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Latest On Yankees, Cody Bellinger

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The biggest offseason question for the Yankees has been whether they’ll re-sign Cody Bellinger. General manager Brian Cashman is on record about the club’s interest in doing so, and they’ve reportedly made at least two formal contract offers.

It doesn’t appear that Bellinger is on the verge of accepting a deal, however. Brendan Kuty of The Athletic wrote this morning that the sides don’t seem close to an agreement, though talks are continuing. Contract length could be a holdup. Kuty wrote that Bellinger and his representatives at the Boras Corporation were likely looking for a six- or seven-year contract. In an MLB Network appearance, Jon Morosi also suggested that Bellinger continued to seek a deal in the seven-year range. Morosi added that the Yankees unsurprisingly preferred a four- or five-year commitment.

Most external projections forecast a five- or six-year deal. MLBTR predicted a five-year, $140MM contract at the beginning of the offseason. Bellinger is headed into his age-30 season. There’s precedent for players commanding seven-plus years at that age, but the most recent free agent hitter to do so was Brandon Nimmo in 2022. There hasn’t even been a six-year contract for a free agent bat in his 30s since the Nimmo deal, but Alex Bregman (who was a year older at the time) rejected a six-year offer from the Tigers last winter.

Bellinger is coming off a fantastic first season in the Bronx. He hit .272/.334/.480 with 29 home runs across 656 plate appearances. He cut his already low strikeout rate to a personal-best 13.7% clip. Bellinger’s bat speed and exit velocities — which prevented him from commanding a long-term contract two years ago — remain middling. His left-handed bat was perfectly suited to Yankee Stadium, where he hit .302/.365/.544 with 18 of his home runs. His .241/.301/.414 batting line on the road is essentially league average.

While that wouldn’t be much of an issue for the Yankees, they may feel that’ll give other teams pause. We’re only a year removed from Bellinger having essentially no trade value when he was signed for two years and $52.5MM. New York acquired him from the Cubs for journeyman pitcher Cody Poteet, whom Chicago cut at the end of Spring Training. The only cost for the Yankees was taking on all but $5MM on Bellinger’s deal. Trade talks were complicated by an opt-out clause in his contract, but it’s notable that teams weren’t eager to sign up for even two years at $25MM annually last offseason. A six-plus year commitment at a similar annual value is a significant ask.

Do teams other than the Yankees feel Bellinger is a dramatically different player than he was a year ago? His camp will surely argue that his success in New York — on top of his previous work in big markets in Los Angeles and Chicago — should move the needle. Bellinger also isn’t attached to draft compensation, as he was in 2023 when he declined a qualifying offer from the Cubs.

His results have outpaced his more middling batted ball metrics in three consecutive seasons. Bellinger is never going to recapture the ferocious power he had before he injured his right shoulder during the 2020 postseason. He has reinvented himself as an elite contact bat, and while his home/road splits aren’t encouraging, his platoon numbers are more impressive.

Bellinger is a .329/.371/.546 hitter against left-handed pitching over the past three seasons. Among lefty hitters with 250+ plate appearances in that time, only Yordan Alvarez has a superior slugging mark. Bellinger trails only Alvarez and Juan Soto in on-base percentage. Teams can comfortably pencil Bellinger in as an everyday player in either corner outfield spot, and he’s an option for at least semi-regular center field work.

Poll: Who Will Sign Bo Bichette?

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It’s been an unusual trip through free agency for Bo Bichette. The infielder is one of the most attractive free agents on the market as a bat-first shortstop with multiple All-Star appearances under his belt who will only be 28 years old next year, but he’s not gotten much attention in the rumor mill this winter as players like Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, and Cody Bellinger have absorbed most of the offseason attention. Perhaps that lack of buzz has been due to a widespread assumption that Bichette, who has long spoken about his desire to stay in Toronto for his entire career, was sure to remain with the Blue Jays going forward. That’s an illusion that’s been shattered by the Jays’ addition of Kazuma Okamoto and their reportedly increased aggression in the market for Tucker, however. If the Blue Jays appear to be pivoting towards other stars, where does that leave Bichette? A look at his potential landing spots:

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox haven’t been shy about their desire to either re-sign or replace Bregman, adding to an infield mix that already includes Trevor Story and Marcelo Mayer as likely starting options. Bichette would certainly be as strong an addition as any for the Red Sox, adding a transformational right-handed bat to their heavily left-handed lineup. Bichette would likely be the weakest defender at shortstop between himself, Story, and Mayer, but that shouldn’t be a significant problem seeing as Bregman himself does not play shortstop and Bichette has expressed a willingness to move off his native position headed into 2026.

All of that makes Bichette a great fit for the Red Sox, which is surely why they held a video meeting with him last month. Even so, there are some potential obstacles. The team has reportedly started to be more aggressive in their pursuit of Bregman in free agency, and it’s nearly impossible to imagine Boston bringing in both players. Even if they don’t bring Bregman back into the fold, the Red Sox have shown a clear preference for utilizing the trade market to improve rather than free agency, so perhaps someone like Brendan Donovan or Ketel Marte would hold more appeal.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs are a more recent entrant into the Bichette sweepstakes, as they’ve been connected to him in recent weeks. Chicago has had a very quiet offseason so far, but with Tucker expected to head elsewhere in free agency it’s easy to see why they might want to bring in a big bat to supplement the offense. As the #2 free agent in this year’s class behind Tucker, Bichette would certainly qualify, and his relative youth could be attractive to a Cubs team that is building up a core of young talent that includes Pete Crow-Armstrong, Matt Shaw, Michael Busch, and Cade Horton with more youngsters on the way.

On the other hand, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner are the league’s best defensive middle infield combination at the moment. Bringing Bichette into the fold would seemingly either require Bichette to move to third base (thereby pushing Shaw into a utility role) or trading Hoerner to free up the keystone. The team’s front office already gave Shaw a vote of confidence earlier this winter, but Hoerner’s name has come up occasionally in trade rumors this winter as he heads into his final season before free agency.

Los Angeles Dodgers

As with the Cubs, Los Angeles’s interest in Bichette is a somewhat recent development. It’s hardly ever a shock to see the Dodgers involved in the market for a top free agent, and Bichette is no exception to that. After a down season in 2025 from Mookie Betts, adding Bichette’s right-handed bat to the middle of the lineup could be very attractive for the Dodgers in order to help balance out the big lefty bats offered by Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.

With that being said, an infield consisting of Betts at shortstop, Bichette at second base, and Max Muncy at third base could leave much to be desired defensively. What’s more, such an alignment would require moving Tommy Edman back into center field on a daily basis, a move the club could be hesitant to make given his injury history. Of the winter’s top free agents, Tucker seems like a more straightforward fit for the Dodgers given their weak outfield mix. Even with that being said, however, the Dodgers’ financial muscle and eagerness to build on their back-to-back World Series wins leaves just about anything on the table for the club.

Toronto Blue Jays

While much of the discourse surrounding alternative suitors for Bichette is due to the seemingly closing window for him to return to Toronto, that doesn’t mean the Blue Jays are completely out of the running. Bichette’s affection for the only team he’s known since being drafted in the second round back in 2016 has been widely reported for years now, and his close connection with fellow star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. surely makes a return to Toronto the most attractive option from his own perspective. While Tucker is a more straightforward fit for the team’s needs after signing Okamoto, Bichette would still certainly be an extremely viable alternative if the bidding for the star outfielder gets outside of the Jays’ comfort zone. Placing Bichette at second base and either moving Ernie Clement into a bench role or having Okamoto split time between first base, third base, DH, and the outfield corners in order to create playing time for Clement could certainly be a viable option.

Other Options

Those four teams are perhaps the most feasible options for Bichette, but they’re far from the only ones. The Phillies have been connected to him and could certainly fit him into the lineup if they were to more significantly alter their lineup by dealing Alec Bohm, but signing Bichette seems likely to complicate their ability to re-sign J.T. Realmuto. The Yankees have also been connected to Bichette and might be his best chance at playing shortstop in 2026 given Anthony Volpe’s difficult year last season, but they presently seem focused on signing Bellinger and adding to their rotation, making a pursuit of Bichette lower on their list of priorities. The Giants could certainly use an upgrade at the keystone over Casey Schmitt, but they’ve been more focused on trade options like Donovan and Hoerner than the free agent market. The Tigers could theoretically put Bichette at shortstop in 2026 alongside Gleyber Torres before sliding him over to second when Torres hits free agency next year in order to make room for top prospect Kevin McGonigle, but Detroit’s front office seems largely content to head into 2026 with the same group that brought them back-to-back playoff berths the past two seasons.

Where do MLBTR readers ultimately think Bichette will land? Have your say in the poll below:

Cubs Acquire Edward Cabrera

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The Cubs and Marlins have completed one of the more notable trades of the offseason — a swap that’ll send righty Edward Cabrera from Miami to Chicago in exchange for top outfield prospect Owen Caissie and minor league infielders Cristian Hernandez and Edgardo De Leon.

Cabrera, 28 in April, is a former top prospect who has shown flashes of excellence in the past but wasn’t healthy enough to deliver on that potential until a breakout 2025 campaign. Though he still logged some IL time this past season, he turned in a career-high 137 2/3 innings with a strong 3.53 ERA and encouraging underlying numbers. Cabrera punched out 25.8% of opponents, logged a career-low 8.3% walk rate — far better than the 13.3% clip he carried into the season — recorded a 46.6% ground-ball rate and sat 97 mph on his four-seamer (and 96.8 mph on his sinker) in 2025.

Early in the 2025 season, Cabrera missed two weeks with blisters on his pitching hand — his second career IL trip due to blister troubles. His second IL trip in 2025 was more alarming, as it was prompted by an elbow sprain late in the year. That’s a far more worrying injury, but Cabrera returned after only three weeks and fired nine generally solid innings across his final two appearances, sitting 97.7 mph on his four-seamer and 97.9 mph on his sinker during that time. Given the trade interest in him this offseason and a deal now nearing its completion, it doesn’t appear there’s any current concern about a major elbow injury looming on the horizon.

Beyond his premium velocity and quality rate stats, Cabrera’s contractual situation always figured to hold broad-reaching appeal. He’s entering the second of four arbitration seasons as a Super Two player and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a highly affordable $3.7MM in 2026. He’s under club control all the way through 2028, and based on the fairly low starting point in his arbitration journey, those three seasons aren’t likely to cost much more than $20MM overall.

Cabrera will slot into a deep Cubs rotation mix, joining Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Horton and veterans Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga (who accepted a $22.05MM qualifying offer in November). Acquiring Cabrera likely pushes veteran swingman Colin Rea back into a long relief role to begin the season, though he’d be among the first men up in the event of an injury elsewhere on the staff.

Right-hander Javier Assad is also in the mix, though he missed nearly all of the 2025 season due to a severe oblique strain and posted a career-low 15% strikeout rate in the 37 innings he managed to tally late in the season. Assad still has minor league options remaining, so he could be sent to Triple-A to begin the year or else considered for a multi-inning relief role similar to the one Rea might occupy. Other options down in Triple-A include hard-throwing 26-year-old righty Ben Brown and former top prospect Jordan Wicks (also 26). Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is not yet on the 40-man roster and has barely pitched in Triple-A, but he could be in line for a big league debut this coming season as well.

Of course, the Cubs will be eagerly awaiting the return of ace Justin Steele, ideally at some point in the season’s first half. The 30-year-old Steele was the team’s top starter from 2022-24, pitching a combined 427 innings of 3.10 ERA ball with plus strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates, but he made just four starts in 2025 before requiring UCL surgery in late April. Every rehab process is different, but it’s reasonable to expect that he could be back in June or July.

By the season’s second half, the Cubs could be looking at a rotation led by Steele, Horton and Cabrera, with veterans Taillon, Boyd, Imanaga and Rea among the options for the final couple spots. Injuries will almost always disrupt any team’s best laid plans, but that’s a quality group of arms that doesn’t even factor in Wiggins, who posted a 2.19 ERA and 31% strikeout rate in 18 starts (and one relief appearance) between Double-A and Triple-A last year.

On the Marlins side of things, Cabrera stood as an obvious trade candidate — but one who’d come at a fairly hefty price, given that salary and remaining club control. He landed on the back end of MLBTR’s Top 40 Offseason Trade Candidate list back in November.

It’s obviously not a financially driven move, but the Fish are deep in rotation options — with multiple top prospects nearing readiness — and have various holes in the lineup to fill. Swapping out Cabrera for a package headlined by Caissie works toward that end.

Even with Cabrera departing, Miami can roll out a rotation including Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Ryan Weathers and Braxton Garrett in the top four spots. Journeyman Janson Junk had a surprisingly nice showing with the Fish in 2025 and is an option either in the fifth spot or long relief. The same can be said for righty Ryan Gusto, whom the Marlins acquired in the deadline trade sending Jesus Sanchez to Houston. Former top prospects Max Meyer, Dax Fulton and Adam Mazur are all on the 40-man roster, too. Current top prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling could both debut this coming season. White, in particular, is regarded as one of the top prospects in the entire sport.

Caissie should step right into the Marlins’ outfield next season. The 23-year-old slugger made his big league debut this past season, struggling in a tiny sample of 27 plate appearances, but is a former second-round pick and longtime top prospect who has shredded minor league pitching. That includes a 2025 campaign in which he slashed .286/.386/.551 (139 wRC+) with 22 homers, 28 doubles and a pair of triples in 99 games/433 plate appearances of Triple-A work.

Caissie is a lefty-swinging corner outfielder with big power and big swing-and-miss tendencies. He fanned in nearly 28% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year. He’s regularly been able to offset the damage of those strikeouts by walking at high clips, however. He drew a free pass in 13.2% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year and has an overall 13.6% walk rate in five minor league seasons.

Scouting reports on Caissie praise his plus throwing arm but predict he’ll be limited to corner work (despite some early-career experience in center field). He has the makings of a prototypical three-true-outcomes right fielder. The Marlins could go with 2025 breakout slugger Kyle Stowers in left field and Caissie in right, thus giving them a pair of high-powered bats to plug into the heart of their order for the foreseeable future.

Because Caissie only made a brief MLB debut this past season, he still has six full seasons of club control remaining. He’s still rookie-eligible, so the Marlins could potentially pick up a draft pick for him via MLB’s prospect promotion incentive program, depending on when he’s brought up for his Marlins debut and (of course) on how he fares in awards voting early in his big league tenure. Caissie was only selected to the major league roster last offseason, meaning he’s only exhausted one minor league option year and still has two remaining.

Caissie joins Stowers and breakout center fielder Jakob Marsee in comprising a talented and intriguing outfield core. The Marlins’ lineup, in general, has gotten more interesting over the past couple years, thanks largely to the emergence of Xavier Edwards alongside those young outfielders. Former top catching prospect Agustin Ramirez hit for power in his rookie campaign this past season but struggled to get on base and played extremely poor defense behind the plate. Marlins president Peter Bendix has emphasized that the club hopes to continue developing Ramirez behind the plate, but he could see time at first base and DH in 2026, especially once top catching prospect Joe Mack debuts.

Hernandez, 22, is a speed-and-defense shortstop who spent the 2025 season with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. Baseball America recently ranked him 16th among Cubs farmhands heading into the 2026 season, noting that he has plus raw power but hits the ball on the ground far too frequently to ever tap into that pop. (This past season’s seven home runs were a career-high.) BA’s report notes that Hernandez has the tools to be an above-average defender but is often inaccurate with his throwing despite good arm strength.

Improving the accuracy on Hernandez’s throws seems like a more attainable goal than overhauling his offensive approach to get more loft without compromising his lower-than-average strikeout rate, but if the Marlins can fix both those traits, it’s possible they’ll have a starting-caliber shortstop on their hands. Those are big “ifs,” of course, particularly considering that Hernandez just hit .252/.329/.365 as a 21-year-old in his second stint with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. He’s a project, but a capable shortstop coming off a 52-steal season (61 attempts) is a nice secondary piece to add to the system.

De Leon is the furthest from MLB-ready. He’s an 18-year-old who signed as part of Chicago’s 2024 international class. The 6′, 170-pound De Leon played with the Cubs’ Dominican Summer League club in 2024, hitting .277/.431/.433 in 181 plate appearances. He moved up to their Rookie-level Arizona Complex League affiliate in 2025 and slashed .276/.353/.500 in 153 turns at the plate. BA’s Geoff Pontes listed him as a sleeper prospect to watch heading into the 2026 season, citing his encouraging exit velocities and plus raw power.

With just 334 professional plate appearances under his belt and his 19th birthday still six weeks away, De Leon is a pure development project for Miami. He’s been a productive hitter in each of his two pro seasons, though, even with some moderately worrying swing-and-miss tendencies (28.8% strikeout rate in 2025). He’ll probably head to the Marlins’ Low-A affiliate to begin the 2026 season and doesn’t seem likely to be a potential major league factor until 2028 or 2029 at the earliest.

The Marlins remain a work in progress and will most likely enter 2026 as something of a playoff long shot, but there are a number of upward-pointing arrows on the roster, making it an encouraging time for Miami fans.

Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami first reported that a Cabrera trade between the two teams was near completion. Kevin Barral of Fish On First reported Caissie as the likely headliner. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com and Craig Mish of SportsGrid broke the news of the other two prospects in the deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the medical review process had been complete and the trade was official.

Mariners To Sign Patrick Wisdom To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners and infielder Patrick Wisdom are in agreement on a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The Apex Baseball client will receive an invite to big league spring training.

Wisdom, now 34, had a strong run with the Cubs from 2021 to 2023. His production was fairly predictable. He would strike out a ton but would usually put the ball over the fence when he did connect. He hit at least 23 home runs in each of those three seasons but struck out in at least 34% of his plate appearances in all three.

Put together, he had 76 home runs in 1,211 plate appearances over those years while striking out at a 36.9% clip. That led to a lopsided .214/.298/.473 line. Despite the strikeouts and low batting average, he was 11% better than league average for that span, according to wRC+.

He got bumped into a bench role in 2024 but hit just .171/.237/.392 174 plate appearances. Since he was never an especially gifted defender, the drop-off at the plate became untenable and he was non-tendered at season’s end.

He signed with the the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization and revered back to his previous form. He struck out in 29.2% of his plate appearances in South Korea last year but launched 35 homers. He finished the year with a .236/.321/.535 line and 126 wRC+. He got brief stints in the outfield corners but mostly split his time between third and first base.

The Mariners will bring him aboard in a non-roster capacity and get a look at him. They have Josh Naylor as their regular at first base. The hot corner is a bit more open. The club has some interest in bringing back Eugenio Suárez, another power-hitting third baseman with big strikeouts, but he remains unsigned as a free agent.

It’s possible that prospect Colt Emerson could take over the job this year but he’s currently only 20 years old and hasn’t yet made it to the majors, with just six games of Triple-A experience. Ben Williamson currently projects as a glove-first regular at third, at least until Emerson forces his way in. Wisdom gives them another option without taking up a roster spot. It’s also possible Wisdom could earn his way into a bench role as a right-handed bat, providing platoon coverage for lefties like Naylor, Dominic Canzone, J.P. Crawford, Cole Young and Luke Raley.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Dodgers, Brusdar Graterol Avoid Arbitration

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The Dodgers and right-hander Brusdar Graterol have avoided arbitration, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The righty will make $2.8MM this year, the same salary he made in 2025. He missed the entire season due to injury.

This isn’t an especially surprising result. The arb system generally sees player salaries rise each year. In cases where a player misses an entire season, their salary usually holds steady. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz therefore projected Graterol to make the same $2.8MM salary as he did in 2025, which has indeed come to pass.

By agreeing to the number now, the Dodgers will have a slightly shorter to-do list tomorrow. Thursday is the deadline for teams and players to file arbitration figures if they don’t come to an agreement. The Dodgers started the offseason with nine arbitration-eligible players but that’s now down to three for the deadline day tomorrow.

Tony Gonsolin and Michael Grove were designated for assignment and became free agents. Evan Phillips was non-tendered. Ben Rortvedt was claimed off waivers by the Reds. The Dodgers picked up a club option on Alex Vesia. With Graterol now settled, the Dodgers will have just Anthony Banda, Brock Stewart and Alex Call undetermined going into tomorrow.

2026 will be Graterol’s final season before he’s slated for free agency. He’ll be looking to bounce back after a couple of injury-marred seasons. He spent many years as a key setup arm for the Dodgers, with big velocity and huge ground ball rates. From 2020 to 2023, he posted a 2.69 earned run average over 173 2/3 innings. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged about 99 miles per hour. That oddly didn’t translate to many strikeouts, just an 18.9% clip, but he got grounders on a massive 62.5% of balls in play.

Shoulder problems and then a hamstring strain limited him to just seven appearances in 2024. He underwent surgery on that shoulder in November of that year. It was initially hoped that he could return in the second half of 2025 but that didn’t come to pass. Despite the injuries, he could go into free agency with good momentum since he won’t turn 28 years old until August, though he’ll obviously need much better health to boost his earning power.

Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images

MLB Mailbag: Dodgers, Reds, Marlins, Casas, Mets

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This week's Front Office mailbag gets into the Dodgers adding a top free agent, Boston's offer to Alex Bregman as well as the Triston Casas situation, which bats the Reds could add, what's next for the Marlins and Mets, and much more.

William asks:

Any substance to the rumor that Bichette is signing with the Dodgers? How would that affect their tax? And who might they trade away?

Ron asks:

The Dodgers seem set for 2026 and beyond. They have young starting pitchers coming along and younger outfielders on the way. Left field and third base are the positions that might need tweaking this year or next. Could they grab the 2 best F.A.'s still available?

On January 1st, Jon Heyman of the New York Post wrote that the Dodgers (and Yankees and Cubs) "checked on" Bichette.  That's all Heyman gave us in that article - no further context.  Two days later in a tweet, Heyman added the Phillies to the list of teams that "have interest," beyond the well-known Blue Jays and Red Sox.

With all due respect to Heyman, that Dodgers-Bichette connection is pretty thin.  It'd almost be irresponsible for a big market team not to "check on" a quality player like Bichette as his free agency drags into the new year, especially a club with room for improvement in the infield.  We have no idea if anything more than due diligence has occurred between Bichette's camp and some of these clubs.

I hope we get better info, but GMs cannot shoot down free agent interest publicly, so if some of this is overstated we might not learn until after Bichette signs.

In late November, MLBTR's Anthony Franco included the Dodgers as a "plausible/on-paper dark horse" for Bichette, writing:

"There hasn’t been much in the way of Dodgers/Bichette smoke so far. This would feel a bit like overkill, but the Dodgers don’t have anyone locked in at second base. Their farm system is loaded with outfield talent but not as strong in the middle infield aside from Alex Freeland. Locking Bichette in at second would require them to play Tommy Edman mostly in center field coming off ankle surgery."

On Monday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote, "Dodgers people like to say that Andrew Friedman’s preferred method of operation is 'hanging around the backboard.' If a player’s price in trade or free agency drops, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations will attempt to grab him on the rebound and dunk on the industry yet again."

Friedman has had the Dodgers' top front office job for more than 11 years now, so we should have evidence of him "hanging around the backboard" and snatching up some top free agents whose market disappointed.  Below is what I found, which should help us determine whether the Dodgers might swoop in on Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette:

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Angels Claim Wade Meckler

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The Angels announced that they have claimed outfielder Wade Meckler off waivers from the Giants. He had been designated for assignment by San Francisco last month. The Halos had a couple of 40-man vacancies and didn’t need to make a corresponding move.

Meckler, 26 in April, changes teams for the first time. The Giants drafted him in 2022 and he has been with that club until today. Generally speaking, he has a contact-based approach at the plate with limited power. He stepped to the plate 1,157 times in the minors over the past three years with just 16 home runs but his 13.1% walk rate and 16.7% strikeout rate in that span were both excellent figures. Even with the lack of power, his combined line of .311/.403/.431 in those seasons translated to a 127 wRC+, with some help from a .371 batting average on balls in play.

Despite the solid numbers, the Giants never gave him much time in the majors. He got a brief look in 2023, hitting .232/.328/.250 in 64 plate appearances, but wasn’t called up in either of the past two campaigns.

Whether his offensive approach can work against big league pitching isn’t really known at this point. According to Baseball America, he does well with fastballs but whiffs on a lot of breaking pitches. He does have a solid floor thanks to his speed and defense, however. BA describes his speed as “double-plus”. During his brief stint in the majors in 2023, Statcast ranked his sprint speed in the 95th percentile of big leaguers. He has played all three outfield spots in his professional career.

The Angels don’t really have a clear solution in center field right now. Jo Adell got most of the playing time there in 2025 but his defensive grades were poor. The Halos opened a corner for him by trading Taylor Ward to the Orioles for Grayson Rodriguez. The club has some willingness to let Mike Trout play center field going forward, after limiting him to right field and the designated hitter spot in 2025, but that likely wouldn’t be for more than an occasional appearance.

Bryce Teodosio got into 50 games in center for the Angels last year and got good grades for his glovework, but he hit just .193/.236/.287. Matthew Lugo is in the mix but he’s a converted infielder without the same defensive acumen. He hasn’t hit yet in the majors either. Kyren Paris is in a somewhat similar position. Nelson Rada might take over the position in the long run but he’s only 20 years old and hasn’t made his major league debut yet.

Considering that group, the Angels have been understandably linked to the center field market this offseason, but they haven’t really done anything about it. Perhaps that will change before Opening Day but it’s a good landing spot for Meckler now. He can battle for playing time either as the regular center fielder or for a role as a fourth outfielder. He also has an option remaining and could be sent to Triple-A as depth.

If things go well, the Angels can keep him around for a while. He has just 24 days of big league service time, that means he is still years away from qualifying for arbitration and even further from free agency.

Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images

Royals Exploring Trade Market For Relievers

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The Royals are still in the market for relief help and appear likelier to find another bullpen arm via the trade market than via free agency, Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports. Kansas City’s preference is to add another lefty, per the report. Leaning toward the trade market rather than free agency is due to a desire to create some roster flexibility that the current group lacks.

None of Carlos Estevez, Matt Strahm, John Schreiber, Nick Mears or Bailey Falter can be optioned to Triple-A. Lucas Erceg has a full slate of options but isn’t going to be sent down, given his status as one of the team’s top bullpen arms. Daniel Lynch IV and offseason signee Alex Lange are the only relievers who could plausibly be optioned right now. Since players with more than five years of service cannot be optioned without their consent, signing a free agent would further restrict the team’s moves with regards to shuffling pitchers between Kansas City and Triple-A Omaha.

Kansas City currently has three lefties projected for its Opening Day bullpen: Strahm, Lynch and Falter. Only Strahm, whom they acquired from the Phillies earlier this winter, seems like a lock for leverage innings. While Lynch pitched to a tidy 3.06 ERA in 67 2/3 frames this past season, he did so with the third-lowest strikeout rate among all qualified relievers in MLB (leading only grounder specialist Tim Hill and swingman Kolby Allard). Metrics like SIERA (4.62) and FIP (4.76) are far more bearish on the former top prospect. Falter, meanwhile, was rocked for 15 earned runs in 12 innings after coming over from the Pirates in a July trade.

Those are the only three left-handed relievers on Kansas City’s 40-man roster. The rotation contains three southpaws in Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron, but they’re all ticketed for starting gigs. Angel Zerpa has been one of the team’s go-to options from the left side, but he was traded to the Brewers in the swap that netted both Collins and Mears.

It can be difficult to identify obvious trade targets when it comes to controllable relievers. Jose A. Ferrer had been one such lefty, but the Nats already shipped him to the Mariners this offseason. The Cardinals have a left-handed reliever who’s clearly available in trade, but JoJo Romero has five years of big league service and can’t be sent to Triple-A without his consent. He doesn’t fit the mold of controllable, optionable reliever the Royals are seeking.

Speculatively speaking, Dylan Dodd doesn’t have a clear path to innings in Atlanta’s bullpen. The Brewers are deep in lefties (Jared Koenig, Aaron Ashby, DL Hall) and are typically willing to engage in conversation on anyone. The Cubs have signed five free agent relievers this offseason, leaving a trio of lefties on the 40-man roster ticketed for Triple-A work (Luke Little, Jordan Wicks, Riley Martin).

As shown with the Lange signing, the lower tiers of free agency tend to offer bullpen possibilities with options still remaining. John King, non-tendered by the Cardinals, might be a sensible depth lefty, although he’ll hit five years of service with just 24 more days on a big league roster, at which point he’d no longer provide the flexibility apparently sought by Kansas City. He would, however, be a potential multi-year option, given that he’d have an extra year of arbitration control remaining.

There’s a broad range of possibilities to consider, but it seems fair to expect that the Royals could look to put together a trade for an under-the-radar lefty or at the very least try to actively work the waiver wire or DFA market to bring in some additional depth in the next few weeks.

Orioles Designate Jhonkensy Noel For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that they have claimed outfielder Marco Luciano off waivers from the Pirates, a move which was previously reported. To open a 40-man spot, outfielder Jhonkensy Noel has been designated for assignment. The O’s also announced that left-hander Josh Walker, who was designated for assignment last month, has cleared waivers and been sent to Triple-A Norfolk.

Noel, 24, was just claimed off waivers two days ago. It may seem strange to acquire a player and then immediately cut him from the roster but this sequence of events is becoming more common in baseball and the Orioles are one of the more aggressive teams in attempting it. The ideal outcome for the team is that the player eventually clears waivers and stays in the organization as depth without taking up a roster spot.

Baltimore fans should be familiar with the upside of the move. The O’s acquired Ryan O’Hearn from the Royals in January of 2023. He was designated for assignment two days later and cleared waivers. A few months after that, he hit his way back onto the roster and was a productive member of the club for over two years.

Up until he was claimed by the Orioles, Noel had spent his entire career with the Guardians. With that club, he has shown huge power potential but also a poor approach at the plate. He has 351 big league plate appearances to this point with 19 home runs but his 4.8% walk rate and 32.8% strikeout rate are both awful numbers. Despite the long balls, he has a .193/.242/.401 batting line and 79 wRC+, indicating he’s been 21% worse than the league average hitter.

He exhausted his final option season in 2025, which has pushed him into fringe roster territory. The Guards nudged him off and the O’s scooped him up. He’s now back into DFA limbo again, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the O’s could field trade interest for the next five days, but the Guards weren’t able to line up a trade in the previous weeks. Most likely, Noel will be back on the waiver wire.

Despite the rough major league results, he could draw interest from the raw power and also his better minor league numbers. Over the past two years, he has stepped to the plate 536 times at Triple-A. His 7.5% walk rate and 23.7% strikeout rate at that level are still not great but much closer to average. That’s helped him put up a .285/.349/.538 line and 130 wRC+.

If some other club scoops him up, Noel has just over a year of big league service time. That means he can be controlled for five full seasons and is still two years away from an arbitration raise. If he clears waivers, the O’s can keep him. Since he doesn’t have three years of service nor a previous career outright, he doesn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment.

The situation with Walker is somewhat similar. The O’s claimed him off waivers from the Phillies in August. The O’s then signed him to a major league deal in November. Salary terms of that pact haven’t been reported but it presumably pays Walker something slightly above the $780K league minimum, since he still hasn’t qualified for arbitration.

He was designated for assignment two days later. Like with the O’Hearn and Noel situations, the O’s were hoping Walker would clear waivers and stick with the club in a non-roster capacity. It didn’t work initially, as Atlanta claimed him. But that club designated him for assignment a few weeks later, which allowed the Orioles to claim him back. The O’s then tried again, designating Walker for assignment once more on December 19th.

DFA limbo normally only lasts a week at most, but there are different rules around the holidays, so Walker lingered in the ether for a few weeks. Today, he finally has clarity on his status. While he probably isn’t glad to lose his roster spot, he now at least knows which spring training location he’ll be reporting to.

Walker will try to win in the Baltimore bullpen at some point in 2026. His major league track record isn’t amazing, as he has a 6.59 earned run average in 27 1/3 innings. However, he just posted some intriguing minor league numbers in 2025. Split between the Blue Jays, Phillies and Orioles, he logged 42 2/3 Triple-A frames. His 4.64 ERA in that sample isn’t too exciting but he struck out 24.1% of batters faced and got grounders on 52.1% of balls in play.

Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images

Reds Outright Lyon Richardson

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The Reds announced that right-hander Lyon Richardson has been sent outright to Triple-A Louisville. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last month when Cincinnati acquired outfielder Dane Myers from the Marlins.

Richardson, 26 this month, was a second-round pick of the Reds back in 2018. Cincinnati added him to the 40-man roster in November of 2022 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He spent the past three years as an up-and-down depth arm for the Reds, getting shuttled between Cincinnati and Louisville.

Over those three seasons, he tossed 55 innings in the majors, allowing 6.05 earned runs per nine. He averaged above 95 miles per hour with both his four-seamer and sinker while also throwing a slider, curveball and changeup. His 51.1% ground ball rate was good but his 16.7% strikeout rate and 14.3% walk rate were both well off league average. He also tossed 199 2/3 Triple-A innings in that span with a 4.19 ERA. His 12.7% walk rate was still rough but he did punch out 26% of batters faced.

He was kept in a relief role in 2025, after mostly working as a starter in prior years. The Triple-A results were decent, as he tossed 32 innings with a 4.22 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 50% ground ball rate. It didn’t really translate to the majors, however, with a 17.4% strikeout rate and 12.2% walk rate in the show.

He exhausted his final option year in 2025, pushing him to the fringe of the roster. The Reds nudged him off December 27th. DFA limbo is normally capped at a week but the rules are different around the holidays, so Richardson spent close to two weeks in a liminal space but now has clarity on his situation. This is his first career outright and he does not have three years of big league service time. That means he does not have the right to elect free agency. He’ll stick with the Reds in a non-roster capacity and try to earn his way back to the big leagues.

Photo courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images

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