Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

White Sox Sign Andre Lipcius To Minor League Deal

By | at

The White Sox informed reporters (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times) that they’ve inked infielder Andre Lipcius to a minor league contract. He’ll get a non-roster invitation to MLB Spring Training.

Lipcius returns to the AL Central, where he’s spent the majority of his career. The Tigers selected him in the third round of the 2019 draft. The Tennessee product reached the majors with Detroit at the end of the ’23 campaign. He hit .286/.342/.400 in a 13-game sample. The Tigers squeezed him off the 40-man roster last winter. They traded him to the Dodgers, who outrighted him just before Opening Day.

The righty-hitting Lipcius spent the entire season with the Dodgers’ top affiliate in Oklahoma City. He had a solid season, hitting 25 homers with a .271/.351/.458 slash while appearing in 140 games. He drew walks at a strong 10.7% clip while striking out at a league average 22.8% rate. The Dodgers never called him up, so he elected minor league free agency at the end of the season.

While Lipcius has limited MLB experience, he’s a sensible depth target for the White Sox. He carries a .276/.360/.444 slash line in more than 1200 Triple-A plate appearances. Lipcius doesn’t make a ton of hard contact — this year’s home run tally was certainly aided by playing in the Pacific Coast League — but he has good strike zone discipline. A third baseman in college and for most of his time in the Detroit system, he played mostly first base with OKC. He has some experience at second base as well.

The Sox tendered Andrew Vaughn an arbitration contract, meaning he’s likely to remain the starting first baseman. Miguel Vargas is the projected third baseman, though he didn’t hit at all after coming over from the Dodgers in the Michael Kopech/Erick Fedde deadline deal. Glove-first utilityman Lenyn Sosa might get first look at the keystone. There’s a clear opportunity for Lipcius to hit his way into the mix during Spring Training.

Latest Developments In Rays’ Stadium Situation

By | at

On Tuesday evening, the Pinellas County Commission voted by a 5-2 margin to approve roughly $312.5MM in public funding for the proposed $1.3 billion project to construct a long-term stadium for the Rays. However, the tension between the organization and county officials is far from resolved. Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times and Kate Payne/Curt Anderson of The Associated Press were among those who covered the news.

The Rays did not attend the meeting. Team president Matt Silverman released a statement after the vote that read:

“It was unsurprising to see the Commissioners acknowledge how important the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium development agreement are to this community and its citizens. As we have made clear, the County’s delay has caused the ballpark’s completion to slide into 2029. As a result, the cost of the project has increased significantly, and we cannot absorb this increase alone. When the County and City wish to engage, we remain ready to solve this funding gap together.”

The dispute stems from the county’s decision to delay previous votes on the stadium bonds, which were initially scheduled for October 29. At the time, the county was in the immediate aftermath of the consecutive hurricanes which devastated the area. The storms ripped the roof from Tropicana Field, necessitating significant repairs to the Rays’ current home. Between the storm damage and a changed council membership after November’s elections, the county decided to postpone the vote on multiple occasions.

Last month, the Rays released a statement criticizing the delays. According to the organization, the postponements made it unfeasible to have the park constructed for the 2028 season. The team wrote that constructing a stadium for ’29 “would result in significantly higher costs,” which the team does not want to fully absorb. The stadium deal had been agreed upon between the county and the Rays in July, with the bonds expected to be rubber stamped at October’s vote. The July deal left the responsibility for all cost overruns on the Rays.

While the team has not publicly stated how much more expensive it believes construction will be, one county official said (via Wright) that the team has privately put that number around $200MM. County officials have expressed skepticism about that sum, arguing that a delay of less than two months could not cause such significant expenditures.

In any case, the ball is back in the Rays’ court. The Tampa Bay Times writes that the Rays have the ability to withdraw from the deal via a termination letter. The organization must meet various benchmarks by March 31, 2025, or the deal will automatically become void. The Rays seem likely to push for more negotiations to try to unlock additional public funding in the coming months. County commissioners and St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch have stated they’re not willing to commit more public money beyond what was approved on Tuesday, according to The Tampa Bay Times.

Brewers Hire Julio Borbon As First Base Coach

By | at

The Brewers announced their 2025 coaching staff on Tuesday morning. Milwaukee hired former MLB outfielder Julio Borbón as first base coach.

Borbón takes over the position from Quintin Berry, who departed to take the third base coaching job with the Cubs in October. Like Berry, the 38-year-old Borbón was best known for his speed during his playing days. He stole 47 bases over 294 games in a big league career that spanned parts of five seasons. Most of that time came with the Rangers between 2009-11. Borbón made brief appearances with the Cubs and Orioles in later years.

After retiring as a player in 2019, Borbón jumped into coaching in the Yankees’ system. He had a brief managerial run with New York’s rookie ball affiliate before moving into a player development capacity with the Twins in 2022. Borbón spent three seasons with Minnesota and now gets his first job on an MLB coaching staff.

The rest of Pat Murphy’s second staff in Milwaukee is as follows: associate manager Rickie Weeks, lead hitting coach Al LeBoeuf, hitting coaches Eric Theisen and Connor Dawson, pitching coach Chris Hook, assistant pitching/strategy coach Jim Henderson, bullpen coach Charlie Greene, third base coach Jason Lane, field coordinator Néstor Corredor, assistant coach Daniel De Mondesert, and infield coach Matt Erickson.

Adam McCalvy of MLB.com notes that the “strategy coach” element of Henderson’s title is a new development. The former closer has been on staff as an assistant pitching coach for three seasons. He’ll take on a bit more responsibility in game planning after run prevention coordinator Walker McKiven left to become Will Venable’s bench coach with the White Sox.

Blue Jays Have Shown Interest In Nick Pivetta

By | at

The Blue Jays are involved in the market for Nick Pivetta, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. They’re one of a handful of teams that has been linked to the 6’5″ righty. The Reds, Mets and incumbent Red Sox have also been linked to Pivetta this offseason.

Pivetta, who is a native of British Columbia, is one of the better unsigned starting pitchers. He’s one of three pitchers — alongside Corbin Burnes and Sean Manaea — who remain free agents after declining the qualifying offer. There was some surprise that the Red Sox risked the $21.05MM QO, but that proved a prescient decision in what has been a bullish market for starting pitching.

The 31-year-old (32 in February) has been an innings eater in the middle of the Boston rotation for the past few seasons. Pivetta struggled early in the 2023 campaign and was briefly demoted to the bullpen, but he excelled late in the year to earn his way back to the starting five. He took the ball 27 times this past season, working to a 4.14 ERA across 145 2/3 innings. Pivetta missed some time early in the year with a flexor strain. That was the first non-virus injured list stint of his MLB career, though, and he returned without issue by the middle of May.

Pivetta has never posted a sub-4.00 ERA season. His run prevention has landed in the low 4.00s in consecutive seasons, and he carries a 4.09 mark in 288 1/3 frames since the start of 2023. Pivetta’s strikeout and walk rates have always been more intriguing than the ERA might suggest. He has punched out 30% of opponents with a solid 7.3% walk percentage over the past two seasons. The swing-and-miss ability has been somewhat undercut by Pivetta’s longstanding issue keeping the ball in the park. He has allowed a higher than average home run rate in all seven seasons of his MLB career.

There’s value in the durability and solid run prevention marks that Pivetta has provided the Red Sox. Some teams could still view him as a potential #2 or high-end #3 starter based on the stuff and swing-and-miss ability, feeling they can make some tweaks to help him more effectively stay off barrels. Speculatively speaking, his camp could look to beat the three years and $67MM which Luis Severino recently secured from the Athletics.

The Jays have shown some level of interest in virtually every free agent of note. They’ve yet to pull off an especially significant free agent move. Their only signing is a two-year, $15MM deal to bring back reliever Yimi García. Toronto took on the final five years and $97.5MM on Andrés Giménez’s contract via trade with the Guardians at the Winter Meetings. That’s a significant expenditure, but the front office surely continues to juggle multiple free agent pursuits.

Toronto is among the three teams (alongside Boston and San Francisco) most frequently mentioned as landing spots for Burnes. They’re certainly not going to bring in Burnes and Pivetta, so the latter is potentially a fallback target who’d allow them to devote more money into one or two lineup upgrades. The Jays have looked for a starter to join Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Bowden Francis in the Opening Day rotation. That’d allow them to use Yariel Rodríguez in relief, indirectly upgrading a bullpen that remains a huge weakness despite the García pickup.

The Blue Jays are believed to have cut their payroll narrowly below the luxury tax threshold at the end of the ’24 season. That reduces the penalty they’d pay to sign Pivetta or any other free agent who rejected the QO. Toronto would forfeit its second-highest pick of the 2025 draft plus $500K from the ’26 bonus allotment for international amateur players.

Royals, Taylor Clarke Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Royals agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Taylor Clarke last week, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The 31-year-old returns to the organization after spending one season in the Milwaukee system. He’s represented by the Ballengee Group.

Clarke, a former Diamondbacks draftee, pitched with Kansas City in 2022 and ’23. The former was the best season of his career. Clarke turned in a 4.04 earned run average with stellar command across 49 relief innings. He struggled in his follow-up campaign, allowing nearly six earned runs per nine over 59 frames. The Royals dealt him to the Brewers last offseason for a pair of minor leaguers. Clarke suffered a meniscus injury in his right knee during Spring Training.

That required surgery, leading Clarke to begin the season on the minor league injured list. He struggled in Triple-A upon his return and lost his spot on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster in July. Clarke spent the entire season with their top affiliate in Nashville before qualifying for minor league free agency.

The Brewers used Clarke mostly out of the rotation in the minors. He started 15 of 22 outings, tallying 68 frames of 4.90 ERA ball. He’d pitched exclusively as a reliever or opener over his two seasons in Kansas City (and in his final year in Arizona). The Royals have more need for bullpen depth than they do for a starter, so they’re presumably targeting Clarke as a candidate for middle innings work.

Clarke has strong command and posted roughly average strikeout rates over his two seasons in K.C. He sat in the 95-96 MPH range with his heater in short stints. That dropped to around 93-94 in Triple-A this year, which is to be expected since he was working deeper into games. Clarke has struggled with the home run ball throughout his five MLB seasons, the biggest reason his career ERA sits narrowly above 5.00.

White Sox Acquire Matt Thaiss From Cubs

By | at

The Chicago teams have lined up on a minor trade. The White Sox acquired catcher Matt Thaiss from the Cubs for cash, the teams announced. The Sox had an opening on the 40-man roster, so there was no corresponding move.

Thaiss was only an offseason acquisition for the Cubs. They landed him from the Angels in a cash trade last month. He had a path to backup job behind Miguel Amaya at the time. That’s no longer on the table. Chicago signed Carson Kelly to a two-year free agent deal last week. Amaya and Kelly will split the catching reps at Wrigley Field.

Kelly’s signing made a Thaiss move all but inevitable. He’s out of options, so the Cubs couldn’t send him to the minors without putting him on waivers. Teams rarely carry three catchers on the active roster for an entire season. The Cubs could have carried Thaiss into Spring Training as injury insurance, but they’d likely have been squeezed into a roster move if their top two catchers were healthy on Opening Day.

Trading Thaiss now gives him some clarity and opens a spot on the Cubs’ 40-man roster, which had been at capacity. Thaiss has a decent chance at breaking camp on the South Side. Korey Lee had a .210/.244/.347 showing in a career-high 394 plate appearances this past season. Chuckie Robinson, who has 51 MLB appearances and turned 30 this week, was the only other catcher on the 40-man roster.

The Sox have a pair of highly-regarded catching prospects, Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero, who aren’t far off major league readiness. They were each the headliners of recent trades. Teel led a four-prospect return from the Red Sox in last week’s Garrett Crochet deal, while Quero was the big piece in the 2023 deadline deal that sent Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López to the Halos. Both players should make their big league debuts next season, though they might each open the season at Triple-A Charlotte.

Thaiss, a left-handed hitter, brings more on-base ability than Lee provides. He’s a career .208/.313/.342 hitter who posted a .204/.323/.299 slash across 186 plate appearances with the Angels this year. Thaiss takes plenty of pitches, which allows him to work a lot of walks but contributes to lofty strikeout rates. He has never graded as a particularly strong defender, which led the Angels to move him from catcher to first base early in his minor league career. He moved back behind the dish in 2022 but grades as a below-average pitch framer with subpar arm strength.

Diamondbacks, Ildemaro Vargas Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The D-Backs are in agreement with infielder Ildemaro Vargas on a minor league contract, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The 33-year-old will get an invite to MLB camp.

Vargas has spent the last two and a half seasons in Washington. The switch-hitting utilityman has played in a bit more than half of the Nationals’ games since the start of the 2023 campaign. Vargas puts the ball in play but rarely walks and has very little power. He hit .257/.302/.354 across 785 plate appearances with the Nats. Washington outrighted him off their 40-man roster at the end of the season, essentially non-tendering him in lieu of a $1.8MM arbitration projection.

Before this recent run in Washington, Vargas had spent the majority of his career with the Diamondbacks. He debuted with Arizona in 2017 and remained with the organization into 2020. Arizona traded him to the Twins during the shortened season but brought him back in a minor trade with the Pirates the following year. That ended up being a brief stint, as Arizona waived him at the start of the 2021-22 offseason.

Vargas has evidently made a positive impression on team brass. They’ll bring him back for a third stint in a non-roster capacity. Arizona has a decent amount of infield depth. Blaze Alexander and Tim Tawa are on hand as potential utility options behind the presumptive starting infield of Pavin Smith, Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo and Eugenio Suárez. Top prospect Jordan Lawlar will probably open the season in Triple-A but could get his first extended MLB look next season. Vargas is stretched at shortstop but grades as a capable defender at both second and third base.

Tigers Outright Akil Baddoo

By | at

The Tigers announced that outfielder Akil Baddoo has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Toledo. Detroit designated him for assignment last week as the corresponding move for the Alex Cobb signing.

Baddoo was a Rule 5 success story in 2021, when he hit .259/.330/.436 with 13 homers across 461 plate appearances in his debut season. The lefty-swinging outfielder hasn’t maintained that form over the last three seasons. Baddoo struggled to a .212/.302/.331 slash in 178 games between 2022-23. The Tigers kept him on optional assignment for most of the ’24 season. Baddoo only played in 37 MLB games, hitting .137/.220/.301 while striking out in 27 of his 82 plate appearances (32.9% rate).

Strikeouts were also an issue in Triple-A. Baddoo fanned at an elevated 26.5% clip across 377 trips to the plate with Toledo this year. He walked at a strong 12.7% rate to post a respectable .340 on-base mark, but it was a roughly league average offensive showing in the International League. It was moderately surprising that the Tigers tendered him an arbitration contract with a $1.6MM projected salary.

Baddoo will stick in the organization and should receive a non-roster invitation to MLB Spring Training. He’ll likely begin the season in Toledo and try to hit his way back into the outfield mix alongside Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows, and Matt Vierling.

Trey Cabbage To Sign With NPB’s Yomiuri Giants

By | at

Dec. 17: Cabbage will sign with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Dec. 16: The Pirates released first baseman/outfielder Trey Cabbage, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reports that Cabbage will pursue an opportunity in a foreign league. That opens a spot on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster, which drops to 37.

Pittsburgh claimed Cabbage off waivers from the Astros last month. Houston had attempted to outright him off their roster at the beginning of the offseason. Cabbage could’ve battled for a spot in Spring Training with the Bucs, but there was no guarantee he’d have stuck on the roster all winter. Even if he’d held the 40-man spot, Cabbage has an option remaining and might’ve spent most of next year in Triple-A.

It seems his camp is finalizing a deal with a team in another league that’d presumably come with a better payday. Cabbage has an intriguing power-speed combination. He had a 30-30 showing with a .306/.379/.596 slash in Triple-A with the Angels in 2023. His minor league production wasn’t quite as strong this year (.243/.351/.474) but he made a career-high 45 MLB appearances with the Astros. MLB pitching has exploited Cabbage’s propensity for huge strikeout totals in the upper minors, fanning him at a near-41% clip. He’s a career .209/.245/.331 hitter in 147 big league plate appearances.

Orioles Sign Tomoyuki Sugano

By | at

The Orioles signed longtime NPB star Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year contract on Monday evening. Sugano, a client of VC Sports Group, is reportedly guaranteed $13MM. Baltimore had an opening on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was necessary.

Sugano makes the jump to Major League Baseball for the first time in what’ll be his age-35 season. He’s one of Japan’s most accomplished pitchers. The 6’1″ right-hander spent 12 years with the Yomiuri Giants in his home country. He posted a 2.43 earned run average in more than 1800 innings at the NPB level.

Major league scouts have followed Sugano for some time. He first appeared on many fans’ radars when the Yomiuri Giants made him available via the posting system during the 2020-21 offseason. Sugano was coming off a 1.97 ERA showing in his age-30 season. While he certainly attracted attention from big league clubs, he didn’t find a deal that compelled him to leave Japan. Instead, Sugano returned to the Giants on a four-year deal that paid him $40MM.

That contract allowed Sugano to opt out after each season, potentially clearing a path for him to make the move to MLB. He was evidently happy with his longtime club and decided not to take any of the early outs. Once the four-year term concluded, his camp made clear he intended to sign with an MLB team this offseason. Sugano had surpassed the nine years of NPB service time necessary to qualify for international free agency. Yomiuri will not receive any compensation for his departure, nor will the deal cost the Orioles anything other than the player’s salary.

Despite his age, Sugano is coming off one of his strongest seasons. He turned in a 1.67 ERA across 156 2/3 innings spanning 24 starts. It’s the second-lowest ERA of his career and earned him the NPB’s Central League MVP award for the third time. That’s not to say he’s still at his absolute peak form, however. Sugano only threw 77 2/3 innings during the 2023 season, reportedly on account of an elbow injury. His swing-and-miss rates have also dropped significantly compared to earlier years. Sugano struck out 18.3% of batters faced this year — well off the 24-26% range he’d posted in his late 20s.

Sugano’s NPB strikeout rate was about four percentage points lower than the 22% MLB average for starting pitchers. Many NPB hitters adopt a more contact-oriented approach than is common in the big leagues, so perhaps he’ll miss a few more bats in the majors. Sugano doesn’t have the same upside he would’ve brought a few seasons ago, though. Baseball America’s scouting report notes that his fastball velocity has dipped into the 92-93 MPH range after sitting somewhere between 94-96 MPH earlier in his career.

While the pure stuff has dropped as he’s aged and battled injury, Sugano has thrived thanks to his feel for pitching. That’s most evident in his excellent command. Sugano only walked 16 hitters all season, a microscopic 2.6% rate that’s lower than what any MLB starter managed this year (minimum 100 innings). That should rise slightly as he faces more patient hitters, but it’s fair to project Sugano for plus or better command.

Baseball America writes that Sugano indeed profiles as a control-oriented fourth or fifth starter. The outlet credits him with a five-pitch mix headlined by an above-average slider and splitter. Fans are encouraged to read BA’s full column, which also includes updated scouting reports on other prominent NPB and KBO players who are available to MLB teams (i.e. Roki Sasaki, Shinnosuke Ogasawara, Hyeseong Kim and Koyo Aoyagi).

The contract aligns with MLBTR’s prediction of one year and $12MM. It values Sugano as a capable back-end starter. Alex Cobb signed for $15MM with the Tigers last week. Late-career innings eaters Lance Lynn ($11MM) and Kyle Gibson ($13MM) got similar one-year deals with the Cardinals last offseason.

Sugano is a needed rotation upgrade for GM Mike Elias and his front office. The O’s should continue searching for higher-upside arms in the coming weeks. Sugano slots behind Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez in the projected rotation. Dean Kremer, Trevor Rogers, Albert Suarez and youngsters Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott are options for the final two spots. The rotation remains Baltimore’s biggest question mark.

Sugano is the third highest-paid player on the roster, narrowly trailing Eflin ($18MM) and newly signed outfielder Tyler O’Neill ($16.5MM). Their player payroll is up to $134MM, as calculated by RosterResource. It’s not clear how far they’re willing to push spending in the first offseason under the David Rubenstein ownership group.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the salary. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top