The Rays have claimed outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. off waivers from the Marlins, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. Mesa was designated for assignment by the Marlins earlier in the week. Tampa Bay has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move.
More to come.
The Reds announced that catcher Ben Rortvedt has been claimed off waivers by the Dodgers. Cincinnati designated him for assignment when they signed Eugenio Suárez earlier this week. The Dodgers have a full 40-man roster and will need to open a spot for Rortvedt.
The Dodgers clearly like Rortvedt as a depth catcher. They acquired him at last year’s deadline and he got some playing time down the stretch when Will Smith was hurt. After the season, he and the Dodgers avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.25MM salary for 2026.
They then tried to sneak him through waivers, hoping that the salary would be enough to make other clubs pass, therefore allowing Rortvedt be in the minors as non-roster depth. They tried a similar move with infielder Andy Ibáñez, signing him to a $1.2MM deal and then putting him on the wire. It didn’t work in either case. The Reds claimed Rortvedt in November and the Athletics claimed Ibáñez today.
The Dodgers are taking this chance to bring Rortvedt back again. For now, he appears to be the clear #3 catcher behind Smith and Dalton Rushing. They could option Rushing to the minors but seemingly don’t think he has anything left to prove there, which is why they called him up last year and moved on from Austin Barnes.
Assuming Rortvedt is indeed third on the chart, he could be bound for the waiver wire again in the future. He is out of options and would have to be nudged off the 40-man if he’s not going to be on the active roster.
Time will tell how that plays out. For now, he’s back with the champs. His performance has been up and down in recent years. With the Rays in 2024, he posted a .228/.317/.303 line in 328 plate appearances. His 87 wRC+ indicated he was 13% below league average but that’s not bad for a part-time catcher. Thanks to some solid defense, FanGraphs credited him with 1.4 wins above replacement in that role.
Things turned sour in 2025. He slashed .095/.186/.111 and got outrighted to the minors. As mentioned, he was traded to the Dodgers and got some time filling in for Smith. In his 58 plate appearances, he hit .224/.309/.327, somewhat similar to his 2024 production. Teams clearly view him as a useful depth catcher but what remains to be seen is if he can hold onto a roster spot or if he can be passed through waivers.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
The Cardinals have claimed infielder Bryan Ramos off waivers from the Orioles, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. There wasn’t any previous indication that Ramos had been designated for assignment but it seems the O’s tried to quietly sneak him through waivers. Their 40-man count will drop to 39. The Cards have had an open 40-man spot since trading Brendan Donovan to the Mariners earlier this week and don’t need to make a corresponding move.
Ramos had spent his entire professional career with the White Sox until getting designated for assignment last week. The Sox then flipped him to the Orioles for cash. It might seem odd that Baltimore sent out cash to get Ramos and then put him on waivers a few days later, but there’s logic at play.
Most teams currently have full 40-man rosters but the 60-day injured list opens up next week, which creates some extra flexibility for fringe roster moves. Getting a player through waivers is therefore easier now than it will be next week. Baltimore also bolstered their infield after getting Ramos by acquiring Blaze Alexander from the Diamondbacks yesterday.
Ramos is out of options is was going to have a tough time cracking Baltimore’s roster. He would have been a better fit as a non-roster guy, providing some minor league depth. The Cardinals have swooped in and prevented that from happening for the O’s.
For St. Louis, they had an open roster spot and also have a more open infield. They have traded away Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras and Donovan this winter. They currently project to have Masyn Winn at short and Alec Burleson at first, with guys like Nolan Gorman, JJ Wetherholt, Thomas Saggese, José Fermín and others in line for playing time at second and third base.
Ramos has only been a third baseman in his big league career, with some minor league time at first and second base. He was once a notable prospect but is coming off a few down years. He has hit .198/.244/.333 in 120 big league appearances and also has a .228/.314/.392 slash in the minors over the past two years.
As mentioned, Ramos is out of options. Even though St. Louis has some open playing time in their infield, they will probably try to get Ramos through waivers at some point. He has less than three years of service time and doesn’t have a previous career outright, so he wouldn’t have the right to elect free agency if he were to clear waivers.
Photo courtesy of Jesse Johnson, Imagn Images
Reds right-hander Graham Ashcraft won his arbitration hearing against the team, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. He and his reps at the Bledsoe Agency filed for a $1.75MM salary, while the team filed at $1.25MM. Ashcraft will receive the larger of those two figures in 2026. Players have won all five arbitration hearings that have been decided thus far in 2026.
More to come.
The Athletics announced that infielder Max Schuemann has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move to open a spot for their claim of Andy Ibáñez, a move that was previously reported.
More to come.
Right-hander Edwin Uceta won his arbitration hearing against the Rays, Ari Alexander of 7News reports. He’ll be paid the $1.525MM salary figure he and his agent at Nova Sports submitted rather than the $1.2MM sum submitted by the team. Players have now won the first four arbitration hearings of the 2026 season.
More to come.
The Braves have agreed to a minor league contract with infielder Kyle Farmer, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. The BHSC client will be in camp as a non-roster player this spring, where he’ll compete for a bench job.
Farmer, 35, was the Reds’ starting shortstop in 2021-22 and had a nice 2023 showing with the Twins. Across those three seasons, he slashed a collective .258/.316/.402 (94 wRC+) while playing solid defense at shortstop, third base and second base (the latter two more so in Minnesota than in Cincinnati). He’s never been great against right-handed pitching but sports a career .279/.341/.464 batting line (117 wRC+) in 792 plate appearances against lefties.
The past two seasons haven’t gone nearly as well for Farmer. He hit .214/.293/.353 during his second season with Minnesota in 2024, prompting the Twins to decline an option and make him a free agent. Farmer signed a big league deal with the Rockies last offsseason but slashed just .227/.280/.365 despite the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field.
Even coming off a pair of down seasons, he’s a sensible pickup for a Braves club that thought it had its shortstop situation settled when re-signing Ha-Seong Kim on a one-year, $20MM contract. Kim suffered a freak injury last month when he slipped on some ice, landed on his hand and suffered a torn tendon, however. That injury required surgery that could keep him out for the first couple months of the season. Atlanta quickly pivoted to bring Jorge Mateo in on a one-year deal, and Farmer now joins the infield group on as a non-roster invitee.
The Braves have Mauricio Dubon lined up to start at shortstop in Kim’s absence, though the versatile Dubon can play all over the diamond and could spell free agent signee Mike Yastrzemski in the outfield against lefties. On those days — or when Yastrzemski is lifted for a pinch-hitter — Farmer could step into shortstop as Dubon slides to the outfield.
Of course, Farmer will have to play well enough this spring to break camp with the club. The presence of Mateo already gives Atlanta at least one shortstop alternative to Dubon, Mateo can play multiple positions, including the outfield, but like Farmer he’s a righty-swinging veteran who can’t be optioned, so the two of them could be seen as redundant when the Braves are making their final roster decisions. For now anyway, Farmer provides some depth and would seem to have a real chance to make the club.
The Red Sox have been connected to infielders all winter and and reportedly agreed to a one-year, $6MM deal with infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa this week. That doesn’t mean they’re done, with Sean McAdam of MassLive reporting the club is still in the market for another infielder.
That aligns with Kiner-Falefa’s skill set. He’s a strong defender at many positions but has never offered much with the bat. His best role would be a utility player, providing cover at multiple positions. The Sox have an injury-prone shortstop in Trevor Story. They will seemingly give Marcelo Mayer a chance to carve out an everyday role somewhere but he has just 44 games of big league experience. Kiner-Falefa gives the club a fallback if Story gets hurt or Mayer struggles.
That still leaves the Sox with a hole somewhere. Mayer could be at either third or second base. The Sox seemingly prefer him at third but they would need to find a second base upgrade. Currently, they have a mix that includes Kiner-Falefa, Romy González, David Hamilton and others. González has value but is mostly a short-side platoon guy who can beat up lefties. Hamilton is a speed-and-defense guy somewhat like Kiner-Falefa. Kristian Campbell seems to be considered an outfielder now.
Upgrading on that group with a clear everyday second baseman makes a lot of sense but there are fewer options available at this stage of the offseason. The top remaining free agents are arguably not better than Kiner-Falefa, with Ramón Urías, Luis Urías and Adam Frazier some of the guys still out there. The trade market should be Boston’s best bet at this point. They have been connected to guys like Isaac Paredes of the Astros as well as Nico Hoerner and Matt Shaw of the Cubs.
The Astros have a bit of an infield logjam but have thus far held onto Paredes. He has some second base experience but hasn’t played there since 2023. Putting him back at the keystone might not align with Boston’s stated desire to improve defensively but he would certainly add thump, as he’s generally been good for 20-plus homers per season. It’s also possible the Sox like the bat enough that they would be willing to acquire him and put him at third with Mayer at second, despite their apparent preference for Mayer to be at the hot corner.
A trade with the Astros could also make a lot of sense from Houston’s perspective as well, as that club is looking to add a left-handed bat, preferably in the outfield. That’s something the Sox can offer, with Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida all on the roster.
Hoerner is perhaps the best defensive second baseman in the majors, so he would certainly fit in with Boston’s desires. The only problem would be convincing the Cubs to part with him. Shaw is less established and has less of a role on the Cubs right now. However, with Hoerner only signed for one more year, they may cling tightly to Shaw as well with the idea that he will take over for Hoerner a year from now.
Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen has said he’s not going to consider Ketel Marte trades any longer but that was before Boston signed Ranger Suárez. Maybe now that pitching prospects like Payton Tolle and Connelly Early have been pushed down the depth chart, perhaps Boston would be more willing to put them on the table in an effort to change Hazen’s mind.
Time will tell if chief baseball officer Craig Breslow can pull something off at this late stage of the offseason. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training next week.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images
The A’s have claimed infielder/outfielder Andy Ibañez off waivers from the Dodgers, Francys Romero of BeisbolFR reports. Los Angeles signed Ibañez to a one-year, $1.2MM deal last month and then tried to pass him through waivers in order to stash him in Triple-A as a depth option. Instead, the A’s will pick up that $1.2MM bill and add the versatile lefty masher to their infield mix.
Ibañez, 32, is out of minor league options, so when the Dodgers signed him to a low-cost deal despite a crowded infield/bench group, it always seemed possible that they could try to sneak him through outright waivers to keep him as non-roster depth. Ibañez doesn’t have the service time needed to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency and retain any guaranteed money on his contract, so if he’d passed through waivers he would surely have accepted the assignment.
That won’t be the case. He’ll now head north to West Sacramento and call the Athletics’ hitter-friendly temporary digs at Sutter Health Park his home park. The A’s don’t have a clear answer at third base, so Ibañez will compete for at-bats there while also providing a credible backup around the diamond.
In parts of five major league seasons, Ibañez is a .254/.304/.389 hitter. That includes sub-par work in right-on-right situations, but he’s feasted on lefties, hitting them at a .280/.372/.452 clip. He’ll compete with Darell Hernaiz, Brett Harris, Max Schuemann and (the other) Max Muncy for time at third base, but Ibañez has 5300 professional innings at second base, 724 at first base, 242 at shortstop and 186 in the outfield corners. He’s also the only member of that group of infield candidates who is out of minor league options, so he’s very likely to crack the Athletics’ Opening Day roster.
It’s still possible the A’s will make another move to bring in a third baseman. They had an agreement in place to acquire Nolan Arenado from the Cardinals, but Arenado (who had a full no-trade clause) preferred to go to the D-backs, with whom St. Louis had also been negotiating. There aren’t many third base options left on the market, but someone like Luis Rengifo might feel Sutter Health Park is a good place to try to rebound. The trade market also still has a few viable options (e.g. Mark Vientos, Alec Bohm), and any number of less-proven names could find themselves on waivers this spring as teams make final tweaks to their rosters.
Ibañez has 3.133 years of major league service time, making him controllable via arbitration for another three seasons. He’ll need to rebound from last year’s down showing at the plate for the A’s to keep him around long term, but he’s landed in a better hitters’ environment with a club that has a clearer path to playing time than he’d have had in Los Angeles.
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