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Sean Newcomb Receiving Interest As Starting Pitcher

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Free agent left-hander Sean Newcomb has gotten attention from teams both as a starter and reliever, write Will Sammon, Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The 32-year-old began the season in the Red Sox’s rotation but moved to relief after five starts.

Newcomb is coming off his best season in at least six years. A former first-round pick who held a rotation spot with the Braves between 2017-18, Newcomb moved primarily to the bullpen in 2019. He pitched well that year but struggled with both injuries and a lack of command over the next few seasons. He combined for 98 2/3 MLB innings between 2020-24 and took a minor league contract with Boston last winter.

The Massachusetts native surprisingly nabbed the fifth starter spot out of camp. He only once completed five innings and allowed four-plus runs in three out of five outings. The Sox moved him to a long relief role when Lucas Giolito returned from a hamstring injury in late April. Newcomb was solid out of the bullpen but was nevertheless pushed off the roster. The Sox traded him to the Athletics, for whom he’d logged some time as a depth reliever in 2023-24.

Newcomb turned into an unexpectedly important bullpen piece for Mark Kotsay. He fired 51 1/3 frames of 1.75 ERA ball while working 1-2 innings at a time. Newcomb punched out a quarter of opponents against a career-best 7% walk rate. He worked in the 93-94 MPH range with both his four-seam fastball and sinker while using a low-80s curveball as his best secondary pitch. Newcomb dabbled with a cutter and changeup against right-handed batters, but the fastball/curve combination was where he found most of his success.

The 6’5″ southpaw pitched particularly well down the stretch, turning in a 0.96 ERA over 28 innings after the All-Star Break. His season ended a couple weeks early because of elbow inflammation, but there’s no indication that’ll be an issue going into next season. Durability has generally been a concern, albeit mostly with lower half injuries. Newcomb missed time with a sprained ankle in 2022 and battled knee problems over the following two seasons.

Newcomb’s strong year was enough to land a big league contract this time around. A one-year deal seems likely, though it’s not out of the question he commands a modest two-year guarantee. Sixth starters and swing types like Griffin Canning, Joe Ross, Jakob Junis, Colin Rea and Michael Lorenzen landed contracts between $4-7MM last winter. Newcomb’s former teammate Michael Soroka pulled a $9MM deal from the Nationals at the higher end of that range, though he’s five years younger and had shown more strikeout potential in the bullpen.

Astros Hire Ethan Katz As Assistant Pitching Coach

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The Astros finalized their 2026 coaching staff. Ethan Katz has been hired as an assistant pitching coach, which was first reported by Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Houston also hired Tim Cossins as catching coach, a move that Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reported last week.

The rest of Joe Espada’s staff had been previously reported. Victor Rodriguez comes over from the Padres as hitting coach, with Anthony Iapoce tabbed as his assistant. Dan Hennigan has officially been hired as director of hitting/offensive coordinator, which GM Dana Brown announced alongside the Iapoce hiring.

Josh Miller will be the team’s sole lead pitching coach after jointly holding that role with Bill Murphy for the past three seasons. Murphy left to take the same job with the Pirates last month. Bench coach Omar Lopez, base coaches Dave Clark (first) and Tony Perezchica (third), quality assurance coach Jason Bell, and game planning coach Tommy Kawamura are back in their previous positions.

Katz, 42, heads to Houston after five seasons as the top pitching coach with the White Sox. He’d previously worked in the minors with the Angels and Mariners and spent one year as an assistant pitching coach with the Giants. Chicago got excellent seasons from Dylan Cease and Lucas Giolito early in Katz’s tenure. They’ve predictably gone downhill since kicking off a rebuild in 2022. Only the Angels, Athletics, Nationals and Rockies have a higher ERA than the White Sox’s 4.61 mark over the past three seasons.

The Sox parted ways with Katz at the end of the ’25 campaign. Second-year manager Will Venable tabbed Royals assistant Zach Bove as their new pitching coach. Cossins, who’ll work with Yainer Diaz and quite likely an outside acquisition behind the plate, has spent the past seven seasons with the Orioles as catching instructor/field coordinator. He was dismissed in May 2025 when the Orioles fired manager Brandon Hyde.

The Best Fits For Bo Bichette

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Each offseason at MLBTR, we take a look at the potential markets for some of the top names in free agency. Steve Adams examined which clubs should be in the running for #1 free agent Kyle Tucker earlier this week.

We now move to the consensus #2 hitter in the class, Bo Bichette. The two-time All-Star is coming off a .311/.357/.483 showing with 18 homers across 628 regular season plate appearances. A sprained left knee ended his regular season and cost him the first few rounds of the playoffs. Bichette made it back for the World Series. Despite clearly being limited and having gone a month without the benefit of live at-bats, he came back to hit .348 in the Fall Classic. His towering three-run homer off Shohei Ohtani in Game 7 would have gone down as one of the biggest moments in Toronto sports history if not for the Dodgers' ninth-inning comeback.

Bichette is one of the younger free agents in the class. He'll turn 28 a few weeks before Opening Day. He's a middle infielder who has been a well above-average hitter in all but one season of his career. The lone exception (2024) was a year in which he had three stints on the injured list. He has otherwise posted an OPS above .800 in every season and owns a lifetime .294/.337/.469 slash line. He has twice led the American League in hits and would have done so again this year if not for the knee injury.

The lingering question is how long Bichette can stick at shortstop. He's a below-average runner with middling arm strength who rates as one of the weakest defensive shortstops in MLB. The glove was an issue even before the knee sprain, which could increase some teams' concerns about his lateral quickness even if it's expected to heal without surgery.

The Blue Jays used him at second base in the World Series to limit his defensive workload. Most or all 30 clubs would project him as a second baseman by the end of a long-term deal. There are some for whom he'd only fit as a second baseman already. Bichette hasn't tipped his hand publicly about whether he'd be open to a position change, but that'd create more opportunities that would drum up interest.

Bichette rejected a qualifying offer. A signing team would give up draft compensation and/or international signing bonus space to add him. That's not much of a factor for a free agent of this caliber. MLBTR predicted Bichette to command an eight-year, $208MM contract -- joining Tucker as the only players for whom we're predicting $200MM+ this winter.

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Mets Sign Robert Stock, Nick Burdi To Minor League Deals

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The Mets have agreed to minor league contracts with pitchers Robert Stock, Nick Burdi and Anderson Severino and with outfielder Jose Ramos, according to SNY. Mike Rodriguez reported the Severino agreement a couple weeks ago, while Burdi’s deal first appeared on the MLB.com transaction log. Stock has confirmed his signing on social media. All four players receive invitations to big league camp.

Burdi and Stock each spent the 2025 season in the Red Sox organization. They both got brief looks in Alex Cora’s bullpen. Burdi tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts and a pair of walks over four appearances. The 32-year-old has good stuff but has never been able to stay healthy. He missed a couple months with a foot injury this year and has previously had thoracic outlet syndrome, two Tommy John surgeries, appendicitis, and hip issues. Burdi has a career 3.05 ERA with a 31.3% strikeout rate in 76 2/3 Triple-A innings. He has pitched in parts of six MLB campaigns but has yet to reach even 10 big league innings in a season because of the injuries.

Stock, 36, made two appearances for the Sox this year. He walked four batters and gave up three runs over 2 2/3 innings. Stock has worked as a reliever in MLB but started 15 of 19 outings at Triple-A Worcester. He tossed 85 innings with a 3.92 ERA while punching out an above-average 26.2% of batters faced. Stock hasn’t found much MLB success since turning in a 2.50 ERA over 32 appearances as a rookie with the 2018 Padres. He still sits in the mid-90s with his fastball and has intrigued various teams as a depth signing. Stock previously spent time in the Mets’ system, starting four Triple-A games for the organization in 2021.

Severino is a 31-year-old lefty reliever who pitched six times for the White Sox in 2022. He has spent the past two seasons pitching in the Mexican League. Severino has tossed eight innings of two-run ball with 11 punchouts in the Dominican Winter League to get back to affiliated ball. Ramos, 25 in January, has never played in the majors. He spent seven seasons in the Dodgers’ system and combined for a .251/.326/.456 batting line between their top two minor league affiliates in 2025. The right-handed hitter changes organizations for the first time as a minor league free agent.

Kenta Maeda Signs With NPB’s Rakuten Eagles

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The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced they’ve signed Kenta Maeda. The 37-year-old righty said in August that he planned to return to his home country next year. A report from Japan’s Sankei Sports indicates he signed a two-year contract.

This will all but officially close the book on Maeda’s career in the major leagues. He pitched in nine MLB seasons, turning in a 4.20 earned run average while coming up a little shy of 1000 innings pitched. Maeda spent the first four seasons of his career with the Dodgers after signing an eight-year deal to join Los Angeles over the 2015-16 offseason. His rookie year was his best in Dodger blue, as he won 16 games and turned in a 3.48 ERA over a career-high 175 2/3 frames. Maeda struggled in the postseason that year but rebounded with 10 2/3 innings of one-run ball in October 2017 to help the Dodgers to a pennant.

L.A. shipped Maeda to Minnesota for Brusdar Graterol and Luke Raley over the 2019-20 offseason. Maeda’s first season in Minnesota was shortened by the truncated schedule but arguably the best of his career. He turned in a 2.70 ERA while averaging more than six innings per appearance over 11 starts, earning a runner-up finish behind Shane Bieber in AL Cy Young voting. Maeda remained in the Twin Cities for another three seasons, though he missed the 2022 campaign rehabbing Tommy John surgery.

The Tigers signed him to a two-year, $24MM free agent deal going into 2024. While it was a sensible bet on Maeda’s strong strikeout and walk profile, his diminishing stuff led to significant home run issues. Maeda was hit hard to the tune of a 6.09 ERA in 2024. He didn’t find any better results early in the ’25 campaign while pitching out of the bullpen, leading the Tigers to release him in early May. That wound up marking the end of his MLB career. Maeda pitched in Triple-A with the Cubs and Yankees, posting a 5.40 ERA across 20 starts through the end of the year.

Maeda returns to Japan, where he starred for the Hiroshima Carp for eight seasons before making the move to MLB. He owns a 2.39 ERA in a little more than 1500 career NPB innings. He’ll be teammates with former big leaguers Luke Voit and Roansy Contreras, each of whom have already signed with the Eagles for the 2026 season.

A’s, Wander Suero Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Athletics reached agreement with veteran reliever Wander Suero on a minor league contract, per the MLB.com transaction log. He’ll presumably get a non-roster invite to big league Spring Training.

Suero, 34, pitched in five MLB games with the Braves this past season. He also had a pair of stints on the Mets active roster late in the year but never made it into a game. Suero was hit hard in his limited look with Atlanta, allowing eight runs across 6 1/3 innings. He had a much better showing in Triple-A between the two organizations, combining for 48 2/3 frames of 1.29 ERA ball. Suero struck out 32.5% of opponents against a 6.6% walk rate in that excellent year against minor league hitters.

A solid middle reliever earlier in his career, Suero won a World Series with the 2019 Nationals. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA in two of his first three seasons in Washington but has been in journeyman territory for a few years. Suero has gotten to the big leagues in each of the past three seasons, totaling a cumulative 11 appearances between the Dodgers, Astros and Braves. He has never had huge velocity, instead relying on a 92-93 MPH cutter as his primary pitch.

The A’s have added a few relievers on non-roster deals within the first couple weeks of the offseason. Suero joins Nick Anderson, Geoff Hartlieb, Matt Krook and Ben Bowden as minor league acquisitions. The A’s don’t have a single reliever on the 40-man roster with even two years of MLB service. They’re likely to add one or two MLB relievers this offseason and are clearly trying to stockpile non-roster depth in a hitter-friendly setting at Triple-A Las Vegas.

Red Sox Expected To Prioritize Offense After Gray Trade

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The Red Sox made their needed addition to the upper half of the rotation with this morning’s Sonny Gray trade. The veteran righty slots between Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello in an impressive top three. The Sox have a handful of talented younger arms (e.g. Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Kyle Harrison, Tyler Uberstine) who can compete with injury returnees Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval at the back of the rotation.

That appears to free up the Sox to focus their attention on adding an impact hitter. Chris Cotillo of MassLive and Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic each write that while further starting pitching adds are possible, the Red Sox are now likely to prioritize bringing in a power bat. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow left the door open to making another significant rotation move but reiterated the Sox’s interest in bolstering the lineup.

“We had been pretty transparent about our desire to add to the rotation and our desire to add a bat on the position player side,” Breslow told reporters this evening. “It’s impossible to know exactly what the order of operations will be. So we’ll continue to look for opportunities to improve the team, but I wouldn’t say we’re going to exclusively focus on one thing at the expense of the other. … And so I don’t think this is a close off all opportunities and look exclusively at position players, but I also think that there’s a chance that that comes into focus now over the next couple of weeks.”

The Sox aren’t expected to be players for Kyle Tucker given their stockpile of left-handed hitting outfielders. They’ve been either directly tied to or listed as speculative fits for essentially all the other top free agent bats. Bo Bichette, Pete Alonso, Munetaka Murakami and Kyle Schwarber are all possibilities, as is a reunion with Alex Bregman.

Boston has just over $154MM in guaranteed commitments for next season. Arbitration salaries for Crawford, Tanner Houck, Triston Casas and Romy Gonzalez should add another $10-12MM. They’d spend another $10MM or so to round out the roster with minimum salary players. The Sox opened the 2025 campaign with a payroll in the $194MM range, so they should have around $20MM before matching this year’s spending level. They’re around $223MM in luxury tax obligations, according to RosterResource. That puts them approximately $21MM below the base threshold. The Red Sox typically spend around the CBT line and have gone beyond it in the past, so there should be room for another significant addition.

The corner infield is the obvious place to add a bat. Casas is coming off a significant knee injury and shouldn’t enter camp as the clear starting first baseman. Marcelo Mayer could play third base if the Red Sox don’t re-sign Bregman or add one of Murakami or Eugenio Suárez at the hot corner. The Sox could slide Mayer over to second if they make a bigger acquisition at third.

Cubs Among Various Teams With Interest In Ryan Helsley

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The Cubs are among the teams with interest in Ryan Helsley, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Chicago joins the Tigers as known suitors, but it seems Helsley has heard from half the league. The Athletic’s Katie Woo writes that around 15 clubs have been in contact with the righty’s camp to express interest.

Detroit has pursued Helsley as a starting pitcher. That’s a surprise even in a league that has become more willing to gamble on reliever to starter conversions over the past couple years. Helsley has never started a game in the majors and has not been a full-time starting pitcher since the 2018 season divided between Double-A and Triple-A. It doesn’t seem that Helsley is demanding a rotation role. The 31-year-old told Woo that while he’s open to starting, he’s quite comfortable pitching at the end of games.

“I missed starting probably the first half of my career, but once I really started closing, I didn’t think about it as much,” Helsley said. “Learning a new pitch would be something I could pick up, obviously, but it’d be a learning curve throughout this first year to figure out how to be a major league starting pitcher.” Helsley said he “(knows what he’s) capable of as a reliever,” even as he expressed confidence that he could be a starter.

As he pointed out, he’d certainly need to expand his repertoire to start. Helsley has been almost exclusively fastball-slider against hitters of either handedness. He sporadically mixes in a curveball but has never thrown a changeup or cutter with regularity. He’d probably need to add one of those offerings to keep left-handed hitters off balance. Helsley has done a good job against lefties over the course of his career, but that’d be a lot more challenging if needs to navigate a lineup multiple times with lesser stuff than he can throw when he’s only working one inning.

The quality of the stuff is a big selling point for Helsley, who hit free agency coming off one of the worst stretches of his career. Opposing hitters tattooed him for a 7.20 earned run average while batting .301/.379/.554 in 95 plate appearances after a deadline trade from St. Louis to the Mets. The raw stuff was as impressive as ever. Helsley’s fastball sat in the 99-100 MPH range and his upper-80s slider remained an excellent pitch. The heater played well below its velocity, though, as opponents turned it around for four home runs and five doubles in the final two months of the season.

Helsley said he has identified a pitch-tipping issue with his hand positioning that explains why hitters were so comfortable against him down the stretch. Based on the seemingly robust interest, it appears teams agree he can at least get back to being an All-Star caliber reliever (if not expanding his role). From the start of 2022 through the time of the trade, Helsley pitched to a 2.03 ERA while striking out 32.9% of batters faced in 203 2/3 innings. He’s seventh in MLB with 103 saves over the past four seasons — despite not collecting any saves for a Mets team that already had Edwin Díaz in the ninth inning.

Mooney doesn’t specify whether the Cubs’ interest in Helsley is as a starter or in relief. The Cubs need help in both areas, though they’ve already brought in his former St. Louis teammate Phil Maton on a two-year deal. It’d make more sense for Chicago to pursue Helsley as a reliever and aim for an established rotation upgrade. Shota Imanaga is back after accepting a qualifying offer. He slots behind Cade Horton and alongside Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and eventually Justin Steele in the rotation. Colin Rea and Javier Assad are in the mix at the back of the rotation or long relief. The Cubs need another starter, but they should be after someone who can pitch alongside Horton in the upper half of the rotation.

MLBTR predicted Helsley to receive a two-year, $24MM contract. Woo writes that he has discussed multi-year arrangements with more than one team, so it seems he’s on track to at least command two years.

Rangers, Jonah Bride Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers are in agreement with infielder Jonah Bride on a minor league contract, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Paragon Sports International client will be in MLB Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.

Bride reunites with Texas manager Skip Schumaker. Bride had his best season with Schumaker’s Marlins in 2024, when he connected on 11 homers with a .276/.357/.461 batting line. That earned him the Opening Day designated hitter job going into this year. Bride didn’t stick on the roster for long, as he batted .100 without an extra-base hit over his first 12 games and was designated for assignment. Miami flipped him to the Twins for cash a few days later.

The 29-year-old didn’t find any more success in Minnesota. Bride hit .208/.275/.236 in 80 trips to the plate, leading to a second DFA on the year. He went unclaimed on waivers that time around and spent the rest of the season with Triple-A St. Paul. Bride hit well against minor league pitching, batting .281/.423/.453 with an equal number of walks and strikeouts in 43 games. A retooling Minnesota team never had much reason to give him another look, though, and he played out the season in the minors.

Bride is a righty bat who plays mostly on the corner infield. The majority of his experience has come at third base, though he has a decent amount of reps at both positions on the right side. He doesn’t have plus power but has a generally patient plate approach that has led to an impressive .294/.430/.498 slash over four Triple-A seasons. His major league track record (.221/.311/.313 in nearly 700 plate appearances) is limited, but he’s a capable depth piece.

Texas has questions at both corner infield spots with Josh Jung and Jake Burger coming off disappointing seasons that could make them trade candidates. Bride isn’t going be a regular but would have a better chance of nabbing a job as a bench bat if one or both of those players — each of whom also hits from the right side — are dealt this winter.

Josh Hader “Back To Normal” After Season-Ending Shoulder Injury

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The Astros played the final two months of the 2025 season without their star closer. Josh Hader suffered an ill-timed capsule sprain in his throwing shoulder a couple weeks into August. The injury came too late into the season for the front office to respond with an impact trade addition. Hader expressed hope that he could make a long shot return in the playoffs, but the Astros struggled down the stretch and found themselves on the outside looking in during the final weekend.

For many players, a capsule injury requires surgery and a potential year-plus absence. The Astros have maintained they expect Hader to be able to return without going under the knife. General manager Dana Brown said at the GM Meetings that the team was hopeful the six-time All-Star would be ready for Opening Day.

Hader offered similar sentiments this evening, saying he’s in a good spot after completing a throwing program a few weeks ago. “It should be normal. Obviously, intensity gets up (in Spring Training) and we’ll see how that goes and how I’m recovering, bouncing back from that,” the veteran lefty said (link via Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle). “But as of now, everything is status quo, back to normal.”

Before the injury, Hader was amidst yet another excellent season. He carried a 2.05 ERA while striking out 37% of opponents across 52 2/3 innings. Hader locked down 28 of 29 save chances and was well on his way to what would have been his sixth straight full season with at least 30 saves. It was a strong rebound effort from a little less consistent first season in Houston. Hader posted a 3.80 ERA, the second-highest mark of his career, across 71 appearances in 2024.

Hader worked more than one inning in seven appearances this year. He completed two full frames four times, including in what wound up being his last outing of the season on August 8. Hader tossed a season-high 36 pitches in that appearance. That could certainly be coincidental — he twice threw 35 pitches in a game earlier in the year and didn’t get hurt — but the timing at least raises some questions about his workload. Hader didn’t throw more than one inning in any regular season game between 2021-23, seemingly out of concern about suffering an injury before he’d locked in a significant free agent contract.

Once the Astros signed him to a five-year, $95MM deal, Hader reversed course. He said tonight he remains open to pitching multiple innings despite the shoulder issue, though he added he hasn’t heard anything from the team regarding their usage plans. “For sure. They committed to me to be here for multiple years and gave me the opportunity to pitch. That’s all I can ever ask for. And my commitment to them is committing to be there and be available as much as possible,” Hader replied when asked about working more than one inning.

The Astros were forced to press Bryan Abreu into the closer role for the final six weeks of the season. Abreu had a rough patch between August 30 and September 9 when he allowed multiple runs in three out of four games. He was otherwise flawless, tossing scoreless appearances in his remaining 14 outings while securing seven saves. Abreu is one of the best setup arms in MLB and could certainly close if necessary, but the Astros felt the effects of losing Hader on the overall bullpen. Kaleb Ort and Enyel De Los Santos were their top right-handers to handle leverage spots that arose earlier in games. That’s not sufficient for a playoff hopeful.

It doesn’t seem Houston will know if they’re out of the woods with Hader’s shoulder until he fully builds up in March. The early returns are encouraging, though, which is pivotal for a team that’ll again face questions about the bullpen depth. The front office appears to be working under relatively tight payroll constraints from ownership and also needs to solidify the middle of the rotation while ideally adding a left-handed bat.

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