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Takahiro Norimoto To Stay In NPB, Sign With Yomiuri Giants

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Right-hander Takahiro Norimoto has decided to remain in Japan and will sign with the Yomiuri Giants, according to a report from Sports Hochi in Japan. The 35-year-old had been weighing an offer from a major league club but will instead sign a multi-year deal with the Giants.

Norimoto has spent his entire 13-year career with the Rakuten Golden Eagles. After a long run in their rotation, he moved to the bullpen and has ascended to their closer role in recent seasons. The right-hander posted a 3.02 ERA with 16 saves, four holds and only two blown opportunities last year. He’s fanned nearly 24% of opponents in his career, but Norimoto’s strikeout rate dropped to 17.2% in 2025 and his fastball velocity took a dip as well, sitting around 92 mph this past year (down from his days of sitting 94-95 and climbing as high as 97-98 mph).

It’s not clear which MLB club had put forth an offer to Norimoto, nor is it clear whether it was even a guaranteed pact. It’s a moot point now, as Norimoto will pitch at least his age-35 and age-36 seasons out of the Giants’ bullpen in Japan. While it’s feasible that he could still make a late-career move to North American ball, that’s hard to envision unless Norimoto finds a way to miss more bats while working with what appears to be diminishing velocity.

In 1838 career NPB innings, Norimoto has pitched to a 3.12 ERA. He sports a 120-99 record, 48 saves, four holds, a 23.7% strikeout rate and a 6.3% walk rate in Japan’s top league. He led NPB in strikeouts for five consecutive seasons from 2014-18, whiffing 1044 batters in 958 2/3 innings (26.5 K%) during that time.

Angels, Miguel Castro Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran reliever Miguel Castro, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Premier Talent Sports client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.

Castro just turned 31 a few weeks ago, but the well-traveled right-hander has already pitched for seven teams across parts of 11 major league seasons. Because he debuted as a 20-year-old and has managed to stick in the majors for the bulk of the past decade, he’s just three days from reaching nine full years of major league service time.

Castro began the 2025 season in the Astros organization but didn’t appear in a big league game with Houston. The ’Stros traded him to the White Sox last May in exchange for international bonus pool space. Castro was immediately selected to the major league roster but made only six appearances before suffering a torn patellar tendon in his knee while covering the bag on a grounder to first base. He missed the remainder of the season.

In parts of 11 seasons, Castro has pitched 466 2/3 innings, almost exclusively in relief. (He has four “starts” in his career, though they’ve been as an opener in a bullpen game.) Listed at an incredibly lanky 6’7″ and 201 pounds, Castro owns a lifetime 4.24 ERA in the big leagues. His strikeout and walk rates of 20.4% and 11.7%, respectively, are both worse than average. He’s typically been a well above-average ground-ball pitcher, however, thanks in large part to a power sinker that has averaged 96.5 mph in his career. That number sat at 95.1 mph during last year’s small sample of six MLB innings but was at 95.6 mph in Triple-A.

The Angels’ bullpen currently features several veterans looking to rebound from injury and/or poor performance. Robert Stephenson, Kirby Yates and Jordan Romano all fit that description. Lefty Drew Pomeranz had a terrific 2025 showing with the Cubs, but that marked his first MLB work since 2021, so the 37-year-old is something of a wild card himself. Given the glaring lack of proven relievers in rookie skipper Kurt Suzuki’s bullpen, there should be plenty of opportunity for the veteran Castro to win a spot this spring, unless the Halos have some further guaranteed deals or trades coming to fortify the relief corps.

Rockies To Sign Willi Castro To Two-Year Deal

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The Rockies and utility player Willi Castro have agreed to a two-year deal, reports Jorge Castillo of ESPN. The ISE Baseball client will be guaranteed $12.8MM, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Colorado has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to make this official.

Castro, 29 in April, just finished a strong three-year run as one of the better multi-positional players in the sport. That run ended with a deep slump just before he hit free agency but he has still secured a nice deal for himself.

He was non-tendered by the Tigers after the 2022 season and then landed with the Twins via a minor league deal ahead of the 2023 campaign. That minor league pact turned into a huge win for Minnesota. Castro cracked the Opening Day roster in 2023 and went on to have a strong season, getting into 124 games and stepping to the plate 409 times. The switch-hitter launched nine home runs and drew walks at an 8.3% clip. His .257/.339/.411 batting line led to a 107 wRC+, indicating he was seven percent above average at the plate overall. He also stole 33 bases in 38 attempts.

Defensively, he bounced all around the diamond, spending time in all three outfield spots and the three infield positions to the left of first base. He got strong marks almost everywhere the Twins put him. He even got a few mop-up appearances on the mound. The total package added up to 2.5 wins above replacement on the season, according to FanGraphs.

His 2024 season ended up being quite similar. He slashed .247/.331/.385 for a 106 wRC+, swiped 14 bags and played every position except for catcher and first base. His fWAR total nudged up to 2.9 in slightly more playing time.

Last year, he was on essentially the same pace through the trade deadline. He got into 86 games for the Twins, had a .245 /.335 /.407 batting line, 109 wRC+, and nine stolen bases while moving all around.

The Twins fell out of the race and pivoted to selling at the deadline. They flipped Castro to the Cubs for minor league pitchers Ryan Gallagher and Sam Armstrong. Castro’s performance plummeted after the swap. He slashed .170/.245/.240 for a wRC+ of just 40. He wasn’t helped by a .222 batting average on balls in play but the Cubs scaled back his playing time regardless. He only started two of the final 11 games of the regular season. He appeared in two playoff games for the Cubs but without getting sent to the plate.

That was unfortunate timing, with Castro just heading to the open market, but it was also only 110 plate appearances. It seemed possible that clubs would still value his versatility and would focus more on the positives of that three-year run, overlooking the poor finish. At the beginning of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Castro for a two-year, $14MM deal. In December, it was reported that Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Colorado were interested in Castro. The Rockies have landed him by giving him a solid two-year deal just below MLBTR’s prediction.

The Rockies don’t have a lot of certainty on their roster, which is to be expected for a team that just lost 119 games, getting to the century mark in the loss column for a third straight year. They tried bolstering the roster last winter with veteran utility signings. They gave Thairo Estrada $4MM and Kyle Farmer $3.25MM, both on one-year deals. Neither panned out. Estrada was injured for most of the year and hit just .253/.285/.370 in the 39 games he was able to play. Farmer avoided the injured list but put up an even less impressive line of .227/.280/.365.

Ideally, Castro will move past his struggles with the Cubs and return to form. Where he plays will depend upon what happens with the other young players on the Colorado roster. The outfield playing time will likely be divvied up to some combination of Brenton Doyle, Jake McCarthy, Mickey Moniak and Jordan Beck.

Ezequiel Tovar will be the regular at shortstop but the rest of the infield is fairly wide open. Adael Amador could play second but he also has just 164 big league plate appearances with a .176/.242/.250 line. Third baseman Kyle Karros got 156 plate appearances last year but hit just .226/.308/.277. Tyler Freeman will be in the mix somewhere as another multi-positional guy but he’s also coming off a subpar season. Ryan Ritter can also bounce around a bit but he has a .241/.296/.337 line in his 207 big league appearances.

With the Rockies so far from contention, they will be focused on development and will want to have playing time open for anyone in that group who earns it. Castro will likely change positions throughout the year depending on the health and performance of all those other guys. If his offense gets back to where it was during his time in Minnesota, then the Rockies will likely make him available on the trade block this summer, as they aren’t likely to return to contention during the course of this contract.

RosterResource now estimates the Rockies for a payroll of $110MM, assuming the money on this deal is equally distributed across the two years. They spent $124MM on last year’s club and could still have some powder dry if they’re planning for a similar level of spending this year. Earlier this month, general manager Josh Byrnes expressed a desire to add a couple of veterans to the rotation. They have since signed Michael Lorenzen but could still have room for one more starter. It’s also possible to see room for some relief pitchers or perhaps another infielder.

For clubs who missed on Castro, the free agent market still features a couple of other utility guys, including Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Ramón Urías, Adam Frazier, Enrique Hernández, Jon Berti, Jorge Mateo and others.

Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Matt Blewett, Imagn Images

Cubs Claim Ben Cowles

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The Cubs have claimed infielder Ben Cowles off waivers from the White Sox, per a team announcement. The Sox designated Cowles for assignment one week ago when they claimed catcher Drew Romo off waivers from the Mets.

Cowles lands back with the Cubs, who designated him for assignment back in September. They originally acquired the former Yankees tenth-rounder as part of the trade sending Mark Leiter Jr. to the Bronx. The White Sox claimed him a few days later, but it’ll just be a stay of a few months with the South Siders before heading north back to the Cubs.

The 25-year-old Cowles has yet to take a plate appearance in the majors. He split 2025 between the Triple-A clubs for the two Chicago teams, slashing a combined .235/.300/.371 with nine homers, 18 steals, a 7.2% walk rate and a 28.8% strikeout rate. He’s viewed as a serviceable defender at shortstop who can also handle second base and third base, giving him a chance to carve out a role as a utility player.

Although his 2025 numbers were ugly, Cowles hit .286/.372/.457 with nine homers, 14 steals, a 10.4% walk rate and a 17.7% strikeout rate in 92 Double-A games during the 2024 season. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so he’ll give the Cubs some depth around an infield that became more crowded with this week’s signing of Alex Bregman. That signing already pushed Matt Shaw into a utility role, meaning Cowles will likely open the season with the Cubs’ Triple-A club in Des Moines — if he sticks with the organization until Opening Day.

Orioles Claim José Suarez, DFA Marco Luciano

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The Orioles announced they have claimed left-hander José Suarez off waivers from the Braves. It wasn’t previously reported that Atlanta had bumped Suarez from their roster but they apparently tried to quietly sneak him through waivers. The Orioles have swooped in to claim him and have designated outfielder Marco Luciano for assignment as the corresponding move. Atlanta’s 40-man count drops to 39.

Suarez avoided arbitration with Atlanta on a $900K deal in November. The 28-year-old southpaw had seemed a non-tender candidate after spending the majority of the season in Triple-A. Acquired from the Angels in a Spring Training swap for former third overall pick Ian Anderson, Suarez made just seven MLB appearances for the Braves. He pitched 19 1/3 innings and surrendered five runs (four earned), albeit with a middling 16:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Injuries hampered Suarez for much of the season, but he pitched well when healthy at Triple-A Gwinnett. He posted a 3.53 ERA over nine appearances, fanning 28% of opponents against a 5% walk rate. Suarez is out of options, however, meaning the O’s cannot send him to Triple-A without exposing him to waivers.

There’s a decent chance they’ll do that eventually. Baltimore is the most active team in MLB in claiming depth players only to look to run them through waivers themselves. Suarez has a little over four years of MLB service time. That means he could refuse a minor league assignment if he clears, but he’d forfeit his salary to do so. If the O’s keep him on the roster into Spring Training, he’d compete for a long relief role.

Luciano has found himself amidst the aforementioned waiver churn. The one-time top prospect has gone from the Giants to Pittsburgh to Baltimore this offseason. He’ll very likely be waived again within the next five days. Luciano once ranked among the sport’s top 15 minor league talents at Baseball America. He was then a teenage shortstop with massive raw power upside in a 6’1″ frame. His bat has stalled against higher level pitching and he has moved to left field after struggling with errors on the dirt.

San Francisco gave Luciano limited looks in 2023 and ’24. He hit .217/.286/.304 while striking out 45 times in 126 trips to the plate. The Giants kept him in Triple-A for the entire 2025 season. Luciano connected on 23 home runs while walking more than 15% of the time, but he struck out at a near-31% rate. He whiffed on more than 35% of his swings against Triple-A pitching. While Luciano hits the ball hard when he makes contact, the swing-and-miss and limited defensive profile have dropped his stock. He’s also out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on an MLB roster or continue bouncing around via DFA limbo.

Diamondbacks Sign Taylor Clarke

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The Diamondbacks announced they’ve signed reliever Taylor Clarke to a one-year contract. They designated right-hander Gus Varland for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The club did not announce salary terms for Clarke, who is represented by the Ballengee Group.

Clarke, 33 in May, should be a familiar name to Arizona fans. The Snakes selected him out of the College of Charleston as a third-round pick in 2015. He debuted in a swing role four years later and spent parts of three seasons with the MLB club. Clarke moved almost permanently to the bullpen by the shortened season and has been a full-time reliever for most of the last half-decade. He got some work as a starter with Milwaukee’s Triple-A team in 2024 but has worked from the bullpen as a big leaguer.

Arizona non-tendered Clarke after he posted a near-5.00 earned run average during the 2021 season. He landed a big league deal with the Royals a couple weeks later and spent the next two seasons in the Kansas City bullpen. Clarke posted decent strikeout and walk numbers but was plagued by an elevated average on balls in play, leading to a combined 5.08 ERA over those two seasons. The Royals traded him to Milwaukee, who ran him through waivers and kept him in Triple-A.

The Royals liked Clarke enough to bring him back on a minor league deal last offseason. They called him up by the beginning of May and were rewarded with the best season of his career. The 6’4″ righty tossed 55 1/3 innings of 3.25 ERA ball. His 21.4% strikeout rate and 10.1% swinging strike percentage were each a little worse than average. Clarke was the beneficiary of an unsustainably low .208 BABIP against him, but he limited his walks to an excellent 4.4% clip and pitched particularly well in the second half.

It came as a surprise that Kansas City nevertheless opted not to tender him an arbitration contract that would likely have landed in the $2MM range. That set the stage for a reversal of the sequence from the 2021-22 offseason. Clarke follows up a non-tender from K.C. by signing a major league deal with Arizona.

Clarke has over five years of service time, meaning he cannot be sent to the minors without his consent. He’s locked into the Opening Day bullpen alongside Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel. The Diamondbacks don’t have any elite back-end arms to cover leverage situations while A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez are injured. Clarke raises the floor in the middle innings but doesn’t have much high-leverage experience. The back of the bullpen remains arguably the biggest weakness as Arizona tries to compete for a playoff spot.

Varland, the older brother of Toronto righty Louis Varland, was a waiver claim from the White Sox in August. The 29-year-old righty was on the minor league injured list at the time due to a season-ending lat strain. He held a spot on Arizona’s 40-man roster for a few months but hasn’t thrown a pitch for the organization. The former 14th-round pick has a 4.82 ERA in 42 big league appearances between 2023-24. Varland divided that time between Milwaukee, the Dodgers, and the White Sox.

Arizona has five days to trade Varland or put him on waivers. He has never been outrighted and doesn’t have three years of big league service, so he’d remain in the organization if they get him through waivers unclaimed.

Image courtesy of Denny Medley, Imagn Images.

Guardians Acquire Franklin Gomez From Mets

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The Guardians have acquired minor league left-hander Franklin Gomez from the Mets, according to announcements from both clubs. The Mets receive international bonus pool space in return. The pool space changing hands is $1.5MM, reports Mike Mayer of Metsmerized. Gomez does not have a 40-man roster spot, so no corresponding moves are necessary.

Today marks the start of the 2026 international signing period. Ben Badler of Baseball America is tracking all of the signings as they become known. Under this pool system, each team has a finite amount of money they can spend on international amateurs. This year’s pools are all between $5MM and $9MM. Broadly speaking, the smaller-market clubs get bigger pools and the larger-market clubs get smaller pools.

The Mets were initially allocated a pool of $5.44MM and the Guardians $8.03MM. Teams are allowed to trade pool space in $250K increments, but a team can’t increase its initial pool size by more than 60%.

Adding pool space was important for the Mets. Most teams make verbal agreements with prospects years in advance of the official signings, so they have usually agreed to allocate most of the pool space ahead of time. The Yankees had a verbal agreement in place with Wandy Asigen, an infielder from the Dominican Republic, but reports emerged in December that he was going to sign with the Mets instead. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR and Badler covered the development at the time. Asigen officially signed with the Mets today for $3.9MM.

That signing bonus would have taken up the majority of the Mets’ initial pool. That may have necessitated the Mets breaking their verbal agreements with other prospects. Mayer suggests this deal with Cleveland allowed the Mets to have enough pool space to also sign Venezuelan outfielder Cleiner Ramirez as part of this year’s class.

For the Guardians, it seems they would rather have Gomez than the pool space. The 20-year-old Venezuelan was himself an international signee a few years ago, securing a bonus of just $10K from the Mets in 2022. He has raised his stock since then. Matt Eddy of Baseball America just recently wrote about Gomez earlier this month, noting that his fastball velo ticked up in 2025, going from the 89-90 mph range in 2024 to 92-93 last year. His other pitches also made similar jumps.

He finished the year having thrown 71 2/3 innings split between Single-A and High-A, allowing 2.76 earned runs per nine. He struck out 22.1% of batters faced, gave out walks at an 11.1% clip and induced grounders on 48.4% of balls in play. BA recently listed him as the #22 prospect in the Mets’ system, noting that he has a chance to be a future starter, with a relief role as a fallback.

The Guards have undercut their ability to use this year’s pool of unsigned players but Gomez should have more ability to help them in the near term. Most international signees today are 16 years old whereas Gomez is four years older than that and has already climbed a few rungs of the minor league ladder.

Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images

Reds Designate Yosver Zulueta For Assignment

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The Reds announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Yosver Zulueta for assignment in order to open a 40-man roster spot for righty Pierce Johnson, whose previously reported one-year deal with Cincinnati is now official.

A hard-throwing 6’1″ righty, Zulueta has pitched briefly in the majors with Cincinnati in each of the past two seasons. He’s totaled just 22 1/3 innings and been tagged for an unsightly 5.32 earned run average but has some more encouraging underlying traits. Zulueta averaged a blistering 98.1 mph with his four-seamer this past season and has fanned 24.8% of his opponents in the majors and kept a hearty 54% of batted balls against him on the ground. However, a paltry 8.4% swinging-strike rate and 25.4% opponents’ chase rate don’t really support that strikeout rate, and Zulueta has also walked 10.9% of his big league opponents.

Zulueta has a solid Triple-A track record, including 60 1/3 frames of 3.78 ERA ball in 2025. He punched out more than 31% of opponents with Louisville in 2025 but also issued walks at a near 13% clip and plunked another two percent of the batters he faced (five of the 250). In parts of four Triple-A campaigns, the Cuban-born righty has a 3.74 ERA, 27.5% strikeout rate and 14% walk rate.

Based on his velocity, ability to both miss bats and generate grounders, and the fact that he still has a minor league option year remaining, Zulueta seems like the type of low-risk bullpen arm who could appeal to other clubs via a small trade or waiver claim. The Reds will have five days to work out a trade before he has to be placed on waivers, which would be another 48-hour process. His DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.

Reds Sign Pierce Johnson

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Jan. 15: The Reds have formally announced the signing. There’s a mutual option for the 2027 season on the contract as well, though since mutual options are never exercised by both parties, that amounts to little more than an accounting measure to push some of the $6.5MM salary to the ’27 books (by way of an option buyout).

Jan. 12: Johnson is guaranteed $6.5MM, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

Jan. 11: Right-hander Pierce Johnson is headed to the Reds, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The details of the contract are not yet known. Johnson is represented by John Boggs & Associates.

Johnson, 34, was a first-round pick all the way back in 2012. He made his big league debut in 2017 but didn’t stick in the majors right away and eventually headed to Japan in 2019 to pitch for the Hanshin Tigers. The result was a dominant 1.38 ERA over 58 2/3 innings of work in NPB, and Johnson then returned to the majors in 2020 and posted strong numbers overall across three seasons with the Padres.

Missing most of the 2022 campaign due to injury, however, put Johnson in an awkward position entering free agency following the year. He caught on with the Rockies and struggled badly, posting a 6.00 ERA during his time in Colorado, but was still an attractive enough target to be dealt to the Braves at the trade deadline. Upon arriving in Atlanta, he looked like a different pitcher, turning in a a 0.76 ERA, 36% strikeout rate, and 5.4% walk rate across 24 appearances down the stretch for the Braves.

It was a performance so impressive that Atlanta chose to extend Johnson on a fresh two-year deal that guaranteed him $14.25MM, including a $250K buyout on a $7MM club option for the 2026 season. Johnson posted a 3.36 ERA and 3.77 FIP overall across 115 1/3 innings in the next two seasons, but he was unable to carry over the pinpoint command he had flashed down the stretch in 2023. His peripherals declined, culminating in the righty striking out a diminished (but still strong) 24.8% of his opponents this past year, and the Braves ultimately chose to buy out his 2026 option.

Now headed into his age-35 season, Johnson will join a Reds team that managed to squeak into the playoffs last year and has its sights set on returning in 2026. After re-signing Emilio Pagan to serve as the club’s closer, Cincinnati has continued to retool its bullpen by adding Caleb Ferguson and now Johnson. That trio should be joined by Tony Santillan to make a formidable late inning relief corps for the Reds, while former starters like Graham Ashcraft and Connor Phillips provide some upside but likely slide into lower-leverage roles. With a stacked rotation led by Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott, Terry Francona’s pitching staff looks solid headed into the season.

The question for the Reds headed into 2026 is mostly focused around the club’s lineup. While Elly De La Cruz is a budding superstar and players like TJ Friedl and Spencer Steer have proven themselves to be quality role players, it’s hard to know if the Reds’ lineup will produce enough on offense to carry them back to October. Players like Noelvi Marte and Matt McLain have shown great promise in the past but have also struggled badly at times. The same can be said for reclamation projects JJ Bleday and Ke’Bryan Hayes. If the Reds have more planned this offseason after adding Johnson, adding more to the lineup would be the best way to improve the roster, whether that’s through free agency or perhaps a trade of someone like right-hander Brady Singer, who’ll be a free agent next winter.

Where Can The Pirates Turn For Another Bat?

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The Pirates clearly entered the 2025-26 offseason with ambitious goals. They've spoken in the past about wanting to lure more free agents and make impact additions in the lineup, but both comments from Pittsburgh brass and the reporting surrounding their early offseason endeavors struck a different tenor. The Pirates' reported willingness to offer Josh Naylor in the vicinity of $80MM was a genuine surprise, given the lack of spending to which we've become accustomed from owner Bob Nutting. The reported $120-125MM offer to Kyle Schwarber -- which would've been the largest deal in franchise history -- was even more of an eye-opener.

Ultimately, finishing second-, third- or fourth-place on a pair of notable free agents has the same end result as sitting out the bidding entirely, but it was nevertheless notable that the Bucs came out swinging. It appeared to set the stage for a more aggressive offseason than usual, and to an extent, we've seen that. Ryan O'Hearn's two-year, $29MM contract isn't a major price to pay for most clubs, but it was the first multiyear free-agent deal given out by Pittsburgh since 2016. Acquiring Brandon Lowe, similarly, wasn't necessarily a blockbuster move in and of itself, but it's a higher-profile trade target than we typically see from the Bucs. Their trade of Johan Oviedo to the Red Sox netted them a fairly touted young outfielder, Jhostynxon Garcia, who could be in the majors early in 2026.

The additions of Lowe and O'Hearn add a pair of clearly above-average bats to Pittsburgh's lineup. They'll join Spencer Horwitz, Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz atop the lineup. Horwitz was last year's primary offensive acquisition, and while his contributions were muted by a spring wrist procedure and a slow start upon activation in June, by the end of the season he looked the part of a quietly excellent pickup. Horwitz hit .272/.353/.434 overall, but that includes a dismal start to his season. Over his final 298 trips to the plate, he slashed .290/.372/.481 with nearly as many walks (11.4%) as strikeouts (15.1%). From late July through season's end (219 PAs), he slashed .314/.402/.539 with a 12.3% walk rate and 13.7% strikeout rate.

The quintet of Horwitz, O'Hearn, Lowe, Reynolds and Cruz has the makings of a solid top half of the lineup -- particularly if Reynolds can set aside last year's awful first half. Through the All-Star break, the Pirates' star outfielder was hitting just .225/.287/.369 (80 wRC+). Following the Midsummer Classic, he turned in a .276/.364/.453 line (128 wRC+) that's more akin to expectations for the 30-year-old former All-Star (who'll turn 31 later this month).

Add in the looming debut of Konnor Griffin, the top-ranked prospect in all of baseball, and you can start to see why Pirates fans are showing some cautious optimism. Griffin may only be 19 years old, but he skyrocketed from Low-A to High-A to Double-A in his debut season last year, posting an outrageous .333/.415/.527 line with 21 home runs and 65 steals despite being one of the youngest -- if not the youngest -- player at each of those minor league stops. The No. 9 overall pick from 2024 could make his MLB debut this coming season, and there's been speculation about him having a real chance to crack the Opening Day roster. There's a lot to dream on for Bucs fans, but the Pirates still feel like they're one bat short.

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