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Twins, David Bañuelos Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Twins and catcher David Bañuelos have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Darren Wolfson of KSTP. The Gaeta Sports Management client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.

Bañuelos, 29, has a very limited big league track record. He appeared in one game for the Orioles in 2024 and another in 2025. In those two games, he stepped to the plate three times with one fly out, one hit-by-pitch and one strikeout. Baltimore outrighted him off their roster in July and he became a free agent at season’s end.

He hasn’t been able to rack up a lot of minor league action in recent years either, as the Orioles frequently kept him on their taxi squad to cover for potential injuries. He stepped to the plate just 176 times in the minors over the past two years, putting up a .171/.284/.270 line in that sporadic playing time on the farm.

Prior to that, he had been in Minnesota’s system for many years. Acquired from the Mariners in 2017, he worked his way up the minor league ladder with the Twins. From 2021 to 2023, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A with a .224/.297/.413 line, striking out in 34.2% of his plate appearances.

Bañuelos has long been considered a glove-first catcher. He’ll give the Twins some extra depth with at least three guys ahead of him on the depth chart. The Twins currently project to have Ryan Jeffers and Victor Caratini sharing the catching time. Caratini might also see some time as the first baseman or designated hitter. That could prompt the Twins to carry Alex Jackson on the bench as a third catcher. If Jackson is bumped off the active roster, he is out of options and would need to be removed from the 40-man entirely.

For now, Bañuelos give the club a strong defensive option for the #4 spot on the depth chart and some coverage for if Jackson gets lost via waivers or someone gets injured. It’s also possible the Twins come up short in their attempts to contend this summer and pivot to selling at the deadline. Jeffers is an impending free agent and would be a clear-cut trade candidate. Caratini is signed through 2027 but could be in rumors as well.

Photo courtesy of James A. Pittman, Imagn Images

Astros Outright J.P. France

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The Astros announced that right-hander J.P. France cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Sugar Land. He had been designated for assignment a week ago when Houston acquired Kai-Wei Teng from the Giants. France will be in major league camp as a non-roster invitee.

France, 31 in April, had an exciting major league debut a few years back. He gave the Astros 136 1/3 innings in 2023, allowing 3.83 earned runs per nine. However, the past two seasons have been mostly lost. Shoulder problems plagued him early in 2024 and eventually required surgery, which put him on the shelf for most of 2025. He only made seven big league appearances over those two seasons. He was healthy by the end of 2025 but posted a 6.59 ERA in Triple-A.

The lengthy injury situation and poor results last year bumped France off the roster. He still has one option remaining but the other 29 clubs still passed on the chance to give him a 40-man roster spot. Players have the right to reject an outright assignment if they have at least three years of service or a previous career outright but France doesn’t qualify on either account. That means he sticks with the Astros as non-roster depth.

Houston goes into 2026 with a rotation that looks to have a lot of talent but also question marks behind Hunter Brown. They will hope to get more from Cristian Javier and Lance McCullers Jr., who each had underwhelming seasons in 2025 after lengthy injury absences. Tatsuya Imai will be making his major league debut after years pitching in Japan. Ryan Weiss is coming to North America after a decent stretch in South Korea. Mike Burrows still has less than 100 big league innings.

France will try to position himself to get the call if the guys in that group struggle or get hurt. He will have a steep path back to a roster spot, however, as the Astros have Spencer Arrighetti, AJ Blubaugh, Miguel Ullola, Jason Alexander, Colton Gordon and Teng on the roster as optionable rotation depth. Over the course of the season, some guys will get hurt but Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Brandon Walter will be working back from surgeries performed last year.

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images

Orioles Acquire Blaze Alexander

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The Orioles have acquired infielder Blaze Alexander from the Diamondbacks, according to announcements from both clubs. Right-hander Kade Strowd is going to the Diamondbacks along with a couple of minor leaguers: right-hander Wellington Aracena and infielder José Mejia. The trade is 40-man neutral, as Alexander and Strowd are the only guys with roster spots here.

Alexander, 27 in June, has appeared in the past two big league seasons for the Snakes. He has stepped to the plate 451 times with a .237/.322/.366 line. That’s a bit under league average, translating to a 95 wRC+, and has come with a high strikeout rate of 29.9%. He has shown some versatility by lining up at the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as some time in the outfield.

Though Alexander has been a somewhat useful utility player for Arizona, it was going to be harder for him to hold a roster spot going forward since he has exhausted his final option season. The Diamondbacks have been somewhat proactive in clearing out their fringe roster players this offseason. They traded another out-of-options player last month when they flipped Jake McCarthy to the Rockies.

Arizona has Nolan Arenado at third, Geraldo Perdomo at shortstop and Ketel Marte at second. Without Alexander, they have guys like Tim Tawa and Jordan Lawlar in the mix for multi-positional bench jobs, though John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM says the club will now turn to free agency to replace Alexander with someone else who can play second and/or third base.

The Orioles are seemingly more willing to hold Alexander as a multi-positional bench piece. They project to have Jordan Westburg at third, Gunnar Henderson at short and Jackson Holliday at the keystone. Prior to this deal, their top infield depth options were guys like Jeremiah Jackson and Bryan Ramos. Ramos is a fringe roster guy who was just scooped up in a DFA trade for cash considerations. Jackson has just 48 games of big league experience and still has options.

Alexander presumably jumps to being the club’s top bench option and will likely be used in a platoon capacity. A right-handed batter, he has a .269/.365/.434 line and 125 wRC+ against lefties in his career thus far. Baltimore projects to have a number of lefties getting regular playing time, including Henderson, Holliday, Dylan Beavers, Colton Cowser and Samuel Basallo. With Alexander’s split and defensive versatility, he should help the O’s shield those guys from tough lefties.

Though he’s out of options, his service clock is just a bit over one year. That means he’s still two years from qualifying for arbitration and could be controlled for five full seasons before reaching free agency, if he continues to hang onto a roster spot.

To make that complementary addition to their position player group, the O’s are parting with a major league arm. Strowd, 28, made his big league debut with the Orioles last year. He tossed 26 1/3 innings over 25 relief appearances, allowing just 1.71 earned runs per nine. He averaged around 96 miles per hour with his four-seamer and sinker but mostly threw a low-90s cutter while also featuring a curveball and a sweeper.

His 12.4% walk rate was definitely on the high side but his 22.9% strikeout rate was decent and he got grounders on a huge 56.7% of balls in play. There was surely some good luck in that ERA, as his .227 batting average on balls in play allowed and 83.9% strand rate were both to the fortunate side but his 3.40 FIP and 4.02 SIERA suggest he could have managed decent results even with more neutral luck.

The bullpen was a disaster for Arizona in 2025. Their relief groups was supposed to be headlined by A.J. Puk and Justin Martínez but both required major elbow surgeries last year and various other pitchers got hurt as well. The result was that the club’s relievers had a collective 4.82 ERA, ahead of just the Angels, Rockies and Nationals.

However, addressing the bullpen with a big splash wasn’t going to be likely due to the club scaling back payroll. General manager Mike Hazen admitted last month that he was basically deciding between re-signing Merrill Kelly for the rotation or spending that money on a reliever. He opted for Kelly, meaning the club would be going cheap on the bullpen.

Since Strowd just debuted last year, he has only 74 days of big league service time. He is still at least three years away from qualifying for arbitration and also has a couple of options, meaning he doesn’t even need to be guaranteed a permanent big league roster spot. Baltimore made a couple of notable bullpen upgrades this winter by signing Ryan Helsley and acquiring Andrew Kittredge. They seemingly feel they have enough relief depth to part with Strowd for Alexander.

The O’s are also dipping into their farm system a bit. Aracena, 21, was just acquired in July when the O’s flipped Gregory Soto to the Mets. He pitched 92 innings last year, at Single-A and High-A, split between starting and relieving. He had a 2.25 ERA, 30.3% strikeout rate and 46.5% ground ball rate but a huge 13.6% walk rate. Baseball America recently ranked him Baltimore’s #23 prospect. He had triple-digit heat but clearly needs to rein it in a bit more. That lack of control might push him to the bullpen in the future but he hasn’t yet reached Double-A, so his future is still up in the air. Mejia, 20, is even more of a long-term play. He’s younger and has just two games of experience in full-season ball.

Steve Gilbert of MLB.com first reported that Alexander was going to Baltimore for Strowd and a couple of minor leaguers. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic provided the identities of those minor leaguers. Photos courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Allan Henry, Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Latest On Rays’ Stadium Pursuit

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The Rays have new owners and the major order of business is to build a new stadium. It was reported last month that the club had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the board of trustees at Hillsborough College as the club pursues the college’s Dale Mabry campus. Some more details on the potential next steps were discussed this week, as covered in columns at the Tampa Bay Times by Marc Topkin, Nicolas Villamil, and Nina Moske, Villamil, Lucy Marques, and Topkin. The club also released renderings of the proposed site today, per Topkin.

The club plans a mixed-use development of 113 acres, including a stadium but also other real estate elements, with comparisons to The Battery in Atlanta. The sticker price is apparently about $2.3 billion, with the club willing to cover about half, while asking for public funding to cover the other half. The club would be on the hook for overruns, repairs and maintenance. That sticker price is just for the ballpark. The team is reportedly willing to invest $8 to $10 billion in the mixed-use area around the ballpark. Florida governor Ron DeSantis said recently that the land would be conveyed to the college to negotiate its use.

With the request for funding, there’s an implied threat of relocation if it doesn’t get done. “You know Orlando wants this,” DeSantis said this week. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was less direct but also seemed to stress the urgency of the situation. “It’s time to call the question here,” Manfred said. “There are alternatives in Florida,” he added. “We’re at a point in the history of the club that something needs to get done.”

This is often the situation when a team is looking for public money for stadium funding. Sometimes, the threat is real, as fans of the Athletics know. The A’s were unable to get a funding agreement to build a new stadium in Oakland and decided to move to Las Vegas. The threat can also be idle. Royals owner John Sherman recently floated the idea of the club leaving town. He lated admitted that he was advised to imply that threat in an attempt to influence a ballot measure.

The Rays’ stadium pursuit has been an ongoing saga for years. Previous owner Stu Sternberg pursued options within Tampa in Hillsborough County, as well as in St. Petersburg in Pinellas County, the latter being the current home of the Rays’ longtime home of Tropicana Field.

Not too long ago, Sternberg had an agreement in place with St. Pete’s and Pinellas to fund a plan which would involve the building of a new stadium on the site where The Trop currently sits. The Rays were set to pay for about half of that project with public funding covering the other half. That’s the same framework being considered now, though the sticker price of the previous deal was $1.3 billion, barely half of the current proposal.

Hurricane damage to The Trop late in 2024 led to disagreements about how to move forward, ultimately quashing the deal. The relationship between Sternberg and local government officials was generally seen as untenable, which led him to sell to a group led by Patrick Zalupski.

The new ownership group is working on tight timelines. The Rays didn’t play at The Trop in 2025 due to the aforementioned hurricane damage, playing in a minor league park instead. The Trop is expected to be ready to use again in time for Opening Day 2026 but the club’s lease only runs through 2028. Getting a new stadium financed and built in the next three years is going to be a challenge, especially when government officials seem to be hesitant to get on board.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor has frequently spoken out against the possibility of city funds being used for a stadium. Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously this week to pursue stadium negotiations with the club but many commissioners expressed concerns about using tax money to fund a stadium.

“We promised everyone on the public record that the CIT (Community Investment Tax) numbers would be ineligible,” commissioner Joshua Wostal said about funding professional sports stadiums. “We have not even began to collect that tax, and here is a suggestion that we already deceive the taxpayers that we made a promise to no less than two years ago.” If the CIT is a sticking point, that could be crucial.

“This agreement does not happen without the CIT,” said commissioner Ken Hagan, a proponent of doing a deal with the Rays. “It just doesn’t.” The Rays have also proposed that funding come from a tourist tax on short-term rentals and hotel stays, revenue from a property tax assessed to the area around the stadium, a fee on hotel bills near the stadium and bonds for infrastructure issued through a community development district.

The developments in Central Florida are obviously significant for the Rays but also the rest of the league. Manfred has long stated that he would like to get the ball rolling on expanding from 30 to 32 teams before his contract is up in January of 2029. He has also said that expansion won’t be viable until the A’s and Rays have their future homes figured out. The A’s are building a new stadium in Vegas with a planned opening at the start of the 2028 season.

The aforementioned memorandum of understanding gives Hillsborough College an exclusive negotiating window with the Rays for 180 days. It’s unclear what happens if no deal is in place after that time has elapsed.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Nationals Claim Ken Waldichuk, Designate George Soriano For Assignment

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The Nationals have claimed left-hander Ken Waldichuk off waivers from the Rays, according to announcements from both clubs. Tampa had designated him for assignment a few days ago to make room for infielder Ben Williamson, acquired as part of the three-team trade headlined by Brendan Donovan. To open a spot for Waldichuk today, the Nats have designated right-hander George Soriano for assignment.

Waldichuk, 28, was once a notable prospect but his stock is down. When his stock was high, the Yankees traded him to the Athletics as part of the Frankie Montas deal. Over 2021 and 2022, between those two clubs, he tossed 205 minor league innings with a 2.94 earned run average, 35.3% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate. Baseball America ranked him as Oakland’s #5 prospect going into 2023.

He got a lengthy run in the majors in 2023 but posted a 5.36 ERA. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2024 and part of his 2025. When he returned last summer, the A’s sent him to the minors, where he put up an 8.65 ERA in 51 Triple-A innings.

That performance has pushed him into the DFA carousel but teams clearly still have some faith in a bounceback. The A’s designated him for assignment in December when they acquired Jeff McNeil. He was claimed by Atlanta, who later designated him for assignment and traded him to the Rays for cash.

The Nats may try to pass him through waivers later but they would be a good landing spot for him if he can hang onto a roster spot. Their rotation has very little certainty, especially now that MacKenzie Gore has been traded to the Rangers. They project to have a largely unproven group consisting of Josiah Gray, Cade Cavalli, Foster Griffin, Brad Lord, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and others. Waldichuk still has options and could be sent to Triple-A as depth while the Nats experiment with the guys in that group.

Soriano, 27 in March, spent his entire career with the Marlins until recently. He tossed 118 innings for Miami over the past three seasons with a 5.95 ERA. He exhausted his three option seasons in that time, which nudged him onto the DFA carousel.

Teams are clearly still intrigued, despite the lack of major league success thus far. That’s probably because he is coming off a strong season in the minors. He threw 42 2/3 Triple-A innings last year with a 2.32 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 55.7% ground ball rate. Since the end of last season, he has gone from Miami to Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington via the waiver wire.

Since he’s out of options, those teams have tried to get him through waivers to become non-roster depth. He has less than three years of service time and doesn’t have a previous career outright, so he wouldn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of electing free agency. The Nats can take as long as five days to explore trade interest before putting him on the wire but could be motivated to do so sooner. The 60-day injured list opens up next week, which will provide teams greater flexibility for fringe roster moves.

Photo courtesy of Kiyoshi Mio, Imagn Images

Yankees Claim Osvaldo Bido, Designate Braden Shewmake For Assignment

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The Yankees have claimed right-hander Osvaldo Bido off waivers from the Angels, according to announcements from both clubs. The Halos had designated him for assignment a week ago when they acquired left-hander Jayvien Sandridge from the Yankees. To open a 40-man spot for Bido today, the Yankees designated infielder Braden Shewmake for assignment.

Bido, 30, has been riding the DFA carousel all winter. He finished the 2025 season with the Athletics but has subsequently gone to Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, the Angels and now the Yankees via waiver claims. He has shown enough potential that teams like him but he had a rough season in 2025 and exhausted his final option. That has pushed him to fringe roster status and several clubs are seemingly hoping to get him through waivers and into the minors as non-roster depth.

The righty showed his potential with the A’s in 2024. Still playing in the Oakland Coliseum at that time, Bido gave the A’s 63 1/3 innings in a swing role, allowing 3.41 earned runs per nine. His 10% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 24.3% of batters faced.

The A’s moved to Sutter Health Park last year, a minor league facility, as a temporary home on their way to Las Vegas. That proved to be a hitter-friendly venue, with negative impacts for Bido. He had only allowed three home runs in 2024 but saw the ball go over the fence 19 times in 2025, in a slightly larger sample size of 79 2/3 innings. He was optioned to the minors a few times and finished the year with a 5.87 ERA.

Bido does not have a previous career outright and is shy of three years of service. That means he would not have the right to elect free agency if he were eventually passed through waivers, which explains to constant cycle of waiver claims and DFAs.

The Yankees will probably go down that same road. They don’t have room for Bido in the rotation and their bullpen already projects to have Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough serving as long relievers. For now, Bido has a spot and could report to camp with a chance to earn a job, but it’s also possible the Yankees put him back out on waivers with the hope of him clearing. If that is indeed the plan, they will likely put him out there quickly. The 60-day injured list opens up next week, which will open up extra roster flexibility for most clubs.

Shewmake, 28, was claimed off waivers from the Royals exactly a year ago today. He spent 2025 in the Yankee system but never got called up, exhausting his final option season in the process. He’s considered a strong defender at multiple infield positions but hasn’t shown much with the bat. He has a .118/.127/.191 line in 71 major league plate appearances. Over the past four years, he has a Triple-A line of .241/.304/.386, which translates to a 78 wRC+.

Now that he’s in DFA limbo, he will have resolution within one week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Yanks could theoretically take five days to field interest. His interest should be minimal with his light bat and lack of options. Like Bido, he does not have a previous career outright and is shy of three years of service, meaning he would stick around as non-roster depth if he clears outright waivers. With the aforementioned 60-day IL situation, the Yanks could be motivated to put him on the wire sooner rather than later.

Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images

Giants Sign Michael Fulmer To Minor League Deal

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The Giants announced a number of non-roster invitees to spring training today, with Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle among those to pass them along. Most of the players were already in the organization or their signings had been previously reported but right-hander Michael Fulmer and outfielder Jared Oliva were new names. Fulmer is represented by BBI Sports Group and Oliva the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Fulmer, 33 in March, has had periods of major league success but also lengthy injury interruptions. He was a rotation staple for the Tigers from 2016 to 2018, winning American League Rookie of the Year in the first of those seasons, but then Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2019. When he returned, he struggled and got moved to the bullpen. He was a fairly effective reliever from 2021 to 2023 but then required a revision surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament, wiping out his 2024.

He was back on the mound in 2025 but was mostly stuck in the minors. He briefly got called up to the big leagues by the Red Sox and the Cubs but only made three appearances between those two teams. He pitched in Triple-A for those two clubs as well as the Mariners and Royals last year, throwing a total of 66 1/3 innings with a combined 3.39 earned run average. His 10.5% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 31% of batters faced.

The San Francisco bullpen looks notably weaker than it did just a few months ago. They traded away Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval at the trade deadline, then Randy Rodríguez required Tommy John surgery in September. They haven’t really made any moves to strengthen the group apart from making buy-low investments in injury reclamation projects like Sam Hentges and Jason Foley.

Fulmer joins Gregory Santos as experienced non-roster depth and will try to pitch his way into a return to a regular big league role. From 2021 to 2023, Fulmer made 177 appearances with a 3.55 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 40% ground ball rate.

Oliva, 30, has a major league track record consisting of 26 games for the Pirates over the 2020 and 2021 seasons. He stepped to the plate 59 times and produced a .179/.220/.214 line. He spent last year with the Brewers on a minor league deal and hit .252/.335/.413. He’s generally been good for double-digit steals throughout his minor league career and swiped 57 bags last year.

The Giants project to have a regular outfield consisting of Harrison Bader, Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos, with Jerar Encarnación, Drew Gilbert, Luis Matos, Grant McCray and others in the mix for bench/depth roles. If some playing time opens up, perhaps Oliva’s base running skills can help him earn a bench job. If he eventually gets a roster spot, he still has options.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Latest On Padres’ Ownership

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The legal battle which has been hovering over the Padres for the past year-plus moved a bit closer to resolution this week. While it’s not over the finish line, it appears the club took one step toward closer to potentially being sold. Various details were provided by Dennis Lin of The Athletic, Eben Novy-Williams, Kurt Badenhausen and Scott Soshnick of Sportico, as well as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Interested readers are encouraged to read those pieces in full to get all of the pertinent details. The key takeaway is that Sheel Seider, widow of Peter Seider, has dropped many of the claims in her lawsuit against Peter’s brothers. The two sides of the lawsuit have reached agreement on many of the claims, with the exceptions of those related to trust distributions and demand for accounting.

After Peter died in November of 2023, his stake in the team was placed in a trust. Eric Kutsenda, a business associate of Peter’s, was made the club’s control person on an interim basis. Teams are often owned by many people but MLB designates one individual the control person to represent the team in league matters. Peter’s brother John Seidler was reportedly set to be named control person in December of 2024. Two of Peter’s other brothers, Matt and Bob, remained involved in his trust.

In January of 2025, Sheel filed suit against Matt and Bob, seeking to be named control person of the franchise. The suit claimed that Peter wanted control of the franchise to eventually pass to his young children, with her steering the franchise in the interim. The suit accused Peter’s brothers of various types of malfeasance to take control of the club, including selling themselves assets at below-market prices, and to eventually sell it. Matt then filed a response with a counter narrative, saying that Peter never listed Sheel as a trustee despite amending his trust multiple times and that many transactions had been made to her benefit.

MLB approved John as control person on February of 2025. In November of 2025, the Padres announced that they would be exploring a sale of the club, despite no signs of progress with the dispute. As mentioned, this week’s news seems to represent progress, but with some hurdles remaining.

Acee reports it’s likely that a sale will not take place until full resolution of the legal matters. That’s a situation with some recent precedent in Major League Baseball. After the death of Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos, his surviving family members engaged in a similar fight for control, also involving lawsuits. Those suits were dropped in February of 2023. Later that year, it was reported that David Rubenstein was in talks to buy the club, which he eventually did.

Sportico identifies Jose E. Feliciano and Dan Friedkin as two people interested in buying the club. Feliciano’s investment firm Clearlake Capital was part of the BlueCo consortium which bought  the English Premier League club Chelsea in 2022 for roughly $3 billion in USD. Forbes estimates Feliciano’s net worth to be $3.9 billion. Clearlake reportedly has about $90 billion under management. Mark Walter, Dodgers’ control person and chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, was also part of BlueCo.

Friedkin also owns a Premier League club, having purchased Everton in 2024 for an undisclosed price. He also owns the Serie A club Roma. Forbes estimates his net worth to be just under $9.9 billion. He was born in San Diego in 1965.

Joe Lacob is also identified as someone with interest by all three articles linked above. Lacob has been connected to various MLB clubs in the past, including the Athletics and the Angels. He owns the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries. Forbes estimate his net worth to be $2.3 billion.

Forbes calculates the value of the franchise at $1.95 billion. Sportico comes in a bit higher at $2.3 billion. This week’s reporting suggests the Padres are likely to seek far more than that, with Acee reporting the team likely values itself in the $2.5 to $3 billion range. If they can get anywhere close to that, it would be a record. The largest sale of an MLB club to date is the $2.4 billion Steve Cohen paid to buy the Mets.

It’s possible that a sale could provide some greater certainty about the future of the club in a few areas. The player payroll peaked in 2023, with Cot’s Baseball Contracts putting the Friars at $249MM that year, but has been at a lower tier since then.

That has seemingly played a role in some transactions. Juan Soto’s final year of club control was traded to the Yankees, with younger and cheaper players coming back in return. The Friars signed Nick Pivetta last year but backloaded it significantly, with Pivetta only getting $4MM in the first year of a four-year, $44MM deal. With the cheapest year now completed, he has been in trade rumors this winter.

The person making the decisions about those transactions is president of baseball operations A.J. Preller, who has been running the San Diego front office since 2014. There has been some reported tension between him and the new guys running the team. Despite the club being fairly successful on the field, Preller is going into the final year of his contract and rumors of extension talks haven’t led to a new deal, putting him in lame duck status for 2026.

Photo courtesy of Chadd Cady, Imagn Images

White Sox Designate Bryan Hudson For Assignment

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The White Sox announced that left-hander Bryan Hudson has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for the Sox to add outfielder Austin Hays, whose signing is now official.

Hudson, 29 in May, seemed to have a breakout with the Brewers in 2024. He gave Milwaukee 62 1/3 innings that year, allowing just 1.73 earned runs per nine. His 26.8% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate were both strong figures, while his 41.2% ground ball rate was around par. He averaged just over 91 miles per hour on his four-seamer while also throwing a cutter and a sweeper.

That ERA was at least slightly misleading as Hudson’s .148 batting average on balls in play allowed and 94.2% strand rate was both unsustainably lucky. But even advanced metrics felt he deserved decent results, as he had a 3.60 FIP and 3.22 SIERA on the year. He had enough trust in Milwaukee to rack up 14 holds.

He wasn’t able to maintain that in 2025. He struggled in the first few months and got sent to the minors a couple of times, before being designated for assignment at the trade deadline. A few days later, the White Sox grabbed him off waivers. Between the two clubs, he posted a 4.80 ERA in 15 innings. He still struck out 25.3% of batters faced but gave out walks at an awful 17.3% clip. He also logged 31 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 5.97 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 51.6% ground ball rate.

Over the course of that rocky campaign, Hudson exhausted his final option season, meaning he’ll be out of options going forward. That’s going to make it harder for him to hold a roster spot and has presumably contributed to the Sox bumping him off today.

The Sox will now have one week of DFA limbo to work with. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so they could take as long as five days to field trade interest. If Hudson were to clear waivers, he would stick with the Sox as non-roster depth. He doesn’t have a previous career outright and his service clock is shy of three years, meaning he wouldn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of electing free agency.

If that’s an outcome the Sox are hoping for, then they will probably put Hudson on waivers sooner rather than later. Most clubs have full 40-man rosters at the moment but the 60-day injured list comes back next week, which will open up some greater flexibility for fringe roster moves.

Photo courtesy of Eakin Howard, Imagn Images

Yankees Designate Dom Hamel For Assignment

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The Yankees announced that they have designated right-hander Dom Hamel for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for their claim of outfielder Yanquiel Fernández, a move that was previously reported.

Hamel, 27 in March, got to make a brief major league debut with the Mets last year. He tossed a scoreless inning on September 17th but has been riding the DFA carousel ever since then. He went to the Orioles and Rangers via waiver claims before September was even finished. Texas held him for a few months but gave him another DFA in January. The Yankees claimed him but have now sent him back into DFA limbo again just over a week later.

With that tiny major league résumé, teams are surely focusing on his minor league work. He came up as a starter with the Mets but showed a lack of control and got nudged to the bullpen last year. He pitched 67 2/3 innings over 31 Triple-A outings in 2025, with 11 of those technically starts but with Hamel mostly working as an Opener. His four-seamer and sinker both sat in the low-90s on average while he also threw a cutter, slider and changeup.

He posted a 5.32 earned run average, which is obviously not a sexy number, but his 7.4% walk rate demonstrated much better control. He also punched out 25.2% of opponents faced. There’s clearly enough here for teams to have some interest, but it seems they are likely hoping to pass him through waivers in order to keep Hamel as non-roster depth, hence the cycle of claims and DFAs. Hamel doesn’t have a previous outright and is shy of three years of service, so he wouldn’t have the right to elect free agency if he were to clear waivers.

The Yanks will likely put him back out on waivers soon. They technically could wait as long as five days but start the process sooner. Most teams currently have full 40-man rosters but the 60-day injured list opens up next week, which will give some clubs extra flexibility for fringe roster moves.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

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