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Offseason In Review: Cleveland Guardians

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The Guardians kept their longtime ace but traded their everyday first baseman ahead of his final season of club control. Their offseason featured a blend of creative trades to trim payroll and acquire controllable talent, plus some short-term spending on veterans to replace some of the big leaguers they traded away. It was a vintage Cleveland offseason that should keep them in the mix in what'll be a tightly contested AL Central.

Major League Signings

2025 spending: $37.5MM
Total spending: $54.5MM

Option Decisions

  • None

Trades and Waiver Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The Guardians entered the 2024-25 offseason looking to bolster a roster that made an unexpected run to the American League Championship Series. Cleveland faced decisions on some players with dwindling club control and, as is always the case, some notable payroll limitations. In a departure from most offseasons, however, the Guards found themselves in an unfamiliar position: needing to acquire starting pitching.

Cleveland has emerged as one of the industry leaders in maximizing its rotation output. At times, it feels as though they have an almost magical ability to produce quality starting pitchers out of thin air. In fact, when the Guardians signed righty Ben Lively to a one-year, $800K deal in the 2023-24 offseason, it was the first time they'd signed any free agent starter to a major league contract since inking Gavin Floyd back in 2014. Midway through the 2024 season, they did so again, signing Matthew Boyd to a major league contract.

Both moves worked out splendidly. Boyd started eight games down the stretch and produced a sub-3.00 ERA. Lively finished second on the club with 151 innings and notched a 3.81 ERA and stuck with the club as an arbitration-eligible player. He'll be back in the 2025 rotation. Boyd, however, hit free agency and did so alongside former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber and trade deadline acquisition Alex Cobb.

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MLBTR Podcast: Jose Quintana, Luis Gil’s Injury, The Nats’ TV Situation, Salary Floor Talk, And More!

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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…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • With MASN now solved and stadium naming rights and jersey patches on the way do you see the Nationals making the leap into big spenders sooner than later? (12:30)
  • Do you see the MLBPA pushing for a salary floor? (22:05)
  • Will the White Sox trade Luis Robert Jr. before the start of the regular season? (25:20)
  • While neither is particularly likely, is it more probable that the Pirates extend Paul Skenes or the Reds extend Elly De La Cruz? (27:40)
  • What is your opinion of the White Sox upper management and will they lose 100 games this year? (30:45)
  • The Mets are loaded with infield prospects. Do they trade Jeff McNeil to make room? (37:30)
  • With the Tigers’ outfield injuries, do they go get a right-handed bat? And who is available? (42:00)
  • With the Mariners bringing back most of their position players, what are the chances they get better production from them in 2025? (44:30)
  • Does David Bote have a legitimate shot to make the Dodgers’ roster? (50:35)
  • Why doesn’t MLB expand to 36 teams instead of just 32? (51:35)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Mexican League’s Bravos De León Sign Jay Jackson

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The Bravos de León of the Mexican League announced last week that they’ve signed veteran reliever Jay Jackson. The Bravos also announced a deal with righty Josimar Cousin, who spent some time on the White Sox’s 40-man roster last year. Francys Romero first reported the Cousin deal.

Jackson, a Nello Gamberdino client, has pitched in parts of six big league seasons. He reached the majors in each of the past four years, including a 20-game stint with the Twins last season. Jackson struggled to a 7.52 earned run average over 26 1/3 frames for Minnesota. He had a solid strikeout and walk profile (25.4% and 7.9%, respectively) but gave up seven home runs in his relatively small sample of work.

The 37-year-old righty is only a year removed from posting much better numbers with Toronto. Jackson provided the Jays 29 2/3 innings of 2.12 ERA ball in 2023. His velocity was down slightly last year. His four-seam fastball sat at 91.9 MPH; he’d averaged a bit above 93 MPH two seasons ago. If he recaptures his previous velocity and/or misses bats in Mexico, he could pitch his way back to affiliated ball on a midseason minor league deal.

Cousin, 27, is a Cuban-born hurler who hasn’t pitched in the majors. The White Sox selected his contract in 2023 but outrighted back off the 40-man roster last April. He combined for a 2.80 ERA in 35 1/3 innings between the top two minor league levels. Cousin qualified for minor league free agency at season’s end.

Injury Notes: Jordan Walker, Christian Walker, Topa

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The Cardinals got good news on Jordan Walker this afternoon. An MRI revealed no structural damage in his left knee, manager Oli Marmol told reporters (including John Denton of MLB.com). Walker is dealing with inflammation that’ll shut him down for around a week, but there’s nothing to suggest this’ll be a serious issue. It would have been a freak injury, as the young outfielder felt the discomfort after stepping on a sprinkler head while tracking a fly ball during Tuesday’s game.

With three weeks until Opening Day, it seems the 22-year-old will be on track for the start of the regular season. He’s in line to work as the everyday right fielder. The former top prospect has yet to develop into the impact hitter that many evaluators believe he could become. Walker has turned in a .255/.317/.423 slash in 643 career plate appearances. That includes a .210/.253/.366 line over 51 MLB games last season. He had pedestrian numbers (.263/.326/.427 over 377 PAs) in Triple-A as well. Walker is young enough that this isn’t yet a make-or-break season, but the Cards’ transitional year should give him an extended opportunity to cement himself.

A couple other health updates from around baseball:

  • Christian Walker felt soreness in his left oblique during batting practice before the Astros game on Wednesday, manager Joe Espada told the beat (relayed by MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart). He’s day to day for the moment, but the team will know more tomorrow after further testing. Any kind of strain would make a season-opening injured list stint likely. Walker was Houston’s big free agent pickup, inking a three-year deal that guarantees $60MM. He’s coming off his third consecutive Gold Glove win and hit .251/.335/.468 with 26 homers over 552 plate appearances during his final season in Arizona. If Walker misses time, Jon Singleton would get the bulk of the first base reps. Righty-hitting Zach Dezenzo could take some at-bats against lefty pitching in that situation.
  • Twins reliever Justin Topa has had unfortunate injury luck for most of his career. He has undergone two Tommy John procedures and a flexor tendon surgery. A patellar tendon issue in his left knee limited him to three MLB appearances last season. Topa is now dealing with shoulder discomfort, writes Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. Minnesota lifted the righty from Wednesday’s game after seven pitches when Topa reported shoulder tightness. Manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters that the pitcher wasn’t overly concerned, so it’ll hopefully be a precautionary removal, but he’ll go for further testing tomorrow.

Rangers Notes: Teodo, Bullpen, Leiter

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Rangers pitching prospect Emiliano Teodo is making a strong impression early in camp. The 24-year-old righty struck out the side to earn the save in today’s exhibition win against Cincinnati. He’s up to 3 1/3 scoreless frames with five punchouts, a pair of saves, and a hold. His fastball has reached triple digits in short stints.

While it’s far too small a sample on which to draw real conclusions, Teodo’s stuff has caught the attention of Bruce Bochy. “You don’t know, he could break spring with us. To be honest, yeah, he’s probably on the outside looking in, but that’s how much we think about him,” the veteran manager said on Monday (link via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). “The stuff works, he’s been starting, I like him coming from the ‘pen too. There’s not a lot of arms like this.”

Teodo, whom the Rangers added to the 40-man roster over the offseason, doesn’t have a real shot to start the season in the big league rotation. The Rangers have Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle and Jon Gray lined up for their top four spots. Cody Bradford and Kumar Rocker are vying for the fifth starter job. There may be an opportunity in the bullpen. Texas has built its relief corps with a handful of low-cost free agent pickups and the trade for Robert Garcia. Teodo might have as good of raw stuff as anyone in that group, but breaking camp would require him to make the jump directly from Double-A.

Working as a starter with Double-A Frisco last season, Teodo turned in a 1.98 earned run average across 86 1/3 innings. He punched out 30.7% of opponents against a huge 14% walk rate. While the high-octane stuff has translated into a lot of whiffs, Teodo has yet to throw strikes consistently. Baseball America ranked him the #4 prospect in the system. They credit him with the potential for three plus or better pitches — headlined by a huge fastball-slider combination — but his control could point to a bullpen future. If Texas believes that’s the likeliest outcome regardless, there’s an argument for seeing how his stuff plays in relief on Opening Day.

Jack Leiter has had a similar combination of whiffs and walks in the minor leagues. The former second overall pick fanned a third of opponents with a 10.6% walk rate over 17 Triple-A appearances last season. The strikeout rate dropped to 17.9% as he surrendered nearly a run per inning over his first 35 2/3 MLB frames. Leiter has a pair of minor league options remaining and seems likely to work out of the Triple-A rotation to open the season.

The 24-year-old righty told reporters he’s tinkering with his pitch mix (link via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). Leiter said he’s working on a two-seam fastball that he picked up over the offseason. More interestingly, he said he adjusted the grip on his changeup late last year after a conversation with reliever Matt Festa. Leiter said he feels the new grip gets more downward action but that he didn’t feel comfortable using it frequently in games last year because it was difficult to command. Spring Training is an opportune time for pitchers to experiment with new offerings. Leiter has tossed five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts and one walk thus far in camp.

Hall Of Fame Adjusts Era Committees Eligibility

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The Hall of Fame announced a change to its Era Committees eligibility. Beginning with the upcoming year, any candidate on an Era Committee ballot who does not receive at least five of 16 votes will be ineligible for consideration during their era’s next cycle. A candidate who receives four or fewer votes on two separate occasions is ruled permanently ineligible for future consideration.

The Era Committees, formerly known as the Veterans Committee, is the less common path for enshrinement. It is designed to reconsider players who were not elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The Era Committees also considers non-players (i.e. managers, executives, and umpires) for induction. The BBWAA voting process is exclusive to players.

In order to be elected, an Era Committee candidate must receive 12 of 16 votes. The voting panel generally consists of longtime coaches and executives, as well as Hall of Fame players. The smaller voting pool means they’ve generally had a slightly lower standard for induction than has the BBWAA, which requires 75% approval from a much larger body of media members.

The Era Committee process is on a rotating three-year cycle. In one year, it’ll consider individuals from the “Classic Baseball Era” — those whose most significant contributions to the sport came before 1980, including veterans of the Negro Leagues. The other two years have subsets of the “Contemporary Baseball Era.” That consists of one year for players whose greatest contributions have come since 1980, and one year for managers/executives/umpires of the same era.

Last offseason considered the Classic Baseball Era. As it does every year, the committee voted on eight candidates: Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker, Vic Harris, Tommy John and Luis Tiant. Allen and Parker each received at least 12 votes and will be inducted this summer alongside the trio of players elected by the BBWAA: Ichiro, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. Of the remaining six candidates, only John (seven votes) received at least five votes.

The rule change is not retroactive, so this doesn’t impact any of the other candidates for now. However, under the new system, those who don’t receive five votes will not be allowed on the ballot when their era comes back up for consideration in three years. They may be considered four-plus years later, but falling shy of five votes again would end their Hall of Fame chances for good.

The Hall is hoping to diversify the candidates it evaluates. The logic is presumably that anyone who only receives a handful of votes from multiple committees is unlikely to ever garner serious consideration and should be removed in favor of someone else. In that sense, it’ll serve as an analogue to the sometimes controversial 5% voting threshold necessary for a player to stay on the BBWAA ballot each year.

This December’s class will consider players from the Contemporary Era. Contemporary Era managers/umpires/executives get their turn in 2026. The Classic Era will be up again in 2027.

Bryce Harper Willing To Return To Outfield To Accommodate Future First Base Addition

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Bryce Harper hasn’t played the outfield in a long time but is willing to head back out there if the Phillies find a big first base addition. “I talked to (the Phillies) this offseason about that, just in case a guy was available (at first) that we needed to have, needed to get,” Harper said to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. “I’d be more than open to it if we had a guy like that, who was going to change our lineup or change the demeanor of our team. They like me at first base. But I’d go out there to have a guy who was going to play first base and hit 35 or 40 homers.

“When Pete (Alonso) was on the block still, I kind of sat there and was like, ‘Hey, why not?’ When we talked about it, I kind of just reiterated to (the Phillies) and Scott (Boras) that I’m willing to move out there if it’s going to help us. I love playing first base. It’s been great. But if it’s going to help us win, I’d go back out there.”

Harper spent many years as an outfielder but hasn’t been out there in a while. He was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow in May of 2022. He wasn’t able to throw but served as the club’s designated hitter until he underwent Tommy John surgery in November of that year. He again served as the designated hitter once he initially got healthy in 2023. After that, the Phillies put him at first base and have kept him there.

That means it’s now been almost three years since his last outfield appearance. Regardless, Harper tells Rosenthal that his main goal is to win a World Series and he wants to do whatever it takes to help the club achieve that goal.

It’s an intriguing tidbit, given the potential impact on future markets. As Harper mentioned, he first broached the subject when Alonso was lingering on the market unsigned this winter. Nothing came of that, with Alonso eventually returning to the Mets, and there are no notable first basemen left unsigned at this point. But this coming winter, Alonso could be back out there since he has an opt-out in his two-year deal with the Mets. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also didn’t reach an extension with the Blue Jays and is slated for free agency this coming winter as well.

Whether the club wants to go down that road remains to be seen. Even before the surgery, Harper’s outfield defense was questionable. Outs Above Average gave him a grade of -29 from its inception in 2016 through 2022. Defensive Runs Saved has Harper at +8 as an outfielder in his career, but since he tallied +14 in his rookie season in 2012, he’s been below average overall since then. Given that he’s now 32 years old and has been away from the grass for a few years, he would face a challenge in being better than that going forward. At first base, however, he has +8 OAA in his career and +6 DRS.

There’s also the larger roster construction to consider. The Phils have seemingly been committed to keeping Harper at first, so much so that they told Rhys Hoskins they wouldn’t be able to bring him back as he hit free agency after 2023. Since then, they have had Harper at first and Kyle Schwarber at designated hitter. Schwarber is slated for free agency after 2025, though there seems to be some mutual interest in getting an extension done. Even if Schwarber isn’t back in 2026, Nick Castellanos would be a logical candidate to move into that role, since his contract runs through ’26 and his defense isn’t well regarded.

Hypothetically, signing Guerrero to a deal of a decade or longer could lead to long-term awkwardness on the roster. Harper is already 32 and will be 33 next year, with his contract running through 2031. In this hypothetical, he and Guerrero would be on the same roster for six years, from 2026 through 2031. By 2027, both Schwarber and Castellanos could be gone, perhaps allowing Harper and Guerrero to share first base and the DH slot at that point, though that would give the club very little flexibility for a five-year stretch. Most clubs these days prefer to have some wiggle room to cycle other players into the DH spot in order to manage season-long workloads and nagging injuries.

With Alonso, perhaps the hypothetical fit is a bit easier to see, depending on his 2025 season. He is obviously hoping to bounce back and find a stronger market next winter, but his age will still cap the length of his deal even if that happens. While Guerrero is just about to turn 26 this month, Alonso is already 30 and will be turning 31 next offseason. He didn’t seem to find any clubs willing to make a long-term investment in him this winter, so perhaps that will be true again going into 2026.

Regardless, all of his is contingent on the Phillies taking Harper up on his willingness to head back out to the grass. Perhaps this will end up being a moot point but it’s possible this could lead to some interesting rumors next winter. It’s also theoretically possible that Guerrero and/or Alonso are available at this summer’s deadline. Theoretically, the Phillies could acquire one of them and move Harper to the outfield, though a midseason trade is perhaps is even harder to see since Harper wouldn’t have an offseason and spring training to prepare for the outfield move.

Brewers Sign Jose Quintana

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March 5: The Brewers made it official today, announcing that they have signed Quintana to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2026. DL Hall was placed on the 60-day IL to open a roster spot. Per Jon Heyman of The New York Post, it’s a $2MM salary in 2025 with a deferred $2MM buyout on a $15MM mutual option for 2026 and a $250K roster bonus. The incentives are $125K each for 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 games started, as well as $100K for 110, 120, 130 and 140 innings pitched.

March 3: The Brewers are making a veteran addition to their rotation. Milwaukee is reportedly in agreement with Jose Quintana on a one-year, $4.25MM deal. That takes the form of a $250K roster bonus and a $4MM base salary for the ACES client. The signing, which has not been made official by the team, also includes incentives. The Brewers have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once the deal is finalized.

Quintana, 36, is one of the top unsigned free agents as the regular season is just over three weeks away at this point. He just finished a two-year, $26MM deal with the Mets that saw him post solid surface-level results, though with the numbers under the hood a bit less impressive.

In 2023, a left rib fracture put him on the injured list at the start of the season and kept him there until the middle of July. He returned in time to make 13 starts down the stretch, allowing 3.57 earned runs per nine innings, though his strikeout rate fell to 18.8%. Last year, he stayed healthy enough to take the ball 31 times for the Mets and logged 170 1/3 innings with a 3.75 ERA. But his strikeout was again a tepid 18.8% and he benefited from .263 batting average on balls in play. His 4.56 FIP and 4.57 SIERA on the year both pointed to him deserving worse results than he actually posted.

Prior to signing with the Mets, Quintana had engineered a strong bounceback season. After struggling with injuries and underperformance in 2020 and 2021, the lefty posted a 2.93 ERA over 32 starts in 2022. In that bounceback year, he had a 20.2% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate. Since then, he has a 3.70 ERA over 246 innings but with his 18.8% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 45.6% ground ball rate each moving slightly in the wrong direction.

Quintana’s isn’t the most exciting profile, but even getting some boring back-of-the-rotation innings could be good for the Brewers, especially for the price. At the start of the winter, MLBTR predicted the lefty to secure a two-year, $20MM contract, alongside other mid-rotation or back-end guys like Frankie Montas, Andrew Heaney or Matthew Boyd.

The pitching market was very aggressive early on, with Montas able to get a two-year, $34MM guarantee plus an opt-out from the Mets. Boyd got two years and $29MM from the Cubs. But the heat died down more recently, which seems to have squeezed out certain guys. Heaney had to settle for a $5.25MM guarantee from the Pirates on a one-year deal. Quintana reportedly turned down a better offer than that Heaney deal from the Bucs but is now joining Milwaukee on a fairly similar arrangement.

The Brewers have clearly been operating with no financial wiggle room this winter. Prior to signing Quintana, their biggest free agent signing was giving a $1MM guarantee to Tyler Alexander. They did add Nestor Cortes in a trade with the Yankees, but that deal was fairly revenue-neutral, with Devin Williams going the other way.

Their rotation mix has a few question marks in it. Robert Gasser required Tommy John surgery in June of last year and will be out of action until the second half of 2025. Brandon Woodruff is working his way back from shoulder surgery which wiped out his 2024 campaign and it’s unclear when he will be a viable option. DL Hall suffered a lat strain a few weeks ago and will start the season on the injured list.

As of now, Freddy Peralta and Cortes have spots alongside Aaron Civale and Tobias Myers. Civale tossed 161 innings last year but that was a personal best for him, having never hit 125 frames in a big league season before. Myers posted an ERA of 3.00 in his first big league action but was a nomadic former prospect prior to that, so it remains to be seen if he can maintain his results or if his 2024 was a fluke.

Other options in the mix include Alexander and Aaron Ashby. Alexander has a 4.55 ERA in his career but mostly in a swing role, oscillating between starting and relieving. This Quintana deal should push him more firmly into that position again. Ashby, who left today’s Spring Training appearance with an oblique injury, has some starting experience but struggled through much of 2024 before finishing strong in a relief role. He is still a starting candidate but he could eventually end up back in the bullpen and also has an option year remaining, which could push him to the Triple-A rotation.

Even if Quintana’s results in 2024 were a bit of a mirage and he ends up with an ERA in the mid-4.00s this year, a steady veteran presence at this price is a logical add for a club with so many rotation question marks and little spending capacity.

For clubs still looking to add starting pitching at this late stage of the offseason, there are still a few unsigned options, including Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn and Spencer Turnbull. The trade market could feature Jordan Montgomery and Taijuan Walker, though their salaries are much larger than what free agents have been settling for in recent weeks.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that the Brewers were signing Quintana to a one-year deal. Francys Romero reported that the salary would land in the $4-5MM range and the presence of incentives. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the specific $4.25MM guarantee and salary structure.

Gunnar Henderson Diagnosed With Intercostal Strain

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Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson has been diagnosed with a mild right intercostal strain. Manager Brandon Hyde relayed the information to reporters today, including Jake Rill of MLB.com. Hyde says the club is still “very, very hopeful” of Henderson being on the Opening Day roster, which is now just over three weeks away.

Henderson was removed from a Grapefruit League game against the Blue Jays last week, with the O’s announcing that he had lower right side discomfort. After that contest, Hyde downplayed the concern, framing the removal as precautionary and saying that Henderson would not even require an MRI.

A week later, it seems the issue has lingered enough that his readiness for Opening Day is a question mark. Though Hyde still thinks Henderson could be ready by the opener, he also suggests they won’t be aggressive with him just for that one game. “I’m very, very hopeful,” Hyde said today, per Rill. “But we’re going to not push a strain there, and we want to make sure that he gets it taken care of. It’s one of those sensitive areas where we don’t want anything to reoccur.”

Whether Henderson is in the lineup on Opening Day or not, it’s a situation worth monitoring, given his importance to the team. Henderson won American League Rookie of the Year honors in 2023 and vaulted to a new level last year. He hit 37 home runs, stole 21 bases, slashed .281/.364/.529 and got strong grades for his shortstop defense. FanGraphs credited him with 8.0 wins above replacement on the year. That would have been good enough for an MVP award in many years but Henderson finished fourth in the voting, thanks to outrageous seasons from Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr. and Juan Soto.

The O’s will likely have to consider some contingency plans, even if they ultimately expect Henderson to get healthy in the next three weeks. Jorge Mateo played a lot of shortstop before Henderson took over that spot but he’s currently recovering from elbow surgery and likely to start the season on the injured list. Jackson Holliday has shortstop experience but the club has largely moved him to second base.

Jordan Westburg has plenty of shortstop experience in the minors but just ten big league innings there. He has his own health situation since he’s been dealing with back soreness/spasms this spring. He hasn’t played in a while but Hyde said to Rill it’s possible he could play in Thursday’s game, depending on how he feels in the morning. If Westburg were to cover short, it would create a hole a third, which could be filled by Coby Mayo or Ramón Urías. The O’s also have a few infielders in camp as non-roster invitees, such as Terrin Vavra, Liván Soto, Luis Vázquez, Emmanuel Rivera and Vimael Machín.

There are many moving parts and the situation will surely change in the coming weeks before Opening Day. Ideally, Henderson will just be back in action and everything would be back in its proper place, though Baltimore fans will likely be keeping a keen eye on developments between now and then.

Elsewhere on the roster, reliever Andrew Kittredge has some left knee soreness. Hyde tells reporters, including Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner, that he’s undergone an MRI and will seek multiple opinions. The O’s signed Kittredge to a one-year, $10MM deal in January to bolster their bullpen. He posted a 2.48 earned run average over the 2021 to 2024 seasons. Tommy John surgery wiped out most of the middle two seasons of that span but he tossed 70 2/3 innings last year with a 2.80 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 45.2% ground ball rate.

Brewers Place DL Hall On 60-Day Injured List

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The Brewers announced that left-hander DL Hall has been placed on the 60-day injured list. Adam McCalvy of MLB.com was among those to relay the news. That means Hall has been officially ruled out until late May at the earliest. That’s the corresponding move to open a roster spot for lefty Jose Quintana, who has now been officially signed.

Back on February 12th, it was reported that Hall had a lat strain and was going to be shut down for at least the next two weeks. It has now been three weeks since that reporting with little information coming out about his progress. About a week ago, McCalvy relayed that Hall had not even been cleared to start playing catch. Manager Pat Murphy tells McCalvy today that Hall is expected to resume playing catch at the end of this week.

Given the sluggish progress and this transaction, it seems the Brewers don’t expect Hall to return anytime soon. Players can be placed on the 60-day IL once pitchers and catchers report to camp but the clock doesn’t start ticking until Opening Day, so Hall won’t be eligible for reinstatement until late May even in a best-case scenario.

It’s an unfortunate development for Hall, who hasn’t been able to build a decent workload. He still doesn’t have a 100-inning season on his track record as a professional. With the Orioles in 2022 and 2023, they shuttled him between the majors and minors as well as the rotation and the bullpen. He was traded to the Brewers as part of the Corbin Burnes deal ahead of the 2024 season and Milwaukee mostly deployed him as a starter last year, but a knee sprain capped him at 84 frames, majors and minors combined.

The Brewers still have hope of Hall becoming a viable starter one day, given that he’s a former top 100 prospect and was a key part of the Burnes deal. He could still have a nice season in 2025 but starting it with a lengthy IL stint isn’t ideal.

For the Brewers, they will have some rotation question marks to start the season, though the Quintana signing helps to solidify the group. Alongside Quintana will be Freddy Peralta, Tobias Myers, Aaron Civale and Nestor Cortes. They will add Brandon Woodruff in there at some point, though his timeline is unclear after he spent 2024 recovering from shoulder surgery. Aaron Ashby has an oblique strain and is still getting tested, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but seems likely to start the season on the IL. Robert Gasser is already on the 60-day IL as he recovers from last year’s Tommy John surgery.

Behind the front five, the Brewers currently have Logan Henderson, Carlos Rodríguez, Chad Patrick and Elvin Rodríguez as healthy options on the 40-man roster. However, Henderson and Patrick have no major league experience while the Rodríguezes have just 45 1/3 big league innings combined. Jacob Misiorowski is one of the top prospects in baseball but isn’t on the 40-man and walked 14.4% of batters faced last year.

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