Chris Taylor Opts Out Of Angels Deal
Veteran infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor was in camp with the Angels on a minor league deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Taylor has opted out of his deal and has been informed that he will not make the club. He’ll be a free agent whenever he is officially released. He was one of several veterans who could opt out of minor league deals this week.
Taylor, 35, spent many years with the Dodgers as the league’s top super utility guy. From 2017 to 2023, he hit .256/.336/.444 while stealing 76 bases and playing every position outside of first base and the battery. But he hit just .202/.298/.300 in 2024 and was worse in 2025, getting released. He ended up with the Angels but finished the season with a combined .186/.256/.301 line.
He returned to the Angels this offseason but had to settle for a minor league deal. He had a good showing in camp, putting up a .231/.388/.410 line in 49 plate appearances, but it appears the Angels are putting more stock in his larger sample of regular season work over the past two years.
The Halos have had an open battle for their second base job this spring and the decisions appear to be coming into focus. Christian Moore was optioned a few days ago. Vaughn Grissom has a left hand injury and may start the season on the injured list.
With Taylor now out, that seemingly leaves Adam Frazier to get the job. He has hit .310/.429/.414 this spring and his left-handed bat would help to balance a lineup that otherwise skews to the right. Oswald Peraza has had a nice spring and seemingly earned a job on the bench. Switch-hitter Jeimer Candelario could also get a roster spot if Grissom does indeed hit the IL.
If Frazier and Candelario both make the team, they would need spots on the 40-man roster. One spot can easily be opened by placing Anthony Rendon on the 60-day IL, since he’s not expected to play this year. Robert Stephenson could be another 60-day IL candidate since he may have damage in the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow.
Taylor will head to the open market and to see what opportunities await him. He won’t be helped by his performance in 2024 and 2025 but his defensive versatility could help him fit with many clubs and his bat looked a bit better in camp just now, for whatever that’s worth.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
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Nationals Option Dylan Crews
The Nationals announced that outfielder Dylan Crews has been optioned to Triple-A Rochester. That seems to set them up to have an Opening Day outfield mix consisting of James Wood, Jacob Young and Daylen Lile, perhaps with Joey Wiemer and/or Christian Franklin on the bench.
Crews, now 24, was once one of the top prospects in the league. The Nats took him with the second overall pick in the 2023 draft. He shot through the minors and was up in the big leagues by August of 2024, barely a year after being drafted. At that time, he was considered one of the five to ten best prospects in the whole league.
The shine has come off a bit since then as he hasn’t shown success at the major league level yet. He missed about three months of the 2025 season due to an oblique strain. To this point, he has 454 big league plate appearances with a .211/.282/.352 line. His defense has been good and he has already swiped 29 bags but the Nats clearly expected more offensively. Crews had a monster .380/.498/.689 line for Louisiana State University and then hit .275/.351/.455 in the minors before his 2024 call-up.
Despite his lack of major league success, it was expected that he would get some runway in 2026. The Nats are rebuilding and don’t plan to contend soon, as evidenced by their offseason deals of MacKenzie Gore and Jose A. Ferrer. But Crews put up an awful .103/.206/.103 line in spring training this year, striking out in 11 of his 34 plate appearances, a 32.4% clip.
It’s possible the demotion is about playing time, as Crews would ideally be getting regular reps to get back on track after his injury-marred 2025. At the big league level, Wood is one of the best players on the club and will certainly be out there. Young doesn’t hit much but is an elite defensive center fielder. Lile debuted last year and was rough on defense but hit .299/.347/.498.
Wiemer is a good fit as a fourth outfielder since he’s a strong defender and his right-handed bat could help him form a platoon with the lefty-swinging Lile. Franklin hasn’t yet made his major league debut but he’s considered a well-rounded player who is decent at just about everything, so he could slot into the mix in various ways if he makes the team, either as a defensive replacement, pinch hitter or pinch runner. Both Wiemer and Franklin are optionable, so it’s possible one of them ends up getting sent down in the coming days but the Nats also might roster five outfielders.
Jamming Crews into that mix would have perhaps meant taking a bit of playing time away from everyone, so the Nats have decided it best to let Crews rediscover himself at the Triple-A level. He will join Robert Hassell III in that regard. Hassell is also a former first round pick who has struggled at the major league level. He was optioned to the minors earlier this week.
The move could have implications for Crews, depending on how much time he ultimately spends down on the farm. He currently has one year and 35 days of service time. If he stayed up in the majors, he would be under club control through the 2030 season. If he spends about two months or more on optional assignment, he wouldn’t get to the two-year mark in 2026, therefore pushing his path to free agency by a year. His path to arbitration could also be impacted.
Those will be concerns to be worked out in the future. For now, the Nats and Crews need to find a way for him to reach his potential and establish himself as a major leaguer. As mentioned, the Nats don’t really hope to be good in 2026 but their future chances will improve if young players like Crews can take steps forward.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Burke, Imagn Images
White Sox Release Four Players
The White Sox have trimmed four more from their spring roster, per the team. Chicago announced that left-hander Ryan Borucki, first baseman/outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr., and right-handers Austin Voth and Lucas Sims have all been released. All four had signed minor league deals with spring invites. All are now free agents who can sign with any club.
Borucki, 32 later this month, has pitched in each of the past eight major league seasons. He sports a career 4.28 ERA with a below-average 19.7% strikeout rate, an 8.9% walk rate that’s narrowly north of average, and a strong 48.3% ground-ball rate. He notched a middling 4.63 ERA in 35 innings between the Pirates and Blue Jays in 2025 but has been outstanding with the White Sox this spring, firing six shutout innings with an 8-to-1 K/BB ratio.
Wade, 32, has had a big spring himself. He’s taken 49 plate appearances and slashed .289/.429/.605 with three homers, two steals, nine walks and 10 strikeouts. He’s appeared in each of the past seven big league campaigns, mostly with the Giants, and is a lifetime .236/.341/.390 hitter in the majors. His most recent work was well shy of his career marks, however; in 282 plate appearances between San Francisco and Anaheim last year, he posted a dreadful .167/.271/.254 batting line (52 wRC+) with a career-worst 24% strikeout rate. Wade grades out below average at first base (his primary position) and in the outfield corners, and he’s never hit left-handed pitching. He could latch on with a club seeking a lefty-swinging corner bat — ideally one looking for help at first base.
The 33-year-old Voth has more than five years of MLB service but spent the 2025 season in Japan pitching for the Chiba Lotte Marines. He totaled 125 innings with a 3.96 ERA, sub-par strikeout numbers and strong command. In 360 1/3 MLB frames, the former Nats farmhand carries a 4.70 earned run average. Voth is a fly-ball pitcher with average strikeout and walk rates overall in his big league tenure. He only pitched two official innings for the Sox this spring, allowing a run with two strikeouts and no walks.
Sims, 31, looked like a potential late-inning weapon earlier in his career with the Reds, but injuries have continually set him back. He has more than six years of MLB service but only 318 1/3 innings pitched due to frequent IL trips. In that time, he’s posted a 4.86 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk rate. Sims tossed five shutout innings and fanned seven while walking three this spring. He spent 2025 with the Nationals and was torched for 19 runs in 12 1/3 innings due to staggering command troubles: 19 walks and seven hit batters. His command was better in camp with the South Siders, but he’ll head back to the market and look to latch on with another club seeking bullpen depth.
Twins Option Zebby Matthews, Finalize Rotation Plans
The Twins announced Friday that they’ve optioned right-hander Zebby Matthews to Triple-A St. Paul. They didn’t formally say it, but that effectively sets Minnesota’s rotation heading into the season, barring a late injury or trade.
Minnesota did, however, formally name Joe Ryan the Opening Day starter today. That was a foregone conclusion after Pablo López was lost for the season due to UCL surgery early in camp. Right-handers Bailey Ober and Simeon Woods Richardson were more or less locks entering spring training. Ober had a rough stretch last summer while trying to pitch through a hip injury but has been a steady third/fourth starter in Minnesota for several seasons otherwise. Woods Richardson has been up and down between Minneapolis and St. Paul over the past two seasons but had a strong finish in ’25 and is out of minor league options.
The rest of the rotation looked less certain following López’s injury. Matthews and fellow righties David Festa, Taj Bradley and Mick Abel were vying for the final two spots. All four were ranked as top-100 prospects prior to their major league debuts, but none has fully solidified himself in the majors yet. Festa went down early with a shoulder injury that isn’t expected to necessitate a long-term absence but will send him to the injured list to begin the season. Matthews, Bradley and Abel were in a three-man competition for the final two rotation spots. With Matthews now optioned, it’ll be Bradley and Abel rounding out the staff.
Bradley came over from the Rays in exchange for Griffin Jax just minutes before the trade deadline last summer. He’s had some success at times in the majors but lacked consistency. However, he’s celebrating his 25th birthday today, so he’s plenty young and still has four seasons of club control remaining. Bradley has had a good spring showing. His 4.50 ERA in 14 frames is unremarkable, but he’s punched out a huge 32.2% of opponents against a solid 8.5% walk rate. His fastball velocity is up nearly a mile per hour this spring, sitting at an average of 96.9 mph, and he’s sporting an above-average 12.5% swinging-strike rate.
Abel, 24, is another deadline pickup for Minnesota. He came to the Twins from the Phillies in last July’s Jhoan Duran swap. Abel is a former first-round pick who for years ranked as a top-100 prospect. He was leapfrogged in the Phillies’ system by Andrew Painter, and a shaky 2024 season in the minors caused Abel to fall off of national prospect rankings. He bounced back in a big way in Triple-A last year, posting a pristine 2.20 ERA, 28.6% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate in 98 1/3 innings. The 6’5″ righty matched that production through his first four MLB starts with the Phillies but struggled thereafter, allowing nine runs in his next 4 2/3 innings before being shipped to Minnesota.
Abel has looked dominant this spring. In 18 innings, he’s held opponents to a flat 2.00 ERA with a 34.8% strikeout rate against just a 4.5% walk rate and kept 53.8% of batted balls against him on the ground. In this spring’s small sample, Abel has upped the usage of his slider and changeup while scaling back how frequently he uses his two-seamer. The results, clearly, have been quite strong.
Matthews, 25, has pitched in parts of two seasons with the Twins already. He’s logged very good strikeout and walk rates (24.7%, 6.6% respectively) but been far too susceptible to home runs. He’s a pronounced fly-ball pitcher who has seen nearly 15% of his fly-balls leave the yard; that’s led to an average of 1.77 homers per nine innings pitched.
Matthews sat better than 96 mph with his heater last season, pairing it with a plus slider and plus command. He’s yet to find an average third offering, as his changeup has been hit hard. If he can dial in a third pitch to help keep lefties off balance, he could yet emerge as a mid-rotation starter. Righties are flummoxed by that slider, but lefty hitters have turned in a huge .316/.372/.572 slash against him in the majors. Obviously, that won’t cut it.
The Twins will send Matthews to Triple-A to continue working on rounding out his arsenal. It’s possible that he and/or Festa could eventually emerge as bullpen options, particularly if Bradley and Abel can carry their spring performances into the regular season. The Twins have a number of interesting upper-level arms on the cusp of MLB readiness beyond that pair, including Kendry Rojas, Andrew Morris, Dasan Hill, Marco Raya (who’s moving to the bullpen full-time this season) and top prospect Connor Prielipp.
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Dodgers Select Santiago Espinal
March 20th: Espinal will make a salary of $2.5MM, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
March 18th: The Dodgers announced that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal. They opened a 40-man roster spot earlier this month when outfielder Jack Suwinski was outrighted, so no corresponding move is necessary today.
Opening Day is still over a week away. With the Dodgers selecting Espinal’s contract now, it’s possible he had some sort of opt-out in his minor league deal. At any rate, there wasn’t much mystery regarding his status. A couple of weeks ago, manager Dave Roberts said that Espinal was trending towards making the team.
Espinal should provide the club with defensive versatility, while ideally helping against lefty pitching. In his career, Espinal has played all four infield spots as well as the outfield corners. Offensively, his right-handed bat is best deployed as part of a platoon. He has a career .291/.344/.409 line and 107 wRC+ against southpaws, compared to a .245/.300/.316 line and 73 wRC+ against righties.
He’s a few years removed from his best years at the plate, which were with the Blue Jays in 2021 and 2022. He slashed .282/.340/.382 for a 105 wRC+ over those two seasons. Since then, he has a .245/.298/.325 line over three seasons, a period which saw him get flipped to the Reds. That includes a rough .243/.292/.282 line and 58 wRC+ in 2025. The Reds outrighted him off the roster at season’s end and he elected free agency.
Tommy Edman and Enrique Hernández are going to open the season on the injured list. That leaves the second base spot fairly open, with guys like Hyeseong Kim and Miguel Rojas in the mix there. Kim is a lefty hitter but he was better against southpaws in 2025, so perhaps a platoon with Espinal isn’t perfect. In any case, Espinal can add some depth on the bench.
The Dodgers have a relatively old roster, as guys in their mid-30s like Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández should have regular roles. If anyone in that group is banged up or just needs a day off, Espinal can move around as needed.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Emmanuel Clase, Luis Ortiz Shifted To Unpaid Non-Disciplinary Leave
Major League Baseball announced today that Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz will be shifted to unpaid, non-disciplinary leave to start the 2026 season. Last year, both pitchers were placed on paid administrative leave as part of a sports betting investigation. Evan Drellich of The Athletic was among those to pass the info along.
“As the legal proceedings involving Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz continue to move forward, MLB and the MLBPA have agreed that both players will remain on non-disciplinary leave from the Club without pay until further notice,” the announcement reads. “This agreement is not an admission of any wrongdoing by Clase or Ortiz. MLB has been closely monitoring the matter since alerting federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and will have no further comment until its investigation has been completed.”
Both pitchers were placed on administrative leave in July of last year as allegations surfaced that they had taken part in a gambling scheme whereby they would intentionally throw certain pitches out of the strike zone for the purposes of impacting prop bets. That initial placement was to last until August 31st but was later extended until further notice.
The two pitchers were indicted by prosecutors in Brooklyn in November, charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy. Both pleaded not guilty.
The trial was initially scheduled to begin in early May but Brant James of Yahoo Sports was among those to report that it has been pushed to November. MLB typically keeps an investigation open until the legal process is complete, so it seems possible that the two pitchers will stay on leave for the entire 2026 season.
If that comes to pass, it would lower Cleveland’s payroll, which is already one of the smallest in the league. RosterResource projects the club for $82MM in spending on this year’s roster. The Marlins are the only MLB club to come in underneath that. Ortiz has not yet qualified for arbitration. Clase signed an extension with Cleveland a few years ago and was slated to make $6MM this year. His deal has a 2027 club option worth $10MM with a $2MM buyout.
The club probably won’t run out and immediately spend those savings. There aren’t many free agents of note remaining on the market at this part of the calendar. It’s possible the extra budget space could impact their trade deadline strategy.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images
Twins’ Liam Hendriks Granted His Release
Veteran right-hander Liam Hendriks has been granted his release by the Twins, per Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He can now sign with any club.
As an Article XX(b) free agent (i.e. six-plus years of service, finished last season on a major league roster/injured list) who signed a minor league deal in free agency, Hendriks had uniform opt-out dates written into his contract: one a week before Opening Day, a second on May 1 and a third on June 1. When a player triggers an out clause of that nature, the team has 48 hours to either add him to the 40-man roster or release him back into free agency. The Twins opted for the latter route.
Hendriks, 37, was originally signed by the Twins out of Australia back in 2007. He made his MLB debut as a Twin in 2011 but was never able to settle into a rotation role. He eventually found himself designated for assignment and passed around the league via a series of waiver claims and small trades. From 2013-15, Hendriks bounced from the Twins, to the Cubs, to the Orioles, to the Blue Jays, to the Royals and finally to the A’s, with whom he’d eventually break out.
Even in Oakland, Hendriks took years to pan out. At one point, the A’s passed him through waivers unclaimed and outrighted him off the 40-man roster. But in 2019, a 30-year-old Hendriks emerged not just as then-skipper Bob Melvin’s closer but as one of the best relievers in baseball. From 2019-22, Hendriks pitched 239 innings with a 2.26, a mammoth 38.8% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.1% walk rate. He signed a three-year, $54MM deal with the White Sox ahead of the 2021 campaign and was excellent there for two years before health troubles arose.
Hendriks missed time after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He thankfully went through chemotherapy and came away cancer-free, but he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow not long after and wound up requiring Tommy John surgery. He inked a two-year deal with the Red Sox, planning to rehab the first year and join their bullpen the second. It didn’t go as well as hoped. Hendriks pitched 13 2/3 innings with a 6.59 ERA last season.
The return to the Twins this winter had the makings of a potential full-circle homecoming, but it seems Hendriks will ultimately land elsewhere. He’s had a decent spring, allowing three runs in seven innings, but Hendriks allowed nine hits, walked five batters, plunked another and only totaled five strikeouts. He averaged 93.9 mph on his four-seamer, which would be his lowest mark since he moved from the rotation to the bullpen back in 2015. He averaged 94.9 mph in Boston last year.
Hendriks can now sign anywhere. Time will tell whether his showing with Minnesota this spring will earn him a big league deal with another club. As for the Twins, they’ll likely be on the lookout for bullpen help themselves on the late spring waiver/opt-out market. Minnesota has Taylor Rogers, Cole Sands, Anthony Banda and Kody Funderburk more or less locked into spots. Trade acquisition Eric Orze and veteran Justin Topa have had poor showings this spring but entered camp as favorites to hold bullpen spots. Veteran Andrew Chafin has pitched decently as a non-roster invitee and has a chance to make the club, though he had the same opt-out clause Hendriks took yesterday. It’s not clear whether he’s exercised it, but if he did, the Twins will have until tomorrow morning to make a decision.
Taylor Walls To Begin Season On Injured List
March 20: Walls tells Topkin that he’s been told he’ll be sidelined for a “minimum” of three to four weeks.
March 19: Rays infielder Taylor Walls has a right oblique issue and will begin the season on the 10-day injured list, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. That will likely lead to Carson Williams being the Opening Day shortstop, though Topkin notes the Rays are open to external additions as well.
The Rays came into camp with Walls and Williams as their top candidates for the Opening Day shortstop job. Walls is the more experienced of the two, having appeared in 480 games for the Rays over the past five seasons. He doesn’t provide anything with the bat, having hit .195/.286/.298 in his career. His defensive grades are mixed, with 52 Defensive Runs Saved at short but minus-14 Outs Above Average, but the Rays clearly skew to the positive side based on how they keep committing to him. They are paying him $2.45MM this year.
Williams has a chance to produce more than that in the long run but is still unproven. He is 22 years old, turning 23 in June. He got to make a brief debut in the big leagues last year, getting into 32 games. He hit five home runs but struck out at an awful 41.5% clip while only drawing a walk in 5.7% of his plate appearances. His minor league track record has been somewhat similar, though with more walks. In 111 Triple-A games last year, his 12.4% walk rate was quite good and he hit 23 home runs but with a very high 34.1% strikeout rate.
There are some skills there but Williams is clearly still young and raw. No qualified hitter had a strikeout rate greater than 32.3% last year. He’ll need to cut down on the punchouts and is still a work in progress. Understandably, the Rays feel he could still use some more polishing in the minors, as they optioned him to Triple-A Durham earlier this week.
The Walls injury may change that plan, at least for the short term. It’s unclear exactly how long Walls will be out. If the issue is fairly minor, he might only miss a week of the season since IL stints can be backdated by three days, even at the beginning of the schedule.
Until Walls is back, the shortstop depth will feel light. Prospects Jadher Areinamo, Gregory Barrios and Brayden Taylor are not too far off but neither has played at the Triple-A level yet. Ben Williamson only played third base for the Mariners last year but he has some minor league shortstop experience. He appears to be the club’s bench infielder at the major league level and would be the backup for either Walls or Williams.
As Topkin mentioned, it’s possible the Rays look for outside help. Perhaps they could find someone they like enough to bump Williams back down to Triple-A, but adding some minor league depth behind Williams could also be a possibility. Not a lot of teams are looking to trade starting-caliber shortstops at this time of year but some fringe guys may become available in the coming days. As teams break camp and make their final roster decisions, some will trigger opt-outs and become free agents while others will hit the waiver wire.
MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently took a look at some looming opt-out situations around the league. Orlando Arcia, Paul DeJong, Kyle Farmer and Dylan Moore are some guys with recent shortstop experience on that list, though Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports that DeJong plans not to trigger his opt-out. Moore is reportedly going to trigger his. Guys like Leo Jiménez, Brett Wisely or Tsung-Che Cheng could end up on waivers in the coming days. The Rays acquired Wisely and Cheng in the offseason but later lost both in subsequent moves.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images