By Nick Deeds | at
The Rockies are acquiring right-hander Bradley Blalock from the Marlins in exchange for a minor league pitcher, according to a report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Blalock was designated for assignment by Colorado last week in order to make room for Michael Lorenzen on the 40-man roster. The Marlins will need to make a corresponding move to clear 40-man roster space for Blalock once the deal becomes official.
More to come.
By Nick Deeds | at
The Nolan Arenado trade saga in St. Louis came to a close last week, when he was dealt to Arizona in exchange for salary relief and minor league righty Jack Martinez. According to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, however, the Diamondbacks weren’t the only team to reach a deal with the Cardinals. Rosenthal reports that the Athletics not only pursued Arenado in trade with St. Louis, but that the sides actually had a deal in place that would’ve sent Arenado to the west coast. The deal would’ve seen the A’s take on more money than Arizona was willing to, Rosenthal notes, but was scuttled by the fact that Arenado indicated he preferred to go to the Diamondbacks or Padres and may not have approved a deal with the A’s.
The news represents the latest indication of the Athletics’ desire to return to contention in advance of their move to Las Vegas, which is expected to be in time for the 2028 season. Arenado, 35 in April, is under contract for just two more seasons and would likely not have been on the club by the time the team arrived in Nevada. Even so, his addition would’ve been a way for the team to address third base in the short term. The A’s brought in Jeff McNeil to take over second base earlier this winter, and already have impressive players at first base (Nick Kurtz), shortstop (Jacob Wilson), DH (Brent Rooker), catcher (Shea Langeliers) and the outfield corners (Lawrence Butler and Tyler Soderstrom). That leaves third base as one of the most obvious places the team could upgrade, and even an aging Arenado would likely provide a higher floor than 23-year-old Max Muncy at the position.
That makes it fairly easy to see why the A’s would have interest in Arenado’s services and, if the team was willing to take on a larger portion of Arenado’s salary in order to facilitate the deal than Arizona wound up agreeing to take, it’s easy to see why the Cardinals would have seen the Athletics as an attractive trade partner. Unfortunately for both clubs, however, Arenado wasn’t quite so enthused. The veteran and likely future Hall of Famer seemed to prioritize playing for a club with more credible playoff aspirations as he wielded his no-trade clause over the past two offseasons, and the A’s are not exactly a proven playoff squad. Even after last year’s steps forward, the team finished with a middling 76-86 record that left them fourth place in the AL West. While that was a modest improvement over the year prior, it still left them far out from a playoff spot.
Perhaps a full season of Kurtz and development for the team’s other young players can help them take another step forward, but teams like the Mariners, Astros, and even Rangers don’t seem likely to be going anywhere this year. That leaves the A’s in a precarious position as far as making the playoffs go, and Arenado clearly wasn’t enthused about rolling the dice on the team. While the Diamondbacks are exceedingly unlikely to win the NL West this year thanks to the mighty Dodgers, they should be in the mix for a Wild Card spot alongside teams like the Padres, Giants, Mets, Braves, and Reds. That’s a much thinner field than the Wild Card race in the AL, which arguably includes all five teams in the AL East alone.
If the A’s want to consider other possible upgrades to the third base position, there are at least a handful of other trade options out there. Cardinals utility man Brendan Donovan and Cubs youngster Matt Shaw both have the ability to handle the hot corner, but could be too expensive in terms of the return cost for the A’s to swing a deal. Perhaps the Phillies would be willing to move Alec Bohm, but they seem less likely to do so than they were when they were pursuing Bo Bichette. The Astros could look to move Isaac Paredes, but it would be a shock to see them trade within the division. Lower level free agents like Yoan Moncada and Ramon Urias could serve as an alternative route to upgrade the roster, though the A’s have at times had trouble luring players to West Sacramento.
By Nick Deeds | at
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Hall of Fame ballot reveal:
The results of this year’s Hall of Fame vote will be announced at 5pm CT this evening. Anyone who receives 75% of the vote or more will join second baseman Jeff Kent as part of the 2026 Hall of Fame class. This year’s class of newcomers to the ballot is headlined by southpaw Cole Hamels, though the lefty won’t be inducted on his first ballot. Outfielder Manny Ramirez is entering his final year on the ballot and will surely miss out on induction due to PED usage during his career, as steroid era legends like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have before him. Ryan Thibodaux’s BBHOF Tracker records all publicly revealed ballots and estimates that 54% of the total ballots are currently publicly available. If the rest of the votes were to perfectly mirror the publicly revealed ballot outfielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones would both be elected this cycle.
2. Rays stadium update incoming:
While the Rays are now under new ownership, that hasn’t stopped the team’s efforts to move out of Tropicana Field and build a new stadium in the area. As noted by Lucy Marques, Colleen Wright, Nina Moske, and Nicolas Villamil of the Tampa Bay Times, the board of trustees for Hillsborough College are scheduled to vote at 4pm local time this afternoon on a memorandum of understanding with the Rays regarding a stadium plan at the college’s Dale Mabry campus. The team’s proposal would see a stadium built at that campus and also upgrades to the school’s facilities on the campus. This is only the first in what would need to be a series of votes and negotiations in order to make a stadium on the campus into a reality, but it would nonetheless be a major step to signal where the Rays might play when their days at the Trop finally come to an end.
3. Phillies media availability:
The Phillies have made their reunion with catcher J.T. Realmuto official, and as they did so the club announced that Realmuto, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, and manager Rob Thomson will all be available to the media over Zoom starting at 10am local time this morning. That virtual presser could provide an insight into the team’s plans for the remainder of the offseason on the heels of not only signing Realmuto, but also narrowly missing out on a deal with star infielder Bo Bichette just hours before the Realmuto deal became official. It’s possible that bringing back Realmuto is the capstone on an offseason that’s largely seen the Phillies focus on retaining their own players rather than make big external additions, though their pursuit of Bichette did suggest that the team is (or at least was) open to retooling the roster in a more significant way this winter.
By Nick Deeds | at
The Phillies announced this morning that they’ve designated infielder Weston Wilson for assignment. The move makes room for veteran catcher J.T. Realmuto, whose new contract with Philadelphia is now official, on the 40-man roster.
Wilson, 31, has appeared in 100 games for the Phillies over the past three seasons while being used in an up-and-down bench role. He’s slashed a respectable .242/.328/.428 (109 wRC+) across 245 career trips to the plate in the big leagues, with eight stolen bases and nine homers. That’s decent enough production from a bench player, and Wilson has paired it with decent versatility. While he’s primarily played left field in the majors, he’s also received time at second base, third base, first base, and right field. He’s also seen time at shortstop in the minors previously, though that was not the case this past year.
That combination of versatility and a solid resume in the big leagues might make Wilson seem like a very attractive bench piece, but a tough 2025 season casts doubt on that assessment. When looking exclusively at this most recent campaign, Wilson hit just .198/.282/.369 (81 wRC+) in the majors across 54 games. Underlying metrics, including a 10.3% barrel rate, an unusually low .236 BABIP, and a .333 xwOBA that significantly outpaces his .288 wOBA all suggest that Wilson may have some poor fortune baked into those weak numbers, particularly given that his strikeout (27.2%) and walk (9.6%) rates were both improved relative to 2024.
Those signs that positive regression could be on the way, in conjunction with Wilson’s career 130 wRC+ against left-handed pitching, make it easy to think that Wilson could hold down a bench role at the big league level. That didn’t allow him to hold onto his roster spot in Philadelphia, however, as Otto Kemp and Edmundo Sosa are both ahead of him on the team’s depth chart when it comes to right-handed utility players. In previous years, the Phillies would’ve surely held onto Wilson and kept him on the roster as optionable depth, but Philadelphia used Wilson’s last option year in 2025 and would now need to pass Wilson through waivers in order to send him to the minors anyway.
They’re getting that process underway now. They’ll have one week to either work out a trade involving Wilson or put him through the waiver wire. Should Wilson clear waivers, the Phillies would likely outright him to the minor leagues where he could serve as non-roster depth for the club headed into 2026. Given Wilson’s solid numbers at the big league level, however, it seems likely that a team will be interested in rolling the dice on him. That could come in the form of a simple waiver claim, or perhaps a minor trade if a team is interested enough in Wilson to try and work out a deal with Philadelphia directly.
By Anthony Franco | at
Rangers left-hander Cody Bradford is working back from last June’s internal brace procedure. Reporting from the end of the regular season suggested Bradford could make an atypically quick recovery and be ready for the start of Spring Training, but it seems the Rangers are now planning for the southpaw to miss the first month or so of the season.
Bradford tells Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News that he’s scheduled to throw his first bullpen session this week. He’s hopeful of embarking on a minor league rehab assignment not long after the start of the regular season. That’d put him in line for a return to MLB action sometime in May.
A local product who attended Baylor, Bradford debuted in a swing role in 2023. He struggled as a rookie but showed more promise in year two. Bradford missed the first half of the ’24 season with a back injury but pitched well upon getting a rotation look once he returned. He took the ball 14 times and posted a 3.54 earned run average with a 23% strikeout rate against a 4.2% walk percentage. Bradford has always had elite command, but the solid strikeout stuff came as a little more of a surprise. He sits in the 89-90 MPH range with his fastball and managed to keep hitters off balance by playing the four-seam off his 81 MPH changeup.
Bradford had a good chance to open the 2025 season in the rotation. He reported elbow soreness while ramping up during Spring Training. Initial imaging came back clean but he was eventually diagnosed with UCL damage that required surgery. The internal brace doesn’t come with the same 14-16 month rehab window of the full Tommy John procedure.
Texas will open the season with an excellent top three of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Jack Leiter. The depth falls off sharply. Jacob Latz pitched well last year in a swing role but has never held a rotation spot. Kumar Rocker battled mechanical issues and spent most of the final two months of the season overhauling things at the complex. No one else on the 40-man roster has any kind of MLB starting experience.
President of baseball operations Chris Young said last week the team is focused on deepening the pitching before Opening Day. Some kind of addition feels inevitable, though there’s a decent chance they’ll wait out the market in hopes of grabbing a fifth starter/swing type for a few million dollars during Spring Training.
By Anthony Franco | at
The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization announced this evening that they’ve signed left-hander Anthony Veneziano. The KHG Sports Management client receives a $750K salary and can make another $100K in incentives.
As noted by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO, the signing comes after the Landers pulled out of their agreement with right-hander Drew VerHagen. The club’s medical team had flagged an undisclosed issue with VerHagen’s physical. He’ll return to free agency. That opened a roster spot for a second non-Pacific foreign pitcher alongside righty Mitch White, who is back for his second season with the team. They targeted Veneziano, who was granted his release from a minor league contract with the Rangers to pursue the opportunity.
The 28-year-old Veneziano heads overseas for the first time in his career. He’d been in affiliated ball since 2019, when the Royals took him as a 10th-round draftee out of Coastal Carolina. Veneziano worked as a starter for most of his minor league career. He has been a full-time reliever in the big leagues, only starting one of 40 appearances as an opener. Veneziano has suited up with Kansas City, Miami and St. Louis. He owns a 3.98 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate over 40 2/3 MLB innings.
While Veneziano’s big league track record is reasonably solid, he’s coming off a tough season working out of the bullpen in Triple-A. That limited him to a minor league deal. He’ll instead get a guaranteed contract that pays close to what he would have made had he cracked the Texas bullpen. It’s likely he’ll also get an opportunity to build back up as a starter. The foreign player limit for KBO teams means they’re unlikely to use one of those spots on players they’d project as relievers. If he pitches well as a starter for a season or two in Korea, he’d be better positioned to explore MLB opportunities down the line.
By Anthony Franco | at
The Nationals are in agreement with lefty reliever Zach Penrod on a minor league contract, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. The Dynamic Sports Group client would be paid an $800K rate, marginally above the minimum, if he makes the MLB roster.
Penrod is a former Red Sox farmhand who made seven appearances for Boston in 2024. Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni was an assistant general manager for the Sox at the time. Penrod worked four innings of two-run ball, albeit with five free passes (four walks and a hit batter) against three strikeouts.
The Red Sox designated Penrod for assignment last May in the aftermath of the Rafael Devers trade. They’d acquired two players on the 40-man (Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison) in that deal and needed to drop someone from the roster. Boston traded Penrod to the Dodgers for cash. He spent six weeks on the 40-man roster but didn’t make a big league appearance with Los Angeles. They ran him through outright waivers in August, and he elected minor league free agency at the end of the season.
Penrod is coming off a rough year in Triple-A. He allowed almost eight earned runs per nine over 33 1/3 innings. Penrod’s command was unworkable, as he walked more than 20% of opposing hitters. The 28-year-old southpaw has always struggled to throw strikes but has a three-pitch mix (fastball, slider and changeup) that intrigued the Nats. He sits around 95 MPH on the heater.
Washington’s bullpen is wide open. Their only reliever with even two years of MLB service time is righty Julian Fernández, and almost all of that has come while he’s been on the injured list. (He has 10 career appearances.) Every reliever on the 40-man roster has minor league options remaining, with only Rule 5 pick Griff McGarry required to stick on the MLB roster. There’s ample opportunity for minor league free agents to try to earn a spot.
By Anthony Franco | at
Giants rookie first baseman Bryce Eldridge was the subject of some early-offseason trade speculation. San Francisco entered the winter seeking pitching but didn’t appear poised to spend at the top of the free agent market. That led to chatter about Eldridge being included in a trade package for a controllable starter with a top-of-the-rotation ceiling (e.g. MacKenzie Gore).
That kind of move has always seemed like a long shot, as position player prospects of Eldridge’s caliber rarely get moved. The 21-year-old has taken the rumors in stride, saying over the weekend that he has worked to ignore the speculation. “I try not to get too wrapped up in anything going on. … I don’t know how far those talks got,” Eldridge said at Giants FanFest (link via Maria Guardado of MLB.com). “But I want to be here. I want to play for this team. I don’t plan on leaving here anytime soon. I hope they don’t plan on making me leave anytime soon.”
The 16th overall pick in the 2023 draft, Eldridge spent most of last year between the top two minor league levels. He hit 25 homers while combining for a .260/.333/.510 batting line across 433 plate appearances. The 6’7″ Eldridge struck out in more than 29% of his trips to the plate but was an above-average hitter at both minor league stops at age 20. The Giants called him up in the middle of September. He’s not a lock to break camp because of the strikeout questions, yet they’ll surely expect him to play a big role over the course of the season.
Eldridge underwent postseason surgery to address a bone spur in his left wrist. He said he’s essentially at full strength, noting that he’s in the final stages of his hitting program. Eldridge should enter camp healthy as he battles for the starting first base/designated hitter job in what would be a split between the two positions with Rafael Devers.
There’s also uncertainty at the other position on the right side of the infield. The Giants are reportedly making a push for second baseman, and they’ve been linked to Brendan Donovan and to Stanford product Nico Hoerner (a longer shot to move). If they don’t land a big-ticket upgrade, the starting job would fall to Casey Schmitt. He took over from the struggling Tyler Fitzgerald midseason and turned in a league average .237/.305/.401 line in 95 games.
Schmitt is also working back from left wrist surgery — a carpal boss removal, in his case. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relays that the righty-hitting infielder resumed hitting off a tee last week. He might be a little behind schedule in March but seems to be well on track for Opening Day. Schmitt would vie for his first career Opening Day start if he’s healthy and the Giants don’t come away with a marquee trade pickup.
If they do land someone like Donovan, Schmitt would probably work as a multi-positional infielder off the bench. He’s a natural third baseman and has some shortstop experience, but there aren’t many reps available in a left side infield featuring Matt Chapman and Willy Adames. Slusser reports that the Giants have gotten calls from other teams about Schmitt in the two years since they signed Chapman, but his versatility and remaining minor league option mean they’re not under any pressure to deal him.
While Giants fans hope for some kind of big swing to improve the MLB roster, they made a notable move on the minor league side last week. San Francisco officially signed Venezuelan infield prospect Luis Hernández on January 15. His $5MM signing bonus was the biggest for any player in this year’s international period.
MLB Pipeline also ranked the right-handed hitter as the best prospect in the class on talent, praising his polish and all-around skillset. Ben Badler of Baseball America writes that many scouts consider Hernández the top amateur prospect though BA itself doesn’t rank international signees. Hernández, who turned 17 last month, isn’t the biggest player at 5’10” and certainly won’t be an MLB factor for years but represents an intriguing add for the player development department.
By Darragh McDonald | at
Retired right-hander Ryan Pressly has been hired by the Twins, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. According to Declan Goff of SKOR North, Pressly will be working in player development with both major and minor leaguers.
Pressly, 37, just announced his retirement as a player a couple of days ago. It seems he doesn’t plan to sit by the fire smoking a pipe and reading the paper. He has quickly launched the next stage of his life with this gig with the Twins.
Presumably, Pressly has a lot of wisdom to pass on to younger players after the twists and turns of his baseball journey. He just wrapped up a professional career that lasted almost two decades. He was drafted by the Red Sox with an 11th-round pick back in 2007. He was never really a top prospect and was left unprotected in the 2012 Rule 5 draft, which is how the Twins were able to get him from the Sox.
That proved to be the springboard for him to establish himself as a major leaguer for 13 seasons. The Twins traded him to the Astros in 2018 but that doesn’t seem to have created any sour feelings between him and the organization, based on the fact that he is now rejoining the Twins in a new capacity.
Now he’ll pivot to helping other players who are in the earlier stages of their journeys. This is the second time in a week that the Twins have brought back one of their recently-retired players for a new role. Michael A. Taylor was hired as an outfield instructor a week ago.
Photo courtesy of Brad Rempel, Imagn Images
By Nick Deeds | at
There may be no player in baseball today who, from a statistical perspective, is more controversial than Luis Arraez. The winner of three consecutive batting titles from 2022-24, Arraez is a three-time All-Star with a career .317 batting average and a lifetime 6.1% strikeout rate that makes him a throwback to an era of baseball decades in the past.
That’s earned him a large number of fans around the game, but more modern analytics are skeptical of his case to be considered among the game’s stars. He’s a limited defender who is best served playing first base or DH despite still being just 28 years old, and even at his peak defensive ability he was a passable second baseman at best. While his 6.5% walk rate is higher than his strikeout rate, it’s still below average, which keeps his OBP from reaching elite levels. Perhaps most importantly, Arraez has less power than almost any other player in the game. Just 12 qualified players have a lower career ISO than Arraez since he made his big league debut back in 2019, and among that group Nicky Lopez, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Myles Straw are the only ones who have been everyday players for a significant stretch of time. He’s tied with Kiner-Falefa for the fewest home runs of any player with at least 3000 plate appearances over the past ten years.
That combination of minimal defensive value and bottom-of-the-scale power makes Arraez an unattractive bet for many teams. First base and DH are two of the spots in the lineup teams rely most heavily on to generate home run power, and slotting Arraez into one of those spots means the team will have to be able to compensate in other areas in order to field a well-balanced lineup. That’s certainly far from impossible; the Padres, for whom Arraez played in each of the past two seasons, have a 107 wRC+ over the past two seasons that’s tied with the Blue Jays for seventh-best in baseball. Even they, however, rank just 21st in the majors when it comes to home runs and 23rd in ISO during Arraez’s time with the club.
How much will teams value an all-hit, no-power first baseman on the open market in the age of analytics? Arraez’s free agency is about to show us, but the early signs aren’t impressive. The rumor mill has been exceedingly quiet regarding Arraez. San Diego was reported to have interest in a reunion back in November, but that was at a time when right-hander Michael King was expected to sign elsewhere. It’s unclear if they’ll have the money in the budget to add Arraez back into the fold after that expenditure. Similarly, the Rangers were connected to Arraez early in the offseason. Even at the time, however, there were questions about the team’s ability to fit Arraez in the budget. A report last week that the club was unlikely to pursue additional offense this winter further casts doubt on their standing as a realistic option for Arraez.
Looking for speculative fits presents a challenge. Many teams like the Dodgers, Tigers, Royals, and Astros have cluttered first base and DH mixes that make squeezing Arraez onto the roster essentially impossible. For other teams, they have some combination of established talent and interesting young players who would be hard to justify bumping out of a regular role in favor of Arraez. Would the Cubs spend to bring him in at DH even as Moises Ballesteros offers a contact-heavy, lefty bat on the league minimum? Could the Giants justify keeping Bryce Eldridge in the minors to make room for Arraez alongside Rafael Devers? The Yankees left Ben Rice without a clear place to play in deference to Paul Goldschmidt last year, but it’s impossible to imagine them doing the same for Arraez after Rice broke out in 2025.
Perhaps the best fits for Arraez are the teams he’s already played for. San Diego’s interest was already mentioned earlier, but the Marlins currently plan to use Christopher Morel at first base with Agustin Ramirez at DH, while the Twins have Josh Bell at the position and no locked in DH. Arraez could easily squeeze into either of those mixes, but it would be at least a mild surprise to see either club make a big offer to their former player. Perhaps a rebuilding team like the Nationals or Cardinals could sign Arraez, but if most contenders would have trouble fitting him on the roster, that may not speak well to his trade market over the summer.
Those tough headwinds on the market might not be quite as significant if Arraez had a better platform year, but 2025 was arguably his weakest season ever. While he played in 154 games and managed a career-high 11 stolen bases, his .289 BABIP was a career low by far and that led to a career-worst .292 batting average. With that drop in average came a drop in production across the board, as his .292/.327/.392 slash line was good for a wRC+ of just 104. That’s not exactly impactful production from a first baseman or DH, and if Arraez offered production more like the 123 wRC+ he had posted in his three years winning the batting title, perhaps teams would be more motivated to find room for him on their roster.
Perhaps, then, Arraez would be best served signing a one-year deal and retesting the market next season. That would fall below the two-year $24MM contract prediction MLBTR set out for Arraez at the outset of the offseason, and he’s previously indicated a desire for longer-term security after being traded twice in his career already. Even so, it might still represent the best (or only) option for Arraez given his down season and a tough market for first base/DH types. That’s especially true given that Arraez is young enough to procure a longer-term offer next offseason in the event he turns in a big 2026 campaign. With that said, there might be a team willing to bet on a bounce-back from Arraez and offer him a modest multi-year deal like the one MLBTR predicted for him back in November. Another possibility could be the Padres, known for their willingness to get creative and stretch dollars across multiple years, coming to Arraez with a creative multi-year offer like the one they gave Nick Pivetta last winter.
How do MLBTR readers think Arraez’s market will shake out? Will he be able to procure the multi-year deal many expected he’d be able to find at the outset of the winter, or will a tough market force him to take a one year deal? Have your say in the poll below:
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
