Offseason In Review: Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies are mostly running back the same squad as last year, but with a few key adjustments.
Major League Signings
- DH Kyle Schwarber: Five years, $150MM (includes $15MM signing bonus)
- C J.T. Realmuto: Three years, $45MM
- RHP Brad Keller: Two years, $22MM (includes $4MM signing bonus)
- OF Adolis García: One year, $10MM
- RHP Zach Pop: Split deal, $900K in majors, $250K in minors
2026 spending (not including Pop): $66MM
Total spending (not including Pop): $227MM
Trades and Claims
- Claimed OF Pedro León off waivers from Orioles
- Selected RHP Zach McCambley from Marlins in Rule 5 draft
- Acquired RHP Yoniel Curet from Rays for RHP Tommy McCollum
- Acquired LHP Kyle Backhus from Diamondbacks for OF Avery Owusu-Asiedu
- Acquired RHP Jonathan Bowlan from Royals for LHP Matt Strahm
- Acquired RHP Chase Shugart from Pirates for IF Francisco Loreto
Option Decisions
- OF Harrison Bader declined $10MM mutual option
- Club exercised $9MM option on LHP José Alvarado
Notable Minor League Signings
- Liover Peguero, Bryan De La Cruz, Michael Mercado, Bryse Wilson, Levi Stoudt, Mark Kolozsvary, Tucker Davidson, Génesis Cabrera, Tim Mayza, Dylan Moore, Daniel Robert, Lou Trivino, Connor Gillispie
Extensions
- LHP Jesús Luzardo: Five years, $135MM (includes $32.5MM club option for 2032)
Notable Losses
- Ranger Suárez, Harrison Bader, Max Kepler (unsigned and serving PED suspension), Walker Buehler, Jordan Romano, Rafael Lantigua, Griff McGarry (Rule 5 draft), Matt Strahm, Weston Wilson (waivers), Nick Castellanos (released)
The Phillies went into the winter with a batch of notable players reaching free agency. Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Ranger Suárez and Harrison Bader were among the players heading to the open market. The Phils generally run one of the top payrolls in the league, but it never seemed like they would have the money to bring back all of them.
Schwarber and Realmuto felt like the priorities. Losing Suárez would hurt the rotation, but the Phils could still hope for a good starting group without him. There would be some extra risk because Zack Wheeler required surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome, but he is expected back fairly early in the 2026 season. Once he is back, four spots would be taken by Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo. The final spot could then come down to a battle between Taijuan Walker and Andrew Painter. Painter still has options and could be sent to Triple-A if he doesn’t win that battle. Walker has been nudged into a long relief role in the past and could wind up there again.
In center field, the Phils seemed committed to giving Justin Crawford a shot. He was pushing for a promotion in 2025 until they acquired Bader at the deadline. He is still not on the 40-man roster, but the Phils have more or less handed him the job for 2026. He has a particularly contact- and speed-based approach. He’s never hit ten home runs in a season but puts the ball in play and lets his legs do the work.
There is risk in relying on prospects with no major league experience but those are better fallback plans than the Phils had for the other spots. They didn’t have an everyday catcher waiting to take over for Realmuto and certainly didn’t have a Schwarber-esque bat to plug into the DH spot.
Schwarber’s market was hot, unsurprising for a guy who has been so good at the plate in recent years. It felt like the Phillies would match whatever other clubs were willing to offer — and that is exactly how it played out. The Pirates, shockingly, put forth an offer in the $120-125MM range over four years. The Orioles reportedly pushed the bidding up to $150MM over five years but the Phils got it done at that price. It’s a historic deal. Putting aside Shohei Ohtani, no primary designated hitter had earned a nine-figure deal in free agency before. No hitter, regardless of position, had reached nine figures going into his age-33 season.
For a 33-year-old DH to blow past both of those benchmarks and get to $150MM showcases just how good Schwarber has been. He just crushed 56 home runs last year while continuing to run elite walk rates. He has also erased his previous platoon issues, as he was actually better against lefties in both 2024 and 2025.
Bringing back Schwarber left Realmuto as the primary item on the to-do list but the Phils explored a different path. With Bo Bichette lingering unsigned into January, the Phils tried to take advantage by offering him a seven-year deal worth almost $200M. He decided to opt for the short-term route with high average annual values, accepting a three-year deal from the Mets worth $126MM with opt-outs.
With the Phils having Trea Turner and Bryson Stott in their middle infield, it seemed the plan was to put Bichette at third. The Phils could have then traded Alec Bohm and his $10.2MM salary, perhaps for catching. The Bichette offer was worth about $28MM annually, so they would have been adding about $18MM to the payroll if they were able to flip Bohm for a league minimum player or prospect. When Bichette went elsewhere, the Phils quickly turned to Realmuto and gave him $45MM over three years, or $15MM annually.
Bringing back Schwarber and Realmuto is nice, but there’s a bit of risk in continually committing to an aging roster. Both guys are now signed through their respective age-37 seasons. Turner and Bryce Harper are going into their age-33 seasons and still under contract into the next decade. Wheeler and Nola are in their mid-30s as well. There’s a financial aspect in hoping for Crawford and Painter to carve out roles on the 2026 club, but they also need some young guys to step up in order to avoid getting blindsided by the aging curve.
One area where change seemed to be guaranteed was right field. Manager Rob Thomson and Nick Castellanos had clashed a few times in the 2025 season. The organization seemed to have no questions about where they stood in terms of that spat. Within a few days of the Phils being eliminated from the playoffs, it was reported that Thomson would be back for 2026. He and the Phils would sign an extension in December.
Castellanos, on the other hand, was out the door. In mid-October, just a few days after the report of Thomson staying, it was reported that the Phils were going to move on from Castellanos. They held onto him throughout the winter to see if a trade could come together but it never did. He was released in February, just before camps opened for spring training.
In the interim, they had replaced him with Adolis García. He had been non-tendered by the Rangers after two down years. Castellanos is one of the worst outfield defenders in the league and García is pretty good with the glove, so he’ll certainly be an upgrade in that department. His offense is more questionable, as he is coming off a dismal .227/.271/.394 showing. He’s not too far removed from a 39-homer season in 2023 but is now 33 years old. Helping him get back on track will be pivotal to the Phillies’ success.
There was another bit of internal drama, but with no real consequences. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made some disparaging remarks about Harper’s 2025 season, which annoyed Harper and led to some brief trade rumors. Those rumors were quickly shot down and Dombrowski suggested the proverbial water had passed under the bridge.
A third note of clubhouse discord seemed to impact the club’s bullpen plans. Left-hander Matt Strahm was traded to the Royals for right-hander Jonathan Bowlan on Dec. 19. Dombrowski framed it as simply a product of circumstances. Bowlan is less established than Strahm, but he has big stuff, is still making the league minimum and can be controlled for six years. Strahm had one season left on his deal and will make $7.5MM in 2026. The Phils had three lefty relievers at the start of the winter, with José Alvarado and Tanner Banks being the other two. But in the days after the trade, it was reported that the Phils were motivated to move Strahm because he had regularly clashed with team officials.
Regardless of the motivation, a key piece of the bullpen had been subtracted. The Phils then used free agency to bolster the group, signing Brad Keller to a two-year deal worth $22MM. Keller was once a decent starter with the Royals but was largely in the injury wilderness in 2023 and 2024. He had a tremendous bounceback season out of the Cubs’ bullpen in 2025, tossing 69 2/3 innings with a 2.07 earned run average, 27.2% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 56.1% ground ball rate. Some clubs were interested in putting Keller back in a starting role but the Phils plan to deploy him as a reliever.
A few more notable developments popped up during spring training. Outfielder Johan Rojas has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He is the third member of the 2025 Phillies to receive a PED suspension, alongside Alvarado and Max Kepler. With the Phils giving Crawford the center field opportunity to start the season, Rojas was going to be a potential fallback plan if Crawford struggled.
It’s not a devastating loss, but it gives the Phils a bit less of a safety net in a position where they are taking a risk. Perhaps they’ll look to add some center field depth in the coming weeks as spring training ends and other clubs make their cuts, which will send some players to the waiver wire or back to free agency.
The other big development out of Phillies camp was the Jesús Luzardo extension. He and the club agreed to a five-year deal worth $135MM, beginning in 2027. That doesn’t impact the 2026 club but staves off a potential rotation pitfall a year from now. Both Luzardo and Walker were slated for free agency after 2026. The ’27 rotation projects to have a core four of Wheeler, Nola, Luzardo and Sánchez. With Walker’s impending departure, there’s a path for Painter or someone else to step up a seize a future spot. If not, the Phillies are never hesitant to spend in free agency.
On the whole, the Phils are mostly keeping the band together. The rotation is losing Suárez, but perhaps Painter can make up for his loss somewhat. The outfield has been shaken up a bit, with Crawford and García set to replace Bader and Castellanos. The bullpen has had a few changes as well.
But the core will largely be the same. With Schwarber and Realmuto back, those two will be lineup fixtures alongside Harper, Turner, Bohm, Marsh and Stott. It’s obviously a strong group, with an active streak of four straight postseason appearances. The playoff results have been more disappointing recently, but the regular season numbers keep getting better. They went from 87 wins in 2022 to 90, 95 and 96 in the next three campaigns.
It seems the club has tried to strike a balance. With most of those core players being in their mid-30s and signed for many years to come, there’s surely a concern about eventually getting too old at some point, but they do want to keep it going for now. They will try to get an injection of youth from Crawford and Painter. They almost got a bit more youth from the Bichette signing but couldn’t quite pull it off, which led to the Realmuto reunion and greater continuity.
How would you grade the Phillies' offseason?
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Mike Tauchman Has March 25 Opt-Out In Mets Deal
Outfielder Mike Tauchman is in camp with the Mets on a minor league deal. If the club doesn’t give him a roster spot at the end of camp, he can seek out opportunities elsewhere. Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that Tauchman has a March 25th opt-out in that deal. The Mets start the season on March 26th.
The Mets have two outfield spots spoken for. Juan Soto will be in left field and Luis Robert Jr. in center. The right field job was seemingly left open by design, as the Mets wanted to give prospect Carson Benge a chance to earn a spot. Benge has not yet made his major league debut, so the club needed to have some contingency plans. Tyrone Taylor is on the roster and could step up but he also would be a good fit as a glove-first fourth outfielder. Brett Baty is going to be in a super utility role and will be in the mix as well. Tauchman was brought in to give the Mets another option without taking up a roster spot. MJ Melendez was added to the roster but he has an option remaining and could be sent to Triple-A.
Benge is doing what he can to get the job, with a .367/.406/.433 line in spring so far. That’s held up by an unsustainable .440 batting average on balls in play but it’s encouraging nonetheless. Tauchman is putting up even better numbers. With a .400 BABIP, he has a .333/.481/.619 line in spring action so far.
Sammon floats the idea of both players cracking the roster but also notes it may not be realistic. With Francisco Lindor trending towards being ready on Opening Day, the roster is tight. Backup catcher Luis Torrens will have one of the four bench spots. Taylor and Mark Vientos are out of options and should have two more. The final spot could go to a backup infielder like Ronny Mauricio.
Mauricio does still have an option remaining, so the Mets could send him to Triple-A and add Tauchman to the bench. Doing so would leave them without a bench infielder, so the Mets would have to be comfortable with the versatility of their starters. Second baseman Marcus Semien and third baseman Bo Bichette are both former shortstops, with Bichette being an everyday guy there as recently as last year. Baty can play second and third. Vientos give them some cover at the hot corner. Jorge Polanco is expected to play a lot of first base but he also has recent experience at second and third.
It’s unknown how the Mets feel about that jumble but it’s theoretically possible they could feel comfortable without Mauricio in the mix. If he were sent to Triple-A, he could get some regular playing time, which he hasn’t had for a while. He missed 2024 due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Last year, he was still rehabbing that knee to start the year and then was mostly kept in a bench role once he was healthy. Vidal Bruján is only on the roster and out of options but the Mets may try to get him through waivers.
If the Mets don’t find a spot for Tauchman, he could find one somewhere else. He’s not a star but has been pretty solid for the past three years. Since the start of 2023, he has a combined .255/.359/.381 line, which translates to a 111 wRC+. He doesn’t have huge power but he has drawn walks at a strong 13% clip, while keeping his strikeouts down to a 21.3% clip. His defensive grades have been strong as well. FanGraphs credited him with 4.1 wins above replacement in 310 games over that span.
Despite the solid production, teams have somewhat surprisingly been averse to investing in him. The Cubs non-tendered him after 2024 despite a fairly modest $2.9MM projected salary from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. He spent 2025 with the White Sox and had another decent campaign but he was once again non-tendered, with Swartz projecting a $3.4MM salary.
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MLB Announces 80-Game Suspension For Johan Rojas
Major League Baseball announced today that Phillies outfielder Johan Rojas has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for Boldenone, a performance enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that Rojas had tested positive for a PED but that he was appealing. It now appears the appeals process has been completed, as Rojas will begin serving his suspension to begin the 2026 season.
Rojas, 25, has been Philadelphia’s center fielder for a decent chunk of the past three seasons. He gets great marks for his defense and also steals bases but his offense has been more questionable. Since the start of 2024, he has a .237/.279/.312 batting line. That translates to a 64 wRC+, indicating he was 36% below league average at the plate in that time.
Despite his assets, the lack of offense has pushed the Phillies to move on from relying on Rojas. They acquired Harrison Bader at last year’s deadline. Bader became a free agent at season’s end but the Phils plan to give prospect Justin Crawford the job.
Rojas could have started 2026 as a fourth outfielder or perhaps getting regular playing time in the minors. If Crawford struggled in his first exposure to major league pitching, Rojas could have been a speed-and-defense fallback. That’s now off the table for the first half of the season. Rojas could return in the second half but players who receive PED suspensions aren’t eligible for the postseason.
Without Rojas, the Phils feel a bit light in terms of center field depth. Left fielder Brandon Marsh has experience there but is probably stretched defensively. Pedro León is on the 40-man but has just seven big league games under his belt. Utility player Dylan Moore has some limited experience in center. He’s not on the roster but could be selected to serve in a multi-positional bench role.
As Opening Day gets closer, it’s possible some other guys become available. As teams make their final roster decisions, some guys will end up on waivers or in free agency. Perhaps the Phillies can add some extra center field coverage in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images
Travis Bazzana Will Not Make Guardians’ Opening Day Roster
The Guardians are not planning to carry second base prospect Travis Bazzana on the Opening Day roster. According to Tim Stebbins of MLB.com, Bazzana has been informed he won’t make the team but will remain in big league camp for a few more days.
Bazzana, 23, seemingly came into camp with a legit chance to break camp. He is expected to be the club’s long-term answer at second base but the question is when that will start. The first overall pick of the 2024 draft, he split last year between Double-A and Triple-A, finishing his season with 26 games at the top minor league level. In his 120 Triple-A plate appearances, his 26.7% strikeout rate was a bit high but he ran a huge 24.2% walk rate in that small sample and hit four home runs. His .225/.420/.438 slash line led to a 138 wRC+.
Having already showed some success at Triple-A, there was an argument he was ready for the majors, especially considering that the Guards didn’t get much offense from their middle infield last year. On the other hand, his professional track record is still pretty limited. As mentioned, he was only drafted in 2024. He missed some time with injuries last year, appearing in 84 games in total. When combined with the 27 High-A games he played in his draft year, he has only 111 profesional games under his belt.
This month, Bazzana represented his native Australia in the World Baseball Classic, putting up a .188/.235/.375 line in four games. In Cactus League action, he has a .286/.333/.500 line in five games. It’s unknown if the Guards are putting any stock in those numbers or if they always had planned to send Bazzana back to the minors to start the year.
Once upon a time, it was basically guaranteed that a top prospect would be held down in the minors for the first few weeks of a season. By doing so, a club could prevent a player from earning a full year of service time in that season and therefore gain an extra year of club control over the player, a practice commonly referred to as service time manipulation.
The current collective bargaining agreement introduced some new measures, known as the Prospect Promotion Incentive, which have made it far more common for top prospects to break camp. Under these measures, a top prospect can earn his club an extra draft pick if he is promoted early in the season and then goes on to meet certain awards criteria. Also, a prospect can be awarded a full year of service time retroactively even if promoted later, if they are able to finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting.
Bazzana is a consensus top prospect, so the Guards could have given him the second base job out of camp and hoped for him to earn them a draft pick. It doesn’t appear they will go that route. Instead, they will send him to the minors, at least to start the season.
Last year, Gabriel Arias and Brayan Rocchio got the majority of the middle infield playing time in Cleveland. Both players were subpar at the plate. They actually had matching wRC+ numbers of 77 on the year, indicating they were each 23% below league average. Arias got strong reviews for his glovework at short, while Rocchio’s defensive metrics were more mixed.
It’s possible that those two are again the primary middle infielders to open the 2026 season, with utility players like Daniel Schneemann and Ángel Martínez also in the mix. Juan Brito is also on the 40-man roster and could push for some playing time, though he hasn’t yet made his major league debut. He still has an option and was limited by injuries to just 31 minor league games last year. The Guards could send him back to Triple-A for more reps but he has over 170 games played at that level overall.
Circling back to Bazzana, even if he doesn’t break camp, his PPI eligibility is still theoretically possible. The Guards have a 186-day season this year and a player needs 172 days in the majors to earn a full year of service time. They could promote him in the first two weeks of the season and keep PPI on the table. Perhaps there’s a scenario where he’s crushing the minors or someone else gets hurt and Bazzana is promoted early enough.
If nothing like that comes to pass, then it will be interesting to monitor exactly when he gets called up, as they will then have motivation to keep him down longer. In 2024, the Pirates held Paul Skenes down until the second week of May but he pitched so well that he earned a full year of service regardless. In 2025, Bubba Chandler was pitching well in the minors but the Bucs held him down until late August, seemingly hoping to avoid a repeat of the Skenes situation.
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White Sox Place Alexander Alberto On Waivers
The White Sox have placed Rule 5 pick Alexander Alberto on waivers, reports James Fegan of Sox Machine. Another club could claim the right-hander but would be subject to the standard Rule 5 restrictions, meaning Alberto would not be eligible to be optioned to the minors. If he clears waivers, he will have to be offered back to the Rays.
This effectively means that Alberto isn’t breaking camp with the Sox. Chicago made two Rule 5 picks in December, taking right-hander Jedixson Paez from the Red Sox and Alberto from the Rays. Alberto has tossed 6 2/3 innings over seven spring appearances, having allowed ten runs, eight of them earned. He struck out seven batters but allowed 12 hits, issued four walks and threw one wild pitch.
Under the regulations of the Rule 5, the selecting team must pay $100K to the club they take the player from. The player cannot be optioned to the minors and must therefore stay on the active roster or injured list. If he survives a full season with his new club, including at least 90 days on the active roster, then his rights fully transfer over to the drafting club.
With Alberto’s rough spring showing, it seems the Sox aren’t going to break camp with him. It was always a long shot pick, as Alberto’s career topped out at High-A last year. To skip over Double-A and Triple-A and stick in the big leagues, even with a rebuilding club, would be a tall order.
It’s possible some other club takes a chance on the stuff. Last year, Alberto tossed 48 2/3 innings on the farm, allowing 2.59 earned runs per nine. His 10% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 30.6% of batters faced and induced grounders on 54.4% of balls in play. His cut fastball sits in the upper 90s while his upper 80s slider is considered a strong pairing. If no other club grabs him via waivers, he must be offered back to the Rays for $50K, half of the initial selection fee. The Rays would not need to carry Alberto on their 40-man roster.
Photo courtesy of Arianna Grainey, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Sign Luis Urías To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks have signed infielder Luis Urías to a minor league deal, according to the Reno Aces, the club’s Triple-A affiliate. It’s unclear if the Wasserman client will report to major league or minor league camp.
Urías, 29 in June, was once a solid regular for the Brewers. He hit 39 home runs over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, producing a combined .244/.340/.426 line and 111 wRC+. He bounced around the dirt, making at least 49 starts at each of shortstop, second base and third base. FanGraphs credited him with 4.7 wins above replacement in that span.
Unfortunately, his production tailed off in 2023 and he’s been more of a role player in recent years. He has 616 plate appearances since the start of 2023 with a .213/.319/.337 line and 88 wRC+. He signed with the A’s last year and hit .230/.315/.338 for an 84 wRC+ in 96 games before being released in August. He spent the final few weeks of 2025 back with the Brewers on a minor league deal.
Arizona has Geraldo Perdomo at short, Ketel Marte at second and Nolan Arenado at third. They have Tim Tawa and Jose Fernandez also on the roster as potential bench infielders, though Fernandez has options and hasn’t yet played at the Triple-A level, so he’ll almost certainly start the season in the minors. Tawa has 74 big league games under his belt and could be on the major league bench but he also has options and could be sent to the farm.
The Snakes have Ildemaro Vargas and Jacob Amaya around as infielders with some major league experience who are signed to minor league deals. Urías will jump into that group and provide the Diamondbacks with some more non-roster veteran depth on the dirt.
Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast
On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.
The World Baseball Classic is winding down and Opening Day is now just over a week away. Do you have a question about a camp battle? The upcoming season? Next winter’s potential labor showdown? If you have a question on those topics or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.
Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.
In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
José Leclerc Targeting July Return
Free agent right-hander José Leclerc threw a bullpen today and is targeting a July return, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The righty underwent shoulder surgery last summer. It was known that the procedure would end his 2025 campaign but his expected timeline for 2026 wasn’t clear until now.
Leclerc, 32, has always had a big strikeout stuff but also a lack of control. From 2018 to 2024, he gave the Rangers 299 2/3 innings, allowing 3.24 earned runs per nine. His 11.8% walk rate was a few ticks worse than average but his 31.8% strikeout rate was quite strong.
He had occasionally served as the club’s closer and earned 41 saves over multiple seasons, but had mostly been a setup guy, having earned 58 holds. For most of that time, he offered a six-pitch mix including a mid-90s four-seamer and sinker, a high-80s cutter and changeup, as well as low-80s slider and high-70s curveball.
The Athletics signed him to a one-year, $10MM deal going into 2025 but that didn’t pan out for the club. He made ten appearances before landing on the injured list in April with a lat strain. He eventually underwent surgery in July. As mentioned, he wasn’t expected back in 2025 but it wasn’t clear if he would be recovered in time for Opening Day 2026.
Now it seems he will be a midseason wild card for 2026. With a potential return in July, he could be back just in time to join a pennant race. Almost all contending clubs are looking for extra arms ahead of the trade deadline, which will be on August 3rd this year. Leclerc would only cost money, as opposed to prospects, which could appeal to some clubs if they have payroll space and prefer not to dip into their farm system. A club could theoretically sign Leclerc at any time but they may prefer to wait to make sure he avoids any setbacks between now and July.
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Padres Notes: Sale, Rotation, Infield
The Padres are for sale and they seem to be making progress on that front. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the field of potential buyers has been narrowed from five to four and that the process could be complete by April. Both Acee and Jeff Passan of ESPN report that the sale price is expected to exceed $3 billion.
The Seidler family announced in November that they would be pursuing a sale of the franchise. At that time, it appeared some squabbling within the family could hamper those efforts but reporting in February indicated that some of the legal bumps had been smoothed out and that five prospective buyers had submitted bids. It appears that one of the groups has been removed from the bidding, though Acee doesn’t specify who’s out and who’s still in.
If the price does indeed go beyond $3 billion, that would easily set a new benchmark. The highest sale price for an MLB franchise to date is the $2.4 billion Steve Cohen plonked down to purchase the Mets in 2020.
Turning to the roster, it seems increasingly likely that Joe Musgrove will start the season on the injured list. The righty is looking to get back on the mound after Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2025 season. It was reported three days ago that Musgrove was being brought along slowly in camp. Acee reported yesterday that Musgrove still hasn’t thrown again in the past few days. He pitched three innings in an exhibition game on March 4th but didn’t recover as hoped and has only thrown one bullpen session since then.
The Padres say they are being cautious, with manager Craig Stammen referring to it as a “holding pattern” and a “pause” for Musgrove as they make sure he’s ready to proceed to the next step. “Waiting to kind of get over that hump, feel a little bit better before we start doing anything out on the field,” Stammen said. “But still in a good spot, still something we knew was going to happen, had to prepare for. We’ve got his best interest in mind.”
Even if there’s nothing serious going on, Opening Day is two weeks away, so each day with no progress increases the chances of an IL stint. The Padres are set to open the season with Michael King, Nick Pivetta and Randy Vásquez in three rotation spots. Acee pegs Germán Márquez and Walker Buehler as the favorites for the final two spots, assuming Musgrove hits the IL. Márquez is already on the 40-man roster but Buehler doesn’t yet have a spot. He can opt out of his deal at the end of camp if he doesn’t have one.
Whatever the Friars do for Opening Day will be temporary. Musgrove will be back in the mix at some point. Matt Waldron is behind schedule due to hemorrhoid surgery but is ramping up now. He is expected to start the season on the IL but shouldn’t miss too much time. He is out of options so the Friars would have to find a spot for him on the active roster or bump him off the 40-man. Griffin Canning will also be looking to rejoin the rotation at some point, likely a few weeks later than Musgrove and Waldron.
On the infield, Sung Mun Song is trying to work through a nagging right oblique issue. He may open the season on the injured list, which could have opened a bench spot for someone like Will Wagner. Unfortunately, Acee relays that Wagner is dealing with an oblique strain of his own and has not done any baseball activity since the start of March. He will almost certainly join Song on the IL to start the year. That could increase the chances of someone like Ty France or Mason McCoy getting an Opening Day spot.
Like Buehler, France can opt out of his deal at the end of camp if he’s not added to the 40-man. The Friars opened a spot this week by outrighting Daison Acosta but would need one more if they select both Buehler and France. That won’t be hard. Yu Darvish and Bryan Hoeing are both expected to miss the 2026 season due to surgeries and neither has been moved to the 60-day IL yet.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Rays Acquire Matthew Hoskins As PTBNL In Kameron Misner Trade
The Rays announced that they have acquired right-hander Matthew Hoskins from the Royals as the player to be named later in the Kameron Misner trade. Tampa flipped Misner to Kansas City for cash or a PTBNL in November. Hoskins wasn’t on the Royals’ 40-man roster, so no corresponding move is required.
Hoskins, 22, was just selected in the 12th round of the 2025 draft. The Royals didn’t have him pitch in affiliated ball after signing him, so he still hasn’t made his professional debut. He had spent the previous three years pitching for the University of Georgia. He gave the Bulldogs 50 2/3 innings with a 6.22 earned run average. His 27.6% strikeout rate was strong but he walked 40 of the 243 batters he faced, a 16.5% clip. He also hit 16 batters and threw six wild pitches.
Baseball America ranked Hoskins the #496 player available in the draft. Given his college numbers, they unsurprisingly noted that he will require some polish and is likely to be a reliever in the long term. But they highlighted that his fastball sits in the upper 90s and can touch triple digits. His slider is his best secondary pitch and he also throws a changeup. The Rays are seemingly betting on the raw stuff and will take on Hoskins as a long-term project.
Photo courtesy of Rich Storry, Imagn Images