Merrill Kelly Unlikely To Be Ready For Opening Day
D-backs righty Merrill Kelly has been slowed by back discomfort in recent days and has undergone multiple waves of testing to get to the root of the issue. It seems the Snakes still haven’t determined the exact problem, but Kelly tells the team’s beat that he’s not expecting to be ready to take the mound on Opening Day (link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Tests thus far have fortunately not revealed any major issues in his back, but doctors are still working to ascertain what’s hobbling him. Piecoro adds that Kelly played catch today but still felt pain in his back while doing so.
If the D-backs feel Kelly only needs to be pushed back a few days or skip one start, it’s possible he could avoid a trip to the 15-day IL, but obviously today’s comments firmly put an IL stint on the table as a possibility. If he heads to the injured list to begin the season, Arizona will open the year with Zac Gallen, Ryne Nelson, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Michael Soroka in the rotation. One would imagine Gallen’s standing with the team would make him the Opening Day favorite, even on the heels of a down season, though that much will be determined as camp plays out.
Kelly, 37, spent six and a half seasons in the Diamondbacks’ rotation from 2019-25 but was traded to the Rangers at last summer’s deadline. Asked about his time with the D-backs following that trade, Kelly said he’d be open to a return in free agency after calling Phoenix home for so long and setting down some roots there. Though he didn’t perform as well as hoped in his two months with Texas, he still finished out the season with a sharp 3.52 ERA in 184 innings, fanning a roughly average 22.3% of his opponents against a strong 6.4% walk rate.
The Diamondbacks entered the offseason looking to scale back payroll but still managed to find common ground with Kelly, making a two-year offer worth $40MM that sold the righty on heading back to the desert. The D-backs are effectively trotting out the same rotation that struggled last year — plus an affordable one-year flier on the talented but injury-prone Soroka — so they’ll be counting on Pfaadt, Rodriguez and especially Gallen (who als0 re-signed as a free agent) to bounce back after rough showings.
It’s clearly not ideal for the team’s steadiest starter to already be dealing with an injury in camp — even if it proves minor — though the Snakes should have better rotation depth this year. Part of that is due to the very trade that shipped Kelly out of town. The Rangers sent pitching prospects Kohl Drake, Mitch Bratt and David Hagaman to Arizona to rent Kelly for the remainder of the ’25 season. Drake and Bratt are now both on the team’s 40-man roster and could make their big league debuts this season as they look to stake their claim to a long-term rotation spot.
Other depth options in camp include prospects Yilber Diaz and Cristian Mena, both of whom have made brief MLB debuts but struggled through down showings in 2025. Righty Dylan Ray was also selected to the 40-man roster this past offseason, and veterans Joe Ross and Thomas Hatch are in camp as non-roster invitees as well.
MLB Mailbag: Giolito, Littell, Kopech, White Sox, Mets
This week's mailbag gets into the lingering free agencies of Lucas Giolito, Zack Littell, and Michael Kopech, multiple White Sox questions, a look at the Mets' rotation, and much more.
Marshal asks:
Why do we think Giolito and Littell have yet to sign? Most other FA left have large red flags either in past performance or injuries. These two are a clear cut above the rest (with the exception of Scherzer who reportedly is being picky about which team). Is it that they are being picky about what team, or are they holding out for bigger money? Teams like the Braves, Angels, A's and more could easily fit these guys into the middle/back of their rotation and yet they all seem unwilling to make a move for these two. Is it related to the TV deals collapsing?
Generally when a pitcher is unsigned this late in the offseason, there's a likely mismatch between their expectations and reality.
In terms of late-signing quality free agent pitchers who did not receive a qualifying offer, one recent example was Jordan Montgomery. He went out looking for over $100MM, and wound up signing a one-year deal (with a vesting option) on March 26th of 2024.
A more distant but also more comparable example was Jake Odorizzi. He'd accepted a qualifying offer for 2020, but wound up pitching only 13 2/3 innings for the Twins due to injuries and the shortened season. We pegged him for three years and $39MM nonetheless, and it was later revealed his asking price was indeed in that range. Amid a pandemic, Odorizzi wasn't able to find that, and instead settled for a $23.5MM guarantee from the Astros on March 8th.
We projected two years and $32MM for Giolito back on November 6th. When I was making my own projection in October, I went with three years and $51MM, but didn't mind bringing that down given the uncertain status of his elbow. That injury ended Giolito's season on September 23rd; he wasn't able to make it back for the postseason. The righty professed full health in November. So why is he still unsigned?
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Cubs’ Tyler Austin Out “Months” Following Knee Surgery
First baseman/outfielder Tyler Austin recently underwent a debridement procedure on the patellar tendon in his right knee, which will leave him sidelined for “months,” Cubs skipper Craig Counsell announced to the team’s beat this morning (link via Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). That suggests he’ll be a 60-day IL candidate the next time Chicago needs a 40-man roster spot.
Austin, 34, has spent the past six seasons with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He originally signed in NPB after spending parts of four big league seasons with the Yankees, Twins, Giants and Brewers, during which he posted a .219/.292/.451 slash with 33 homers in 583 turns at the plate.
While Austin showed plenty of power over his relatively limited MLB tenure, he was far too prone to strikeouts, fanning in a grisly 36.9% of his career plate appearances in the majors. He’s radically cut down on his strikeouts in Japan and has been especially productive the past two seasons, combining for a .299/.370/.559 slash with a 10.3% walk rate against a 19.2% strikeout rate.
Clearly, Austin is not facing as strong of competition in NPB as he would in MLB, but it’s still a notably more encouraging strikeout rate. Even it can be reasonably expected to climb several points back in North American ball, it’s unlikely to practically double; Austin seems to have made some clear gains in terms of contact and pitch selection.
For now, the well-traveled veteran’s MLB comeback will be on hold. The Cubs signed him to a one-year, $1.25MM contract over the winter, putting him on the 40-man roster in the process. The hope was that he could spell Michael Busch against tough lefties after Busch hit just .207/.274/.368 in left-on-left matchups this past season (and .230/.295/.366 in his career). Austin also has plenty of corner outfield experience and could’ve made occasional appearances there or at designated hitter versus southpaws.
Perhaps that role will still be waiting for him when he’s sufficiently rehabbed this knee injury, but a firm timetable is tougher to ascertain. In the meantime, non-roster invitees like Chas McCormick, Dylan Carlson and Michael Conforto now stand a better chance of breaking camp with the club.
Counsell also revealed that lefty Jordan Wicks has been slowed by forearm inflammation, but the team has already ordered an MRI which did not show structural damage to the southpaw’s ulnar collateral ligament. It’s unclear when he’ll get into games.
The 26-year-old Wicks is a former first-round pick and top prospect but has been pushed way down the depth chart for the Cubs, who’ll open the season with Edward Cabrera, Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga in the rotation. Righty Colin Rea is back to hold down a swing role and could get the first crack at spot starts as needed. The Cubs also have Javier Assad and Ben Brown on the active roster, while ace Justin Steele should be back from last year’s UCL repair at some point in the season’s first few months, barring setbacks.
Wicks is somewhere around eighth or ninth on the rotation depth chart at the moment. He pitched only out of the bullpen in the majors last year (8 1/3 innings), and that role might give him a better crack at eventually carving out some staying power on the big league roster. He’s pitched 95 big league innings across the past three seasons and owns a lackluster 5.21 earned run average with a sub-par 18.5% strikeout rate but solid walk and ground-ball rates of 7.5% and 43%, respectively. He notched a 3.55 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate in 71 Triple-A frames last year (16 starts, four relief appearances).
MLBTR Podcast: Twins And Orioles’ Injuries, The Guardians And Angels’ Quiet Offseasons, And Chris Sale’s Extension
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Twins right-hander Pablo López requiring Tommy John surgery (3:20)
- The Orioles losing Jordan Westburg due to a partially torn UCL in his elbow (13:15)
- The Guardians signing Rhys Hoskins to a minor league deal but doing little else this winter (23:45)
- Angels owner Arte Moreno making some curious statements (35:50)
- The Braves and Chris Sale signing an extension (47:35)
- Tony Clark resigning as executive director of the MLBPA and being replaced by Bruce Meyer (53:40)
Check out our past episodes!
- The Tigers’ Rotation, A Brewers-Red Sox Trade, And Late Free-Agent Signings – listen here
- Twins Front Office Shake-Up, The Brendan Donovan Trade, Eugenio Suarez, And More! – listen here
- Examining MLB’s Parity Situation – Also, Bellinger, Peralta, Robert, And Gore – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Jonah Hinebaugh, Imagn Images
Romy Gonzalez Unlikely To Be Ready For Opening Day
Red Sox utilityman Romy Gonzalez has been behind in camp due to shoulder troubles. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection a couple weeks ago in hopes of being ready for Opening Day, but the righty-swinging infielder now tells Christopher Smith of MassLive.com that he doesn’t think it’s realistic. Gonzalez is running and doing agility work but isn’t fielding, throwing or swinging a bat yet. He says he won’t begin hitting until next Friday (March 6) at the earliest.
“At this point, I think the ramp-up would be a little too quick and it’d be a disservice I feel like to myself and the team if I’m not ready to roll and have a good build up,” Gonzalez tells Smith.
The 29-year-old Gonzalez suffered a shoulder injury in one of the final games of the 2025 regular season. He spent the offseason rehabbing the injury and thought he was in a good place when the calendar flipped to 2026, but he began experiencing renewed discomfort after ramping up his hitting program last month in preparation for spring training.
Gonzalez is a key part of Boston’s lineup, specifically against left-handed pitching. He’s fresh off a career-best .305/.343/.483 showing that saw him pop nine homers in a career-high 341 plate appearances. The overwhelming amount of Gonzalez’s damage came against left-handed pitching, which he torched for a .331/.378/.600 batting line (162 wRC+) in 143 plate appearances. His .286/.318/.400 line against righties (198 plate appearances) was solid as well, but even including that performance, Gonzalez is just a .243/.267/.349 hitter (65 wRC+) in 439 plate appearances versus fellow righties.
If Gonzalez is indeed unavailable when the Red Sox’ season opener rolls around on March 26, that would likely improve the chances that one of Nate Eaton, Andruw Monasterio, Kristian Campbell or Anthony Seigler makes the roster. Smith calls Monasterio the early favorite, but it’ll obviously hinge on spring performances from the group. They’re all vying for the final bench spot alongside backup catcher Connor Wong, veteran utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa and outfielder/designated hitter Masataka Yoshida.
A healthy Gonzalez perhaps renders that competition moot, but it increasingly sounds as though there’ll be at least one bench spot open — possibly more, depending on health or other transactions. The Red Sox have discussed their outfield glut in trades throughout the winter, with Jarren Duran standing as the most commonly cited trade possibility. However, Boston has established a high asking price — understandably so — which has not yet been met. There’s also been plenty of speculation about Boston trying to find a taker for a portion of Yoshida’s contract, but with two years and $36MM yet to be paid out, that’s a tall order.
While the potential loss of Gonzalez is a blow to the team’s depth and potency against lefties, there’s no indication he’s suffered any kind of setback or that he’s looking at an especially long-term absence. He’s making $1.6MM this season in the first of three arbitration seasons and is under club control through 2028.
The Red Sox open with three games in Cincinnati, where they’ll likely face a pair of lefties (Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo). They’ll then head to Houston, where the Astros will deploy an all-righty rotation, before playing host to a Padres team that also looks set for an entirely right-handed starting staff.
The Opener: Skenes, Yankees, Offseason In Review
Here are three things worth keeping an eye on for MLBTR readers today:
1. Skenes prepares for World Baseball Classic:
Reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes is poised to make his first start of Spring Training today at 1:05pm ET. His opponent will be Braves right-hander Bryce Elder, who struggled to a 5.38 ERA in 28 starts for Atlanta last year. Any opportunity to watch one of the league’s most dominant pitchers is noteworthy, but Skenes’s spring debut is especially relevant because it will be his first and final tune-up start before joining Team USA for the World Baseball Classic next month. Skenes is expected to pitch in two WBC games for Team USA, as first reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, and additionally figures to get an extra exhibition start in when Team USA faces the Giants and Rockies ahead of the tournament’s official start.
2. Weathers to make Yankees debut:
The Yankees are running back most of their 2025 roster, as they reunited with Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, Amed Rosario, and Paul Goldschmidt after each reached free agency this winter. Their most notable external addition was southpaw Ryan Weathers, whom they acquired in a trade with the Marlins last month. The lefty is slated to make his Yankees debut today at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where they’ll be facing off against the Nationals at 6:35pm ET. Weathers’ opponent will be southpaw Andrew Alvarez, who made the first five starts of his big league career with the Nationals last year and posted a solid 2.31 ERA in those outings. Spring Training is especially important for Weathers this year given that he was limited to only eight starts last year thanks to flexor and lat strains.
3. Offseason in Review series is underway:
Every spring, MLB Trade Rumors does a series looking back at each of the league’s 30 teams and what they’ve accomplished during the offseason. Yesterday saw MLBTR kick off the 2026 edition of that series with a look at the Rockies from Anthony Franco and a look at the Marlins from Steve Adams. Whether you’re a fan of those teams or just looking for a refresher on any moves around the league you might have missed this winter, this series (and the 28 other installments yet to come) has you covered as we head into the 2026 campaign. You can vote in the poll at the end of each team’s review to grade their overall offseason performance.
Braves Extend Chris Sale
The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve signed veteran left-hander Chris Sale to a one-year, $27MM contract extension with a $30MM club option for the 2028 season. (Atlanta is one of the few teams that publicly discloses contract terms itself.) The Wasserman client was slated to reach free agency this coming winter but will instead stick with Atlanta through at least 2027.
Sale, 37 next month, is entering his late thirties but remains as effective as ever. Atlanta acquired the southpaw prior to the 2024 season in exchange for Vaughn Grissom in a deal with the Red Sox that turned out to be a coup. Since joining the organization, Sale has pitched to an otherworldly 2.46 ERA (2.84 SIERA, 2.38 FIP), with a strikeout rate of 32.2% and a walk rate of 5.9%. Those elite rate stats earned him his first career Cy Young Award in 2024, although a ribcage fracture in 2025 has limited his overall workload in Georgia to a total of 303 1/3 innings.
Injuries were the story of Sale’s career for several years prior to his arrival in Atlanta. For the first nine years of his big league tenure, the lefty was utterly elite with seven All-Star appearances and six top-five finishes in Cy Young voting for the White Sox and Red Sox.
That portion of his career ended in emphatic fashion as Sale struck out then-Dodger Manny Machado to secure the 2018 World Series for Boston, but come 2019 Sale struggled for the first time in his career. While his peripherals remained elite, he posted a pedestrian 4.40 ERA and was limited to just 25 starts due to injuries. He’d go on to make just nine starts between 2020 and 2022 before returning to the mound for most of the 2023 season with a 4.30 ERA in 20 starts.
Sale may not be a true workhorse, but he’s been more durable in recent seasons and will now look to continue the high note he’s found in Atlanta as his career begins to wind down. Both Sale himself and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos recently indicated to reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman) that they hoped the remainder of the 2024 Cy Young winner’s career would be spent in Atlanta, and now he’ll remain under club control until the end of his age-39 campaign. Sale told reporters (including Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) after news of the extension broke this morning that the deal came together quickly after those comments were made early in camp.
“[Anthopoulos] said what he said, I said what I said, and we just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Are we serious?'” Sale said, as relayed by Bishop. “And I called [my agent] and was like ‘Hey, call Alex, figure something out.’ You know, we made our pitch, they made their pitch, and we just kind of met in the middle. I mean, I feel like this was [done in] like, a week.”
Sale will be looking to not only put the finishing touches on a compelling Hall of Fame case but also lead the Braves back into the postseason after a rough 2025 season. He’s the undisputed ace of an Atlanta staff that looks very intimidating when at full strength but now figures to enter the season without either Spencer Schwellenbach or Hurston Waldrep. Both young righties had surgery to remove bone spurs/loose bodies from their right elbows earlier this month, and neither has a clear timetable for his return.
Instead, Sale will be joined by Spencer Strider, Grant Holmes, and Reynaldo Lopez in the rotation as things stand, with a handful of depth arms in competition for the fifth starter job. It’s a group that could clearly use an additional quality arm, but it remains to be seen if Anthopoulos will manage to add someone like that to the mix before the season begins. Whatever may happen with the rotation in 2025, however, the Braves can now move forward with the assurance that one of the game’s most elite hurlers will be staying in town for the foreseeable future.
From a payroll vantage point, there doesn’t appear to be any immediate impact on the 2026 season. The contract is structured as a new deal beginning in 2027, so it doesn’t change Atlanta’s baseline cash payroll or its luxury tax payroll for the upcoming season.
Sale’s deal does tack on $27MM of luxury considerations to the 2027 budget, although the Braves already had substantial money coming off the books at season’s end. Ha-Seong Kim ($20MM), Raisel Iglesias ($16MM), Joe Jimenez ($9MM), Aaron Bummer ($9.5MM), Mauricio Dubón ($6.1MM), Jonah Heim ($1.25MM) and Jorge Mateo ($1MM) are all free agents at season’s end, and the only notable arbitration raise Atlanta faces will be Schwellenbach’s first trip through the process. As things stand, RosterResource projects a $176MM luxury payroll for Atlanta in 2027 — about $84MM shy of their current mark.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the extension and the 2027 salary.
A’s Notes: Butler, Clarke, Bullpen
A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler is working back from the patellar tendon procedure that he underwent in early October. He has entered camp a little behind schedule as a result, though it seems he’s on track to be ready for the start of the season.
Martín Gallegos of MLB.com writes that the lefty batter has been cleared to take batting practice and do simple defensive drills. He has yet to get the sign-off to play defense at full effort or run the bases, which is holding him out of game action for the moment. Manager Mark Kotsay told Gallegos that the A’s are hoping Butler will be able to make his Cactus League debut midway through the spring. That’d give him a couple weeks to get up to speed before Opening Day.
Butler is coming off a .234/.306/.404 showing across 630 plate appearances. He had a 20-20 campaign and hit 30 doubles, but his rate metrics were around league average. Although it wasn’t a bad season, it was a step back from the huge 2024 second half that established him as a core piece. Playing through the injury probably had something to do with that. Butler took a .251/.326/.433 line into the All-Star Break but hit .203/.268/.351 in the second half.
The A’s could ease him into the lineup early in the season to avoid placing too much stress on the knee. He’ll be an everyday player once he’s fully healthy. Butler should see the majority of his work in right field. He can kick into center if Denzel Clarke struggles enough at the plate that the A’s prefer to swap out his superlative glove to plug a better hitter into the corner outfield mix.
Clarke missed the final two and a half months of his rookie season with an adductor strain in his right hip. He was a human highlight reel in center field over his first 47 big league contests. Statcast credited Clarke with an astounding 13 Outs Above Average in less than 400 innings. He was fifth in MLB among center fielders while logging around 30-40% of the playing time of the players above him in that category.
The bat is a much bigger question. Clarke has posted worrisome strikeout tallies throughout his minor league career. He punched out 61 times while drawing all of six walks in his first 159 MLB plate appearances. He can hit the ball hard when he makes contact, though a lot of that comes at such low angles that it limits his power ceiling.
Clarke appears to be without any restrictions as camp gets underway. He started his first exhibition game as a designated hitter but has played center field without issue during his two most recent appearances. Clarke also signed on to represent his native Canada in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. That’ll give him the opportunity to play alongside his cousins Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor, each of whom is also on the Canadian national team.
Most of the A’s lineup is settled. Assuming Butler is ready for Opening Day and Clarke wins the center field job, the only lineup spot up for grabs is third base. There’s much more variability on the pitching side. The A’s have multiple young pitchers competing for two spots at the back of the rotation. The bullpen is also fairly open, especially in the late innings.
Kotsay said at the beginning of Spring Training that he does not intend to designate a closer by Opening Day (separate MLB.com link via Gallegos). The A’s found success with a committee approach after trading Mason Miller at the deadline. They explored the market for an established closer this offseason but were seemingly priced out of a quick-moving, generally robust free agent relief class.
The A’s added a pair of veteran arms, Mark Leiter Jr. and Scott Barlow, on cheaper one-year contracts. Barlow has a decent amount of closing experience but has been in lower-leverage roles for the last two seasons. Both righties are reclamation types rather than lockdown arms at the back end. Of the A’s returning arms, Hogan Harris led the way with four saves last season. He’s likely to be in high-leverage roles alongside Justin Sterner, with Tyler Ferguson and Elvis Alvarado potentially in the mix as well.
Twins Notes: Ryan, Raya, Merryweather
A few days after being scratched from his start on Saturday, Joe Ryan is already throwing. Twins manager Derek Shelton told reporters that the pitcher played catch from 90 feet this morning (link via Matthew Leach of MLB.com). Ryan was sent for imaging over the weekend after experiencing lower back discomfort, but he’s dealing only with inflammation.
There should still be ample time for Ryan to be ready for the start of the season. If healthy, he’d be a lock to take the ball on Opening Day after Minnesota lost Pablo López to Tommy John surgery. That’s already a massive hit to the Twins’ uphill path to competing for a playoff spot, making it all the more imperative that Ryan stay healthy. It’s a bigger question whether the All-Star righty will be back in time to represent the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic in a couple weeks.
Assuming Ryan is ready for the start of the season, he’ll be followed in the rotation by Bailey Ober and Simeon Woods Richardson. There should be a camp battle for the final two spots among Zebby Matthews, Taj Bradley, Mick Abel and potentially David Festa.
One pitcher no longer in the rotation conversation: Marco Raya. The 23-year-old prospect moved to the bullpen while pitching at Triple-A St. Paul in the middle of August. That’s a permanent move, as Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune writes that the Twins informed Raya he’ll be a full-time reliever this year. The righty pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout against a handful of Tigers minor leaguers in his spring debut on Monday.
Raya’s move to the bullpen doesn’t come as a huge surprise. The former fourth-round pick has good stuff but hasn’t thrown enough strikes in his minor league career. He walked almost 13% of opponents over 98 2/3 Triple-A frames a year ago, turning in a 6.02 earned run average in the process. Raya used six pitches in the minors but could pare down the repertoire now that he’s working in short relief. The bigger hope is that Raya’s below-average control won’t be as big an issue in brief stints.
There’s ample opportunity in the Minnesota bullpen. Taylor Rogers, Anthony Banda, Justin Topa, Kody Funderburk and Cole Sands are probably penciled into the Opening Day relief corps. That still leaves three jobs up for grabs. Most of Minnesota’s depth arms on the 40-man roster have little to no MLB experience. They compensated by bringing in a number of veteran arms on minor league contracts with Spring Training invites.
Julian Merryweather is among the non-roster invitees trying to pitch his way onto the roster. Merryweather’s team debut got out to a less than ideal start. The right-hander departed his first Grapefruit League appearance after suffering a left hamstring strain, Nightengale relays. Merryweather walked Justyn-Henry Malloy and struck out Ben Williamson before departing.
Mariners, Brendan White Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mariners are signing reliever Brendan White out of the independent ranks, according to an announcement from the Atlantic League’s Lancaster Stormers. White finished last season with the Stormers after being released from a minor league contract with the Tigers in July.
White, 27, pitched in the majors for Detroit a couple seasons ago. He made 33 appearances and tossed 40 2/3 innings of 5.09 ERA ball as a rookie in 2023. He struck out a quarter of batters faced against a league average 8.5% walk rate. He sat in the 94-95 mph range with his four-seam fastball while using a mid-80s breaking ball almost two-thirds of the time.
The right-hander lost most of the ’24 season to injury. Detroit non-tendered him at the end of the year but brought him back on a minor league contract. White had a rough return to Triple-A Toledo last season. His strikeout rate fell to 17% as opponents rocked him for more than seven earned runs per nine innings. He continued to struggle after landing with the Stormers, giving up six runs while handing out 10 free passes (six walks and four hit batters) across 9 2/3 innings.
White will look to put the down year behind him as he joins a new MLB organization for the first time in his career. He’ll presumably open the season at Triple-A Tacoma.