MLBTR wraps our division by division look at next year’s team/mutual option class with the AL East. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.
Previous installments: player options/opt-outs, NL West, AL West, NL Central, AL Central, NL East
Baltimore Orioles
- Andrew Kittredge, RHP ($9MM club option, $1MM buyout)
Baltimore signed Kittredge to a one-year, $10MM free agent deal over the winter. He’s making $9MM this season and has a matching club option or a $1MM buyout for 2026. Kittredge was supposed to be a key setup man in front of Félix Bautista, but he suffered a left knee injury early in camp and required a debridement surgery. He began a rehab stint at High-A Aberdeen on Sunday. While there’s plenty of time for Kittredge to turn things around, it hasn’t been the start to his O’s tenure that he envisioned.
- Ramón Laureano, OF ($6.5MM club option, no buyout)
Laureano, who was non-tendered by the Braves, signed a $4MM contract with Baltimore in February. That came with a $6.5MM team option without a buyout, giving the Orioles an extra season of club control. Injuries to Tyler O’Neill and Colton Cowser have pressed him into everyday work, mostly in left field. He hasn’t provided much through his first 24 games. Laureano is hitting .185 with a .237 on-base percentage through 59 plate appearances. He has hit a trio of home runs but struck out 18 times while drawing only four walks. Laureano has generally been a below-average hitter since being suspended following a positive PED test in 2021. He’ll need much better production over the next few months for the Orioles to exercise the option.
Boston Red Sox
- Walker Buehler, RHP ($25MM mutual option, $3MM buyout)
Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05MM free agent deal to match the price of the qualifying offer — which the Dodgers had declined to issue when he hit the market. It’s a relatively expensive pillow contract. Buehler was coming off a dismal regular season, in which he’d posted a 5.38 ERA with a career-worst 18.6% strikeout rate over 16 starts. He finished his Dodger tenure on a high note, though, closing out the World Series while pitching to a 3.60 earned run average in 15 playoff innings.
An ace-caliber pitcher early in his career, Buehler hasn’t looked the same since undergoing the second Tommy John surgery of his career in August 2022. His stint in Boston has gotten out to a shaky start. While his 4.28 ERA through 33 2/3 innings is serviceable, he’s striking out just 20.7% of opponents while averaging a personal-low 93.5 MPH on his fastball. Shoulder inflammation sent him to the injured list last week. The mutual option was always an accounting measure designed to push the $3MM buyout to the end of the year rather than disbursing it throughout the season as salary. The team seems likelier to decline its end than the pitcher does.
- Lucas Giolito, RHP ($14MM club option, $1.5MM buyout)
Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5MM deal during the 2023-24 offseason. He negotiated an opt-out clause after the first season and hoped to retest the market after one strong year. Instead, Giolito’s elbow gave out during Spring Training and he required UCL surgery that cost him the entire season. The veteran righty made the easy decision to stick around for year two.
By exercising his player option, Giolito unlocked a 2026 option for the team. It’s valued at $14MM and comes with a $1.5MM buyout. If Giolito pitches 140 innings this year, it’d convert to a $19MM mutual option (still with the $1.5MM buyout). That’d give him a chance to test free agency if he wants. Giolito has an uphill battle to 140 frames. A hamstring strain cost him the first month of the season. He finally made his team debut last week, working six innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts in a no-decision against Toronto. The Rangers tagged him for six runs on 10 hits in just 3 2/3 frames tonight.
- Liam Hendriks, RHP ($12MM mutual option, $2MM buyout)
The Red Sox added Hendriks on a two-year, $10MM deal over the 2023-24 offseason. They knew they wouldn’t get much in year one, as Hendriks had undergone Tommy John surgery the prior August. He attempted to make a late-season return last year but was shut down after a minor flare-up of elbow discomfort. Elbow inflammation shelved him for a couple weeks to begin this season, though he made his team debut in mid-April.
Hendriks allowed two runs on three hits in one inning during his first appearance. He has rattled off five straight scoreless outings since then, albeit with four walks in five frames. His 95 MPH average fastball is solid but below the 97-98 range at which he sat during his elite seasons with the White Sox.
Note: Jarren Duran’s arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with an $8MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Sox decline the option.
New York Yankees
- Tim Hill, LHP ($3MM club option, $350K buyout)
Hill finished last season with the Yankees after being released by the White Sox in June. He’d allowed nearly six earned runs per nine with Chicago but managed a tidy 2.05 ERA over 44 frames for New York. He’s out to a similarly productive start to the ’25 season. Hill has surrendered five runs through 17 1/3 innings (2.60 ERA).
While the soft-tossing lefty has managed just 11 strikeouts, his game has always been built around ground-balls. He’s getting grounders at a massive 81.6% clip thus far. Only nine of the 40 batted balls he’s allowed have been hit into the air. It’s easily the highest grounder rate in the majors. The Yankees value this skillset as much as any team, and the $2.65MM option decision is a drop in the bucket for them.
- Jonathan Loáisiga, RHP ($5MM club option, no buyout)
Loáisiga is still working back from last April’s elbow surgery. The righty has generally been a productive reliever when healthy, but he’s only once managed even 50 MLB innings in a season. He’s on a rehab stint with Low-A Tampa and will need another few weeks before he’s built into MLB game shape. Loáisiga is making $5MM this season. The option has a matching base value and could climb by another $500K if the Yankees exercise it. He’d earn $100K each at reaching 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70 innings in 2026.
Tampa Bay Rays
- Pete Fairbanks, RHP ($7MM club option, $1MM buyout)
Fairbanks is in the final guaranteed season of the three-year, $12MM extension that he signed before the 2023 campaign. That includes a $1MM buyout on a club option that comes with a $7MM base value. That’s a bargain for a quality high-leverage reliever, but the deal includes various escalators that could push the option price above $12MM.
The option value would climb by $500K if he gets to 125 combined appearances between 2023-25 and another $1MM apiece at 135, 150 and 165 combined outings. Fairbanks made it into 95 games over the first two seasons. He’d trigger the first $500K escalator at just 30 appearances this year and would max it out if he makes it into 70 games. He can boost the option price by another $2MM based on this year’s games finished total: $500K apiece at 25, 30, 35 and 40.
Fairbanks has never reached 50 appearances in a season because of various injuries, but he’s already at 14 games through this season’s first six weeks. Fairbanks has finished 11 of those contests while working as Kevin Cash’s primary closer. He has recorded 13 strikeouts against six walks while allowing three runs over 13 1/3 innings. The option price should remain solid value, though the escalators might eventually push it to an area where Tampa Bay would rather explore deadline or offseason trades rather than having a reliever projecting as one of the highest-paid players on the roster.
- Danny Jansen, C ($12MM mutual option, $500K buyout)
Jansen seemed to be pulling away from the rest of a weak free agent catching class early last season. His production tanked from June onwards, leaving him to sign an $8.5MM pillow contract with Tampa Bay. He’s making an $8MM salary and will collect a $500K buyout on a $12MM mutual option at year’s end. Last summer’s offensive drought has carried into 2025. Jansen has only one home run with a .147/.301/.221 batting line through 83 plate appearances. He remains a very patient hitter, but the Rays would have an easy decision to decline their end of the option if he doesn’t find the double-digit home run power he showed during his best seasons in Toronto.
- Brandon Lowe, 2B ($11.5MM club option, $500K buyout)
Lowe has had a rare extended run with a Tampa Bay team that is almost always willing to trade any player. He’s in his eighth big league season and in year seven of the extension he signed in Spring Training 2019. Lowe collected $24MM for what would have been his standard six seasons of team control. The Rays exercised a $10.5MM option for this year and can retain him once more at an $11.5MM price. It’s an $11MM decision after accounting for the $500K buyout.
While injuries have been a recurring issue, Lowe has been one of the better offensive middle infielders in the sport when healthy. His 39-homer season in 2021 is an outlier, but he has tallied 21 longballs in each of the past two seasons. He’s out to a much slower start this year, batting .203/.258/.305 with four homers across 128 plate appearances. The batted ball metrics are still solid, but his career-worst 20.1% swinging strike rate is the fifth-highest among hitters with at least 50 PAs.
This one can still go a few different ways. If Lowe hits like this all season, he’d be bought out. If he finds something like his 2023-24 form (.238/.319/.458), then $11MM is reasonable. It’d keep him as one of Tampa Bay’s highest-paid players, though, so there’s a decent chance he’ll be traded at some point this year. The 16-18 Rays look like fringe Wild Card contenders for a second consecutive year. They could again try to walk the line between buying and selling come deadline season.
- Jacob Waguespack, RHP ($1.5MM club option, no buyout)
The Rays signed Waguespack to a restructured deal early last offseason. He’s making $1.3MM this season and has a $1.5MM club option for next year. That’d escalate to $2MM if he reaches 20 “points” this season. Waguespack would receive one point for each MLB relief appearance and two points per big league start. He has spent the ’25 season to date on optional assignment to Triple-A Durham.
Working as a pure reliever for the Bulls, Waguespack has reeled off 14 innings of two-run ball. He has fanned 15 hitters against three walks while getting ground-balls at a lofty 60% clip. It hasn’t earned him a major league call yet, but he should be up before too much longer if he keeps performing at that level. Waguespack spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan. He made four MLB appearances with Tampa Bay last year but lost a good portion of the season to a rotator cuff injury.
Note: Taylor Walls’ arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with a $2.45MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Rays decline the option.
Toronto Blue Jays
- None
Giolito got pounded by the lowly Rangers offense tonight.
I don’t think Brett Boone could have made that much of a difference already!
It’s hard to say. Modern medicine has made a lot of advances since Bret last played. It’s possible his ‘skills’ are much faster acting these days.
I know he’s been lumped in as taking the juice, but I am unaware of anything serious. Legitimately asking if Bret Boone did some juicing?
Bret Boone was obviously juiced, started hitting 37 HR out of nowhere late in his career.
There’s no direct clinical evidence that I’m aware of and he denies use of steroids, much like every guy who was using.
He was a little guy who was mostly a light hitter until suddenly going for 37 homers and a .331 batting average out of seemingly nowhere. Also, he appeared to be physically bigger, more then can be justified over a single ‘clean’ winter in the gym.
It’s hard to imagine he wasn’t using. That’s the sad part about that era. We can’t really believe anything anyone says. All we can do is look at what happened and what happened with Boone was suspect.
From 1992-2000, he averaged 14 HRs per year, and had an averageish build. In 2001, he hit 37 HRs after bulking up considerably.
Boone seems to be the rare player whose numbers became all-world going to Seattle rather than leaving. Considering the spike in numbers playing in one of the hardest parks to hit, yeah something was up.
I liked him better last year…
Wait – I liked the weather better 4 hours ago, was really praying for a rainout.
Now they face Mahle tomorrow, God help us.
I don’t think we’re at a bottom here. Don’t thinj the Red Sox are done losing either.
Newcomb at least pitched respectably in mop up.
Many people here were saying the Braves were fools for letting Laureano go. Rather have Eli White for a fraction of the price. At least it costs less to be terrible.
I thought the O’s overpaid for a perennial underachiever. Funny that his only good year was before getting a PED suspension. Still managing to get $4 million.
But his defense! Even though he has been good defensively for like two years.
The Os did have Daz Cameron who might have been better than Laureano
It’s funny how the Sox have tried to cut out long term deals and opted for shorter bigger money deals. It hasn’t worked out and they’ve wasted just as much money as signing guys long term without clear results.
Um you skipped the big one for the RS Alex Bregman
How could you for get the 5.5M option Jorge Mateo has for the Orioles? I guess the fact that he’s hitting .143 and has already managed 5 errors despite part time duty makes it a foregone conclusion that there won’t be an option and instead the Orioles will lock him into 5 years, 200M. They have kept him this long, surely he’s about to erupt any day.
I feel like you are kind of low balling his value to the club.
Boggs-you’re right. Should be incentives added for MVP, silver slugger, and leading the league in home runs.
If I was a relief pitcher I would insist on all of those as a joke.
So, if Trent Grisham is the real deal here and the Yankees convinced him to and he accepted a *pay cut* this year for some reason in his final year of arbitration… and now he’s doing what he’s doing… if it’s real and will be what he’s like for the next 4-8 years, what do we think a contract would look like for him?
I personally would like to see him get the Q.O. (which, let’s say it’s $22M to keep it simple) and then be offered like 6 years/$111M or 7 years/$133M… but I could also see them just let him walk and I could see them trying to turn him into Aaron Hicks, etc 2.0 where they go to him and are like “look, we see your market being like 6 years/$90M and then maybe a couple more years at like $6M and then you’ll likely retire at like 35 or 36. What if we gave you 10 years/$100M guaranteed with a $10M signing bonus and a $5M buyout on an $16M club option to make it 11 years/$111M.”
I dunno…. if he’s real I want him to stick around. He’s fun. Love the mustache- also if you look at his career numbers, he’s displayed consistent, real power throughout the years. His power surge is not exactly inexplicable or an aberration…. over an average 162 game season he tracks as a 20 HR hitter….a lot of guys ‘figure it out’ later ala Jose Bautista… maybe he’s this next half decade’s Jose ‘Joey Bats’ Bautista?
So what if he’s the next Joey Bats? 6 years/$120M? Or, again, do the Yankees just not view him as truly valuable regardless of the current production and would low ball him or let him walk, no matter what?