Brewers, Cooper Pratt Reportedly Working On Extension
The Brewers and prospect Cooper Pratt are reportedly on the verge of finalizing an eight-year contract worth $50.75MM. There will also be two club options worth about $15MM per year. Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported that the two sides were working on an eight-year deal worth more than $50MM, including those club options. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported the specific guarantee. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that there are escalators on the options. Pratt is a client of the Boras Corporation. The Brewers will need to make a corresponding move to add Pratt to their 40-man roster.
It’s a surprising out-of-nowhere extension. Pratt is 21 years old and hasn’t made it to the majors yet. He only just made his Triple-A debut a few days ago. He wasn’t even going to be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until December of 2027.
Extensions for players with no major league experience are becoming more common but this one feels even a bit more extreme than some of the others. Most pre-debut extensions have been for guys very close to cracking the big leagues. The Brewers themselves did one with Jackson Chourio just over two years ago, an $82MM guarantee, though that one was a bit less surprising. Chourio had finished the prior season at the Triple-A level and seemed highly likely to break camp with Milwaukee in 2024 as he was one of the top three prospects in the sport.
Pratt, on the other hand, mostly features on the back of top 100 prospect lists. Baseball America is the high outlet, putting him at #50. MLB Pipeline has him at #62, ESPN at #70, The Athletic at #99 and he’s not even on the FanGraphs list. He had an okay season at Double-A last year, with a .238/.343/.348 line and 107 wRC+, and only just cracked the Triple-A level to start this season.
Perhaps it speaks to the Brewers being quite high on Pratt’s future. Though his offense was middling last year, the plate discipline was clearly good. His 12.7% walk rate and 15.2% strikeout rate were both strong figures. He only hit eight home runs but could perhaps add more power in time. He stole 31 bags last year and is considered a solid defender at shortstop.
If the Brewers have faith in Pratt’s long-term future, there’s sense in locking him up now. That’s especially true with him being a Boras client. That agency isn’t quite as extension-averse as its reputation but the extensions they have done have almost always been for guys who have reached their arbitration years. According to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, which has data going back to 2006, the Carlos González deal from back in 2011 is the only pre-arbitration extension for a Boras client.
In that context, perhaps the Brewers felt it was worth it to take a gamble on Pratt, even though he is still so early in his career. If they waited until he had been in the big leagues for a few years, the price would go up if he had any kind of success. From the perspective of Pratt, this is a chance for him to lock up some notable earnings and stave off any chance of a bust. Perhaps he will find himself underpaid if he becomes a star, but he’s not the level of surefire, can’t-miss prospect that Chourio was.
More to come.
Astros Select Cody Bolton
The Astros announced they’ve selected pitcher Cody Bolton onto the big league roster. Reliever Christian Roa has been optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land to open an active roster spot. Hayden Wesneski, who’ll miss the majority of the season rehabbing Tommy John surgery, moves to the 60-day injured list to clear space on the 40-man roster.
Bolton returns to the majors for the first time since last April. The 27-year-old righty made one MLB appearance for Cleveland, tossing two innings of three-run ball. Cleveland optioned Bolton to Triple-A after that outing. He was injured in a car accident shortly thereafter, and the Guardians released him in June. Bolton signed a minor league contract with Houston at the end of July.
The 6’2″ hurler was still injured at the time. He made his organizational debut towards the end of August. Bolton pitched 13 2/3 innings with Sugar Land to close the year, allowing three runs. He struck out 15 while issuing eight walks. Bolton remained in the system over the offseason, pitching once this spring. It wasn’t a good outing, as he walked four of the six batters he faced, but the Astros will bring him back up as a long reliever.
Roa has worked as a single-inning reliever this spring and for his first two appearances with Houston. The Astros swap in Bolton to add a long reliever behind Lance McCullers Jr. for tonight’s start against the Red Sox. Houston used six relievers, including Roa, yesterday after Tatsuya Imai failed to escape the third inning in his big league debut.
Brewers Acquire Luis Matos
The Brewers announced that they have acquired outfielder Luis Matos from the Giants in exchange for cash considerations. San Francisco had designated Matos for assignment last week when setting their Opening Day roster. To open a 40-man spot for him, Milwaukee has designated left-hander Sammy Peralta for assignment. Matos is out of options, so the Brewers will also need to open an active roster spot for him when he reports to the team.
Milwaukee is buying low on a former top prospect. Matos was a fairly high profile international signing out of Venezuela and he performed well against lower-level pitching. Going into 2022, Baseball America ranked him the #73 prospect in all of baseball. In November of that year, the Giants added him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
He hasn’t been able to click in the majors. Over the past three seasons, the Giants sent him to the plate 593 times. His 14.2% strikeout rate was quite low but he also drew a walk at a subpar rate of 6.1%. He hit 15 home runs but his 231/.281/.369 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 80, putting him 20% below league average. He may have been held back by a .247 batting average on balls in play but his batted ball data wasn’t popping off the charts. His defensive metrics have been quite poor, though he’s been better in the corners than in center.
His minor league offense has been better in that time. In 823 minor league plate appearances over the past three years, he has 33 home runs and a .290/.354/.495 line. Even though most of those numbers were put up in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, wRC+ still considered him to have been 19% above league average in that time.
As he was shuttled between Triple-A and the minors, he exhausted his option years. That made it harder for the Giants to keep committing a roster spot to him. They preferred to use their bench spots to keep the power bat of Jerar Encarnación and the speed of Jared Oliva.
The Brewers will take a shot on him. They have recently gotten good results from a few guys that other clubs gave up on, with Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers being a couple of examples. Perhaps they can get a similar post-hype breakout from Matos. He has under two years of club control, so he can be retained through 2030 if that pans out. He will qualify for arbitration at the end of this year as a Super Two guy if he holds his spot all year.
For now, he’ll have to find some playing time in the outfield. For the moment, Milwaukee has Jackson Chourio, Steward Berroa and Akil Baddoo on the injured list. That leaves them with Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Brandon Lockridge and Blake Perkins, with Christian Yelich perhaps playing the field on occasion when he’s not the designated hitter. One of them could be optioned to the minors to open a spot for Matos. Perkins started the season on optional assignment and was recalled when Chourio got hurt, so perhaps he will be the move.
Matos is a righty bat and he has better numbers against southpaws, so perhaps he can carve out a short-side platoon role as Mitchell and Frelick are lefties. Matos has a .238/.302/.411 line against lefties in his big league career, compared to a .226/.267/.342 slash against righties.
Peralta, 28 in May, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels in October. He was optioned to Triple-A Nashville earlier this month and therefore hasn’t appeared in a big league game for the Brewers. He has 45 2/3 innings on his track record from the previous three seasons with a 5.12 earned run average, 17.3% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate and 40.8% ground ball rate.
The lefty tossed 70 2/3 Triple-A innings last year. His 4.33 ERA wasn’t especially impressive but that performance came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 24.1% strikeout rate, 4.8% walk rate and 45.5% ground ball rate were all decent figures. He still has an option remaining and could appeal to a club looking for some pitching depth. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Brewers could take a maximum of five days to explore trade talks.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Giants Designate Tyler Fitzgerald For Assignment
The Giants announced that infielder/outfielder Tyler Fitzgerald has been designated for assignment. That opens a 40-man spot for right-hander Dylan Smith. It was reported earlier that San Francisco would be acquiring Smith from the Tigers. Smith has been optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
Fitzgerald had a breakout performance at the plate in 2024, his age-26 and rookie season. After a strong 2023 season in which he ripped 22 homers and swiped 32 bags in the minors, he hit the ground running in San Francisco. Through 96 games and 341 plate appearances that season. Fitzgerald hit .280/.334/.497 with 15 homers and 17 steals. A .380 average on balls in play was ripe for regression, and Fitzgerald’s 31.7% strikeout rate only further cast doubt on his ability to sustain that year’s level of production. He fell off more substantially in 2025 than one might have reasonably anticipated, however.
In 2025, Fitzgerald opened the season as the Giants’ top option at second base. He got out to a slow start, however, and hit the injured list in early May due to a rib fracture. He only missed 12 days. Fitzgerald returned and continued to struggle at the plate. By late June, he’d been optioned to Triple-A Sacramento. He was recalled a week later and spent most of the remaining time on the ’25 calendar oscillating between Sacramento and San Francisco. Overall, Fitzgerald finished out the season with a .217/.278/.327 slash line and a 28.8% strikeout rate.
Now 28 years old and with no clear path to playing time, Fitzgerald has lost now only his starting job but his grip on a roster spot entirely. His 2025 struggles contributed to the Giants’ offseason signing of Luis Arraez to serve as new skipper Tony Vitello’s second baseman. With Matt Chapman at third, Willy Adames at shortstop and Arraez at second base, none of Fitzgerald’s primary positions are available. He’s logged a bit of time in the outfield corners, but the Giants have Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee handling those roles, with newly signed Harrison Bader in center.
Though Fitzgerald could factor into the bench mix, in theory, the Giants have Christian Koss in an infield/outfield role. He outperformed Fitzgerald in the majors last year (after a big 2024 in the minor leagues). Jerar Encarnacion is out of minor league options and can’t be sent down. Minor league signee Jared Oliva offers plus-plus speed and a good glove across all three outfield spots. One spot, of course, is earmarked for the backup catcher (currently Daniel Susac). And whenever top prospect Bryce Eldridge returns to the majors, that’ll push Casey Schmitt — who’s surprisingly played three games at first base thus far — into a utility role.
Increasingly, Fitzgerald just feels like a man without a true role on the roster. He’d be a nice depth option to have in the event of an injury, but the Giants are well-stocked with players who have a combination of comparable versatility, youth and more minor league options than Fitzgerald, who’s in his final option year.
Based on Fitzgerald’s versatility and 2024 production, another club would take an interest now that he’s in DFA limbo. He doesn’t have strong defensive grades at shortstop in the majors but does have plus marks at second base. He can handle third base or the outfield corners as well, and even while he struggled at the plate last season, Fitzgerald landed in the 97th percentile of big leaguers in terms of average sprint speed (29.7 feet/sec), per Statcast.
The Giants have five days to trade Fitzgerald or place him on waivers. Running him through waivers would be another 48-hour process. Within a week’s time, his DFA will be formally resolved. There’s a good chance he’ll land with another club. It’s easy to imagine some teams having interest in a small trade, and at the very least, it’d be surprised if all 29 other clubs passed via waivers.
Giants To Acquire Dylan Smith
The Giants are acquiring right-hander Dylan Smith from the Tigers, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Detroit designated him for assignment when setting their Opening Day roster last week and will get cash considerations in return. San Francisco will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man spot for this to become official.
Smith, 26 in May, has a limited major league track record. The Tigers added him to their 40-man roster in May of last year. He spent most of the remainder of the seasons on optional assignment and was also on the minor league injured list for a while. His major league work consisted of 13 innings over seven appearances, allowing two earned runs while surrendering six hits, five walks, hitting three batters and striking out four opponents.
His minor league track record as a reliever is also fairly limited. After being drafted in 2021, the Tigers had him working as a starter for a while. Thanks to some injuries and some mediocre numbers, he was moved to the bullpen in 2025. Around his stints in the majors and his time on the IL, he tossed 39 2/3 minor league innings with a 2.27 earned run average. His 37.7% strikeout rate was massive and his 45.5% ground ball rate was also pretty good, though his 11.3% walk rate was on the high side. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged in the mid-90s while his splitter and slider both averaged in the mid-80s.
Due to his recent move to relief work and his subpar control last year, Smith may be a bit of a project. He got squeezed off the Detroit roster but San Francisco will be the beneficiary. Smith still has a couple of options, so they can shuttle him to the minors and back fairly freely as he tries to rein in his stuff. He has just a handful of service days and could stick with the club for years to come if he takes a step forward and continues to justify a roster spot.
The Giants don’t have a lot of certainty in their bullpen. They traded away Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last year then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. They added some guys via small deals but didn’t make any massive moves to upgrade the relief corps, so there’s room for some young guys to flourish.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
Rangers Outright Dairon Blanco
Outfielder Dairon Blanco has cleared waivers and will accept an outright assignment to Triple-A Round Rock, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. Blanco was designated for assignment last week when the Rangers added Andrew McCutchen to their Opening Day roster. Blanco had a previous career outright and therefore had the right to elect free agency but he’ll waive that right and look to work his way back to the majors with Texas.
Blanco, 33, has spent his entire big league career with the Royals thus far. He served as a useful bench piece thanks to his speed and defense. He stole 59 bases in 73 attempts. He logged 733 innings in the outfield and was considered a bit better than par by both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average. His offense wasn’t a significant drag either, as his .257/.312/.416 batting line translated to a 99 wRC+, just barely below league average.
Despite those contributions, he got nudged off the Kansas City roster when they signed Starling Marte about a month ago. The Rangers claimed him off waivers and held him for a little over two weeks but, as mentioned, needed a spot for McCutchen.
Each club passed on a chance to get Blanco off waivers in recent days, even though he has options remaining. Even if he elected free agency, he would have been limited to minor league offers. Instead, he’ll just report to the Express and try to work his way back to the majors.
The Rangers have Brandon Nimmo, Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford in their outfield, with McCutchen in the mix alongside utility guys Ezequiel Durán and Sam Haggerty. They could get Cody Freeman back from the injured list in a few weeks. Alejandro Osuna and Michael Helman are depth options on the 40-man, currently in Triple-A on optional assignment. Blanco joins Nick Pratto, Mark Canha, Tyler Wade and Richie Martin as non-roster guys with some major league experience.
Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images
Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Good morning! Chatting a bit earlier than usual today, since I need to bring the car in for some work this afternoon. We'll get going at noon CT, but as always, feel free to ask some questions ahead of time if you prefer!
- Good afternoon!
- Let's begin
MarinersMan
- What areas will the Mariners target at the trade deadline, assuming they're performing like people expect them to? SP? RP? Bench depth?
Steve Adams
- Every contending club is in the mix for bullpen help. Seattle's bullpen core -- Munoz, Brash, Speier, Ferrer and to a lesser extent Bazardo -- is great, but they'll still be looking to deepen things. And if either Ferrer or Speier gets hurt, I'm sure they'll specifically target a lefty.I could see a corner OF/DH bat being on the list, as Canzone hasn't hit over a particularly large sample yet and a Raley/Robles platoon isn't exactly a lock to produce.
Rotation depth behind the top guys isn't great, so I can see a starter on the list if they have some health issues -- though they've obviously been pretty good at keeping Gilbert/Woo/Castillo/Kirby healthy (or at least clear of major season-ending issues)
- Broadly, the Mariners don't have a ton of holes though. Which is why they were I think universally picked by our staff to win the West.
Richard
- Hi Steve, When Joyce and Yates are back in May, who closes for LAA? At the end f the year, who has more saves for the Twins, Rogers or Sands?
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Blue Jays Sign Austin Voth To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays signed righty Austin Voth to a minor league contract after he was released by the White Sox at the end of camp. Toronto never formally announced anything, but Voth pitched three innings for their Triple-A club yesterday. He picked up a pair of strikeouts and didn’t walk anyone, but he was tagged for a pair of solo homers. Voth is represented by The·Team agency.
Voth, 33, spent the 2025 season in Japan pitching for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines. He logged 125 innings with a 3.96 earned run average, below-average strikeout rates and good command.
Voth has picked up more than five years of major league service time, dating back to his 2018 MLB debut. He’s a former fifth-round pick who’s pitched in part of seven big league seasons. In 360 1/3 innings as a major leaguer, Voth has a 4.70 ERA, a 22.1% strikeout rate and an 8.3% walk rate. Those are roughly league-average rate stats, and it bears mentioning that a good portion of Voth’s most prominent struggles came early in his career with the Nats. He has a 4.29 ERA over his past three big league seasons, including a tidy 3.69 ERA in 61 innings with the 2024 Mariners, for whom he set down one quarter of his opponents on strikes with a walk rate just north of 7%.
Though Voth has pitched more in relief than as a starter during his recent MLB stints, he has more experience in the rotation than in the bullpen. Last year in Japan, all 22 of his appearances were starts. He started yesterday for Buffalo, and while he only pitched three innings, that was surely in part to pretty limited usage in camp with the ChiSox. Given that the Jays currently have Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos on the injured list, it’s likely that Voth will continue to stretch out to serve as some experienced starting depth with the Jays’ top affiliate.
Braves Select Martín Pérez, Option Didier Fuentes
10:25am: Fuentes will start for Gwinnett on Friday, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. He’ll get a couple minor league turns to build up to around 90 pitches and then be more strongly considered for the big league rotation.
8:48am: The Braves announced Monday morning that they’ve selected the contract of veteran lefty Martín Pérez from Triple-A Gwinnett. Right-hander Didier Fuentes was optioned to Gwinnett to clear a spot on the active roster. Atlanta already had a 40-man vacancy, so Fuentes is the only corresponding transaction needed.
Some fans will bristle at optioning Fuentes after he shined with four innings of one-run ball in long relief yesterday, but that four-inning appearance means he’d have been unavailable for the next few days anyhow. He’ll surely be back in the fold before long, but the Braves will presumably be cautious with his workload this season. He pitched only 70 innings total between the minors and major leagues last year.
Pérez, 35 next week, signed a minor league deal over the winter and was in the mix for a rotation spot this spring — particularly after Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, Joey Wentz and Spencer Strider went down with injuries. He had a nice Grapefruit League showing, working to a 2.84 ERA in 12 2/3 innings, but Atlanta reassigned him to minor league camp to begin the season. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t an especially long stint. He can now step into the same long relief/swing role that Fuentes held, providing some length behind out-of-options starters Bryce Elder and José Suarez. Alternatively, the Braves could move either Elder or Suarez to a swing role and go with Pérez in the rotation.
A flexor strain knocked Pérez out for most of the 2025 season, but he was sharp in his limited action with the White Sox. He tossed 56 innings with the South Siders, his seventh career team, and logged a 3.54 earned run average. Pérez fanned only 19.3% of his opponents against a 9.6% walk rate. He’s never missed many bats but has generally held his own through sharp command, solid ground-ball tendencies and plenty of weak contact.
Atlanta will be Pérez’s eighth career team. He’s been a steady back-of-the-rotation starter for a good while now, starting a full slate of 12 games in the shortened 2020 campaign and making between 20 and 32 starts in the other five seasons from 2019-24 (while pitching to a collective 4.27 ERA). Last year marked the first time since 2018 that Pérez required a trip to the 60-day injured list.
The Opener: deGrom, Murakami, Debuts
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. deGrom still waiting for season debut:
Rangers veteran Jacob deGrom was slated to make his season debut over the weekend, but was scratched from his scheduled start due to a neck issue. Via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News, manager Skip Schumaker indicated that deGrom could still make his first start of the year during the club’s current series in Baltimore. Righty Jack Leiter has already been announced as today’s starter, but deGrom could start tomorrow’s game against Orioles righty Zach Eflin or pitch Wednesday versus lefty Trevor Rogers. The 37-year-old deGrom enjoyed his first full season of the decade in 2025, making 30 starts for the first time since winning the NL Cy Young Award in 2019. The righty’s 2.97 ERA and 3.64 FIP weren’t quite the same level as his peak, but that’s still clearly front-of-the-rotation production the Rangers are counting on as they look to return to the playoffs this year.
2. Murakami kicks off MLB career with homer streak:
Longtime NPB slugger and current White Sox rookie Munetaka Murakami exploded onto the stateside scene over the weekend, hitting home runs in three consecutive games against the Brewers to kick off his MLB career. The corner infielder took a deal well below expectations with Chicago due to concerns about his contact rate and defensive ability. Those concerns will take a lot more than one series to fade, but there was never any doubt about his prodigious power. That’s absolutely played so far, and when the White Sox head to Miami to face Chris Paddack (5.35 ERA in 2025) Murakami will look to extend his career-opening homer streak to four games. That game is scheduled to take place at 6:40pm local time in Miami this evening, with Davis Martin (4.10 ERA in 2025) set to take the mound opposite Paddack.
3. Key starters making team debuts:
As the first turn through the rotation of the 2026 season continues, a number of impact starters will make their first starts with new teams today. Cubs right-hander Edward Cabrera (3.53 ERA in 2025) will take on the Angels at 6:40pm local time in Chicago, while the Red Sox will send southpaw Ranger Suarez (3.20 ERA in 2025) to the mound against the Astros at 7:10pm local time in Houston. Ryan Weathers (3.99 ERA in eight starts last year) will make his Yankees debut against the Mariners at 6:40pm Seattle time, while Paddack (Marlins), Walker Buehler (Padres), Nick Martinez (Rays), and Kyle Harrison (Brewers) are among the other starters making team debuts. It’s not quite a team debut, but Justin Verlander (3.85 ERA in 2025) is slated to make his first start for the Tigers since 2017 at 7:10pm local time in Phoenix against Diamondbacks righty Michael Soroka (who is making his own debut for the Snakes).