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Mariners Reluctant To Deal From Major League Roster

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The Mariners are still hoping to make at least one more notable splash between now and Opening Day, but Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times suggests that they’re reluctant to deal anyone from their big league roster to make it happen. Divish writes that the M’s are willing to move top pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje in a package for Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan but are less inclined to trade anyone from the big league roster to get him. He adds that president of baseball ops Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander have both “been adamant” about not wanting to trade an established big league starter as they look to bolster the lineup.

It’s a fairly similar approach to the one taken by Dipoto, Hollander & Co. last offseason. In the winter of 2024-25, the Mariners pursued multiple big-ticket trade items but found many clubs with players available in trade were seeking young big leaguers — not the top prospects that proliferate the top of a stacked Seattle farm system. There are more pure rebuilding clubs this winter, at least on paper, but the Cardinals have prioritized MLB-ready pitching in trades of Sonny Gray (Richard Fitts) and Willson Contreras (Hunter Dobbins). The D-backs reportedly want to add major league pitching (presumably multiple rotation candidates) in any deal for star infielder Ketel Marte.

While Seattle’s system is deep in high-end prospects — the M’s had eight players on Baseball America’s end-of-season top-100 prospect list, though they’ve since traded Harry Ford — the actual depth beyond the big league rotation is relatively thin. Each of Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo and George Kirby started at least 23 games in 2025. All pitched well — Kirby had a couple brutal outings but was largely strong — but only Castillo did so while avoiding an IL stint. Bryce Miller missed more than half the season due to elbow inflammation. The options beyond that pair are less encouraging.

Emerson Hancock is a former No. 6 overall pick but spent the latter part of the season as a reliever. He’ll head into camp as a starter but has been viewed as a more of a fifth starter candidate than one would expect based on that lofty draft billing. He’ll turn 27 in May and has a career 4.81 ERA with a poor 15.6% strikeout rate in 162 MLB innings. Twenty-four-year-old Logan Evans tossed 81 1/3 innings with a 4.32 ERA as a rookie this past season and briefly drew some top-100 fanfare before his own promotion to the majors. Like Hancock, he struggled to miss bats in the big leagues (16.9 K%, 7.8% swinging-strike rate). He also was hit hard in 11 Triple-A starts last year.

Depth options beyond those seven are thin. Jhonathan Diaz and Blas Castano are both on the 40-man roster but are already in their late 20s with no MLB track record of which to speak. The Mariners have plenty of notable pitching prospects, including Cijntje, Ryan Sloan and 2025 No. 3 overall pick Kade Anderson. Cijntje has all of seven Double-A starts under his belt, though, and could require more development time than most prospects given his status as an extremely uncommon switch-pitcher. Sloan hasn’t pitched above A-ball. Anderson didn’t pitch for a Mariners affiliate after last summer’s draft. Former prospects like Taylor Dollard and Michael Morales went unselected in this year’s Rule 5 Draft despite being eligible. The former has battled injury troubles. The latter was hit fairly hard and notched just a 16% strikeout rate in Double-A this season.

The Mariners could certainly deal from their rotation to improve the lineup and backfill with a lower-cost free agent signing, but it’s understandable if the front office is reluctant to at all jeopardize the team’s depth, given the shaky performances of Miller, Hancock and (to a lesser extent) Evans in 2025. If anything, one could argue that it’d be prudent to add to the current group by signing/acquiring some optionable depth or a swingman/sixth starter to plug into a long relief role to begin the year.

Kazuma Okamoto Travels To U.S. For In-Person Meetings With Teams

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Star Nippon Professional Baseball third baseman Kazuma Okamoto has traveled to the United States for a series of in-person meetings as he enters the final stretch of his 45-day posting window, per a report from Yahoo Japan (hat tip to Yakyu Cosmopolitan). Okamoto and agent Scott Boras are narrowing the field of interested clubs as Okamoto nears his early-January deadline for an agreement.

To this point, each of the Blue Jays, Pirates, Red Sox, Padres and Angels have been prominently linked to Okamoto, who’ll turn 30 next June. The longtime Yomiuri Giants star, who’d been their team captain prior to being posted, is one of the most consistent sluggers in Japan. He’s a career .277/.361/.522 hitter in NPB who has reached 30 home runs in all but two of his 11 seasons. That includes 2025, when injuries limited him to 69 games, and 2024, when he “only” hit 27 homers in 143 games.

However, despite hitting a career-low 15 home runs this past season due to an elbow injury, Okamoto had the best production of his excellent NPB tenure on a rate basis. In 293 trips to the batter’s box, he slashed .327/.416/.598 with a robust 11.3% walk rate that matched his minuscule 11.3% strikeout rate. His 24.3% line-drive rate from this past season was a career-high, and Okamoto’s .271 ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) was the second-best mark of his career, trailing only his 41-homer season from 2023.

Like countryman Munetaka Murakami, Okamoto is a corner infielder whose glovework concerns big league teams. He’s considered a better defender at third base than Murakami but is still viewed by many clubs as a player who’ll likely spend most (if not all) of his first MLB contract as a first baseman and/or designated hitter. Those defensive concerns contributed significantly to Murakami settling for a two-year deal that fell well short of industry expectations. Defensive concerns surrounding Okamoto aren’t as prominent, nor does he have the alarming swing-and-miss profile that  also contributed to the bearish market for Murakami. However, Okamoto is four years older. Next year being his age-30 season will likely limit the length of his forthcoming contract (though perhaps not to the same extent as Murakami).

Of the teams connected to Okamoto thus far, there’s no clear favorite. The Blue Jays presumably still have Bo Bichette ahead of him on their wishlist — possibly Alex Bregman as well. Boston has also been pursuing both Bregman and Bichette (likely in that order). The Pirates have already acquired one first base option, signing Ryan O’Hearn, and have another in Spencer Horwitz. If they were to make a real push for Okamoto, they’d need to be confident in his ability to play third base. The Angels have a clearer path to playing time at the infield corners (particularly third base). The Padres won’t be displacing Manny Machado at third base, so Okamoto would need to play first base, with Jake Cronenworth manning second base and KBO acquisition Sung Mun Song shifting to the outfield or a utility role.

Of course, it remains perfectly plausible that other, yet-unidentified clubs are in the bidding. The A’s, Mariners, Twins, Rangers, D-backs, Marlins, Mets, Cubs and Nationals all have varying levels of questions at the infield corners. Not all of those teams have significant money to spend this winter — the Rangers, Twins and D-backs are all known to be reducing payroll relative to recent seasons — but any of the bunch could get creative with backloaded contract structures and/or shed payroll by another means to make room if Okamoto is deemed a sufficient upgrade. That’s a largely speculative list, to be clear, but given Okamoto’s track record in NPB, it’d be a surprise if “only” five MLB’s 30 teams had any interest in signing him.

It bears noting that while Okamoto was originally set to be posted on Nov. 19, MLBTR has confirmed that his posting didn’t become official until Nov. 21. That pushes his window to sign a contract with a big league club from the original Jan. 2 to Jan. 4. Whichever club signs him will owe the Giants a posting/release fee equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. That fee comes on top of the value of the contract itself. Subsequent earnings (club/player options, performance incentives, award bonuses, etc.) fall under that umbrella as well, once they’re officially reached.

Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Steve Adams

  • Final Front Office chat of 2025! Hope the holiday season has been treating everyone well. As always, feel free to ask a question about any of the remaining free agents, possible trade scenarios, team outlooks and whatever other Hot Stove-related topics (or, frankly, other topics!) are on your mind!I'll get going at about 1:30pm CT. Looking forward to i!
  • Let's get underway!

Drake

  • What are your thoughts on the Soderstrom extension? I like it overall and hopeful the A’s can get at least one more of their core locked up too

Steve Adams

  • I'm a big Soderstrom backer, so for me, getting the deal done and buying out at least three free agent years for a sub-100 guarantee is a move well worth making. That's not to say Soderstrom sold himself short. A year ago, he looked like a fringe contributor, and now he's signed the eighth-largest extension of any player ever for his service class. Most of the guys ahead of him (Tatis, Witt, Posey, Trout, Yordan, Bregman) were already superstars when they put pen to paper.It's a good move all around. Soderstrom is definitely a guy I'd look to build around, particularly with how well he took to LF.

jrizz1e

  • biggest player traded between now and start of spring training?

Steve Adams

  • I don't know if Brendan Donovan counts as a "big-name" player among most MLB fans, but he's a big name for front offices and I think it's far likelier than not that he ends up traded.

Ben Cherrington

  • Can either ROH or Horowitz play 3B ? Meintakwicz(sp?) did this on the steel city a few years back.

Steve Adams

  • Doug Mientkiewicz played 33 games (30 starts) at 3B for the Pirates in the late 2000s and, as one would expect for a 34-year-old first baseman making that move for the first time, graded out terribly.
  • The Jays gave Horwitz 250ish innings at 2B, and he didn't fare all that well there. O'Hearn isn't playing 3B.
  • I think you'll just see the two split time at DH and 1B. O'Hearn could see some OF time, depending on injuries elsewhere on the roster.

JL

  • If the Os are serious about a TOR arm, is Eflin taking Kremers place in the rotation?  What is Dean Kremers trade value?

Steve Adams

  • They wouldn't move on from Kremer even if they add an Imai, Valdez, Suarez, etc.Kyle Bradish only pitched 54 innings between the minors and MLB last year. Eflin himself was under 90 IP. Injuries are an inevitability. We don't even firmly know when Eflin will be healthy enough to take the mound in a big league game.Bringing him back at $10MM was a relatively reasonably priced depth move with a decent bit of upside. Any big league team is going to need far more than five starters to get through a season. The O's will probably have 7-8 guys start 10+ games next season. The rotation will sort itself out.

Foley

  • As good as Logan Gilbert is the Mariners should consider trading him, realistically they won’t have the money to sign him and with two years of control they should get a haul that could help now and later

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Athletics Sign Tyler Soderstrom To Seven-Year Extension

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Dec. 29: The Athletics have formally announced the extension.

Dec. 25: The Athletics aren’t taking the holiday off. They’re in agreement with outfielder Tyler Soderstrom on a seven-year, $86MM extension, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Passan adds that there’s a club option for 2033 and escalators that could push the contract value by another $45MM if the option is exercised. The deal buys out at least three free agent years and potentially a fourth, keeping him under club control through his age-31 season. Soderstrom is represented by Paragon Sports International.

Soderstrom becomes the latest core offensive piece whom the A’s lock up on a long-term deal. They extended Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler on respective $60MM and $65.5MM guarantees last winter. Soderstrom tops those by a decent margin, becoming the largest contract in club history in the process. Their three-year, $67MM free agent deal with Luis Severino had previously been that high-water mark.

[Related: Largest Contract in Franchise History for Each MLB Team]

The lefty-hitting Soderstrom was a first-round pick in 2020. He’d been an excellent offensive player dating back to high school. The biggest question was where he’d fit on the other side of the ball. While Soderstrom was drafted as a catcher, most scouts felt he’d need to move off the position. That has essentially been borne out, as his only 15 MLB starts behind the dish came during his 2023 rookie season. The fallback for poor defensive catchers is generally first base, and that’s indeed where Soderstrom spent the early part of his big league tenure.

Soderstrom struggled over a 45-game sample as a rookie. His .233/.315/.429 slash across 213 plate appearances in 2024 was a significant step forward but hadn’t yet put him alongside Rooker, Butler and Shea Langeliers as clear members of the A’s core. Soderstrom entered this year with a little pressure in the form of 2024 fourth overall pick Nick Kurtz, a college first baseman who was expected to hit his way to the majors very quickly.

While Kurtz would do just that, Soderstrom’s breakout ’25 campaign ensured the A’s couldn’t afford to take him out of the lineup either. The 24-year-old was one of the league’s best hitters in the first few weeks of the season. He connected on nine home runs with a .284/.349/.560 slash before the end of April. Soderstrom was tied for fourth in MLB (behind only Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suárez) in homers through the season’s first month. By the time Kurtz forced his way to the majors on April 21, Soderstrom was locked into the middle of Mark Kotsay’s batting order.

That presented the A’s with a positional dilemma. Rooker is an everyday designated hitter. The 6’5″, 240-pound Kurtz wasn’t going to be able to play anywhere other than first base. Despite his catching/first base background, Soderstrom is a solid athlete and average runner. The A’s threw him into left field on the fly even though he’d had no professional experience there. They presumably expected to live with some defensive growing pains to keep his bat in the lineup.

Soderstrom dramatically exceeded those expectations. He graded 10 runs better than an average left fielder by measure of Defensive Runs Saved. Statcast graded his range five plays above average. Soderstrom ended the season as a Gold Glove finalist at a position he’d never played five months earlier. He joins Butler as core outfield pieces, ideally in a corner tandem flanking defensive specialist Denzel Clarke in center.

The increased defensive responsibility didn’t impact Soderstrom’s rhythm at the plate. He scuffled between May and June but rebounded with a .305/.359/.530 showing over the season’s final four months. Soderstrom finished with an overall .276/.346/.474 batting line while ranking fourth on the team with 25 homers. He improved his contact rate by six percentage points and held his own against same-handed pitching (.270/.315/.423) while teeing off on righties (.278/.356/.491). The  breakout also wasn’t a product of the A’s playing half their games at the hitter-friendly Sutter Heath Park. Soderstrom had an OPS north of .800 both at home and on the road.

As recently as this past summer, there was speculation about the A’s potentially swapping Soderstrom for a controllable starting pitcher. The extension firmly takes that off the table and ensures he’ll remain alongside Kurtz, Rooker, Butler and Jacob Wilson in an excellent offensive corps. The first three are signed through at least 2029. Kurtz and Wilson are under team control for five seasons. Langeliers has another two seasons of arbitration eligibility.

Soderstrom was already under club control for four seasons. He was a year closer to free agency than Butler was at the time of his extension, which explains why the price was a little more than $20MM higher. Soderstrom tops the $57.5MM guarantee which Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia received in the same service class, but that deal only extended K.C.’s control window by two seasons.

The A’s backloaded the Rooker and Butler extensions, with the highest salaries corresponding to their planned move to Las Vegas in 2028. The salary breakdown on Soderstrom’s deal hasn’t yet been reported. The A’s had a projected payroll around $87MM before today, as calculated by RosterResource. That’s $12MM above where they opened the ’25 season. General manager David Forst told MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos last week that the team was looking to upgrade a rotation that ranked 27th in ERA and 25th in strikeout percentage.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images.

Andy Kosco Passes Away

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Ten-year MLB veteran Andy Kosco passed away earlier this month. He was 84 years old. Kosco played in 658 games for the Twins, Yankees, Dodgers, Brewers, Angels, Red Sox, and Reds from 1965-74. Primarily a corner outfielder, he appeared at all three outfield positions, as well as first and third base.

Born October 5, 1941 in Ohio, Kosco grew up a multi-sport star but ultimately chose baseball, signing his first professional contract with the Tigers in 1959. However, he did not make the majors until he joined the Twins, with whom he debuted at 23 years old in 1965.

Kosco’s best tool was his power. He hit double-digit home runs in three seasons, with a personal best of 19 for the Dodgers in 1969. All told, he racked up 73 home runs and 156 extra-base hits in his career, good for a .394 slugging percentage and .158 isolated power. His isolated power was 29% better than the league average during the years in which he played. In the field, Kosco was a fine defender, finishing with a .980 fielding percentage and a +6 total zone rating as an outfielder. He recorded 29 outfield assists in his career, including 10 with the Yankees in 1968, which tied him for eighth-most in the American League.

Kosco played his last professional season for the Toledo Mud Hens, then the Triple-A affiliate of the Phillies, in 1975. He retired after the 1975 season. We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our sincerest condolences to Kosco’s family, friends, and fans.

Mitch White, Guillermo Heredia Re-Sign With KBO’s SSG Landers

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The SSG Landers have re-signed a pair of former MLB players for the 2026 KBO season: right-hander Mitch White and outfielder Guillermo Heredia. White joined the Landers last year, while Heredia has been on the team since the 2023 campaign. Dan Kurtz of MyKBO relayed the news in English earlier today. White is represented by Apex Baseball, while Heredia is represented by PRIME.

White, 31, appeared in 71 games over five MLB seasons, pitching for the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Giants, and Brewers. While he bounced between the bullpen and the rotation in MLB and Triple-A, he took on a full-time starting role in his first KBO season. Averaging 5 2/3 innings per start, he pitched to a 2.87 ERA and 3.44 FIP, striking out 24.4% of batters he faced and walking just 7.8%. For context, the league-average ERA in the KBO this past season was 4.31, while the league-average strikeout and walk rates were 19.7% and 9.1%, respectively. White also induced groundballs on 54% of balls in plays and limited his opponents to only nine home runs on the season.

Heredia, soon to be 35, has been one of the KBO’s premier contact hitters over the past three years. He led the league in batting average in 2024 and ’25 (min. 400 PA) and ranked fifth in ’23. While he isn’t known for his power, he’s a safe bet for double-digit home runs, and his overall offensive output (per wRC+) has been at least 34% better than league average in all three of his seasons with the Landers. Prior to his KBO career, the veteran outfielder played in seven MLB seasons, bouncing between the Mariners, Rays, Pirates, Mets, and Braves.

White and Heredia join new signings Drew VerHagen and Shota Takeda as the four foreign players on the Landers’ 2026 roster. VerHagen, a veteran of both MLB and NPB, signed with the team earlier this month, essentially replacing fellow right-hander Drew Anderson. Himself a former MLB and NPB pitcher, Anderson parlayed an excellent 2025 campaign with the Landers into a one-year, $7MM guarantee from the Detroit Tigers. Takeda, another right-handed pitcher, spent the first 14 years of his professional career with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks organization, though Tommy John surgery kept him from pitching for the NPB club in 2024 or ’25.

The Opener: Red Sox, Pending Free Agent Contracts, Mets

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Here are three things MLBTR will be watching for around the sport today:

1. What’s next for the Red Sox?

The Red Sox have already made some of the biggest moves of the offseason, acquiring starting pitcher Sonny Gray and first baseman Willson Contreras in two separate trades with the Cardinals. However, they are the only AL team that has yet to sign a free agent to a major league contract, and there is no reason to think chief baseball officer Craig Breslow is done making moves. According to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, the Red Sox are still in the market for many of the top available infielders, namely free agents Bo Bichette and Alex Bregman and trade candidates Ketel Marte, Isaac Paredes, and Brendan Donovan. Speier previously linked the Red Sox to Eugenio Suárez as well. Boston has also been connected to some notable free agent relievers, including Seranthony Domínguez, Evan Phillips, and Chris Martin (before he re-signed with the Rangers).

On top of that, it remains more than possible that Breslow could trade from his major league roster. This team has a surplus of young, controllable outfielders, with Jarren Duran’s name the one that has come up the most in trade rumors. What’s more, Triston Casas and Masataka Yoshida have less of a path to playing time now that Contreras is in the fold. Breslow recently told reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com) that roster logjams like this “tend to work out,” but one such way these things can work themselves out is through a trade or two.

2. Free agent contracts to be finalized:

Ryan O’Hearn and the Pirates came to terms on the largest free agent contract for a position player in the franchise’s history last week: a two-year, $29MM guarantee. However, the team has not formalized the signing, which means O’Hearn isn’t technically a Pirate just yet. Now that Christmas has passed, fans can expect an announcement from the Pirates any day, although the club will have to free up a space on its 40-man roster before making things official with O’Hearn.

In addition to O’Hearn, Paul Blackburn and Amed Rosario are also waiting for their new contracts to be announced. Both players agreed to re-up with the Yankees this winter on one-year deals; Rosario will make $2.5MM in 2026, while Blackburn’s deal is a $2MM guarantee. Unlike the Pirates, the Yankees have several open spaces on their 40-man roster. They should also be quite familiar with Blackburn and Rosario’s medicals, considering both players finished the 2025 season in the Bronx, so it’s not entirely clear what’s holding up the formal announcement of either signing.

3. Mets trade coming?

Francys Romero of Beisbol FR recently wrote about top international prospect Wandy Asigen, who originally had a deal in place with the Yankees but will now sign a contract worth approximately $3.8MM with the Mets instead. Romero suggests that the Mets could try to trade for more international bonus pool space before the next signing period opens, to facilitate their inking of the 16-year-old shortstop. International bonus pool money can be traded in increments of $250,000, and the Mets’ initial pool for the upcoming signing period was set at $5.44MM as of this past April (per Baseball America). The 2026 international signing period will begin on January 15. So, if the Mets are planning to make a trade to increase their bonus pool, it’s likely going to come together at some point in the next two weeks.

Orioles Re-Sign Zach Eflin

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The Orioles have reunited with Zach Eflin on a one-year, $10MM deal with a mutual option for the 2027 season.  The team has officially announced the signing, and designated outfielder Will Robertson for assignment in a corresponding move to create room on the 40-man roster.  Eflin is represented by O’Connell Sports Management.

The $10MM guarantee breaks down as a $5MM salary, a $3MM signing bonus, and then a $2MM buyout on the mutual option.  As a reminder, mutual options are virtually never exercised by both parties, so Eflin’s deal is for all intents and purposes just a one-year pact.  There is some significant bonus money involved, as both Eflin’s buyout and option will increase by $1MM if he makes at least 15 starts, then by $1.5MM if he makes at 20 starts, and one final increase of $2.5MM if he hits the 25-start threshold.  The mutual option’s buyout can therefore max out at $7MM.

Baltimore has been linked to several top-tier free agent pitchers this winter, and the O’s also just swung a notable trade to land a hurler with frontline potential in Shane Baz.  The 32-year-old Eflin might settle into the back of the rotation, especially given his uncertain injury status.  Eflin underwent a back surgery in August that came with a rather broad recovery timeline of 4-8 months, so the fact that he has now signed a contract after four months perhaps hints that his rehab is going smoothly.

The Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich hears from a source that the Orioles are hoping Eflin can “make his season debut early in the year,” with his ramp-up process starting “early in Spring Training.”  Once Eflin is ready, he’ll slot in as the fourth or fifth starter in a projected rotation that includes Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, and Baz.  Tyler Wells had a line on a rotation spot but might move into a bullpen or swingman role once Eflin returns.  Albert Suarez is another swingman candidate, plus Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott, and Brandon Young are further rotation depth options in the upper minors.

If Baltimore still wanted to make a splash by signing or trading for more of a proven ace, the Eflin signing likely isn’t an obstacle.  Given how many injuries the Orioles rotation suffered in 2025, it is no surprise that the team wants as much depth as possible to both cover innings and deliver quality results going forward.

Eflin’s own injury woes contributed to the Orioles’ health problems, as lat and back injuries resulted in three separate stints on the injured list for the righty last year.  Eflin was limited to just 71 1/3 innings over 14 starts, and he struggled to a 5.93 ERA and a 16.2% strikeout rate.  The righty’s 4.2% walk rate was still excellent, however, and since a lot of the damage off Eflin came via a spike in his homer rate, his 4.49 SIERA was more respectable than his real-world ERA.

This isn’t the first time Eflin was plagued by injuries, as persistent knee issues bothered the right-hander earlier in his career with the Phillies, though he posted solid results when healthy.  In what counted as a significant outlay for the low-budget Rays, Tampa Bay inked Eflin to a three-year, $40MM contract during the 2022-23 offseason, and he ended up delivering the highest two innings totals of his career over the first two seasons of the deal — 177 2/3 IP in 2023, 165 1/3 IP in 2024.

The durability was backed up by a 3.54 ERA, 3.5% walk rate, and 23.1% strikeout rate over those 343 innings, though Eflin’s K% dropped off considerably from 26.5% in 2023 to 19.6% in 2024.  Since the Rays are always looking to trim the budget and reload with younger talent, Tampa dealt Eflin to the Orioles at the 2024 deadline, with the O’s absorbing all of the money remaining on Eflin’s $11MM salary for the 2024 season and his $18MM salary for 2025.  While his 2025 campaign was a wash, Eflin did pitch well down the stretch for the Orioles in 2024 to help the team reach the postseason.

Tampa Bay was the only team publicly linked to Eflin’s market this winter, but he’ll now instead return to one of his other former teams in his attempt at a rebound season.  The Orioles know better than any other club about the right-hander’s health situation, and the upside is obvious if Eflin can return to his old form.  At the time of his season-ending surgery, Eflin was also quite vocal about his desire to return to Batlimore in free agency, and now his wish has come true.

Eflin’s $10MM commitment brings the Orioles’ 2026 payroll up to roughly $147.3MM, as per RosterResource.  Since the O’s finished the 2025 campaign with a payroll of approximately $160.1MM, there’s still more room to spend for a team that already made one of the winter’s blockbuster signings in the Pete Alonso contract.  Baltimore could further spend on a free agent starter like Ranger Suarez or Framber Valdez, or perhaps again tip into its minor league depth for another significant trade.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale was the first to break the news on Eflin’s one-year pact with the Orioles.  The New York Post’s Jon Heyman had the $10MM guaranteed, and Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner reported the detail of the mutual option.  FanSided’s Robert Murray had the salary breakdown and the information about the bonus structure.

Inset photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher — Imagn Images

Joe Kelly Announces End Of His Playing Career

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After 13 Major League seasons, reliever Joe Kelly has decided to call a career, as the right-hander told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford on a recent edition (audio link) of the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast.  In his usual irreverent fashion, the 37-year-old Kelly declined to say he was officially retiring, taking issue with the term itself.

“Retiring is like, something that my grandmother did….I’m sorry all you people out there watching this that work a real job.  You guys deserve to retire, athletes don’t,” Kelly said.  “We just stop [expletive] playing, okay?  Let’s cancel the word ’retirement.’  It’s used for people who [expletive] served in the military, used for people who worked until 65…When athletes are done playing, just say ’congratulations, they’re no longer playing.’ ”

Kelly last played during the 2024 season, tossing 32 regular-season innings for the Dodgers.  He didn’t sign a contract last winter, and stated last July that he was planning to showcase himself in a throwing session for the Dodgers alone, saying that he only wanted to pitch for Los Angeles if he returned at all.  That session came and went without any fanfare, and Kelly told Bradford that continued injury problems convinced him to hang up the glove.  “I can throw 98 [mph] like nothing…[but] I threw a pitch and like strained again, so like ’nah, I’m done,’ ” Kelly said.

High velocity has been a bedrock of Kelly’s career, as he averaged 95mph on his fastball in his MLB debut season with the Cardinals in 2012.  A move to the bullpen added even more heat, as Kelly had an average velo of 98.2mph over the final eight seasons of his career, and he topped the 102mph mark at his peak.  While Kelly’s fastball drew the most attention, however, his sinker (which also regularly sat in the upper 90s) and curveball were his most effective pitches at finishing off batters after Kelly set them up with his standard fastball.

A third-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2009 draft, Kelly made his MLB debut with St. Louis in 2012 and he tossed his first 266 big league innings in a Cards uniform.  A notable swap at the 2014 trade deadline saw Kelly and Allen Craig sent to the Red Sox in exchange for John Lackey, and while the trade was panned by Boston fans at the time, Kelly’s development into a valued member of the Red Sox pen has made the deal a little more palatable for Red Sox Nation in hindsight.

Kelly struggled with injuries and consistency over his first two full seasons as a starter with the Sox, and a move to relief pitching in 2016 helped him at least spend less time on the injured list.  Kelly had a 4.33 ERA over his entire 359 1/3 inning tenure with the Red Sox, but he shone brightest when posting a 0.79 ERA over 11 1/3 frames during the 2018 postseason, playing a big role in Boston’s World Series championship victory.

After helping beat the Dodgers in that Fall Classic, Kelly then went to L.A. on a three-year, $25MM free agent deal.  Some early struggles made that signing look like a potential bust, but Kelly righted the ship and finished with a 3.59 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate, 59.9% grounder rate, and 9.8% walk rate over 105 1/3 innings in that three-season span.  The highlight was another postseason success and a ring in 2020, with Kelly allowing one earned run over 4 2/3 innings during the Dodgers’ title run.

A two-year, $17MM contract with the White Sox followed for Kelly in advance of the 2022 season, but the injuries started to really pile up, leading to a only a 5.59 ERA over 66 innings in a Chicago uniform.  Acquired again by the Dodgers at the 2023 trade deadline, Kelly suddenly regained some of his old form in posting a 1.74 ERA the rest of the way.  Los Angeles brought him back for a one-year, $8MM contract for the 2024 season, but Kelly’s health problems continued and he managed just a 4.78 ERA in his final 32 innings in the Show.  While he wasn’t part of the Dodgers’ playoff roster, Los Angeles’ World Series victory meant that Kelly earned his third ring in what ended up as his farewell season.

Over 485 games and 839 career innings in the majors, Kelly had a 3.98 ERA, 51.8% grounder rate, 21.1% strikeout rate, and a 9.8% walk rate.  His postseason resume consists of a 3.45 ERA over 60 innings, and a particularly impressive 2.03 ERA across 13 1/3 innings in the World Series.

Along the way, Kelly created quite a reputation for himself as a character.  Kelly’s competitiveness sometimes led to a pair of high-profile suspensions, but his willingness to defend teammates only added to the fuel of the rivalries between the Red Sox and Yankees, and the sign-stealing scandal inspired feud between the Dodgers and Astros.  Between his big fastball, erratic control, and eccentric personality, Kelly welcomed all comparisons to “Wild Thing” Rick Vaughn, to the point of wearing #99 with the Dodgers after giving his #17 jersey to the incoming Shohei Ohtani.  (This gesture resulted in Ohtani gifting a Porsche to Kelly’s wife Ashley.)

We at MLBTR congratulate Kelly on a fine career, and we wish him all the best in retir….er, his post-playing endeavors.

Rangers Sign Nabil Crismatt To Minors Contract

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The Rangers have signed right-hander Nabil Crismatt to a minor league deal, El Extrabase’s Daniel Alvarez-Montes reports.  Crismatt’s contract includes an invitation to the Rangers’ big league Spring Training camp.

It’s a late birthday gift for Crismatt, who turned 31 on Christmas Day.  This is Crismatt’s second stint in the Texas organization, as he spent a month of the 2024 season pitching with Triple-A Round Rock before being released from that minor league deal without any time in the bigs.  The brief run in Round Rock was one of many stops Crismatt has made on a variety of minors contracts over the last three seasons, as he is out of minor league options.

After amassing 20 MLB innings with the Padres, Diamondbacks, and Dodgers over the 2023-24 seasons, the righty got a bit more of a run in the Show by tossing 34 innings for the D’Backs in 2025.  Brought up to the active roster in mid-August, Crismatt posted a 3.71 ERA, 5.9% walk rate, and 16.3% strikeout rate during this return to the D’Backs.

While not standout numbers, Crismatt’s performance bore some resemblance to his prime years as a member of the Padres relief corps.  Crismatt delivered a 3.39 ERA, 21.6% strikeout rate, and 7.3% walk rate over 148 2/3 innings out of San Diego’s pen in 2021-22, but a decline in his performance in 2023 led the Padres to part ways, and began Crismatt’s nomadic trip around the league.

The bullpen was an underrated strong point for Texas in 2025, yet several of the relievers (i.e. Shawn Armstrong, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb, Phil Maton) who performed so well last year have already left the team in free agency.  This has left the Rangers working to restock the relief cupboard with a new set of pitchers on short-term contracts.  Chris Martin, Alexis Diaz, and Tyler Alexander have all signed guaranteed deals, and Crismatt now joins the list of pitchers in camp as non-roster invites.  Crismatt figures to have a good opportunity at breaking camp with the team, but his out-of-options status could leave him prone to again being the odd man out of a roster crunch.

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