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The Opener: Skubal, Valdez, DFA Resolutions

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. Skubal, Tigers head to arbitration:

As noted by The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen, an arbitration hearing is scheduled for today between the Tigers and back-to-back AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. That makes today the last day for the sides to reach an agreement to avoid a hearing, though that looks extremely unlikely. Not only is there a massive $13MM gap between Skubal’s $32MM filing figure and the team’s $19MM figure, but the Tigers typically refuse to negotiate on one-year deals following the filing deadline. Assuming the case does go to a hearing in front of an arbitration panel, a decision won’t be expected today. When that decision does get handed down, however, it has the potential for notable consequences. If Skubal wins, his $32MM salary for this year would raise the bar substantially for future ace pitchers after decades of arms falling short of even $20MM in salary arbitration. If the Tigers win, they could have significantly more resources available to further bolster the club.

2. The Valdez market:

Framber Valdez is the top name left on the market, with the Orioles standing as the only team aggressively linked to him on the rumor mill. Baltimore has some competition, however, as their AL East rivals in Toronto were also connected to Valdez yesterday. If the Jays pick up their interest, that could put some pressure on the Orioles to get a deal done, and after a busy offseason where the Jays missed out on both Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette the team successfully luring Valdez to Canada can’t be ruled out. With fewer and fewer avenues left to improve, teams who were focused on other targets could start to circle back to Valdez in the days ahead.

3. Two DFA resolutions expected:

Left-hander Konnor Pilkington of the Nationals and Rockies outfielder Yanquiel Fernandez were both designated for assignment one week ago today, meaning they’ve been placed on waivers and a resolution should be expected today. If either player clears, they figure to head to Triple-A as non-roster depth for their current club via outright assignment. A waiver claim from a rival club would send them off to a new organization with their hold on a 40-man roster spot intact. Pilkington made his MLB debut in 2022 as a member of the Guardians and sports a career 3.97 ERA across 88 1/3 innings of work, albeit with lackluster peripheral numbers. Fernandez, meanwhile, made his MLB debut in 2025 and hit just .225/.265/.348 in 147 plate appearances, but he’s only 23 years old, isn’t far removed from top-100 prospect status, and also has a minor league option remaining.

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Astros GM Dana Brown Discusses Infield Outlook

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Astros general manager Dana Brown met with reporters this afternoon at the team’s media luncheon. As he has throughout the offseason, the GM downplayed the possibility of trading from his infield while noting that they’re still looking for ways to add a left-handed bat.

“If we can trade a guy to potentially get a left-handed bat or something like that, we’ll consider it,” Brown told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle). “But I think right now we have a really good infield. We do have the depth. We have a long season, 162. We have some veterans that we’d like to give some breaks during the course of a season, and to have this depth is good.”

That’s the tone Brown has struck all winter. He said as early as the GM Meetings that they weren’t motivated to trade Christian Walker and had no interest in moving Isaac Paredes. He again spoke about those corner infielders today. “Right now, both of them are still part of our roster. We have plans for both of them to play. So right now, the plan is for both of them to be there,” Brown said.

Walker and Paredes are in very different spots in terms of trade value. Walker is signed for $20MM annually for his age 35-36 seasons. He’s coming off a .238/.297/.421 showing with a drop in his defensive grades in his first year in Houston. The Astros would likely need to pay down more than half the contract to move Walker. He’s unlikely to fetch a significant left-handed bat no matter how much of the money they cover. Walker did connect on 27 homers and had an alright second half, so the Astros probably don’t want to move him solely to save a fraction of the contract.

Paredes would have much bigger appeal. He’s making $9.35MM after reaching an arbitration settlement this afternoon. The Astros don’t have an obvious spot for him in the starting infield after reacquiring Carlos Correa to play third base while Paredes was injured last summer. Correa obviously has ample shortstop experience but isn’t going to play there often on a team with Jeremy Peña. Houston plans to keep Jose Altuve primarily at second base. Manager Joe Espada has said all winter that they want to keep Yordan Alvarez at designated hitter as much as possible.

That leaves Paredes as a multi-positional infielder for now, though all it takes is one injury to change that. They’d find ways to get his bat into the lineup on a regular basis even if everyone’s healthy. Walker, Altuve and Correa are all in their 30s and could benefit from more rest than the team was able to provide last season. Paredes is coming off a significant hamstring strain that cost him most of the second half, so early-season off days wouldn’t be the worst thing for him either.

The Red Sox are the team that has been most frequently tied to Paredes in trade rumors. They haven’t replaced Alex Bregman in the infield and have a pair of controllable lefty-hitting outfielders, Wilyer Abreu and Jarren Duran, who would fit Houston’s biggest lineup need. It’d be a surprise to see the Sox part with either Duran or Abreu for Paredes — at least not a one-for-one deal. Paredes has the shortest window of contractual control among that trio. Boston also reportedly prefers Marcelo Mayer at the hot corner and is ideally looking to add a plus defensive second baseman, which isn’t Paredes’ specialty. Even if there’s a workable framework, it’d probably require Houston sending more talent to the Sox to even the package.

Former first-round pick Brice Matthews is likely headed back to Triple-A to begin the year. He hit 17 homers and stole 41 bases while batting .260/.371/.458 at the level a year ago. Matthews struck out at an alarming 28% rate, however, and he fanned in 20 of his first 47 MLB plate appearances. Baseball America grades him as the #3 prospect in a weak Houston farm system. He still has a pair of minor league options but could theoretically be a trade chip if the Astros don’t deal any of their veteran infielders.

Brown noted that the Astros are still evaluating free agent possibilities to add a lefty bat as well. They’re within a few million dollars of the $244MM luxury tax threshold which owner Jim Crane is reportedly reluctant to surpass. Even a role player like Mike Tauchman or Adam Frazier could put them too close to that mark to leave the front office with enough space for in-season additions. Maybe there’s a workable deal for a pre-arbitration lefty hitter who could be squeezed out by another club. Daniel Schneemann, Robert Hassell III or Yanquiel Fernández (the latter of whom should currently be on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Rockies) are a few speculative options who’d likely be available at a minimal cost.

Brewers Agree To Deal With Jordyn Adams

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Outfielder Jordyn Adams has an agreement with the Brewers, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. That’ll almost certainly be a minor league contract with a non-roster invite to MLB camp once the signing is finalized. Adams is a CAA client.

The 26-year-old Adams was the 17th overall pick by the Angels out of high school in 2018. He’s an elite athlete who covers a lot of ground in center field but has never been a consistently productive hitter. Adams’ strikeout rates hit alarming levels by the time he reached Double-A. That swing-and-miss remains the biggest impediment for the speedster, though he has gotten brief looks at the MLB level over the past three seasons.

Adams combined for 28 games with the Halos between 2023-24. The Angels non-tendered him last winter. Adams signed a minor league deal with Baltimore and cracked the big league club at the end of May. He got into 10 games but only picked up five plate appearances, as he was mostly a late-game defensive substitute. Baltimore outrighted him off the 40-man roster in August. He finished the season at Triple-A Norfolk, where he batted .213/.291/.379 with a 30.3% strikeout rate over 310 plate appearances.

Milwaukee places a lot of emphasis on athleticism and defense in the outfield. Adams fits that role as a non-roster depth piece. The Brewers have Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins lined up to split the majority of the outfield reps. Christian Yelich will get some work as a left fielder while serving mostly as a designated hitter, and Jake Bauers will rotate between the corners and first base. Brandon Lockridge, Steward Berroa and Akil Baddoo are potential center fielders with minor league options who all occupy 40-man roster spots. Adams joins Greg Jones, another elite runner and former first-round pick, as offseason depth adds.

Blue Jays Have Continued Interest In Framber Valdez

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The Blue Jays remain interested in top free agent starter Framber Valdez, report Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of The New York Post. Toronto reportedly met with Valdez at the GM Meetings back in early November. That predated their seven-year, $210MM contract with Dylan Cease, so it was hardly a given that the Jays were still involved.

Valdez is arguably the last impact player available on the open market. He’s certainly the highest-upside player remaining. There’s a decent supply of unsigned starting pitching, but most other players fit in the middle or back of the rotation. That includes Zac Gallen, the only other free agent who rejected a qualifying offer. Valdez is at least a high-end #2 starter and has ace potential.

The southpaw finished top 10 in Cy Young voting each season from 2022-24. He looked on that pace through the All-Star Break last year, turning in a 2.75 earned run average over 19 starts. Things went off the rails in the second half, as Valdez surrendered a 5.20 ERA over his final 12 starts. He also had the much publicized cross-up incident with third catcher César Salazar, as he came under fire for not showing much immediate concern after hitting Salazar in the chest with a fastball. Astros officials maintained they did not believe Valdez intentionally crossed the catcher up, and Salazar did his best to downplay the situation publicly.

In any case, Valdez hit the market coming off arguably his worst two-month stretch in years. He’s entering his age-32 season, an age at which five-plus year deals for free agent starting pitchers are rare. Blake Snell and Jacob deGrom are the only pitchers at 32 or older to sign for five years within the past decade. It’s not clear what Valdez sought at the beginning of the offseason, but it’s generally not a great omen for players’ markets if they’re unsigned into February. A short-term deal with opt-outs probably isn’t as appealing for Valdez as it would be for a younger free agent.

The Jays already run six deep in the rotation with Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Cody Ponce and José Berríos. They’re broadly involved on every top free agent, so it’s possible they’re circling back to see if Valdez’s market has dropped to a level at which they feel the value is too good to ignore. Bieber has battled some elbow fatigue. Yesavage had some injury questions in college and just completed his first full professional season. Ponce is something of an unknown coming back from Korea, though the Jays wouldn’t have guaranteed him $30MM if they didn’t think he could be an effective starter.

Toronto could certainly justify taking this group into the season, but they’re evidently still kicking around rotation possibilities. Heyman said on an MLB Network appearance this afternoon that the Jays have some amount of interest in bringing Max Scherzer back. That’d obviously be a much cheaper move than even a short-term deal for Valdez, but Scherzer isn’t as clear of an upgrade over Toronto’s back-end arms.

RosterResource calculates the Jays’ luxury tax payroll around $310MM. That’s already a franchise record and lands them in the top tier of penalization. The Jays are near the Yankees and Phillies to round out a clear top five in projected spending behind the Dodgers and Mets. Signing Valdez would probably push them close to $340MM in CBT commitments, which would take them ahead of the Yankees and Philadelphia. They’d pay a 90% tax on the average annual value of any further free agent contracts. A hypothetical $30MM salary for Valdez would add another $27MM to their tax bill and amount to a $57MM investment overall.

Valdez comes attached to draft compensation, though that penalty isn’t as severe for the Jays because they already signed Cease. Toronto punted their second-round pick and their compensatory pick for Bo Bichette (after the fourth round) to add Cease. They’d give up their third and fifth rounders for Valdez, but those are each outside the top 100 overall.

Houston paid the luxury tax last year, so they’ll only receive a compensation pick after round four once Valdez signs elsewhere. That’s all but inevitable, as they’ve never seemed interested in meeting the southpaw’s asking price on a free agent deal. The collective bargaining agreement prohibits team personnel from explicitly saying they’re not pursuing specific players, but Houston GM Dana Brown reiterated this afternoon that the Astros “haven’t had any conversations lately” with the pitcher’s camp (video via Jason Bristol of KHOU 11 News).

Yainer Diaz Wins Arbitration Hearing Over Astros

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Yainer Diaz won his arbitration hearing against the Astros, reports Francys Romero. The catcher, a PRIME client, will be paid a $4.5MM salary instead of the team’s $3MM filing figure.

Diaz earns a strong payday in his first trip through the arbitration process. The benefit of the win goes beyond the extra $1.5MM he’ll make than if he’d lost the hearing. It also sets a higher baseline for his final two years. The process is designed for players’ salaries to climb as they get closer to free agency, so there’ll be compounding benefits to today’s result.

The 27-year-old Diaz is one of the better catchers in the sport. He’s a career .279/.305/.454 hitter in nearly 1600 plate appearances. Baseball Reference has valued him around three wins above replacement in each of his first three seasons. He has topped 20 doubles in each and is coming off his second 20-homer campaign. Diaz hit .256/.284/.417 with 20 longballs and 70 runs driven in across 143 games a year ago.

That included a career-high 111 starts behind the plate, plus 24 as a designated hitter. Diaz caught the seventh-most innings in MLB. They’ll need him to take a similarly heavy workload now that high-end backup Victor Caratini departed to sign a two-year deal with Minnesota. César Salazar is expected to step into the backup role.

A $1.5MM isn’t a huge difference for a team in isolation, though it takes on a little more importance for the Astros than it would for most clubs. RosterResource estimated their luxury tax payroll within the $238-240MM range depending on the hearing result. Ownership reportedly wants to remain below the $244MM base tax threshold, so this could have a modest impact on the front office’s midseason flexibility on the trade front.

Today was a strong start for the players in arbitration. Orioles righty Kyle Bradish also won his case, pushing players to 2-0 thus far. The Diaz and Bradish hearings took place yesterday. Dylan Lee and Edwin Uceta had hearings last week, though their results are being held until other comparable cases are decided. According to The Associated Press, the Blue Jays had their hearing with left-hander Eric Lauer this afternoon, though that ruling is also expected to be held for a later date. Tomorrow is the biggest date of the arbitration class, as the Tigers and Tarik Skubal are set to present their cases with a record $13MM gap between their respective filing figures.

Red Sox, Kyle Keller Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox are in agreement with reliever Kyle Keller on a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. The Nello Gamberdino client would be paid a $1.9MM base salary if he makes the MLB roster.

Chris Cotillo of MassLive adds that the deal includes multiple assignment clauses, the first of which has a mid-April date. At that point, the Red Sox would need to make Keller available to other teams if they haven’t called him up. If another team is willing to add him to the MLB roster, Boston would need to call him up themselves or let him go.

It’s a stronger than average minor league deal for the 6’4″ righty. Keller makes his return to affiliated ball after pitching four seasons in Japan. He spent the first two seasons with the Hanshin Tigers and the most recent two years as a member of the Yomiuri Giants. Keller posted a 2.42 ERA across 152 1/3 innings during his NPB career. He’s coming off a 3.11 showing in 46 1/3 frames. He fanned an above-average 26.3% of batters faced but issued walks at a near-12% clip.

Keller didn’t land a guaranteed roster spot, but he’ll have a chance at solid earnings if he’s able to pitch his way to the big leagues early in the year. He appeared at the MLB level each season between 2019-21. Keller saw time with the Marlins, Angels and Pirates and combined for a 5.83 earned run average over 46 1/3 innings. He sat in the mid-90s with a decent curveball but didn’t throw strikes consistently enough to stick in a big league bullpen.

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has stockpiled a decent amount of non-roster relief depth who can compete for jobs in camp. Keller joins Vinny Nittoli, Seth Martinez, Devin Sweet, Tayron Guerrero and Hobie Harris as minor league signees.

Rockies, Kyle McCann Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rockies and catcher Kyle McCann have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com. The Ballengee Group client also receives an invite to big league camp in spring training.

McCann, 28, got to make his major league debut with the Athletics in 2024. He got into 54 games and stepped to the plate 157 times. He hit five home runs and drew walks at a solid 10.2% clip but also struck out in 37.6% of those plate appearances. His .236/.318/.371 batting line was just above league average, translating to a 102 wRC+, but was buoyed by a .368 batting average on balls in play.

His minor league offense has had a similar shape, with some power and walks but lots of punchouts. Outlets like FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus and Statcast all ranked him as a subpar defender during his time in the big leagues, particularly when it comes to pitch framing.

The A’s designated him for assignment in January of 2025. He cleared waivers and stuck with the club as non-roster depth but was released at the end of camp. In May, he signed with los Piratas de Campeche in the Mexican League. He got into 32 games for that club and stepped to the plate 140 times. He hit eight home runs with an 18.8% walk rate and 30.7% strikeout rate. The Mexican League is very hitter-friendly, with the league-wide slash line being .295/.378/.465 in 2025, but McCann’s .319/.450/.611 line was still strong even in that inflated environment.

The Rockies don’t have a ton of depth behind the plate. Hunter Goodman and Braxton Fulford are currently the only backstops on the 40-man roster. Goodman just had a breakout season in 2025 but Fulford has just 120 big league plate appearances with a .213/.267/.324 line in those. Brett Sullivan has been brought aboard via a minor league deal but he has just a .204/.250/.291 line in his 112 big league plate appearances.

McCann gives the Rockies a second non-roster catcher with at least some big league experience. If an injury pops up and the Rockies need another catcher at some point, McCann could perhaps have a leg up over Sullivan, who is out of options. McCann has a full slate of options, so he could be shuttled between Albuquerque and Denver if he gets a 40-man spot.

Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images

Yankees Outright Marco Luciano

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The Yankees announced that infielder/outfielder Marco Luciano has been sent outright to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment a week ago. He’ll stick in the organization as non-roster depth. He will likely be invited to big league camp in spring training.

No player wants to lose his roster spot but there’s probably at least some relief for Luciano, who has been riding the DFA carousel all winter. A longtime Giants prospect, that club put him on waivers in early December. He went to the Pirates, Orioles and Yankees via the waiver wire over the past few months. Now that he has finally cleared, he has been dropped to non-roster status but at least he now knows where to report when spring training begins next week.

Now 24, Luciano raked through the minor leagues as a prospect. He came up as a shortstop and was once considered the heir apparent to Brandon Crawford as the mainstay at that position in San Francisco.

However, he didn’t find as much success in the upper levels of the minors. He also struggled defensively and the Giants moved him to left field last year, with Willy Adames signed to take over shortstop, only putting more pressure on his bat.

Over the past two years, Luciano has taken 939 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level, with 33 home runs in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He drew a walk in 16% of his trips to the plate, an excellent clip, but was also punched out 29.1% of the time. His combined .229/.354/.400 line in that two-year span translated to a 101 wRC+. Luciano also exhausted his three option years over the past three seasons. He got brief looks in the majors, getting sent to the plate 126 times, but struck out in 35.7% of those trips while producing a .217/.286/.304 line.

Given the former prospect pedigree and his relative youth, teams are clearly still interested, hence all the waiver claims. But the strikeouts, lacks of options and defensive questions all pushed him to a fringe roster position.

The Yankees will try to unlock something with Luciano in Triple-A. He only played the outfield in 2025 but the Yanks announced him as an infielder/outfielder, so perhaps they will try him on the dirt a bit. He does hit from the right side and the Yanks have a fairly lefty-heavy lineup. They have been connected to righty bats like Paul Goldschmidt, Randal Grichuk and Austin Slater in free agency but perhaps Luciano can offer some help in that department as the season goes along. If he gets added back to the roster at some point, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time and can therefore be controlled for six seasons before reaching free agency.

Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images

Diamondbacks To Sign Carlos Santana

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The Diamondbacks and free agent first baseman Carlos Santana are in agreement on a deal, according to various sources. It is reportedly a one-year, $2MM pact. The Snakes have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once Santana completes his physical and the deal becomes official.

Santana, 40 in April, made his major league debut back in 2010. While he’s never really been a star player, he has carved out a long career as a reliably strong contributor. He has always had strong strikeout and walk numbers while flashing a bit of pop with strong first base defense to boot. In over 9,000 career plate appearances, he has a 14.4% walk rate, 16.6% strikeout rate, .241/.352/.425 line and 114 wRC+. In almost 13,000 innings at first, he has racked up 48 Defensive Runs Saved and 45 Outs Above Average.

As one would expect, his production has declined as he has pushed closer to his 40th birthday. He still gets rave reviews for his glovework but his offense hasn’t been as robust in recent seasons. Dating back to the start of 2020, he has a combined line of .222/.321/.378 and a 96 wRC+. With the Guardians and Cubs in 2025, his 11% walk rate and 19.2% strikeout rate were still good numbers but down from his career levels. He slashed .219/.308/.325 on the year for a wRC+ of 82.

Despite the trend lines and the poor 2025 season, there are some reasons why Santana could be a good fit for the Arizona roster. A switch-hitter, he has always fared better against left-handed pitching. In 2025, he wasn’t great against pitchers of either handedness, with a .231/.318/.346 line and 89 wRC+ against southpaws. But as recently as 2024, he was able to put up a huge .286/.356/.578 line and 160 wRC+ in that split.

The Diamondbacks had Josh Naylor as their first baseman to begin 2025 but they traded him to the Mariners at the deadline. Coming into this offseason, they had Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear atop the depth chart, but with question marks there.

Locklear, who came over from the Mariners in the Eugenio Suárez trade last summer, hasn’t yet found success against big league pitching. He also might not be ready for Opening Day this year. In a September game against the Red Sox, he was attempting to corral an errant throw from third baseman Jordan Lawlar when he made contact with batter-runner Connor Wong. He suffered a ligament tear in his elbow and a labrum injury in his shoulder and required surgery in October.

As for Smith, he has shown flashes of potential at times but with a heavy platoon split. A left-handed batter, he slashed .270/.348/.547 for a 140 wRC+ in 2024 but with most of that damage coming against righties. Last year, he had big splits again and also faded as the season went along, dealing with injuries in the second half. For the whole year, he hit .265/.361/.456 against righties but just .167/.375/.167 against lefties. He had a combined .261/.371/.446 line in the first half and .227/.261/.318 line in the second half. He spent time on the injured list due to an oblique strain and a quad strain and only played 87 games on the year.

Locklear hits from the right side, so a platoon with Smith is potentially a good arrangement at first. But Locklear is fairly unproven and also has the uncertain health status. Smith appears to be a good bat against righties but without an especially long track record of success. His first base defense also hasn’t received strong marks.

The Diamondbacks didn’t have a strict designated hitter in 2025, with various players rotating through that spot. It’s possible they could rotate Locklear, Smith and Santana based on various situations throughout the season. Santana provides stronger glovework than Smith and with better numbers against lefty pitchers. Locklear still has an option and could be sent to Triple-A but he could earn more playing time, with the DH spot allowing the club to spread some more at-bats around.

There’s also the financial component. Owner Ken Kendrick said in September that the payroll would likely be dialed back relative to 2025. General manager Mike Hazen has tried to downplay the payroll concerns but also recently implied that making a flashy bullpen signing would have closed the door to reuniting with Merrill Kelly.

With an uncertain first base situation and little money to spend, the Snakes were connected to right-handed-hitting first basemen who weren’t likely command high salaries. That included Santana but also Ty France and old friend Paul Goldschmidt. While a reunion with Goldy would have been fun, the Santana deal seems to make it far less likely, if not completely impossible.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that the sides were close to a deal. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic reported that an agreement was in place. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported that it would be a one-year deal. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reported the $2MM figure. Photos courtesy of David Richard, Katie Stratman, Imagn Images

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