Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Latest On Michael King’s Market

By | at

Michael King is one of the bigger risk-reward plays in the starting pitching class. He’s arguably a top 10 pitcher in MLB when healthy but is coming off a platform season that was wrecked by a nerve injury in his throwing shoulder. He’s also attached to draft compensation after rejecting a qualifying offer from the Padres.

That hasn’t deterred plenty of teams from expressing interest. King was already known to be a target for the Cubs, Tigers and Yankees, while even the Marlins checked in as a long shot suitor. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com and Joel Sherman of The New York Post each write that the Mets are involved. Feinsand adds the Orioles, Angels and incumbent Padres as teams on the periphery of the market. Sherman reports that the Red Sox have also shown interest in the 30-year-old righty.

King converted to the rotation late in the 2023 season as a member of the Yankees. He pitched well enough to stick as a starter after being traded to San Diego as the centerpiece of the Juan Soto deal. King finished seventh in NL Cy Young voting in 2024, pitching to a 2.95 ERA while striking out 201 batters over 31 appearances. He’d pitched even better over the first six weeks of the ’25 campaign. King reeled off 10 starts with a 2.59 earned run average and punching out 28% of opponents before the injury.

Durability is the big question. The shoulder issue wasn’t structural but proved a lot more problematic than initially expected. He wound up missing almost three months and showed signs of rust when he returned late in the season. King gave up 12 runs while tallying all of 17 1/3 innings over five starts in the second half. His velocity was fine but he only managed 12 strikeouts while issuing nine free passes.

King appeared on track for a nine-figure contract amidst his hot start. That’s tougher to envision now, as the 2024 campaign remains the only season in which he has reached even 105 innings. That’s largely because of his usage with the Yankees, but he also missed a couple months in 2021 with a finger injury and suffered a season-ending elbow fracture the following year.

MLBTR predicted King to receive a four-year, $80MM contract. It’s also possible he prefers a two- or three-year deal with an opt-out to get back to free agency next winter. King declined the straight one-year qualifying offer, but a multi-year deal with an out clause would give him a little more security than the QO would have provided. Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote this morning that King is willing to sign for a shorter term than the top free agent arms (e.g. Framber Valdez, Tatsuya Imai, Ranger Suárez). That wouldn’t necessarily rule out a four-year deal, as the best starters are expected to command five or six-year contracts. Dylan Cease already pulled a seven-year guarantee.

The Mets should come away with a mid-rotation or better arm via free agency or trade. They stayed away from the top of the rotation market last winter. That worked out early in the year but collapsed down the stretch. Only the Rockies, Nationals and Angels had a higher second-half ERA from their rotation than the Mets’ 5.31 mark. Nolan McLean looks like a budding frontline starter, but he’s their only pitcher who allowed fewer than 4.20 earned runs per nine after the All-Star Break.

Baltimore, Boston, San Diego and the Angels have all been in the rotation market. The Red Sox should probably focus elsewhere after acquiring Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo in trade. The Angels have landed a pair of starters this offseason as well, but Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah both have significant health questions. They still need a starter and are also in the mix for Zac Gallen. The O’s are involved on Valdez and Suárez; no pitcher seems to be off the table for them. The Padres are unlikely to spend what it’d take to bring King back, though they’ll need multiple rotation adds after also losing Cease to free agency and Yu Darvish to elbow surgery.

Tigers Have Shown Interest In Brad Keller As Starter

By | at

The Tigers are among the teams that have expressed interest in free agent righty Brad Keller as a starting pitcher, Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press wrote this afternoon. That report preceded Detroit’s agreement with swingman Drew Anderson, but it’s unlikely a one-year deal with a pitcher who hasn’t appeared in MLB since 2021 would take them out of the mix for starting pitching.

Keller is coming off a breakout year working out of the Cubs bullpen. The 30-year-old righty fired 69 2/3 innings of 2.07 ERA ball. He emerged as Craig Counsell’s most trusted leverage arm by the end of the season. Keller recorded 25 holds and a trio of saves while relinquishing just three leads all year. He was fantastic in the second half, allowing one run while striking out 35 hitters across 27 2/3 frames. He picked up two more saves and a hold while tossing 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the playoffs.

While the underlying metrics weren’t quite so dominant, Keller posted solid peripherals across the board. He punched out 27.2% of opponents against a manageable 8% walk rate. Keller got ground-balls at a 56.5% clip, the 10th-highest rate among relievers with 50+ innings. The only slight area of concern was a modest 10.8% swinging strike rate that checked in a little below the 11.5% league average.

Keller’s performance was obviously going to have plenty of teams interested in him as a reliever. As we noted on our writeup of the Top 50 Free Agents, it made sense that some clubs would view him as a rotation conversion candidate. Keller has plenty of starting experience. He was a starter for most of his six seasons as a member of the Royals. The 6’5″ righty found some early-career success as a grounder specialist at the back of the K.C. rotation.

His numbers tanked between 2021-23, and he underwent surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome before the ’24 campaign. Keller didn’t find much success in limited MLB looks with the White Sox and Red Sox that year. He was forced to settle for a minor league contract with the Cubs last winter. Keller looked rejuvenated in a relief role, earning a roster spot out of camp and pitching his way to the top of the bullpen hierarchy before long.

While the thoracic outlet surgery could give some clubs trepidation, there’s reason for optimism if he does return to starting. He has continued to use a five-pitch mix out of the bullpen. He had no issues handling left-handed hitters this year, holding them to a .223/.293/.277 slash with a 26% strikeout rate over 123 plate appearances. Keller doesn’t have pristine command but has shown good enough control to work into the middle innings as a starter. While he obviously wouldn’t maintain this past season’s 97.2 MPH average fastball velocity in longer stints, it’s not unreasonable to imagine him sitting 94-95 over five-plus innings.

MLBTR predicted Keller for a three-year, $36MM contract. That baked in the possibility that he could sign somewhere as a starter. ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote this morning that Keller indeed seems on track to pull a three-year deal. The Tigers have yet to sign a free agent for more than two seasons under fourth-year president of baseball operations Scott Harris.

Keller would nevertheless fit their general operating procedure of targeting the middle tiers of free agency. Detroit has also been linked to Michael King and Zac Gallen and have been more loosely floated as a potential Ranger Suárez suitor. They also reportedly kicked the tires on a reliever to starter move with Ryan Helsley, but he’s off the board on a two-year deal to close for the Orioles.

The rotation currently lines up with Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson, Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize in the top four spots. Rookie Troy Melton is probably the in-house favorite for the fifth starter role. He’d compete with Anderson, Keider Montero and Sawyer Gipson-Long for that job. They can certainly use another starter, and Keller would have the fallback to pitch in high-leverage relief if he doesn’t win a rotation spot out of camp.

Giants To Hire Jesse Chavez As Bullpen Coach

By | at

The Giants made a handful of notable moves on the coaching staff and in the front office. The club announced the hirings of former big leaguers Javier López and Curt Casali as front office advisors. They’re adding another longtime MLB player in the dugout, as newly-signed reliever Sam Hentges tells reporters (including Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle) that Jesse Chavez will be the new bullpen coach.

Chavez, 42, jumps into coaching a few months after the end of his playing career. He announced his retirement in July after being waived by the Braves. Chavez became a staple on MLBTR pages for a series of transactions that tended to land him back in Atlanta. He made four MLB appearances this year, reaching the big leagues for an 18th season.

A long reliever for the majority of his career, Chavez posted a 4.27 ERA in 657 appearances. He pitched for nine teams overall. The Giants were not one of them, but he spent four seasons in the Bay Area with the Athletics. He’ll replace Garvin Alston, who held the role for the past two seasons. San Francisco had arguably the sport’s best bullpen for the first few months of the 2025 season. Trades of Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval and a late-season Tommy John surgery for new closer Randy Rodríguez leave them with a lot of work to do this offseason.

As for the new advisors, both have ties to the organization. Casali caught in the big leagues for parts of 11 seasons. He had separate stints in San Francisco from 2021-22 and again to close his career last year. He was in camp with the Braves this past season but retired after the team announced he wouldn’t be on the Opening Day roster. He jumped into front office work with the Reds and now heads back to San Francisco.

López was a longtime reliever who spent his final seven seasons in orange and black. He was an effective left-handed specialist for the 2010, ’12 and ’14 World Series teams. López was obviously a longtime teammate of president of baseball operations Buster Posey. He retired in 2017 and has remained adjacent to the organization as a color analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area.

San Francisco also made one notable personnel move that does not involve a former big leaguer. They promoted vice president of analytics Paul Bien to assistant general manager. He joins Jeremy Shelley as the club’s assistant GMs, who work underneath Posey and general manager Zack Minasian. Bien, a UCLA graduate, has been in the organization since 2012. His background is in data and technology, and he has worked alongside the scouting/player development groups as well as providing analytic information to the MLB staff.

The Best Fits For Framber Valdez

By | at

Each offseason at MLBTR, we take a look at the potential markets for some of the top names in free agency. We've already covered the two best free agent hitters, Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette. With Dylan Cease off the board on what is likely to be the biggest pitching contract of the winter, we'll look at the market for the best left-hander: Framber Valdez.

Valdez has been one of the most durable and consistent pitchers in the sport over the past six seasons. This year's 3.66 earned run average was his highest since he established himself as a starter with the Astros in 2020. Valdez has surpassed 175 innings in four straight seasons. He sits in the 95-96 MPH range and is capable of both missing bats and keeping the ball on the ground. Valdez doesn't have the strikeout ceiling that Cease brings to the table, but he has fanned an above-average 23-25% of opponents in four straight years. His true standout trait is a ground-ball rate that annually ranks among the sport's highest, including a huge 58.6% mark this past season.

The plus stuff from the left side and combination of whiffs and grounders makes Valdez fairly similar to Max Fried. He's not going to match the eight-year, $218MM contract that Fried commanded when he was headed into his age-31 season. Valdez, who turned 32 last month, is probably looking at a five- or six-year deal at a premium annual rate. MLBTR predicted a five-year, $150MM contract that made him our #6 free agent. He's tied with Tatsuya Imai for the second-largest predicted contracts among pitchers (behind Cease, whom we had at $189MM over seven years).

Valdez rejected a qualifying offer from the Astros, who are not expected to make much of an effort to bring him back. They'll receive a compensatory pick -- specifics of which won't be determined until MLB finalizes the 2025 luxury tax calculations -- while the signing team will forfeit draft and/or international bonus pool space. That shouldn't be much of a deterrent for arguably the best immediate rotation upgrade available.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
  • Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
  • Remove ads and support our writers.
  • Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker

Tigers To Sign Drew Anderson

By | at

The Tigers and right-hander Drew Anderson have agreed to a deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It’s a one-year pact with a club option for 2027. The salary figures haven’t yet been publicly reported. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic reports that the Tigers expect the righty to be a starter, as he has been doing in Korea for the past couple of years. The Tigers have a 40-man vacancy and won’t need to make a corresponding move.

Anderson, 32 in March, bounced around the big leagues a few years ago. He got brief looks in five straight seasons from 2017 to 2021, spending time with the Phillies, White Sox and Rangers. He posted a 6.50 earned run average in 44 1/3 innings spread across those five seasons.

He went overseas for the 2022 season, joining the Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He had a pretty good run as a Carp, posting a 3.05 over two seasons in Hiroshima. On the heels of that performance, he tried coming back to North America. The Tigers gave him a minor league deal in January of 2024. He didn’t make the team out of camp and was pitching for the SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization by the end of April.

His first year in Korea went quite well. He tossed 115 2/3 innings over 24 appearances with a 3.89 ERA. His 10.7% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 31.9% of batters faced and got grounders on 45.8% of balls in play. The Landers re-signed him for 2025 and his performance this year was even better. He made 30 starts and logged 171 2/3 innings with a 2.25 ERA, 35.3% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate and 45.9% ground ball rate.

In the past few days, a handful of teams have agreed to deals with players returning from stints overseas. The Astros agreed to a one-year, $2.6MM deal with Ryan Weiss, who had been pitching in Korea. Anthony Kay, who has been in Japan, got a two-year, $12MM deal from the White Sox. The Blue Jays made a big splash by agreeing to a three-year, $30MM deal with Cody Ponce.

Anderson’s numbers in 2025 were fairly close to Ponce’s in a few areas. Ponce’s 36.2% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate were both slightly ahead. His 45.7% ground ball rate was just barely behind Anderson’s. Ponce posted a 1.89 ERA, coming out slightly ahead of Anderson.

While the numbers might suggest a narrow gap between the two, the industry consensus is that Ponce is further ahead of Anderson based on his stuff. To illustrate, this piece from Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan of FanGraphs pegged Ponce as a #4 starter on a good team who should earn $20-25MM on a two-year deal, fairly close to what he eventually secured. Anderson, on the other hand, split the two writers. Without naming names, they say one of them felt Anderson could be a decent back-end guy while the other felt he would likely end up as a reliever.

It’s still unknown how much the Tigers are spending but they are making a bet that Anderson can hack it as a big league starter. Detroit’s rotation will be fronted by Tarik Skubal, with Reese Olson, Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty in behind him. Anderson will presumably be competing for the #5 spot in spring training alongside guys like Keider Montero, Troy Melton, Ty Madden and Sawyer Gipson-Long. The Tigers have been connected to free agents such as Zac Gallen, Ranger Suárez and Michael King, so it’s possible they change up the picture between now and when camp opens.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Marlins Outright Zach Brzykcy

By | at

The Marlins announced that they have sent right-hander Zach Brzykcy outright to Triple-A Jacksonville. That indicates the Fish put him on waivers in recent days and he went unclaimed. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com reported the move prior to the official announcement. The righty will stay in the system as non-roster depth. Miami’s 40-man roster count will drop to 39, perhaps allowing them to make a pick in next week’s Rule 5 draft.

Brzykcy, 26, has never pitched for the Marlins. He had spent his entire career with the Nationals until the Fish claimed him off waivers last month. The Nats added him to their 40-man roster two years ago, to keep him out of the 2023 Rule 5 draft. Since then, he has mostly been in the minors. He has just 28 2/3 big league innings, having allowed 32 earned runs in that time, giving him an ugly 10.05 ERA at the moment.

On the farm, he has shown big strikeout stuff but control issues. He missed the 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery. Over the past two years, he has thrown 61 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.70 ERA. His 13.6% walk rate is quite high but he’s also punched out 28.7% of batters faced.

Since this is Brzykcy’s first career outright and he has less than three years of service time, he doesn’t have the right to reject this assignment in favor of free agency. He will therefore stick with the Marlins in a non-roster capacity and provide them with some depth.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Astros Outright Taylor Trammell, Logan VanWey

By | at

The Astros have sent outfielder Taylor Trammell and right-hander Logan VanWey outright to Triple-A Sugar Land. Chandler Rome of The Athletic was among those to pass the info along. It wasn’t previously reported that the club had removed either from the roster but it appears Houston put them on waivers to clear up a couple of roster spots, perhaps to make a selection in next week’s Rule 5 draft. The 40-man count is technically down to 38 but the Astros reportedly have an agreement in place with Ryan Weiss, so he will need a spot whenever that deal becomes official.

Trammell, now 28, was once a Top 100 prospect but he hasn’t been able to establish himself as a viable big leaguer. Over the past five seasons, he has stepped to the plate 494 times, split between the Mariners, Dodgers, Yankees and Astros. He has 18 home runs and a strong 11.5% walk rate but has also been punched out at a 35.2% rate. That’s led to a .175/.277/.355 batting line and 80 wRC+.

He exhausted his final option season with the Mariners in 2023. That made it harder for him to hang onto a roster spot. In early 2024, he went to the Dodgers and Yankees via waivers. The Yankees then sent him outright in May of 2024 but added him back to the roster at season’s end to prevent him from reaching free agency and then flipped him to Houston. He managed to hang onto his roster spot with the Astros all year but with significant time spent on the injured list. He only got into 52 games and his offensive production stayed around his previous levels.

Since Trammell has a previous career outright, he has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency. However, he is unlikely to do so. Since he has less than five years of big league service, electing free agency means walking away from any money he is still owed. He qualified for arbitration this winter as a Super Two player. He and the Astros avoided arbitration last month by agreeing to a split deal which pays him $900K in the majors and $500K in the minors. Presumably, he’ll accept the assignment to keep that contract in place, which means the Astros can keep him as non-roster outfield depth.

VanWey, 27 in February, was an undrafted free agent who just made it to the big leagues for the first time in April. He was shuttled to Triple-A and back a few times this year, tossing 10 2/3 innings over nine big league appearances. He allowed six earned runs on 15 hits, three walks and one hit-by-pitch while striking out seven. This is his first career outright and he doesn’t have three years of big league service, meaning he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency. He’ll stick with the Astros as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Jairaj, Imagn Images

Braves Claim Osvaldo Bido, Anthony Molina

By | at

The Braves announced that they have claimed right-hander Osvaldo Bido off waivers from the Athletics and fellow righty Anthony Molina off waivers from the Rockies. There wasn’t any previous indication the players were on the wire but it seems the A’s and Rockies wanted to open roster spots, perhaps for the Rule 5 draft next week, and put these guys out there. Atlanta had one 40-man spot available and opened another by designating left-hander Josh Walker for assignment.

Bido, 30, has shown some promise in the big leagues but is coming off a challenging season. In 2024, he tossed 63 1/3 innings for the A’s over nine starts and seven relief appearances, allowing 3.41 earned runs per nine. His 10% walk rate was a bit high and he seemed to benefit from a .250 batting average on balls in play and 3.8% home run per flyball ratio, but his 24.3% strikeout rate was a solid figure.

For the 2025 season, the A’s moved to a Triple-A park in West Sacramento. The hitter-friendly environment seemed to impact Bido. His BABIP jumped to .315 and 14.7% of his fly balls left the yard. Also, his strikeout rate dropped to 18.7%. Put it all together and his ERA climbed to 5.87. The A’s optioned him to the minors a few times and he had a 5.71 ERA in Triple-A. He exhausted his final option year in the process, which was going to make it harder for him to stay on the roster going forward.

Atlanta will take a flier on him today. If he stays on the roster through the winter, he could compete for a job on the staff in spring training. It’s also possible they put him back on waivers later in the offseason. If he were to clear at some future date, they could keep him in the system as non-roster depth.

Molina, 24 in January, was a Rule 5 pick out of the Rays’ system in November of 2023. He has managed to stick on Colorado’s roster since then but has a ghastly 6.96 ERA in 94 1/3 major league innings. The Rockies have made a number of front office changes in recent months and it appears the new regime is less enamored of Molina, so he has been bumped to the waiver wire.

Atlanta seems to have a fondness for getting pitchers away from Coors Field. They have acquired Rockies pitchers such as Pierce Johnson, Brad Hand and Tyler Kinley in recent years. They also acquired Ryan Rolison from Colorado just last month.

Molina hasn’t had much major league success and doesn’t strike guys out, even in the minors, but he has generally avoided walks and gotten ground balls. He has only given a free pass to 6.3% of batters faced in his minor league career and just 6.6% of major league opponents. He still has a couple of options and can therefore be shuttled between Triple-A and the majors for the foreseeable future.

Walker, 31, was just claimed off waivers last month. He hasn’t yet found major league success, with a 6.59 ERA in 27 1/3 innings, but has intriguing minor league numbers. He tossed 131 2/3 innings on the farm from 2022 to 2025 with a 3.90 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate and grounders on about half the balls in play he allowed. His 11.6%walk rate in that time wasn’t amazing but there’s been enough good stuff to entice teams.

Walker signed with the Blue Jays a year ago, then was acquired by the Phillies and the Orioles during the 2025 season. He exhausted his final option season this year, meaning he’ll now be out of options going forward. The O’s signed him to a guaranteed deal and tried to pass him through waivers but Atlanta claimed him. Atlanta will now have a week to try to trade him or pass him through waivers themselves. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks would need to come together in the next five days.

Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images

Cardinals Claim Zak Kent

By | at

The Cardinals announced Friday that they’ve claimed right-hander Zak Kent off waivers from the Guardians. The Cards already had a pair of 40-man vacancies and are now up to 39 players on the roster.

Kent, 28 in February, made his big league debut in Cleveland this past season. He tossed 17 2/3 innings out of the Guards’ bullpen and yielded nine earned runs (4.58 ERA) with a 21.1% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate. Kent averaged 92.6 mph on his four-seamer and 93.6 mph on a sparsely used sinker. His breaking offerings include a mid-80s slider and a low-80s curveball.

Though Kent didn’t show much in his relatively limited run at the MLB level, he turned in a sharp 2.84 ERA in 38 Triple-A frames last year. Command issues still plagued him, evidenced by 13.2% walk rate, but he also set down more than 31% of his opponents on strikes. He’s long been credited as having a pair of plus breaking pitches, but his sub-par fastball velocity and poor command have undercut the quality of both those breaking pitches.

Kent is out of minor league options, so the Cardinals can’t send him to Triple-A Memphis next season without first passing him through waivers. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Kent is eligible for a fourth option, so perhaps the Cards will apply for that and be granted another option for Kent. There’s no guarantee he makes it to spring training on the 40-man roster, but if he does stick on the roster all winter, Kent should have an opportunity to win a job in what should be a wide-open competition for at least four bullpen spots (five, if the Cardinals trade JoJo Romero, as expected).

Rangers Likely To Fill Second Base Internally

By | at

Last month’s Marcus Semien-for-Brandon Nimmo swap created a hole at second base in Arlington, but the Rangers don’t plan on going outside the organization to find help at the position. Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports reports that Texas currently plans to fill that void internally.

That should be good news for 28-year-old Josh Smith, who’s bounced all over the diamond in a utility role over the past few seasons but now looks like a strong candidate for regular work at second base — at least against right-handed pitching. The lefty-swinging former second-round pick was a roughly average hitter in 2025 and a fair bit better than that in 2024. Over the past two seasons, he’s slashed a combined .254/.336/.380 (107 wRC+) with 23 homers, 53 doubles, three triples and 23 stolen bases in 1155 plate appearances (293 games).

Second base has actually been Smith’s least-frequent position of the many in which he’s dabbled at the MLB level. He’s played just 41 innings there, although part of the reason for that is Semien’s iron man status at the position. Semien missed a total of four games over his first three seasons in Texas, leaving few opportunities for anyone else at second base. He “only” appeared in 127 games this season, but Texas was also using Smith at the hot corner and in the outfield to help cover for other injuries, so he appeared in just four games at second base. Cody Freeman, Dylan Moore and Ezequiel Duran were more frequent options there in place of Semien.

Duran and Freeman both remain with the organization and are on the 40-man roster. That’s also true of former first-round pick Justin Foscue. Anyone from that group could step up and grab a more prominent role at second base, but none of that group has hit nearly as well as Smith in the majors.

Duran showed some promise in 2023 but has hit just .237/.278/.309 in 504 plate appearances dating back to 2024. Freeman had a terrific showing in Triple-A last year, hitting .336/.382/.549 with just an 8.7% strikeout rate in 97 games. That didn’t carry over to the majors, though. Freeman hit .228/.258/.342 with a 15.7% strikeout rate in 121 turns at the plate. Foscue posted league-average offense in Triple-A this past season but has a bleak .059/.094/.098 slash in an admittedly tiny sample of 53 plate appearances. He’s also long faced defensive questions and has been splitting time between second base and first base in recent seasons.

The most exciting option is likely still a ways down the road. Sebastian Walcott is widely regarded as one of the ten best prospects in the sport. He’s just 19 years old but already held his own against much more advanced Double-A pitching last year, hitting .255/.355/.386 with 13 homers, 32 steals, a 12.7% walk rate and an 18.9% strikeout rate. Walcott, who’ll turn 20 in March, is a shortstop but could move to second base with Corey Seager entrenched at shortstop.

Regardless of exactly what shape it takes, it seems the Rangers will avoid bringing in free agents or trade candidates of note to plug that gap at second base. Given the team’s stated goal of reducing payroll, signing someone like Bo Bichette never seemed viable, but this latest report also strongly suggests that second-tier infield targets like Jorge Polanco and trade targets like Brendan Donovan or Brandon Lowe aren’t going to be a priority.

Adding some additional depth on minor league deals and/or an opportunistic one-year deal for a bargain-bin pickup late in the offseason don’t seem out of the question. Wilson notes that GM Ross Fenstermaker said the club will be opportunistic on that front. For now, however, a splash of any real note doesn’t appear to be in the cards.

In a smaller but notable bit of Rangers news, president of baseball operations Chris Young made clear that he hopes to re-sign reliever Josh Sborz after non-tendering him last week, writes Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Young said his team is “extremely” interested in bringing Sborz back but prefers it to be on a minor league deal.

Sborz didn’t pitch this season after undergoing shoulder surgery in November 2024. The hope was that he’d make his way back to the mound at some point in 2025. He set out on a minor league rehab stint in mid-July but struggled both with results and velocity; Sborz’s fastball was down more than three miles per hour. Texas started and stopped his rehab stint multiple times before shutting him down entirely in early September.

The 31-year-old Sborz (32 in a couple weeks) had a bizarre campaign in 2023, pitching well for much of the season (3.83 ERA through mid-August) before being torched for 13 runs in 7 2/3 frames down the stretch, thereby ballooning his ERA to 5.50. Sborz then bounced all the way back — and then some — in the playoffs, serving as one of then-manager Bruce Bochy’s most trusted relievers. He pitched a dozen innings and allowed only one run (0.75 ERA) on four hits and four walks. He fanned 13.

If another club is willing to put Sborz on its 40-man roster — or offer him a larger salary on a non-guaranteed contract — the Rangers might be hard-pressed to retain the right-hander. Coming off a lost season, however, that’s far from a sure thing. If Sborz does ultimately re-sign on a minor league pact, his track record and familiarity with the organization could give him an inside track on winning a roster spot — provided his shoulder is back up to full strength.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top