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Yankees Planning To Play Jasson Dominguez In Left Field

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Yankees manager Aaron Boone appeared on WFAN with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata this afternoon. He fielded a few questions about the team’s position player mix.

Boone indicated that his starting outfield was likely to comprise Jasson Domínguez in left field, Cody Bellinger in center, and Aaron Judge in right. Trent Grisham is ticketed for a fourth outfield role. The eighth-year skipper suggested he hoped to keep Domínguez mostly in left field while using Bellinger a bit more flexibly. He noted that there’ll be days when Judge serves as a designated hitter while Giancarlo Stanton gets a day off. In those instances, Grisham would likely draw into center field with Bellinger kicking over to right.

The most notable aspect is that the Yankees are preparing for Domínguez to get everyday run. Owner Hal Steinbrenner made similar comments in an interview with Meredith Marakovitz of the YES Network this afternoon. “I see him as the starting left fielder,” Steinbrenner replied when asked about Domínguez’s role. “There’ll be a lot of meetings and discussions in Spring Training obviously and we’ll see how he performs and how he feels, but everybody’s very excited about him.”

Domínguez, who turns 22 next month, should be ticketed for his first extended big league audition. He drilled four homers in eight games as a 20-year-old back in 2023. An elbow injury then ended his season and required Tommy John surgery that shelved him into the middle of June. New York seemed reluctant to give Domínguez regular run fresh off the injury. He bounced on and off the active roster for the final six weeks of the season, though the Yanks stuck with Alex Verdugo as their everyday player in left field. Domínguez got into 18 games and struggled to a .179/.313/.304 slash.

The switch-hitting outfielder remains one of the game’s top young talents. Baseball America ranked Domínguez as New York’s top prospect and among the sport’s 30 best prospects on their updated Top 100 list. He has been a strong performer in the minors. Domínguez has a .253/.360/.430 line across parts of three Double-A seasons and carries a huge .325/.391/.495 mark in 230 plate appearances with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Boone added that with the current roster makeup, he views Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the starter at second base. He named DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza as players who could battle for playing time at third base. New York has been linked to free agents Jorge Polanco and Brendan Rodgers, so there’s still a chance for an acquisition to push Chisholm back to the hot corner.

Chisholm has only started two games at second base since 2022. He played there regularly with the Marlins early in his career before moving to center field. Miami brought him back into the infield shortly before last summer’s deadline in a thinly veiled effort to expand his versatility to trade partners.

The Yankees acquired him and installed him at third base in deference to Gleyber Torres. Chisholm played his first 400 career innings at the hot corner in the Bronx. Statcast graded him highly in that sample, though Defensive Runs Saved had him slightly below average. Both metrics have given Chisholm plus grades for his second base work. He has a little more than 1300 career innings at the position, most of which came between 2021-22.

Kirby Yates Passes Physical, Signs One-Year Deal With Dodgers

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Kirby Yates has passed his physical and agreed to a one-year deal with the Dodgers, according to multiple reports. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client is guaranteed $13MM and could unlock another $1MM in bonuses — $500K each at 50 and 55 appearances. The team has still not officially announced the signing.

Yates becomes the latest big acquisition in a huge Dodgers offseason. He’s their second marquee pickup in the late innings. Los Angeles signed Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72MM pact with deferrals not long before agreeing to terms with Yates. The Dodgers had also retained Blake Treinen on a two-year deal earlier in the winter. They’ll join Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips and Alex Vesia in what should be one of the game’s best relief groups.

Scott and Yates were arguably the two best free agent relievers, at least for the upcoming season. The 37-year-old Yates (38 in March) was never going to match the three-year terms for Jeff Hoffman and Clay Holmes, but he’s coming off the best platform season in the relief class. He turned in a sterling 1.17 earned run average while striking out nearly 36% of batters faced for the Rangers. Yates went 33-34 on save opportunities while firing 61 2/3 innings — the second-highest workload of his career.

Emmanuel Clase was the only reliever in MLB who was definitively better. Yates finished second behind Clase in ERA among relievers with 50+ innings. He was seventh in strikeout percentage. Yates placed in the top 25 in swinging strike rate (15.2%). Opponents had no success against either his 93 MPH fastball or his mid-80s splitter.

That was Yates’ second utterly dominant season. As a member of the Padres in 2019, he led MLB with 41 saves while turning in a 1.19 ERA across 60 2/3 frames. His next three years were essentially wiped out by injury, as he battled elbow issues and underwent his second career Tommy John procedure in March 2021. He returned to throw 60 1/3 innings of 3.28 ERA ball for the Braves in 2023 before signing a $4.5MM deal with Texas last winter.

Yates becomes the ninth free agent reliever of this offseason to sign for at least $10MM annually (not including swingman Nick Martinez, who accepted a qualifying offer from Cincinnati). He trails only Scott in average salary, though that’s obviously in large part because his age limited him to one year.

The Dodgers are well into the highest luxury tax tier and pay a 110% tax on any spending at this point. They’re investing $27.3MM to add Yates to the back of the bullpen for a year. RosterResource calculates their luxury tax ledger around $382MM — more than $70MM higher than any other club’s projected payroll.

Los Angeles will presumably announce the signing within the next day or two, which will require a 40-man roster move. That could be a simple DFA, though it’s also possible they trade from their bullpen. They’re planning to run a six-man rotation, which means they can only carry seven relievers.

Scott, Yates, Treinen, Kopech, Phillips and Vesia seem locked into six spots. Neither Anthony Banda nor Ryan Brasier can be optioned, so one of them would probably be squeezed out if everyone’s healthy on Opening Day. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported last week that the Dodgers were marketing Brasier in recognition of the forthcoming roster squeeze.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported last week that Yates and the Dodgers had reached a tentative agreement, pending a physical. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand was first to report that Yates had passed the physical and signed a one-year deal. ESPN”s Jeff Passan was first with the $13MM guarantee and $1MM in incentives, while Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic specified the $500K bonuses at 50 and 55 appearances. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Steinbrenner: Yankees Plan To Discuss Extension With Aaron Boone

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Aaron Boone is headed into his eighth season as Yankees manager. He’s on track to enter the year in a lame duck capacity. The Yankees exercised their club option on Boone’s services in November. That’s the extent of their activity thus far, as Boone said a few days later that there’d been no talk about a long-term deal.

It seems that’s only a matter of time. Owner Hal Steinbrenner tells Meredith Marakovitz of the YES Network that they plan to open extension talks with their manager in the near future. “We will be talking with him in the days and weeks to come. … There’ll be conversations had with him about potentially staying longer,” Steinbrenner told Marakovitz. He declined to specify a timeline but left open the possibility for discussions to take place during the season, though he added generally that talks “will happen sooner rather than later.”

Teams typically prefer to avoid having managers or top front office personnel working on expiring contracts. That’s not a uniform rule, though, and the Yankees themselves allowed Boone to manage as a lame duck for nearly the entire 2021 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 the aforementioned club option on which Boone will manage the upcoming season.

Like any manager of the Yankees, Boone has found himself under scrutiny from the fanbase over the years. The organization has maintained faith in his ability throughout his tenure. Boone has led the team to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons, with their 82-win showing in 2023 as the lone exception. They reached their biggest heights of Boone’s tenure last year. They knocked off the Guardians to win their first American League pennant since 2009. A five-game defeat to the Dodgers in the Fall Classic extended their title drought to 15 seasons.

While the season ended on a sour note with the Yankees relinquishing a five-run lead in the World Series clincher, it seemed inevitable they would maintain continuity on the coaching staff. Their only change came at assistant pitching coach after Desi Druschel departed to take the same job with the Mets. Boone is the second-longest tenured manager in the AL behind Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash. He’s the seventh longest-tenured manager in the majors. The Yankees have topped 90 wins in five of his six full schedules at the helm. Boone holds a 603-429 record (58.4% win percentage) overall.

Orioles Sign Jorge Mateo To Extension

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The Orioles announced this evening that they’ve agreed to a deal with utilityman Jorge Mateo to avoid arbitration. It’s a one-year contract that comes with a club option for 2026. Mateo has five years of service time and would have qualified for free agency next winter, so the deal adds an extra season of team control. The Quality Control Sports client reportedly receives a $3.55MM salary next season. The club option is valued at $5.5MM with another $500K in escalators based on this year’s playing time. The option price would jump by $125K apiece at 460, 480, 500 and 520 plate appearances.

Teams had until January 15 to agree to terms with their arbitration-eligible players. If no deal was in place by then, they needed to exchange filing figures. They were free to continue negotiations beyond that point, though most clubs refuse to discuss straight one-year deals after the exchange deadline. Mateo had filed for a $4MM salary, while the Orioles filed at $3.1MM. They settled at the midpoint, though Mateo concedes a ’26 club option to do so.

The addition of the club option on Mateo’s deal means the Orioles haven’t broken their self-imposed “file and trial” system. Arbitration deals that include an option year cannot be used as precedents in future hearings. It wraps up Baltimore’s arbitration dealings for this winter. The O’s had agreed to terms with their 11 other arbitration-eligible players by January 15. This is the second straight year in which the Orioles reached a late arbitration deal to buy out a free agent season. They took a similar tack with first baseman Ryan O’Hearn last February. That ended up working out for the club, as O’Hearn played well enough for Baltimore to trigger an $8MM option to keep him from hitting the market.

Mateo is headed into his fourth full season with the Orioles. Baltimore grabbed him off waivers from the Padres in the second half of the ’21 campaign. He had a career year in 2022, as he led the American League with 35 stolen bases while posting elite defensive grades at shortstop. There’s been plenty of speculation over the following two years that the Orioles could deal Mateo, who was pushed out of an everyday infield role by Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and eventually Jackson Holliday. The O’s have opted against making such a move, evidently valuing Mateo’s speed and defensive versatility off the bench more than whatever they might’ve received in a trade.

Over the last two seasons, Mateo has gotten into 177 games. He’s only hitting .222/.267/.363 over that stretch, though he has swiped 45 bases in 52 attempts. Mateo can back up Henderson and Holliday in the middle infield and has the speed to spell Cedric Mullins in center field. Holliday’s early struggles gave Mateo an opportunity to play regularly at the keystone early last year. Unfortunately, his season was cut short in late July. Mateo tore the UCL in his left (non-throwing) elbow when he collided with Henderson while pursuing a slow grounder up the middle. He underwent surgery in late August.

There’s no indication that the injury will affect Mateo’s readiness for the start of next season. Baltimore was confident enough in his health to keep him around. He’ll join Ramón Urías and new backup catcher Gary Sánchez as locks for Brandon Hyde’s bench so long as he’s healthy.

Baltimore’s player payroll now sits around $156MM, according to the RosterResource calculations. Those are almost entirely short-term commitments. Offseason pickup Tyler O’Neill is the only player on a guaranteed deal that stretches beyond next season (and he can opt out after this year). Their only other commitment is a $1MM option buyout for reliever Andrew Kittredge. That opens the possibility that Mateo plays well enough for Baltimore to exercise the option, though they’re unlikely to be hurting for infield talent anytime soon.

Francys Romero first reported Mateo’s $3.55MM salary and the $5.5MM option with $500K in escalators. The Associated Press had the escalator specifics. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Astros Have Continued Interest In Jorge Polanco

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The Astros have ongoing interest in Jorge Polanco, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. According to Chandler Rome and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Houston could experiment with Polanco in left field if they land him.

That’d be a first for the switch-hitting Polanco, who hasn’t played a single major league inning in the outfield. He has logged over 7500 defensive innings in his career. Nearly all of them have come in the middle infield, while he also has a handful of starts at third base. His professional outfield experience consists of 73 innings in rookie ball in 2011-12.

Playing Polanco in left field would be no less of a roll of the dice than it would be to send Jose Altuve out there. The latter option is seemingly on the table only if the Astros re-sign Alex Bregman, who’d retake his spot at third base while pushing Isaac Paredes to second base. Altuve has never started an MLB game at a position other than second base (or designated hitter), but he indicated over the weekend he’d be happy to try his hand in left field if it meant getting Bregman back on the roster. In any case, the Astros haven’t seemed enamored with the unsigned lefty-hitting outfield options (e.g. Alex Verdugo, Jason Heyward).

Houston’s interest in Polanco seems to be as a fallback if Bregman signs elsewhere. General manager Dana Brown said on Saturday that while Houston has had recent talks with their longtime third baseman, it remains a “long shot” that he’ll return. The Athletic reported last week that the team’s previously reported six-year, $156MM offer remains on the table. However, it’s not clear if the Astros are open to pushing that any further. Unsurprisingly, Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 wrote this afternoon that Bregman was unlikely to return unless the team upped its offer.

While Polanco would obviously be far less expensive, it’s questionable whether he’d fit in Houston’s spending plans. The Astros are set to offload $8.5MM of Ryan Pressly’s salary once his trade to the Cubs is finalized. That dropped the team’s estimated luxury tax number to roughly $236MM (per RosterResource). They’re now about $5MM below the $241MM base tax threshold; they were a little more than $3MM above the line before the Pressly trade.

Houston exceeded the luxury tax threshold last season. That their offer is still out to Bregman confirms they’re open to doing so again in certain circumstances. That’s not surprising with regards to a homegrown star who has been one of the faces of the most successful run in franchise history. Paying the competitive balance tax to accommodate Polanco — who hit .213/.296/.355 in a career-worst season with the Mariners last year — could be a tougher sell for ownership.

It seems likely that Polanco will beat $5MM wherever he winds up. He was one of the game’s better offensive second basemen between 2021-23. He’d played through a patellar tendon injury in his left knee last season. He underwent postseason surgery and is expected to be ready for Opening Day. The knee injury coupled with the challenge of hitting at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park make him an intriguing rebound target as he enters his age-31 season. Even if Polanco ends up settling for less than $5MM, the signing would at least put the Astors right on the border of the threshold. If they prefer to stay below the CBT line, they’d probably need to offload more money in a trade or have limited payroll room for midseason acquisitions.

Giants, Jake Lamb Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Giants are signing Jake Lamb to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA client gets an invitation to big league camp. He’d earn a $1MM base salary if he makes the MLB roster.

Lamb spent the 2024 season in Triple-A as a member of the Pittsburgh organization. He tallied 414 plate appearances and had a roughly average .264/.350/.393 line with seven home runs. It was a step down from his minor league production from the preceding season. Lamb had combined for a .289/.420/.454 slash in 85 Triple-A contests between the Yankees and Angels two years ago. He earned a brief MLB call from the Halos, appearing in 19 games.

Last season was the first since 2013 in which Lamb did not get to the majors. He’s best known for his early-career run as an everyday third baseman in Arizona. Lamb was an All-Star in 2017 and combined for 59 homers between 2016-17. He hasn’t reached 250 big league plate appearances in a season since then. The lefty batter has appeared for seven different clubs going back to 2018. He has a .205/.306/.359 slash in nearly 900 trips to the plate over that time.

As he enters his age-34 season, Lamb has mostly moved off the hot corner. He didn’t play third base at all last season. He spent most of his time at first base or designated hitter and made a handful of starts in right field. He’ll vie for a spot on the San Francisco bench. The Giants have lefty-swinging LaMonte Wade Jr. penciled in at first base. They don’t have a set answer at designated hitter. Lamb hasn’t hit enough in recent seasons to play there regularly, but he could play his way into a rotational role with a strong showing in camp and/or at Triple-A Sacramento.

Rangers Announce Creation Of Rangers Sports Network

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The Rangers announced the formation of the Rangers Sports Network, a club-affiliated entity that will handle the team’s broadcasting deals. It’s the culmination of the franchise’s months-long effort to create its own network after its broadcasting deal with Diamond Sports Group (now operating as Main Street Sports) expired at the end of the 2024 season.

“One of the main goals when seeking solutions for Rangers television broadcasts was to give fans more access to our games,” Rangers owner Ray Davis said in a press release. “We determined that the best path toward providing our fans with more options is to handle many of the broadcast obligations in-house.

By forming Rangers Sports Network to address the various production responsibilities for team broadcasts and content, we feel the entity is in a strong position to deliver for Rangers fans as well as execute other potential broadcast opportunities in the future,” Davis added.

By creating their own network, the Rangers can negotiate contracts with different cable and streaming providers to handle in-market broadcasting. They’ve already negotiated one such streaming partnership with Victory+, the platform that also has a streaming deal with the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars. The Rangers plan to announce additional deals with cable and broadcast television providers in the coming days.

Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes that those various forthcoming contracts are expected to expand access to nearly every household within the club’s broadcasting territory — which includes not just all of Texas but most of Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas. Grant notes that only a fraction of households could access Rangers games on Diamond’s Bally Sports Southwest, a result of Diamond’s inability to reach distribution agreements with a number of carriers.

The Rangers took a different path than every other team that had previously contracted with Diamond. Most clubs renegotiated one-year deals with the rebranded Main Street Sports at a slightly lesser fee. A few others turned broadcasting rights to Major League Baseball, which will make those teams’ games available in-market on MLB.tv.

Reds, Aaron Wilkerson Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Reds are in agreement with right-hander Aaron Wilkerson on a minor league contract, reports Jon Morosi of the MLB Network. Wilkerson returns to the affiliated ranks after spending a season and a half in Korea.

A former Red Sox minor leaguer, Wilkerson reached the majors with the Brewers in 2017. He pitched parts of three seasons with Milwaukee, allowing a 6.88 ERA across 35 1/3 innings. After the Brewers outrighted him from their 40-man roster, Wilkerson moved to the foreign ranks. He spent a season with the Hanshin Tigers in Japan. He returned stateside on a minor league contract with the Athletics in 2023. The A’s granted him his release after 14 Triple-A appearances so he could sign on with the Lotte Giants in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Wilkerson spent a season and a half with the Giants. He posted a 2.26 ERA over 13 starts during the second half of the ’23 season. That earned him a new deal for the 2024 campaign. Wilkerson took the ball 32 times and put up a 3.84 ERA through 196 2/3 innings. He struck out 20.5% of opposing hitters against a 3.3% walk percentage.

The Giants added Tucker Davidson and re-signed Charlie Barnes to serve as their foreign-born pitchers for the upcoming season. That made it apparent that Wilkerson would not return to the team. (KBO clubs are limited to two foreign pitchers and three non-Korean players overall.) Wilkerson is likely to open the season as rotation or long relief depth for the Reds at Triple-A Louisville.

Looking For A Match In A Spencer Torkelson Trade

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The Tigers rearranged their infield when they signed Gleyber Torres last month. He’ll play second base, a move that pushes Colt Keith to first base. The trickle-down effect is to block the clearest path to at-bats for 2020 first overall pick Spencer Torkelson.

As one would expect, Detroit’s baseball operations president Scott Harris pushed back against the idea that adding Torres squeezed Torkelson out of the picture. “My message to Tork was: ’if you have a big offseason and a big Spring Training, there’s a role for you on this team.’ This team needs more right-handed power and we’ve seen Tork do that in the past,” Harris said last month.

That may be true, but it’s also not difficult to imagine a change-of-scenery trade. In an MLBTR poll last week, a plurality of respondents felt that Torkelson would be dealt before Opening Day. At times, he has flashed the power that made him a top pick. He hit 31 homers in 2023. While his overall batting line wasn’t great, a .238/.318/.498 showing in that season’s second half provided hope that he’d taken a step forward. Even if he didn’t look like an all-around impact bat, he showed the potential for plus power. Torkelson’s production tanked in 2024, as he hit just .219/.295/.374 with 10 longballs over 92 MLB games. He spent more than a third of the season in Triple-A, where he drew a ton of walks but struck out at a 31% clip.

This may be the last opportunity for the Tigers to recoup anything of note in a Torkelson trade. While he certainly doesn’t have the value he had during his prospect days, Detroit would find some interest if they shopped him. Another down year could make him a DFA or non-tender candidate as he heads into what’d be his first year of arbitration. It’s possible Torkelson spends enough time in the minors this year that he doesn’t reach arbitration, but that would burn his last option season. If the Tigers keep him in Triple-A for that long, they’d be hard-pressed to carry him on the 2026 Opening Day roster.

Which teams are best suited to take a flier on Torkelson? Every team could theoretically fit, since he’s set for a salary around the league minimum and has one minor league option remaining. Still, it doesn’t make much sense for a team that has both first base and designated hitter solidified (i.e. Astros, Dodgers, Braves) to give up anything of note just to keep Torkelson in Triple-A. We’re looking for clubs that could realistically give him 400 or more plate appearances going into a make-or-break year.

Best Fits (listed alphabetically)

  • Giants: San Francisco has been loosely tied to Pete Alonso this offseason. While it seems they’re reluctant to make a multi-year commitment at first base, they’ve looked for ways to add power. Installing a potential 30-homer bat at shortstop in Willy Adames helps, but the Giants are lacking pop in their first base/designated hitter mix. LaMonte Wade Jr. is an OBP-focused hitter who has come up in trade rumors. The Giants could use a committee approach at DH with the likes of Wilmer Flores, Brett Wisely and former top prospect Marco Luciano. While Torkelson would add another right-handed bat to a lineup that skews to that side, he carries a higher ceiling than Flores provides at this stage of his career. Wade will be a free agent next offseason, so there’s room for both Torkelson and top prospect Bryce Eldridge as a long-term first base/DH combination if both players work out.
  • Mariners: Seattle’s only acquisition of note this offseason is the signing of Donovan Solano to a $3.5MM free agent deal. He’s a righty hitter who may spend the majority of his time at first base. Solano is a part-time player who has only reached 400 plate appearances in a season once. He’s going into his age-37 campaign. Solano can factor in at second and third base, neither of which are settled in Seattle. The M’s could find at-bats for Torkelson, especially if they offload part of the Mitch Haniger or Mitch Garver salaries via trade, though his kind of power-over-hit approach hasn’t traditionally played well at T-Mobile Park.
  • Marlins: Most of the time, these trade fit exercises focus on competitive teams. Rebuilding clubs don’t often acquire major league talent. Torkelson’s four years of contractual control make this a different situation. If Miami still feels he’s a long-term regular, there’s a straightforward case for taking a flier. The Marlins could play Torkelson regularly for a season or two and market him as a more valuable trade chip down the line. If he flops, it’s not likely that they’ve taken at-bats away from any core pieces. Presumptive first baseman Jonah Bride hit well over 272 plate appearances last season, but he’s 29 years old and has a career .232/.325/.342 slash line in the majors. Deyvison De Los Santos could get at-bats at DH if the Fish want to give him a look.
  • Padres: San Diego has yet to make a payroll-clearing trade from their infield. If they don’t, they’ll run things back with Luis Arraez at first base. They don’t have anyone slated for regular DH work, though, and payroll space is limited. Torkelson would be an affordable bat they could plug in there to divide time with Arraez between first base and designated hitter.
  • Rockies: The Miami logic applies to the Rockies — arguably even more so. Former first-round pick Michael Toglia is a career .206/.287/.406 hitter. He hit 25 homers but struck out in almost a third of his plate appearances last year. He’s not demonstrably better than Torkelson, at least, and the Rox could be intrigued by the latter’s power upside at Coors Field. The DH spot is open after Charlie Blackmon’s retirement. Colorado can’t rely on Kris Bryant to stay healthy.

Plausible Long Shots

  • Blue Jays: Toronto has kicked around the idea of playing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at third base more often. They don’t have a clear option for regular DH work. That Pete Alonso is on their radar suggests they’re not opposed to adding a first baseman. That could be an approach specific to Alonso rather than a buy-low candidate like Torkelson, though.
  • Brewers: Milwaukee doesn’t have room for Torkelson right now. They’d no doubt love to offload a good portion of Rhys Hoskins’ $18MM salary. That’s easier than done, but if they line up a Hoskins deal, they could view Torkelson as a viable (and much more affordable) target to backfill first base.
  • Reds: Cincinnati’s infield has gone from a perceived area of depth to its most significant weakness within a year. They’ve already attempted to address it this offseason with the acquisition of Gavin Lux to rotate between second and third base. First base remains a big question mark after Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s injury-plagued season and the down year from Jeimer Candelario. There’s enough rebound potential with both players that the Reds may not feel Torkelson is an upgrade, but it should at least be on the table.
  • Twins: Minnesota is looking for a right-handed bat. That’s likelier to come in the outfield, but they also haven’t addressed first base since losing Carlos Santana to free agency. Torkelson could compete with Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien for reps between first and DH. Intra-division trades are rarely easy to pull off, especially when both teams are aiming for a playoff spot. However, a Torkelson trade would be (at least to an extent) an acknowledgement on Detroit’s part that they don’t believe he’ll be the player he was expected to become as a prospect. That could reduce their hesitancy about moving him to another AL Central team.

Stan Kasten, David Rubenstein Speak On MLB’s Economics

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The Dodgers introduced their latest big-ticket free agent signee on Thursday. Team president Stan Kasten was among those in attendance at the press conference to celebrate Tanner Scott joining the club on a four-year free agent deal.

Asked about the Dodgers’ second consecutive monster offseason, Kasten defended the organization’s spending. “This is really good for baseball. I have no question about it,” he told reporters (link via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). Kasten pointed out that MLB’s playoff volatility reduces the chance for any individual team to post a dynastic run of World Series titles. He argued that the Dodgers’ roster-building approach should energize both their own fanbase and those of other clubs who want to see them fail.

“On the entertainment side, which is what we are, it’s really good when there’s one beloved team by their fans who come out in record numbers, leading all of baseball in attendance, while that same team can be hated and lead baseball in road attendance. That’s a win-win for baseball,” Kasten said.

Needless to say, not everyone outside Los Angeles shares that opinion. ESPN’s Jeff Passan published a lengthy column looking at both the Dodgers’ successful Roki Sasaki pursuit and their overall success in both free agency and internal player development. Unsurprisingly, the Dodgers have gotten backlash not only from opposing fans but from rival front offices. That’s in response to both L.A.’s overall willingness to spend and the level of deferrals they’ve included in most of those contracts. Readers are encouraged to check out Passan’s piece in full.

Cot’s Baseball Contracts projects the Dodgers for a luxury tax payroll around $375MM. The Phillies have the second-highest layout at roughly $308MM. The Yankees are the only other team above $300MM by that estimate. The gap between the Dodgers and the 30th-ranked Marlins is almost $300MM.

Passan writes that the payroll disparity (plus the $765MM guarantee which Juan Soto secured from the Mets) has led to a “rekindling” of talks amongst owners who hope for the implementation of a salary cap. New Orioles owner David Rubenstein, who purchased the franchise from the Angelos family last spring, is among those in support.

“I wish it would be the case that we would have a salary cap in baseball the way other sports do, and maybe eventually we will, but we don’t have that now,” Rubenstein told Yahoo Finance at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. “I suspect we’ll probably have something closer to (the salary caps and floors) the NFL and the NBA have, but there’s no guarantee of that.”

A cap, of course, would need to be collectively bargained. Major League Baseball’s owners have attempted to implement a cap in many previous CBA negotiations. The MLB Players Association has refused to budge on that issue, as it remains strongly opposed to putting fixed limits on players’ earning power. The luxury tax is designed to curtail spending at the top of the market. It has indeed served as a deterrent for some big-market franchises but obviously is a barrier which teams are free to cross if ownership is willing.

“I think the big city teams have some advantages. Now, in Los Angeles, they have another advantage,” Rubenstein added. “They have Japanese players, [a] number of them that they got like Shohei, and people in Japan really love watching the Dodgers, and they sell a lot of merchandise in Japan for Dodgers players.”

A salary cap would not have directly influenced the Sasaki signing. His earning power was hard-capped by MLB’s international signing limit for amateurs. Sasaki qualified because he hasn’t turned 25. He signed for a $6.5MM bonus that is hundreds of millions of dollars below what he would’ve commanded had he been a true free agent. The Dodgers’ spending may have indirectly influenced his decision — he’s joining the defending champions on a roster that already had a pair of Japanese superstars in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — but the geographic and endorsement reasons for his signing are outside the purview of a cap.

Nevertheless, it’s clear that many fans are frustrated by how this offseason has transpired. More than two-thirds of respondents to a recent MLBTR poll indicated they hoped for a salary cap to be implemented during the next round of collective bargaining, which will take place after the 2026 season. Roughly half of respondents said they’d be willing to sacrifice the entire ’27 season to a work stoppage if it meant the league could successfully leverage the players union into agreeing to a cap. MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald and Tim Dierkes discussed the situation in greater detail on this week’s edition of our podcast.

Deferrals are another source of agitation for many fans, particularly after Ohtani’s deal that deferred $680MM of his $700MM guarantee. The Dodgers are neither the first team nor the only current club to defer significant money. The Nationals had deferrals on a few deals (e.g. Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin) that were crucial to their 2019 World Series win. The Blue Jays deferred around two-thirds of the salary on Anthony Santander’s contract just this week. Still, the Dodgers have deferred a much greater amount of money than anyone else within the past year-plus. Ohtani, Will Smith, Blake Snell, Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman and Tanner Scott have all deferred payments on recent contracts.

As MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes covered shortly after the Ohtani signing, the deferrals are not really a workaround the luxury tax. In many cases, those contracts’ net present value — which adjusts the deferrals for inflation — ended up around expectations. As Passan notes, the CBA requires teams to set aside money for the future salaries within two years of signing a contract that includes deferrals. Passan points out that the deferrals and significant signing bonuses, which many of those deals included, are advantageous for the players to minimize taxes under California law though.

None of this will change in this offseason or next. We’re less than two years away from the expiration of the CBA and what seems likely to be another offseason lockout. These conversations will take on greater urgency as that draws nearer.

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