Poll: How Should The Blue Jays Manage Trey Yesavage’s Workload In 2026?
Trey Yesavage had a whirlwind season in 2025. After the Blue Jays drafted him in the first round in 2024, Yesavage opened 2025 at Single-A and immediately impressed with a 2.43 ERA in 33 1/3 innings. He continued that dominance in a brief stop at High-A and reached Double-A in mid-June, striking out 38.0% of hitters against a 9.0% walk rate at that level. Yesavage then held his own at Triple-A, not allowing a home run in 17 1/3 innings and continuing to post a high strikeout rate. His rapid ascent culminated in three appearances with the big-league club in September, followed by six more in the postseason, including two starts and a Game 7 relief appearance in the World Series.
Altogether, Yesavage threw 139 2/3 innings between the regular season and the playoffs, a marked increase over the 93 1/3 innings he threw at East Carolina University in 2024. Coming off his success last year, he will feature prominently in a rotation mix that also includes Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer, and Shane Bieber (when he returns from an expected stint on the injured list). However, considering Yesavage’s youth rapidly escalating workload, it is reasonable to expect some kind of innings limit in 2026.
At this point in Spring Training, Yesavage is built up to one inning and has not yet appeared in a game, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. That is hardly unexpected, as even established starters are built up gradually to a full workload by the end of camp. Manager John Schneider confirmed that Yesavage’s slow build-up is intentional, with the plan being for him to get one more live batting practice session before joining games. Notably, Schneider downplayed the possibility of Yesavage starting the season as a reliever to limit his innings.
“Right now we still view him as a starter,” Schneider said. “And we want to keep that pretty regular. Last year was a year of disrupting a young guy’s routine as much as we could, so we want to be pretty regular with him.” Schneider’s comments bode well for Yesavage’s chance of being a starter for the full season. That said, it would not be surprising for the club to manage the rookie’s workload conservatively in the early going, especially if Berrios, Ponce, and Scherzer start the year healthy behind Cease and Gausman.
Per Schneider’s comments, the club wants to keep Yesavage on a regular schedule. That would seemingly put him in the rotation for the entire season, though with the question of how many innings he’ll be able to handle. Yesavage averaged less than five innings per start during the regular season and just over five in the postseason. At five innings per start, a full season of 33 starts would put him around 165 innings – yet another big increase in workload. A target of 140 innings could make more sense.
In that scenario, Yesavage could piggyback off Berrios or Ponce for the first month or so. That would give him the benefit of making shorter appearances while sticking to a starter’s routine and gradually building up. Of Berrios and Ponce, the former makes more sense partnering with Yesavage in a piggyback role. Berrios made 32 starts per season from 2021-24 but seemed to run out of gas as the 2025 season went on. His first-half ERA of 3.75 was solid, but that rose to 5.15 in 50 2/3 innings in the second half. He was demoted to the bullpen in late September and ended up not appearing in the postseason.
Piggybacking Yesavage and Berrios could help manage the former’s innings while allowing the latter to re-establish himself after his poor conclusion to 2025. In contrast, Ponce came over this offseason on a three-year, $30MM deal after a successful stint in the Korea Baseball Organization. He pitched 180 2/3 innings over 29 starts for the Hanwha Eagles in 2025, posting an excellent 1.89 ERA, a 30.3% K-BB rate, and ultimately winning that league’s MVP award. That recent track record and the magnitude of his contract make a hybrid role unlikely, though Ponce made three relief appearances in Japan last year and was mostly a reliever in his last MLB experience in 2021.
If the team prefers to keep Yesavage as a traditional starter, they might consider having him skip a few starts in the middle of the season. While that would be at least a temporary disruption to his routine, it might make the most sense from a roster management perspective. Six-man rotations are becoming more common as a way to manage workloads throughout the season, but they come with the challenge of having one less reliever. In lieu of giving him five days of regular rest, skipping a few of Yesavage’s starts (ideally around scheduled off days) could be a good compromise that keeps him fresh for the stretch run.
Another (less likely) option is to keep him as a starter for the regular season, then transition him to the bullpen if Toronto makes the postseason. Cease and Gausman are guaranteed spots in a playoff rotation, while Bieber makes a solid No. 3 and Max Scherzer comes with a wealth of postseason experience. Though Yesavage performed admirably as a starter this postseason, using him in a fireman role out of the bullpen could help the team get the most out of him while protecting his long-term health.
How do MLBTR readers think the Blue Jays should manage Yesavage’s workload in 2026? Be sure to let us know in the poll below:
How should the Blue Jays manage Trey Yesavage's workload in 2026?
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
Injury Notes: Gonzalez, Stephenson, Dunn, Edman
As of last week, Red Sox utility infielder Romy Gonzalez was experiencing shoulder troubles and received a platelet-rich plasma injection. He admitted that he would likely miss Opening Day, though he may end up missing significantly more time. Today, Sean McAdam of MassLive adds that Gonzalez will visit a shoulder specialist next week to see if he needs to undergo surgery. Gonzalez opined that surgery “is not a season-ender by any means, in my opinion,” though any longer absence for the lefty-mashing infielder will be a blow to the Red Sox’ lineup regardless.
The right-handed-hitting Gonzalez injured his shoulder at the end of 2025 and experienced renewed soreness in January while ramping up for Spring Training. He posted career-best offensive numbers in 2025, batting .305/.343/.483 with a 123 wRC+ in 341 plate appearances for the Sox. While his performance against right-handers was slightly below average (95 wRC+), he absolutely teed off on southpaws. In 143 PA with the platoon advantage, Gonzalez hit seven of his nine home runs and posted a 162 wRC+ that was tied for 12th-best among hitters with at least 100 PA against lefties. Obviously, the team will hope he avoids surgery, but with that kind of production, they’ll do what it takes to ensure Gonzalez comes back at full strength.
A few other injury updates from around the league:
- Angels right-hander Robert Stephenson faced live hitters for the first time on Friday as he works to be ready for Opening Day, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Stephenson said there is understandably “a little polishing to do” but added that he felt good physically and reached 95 MPH on his fastball (he averaged 96.4 MPH on his four-seamer last year). Tommy John surgery and symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome have limited him to 10 innings with Los Angeles. In his last healthy season in 2023, Stephenson threw 52 1/3 innings with a 3.10 ERA and a well-above-average 38.3% strikeout rate. When healthy, he should factor into the late-inning mix with fellow right-hander Ben Joyce, who is currently rehabbing his own shoulder issue.
- Reds outfielder Blake Dunn is going for an MRI on his left knee today, according to Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. Dunn hyperextended his left knee while attempting to make a catch yesterday. The 27-year-old was a 15th-round draft pick by the Reds in 2021 and appeared in 49 big-league games from 2024-25, though he has posted just a 63 wRC+. He fared much better at Triple-A in 2025, batting .291/.397/.401 with a 121 wRC+ along with 24 stolen bases in 98 games. Currently, Cincinnati has Will Benson, Dane Myers, and Spencer Steer on hand as outfield backups. A healthy Dunn will stay at Triple-A for depth.
- Dodgers utilityman Tommy Edman took light batting practice yesterday, per Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic. He could face higher velocity off a machine in a few days if he continues to progress, but he is still weeks away from being fully ramped up. Edman underwent surgery in November to address an ankle issue that plagued him all season. Manager Dave Roberts confirmed a couple of weeks ago that Edman would begin the year on the injured list. This news won’t move up his return, though in any case, the team wants Edman at full strength. He is entering the second year of his five-year, $74MM contract. He posted an 81 wRC+ in 97 games in 2025, showing a drop in power while also striking out slightly less than in 2024.
Photo courtesy of D. Ross Cameron, Imagn Images
Paolo Espino Announces Retirement
Right-hander Paolo Espino is retiring after 19 seasons in pro ball, as the 39-year-old announced that he is hanging up his glove after the World Baseball Classic is over. The longtime member of Panama’s national team saw action in both the 2006 and 2009 editions of the WBC, and is looking to pitch for his country one more time before calling it a career.
A 10th-round pick for Cleveland in the 2006 draft, Espino finally made it to the Show in March 2017 when he was 30 years and pitching with the Brewers. He tossed 24 total innings that season between the Brewers and Rangers and then didn’t resurface in the majors again until 2020 when he was a member of the Nationals.
The bulk of Espino’s time in the big leagues was spent in a Washington uniform, as the right-hander threw 233 innings over 82 games with the Nats (out of 265 2/3 career innings and 97 games). Throughout his time with the Nationals and over his career as a whole, Espino worked in a variety of roles, including as a regular starter, long reliever, bulk pitcher behind an opener, or as the proverbial last man in the bullpen reserved for blowout duty.
Espino posted a 5.12 ERA over his 265 frames with the Brewers, Rangers, Nationals, and Blue Jays, as his 8 2/3 innings over three outings with Toronto in 2024 marked the final appearances of his MLB career. The Jays outrighted Espino off the 40-man roster at the conclusion of the 2024 campaign and he elected free agency, eventually signing with Conspiradores de Queretaro of the Mexican League for part of the 2025 season.
We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Espino on his fine career, and we wish him all the best in his post-playing endeavors.
AL Central Notes: Twins, Rojas, Buxton, Gaddis, Tigers
The Blue Jays started asking the Twins about Louis Varland three months before the reliever was actually dealt at last summer’s trade deadline, and Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that the Twins aimed high in negotiations by asking for one of Trey Yesavage or Kendry Rojas in return. Yesavage (the Jays’ top pitching prospect and future postseason breakout star) wasn’t going anywhere, but Toronto eventually budged in moving Rojas and outfielder Alan Roden in exchange for Varland and Ty France.
Fast forward to Spring Training, and Roden is competing for a starting job in Minnesota’s outfield while Rojas’ high-90’s velocity is turning heads in camp. The 23-year-old Rojas got rocked over 32 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2025 and is still trying to harness his control, but he could be a candidate to make his MLB debut at some point this season. The Twins will continue to develop Rojas as a starter but some scouts believe a high-leverage relief role could be in the southpaw’s future. An initial call-up as a reliever could help Rojas ease his way into the big leagues while not closing the door on a potential future as a rotation piece.
More from around the AL Central…
- Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis‘ imaging on his forearm “came back clean,” manager Stephen Vogt told MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins and other reporters earlier this week after Gaddis experienced forearm tightness after his first spring outing on February 27. Gaddis has resumed his throwing progression and it doesn’t seem like the issue will impact his Opening Day status, as Vogt said “everything I’m hearing is that it’s good news and we’re good to go.” Stebbins writes that the Guardians were already giving workhorse relievers Gaddis and Cade Smith gradual builds into the season, as a reflection of how much both right-handers pitched in 2024-25 — Gaddis’ 151 appearances were the second-most in baseball over the last two seasons, and Smith was right behind with 150 appearances. Gaddis augmented that durability with a 6.3% walk rate and 25.2% strikeout rate, and he’ll again be leaned on for key leverage innings in Cleveland’s bullpen in 2026.
- Beau Brieske is slated to throw a bullpen session today as the Tigers gauge his recovery from right ribcage tightness. Brieske has pitched in just two games this spring but manager A.J. Hinch told the Detroit Free Press’ Evan Petzold and other reporters that Brieske “has plenty of time as a reliever to accomplish what he needs to make a run at this team.” Ankle and elbow injuries limited Brieske to 22 Major League innings last season, and his health setbacks surely contributed to a 6.55 ERA. While the ribcage issue is another setback, Brieske is aiming to return to his past role as a solid swingman on Detroit’s staff.
- Bookending the post with some more Twins news, x-rays were negative on Byron Buxton‘s forearm after the outfielder was removed from a World Baseball Classic game yesterday after being hit by a pitch. United States manager Mark DeRosa told reporters (including MLB.com’s Ryan Kelapire) that the sixth-inning removal was just precautionary, and done in part because the USA already had a big lead in what ended up as a 15-5 win over Brazil. Even minor injury situations like this can’t help but raise extra concerns given Buxton’s checkered health history, though it appears the outfielder should be fine.
Blue Jays Re-Sign Max Scherzer
TODAY: Scherzer’s contract also contains full no-trade protection, Jon Heyman reports.
MARCH 2: The Blue Jays officially announced they’ve re-signed Max Scherzer to a one-year contract. The Boras Corporation client is reportedly guaranteed $3MM and can earn up to $10MM in incentives. He’d earn his first $1MM bonus at 65 innings and reach another $1MM bonus for every tenth inning, up through 155 frames overall. Toronto cleared a 40-man roster spot over the weekend by waiving infielder Ben Cowles, who was claimed by the Cubs.
It’s the future Hall of Famer’s second season in Toronto. The three-time Cy Young winner signed a $15.5MM deal with the Jays during the 2024-25 offseason. He was coming off an abbreviated season in which he’d been limited to nine starts for the Rangers. Scherzer had undergone back surgery the previous offseason, and a nerve issue in his throwing arm limited him once he recovered from the back procedure.
The arm remained problematic last season. Scherzer left his team debut after three innings because of thumb soreness. That had been traced to the nerve issue and ultimately led the Jays to shut Scherzer down for a couple months. He didn’t return to an MLB mound until late June.
Scherzer was able to avoid the injured list after that point but didn’t perform to his usual level. He allowed more than five earned runs per nine innings for the first time in his career. He closed the season with a 5.19 mark over 85 innings. Scherzer only once allowed more than four runs in a start, but he only went beyond five innings on seven occasions. He had six quality starts in 17 appearances.
The 17-year veteran is still capable of missing bats at a league average level. He struck out a slightly above-average 23% of batters faced against a tidy 6.4% walk rate. The issue is the damage hitters have done when they make contact. Scherzer allowed more than two home runs per nine innings for the first time in his career. It was the fourth-highest homer rate in MLB among pitchers who threw 70+ innings.
Scherzer’s fastball averaged 93.6 mph last season. That’s a tick higher than his 2024 mark, reversing a slight downward trend in his velocity during his late 30s. He nevertheless had a tough time getting hitters to chase his breaking pitches outside the strike zone. Scherzer obviously doesn’t have the same caliber of stuff he did at his peak, which makes him more hittable when he’s forced to challenge hitters. He has allowed a higher than average home run rate in three straight seasons.
At age 41, Scherzer profiles as a back-end starter on paper. Yet he has a wealth of big game experience and showed he’s still capable of getting outs on the biggest stage. The Jays left Scherzer off the roster for their Division Series matchup with the Yankees. They brought him back for the AL Championship Series against Seattle and the World Series showdown with the Dodgers.
Scherzer tossed 5 2/3 frames of two-run ball to get the win in ALCS Game 4. He struggled a bit in Game 3 of the World Series before coming back with one run allowed in 4 1/3 innings in Game 7. Scherzer left the mound with a 3-1 lead in a performance that would have been etched into Toronto sports history if the bullpen had held the lead.
They’ll aim to get over the hump in 2026. Assuming Scherzer builds up in time for Opening Day, he’ll probably slot into a six-man rotation to begin the season. Shane Bieber will begin the year on the injured list after experiencing forearm fatigue during the playoff run. Toronto had been slated to open the season with a starting five of Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, José Berríos and Cody Ponce.
Yesavage is entering his first full MLB season. Ponce is a bit of a wild card in his return from Korea. Scherzer presumably isn’t going to log 150+ innings at this stage of his career. Opening with a six-man rotation would allow the Jays to take some of the burden off a rotation that shouldered as heavy a load as possible into October.
That comes with a trickle-down impact on the bullpen, however. The 13-pitcher limit means the Jays would be down to a seven-man bullpen if they go this route. That increases the importance of having a quality long reliever like Eric Lauer to handle multiple innings.
At the same time, this makes it less likely that Lauer will have a chance to win a rotation spot. The left-hander is an impending free agent and said he’d prefer a starting opportunity. There hasn’t been any indication that Lauer would seek a trade if the Jays keep him in a relief role, though the southpaw told Mitch Bannon of The Athletic he believes that pitching out of the bullpen last season cost him money in arbitration. Lauer lost his hearing, meaning he’ll make the team’s desired $4.4MM salary rather than his camp’s $5.75MM filing figure.
That could be a situation worth monitoring if everyone remains healthy closer to Opening Day. For now, this looks like the ideal outcome for the Jays and Scherzer alike. The $3MM base salary will push their franchise-record luxury tax payroll to approximately $319MM, according to RosterResource. The Jays are taxed at a 90% rate on spending above $304MM. This signing comes with a $2.7MM base tax. Earned performance bonuses are part of a team’s CBT calculation, so the Jays would also pay that 90% fee on any dollars that Scherzer unlocks by hitting innings milestones throughout the year.
Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the agreement. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet had the $3MM base and $10MM in incentives. Heyman reported the incentive structure. Image courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images.
Tigers Didn’t Make Long-Term Offer To Tarik Skubal This Offseason
Tarik Skubal is scheduled to reach free agency next winter, and it would appear that any chances of an extension between the star southpaw and the Tigers are going from slim to none. As Skubal told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Tigers didn’t discuss a long-term contract with the left-hander this winter.
“There is no offer” from the team right now, Skubal said, and “there won’t be an offer until the end of the season….My focus is on playing baseball and winning this year. I’ll deal with the contract stuff at the end of the year, and then we’ll kind of see. And that’s fine. It’s their decision.”
There also weren’t any talks about even a one-year deal covering Skubal’s 2026 salary once Skubal filed for a $32MM figure in his final year of salary arbitration. This lack of talks was expected, since the Tigers adhere to the “file and trial” tactic adopted by most every big league team — if an agreement isn’t reached prior to the filing deadline, teams often cease all negotiations with the player unless the topic is a multi-year contract (or the work-around of a one-year deal with a mutual option attached for the following season).
Finding middle ground between the Tigers and Skubal in this particular situation may have been unlikely anyway, given how Skubal’s $32MM salary was meant to establish a new precedent for star pitchers (and, arguably all players) in their final year of arbitration eligibility. Detroit submitted a figure of $19MM, and the arbitration panel ruled in Skubal’s favor, in a very significant win for Skubal, agent Scott Boras, and the MLB players’ union.
As to the larger question of a long-term extension, the lack of fresh talks between the two sides is also perhaps not a surprise. Boras clients rarely opt for extensions over eventually testing free agency, and an even smaller number of Boras clients sign extensions when they’re this close to the open market. Assuming Skubal stays healthy and delivers another season akin to his 2024-25 performance, he is expected to command another precedent-setting free agent contract that would make him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history.
Given the circumstances, the Tigers certainly wouldn’t be getting any kind of hometown discount in extension talks, and if anything would’ve had to pay a premium to convince Skubal to forego free agency. Faced with this reality, the Tigers may have considered further negotiations about a long-term deal to be somewhat pointless, if the club simply isn’t prepared to pay Skubal a price tag that seems likely to land well north of $350MM.
The Tigers did make Skubal an extension offer last winter, and Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reported in October that this offer was a four-year deal worth less than $100MM that would’ve covered the 2025-28 seasons (Skubal’s final two arbitration-eligible years and his first two free agent years). For context, Skubal went close to 11 months between MLB starts due to a flexor tendon surgery that sidelined him for parts of the 2022 and 2023 seasons, so it could be that the Tigers were thinking Skubal might jump at some financial security in the wake of a serious injury. However, given that Skubal looked superb after his return in 2023 and then won the AL Cy Young Award in 2024, Detroit’s offer seemed bafflingly low in both dollars and length.
All signs seem to be pointing to 2026 being Skubal’s final season in Motown, though that doesn’t necessarily mean there are any hard feelings between the player and the team. It could that the two sides recognize the reality of the situation, and (as Skubal alluded) plan to spend the year aiming towards their shared goal of a World Series championship. There was some speculation that the Tigers were considering dealing Skubal this offseason, yet that scenario never seemed too likely both due to both Detroit’s big asking price, and the plain fact that a World Series push is easier when arguably baseball’s best pitcher is on your roster.
The Framber Valdez signing indicates that the Tigers are preparing for a post-Skubal rotation, though Valdez’s $115MM free agent deal is only three years long, and contains an opt-out after 2027. Skubal and Valdez headline what looks like a very solid rotation that also consists of Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, and Tigers legend Justin Verlander returning to the Motor City to complete the unfinished business of winning a ring in a Tigers uniform.
2025-26 Offseason In Review Series
MLBTR’s annual Offseason In Review series is back, with a team-by-team breakdown of what club did (and didn’t do) this winter. This is the landing page for all 30 entries, and it will be continually updated with new links once each entry is published.
NL West
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- Colorado Rockies
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- San Diego Padres
- San Francisco Giants
NL Central
- Chicago Cubs
- Cincinnati Reds
- Milwaukee Brewers
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- St. Louis Cardinals
NL East
- Atlanta Braves
- Miami Marlins
- New York Mets
- Philadelphia Phillies
- Washington Nationals
AL West
- Los Angeles Angels
- Houston Astros
- The Athletics
- Seattle Mariners
- Texas Rangers
AL Central
- Chicago White Sox
- Cleveland Guardians
- Detroit Tigers
- Kansas City Royals
- Minnesota Twins
AL East
- Baltimore Orioles
- Boston Red Sox
- New York Yankees
- Tampa Bay Rays
- Toronto Blue Jays
Joey Krehbiel Signs With Mexican League’s Guerreros De Oaxaca
The Guerreros de Oaxaca of the Mexican League announced that they have signed right-hander Joey Krehbiel to a contract for the 2026 season. Krehbiel (who turned 33 in December) elected to become a minor league free agent in November after spending the 2025 season pitching with the Rays’ and Royals’ Triple-A affiliates.
A veteran of four MLB seasons, Krehbiel made his big league debut in the form of a two-game cup of coffee with the Diamondbacks in 2018, then didn’t return to the majors until 2021. Of his 70 career appearances and 74 career innings, the big majority of that work came in 2022, when Krehbiel posted a 3.70 ERA, 18.4% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate over 56 games and 57 2/3 innings out of the Orioles’ bullpen. He only pitched in six games with Baltimore in 2023 (posting a 1.80 ERA across five innings), however, as the O’s shuttled him back and forth from Triple-A multiple times and twice designated Krehbiel for assignment and outrighted him over the course of the year.
This marked Krehbiel’s last bit of Major League action, as minor league contracts with the Mariners and Rays over the last two offseasons didn’t result in another call-up. The Royals also never called the righty up after acquiring him from Tampa in a trade last July. Krehbiel pitched pretty well with Triple-A Tacoma in 2024 but struggled last year to the tune of a 5.34 ERA over 57 1/3 IP in the Tampa and K.C. farm systems, though that ERA was inflated by some bad batted-ball luck — Krehbiel’s 50% grounder rate was counteracted by a .346 BABIP.
The right-hander will now look to get back on track with the Guerreros in the new environment of Mexican League ball. Because Mexican League contracts generally have out clauses, some solid work early in the season could get Krehbiel some attention from another MLB team on another minors deal.
Offseason In Review: Los Angeles Dodgers
The reigning champions weren’t the busiest team this winter but the moves they made were impactful and addressed their relative weak spots. They go into 2026 looking for the elusive three-peat, something not seen in MLB since the 1998-2000 Yankees.
Major League Signings
- OF Kyle Tucker: Four years, $240MM (includes $64MM signing bonus, $30MM in deferrals)
- RHP Edwin Díaz: Three years, $69MM (contains $13.5MM in deferrals and conditional club option for 2029)
- RHP Evan Phillips: One year, $6.5MM
- IF Miguel Rojas: One year, $5.5MM
- IF/OF Enrique Hernández: One year, $4.5MM
- IF Andy Ibáñez: One year, $1.2MM (later lost on waivers to Athletics)
2026 spending (not including Ibáñez): $90MM
Total spending (not including Ibáñez): $325.5MM
Trades and Claims
- Acquired RHP Tyler Gough from the Mariners for LHP Robinson Ortiz
- Claimed OF Michael Siani off waivers from Braves (later lost on waivers to Yankees)
- Traded OF Esteury Ruiz to Marlins for RHP Adriano Marrero
- Claimed IF Ryan Fitzgerald off waivers from the Twins (later outrighted)
- Claimed OF Michael Siani off waivers from Yankees
- Claimed C Ben Rortvedt off waivers from Reds (later lost on waivers to Mets)
- Traded LHP Anthony Banda to Twins for $500K of international bonus pool space
- Claimed OF Jack Suwinski off waivers from Pirates (later outrighted)
Option Decisions
- Team exercised $10MM club option on 3B Max Muncy (later extended, as seen below)
- Team exercised $3.65MM club option on LHP Alex Vesia
Notable Minor League Signings
- Nick Frasso, Chuckie Robinson, Nick Robertson, Ryder Ryan, Cole Irvin, Seby Zavala, Jordan Weems, Keston Hiura, Santiago Espinal, Yency Almonte, Keynan Middleton
Extensions
- 3B Max Muncy: One year, $10MM (including $3MM buyout of $10MM club option for 2028)
Notable Losses
- Tony Gonsolin (still unsigned), Michael Kopech (still unsigned), Kirby Yates, Michael Conforto, Justin Dean (lost on waivers), Ben Rortvedt (lost on waivers), Esteury Ruiz, Anthony Banda
The Dodgers went into the offseason in a great spot. The roster was strong enough to win the World Series for a second straight year. Their free agent class mostly consisted of relievers and role players, so no major holes were opening up.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman addressed that situation in December, speaking to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. He acknowledged that the club had less “heavy lifting” to do than in previous offseasons.
He pointed to the outfield and bullpen as places they could add but also said they were cognizant of the fact that the roster is getting older, with many of their stars being well into their 30s. They were actually the oldest club in the league in 2025. Going forward, it would make sense to sign fewer long-term deals and incorporate more young prospects. But at the same time, winning with their legendary core is a short-term priority.
Though the Dodgers did emerge victorious in 2025, they were not perfect and were almost eliminated a few times. Manager Dave Roberts seemed to have almost no trust in the relief corps, so he relied more and more on his starting pitchers as the postseason went along.
The outfield was also a bit wobbly. Teoscar Hernández has often out-hit his defensive shortcomings but was around league average offensively in 2025. Andy Pages had a good year but went ice cold in the playoffs. Michael Conforto was enough of a bust to be left off the postseason roster. Tommy Edman was fighting an ankle injury that would eventually require surgery.
On the bullpen pursuit, there were a number of high-profile relievers available in free agency. The Dodgers were connected to guys like Devin Williams, Pete Fairbanks, Raisel Iglesias and Robert Suarez. In the end, they somewhat surprisingly landed the top guy on the market, getting Edwin Díaz via a three-year deal worth $69MM.
Diaz is about to turn 32 and isn’t quite as dominant as he was a few years ago, but he’s still one of the best relievers in the game. He posted a 1.63 earned run average for the Mets in 2025, striking out 38% of batters faced.
Many expected Díaz to stay in Queens, since the Mets also needed to address their bullpen and are one of the few clubs with roughly the same spending power as the Dodgers. It would later come out that the Mets had offered him a three-year, $66MM deal. Considering the modest deferrals in the deal Díaz accepted from the Dodgers, the two offers were pretty close to identical. Some reports said the Mets were willing to go higher but were caught off-guard when he quickly agreed with the Dodgers before they could.
Diaz also reportedly received a five-year offer from Atlanta, though the dollar value of that wasn’t revealed. Presumably, it would have been a lower average annual value than the three-year offers he was getting from the Dodgers and Mets.
Maybe he wanted to break his own AAV record for a reliever, which was $20.4MM on his previous deal. The Dodgers deal, even factoring in the deferrals, is worth about $21.1MM annually. Maybe he just wanted to join baseball’s premier organization. At Edwin’s introductory press conference, he mentioned that his brother Alexis spoke fondly of the Dodgers after spending some brief time with them in 2025, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com.
Whatever the reasoning, the Dodgers added an elite closer to their already-strong club, just before the holiday break. Later in the winter, they would also bring back Evan Phillips on a much more modest deal worth $6.5MM. He is recovering from Tommy John surgery and won’t be available until the second half, but he could give the Dodgers another bullpen boost for the stretch run and playoffs.
As the calendar flipped to 2026, the outfield market hadn’t moved much. The top two free agents, Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger, were both still out there in January. As the holidays ended and teams got back to business in January, the Tucker market quickly picked up steam.
Tucker seemed to have some clear, distinct choices. The Blue Jays were offering a more traditional long-term deal that would essentially cover the remainder of Tucker’s career. They reportedly went as high as $350MM over ten years. That was a pretty close match for MLBTR’s 11-year, $400MM prediction and would have been one of the ten highest guarantees in MLB history.
The Mets and Dodgers were again bidding against each other and offering Tucker a different path. Both clubs were eager to avoid that kind of length and were willing to jack up the short-term spending. Taking this path would mean Tucker secures less overall but could earn a large amount of money in the next few years, with a chance to return to free agency to make more in the long run.
Players like Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso and others had taken this approach in free agency before but Tucker was being offered a super-charged version of it. The Mets reportedly went to $220MM over four years, with opt-outs after the second and third years. The Dodgers went slightly higher to $240MM over the same four-year term, also with opt-outs after year two and year three. That got it done.
There are some deferrals in the Tucker deal, but also a huge signing bonus. The sticker price comes with a $60MM average annual value. The deferrals knock the AAV down but only a little, as it is reportedly considered to be about $57.1MM in terms of the competitive balance tax.
For all intents and purposes that was easily a new record. Shohei Ohtani‘s ten-year, $700MM deal has a $70MM AAV on the surface, but the infamous deferrals in that deal knock it down to the $46MM range. With that in mind, Juan Soto was effectively the AAV record holder at $51MM before this Tucker deal.
It was a stunning number and could potentially represent many different things to different people. To some, the offers from the Dodgers and Mets represent the unworkable economic imbalances in the modern game. Both clubs repeatedly go into the top bracket of the CBT, meaning they face a 110% tax rate on new deals. The Dodgers will effectively send out $120MM to have Tucker on their team this year. That’s more than the entire player payroll of many clubs.
This had led to increased desire for drastic changes to baseball’s rules, with many fans and team owners clamoring for a salary cap or extreme alterations to the revenue-sharing rules. The Dodgers had already become public enemy number one in the eyes of many baseball fans by dominating on the field and in the offseason. Every new signing increases the outrage and the Tucker deal certainly cranked it up.
From the MLBPA perspective, this is evidence of why there should not be a cap. If multiple teams value Tucker highly enough that they are willing to pay out $120MM annually, it’s a sign that the league is in a strong financial position on the whole. Even under the current rules, Tucker is only going to get about half of the value he is producing on the field. The other half, the tax money, will go the league. Some of it will end up in a central fund, some will be distributed to smaller clubs like the Guardians and Marlins will no real mechanism to make them spend it. In the eyes of many, that lack of urgency from some teams is a bigger problem than the Dodgers’ willingness to invest in a winning team.
It also might just be a perfect alignment of circumstances. By all accounts, the Dodgers are bringing in all kinds of crazy revenue, as one would expect for a successful club. But the star presence of their Japanese players also means they basically have a money faucet running across the Pacific Ocean. As mentioned, they are trying to avoid a pitfall where they overcommit to their current core and suddenly find themselves with an old and creaky roster. They have used their financial might to add Tucker in the way that they wanted.
From his perspective, Tucker is technically leaving money on the table but he will have a good chance to get it back, and then some. In the ideal situation for him financially, he spends his age-29 and age-30 seasons playing for the best team in baseball. He will bank $120MM and could return to free agency looking for another deal ahead of his age-31 campaign. If he can find $230MM from that point on, he will make up the difference of what the Jays offered. If the next collective bargaining agreement looks to have made positive changes for players, he can benefit from that.
There were a few other things of note in the Dodgers’ offseason. There were some trade rumors surrounding Teoscar Hernández and Tyler Glasnow but it never seemed especially likely that either would move. Max Muncy got another year added to his contract. That slightly contradicts the plan to avoid an aging roster, as Muncy will turn 36 this year, but he’s still plenty productive and it’s just one more guaranteed season. Old friends Miguel Rojas and Enrique Hernández were re-signed for bench roles, though Hernández will start the season on the injured list.
The main storyline of the Dodger offseason is straightforward. They were already great in November, with some slight question marks around the bullpen and outfield. They signed the top free agent available for both of those areas. They did so while limiting their long-term commitments, as they wished. They ramped up spending in the short term, with RosterResource projecting them for a $395MM payroll and $405MM CBT number, but they are clearly fine with that.
They go into 2026 as the clear favorites. The Projected Standings at FanGraphs expect 96 wins, putting them eight wins clear of every other club in the majors. The PECOTA Standings at Baseball Prospectus are even more bullish, putting the Dodgers at 104, ten clear of any other team. Anything can happen in baseball’s chaotic postseason but the organization is the jewel of the league right now.
It’s also possible that this offseason will have ripple effects that spread out in ways that can’t be foreseen. Many claim that baseball is “broken” and point to the Dodgers as the perpetrator. The Tucker deal alone didn’t do the deed but some feel it may have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Huge swaths of fans are fed up and want change. The collective bargaining agreement is set to expire after this season. A lockout feels assured and many expect it to get nasty. Some even fear lost games, if not the entire 2027 season.
Time will tell on all of that. For the 2026 Dodgers, they could hardly have drawn it up any better.
How would you grade the Dodgers' offseason?
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Astros Sign Christian Vazquez To Minor League Deal
The Astros announced that catcher Christian Vazquez was signed to a minor league contract. The deal contains an invitation for Vazquez (an MDR Sports Management client) to attend Houston’s big league Spring Training camp. Vazquez will presumably head to the Astros’ camp after the World Baseball Classic, as the veteran backstop is playing for Puerto Rico’s team.
This is the second stint for Vazquez in a Houston uniform, after being acquired as a trade deadline pickup during the 2022 season. Vazquez hit only .250/.278/.308 over 108 plate appearances during the rest of the regular season and then .235/.316/.235 over 19 postseason PA, but he ended up winning a ring as a member of the World Series title team. Vazquez was also part of some particularly memorable baseball history when he was behind the plate for the Astros’ combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series, which was just the second no-no in Series history and the third in postseason history.
Despite his lackluster numbers at the end of the 2022 campaign, Vazquez still landed a three-year, $30MM free agent deal from Minnesota that offsesason. Unfortunately for Vazquez and the Twins, the struggles at the plate continued, as he hit just .215/.267/.311 over 884 PA over his three seasons with the team. While Vazquez was signed more with defense in mind, delivering only a 60 wRC+ eventually slated him into a backup role behind Ryan Jeffers.
The combination of Vazquez’s poor numbers and hefty salary made him difficult to trade, though his name surfaced in a few rumors over the last couple of years. Minnesota traded a ton of veterans and impending free agents at last year’s deadline, but Vazquez stayed put, as he finished out his entire three-year term with the team. Perhaps understandably, there wasn’t a lot of buzz about his free agent market, apart from one report from January linking Vazquez to the Astros.
It took more than a month for the two sides to reach an agreement, but Vazquez did indeed end up putting pen to paper with Houston, and he’ll now compete with Cesar Salazar for the backup catching job behind starter Yainer Diaz. Salazar has all of 36 MLB games on his resume over three seasons with the Astros, plus he is out of minor league options. Carlos Perez is in camp on another minors deal, and while Perez has appeared in parts of five big league seasons, he hasn’t played in the Show since 2023.
An opening therefore exists for Vazquez to break camp with the Astros as Diaz’s understudy. The 35-year-old’s bat may not be very productive, but Vazquez remains a strong defender, logging +5 Defensive Runs Saved over 519 innings at catcher in 2025. Statcast wasn’t quite as favorable in giving Vazquez’s an even 0 in its overall Catching Runs metric, but his blocking and throwing (Vazquez tossed out 14 of 56 base-stealing attempts in 2025) were gauged as above average.
Vazquez’s WBC duties leave him with relatively little time to make an impression in Spring Training, but obviously the Astros have some familiarity with what Vazquez brings to the table. The fact that the Astros are making this signing indicates they aren’t entirely satisfied with their current backup catching situation, and there’s no risk for the club in committing just a minor league deal to Vazquez to take a look at him in camp.