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Red Sox Sign Alex Bregman To Three-Year Deal

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TODAY: The Red Sox officially announced Bregman’s deal.  To create roster space, Patrick Sandoval was moved to the 60-day injured list.  Sandoval underwent an internal brace procedure on his left UCL last June, so he was already expected to be out of action until the second half of the 2025 season.  Speier also provided some added details on the contract’s structure, writing that $20MM will be deferred in each of the three seasons.  Bregman will begin receiving these deferred payments in 10 years’ time.

Feb. 13: The deferred money in the contract knocks the net present value of Bregman’s three-year deal into the $90MM range, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports. Per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe and Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the AAV will be calculated as $31.7MM for CBT purposes. Speier adds that there’s a $5MM signing bonus, followed by a $35MM salary in 2025, then $40MM salaries in the final two seasons.

Feb. 12: The Red Sox are reportedly in agreement with Alex Bregman on a three-year, $120MM deal. The Boras Corporation client receives massive $40MM salaries in each season, though an unreported amount of that money is deferred. Bregman can opt out after each of the first two seasons. The team has yet to officially announce the signing.

Boston gets the best remaining free agent by offering a massive annual sum. Bregman reportedly had a standing six-year offer valued at $156MM from the Astros for most of the offseason. The Tigers reportedly put forth a six-year, $171.5MM proposal, while the Cubs offered a $120MM guarantee over a four-year term. As of last month, Bregman remained committed to a long-term deal. The Sox’s willingness to offer one of the biggest AAVs in league history changed the calculus.

It marks the end of an illustrious tenure in Houston. The second overall pick in the 2015 draft, Bregman was in the majors within a year of coming out of LSU. He immediately locked down third base. He hit .284/.352/.475 over his first full big league campaign, helping the Astros to their first World Series title in 2017. He was one of the top handful of players in baseball over the next two seasons. Bregman secured consecutive top five finishes in AL MVP balloting while combining for a .291/.409/.561 slash with more walks than strikeouts between 2018-19.

Bregman, 31 in March, successively hit 31 and 41 home runs over that stretch. His power production has ticked down since the ’19 campaign, which was the most homer-heavy season in league history. Bregman has hit between 23 and 26 homers in each of the past three seasons. He’d continued to post excellent on-base numbers up through 2023, though his OBP dropped last year as his walks plummeted.

The two-time All-Star hit .260/.315/.453 across 634 trips to the plate in 2024. He had by far his lowest on-base percentage since his half-season as a rookie nearly a decade ago. That was almost entirely because of a drop in free passes. Bregman walked in 6.9% of his plate appearances, nearly halving his typical 12-13% rates. He remained incredibly difficult to punch out (13.6% strikeout rate) and narrowly established a new career high with a 40.1% hard contact percentage.

Bregman started the season very slowly. He hit .216/.283/.294 with only one home run through the end of April. While his power started to rebound in May, he reached base at a meager .276 clip that month. He entered June with a .219/.280/.372 slash line that was beginning to raise questions about his earning power. He put those to rest with a fantastic finish to the season. Bregman hit .284/.337/.500 with 20 doubles and 19 home runs across his final 398 plate appearances. While the walks remained down, he managed much better batted ball results in the second half.

Over eight-plus seasons with the Astros, Bregman hit .272/.366/.483 with 191 home runs. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each valued his Houston tenure around 40 wins above replacement. He won a Silver Slugger and was MVP runner-up in 2019 and won his first career Gold Glove last season. He has been an instrumental piece of Houston’s sustained postseason success and World Series wins in 2017 and ’23. His swing is perfectly suited for the short left field at Houston’s home park. Bregman certainly hasn’t been a product of the Crawford Boxes, though. He has been essentially the same hitter on the road (.275/.362/.489) and at home (.270/.369/.476).

Bregman will have a similar home setup with the Green Monster at Fenway. He’ll reunite with Sox manager Alex Cora, who was Houston’s bench coach in 2017. While the Sox’s front office had trepidation about adding another long-term infield commitment alongside Rafael Devers and Trevor Story, they were willing to pay handsomely in the short term.

Boston had roughly $210MM in luxury tax commitments going into this evening, as calculated by RosterResource. A $40MM average annual value for Bregman would push that close to $250MM. The actual AAV won’t be quite so high, as the deferrals will drop the net present value to an extent. It’s likely that the Sox will still end up beyond the $241MM luxury tax threshold. They didn’t pay the CBT last season, so they’d only owe a 20% tax on spending between $241MM and $261MM. Even a true $40MM AAV for Bregman would only come with a $1.8MM tax hit for the Sox.

It’s the culmination of an exciting offseason for chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and his staff. The Sox opened the winter looking to add upside in their rotation. They eschewed long-term pitching investments, instead acquiring Garrett Crochet for four prospects while bringing in Walker Buehler on a one-year, $21.05MM deal. Boston signed Patrick Sandoval to a two-year contract midway through his rehab from Tommy John surgery and made a pair of one-year pickups in the bullpen (Aroldis Chapman, Justin Wilson).

Adding a right-handed bat was the one offseason goal that the Sox had not accomplished. While an outfielder may have been a cleaner roster fit, Bregman’s willingness to move off his longtime position makes this workable. The Sox intend to play him at second base, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. That made him a better fit than Nolan Arenado, who has been connected to the Sox in trade rumors for much of the winter.

Devers has been vocal about preferring to stick at third base. Bregman is a superior defender at the hot corner, but he should be athletic enough to move to the keystone for at least one season. He’d likely have spent most of his career in the middle infield had he not broken in with a team that had a Jose Altuve/Carlos Correa pairing.

That blocks the path to playing time for top prospect Kristian Campbell in the short term. The 22-year-old had a monster minor league season (.330/.439/.558 between three levels) to put himself in consideration for the second base job. Campbell seems likelier to begin the year in Triple-A Worcester now. He has played both middle infield positions and all three outfield spots in the minors, though, so the Sox should be able to find playing time for him somewhere as injuries arise throughout the year.

Campbell’s presence is probably a big reason the Red Sox kept this to a short-term commitment. Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe reports that Boston wasn’t interested in going past three guaranteed years. The tradeoff involves one of the largest per-year commitments in MLB history. The pre-deferral $40MM AAV is tied for the sixth-largest ever. It’s the second-biggest of this winter behind Juan Soto’s $51MM AAV and ties the Aaron Judge deal for third in history among position players (trailing Shohei Ohtani and Soto).

Bregman was the final unsigned free agent who had declined a qualifying offer. Boston surrenders their second-round pick (54th overall) in the upcoming draft, as well as $500K from their international signing bonus pool in 2026. They’re getting a compensatory pick about 20 spots later with Nick Pivetta signing with San Diego, so the draft capital comes out relatively close to a wash. As luxury tax payors, the Astros get the lowest compensation pick for Bregman’s departure — a selection after the fourth round, which lands around 137th overall.

Chandler Rome of The Athletic first reported that Bregman was signing with the Red Sox on a three-year, $120MM deal. Jon Heyman of The New York Post had the presence of deferrals. Ari Alexander of Houston’s KPRC-2 had the even salary structure. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Nationals Have Stayed In Contact With Kyle Finnegan

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Kyle Finnegan is one of the top remaining relievers in a thinning free agent market. The righty somewhat surprisingly hit free agency when the Nationals opted not to tender him a contract for his final season of arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected the All-Star for an $8.6MM salary.

That’s a price the Nats were unwilling to pay. Washington has seemingly had interest in bringing Finnegan back at a lesser number. The sides reportedly had some conversations before the non-tender. General manager Mike Rizzo told reporters on Thursday that the Nats have “been talking to Finnegan throughout the offseason” about a potential reunion (link via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). There’s evidently still a financial gap. Rizzo declined to specify what kind of contract has been discussed beyond noting that “it takes two to tango.”

Finnegan has topped 60 innings with a sub-4.00 ERA in four consecutive seasons. He has been Dave Martinez’s primary closer for most of that time, recording 88 career saves. That includes a career-high 38 saves in 43 attempts last year. Only Ryan Helsley and Emmanuel Clase locked down more games. Finnegan concluded the season with a 3.68 earned run average across 63 2/3 innings.

Despite the gaudy save total, Finnegan’s peripherals were about average. He struck out 22.1% of opponents against an 8.9% walk rate. His 10.8% swinging strike percentage was a bit below the 11.6% league mark for relievers. That combined with a rough second half to lead the Nationals to non-tender him. Finnegan carried a 2.45 ERA and 26.1% strikeout rate into the All-Star Break. He lost nearly 10 percentage points off the strikeout rate while allowing 5.79 earned runs per nine after that.

That didn’t come with any kind of velocity drop. The 33-year-old averaged 97 MPH on his fastball in each month of the season. Opponents make a lot of hard contact against the heater, though, and they had increasing success differentiating the pitch from his splitter as the year progressed.

The Nats haven’t done much to address the bullpen. In addition to cutting Finnegan, they traded Robert Garcia to Texas for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. They added Jorge López on a $3MM free agent deal. Japanese southpaw Shinnosuke Ogasawara could pitch in long relief, while Rule 5 pick Evan Reifert is trying to hold a middle relief job. Washington could certainly use more stability in a late-innings mix led by López, Jose A. Ferrer and Derek Law. Righty David Robertson is the top unsigned reliever, while Andrew Chafin and Phil Maton are among the next tier.

Dodgers To Begin Season With Five-Man Rotation

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The Dodgers intend to begin the season with a five-man starting staff, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters (links via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic and Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). While they still intend to eventually move to a six-man rotation, that’ll wait until May.

L.A. had previously indicated they’d run a six-man staff all year. That’d allow Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki to stay close to the schedule they had in Japan, where starters pitch once per week. It’s also designed to avoid overworking a rotation full of pitchers who have notable injury histories. However, the early-season schedule allows skipper Dave Roberts to keep everyone’s workload in check organically.

The Dodgers and Cubs open the regular season with a two-game set at the Tokyo Dome on March 18-19. Los Angeles is expected to turn to Yamamoto and Sasaki, respectively, to pitch in their home country. They then have a week before their domestic season opener, which’ll be on March 27 against Detroit. The schedule builds in an off day on Monday, March 30, followed by days off for each of the next five Thursdays. They have a few stretches of six consecutive game days but won’t play more than that until running 10 straight from May 2-11.

Sticking with a five-man rotation allows them to carry an eighth reliever. Teams are limited to 13 pitchers. As a two-way player, Shohei Ohtani doesn’t count against the limit. He’s still working back from 2023 elbow surgery and last year’s postseason shoulder injury. He’ll be limited to hitting for the first few weeks of the season. Going with a six-man rotation while Ohtani is not pitching would cap them at a seven-man bullpen.

Ohtani could be ready to make his return to the mound at some point in May. That’d align with when the Dodgers are looking to move back to a six-man rotation and would permit them to keep the eight-man bullpen all year. Friedman unsurprisingly said the Dodgers weren’t going to push Ohtani’s recovery just to meet a specific deadline. It’s better to operate with a seven-man bullpen for a while than risk pushing Ohtani’s arm too quickly. The return timetable might line up anyways with when the schedule becomes more demanding.

In the short term, the five-man staff seemingly introduces a camp battle between Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May for one rotation job. The front four will be filled by Yamamoto, Sasaki, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. That’d leave Gonsolin, May, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Justin Wrobleski and Ben Casparius as healthy rotation options.

May has more than five years of service, meaning the Dodgers cannot send him to the minors without his approval. The rest of the back-end starters do have options. Gonsolin would reach the five-year service mark after collecting another 20 days on the MLB roster. At that point, he’d be able to refuse a minor league assignment as well.

If everyone stays healthy during Spring Training, that could push one of May or Gonsolin to the bullpen. An Ohtani return coinciding with the move to a six-man rotation could keep it that way, though it’s likely they’ll have encountered some kind of injury trouble by that point. Roberts said the Dodgers view May and Gonsolin as starters but left open the possibility of kicking one into long relief once the season gets started.

Both pitchers missed the 2024 season to injury. Gonsolin underwent an ill-timed Tommy John surgery in August ’23. May underwent a flexor tendon repair the month before that. He was gearing up for a midseason return last summer before a surprising July announcement that he’d undergone season-ending surgery to repair a tear in his esophagus.

May discussed that scary incident with Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times. The 27-year-old righty said it occurred in a fluke manner while he was having a salad for dinner. A piece of lettuce lodged awkwardly in his throat and ended up piercing his esophagus when he tried to wash it down with a sip of water. May credited his wife Millie with encouraging him to go to the emergency room, where doctors realized the severity of the injury and rushed him into surgery. May told Harris he’s not sure that he would have survived the night had he not had the emergency operation. The column is worth a full read, as May discussed both his offseason trajectory and the perspective he gained from such a harrowing experience.

Royals Sign Cole Ragans To Three-Year Deal

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The Royals are in agreement with ace Cole Ragans on a three-year, $13.25MM deal that covers this season and his first two years of arbitration eligibility, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The signing does not impact Kansas City’s window of team control. Ragans, a Wasserman client, remains controllable through the end of 2028.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports the specific breakdown. Ragans receives a $250K signing bonus and a $1MM salary for the upcoming season. He’ll make $4.5MM and $7.5MM for the following two seasons and would escalate his ’27 salary to $8MM if he wins the Cy Young in either of the next two years.

Ragans has a little over two years of major league service. He did not reach the cutoff necessary to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player. He would have played the upcoming season on a salary around the $760K league minimum before reaching arbitration next winter. This gives him a modest bump this year while allowing the Royals to lock in his earnings over what would have been his first two arbitration seasons. Barring another extension, he’ll go through the arbitration process one time during the 2027-28 offseason before hitting the open market.

Acquired from the Rangers in June ’23 for Aroldis Chapman, Ragans has blossomed into one of the sport’s top pitchers. He turned in a 2.64 earned run average over 12 starts after the trade. That came against a run of mostly soft competition, but the 6’4″ southpaw put to rest any questions about whether that was an aberration. He took a full 32 starts and posted a 3.14 ERA across 186 1/3 frames last year. He ranked fifth in MLB with 223 strikeouts and earned a fourth-place finish in AL Cy Young balloting.

It’s an unconventional extension, as there’s little precedent for a player signing for two or three years in advance of their final pre-arbitration season. Ragans’ future salaries fall mostly in line with what quality starting pitchers can expect to earn in their first two trips through arbitration. As comparison points, Tanner Houck ($3.95MM) and George Kirby ($4.3MM) agreed to slightly less than $4.5MM for their first arbitration seasons this winter. Logan Gilbert is ticketed for a $7.625MM salary in his second trip through the process.

Ragans wasn’t at risk of being non-tendered barring a catastrophic injury, but he’ll lock in some security over the next couple seasons. The Royals have more clarity on their future budgets without running the risk of going to a hearing with their ace in either of the upcoming two offseasons. Having recently turned 27, Ragans is on track to hit free agency in advance of his age-31 campaign.

Image courtesy of Imagn

Yankees Notes: Boone, Cousins, Loaisiga, Rice

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As the Yankees get camp underway, they’re likely to prioritize hammering out a new contract with Aaron Boone. Owner Hal Steinbrenner told the YES Network last month that the team planned to open extension talks with their eighth-year manager, whose deal expires at the end of the season. Those discussions have begun.

Boone revealed earlier this week that he and the Yankees have had some conversations about an extension (relayed by Brendan Kuty of The Athletic). General manager Brian Cashman confirmed that this afternoon, saying that negotiations are ongoing (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). It seems inevitable that they’ll work something out, with Cashman indicating a deal could get done before Opening Day (relayed by Chris Kirschner of The Athletic).

Teams typically prefer to avoid having managers or top front office personnel working on expiring contracts. The Yankees bucked that trend in 2021, when they allowed Boone to manage as a lame duck for nearly the entire season. With his deal set to expire at the conclusion of that year’s World Series, the sides hammered out a three-year extension in the middle of October. That included a ’25 club option on which Boone is currently set to manage. It doesn’t appear we’ll get a repeat of that scenario.

As is the case for many teams, the start of Spring Training also brought a few injury and position battle updates. Most notably, Boone revealed that righty reliever Jake Cousins suffered an offseason forearm strain (link via Greg Joyce of The New York Post). He is midway through a 3-4 week period where he’s completely shut down from throwing. Cousins could start a throwing program as soon as next week, but the delay raises the possibility of a season-opening injured list stay.

New York acquired Cousins in a trade with the White Sox just after last year’s Opening Day. The righty had signed a minor league deal with Chicago but didn’t break camp. The Yankees immediately called him up and were rewarded with a career-best season. Cousins pitched to a 2.37 ERA with a massive 34.2% strikeout rate across 38 innings. Initially consigned to mop-up work, he pitched his way into increasingly higher-leverage spots in the final couple months of the season.

Cousins has missed a lot of bats throughout his four-year big league career, which he has split between Milwaukee and New York. He’s been held back somewhat by scattershot command, but his injury history has been the biggest obstacle. Cousins missed time in 2023 with shoulder inflammation and lost a good chunk of the ’22 season to an elbow effusion. That required a platelet-rich plasma injection and an extended shutdown, though he didn’t need surgery.

If Cousins opens the season on the IL, he’ll be one of at least two Yankee relievers to start the year on the shelf. Jonathan Loáisiga is still rehabbing from the UCL procedure that he underwent last April. The Yankees knew he wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day but nevertheless brought him back on a $5MM free agent deal in December. Pitching coach Matt Blake said at the time that the team was targeting a return sometime in late April or early May.

It seems that timeline has been slightly pushed back. Loáisiga told reporters via an interpreter yesterday that he’s shooting for a return in late May or the beginning of June (via Joyce). That makes it likely he’ll land on the 60-day injured list once the Yankees need to create a 40-man roster spot. Injuries have kept Loáisiga to 20 appearances over the last two seasons. He’s a hard-throwing grounder specialist when he’s healthy and owns a 3.44 ERA across 219 2/3 career innings.

In one non-injury related camp note, Boone said this week that the Yankees will get Ben Rice catching reps during the spring (relayed by Hoch). A bat-first player, Rice played almost exclusively first base during his 50-game rookie season. He started 31 games behind the dish in the minors last season. Rice has nearly 1000 career minor league innings as a catcher, though most scouting reports question whether he can stick there.

Austin Wells will get the majority of the catching work. The Yanks have an open battle for the backup job after dealing Jose Trevino to Cincinnati. J.C. Escarra, who turns 30 in April and has yet to play in the majors, is the top depth option on the 40-man roster. The Yanks have Alex Jackson and former top prospect Ronaldo Hernández in camp as non-roster invitees.

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held live chat today, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers!

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The Phillies’ Next Rotation Extension Candidate

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On the transaction front, Spring Training's arrival opens extension season. Teams and players are free to talk extensions at any time of year, but it's most common in the lead-up to the start of the regular season. While most of those deals are for players early in their careers, there have been a few high-profile impending free agents (e.g. Rafael Devers, Ian Happ) who have recently signed extensions in the run-up to their platform years.

The Phillies pulled off the biggest extension of that ilk last spring. They kept Zack Wheeler off the market on a three-year term at a record-setting $42MM average annual value. That came a few months after the Phils brought back Aaron Nola on a seven-year contract early in free agency. For the third straight season, they're faced with the possibility of losing one of their most valuable pitchers to the open market.

Ranger Suárez is headed into his final year of club control. He and the Phillies already agreed to an $8.8MM salary to avoid arbitration. The question now is whether they want to initiate talks on a longer-term contract to try to keep him off next winter's open market. What kind of offer might that take, and how well-positioned are the Phils for another extended pitching investment?

Suárez, who turned 29 last August, has been a mid-rotation presence for three years running. The southpaw had an earned run average between 3.46 and 4.18 in each season from 2022-24. He turned in a cumulative 3.74 mark across 431 innings over that stretch. Suárez has fanned a league average 21.5% of opposing hitters against an 8% walk rate. He has kept the ball on the ground at a robust 52.2% clip while allowing a lower than average hard contact rate in each season.

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Tigers, David Hensley Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Tigers are signing utility player David Hensley to a minor league deal, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. It seems likely that the 28-year-old will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Hensley was a 26th-round pick by the Astros in 2018. He got to the majors with Houston four years later. Hensley appeared in 46 games between 2022-23, hitting .177/.273/.274 over 128 plate appearances. The Astros kept him in Triple-A for the first half of last season. They designated him for assignment in the middle of July.

Miami grabbed Hensley off waivers. He took 58 trips to the dish with the Marlins, hitting .212/.293/.288. The Fish waived him at the beginning of the offseason. Hensley went unclaimed and elected minor league free agency. He’s a .188/.280/.279 hitter over 169 major league plate appearances.

The righty-swinging Hensley has a better minor league track record. He has taken over 1100 Triple-A plate appearances and has a .257/.384/.413 showing at the top minor league level. That’s built largely on a near-17% walk rate, as Hensley has shown a very patient plate approach. He has plenty of experience at all four infield positions and has some time in the corner outfield.

Diamondbacks Still Involved In Free Agent Relief Market

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The Diamondbacks have pursued late-inning help all offseason. Arizona’s lone major league bullpen pickup was their waiver claim of Seth Martinez from Houston. The Snakes let Paul Sewald walk in free agency, leaving them without much in the way of experienced closers.

General manager Mike Hazen told reporters this afternoon that any late-offseason bullpen pickup is likelier to come by way of free agency than trade (relayed by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports). The bullpen market has moved rapidly over the past four or five weeks. David Robertson stands as the top unsigned reliever. He has ample experience as both a closer and setup man. Robertson will be limited to a one-year deal at age 40, though he could command an eight-figure guarantee after posting an even 3.00 earned run average while striking out a third of opponents across 72 innings for the Rangers.

There are a handful of other free agent relievers who still seem likely to land big league deals. Kyle Finnegan, Andrew Chafin, and Phil Maton should all get major league contracts. Buck Farmer, Lucas Sims, Héctor Neris and injury returnees Kendall Graveman and Keynan Middleton are all unsigned. Craig Kimbrel has the most closing experience of any free agent, though he’s coming off a dismal season with the Orioles.

If the Diamondbacks don’t add anyone from that group, the ninth inning could be up for grabs in camp. Manager Torey Lovullo said yesterday that he’d prefer having an established closer but is “not going to force it” if a committee approach works better (link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Lovullo listed A.J. Puk, Justin Martinez and Kevin Ginkel as in-house candidates to close.

Puk was utterly dominant after the D-Backs acquired him from the Marlins at last summer’s deadline. The southpaw fired 27 1/3 innings of 1.32 ERA ball while striking out nearly 42% of batters faced. Puk has had three straight seasons as an excellent late-game weapon. He didn’t close much last year but recorded 15 saves two seasons ago.

Martinez turned in a 2.48 ERA over 72 2/3 innings in his first full big league campaign. The righty punched out nearly 30% of batters faced with a massive 58.9% grounder percentage. His sinker landed north of 100 MPH on average, while opposing hitters had no success against his splitter. Martinez doesn’t have Puk’s multi-year track record but clearly has closing stuff. Ginkel turned in a 3.21 ERA with a strong 26.5% strikeout rate across 70 innings. While he seems likelier to stick in a setup capacity, the righty has been a reliable bullpen piece for the past three years.

Dodgers, Luis Garcia Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers agreed to a minor league contract with veteran reliever Luis García, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. The signing comes with a non-roster invitation to big league camp.

García had mixed results in 2024. The hard-throwing sinkerballer pitched reasonably well for the Angels early in the year. Signed to a $4.25MM free agent deal, he pitched his way into a setup capacity for Halos skipper Ron Washington. García turned in a 3.71 earned run average through 43 2/3 innings. He posted roughly average strikeout (22%) and walk (7.7%) rates with a strong 51.2% ground-ball percentage. García recorded four saves and 11 holds while only relinquishing two leads.

As a veteran rental on a non-competitive team, García was an obvious deadline trade candidate. It nevertheless registered as a surprise that the Halos were able to get four players from the Red Sox when they flipped him. Boston didn’t part with any top-end talents, but they included a trio of players (Niko Kavadas, Ryan Zeferjahn and Matthew Lugo) who were on the doorstep of the majors. Kavadas and Zeferjahn each debuted with the Halos after the trade, with the latter performing well to put himself in consideration for an Opening Day bullpen job.

The deal didn’t work out well for Boston. García missed a couple weeks late in the season with elbow inflammation. He was tagged for 15 runs across 15 1/3 innings in a Sox uniform. That pushed his season ERA to an unimpressive 4.88 mark through 59 frames. The tough finish evidently prevented him from finding a guaranteed deal as he enters his age-38 season.

García nevertheless makes for an intriguing depth option. He has gotten grounders on at least half the batted balls he has allowed in each of the last three years. Despite his age, García still throws hard. He averaged 96 MPH on his heater with the Halos and had a velocity uptick in Boston even though he battled the minor elbow concern. He’d have a tough time cracking the Dodger bullpen if everyone’s healthy but adds an experienced depth piece with Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips each delayed in camp.

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