high workload in the majors came in 2022, when Oakland plugged him into 73 games and gave him 253 turns at the plate. He’s shown strong discipline in the majors, walking at a 10% clip, but Machin is just a .208/.290/.261 hitter overall.

That tepid production has come in a sample of 361 plate appearances across three seasons, but Machin has been much better in the upper minors. He’s a career .291/.384/.439 hitter in parts of five Triple-A campaigns and just last year posted a ridiculous-looking .401/.495/.579 slash in 85 games with los Charros de Jalisco in Mexico. (As evidenced by that line, the Mexican League is an overwhelmingly hitter-friendly setting — even more so than the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.)

Machin has played all four infield positions extensively. He’s spent the most time at third base (3810 innings) but also has more than 2000 innings at second base, more than 1000 at first base and another 935 innings at shortstop. He’s a left-handed bat with excellent plate discipline (12.8% walk rate in Triple-A) and strong bat-to-ball skills (15.3% strikeout rate in Triple-A; 18.6% in the majors).

Baltimore obviously has a crowded infield already, with Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo, Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Urias all mixing in at various spots. Machin adds some experienced depth to stash in Triple-A and an option to compete for a roster spot if a combination of injuries and trades thins out Baltimore’s enviable stash of infielders at some point.

Twins Rumors: Lewis, Santana, Paddack

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The Twins are contemplating a full-time move to second base for young infielder Royce Lewis, writes Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Minnesota briefly experimented with Lewis shifting from third base to second base late in the season, but a more permanent move is under consideration. Making the shift at the beginning of a season, when Lewis has an entire spring training exhibition schedule to acclimate to his new defensive environs, would presumably benefit the 25-year-old slugger as opposed to last year’s on-the-fly look, when Lewis logged only eight innings at the position.

Lewis is just one piece of a crowded infield puzzle in Minnesota. The former No. 1 overall pick and top prospect has been playing third base in deference to Carlos Correa but was drafted as a shortstop. From the time he was drafted in 2017, some scouts have questioned whether he’d stick at shortstop or move to third base, second base or perhaps center field. A pair of ACL tears in the same knee in consecutive seasons has probably impacted that decision for the organization as well.

In addition to Lewis and Correa, the Twins will be looking to juggle playing time between top prospect Brooks Lee (the No. 8 overall pick in 2022), Edouard Julien (who posted terrific rookie numbers in ’23 before struggling in ’24), Jose Miranda (who rebounded nicely from a 2023 season ruined by shoulder surgery) and utilityman Willi Castro (.251/.334/.395 with 21 homers, 47 steals in 282 games with the Twins).

Carlos Santana’s potential departure in free agency and the surprising retirement of injury-plagued former top prospect Alex Kirilloff opens some at-bats at first base, which could be handled by Julien and/or Miranda. Lee, considered a better defender at third base than Lewis, would presumably be in line for the bulk of the playing time at the hot corner if he makes the roster. Lee missed considerable time with injury and struggled in his first taste of the big leagues last year, however, so if he opens the season in Triple-A, that’d leave Miranda and Julien to share the corners early in the season, with Castro (who has extensive outfield experience as well) mixing in all over the field. The Twins also have fast-rising prospect Luke Keaschall to consider; the 2023 second-rounder has played second, third, first and center field in the minors and currently ranks 39th on Baseball America’s ranking of the game’s top 100 prospects.

One option the Twins could explore, of course, is a reunion with Santana. The 39-year-old switch-hitter is aiming to play at least three or four more seasons and by all accounts quite enjoyed his time in Minnesota. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey recently told the Twins beat that he’s not ruling out the possibility, even if it would “create some other changes that we have to consider on the roster” (link via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). Santana hit .238/.328/.420 with 23 home runs and won a Gold Glove at first base in 2024 after signing a one-year, $5.25MM deal in Minnesota.

It’s possible that the glut of infield talent could lead a trade of some variety this offseason, though given the team’s payroll situation, trades of veterans on somewhat notable salaries are considered likelier. That could include Castro, who’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $6.2MM in his final season of club control, but there are other areas where the Twins have notable salaries they could shed. Catcher Christian Vazquez and his $10MM salary are one option, and Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote recently that there’s an expectation that righty Chris Paddack will also garner some calls this winter. (We ranked Paddack 16th on our list of MLB’s top trade candidates heading into the offseason.)

Paddack, 29 in January, is signed through the 2025 season and will earn a $7.5MM salary next year. He returned for his first full season following a second career Tommy John surgery in 2024 and pitched 88 1/3 innings with a 4.99 ERA. That’s not a flattering number, but a substantial portion of the damage against Paddack came in one nightmare outing where he yielded nine runs in 5 1/3 innings to the Orioles in April. From that point forth, he posted a 4.38 ERA with a solid 22.3% strikeout rate and excellent 5.1% walk rate. He spent the final two months of the season on the injured list due to a forearm strain.

A former top prospect who looked on the cusp of stardom after a dominant rookie season when he gave the Padres 140 2/3 of 3.33 ERA ball with plus strikeout and walk rates, Paddack is still something of a project even as he approaches his 29th birthday. That said, he’s younger than most free agent pitchers and paid roughly in line with what might be expected of an older reclamation project. For instance, Alex Wood ($8.5MM), Wade Miley ($8.5MM) and James Paxton ($7MM) all signed one-year deals in this range coming off injury-shortened seasons of their own last winter.

Paddack’s deal may not be teeming with surplus value, but the Twins also might not need to eat any money in a trade. Dealing him would thin out the team’s rotation supply, but the Twins could still pursue some more cost-effective depth arms to complement Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods Richardson and top prospects David Festa and Zebby Matthews, both of whom made their MLB debuts in 2024 (each struggling to varying extents). Prospects Marco Raya and Andrew Morris are also on the near-term horizon.

The Opener: Award Finalists, McCullough, Free Agent Prediction Contest

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As a new week of the MLB offseason begins, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on today:

1. BBWAA awards finalists to be announced:

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America will reveal the top three vote-getters (a.k.a. the finalists) for each of their four major awards tonight at 5:00 pm CT on MLB Network. Those four awards are the Most Valuable Player, the Cy Young Award, the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year, and the Manager of the Year. The favorites for the MVP and Cy Young in each league are already quite clear, while the Rookie of the Year looks like a two-man race in both the AL and NL. Aaron Judge (AL) and Shohei Ohtani (NL) are the MVP frontrunners, and Tarik Skubal (AL) and Chris Sale (NL) are the Cy Young frontrunners. Colton Cowser and Luis Gil seem to be the two strongest candidates for AL Rookie of the Year, while Jackson Merrill and Paul Skenes are battling it out in the NL. Simply put, it will be a major upset if any of the above names are not included among the finalists.

Tonight’s announcement could be most eye-opening when it comes to the Manager of the Year competition, which is often harder to predict. Potential candidates include Stephen Vogt (CLE), Matt Quatraro (KCR), A.J. Hinch (DET), and Brandon Hyde (BAL) in the AL and Pat Murphy (MIL), Mike Shildt (SDP), Rob Thomson (PHI), and Carlos Mendoza (NYM) in the NL.

2. Marlins and McCullough to make it official?

ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reported on Sunday that the Marlins have hired Clayton McCullough as their new manager, but the team has yet to confirm the news. Fans can expect a formal announcement from Miami in the coming days, as well as a press conference to introduce the new skipper. For what it’s worth, the Marlins announced Skip Schumaker’s hiring in 2022 the same day the news broke, although he wasn’t officially introduced until the following week.

With McCullough’s hiring, all three managerial openings around the league have now been filled. However, there are still plenty of coaching roles available, particularly on McCullough’s staff in Miami. The Marlins have reportedly hired Pedro Guerrero to be their new hitting coach, but just about every other coaching job in Miami is still up for grabs.

3. Free Agent Prediction Contest closes tonight:

Get your picks in quick, because the annual MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest closes tonight at 11:00 pm CT. And if you’ve already submitted your answers, don’t forget that you can edit the form until the entry period closes. Click here to enter the contest now!

The goal is simple: Correctly predict where MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents will sign this offseason. The winner will receive a $500 prize, and there is a $300 prize for the runner-up and a $100 prize for the third-place finisher. Anyone who finishes in the top 15 will also receive a one-year membership to Trade Rumors Front Office. For more details about the contest, click here.

Enter The MLBTR Free Agent Prediction Contest

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The MLB Trade Rumors Free Agent Prediction Contest is now open!  Click here to enter your picks for the destinations for our top 50 free agents.  The deadline for entry is TONIGHT at 11pm central time.  You can edit your picks until then.  Further contest info:

  • After the window to make picks has closed, we’ll post a public leaderboard page so you can see who’s winning the contest as players sign with teams.  We’re going to use entrants’ full names on it.  So, if that concerns you, please do not enter the contest.  Entries with inappropriate names will be deleted.
  • We are also collecting email addresses, which I will use to notify winners.
  • If a player signs between now and the close of the contest, that player will be excluded from the contest.
  • After you submit your picks, you’ll receive an email from Google Forms.  In that email, you’ll see a button that allows you to edit your picks.
  • We will announce the winners on MLBTR once all 50 free agents have signed.  We will award $500 to first place, $300 to second place, and $100 to third place.  We will also be giving  one-year memberships to Trade Rumors Front Office for everyone who finishes in the top 15.  Winners must respond to an email within one week.
  • The winners of this contest will be declared on Opening Day 2025, and any unsigned players will be excluded from the competition.
  • Ties in the correct number of picks will be broken by summing up the rankings of the free agents of the correct picks and taking the lower total.  For example: Tim and Steve each get two picks correct.  Tim gets Juan Soto (#1 ranking) and Clay Holmes (#21 ranking) for a total of 22 points.  Steve gets Max Fried (#6) and Tanner Scott (#14) for a total of 20 points.  Steve’s total is lower and he’s ahead of Tim for tiebreaker purposes.

If you have any further questions, ask us in the comment section of this post!  Otherwise, make your picks now!

Marlins To Hire Pedro Guerrero As Hitting Coach

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The Marlins have hired Pedro Guerrero as their new hitting coach, according to The Athletic’s Katie Woo and Andrew Baggarly.  Daniel Alvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reported earlier tonight that Guerrero and the Marlins were nearing a deal, and Baggarly reported last week that Guerrero was interviewing with Miami about an unspecified position on their coaching staff.

Guerrero comes to the Marlins after three seasons as an assistant hitting coach with the Giants.  Notably, the first two seasons of Guerrero’s tenure in San Francisco continued his association with Gabe Kapler, who was then the Giants’ manager and is now Miami’s assistant general manager.  Before coming to the Giants, Guerrero was also an assistant hitting coach with the Phillies from 2018-21, overlapping Kapler’s time as Philadelphia’s manager during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Miami has basically nowhere to go but up when it comes to hitting, as the 62-100 team naturally ranked near the bottom of the league in most major batting categories.  Former hitting coach John Mabry and assistant hitting coaches Bill Mueller and Jason Hart can’t be entirely blamed for the lack of production, of course, as the Marlins’ rebuild left the roster increasingly gutted of big-league caliber talent as the season developed.  That said, the Fish also didn’t even hit much when they reached the playoffs in 2023, as Miami ranked 26th in the league in runs scored but benefited from an exceptional 33-14 record in one-run games.

Now that Clayton McCullough has been installed as the Marlins’ new manager, Guerrero is the first member of what will be an entirely new set of coaches.  Miami underwent an internal overhaul after the season that saw the club fire not only the whole incumbent coaching staff, but also everyone from the training staffers to clubhouse attendants.  This leaves the Marlins with plenty of positions to fill in the coming weeks and months, and with McCullough now in place as manager, hirings figure to begin quickly.

As for the Giants, they’ve now lost two members of their three-person staff of hitting instructors, between Guerrero’s departure and Justin Viele leaving to become the Rangers’ new hitting coach.  Woo and Baggarly write that the Giants will install just one new hitting coach instead of two, and that sole new hire will team with the returning Pat Burrell as the hitting-coach tandem.

D’Backs, Nationals, Yankees Among Teams Interested In Christian Walker

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“At least six teams…plan to aggressively pursue” free agent first baseman Christian Walker, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes, adding that the Yankees, Nationals, and Diamondbacks are some of the teams involved in the hunt.  The Mets are mentioned as perhaps more of a peripheral suitor, as Nightengale speculates that the Mets could chase Walker if Pete Alonso isn’t re-signed.

Ranked 13th on MLBTR’s list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, Walker is projected for a three-year, $60MM deal, with the shorter-term nature of that contract reflecting the fact that Walker will be 34 on Opening Day.  Even as he gets deeper into his 30’s, however, Walker hasn’t shown much sign of slowing down.  Over the last three seasons, the first baseman has hit .250/.332/.481 with 95 home runs over 1880 plate appearances with Arizona, which works out to a solid 120 wRC+.  On top of that offense comes standout defense, as Walker has won the last three NL Gold Gloves and Fielding Bible awards in 2022-23 for his superb work at first base.

Because Walker will likely be getting a relatively short contract, any number of teams could conceivably be in the market for his services beyond just the usual big spenders.  This could help the Diamondbacks (who have roughly $157.5MM already on the books for 2025) stay in the bidding, and one would imagine Arizona might have some extra advantage since Walker has stated that he has enjoyed his time with the D’Backs.  Since Walker was issued a qualifying offer that he is sure to reject, a new team would have to give up draft picks and possibly international bonus pool money to sign him, whereas the Diamondbacks would face no penalty for re-signing their own free agent.

Retaining Walker would immediately patch a big hole in an Arizona lineup that could also be losing Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk in free agency.  Pavin Smith hit well in 2024 and might be an interesting backup plan (in at least a platoon capacity) at first base if Walker left, though in the event that Walker returned, the D’Backs could then more comfortably view Smith a replacement for Pederson’s left-handed bat.

The Yankees also have a clear need at first base since Anthony Rizzo isn’t expected to be re-signed, and DJ LeMahieu has been in sharp decline over the last two seasons.  Walker would bring more pop into New York’s lineup, and shore up the infield defense that suddenly became an issue during the World Series.  (For what it’s worth, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco and Darragh McDonald both predicted Walker would sign with the Yankees within the top 50 list’s projections.)

Signing a QO-rejecting free agent comes at a particularly stiff price for the Yankees, as since they exceeded the luxury tax threshold, they’d have to give up two draft picks and $1MM in international bonus money.  This isn’t necessarily a roadblock for New York if the club particularly likes what Walker can offer, and the Yankees might have an edge of their own on the qualifying offer front since they wouldn’t have to give up picks to re-sign Juan Soto.  It has been speculated that the Yankees might turn to Alonso as the backup plan if Soto goes elsewhere, yet even in that scenario, New York might still prefer Walker due to the lower price tag and greater all-around value, as Alonso is only a passable defender.

Washington is perhaps the most interesting of the three known suitors, as unlike the D’Backs and Yankees, it has been a while since the Nats were in contention.  The club’s rebuild process has brought some very interesting younger building blocks (James Wood, CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, MacKenzie Gore, Luis Garcia Jr., etc.) to the District, and with Wood and Crews now in the majors, there have been rumblings that the Nats are ready to turn the corner back towards contention.  Signing Walker would have some echos of the Nationals’ signing of Jayson Werth during the 2010-11 offseason, as that big-ticket addition signaled that the Nats were going to start competing after years of rebuilding.

President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo has openly stated that the Nationals are looking for more pop in the middle of the lineup, and first base is the logical position for such an upgrade.  Washington received a cumulative 0.3 bWAR from their first basemen in 2024, and the club has already started clearing space at the position by parting ways with Joey Gallo and Joey Meneses.

Since the Nationals weren’t luxury tax payors and don’t receive revenue sharing, they face the mid-range penalty for signing a qualified free agent — their second-highest 2025 draft pick and $500K in international pool money.  The overall payroll impact for Walker can be easily absorbed since Washington has only Keibert Ruiz’s contract on the books, in addition to the two remaining years’ worth of salary still owed to Stephen Strasburg.

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