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Rays To Sign Nick Martinez

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10:56am: It’s a one-year contract with a mutual option, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. Mutual options are essentially never exercised, so that provision exists solely to delay the payment of a portion of the guarantee to the end of the season in the form of an option buyout.

10:39am: The Rays and veteran righty Nick Martinez are in agreement on a deal, per Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Boras Corporation client’s deal is pending a physical.

Martinez is the second free agent swingman whom the Rays have added this offseason. They signed lefty Steven Matz to a two-year, $15MM deal at the Winter Meetings. Matz was already expected to win a spot at the back of the rotation. Tampa Bay subsequently traded Shane Baz to the Orioles, leaving another rotation spot available.

The 35-year-old Martinez enters camp as the favorite to work as Kevin Cash’s fifth starter. He lands behind Drew Rasmussen, Ryan Pepiot, Shane McClanahan and Matz on the depth chart. That could push Ian Seymour and Joe Boyle back to Triple-A Durham while keeping the out-of-options Yoendrys Gómez in a long relief role for which he’s better suited. They’ll need way more than five starters to navigate the season given the injury histories for Rasmussen and McClanahan — the latter of whom hasn’t thrown an MLB pitch since August 2023 and will be on some kind of innings count.

Matz and Martinez each have ample experience working out of the bullpen and could transition to relief if Seymour or top prospect Brody Hopkins force their way into the rotation during the season. The versatility has been a huge selling point for Martinez, in particular. He can start, work multiple innings out of the bullpen, or work short relief in high-leverage situations as needed.

More to come.

Red Sox Acquire Caleb Durbin In Six-Player Trade

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10:02am: The two teams have announced the trade. All six players in question were on their clubs’ 40-man roster, so no corresponding moves were necessary.

8:25am: The Red Sox are acquiring infielder Caleb Durbin from the Brewers, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Milwaukee receives a three-player package including lefties Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan as well as infielder David Hamilton, Passan adds. Boston is also picking up infielder Andruw Monasterio, catcher/infielder Anthony Seigler and a Competitive Balance Round B pick, per Will Sammon of The Athletic.

Durbin is a notable pickup for the Boston infield and should be penciled in for everyday at-bats — presumably at third base, though he can also handle second base if the Red Sox prefer Marcelo Mayer at the hot corner from a defensive standpoint. The 25-year-old Durbin (26 in a couple weeks) finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2025 after he batted .256/.334/.387 with 11 home runs, 25 doubles, 18 steals (24 attempts), a 5.9% walk rate and a tiny 9.9% strikeout rate. He turned in above-average marks for his glovework at third in the estimation of both Defensive Runs Saved (5) and Outs Above Average (2).

He’s not the big middle-of-the-order presence many Sox fans have coveted, but Durbin is an affordable, controllable and versatile defender who’ll further the Red Sox’ pivot toward run prevention and help to lower a team strikeout rate that was 10th-highest in the sport last year at 22.9%. He’s a right-handed hitter whose pull percentage (43.3%) is a bit higher than league average (40.6%), which should play well with the Green Monster at Fenway Park. Durbin comes to the Red Sox with five full seasons of club control and two minor league option years remaining (not that there’ll be any thought of optioning him to the minors anytime soon after last year’s strong performance).

If Durbin is ticketed for the hot corner, that’ll leave second base to a combination of the left-handed-hitting Mayer and righty-swinging Romy Gonzalez. Recently signed utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa can back up both those positions as well as shortstop.

The 28-year-old Monasterio could also factor in at either second or third base, although like Gonzalez and Kiner-Falefa, he’s a right-handed hitter. As is the case with Gonzalez, Monasterio also carries notable platoon splits. He’s a career .255/.352/.375 batter against lefties but a .246/.303/.338 hitter against fellow righties. He’s coming off a career-best showing in the majors — albeit in a limited sample of 135 plate appearances — having slashed .270/.319/.437 (111 wRC+) with four homers. He’s controllable for another four seasons and won’t be arbitration-eligible until at least next offseason (possibly later, depending on how much time he spends in the minors this year).

Monasterio also has nearly 3500 professional innings at shortstop under his belt, so he gives Boston another backup option to oft-injured Trevor Story at shortstop (alongside Kiner-Falefa). He also has a full slate of three minor league option years remaining, so there’s no guarantee he’ll open the season on Boston’s major league roster. He’ll have the opportunity to win a role in camp, but barring injury and/or trade, Boston’s bench seems likely to include Gonzalez, Kiner-Falefa, catcher Connor Wong and outfielder/designated hitter Masataka Yoshida.

All of that assumes that Mayer makes the Opening Day roster, but it’s possible that the former No. 4 overall pick could open the season in Triple-A Worcester, too. Mayer’s .228/.272/.402 slash was well below league-average in 2025, but he only turned 23 in December and has an impressive minor league track record. That includes a .271/.347/.471 showing in Triple-A last year. He’ll have every opportunity to win a starting job in camp with the Red Sox, but late additions of Durbin and Kiner-Falefa lessen the team’s reliance on the still largely untested top prospect.

Boston also picks up the 26-year-old Seigler, who’ll provide some depth in the upper minors and could be a frequently used bench piece over the course of the coming season. He’s batted just .194/.292/.210 in an insignificant sample of 73 major league plate appearances, but Seigler hit .285/.414/.478 with eight homers, 16 doubles, four triples, 23 steals (27 attempts), a 16.9% walk rate and a 19.2% strikeout rate in 307 Triple-A plate appearances this past season. He’s been used as an infielder (second base, specifically) far more frequently than a catcher in recent seasons due to troubles controlling the run game and a susceptibility to passed balls.

Even if he’s rarely deployed behind the plate, Seigler is at the very least an interesting third catcher option who also is comfortable at second base and third base. He has two minor league option years remaining and doesn’t even have a full season of major league service, making him controllable for at least the next six full seasons.

The Red Sox also add a Competitive Balance draft choice — the only picks permissible to be traded under MLB rules. Milwaukee’s Round B selection is the first in that round, currently 67th overall (although that could change by a spot or two depending on what happens with Zac Gallen, the final remaining free agent who rejected a qualifying offer and is thus subject to draft pick compensation). They’ll not only get to add an extra player but will also add that selection’s slot value to their draft bonus pool. Last year’s No. 67 selection came with a $1.285MM value. This year’s should be up from that a bit. The Red Sox don’t need to spend that amount on this pick specifically; the slot value will be added to their bonus pool, which they can freely divide up among their picks how they see fit.

Turning to Milwaukee’s side of the swap, it feels like a precursor to another acquisition. The Brewers not only traded their incumbent starter at third base — they traded two of the top depth options behind him in the same swap. Perhaps there’s some infield shuffling on the horizon, but it feels like the Brewers will need to add some help on the dirt. Hamilton could see reps at the hot corner this spring but has spent far more time at second base in the Red Sox organization. Shortstop Joey Ortiz and second baseman Brice Turang are plus defenders who could both slide one position over to the left, but doing so might weaken the overall defensive aptitude of the group.

Bringing in some help at third base seems prudent, but options there are few and far between. Time will tell if president of baseball operations Matt Arnold has another move up his sleeve, but for right now, the Brewers look thin at third base.

Their pitching depth, however, continues to grow — even after trading ace Freddy Peralta to the Mets last month. Today’s trade brings in a pair of big league-ready arms. Harrison, 24, already has 42 big league games (37 starts) under his belt. He’s pitched to a 4.39 ERA with a 22.9% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate in that time.

At the moment, Harrison profiles as a fifth starter option for the Brewers, but he carries more upside than most back-of-the-rotation candidates. The 2020 third-round pick ranked as one of the top minor league talents in all of baseball for several years, peaking as the No. 26 prospect in the entire sport on Baseball America’s top-100 prior to the 2023 season. He’s yet to put it all together in the majors, but Harrison has fanned better than 30% of his opponents in parts of two Triple-A seasons.

The Brewers have developed a reputation as one of the sport’s top “pitch labs.” They worked wonders with righty Quinn Priester in 2025 and have helped to facilitate turnarounds or breakouts from relievers like Trevor Megill, Joel Payamps, Bryse Wilson, Colin Rea, Nick Mears, Jared Koenig and others. There are plenty of parallels between Priester’s trajectory and that of Harrison; both were former top prospects traded to Boston and quickly buried on the Red Sox depth chart. The Brewers will hope to convert on that same profile for a second consecutive season now.

Drohan just turned 27 last month, making him old for a “prospect,” but he nonetheless sat 15th on Baseball America’s recent update of Boston’s system. His path to big leagues has been slowed both by injury and a selection in the Rule 5 Draft. The White Sox took Drohan back in 2023 after Boston left him unprotected. He required a nerve decompression surgery in his shoulder that spring, however, which limited him to 16 1/3 rehab innings that season. A forearm injury in 2025 limited him to 54 minor league frames.

When he’s been healthy, Drohan has looked the part of an interesting prospect. His Triple-A numbers are skewed by a rough showing late in 2023 and during some rehab work in 2024 — both potentially impacted by his shoulder — but he was excellent last season, tossing 47 2/3 innings with Worcester and recording a 2.27 ERA, a 35.3% strikeout rate, an 8.4% walk rate and a massive 17.3% swinging-strike rate. He also posted a 2.17 ERA in parts of two Double-A seasons and was part of the 2023 Futures Game. Drohan sat 93.3 mph with his four-seamer in Triple-A in 2025, complementing the pitch with an 84.7 mph slider, an 88.8 mph cutter, an 84.3 mph changeup and a 77.9 mph curveball (listed in order of usage rate).

Hamilton, 28, returns to the club that originally drafted him but traded him to Boston as part of 2021’s Hunter Renfroe swap. He’s played in parts of three seasons with Boston and totaled 550 plate appearances with a .222/.283/.359 batting line.

Hamilton hasn’t hit much but is a plus runner with 95th percentile sprint speed, per Statcast, and 57 career steals in 68 attempts (83.8%). On a rate basis, he’s been one of the game’s elite defensive second basemen during his time in the majors, piling up 16 Defensive Runs Saved and 8 Outs Above Average in only 679 innings.

The Brewers originally drafted Hamilton in the eighth round of the 2019 draft out of the University of Texas. Arnold and top lieutenants like AGMs Matt Kleine, Will Hudgins and Karl Mueller were all in the Milwaukee front office when they first signed Hamilton out of the draft. That familiarity with him both as a player and as a person presumably played a role in this morning’s trade.

Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports that Hamilton will see plenty of reps at third base this spring. Whether his stellar second base defense carries over to third base and whether Hamilton performs well enough to secure a job will determine his roster status come Opening Day. He has a minor league option year remaining, so if the Brewers do make another acquisition or if Hamilton simply struggles to a great enough extent this spring, he can be sent to Triple-A Nashville without needing to pass through waivers. The Brewers can control him for at least four additional seasons — five if he spends more than 25 days in the minors this year.

For the Red Sox, today’s trade seems to largely round out the infield. With Kiner-Falefa also aboard as a glove-first utility option, there doesn’t appear to be much more room to add. Durbin should be an upgrade of a couple wins, and his extreme put-the-ball-in-play approach and defensive aptitude should help to raise Boston’s floor quite a bit, even if the offense as a whole looks suspect beyond the top few hitters.

The Brewers are now 10 to 12 deep in their rotation mix, which could set the stage for another trade. They could also simply hold onto that depth, knowing they’ll need an army of pitchers to get through a 162-game season and that many of their current arms have less than a full year of experience in the majors, but some form of additional infield depth seems likely to be on the horizon after today’s trade thinned them out.

Pirates To Sign Marcell Ozuna

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8:05am: ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that Ozuna will earn $10.5MM in 2026 salary, plus a $1.5MM buyout on a $16MM mutual option for the 2027 season. A mutual option hasn’t been exercised by both parties since 2014, so that option effectively just kicks a portion of the guarantee down the road by a year.

7:54am: The Pirates and slugger Marcell Ozuna are in agreement on a one-year, $12MM contract, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. The CAA client’s contract is pending a physical.

Ozuna turned 35 in November. The 2025 season was a down showing by his standards, but he was still a better-than-average offensive performer overall down in Atlanta. He batted .232/.355/.400 with a career-high 15.9% walk rate, a 24.3% strikeout rate, 21 homers and 19 doubles in 592 plate appearances. That overall line was weighed down by a brutal stretch in the middle of a roller-coaster season. Ozuna raced out to a scorching start in April and May, was one of the league’s worst hitters in June, and then settled in as a slightly above-average hitter for the season’s final three months.

The downturn in production dovetailed with a hip injury through which Ozuna continued to play at less than 100%. It’s impossible to say for certain whether that, age, or a combination of both was the driving factor in last season’s dip in bat speed, but Statcast measured his bat speed at 75 mph in 2023 (86th percentile of MLB hitters), 74 mph in 2024 (81st percentile) and 72.9 mph in 2025 (64th percentile). Accordingly, his typically elite exit velocity and hard-hit rate both fell. Ozuna averaged 89.9 mph off the bat and logged a 44.4% hard-hit rate in 2025. Both are still decent marks, but they’re down considerably from the 92.2 mph and 53.3% marks he posted as recently as 2024.

While Ozuna ought to be an upgrade to Pittsburgh’s lineup overall, the fit isn’t exactly perfect. Beyond the fact that PNC Park is perhaps the worst environment in MLB for right-handed power, the Buccos’ roster is a bit cluttered with corner bats who could use some of the DH time that Ozuna will now command on an everyday basis. Spencer Horwitz and Ryan O’Hearn had been lined up to share time at first base and designated hitter, with O’Hearn perhaps seeing some time in left. Horwitz, after a slow start to his season in 2025, finished the year out on a blistering .314/.402/.539 tear in his final two-plus months of play. He’s locked into an everyday role. O’Hearn can play in the outfield corners, but Bryan Reynolds has one of those two spots locked down.

Signing Ozuna, who has hasn’t played in the field at all in either of the past two seasons (and only logged 14 innings in 2023), likely pushes O’Hearn into an everyday role in the outfield. He has plenty of experience on the grass but rates as a sub-par defender there, whereas he’s an above-average defender at first base. Horwitz does have 604 professional innings in left field to his credit, so he could perhaps be on option in left as well, but all 604 of those frames have been in the minors — half of them back in 2019 and 2021. He’s played some second base, too, but that was a short experiment and the Pirates already acquired Brandon Lowe to man that position.

Presumably, the primary alignment moving forward will have O’Hearn in left field, Lowe at second, Horwitz at first base and Ozuna at designated hitter. It’s not Pittsburgh’s ideal setup from a defensive standpoint, but the Pirates will make that sacrifice in the name of getting some quality bats into the middle of what has typically been one of MLB’s weakest lineups over the past decade-plus. Newcomers O’Hearn, Lowe and Ozuna will join holdovers like Reynolds, Horwitz and Oneil Cruz, giving the Bucs a potentially strong top six in their order at the very least — and that’s before counting shortstop Konnor Griffin, who is the sport’s consensus No. 1 overall prospect and should debut in 2026.

Bringing Ozuna into the fold also seems to formally put an end to Andrew McCutchen’s second act in Pittsburgh. He could feasibly be a right-handed bench bat who takes some occasional corner outfield reps, but McCutchen played 120 games at designated hitter in 2025. Signing Ozuna clearly displaces him from that role, and it’s hard to see the two fitting together on the same roster. McCutchen recently met with Pirates owner Bob Nutting, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported last week — a meeting that came on the heels of the franchise icon voicing some frustration with the manner in which the team had handled offseason talks.

Adding Ozuna pushes the Pirates’ payroll to $101.282MM, per Ethan Hullihen, which will somewhat remarkably establish a new franchise-record for Opening Day payroll. It’s still a very modest total relative to the rest of the league, but the Bucs have spent more than $50MM in free agency overall and also taken on Lowe’s $11.5MM salary in a trade with the Rays. It’s possible there are additional moves to come. The Pirates have been in the market for third base upgrades as well. That market has been largely picked over, but there are still surely some creative options they can pursue on the trade market.

It’s not clear exactly how much more ownership is willing to boost the payroll, but the team’s reported four-year, $120-125MM offer to Kyle Schwarber and the flurry of subsequent additions pretty clearly indicates that Nutting is willing to spend at levels he has not considered approaching in the past. The Bucs currently have a plus defender at the hot corner in Jared Triolo, but he’s a well below-average hitter who’s capable of fielding multiple spots around the infield, so he could fit nicely in a utility/bench role if GM Ben Cherington can find a third base acquisition to his liking on the trade market.

Pirates, Red Sox Among Teams Interested In Isaac Paredes

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The Pirates and Red Sox are two of “at least five teams” discussing Isaac Paredes in trade talks with the Astros, according to The Athletic’s Chandler Rome and Ken Rosenthal.  This is the first time Pittsburgh has been linked to Paredes, though the two-time All-Star has been known to be a Red Sox target for much of the winter.

Boston’s quest for infield help has been one of their primary offseason storylines, with such names as Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, Ketel Marte, Eugenio Suarez, Nico Hoerner, Brendan Donovan and many others reportedly considered as free agent or trade targets.  In Donovan’s case, Rome and Rosenthal report that the Sox had some negotiations with the Astros and Cardinals about a three-team trade that would’ve sent Paredes to Boston, Donovan to Houston, and presumably a multi-player prospect package to the rebuilding Cardinals.

Instead, St. Louis opted for another three-team trade with the Mariners and Rays, with Donovan landing in Seattle.  The breakdown of what the Cardinals might’ve gotten from the Astros or Red Sox isn’t known, but the Donovan deal with Tampa and the M’s netted St. Louis a recent first-round pitching prospect (Jurrangelo Cijntje), two other prospects (Tai Peete, Colton Ledbetter) and two 2026 draft picks from Competitive Balance Round B.  The CBR picks are the only types of draft picks that can be traded, so the fact that the Rays and Mariners had such available selections and the Sox and Astros didn’t could have quite possibly been a factor in the Cards’ decision to accept that deal over the other three-team proposal.

Had the Cardinals been amenable to what the Red Sox and Astros offered, the deal would’ve checked off a couple of major boxes for the two AL teams.  Paredes would’ve stepped right in as Boston’s everyday third baseman, adding right-handed balance to the Sox lineup and moving Marcelo Mayer into the unsettled second base mix.  Donovan is known for his multi-positional versatility, but he would’ve likely been Houston’s everyday left fielder, with the Astros starting infield then settling as Carlos Correa at third base, Jeremy Pena at shortstop, Jose Altuve at second base, and Christian Walker at first base.  Yordan Alvarez is set for regular DH at-bats and neither Alvarez or Altuve are well-suited to left field work, so having Paredes in the fold creates something of a logjam for playing time if everyone is healthy.

Houston GM Dana Brown has repeatedly said that the Astros are fine with their infield situation, though this could be some gamesmanship at play, as recent reports suggested that the Astros may indeed still be looking to deal from their infield surplus.  Rome and Rosenthal write that Paredes and Walker are both being floated in trade discussions, and “Paredes is more likely to be dealt than Walker, whose cumbersome contract and limited no-trade clause make it more difficult to move him.”

The three-year, $60MM free agent deal Walker signed last winter contains a six-team no-trade clause.  Beyond the money and the no-trade protection, Walker is also entering his age-35 season, and he hit only .238/.297/.421 over 640 plate appearances (translating to a 99 wRC+) in his first season in Houston.  Paredes missed almost two months of the 2025 season due to a hamstring injury but was terrific when he did play, batting .254/.352/.458 across 438 PA.

It isn’t an ideal situation for the Astros that one of their better and less-expensive players might be their most logical trade candidate.  However, because Houston’s other infielders seem less likely to be moved for a variety of reasons, dealing Paredes might be the best way for Houston to both alleviate the infield surplus, and add a much-needed left-handed bat to the outfield.

As Rome and Rosenthal note, the most obvious way for the Astros and Red Sox to address their twin needs would simply be to make a deal with each other, since Boston has a plethora of left-handed hitting outfielders.  Jarren Duran has been viewed as the outfielder the Sox may be most willing to move, though Rome/Rosenthal write that the Astros prefer Wilyer Abreu over Duran, in part because of price.  Abreu doesn’t reach arbitration eligibility under next winter, while Duran is making $7.7MM in 2026 and his salaries will continue to rise over his remaining two arb years.

It remains to be seen if the Astros and Red Sox could finally line up on a deal themselves, or if perhaps another third party could get involved to help facilitate a trade.  There’s also the possibility that Houston could move Paredes elsewhere entirely, given the widespread interest in his services.

The Pirates and Astros already joined forces on a prominent trade back in December, when the two clubs and the Rays engaged in a three-team swap.  The Buccos traded from their rotation depth in moving Mike Burrows to Houston in that deal, while Pittsburgh bolstered its lineup by acquiring Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum.  Between that trade, the Ryan O’Hearn signing, and the deal with the Red Sox that brought Jhostynxon Garcia into the outfield picture, the Pirates have made a priority of adding some much-needed hitting help to the roster.

Landing Paredes would arguably be the biggest move of all for the Pirates’ offense, and it would fill a hole at third base.  Jared Triolo is Pittsburgh’s projected starter at the hot corner, and while Triolo is a plus defender, he has hit only .221/.303/.334 over his last 822 PA in 2024-25.  In terms of how the Bucs could meet Houston’s needs, the Pirates have multiple outfielders who are either lefty swingers or switch-hitters, yet none seem like exactly a fit.  Oneil Cruz likely isn’t going anywhere, Bryan Reynolds is probably too pricey for the Astros, and neither Mangum or Jack Suwinski would provide clear offensive help.

What other teams could speculatively be in on Paredes?  Many contenders are already set at the corner infield slots, though if Paredes is viewed as an upgrade over an incumbent, a deal could be swung with a third team involved.  On paper, the Brewers, Tigers, Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Athletics stand out as contenders or would-be contenders who could stand to improve at at least one of the first or third base positions.

Rays Hire Joe Hudson, Beau Sulser In Player Development Roles

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The Rays have hired Joe Hudson and Beau Sulser to the team’s player development ranks, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.  The hirings presumably indicate that Hudson and Sulser have ended their playing careers.

Hudson began his pro career as a sixth-round pick for the Reds in the 2012 draft, and his MLB career consisted of 19 games over parts of four seasons.  The catcher suited up for the Angels, Cardinals, and Mariners during the 2018-20 seasons, and after three full years in the minors, Hudson returned to the Show for a single appearance with the Mets during the 2024 campaign.  Over Hudson’s 33 plate appearances, he hit .167/.219/.200 with one double and one RBI.

Beyond the four teams Hudson played with at the Major League level, he played for several other organizations in the minors, including the 2022 season spent with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate in Durham.  It is fair to assume Hudson made a good impression on Rays officials during that season, resulting in this new role now that Hudson has decided to hang up the cleats at age 34.

Sulser never played for Tampa during his 12 pro seasons, though there is a family connection by way of his older brother Cole, who is in his second stint in a Rays uniform.  Beau was a 10th-round pick for the Pirates in the 2017 draft, and the right-hander spent the majority of his career with Pittsburgh over four different stints with the organization.

Sulser’s only taste of the majors came in 2022, when he tossed 22 1/3 innings across 10 appearances with the Pirates and Orioles.  Sulser had a 3.63 ERA over that cup of coffee in the Show, as well as a 4.47 ERA across 485 1/3 innings in the affiliated minor leagues.  The 31-year-old’s career also includes three stops overseas, as Sulser pitched in the Australian Baseball League (in 2020), the KBO League (in 2023), and the Chinese Professional Baseball League (last season).

Injury Notes: McClanahan, Canning, Kemp

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Rays fans have been waiting two years to see Shane McClanahan on a big-league mound. The electric lefty missed all of 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, then lost another season to a nerve issue in his triceps. McClanahan is on track to be ready for the 2026 campaign, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, though the southpaw will likely have his workload capped in some fashion.

McClanahan was solid in his 2021 debut, then morphed into an AL Cy Young candidate the following season. He put together 28 starts of a 2.54 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning in 2022. McClanahan capped off the year with a strong start against the Guardians in the Wild Card round. He tossed seven innings of two-run ball, but was outdueled by Shane Bieber.

Even if he faces some sort of innings limit, adding McClanahan back to the rotation will be a welcome sight for a depleted Rays staff. Drew Rasmussen and Ryan Pepiot sit atop the group, but the certainties end there. Shane Baz tied for the team lead with 31 starts last season, but he is now pitching in Baltimore. Veterans Zack Littell and Adrian Houser are no longer in the organization. Taj Bradley was sent to Minnesota at the trade deadline. Joe Boyle, free agent signee Steven Matz, and trade acquisition Yoendrys Gomez are candidates to fill out the rotation, and Littell could also potentially come back in free agency.

Griffin Canning is recovering from his own major injury. The free agent right-hander is working his way back from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered with the Mets last season. Canning threw for interested teams on Friday and hit 93 mph on the radar gun, Will Sammon of The Athletic reports.

The Cardinals, White Sox, and Mets have been mentioned as possible destinations for Canning. The veteran was putting together a strong campaign before going down in June. Canning had a career-best 3.77 ERA through 16 starts after signing a modest one-year, $4.25MM deal with New York. He ramped up his slider usage while tweaking the characteristics of the pitch with his new team, and Canning added more than three inches of vertical drop and 1.5 inches of horizontal movement to his primary breaking ball. He also made adjustments to his changeup. The tweaks helped Canning regain some of the strikeout ability he lost in his final season with the Angels.

On the position player side, utilityman Otto Kemp is expected to be a full go for the upcoming season. Kemp fractured his kneecap less than two weeks after getting called up last year. He played through the injury for the rest of the campaign. Kemp underwent offseason surgery to fix the issue and also had a cleanup procedure done on his shoulder. He told NBC Sports Philadelphia in an interview that he’s bouncing back well from the operations.

“Feeling back to 100%, which is awesome,” Kemp said. “It’s refreshing to feel that way after playing a lot of baseball banged up.”

The now 26-year-old provided some pop in his first taste of the big leagues, hitting eight home runs in 62 games. He finished with a .411 SLG, though it came with a strikeout rate above 30%. Kemp is among the internal options to compete for platoon work alongside Brandon Marsh in the outfield.

T.R. Sullivan: A Retrospective On The Harold Baines-Sammy Sosa Trade

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T.R. Sullivan was a legend on the Rangers beat.  He retired in December 2020 after 32 years writing for the Denison Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and MLB.com.  T.R. is also a friend to MLBTR. A couple of months ago, he kindly offered up a retrospective on the Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas trade.  “I just felt like writing it,” T.R. explained. More recently, Texas got shut down by a snowstorm, which T.R. took as an opportunity to explore the 1989 trade involving Harold Baines, Sammy Sosa and others. We’re proud to publish it!

Texas Gov. George W. Bush was in the middle of an ultimately successful run for the White House in 2000 when he made a guest appearance on Late Night with David Letterman.

At one point, they started talking about Bush’s biggest mistakes, the ones he really regretted.

“Well,” Bush said with a sly smile. “I once traded away Sammy Sosa.”

The line got big laughs from the audience – coming at the height of Sosa’s career as a power-hitting outfielder – but probably not as much from Rangers fans watching at home in Texas. Bush’s twin daughters Jenna and Barbara probably weren’t amused either considering the same trade also involved Rangers shortstop Scott Fletcher.

The veteran infielder just happened to be their favorite player. They named their dog “Spot” in his honor.

The reality is Bush did not make that trade. True, he was the Rangers co-managing general partner in 1989 when Sosa, Fletcher and pitcher Wilson Álvarez were traded to the White Sox for outfielder Harold Baines and infielder Fred Manrique.

But the guy who made the trade was general manager Tom Grieve, who many years later would confess, “The minute I made that trade I knew it was a mistake. We made the deal for all the wrong reasons.”

The guy on the other end of the deal was White Sox GM Larry Himes, who would later hold the same position with the Cubs. In both jobs, Himes pulled off a trade that involved acquiring Sosa for a veteran All-Star designated hitter.

The first trade was not a popular one with White Sox fans at the time.

“It’s an unpopular decision as far as the fans are concerned…it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good decision,” Himes said in the Chicago Tribune.

The Rangers-White Sox trade came down on July 29, 1989. At the time, the Rangers were trying to stay alive in the A.L West race and the White Sox were in a rebuilding mode. It was a classic mid-season trade, just like hundreds of others that are made or at least talked about at the trade deadline down through the years.

But this trade turned out different. This is the trade that wouldn’t go away. Instead, as the years passed, it really did take on a life of its own with a bewildering number of twists and turns involving implications felt from the White House and halls of Congress to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

In short, the trade involved a future member of the Hall of Fame, but not the one everybody expected, the one who ended up having to testify in front of Congress on national television at the height of baseball’s steroids scandal.

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MLBTR Chat Transcript

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Mark P

  • Seems like a normal, quiet Sunday evening with nothing going on. What better time to talk some baseball during the Weekend Chat?!

BPballknower

  • Sounds like the carousel of trade rumors between Astros and Red Sox are heating up finally. Do they need a 3rd team to finally get it done?

Mark P

  • I would think the two teams would be able to work some kind of multi-player deal (involving Paredes and one of Abreu/Duran as the primaries) that addresses everyone’s issues.  Involving a third team might help, or might just complicate things further.

Brockmire

  • Who ya got in the Big Pigskin Gamaroonie?

Mark P

  • Indiana/Miami was a few weeks ago, and the CFL doesn’t start for several months yet.  What other football game could you possibly mean?

Jays Fan

  • Do the jays make a consolidation trade before opening day? Always thought they’d turn their surplus (Schneider, Loperfido) for someone like Jo Jo Romero

Mark P

  • This seems possible, since I find it hard to believe Romero will still be a Cardinal by Opening Day.  But, the Jays might value having all of their depth back, since in my view there’s a lot of uncertainty over how many of their players will be able to replicate their 2025 numbers

Acuña

  • Will the Braves extend my contract this year?

Mark P

  • Atlanta holds $17MM club options on Acuna for both 2027 and 2028.  There’s probably no rush to work out an extension just yet, plus the Braves would likely want to see Acuna deliver a full and healthy season before discussing a longer agreement.

Giants

  • Any chances that Posey pulls something else off to complete the offseason? I feel like he fixed some holes in the roster but could still use some help, especially on the pitching side. Maybe trade for a solid reliever (JoJo Romero) or free agent (Danny Coulombe) or hunt down one of the starters remaining on a lesser deal (Gallen, etc). It can’t be enough on the pitching side for them for sure, in my opinion, and do you think Posey has a strategy to wait out the market for some prices to drop?

Mark P

  • With the lineup more or less set, any remaining Giants moves will surely come on the pitching end.  The bullpen adds you suggest make sense, and I’d prefer Gallen over any of the SF starters beyond the big two.

Yordan Alvarez

  • I break my hand and everyone forgets I am a top 5 hitter in the league

Mark P

  • I feel like I’ve written this before, but Alvarez in my view is one of the more underrated players in the league.  Despite posting borderline-HOF numbers for a perennial contender, Alvarez seems to be frequently overlooked when discussing the game’s best hitters

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