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Samad Taylor Elects Free Agency

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The Mariners announced that infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor has cleared outright waivers and elected free agency. He was designated for assignment last week when Seattle acquired right-hander Yosver Zulueta. Taylor had a previous career outright, which gave him the right to head to the open market this time.

Taylor, 27, has a small and unimpressive big league track record. He has appeared in 83 games over the past three seasons, split between the Royals and Mariners. He has stepped to the plate 83 times and produced a .205/.272/.260 line. However, he stole eight bases in that time without getting caught and has lined up defensively at second base, third base and all three outfield slots.

His offense has been better in the minors. Over the past four years, he has stepped to the plate 1,950 times at the Triple-A level. His 21.8% strikeout rate in that sample is fairly average but his 12.1% walk rate is quite strong. He has a combined .281/.373/.432 line in that stretch for a 108 wRC+. His base-stealing abilities have also been demonstrated more there, with 160 swipes in 200 attempts.

There’s appeal in a utility guy with wheels and a good eye at the plate but it seems that clubs deem Taylor just shy of rosterability. The Mariners passed him through outright waivers almost exactly one year ago, on January 21st of 2025. He was added back to the roster in April but spent most of the year on optional assignment. He exhausted his final option in the process, making it even harder for him to hold a roster spot.

Now that he has been outrighted a second time, he has the right to elect free agency. He has exercised that right and heads to the open market for the first time. Since he just cleared waivers, it can be assumed no club is willing to give him a 40-man spot. He will therefore be looking at minor league offers, with pitchers and catchers reporting in just over two weeks.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images

Mets Notes: Peralta, Senga, Benge

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The Mets acquired right-hander Freddy Peralta from the Brewers earlier this week, which led to immediate speculation about his new club potentially pursuing an extension. That probably won’t happen right away, however. Tim Britton and Will Sammon of The Athletic reported earlier this week that the club plans to give Peralta some time to get comfortable with his new club. President of baseball operations David Stearns later addressed the media via videoconference and his comments matched that reporting.

“I’m not going to speculate on that Day 1 here,” Stearns said of the extension possibility, per Jorge Castillo of ESPN. “We’ll let Freddy get acclimated to the organization. And, you know, any conversations that we may have or have in the future I think we’re going to do our best to keep private and not talk about publicly.”

The reason Peralta was traded away from Milwaukee is that the Brewers generally don’t spend at a level to keep their best players. Guys like Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams have all been traded in recent years as they reached free agency. Peralta ended up going down the same road but his new club has far deeper pockets than his previous team.

Stearns is very familiar with Peralta and is clearly fond of him. He already signed him to an extension once, when both were with the Brewers back in 2020. This week, Stearns surrendered a couple of notable prospects by sending Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat to Milwaukee in order to reunite with Peralta and acquire Tobias Myers.

Now that Stearns has access to more financial resources, he would presumably love to get Peralta to sign on the dotted line again. Based on this week’s scuttlebutt, it seems there won’t be a rush to get that done. Spring training is a common time for extension talks to take place, so maybe more news will trickle out in the next couple of months. In-season extensions are rare but not totally unprecedented. If Peralta gets to the end of 2026 healthy and without a deal in place, he would be a lock to receive and reject a qualifying offer on his way to free agency.

Stearns also addressed a couple of other players on the roster in a sit-down with team reporter Andy Martino. In that interview, Stearns says that outfield prospect Carson Benge still has a chance to break camp with the team even after the Luis Robert Jr. acquisition and that Kodai Senga is expected to be in the rotation.

Back in November, Stearns said that Benge would have a chance to make the team. Not long after making those statements, the Mets opened up a big hole in their outfield by trading away Brandon Nimmo for second baseman Marcus Semien. They then made a spirited effort to sign Kyle Tucker, offering him a four-year deal with a heavy average annual value, but he accepted a similar offer from the Dodgers. The Mets then pivoted and acquired Robert from the White Sox via trade.

After the shuffle, there’s still a path for Benge. The Mets currently project to have Juan Soto in right and Robert in center. At the moment, Benge would seemingly be battling with Tyrone Taylor for the job in left. Taylor is a light hitter but a strong defender, so he would ideally be pushed into a fourth outfielder role by Benge taking the left field job. And given Robert’s history, there’s a decent chance of Taylor ending up getting regular playing time in center as well.

Benge has no major league experience yet and isn’t on the 40-man roster. His Triple-A work is also short and unimpressive, though he was perhaps unlucky there. He began last year at High-A and tore through that level as well as Double-A, slashing a combined .308/.413/.513 for a 174 wRC+ at those two stops while playing all three outfield positions. He finished his 2025 with a .178/.272/.311 slash at Triple-A, though that was in a tiny sample of 103 plate appearances, during which he had a .188 batting average on balls in play.

The Mets are showing a good amount of faith in Benge by leaving a door open for him, even after he put up those rough numbers in Triple-A. If he doesn’t perform in the spring, they have a few fallback options in addition to Taylor. Brett Baty no longer has a position after the Bo Bichette signing and could end up out in left field. Vidal Bruján and Jared Young are infielder/outfielders on the roster. Cristian Pache and Ji Hwan Bae are non-roster options. The Mets may add to that group but it may be more depth additions if they want Benge to still have a path.

As for Senga, he looked dominant in 2023 when he posted a 2.98 earned run average but hasn’t been as much of a sure thing since then. He missed most of 2024 due to injury. Last year, he struggled enough to get optioned to the minors in September. He then popped up in some trade rumors this offseason but is still on the roster. Assuming Stearns is being forthright in his recent comments, Senga will have a rotation job when the season begins.

As of now, the rotation candidates include Peralta, Nolan McLean, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea and Senga. McLean still has options but it would be quite surprising if the Mets sent him down, given how he dominated in his first eight big league starts. If everyone stays healthy, then the Mets may need to run a six-man rotation or bump someone to the bullpen.

Holmes was a reliever prior to last year and could return to that role but he had a pretty good season as a starter, posting a 3.53 ERA. Manaea and Peterson have occasionally been bumped to long relief roles and could perhaps do so again. A six-man rotation would keep all the starters a bit more fresh but would leave the Mets with a seven-man bullpen, given the 13-pitcher roster limit.

This would only really be an issue for as long as everyone is healthy, which doesn’t happen very often in today’s game. If multiple injuries arise, Myers, Jonah Tong, Christian Scott and others are on the roster and should be ready to step up.

Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images

Max Scherzer Could Wait To Sign After Opening Day

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Future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer came within a few outs of winning his third career World Series ring before his Blue Jays fell to the Dodgers back in November, and with the end of the 2025 season came Scherzer’s third foray into free agency over the past five years. Now 41 and staring down his 42nd birthday this coming July, Scherzer is no longer the superstar ace he once was. Even so, the right-hander still believes he can help a team in the right circumstances. The right-hander told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic recently that, while he’s healthy and ready to sign if the right situation comes along, he would be willing to sit out the beginning of the season and sign after Opening Day if it meant finding his way onto a preferred team.

Rosenthal made clear that Scherzer did not reveal what teams he would prefer to play for, but it’s easy to imagine that Scherzer will prioritize playing for a team that he believes has a legitimate shot to win a World Series this year as he enters the twilight of his career. While waiting to sign is always risky, Scherzer could make himself a valuable asset to contending teams in need of depth at some point this year in the event that he does remain unsigned after Opening Day. Rosenthal compares Roger Clemens’s final season in the majors, when he famously held off on signing until he was able to land a deal with the Yankees in early May. A more recent player who took a similar approach was righty reliever David Robertson, who was entering his age-40 season last year and held off on signing anywhere until the second half, when he landed with the Phillies and made 20 appearances down the stretch to solidify their bullpen.

Both of those comparisons demonstrate what teams should expect from Scherzer at this point. Clemens threw 99 innings for the Yankees in his age-44 campaign, pitching to a 4.18 ERA with a 4.14 FIP. That was the fifth-highest ERA of his storied, 24-year career. Likewise, Robertson turned in a decent but unspectacular 4.08 ERA and 4.95 FIP in his time with Philadelphia last season. In Scherzer’s case, the righty is coming off 17 starts for the Blue Jays where he at times looked like his typical dominant self and in other moments looked like one would expect a pitcher in his early 40s with nearly 3000 innings of mileage on his arm to look. That all added up to a 5.17 ERA and a 4.99 FIP, though he managed to turn things up a notch in the playoffs and muster a 3.77 ERA across three starts against the Mariners and Dodgers.

While Scherzer has indicated a willingness to hold out for the right fit, that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t be able to find a match before Spring Training begins next month. Looking exclusively at teams that made the playoffs last year, the Brewers just traded Freddy Peralta and surely wouldn’t mind a veteran innings eater to pair with Brandon Woodruff as a leader for their young staff. The Padres could certainly squeeze Scherzer into their rotation and push JP Sears into a depth role. The Phillies figure to start the season with both swing man Taijuan Walker and prospect Andrew Painter in the rotation. The Tigers are reportedly looking for a back-end starter and could represent a fun homecoming for Scherzer, who won his first Cy Young award with the club. Other teams like the Marlins and Athletics could also surely benefit from adding Scherzer, but those clubs might not be clear enough contenders on paper to intrigue the veteran hurler.

The Opener: Nationals, Trade Market, Fan Events

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:

1. Will the Nationals sell off more pieces?

The big news around baseball yesterday was the Nationals swinging a trade that sent star lefty MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers in exchange for a package of five prospects headlined by Texas’s 2025 first-rounder, infielder Gavin Fien. President of baseball operations Paul Toboni hasn’t been shy about the fact that the team remains in a rebuilding period after five years near the bottom of the standings under GM Mike Rizzo, and the deal indicates Toboni doesn’t see things turning around in the next two years. Reporting has indicated that the team has also fielded offers for infielder CJ Abrams and center fielder Jacob Young. Abrams has three years of team control remaining, while Young has four. Nats fans will surely be watching the trade market for those players with significant interest in the run-up to Opening Day, as Toboni’s decision on whether or not to hold a player like Young could serve as a sign for just how long he expects the team to remain out of contention.

2. Who’s left on the trade market?

Gore was one of the most obvious trade candidates of the offseason, and with both him and Freddy Peralta off the board the pickings are starting to get slim when it comes to pitchers teams can look to trade for. The Royals could make someone like Kris Bubic available and perhaps the Red Sox would listen on some of their depth options like Patrick Sandoval, but the majority of the smoke on the trade market figures to center around position players at this point. Brendan Donovan has been the big name on that front, and the Cardinals still seem more likely than not to move him before Spring Training given persistent interest from teams like the Giants and Mariners. Whispers of the fit between Isaac Paredes and the Red Sox don’t seem likely to go away until Boston resolves the hole in their infield, and the possibility the Cubs trade a player from their infield like Nico Hoerner or Matt Shaw after Alex Bregman’s arrival created a logjam remains very intriguing as well. Meanwhile, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu have seen their names in the Boston rumor mill for years at this point. Who will be the next to move?

3. Fan events this weekend:

While Spring Training is still a few weeks away, teams around the game have started holding their annual offseason events to hype fans up for the upcoming season. The Twins, Astros, Rockies, and Pirates are all hosting fan events this weekend, with details on the linked pages courtesy of MLB.com. The Rangers were set to host one as well, but the team announced that the event will be cancelled in light of the weekend’s inclement weather forecast. The Orioles, meanwhile, announced that Saturday’s events will be cancelled while today’s events will be limited in scope as a result of the coming weather. Fans planning to attend any of these events should keep a close eye on the team’s respective event pages (and club social media accounts) in the run-up to the event to stay updated in case inclement weather causes further cancellations.

Rangers Acquire MacKenzie Gore

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The Nationals have sent left-hander MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers for a package of five prospects, per announcements from both clubs. The five players are shortstop Gavin Fien, right-hander Alejandro Rosario, first baseman/outfielder Abimelec Ortiz, infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald and outfielder Yeremy Cabrera. Gore and Ortiz were the only players with 40-man spots, so the deal is 40-man neutral and no corresponding moves were required.

Gore, 27, has been one of the more obvious trade candidates of this offseason. Back at the start of November, MLBTR’s list of the top trade candidates of the winter had him in the #1 spot. That was partly due to Gore’s appeal as a potential budding ace and also the team’s situation.

The Nationals have been stuck in a rebuild for quite a while now. They won the World Series in 2019 but haven’t finished above .500 since then. They traded players like Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Juan Soto in 2021 and 2022. It was hoped that Washington could be back to relevance by now but the rebuild stalled out. Things dragged to such a degree that heads rolled. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were both fired during last season.

Paul Toboni, previously an assistant general manager with Boston, was hired to replace Rizzo as the front office leader. The general expectation in the industry is that he will get some time to turn the ship around and get the Nats into contention again, as opposed to having the pressure of trying to win immediately. Gore is only two years away from free agency, making him a trade candidate in those circumstances. As a Boras Corporation client, a contract extension was probably going to be hard to put together.

On top of all that, there’s Gore’s track record and affordability. He was once a top prospect, getting selected third overall by the Pades in 2017. He was flipped to the Nats as part of the aforementioned Soto trade. Gore hasn’t quite lived up to his potential yet, with a 4.19 earned run average in 532 1/3 innings. However, he looked on the verge of a huge breakout for most of 2025.

Last year, Gore made 19 starts for the Nats through the All-Star break. He logged 110 1/3 innings in those with a 3.02 ERA. His 7.7% walk rate was a bit better than average and his 30.5% strikeout rate was quite strong. That strikeout rate was behind just four other qualified pitchers in baseball at that time. Tarik Skubal led the pack at 33.4%, followed by Zack Wheeler, Garrett Crochet and Hunter Brown.

Unfortunately, Gore wasn’t able to stick the landing. He went on the injured list at the end of August due to shoulder inflammation. He was reinstated about two weeks later but then returned to the IL late in September due to a right ankle impingement. Around those IL stints, he tossed 49 1/3 innings with a 6.75 ERA. That bumped his season-long ERA to 4.17.

Despite the poor finish, Gore remained an enticing player. The strong run to the All-Star break showed his ceiling and it’s an appealing arsenal. He averaged over 95 miles per hour with his four-seamer last year while mixing in a curveball, slider, cutter and changeup. He’s also quite affordable. He’s going into his second of three arbitration seasons and will be making $5.6MM this year. He’ll be due another raise in 2027 before he’s slated to reach free agency.

The trade market for starting pitching has been robust this winter. The Orioles sent four prospects and a draft pick to the Rays for three years of Shane Baz. The Cubs sent three players, including their top prospect, to the Marlins for three years of Edward Cabrera. Last night, the Mets sent two of their top prospects to the Brewers for one year of Freddy Peralta.

Gore’s track record of success isn’t quite as long as Peralta’s but Gore offers an extra year of control. Baz and Cabrera offered one extra year compared to Gore but haven’t shown the same kind of ace upside and both have checkered injury histories. Given the difficulty in evaluating the future outcomes of prospects, it’s impossible to say which package will provide the most long-term value.

For the Rangers, it’s understandable that they would prefer the trade route to free agency this winter, as there have been signs that money is tight. The team and manager Bruce Bochy parted ways at the end of last year with the club’s financial uncertainty cited as playing a role in that break-up. Pitching coach Mike Maddux departed for the Angels, with some suggestion that may have been financially motivated as well.

In terms of the roster, the Rangers traded three years of Marcus Semien to get five years of Brandon Nimmo, with Nimmo making less annually. Various reports from December suggested that the club couldn’t even afford mid-market free agents like J.T. Realmuto or Luis Arráez.

But upgrading the rotation was still on the to-do list. The club saw Merrill Kelly, Jon Gray, Patrick Corbin and Tyler Mahle all depart via free agency at season’s end. They went into the winter with a strong one-two of Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, but a drop-off after that. Jack Leiter seemed to earn himself a rotation job with a 3.86 ERA last year but his strikeout and walk rates were only average-ish. Jacob Latz had a good season in a swing role but hasn’t been a full-time big league starter yet. Kumar Rocker is a former top prospect but hasn’t put it together in the majors yet.

Gore immediately upgrades the group, especially if he can get back to his first-half performance from 2025. He slots into the front three with deGrom and Eovaldi, bumps Leiter to a back-end role for now and perhaps creates a competition for a fifth spot between Latz, Rocker and others. There is a cliff over the horizon as Eovaldi and Gore are both slated for free agency after 2027. deGrom’s deal has a club option for 2028, with the value conditional on Cy Young voting and inning tallies, though he’ll be 40 by then. But for the next two years, the rotation has a strong core three.

To get that rotation upgrade while avoiding the free agent market, the Rangers have had to part with a notable pile of prospects. Fien appears to be the headliner here. The Rangers just took him 12th overall in the 2025 draft. They gave him a $4.8MM bonus to get him to forgo a commitment to the University of Texas. Still just 18, turning 19 in March, he’s a long-term play.

Baseball America lists him as the #3 prospect in the Texas system. He gets high praise for his offense but with bigger questions about his defense. Most evaluators expect him to be moved off shortstop in the long run, with third base or the outfield corners potential outcomes.

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN writes that the Red Sox really wanted Fien in last year’s draft but they didn’t pick until 15th, three spots behind Texas. Toboni was running Boston’s draft as assistant general manager at the time. Now that he is running his own front office, he apparently made Fien a priority and has used Gore as a means of getting his guy.

Fitz-Gerald, Rosario and Cabrera are a few spots behind Fien on BA’s list, coming in at #8, #13 and #14 respectively. Fitz-Gerald is a 20-year-old infielder who was drafted in the fifth round in 2024. He got into 41 games between the Complex League and Single-A last year, slashing .302/.428/.482. A left shoulder strain prevented him from taking on a bigger workload. He seems to do a decent amount of stuff well without a standout tool. BA suggests a future as a multi-positional player with a bit of pop and speed.

Rosario, 24, was a fifth-round pick in 2023. He had a strong season in 2024, posting a 2.24 ERA between Single-A and High-A, but has been on the shelf since then. He missed 2025 due to an elbow injury and is soon set to undergo Tommy John surgery, so he’ll miss the entire 2026 season as well. His strong 2024 campaign made him a top 100 prospect, with BA having him at #49 going into 2025, but he’ll be a long-term question mark after two entirely missed seasons. He’ll be Rule 5 eligible this coming December.

Cabrera, 20, was an international signing out of the Dominican Republic. He spent last year in Single-A with a strong walk and strikeout profile but only eight home runs. He’s considered a strong defender in the outfield and he stole 43 bases last year.

Ortiz, 24 next month, has the least prospect hype of this group but is the one closest to impacting the major league club. He split last year between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting 25 home runs and walking in 11.7% of his plate appearances. He had a combined line of .257/.356/.479 and a 124 wRC+. He was added to the Texas 40-man roster a couple of months ago to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

Though his numbers in the minors look good on the surface, he has a propensity to chase breaking balls. Evaluators fear that will limit him to being a platoon bat in the majors. He’s also not a strong defender or baserunner, so he needs to hit to carry the profile. Washington has a pretty wide open first base/designated hitter mix, so he can force his way in there if he hits. He also has three option years and can be kept in the minors if he doesn’t.

With four of the five players being long-term plays, it would appear that Washington is just trying to grab whichever players it considers the most talented, as opposed to trying to rush a move towards contending in the near term. Perhaps that was isolated to this deal of their biggest trade chip but it could perhaps indicate that the club is generally operating with a long lens. For the Rangers, losing most of these players won’t hurt them in the short term but it does cut into the system more broadly. As of August, BA ranked them 26th in the league in terms of overall system talent.

CJ Abrams has also been floated as a trade candidate for Washington but with less certainty than Gore as he has three years of club control remaining. The Nats could now pivot to marketing him but his stock is also down a bit due to a poor finish to his most recent season, and in 2024 as well. Perhaps they will hold him for another season to see if he can raise his trade value.

It is clearly an offseason about loading up on future talent for the Nats. They also traded reliever Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners for catcher Harry Ford and right-hander Isaac Lyon. This deal adds five more intriguing young players to the pipeline.

It also opens up more rotation chances for their other pitchers. As of now, they project to have Cade Cavalli, Foster Griffin, Josiah Gray, Brad Lord, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker in the mix for starts. Arms like Jake Eder, Luis Perales, Riley Cornelio and Andrew Alvarez will be looking to push in there as well. Perhaps the Gore deal with be followed by the Nats signing a veteran to eat some innings but they could also leave space for the guys in that group.

Due to Gore’s appeal, he reportedly drew interest from half the teams in the league. Some of those clubs moved on to other trade candidates or signed free agents. For those still on the hunt for starting pitching, the market is drying up but they may still have options. As mentioned, a lot of the trade candidates have already changed hands. The Red Sox may have enough depth after their Ranger Suárez signing to flip someone else. The Royals may be willing to part with someone. Free agency still has Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen, Chris Bassitt and a few others.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported Gore was headed to Texas. Jeff Passan of ESPN first laid out the five-for-one framework. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News first reported Fien’s inclusion. Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post first mentioned Rosario. Grant then reported Ortiz and Fitz-Gerald, followed by Andrew Golden of The Washington Post adding Cabrera.

Photos courtesy of Brett Davis, Eric Hartline, Kevin Jairaj, Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

Tigers Have Shown Interest In Nick Martinez, Jose Quintana

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The Tigers remain interested in adding a starting pitcher this offseason, writes Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Detroit was tied to Chris Bassitt and Lucas Giolito a few weeks back. While both pitchers remain available, the Tigers have also expressed interest in Nick Martinez and Jose Quintana, reports Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press.

It seems they’re casting a wide net but clearly looking to add a mid-tier starter. They’ve made one rotation pickup this offseason, signing KBO returnee Drew Anderson to a $7MM deal. They also got Jack Flaherty back on a $20MM player option. They’re each penciled into the rotation behind Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson and Casey Mize. Anderson’s hold on a rotation spot seems less secure, as Troy Melton or Keider Montero could push him for that job in camp. Jackson Jobe could return from Tommy John surgery in the second half.

It’s a relatively thin group after MLB’s best pitcher. Olson missed most of the second half with a shoulder injury. Mize had an All-Star first half but was up-and-down later in the season. While Flaherty’s strikeout and walk profile remained strong, he’s coming off his second upper-4.00s ERA in three seasons. Anderson has started two MLB games and hasn’t pitched in the majors in five years. Melton has mid-rotation upside but worked mostly out of the bullpen as a rookie.

They’d be in better position if they add a low-variance veteran arm whom they can trust to provide league average innings. Bassitt and Giolito are at the higher end of that tier and would be locked into rotation spots. Martinez and Quintana could pitch at the back of the rotation or work out of the bullpen in a multi-inning role.

Martinez is especially familiar with the swing role, making him a natural fit for a Detroit team that highly values that kind of flexibility on the pitching staff. The 35-year-old righty has made a career out of seamlessly bouncing between the rotation and bullpen midseason. He worked more frequently in relief with the Padres from 2022-23 but was most often in the Cincinnati rotation over the past two years. Martinez posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each season between 2022-24. That climbed to a more pedestrian 4.45 mark last season, albeit across a career-high 165 2/3 innings.

The veteran righty doesn’t have huge stuff, and his strikeout rate has dropped in three straight seasons. Martinez’s game is built around excellent control and a multi-year track record of avoiding hard contact. He made $21.05MM last season after accepting a qualifying offer from the Reds. He’s certainly not going to match that salary this year but could command an eight-figure deal.

Quintana would be cheaper, as he played last season on a $4.25MM contract with Milwaukee. The 36-year-old southpaw (37 this weekend) took the ball 24 times and logged 131 2/3 innings. He struck out a below-average 16% of opponents but managed a 3.96 ERA — his third straight sub-4.00 showing. Quintana sits around 90 MPH and missed bats on a career-low 6.9% of his offerings last year.

Nationals Have Shopped CJ Abrams, Jacob Young

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Paul Toboni made the most significant move of his first offseason running baseball operations for the Nationals. The Nats shipped MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers for a five-prospect package headlined by last year’s 12th overall pick Gavin Fien. Washington also swapped high-upside reliever Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners for rookie catcher Harry Ford early in the offseason.

The team remains amidst a rebuild, as Toboni acknowledged without using that specific term. “I think we’ve got to be honest with ourselves,” he told reporters after the Gore deal (link via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). “The truth is – and I don’t think this is a mystery to the fanbase, the media or anyone – we lost 96 games last year. To turn it around in one year and make the playoffs … not to say it can’t be done, but it’s a challenge. What we want to do is make sure we build this really strong foundation, so when we do start to push chips in, we can win for an extended period of time.”

That naturally leads to speculation about their other veteran players. Shortstop CJ Abrams has come up in rumors throughout the offseason. Spencer Nusbaum, Andrew Golden and Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post write that the Nationals have shopped Abrams and center fielder Jacob Young over the winter.

In Abrams’ case, that could simply be a matter of semantics. It’s no secret the Nationals have heard teams out on the talented infielder, who has reportedly gotten interest from the Royals (surely among various other clubs). Whether they’re initiating the calls or simply seriously considering interest isn’t a major distinction. The asking price remains high, as The Washington Post report indicates the Nats may need a stronger return to move Abrams than the one they received for Gore.

That’s motivated largely by the club control window. Gore was down to two seasons of arbitration eligibility; Abrams is three years away from free agency. The infielder is also marginally cheaper, as he’s signed for $4.2MM compared to Gore’s $5.6MM salary. The extra control year is the bigger factor, as the Nationals presumably expect to contend by 2028 even if they’re not trying to compete this year.

[Related: The Best Fits For A CJ Abrams Trade]

In each of the past two seasons, Abrams has been an excellent hitter through the All-Star Break before tailing off in the second half. He has been a little better than average overall, hitting .252/.315/.433 in more than 1200 plate appearances over the past two years. Abrams has 39 homers and 62 stolen bases with slightly lower than average strikeout and walk marks in that time. He’s an above-average regular who has an All-Star level ceiling that he has yet to consistently reach.

Abrams gives back some of the value with the glove. He’s one of the weaker shortstops in MLB and trails only Elly De La Cruz with 39 errors over the past two seasons. They’ve mostly been of the throwing variety, yet Statcast hasn’t looked favorably upon his range either. Abrams would project better at second base or potentially in center field. He has been a full-time shortstop on a Washington team that has probably had the worst all-around infield defense in the majors.

Despite the drawbacks, Abrams should have substantial appeal on the trade market. He’s a 25-year-old plus athlete who fits somewhere in the middle of the diamond. He’s a former sixth overall pick and top prospect who has stretches where he’s an excellent table-setter in one of the top two lineup spots. The Nats should demand a haul to part with him when he’s controllable for three seasons. In addition to Kansas City, teams like the Giants, Red Sox, Mariners and Padres (the club that drafted him and dealt him to Washington in the Juan Soto deal) are speculative fits. Those teams could all upgrade at second base, and many of them have been involved on another lefty-hitting trade chip, Brendan Donovan.

Young hasn’t gotten much attention as a trade candidate this winter. He’s overshadowed by bigger names like Gore and Abrams and certainly wouldn’t command as big a return. However, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the Nationals have gotten interest from teams looking to improve in center field. Those clubs would be on Young for his years of affordable control and elite glove.

The 26-year-old is still in his pre-arbitration seasons and at least four years from free agency. He stole 33 bases and probably should have won a Gold Glove in 2024, as he led MLB outfielders with 20 Outs Above Average that season. Defensive Runs Saved wasn’t quite so bullish but graded him 12 runs above par. Young posted similarly impressive defensive metrics last year, tallying +13 DRS and 14 OAA despite losing nearly 350 innings of playing time relative to the prior season. He missed a couple weeks between May and June after spraining the AC joint in his left shoulder when he ran into a wall at Camden Yards tracking a Ramón Laureano fly ball.

Excellent as Young is defensively, he’s not going to provide much at the plate. He’s coming off a .231/.296/.287 season and has a career .247/.310/.316 batting line in just over 1000 plate appearances. Young makes a lot of contact but puts most of it on the ground and has very little power. The right-handed hitter has been slightly better against southpaws over his career, but he’s a below-average offensive player against pitchers of either handedness.

There are some parallels between Young and top free agent center fielder Harrison Bader, but the latter is coming off a career year at the plate. Teams that don’t want to meet Bader’s asking price could view Young as a reasonable fallback. The center field market is almost always thin, both in free agency and trade. The Diamondbacks, Guardians, Royals, Phillies, Angels, Tigers, White Sox and Orioles are among the teams that could use a righty-hitting center fielder/fourth outfielder. Washington has no need to force a Young trade, but they could deal him and play Dylan Crews in center between a corner outfield tandem of James Wood and Daylen Lile.

Rockies Designate Garrett Acton For Assignment

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The Rockies announced they’ve designated reliever Garrett Acton for assignment. That opens a 40-man roster spot for Willi Castro, who has officially signed the two-year deal to which he agreed a week ago.

Colorado claimed Acton off waivers from the Rays at the outset of the offseason. The 27-year-old righty had made one appearance with Tampa Bay, navigating around a couple walks to get through a scoreless inning against the Cubs on September 14. Acton was optioned back to Triple-A one day later. He spent the bulk of the season at the top minor league level, pitching to a 3.68 earned run average across 58 2/3 innings. He struck out more than 30% of opponents while walking 11.4% of batters faced.

Acton’s only other MLB experience comprised six games for the Athletics in 2023. He underwent Tommy John surgery midway through his rookie year and missed all of ’24 rehabbing. The Illinois product averaged 94 MPH on his fastball last year after sitting a tick higher before the surgery. He leans very heavily on the heater but has a mid-80s slider and changeup as well.

Colorado will trade Acton or place him back on waivers within the next five days. He has a couple minor league options remaining, so a team could keep him in Triple-A as long as they’re willing to carry him on the 40-man roster. He doesn’t have the previous career outright necessary to decline a minor league assignment if he goes unclaimed, in which case the Rockies would be able to bring him to camp as a non-roster invitee.

Mariners, Dane Dunning Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Mariners are in agreement with righty Dane Dunning on a minor league deal, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. That’ll presumably come with a non-roster invite for the Wasserman client.

Dunning is looking to rebound from a frustrating season. The former first-round draftee was limited to 12 big league appearances between the Braves and Rangers. He allowed a near-7.00 ERA across 20 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. Dunning has spent the majority of his career as a starter and continued to work from the rotation in Triple-A. The results there were a little better, as he pitched to a 4.67 ERA with a league average 21.6% strikeout percentage and 7.6% walk rate across 69 1/3 frames.

The 31-year-old Dunning held a rotation spot for the Rangers from 2021-23. He fired a career-high 172 2/3 innings of 3.70 ERA ball for the World Series team in ’23. He has never had big velocity or strikeout ability, but he’s generally a solid strike-thrower who did a decent job avoiding hard contact during his best seasons. The home run ball has become a bigger issue over the past two years.

Dunning can work as long relief or rotation depth at Triple-A Tacoma. He’d probably need multiple Spring Training injuries to get consideration for an Opening Day roster spot. Dunning obviously wouldn’t crack Seattle’s rotation if their top five starters are healthy, and most of their projected bullpen is out of minor league options.

They don’t have an especially deep rotation beyond their excellent front five, however. Logan Evans and Emerson Hancock would be their next men up. Neither has found much success at the MLB level. Evans posted a 4.32 ERA with below-average strikeout stuff over his first 16 appearances. Hancock was pitching in short relief by the end of last season and might fit better there, as he has a near-5.00 ERA in 31 career starts. Rookie Blas Castaño and swingman Jhonathan Diaz are the other depth starters on the 40-man roster.

Mets Designate Richard Lovelady For Assignment

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The Mets designated lefty reliever Richard Lovelady for assignment. That’s the corresponding 40-man roster move for utility player Vidal Bruján, whom they acquired from Minnesota tonight.

Lovelady signed a split deal at the beginning of the offseason. He secured a spot on the 40-man at the time of signing but knew there was a decent chance he’d be dropped from the roster over the winter. The contract pays Lovelady a $1MM salary for time in the majors and a $350K rate in the minor leagues. He’s out of options, so the MiLB salary only becomes relevant if the team gets him through waivers at some point. Lovelady would have the right to elect free agency if he’s outrighted but would lose his salary, so the deal is structured to incentivize him to report to Triple-A.

The 30-year-old southpaw made eight appearances for the Mets and pitched twice for the Blue Jays last season. He combined for 11 2/3 innings and gave up 11 earned runs. Lovelady struck out 12 but issued 10 free passes — six via walk and four hit batters. That elevated his career earned run average to 5.35 across 111 innings.

Lovelady had a much better season in the minors. He tallied 38 innings of 1.66 ERA ball while striking out 26.3% of batters faced in Triple-A. The Mets like him as a depth option, so they’ll hope he clears waivers and sticks around in a non-roster capacity. A.J. Minter and Brooks Raley are slated to be the pair of southpaws in Carlos Mendoza’s season-opening bullpen.

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