Cardinals Option Richard Fitts
The Cardinals optioned Richard Fitts on Wednesday, seemingly finalizing their season-opening rotation. Fitts was trying to win a spot at the back end over Michael McGreevy or Andre Pallante.
The latter two righties seem set to round out a rotation led by Matthew Liberatore, Dustin May and Kyle Leahy. The Cardinals announced Wednesday that Liberatore will take the ball for the season opener opposite Drew Rasmussen and the Rays. It’ll be the 26-year-old southpaw’s first Opening Day assignment.
Fitts landed with St. Louis in the November trade that sent Sonny Gray to Boston. The Cards acquired A-ball pitching prospect Brandon Clarke as the headliner. Fitts was more of a secondary piece but is a controllable starter with good velocity and a pair of minor league options who should factor in over the course of the season.
A 26-year-old righty, Fitts made 15 MLB appearances for the Red Sox between 2024-25. He managed a 3.97 earned run average but only struck out 17.5% of opponents while struggling with the home run ball. He took the ball three times this spring, giving up six runs on nine hits and three walks across 9 1/3 frames. He struck out nine of 39 batters faced while working with an impressive 97 mph fastball on average.
He’ll head back to Triple-A, where he has a 4.13 ERA over 143 2/3 innings. There’s a good chance Fitts is the first man up if an injury or extended stretch of the schedule opens a rotation spot. He’s the only depth starter on the 40-man roster who has any MLB experience.
Liberatore and May were assured of rotation spots. The Cardinals intended to give Leahy a chance to start after he tossed 88 innings of 3.07 ERA ball in a long relief role last season. He has been a little homer-prone this spring but leads the team with 20 strikeouts over 17 2/3 innings to solidify his starting job. It’ll be his first rotation work since he was in Double-A four years ago.
Pallante and McGreevy seemed on shakier ground at the start of camp. Pallante took 31 starts and logged 162 2/3 innings a year ago, but he mustered only a 5.31 ERA. McGreevy allowed 4.42 earned runs per nine over 95 2/3 innings. Both pitchers ranked near the bottom of the league in strikeout rate. They’ve each managed a sub-3.00 ERA despite modest strikeout totals this spring.
Red Sox Notes: Durbin, Infield, Coulombe
The Red Sox have told Caleb Durbin he’ll be the primary third baseman, the infielder told reporters (including Tim Healey of The Boston Globe). Things had clearly been trending in that direction throughout camp, though manager Alex Cora held off on making any formal declarations.
Durbin remains at the position where he started 119 games for the Brewers last year. He’d made three starts at second base for Milwaukee. Durbin started a trio of games at the keystone against 10 starts at third base this spring.
The 26-year-old is coming off a third place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting. He stole 18 bases and connected on 11 homers with a .256/.334/.387 line across 506 plate appearances. The Red Sox acquired him last month in a six-player trade built around Durbin and left-hander Kyle Harrison, who has a good chance to open the season in Milwaukee’s rotation. He has made a strong impression on his new team in camp, batting .394 with five walks and only three strikeouts over 40 plate appearances.
Cora said the Sox prefer to have Durbin playing one position rather than bouncing around the infield. Locking him in at the hot corner leaves second base as the spot up for grabs. Marcelo Mayer has been the favorite throughout the spring. The Red Sox have yet to commit to carrying Mayer on the Opening Day roster after he hit .228/.272/.402 with a 30% strikeout rate in his first 44 MLB games.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Andruw Monasterio (who came over from Milwaukee in the Durbin trade) would be the alternatives if the Sox want Mayer to open the season in Triple-A. Kiner-Falefa and Monasterio fit best as utility players. They’re each right-handed hitters and could take short side platoon bats if the Sox want to keep the lefty-hitting Mayer away from tough southpaws.
Romy Gonzalez could be back in that role midseason, but he’ll miss at least the first two months. Gonzalez underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder last week. The Sox placed him on the 60-day injured list when they finalized their $1MM free agent deal with lefty reliever Danny Coulombe.
Coulombe had been a Sox target dating back to the Winter Meetings. The team wanted a more established player than Jovani Moran to serve as their top lefty bullpen arm in front of closer Aroldis Chapman. They ultimately added Coulombe for a guarantee marginally above the $780K league minimum, though his deal was initially going to be a little pricier.
Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the Red Sox had agreed to terms with Coulombe at a higher number before flagging something in the medical review process. Jen McCaffrey and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic added specifics, reporting that it would have been a $2.25MM base salary with $750K available in appearance-based incentives.
Coulombe’s actual deal comes with the same appearance incentive package. It also includes up to $1.25MM in roster bonuses, as first reported by The Associated Press. He’d earn $250K apiece at 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 days on the active roster or MLB injured list — so long as any IL stint isn’t related to his pitching arm.
In each case, the maximum value of the contract would be $3MM. If Coulombe stays healthy and holds his roster spot all year, he’ll come out just as well as he would have if not for the health concern. It’s not clear what specifically the medical staff flagged, though it’s evidently related to his arm in some form. In 2024, Coulombe underwent surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow. He missed time in May and June last year with a forearm strain and had a minimal IL stay in September due to shoulder fatigue.
Twins Shopping Alex Jackson
The Twins are trying to move third catcher Alex Jackson, a National League evaluator tells Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. If they don’t line up a trade before Opening Day, there’s a decent chance the 30-year-old will land on waivers.
Jackson is out of minor league options. The Twins can’t send him down without getting him through waivers. They acquired him from the Orioles in November, sending minor league utility player Payton Eeles in return. Eeles is a 26-year-old coming off a .253/.379/.321 season in Triple-A. He’s certainly not a top prospect, but the Twins wouldn’t have parted with an upper minors depth infielder if they didn’t feel Jackson had a chance to break camp at the time.
That’s more difficult to envision a few months later. The Twins not only rebuffed trade interest in starting catcher Ryan Jeffers, they added Victor Caratini on a two-free agent deal in the middle of January. There’s no scenario in which Jackson jumps either player on the depth chart. He’d only remain on the roster if the Twins break camp with three catchers or one of Jeffers/Caratini suffers an injury during the final six games of Spring Training.
It’s not out of the question that Jackson simply clears waivers and sticks in the organization on a non-roster capacity. He and the team agreed to a $1.35MM salary to cover his first year of arbitration. Any team that traded for him or claimed him off waivers would assume that above minimum salary and face the same roster restrictions the Twins do. Jackson’s three years of service time give him the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers, yet he’d walk away from the guaranteed money to do so. He’d almost certainly accept an assignment to Triple-A St. Paul.
Jackson played in 37 games for the Orioles last year. He connected on five home runs and eight doubles over 100 plate appearances. It was easily his best power production at the MLB level, but it came with 37 strikeouts and only five walks. Jackson has fanned at a 40.7% clip to hit .153/.239/.288 over parts of six seasons in the majors. If the Twins trade him or lose him on waivers, they’d be very light on experienced upper minors catching depth. David Bañuelos, who has appeared in exactly one big league game in each of the last two seasons, is their only non-roster catcher with any MLB service time.
Red Sox, Tommy Kahnle Agree To Minor League Deal
March 18th: Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that there are no short-term opt-outs in the Kahnle deal, though is an assignment clause on May 1st and then an opt-out on June 1st.
March 17th: The Red Sox reached agreement with veteran reliever Tommy Kahnle on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The Covenant Sports Group client will presumably be in camp as a non-roster invitee. Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News reports that the deal comes with a $1.5MM base salary and $250K in bonuses if he reaches the MLB roster.
Kahnle spent the 2025 season in Detroit on a $7.75MM free agent deal. It didn’t pan out as the Tigers envisioned. The right-hander allowed a 4.43 earned run average while striking out only 18.7% of opponents, easily a career low. The drop in production really came in the second half. Kahnle took a 1.77 ERA and solid 23.3% strikeout rate into July. He was blitzed for nearly eight runs per nine innings while walking more batters than he struck out the rest of the way.
There wasn’t any kind of dramatic drop-off in Kahnle’s stuff — not that hitters weren’t fully aware what was coming either way. Kahnle throws his changeup more than 85% of the time. That’s the highest rate in MLB by a mile. Devin Williams was the only other pitcher to throw a changeup (which is how Statcast buckets his trademark “Airbender”) at least half the time. Williams went to that pitch at a 52% clip.
Kahnle has had success with this approach for years, so it’s not as if hitters suddenly caught onto the pattern at last season’s All-Star Break. They did a better job laying off when he threw it out of the zone, though, leading to a drop in whiffs and a spike in walks down the stretch. The Tigers continued to use Kahnle in reasonably high-leverage spots and pitched him four times in eight playoff games. He gave up three runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks across 2 1/3 innings in October.
Although he’s signing just over a week from Opening Day, the 36-year-old Kahnle should be ready for the beginning of the season. He pitched in the World Baseball Classic for Israel, tossing two scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts. The Sox have seven more Spring Training contests before heading to Cincinnati to open the regular season on March 26.
The timing of the signing probably isn’t a coincidence. Kahnle was an Article XX(b) free agent because he finished last season on Detroit’s major league roster. Those players receive automatic opt-out chances five days before Opening Day, May 1 and June 1 if they sign a minor league contract at least 10 days before the start of the regular season. Assuming Kahnle’s deal didn’t become official until today, he won’t meet that criteria. His camp could have negotiated separate opt-out dates into the contract, but there’s a decent chance he’ll open the season at Triple-A Worcester.
Rockies Notes: Rotation, Gordon, Amador
The Rockies made a pair of camp cuts on Tuesday, optioning right-hander Tanner Gordon and second baseman Adael Amador. Both players will open the season in Triple-A Albuquerque.
Gordon made 15 starts a year ago, holding a rotation spot throughout the second half. The 28-year-old righty allowed a 6.33 ERA with a modest 18.4% strikeout rate. Gordon pitched well this spring, striking out 12 against two walks across 11 innings. He only surrendered eight hits and two runs. It wasn’t enough to overcome last year’s regular season production to hold a spot in a revamped Colorado rotation.
The Rockies signed Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano to one-year deals. They’ll all hold rotation spots behind Kyle Freeland, whom the Rox have tabbed as their Opening Day starter for a third straight season (and franchise-record fifth overall). That leaves one spot in the season-opening staff up for grabs.
Thomas Harding of MLB.com writes that the Rockies still haven’t decided whether they’ll go with Ryan Feltner or Chase Dollander. Feltner is the more experienced pitcher and made 30 starts with a 4.49 ERA and league average peripherals back in 2024. He was limited to six MLB appearances last year by injury, most notably back spasms.
Dollander is coming off a frustrating rookie season, allowing a 6.52 ERA across his first 21 starts. He pitched fairly well on the road (3.46 ERA with a 22.2% strikeout rate in 52 innings) but was destroyed for 55 runs over 46 frames at Coors Field. The 24-year-old Dollander is a former top 10 overall pick who is one of the most important players with the organization in a complete rebuild.
Neither pitcher has done much to impress this spring. Dollander has walked seven and hit three batters in 14 innings. He has given up 11 runs (10 earned) on 18 hits with 10 strikeouts. Feltner has been rocked for 13 runs with 10 walks in 11 2/3 frames. Gordon handily outperformed both of them in camp, but he’s a lower-ceiling pitcher whom the front office evidently wasn’t seriously considering for a spot on the Opening Day roster.
The Rockies are expected to keep Antonio Senzatela in a long relief role. Dollander and Feltner both have minor league options. Whomever doesn’t win the fifth starter job will probably begin the season alongside Gordon in the Albuquerque rotation. Gabriel Hughes and McCade Brown are the other depth starters on the 40-man roster. They were both optioned out in early March.
As for Amador, it’s moderately disappointing that he didn’t win a roster spot. The switch-hitting infielder has been one of the team’s more well-known prospects for a few seasons. Amador hasn’t hit at all in 51 MLB games over the past two years, batting .176/.242/.250 through 164 plate appearances.
His Spring Training production (.229/.270/.429 with two homers in 12 games) wasn’t good. Amador is coming off a strong .303/.405/.478 season with more walks than strikeouts in Triple-A, though that comes with the caveat of Albuquerque’s very hitter-friendly environment. Colorado acquired Edouard Julien from the Twins and signed utilityman Willi Castro to a two-year free agent deal to factor in at second base. They can each move to a corner infield spot (first and third base, respectively) if the Rockies decide to take another look at Amador midseason.
White Sox Finalize Season-Opening Rotation
White Sox manager Will Venable informed reporters (including Mark Feinsand of MLB.com) on Tuesday that the team has finalized its season-opening rotation. Opening Day starter Shane Smith will be followed in some order by Sean Burke, Davis Martin and offseason signees Anthony Kay and Erick Fedde.
Mike Vasil’s bid for a rotation spot was unfortunately dashed by an elbow injury that’ll require Tommy John surgery. Venable confirmed this afternoon that lefty Sean Newcomb will pitch out of the bullpen. The Sox optioned Jonathan Cannon, meaning he’ll open the season at Triple-A Charlotte.
There aren’t any huge surprises. Newcomb signed with an eye towards competing for a rotation spot, but Chicago’s subsequent $1.5MM deal with Fedde made it likelier the southpaw would end up in the bullpen. Newcomb also had a shaky Spring Training, allowing 10 runs (eight earned) across 12 innings. Fedde worked 8 2/3 frames of three-run ball with seven strikeouts and two walks.
Kay was more or less locked into the rotation once he signed a two-year, $12MM deal to return from NPB. The former Mets’ first-round pick has also had the best camp of anyone in the group. Kay has allowed only four runs while leading the team with 15 strikeouts across 16 1/3 frames. His fastball has averaged 95.4 mph.
No one else in the rotation mix has had a standout camp. Smith was the obvious choice to start on Opening Day after strong rookie season. Fedde was one of the worst pitchers in MLB last year but is a year removed from a solid ’24 campaign divided between the Sox and Cardinals. Martin and Burke are fringe starters but performed better than Cannon did in 2025. They entered the spring ahead of him on the depth chart. Cannon’s fine but unexceptional Spring Training numbers (11 innings, five runs, 10:5 strikeout-to-ratio) weren’t enough to flip that.
The rebuilding White Sox have begun to incorporate some potential foundational pieces on offense. The pitching is still quite a bit behind, as this is arguably the weakest on-paper rotation in the American League. The Kay signing provides an interesting wild card, though, and the White Sox added a mid-level pitching prospect (David Sandlin) by taking on part of Jordan Hicks’ contract in a trade with Boston.
Sandlin was optioned early in Spring Training but would be in the mix for a midseason promotion if he shows well in Triple-A. Non-roster prospects Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz probably have the highest ceilings of any pitchers in the organization. They each face questions about whether they’ll throw enough strikes to be mid-rotation or better arms and are looking to rebound from shaky ’25 seasons in the minors.
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: St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals leaned more heavily into the rebuild they should have begun during the previous offseason. They made four significant future focused trades in Chaim Bloom’s first season running baseball operations.
Major League Signings
- RHP Dustin May: One year, $12.5MM (including buyout of ’27 mutual option)
- RHP Ryne Stanek: One year, $3.5MM (deal includes ’27 club option)
- 3B Ramón Urías: One year, $2MM (including buyout of ’27 mutual option)
- C Yohel Pozo: One year split contract
2026 spending: $17MM
Total future spending: $18MM
Trades and Claims
- Traded 2B Brendan Donovan to Mariners in three-team deal (also involving Rays) for minor league RHP Jurrangelo Cijntje, minor league OF Tai Peete, minor league OF Colton Ledbetter, and two Competitive Balance Round B draft choices (#68 and 72 overall)
- Traded RHP Sonny Gray and $20MM to Red Sox for RHP Richard Fitts, minor league LHP Brandon Clarke and a player to be named later or cash
- Traded 1B Willson Contreras and $8MM to Red Sox for RHP Hunter Dobbins, minor league RHP Yhoiker Fajardo and minor league RHP Blake Aita
- Traded 3B Nolan Arenado and $31MM to Diamondbacks for minor league RHP Jack Martinez
- Acquired LHP Justin Bruihl from Guardians for cash
- Acquired RHP George Soriano from Nationals for RHP Andre Granillo
- Selected RHP Matt Pushard from Marlins organization in Rule 5 draft
- Claimed RHP Zak Kent off waivers from Guardians (later lost on waivers to Texas, re-claimed, then lost on waivers again to Minnesota)
- Claimed 3B Bryan Ramos off waivers from Orioles (later lost back to Baltimore on waivers)
Option Decisions
- None
Notable Minor League Signings
Extensions
- None
Notable Losses
- Brendan Donovan, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, Miles Mikolas, John King (non-tender), Michael Siani (lost via waivers), Andre Granillo, Jorge Alcala (non-tender), Roddery Muñoz (lost via waivers), Anthony Veneziano (outrighted)
The Cardinals officially entered the Chaim Bloom era as soon as the 2025 regular season concluded. The team had announced a year in advance that Bloom would take over baseball operations from the retiring John Mozeliak. They felt their new front office leader would benefit from a year to familiarize himself with the organization, but the atypical arrangement contributed to an inert 2024-25 offseason that squandered trade value on veterans who should have been moved (e.g. Ryan Helsley, Erick Fedde).
St. Louis was reasonably competitive last year and finished within a few games of .500. At the same time, it was clear ownership was pulling back payroll as their local broadcast deal teetered on the brink of collapse — which finally happened this winter after Main Street Sports defaulted on a rights payment. If they weren’t going to invest to fix the pitching staff, they needed to more proactively strip things down.
That’d be the focus of the 2025-26 offseason. Bloom may never have used the term “rebuild,” but it was obvious between the lines. He said that adding a long-term influx of talent to the organization took priority over immediate upgrades to the big league club. Bloom also made the direction clear to a trio of veteran players who had say over their fate in the form of no-trade clauses.
Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras had all previously been very choosy about whether or where to accept a trade. Gray and Arenado said that’d change this winter, considering more possibilities to play for a contender on the back ends of their respective careers. Contreras was a little more reticent early on, but he’d also approve a trade once the time came.
In all three cases, the primary motivations for the Cardinals were in shedding money and opening playing time for younger players. Gray, Contreras and Arenado all remain solid or better players, but none of them had immense trade value. Gray’s and Arenado’s respective contracts were above market value, in fact, while the remaining two years and $41.5MM on the Contreras deal felt about right for what he’d earn if he were a free agent.
That left Brendan Donovan as the Cardinals’ biggest trade chip. He’s controllable for two seasons via arbitration and was set for a salary in the $6MM range. Of the players that St. Louis would realistically consider trading (i.e. not Masyn Winn or top prospect JJ Wetherholt), Donovan was the only one who’d fetch a significant prospect haul.
St. Louis focused on the more expensive players first. The field for those veterans was smaller given the money involved and their no-trade protection, so it made sense to prioritize them while teams had more budgetary flexibility. There’d surely be a market for Donovan at any point of the offseason.
Gray was the first one to go. The Cardinals sent the three-time All-Star to the Red Sox just before Thanksgiving. Gray’s heavily backloaded free agent contract essentially meant he was playing on a one-year, $40MM deal ($35MM salary plus a $5MM option buyout to be paid at season’s end). That kind of salary is reserved for aces, while Gray is more of a #2 or high-end #3 starter. The Cards would need to kick in some money.
Ownership signed off on paying down half the contract. They’re sending the Red Sox $20MM as part of the trade, which also involved a minor restructure to Gray’s contract. An additional $5MM was pushed back to year’s end in the buyout, while Gray received an extra $1MM and a guaranteed buyout in exchange for waiving the no-trade clause.
The trade netted the Cardinals a pair of controllable pitchers, which would be a theme of their offseason. Richard Fitts has made 15 MLB appearances over the past two seasons, compiling a near-4.00 ERA with middling strikeout and walk numbers. It’s the statistical profile of a fifth or sixth starter, but Fitts has a 96 mph fastball and a pair of power breaking balls. He’ll start games over the course of the season.
St. Louis also landed a higher-upside arm in the form of A-ball pitching prospect Brandon Clarke. He’s a 6’4″ lefty with upper-90s velocity and massive strikeout rates in the low minors. Clarke’s command will need to improve significantly if he’s to be a high-leverage reliever, much less a starter, but he’s clearly an intriguing arm for the player development department.
One month later, Contreras followed Gray to Fenway. The Red Sox were looking for a power bat and needed to upgrade at first base, making Contreras a logical target once Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber signed elsewhere. The Cardinals again chipped in a little bit of money, though the cash was much more modest than in the Gray trade. St. Louis paid $8MM over two years on the Contreras deal (including an extra $1MM the slugger received for waiving the no-trade clause).
It was a lesser return than the Gray trade but one that followed a similar path: a near-MLB depth starter and a pair of pitching prospects. The former, Hunter Dobbins, is rehabbing a torn ACL and won’t be available on Opening Day. He managed a 4.13 ERA across 13 appearances as a rookie, albeit with a modest 18% strikeout rate. Dobbins hasn’t missed many bats but also has a mid-90s heater and a pair of breaking balls that make him an intriguing swing option. The prospects, Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita, are low minors development fliers who slot into the middle of the farm system.
The eventual Arenado trade was purely about a change of scenery. His declining offensive numbers made him a less appealing target for other teams than Gray or Contreras had been. The Cardinals reportedly had the framework of a trade in place with the Athletics, but the 10-time Gold Glove winner preferred to approve a move to the Diamondbacks.
The Cardinals paid all but $11MM of the remaining $42MM and two years on Arenado’s contract. The only player they received in return, Jack Martinez, is a 2025 eighth-round pick who hasn’t thrown a minor league pitch. Aside from the marginal cash savings, this was about getting younger in the infield.
Nolan Gorman will get what’ll probably be his last shot to cement himself as a key piece of the organization’s future. Gorman slugged 27 homers a couple seasons ago but hasn’t hit over the past two years. He has immense raw power from the left side but figures to rank among the league leaders in strikeouts if he gets a full season of playing time.
At the other infield corner, Alec Burleson will replace Contreras as the primary first baseman. Burleson has played more outfield in his career, but he doesn’t run well and has never covered much ground on the grass. He fits better as a primary first baseman/designated hitter who’ll slot somewhere in the middle of the lineup.
Winn is locked in as the franchise shortstop. Wetherholt’s impending arrival at second base meant this was the right time for the Cardinals to trade Donovan. They’d seemingly not shown much interest in extending the All-Star utilityman. His trade value wasn’t going to get any higher within the next two seasons.
Donovan’s high-contact bat and defensive versatility made him an ideal fit for a number of teams. The Royals, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Red Sox, Astros and Guardians were among the clubs that checked in over the offseason. He’d been a target of the Yankees and Dodgers at the 2025 deadline. Yet this winter’s bidding seemingly came down to the Giants and Mariners.
Seattle ultimately pulled ahead by building a prospect package around 2024 first-rounder Jurrangelo Cijntje. He’s another touted minor league pitcher who adds ceiling to a pipeline that hasn’t graduated enough pitchers with swing-and-miss stuff. Cijntje is most famous for being a switch-pitcher, though his stuff as a righty is much more impressive. Even if he settles in as “only” a right-handed pitcher, he has a chance to be a mid-rotation arm. Cijntje fanned 26% of opponents with an ERA around 4.00 between High-A and Double-A last season. A 2027 debut seems likely.
The Cardinals also landed a former supplemental first-rounder with plus tools but significant whiff concerns in A-ball center fielder Tai Peete. Double-A outfielder Colton Ledbetter came over from the Rays in the three-team deal. He has a lower ceiling but could be a factor by the end of this season if he makes enough contact in Triple-A.
St. Louis also netted two Competitive Balance Round B draft picks — one apiece from the Mariners and Rays — that’ll become a pair of mid-level prospects this summer. Those selections add more than $2.5MM to their draft bonus pool. It sets the Cardinals up well to take an upside swing on a solid high school prospect to whom they can float an overslot bonus in the middle rounds.
The Donovan trade more or less ensures that Wetherholt will begin the season on the Opening Day roster. The seventh overall pick in 2024, Wetherholt is coming off a .306/.421/.510 season between the top two minor league levels. Even though he’s only hitting .240 this spring, he has a pair of home runs and an excellent eight walks against five strikeouts. Wetherholt could be an adequate shortstop but will surely slide to second base in deference to Winn, one of the sport’s premier defensive infielders.
Carrying Wetherholt on the Opening Day roster starts his six-year service clock in a rebuilding year. However, it could set the Cardinals up for another draft choice down the line via the Prospect Promotion Incentive — as soon as 2027 if he wins the NL Rookie of the Year award. If the Cards waited until midseason to call him up, they’d lose the potential for a PPI pick while still running the risk that Wetherholt earns a full year of service with a top two Rookie of the Year finish.
St. Louis added veteran utility player Ramón Urías on a $2MM deal late in the offseason. He plays second and third base and will be a righty-hitting complement to lefty swingers Wetherholt and Gorman. The Cardinals also wanted to add a complementary right-handed bat in the outfield, but that search didn’t bear fruit. Reported targets Austin Hays and Miguel Andujar found better paths to everyday playing time elsewhere (White Sox and Padres, respectively). A multi-year deal for Harrison Bader’s age 32-33 seasons doesn’t really fit the timeline.
Lars Nootbaar is opening the season on the injured list after undergoing surgeries on both heels. That more or less took him off the trade market despite loose ties to teams like the Pirates, Mets and Rangers. The Cardinals control Nootbaar for two seasons in arbitration and didn’t need to force a sell-low trade. They can move him at the deadline or next offseason.
That leaves a wide open opportunity in left field to begin the season. Minor league signee Nelson Velázquez has had an excellent camp to take advantage. He’ll probably make the team as the righty bat in a platoon, likely with lefty-hitting Nathan Church. The Cards have also gotten righty-hitting infielders Thomas Saggese and José Fermín work in the outfield this spring.
Victor Scott II and Jordan Walker will play center and right field, respectively. It’s approaching make-or-break time for Walker, a former top prospect who simply hasn’t performed over two and a half seasons in the big leagues.
Walker is still young, turning 24 in May, but he’s over 1000 plate appearances into his career and has been well below replacement level. The reemergence of former second-round pick Joshua Baez as a legitimate prospect gives the Cardinals a potential right field alternative by 2027. Nootbaar will be traded at some point, so Walker and Baez could coexist on the same roster, but the former is running out of time to continue warranting regular playing time.
They’ll run things back with the same catching group as they had in 2025. It’s technically a three-catcher setup, but they’ve never been keen on Iván Herrera defensively. He’ll be the primary designated hitter/third catcher behind Pedro Pages and Yohel Pozo.
Prospects Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal and (much further off) Rainiel Rodriguez are in the pipeline. This is an area of organizational depth even if Herrera moves off the position entirely. It’s easy to envision them swapping someone for pitching, but they have the luxury of waiting to see how the minor leaguers develop. Pages and Pozo would have modest trade value — the latter was non-tendered and re-signed to a split deal — so Herrera or one of the prospects would have the better chance of netting a significant return.
Strengthening the pitching pipeline was a clear goal. The Cardinals had previously relied on an excellent infield defense to compensate for lacking swing-and-miss arms. They’re moving away from that approach after ranking 23rd in runs allowed and 29th in strikeout rate (ahead of only the Rockies) over the last three seasons.
It’ll take time for that to translate into MLB success. Their only big league rotation move this winter was to sign Dustin May to a one-year, $12.5MM free agent deal. It’s a decent sized bet on a pitcher with his injury history who is coming off a near-5.00 ERA. May has mid-90s velocity and found success early in his career with the Dodgers, but he struggled to get hitters to chase or miss bats last year.
The Cardinals will hope to coax better results that could turn him into a midseason trade chip. He’s also young enough (28) that he could be a candidate for a two- or three-year extension if he’s healthy and pitching well as the deadline approaches. The Cardinals don’t have much in the way of long-term certainty in the rotation.
Matthew Liberatore should probably be in line for his career Opening Day start. May is going to be in the rotation, and it seems safe to pencil reliever convert Kyle Leahy in there as well. Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy and Fitts are vying for the final couple spots. It’s probably a bottom five rotation in MLB right now. They’re awaiting the arrivals of Cijntje, Clarke and last year’s fifth overall pick Liam Doyle — plus a hopeful rebound season from Quinn Mathews — to improve the long-term outlook.
There wasn’t much turnover in the bullpen, where they’ll use a committee approach in the ninth inning after trading Ryan Helsley last summer. The Cardinals opted not to move left-hander JoJo Romero, who is coming off a career-low 2.07 ERA but had a mediocre strikeout and walk profile that seemingly limited trade interest. Romero is an impending free agent and one of the safer bets to be traded midseason, but the Cardinals evidently feel they can do a little better at the deadline than whatever was on the table over the offseason.
St. Louis took a rebound flier on Ryne Stanek on a $3.5MM free agent deal. Stanek is coming off a bad year but has plus-plus velocity and late-game experience that the bullpen was lacking in general. Riley O’Brien will work in leverage spots and could close games after a solid ’25 campaign.
The Cards sent cash to the Guardians to add lefty Justin Bruihl to the middle innings. They flipped Andre Granillo for righty George Soriano, who is out of options and has presumably nailed down a roster spot by striking out seven over five scoreless innings this spring. Soriano rode the DFA carousel all winter but never made it as far as the Cardinals (who ranked middle of the pack in waiver priority after a 78-84 season). After multiple unsuccessful efforts to claim him, they jumped the line with a trade. Matt Pushard, a Rule 5 pick out of the Miami system, is also vying for a middle relief job.
St. Louis rounded out the offseason with an extension for their fifth-year skipper. Despite the front office change, they evidently believe Oli Marmol is well positioned to oversee the rebuild. Bloom preemptively shut down any speculation about a managerial change early in the offseason. Marmol is entering the final year of his previous deal and signed an extension running through 2028.
They’re new times in St. Louis. Most of the previous core is either gone or likely to be traded within a year. At the same time, a nucleus of Winn, Herrera, and Wetherholt means they’re unlikely to bottom out the way teams like the Rockies or White Sox have. There’s a path back to contention within two or three seasons — one that’ll largely be determined by how well they develop the pitchers who are now the focal point of the rebuild.
How would you grade the Cardinals' offseason?