Rockies Release John Brebbia
The Rockies announced that right-hander John Brebbia has been released from his minor league deal. It’s unclear if he triggered an opt-out or was simply let go. In either case, he’ll head to free agency in search of his next opportunity.
More to come.
A’s Trade Cooper Bowman To Rays
The Athletics and Rays announced a swap of minor league players. Infielder Cooper Bowman goes to Tampa Bay, while the A’s acquire right-handed reliever Gerlin Rosario. Neither player has appeared in the big leagues, nor are they on their respective clubs’ 40-man rosters.
Bowman is the closer of the two to the majors. A 26-year-old second baseman/left fielder, he was selected by the Reds in the 2024 Rule 5 draft. Bowman hit .120 in 13 Spring Training contests. Cincinnati passed him through waivers and returned him to the A’s halfway through camp. Bowman had a rough season in the minors, twice landing on the injured list and struggling when healthy. He hit .234/.328/.385 across 326 plate appearances, most of which came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
The A’s opted not to extend Bowman a non-roster invitation to big league camp this year. He’ll open the season with Tampa Bay’s top affiliate in Durham. Bowman has shown some stolen base acumen in the minors and posted solid offensive numbers back in 2024, when he .262/.351/.419 between the top two levels. He’ll provide non-roster second base depth with Richie Palacios pressed back into MLB action by the shoulder impingement sending Gavin Lux to the injured list.
Rosario, 24, spent the entire 2025 season at High-A Bowling Green. He worked to a 2.27 ERA across 47 2/3 innings, albeit with a modest 21.7% strikeout rate. He has never appeared in MLB camp. The A’s will probably send him to Double-A for the first time in his career.
Tigers Sign Connor Seabold, Transfer Beau Brieske To 60-Day IL
The Tigers announced that they have signed right-hander Connor Seabold to a split contract worth $800K at the big-league level. It hasn’t been reported what he would make if sent to the minors. To open a 40-man spot for Seabold, fellow righty Beau Brieske has been placed on the 60-day injured list with a left adductor strain.
Seabold, 30, quickly finds a new landing spot. He was in camp with the Blue Jays on a minor league deal but triggered a release clause in that deal and was cut loose a couple of days ago. Now he has landed a new deal and also gets a roster spot, at least for the moment.
He is out of options and can’t be easily sent to the minors. If he were to be passed through waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright. However, he doesn’t have enough service time to both elect free agency and keep his salary commitments in tact. Since this is a split deal, it’s possible the minor league salary is notable enough that Seabold wouldn’t want to walk away from it.
Seabold’s track record to date isn’t especially impressive. He has thrown 119 innings, allowing 7.79 earned runs per nine. However, a decent chunk of that sample was at Coors Field, as Seabold pitched 87 1/3 innings for the Rockies in 2023.
It’s possible the Tigers are betting on a recent velocity spike. As reported by Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet, the Jays were hoping to have Seabold serving in a multi-inning kind of role this year until his velo ticked up early in camp. He has averaged 92 to 93 miles per hour in his big league career but was suddenly hitting 96, with good induced vertical break to boot, so the Jays pivoted to considering him for a bullpen gig. The Jays also helped him add a slider. He faced 33 batters during official spring action and struck out 13 of them, a 39.4% clip.
It’s obviously a small sample and Seabold also walked four batters, hit three more and posted a 6.75 ERA. The Jays weren’t impressed enough to give him a roster spot even though they could have made it work. But perhaps there’s something to be unlocked with the extra life. If not, the Tigers are only committed to paying him barely above the league minimum for as long as he holds a roster spot.
As for Brieske, injuries wiped out most of his spring training. He was initially held back by some rib cage tightness. He overcame that issue and got back on the mound about two weeks ago but then a groin strain pulled him off again.
His exact timeline isn’t clear but his adductor strain is evidently serious enough that the Tigers don’t expect him back before late May. Since he effectively missed spring training, only making three appearances, he will presumably take some time to ramp up once he is healthy. Exceptions are sometimes made for guys recovering from UCL surgery but rehab assignments for pitchers are usually capped at 30 days.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Josiah Gray Diagnosed With Flexor Strain
Nationals right-hander Josiah Gray has been diagnosed with a flexor strain, the team announced. He has been placed on the 60-day injured list and will miss at least the first two months of the season. That opens a 40-man roster spot for lefty reliever Cionel Pérez, whose contract has officially been selected. Washington also placed righty reliever Paxton Schultz on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to March 22, with elbow inflammation.
More to come.
Reds Select Nathaniel Lowe’s Contract
March 23rd: The Reds made it official today, announcing that they have selected Lowe’s contract and placed Greene on the 60-day IL.
March 21st: Nathaniel Lowe has earned a spot on the Reds’ roster, reports C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. The veteran first baseman signed a minor league deal with the club in mid-February. He’s set to make $1.75MM with the big-league squad, with an additional $250K available in incentives. Rosecrans notes that Lowe is expected to take the 40-man roster spot of Hunter Greene, who is headed to the 60-day IL after undergoing elbow surgery.
Cincinnati announced outfielders Rece Hinds and J.J. Bleday were optioned to Triple-A. Lowe and Dane Myers will round out the bench, along with backup catcher Jose Trevino and utilityman Spencer Steer. The Reds also sent right-hander Zach Maxwell to Triple-A. Left-hander Sam Moll has secured the final bullpen spot, per Rosecrans.
Lowe was dealt from the Rangers to the Nationals for reliever Robert Garcia last offseason. He hit just .216 in 119 games with Washington and was cut in mid-August. Lowe then latched on with the Red Sox. He recovered some value in Boston, slashing .280/.370/.420 across 119 plate appearances. The final result was still a career-worst 91 wRC+. The 30-year-old received minimal interest this winter, but a strong Spring Training will propel him to a major league gig. Lowe posted a 143 wRC+ in 15 spring games. He racked up seven extra-base hits, including three home runs.
Hinds did all he could to earn a job in the spring. He belted five home runs and drove in 11 across 43 plate appearances. The 25-year-old is known for his big power, but he also hit .410 in the limited Spring Training sample.
The Reds didn’t necessarily need to keep another first baseman, with Steer a capable backup behind Sal Stewart, but the decision came down to getting Hinds regular reps. “I was very careful with how I worded it with him,” manager Terry Francona said about breaking the news to the outfielder. “(Hinds) did enough to make the team, but the role is a bench role, and we want you to play.”
Bleday signed a one-year deal in late December. He made a strong case for a roster spot himself, launching four home runs and getting on base at a .364 clip. Bleday had seemingly emerged as a consistent contributor with the Athletics, slashing .243/.324/.437 with a career-best 20 home runs in 2024. He stumbled to a .656 OPS over the first two months of the 2025 campaign and found himself back in Triple-A. Bleday returned to the big-league club in August, but was designated for assignment at the end of the season. He and Hinds both have a minor league option remaining.
Maxwell, affectionately known as Big Sugar, will head back to the minors as the Reds opt for another lefty in the pen. The 6’6″, 275-pound righty with the triple-digit fastball delivered solid results in his first taste of the majors last year. Maxwell posted a 30.2% strikeout rate with an xFIP and SIERA just above 3.00. He punched out hitters at a 31% clip this spring, though a few shaky outings to begin Cactus League action led to a 5.40 ERA.
Moll is out of options, while Maxwell still has three left. The veteran gives the Reds another left-handed middle reliever while Caleb Ferguson is sidelined. Cincinnati also added Brock Burke in a trade this offseason. Brandon Williamson is in the pen, though he’ll be more of a long relief/piggyback starter option.
Photo courtesy of Frank Bowen IV of The Enquirer via Imagn Images
JJ Wetherholt To Make Cardinals’ Opening Day Roster
Infield prospect JJ Wetherholt has made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster. President of baseball operations Chaim Bloom passed the news along to reporters, including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. Infielders Thomas Saggese and José Fermín as well as outfielder Nathan Church will also break camp with the club, though outfielder Nelson Velázquez will be assigned to Triple-A Memphis. A corresponding move will be necessary to open a spot for Wetherholt.
The news on Wetherholt is notable but not surprising. It has seemed all winter long as though the Cards had planned for him to get a shot in the big leagues. They cleared out their roster this winter by trading guys like Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan. Those trade were partly for cost savings but also to open some playing time for younger players as the Cards are rebuilding and need to assess their young guys in a major league environment.
Wetherholt was one of the main guys who needed some room. The seventh overall pick of the 2024 draft, he climbed to the cusp of the majors last year. He split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, making 496 plate appearances in total. His 14.5% walk rate was excellent and almost as high as his 14.7% strikeout rate. He produced a combined .306/.421/.510 batting line, which translated to a 154 wRC+. He stole 23 bases on the year. His defense at shortstop was considered good enough for him to stay there as a big leaguer but he also played some second and third base.
As the 2026 season drew closer and the annual top 100 lists came out, Wetherholt was in the top 10 of most of them. But at the beginning of the season, the Cards had a fairly crowded infield. Masyn Winn is one of the best defensive shortstops on the majors and is controlled for another four seasons. They had Arenado at third. Donovan could bounce around the diamond but played second base more than any other spot.
As mentioned, the Cards clarified their roster picture over the winter and opened a spot for Wetherholt, though Wynn’s glovework is so strong that he never seemed at risk of being unseated at short. It felt likely that Nolan Gorman would take over at third, with Wetherholt the favorite for the second base gig. In camp, Wetherholt hit two home runs and also drew walks in 20.5% of his 44 plate appearances. Though he was held back by a .200 batting average on balls in play, he still produced a .212/.386/.394 line and 115 wRC+.
That performance was enough to solidify the expected plan, so the Cards will indeed open the season with Wetherholt on the roster. By giving him an Opening Day spot, they will keep the Prospect Promotion Incentive on the table. Since Wetherholt is a consensus top 100 guy, if he spends enough time on the big league roster to earn a full service year this season, he could net the Cards an extra draft pick by winning Rookie of the Year or finishing top three in MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.
That will be a secondary concern. For the Cards, the focus is on putting together a core that can get them back to contention. Ideally, Wetherholt will be a big part of that in the long run, though sometimes even the best prospects don’t find immediate success. The Cards are in a position to let him get a lot of reps in order to maximize the chances of him getting acclimated to the big leagues.
As for the other moves, the Velázquez decision is perhaps the most surprising. In the offseason, the Cards had been looking to add a right-handed complement for their outfield, as Lars Nootbaar and Victor Scott II are both lefties. They didn’t sign any such player to a major league deal but brought Velázquez into camp as a non-roster invitee. As of a week ago, it seemed likely that Velázquez would be getting a spot, especially with Nootbaar slated to start the season on the injured list.
Velázquez put up a monster .357/.449/.667 line in spring training but that evidently wasn’t enough. Perhaps that’s due to roster concerns. As mentioned, the Cards need to open one 40-man spot for Wetherholt. Nootbaar is going to start the season on the 10-day IL but there hasn’t been anything to suggest he will need a move to the 60-day IL. Hunter Dobbins is still rehabbing a torn ACL from last year. It’s unclear how much longer it will take for him to be game ready.
Unless Dobbins ends up on the 60-day IL, the Cards will have to remove someone to make room for Wetherholt, whether that’s a trade or designating someone for assignment. Adding Velázquez would have meant another such move. It doesn’t appear Velázquez has any kind of opt-out in his deal, so the Cards will send him to the minors and keep him around without using a roster spot.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Jeffrey Camarati, Imagn Images
Thairo Estrada Granted Release After Opting Out Of Orioles Deal
Veteran utilityman Thairo Estrada has been granted his release, the team announced. He had an opt-out provision in his minor league contract with Baltimore and is once again a free agent. The O’s also reassigned catcher Maverick Handley and outfielder Jhonkensy Noel to minor league camp. Both were non-roster invitees this spring.
Estrada, 30, went just 2-for-25 with a pair of singles and nine strikeouts this spring. It wasn’t the camp performance he was hoping for after a 2025 season in which he hit only .253/.285/.370 with the Rockies. Injuries limited Estrada to just 165 plate appearances a year ago. He missed time due to a broken wrist, a sprained thumb and a strained hamstring during a snakebit season.
From 2021 to 2023, Estrada slashed .266/.320/.416 with the Giants (105 wRC+). He eventually found himself upgraded from a utility role to the team’s starting second baseman. He combined that slightly above average bat with a strong glove to become a valuable player for San Francisco for a few years.
Things began to turn the wrong direction in 2024 — a season in which a left wrist sprain limited Estrada to just 96 games. He hit a paltry .217/.247/.343 (68 wRC+) even when he was healthy enough to take the field. The Giants cut him loose, and a one-year deal with the Rockies didn’t help him right the ship.
With Estrada being cut loose, the Orioles’ options for the final spot on Craig Albernaz’s bench include Jeremiah Jackson, Bryan Ramos and Weston Wilson. Jackson and Ramos are both on the 40-man roster. Jackson is hitting .333/.353/.545 in 34 spring plate appearances but has minor league options remaining. Ramos is hitting .297/.366/.459 in 41 plate appearances and is out of minor league options. Wilson has hit .241/.405/.448 and has the most outfield experience of the group.
Non-roster invitee Luis Vázquez had been in the running for a utility role as well, but Albernaz revealed this afternoon that Vázquez suffered a broken thumb yesterday when he was hit by a pitch (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner). There’s no timetable for his return, but the ill-timed injury obviously takes him out of the running for a roster spot. He’ll stick with the O’s as a depth option and rehab the injury in their system.
T.J. McFarland Announces Retirement
After over a decade in the big leagues, T.J. McFarland is hanging up his spikes. The left-hander announced his retirement on Instagram today, thanking his wife, parents, family, friends, teammates and the clubs who employed him for all their support throughout his time as a professional ballplayer.
McFarland wraps up a career of more than a decade. A relative soft tosser by today’s standards, his velocity topped out in the low 90s and he didn’t strike many guys out. But he had great control and was one of the best arms in the league when it came to inducing ground balls. His earned run average wobbled from year to year, as ground balls are less reliable than strikeouts since they need to be hit towards fielders who can regularly convert them into outs. McFarland had three seasons with an ERA under 3.00 and five above 5.00, but he was generally effective on the whole.
His professional career began when he was a fourth-round pick of Cleveland in 2007, taken out of Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Palos Hills, Illinois. He worked his way up the minor leagues as a starter. He was left unprotected in the 2012 Rule 5 draft. The Orioles took him and plugged him into their bullpen. He stuck on the roster all season long in 2013, throwing 74 2/3 innings over 38 appearances with a 4.22 ERA. His 17.5% strikeout rate was well shy of league average but he generated grounders on 57.8% of balls in play. He stuck with the Orioles in 2014 and dropped his ERA to 2.76 with fairly similar rate stats. But that ERA ticked up to 4.91 in 2015 and then 6.93 the year after.
He was released ahead of the 2017 season and landed with the Diamondbacks. His 5.33 ERA that year wasn’t especially impressive but he was back with the Snakes in 2018 and posted a flat 2.00 ERA over 72 innings. The seesaw nature of his career then flung him in the other direction, as he had a 4.82 ERA in 2019. That may have been related to the juiced balls in that season, as McFarland’s 17.1% home run to fly ball ratio was the highest of his career.
He was put on waivers after that campaign, getting claimed by the Athletics. He posted a 4.35 ERA for the A’s in that shortened season as the club won the American League West. He got to make his postseason debut, tossing two scoreless innings, though the A’s were knocked out by the Astros in the Division Series.
He became a free agent going into 2021. He was with the Nationals on a minor league deal for a while but then got back to the majors with the Cardinals. He gave them 38 2/3 innings with a 2.56 ERA. The Cards snagged a Wild Card spot, which meant a single-game playoff at that time.
Facing the Dodgers, the Cards would eventually fall with McFarland given the tough-luck loss. He was sent into a tied game in the bottom of the ninth. He got Albert Pujols and Steven Souza Jr. to line out then walked Cody Bellinger. Alex Reyes was brought in to face the right-handed Chris Taylor, who hit a walk-off home run. Since Bellinger was technically the winning run, the L went next to McFarland’s name in the boxscore.
Despite that bitter ending, the Cards clearly liked what McFarland gave them. They brought him back for 2022 via a $2.5MM deal, the largest of McFarland’s career. Unfortunately, he was dragged by one of his patented ERA swings. He was released in August with a 6.61 ERA and then re-signed with the Cards on a minor league deal. In 2023, he was mostly stuck in the minors, making just three appearances for the Mets midsummer.
Another bounceback came in 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers but was traded to the A’s just before Opening Day and given a roster spot. He made 79 appearances for that club’s final season in Oakland with a 3.81 ERA. He re-signed with that club, a one-year deal worth $1.8MM, going into 2025. His ERA jumped up once more, getting to 6.89 that year, before he was released in July.
Overall, McFarland appeared in 460 major league games and logged 546 1/3 innings with a 4.18 ERA. His 13.7% strikeout rate was well below average but his 7.3% walk rate was quite good and his 61.7% ground ball rate was elite. Among pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched from 2013 to 2025, only Clay Holmes and Framber Valdez induced grounders at a higher rate than McFarland. He had a 26-20 record and earned one save and 68 holds. Baseball Reference pegs his career earnings a bit north of $12MM. We at MLB Trade Rumors salute McFarland on his fine career and wish him the best with whatever comes next.
Photos courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Jeff Curry, Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images
Andrew McCutchen Makes Rangers’ Roster; Kumar Rocker Named Fifth Starter
Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young announced today that veteran outfielder/designated hitter Andrew McCutchen has made his club’s Opening Day roster (link via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). McCutchen will earn a reported $1.25MM base salary and can double that amount via incentives. He and Ezequiel Duran will have spots on the team’s bench.
In the rotation, right-hander Kumar Rocker has won the fifth starter’s job over lefty Jacob Latz, who’ll head to the bullpen (link via Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports). Non-roster veterans Cal Quantrill and Austin Gomber have been informed they did not make the team. McCutchen is not on the 40-man roster and will thus need to have his contract selected for the move to become official.
McCutchen signed midway through camp but quickly hit his way into the Rangers’ plans. He turned 39 last October but wasn’t showing his age during Cactus League play. It’s only 24 plate appearances, of course, but McCutchen went 8-for-18 with three doubles, a homer, six walks and five strikeouts in official spring games. He’ll give the Rangers a right-handed complement to lefty swinging designated hitter Joc Pederson, and McCutchen can still mix into the outfield corners on occasion as well. If Pederson’s anemic 2025 performance carries into the 2026 season — it’s carried over into spring training already — then McCutchen could eventually find himself in a larger role.
After all, McCutchen is coming off a season where he hit .239/.333/.367 in 551 plate appearances. It’s below-average production overall, but he was slightly above average in 2023-24. And given the depths of last year’s struggles from Pederson (.181/.285/.328), even slightly below-average offense would be a sizable improvement out of the DH slot.
Rocker, 26, had a rocky go of it in his first extended look in the majors last year. The former top-10 draft pick and top prospect pitched 64 1/3 innings but was knocked around for a 5.74 ERA with a below-average 19.5% strikeout rate and a solid 8% walk rate. Rocker pitched better in 19 minor league innings but also missed considerable time with a shoulder impingement.
This spring, Rockier has looked more formidable. He’s pitched 12 2/3 innings in Cactus League play, holding opponents to six runs (4.26 ERA) on 13 hits and three walks with 14 strikeouts. His velocity on his sinker is up about a half mile per hour, and the velocity on his cutter is up more than two miles per hour. Rocker has also been using his slider more than twice as often as he did in 2025, on a rate basis. Perhaps that’s more indicative of him working on the slider during camp than it is a sign of a new approach to his pitch selection in ’26, but the new trendlines are relatively intriguing.
Latz entered camp hoping to land the final rotation spot but will settle for a bullpen role to begin the year. He’s coming off a season in which he pitched 85 2/3 innings of 3.98 ERA ball, but Latz was torched for 14 earned runs in 15 1/3 innings this spring. The Rangers could keep the left-hander stretched out in a multi-inning role, which would allow him to be first up in the event of an injury elsewhere in the rotation.
For now, Rocker will break camp in the rotation alongside his college co-ace at Vanderbilt, Jack Leiter. The “Vandy Boys” will join Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and trade acquisition MacKenzie Gore in a rotation that has the potential to be one of the best in baseball but also has plenty of injury risk with both Eovaldi and deGrom being in their late 30s and having lengthy injury histories in recent years.
Padres Nearing Deal With Jose Leclerc
The Padres are close to a deal with veteran reliever José Leclerc, as first reported by journalist Mike Rodriguez. It’ll be a minor league deal for the Munger English Sports Management client once it’s complete, Jon Heyman of the New York Post adds.
Leclerc missed the bulk of the 2025 season after suffering a severe lat strain and eventually requiring shoulder surgery. He threw a bullpen session for interested clubs a couple weeks ago and was said at the time to be targeting a return around July. The Padres will hope his recovery goes well in the next few months, thereby allowing him to bolster their pitching staff midseason.
It’s a buy-low move for the Padres, who are known to be working under some budgetary restraints. The past few offseasons have seen them mostly stick to modest contracts. Even when they have splurged a little bit, such as their deals for Nick Pivetta and Michael King, they have backloaded the money in order to lower the near-term hit.
Leclerc is just over a year removed from earning a $10MM deal from the A’s. That was somewhat surprising at the time but he did have some intriguing stuff on his track record. From 2018 to 2024, he tossed 299 2/3 innings for the Rangers, allowing 3.24 earned runs per nine. His 11.8% walk rate was quite high but his 31.8% strikeout rate was very strong.
In that time, he had worked both as a closer and a setup guy, earning 41 saves and 58 holds. He mixed in six different pitches, with his four-seamer and sinker sitting in the mid-90s as he also threw a high-80s cutter and changeup, a low-80s slider and a curveball in the high-70s.
His 2025 season was mostly lost. He only made ten appearances for the A’s before the aforementioned lat injury put him on the shelf. He will still be recovering from his surgery for another few months. It hasn’t been reported what salary he will make if selected to the Padres’ roster but it is presumably well below $10MM.
The Padres have a strong bullpen, even though they let Robert Suarez walk in free agency. Mason Miller is one of the best closers in the game and he’ll be joined by Adrián Morejón, Jeremiah Estrada and David Morgan. Perhaps Jason Adam can be healthy by Opening Day but he’ll be back in there at some point regardless.
Over a long season, pitcher injuries are inevitable and the outlook will change. As Leclerc is potentially getting back in game shape in July, the Padres will ideally be looking to bolster their roster ahead of the August 3rd trade deadline. If Leclerc looks to be in good form by then, perhaps that will subtract one item from their shopping list.
Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images