Orioles Sign Shane Baz To Extension
The Orioles announced that they have signed right-hander Shane Baz to a five-year deal covering the 2026 to 2030 seasons. The Cornerstone Baseball Group client will reportedly be paid $68MM in that span. He was previously slated to reach free agency after the 2028 season and had agreed to a $3.5MM salary for 2026. This deal adds four more guaranteed years for $64.5MM in new money. MLBTR has learned that Baz will get a $4MM signing bonus and $1MM salary in 2026, followed by salaries of $7MM, $10MM, $21MM and $25MM in the next four years.
Baltimore is evidently quite confident in their ability to get the best out of Baz, a pitcher who is clearly talented but who still comes with some question marks. Baz is a former first-rounder and top prospect but injuries had held him back to the point where he had barely 100 big league innings going into 2025. He did pitch 166 1/3 innings last year but with an uninspiring 4.87 earned run average. Despite that, the O’s surrendered a package of four prospects and a draft pick to get him a few months ago and are now making a big financial commitment to him for years to come.
The Pirates took Baz with the 12th overall pick back in 2017. Before reaching the majors, he was flipped to the Rays in the 2018 Chris Archer trade. Baz debuted with the Rays late in 2021, making three starts. In the minors that year, he posted a 2.06 earned run average while striking out 37.9% of opponents and limiting walks to a 4.4% clip.
Going into 2022, he was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the sport but he required arthroscopic elbow surgery in April of that year. He came back later that season and made a few more starts but then elbow issues popped up again. He underwent Tommy John surgery in September and missed the entire 2023 season.
He was still rehabbing at the beginning of 2024 but eventually got back on the mound and showed some promise. He made 14 starts for the Rays that year with a 3.06 ERA, though his 21.6% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate were both around average. Going into 2025, Baz was finally healthy after many years of elbow issues, which had limited him to 119 2/3 career innings. He made 31 starts and logged 166 1/3 innings in 2025. Unfortunately, the overall results weren’t good. As mentioned, Baz had a 4.87 ERA on the year.
There are some reasons for optimism under the hood. The Rays were playing in a minor league park last year due to hurricane damage to Tropicana Field. It’s possible Baz may have been impacted by that, as he had a 5.90 ERA at Steinbrenner Field but a 3.86 ERA on the road. Normally, about 12% of fly balls turn into home runs at the major league level. For Baz, that number was 18.9% at home and 11.1% on the road last year.
For the whole year, home and away, Baz struck out a solid 24.8% of batters faced. His 9% walk rate was around average. His 46.7% ground ball rate was a few ticks better than par. His 3.95 SIERA was optimistic that he deserved to have an ERA about a run better than where it actually ended up. His fastball averaged 97 miles per hour on the year while he also mixed in a cutter, slider, curveball and changeup.
The Orioles are clearly of the mind that Baz still has his best days ahead of him. Back in December, they sent prospects Slater de Brun, Caden Bodine, Michael Forret and Austin Overn to the Rays, along with a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick, to get Baz and his three remaining years of club control. Three of those four prospects were taken in the first three rounds of recent drafts. The other, Forret, was a 14th-round pick but had become arguably the best prospect in the bunch. The draft pick will be the 33rd overall pick this summer.
There are some parallels to Baltimore’s journey with Trevor Rogers. He was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2021 after he posted a 2.64 ERA over 25 starts for the Marlins. Then Rogers was injured and/or struggling for many years, diminishing his stock. From the start of 2022 to the 2024 deadline, Rogers only tossed 230 1/3 innings with a 4.92 ERA. The O’s felt they could get him back on track and sent Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby to the Marlins to get Rogers when he still had two-plus years of control remaining.
It took a while for that bet on Rogers to pay off but it did. He struggled with the O’s late in 2024 and had a knee injury at the start of 2025. After that, he was brilliant. He eventually made 18 starts for Baltimore last year with a 1.81 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46% ground ball rate. He got the Opening Day nod yesterday against the Twins and earned a win by throwing seven shutout innings.
Like with Rogers, Baz was plucked away from his Florida club, with Baltimore sending a notable prospect package down the coast. Both pitchers had displayed talent but had gone through some injury challenges and posted some underwhelming numbers. The Rogers pick-up has worked out very well. The O’s clearly feel good about getting similar results out of Baz.
Baz is currently 26 but this will be his age-27 season, with his birthday coming up in June. He was set to hit free agency a few months after his 29th birthday. He could have been in line for a nice payday at that point if he pitched well over the next three years. But all pitchers are aware of the potential for injuries, with Baz having direct experience in that department. Rather than betting on his own health, he is cashing in on a robust deal right now.
He will therefore delay his path to free agency by two years but could still be in line for a really nice payday at that point. In recent years, position players in their early 30s have seemingly had far less earning power than their late-20s counterparts. When it comes to pitching, you can still get paid if you’re still putting up numbers. Dating back to the 2021-2022 offseason, there have been seven free agent deals with an average annual value of $25MM or more for position players 31 or older. That number is 13 for pitchers.
In terms of recent extensions for pitchers between three and four years of service time, Baz is coming in under Logan Webb‘s $90MM, which is the top of the class. That’s understandable since Webb had already been established as a frontline pitcher at that point. Cristopher Sánchez is next on the list but that was a different case since he was already locked up via a previous extension. Baz is just a bit above Cristian Javier‘s $64MM deal with the Astros and Sandy Alcantara‘s $56MM deal with the Marlins. Both of those pitchers had better career numbers than Baz does now, but the deals are also a few years old at this point, so Baz seemingly creeps beyond them with some inflation.
For the Orioles, they have been a bit more aggressive in terms of spending money lately. Mike Elias was hired to run the front office in 2018 when the club was rebuilding and owned by the Angelos family. Since then, they have become a contender and are now owned by David Rubenstein. For a long time, Elias never signed anyone to a deal worth $50MM or more. In the past eight months, the O’s signed free agent Pete Alonso $155MM, gave Samuel Basallo a $67MM extension and now this deal with Baz.
It’s now possible that Baz is the key cog in their long-term rotation. Rogers, Chris Bassitt and Zach Eflin are all slated for free agency after 2026. Kyle Bradish is under club control through 2028. Dean Kremer will be slated for free agency after 2027 as long as he gets at least 60 days of service time here in 2026. As those guys depart, they could perhaps be replaced by prospects like Trey Gibson or Luis De Leon, while external additions will presumably be brought in from time to time. As the picture fluctuates, Baz will be a fixture of the group, if Baltimore can push him down the same upside path as Rogers.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides were finalizing a five-year deal worth $68MM which would override his one-year deal for 2026. Photos courtesy of Morgan Tencza, Katie Stratman, Imagn Images
Marlins To Recall Deyvison De Los Santos For MLB Debut
The Marlins are promoting first baseman Deyvison De Los Santos, reports Kevin Barral of Fish On First. Miami scratched Christopher Morel from tonight’s starting lineup with a left oblique strain.
The Fish will know more about Morel’s status after he goes for imaging tomorrow. Even mild oblique strains usually require injured list stints. They tend to cause too much discomfort for hitters trying to rotate through swings. Moderate strains can cost a player more than a month.
That’ll open the first major league opportunity for De Los Santos. The 22-year-old was acquired from the Diamondbacks in the A.J. Puk deadline deal in 2024. Miami added him to the 40-man roster that offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. The Guardians had actually plucked De Los Santos from the Arizona system in the prior Rule 5, but he had a tough spring and was returned to the D-Backs at the end of camp. He got out to a monster start to the ’24 season, connecting on 28 home runs across 87 games before the trade.
De los Santos’ production dropped as soon as he switched organizations. He finished the ’24 campaign with a .240/.284/.459 slash over 50 games for Miami’s top affiliate. De Los Santos spent all of last year with Triple-A Jacksonville (aside from an injury rehab assignment in A-ball). He had a below-average .241/.311/.363 slash with just 12 longballs. A left quad strain cost him five weeks between May and June.
Miami will not need to make any corresponding roster moves aside from placing Morel on the 10-day injured list. De Los Santos still holds his 40-man roster spot and will be recalled from his season-opening optional assignment to the minors. He’ll probably work as a right-handed bench bat. Connor Norby made his first career start at first base in their Opening Day win over the Rockies. Graham Pauley and utilityman Javier Sanoja could pick up some extra third base work if Norby plays first regularly while Morel is out of action.
Dodgers Trade Damon Keith To Brewers
The Dodgers are trading minor league outfielder Damon Keith to the Brewers for cash, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The 25-year-old is expected to begin his tenure in the Milwaukee organization in Double-A.
Keith played the entire 2025 season at that level. He struggled to a .226/.296/.386 line with 11 home runs across 362 plate appearances. Keith swung and missed too often and struck out a near-31% clip. Whiffs have been an issue for the 6’3″ outfielder going back to his selection in the 18th round of the 2021 draft.
Eric Longenhagen, James Fegan and Brendan Gawlowski gave Keith an honorable mention in their writeup of the Dodgers’ farm system in December. They praised his right-handed power while unsurprisingly flagging a lack of bat control that has led to the whiffs. Keith ranked among L.A.’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America a few seasons ago but has fallen off the list as his strikeouts climbed at the higher levels.
Keith hasn’t played center field since he was in High-A during the 2023 season. He’s a corner bat who’ll look to put himself on the radar for a Milwaukee organization with a lot of outfield depth. Keith has gone unselected in the past two Rule 5 drafts. He’ll be eligible again next offseason but won’t reach minor league free agency until the end of the 2027 season if the Brewers don’t put him on the 40-man roster before then.
Astros, Peter Lambert Agree To Minor League Deal
The Astros are bringing back Peter Lambert on a minor league contract, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. The righty will head to Triple-A Sugar Land.
Lambert was in camp with Houston. He triggered an out in his minor league deal after being informed he wouldn’t begin the season on the MLB roster. Lambert apparently didn’t find a big league opportunity in his brief free agent stay. He’ll therefore return as non-roster rotation depth.
The 28-year-old (29 next month) is back after one season in Japan, where he allowed a 4.26 earned run average across 116 1/3 innings. That’s not an especially impressive number in a pitcher-friendly league. Lambert had the fifth-highest ERA among the 47 NPB pitchers to toss at least 100 frames. He fanned 20.5% of opponents — a solid mark in a league where hitters are more focused on putting the ball in play than they are in MLB — but issued walks at a 10.2% clip. That’s the highest rate among the aforementioned group of 47 pitchers.
A former second-round pick of the Rockies, Lambert pitched 12 1/3 innings this spring. He allowed four runs, recording eight strikeouts while issuing five walks. Lambert mixed five offerings with a 95 mph fastball leading the arsenal. He’ll join Spencer Arrighetti, Jason Alexander, Colton Gordon, Miguel Ullola and J.P. France among the depth starters at Sugar Land. All of them aside from France and Lambert occupy 40-man roster spots.
Dodgers Hire Clayton Kershaw As Special Assistant
Clayton Kershaw is back with the Dodgers in a non-playing role. The club hired the future Hall of Famer as a special assistant in their front office, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Kershaw retired at the end of the 2025 season, though he was included on the Team USA roster for this spring’s World Baseball Classic. That was largely symbolic, as he didn’t make an appearance and was subbed off the roster before the semifinals.
Kershaw tells Sonja Chen of MLB.com he’ll “be involved” with the organization. Special assistant roles around the league vary. Some of these hirings are ceremonial or public relations moves, while others involve working with MLB players and/or prospects during Spring Training and throughout the season.
In either case, it’s fitting that Kershaw remains a Dodger in some capacity. He spent all of his legendary career in Dodger blue, posting a 2.53 ERA in a little under 3000 innings. Kershaw won the NL MVP in 2014 and is still the most recent pitcher to do so. He won five ERA titles, three Cy Young awards, and three championships.
Kershaw is in L.A. this weekend for the season-opening series against the Diamondbacks. He was part of NBC’s broadcast team for last night’s opener. He’s back at Dodger Stadium tonight as part of the World Series ring ceremony.
White Sox Re-Sign LaMonte Wade Jr. To Minor League Deal
The White Sox re-signed first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. to a minor league contract. He reported to Triple-A Charlotte and is playing tonight’s season opener for the Knights. Wade was in camp with Chicago but released at the end of Spring Training.
Wade is a veteran of parts of seven MLB seasons. He has spent most of the past few seasons as the Giants’ primary first baseman, at least against right-handed pitching. Wade was an above-average hitter as recently as 2024, when he put up a .260/.380/.381 slash line across 401 plate appearances. It was his second consecutive season with excellent on-base marks in a platoon role. Wade combined to hit .258/.376/.401 between 2023-24. Among hitters with 800+ trips to the plate, he ranked 11th in on-base percentage.
Everything went off the rails last year. Wade hit .167 with a .275 OBP over 50 games for San Francisco. They traded for Rafael Devers at designated hitter and eventually signed Dominic Smith to play first base. Wade was designated for assignment as the corresponding move for the Smith acquisition.
The Angels rolled the dice on a change of scenery, acquiring Wade out of DFA limbo in a small trade. They got him into 30 games over two months, but he hit .169/.260/.215 and was released in August. That ended his season with a .167/.271/.254 slash over 242 plate appearances.
Wade had a fantastic Spring Training. He hit three home runs and took nine walks while striking out 10 times over 49 trips to the plate. The White Sox are taking a look at Munetaka Murakami as their primary first baseman. They didn’t have a lot of roster flexibility on the bench. Wade had a few days to see if he could leverage that camp into a big league opportunity before circling back to begin the year in Triple-A with the Sox.
Reds, Andrew Chafin Agree To Minor League Deal
The Reds are in agreement with veteran reliever Andrew Chafin on a minor league contract, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He has been assigned to Triple-A Louisville. Dusty Baker of Louisville’s NBC affiliate reports that Chafin has already reported to the team and will be active for the Bats’ season opener tonight.
Chafin was granted his release from a minor league deal with the Twins last week. The 35-year-old southpaw had spent Spring Training with Minnesota. He tossed six innings of two-run ball, striking out five while issuing three walks. Chafin’s four-seam fastball and sinker each averaged 85.7 mph this spring.
Power has never really been Chafin’s game. His fastball was once in the 93-94 mph range but has hovered in the low-90s over the past few seasons. He averaged a career-low 89.7 mph a year ago. Dropping four ticks from that already modest level is an obvious concern. The Reds will hope that Chafin regains some zip as he builds into regular season game shape.
Chafin has pitched parts of 12 seasons in the big leagues. Despite lacking huge velocity, he has never had issues missing bats with his slider. Chafin struck out a quarter of opponents while turning in a 2.41 earned run average over 33 2/3 MLB innings between the Angels and Nationals last year. Chafin’s 13.3% walk rate was an alarming, though, and he was unable to win a spot in a wide open Minnesota bullpen out of camp.
The Reds have two left-handers in their Opening Day bullpen. Trade pickup Brock Burke, a teammate of Chafin’s last year with the Angels, is their top southpaw. Sam Moll is out of options and struggled last season, but he threw well this spring and is in middle relief. Caleb Ferguson will be there once healthy but began the year on the injured list with an oblique strain.
Angels Re-Sign Hunter Strickland, Chris Taylor To Minor League Deals
The Angels are re-signing reliever Hunter Strickland and utilityman Chris Taylor on minor league contracts, the team told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register). Both players will report to Triple-A Salt Lake after opting out of their previous contracts at the end of Spring Training.
Strickland, 37, has spent the past two seasons with the Halos. He has managed a low-3.00s ERA in both years, though he was limited to 19 appearances by a shoulder injury last summer. Strickland worked five innings of one-run ball in camp, striking out just two of 19 opponents. His fastball averaged 91.8 mph, a couple ticks down from last year’s 93.6 mph regular season mark.
Taylor hit .231 this spring. He walked 10 times in 49 plate appearances to get on base at a .388 clip. The Angels nevertheless opted for a pair of different non-roster infielders, Adam Frazier and Jeimer Candelario, to break camp. Taylor circles back to the organization with which he ended the 2025 season. The Angels signed him last May after he was released by the Dodgers. He missed a few months with a broken arm and batted .179/.278/.321 with 29 strikeouts over 90 trips to the plate.
Cubs, Nico Hoerner Agree To Extension
March 27th: Hoerner’s deal is for $141MM over six years, per Jeff Passan of ESPN. The deal starts next year and includes a no-trade clause, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, so it’ll run through 2032. That will be Hoerner’s age-30 through age-35 seasons. Hoerner’s pact is in the range of free agent deals for middle infielders. Trevor Story and Javier Báez each got $140MM over six. Hoerner just barely goes past those two, while coming in a bit under Marcus Semien‘s $175MM, Swanson’s $177MM and Willy Adames‘s $182MM, which were all seven-year deals. However, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that there is deferred money in the deal. That will knock down the net present value to the mid-$130MMs, per Joel Sherman of The New York Post.
March 26th: The Cubs and infielder Nico Hoerner have agreed to an extension, reports Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation. It’s a six-year deal, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Hoerner was slated for free agency after this year, with 2026 being the final season of his previous extension. The financial aspects of this new agreement have not yet been publicly reported.
Hoerner, 29 in May, has been the a key part of the Cubs for several years now. He doesn’t have a ton of power but provides strong offense with a consistent contact approach. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has almost 2500 plate appearances. His 6.4% walk rate and 10.2% strikeout rate are both well below league average. He only has 33 home runs in that time. But the contact approach has resulted in a .284/.339/.389 line and 105 wRC+ for that span. He finished each of those four seasons with a wRC+ from 102 to 109.
He combines that offense with strong attributes in other facets of his game. He has stolen 123 bases in that four-year span, with at least 20 in each season. Defensively, he is considered to be good enough to handle shortstop but has been bumped to the other side of the bag by the presence of Dansby Swanson. That has made him one of the best defensive second basemen in the league. Dating back to the start of 2023, the year he moved to second base, he has 32 Defensive Runs Saved and 35 Outs Above Average. The DRS total is behind only Andrés Giménez and Brice Turang, while the OAA number is behind only Giménez and Marcus Semien.
The combination is a valuable one. FanGraphs has credited him with a little more than four wins above replacement per year for a total of 17.4 fWAR since the start of 2022. He didn’t finish any of those four seasons lower than 3.8 fWAR.
Three years ago, the Cubs and Hoerner agreed to their first extension, a three-year deal worth $35MM. That was a bit of an odd deal, as it bought out Hoerner’s two arbitration seasons and then just one free agent year. Hoerner delayed his path to the open market for a relatively modest price.
As that deal played out, Hoerner became a plausible trade candidate for a few reasons. For one, he was getting closer to free agency, which often leads to increased trade speculation with many players. The Cubs also had some infield prospects pushing towards the majors, with Matt Shaw making his major league debut last year. The Cubs could have traded Hoerner to address another area of the roster, then put Shaw at second base. Given that another club could have put Hoerner at shortstop, perhaps that would have increased the trade return.
Instead, the Cubs are locking in another piece of their core. Third baseman Alex Bregman is signed through 2030 and Swanson through 2029. They agreed to a long-term deal with Pete Crow-Armstrong just a few days ago, so he’s going to be signed through 2032. Assuming this Hoerner deal starts in 2027, it will also run through 2032.
After 2026, the Cubs were facing a potentially huge amount of roster turnover. Hoerner, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Hoby Milner, Dylan Carlson, Michael Conforto and Tyler Austin are all impending free agents. Matthew Boyd, Hunter Harvey, Carson Kelly and Caleb Thielbar all have mutual options for 2027 but those are almost never picked up by both sides, so they should all be considered impending free agents as well. That is still something the club will have to plan for but locking in Hoerner takes one thing off the to-do list.
One player who could be impacted by this deal is Shaw. He played third base last year but the Bregman signing bumped him into a utility role for 2026. With Hoerner’s impending free agency, it was possible to imagine that being a one-year arrangement, as Shaw could then take over at the keystone starting in 2027. That’s no longer possible.
Shaw is going to be playing some outfield this year, so perhaps he could take over a corner next year with the impending departures of Happ and Suzuki, though that depends on him proving viable on the grass. He is still under club control for six seasons, so it’s also possible to imagine him being a future trade chip, if he could find a better path to infield playing time with another club.
Hoerner would have made for a fascinating free agent case. Second basemen normally don’t get massive paychecks in free agency but Hoerner could have marketed himself as a shortstop and perhaps some clubs would have viewed him as one. Teams also normally pay more for power than contact. A speed-and-defense profile can get paid but it’s also risky since those attributes fade over time. It would have been a unique free agency test case but that’s moot now.
The 2026-27 free agent class is particularly light in terms of hitters. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently took a look at the group in a post for Front Office subscribers. While recent offseasons have had clear standout bats like Corey Seager, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker, the upcoming winter doesn’t quite have that kind of star power. Franco highlighted Bo Bichette, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Daulton Varsho and Hoerner as the top position players in the class.
Hoerner certainly would not have been the best hitter in that bunch but the speed and defense put him up there in terms of overall value. Teams looking for middle infield help next winter will have to cross one name off what was already a somewhat flimsy list.
As of this writing, the numbers on the deal have not been reported. That makes it difficult to assess the long-term impact for the Cubs. What can be said is that they do have a good amount of payroll space available in the future. As mentioned, they have long-term commitments to Swanson, Bregman and Crow-Armstrong but that’s essentially it. Phil Maton and Shelby Miller are the only other players with guaranteed deals for 2027. By 2028, it’s just Bregman, Swanson and Crow-Armstrong.
Photos courtesy of Michael McLoone, David Banks, Imagn Images
Astros Outright César Salazar
The Astros announced today that catcher César Salazar has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Sugar Land. He had been designated for assignment earlier this week when Houston set its Opening Day roster. He’ll stick in the organization as non-roster depth.
Salazar, 30, has effectively been Houston’s #3 catcher for several years. Yainer Diaz has been the primary guy since 2023. Martín Maldonado split the time with him in his first year, then Victor Caratini replaced Maldonado for 2024 and 2025. Salazar got sporadic playing time in that mix, playing in 36 games over the 2023 to 2025 seasons. He has a decent defensive reputation but produced a .232/.318/.268 batting line in his 67 plate appearances.
He exhausted his final option last year, meaning he is now out of options. With Caratini departing in free agency this offseason, Salazar was bumped up into the #2 spot by default. However, the Astros grabbed Christian Vázquez via a minor league deal a few weeks ago. They decided to add him to the roster for Opening Day, meaning Salazar had to be bumped off.
This is Salazar’s first career outright and he has less than three years of service time. That means he does not have the right to elect free agency, so he’ll report to the Space Cowboys. He could be the first man up if Diaz or Vázquez suffers an injury as the Astros don’t have another catcher on the 40-man roster. His main competition would be Carlos Pérez, who is in the system via a minor league deal and will be in Sugar Land as well.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images