Cubs To Place Seiya Suzuki On Injured List, Option Javier Assad
The Cubs are placing outfielder Seiya Suzuki on the 10-day injured list to begin the season, manager Craig Counsell confirmed to reporters Monday (link via Patrick Mooney of The Athletic). He’s been slowed by a sprained posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. The Cubs were already planning to select the contract of non-roster Michael Conforto with Suzuki ailing, but it wasn’t yet clear whether he’d require a stint on the IL or just be unavailable for the first series of the season or so.
On the pitching side of the roster, the Cubs optioned righty Javier Assad to Triple-A Iowa, where he’ll continue to work as a starter. He’d been in consideration for a bullpen role but will stay stretched out in Des Moines. Right-hander Ben Brown has nabbed the final bullpen spot behind Daniel Palencia, Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb, Caleb Thielbar and Colin Rea.
More to come.
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Nationals To Select Cionel Pérez
Left-handed reliever Cionel Pérez has been informed that he’s made the Nationals’ Opening Day roster, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. Pérez is in camp as a non-roster invitee, so the Nats will need to open a 40-man roster spot in order to formally add him to the club.
Pérez, 29, signed a minor league deal back in February and has had a terrific spring. The veteran southpaw has pitched six innings and held opponents scoreless on only two hits and a walk with five strikeouts. He’s kept a hearty 53.3% of batted balls against him on the ground and sat 95.7 mph with his four-seamer and 95.5 mph with his sinker.
Originally signed by the Astros after defecting from Cuba, Pérez struggled through several seasons in Houston and Cincinnati before breaking out with the Orioles in 2022. A then-26-year-old Pérez fired 57 2/3 innings with a pristine 1.40 ERA. For three seasons, Pérez was a largely reliable arm in Baltimore, compiling 164 2/3 innings with a 3.12 ERA, 57 holds and six saves.
In 2025, Pérez stumbled badly out of the gate and never managed to find his footing. He opened the season with 21 2/3 innings of 8.31 ERA ball, including five runs in his final appearance, before being designated for assignment. He went unclaimed on waivers and spent the rest of the season in Triple-A Norfolk, where he posted a 6.65 ERA in 22 1/3 innings.
Pérez’s undoing last season was a sudden erosion of his already sub-par command. Even during his three quality seasons with the O’s, he walked 10-11% of his opponents. In 2025, he walked more than 16% of the batters he faced both in the majors and in Triple-A. He also lost a mile per hour off his four-seamer and a half-mile off his sinker.
Pérez will reportedly earn $1.9MM on his deal now that he’s made the roster. He can pick up another $700K worth of incentives. He has just under five years of big league service, meaning if he gets back on track, the Nats can control him through 2027 via arbitration. Pérez instantly becomes the most experienced reliever in the rebuilding Nationals’ bullpen and could even find himself in high-leverage spots, given the team’s lack of established relievers.
Red Sox Make Several Roster Decisions
The Red Sox’ Opening Day roster is coming into focus. Boston announced this morning that catcher/infielder Mickey Gasper and infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton were optioned to minor league camp. Non-roster catcher Matt Thaiss was also reassigned to minor league camp. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo suggests that Thaiss was not picked up by another club after using his upward mobility clause, so he’ll head to Triple-A Worcester as catching depth. That slate of moves sets the club’s bench with catcher Connor Wong, utilitymen Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Andruw Monasterio, and outfielder/designated hitter Masataka Yoshida.
Neither Wong nor Thaiss had a particularly strong spring, though the latter was the more productive of the two. Wong is already under contract for $1.375MM, however. He struggled through a career-worst season in 2025 but had a productive showing at the plate as recently as 2024 (.280/.333/.425).
Monasterio tops Eaton and Gasper for a bench spot after a strong spring showing: .300/.383/.425 in 47 plate appearances. The Sox picked Monasterio up alongside Caleb Durbin in the trade sending Kyle Harrison, Shane Drohan and David Hamilton to the Brewers. He’s played in each of the past three seasons with the Brewers and is coming off a career-best .270/.319/.437 slash in 156 plate appearances in 2025. Monasterio gives the Sox a right-handed bat with experience across all four infield positions.
On the pitching side of things, Rule 5 righty Ryan Watson was informed he has made the team, per WEEI’s Rob Bradford. Left-hander Tyler Samaniego has been optioned to Triple-A, Cotillo reports.
The 28-year-old Watson was selected out of the Giants organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft (by way of a trade with the A’s). He’d posted 50 2/3 innings with a 4.26 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League last year. Watson punched out 28.1% of the opponents he faced in Triple-A, walked only 7% of them and also notched a solid 43.8% grounder rate. He’s had a shaky spring, allowing seven runs on a dozen hits and three walks in 11 2/3 innings (5.56 ERA). He hasn’t missed many bats, either, but the Sox believe in the raw arsenal enough to open the season with Watson locked into a bullpen spot.
As a Rule 5 pick, Watson cannot be optioned to the minors at any point. The Red Sox will need to carry him on the big league roster for the entire season if they want to secure full contractual rights over what would be five additional years of club control. If at any point the Sox remove Watson from the roster, he’ll be placed on outright waivers and made available to every other club before being offered back to the Giants (who would not have to place him on their 40-man roster).
Pirates Finalize Pitching Staff
The Pirates finalized their Opening Day pitching decisions, with Jason Mackey of MLB.com covering the notable details. Carmen Mlodzinski will get a rotation spot while José Urquidy and Hunter Barco will start the season in the bullpen and Mike Clevinger will head to Triple-A. Alex Stumpf reports that Clevinger had an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal but it appears that didn’t lead to a roster spot with any of the 30 clubs in the league.
The Bucs went into the winter with loads of pitching and used that to bolster their position player group. They included Mike Burrows in the three-team trade that netted them Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum, as well as reliever Mason Montgomery. They flipped Johan Oviedo to the Red Sox in a five-player trade, with the headliner for the Bucs being outfielder Jhostynxon García. They still have a strong front four consisting of Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Bubba Chandler and Braxton Ashcraft. By the end of camp, Mlodzinski, Urquidy, Barco and Clevinger appeared to be battling for the final spot.
Mlodzinski enters the season with a 3.25 earned run average in 185 2/3 innings as a swingman. He has struck out 21.7% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.2% clip, both fairly average marks. His 47.1% ground ball rate is a few ticks north of par.
There seems to be some belief he could find a new gear. Mlodzinski tells Mackey that he’s feeling much better now compared to a year ago thanks to the development of his splitter and curveball. He threw both of those pitches at the big league level for the first time last year. It’s hoped that the more diverse arsenal can help him find more success as he turns a lineup over. Mlodzinski has allowed a line of .214/.281/.294 when facing a lineup for the first time as a starter but a massive .381/.422/.607 line the second time through.
For what it’s worth, he had a great camp. Spring performances always need to be taken with a grain of salt but he posted a 2.92 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate, 3.6% walk rate and 56.8% ground ball rate. The Bucs will give him a chance to carry that forward into the regular season.
Jared Jones will be returning from his surgery at some point in the coming months and will need a rotation spot but other injuries will likely pop up between now and then. Mlodzinski does still have an option and could be sent to the minors but that’s also true of Ashcraft, Chandler and Jones. Time will tell how it all shakes out.
For now, there are domino effects for the other guys who were in the mix. Urquidy has had a decent career but missed most of 2024 and 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Bucs gave him a big league deal but he didn’t have a good camp, allowing 11 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings. He’ll seemingly start the season as a long reliever, presumably for mop-up duty.
As for Barco, it’s a bit of a surprise to see him on the Opening Day roster. He has options and is still expected to be a valuable starter in the long run, so there was an argument for having him stretched out in Triple-A.
Mackey suggests his path forward could mirror that of Ashcraft, who tossed 69 2/3 innings in the majors last year and 48 1/3 in the minors. The major league work was split between eight starts and 18 bullpen appearances, most of which were for more than an inning. Ashcraft went into 2025 having never thrown more than 73 innings in a season. He got to 118 last year, between his minor league starts and that big league hybrid role. That should put him in place to jump to something resembling a full starter’s workload in 2026.
Barco got to 102 1/3 innings last year between the majors and minors, a personal high for him. Ideally, he will push that up this year in order to keep building towards a full starter’s workload. For now, that will be in the big league bullpen. He has options and could be sent down for regular Triple-A work at some point or perhaps injuries will open a rotation role in the majors.
As for Clevinger, it’s been a few years since he was an effective starter in the big leagues, which is why he had to settle for a minor league deal this offseason. His velocity was up this spring, an encouraging sign, but the results weren’t enough to grab a roster spot. He struck out 25% of batters faced in spring games but also gave out walks at a 16.7% clip and posted a 5.02 ERA.
He’ll presumably be in the Triple-A rotation, staying ready for a potential call-up at some point. The fact that he’s not on the 40-man roster could work against him. Thomas Harrington and Wilber Dotel have 40-man spots and will also be making Triple-A starts while on optional assignment.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Gavin Lux To Begin Season On Injured List
The Rays will be without Gavin Lux to begin the season. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times reports that Lux will begin the season on the 10-day injured list due to a right shoulder impingement. Richie Palacios had been optioned a few days ago but will now make the Opening Day roster in place of Lux.
Lux didn’t get to have much of a spring training. He was delayed by some oblique soreness earlier on and then his right shoulder became “cranky” in recent days, in the words of manager Kevin Cash, per Topkin. Around those issues, he got into just seven Grapefruit League contests and hit .190/.190/.238.
Perhaps the shoulder is still bugging him or the Rays want Lux to spend more time getting into a groove on a rehab assignment, as opposed to playing at the big league level. Whatever the reasoning, the Rays are starting the season with both of their planned middle infielders on the shelf. Shortstop Taylor Walls has a right oblique issue and will miss the first three or four weeks of the season.
The Rays acquired Lux in the offseason and had planned on him being their everyday second baseman. With the Reds last year, he put up roughly league average offense while bouncing around the diamond, spending time at second base, third base and left field. The Rays opened second base when they traded Brandon Lowe to the Pirates. They acquired Lux and expressed confidence that the best path forward for him was to be planted at the keystone, as opposed to moving around to different spots.
That plan will now be on pause for the time being. At this point, there’s nothing to indicate this is a major issue. Opening Day IL stints can be backdated by three days, so it’s possible Lux only misses a week to start the season.
The middle infield feels like a weak spot for the Rays. Walls was going to be the shortstop, despite the fact that he hasn’t hit in his career. His injury has seemingly opened the door for Carson Williams to get some reps at short. Williams has notable skills but massive strikeout issues. There’s also some playing time open at second base now, with guys like Palacios, Ben Williamson and Ryan Vilade in the mix there. Jadher Areinamo is on the 40-man but hasn’t yet played at the Triple-A level, so the Rays presumably want to keep him on optional assignment.
Until Lux and/or Walls come back, that appears to be the middle infield group. With other teams making their final roster decisions ahead of Opening Day, some players will become available by being released, opting out of their contracts or getting put on waivers. Even before these injuries, the Rays felt like they needed a bit more middle infield depth. They acquired guys like Tsung-Che Cheng and Brett Wisely during the offseason but couldn’t hold them. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them adding a guy or two in the coming days.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
Braves To Place Spencer Strider On Injured List
Braves righty Spencer Strider is going to start the season on the injured list due to an oblique strain, manager Walt Weiss announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The team hasn’t provided a formal timeline, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for around a month.
Strider, 27, last pitched a full season in 2023. He made only two starts in 2024 before requiring UCL surgery that would sideline him into the 2025 campaign. The rehab from that surgery, combined with a hamstring strain, limited Strider to 23 starts last year. He pitched 125 1/3 innings but worked with diminished velocity and overall stuff, leading to a 4.45 ERA and rate stats that were markedly worse than their pre-injury levels.
The hope had been for a healthier Strider to bounce back closer to his brilliant 2022-23 form. Instead, he’ll be the latest addition to a list of key players who are unavailable to begin the year. It’s been a nightmare spring for Atlanta. The Braves have lost righties Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep for months following surgeries to remove loose bodies from their elbows. Left-hander Joey Wentz tore his ACL and is out for the season. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim suffered a hand injury in a fall before even reporting to camp and will be out for more than a month to begin the year. Left fielder/designated hitter Jurickson Profar was suspended for the entire season following a second positive PED test.
Atlanta’s lack of pitching depth has been a story throughout camp. With Strider headed to the injured list, the Braves will open the season with Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes as their top three starters. Lopez pitched only once last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes suffered a UCL tear last summer and rehabbed it without surgery.
Plans beyond that top trio are murky for the time being. Right-hander Bryce Elder and left-hander José Suarez are out of minor league options and will presumably both make the roster, though either could be bound for the bullpen. Bowman calls Suarez a “likely” starter to begin the season and adds that the club could consider selecting the contract of non-roster veteran Martín Pérez, who’d previously been informed he was not making the club. Right-hander Didier Fuentes is still ticketed for the bullpen, Weiss tells Bowman.
It’s a paper-thin rotation group at this point, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos make some form of addition to further stockpile some depth. There ought to be several veterans opting out of/being released from minor league deals in the final days of camp, and arms of varying quality will be designated for assignment due to the annual Opening Day roster crunch.
The Opener: Roster Decisions, Trades/Opt-Outs, Extensions
On the heels of big news out of Toronto earlier this morning, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Roster decisions abound:
Opening Day is just around the corner, and as a result a flurry of roster moves have taken place over the past few days. That’s sure to continue going forward, as non-roster players breaking camp with the team will need to be added to the 40-man roster, while players without options remaining who don’t make their current team will need to be cut loose. Some big roster decisions yet to be made include whether top prospect Kevin McGonigle will break camp with the Tigers and whether Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena will be healthy enough to begin the season on the roster or require a trip to the injured list.
2. Trades, opt-outs, and signings galore:
As teams finalize their rosters and inform veterans on minor league deals that they won’t make the club, many of those veterans will have the opportunity to return to free agency. We’ve already seen southpaw Joey Lucchesi granted his release from the Giants, while catcher Reese McGuire managed to leverage his opt-out in the Brewers organization into a big league deal with the White Sox. In addition to those veterans moving in and out of free agency, the trade market is rife with possibilities at this time of year. The Nationals already took advantage of a roster crunch in New York by acquiring young infielder Jorbit Vivas from the Yankees, while some minor league veterans like Joe La Sorsa have upward mobility clauses in their contracts that can force a trade to a team willing to roster them.
3. Extension season continues:
Even amid the flurry of roster moves headed into Opening Day, springtime remains extension season all around baseball. It’s been a busy past few days on the extension front, as the Phillies inked southpaw Cristopher Sanchez to a new contract yesterday, locking up the lefty through his mid-30s, while this morning saw the Blue Jays extend GM Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider ahead of what would’ve been the final years of their contracts. Outside of the deals that have already gotten done, the loudest buzz in terms of extensions involved star Pirates prospect Konnor Griffin, who was assigned to minor league camp over the weekend but also has mutual interest in an extension with his organization. Are there more deals on the horizon as Opening Day draws near?
Craig Kimbrel To Forgo Opt-Out, Stay With Mets
March 23: Kimbrel will forgo his first opt-out opportunity and remain with the Mets for the time being, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
March 22: Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told the media (including SNY TV) that veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel was told that he won’t be breaking camp with the team. An Article XX(B) free agent, Kimbrel had the chance to trigger the first of three opt-out dates in his minor league contract this weekend, and Mendoza’s comments seemingly indicate that the right-hander hasn’t exercised an out clause, as Kimbrel is considering staying in the organization.
“Now he is deciding whether he wants to stay, which looks like he’s leaning that way,” Mendoza said. “He likes it here, he wants to win, but he also is going to look around for opportunities. But there’s a good chance he stays back here in Florida, to continue to pitch and [wait] until the opportunity presents.”
Kimbrel has a 4.50 ERA over six Grapefruit League innings for the Mets, with five walks and five strikeouts. It wasn’t the kind of performance that would help what was already something of a longshot bid to make New York’s roster, and it could be that Kimbrel is fine pitching in the minors for now. Given how the Mets cycled through an endless amount of relievers last season, Kimbrel may figure it won’t be too long before he is needed in Queens, even if his call-up would come with the added wrinkle of a contract selection to the 40-man roster.
Making the Mets’ roster would also guarantee a $2.5MM salary for Kimbrel, and since New York is over the highest level of luxury tax penalization, the Mets would pay more than double that amount in additional taxes. While money isn’t exactly a top concern for the big-spending Mets, it isn’t absolutely no concern, and the front office may feel a reliever on a minimum salary is a better investment both financially and results-wise than what Kimbrel can offer at age 37.
Kimbrel has been bouncing around the league for the last few years, showing some flashes of his old All-Star form but without much consistency. In 2025, Kimbrel had a 2.25 ERA and a 34.7% strikeout rate over 12 innings with the Braves and Astros, but with a hefty 14.3% walk rate as well. Control has been an issue for Kimbrel even during his prime years, and he has also been hurt by an increased tendency to allow home runs.
There could still be a market elsewhere for Kimbrel’s services, if another team feels he still has something in the rank. Mendoza noted that playing for a contender seems to be a priority for Kimbrel, so he might not want to sign with just any team if he does re-enter the open market.
Blue Jays Extend Ross Atkins, John Schneider
The Blue Jays announced this morning that they’ve signed GM Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider to contract extensions. Both were entering the final seasons of their current contracts, but Atkins has re-upped on a five-year deal that will take him through the 2031 season while Schneider will return on a two-year deal that lasts through the 2028 campaign.
The news is hardly surprising following Toronto’s impressive run in the playoffs last year, where they secured the AL pennant and came just shy of besting the Dodgers in seven games during the World Series. While Toronto ultimately lost Game Seven of that series, it’s easy to see that ownership is pleased with the club’s performance. Not only was the team green-lit to acquire Dylan Cease and pursue other big names on the free agent market like Kyle Tucker this winter, but Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers also decided to give team president and CEO Mark Shapiro a five-year contract extension back in December that runs through 2030. Once Shapiro received an extension, both Atkins and Schneider were widely assumed to eventually follow suit around the league.
Atkins joined the Jays prior to the 2016 season, and he’s overseen the beginning of the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. era in Toronto. While Guerrero signed with the organization as an international amateur a few months before Atkins and Shapiro arrived, every professional game he’s played during his career has been with them at the helm of the club. Guerrero has been the face of Toronto’s return to relevance after a rebuilding period early in Atkins’s tenure with the organization, from the second year of his career in 2020 onward the Jays have made the postseason four times in six years with a 472-398 record overall. That’s roughly an 88-win pace over the last six years, and under Schneider’s leadership over the past three years they’ve gone 257-229 they’ve managed a roughly 86-win pace with two playoff berths.
It may have seemed to be a no-brainer that the club would decide to keep the good times rolling with their current group after this year’s run to the World Series, but that was hardly a guarantee this time last year. One year ago, Guerrero had not yet signed an extension, the club had whiffed on both Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto in free agency during back-to-back offseasons, and the Jays were coming off a deeply disappointing 88-loss season that saw the club sell at the trade deadline and called their longer-term viability as a contender into question. It’s fortunate that the organization’s banner year in 2025 answered those questions, because it’s not hard to imagine another poor performance on the field from the club last year ending in changes to the front office and dugout rather than contract extensions for the organization’s leadership.
As Atkins, Schneider, and Shapiro head into the 2026 season and look ahead to at least a few more years running the Blue Jays together, long-term deals for Guerrero, Cease, Alejandro Kirk, and Andres Gimenez figure to make them all staples of the organization going forward. Other pieces under long-term control include Trey Yesavage, Anthony Santander, Kazuma Okamoto, Louis Varland, and a collection of young hitting talent headlined by Addison Barger. It’s a solid group overall, though the next few years will also see the team contend with the impending free agencies of George Springer, Daulton Varsho, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and other key members of the roster who will need to be replaced.