Guardians Designate Doug Nikhazy For Assignment
The Guardians announced that they have selected left-hander Kolby Allard to the 40-man roster. To open an active roster spot, right-hander Colin Holderman has been optioned to Triple-A Columbus. In a corresponding 40-man move, left-hander Doug Nikhazy has been designated for assignment.
Allard, 28, bounced on and off Cleveland’s roster last year in a swing role. He tossed 65 innings over 33 appearances, including two starts, with an excellent 2.63 earned run average. Maintaining an ERA in that range was likely not possible. He benefited from a 79.2% strand rate with only 5.6% of his fly balls leaving the yard. His 5.3% walk rate was good but his 15.8% strikeout rate and 38% ground ball rate were subpar. His 4.41 SIERA suggested his ERA may have been almost two full runs to the lucky side.
The Guards outrighted him off the roster at season’s end but then re-signed him to a new minor league deal. Though it’s only a few days into the season, the Guardians are probably adding Allard in case they need some length to spare the bullpen. They are in Los Angeles for three games against a tough Dodger lineup, making it possible one of their starters gets knocked out early. On top of that, there’s some concern around Tanner Bibee. The righty departed his Opening Day start after five innings due to shoulder inflammation.
Parker Messick is starting the first game against the Dodgers tonight. Manager Stephen Vogt recently said Bibee could make his scheduled start in the second game, per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com. Gavin Williams is scheduled for the third game. If someone gets knocked out early or Bibee’s shoulder flares up, Allard could be called upon to eat some innings.
The move will cost Nikhazy his spot on the 40-man roster. The 26-year-old was a second-round pick in the 2021 draft. He generally posted solid numbers on his way up the ladder. From 2022 to 2024, he logged 328 innings over 70 starts and five relief appearances with a 3.90 ERA. His 26.8% strikeout rate was quite strong but his 14.5% walk rate was not.
The Guards added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2024, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. His results backed up last year. He posted a 5.02 ERA at the Triple-A level. His 11.1% walk rate was an improvement but still a high figure, while his 22.5% strikeout rate was a drop from his previous seasons. He made his major league debut allowed six earned runs in four innings.
Nikhazy is now bumped into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Guards could take as long as five days to see if there’s any trade interest. Nikhazy is still optionable for another two seasons, which could add to his appeal for a club looking to add depth to the minor league system. Despite his underwhelming 2025, Baseball America still ranked him as the club’s #28 prospect coming into this year.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Recall Jose Fernandez For MLB Debut
The Diamondbacks announced that infielder Jose Fernandez has been recalled to the active roster. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He will take the spot of first baseman Pavin Smith, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, retroactive to March 29th.
Fernandez, now 22, was an international signing out of Venezuela in 2021. Since then, he has climbed the minor league ladder. He never really hit much but he stole some bases and played all four infield positions.
He may have taken a step forward offensively last year. He got into 122 Double-A games and stepped to the plate 511 times. His 17 home runs more than doubled his previous high, which was the seven long balls he hit in the prior season. His .272/.321/.454 batting line was still not overwhelming, translating to a 98 wRC+. However, considering his speed and his defensive abilities, it was an intriguing jump.
The Diamondbacks gave him a 40-man roster spot in November, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. In December, FanGraphs ranked him as the #42 prospect in the system. Arizona optioned him to the minors a few weeks ago, an unsurprising move since he had no Triple-A experience coming into this year. He does have one Triple-A game under his belt now but will quickly be thrust up to the show. He was perhaps chosen by default, as he was the only position player on the 40-man roster who wasn’t already in the majors or on the injured list.
The Snakes have a regular infield of Nolan Arenado, Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte and Carlos Santana from left to right. With Smith out, they don’t really have a regular designated hitter. Utility guy Ildemaro Vargas is in that spot tonight. Fernandez gives the club a bit of depth all over and could perhaps serve as a pinch runner or defensive substitute. Given that every healthy position player on the 40-man is now on the active roster, another injury in the short-term will require Arizona to add a non-roster player.
Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images
Brewers, Cooper Pratt Reportedly Working On Extension
The Brewers and prospect Cooper Pratt are reportedly on the verge of finalizing an eight-year contract worth $50.75MM. There will also be two club options worth about $15MM per year, though the value of those options can increase via escalators. The Brewers will need to make a corresponding move to add the Boras Corporation client to their 40-man roster.
It’s a surprising out-of-nowhere extension. Pratt is 21 years old and hasn’t made it to the majors yet. He only just made his Triple-A debut a few days ago. He wasn’t even going to be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until December of 2027.
Extensions for players with no major league experience are becoming more common but this one feels even a bit more extreme than some of the others. Most pre-debut extensions have been for guys very close to cracking the big leagues. The Brewers themselves did one with Jackson Chourio just over two years ago, an $82MM guarantee, though that one was a bit less surprising. Chourio had finished the prior season at the Triple-A level and seemed highly likely to break camp with Milwaukee in 2024 as he was one of the top three prospects in the sport.
Pratt, on the other hand, mostly features on the back of top 100 prospect lists. Baseball America is the high outlet, putting him at #50. MLB Pipeline has him at #62, ESPN at #70, The Athletic at #99 and he’s not even on the FanGraphs list. He had an okay season at Double-A last year, with a .238/.343/.348 line and 107 wRC+, and only just cracked the Triple-A level to start this season.
Perhaps it speaks to the Brewers being quite high on Pratt’s future. Though his offense was middling last year, the plate discipline was clearly good. His 12.7% walk rate and 15.2% strikeout rate were both strong figures. He only hit eight home runs but could perhaps add more power in time. He stole 31 bags last year and is considered a solid defender at shortstop.
If the Brewers have faith in Pratt’s long-term future, there’s sense in locking him up now. That’s especially true with him being a Boras client. That agency isn’t quite as extension-averse as its reputation but the extensions they have done have almost always been for guys who have reached their arbitration years. According to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, which has data going back to 2006, the Carlos González deal from back in 2011 is the only pre-arbitration extension for a Boras client.
In that context, perhaps the Brewers felt it was worth it to take a gamble on Pratt, even though he is still so early in his career. If they waited until he had been in the big leagues for a few years, the price would go up if he had any kind of success. From the perspective of Pratt, this is a chance for him to lock up some notable earnings and stave off any chance of a bust. Perhaps he will find himself underpaid if he becomes a star, but he’s not the level of surefire, can’t-miss prospect that Chourio was. He could play out this contract, including the options, and still reach free agency after his age-30 season.
What remains to be seen is how this impacts Milwaukee’s short-term plans. Even if Pratt is signed to a big league deal, he doesn’t need to be on the active roster, as he could still be kept in the minors on optional assignment. Joey Ortiz was their everyday shortstop last year. He put up a rough .230/.276/.317 line at the plate but stole 14 bases and was credited with 12 Outs Above Average. He is still in that job and has a massive .455/.500/.455 line so far this year but in a tiny sample of 12 plate appearances.
Ortiz is still under club control for many years but the club may pivot away from him at some point if he can’t post better offense over a sustained stretch of time. He does have options and could be sent to the minors, or perhaps be moved into a utility role since he has experience at second and third base. Pratt has fairly limited experience off the shortstop position but could presumably handle second or third if the Brewers asked him to. For now, Brice Turang is a strong option at the keystone. Third base is a bit more open, with David Hamilton and Luis Rengifo in the mix at the moment.
Looking further down the road, most of those guys still have lots of club control. Rengifo is on a one-year deal but Ortiz, Turang and Hamilton aren’t slated for free agency until after 2029. Prospects Jett Williams, Jesús Made and Luis Peña are generally considered top 100 guys who will be in the mix at some point. Williams has already played at the Triple-A level, Made at Double-A and Pena at High-A. At some point over the horizon, the infield could feel quite crowded, which could perhaps lead to a trade.
In the near term, the deal could have other notable impacts. With the deal in place, the Brewers may not worry about Pratt’s service time, since he would be under club control for the ten years regardless. The Prospect Promotion Incentive could also be interesting here. Pratt would be PPI eligible since he is on the aforementioned prospect lists. Even though he missed the first few games of the season, it’s still early enough for the Brewers to call him up for a full year of service time.
However, a player who signs an extension prior to his major league debut is not eligible to earn PPI picks for his team. Unless the two sides agree to the deal in principle and then don’t officially sign it until after Pratt’s debut, then PPI is off the table.
Altogether, it’s a surprising and curious extension, one that seemingly leads to more questions than it answers. Perhaps the coming days will provide some more clarity on the deal and what it means for all the other moving pieces in Milwaukee.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported that the two sides were working on an eight-year deal worth more than $50MM, including those club options. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported the specific guarantee. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that there are escalators on the options. Photos courtesy of Dave Kallmann, Imagn Images.
Brewers Acquire Luis Matos
The Brewers announced that they have acquired outfielder Luis Matos from the Giants in exchange for cash considerations. San Francisco had designated Matos for assignment last week when setting their Opening Day roster. To open a 40-man spot for him, Milwaukee has designated left-hander Sammy Peralta for assignment. Matos is out of options, so the Brewers will also need to open an active roster spot for him when he reports to the team.
Milwaukee is buying low on a former top prospect. Matos was a fairly high profile international signing out of Venezuela and he performed well against lower-level pitching. Going into 2022, Baseball America ranked him the #73 prospect in all of baseball. In November of that year, the Giants added him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
He hasn’t been able to click in the majors. Over the past three seasons, the Giants sent him to the plate 593 times. His 14.2% strikeout rate was quite low but he also drew a walk at a subpar rate of 6.1%. He hit 15 home runs but his 231/.281/.369 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 80, putting him 20% below league average. He may have been held back by a .247 batting average on balls in play but his batted ball data wasn’t popping off the charts. His defensive metrics have been quite poor, though he’s been better in the corners than in center.
His minor league offense has been better in that time. In 823 minor league plate appearances over the past three years, he has 33 home runs and a .290/.354/.495 line. Even though most of those numbers were put up in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, wRC+ still considered him to have been 19% above league average in that time.
As he was shuttled between Triple-A and the minors, he exhausted his option years. That made it harder for the Giants to keep committing a roster spot to him. They preferred to use their bench spots to keep the power bat of Jerar Encarnación and the speed of Jared Oliva.
The Brewers will take a shot on him. They have recently gotten good results from a few guys that other clubs gave up on, with Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers being a couple of examples. Perhaps they can get a similar post-hype breakout from Matos. He has under two years of club control, so he can be retained through 2030 if that pans out. He will qualify for arbitration at the end of this year as a Super Two guy if he holds his spot all year.
For now, he’ll have to find some playing time in the outfield. For the moment, Milwaukee has Jackson Chourio, Steward Berroa and Akil Baddoo on the injured list. That leaves them with Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Brandon Lockridge and Blake Perkins, with Christian Yelich perhaps playing the field on occasion when he’s not the designated hitter. One of them could be optioned to the minors to open a spot for Matos. Perkins started the season on optional assignment and was recalled when Chourio got hurt, so perhaps he will be the move.
Matos is a righty bat and he has better numbers against southpaws, so perhaps he can carve out a short-side platoon role as Mitchell and Frelick are lefties. Matos has a .238/.302/.411 line against lefties in his big league career, compared to a .226/.267/.342 slash against righties.
Peralta, 28 in May, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels in October. He was optioned to Triple-A Nashville earlier this month and therefore hasn’t appeared in a big league game for the Brewers. He has 45 2/3 innings on his track record from the previous three seasons with a 5.12 earned run average, 17.3% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate and 40.8% ground ball rate.
The lefty tossed 70 2/3 Triple-A innings last year. His 4.33 ERA wasn’t especially impressive but that performance came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 24.1% strikeout rate, 4.8% walk rate and 45.5% ground ball rate were all decent figures. He still has an option remaining and could appeal to a club looking for some pitching depth. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Brewers could take a maximum of five days to explore trade talks.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Giants To Acquire Dylan Smith
The Giants are acquiring right-hander Dylan Smith from the Tigers, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Detroit designated him for assignment when setting their Opening Day roster last week and will get cash considerations in return. San Francisco will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man spot for this to become official.
Smith, 26 in May, has a limited major league track record. The Tigers added him to their 40-man roster in May of last year. He spent most of the remainder of the seasons on optional assignment and was also on the minor league injured list for a while. His major league work consisted of 13 innings over seven appearances, allowing two earned runs while surrendering six hits, five walks, hitting three batters and striking out four opponents.
His minor league track record as a reliever is also fairly limited. After being drafted in 2021, the Tigers had him working as a starter for a while. Thanks to some injuries and some mediocre numbers, he was moved to the bullpen in 2025. Around his stints in the majors and his time on the IL, he tossed 39 2/3 minor league innings with a 2.27 earned run average. His 37.7% strikeout rate was massive and his 45.5% ground ball rate was also pretty good, though his 11.3% walk rate was on the high side. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged in the mid-90s while his splitter and slider both averaged in the mid-80s.
Due to his recent move to relief work and his subpar control last year, Smith may be a bit of a project. He got squeezed off the Detroit roster but San Francisco will be the beneficiary. Smith still has a couple of options, so they can shuttle him to the minors and back fairly freely as he tries to rein in his stuff. He has just a handful of service days and could stick with the club for years to come if he takes a step forward and continues to justify a roster spot.
The Giants don’t have a lot of certainty in their bullpen. They traded away Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last year then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. They added some guys via small deals but didn’t make any massive moves to upgrade the relief corps, so there’s room for some young guys to flourish.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
Rangers Outright Dairon Blanco
Outfielder Dairon Blanco has cleared waivers and will accept an outright assignment to Triple-A Round Rock, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. Blanco was designated for assignment last week when the Rangers added Andrew McCutchen to their Opening Day roster. Blanco had a previous career outright and therefore had the right to elect free agency but he’ll waive that right and look to work his way back to the majors with Texas.
Blanco, 33, has spent his entire big league career with the Royals thus far. He served as a useful bench piece thanks to his speed and defense. He stole 59 bases in 73 attempts. He logged 733 innings in the outfield and was considered a bit better than par by both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average. His offense wasn’t a significant drag either, as his .257/.312/.416 batting line translated to a 99 wRC+, just barely below league average.
Despite those contributions, he got nudged off the Kansas City roster when they signed Starling Marte about a month ago. The Rangers claimed him off waivers and held him for a little over two weeks but, as mentioned, needed a spot for McCutchen.
Each club passed on a chance to get Blanco off waivers in recent days, even though he has options remaining. Even if he elected free agency, he would have been limited to minor league offers. Instead, he’ll just report to the Express and try to work his way back to the majors.
The Rangers have Brandon Nimmo, Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford in their outfield, with McCutchen in the mix alongside utility guys Ezequiel Durán and Sam Haggerty. They could get Cody Freeman back from the injured list in a few weeks. Alejandro Osuna and Michael Helman are depth options on the 40-man, currently in Triple-A on optional assignment. Blanco joins Nick Pratto, Mark Canha, Tyler Wade and Richie Martin as non-roster guys with some major league experience.
Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images
Cubs, Nico Hoerner Agree To Extension
The Cubs and infielder Nico Hoerner have agreed to a six-year contract extension. Hoerner was slated for free agency after this year, with 2026 being the final season of his previous extension. Hoerner will make $141MM as part of his new deal, which starts in 2027 and will cover Hoerner’s age-30 to age-35 seasons before concluding in 2032. The Apex Baseball client receives a $5MM signing bonus as part of the deal, which also includes a full no-trade clause.
He will make $23MM per year in 2027 and 2028, then $22.5MM per year from 2029 through 2032. $2.5MM of Hoerner’s annual salary in the 2029-32 seasons is deferred. The deferred money in the deal knocks the net present value down to $137.5MM.
Hoerner’s pact is in the range of free agent deals for middle infielders. Trevor Story and Javier Báez each got $140MM over six. Hoerner just barely goes past those two, while coming in a bit under Marcus Semien‘s $175MM, Swanson’s $177MM and Willy Adames‘s $182MM, which were all seven-year deals.
Hoerner, 29 in May, has been the a key part of the Cubs for several years now. He doesn’t have a ton of power but provides strong offense with a consistent contact approach. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has almost 2500 plate appearances. His 6.4% walk rate and 10.2% strikeout rate are both well below league average. He only has 33 home runs in that time. But the contact approach has resulted in a .284/.339/.389 line and 105 wRC+ for that span. He finished each of those four seasons with a wRC+ from 102 to 109.
He combines that offense with strong attributes in other facets of his game. He has stolen 123 bases in that four-year span, with at least 20 in each season. Defensively, he is considered to be good enough to handle shortstop but has been bumped to the other side of the bag by the presence of Dansby Swanson. That has made him one of the best defensive second basemen in the league. Dating back to the start of 2023, the year he moved to second base, he has 32 Defensive Runs Saved and 35 Outs Above Average. The DRS total is behind only Andrés Giménez and Brice Turang, while the OAA number is behind only Giménez and Marcus Semien.
The combination is a valuable one. FanGraphs has credited him with a little more than four wins above replacement per year for a total of 17.4 fWAR since the start of 2022. He didn’t finish any of those four seasons lower than 3.8 fWAR.
Three years ago, the Cubs and Hoerner agreed to their first extension, a three-year deal worth $35MM. That was a bit of an odd deal, as it bought out Hoerner’s two arbitration seasons and then just one free agent year. Hoerner delayed his path to the open market for a relatively modest price.
As that deal played out, Hoerner became a plausible trade candidate for a few reasons. For one, he was getting closer to free agency, which often leads to increased trade speculation with many players. The Cubs also had some infield prospects pushing towards the majors, with Matt Shaw making his major league debut last year. The Cubs could have traded Hoerner to address another area of the roster, then put Shaw at second base. Given that another club could have put Hoerner at shortstop, perhaps that would have increased the trade return.
Instead, the Cubs are locking in another piece of their core. Third baseman Alex Bregman is signed through 2030 and Swanson through 2029. They agreed to a long-term deal with Pete Crow-Armstrong just a few days ago, so he’s going to be signed through 2032. Assuming this Hoerner deal starts in 2027, it will also run through 2032.
After 2026, the Cubs were facing a potentially huge amount of roster turnover. Hoerner, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Hoby Milner, Dylan Carlson, Michael Conforto and Tyler Austin are all impending free agents. Matthew Boyd, Hunter Harvey, Carson Kelly and Caleb Thielbar all have mutual options for 2027 but those are almost never picked up by both sides, so they should all be considered impending free agents as well. That is still something the club will have to plan for but locking in Hoerner takes one thing off the to-do list.
One player who could be impacted by this deal is Shaw. He played third base last year but the Bregman signing bumped him into a utility role for 2026. With Hoerner’s impending free agency, it was possible to imagine that being a one-year arrangement, as Shaw could then take over at the keystone starting in 2027. That’s no longer possible.
Shaw is going to be playing some outfield this year, so perhaps he could take over a corner next year with the impending departures of Happ and Suzuki, though that depends on him proving viable on the grass. He is still under club control for six seasons, so it’s also possible to imagine him being a future trade chip, if he could find a better path to infield playing time with another club.
Hoerner would have made for a fascinating free agent case. Second basemen normally don’t get massive paychecks in free agency but Hoerner could have marketed himself as a shortstop and perhaps some clubs would have viewed him as one. Teams also normally pay more for power than contact. A speed-and-defense profile can get paid but it’s also risky since those attributes fade over time. It would have been a unique free agency test case but that’s moot now.
The 2026-27 free agent class is particularly light in terms of hitters. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently took a look at the group in a post for Front Office subscribers. While recent offseasons have had clear standout bats like Corey Seager, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker, the upcoming winter doesn’t quite have that kind of star power. Franco highlighted Bo Bichette, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Daulton Varsho and Hoerner as the top position players in the class.
Hoerner certainly would not have been the best hitter in that bunch but the speed and defense put him up there in terms of overall value. Teams looking for middle infield help next winter will have to cross one name off what was already a somewhat flimsy list.
As of this writing, the numbers on the deal have not been reported. That makes it difficult to assess the long-term impact for the Cubs. What can be said is that they do have a good amount of payroll space available in the future. As mentioned, they have long-term commitments to Swanson, Bregman and Crow-Armstrong but that’s essentially it. Phil Maton and Shelby Miller are the only other players with guaranteed deals for 2027. By 2028, it’s just Bregman, Swanson and Crow-Armstrong.
Photos courtesy of Michael McLoone, David Banks, Imagn Images
Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation was first to report that Hoerner and the Cubs had an agreement in place. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that the deal was for six seasons, while Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the $141MM guarantee. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that there was deferred money in the deal, while Joel Sherman of The New York Post first reported the contract breakdown. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first to report that the deal includes a full no-trade clause.
White Sox Claim Bryan Hudson
March 28: Hudson has reported to the team, and the White Sox optioned southpaw Tyler Gilbert to the minor leagues in a corresponding move.
March 27: The White Sox announced that they have claimed left-hander Bryan Hudson off waivers from the Mets. New York designated the lefty for assignment earlier this week. The Sox had a couple of open 40-man spots since they designated catcher Korey Lee and infielder Curtis Mead for assignment this week. Hudson is out of options and will need an active roster spot, so the Sox will have to bump someone off whenever he reports to the team.
The Sox claimed Hudson from the Brewers back in August. He was nudged off their roster in the winter when they signed outfielder Austin Hays. After being designated for assignment, he was flipped to the Mets for cash considerations. He didn’t have a good spring, allowing six earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. He didn’t make the Mets’ roster and is out of options, so he had to be bumped into DFA limbo.
For the Sox, they are presumably overlooking Hudson’s rough spring and focusing more on the potential he has shown in the past. He posted a 1.73 earned run average in 62 1/3 innings for the Brewers in 2024. He got some help from a .148 batting average on balls in play and a 94.2% strand rate but he still deserves some credit. His 26.8% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 41.2% ground ball rate were all average or better marks. His 3.60 FIP and 3.22 SIERA that year suggested he would have been pretty good even with more neutral luck.
Last year, his results backed up and he got sent to the minors, which exhausted his final option year and also got him pushed to the waiver wire. He finished the year with a 4.80 ERA in 15 big league innings between the Brewers and White Sox, as well as a 5.97 ERA in Triple-A.
Though it’s been a tough year-plus for Hudson, the Sox clearly like him, as this is the second time they have claimed him in the past eight months. They currently have Sean Newcomb, Chris Murphy and Tyler Gilbert as their southpaw relief contingent, though Murphy and Gilbert both have options and could end up sent down to the minors when Hudson joins the team.
Photo courtesy of David Richard, Imagn Images
Padres Sign Jose Leclerc To Minor League Deal
March 28: Leclerc’s deal is now official, according to the transactions log at MLB.com.
March 23: The Padres are close to a deal with veteran reliever José Leclerc, as first reported by journalist Mike Rodriguez. It’ll be a minor league deal for the Munger English Sports Management client once it’s complete, Jon Heyman of the New York Post adds.
Leclerc missed the bulk of the 2025 season after suffering a severe lat strain and eventually requiring shoulder surgery. He threw a bullpen session for interested clubs a couple weeks ago and was said at the time to be targeting a return around July. The Padres will hope his recovery goes well in the next few months, thereby allowing him to bolster their pitching staff midseason.
It’s a buy-low move for the Padres, who are known to be working under some budgetary restraints. The past few offseasons have seen them mostly stick to modest contracts. Even when they have splurged a little bit, such as their deals for Nick Pivetta and Michael King, they have backloaded the money in order to lower the near-term hit.
Leclerc is just over a year removed from earning a $10MM deal from the A’s. That was somewhat surprising at the time but he did have some intriguing stuff on his track record. From 2018 to 2024, he tossed 299 2/3 innings for the Rangers, allowing 3.24 earned runs per nine. His 11.8% walk rate was quite high but his 31.8% strikeout rate was very strong.
In that time, he had worked both as a closer and a setup guy, earning 41 saves and 58 holds. He mixed in six different pitches, with his four-seamer and sinker sitting in the mid-90s as he also threw a high-80s cutter and changeup, a low-80s slider and a curveball in the high-70s.
His 2025 season was mostly lost. He only made ten appearances for the A’s before the aforementioned lat injury put him on the shelf. He will still be recovering from his surgery for another few months. It hasn’t been reported what salary he will make if selected to the Padres’ roster but it is presumably well below $10MM.
The Padres have a strong bullpen, even though they let Robert Suarez walk in free agency. Mason Miller is one of the best closers in the game and he’ll be joined by Adrián Morejón, Jeremiah Estrada and David Morgan. Perhaps Jason Adam can be healthy by Opening Day but he’ll be back in there at some point regardless.
Over a long season, pitcher injuries are inevitable and the outlook will change. As Leclerc is potentially getting back in game shape in July, the Padres will ideally be looking to bolster their roster ahead of the August 3rd trade deadline. If Leclerc looks to be in good form by then, perhaps that will subtract one item from their shopping list.
Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images
Orioles Sign Shane Baz To Extension
The Orioles announced that they have signed right-hander Shane Baz to a five-year deal covering the 2026 to 2030 seasons. The Cornerstone Baseball Group client will reportedly be paid $68MM in that span. He was previously slated to reach free agency after the 2028 season and had agreed to a $3.5MM salary for 2026. This deal adds four more guaranteed years for $64.5MM in new money. MLBTR has learned that Baz will get a $4MM signing bonus and $1MM salary in 2026, followed by salaries of $7MM, $10MM, $21MM and $25MM in the next four years.
Baltimore is evidently quite confident in their ability to get the best out of Baz, a pitcher who is clearly talented but who still comes with some question marks. Baz is a former first-rounder and top prospect but injuries had held him back to the point where he had barely 100 big league innings going into 2025. He did pitch 166 1/3 innings last year but with an uninspiring 4.87 earned run average. Despite that, the O’s surrendered a package of four prospects and a draft pick to get him a few months ago and are now making a big financial commitment to him for years to come.
The Pirates took Baz with the 12th overall pick back in 2017. Before reaching the majors, he was flipped to the Rays in the 2018 Chris Archer trade. Baz debuted with the Rays late in 2021, making three starts. In the minors that year, he posted a 2.06 earned run average while striking out 37.9% of opponents and limiting walks to a 4.4% clip.
Going into 2022, he was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the sport but he required arthroscopic elbow surgery in April of that year. He came back later that season and made a few more starts but then elbow issues popped up again. He underwent Tommy John surgery in September and missed the entire 2023 season.
He was still rehabbing at the beginning of 2024 but eventually got back on the mound and showed some promise. He made 14 starts for the Rays that year with a 3.06 ERA, though his 21.6% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate were both around average. Going into 2025, Baz was finally healthy after many years of elbow issues, which had limited him to 119 2/3 career innings. He made 31 starts and logged 166 1/3 innings in 2025. Unfortunately, the overall results weren’t good. As mentioned, Baz had a 4.87 ERA on the year.
There are some reasons for optimism under the hood. The Rays were playing in a minor league park last year due to hurricane damage to Tropicana Field. It’s possible Baz may have been impacted by that, as he had a 5.90 ERA at Steinbrenner Field but a 3.86 ERA on the road. Normally, about 12% of fly balls turn into home runs at the major league level. For Baz, that number was 18.9% at home and 11.1% on the road last year.
For the whole year, home and away, Baz struck out a solid 24.8% of batters faced. His 9% walk rate was around average. His 46.7% ground ball rate was a few ticks better than par. His 3.95 SIERA was optimistic that he deserved to have an ERA about a run better than where it actually ended up. His fastball averaged 97 miles per hour on the year while he also mixed in a cutter, slider, curveball and changeup.
The Orioles are clearly of the mind that Baz still has his best days ahead of him. Back in December, they sent prospects Slater de Brun, Caden Bodine, Michael Forret and Austin Overn to the Rays, along with a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick, to get Baz and his three remaining years of club control. Three of those four prospects were taken in the first three rounds of recent drafts. The other, Forret, was a 14th-round pick but had become arguably the best prospect in the bunch. The draft pick will be the 33rd overall pick this summer.
There are some parallels to Baltimore’s journey with Trevor Rogers. He was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2021 after he posted a 2.64 ERA over 25 starts for the Marlins. Then Rogers was injured and/or struggling for many years, diminishing his stock. From the start of 2022 to the 2024 deadline, Rogers only tossed 230 1/3 innings with a 4.92 ERA. The O’s felt they could get him back on track and sent Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby to the Marlins to get Rogers when he still had two-plus years of control remaining.
It took a while for that bet on Rogers to pay off but it did. He struggled with the O’s late in 2024 and had a knee injury at the start of 2025. After that, he was brilliant. He eventually made 18 starts for Baltimore last year with a 1.81 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46% ground ball rate. He got the Opening Day nod yesterday against the Twins and earned a win by throwing seven shutout innings.
Like with Rogers, Baz was plucked away from his Florida club, with Baltimore sending a notable prospect package down the coast. Both pitchers had displayed talent but had gone through some injury challenges and posted some underwhelming numbers. The Rogers pick-up has worked out very well. The O’s clearly feel good about getting similar results out of Baz.
Baz is currently 26 but this will be his age-27 season, with his birthday coming up in June. He was set to hit free agency a few months after his 29th birthday. He could have been in line for a nice payday at that point if he pitched well over the next three years. But all pitchers are aware of the potential for injuries, with Baz having direct experience in that department. Rather than betting on his own health, he is cashing in on a robust deal right now.
He will therefore delay his path to free agency by two years but could still be in line for a really nice payday at that point. In recent years, position players in their early 30s have seemingly had far less earning power than their late-20s counterparts. When it comes to pitching, you can still get paid if you’re still putting up numbers. Dating back to the 2021-2022 offseason, there have been seven free agent deals with an average annual value of $25MM or more for position players 31 or older. That number is 13 for pitchers.
In terms of recent extensions for pitchers between three and four years of service time, Baz is coming in under Logan Webb‘s $90MM, which is the top of the class. That’s understandable since Webb had already been established as a frontline pitcher at that point. Cristopher Sánchez is next on the list but that was a different case since he was already locked up via a previous extension. Baz is just a bit above Cristian Javier‘s $64MM deal with the Astros and Sandy Alcantara‘s $56MM deal with the Marlins. Both of those pitchers had better career numbers than Baz does now, but the deals are also a few years old at this point, so Baz seemingly creeps beyond them with some inflation.
For the Orioles, they have been a bit more aggressive in terms of spending money lately. Mike Elias was hired to run the front office in 2018 when the club was rebuilding and owned by the Angelos family. Since then, they have become a contender and are now owned by David Rubenstein. For a long time, Elias never signed anyone to a deal worth $50MM or more. In the past eight months, the O’s signed free agent Pete Alonso $155MM, gave Samuel Basallo a $67MM extension and now this deal with Baz.
It’s now possible that Baz is the key cog in their long-term rotation. Rogers, Chris Bassitt and Zach Eflin are all slated for free agency after 2026. Kyle Bradish is under club control through 2028. Dean Kremer will be slated for free agency after 2027 as long as he gets at least 60 days of service time here in 2026. As those guys depart, they could perhaps be replaced by prospects like Trey Gibson or Luis De Leon, while external additions will presumably be brought in from time to time. As the picture fluctuates, Baz will be a fixture of the group, if Baltimore can push him down the same upside path as Rogers.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides were finalizing a five-year deal worth $68MM which would override his one-year deal for 2026. Photos courtesy of Morgan Tencza, Katie Stratman, Imagn Images