The Rangers announced Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Zak Kent for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to left-hander Jordan Montgomery, whose one-year deal to return to Texas is now official.
More to come.
Giants Sign Rowan Wick
The Giants have signed right-hander Rowan Wick to a one-year major league deal, the team announced. The agreement includes a club option for 2027. Wick is recovering from Tommy John surgery and is not expected to pitch this season. The team has not announced a corresponding move.
The 33-year-old Wick returns stateside after spending the past two seasons with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He was excellent out of the bullpen during his time in NPB, recording a 1.75 ERA across 87 2/3 innings. Wick secured five saves last season with the BayStars. He’ll look to contribute in the San Francisco bullpen next year as he continues to rehab from TJ.
More to come…
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Cubs Nearing Deal With Shelby Miller
The Cubs and right-hander Shelby Miller are finalizing a multi-year, major league contract, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. The Excel Sports client is expected to miss the 2026 season after undergoing UCL and flexor surgery in mid-October. As such, it’ll likely be a backloaded two-year arrangement that allows Miller to rehab with the Cubs in 2026 with an eye toward joining their bullpen in 2027.
Miller, 35, has had an unusual career arc. The 2009 first-rounder was a top prospect with the Cardinals and finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting back in 2013. He spent two seasons with St. Louis before being traded to Atlanta for Jason Heyward in the 2014-15 offseason. The Braves got 33 excellent starts out of Miller in 2015 before trading him to the D-backs in a lopsided blockbuster that sent Dansby Swanson — just six months removed from being the No. 1 overall pick in the draft — Ender Inciarte, and former first-rounder Aaron Blair back to Atlanta. Miller’s time in Arizona was an injury-plagued nightmare; he pitched to a 6.35 ERA in 139 innings over the course of three seasons before being cut loose.
Miller bounced around the league for several seasons without much success — including a two-inning stint with the 2021 Cubs, where he was tagged for seven runs — but he’s found a second act to his career as a late-inning reliever. Over the past three seasons, he’s suited up for four clubs, including a much more successful return tour with the D-backs in 2025. Since Opening Day ’23, he’s posted a 3.13 ERA with a strong 25.3% strikeout rate, an 8.2% walk rate, 13 saves and 17 holds in 143 2/3 innings.
Last offseason, Miller and the D-backs agreed to a one-year pact that yielded outstanding results. He pitched 36 1/3 innings for Arizona and turned in a dominant 1.98 earned run average with a 28% strikeout rate. The reunion was cut short by a forearm injury, and the Brewers traded for Miller at the deadline while he was still on the 15-day IL.
Miller went on to make 11 appearances with Milwaukee, pitching well in August before making one lone appearance in September. He faced two hitters, allowing both to reach base, and called for a trainer after feeling what he described as a “pop” in his elbow. Miller later told the Brewers’ beat that an internal brace procedure and flexor repair was presented as an option when he was first placed on the injured list with the Diamondbacks. He wanted to continue to try to pitch that season, knowing he’d likely need eventual surgery and that doing so could mean a full Tommy John procedure, which comes with an even longer rehab window than an internal brace.
The Brewers were aware of the risk at the time they traded for Miller, which is why they didn’t send a prospect back to Arizona but rather just took on $2MM of the $22.5MM Arizona was paying left-hander Jordan Montgomery last year (while Montgomery was rehabbing his own Tommy John procedure). Miller ultimately had Tommy John surgery in October — the second of his career. His first came during that original run with Arizona.
Miller will turn 36 in October, right around the one-year anniversary of his second UCL reconstruction. He’ll have to go on the Cubs’ 40-man roster when the deal is finalized — players cannot be signed and placed directly on the 60-day injured list — but he’ll move to the 60-day IL as soon as Chicago needs to free up another roster spot. He’ll 16 months removed from surgery by the time pitchers and catchers report to spring training in 2027 (pending a potential lockout related to the expiring 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement).
Reds, Nathaniel Lowe Agree To Minor League Deal
The Reds and first baseman Nathaniel Lowe are in agreement on a minor league deal, per Mark Feinsand and Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. The SportsMeter client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.
A year ago, the notion of Lowe settling for a non-roster deal would’ve seemed far-fetched. From 2021-24, the now-30-year-old Lowe was the Rangers’ everyday first baseman — and a good one, at that. He slashed a combined .274/.359/.432 (124 wRC+) with 78 home runs, 104 doubles, 10 triples, 13 steals, a strong 11.3% walk rate and a 23.3% strikeout rate that was only a bit north of average. Defensive metrics were bearish on his glove early in his MLB run, but he posted quality marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (4) and Outs Above Average (10) in 2023-24.
As the Rangers began the process of paring down their payroll, they traded Lowe and his $10.3MM salary to the Nationals for left-hander Robert Garcia. The change of scenery didn’t work out whatsoever for Lowe. He appeared in 119 games and tallied 490 plate appearances with a .216/.292/.373 batting line (86 wRC+) before being designated for assignment and released in August. Lowe’s walk rate in D.C. dipped to 9.6%, and his strikeout rate climbed to 26.5%. He was also a bit more prone to pop-ups and hit fewer line drives than he had during his Texas stint.
The Red Sox, needing help at first base, quickly scooped Lowe up and got better production out of the veteran’s left-handed bat. In a smaller sample of 119 plate appearances with Boston, Lowe turned in a .280/.370/.420 slash that pretty closely resembled the production from his time in Arlington. His production was buoyed by a .361 average on balls in play that he’s highly unlikely to sustain, but Lowe was also dogged by a .267 BABIP with the Nationals — a whopping 72 points south of the .339 mark he carried into the season.
With the Reds, Lowe will have a chance to win a prominent role in the lineup. Top prospect Sal Stewart is the presumptive front-runner at first base, but he has all of 18 big league games under his belt. The 2022 No. 32 overall pick belted five homers in that time and had a big year in Triple-A as well (.309/.383/.524, 152 wRC+) but some veteran competition for him won’t hurt. Also in the mix at first base are Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Spencer Steer. The former hasn’t hit in the majors since 2023 and has minor league options remaining, while the latter can play all over the diamond.
There could be occasional DH at-bats available, although the returning Eugenio Suárez will likely take the bulk of those reps in 2026. Suárez could also see time at the hot corner if the oft-injured Ke’Bryan Hayes hits the injured list, which would open up additional avenues to get both Stewart and Lowe into the lineup — assuming Lowe performs well enough to make the roster, of course.
Nabil Crismatt To Undergo UCL Surgery
The Rangers revealed yesterday that right-hander Nabil Crismatt will undergo an elbow procedure, but further specifics weren’t immediately clear. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News has since written that Crismatt, who’s in camp with Texas as a non-roster invitee, suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament during his first bullpen session of camp. Whether he undergoes a full reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) or an internal brace procedure to repair/strengthen his current ligament, he’ll miss the entire season.
Crismatt, 31, signed on for a second stint with the Rangers this offseason. He pitched for their Triple-A club in 2024 but didn’t receive a call to the majors. The journeyman right-hander has pitched for four teams across the past six seasons, logging a combined 3.71 ERA in 211 big league innings. He’s fanned 20.6% of his opponents against a 7% walk rate and kept 49.2% of batted balls against him on the ground.
Crismatt spent the 2025 season with the D-backs and Phillies organizations, tossing 34 MLB frames for Arizona and matching his 3.71 career earned run average on the dot. He’s never been a hard thrower, sitting 89.5 mph on his sinker and 90 mph on his four-seamer throughout his big league career. His blend of grounders, above-average command and a knack for inducing weak contact have helped him to succeed more often than not in the majors.
Since he’s on a non-roster deal, Crismatt won’t be placed on the injured list and won’t accrue big league service. It’s a tough blow for the right-hander, who also logged 102 1/3 innings of 3.96 ERA ball in Triple-A last year. In addition to hoping to land a spot on the Rangers’ roster, he’d been slated to pitch for his native Colombia in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. That obviously won’t happen. Depending on which variety of UCL procedure he undergoes, Crismatt will likely be ready next spring (internal brace) or next April/May (Tommy John surgery).
Ballparking A Nico Hoerner Extension
In the aftermath of the Alex Bregman signing, one of the immediate questions was whether it changed how the Cubs would proceed with Nico Hoerner. Bregman pushed second-year infielder Matt Shaw into a utility role, but he'd be capable of stepping in at second base. The Giants, Red Sox and Mariners were among the teams seeking a trade match for a player of Hoerner's profile. Would the Cubs flip him before his walk year?
That's almost certainly not happening now. There was no reason for the Cubs to entertain the possibility unless they were blown away by the kind of prospect that other teams would not entertain for a rental (e.g. Connelly Early, Bryce Eldridge). Hoerner is a much better player than Shaw in the short term, and the Cubs have as strong a chance as anyone to take the NL Central. Boston traded for Caleb Durbin, while the Giants signed Luis Arraez to play second. Seattle acquired Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals.
As Spring Training gets underway, the focus might now swing to an extension. March is the most common time of year for those conversations. If the Cubs are able to get a long-term deal done with Hoerner this spring, that could make them more comfortable dangling Shaw in deadline talks if any top-of-the-rotation starters come available. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic wrote this week that Hoerner has emerged as a pillar in the clubhouse. The relationship between team and player is strong enough that it'd be a surprise if they didn't have some conversations before Opening Day about what it'd take to keep him off the market.
Let's try to narrow down what that might cost:
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Angels Re-Sign Chris Taylor To Minor League Deal
Feb. 13: Taylor signed a minor league deal with a spring training invite, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. He reported to camp this morning.
Feb. 12: The Angels are in agreement to bring back veteran utility player Chris Taylor, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s not clear whether it’s an MLB deal or a minor league contract with a Spring Training invite, though the latter seems more likely. Taylor is represented by Meister Sports Management.
Taylor finished the 2025 season in Orange County. He signed a big league deal after being released by the Dodgers in May. Taylor made 30 appearances for the Halos. He started games at all three outfield positions and at second and third base. He didn’t make a huge impact beyond that defensive flexibility, as he struck out 29 times and hit .179 across 90 plate appearances. Taylor almost immediately went on the injured list with a broken left hand. A brief return in July proved unsuccessful and he was essentially shelved until September.
The former All-Star combined for a .186/.256/.301 batting line over 125 plate appearances between the two Los Angeles teams. Taylor’s offense has cratered over the past two seasons. His bat speed and power production have dropped, putting more of a focus on his already high strikeout tallies. He has fanned at a 32% clip while hitting .196/.284/.301 with six home runs over 371 plate appearances in the last two seasons.
Taylor will compete for a bench role. He’s still an above-average runner who can fill in anywhere other than catcher and shortstop. The Angels have a wide open second base competition between Christian Moore, Vaughn Grissom, Oswald Peraza and non-roster invitee Nick Madrigal. Third base belongs to Yoán Moncada for now, but he’s hardly a picture of durability. They’re patching together an outfield that’ll include Jo Adell, Josh Lowe and at least one of Mike Trout and Jorge Soler with the other working as a designated hitter.
As a player with six years of service time who finished last season on the major league roster, Taylor hit the market as an Article XX(b) free agent. If he’s signing a minor league contract, it would come with a trio of automatic opt-out dates under the collective bargaining agreement: five days before Opening Day, May 1, and June 1.
The Opener: Dodgers, Gallen, Castellanos
With one early-morning trade already in the books, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world this weekend:
1. Dodgers pitchers and catchers report:
29 out of 30 teams have already had their pitchers and catchers officially report for camp, and today the 30th and final team will have its first workout: the reigning World Series champion Dodgers. It’s a slightly different look in camp for L.A. than previous years. Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw is not present following his retirement while star closer Edwin Diaz and outfielder Kyle Tucker will be suiting up in Dodger blue for the first time. As camp gets underway, a few notable moves have been made for the Dodgers on the positional side of things. The club brought Enrique Hernandez back on a one-year deal yesterday, and also worked out yet another short-term extension with veteran third baseman Max Muncy.
2. Where will Gallen land?
Earlier this week, the Orioles signed Chris Bassitt among a flurry of starting pitching signings that also saw veterans like Justin Verlander (Tigers) and Jose Quintana (Rockies) find their next club. That’s a notable move from Baltimore in part because the club was one of the teams that had been most clearly linked to Zac Gallen this offseason. With camps opening up around the league, Gallen remains unsigned and will need to find a team in a hurry if he doesn’t want to be behind when exhibition games begin later this month. He still makes sense for the Padres and Diamondbacks, though it’s unclear if either team can afford him at this point. The Braves, who recently lost Spencer Schwellenbach for an extended period due to bone spurs in his elbow, could also make sense but may not want to punt the draft pick and shell out the necessary dollars to bring him into the fold. It’s possible another spring injury could open a new door for Gallen, but there aren’t a lot of clean fits at the moment.
3. Will Castellanos find a new home?
The messy, months-long divorce between the Phillies and Nick Castellanos finally came to a close yesterday when Philadelphia officially released the veteran, making him a free agent eligible to sign with any interested club for the league minimum. Speculatively speaking, teams like the Padres, Guardians, and Royals could have a spot for them in their outfield/DH mixes, but Castellanos is coming off a down season at the plate and has long been a sub-par defender. Upon being released, he also opened up (to an extent) about his clash with manager Rob Thomson, admitting that after being lifted for a defensive replacement in Miami, he brought a beer into the dugout while the game was still going and began to air some grievances with his skipper before teammates intervened to calm him down. Will another club take a chance on Castellanos?
Astros, Blue Jays Swap Jesús Sánchez For Joey Loperfido
The Blue Jays have acquired outfielder Jesús Sánchez from the Astros in exchange for fellow outfielder Joey Loperfido, per announcements from both clubs. Both players are on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding moves will need to be made.
Sánchez’s tenure in Houston will only wind up lasting half a season. Houston acquired the lefty-swinging slugger from Miami at last year’s deadline in a trade sending righty Ryan Gusto, minor league infielder Chase Jaworsky and minor league outfielder Esmil Valencia to the Marlins.
Sánchez came to the Astros with a track record of hitting right-handed pitching but struggled against right-handed and left-handed opponents alike in his new environs. He slashed just .199/.269/.342 (71 wRC+) in 160 plate appearances as an Astro — a far cry from the .253/.319/.428 line he’d posted in nearly 1300 plate appearances with the Fish dating back to Opening Day 2023.
The Astros could have non-tendered Sánchez on the heels of those struggles but chose to keep him around despite a projected arbitration salary of some note. The two parties agreed to a $6.8MM deal for the 2026 season. Toronto will take on the entirety of that sum in this swap and, as a third-time luxury payor in the top penalty tier, pay a 110% tax. That brings the total monetary expenditure to $14.28MM for the Jays.
It’s a heavy price to buy low on a player, but Sánchez touts a career .253/.324/.450 batting line against right-handed pitching and has plenty of encouraging underlying metrics. He’s averaged a hearty 91.1 mph off the bat in his career and logged a robust 45.7% hard-hit rate. Last year’s 75.9 mph bat speed ranked in the 93rd percentile of MLB hitters.
Sánchez is limited to the outfield corners on the defensive side of things but offers solid range and a plus arm. In 2777 career innings in right field, he’s been credited with 11 Defensive Runs Saved. Statcast rates him five Outs Above Average in that time. He hasn’t played as much left field but has above-average marks there from both DRS and OAA.
The Jays don’t have an immediate path to regular at-bats for Sánchez, who’s out of minor league options. He’ll presumably occupy a part-time role, mixing into the outfield corners alongside fellow lefty swingers Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger, who figure to patrol the corners alongside center fielder Daulton Varsho. Sánchez gives the Jays a viable option in either outfield corner and can obviously log some time at designated hitter if George Springer needs a breather. He’s a nice bat to have in a limited role, and if he hits well enough to merit a raise in arbitration, he can be controlled through the 2027 season.
The addition of Sánchez adds some power to a lineup that will again be without last winter’s major offseason signing, Anthony Santander, for an extended period of time. Santander missed significant time in 2025 and hit poorly when on the field due to ongoing shoulder troubles. He recently underwent surgery on that balky shoulder and will be sidelined for five-plus months.
Toronto had obviously been hoping that an offseason of rest could get Santander back to the form he showed in Baltimore from 2022-24, when he slashed .244/.317/.478 with 105 home runs (including 44 in 2024). Instead, it’ll be another largely lost season for the switch-hitting slugger. Sánchez doesn’t have the same offensive ceiling due to his long-running platoon struggles, but he adds some power to help the Jays compensate for that loss.
Loperfido, 26, returns to the organization that originally drafted him with this trade. Houston sent him to Toronto alongside righty Jake Bloss and infielder Will Wagner in exchange for left-hander Yusei Kikuchi at the 2024 trade deadline. He wasn’t likely to break camp with the Jays and may not do so in Houston, either. He’s entering his final minor league option season and has five years of club control remaining.
While Loperfido slashed .333/.379/.500 in 104 plate appearances for Toronto last season, there was a fair bit of smoke and mirrors involved in that batting line. His offensive output was propped up by a huge .431 average on balls in play that won’t be sustainable over a larger sample, and Loperfido logged a somewhat concerning 26% strikeout rate against just a 3.8% walk rate. His batted-ball metrics (87.3 mph average exit velocity, 37.1% hard-hit rate) were well below average. Loperfido spent the bulk of the 2025 season in Triple-A and was roughly a league-average hitter there, slashing .264/.341/.401 with a 21.4% strikeout rate and a below-average 7.8% walk rate.
Loperfido will have a chance to break camp with the ’Stros but will need to earn his spot with a big spring performance. Houston has Jake Meyers locked into center field but minimal certainty otherwise. Rookie Zach Cole hit well in a 15-game cup of coffee last year, but he also struck out in 38% of his plate appearances after fanning at a 35% clip in the minors. His hit tool is a major red flag. Cam Smith was the talk of spring training last year, and the former top prospect had a hot start to his big league career before fading as the season went on.
Houston has been on the lookout for left-handed bats throughout the offseason and has continued its search in camp. Loperfido gives them a lefty hitter but does so at the cost of the left-handed Sánchez, so there’s no net gain. However, the most important aspect of this morning’s trade for the Astros could simply be shedding Sánchez’s $6.8MM salary from the books. General manager Dana Brown said in announcing the trade that he’s “not done” making moves (via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle).
Astros owner Jim Crane is reluctant to cross the luxury tax threshold for what’d be a second straight season, and prior to moving Sánchez, Houston was within $5MM or so of the $244MM tax line. Brown and his staff in the front office now have some extra breathing room as they look to make further additions to the roster. Houston’s infield logjam has been well-documented this winter, and corner infielder Isaac Paredes’ name, in particular, has surfaced in frequent trade speculation. With some extra financial breathing room, the Astros have more leeway to make other additions without necessarily needing to move Paredes or find a taker for pricey first baseman Christian Walker (owed $40MM over the next two seasons) on the heels of a down year.
