Phillies, Oscar Mercado Agree To Minor League Deal
The Phillies are bringing veteran outfielder Oscar Mercado, who spent the 2025 season with their Triple-A club, back on a new minor league deal, MLBTR has learned. Mercado was with the D-backs this spring but was released yesterday. He’s represented by Excel Sports Management.
Mercado had a solid season with the Phillies’ Triple-A club in Lehigh Valley last year, his age-30 campaign. In 115 games and 477 plate appearances, he slashed .249/.369/.373 with 11 homers, 40 steals and more walks (14.5%) than strikeouts (14.3%). After a .242/.265/.333 showing in 34 spring plate appearances with the D-backs, he’ll now re-up with the Phils and head back to Lehigh Valley to begin the season.
It’s only natural to see Philadelphia bring in some familiar outfield depth. They’re going with top prospect Justin Crawford in center field to begin the season. Touted as he is, the 22-year-old has never taken a major league plate appearance and hasn’t had an especially impactful spring, batting .250/.291/.346 in 55 turns at the plate. Johan Rojas, one fallback option for Crawford, will miss the first half of the season after receiving an 80-game PED suspension.
The Phillies had utilityman Dylan Moore in camp as a non-roster invitee and have since signed him to a major league deal. He has 105 career innings in center but has been more of a corner option when playing on the grass. Left fielder Brandon Marsh has plenty of center field experience but is considered a below-average defender there. Waiver claim Pedro León gives the Phillies another 40-man option in center field, though he has only 21 major league plate appearances and hit .241/.312/.422 in 22 Triple-A games last year. Injuries limited him to 25 games overall.
Mercado hasn’t played in the majors since 2023 and was never really able to follow up on a strong rookie showing in 2019, when he batted .269/.318/.443 with 15 homers and 15 steals in 115 games with Cleveland. In 491 MLB plate appearances since that time, he’s slashed .206/.262/.334. Mercado has a solid Triple-A track record though, and he’ll give the Phillies some speed and depth across all three outfield spots.
Brewers Acquire Jake Woodford
The Brewers have acquired right-hander Jake Woodford from the Rays, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. It had been reported by Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times that Woodford had triggered the upward mobility clause in his minor league deal with Tampa. The Rays receive right-hander K.C. Hunt in return. Milwaukee placed outfielder Akil Baddoo on the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Woodford, per McCalvy.
Woodford, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Rays in November. It was recently reported that the deal contained an upward mobility clause. When such a clause is triggered, a player has to be offered up to the other teams in the league. If any of them are willing to give the player a roster spot, the signing club must either trade him or add him to their own roster. In this case, it seems the Brewers were willing to add him, while the Rays preferred a trade to holding on.
The righty’s best seasons to date came in St. Louis. Over the 2021 and 2022 campaigns, he gave the Cardinals 116 innings, allowing 3.26 earned runs per nine. His 15.4% strikeout rate wasn’t good but he induced grounders on 45.8% of balls in play and limited walks to a 7.5% clip.
The past three years have been a struggle, with Woodford finishing all three with an ERA above 6.00. Unsurprisingly, he had to settle for a minor league deal this winter. He threw 7 1/3 innings in camp for the Rays, allowing one earned run while allowing four hits, two walks, hitting one batter while striking out five.
For what it’s worth, his velocity has ticked up slightly. He had mostly been around 92 miles per hour with his four-seamer and sinker in his career. With the Diamondbacks last year, he got both pitches above 93 mph. He’s been around 94 mph in spring training this year.
The Brewers will take a flier on him to see if that helps him unlock a new gear. Milwaukee has a huge amount of flexibility on the pitching staff. Prior to this deal, Brandon Woodruff and Rob Zastryzny were the only guys on the 40-man who can’t be optioned to the minors. The latter is going to begin the season on the injured list.
Woodford is out of options, so he will be on the active roster, perhaps holding a spot as other arms are shuttled on and off. The club has a reputation for helping pitchers find the best versions of themselves. If they can do that with Woodford and he holds a spot all year, he can be retained for next season via arbitration, though Woodford will obviously have to put up some good numbers before that becomes a consideration. If the club wants to remove him from the 26-man roster at some point, he’ll also have to be removed from the 40-man.
Hunt, 25, spent last year as a starter at the Double-A level. He made 26 starts and logged 121 1/3 innings with a 4.45 ERA, 23.8% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 45.7% ground ball rate. FanGraphs ranked him the #51 prospect in the system a few months ago, projecting him as likely to end up as a depth starter. The Rays presumably feel it’s a decent outcome to turn a veteran on a minor league deal into a somewhat notable prospect, even if he doesn’t project to be a future star.
Baddoo was signed to a major league deal this offseason but he suffered a left quad strain a little over a week ago. It’s evidently a pretty bad strain, as this transaction rules him out until at least late May. The Brewers will start the season with Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick and Garrett Mitchell in the outfield. Christian Yelich will be out there occasionally, when he’s not the designated hitter. Brandon Lockridge will be on the bench. Blake Perkins has been optioned to Triple-A and will likely be the first man up if someone gets injured.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Parker Mushinski Re-Signs With Rockies
March 24: The Rockies announced Tuesday that Mushinski has re-signed on a new minor league contract. He’ll presumably open the season with their Triple-A club.
March 22: Left-hander Parker Mushinski was in camp with the Rockies on a minor league deal but is now heading back to free agency. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports that the southpaw has been informed that he won’t break camp with Colorado and will now opt out of his deal.
Mushinski, 30, had a camp of extremes. He racked up some strikeouts but also saw a lot of runs cross the plate. In 8 2/3 innings, he struck out 12 opponents but allowed ten earned runs via 11 hits and four walks. His .391 batting average on balls in play and 41% strand rate point to some poor luck in that small sample.
The Rockies had an awful pitching staff in 2025 and certainly had room for some new arms but they couldn’t find a spot for Mushinski. They’ll go into 2026 with Brennan Bernardino as the only lefty in their bullpen. Luis Peralta and Welinton Herrera are on the 40-man roster but will begin the season on optional assignment.
Mushinski’s major league track record consists of 33 innings pitched for the Astros over the 2022 through 2024 seasons. In that time, he has a 5.45 earned run average, 17.4% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 45.2% ground ball rate. He spent the 2025 season with the Guardians on a minor league deal. He tossed 50 Triple-A innings with a 3.78 ERA, huge 29.6% strikeout rate and strong 47.9% ground ball rate, but an ugly 14.8% walk rate.
He’ll head to the open market to see what opportunities await him now. There’s a ton of roster shuffling happening this week as clubs make their final decisions before Opening Day. As some guys get released or head to waivers, some clubs may find themselves light on lefty relief.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Nationals Return Rule 5 Pick Griff McGarry To Phillies
March 24th: The Phillies announced that McGarry is back in the organization and has been assigned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
March 22nd: The Nationals announced today that they’ve designated right-hander Griff McGarry for assignment. The move clears a spot for Jorbit Vivas on the 40-man roster, whose previously reported acquisition from the Yankees is now official. McGarry was the Nationals’ Rule 5 draft pick back in December and now will be available to any of the league’s other clubs who are willing to claim him with Rule 5 stipulations attached. If he goes unclaimed, he must be offered back to the Phillies for $50K. If the Phillies pass on reacquiring McGarry, he can be outrighted off the roster into the Nationals’ farm system.
McGarry, 26, was a fifth-round pick by the Phillies back in 2021 and got some top-100 prospect attention earlier in his career. That was before his career took a turn for the worse in 2023, when he posted an ugly 6.00 ERA in 17 starts thanks to lackluster command. Those command issues caused the organization to move McGarry to the bullpen for the 2024 season, but his already-high 18.5% walk rate from 2023 ballooned to a whopping 24.0% when he moved into a relief role. That led the Phillies to return the right-hander to the rotation for 2025, and he turned in decent numbers across 21 starts, most of which were at the Double-A level. He still walked too many batters, with 13.9% of his opponents getting a free pass, but he managed to make up for that elevated walk rate with a sensational 35.1% strikeout rate.
That improvement was enough for the Nationals to roll the dice on McGarry back in December, but his signature command issues once again resurfaced during Spring Training. While he managed a decent 3.18 ERA in 5 2/3 innings of work, he walked (five) nearly as many batters as he struck out (six) in that time, leaving him with an 18.5% walk rate that would be difficult to justify carrying on a big league roster even for a rebuilding club. With optionable youngsters like Brad Lord and Ken Waldichuk capable of offering multi-inning relief with considerable upside and no Rule 5 restrictions, it’s not necessarily a surprising decision that the Nationals would opt for those arms rather than McGarry as they fill out their roster.
Should he go unclaimed on waivers, his upside is still considerable enough that it would be a surprise if the Phillies didn’t jump at the opportunity to reacquire him and continue his development throughout the 2026 campaign. Of course, it’s not impossible that he could be claimed; after all, McGarry was just the third-overall selection in the draft, meaning a number of teams later in the draft may well have considered drafting him themselves if he had fallen to them. Of course, it’s also a lot easier to draft a Rule 5 pick in December than it is to actually carry that player on their roster come March, so McGarry’s trip through the waiver wire will be one to watch over the coming days.
Braves Claim Osvaldo Bido
Yankees right-hander Osvaldo Bido has been claimed off waivers by the Braves, per announcements from both clubs. Atlanta placed left-hander Joey Wentz on the 60-day IL to create a spot on the 40-man roster. Wentz suffered a torn ACL midway through spring training and is expected to miss the 2026 season.
This marks the second time since last season concluded that Atlanta has acquired Bido. They also plucked him off waivers from the A’s back in early December. That claim set off a series of transactions in what went on to become one of the most whirlwind winters any player has experienced in recent memory. Bido went from the A’s, to the Braves, to the Rays, to the Marlins, to Angels, to the Yankees in a dizzying sequence of DFAs and waiver claims. Hopefully for his sake, today’s return to an Atlanta organization in dire need of innings is the last move for some time.
Bido has had a solid spring with the Yankees, tossing seven innings and holding opponents to a run on five hits and three walks. He’s been working one-inning stints with New York but has worked as a starter and swingman in recent seasons with the Pirates and Athletics.
Bido spent seven seasons in the Pirates system before making his MLB debut as a 27-year-old in 2023. He’s spent the past two seasons with the A’s. Listed at a wiry 6’3″ and 175 pounds, he’s pitched 193 2/3 innings in the majors and pitched to a 5.07 earned run average. It’s been a roller-coaster run, with poor numbers in ’23, strong output in ’24 and more struggles in ’25. Overall, metrics like SIERA (4.60) and FIP (4.67) view him a bit more favorably, but Bido has typically pitched like a swingman or sixth starter.
Bido averages 94.7 mph on his four-seamer and sinker alike. He’s only a bit worse than average in terms of strikeout rate (20.9%) and walk rate (9.6%), but home runs were a major issue in 2025. Bido is an extreme fly-ball pitcher, and a 2024 season spent pitching home games in the cavernous Oakland Coliseum during the Athletics’ final season there treated him well; conversely, a move to West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, which played like an absolute launching pad, did Bido no favors. He served up 13 big flies in only 44 1/3 home innings this past season, compared to just six on the road (35 1/3 innings).
The Braves entered camp thin on rotation depth and have seen their limited stock of arms ravaged by injury. In addition to Wentz’s ACL tear, right-handers Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both required elbow surgery to remove loose bodies. Fellow righty Spencer Oblique was diagnosed with an oblique strain just this week and will open the season on the injured list.
Atlanta will open the season with Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes locked into rotation spots. Lopez pitched only once last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes suffered a UCL tear last summer and rehabbed without surgery. Sale’s injury history is well known.
Righty Bryce Elder and lefty José Suarez are both out of minor league options and both expected to fill out the rotation, though the team hasn’t formally said as much. Non-roster veteran Martín Pérez seems to at least still be under consideration. Bido, like Elder and Suarez, is out of minor league options. He’s now in strong position to break camp in a swing role, giving Atlanta a bit of extra depth.
Yankees To Option Luis Gil; Rule 5 Pick Cade Winquest Makes Roster
The Yankees will option right-hander Luis Gil to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. They have four off days in the first 12 days of the 2026 season, so they’ll be able to skip the fifth starter spot a couple times. Gil will head to Scranton to continue working on regular rest and will presumably be summoned when the Yanks first need a fifth starter (or if there’s an injury elsewhere in the rotation). Optioning Gil also frees up an extra bullpen spot, which will be filled by Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest, per the Post’s Jon Heyman.
Gil, 27, was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2024 but pitched just 57 innings last year due to a lat strain. He posted a 3.32 ERA during those 57 healthy frames but did so with diminished velocity and strikeout and walk rates that were nowhere close to his 2024 levels. Gil punched out 26.8% of opponents against a 12.1% walk rate in ’24 but fanned only 16.8% of batters faced with a 13.5% walk rate in ’25.
This is Gil’s final minor league option year, although if he’s recalled within the first 20 days of the season, the option won’t technically have to be used. He’s under club control for three more seasons, through 2028, and would need to spend fewer than 99 days on the roster to push that free agent trajectory back by a season. He’s pitched in six games this spring, totaling 19 1/3 innings with a 4.66 ERA and terrific strikeout and walk rates of 29.6% and 6.2%, respectively. However, he’s also been rocked for six homers (2.79 HR/9) in that time, so his command within the strike zone clearly could use a bit of refinement.
As for Winquest, he’ll make his first big league roster after allowing eight earned runs on 13 hits and four walks with eight punchouts in 10 spring innings. He sits 94-96 mph with a heater that tops out around 98 mph. A 2022 eighth-round pick by the Cardinals, he’s worked primarily as a starting pitcher in the minors and should be able to give the Yankees a long relief option as a result. If they manage to navigate the entire season with Winquest on the roster, he’ll become optionable and can give the Yankees an interesting depth option in the rotation or bullpen for years to come.
Prior to Winquest’s selection back in December, it had been more than a decade since the Yankees even made a pick in the Rule 5 Draft, let alone broke camp with said pick on their roster. Technically, the last Yankees Rule 5 pick to survive spring training was righty Brad Meyers back in 2011, though he was on the team’s injured list due to a shoulder issue that popped up during spring training. He missed the entire season and was sent back to the Nationals the next winter. The last Yankees Rule 5 pick to actually play a game was first baseman Josh Phelps, way back in 2007.
It’s only natural that the Yankees, a perpetual win-now club with immense payrolls, hasn’t carried a Rule 5 pick — or even made a Rule 5 selection — since 2011. It’s easier for rebuilding and/or small-market clubs to acquiesce to the roster restrictions inherently associated with Rule 5 pickups. Such clubs have an easier time carrying an inexperienced player who can’t be sent to the minor leagues, and those teams also aren’t likely to fill out the roster with veteran free agents in the same manner as clubs of the Yankees’ ilk.
Cubs To Select Dylan Carlson
The Cubs are going to select outfielder Dylan Carlson to their roster before Opening Day, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. Carlson will unlock the $2MM salary on his deal by getting the call. Bastian adds that infielder/outfielder Scott Kingery is travelling with the team and will likely get a spot as well, though the club is still monitoring external possibilities for the final spot on their bench. The Cubs also plan to select outfielder Michael Conforto, meaning they will need to open at least two 40-man spots and potentially a third. Outfielder Kevin Alcántara has been optioned and will start the season at Triple-A Iowa.
A few spring injuries have opened up some playing time for the Cubs. They began camp projected for three bench spots to go to Tyler Austin, Miguel Amaya and Matt Shaw, with an opening for an outfielder. Austin required knee surgery and is going to be on the injured list for months. Seiya Suzuki has a knee sprain and will also start the season on the IL. Those injuries have opened enough space for Conforto, Carlson and perhaps even Kingery to crack the roster.
Carlson, 27, was once one of the top prospects in the league for the Cardinals. A few years ago, he seemed to be cementing himself as a key piece of the St. Louis outfield but his results have tapered off in recent seasons. He has a combined .210/.294/.314 batting line since the start of 2023. His once-strong defensive grades have also slipped recently. He bounced to the Rays and Orioles, with Baltimore cutting him loose at the end of last year.
After those struggles, he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Cubs coming into 2026. He has had a good camp, putting up a .304/.429/.413 line. That got a lot of help from a .433 batting average on balls in play and he also posted a concerning 26.8% strikeout rate, but on the positive side, he drew a walk in 14.3% of his plate appearances.
Carlson is a switch hitter and may be used in a short-side platoon role. He has a .274/.347/.410 line against lefties in his career, compared to a .217/.298/.356 performance against righties. Conforto is a lefty bat with better career numbers against righties. Between the two, perhaps they can form a decent cover for Suzuki’s absence. When Suzuki is back, they both may lose playing time, but Carlson could still spell lefties like Michael Busch, Moisés Ballesteros and Pete Crow-Armstrong on occasion.
Kingery, 32 in April, was also in camp on a minor league deal. He has never hit much in the majors, with a career .227/.278/.382 line. He didn’t show much better during spring action, slashing .208/.345/.333. But he provides a lot of defensive versatility. He has experience at every position on the diamond except first base and catcher. He is also optionable and could be sent down the minors once Suzuki is healthy.
It should be known in about 24 hours if he gets a spot or not. Though only two teams are playing tomorrow, all teams have to submit their Opening Day rosters. There tends to be a lot of roster shuffling ahead of Opening Day as players opt out of contracts and others get squeezed off roster spots. Perhaps the Cubs will find someone they like better than Kingery to plug in. They don’t strictly need his versatility since Shaw is expected to play a multi-positional role off the bench, so perhaps they can find someone with a bit more offensive punch.
Alcántara is one of the club’s top prospects but there are concerns about his hit tool. He has been punched out in almost 30% of his plate appearances. Just now in camp, he struck out at a 32.6% pace. With the Suzuki injury, the Cubs could have given him some run in the big leagues but sending him for some more seasoning in Triple-A is also defensible.
Ideally, he’ll find some improvement in his bat to ball skills this year. He is slated to be out of options next year. The Cubs are slated to have Suzuki, Carlson, Conforto and Ian Happ all reach free agency after this season, leaving them with just Crow-Armstrong in their 2027 outfield. It would be great if Alcántara could step up and fill one of those openings but he’ll likely need to make more contact for that to be viable.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Kevin McGonigle Makes Tigers’ Roster; Wenceel Pérez Optioned
12:43pm: The Tigers announced that infielder/outfielder Wenceel Pérez, infielder Jace Jung and outfielder Trei Cruz have all been optioned to Triple-A Toledo. Center fielder Parker Meadows has made the Opening Day roster.
The 26-year-old Pérez is the most notable among the cuts. He was a key contributor in Detroit last year, giving Hinch a defensively versatile switch-hitter who could be deployed at various spots in both the infield and outfield. Pérez played exclusively in the outfield last year but has more than 1800 minor league innings at both middle infield slots and another 259 at third base. In 383 MLB plate appearances, he slashed .244/.308/.430 (103 wRC+) with 13 homers, 17 doubles, four triples and eight steals. Pérez will surely get a long major league look this year as injuries and/or poor performance elsewhere on the roster dictate, but for now he’ll open in Toledo.
Pérez didn’t help his case with a dismal .158/.238/.158 showing in 46 spring plate appearances. With better production, he might’ve edged out Meadows, who struggled at the plate in 2025 and batted only .222/.314/.289 in 52 spring plate appearances. Meadows, however, is a plus defender in center field. Given that he nominally outperformed Pérez with the bat and has a clear defensive edge with the glove, he’ll get the nod for an Opening Day roster spot and look to get back to his 2024 form at the plate (.244/.310/.433).
11:28am: It’s official. The Tigers announced Tuesday that infielder Kevin McGonigle, the consensus No. 2 prospect in baseball, will make their Opening Day roster. The 21-year-old will likely begin the season as Detroit’s shortstop after a spring in which he batted .250/.411/.477 with two homers, two doubles, a triple, two steals and more walks (11) than strikeouts (9) in 56 plate appearances. McGonigle is not on the Tigers’ 40-man roster, so they’ll need to make a corresponding transaction when they formally select his contract.
Selected with the No. 37 overall pick in the 2023 draft, McGonigle has raced through the minors relative to most high school picks. He’s raked at every level from Rookie ball up through Double-A last season despite being one of the youngest players in the league at the most recent stops on his minor league journey. McGonigle totaled 397 plate appearances across three levels in 2025 and slashed .305/.408/.583 with 19 homers, 31 doubles, two triples, 10 steals and more walks than strikeouts.
Scouts rave about McGonigle’s preternatural feel for hitting. He’s never punched out in more than 12.6% of his plate appearances at any minor league stop, and his overall strikeout rate of 10.6% in 908 professional plate appearances speaks volumes about the advanced nature of that hit tool — especially considering his age. McGonigle only turned 21 in mid-August. He’ll play the vast majority of his rookie season before even celebrating his 22nd birthday.
Some scouting reports express skepticism about his ability to stick at shortstop, though he’s continued to get reps there this spring and could yet develop into a quality option at the position. Even if a move to another position — second base, third base, outfield — becomes a necessity somewhere down the line, McGonigle’s bat is so highly regarded that it doesn’t matter. He’s viewed as a fixture in the top half of the Detroit lineup for the foreseeable future, regardless of his ultimate defensive home.
Since he’s breaking camp with the club and is a consensus top prospect, McGonigle could net the Tigers some future draft considerations via the league’s Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) program. A Rookie of the Year win in 2026 or a top-three finish in MVP voting in any of McGonigle’s pre-arbitration seasons would net the Tigers an extra draft selection after the first round the following season. (Prospects can only net their team one bonus pick overall.)
Assuming McGonigle sticks on Detroit’s roster all season, he’ll accrue a full year of service and be under club control through the 2031 season. He’d be eligible for arbitration following the 2028 season as things stand. Of course, those timetables are subject to change.
McGonigle will have a full slate of three minor league option years upon being formally added to the roster, and Detroit could always look to extend its window of club control with a long-term deal, be it early in his MLB tenure or during subsequent springs, when McGonigle is still years from the open market. It’ll take a hefty offer to do so in all likelihood, as McGonigle is currently slated to reach free agency ahead of his age-27 season, which would put him in line for a mammoth contract if he reaches his ceiling (or anything close to it).
In addition to his work at shortstop, McGonigle also saw time at third base this spring. Detroit doesn’t have set starters at either position, so he could bounce between both spots. McGonigle, Javier Baez and Zach McKinstry are all capable of playing short and third base. Colt Keith can play third base, second base or first base. Matt Vierling is capable of playing third base or the outfield. Manager A.J. Hinch will have no shortage of matchup-based options with that contingent on hand, but regardless of which defensive spot he occupies on a given day, McGonigle should be expected to be in Hinch’s lineup.
Offseason In Review: Baltimore Orioles
After back-to-back excellent seasons in 2023-24, the 2025 Orioles stumbled to a last place finish. They responded with their biggest offseason of Mike Elias’ tenure running baseball operations.
Major League Signings
- 1B Pete Alonso: Five years, $155MM
- RHP Ryan Helsley: Two years, $28MM (deal includes opt-out after ’26)
- RHP Chris Bassitt: One year, $18.5MM
- RHP Zach Eflin: One year, $10MM (including buyout of ’27 mutual option)
- CF Leody Taveras: One year, $2MM
2026 commitments: $73.5MM
Total future commitments: $213.5MM
Option Decisions
- OF Tyler O’Neill bypassed opportunity to opt out of two years, $33MM
- Team exercised $9MM option on RHP Andrew Kittredge over $1MM buyout
- Team declined $5.5MM option on SS Jorge Mateo
Trades and Claims
- Acquired RHP Shane Baz from Rays for four minor leaguers (C Caden Bodine, OF Slater de Brun, OF Austin Overn, RHP Michael Forret) and Competitive Balance Round A draft pick (#33 overall)
- Acquired LF Taylor Ward from Angels for RHP Grayson Rodriguez
- Acquired RHP Andrew Kittredge from Cubs for cash
- Acquired 2B/3B/OF Blaze Alexander from Diamondbacks for RHP Kade Strowd, minor league RHP Wellington Aracena and minor league IF José Mejia
- Acquired RHP Jackson Kowar from Twins for cash
- Traded C Alex Jackson to Twins for minor league INF Payton Eeles
- Claimed RHP George Soriano off waivers from Marlins (later lost on waivers to Braves)
- Claimed OF Pedro León off waivers from Astros (later lost on waivers to Phillies)
- Claimed OF Will Robertson off waivers from Pirates (later outrighted off 40-man roster)
- Claimed C Drew Romo off waivers from Rockies (later lost on waivers to Mets)
- Claimed OF Jhonkensy Noel off waivers from Guardians (later outrighted)
- Claimed OF Marco Luciano off waivers from Pirates (later lost on waivers to Yankees)
- Claimed LHP José Suarez off waivers from Braves (later lost back to Atlanta on waivers)
- Claimed IF/OF Weston Wilson off waivers from Phillies (later outrighted)
- Acquired 3B Bryan Ramos from White Sox for cash (later lost on waivers to Cardinals, then re-claimed off waivers from St. Louis)
Notable Minor League Signings
- Jose Barrero, Hans Crouse, Thairo Estrada (granted release at end of Spring Training), Sam Huff, Enoli Paredes, Albert Suárez
Extensions
- Restructured deal with LHP Dietrich Enns to one-year, $2.625MM guarantee (including buyout of ’27 club option)
Notable Losses
- Grayson Rodriguez, Tomoyuki Sugano, Alex Jackson, Gary Sánchez, Jorge Mateo, Kade Strowd, José Castillo (lost on waivers), Dylan Carlson (outright), Daniel Johnson (outright), Shawn Dubin (outright), Carson Ragsdale (lost on waivers)
On the heels of back-to-back playoff appearances, the 2025 Orioles were 15 games under .500 by the end of May. They fired manager Brandon Hyde seven weeks into the season. The team played better under interim skipper Tony Mansolino, but they’d dug themselves a hole from which they never had much chance to crawl out.
Before making any significant roster moves, the O’s needed to decide on a manager. Guardians associate manager Craig Albernaz has been viewed as a manager in waiting for a few seasons. The O’s hired the 43-year-old to his first MLB managerial job, though he’d previously held the position at the lower levels of the Rays’ farm system.
Albernaz also has minor league playing experience and had worked on big league staffs in San Francisco and Cleveland over the past few years. Managerial changes frequently come with coaching staff adjustments. This was no exception. The O’s brought in Donnie Ecker as bench coach and Dustin Lind as hitting coach, though they stayed the course on the pitching side. Drew French is back for his third season as pitching coach; assistant pitching coach Mitch Plassmeyer and pitching strategy coach Ryan Klimek are also holdovers.
The focus then turned to the roster. President of baseball operations Mike Elias hinted at the possibility of a big offseason, saying they were open to pursuing free agents who had declined qualifying offers. Starting pitching was the natural target with the team not having replaced Corbin Burnes at the top of last year’s rotation. The O’s would be tied to Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez as frequently as any team throughout the offseason.
They didn’t come away with either pitcher, though they reportedly did offer Suárez a five-year deal in the $125MM range. Baltimore’s biggest free agent splash would instead come on the position player side. The O’s were involved on the top power bats available both in free agency and trade.
Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso were the preeminent free agent sluggers. The Orioles pursued both, with Schwarber seemingly their top target. They reportedly offered him a five-year, $150MM deal around the Winter Meetings. Unfortunately for Baltimore, Schwarber preferred to return to Philadelphia if all else was equal. The Phillies matched, and last year’s NL MVP runner-up will spend another five years in the City of Brotherly Love.
Undaunted, the Orioles moved quickly to Alonso. One day after Schwarber’s agreement with Philly, the O’s hammered out a five-year deal to slot Alonso into the middle of the order. He signed for $155MM — it’s probably not a coincidence that his camp topped Schwarber’s deal by $1MM annually — and will be the everyday first baseman. Alonso was not eligible for the qualifying offer, so he didn’t require draft pick forfeiture. He rebounded from a slightly down 2024 season to hit .272/.347/.524 with 38 homers in his final season as a Met.
The deal raised some eyebrows around the league. It’s a lot of money for a player in his 30s whose game is built almost entirely around his bat. (The same can be said for the Schwarber deal, to be clear.) Alonso is as durable as any player in the game and will surely upgrade the offense. His first base defense has never been great and has declined over the past two seasons — to the point that the incumbent Mets were seemingly only interested in bringing him back on a shorter term that involved more work as a designated hitter.
It’s easily the biggest investment of the Elias era. They’d made nine-figure offers to other players — the ones to Burnes, Schwarber and later Suárez have all been publicly reported — but this is the organization’s first nine-figure signing since the Chris Davis extension a decade ago.
Alonso was one of seven right-handed hitters who hit at least 35 homers last season. He’s one of two whom the Orioles acquired over the winter. Taylor Ward popped a career-high 36 longballs with a .228/.317/.475 slash over 157 games for the Angels.
Ward was entering his final season of arbitration and felt a little superfluous to a Halos team loaded with right-handed power bats and lacking starting pitching. That arguably describes the Orioles as well, but the teams nevertheless lined up a one-for-one trade. Baltimore gave up four years of control over Grayson Rodriguez for one year of Ward, who’ll make $12.175MM.
It’s frankly difficult to imagine the O’s would have made that move if they had any faith in Rodriguez staying healthy. Formerly the top pitching prospect in the entire sport, Rodriguez pitched at a mid-rotation level between 2023-24. He has battled shoulder and elbow injuries over the last two seasons and didn’t pitch at all in ’25. Rodriguez was healthy at the time of the trade and has shown mid-90s velocity this spring, but a “dead arm” will again send him to the injured list to begin his Angels tenure.
The Ward trade preceded the Alonso signing by a couple weeks. Yet even at the time, it made for a bit of an odd roster fit. Baltimore’s top free agent signee of the previous offseason, Tyler O’Neill, is a right-handed hitting left fielder with huge power and modest on-base skills. O’Neill’s first season in Baltimore was a disaster, as he landed on the injured list three times and didn’t perform over 54 games when he was able to play. He made the obvious call to forego an opt-out and wasn’t going to be easy to trade with two years and $33MM remaining on his contract.
Baltimore presumably hopes to salvage something from the O’Neill investment, but the corner outfield picture is cluttered. He and Ward each fit best in left field. Dylan Beavers had a huge year in Triple-A and is coming off an impressive 35-game MLB showing. He should get regular playing time in right field, at least against righty pitching. Colton Cowser is coming off an injury-plagued season and stretched defensively up the middle, but they’ll need to play him in center field to get him regular playing time.
In the O’s defense, it’s not as if there were a ton of alternatives in center field. They were never likely to outbid the Yankees on Cody Bellinger. After that, Harrison Bader was the best of a middling group in free agency. The trade market was led by Luis Robert Jr., a reclamation candidate who’ll play the 2026 season on a $20MM salary.
The Orioles made a pure depth add at the position by signing Leody Taveras to a $2MM deal. He has been a capable defender for most of his career but hasn’t hit at all in the past two seasons. He’s a fourth/fifth outfielder who’ll round out the bench.
The glut of corner bats extends to the infield. Baltimore’s catching tandem of Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo are going to take a lot of at-bats at designated hitter. They haven’t found playing time for former top corner infield prospect Coby Mayo. Meanwhile, Ryan Mountcastle’s rough 2025 season and near-$7MM arbitration salary made him a clear non-tender candidate on paper. The Orioles opted to retain Mountcastle for his final year of arbitration, an odd decision in November that seemed particularly regrettable when they signed Alonso two weeks later.
Baltimore dangled Mountcastle in trade talks into Spring Training. There was unsurprisingly a limited market for a moderately expensive first baseman coming off a .250/.286/.367 season, even though the O’s managed to secure a club option over him for the 2027 campaign. It’s always possible an eleventh-hour trade will come together. If not, he’ll enter the season without much of a path to playing time as a right-handed bench bat.
Camp injuries opened a greater opportunity for Mayo, if only because he’s nominally capable of playing third base. Jordan Westburg has battled an oblique injury and, more ominously, has a partial UCL tear in his throwing elbow. He’s trying a platelet-rich plasma injection in the hope of avoiding surgery. He’ll miss at least the first month of the season.
Mayo will open the year as the primary third baseman. The defense is a concern, but he’s yet another potentially impactful right-handed power hitter. Mayo hasn’t shown a whole lot in 340 scattered big league plate appearances, but he has been a consistent 20+ homer bat in the minors. He’s also coming off a huge Spring Training performance.
The injuries extended to the other side of the infield. Second baseman Jackson Holliday suffered a right hamate fracture during batting practice early in camp. He underwent surgery and will begin the season on the injured list. The O’s had serendipitously made a trade to fortify their infield depth just one day before Holliday suffered that fracture.
Baltimore acquired utilityman Blaze Alexander from the Diamondbacks for reliever Kade Strowd and a pair of minor leaguers. Alexander is a righty hitter with a little bit of power and some defensive versatility. He should be a serviceable stopgap at second until Holliday is healthy. He can then work in a multi-positional role or push Mayo off third base if necessary (depending on Westburg’s progress).
The O’s made a number of minor transactions on the position player side, largely in claiming players off waivers and trying to run them through waivers themselves a week or two later. They added corner infielder Bryan Ramos and outfielders Weston Wilson, Jhonkensy Noel and Will Robertson to the organization that way. They also traded out-of-options third catcher Alex Jackson to Minnesota for non-roster infielder Payton Eeles, a 5’5″ utility player with minimal power but strong on-base numbers in the minors.
Baltimore remained active in the free agent starting pitching market even after the Alonso signing. It’s likely that their offer to Suárez came towards the end of the winter, as he didn’t sign his $130MM deal with the Red Sox until late January. Valdez was unsigned into February, as were reported mid-tier targets Justin Verlander, Lucas Giolito and Chris Bassitt. (Giolito, of course, remains unsigned.)
The O’s eventually added Bassitt on a one-year, $18.5MM deal as Spring Training got underway. The veteran righty has started 30+ games in each of the last four seasons, typically allowing around four earned runs per nine with a league average strikeout/walk profile.
There are some similarities to late-career signings that haven’t worked for the O’s in past years (e.g. Charlie Morton, Tomoyuki Sugano, Kyle Gibson), but Bassitt is at the higher end of that group. They got him for one year in an offseason when Merrill Kelly commanded a two-year deal from the Diamondbacks at the same age and with a similar profile. He should raise the floor in the middle of the rotation.
On the opposite end of the risk-reward spectrum, the Orioles made their biggest rotation add via trade. Baltimore packaged four prospects and a 2026 Competitive Balance draft pick (No. 33 overall) to the Rays for Shane Baz. The righty is entering his age-27 season and under arbitration control for three years. Baz is a former top prospect who still has plus stuff. He averages 97 mph on his fastball and has a trio of secondary pitches (knuckle-curve, cutter and changeup) that can miss bats.
There’s a path for Baz to become a high-end No. 3 starter who can slot behind Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish in the top half of the rotation. There’s work to do if he’s to reach that ceiling, however. Baz had seven scoreless starts last year; he also had 10 outings in which he allowed five or more runs. The O’s are chalking up some of the inconsistency to Baz’s struggles at Tampa Bay’s 2025 temporary home field, where he had a near-6.00 ERA and allowed 18 of his 26 home runs. Baz had a 3.86 ERA over 84 innings on the road.
They paid a hefty prospect cost to take the swing. The headliners of the return, Caden Bodine and Slater de Brun, were respectively selected 30th and 37th overall last summer. They parted with a similarly high pick in the upcoming draft. It’s also a bet on Baz to stay healthy, as last year was his first full season at the MLB level. Baz had undergone Tommy John surgery at the end of the 2022 campaign and was sidelined for nearly two years.
The new additions will respectively land third and fourth in Albernaz’s rotation. The Orioles round out the group by bringing back Zach Eflin on a one-year, $10MM deal. The righty had a nightmare of a 2025 season, allowing a near-6.00 ERA over 14 starts. He went on the injured list three times due to lat and back injuries. Eflin underwent a season-ending lumbar microdiscectomy in August but will be ready for Opening Day. The O’s are placing a moderate bet that he’ll return closer to the mid-rotation form he showed between 2023-24.
Baltimore’s three rotation moves pushed right-hander Dean Kremer to Triple-A to begin the season. He’s overqualified for a sixth starter in Triple-A, though an injury is sure to reopen a rotation spot before long. The Orioles will use Tyler Wells out of the bullpen. He can work in long relief but might be needed more often in leverage situations given the uncertainty in the late innings.
The Orioles lost Félix Bautista to rotator cuff surgery as the 2025 season was winding down. It was a massive blow to an already thin bullpen. Baltimore responded by making a pair of high-leverage pickups early in the offseason. They reacquired setup man Andrew Kittredge from the Cubs, picking up a $9MM team option that Chicago evidently wasn’t going to exercise. Kittredge is effective when healthy but missed time last season with a knee injury and will start this year on the 15-day IL due to shoulder inflammation.
Baltimore’s bigger relief add came in the ninth inning. The O’s dipped into a robust free agent closing market to sign Ryan Helsley to a two-year, $28MM guarantee that allows him to opt out after one season. A two-time All-Star with the Cardinals, Helsley has a triple digit fastball and a wipeout slider that can make him one of the best relievers in the game. The end to his 2025 season couldn’t have gone any worse though.
Helsley was rocked for a 7.20 ERA over 22 appearances after being traded from St. Louis to the Mets at last year’s deadline. His strikeouts dropped, the walks increased, and his home run rate skyrocketed. It’s believed that Helsley was tipping his pitches and unable to correct the issue in-season. The Orioles clearly agree, betting on the track record and stuff over the most recent results. Helsley had an encouraging spring, firing six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts against three walks.
Yennier Cano will get some high-leverage assignments, as will Kittredge and Keegan Akin once they’re healthy. Baltimore restructured their contract with lefty Dietrich Enns, who missed a decent number of bats after being acquired from the Tigers in a minor deadline trade. They took a flier on former supplemental first-rounder Jackson Kowar, who is out of options and trying to win a middle relief role.
It was the busiest offseason of Elias’ eight years running baseball operations. It didn’t take the form many expected, as the Orioles emphasized adding power bats over a clear top-end starter. They invested a lot of trade capital and a decent amount of money to build out the middle of the rotation, hoping that’ll be enough to support a high-powered lineup. Can they follow the path of the 2025 Blue Jays in going worst to first in the AL East?
How would you grade the Orioles' offseason?
Rays To Place Ryan Pepiot On Injured List; Carson Williams To Break Camp At Shortstop
The Rays will place right-hander Ryan Pepiot on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right hip, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’s not expected to be out long. With Pepiot sidelined, fellow righty Joe Boyle will be brought back after previously being optioned to Triple-A Durham. Boyle will begin the year in the rotation. Topkin adds that top shortstop prospect Carson Williams, who’d previously been optioned, will now open the season as the Rays’ shortstop after Taylor Walls hit the injured list. That was the expected outcome, though the Rays were at least open to the idea of bringing in some outside help.
Pepiot, 28, has been a solid mid-rotation arm for Tampa Bay for the past two seasons after coming to the Rays in the trade that sent Tyler Glasnow to Los Angeles. He’s pitched a total of 297 2/3 innings with a 3.75 ERA, a 25.4% strikeout rate and an 8.9% walk rate. Pepiot missed time in 2024 after taking a comebacker off his leg and later developing an infection in his right knee — the two weren’t related — but tossed a career-high 167 2/3 innings in a career-high 31 starts in 2025. Since all IL stints can be backdated up to three days (if the player hasn’t been in a game in those three days), Pepiot is only guaranteed to miss the first 12 days of the season.
Boyle, 26, is one of the game’s tallest and hardest-throwing pitchers. Listed at a massive 6’8″ and 250 pounds, he averaged 98.5 mph on his heater last season even while working primarily as a starter. He joined the Rays as part of the return in the trade sending Jeffrey Springs to the Athletics. In 52 innings last year, Boyle logged a 4.67 ERA, 25.7% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate. He was dominant in the minors, yielding only a 1.88 ERA in 86 Triple-A frames. This spring, Boyle turned in a solid 3.72 ERA with a huge 34% strikeout rate but a troublesome 17% walk rate. Boyle will now start the second game of the Rays’ season, Topkin notes; righty Nick Martinez, who signed a one-year deal worth $13MM this winter, will be pushed back a couple games to a minor hamstring issue.
As for Williams, he’ll hope to take this unexpected opportunity and run with it. There’s little doubt about the former first-round pick’s defensive acumen or raw power. Scouts laud him as a plus defender at shortstop, and he belted 28 home runs in 557 plate appearances between Triple-A and a brief major league debut last year. He’s generally considered one of the sport’s top 100 prospects, due in no small part to the relatively high floor created by his glove and plus power.
The question regarding Williams is whether he’ll make enough contact to emerge as an above-average starter or be more of a low-end regular or even a power-and-defense utility option. He fanned in a massive 41.5% of his 106 major league plate appearances last year. That alone wouldn’t be terribly alarming for a small-sample set of plate appearances by a 22-year-old, but Williams also went down on strikes in 34% of his Triple-A plate appearances. He punched out at a 28.5% clip in Double-A in 2024 and a 31.4% clip across three levels in 2023.
Williams has taken a total of 2217 professional plate appearances since being drafted 28th overall in 2021 and has struck out in 32% of them. He’s highly unlikely to ever hit for a high average, but Williams has also walked in 11.4% of his professional plate appearances. If he can continue to walk in more than 10% of his plate appearances, hit for power and play defense, than a batting average in the .210 to .230 range won’t necessarily be a dealbreaker. With Walls down for several weeks due to an oblique strain, Williams will get the chance to solidify himself in manager Kevin Cash‘s infield.
Tampa Bay also finalized its bullpen, per Topkin. Right-hander Hunter Bigge was optioned to Triple-A, leaving lefty Ian Seymour and righties Mason Englert, Yoendrys Gómez, Kevin Kelly and Cole Sulser to claim the final five spots behind veterans Griffin Jax, Bryan Baker and Garrett Cleavinger. Righty Edwin Uceta is already known to be starting the season on the injured list due to shoulder troubles.
Meanwhile, righty Jake Woodford triggered the upward mobility clause in his minor league deal with Tampa Bay. It’s not yet clear whether he’ll be added by another club or if the Rays will keep him as depth to keep on hand in Durham. Woodford had a strong spring (one run, 5-to-2 K/BB ratio, 45.5% grounder rate in 7 1/3 innings) and has pitched in each of the past six big league seasons. He has a 5.10 ERA inn 256 big league frames and has worked as both a starter and long reliever in his career.