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Orioles Sign Chris Bassitt

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Feb 13: Baltimore has officially announced the Bassitt signing. No corresponding move was needed, as the club had room on the 40-man for the veteran righty. The Orioles’ 40-man roster is now full.

Feb. 12: The Orioles are reportedly in agreement with starter Chris Bassitt on a one-year, $18.5MM contract, pending a physical. Bassitt, a client of Meister Sports Management, receives a $3MM signing bonus and would unlock another $500K if he reaches 27 starts. Baltimore has an opening on the 40-man roster after losing infielder Bryan Ramos on waivers to St. Louis.

President of baseball operations Mike Elias has made a habit of signing veteran starters to one-year deals over the past few years. They found some success with Kyle Gibson in 2023. Last winter’s reunion with Gibson and additions of Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano did not go as planned. Bassitt is in a similar stage of his career as he nears his 37th birthday, but he should have a higher floor than those previous additions.

Bassitt didn’t reach 100 MLB innings in a season until his age-30 campaign in 2019. He has been a consistent mid-rotation presence over the last seven years. Only once did his earned run average climb north of 4.00. His 2.29 mark during the shortened season was a small sample outlier, but he has otherwise been a safe bet to allow between three and four earned runs per nine while logging a heavy workload. Bassitt has surpassed 150 innings in each of the last five seasons, one of just six pitchers to do that. He’s eighth in total innings over that stretch.

The veteran righty has paired the bulk with mid-rotation quality. He’s coming off a 3.96 ERA with slightly better than average underlying marks. Bassitt fanned 22.6% of batters faced against a 7.1% walk rate across 170 1/3 innings a year ago. His per-pitch whiff rate is a little below average, but he has managed to strike out between 22-23% of opponents in each of the past four seasons.

Bassitt’s velocity has ticked down slightly as he has gotten into his mid-30s. His sinker averaged 91.6 mph last season, narrowly a career low. That’s still not far off the 92-93 mph range in which he had worked throughout his career. The sinker is Bassitt’s primary offering, but Statcast identified eight distinct pitches that he used at least occasionally during his final season in Toronto. He mostly works with a sinker, cutter and curveball and generally does well to limit hard contact.

The biggest concern may be Bassitt’s issues against left-handed hitters. While he held them in check earlier in his career, Bassitt has seen his platoon splits widen over the past few seasons. Since the start of 2023, lefties have gotten to him at a .284/.360/.483 clip in more than 1200 plate appearances. He has held same-handed opponents to a punchless .224/.286/.323 line in a similar number of at-bats over that stretch.

Bassitt is coming off a three-year, $63MM contract with the division rival Blue Jays. He provided Toronto with 541 1/3 innings of 3.89 ERA ball during the regular season. Bassitt only once missed a start, as a minor bout of back inflammation sent him to the injured list last September. He missed the Division Series win over the Yankees but returned for the AL Championship Series. Bassitt pitched out of relief and emerged as one of John Schneider’s most trusted leverage arms in October. He fired 8 2/3 innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts during Toronto’s pennant run.

One year after helping the Jays go worst to first in the AL East, Bassitt will hope to accomplish the same feat with Baltimore. The Orioles have had a big offseason after stumbling to a 75-87 showing. They signed Pete Alonso (a former teammate of Bassitt’s in New York) to a monster five-year, $155MM deal. The O’s swapped oft-injured starter Grayson Rodriguez for another righty power bat, Taylor Ward, while dealing four prospects and a draft choice to the Rays for Shane Baz. They signed Ryan Helsley to a two-year deal to replace injured closer Félix Bautista and reunited with Zach Eflin on a $10MM contract.

The Orioles again shied away from the top of the free agent starting pitching market, preferring to make a splash in the middle of the lineup. They’ll hope to unlock another gear from Baz, a former top prospect who has shown flashes but been inconsistent over his first couple seasons. Trevor Rogers will look to build off last year’s fantastic final few months, while Kyle Bradish has a chance to be an upper mid-rotation starter now that he’s recovered from Tommy John surgery.

Bassitt slots behind Rogers, Bradish and Baz as locks to open the year in Craig Albernaz’s rotation. Eflin will be assured of the fifth starter role as long as he’s fully recovered from last August’s back surgery. He’s expected to be a full participant in Spring Training, so that should be the case. That could push Dean Kremer and/or Tyler Wells back to Triple-A Norfolk to open the season. Both pitchers still have an option remaining, though they’re each approaching the five-year service cutoff at which they’d earn the right to refuse any minor league assignments. Wells needs another 40 days on an MLB roster to get there, while Kremer is 60 days away.

The O’s could use Wells in long relief and start the year with Kremer rounding out a six-man rotation if they want both pitchers in the majors. A rotation surplus usually works itself out before long. The Braves, Blue Jays and Tigers have all announced significant injury losses within the first two days of camp. Even if all of Baltimore’s starters are currently healthy, they’d be fortunate if that’s the case by Opening Day.

Bassitt may not be the top-of-the-rotation type that O’s fans had coveted, but he’s a sensible pickup for a team that’ll keep an eye on Bradish’s and Eflin’s innings after lost seasons. MLBTR had predicted a two-year, $38MM contract at the beginning of the offseason. Baltimore was able to avoid committing that second season in an offseason when Merrill Kelly commanded $20MM annually over two years from the Diamondbacks at the same age.

The O’s payroll projection climbs to $166MM, as calculated by RosterResource. Despite the handful of significant offseason pickups, they’re only about $6MM above where they opened last season. This will probably wrap their significant offseason dealings, but they shouldn’t have an issue taking on some money midseason if they’re positioned to buy. Bassitt’s removal from the market leaves Zac Gallen, Lucas Giolito and Max Scherzer as the best free agents available for teams still looking to add.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the agreement and terms. Image courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images.

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Anthony Franco

  • Good afternoon, hope you've all had a good week!
  • Decent number of questions in here, let's get rolling

Half St

  • There really isn't much for Nats fans to look forward to unless the new regime proves to be much better at developing young players. Do you feel there might be one young player who could make a surprise jump and carry the team forward from the absolute depths? James Wood seems the obvious answer, but should I be hoping on anybody else?

Anthony Franco

  • Wood's the obvious one. Durability's the big caveat for Cavalli but I think he'd be a mid-rotation starter if he can stay healthy. Harry Ford's stock is down a little from its peak but still feels like a capable starting catcher to me
  • Abrams has a higher gear but he's probably getting traded before they're back to being competitive. Confidence in Crews is waning. Lile feels like a role player to be, not a believer in Brady House at this point

Barron Of th Bullpen

  • How does BlueJays & Astros trade effect Cam Smith's playing time? What is your opinion of Smith long term?

Joey Loperfid'oh!

  • Who won this trade - Jays or Astros?

Anthony Franco

  • I prefer Houston's end of it because I'd have just non-tendered Sánchez, who I don't think is a $7M player. Loperfido is a fine bench bat, won't have any impact on Cam Smith
  • Seems like Houston wants Smith to start the season in Triple-A after how he finished last year, which is understandable. Loperfido's not blocking him and I imagine there's another move coming to add a mid-tier outfielder to replace Sánchez

Tony

  • Thanks for the chats.  With early posturing by owners for a salary cap, or seems as if the only way the players would agree is if MLB agrees to a floor and some kind of revenue sharing.  Both sides will argue the league needs to improve competition. Since owners have resisted sharing their books  is there a way forward?  Or will MLB have to edit the game to save it.

Anthony Franco

  • All the cap systems come with a salary floor. The league would be on board with that -- albeit with some dissent from the smaller-market owners -- but MLBPA continues to maintain that's a non-starter. If they budge on that, it would require a dramatic increase in revenue sharing to ensure the small-market teams meet the floor, yeah
  • Doesn't necessarily mean they need to open the books to the public. They'd need to share it with the Players Association but they already do that, the MLBPA just can't leak it. The bigger stumbling block -- again, beyond the PA considering this at all -- is how to calculate revenue. The players would want all the adjacent "ballpark village" stuff to factor into those calculations, while the team would obviously want to construe it much more narrowly

Sultan of Sling

  • The Giants can't possibly be done assembling their bullpen. Can they?

Anthony Franco

  • Haha well they signed Rowan Wick three minutes ago, so I guess not?
  • In all seriousness, yeah they're pretty much out of options back there and it's my biggest gripe with the roster

The Beatles Show

  • Hey Anthony, how's the weather for you?  Second...probably happier question:  With the Sanchez trade does that mean the Astros are going to keep Parades and move him to left?

Anthony Franco

  • Alright the past few days! All of January sucked. Don't thing Sánchez has any real impact on Paredes, they could've played him in LF either way if they wanted to do that. Seems ill advised when he's coming off the hamstring injury

Arizona

  • Which is more likely? A lottery pick or a playoff run?

Anthony Franco

  • Hmm, I think they'll end up in between but lottery pick feels a little more likely. The bullpen's really rough, rotation could go south quickly with an injury or two, and now there's a question about what they'll get from Carroll early in the season

Alex Anthopoulus

  • What am I doing? Our projected #2 starter goes down and I haven't done a thing to address the starting rotation issue (that got worse with the Schwellenbach injury). This is a very odd offseason, it started "adequately" but I still haven't solved the main problem from the beginning.

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Ballparking A Nico Hoerner Extension

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In the aftermath of the Alex Bregman signing, one of the immediate questions was whether it changed how the Cubs would proceed with Nico Hoerner. Bregman pushed second-year infielder Matt Shaw into a utility role, but he'd be capable of stepping in at second base. The Giants, Red Sox and Mariners were among the teams seeking a trade match for a player of Hoerner's profile. Would the Cubs flip him before his walk year?

That's almost certainly not happening now. There was no reason for the Cubs to entertain the possibility unless they were blown away by the kind of prospect that other teams would not entertain for a rental (e.g. Connelly Early, Bryce Eldridge). Hoerner is a much better player than Shaw in the short term, and the Cubs have as strong a chance as anyone to take the NL Central. Boston traded for Caleb Durbin, while the Giants signed Luis Arraez to play second. Seattle acquired Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals.

As Spring Training gets underway, the focus might now swing to an extension. March is the most common time of year for those conversations. If the Cubs are able to get a long-term deal done with Hoerner this spring, that could make them more comfortable dangling Shaw in deadline talks if any top-of-the-rotation starters come available. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic wrote this week that Hoerner has emerged as a pillar in the clubhouse. The relationship between team and player is strong enough that it'd be a surprise if they didn't have some conversations before Opening Day about what it'd take to keep him off the market.

Let's try to narrow down what that might cost:

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Angels Re-Sign Chris Taylor To Minor League Deal

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Feb. 13: Taylor signed a minor league deal with a spring training invite, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. He reported to camp this morning.

Feb. 12: The Angels are in agreement to bring back veteran utility player Chris Taylor, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s not clear whether it’s an MLB deal or a minor league contract with a Spring Training invite, though the latter seems more likely. Taylor is represented by Meister Sports Management.

Taylor finished the 2025 season in Orange County. He signed a big league deal after being released by the Dodgers in May. Taylor made 30 appearances for the Halos. He started games at all three outfield positions and at second and third base. He didn’t make a huge impact beyond that defensive flexibility, as he struck out 29 times and hit .179 across 90 plate appearances. Taylor almost immediately went on the injured list with a broken left hand. A brief return in July proved unsuccessful and he was essentially shelved until September.

The former All-Star combined for a .186/.256/.301 batting line over 125 plate appearances between the two Los Angeles teams. Taylor’s offense has cratered over the past two seasons. His bat speed and power production have dropped, putting more of a focus on his already high strikeout tallies. He has fanned at a 32% clip while hitting .196/.284/.301 with six home runs over 371 plate appearances in the last two seasons.

Taylor will compete for a bench role. He’s still an above-average runner who can fill in anywhere other than catcher and shortstop. The Angels have a wide open second base competition between Christian Moore, Vaughn Grissom, Oswald Peraza and non-roster invitee Nick Madrigal. Third base belongs to Yoán Moncada for now, but he’s hardly a picture of durability. They’re patching together an outfield that’ll include Jo Adell, Josh Lowe and at least one of Mike Trout and Jorge Soler with the other working as a designated hitter.

As a player with six years of service time who finished last season on the major league roster, Taylor hit the market as an Article XX(b) free agent. If he’s signing a minor league contract, it would come with a trio of automatic opt-out dates under the collective bargaining agreement: five days before Opening Day, May 1, and June 1.

Padres Notes: Rotation, Vásquez, Campusano, Preller

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The Padres have made no secret of their desire to add another starter and one more complementary bat before Opening Day. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller reiterated those goals from Spring Training (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com).

There are still a handful of free agent starters who could make an impact (e.g. Zac Gallen, Lucas Giolito, Zack Littell, Griffin Canning). San Diego seems to be working with tight payroll restrictions, however. That could point to a reclamation candidate like Walker Buehler or Germán Márquez if they address that via free agency.

Dennis Lin of The Athletic suggests the Padres could be more inclined to add a starter via trade. That’s easier said than done at this stage of the calendar. All but a handful of teams are entering the season with some hope of contending. Pitching injuries will pile up as exhibition games get underway and there’ll be fewer opportunities for those clubs to backfill the rotation if they trade a starter.

Speculatively, there could be a match with the rebuilding Nationals for a cheap sixth starter like Mitchell Parker or Jake Irvin — each of whom has been durable but pitched better in 2024 than they did a year ago. Andre Pallante falls into a similar category with the Cardinals. They’re not especially exciting but have minor league options and a track record of taking a lot of innings.

The Royals have gotten hits on some of their depth starters as they looked for outfield help. The Padres would be hard pressed to replace Ramón Laureano and obviously aren’t trading Fernando Tatis Jr. or Jackson Merrill. Unless the Royals want to take a flier on Tirso Ornelas, that’s a difficult match. The Mets entertained moving David Peterson and Kodai Senga at times this winter, but their salaries could be an issue for the Padres.

Teams are loath to trade affordable pitchers who have the upside to be more than fifth or sixth starters. The Padres have a lot of star talent but don’t have an especially deep major league roster, which makes it difficult to trade for an average starter without dealing too big a hit to a different area. The exception could be in the bullpen, where any of Jeremiah Estrada, David Morgan or Bradgley Rodriguez would be compelling trade chips if the Padres felt they could weather a subtraction.

As it stands, San Diego will open the season with a top three of Nick Pivetta, Michael King and Joe Musgrove. Right-hander Randy Vásquez had a decent 3.84 ERA last year despite posting one of the league’s lowest strikeout rates (13.7%). Vásquez had a more impressive September, striking out 21% of opponents against a 3.4% walk rate in his last five appearances. First-year skipper Craig Stammen pointed to the strong finish in noting that the 27-year-old righty had “the inside track” to a season-opening rotation spot this week (separate MLB.com link via Cassavell).

If the Padres add another starter, that’d position Vásquez as the favorite to round out the group ahead of JP Sears, Kyle Hart and non-roster invitees Marco Gonzales and Triston McKenzie. Vásquez is out of options, so he’ll be on the MLB roster in some capacity. Sears and Hart can freely be sent back to Triple-A for another year. Knuckleballer Matt Waldron is out of options but coming off a 6.48 ERA over 21 starts in Triple-A. He’ll have an uphill battle to holding a roster spot even with a strong performance this spring.

Though the Padres are also looking to round out their bench with another bat, it appears they’re unlikely to make a move at catcher. Preller said that while the front office explored the catching market over the offseason, they didn’t find any opportunities they considered to be an upgrade over the in-house pairing of Freddy Fermin and Luis Campusano. “Ultimately, I think we looked at the value of the players we have as behind the plate and catching, making that as good a group as we can have,” Preller told reporters. “Go find some other value throughout other position player additions.”

Fermin doesn’t have much offensive upside but is a highly-regarded defender. He’ll be the primary catcher. Campusano has defensive questions but raked last year in Triple-A. The Padres didn’t seem to trust him defensively, keeping him in the minors while running out Elias Díaz and Martín Maldonado until they acquired Fermin at the deadline. They opted not to trade Campusano this offseason, though, and they’re evidently content to carry him as a bat-first backup now that he can no longer be optioned. They don’t have any other catchers on the 40-man roster, nor has any minor league catcher in the organization played a single MLB game.

Preller also addressed his own contract status on Thursday. He’s entering the final year of his deal and hasn’t come to terms on an extension. That’ll continue to be a question until an agreement is reached, though the longtime executive downplayed any concern.

“Either way, I’m under contract,” he told Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune and other members of the beat. “So it’s all about putting a team on the field that’s going to win. We still (have) a lot of work to do in terms of continuing to round out the roster. That continues to be the focus.” Acee writes that it’s still generally expected that a deal will get done — perhaps as early as Monday’s report date for the team’s position players.

Yankees, Rafael Montero Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees are adding veteran reliever Rafael Montero on a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training, as first reported by Héctor Gómez. The deal comes with a $1.8MM base salary and $500K roster bonus if the ISE Baseball client makes the MLB club.

Montero divided the 2025 season between a trio of clubs. He began the year on the Astros, playing out the final season of a three-year contract that Houston had quickly come to regret. They managed to offload a portion of his salary in an April trade with the Braves, who would flip him to the Tigers at the deadline. Montero managed a decent ERA in Detroit but had concerning underlying marks throughout the season.

The 35-year-old righty combined for a 4.48 earned run average through 60 1/3 innings. He got a lot of swinging strikes and managed a slightly above-average 23% strikeout rate. That came with a lot of free passes, as he walked almost 15% of opponents. Montero has never had pristine command but had gotten the walks enough in check to be a key setup arm for the Astros in 2022. He carries a 4.77 ERA over 166 innings over the past three seasons.

Montero sits around 95 mph with his fastball and picked up a splitter last year that became his primary pitch, especially against left-handed batters. The latter offering is a big reason the Braves and Tigers took a flier. Detroit carried Montero on their playoff rosters. His only appearance came early in a bullpen game in which he failed to retire any of the three batters he faced.

The Yankees could have a couple bullpen spots available depending on whether they carry Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest into the season. David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Fernando Cruz, Tim Hill, Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn should have spots secure. They can’t option Winquest or recent waiver pickup Osvaldo Bido, though the latter has kicked around the waiver wire all winter and certainly isn’t a lock to stick. Jake Bird, Yerry De Los Santos, Kervin Castro, Angel Chivilli and Brent Headrick all have a minor league option remaining.

As a player with six years of service time who finished last season on Detroit’s major league roster, Montero hit the market as an Article XX(b) free agent. That means this deal comes with a trio of automatic opt-out dates under the collective bargaining agreement. He can trigger an out clause five days before Opening Day, on May 1, or on June 1. If he does, the Yankees would have two days to either promote him or grant him his release.

Marlins Designate Josh Simpson For Assignment

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The Marlins announced they’ve designated left-hander Josh Simpson for assignment. That opens a 40-man roster spot for fellow southpaw John King, who has officially signed his one-year deal.

Simpson made his MLB debut last June. He pitched in 31 games but was rocked for a 7.34 ERA across 30 2/3 innings. The 6’2″ southpaw got ground-balls at a 54% clip with a solid 23.8% strikeout rate but struggled with control. Simpson walked almost 15% of batters faced and gave up nearly 1.5 home runs per nine innings. Poor batted ball luck didn’t help matters, but the command has been an issue for most of Simpson’s career. He has walked 11.6% of opponents in the minor leagues.

A Columbia product who signed for $25K as a 32nd-round pick in 2019, Simpson was never a marquee prospect. He pitched well enough through Double-A that Miami added him to the 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft in 2022. He was called up the following September but didn’t get into a game during his five days on the active roster. Simpson was optioned back to Triple-A, then missed the majority of ’24 because of a nerve injury in his forearm that required surgery. The Fish dropped him from the 40-man roster at the end of that season.

To Simpson’s credit, he pitched well enough in Triple-A last year to earn his way back up and avoid a “phantom ballplayer” career arc. He worked to a 3.41 ERA across 34 1/3 innings at Triple-A Jacksonville, albeit with lesser strikeout and ground-ball marks than he had in the majors. The Marlins will likely place him back on waivers within the next five days. Simpson would be able to decline an outright assignment and elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Elroy Face Passes Away

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The Pirates announced this evening that former All-Star reliever Elroy Face has passed away at 97. He pitched parts of 16 seasons in the big leagues, all but the final of which came in Pittsburgh.

“It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we mourn the passing of Pirates Hall of Famer Elroy Face, a beloved member of the Pirates family,” chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement. “I was fortunate to get to know Elroy personally, and I will always be proud that we had the chance to honor him with his induction into the Pirates Hall of Fame. Elroy was a pioneer of the modern relief pitcher — the ‘Baron of the Bullpen’ — and he played a critical role in our 1960 World Series championship, leading the league in appearances and recording three saves against the Yankees. Our thoughts are with his three children — Michelle, Valerie and Elroy Jr. — and his sister Jacqueline.”

An upstate New York native, Face began his career in the Phillies organization in 1949. The 5’8″ righty, a sidearmer whose specialty was the forkball, emerged as a favorite of Hall of Fame executive Branch Rickey, who acquired him when he was Dodgers’ GM over the 1950-51 offseason. Rickey took the same position with the Pirates the following year and added Face during the 1952-53 winter, at which point the pitcher was in Double-A.

Face pitched poorly as a rookie and was sent back to Double-A for the ’54 season. He returned to the majors the following year, working in a swing role before making a full-time bullpen conversion by 1956. Face would lead the majors with 68 appearances that season, tossing 135 1/3 innings of 3.52 ERA ball. The Pirates used him mostly at the back of games at a time when many teams didn’t have set closers. Face led the National League in games finished in four of five seasons between 1958-62.

The save statistic didn’t come into use until 1969. Face was retroactively credited as the NL saves leader in three of those seasons, including MLB high marks in 1958 (20) and ’62 (28). He posted a sub-3.00 earned run average in four of those years, including a career-low 1.88 mark over 91 innings during the ’62 campaign.

Even if saves weren’t around at the time, Face’s accomplishments were appreciated during his career. He appeared on MVP ballots each season between 1958-60. He was an All-Star every year between 1959-61 and technically was selected to six All-Star Games, as MLB had both a midseason and postseason All-Star Game for a brief stretch during Face’s peak.

The 1960 season is etched into baseball history. Face tossed 114 2/3 innings of 2.90 ERA ball with 61 games finished for a 95-59-1 team that won the pennant. The respective best regular season teams in each league went to the World Series in those days. Pittsburgh went up against a Yankees club that had Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford in their primes.

The Pirates would go on to win one of the most iconic series in league history. Face got the save in each of their first three victories: Games 1, 4, and 5. He pitched the sixth through eighth innings of Game 7. That wasn’t his sharpest outing, as he gave up a go-ahead home run to Yogi Berra, but Pittsburgh would come back to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth. After the Yankees tied it in the top of the ninth, Bill Mazeroski connected on what remains the only Game 7 walk-off home run in history.

That World Series was the only time that Face would pitch in the postseason, but he remained in Pittsburgh for most of the 60s. He added four sub-3.00 ERA seasons well into his 30s and had brief stops in Detroit and with the Expos to finish his career.

The Pirates have been around for more than 140 seasons. Face remains the franchise’s all-time leader in pitching appearances (802), games finished (547) and saves (186). He pitched nearly 1400 innings with a 3.48 ERA and recorded 877 strikeouts. Face topped 100 wins — including an astounding 18-1 record out of the bullpen in 1959 — and came up just shy of 200 saves overall, as he added five more during his final season in Montreal. Face was inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame three years ago. MLBTR sends condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

Jason Mackey of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the news.

Yankees Re-Sign Paul Goldschmidt

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The Yankees officially announced they’ve re-signed Paul Goldschmidt on a one-year deal. It’s reportedly a $4MM guarantee for the Excel Sports Management client, who’d earn another $500K apiece at 400, 450, 500 and 550 plate appearances. Clarke Schmidt has been placed on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. He’ll miss most or all of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

It’ll be Goldschmidt’s second season in the Bronx. The former MVP signed a $12.5MM deal last offseason to serve as New York’s everyday first baseman. The role will be different this year, as Goldschmidt seems ticketed for more of a short side platoon job after Ben Rice outplayed him last season. The left-handed hitting Rice connected on 26 homers with a .255/.337/.499 batting line across 530 trips to the plate.

Goldschmidt managed only 10 home runs in a similar amount of playing time. His .274/.328/.403 slash was a little better than league average. It came with dramatic splits, both in terms of handedness and timeliness. Goldschmidt started his Yankee tenure on a tear, hitting .338/.394/.495 with six longballs through the end of May. That plummeted to a .226/.277/.333 performance over the final four months of the season. It was essentially an inverse of his 2024 campaign in St. Louis. Goldschmidt started that year very slowly before picking it up in the second half.

Between his late-season struggles and Rice’s breakout year, the seven-time All-Star lost playing time as the season progressed. His plate appearance tally dropped in each month. Goldschmidt will remain in the lineup against left-handed pitching, as he continued to tee off on southpaws even as his numbers against righties dropped. He’s coming off a .336/.411/.570 slash against left-handers compared to a .247/.289/.329 mark when he didn’t hold the platoon advantage. Seven of his 10 home runs came off lefties even though he saw twice as many plate appearances versus right-handers.

Rice had seven homers in 119 plate appearances against lefties, but it came with a .208 average and .271 on-base mark. Even if the Yankees don’t want to make him a strict platoon bat, they’ll time some of his rest days against tough southpaws. Goldschmidt can pick up those at-bats and offers a fallback at designated hitter in case Giancarlo Stanton misses time. Lefty-hitting catcher Austin Wells had reverse splits last season but is a career .218/.282/.360 hitter against southpaws. If the Yankees want to continue giving Rice scattered reps behind the plate, they could shield Wells from a lefty and start Goldschmidt at first.

At 38, Goldschmidt is clearly on the downswing of what should be a Hall of Fame career, but he can still be productive if deployed in a more limited role. He’s also highly respected off the field and was just named to the U.S. World Baseball Classic roster for the third time in his career. He clearly made a strong impression in the clubhouse and with the coaching staff.

The late-season drop in playing time evidently didn’t sour him on giving it another go in pinstripes. Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports that he passed on more money from other teams to remain in the Bronx. The Padres were reportedly among the finalists as they look for one more bat after agreeing to a deal with Miguel Andujar. The Diamondbacks spent most of the offseason looking for a right-handed hitting first baseman. A reunion in the desert seemed to make sense, but it was clear that wouldn’t come to pass when the Snakes agreed to terms with Carlos Santana earlier this week.

New York has a lineup that skews to the left side generally. GM Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone had spoken multiple times about wanting to add a righty bat for balance. Goldschmidt joins utility infielder Amed Rosario as righty options off the bench. José Caballero would also be in that mix if Anthony Volpe reclaims the shortstop job once he returns from shoulder surgery.

They’re going to carry lefty-hitting J.C. Escarra as a backup catcher. That would only leave one bench spot for Oswaldo Cabrera and Jasson Domínguez if everyone gets through camp healthy. The Post’s Jon Heyman wrote on Thursday that it seems likely Domínguez will be optioned to Triple-A to begin the season. That’s even more probable with Goldschmidt back, though Spring Training injuries could certainly change the picture.

The Yankees will pay a 110% tax on the $4MM salary ($4.4MM) as third-time CBT payors in the top bracket. It’s an $8.4MM investment overall. RosterResource calculates their competitive balance tax number around $333MM. They had a $320MM tax payroll last year, leaving them with a nearly $62MM bill at season’s end.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Yankees and Goldschmidt were finalizing an agreement. Ronald Blum of The Associated Press reported that Goldschmidt was likely to make no more than $5MM. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported the $4MM salary and incentives. Image courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images.

Rockies Sign Jose Quintana

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Feb. 12: Colorado has officially announced the Quintana deal. The veteran will take the 40-man roster spot of right-hander Jeff Criswell, who was placed on the 60-day IL. Criswell had Tommy John surgery in March.

Feb 10: The Rockies have followed up their Michael Lorenzen and Tomoyuki Sugano signings with another free agent deal for a veteran starter. Colorado is reportedly in agreement with left-hander Jose Quintana on a one-year deal, pending a physical. The ACES client is guaranteed $6MM. The Rox will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster once the signing is finalized. Jeff Criswell, who underwent Tommy John surgery last March, is a 60-day injured list candidate.

Quintana signs on the eve of Spring Training after waiting until early March to put pen to paper last winter. He settled for a deferred $4.25MM guarantee with the Brewers that was probably below his expectations coming off a 3.75 ERA in 31 starts for the Mets. Quintana managed decent results in Milwaukee as well, allowing 3.96 earned runs per nine over 131 2/3 innings.

There weren’t a whole lot of encouraging underlying numbers. Quintana’s results have outstripped his peripherals for essentially four consecutive seasons. He has never been a power pitcher, but his already pedestrian velocity and swing-and-miss rates have dropped into his mid-30s. Last year’s 16% strikeout rate was his lowest since the 14% mark he posted in his 2012 rookie season. His sinker and four-seam fastball each land in the 90-91 mph range on average. None of the southpaw’s pitches miss many bats, and last season’s 6.9% swinging strike rate was the second lowest mark for a pitcher who reached 100 innings.

Although the 37-year-old doesn’t have a huge ceiling at this stage of his career, he should raise the floor at the back of Warren Schaeffer’s rotation. The pitch-to-contact approach keeps his walks in check. Quintana doesn’t have notable platoon splits and mixes five pitches (sinker, changeup, curveball, four-seam fastball, and slurve). The deeper arsenal seems to be of particular interest to the Rox’s front office and coaching staff. Lorenzen throws seven distinct pitches, while Sugano has a six-pitch mix.

“We’ve spoken about this internally a lot,” first-year pitching coach Alon Leichman told Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post last week. “We want big arsenals. We think big arsenals will be harder to game plan against. You know, if a guy has six, seven pitches, that’s harder to game plan for than if a guy has two or three, right? So we think that’s an advantage. The more weapons you have, the more random you can be.”

The Rockies have committed just over $19MM to add the trio of veteran starters. They’ll join Kyle Freeland as rotation locks. Ryan Feltner and Chase Dollander would probably compete for the fifth starter role as things stand. There’s a decent chance an injury during Spring Training clarifies things. Feltner missed the majority of last season with back issues. Quintana himself had a pair of IL stints for a shoulder impingement and calf strain, respectively.

While it remains arguably the worst rotation in the majors, the Rockies don’t want a repeat of last year’s historically awful performance. Colorado’s 2025 starting staff had a 6.65 ERA that was the highest in any full MLB season in history. This season’s group should at least be markedly better than that.

None of Lorenzen, Sugano or Quintana are likely to fetch much at the trade deadline even if they’re managing decent results away from Coors Field. They’re all sixth starters/swing types on contenders. There’s nevertheless value in having experienced arms around to take a few innings and work with Dollander and prospects Gabriel Hughes and Sean Sullivan, each of whom could be up at some point in 2026. They’re less likely to need to rely on McCade Brown and Tanner Gordon for early-season starts.

This will push Colorado’s projected payroll to $120MM, as calculated by RosterResource. They opened last season at $122MM and seem set for a nearly identical spending pattern in Paul DePodesta’s first season as president of baseball operations.

Jesse Rogers of ESPN first reported the Rockies and Quintana had an agreement. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the $6MM guarantee. Image courtesy of Mark Hoffman, Imagn Images.

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