Offseason In Review: Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays reinforced their rotation, said goodbye to longtime shortstop Bo Bichette, and (again) lost a major free agent bidding war to the Dodgers.
Major League Signings
- Dylan Cease, RHP: Seven years, $210MM ($64MM deferred)
- Kazuma Okamoto, 3B/OF: Four years, $60MM (Blue Jays also paid $10.875MM posting fee to the Yomiuri Giants)
- Tyler Rogers, RHP: Three years, $37MM (includes $1MM buyout of 2029 club/vesting option)
- Cody Ponce, RHP: Three years, $30MM
- Max Scherzer, RHP: One year, $3MM
2026 spending: $70MM
Total spending: $340MM
Trades And Claims
- Acquired OF Jesus Sanchez from Astros for OF Joey Loperfido
- Acquired RHP Chase Lee from Tigers for minor league LHP Johan Simon
- Acquired cash considerations from Guardians for LHP Justin Bruihl
- Selected RHP Spencer Miles from the Giants in the Rule 5 Draft
Option Decisions
- Shane Bieber, RHP: Exercised $16MM player option for 2026
Notable Minor League Signings
- Eloy Jimenez, Juan Yepez, Jorge Alcala, Josh Winckowski, Joe Mantiply, Nic Enright, Jesse Hahn, Connor Seabold, Josh Fleming, CJ Stubbs, Caleb Freeman, Michael Plassmeyer
Extensions
- None to date
Notable Losses
- Loperfido, Bo Bichette, Chris Bassitt, Seranthony Dominguez, Ty France, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Nick Sandlin, Paxton Schultz, Ryan Borucki, Easton Lucas, Ryan Burr, Dillon Tate
The usual “Toronto is interested in everyone” rumors barely got a chance to get rolling before the Blue Jays made the early strike of signing Dylan Cease before the end of November. Even with some deferred money involved, Cease’s seven-year, $210MM pact is the largest free agent signing in Jays history, and it was the first indication that the Jays would again be shopping at the top of the market.
The durable Cease has logged 942 1/3 innings since the start of the 2020 season, and he has never been on the big league injured list apart from a brief stint on the COVID-19 IL in 2021. Beyond this ability to stay on the mound, Cease misses a lot of bats (29.7% strikeout rate over the last five years), and he is a hard thrower with some of the best fastball spin rates in the league. The down side is that Cease has below-average control and he has been prone to giving up hard contact, which is why Cease’s ERAs (like his 4.55 mark with the Padres in 2025) can be higher than his peripheral numbers would reflect.
It is certainly possible the Jays think pitching coach Pete Walker and the team’s development staff can help Cease find more consistency, and ideally get him back to his 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up form. Even the current version of Cease, however, is a pitcher the Blue Jays view as capable of starting playoff games come October.
Cody Ponce’s three-year, $30MM deal was another intriguing investment in the rotation. Ponce’s MLB resume consists of a 5.86 ERA over 55 1/3 innings with the 2020-21 Pirates, but the right-hander then went overseas, spending three seasons in Japan before heading to the KBO League’s Hanwha Eagles in 2025. The result was a sparkling 1.89 ERA, 36.2% K%, and six percent walk rate over 180 2/3 innings, and Ponce earned both KBO MVP and the Dong-Won Choi Award (the equivalent of the Cy Young) while helping lead the Eagles to a berth in the Korean Series.
The Blue Jays obviously wouldn’t mind if Ponce continues this form in his return to the majors, but more realistically, Ponce becoming a decent mid-range starter would still make his contract a relative bargain, when compared to the broader starting pitching market as a whole. Ponce will be used as a starter, and if that role doesn’t work out, his skillset could perhaps translate well to relief work, so the Jays could still some return on their investment.
Cease and Ponce are the newcomers joining a pair of familiar faces returning to the Jays rotation. Max Scherzer waited until early March to decide on his next team, and he opted for a return engagement in Toronto on a one-year, $3MM guarantee that includes up to $10MM in innings-based bonuses. Shane Bieber was the first pitching domino to fall in the Jays offseason when he eschewed free agency altogether, passing on a opt-out clause to instead remain in his contract on a $16MM salary for 2026.
Bieber’s decision was a surprise at the time, though reports emerged in December that Bieber pitched through some forearm fatigue during the end of the 2025 season. To that end, the Blue Jays will place Bieber on the 15-day IL to begin the coming season so that he can fully ramp up, since he has yet to start throwing off a mound this spring.
The Jays’ knowledge of Bieber’s situation surely informed their contract with Scherzer, which added to a rotation picture is overcrowded on paper. If everyone is healthy, there technically won’t be enough starts to go around between Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios, Cease, Ponce, Scherzer, Bieber, and swingman Eric Lauer.
As it often the way in baseball, there’s no such thing as “too much” pitching. Beyond Bieber, Berrios is also dealing with elbow inflammation and could be an IL candidate. The Jays are giving Yesavage a gradual build as they manage his innings heading into the postseason hero’s first full Major League season. Ponce is an unproven commodity in MLB action, and Scherzer is 41 with a checkered injury history. Even beyond the names set for the 26-man roster, depth starter Bowden Francis will miss the season due to Tommy John surgery, and former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann dealt with some elbow soreness this spring as he continues his own return from a TJ procedure.
Even if Berrios had some hard feelings about the end of his 2025 season or Lauer would’ve preferred a clear-cut starting job, there should be enough starts to go around for everyone. Since the Blue Jays are intent on winning the World Series, the team is building a pitching staff for a seven-month run, not just a six-month regular season.
This plan extends to the bullpen, which is why Tyler Rogers received a hefty three-year, $37MM contract on the open market. Though Rogers is entering his age-35 season, the veteran right-hander has been the picture of durability, as well as having some of the best command of any pitcher in the sport. An old-school outlier in today’s velocity-centric game, Rogers’ sinker doesn’t even reach the mid-80s, but he is a master at inducing grounders and soft contact.
Rogers is the only real new face within a bullpen that lost Seranthony Dominguez in free agency, and won’t have Yimi Garcia available at the start of the year. Trade acquisition Chase Lee could become a part of the picture as the season develops, and Rule 5 selections Angel Bastardo and Spencer Miles (selected in the last two R5s) will have trouble fitting onto the roster or staying in the Jays organization.
A minor league signing like Connor Seabold or Joe Mantiply could stand out, and a southpaw like Mantiply could benefit from the unsettled nature of the pen’s left-handed corps. Brendon Little and Mason Fluharty struggled down the stretch and in the playoffs, and Lauer isn’t really a fit in a true left-handed specialist sense since he’ll be kept stretched out for at least multi-inning work if the Jays ever need to quickly call on him for a start.
Left-handed bullpen help could therefore be on Toronto’s radar come the trade deadline, and a more high-profile move for a closer also shouldn’t be ruled out. Jeff Hoffman will return as the Blue Jays’ ninth-inning man, even though GM Ross Atkins suggested back in November that Hoffman was fine with moving into a set-up role if necessary. The team’s explorations into the bullpen market bore out its interest in a new closer, as the Jays reportedly had interest in such free agents as Edwin Diaz, Robert Suarez, Raisel Iglesias, Pete Fairbanks, and Ryan Helsley.
Other pitchers on Toronto’s radar included relievers like Luke Weaver, Phil Maton, and Brad Keller, while such free agent starters as Framber Valdez, Michael King, and former Blue Jay Chris Bassitt drew at least some interest. There was some speculation that the Jays could make a late push for Valdez after he lingered on the market into February, but the left-hander instead signed with the Tigers, and Toronto pivoted to Scherzer a month later.
Moving into the position-player ranks, Alex Bregman, Ketel Marte, Cody Bellinger, Munetaka Murakami, and Yoan Moncada were all linked to the Blue Jays at various points this winter. These players were primarily viewed as backup plans for the Jays, however, as Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette were seen as Toronto’s biggest targets. As the offseason continued and the markets for both players remained unclear, there was some thought that the Jays could even sign both Tucker and Bichette, if the team wanted to go all out with its spending.
As it turned out, both Tucker and Bichette will be playing elsewhere in 2026. In Tucker’s case, the Blue Jays were reportedly the only suitor who made a major long-term offer, in the form of a ten-year, $350MM deal. The Mets offered Tucker a four-year, $220MM contract with multiple opt-outs, and the Dodgers a slightly larger four-year, $240MM pact (also with opt-outs) that Tucker ended up signing. Tucker could conceivably return to free agency as early as the 2027-28 offseason, but for the next two years, he’ll be joining the Dodgers’ push for more rings.
Bichette could be a free agent again next winter, if he triggers the first of the two opt-outs in his three-year, $126MM deal with the Mets, as New York quickly moved on from Tucker to sign another multi-time All-Star to a similar contract structure. In Bichette’s case, it was the Phillies who offered a longer-term (seven years and between $190-$200MM) deal, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski felt “we were very close to having a deal done,” before Bichette chose New York over Philadelphia.
It isn’t known what the Blue Jays offered Bichette, or if the team necessarily even put a concrete offer on the table to its longtime infielder. While re-signing Bichette seemed like a more realistic scenario for Toronto than pursuing a Bregman or a Bellinger, it always somewhat felt like Toronto was expecting Bichette to leave — even dating back to last winter, when Andres Gimenez was acquired from the Guardians as an unofficial shortstop-in-waiting.
The Kazuma Okamoto signing also cast more doubt on a Bichette return. With Bichette, Tucker, and plenty of other position players still available, the Jays instead pivoted to sign the Japanese star to a four-year, $60MM deal. Given how the Blue Jays like to move players around the diamond, Okamoto might see some time in left field or playing first base if Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is getting a DH day, but Okamoto is expected to settle in as the regular third baseman.
As with all high-profile NPB signings, there’s risk in committing such a significant amount of money to a player with no experience in North American baseball. There’s good reason to believe Okamoto’s high-contact approach can translate well to the Show, however, and Okamoto hit so well in Japan (.277/.361/.521 with 248 homers over 4494 plate appearances) that it was clear why he was drawing interest from multiple Major League teams before the Blue Jays won the bidding.
With Okamoto now at the hot corner, the rest of Toronto’s lineup consists of Gimenez at shortstop, Ernie Clement at second base, Guerrero at first base, Alejandro Kirk catching, George Springer at DH, and a starting outfield of Addison Barger, Daulton Varsho, and Jesus Sanchez. The left-handed hitting Sanchez is expected to platoon with Davis Schneider in left field, and the presence of Nathan Lukes and Myles Straw as outfield depth could allow Barger to get some time back at third base if Okamoto needs an off-day, or has some difficulty adjusting to big league pitching.
Shoulder surgery will keep Anthony Santander out of this mix until at least July, as the slugger is already looking at what might be a second lost season in a row. Santander was limited to 54 games in 2025 due to shoulder problems, and he hit only .175/.271/.294 over 221 PA. The hope was that a healthy Santander could rebound and start providing some return in the second season of his five-year, $92.5MM contract, yet he’ll now again be sidelined until the second half.
Shortly after word broke about Santander’s surgery, the Jays landed Sanchez from the Astros in exchange for Joey Loperfido, another left-handed hitting outfielder with less MLB experience. Sanchez has six seasons under his belt with the Marlins and Astros, and poor numbers against southpaws have kept the outfielder from thriving as a true regular. As noted, the Jays only need him to be the strong side of a platoon with Schneider, and the team is hoping Sanchez can at least match his .253/.324/.450 career slash line against right-handed pitching.
Looking at the position-player depth chart as a whole, it isn’t much different from the offense that was one of the league’s best in 2025. That said, replacing Bichette with Okamoto is an obvious downgrade for now based on Major League track record, even if the Jays will get a defensive boost by installing Gimenez at shortstop. Counting on Barger or Clement to be regular starters also carries some risk, as their huge playoff performances came after much more ordinary production over the regular season.
After a 2024 campaign that saw almost the entire lineup struggle at the plate, the 2025 Blue Jays enjoyed a dream year that saw pretty much every batter significantly improve. The question now facing the Jays is whether the truth about their position players falls somewhere in between, or if 2025 was just the start of an offensive awakening under hitting coach David Popkins. Tucker, Bichette, or another proven veteran bat would’ve helped solidify the lineup quite a bit, and depending on how the season progresses, adding such a hitter might well be on Atkins’ shopping list at the trade deadline.
Aggressive moves and aggressive spending have become the calling card for the organization. This winter’s investments have again brought the payroll to new levels — as per RosterResource‘s estimates, the Blue Jays have a $289MM payroll, and a whopping $318.1MM luxury tax number. The latter figure puts the Jays well over the highest luxury tax penalization tier of $304MM, which means they’ll face a 90% surcharge on any dollar spent above the $304MM mark.
It is safe to say at this point that the front office doesn’t care about the short-term tax implications, or details like giving up two draft picks and $1MM in international bonus money to sign Cease (a qualifying offer-rejecting free agent). Last year’s playoff run and the near-miss in the World Series galvanized support for the Blue Jays all across Canada, creating both a ton of extra revenue for the Rogers Communications ownership group and a greater desire to finish the story with a championship in 2026. The Jays will face tough competition just to retain their AL East crown, yet Toronto figures to be contenders again come October.
How would you grade the Blue Jays' offseason?
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Greetings! Happy Tuesday / St. Patrick’s Day / WBC final! I’ll get going at 1pm, but feel free to start sending in questions ahead of time if you prefer.
- Hello!
- Let’s begin
Lucas Giolito
- What date do I have to wait until so I don’t have draft pick compensation attached?
Steve Adams
- He didn’t receive a qualifying offer. He’s not attached to draft pick compensation.
Silky Johnson
- McGonigle can’t NOT make the opening day roster at this point, right?!?!
Steve Adams
- Darragh and I discussed this on the podcast episode we recorded this morning, which will drop tomorrow. But in short, yeah, at this point I’m fully expecting it. He’s been so good at every stop, including MLB spring training. There are no clear roadblocks to playing time for him. The Tigers are all in on 2026. I’ll be very surprised if he’s not the Opening Day SS.
MattStats5
- Thanks for doing these chats, Steve. Are the Orioles really going to carry four 1B/DH (counting Mayo once Westburg returns) into Opening Day, or is a trade more likely? A few teams have 1B/DH at-bats available, making Mountcastle a nice trade chip.
Steve Adams
- I don’t really agree all that much that Mountcastle is a nice trade chip. I mean, I’m sure there’d be some modest interest if they shopped him, but RHH first basemen are about the least valued position in the game, he’s making decent money, and he’s coming off a down/injury-marred year.I have no doubt that some clubs would happily plug him into a 1B/DH role, but probably not for any particularly interesting return.
Still seems like the eventual odd man out, though. I agree on that much
White Sox’ Mike Vasil To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
White Sox righty Mike Vasil will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2026 season, the team announced Tuesday. Vasil exited his most recent Cactus League outing due to elbow soreness and had been sent for imaging.
It’s as unwelcome a birthday present as one could imagine for Vasil, who’ll turn 26 on Thursday. The former Mets farmhand made his big league debut with the South Siders in 2025 and carved out a big role on the staff, piling up 101 innings of long relief over 47 appearances (three of them starts). He notched a sparkling 2.50 ERA, and while his pedestrian 19.4% strikeout rate and poor 12.3% walk rate led metrics like SIERA (4.58) and FIP (4.32) to view his work more harshly, Vasil looked like a strong candidate to make the club because of his ability to provide bulk relief behind a generally shaky rotation.
Instead, Vasil will spend the entire season on the injured list. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that he’ll accrue a full year of major league service and pay while rehabbing from the forthcoming UCL reconstruction. Vasil picked up a full year of service in 2025 as well, so he’ll be controllable for at least four more years upon his return in 2027. He’ll still have a full slate of minor league options remaining as well.
If not Vasil, the White Sox could look to free agent signees Sean Newcomb and Erick Fedde as long relief/swingman options, though Fedde at least appears ticketed for a rotation spot with the recent announcement from manager Will Venable that Newcomb will begin the season in the bullpen (via Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times). Southpaws Chris Murphy and Tyler Gilbert are also candidates to serve as long relievers out of Venable’s bullpen. Both have had solid spring showings, and both have minor league options remaining.
Yankees Notes: Cole, Rodón, McMahon
It’s been 371 days since Yankees ace Gerrit Cole underwent Tommy John surgery, and the wait to see him back on a mound seems to be over. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that Cole will start tomorrow’s Grapefruit League game for the Yankees. He’s slated to pitch one inning in his return to game action.
An exact return timetable for Cole remains unclear. The 35-year-old is still a lock to open the season on the injured list. Even if tomorrow’s one inning goes off without a hitch, he’ll need further time to build up to a starter’s workload. That can’t be accomplished in the final week of spring training, but it’s at least feasible that if Cole is ready to throw an inning in a game right now, he could return to the Yankees in late April.
Cole didn’t pitch at all in 2025 after suffering a torn ulnar collateral ligament last spring and undergoing Tommy John surgery on March 11. Elbow troubles also limited him to 17 starts (95 innings) in 2024. He hasn’t had a full, health seasons since 2023 — though that proved to be quite the year; Cole tossed 209 innings with a 2.63 ERA, made his sixth All-Star team and won his first Cy Young Award. There’s no telling to how his elbow will respond to tomorrow’s more intense setting until he takes the bump, but the fact that he’s doing so a week before the Yankees even open their season is an encouraging development for Yankee fans.
There’s also good news on the team’s other high-priced but injured starter. Carlos Rodón underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow back in October. Manager Aaron Boone said when camp opened that the big lefty could be back before the end of April. Those comments came nearly a month ago, but it appears Rodón is still on that same track. Boone told reporters this morning that he expects Rodón back “at some point in April,” via Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. Boone did not commit to the left-hander pitching in a game before spring training ends but also didn’t rule it out. He’s slated for a live batting practice session this week.
Rodón, 33, pitched 195 1/3 innings with a 3.09 earned run average last season. He stepped up in a big way following Cole’s injury, as both that innings count and his 33 games started were career-high marks. Rodón’s injury history is well known, and October’s surgery is the latest data point on his track record, but the 2024-25 seasons marked the first time in Rodon’s career that he started 30-plus games in back-to-back seasons. He’s a long shot to make it three in a row this year, but if he can return in April and remains healthy, he won’t be too far shy of 30 starts.
Good news notwithstanding, the Yankees will open the season with two of their “big three” free agent starters on the shelf. The third, left-hander Max Fried, will get the ball on Opening Day against Giants ace Logan Webb in San Francisco next Wednesday. He’ll be followed in some order by Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil, Will Warren and offseason trade acquisition Ryan Weathers. All four members of that quartet have minor league options remaining, so their performances both late in camp and early in the season will be worth watching with a close eye. By early May, it’s possible that two of those younger, less-established arms will have been optioned to Triple-A (assuming good health throughout the group — which is never a given).
On the position side of things, Boone confirmed today that he’d be comfortable with Ryan McMahon playing shortstop in a regular season game (via Kirschner). The 31-year-old is slated to open the season at third base but has been getting reps at shortstop throughout camp. He’s one of the game’s better defenders at the hot corner, and it seems he’s shown enough this spring to gain Boone’s trust as a backup option.
McMahon isn’t going to start at shortstop with any regularity, but his ability to at least capably handle that position in a pinch is notable. Anthony Volpe will begin the season on the injured list following offseason shoulder surgery, paving the way for José Caballero to start at shortstop early in the year. Light-hitting utilityman Max Schuemann is the only real shortstop option on the 40-man roster beyond McMahon, so McMahon’s ability to function as Caballero’s backup impacts the composition of the club’s bench.
Backup catcher J.C. Escarra, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and veteran infielder Amed Rosario are all locked into bench spots. Rosario was a shortstop earlier in his career but rated poorly there and played only two shortstop innings last year and 101 the year prior.
If not McMahon, the Yankees might have felt they needed Schuemann or a non-roster invitee like Jonathan Ornelas, Zack Short or veteran Paul DeJong on the bench. All four have had decent or better spring showings. McMahon serving as Caballero’s primary backup option gives Boone and GM Brian Cashman some more flexibility when deciding on the final spot, however. That could pave the way for non-roster pickup Randal Grichuk to make the club and serve as a righty-swinging complement to Trent Grisham, who batted .182/.303/.348 against lefties even during 2025’s breakout year.
Poll: Who Will Win The 2026 WBC Final?
Later this evening, the 2026 World Baseball Classic will come to a conclusion. It has been just as exciting as anticipated, with dominant performances from some of the elite teams combined with surprising upsets (such as Team Italy’s 4-0 record in the pool stage and Samurai Japan’s defeat at the hands of Team Venezuela in the quarterfinals). All of that leads into tonight’s game, where Team USA will take the field opposite Team Venezuela. Which country’s national team will emerge victorious?
Many have considered Team USA the favorite in this year’s iteration of the WBC since before the tournament even began. The club has boasted the tournament’s most star-studded roster, with Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal at the front of the rotation, Mason Miller in the back of the bullpen, and a lineup full of the game’s best hitters like Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, and Bobby Witt Jr. (among many others).
Team Venezuela’s lineup is impressive in its own right, with a combined 25 All-Star appearances between their starting lineup (14 of which belong to Ronald Acuña Jr. and Salvador Perez). Their pitching is a bit less impressive on paper, however. Ranger Suárez and Eduardo Rodriguez are solid arms who have earned big multi-year deals in the majors, but they aren’t the sort of perennial Cy Young favorites that Skubal and Skenes are. A bullpen featuring Daniel Palencia, Angel Zerpa, and José Buttó is certainly solid, but none of those arms can hold a candle to the elite production offered by Miller.
That disparity in pitching is likely a big part of why 52% of MLBTR readers predicted that Team USA would win this year’s WBC in a poll conducted at the outset of the tournament, while just 2% predicted Team Venezuela would be able to pull off a win. Since then, Venezuela has shown its might by taking down not only Samurai Japan, but also the only national team that’s managed to beat Team USA so far in the tournament: Italy.
Venezuela’s back-end relief arms have been lights-out, and players like Luis Arraez and Maikel Garcia have managed to come through in a big way throughout the tournament. Of course, Team USA has delivered the offensive firepower as well. That Judge and his .979 OPS in the tournament actually sits below that of four other hitters in the lineup (Gunnar Henderson, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Roman Anthony, and Kyle Schwarber) says it all in terms of the United States’ offensive prowess.
If the USA’s national team is clicking offensively, and there’s a big discrepancy between the two pitching staffs, it might seem as though Venezuela remains an underdog headed into tonight’s final game. That might not be as cut-and-dry as it seems, however. That’s because Team USA’s pitching is not close to firing on all cylinders right now. Plenty of the team’s pitchers (including both Skubal and Skenes) have returned to MLB camp and aren’t available for the final game of the tournament. That’s led manager Mark DeRosa to tap Nolan McLean for tonight’s start, but McLean was shelled for three runs in three innings of work during his appearance against Italy. He’ll be facing a much more accomplished lineup tonight, and it’s hard to know if the 24-year-old rookie will be able to meet the moment.
If McLean falters, the bullpen supporting him seems unlikely to be as strong either. It’s not entirely clear who DeRosa will have at his disposal for the final game, but there’s whispers that one or both between Miller and top set-up man David Bednar could be unavailable based on their previous pitch counts. Players like Garrett Whitlock, Griffin Jax, and Tyler Rogers are certainly very talented and capable of handling late-inning roles, but that back-end trio looks much closer to Venezuela’s best bullpen arms than someone like Miller would. If Miller and Bednar are out, that figures to erode most of Team USA’s pitching advantage.
How do MLBTR readers think tonight’s final game will shake out? Will Team USA take the title, as many have assumed they would throughout the entire tournament, or will Venezuela manage to overcome the odds and be crowned this year’s WBC champs? Have your say in the poll below:
Who will win the 2026 WBC final?
The Opener: World Baseball Classic, Suzuki, MLBTR Chat
Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on throughout the day today:
1. World Baseball Classic final:
The final match up of the World Baseball Classic is set! After their win over Team Italy last night, Venezuela is set to head to the finals of the WBC and face off against the United States. The game is scheduled for 8pm local time in Miami, with young right-hander Nolan McLean poised to take the mound opposite veteran lefty Eduardo Rodríguez. Both lineups are star-studded. Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Gunnar Henderson, Cal Raleigh, Alex Bregman, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Bobby Witt Jr. are among the many stars on the Team USA roster, while Venezuela is represented by Ronald Acuña Jr., Jackson Chourio, Willson Contreras, William Contreras, Luis Arráez, Wilyer Abreu, Eugenio Suárez, and Maikel Garcia (among others). One thing that could tilt the scales in Venezuela’s favor is uncertainty surrounding Team USA’s top relief arms. Maria Torres and Dennis Lin of The Athletic suggest that star closer Mason Miller may not be available for the game, while Jon Heyman of the New York Post indicates that Miller might be able to pitch but that right-hander David Bednar is likely to be unavailable.
2. Cubs, Suzuki awaiting MRI results:
The Cubs sent star outfielder Seiya Suzuki for an MRI yesterday upon his return to camp after he was removed from Samurai Japan’s final WBC game against Venezuela due to right knee discomfort. Results are expected to be known later today. Suzuki is one of the most important cogs in a deep Chicago lineup, and any missed time for the slugger would be a blow to the Cubs as they look to win the NL Central in a 162-game season for the first time since 2017. Non-roster veteran Michael Conforto and third baseman-turned utilityman Matt Shaw are the top options to replace Suzuki in the lineup should he require a trip to the shelf to start the season.
3. MLBTR chat today:
The World Baseball Classic is wrapping up, and Opening Day is just over the horizon. Free agency is nearing its conclusion (the yet-unsigned Lucas Giolito notwithstanding), and teams around baseball are gearing up for the 2026 campaign. If you’re wondering where your club stands, how their offseason went, or if there might be any other moves for your club to make, you ask MLBTR’s Steve Adams for his thoughts in a chat that’s scheduled for 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, follow along once it goes live, and read the transcript after it’s complete.
A’s Notes: Butler, Jump, De Vries
A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler will make his first Spring Training appearance tomorrow, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. He’ll serve as a designated hitter against the White Sox. The A’s are off on Wednesday but Butler could get his first outfield work during Thursday’s game against the Mariners.
Butler played through a right knee injury late in the 2025 season. He underwent postseason patellar tendon surgery but has maintained confidence he’ll be ready for Opening Day. Butler has been able to take hitting drills throughout camp. He’d been held out of game action until this week to avoid running at full speed.
The A’s have six remaining Spring Training contests. Butler could take 15-20 exhibition at-bats if they feel comfortable playing him on consecutive days. It appears he’ll be ready to go when the A’s head to Rogers Centre to take on the defending American League champions to begin the season.
Butler is coming off a .234/.306/.404 showing across 630 plate appearances. He had a 20-20 campaign and hit 30 doubles, but his rate metrics were around league average. Although it wasn’t a bad season, it was a step back from the huge 2024 second half that established him as a core piece. Playing through the injury probably had something to do with that. Butler took a .251/.326/.433 line into the All-Star Break but hit .203/.268/.351 in the second half.
He’ll man right alongside Tyler Soderstrom and Denzel Clarke in Mark Kotsay’s outfield. Butler fits best in a corner but has the athleticism to play center if Clarke’s strikeout concerns outweigh his defensive excellence.
Butler hasn’t been good against left-handed pitching, batting .228/.261/.397 while striking out a third of time in 234 career plate appearances versus southpaws. The A’s have remained committed to him as an everyday player. They claimed righty-hitting utility player Andy Ibáñez from the Dodgers last month. He’s primarily an infielder but could be an option in right field if the A’s wanted to shield Butler from lefties to give him some rest early in the season.
In other news, the team made a few camp cuts over the weekend. Top prospects Leo De Vries and Gage Jump were among those reassigned to minor league camp. Neither player is on the 40-man roster, nor were they expected to garner serious consideration for the Opening Day roster.
A midseason promotion could be on the table for either player. De Vries will play the entire season at 19, so that’d be an extremely aggressive call, but he’s coming off a .255/.355/.451 showing between High-A and Double-A. De Vries was six years younger than the average player at the Double-A level and more than held his own. He also had a remarkable first MLB camp, batting .409 with three homers and doubles apiece in 17 games.
Jump, a left-handed pitcher who turns 23 in April, took the ball four times this spring. He tossed 9 2/3 innings of two-run ball, striking out seven against three walks. Jump spent most of last year in Double-A, where he turned in a 3.64 ERA while fanning a quarter of batters faced across 20 outings. The back of the A’s rotation is open enough that it wouldn’t be a surprise if Jump pitches his way to West Sacramento by the All-Star Break.
MLB To Test Check-Swing Rule In Triple-A
Major League Baseball will implement a handful of rule changes at various levels of the minor leagues during the 2026 season. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs first reported the slate and those interested in the topic are encouraged to read that post in full.
The most notable is the introduction of the check-swing challenge system in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, beginning in early May. That allows a batter, pitcher, or catcher to challenge an umpire’s check-swing decision against bat-tracking technology. MLB had tested this rule in the Low-A Florida State League and the Arizona Fall League last year.
A check-swing challenge system requires an objective cutoff point. The threshold is whether the bat head breaks a 45° angle relative to the handle (essentially aligning with the opposite base line). Major League Baseball’s rulebook doesn’t have an official check-swing cutoff, instead leaving it at the umpire’s discretion as to whether the hitter offered.
As Longenhagen demonstrates with video, the 45° threshold is further along than what umpires have generally treated as the cutoff. That led hitters to successfully challenge a lot of calls last year. It appears that’s a deliberate consideration by the league. MLB’s memo notes a slight drop in the Florida State League strikeout rate after the check-swing challenge was implemented, “having a positive impact on balls in play and encouraging more extensive testing at higher levels.” It’s not a huge effect but one that would turn more swinging strikes into balls than vice versa.
The check-swing challenge will only be tested in the Pacific Coast League. In the other half of Triple-A, the International League, MLB will instruct umpires to visually use the 45° degree cutoff but will not give players the right to challenge. That’s seemingly to set up some kind of control group vs. the PCL while encouraging umpires to be more forgiving on check-swing calls generally.
Additionally, there’ll be a slight adjustment to the positioning of the second base bag in the International League. That change, which goes into effect in the second half of the 2026 season, moves the bag a little closer to the pitcher’s mound and reduces the distance from second to the corner bases by roughly nine inches in both directions. As with the previously implemented change to enlarge the bases, it’s designed to encourage more aggressive baserunning.
There are a few more minor tweaks related to pace of play and positioning of base coaches which the FanGraphs post covers in greater detail. There’s also the introduction of a reentry rule for a pulled starting pitcher at the rookie ball levels. Unlike the other rule changes mentioned here, that is not being tested for eventual implementation in MLB. That’s simply designed to avoid overworking young pitchers — most rookie ball players are teenagers — who are struggling to throw strikes, hopefully reducing injury risk.
MLB tests a number of rule adjustments in the minor leagues or independent ball. Some of them like the pitch clock, the ball-strike challenge system, and shift limitations make it to the highest level. Others (e.g. the DH “double-hook,” designated pinch-runners) have not.
The check-swing rule seems to be the one worth most closely following of this year’s group. “We haven’t made a decision about the check-swing thing,” commissioner Rob Manfred told Evan Drellich of The Athletic last June. “We do try to think sequentially about what’s coming. I think we got to get over the hump in terms of either doing (ball-strike challenges) or not doing it before you’d get into the complication of a separate kind of challenge involved in an at-bat, right? You think about them, they’re two different systems operating at the same time. We really got to think that one through.”
Latest On Angels’ Second Base Competition
One of the Angels’ biggest camp storylines is who they’ll tab as the starting second baseman. They narrowed the field over the weekend, optioning Christian Moore and Kyren Paris. They’re each going to open the year at Triple-A Salt Lake.
Moore seemed like a slight favorite for the job entering Spring Training. He was certainly the most exciting of the in-house options as a 2024 top ten pick who has hit well in the minors. Moore really struggled following an aggressive big league promotion last season, though. He struck out more than a third of the time while hitting .198/.284/.370 through 184 trips to the plate.
The Angels would have loved for Moore to seize the job in Spring Training. That’s not what happened, as he hit .175 with just one extra-base hit (a homer) in 40 at-bats. Moore will look to address some of the swing-and-miss concerns at Salt Lake to put himself in the running for a midseason promotion.
Paris is a career .157/.244/.290 hitter. He wasn’t going to win the second base job and probably needed a monster spring to put himself in consideration for a bench spot. He hit well on the surface (.333/.419/.556) but struck out nine times in 31 plate appearances. Paris has raw power but has held back by whiff concerns throughout his career. This will be his final minor league option year, assuming he spends at least 20 days there over the course of the season.
With Moore out of the mix, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com writes that non-roster invitee Adam Frazier is the favorite for the second base role. The lefty hitter has made a strong impression in camp, batting .348 while striking out just four times in 23 at-bats. Frazier’s profile is well established. He puts balls in play with minimal power and has been a below-average hitter since his 2021 All-Star season. He carries a .241/.302/.343 batting line in more than 1800 plate appearances between four teams over the last four years.
Manager Kurt Suzuki tells Bollinger he’s open to a platoon arrangement that’d pair Frazier with a righty bat. The 34-year-old is a career .200/.273/.333 hitter against southpaws, so it’s natural they’d keep away from lefty pitching if he breaks camp.
The Halos have a few right-handed infielders vying for one or two roster spots. Oswald Peraza and Vaughn Grissom are out-of-options former prospects who haven’t performed at the big league level. Chris Taylor and the switch-hitting Jeimer Candelario are in camp on minor league deals.
Peraza offers the most defensive value and has stepped up during Spring Training, hitting .351 with a pair of homers in 13 games. Grissom, acquired from the Red Sox in an offseason trade, is batting .185 despite only striking out twice all camp. Candelario and Taylor have each shown well in exhibition play but haven’t hit much in the regular season over the last two years.
The Angels would need to create 40-man roster space for any of Frazier, Candelario or Taylor. They have a pair of obvious 60-day injured list candidates in Robert Stephenson and Anthony Rendon. That essentially gives them two free roster spots with which to play.
Offseason In Review: Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies are mostly running back the same squad as last year, but with a few key adjustments.
Major League Signings
- DH Kyle Schwarber: Five years, $150MM (includes $15MM signing bonus)
- C J.T. Realmuto: Three years, $45MM
- RHP Brad Keller: Two years, $22MM (includes $4MM signing bonus)
- OF Adolis García: One year, $10MM
- RHP Zach Pop: Split deal, $900K in majors, $250K in minors
2026 spending (not including Pop): $66MM
Total spending (not including Pop): $227MM
Trades and Claims
- Claimed OF Pedro León off waivers from Orioles
- Selected RHP Zach McCambley from Marlins in Rule 5 draft
- Acquired RHP Yoniel Curet from Rays for RHP Tommy McCollum
- Acquired LHP Kyle Backhus from Diamondbacks for OF Avery Owusu-Asiedu
- Acquired RHP Jonathan Bowlan from Royals for LHP Matt Strahm
- Acquired RHP Chase Shugart from Pirates for IF Francisco Loreto
Option Decisions
- OF Harrison Bader declined $10MM mutual option
- Club exercised $9MM option on LHP José Alvarado
Notable Minor League Signings
- Liover Peguero, Bryan De La Cruz, Michael Mercado, Bryse Wilson, Levi Stoudt, Mark Kolozsvary, Tucker Davidson, Génesis Cabrera, Tim Mayza, Dylan Moore, Daniel Robert, Lou Trivino, Connor Gillispie
Extensions
- LHP Jesús Luzardo: Five years, $135MM (includes $32.5MM club option for 2032)
Notable Losses
- Ranger Suárez, Harrison Bader, Max Kepler (unsigned and serving PED suspension), Walker Buehler, Jordan Romano, Rafael Lantigua, Griff McGarry (Rule 5 draft), Matt Strahm, Weston Wilson (waivers), Nick Castellanos (released)
The Phillies went into the winter with a batch of notable players reaching free agency. Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Ranger Suárez and Harrison Bader were among the players heading to the open market. The Phils generally run one of the top payrolls in the league, but it never seemed like they would have the money to bring back all of them.
Schwarber and Realmuto felt like the priorities. Losing Suárez would hurt the rotation, but the Phils could still hope for a good starting group without him. There would be some extra risk because Zack Wheeler required surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome, but he is expected back fairly early in the 2026 season. Once he is back, four spots would be taken by Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo. The final spot could then come down to a battle between Taijuan Walker and Andrew Painter. Painter still has options and could be sent to Triple-A if he doesn’t win that battle. Walker has been nudged into a long relief role in the past and could wind up there again.
In center field, the Phils seemed committed to giving Justin Crawford a shot. He was pushing for a promotion in 2025 until they acquired Bader at the deadline. He is still not on the 40-man roster, but the Phils have more or less handed him the job for 2026. He has a particularly contact- and speed-based approach. He’s never hit ten home runs in a season but puts the ball in play and lets his legs do the work.
There is risk in relying on prospects with no major league experience but those are better fallback plans than the Phils had for the other spots. They didn’t have an everyday catcher waiting to take over for Realmuto and certainly didn’t have a Schwarber-esque bat to plug into the DH spot.
Schwarber’s market was hot, unsurprising for a guy who has been so good at the plate in recent years. It felt like the Phillies would match whatever other clubs were willing to offer — and that is exactly how it played out. The Pirates, shockingly, put forth an offer in the $120-125MM range over four years. The Orioles reportedly pushed the bidding up to $150MM over five years but the Phils got it done at that price. It’s a historic deal. Putting aside Shohei Ohtani, no primary designated hitter had earned a nine-figure deal in free agency before. No hitter, regardless of position, had reached nine figures going into his age-33 season.
For a 33-year-old DH to blow past both of those benchmarks and get to $150MM showcases just how good Schwarber has been. He just crushed 56 home runs last year while continuing to run elite walk rates. He has also erased his previous platoon issues, as he was actually better against lefties in both 2024 and 2025.
Bringing back Schwarber left Realmuto as the primary item on the to-do list but the Phils explored a different path. With Bo Bichette lingering unsigned into January, the Phils tried to take advantage by offering him a seven-year deal worth almost $200M. He decided to opt for the short-term route with high average annual values, accepting a three-year deal from the Mets worth $126MM with opt-outs.
With the Phils having Trea Turner and Bryson Stott in their middle infield, it seemed the plan was to put Bichette at third. The Phils could have then traded Alec Bohm and his $10.2MM salary, perhaps for catching. The Bichette offer was worth about $28MM annually, so they would have been adding about $18MM to the payroll if they were able to flip Bohm for a league minimum player or prospect. When Bichette went elsewhere, the Phils quickly turned to Realmuto and gave him $45MM over three years, or $15MM annually.
Bringing back Schwarber and Realmuto is nice, but there’s a bit of risk in continually committing to an aging roster. Both guys are now signed through their respective age-37 seasons. Turner and Bryce Harper are going into their age-33 seasons and still under contract into the next decade. Wheeler and Nola are in their mid-30s as well. There’s a financial aspect in hoping for Crawford and Painter to carve out roles on the 2026 club, but they also need some young guys to step up in order to avoid getting blindsided by the aging curve.
One area where change seemed to be guaranteed was right field. Manager Rob Thomson and Nick Castellanos had clashed a few times in the 2025 season. The organization seemed to have no questions about where they stood in terms of that spat. Within a few days of the Phils being eliminated from the playoffs, it was reported that Thomson would be back for 2026. He and the Phils would sign an extension in December.
Castellanos, on the other hand, was out the door. In mid-October, just a few days after the report of Thomson staying, it was reported that the Phils were going to move on from Castellanos. They held onto him throughout the winter to see if a trade could come together but it never did. He was released in February, just before camps opened for spring training.
In the interim, they had replaced him with Adolis García. He had been non-tendered by the Rangers after two down years. Castellanos is one of the worst outfield defenders in the league and García is pretty good with the glove, so he’ll certainly be an upgrade in that department. His offense is more questionable, as he is coming off a dismal .227/.271/.394 showing. He’s not too far removed from a 39-homer season in 2023 but is now 33 years old. Helping him get back on track will be pivotal to the Phillies’ success.
There was another bit of internal drama, but with no real consequences. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made some disparaging remarks about Harper’s 2025 season, which annoyed Harper and led to some brief trade rumors. Those rumors were quickly shot down and Dombrowski suggested the proverbial water had passed under the bridge.
A third note of clubhouse discord seemed to impact the club’s bullpen plans. Left-hander Matt Strahm was traded to the Royals for right-hander Jonathan Bowlan on Dec. 19. Dombrowski framed it as simply a product of circumstances. Bowlan is less established than Strahm, but he has big stuff, is still making the league minimum and can be controlled for six years. Strahm had one season left on his deal and will make $7.5MM in 2026. The Phils had three lefty relievers at the start of the winter, with José Alvarado and Tanner Banks being the other two. But in the days after the trade, it was reported that the Phils were motivated to move Strahm because he had regularly clashed with team officials.
Regardless of the motivation, a key piece of the bullpen had been subtracted. The Phils then used free agency to bolster the group, signing Brad Keller to a two-year deal worth $22MM. Keller was once a decent starter with the Royals but was largely in the injury wilderness in 2023 and 2024. He had a tremendous bounceback season out of the Cubs’ bullpen in 2025, tossing 69 2/3 innings with a 2.07 earned run average, 27.2% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 56.1% ground ball rate. Some clubs were interested in putting Keller back in a starting role but the Phils plan to deploy him as a reliever.
A few more notable developments popped up during spring training. Outfielder Johan Rojas has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He is the third member of the 2025 Phillies to receive a PED suspension, alongside Alvarado and Max Kepler. With the Phils giving Crawford the center field opportunity to start the season, Rojas was going to be a potential fallback plan if Crawford struggled.
It’s not a devastating loss, but it gives the Phils a bit less of a safety net in a position where they are taking a risk. Perhaps they’ll look to add some center field depth in the coming weeks as spring training ends and other clubs make their cuts, which will send some players to the waiver wire or back to free agency.
The other big development out of Phillies camp was the Jesús Luzardo extension. He and the club agreed to a five-year deal worth $135MM, beginning in 2027. That doesn’t impact the 2026 club but staves off a potential rotation pitfall a year from now. Both Luzardo and Walker were slated for free agency after 2026. The ’27 rotation projects to have a core four of Wheeler, Nola, Luzardo and Sánchez. With Walker’s impending departure, there’s a path for Painter or someone else to step up a seize a future spot. If not, the Phillies are never hesitant to spend in free agency.
On the whole, the Phils are mostly keeping the band together. The rotation is losing Suárez, but perhaps Painter can make up for his loss somewhat. The outfield has been shaken up a bit, with Crawford and García set to replace Bader and Castellanos. The bullpen has had a few changes as well.
But the core will largely be the same. With Schwarber and Realmuto back, those two will be lineup fixtures alongside Harper, Turner, Bohm, Marsh and Stott. It’s obviously a strong group, with an active streak of four straight postseason appearances. The playoff results have been more disappointing recently, but the regular season numbers keep getting better. They went from 87 wins in 2022 to 90, 95 and 96 in the next three campaigns.
It seems the club has tried to strike a balance. With most of those core players being in their mid-30s and signed for many years to come, there’s surely a concern about eventually getting too old at some point, but they do want to keep it going for now. They will try to get an injection of youth from Crawford and Painter. They almost got a bit more youth from the Bichette signing but couldn’t quite pull it off, which led to the Realmuto reunion and greater continuity.
How would you grade the Phillies' offseason?
Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images