Here are three things we’re keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Valdez to make Tigers debut:
Tigers fans will get their first glimpse of newly-signed southpaw Framber Valdez on the mound for Detroit, as he’s set to start the club’s Spring Training game against the Braves later today. At 1:05pm local time in at the Tigers’ spring complex in Lakeland, Valdez will face off against Atlanta righty Bryce Elder. The soon-to-be 27-year-old Elder is a one-time All-Star but has struggled badly over the past few years, and is coming off a 2025 campaign where he posted a 5.30 ERA in 28 starts. Valdez, of course, has been one of the top starters in the AL for several years now. Last season was one of his weaker campaigns, but he still posted a solid 3.66 ERA with a 3.37 FIP.
2. More extensions on the way?
Over the weekend, the Cardinals extended manager Oli Marmol on a two-year deal that includes a club option for the 2029 season. There will surely be additional extensions over the coming weeks, both for players and personnel. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk took a look at the managers and top front office executives on expiring contracts back in January, and while a few (including AJ Preller of the Padres and Pat Murphy of the Brewers) have already reached new deals since then, many are still on lame duck contracts. As for players, extension rumors have been fairly quiet to this point in the winter but, as Chris Sale‘s recent extension with the Braves showed just last week, these sorts of deals can come together very quickly.
3. Big league deals still on the table for free agents?
We’re now into the month of March, and Opening Day is just a few weeks away. By this point in the calendar, most veterans lingering on the free agent market are likely to wind up signing minor league contracts. That won’t be the case for all of them, of course; both Lucas Giolito and Zack Littell have the track record and platform season necessary to earn a meaningful big league deal even this late in the year. There’s less certainty on that front for the rest of the remaining free agents, but over the weekend veteran outfielder Starling Marte landed a big league deal with the Royals. That Marte, who is 37 years old and has been more of a part-time player in recent years, was able to get a big league deal could offer reason for optimism for other players still on the market. Who will be the next to sign?
Hopefully the Yankees extend Cash man and Boonedoggle for another 100 years.
And someone needs to tell Giolito and Littell to shave their expectations if not their beards.
As you were.
Great sense of humor. We can use more guys on here like you. Giolito and Littell can go elsewhere, and keep the beard. The Yankees have an abundance of starters, so no need there. I definitely agree with the A part of the comments above, 100 percent though.
“We can use more guys on here like you.”
No. My jokes are bad. And my nicknames are worse. Error in Judgement is pretty special though.
Yankees pitching has been real good over the first ten days of spring training.
Regardless of what everyone is saying I 100% are thinking the Yankees are the best team in the AL this season. I love all the doubters out there. We’ll see.
I consider the Yankees to be one of the best teams in the AL but the strength of other teams like the Jays, Red Sox, and Mariners make me not want to go with a single strongest team. If Cole and Rodon were healthy, I would choose them.
I think they could win 100 games.
I took the over on the 90.5 win O/U. To me the Yankees have very little variance. They will be somewhere between 88-92 wins, but not close to 100 or down to 85-86 unless something catastrophic goes wrong like Judge going down for the entire season.
I also took the over on the Blue Jays at 88.5 wins even though I think that they will have the biggest variance from the O/U in the East. They could end up as many as 6 games over or under.
Id say bad bet if you believe your variance argument. Im only betting if I believe the number is off +/-5 games.
I too am taking the over on the Yanks but believe they have a realistic shot at 100 wins.
I’ll take the over on the Blue Jays too. They could have a great pitching staff.
AL East won 429 games last season. Using that number to estimate this seasons standings, I have it as:
Yanks – 96-66
Blue Jays – 94-68
Orioles – 87-75
Red Sox – 84-68
Rays – 68-94
Under 77.5 on the Rays looks good. Id lay off Boston and Baltimore.
I will take your money.
@No ABS: “Red Sox – 84-68”. So the Red Sox are only going to play 152 games? Wanna bet? Think you probably meant to have the Sox losing 78………..
@Skip, how is that? Im long Yanks over 90.5 and Jays over 88.5, same as you. The difference is Im betting with the outlook of the Yanks well exceeding 90.5 wins and you are betting the over with a very narrow projection of 91 to 92 wins.
Regardless of our projections, we are both on the winning side of the bet or are both on the losing side of the bet.
My argument is, if my projection for the Yanks win total was as low as yours, I wouldn’t have made the bet. It would be a bad bet.
@NashvilleJeff, my mistake, 84-78, thanks for correcting my error.
I heard if things don’t go right in the Bronx this season, they still won’t fire Boone or Cashman. But what could be on the table is the two of them switching positions. Cashman in the dugout(and he’s considering calling pitches from the dugout) and Boonie upstairs in the front office doing some wheeling and dealing on the trade front. I think it’s worth a shot, why not?
Does anyone besides the Braves FO think they’re making a good decision by not signing a FA pitcher? I’m not heard any support for their position and I’d be interested in hearing someone explain why this might be the right move for them.
Some flawed SPs with recent injury issues or who aren’t as valuable to clubs as they think they are might be thinking that they’ll get a really good multi-year offer (or high 1yr) as injuries occur in ST.
Hold outs tend not to be useful/good until well into season (if at all)-so some clubs won’t go beyond low base with tiered incentives offers based on IP.
There’s so much dead money around MLB tied into hurt/declining SPs that unless 1 of the deep pocket teams really wants you the other clubs will wait it out with zero desperation (stay in-house early on).
Not signing a FA at this time has a lot to do with them having already spent their budget. They will go with what they have until they are not able to.
@stymee…if that’s true then AA doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Poor planning and poor managing his resources.
It’s a horrible idea not signing a SP.
JR Ritchie is going to be a stud. They will probably bring him up in May or June and he will fit right in seamlessly just like AJ-SS, Waldrep, and Schwellenbach did.
@Sandlot, Bryce Elder and Joey Wentz are going to get a look. As much as I disagree with Holmes in the rotation, the Braves seem set on havimg him start games. Lopez has looked good in his spring appearances.
Sale
Strider
Lopez
Holmes
Elder
Wentz
Perez
Carrasco
They expect Schwellenbach and Waldrep back after the all star break and feel good about their top four. Martin Perez is as good of an option as Littell or Anderson. Giolito’s ask is too high for a team at the taxline.
Didier Fuentes, JR Ritchie and Owen Murphy are available too.
Plenty of depth in the rotation. Bullpen looks pretty good. Might as well save the money. If they are competitive at the trade deadline, they can add a bat or a bullpen arm with the thought that Waldrep and Schwellenbach, or one of the rookies, will be available to bolster the rotation.
The MLBTR Fans Fantasy Baseball League drafted last night and it was a good time! We’ve got some good teams out of the gate and I’ll be updating here weekly in the Openers once games are underway. Thanks again to all of the commenters here that joined in!
Still laughing that I ended up with Devers after all the drama last year
It was meant to be. 😉
Just don’t try to make him change position…
The way I wish he were eligible at 3B 😭
Please keep the updates brief as hearing about others fantasy leagues is pretty boring stuff. just my opinion.
It’s called…wait for it…scroll on.
Extend Jeremy Pena and Hunter Brown!
@Astros71 – Trade them both!
If we suck in 2026, we’ll trade Pena and maybe Brown. Otherwise we’ll trade Pena in the 2026-2027 offseason and Brown in the 2027-2028 offseason (assuming we can’t extend them). I believe your a Red Sox fan?
@Astros71 White Sox fan. A’s fan. Yanks fan. Angels fan. Rockies fan. Padres fan. Rangers fan. Astros fan. Rays fan. Pirates fan.
Wow you are a fan of a lot of teams.
And wait, it’s possible to be an Astros fan and Yankees fan at the same time? Rangers and Astros at the same time? And I didn’t know an Astro fan wanted to trade Pena and Brown, but since you are a fan of this many teams, I guess it’s an exception.
@Astros71, I was born in Illinois and have lived here most of my life, I was a big A’s fan, the first team I really liked as a kid because of McGwire and Canseco and they were winning ball games. I was accused of being a fair weather fan, and stuck with them all through the 90’s. I moved to Chicago after college and the White Sox climbed to the top. I had always been a fan but they supplanted the A’s when I moved to the big city. I was there when they won the WS in 2005, those were good years.
I moved to Tampa in ’21, listened to a lot of games, Yanks and the Rays. When I was in Tampa, I was a big Rays fan, liked listening to their games and liked Franco, Paredes, Diaz, Lowe and Lowe, I didnt like Arozarena, everybody in Tampa loved Arozarena, I didnt but liked the Rays nonetheless. I also listened to a lot of Yankees games in those years, and it was fun rooting for the Yanks. Id never been a fan of a frontrunner before despite rooting for the A’s in the late 80’s. It is sort of different, and I still like the Yanks mostly because they are fun to root for. The Yanks are the good guys these days in some regard.
Ive been a fan of the Angels because Trout has been my favorite player since he waz a rookie. I was in LA for about four years between 2016 and 2020, I had a Dodgers hat, I found it on the street in Santa Monica, it was a fitted New Era hat, I wore it for a year or two but I could never get into the Dodgers because I liked the Angels.
The Rockies are my new team. I like them because they are in a rebuild and I am a Mickey Moniak fan, and I like underdogs. I like the Padres mostly because of Preller and the way they go all in every season. Im also a Manny Machado fan and a Gavin Sheets fan, Sheets came up with the White Sox, and I am a Luis Arraez fan, even though he is with the Giants now.
For some reason, I am partial to the Rangers. That started with the ’23 WS team. I kept score that year during the playoffs and that team was exciting. I am a Jacob DeGrom fan, and a Jake Burger fan, he came up with the White Sox too, and I still like the Rangers some, they are a fun team to follow.
I like the Astros mostly because of Zack Grienke, I was a big fan of those teams, and the Trashtros thing solidified it, I thought it was the funniest, everybody hating on the Astros for that nonesense, I liked them even more because of it.
I figured since I had eight teams I might as well make it a top ten. I still like the Rays some even though I have since moved on from being a resident of Tampa Bay, and I like the underdog Pirates, not necessarily because of Skenes or Oneil Cruz, but mostly because I like their fans. Pirates fans have been some of the funniest and most knowledgeable here at MLBTR.
“I thought it was the funniest, everybody hating on the Astros for that nonesense, I liked them even more because of it.”
Thank you. My like for the Astros never changed based off the scandal, but it’s weird how the trash cans make you like the Astros more. I don’t know why but I won’t complain.
If you get a free agent starter cheap enough, he’s easy to jettison if performance or general health isn’t there. That’s got to be in the thinking of some FO’s when they look at what’s left…and especially if the signing team is in a penalty phase.
That doesn’t mean the FA has no value, but roster spots and penalties may raise the price too much.
Far too many egos on the Detroit SP staff for it to be successful.
It’s about the same with every team, usually 5 egos. No worries with Hinch at the helm.
That makes no sense at all.
It makes plenty of sense. Two are pitching for their next contract. JV wants all the attention of some king returning home. Jack F is a diva. Valdez thinks he’s SP1 and should start the opener. Serious trouble ahead.
@leflore Like most of his comments
I’ll take 5 guys who are all capable of 15 plus wins, egos or not!
I’m still scratching my beard wondering why Michael Kopech and Danny Coulombe (to lesser extent) remain unsigned.
Perhaps Kopech isn’t fully healthy.
Coulombe is 36, but he is still left handed.
Maybe he is about to pull an Inigo Montoya and declare that isn’t, in fact, left handed.
The Coulombe is head scratching. I still think the A’s should grab one of the maaaaybe cheap starting pitchers.
Probably because of their asking price. I’ve heard rumors Giolito was looking for 60 million. I think Coulombe is unsigned because of his asking price and Kopech because they are scared of his health.
Kopech lost the strike zone.
It’s right over there next to the batter.
No, on the other side.
Why even are those 2 guys unsigned still?
Giolito’s medical history scares the heck out of teams at the $20 million AAV he has been asking for. If he was willing to take a heavily incentive laden deal based on starts made he might already be signed.
Littel’s 4.88 FIP, below average velocity (91.9 mph), and miniscule SO rate points to regression.
Littell’s just the kind of guy they love around here in the comments though. You know, someone who isn’t actually that good.
Orioles need to extend Gunnar.
With what? 350 million?
With Lopez out and Ryan already having back issues, any idea if the Twins are looking to bolster their pitching staff with a one year incentive deal? Won’t change the outlook in Central, Tigers look like they’re ready to make not just a run at the division but for the WS.
But still, I liked Giolito for the Sox last year, when he was on he was a legitimate #2 starter. Hate to see him not being signed this late.
Do you think that signing Littell, or even Giolito, would change the outlook for the Twins? I see them battling Chicago for the bottom two spots. I think the Twins FO doesn’t see it making a difference, either.
You’re absolutely right. One pitcher doesn’t change the outlook for the Twins. If anything I have to wonder if Chicago has the edge on them. But it would be nice of them to pretend to try. And as I said, I kinda just want to see Giolito finally land a spot, on a low pressure team like the Twins and if he stays healthy he’d be a potentially valuable piece to move at the deadline.
I have a feeling a team with ties to Giolito will sign him. Before Imai, I wanted them to sign Giolito because of Katz.
Twins need to let Abel, Zebby, and Taj get some more major league innings under their belts. All this talk of them signing mediocre vets is silly. Barring a miracle they’re not going anywhere this year so let the young guys play.
Their situation seems like the perfect opportunity to the the young guys play. The Twins are not going to be contending for anything other than the 1st overall pick in the draft. Find out what you have and if they don’t work out then you know what you need to go after next offseason.
Hope the Tigers catchers have extra head protection today in the event Framber gets frustrated.
I hope Cutch latches on somewhere.
Giolito’s medical history scares the heck out of teams at the $20 million AAV he has been asking for and Littel’s 4.88 FIP, low velocity, and miniscule SO rate points to regression. I can see why they are not signed yet.
Exactly. Neither one has much appeal.
I feel like the Braves will sign one of Giolito, Littell, or Corbin, but probably not until after opening day. They may look to some of the starters like Buehler on that are on minor league deals and may not make their teams
Valdez looked sharp today!