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Braves Sign Austin Pope To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have signed right-hander Austin Pope to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett for now but will presumably receive an invite to big league spring training.

Pope, 27, joins a new organization for the first time in his career. The pontiff was drafted by the Diamondbacks back in 2019. He climbed the minor league ladder and got to make brief major league debut in 2025. He was added to the roster in the final week of the regular season and got to make one appearance. On September 25th, with the Snakes down 8-0 to the Dodgers, Pope tossed two scoreless innings of mop-up duty. He allowed two hits and a walk while striking out one.

The righty was outrighted off the roster at the end of the season and was able to elect free agency, which has allowed Atlanta to scoop him up. They are presumably placing stock in Pope’s minor league results. Over the past three years, he has thrown 160 1/3 innings in the minor leagues, mostly with the Triple-A Reno Aces. His 4.55 earned run average in that time isn’t especially impressive but the Aces play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 9.4% walk rate in that time was pretty close to average while his 27.6% strikeout rate was quite strong.

Pope still has a full slate of option and just a handful of service days. If he gets added to Atlanta’s roster at any point, he can give the club a depth arm with roster flexibility and years of cheap control. For now, he can provide them papal depth without taking up a spot on the 40-man.

Photo courtesy of Rob Schumacher, Imagn Images

Guardians, Connor Brogdon Agree To Major League Deal

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The Guardians and right-hander Connor Brogdon have agreed to a major league deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Brogdon will make a salary of $900K next year, per Zack Meisel of The Athletic. The Guardians have 40-man vacancies and don’t need to make a corresponding move.

It’s a bit surprising to see Brogdon, 31 in January, secure himself a big league deal. He settled for a minor league deal with the Angels last winter. He was added to the roster a couple of times during the season, but was later passed through waivers in both instances. He tossed 47 innings for the Halos around those transactions, allowing 5.55 earned runs per nine.

Those were obviously not great results but the Guardians are presumably seeing something attractive under the hood. Brogdon’s 24.6% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate were both close to league average. His ERA was inflated because he allowed 11 home runs, almost doubling his previous career high of six. There are some ERA estimators which consider home run spikes to be fluky. Brogdon’s SIERA, for instance, was just 3.86 this year.

It’s also perhaps worth pointing out that Brogdon’s velocity came back. He averaged 95.5 miles per hour on his fastball in 2025. In 2024, he had battled plantar fasciitis and only tossed three big league innings. In that small sample of work, his fastball was down to 92.8 mph.

The Guardians presumably feel there’s a path to get Brogdon back to his previous results. From 2020 to 2022, then with the Phillies, Brogdon tossed 113 innings with a 3.42 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. He earned three saves and 16 holds. He also tossed 8 2/3 postseason innings with a 2.08 ERA in 2022, as the Phils made it all the way to the World Series. His fastball velo was in the 95-96 mph range for those seasons.

In 2023, his results backed up. He posted a 4.03 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate. His average fastball velo fell to 94.7 mph. The following year, he bounced to the Dodgers and battled the aforementioned plantar fasciitis situation. With the Angels in 2025, his results weren’t fully back but the velo and strikeouts were close to his best years in Philadelphia.

The Guards generally have pretty good bullpens and that was the case in 2025. Even though they lost Emmanuel Clase to a gambling investigation in July, the club’s relief corps still finished the season with a collective 3.44 ERA, third in the majors behind the Padres and Red Sox. Brogdon will jump into that mix as the Guards try to coax better results out of him than the Angels did in 2025.

Brogdon is out of options, meaning he can’t be sent to the minors without being exposed to waivers. If the Guards pass him through waivers at some point, he would have the right to elect free agency as a player with at least three years of service time. However, since he has less than five years of service, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right.

The $900K salary isn’t that high, considering the MLB minimum will be $780K next year. However, it is perhaps enough to dissuade other teams from claiming Brogdon. It’s also very unlikely Brogdon choose to leave that money on the table. Perhaps the Guardians are planning on having Brogdon in Triple-A as non-roster depth at some point in the future. If he is holding a roster spot at the end of the 2026 season, he can be retained via arbitration for 2027.

Photo courtesy of Ed Szczepanski, Imagn Images

Latest On Center Field Market

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The center field market appears to have lots of demand. The Phillies, Mets, Rays, Orioles, Diamondbacks and Royals are all looking for upgrades at the position, according to reporting from Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of The Athletic.

Those teams all make logical sense. The Phillies acquired Harrison Bader at the deadline but lost him to free agency a few months later. The Mets did the same thing with Cedric Mullins, who was terrible for them. The Rays had a rotating cast of characters in the outfield in 2025 and are known to be looking for upgrades. The Orioles traded Mullins and then trotted out Colton Cowser, who struggled while playing through broken ribs. The Diamondbacks have been waiting for Alek Thomas to break out for a few years now. The Royals have been struggling to get good production from the grass for a few seasons and are looking for upgrades.

That demand might outpace the supply. The free agent market doesn’t have a standout option. Trent Grisham would have been the headliner but he accepted a qualifying offer to return to the Yankees. Cody Bellinger is out there but he’s more of a corner guy who can play some center, as opposed to an everyday solution. Bader is available and coming off a nice season at the plate but that was fuelled by a .359 batting average on balls in play. Mullins, as mentioned, is coming off a dreadful campaign.

On the trade market, Luis Robert Jr. is available but he’s coming off two straight poor seasons. The Astros are open to moving Jake Meyers for pitching help but Meyers has generally been a light-hitting, glove-first type in his career. Perhaps the Rockies would be open to moving Brenton Doyle but he’s still controlled for four more seasons and it would be a sell-low move for Colorado after his poor 2025 campaign.

The Red Sox might be willing to move Jarren Duran to clear their outfield logjam but Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan report that the Sox are looking for a return commensurate with his excellent 2024 season as opposed to his 2025 results. Duran’s combination of offense, defense and speed led to FanGraphs crediting him with 6.8 wins above replacement in 2024. Baseball Reference was even more bullish, giving him 8.7 WAR. He regressed a bit in 2025 and ended up at 3.9 fWAR and 4.7 bWAR. He’ll make $7.7MM in 2026 and can be controlled via arbitration for another two seasons after that.

If the Sox don’t want to sell low on Duran and no one is meeting their asking price, then perhaps he’ll stay in Boston. It does feel like they have to move someone, however. Their outfield mix currently projects to include Duran, Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Masataka Yoshida and Jhostynxon Garcia. Anthony and Rafaela feel locked in because they have both signed extensions. Rafaela can also play second base but is the best defensive center fielder of the bunch.

Another theoretical trade option is Byron Buxton of the Twins. His contract gives him full no-trade protection through 2026, though it then drops to just a five-team no-trade list for the final two years of the deal. In the lead up to the 2025 deadline, as the Twins sold off a number of controllable relievers and sent infielder Carlos Correa back to Houston, Buxton repeatedly said he wasn’t interested in waiving that clause and wanted to remain a Twin for life.

That stance appears to have softened lately. Reporting last month from Dan Hayes of The Athletic suggested that Buxton would become more open to waiving his clause if the Twins continued tearing down the roster, perhaps by trading Joe Ryan or Pablo López. Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey pushed back on the notion that the Twins would be making more sell-side moves but they also haven’t done much this winter to tip the scales either way.

McDaniel and Passan, linked above, say that Buxton is willing to waive his no-trade clause. It’s unclear if they mean that in the same way as Hayes, where it’s conditional on the Twins going down the rebuild road. Presumably, if Buxton is asked to waive his clause at some point, that would be part of a rebuild regardless.

Buxton is an incredibly talented player who has dealt with a lot of injury issues. His career high in games played in 140, which was back in 2017. From 2018 to 2023, he never topped 92 contests in any one season. He got to 102 in 2024 and 126 this year. When on the field, the quality has been great. He just wrapped up a season in which he hit 35 home runs and stole 24 bases. He slashed .264/.327/.551 and was credited with 5.0 fWAR.

His unique contract reflects that uncertainty. He is being paid $15MM annually, a decent sum but about half of what most superstars get. However, he can make millions more based on plate appearances and MVP voting. For the Twins, or a theoretical team rostering him in the future, they’d be happy to pay him the extra since that means he’s on the field and producing. Buxton would surely garner lots of interest if the Twins made him available but it’s still not clear if the club will go down that road.

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images

Blue Jays Sign Dylan Cease To Seven-Year Deal

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December 3rd: The full breakdown is provided by Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Cease gets a $23MM signing bonus and then a $22MM salary in 2026. His salary then jumps to $30MM in 2027 and falls by $1MM in each subsequent season. $10MM of his 2026 salary is deferred followed by $9MM in each season after that. The deal also contains awards bonuses and a limited no-trade clause.

December 2nd: The Jays made it official today, announcing they have signed Cease to a seven-year deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the MLBPA values the contract at roughly $184.6MM after adjusting for the deferred money.

November 26th: The Blue Jays are making a major splash at the top of the rotation. Toronto is in agreement with Dylan Cease on a seven-year contract, pending a physical. It’s reportedly a $210MM guarantee for the Boras Corporation client, though it includes deferred money that’ll drop the average annual value for luxury tax purposes to roughly $26MM. That puts the net present value closer to $182MM.

Even after adjusting for deferrals, it’s the largest free agent signing in franchise history. Though the Jays gave Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a $500MM extension earlier this year, they’d never gone beyond George Springer’s six-year, $150MM deal on the open market.

Cease, 30 next month, entered free agency as a test case of how much modern front offices care about earned run average. In two of the past three seasons, his ERA has jumped to the mid-4.00s, including a 4.55 mark in 2025. However, in just about every other respect, he has been great. He has been incredibly durable. His control isn’t amazing but he has racked up strikeouts. He has kept his fastball velocity in the upper 90s, while also featuring a slider, knuckle curve and changeup.

Though Cease debuted back in 2019, he has actually never been on the major league injured list, apart from a very brief stint on the COVID list in 2021. He made 12 starts in the shortened 2020 season and has taken the ball at least 32 times in each full season since. In total, he’s made 174 starts since the start of 2020, which leads all major league pitchers. He generally doesn’t pitch deep into games, however, so he’s ninth in that span in terms of innings.

On top of the quantity, the quality has been strong. For that same 2020-25 span, he posted a 3.88 ERA. His 9.9% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he punched out 28.9% of batters faced with a 14.4% swinging strike rate.

As mentioned, his ERA has wobbled in recent years, but it has done so while other elements of his game have stayed more consistent. He actually saw his ERA drop to 2.20 in 2022. With the White Sox at that time, he finished second in American League Cy Young voting to Justin Verlander. His ERA then shot up to 4.58 in 2023, dropped to 3.47 in 2024 and then climbed back up to 4.55 this year.

But during those ups and downs, his strikeout and walk rates have been less volatile. His strikeout rate did drop from 30.4% in 2022 to 27.3%, but then it climbed to 29.4% and 29.8% in the two most recent campaigns. His 10.4% walk rate in 2022 decreased to 10.1% and 8.5% in the next two years, followed by a slight uptick to 9.8% in 2025.

His batting average on balls in play, which tends to be a bit more luck based, has synched up more with his ERA shifts. A standard BABIP is usually around .290 but Cease was down at .260 in that 2022 season. It then swung the other way to .330 in 2023 as Cease’s ERA climbed, then went to .263 and .320 in the two most recent seasons as his ERA dipped and climbed again.

As such, ERA estimators have considered Cease to be far more steady than his actual ERA. His FIP has been between 3.10 and 3.72 for the past four years. His SIERA was at 3.48 in 2022, jumped a bit to 4.10 in 2023, and then has been at 3.46 and 3.58 in 2024 and 2025.

As we were deliberating our Top 50 Free Agents post at MLBTR, we had many debates about whether the inconsistent ERA would hurt his earning power, perhaps leading him to accept a short-term deal with opt-outs, or if teams would overlook the ERA and sign him based on his consistency in other areas. In the end, we opted for latter, predicting a seven-year, $189MM deal. Cease has surpassed that in terms of sticker price, though the deferrals will seemingly put the net present value closer just below that projection.

The Blue Jays are coming off their best season in years, as they charged all the way to Game Seven of the World Series, ultimately falling to the Dodgers in extra innings. However, the season ended with plenty of rotation uncertainty. Chris Bassitt and Max Scherzer became free agents. Shane Bieber had a $16MM player option he seemed likely to decline. In the long term, Kevin Gausman is a free agent after 2026. José Berríos has an opt-out in his deal after the upcoming campaign.

In the past few weeks and months, the long-term outlook has improved considerably. Trey Yesavage came up late in the year and was immediately able to get hitters out, quickly establishing himself as a rotation building block. Bieber surprisingly decided to trigger his player option and stick with the Jays for one more year. Now Cease is in the fold for the long run.

That gives the Jays a rotation of Gausman, Cease, Yesavage, Bieber and Berríos going into 2026, with guys like Eric Lauer, Ricky Tiedemann and Bowden Francis also in the mix. Though Bieber and Gausman are slated to depart after the upcoming campaign, with Berríos potentially joining them, Cease can serve as a bridge to another era. By then, it’s possible Jake Bloss has recovered from his Tommy John surgery and is back in the mix. Prospects like Gage Stanifer and Johnny King might have climbed into the picture by then as well.

Toronto is paying a significant cost to lock Cease in as a long-term anchor. RosterResource projected their 2026 payroll around $232MM, while their luxury tax number was right around the $244MM base threshold. It won’t be clear how much either number goes up until the payment and deferral structure is reported. The CBT number is based on the contract’s average annual value, so the salary breakdown doesn’t matter for tax purposes, but the deferrals reduce the contract’s actual value by around $4MM annually.

In any case, the Jays are clearly going to pay the tax in 2026, and this will push them beyond the $264MM first surcharge tier. They’re into CBT territory for a second consecutive season, meaning they’re taxed at a 30% rate for their first $20MM in overages. They’ll pay a 42% tax on spending between $264MM and $284MM, 75% for spending between $284MM and $304MM, and a 90% rate on any further spending. The Cease deal itself comes with roughly $8.5MM in taxes, but the penalties will get higher with any more significant additions.

The Jays almost certainly aren’t done. They’ve been loosely linked to Kyle Tucker and have interest in re-signing Bo Bichette. It seems fair to assume they won’t sign all three of this offseason’s top free agents, but a Bichette reunion could still be in play. They’ve also been linked to late-inning bullpen help, ideally a proven closer who’d push Jeff Hoffman into a leverage role in the seventh and eighth innings.

Cease rejected a qualifying offer from the Padres. The Jays are hit with the highest penalty to sign a qualified free agent because they paid the competitive balance tax this year. They’ll surrender their second- and fifth-highest selections in the 2026 draft plus $1MM from their international bonus pool in 2027. San Diego also paid the luxury tax this year, so they’re entitled to the lowest form of compensation: a selection after the fourth round next summer. They’ll get another of those if/when Michael King signs elsewhere.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the Blue Jays and Cease were in agreement on a seven-year, $210MM deal. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first on the presence of deferrals, while Mitch Bannon of The Athletic reported the approximate $26MM AAV.

Image courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel, Imagn Images.

Giants Sign Sam Hentges

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December 3rd: The Giants officially announced the Hentges signing today.

November 27th: The Giants and left-hander Sam Hentges have agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.4MM, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Giants have an open 40-man spot and won’t need to make a corresponding move when the deal becomes official. The southpaw is represented by Warner Sports Management.

It’s a buy-low wild card move for the Giants. Hentges was a solid bullpen piece for the Guardians a few years ago but he hasn’t been healthy for a while. Over the 2022 and 2023 campaigns, Hentges tossed 114 1/3 innings for Cleveland, allowing 2.91 earned runs per nine. His 7.9% walk rate was just barely better than average while his 27.4% strikeout rate and 60.1% ground ball rate were both very strong. He gradually moved up to high leverage work, earning 23 holds over that span.

In 2024, he kept things going for a while, posting a 3.04 ERA over another 23 2/3 innings. However, he hit the injured list in July due to some inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He required surgery in September, a procedure which came with a recovery timeline of 12 to 14 months.

Though he was likely to going miss most or all of 2025, the Guards still kept him around. He was still under club control through 2027, so there was still a potential long-term payoff. He had qualified for arbitration ahead of 2024 as a Super Two player and made $1.1625MM in his first of four arb seasons. The Guards gave him a slight bump to $1.337MM in 2025. Even if he couldn’t manage a late-season return to health, he would still have two further seasons of control.

In 2025, not only did he not make it back to the majors, but he didn’t even begin a rehab assignment. In September, he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. That procedure comes with a recovery timeline of three to four months. That means he should be healthy by the spring but the Guards decided to move on. They non-tendered Hentges last week, sending him to free agency.

The Giants have swooped in and will sign Hentges, giving him a slight raise over last year, even though he missed the whole season. San Francisco non-tendered Joey Lucchesi last week but currently has Erik Miller, Matt Gage and Reiver Sanmartin as lefties in their bullpen. Hentges is obviously a big unknown, having missed a season and a half at this point. But if he can get back to health, he could be the best southpaw in the bunch.

If he does get back on track, he would be a bargain at a salary barely above the league minimum, which will be $780K next year. He is out of options but could be retained via arbitration for the 2027 season if things go especially well next year.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Angels Sign Alek Manoah To Major League Deal

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The Angels announced they have signed right-hander Alek Manoah to a major league deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN previously reported the agreement and that Manoah will make $1.95MM next year. The Halos had multiple 40-man vacancies and didn’t need to make a corresponding move for the Covenant Sports Group client.

It’s a clear buy-low move for the Angels. Manoah was once a first round pick and top prospect, then became a Cy Young candidate as of a few years ago. But more recently, injuries and underperformance bumped his stock to the point that he was non-tendered by Atlanta last month.

The Blue Jays selected Manoah 11th overall in 2019. By 2021, he was making big league starts. He took the ball 20 times that year and threw 111 2/3 innings, allowing 3.22 earned runs per nine. His 8.7% walk rate was around average while his 27.7% strikeout rate was quite strong. 2022 was his first full season. He made 31 starts and logged 196 2/3 innings with a 2.24 ERA. His strikeout rate dropped to 22.9% but he also improved his walk rate to a 6.5% clip. He finished third in American League Cy Young voting behind Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease.

It’s basically been downhill since then. He struggled badly enough in 2023 to get optioned to the minors multiple times. He finished the year with a 5.87 ERA over 19 starts. His strikeouts dipped to a subpar 19% rate while his walk rate climbed to an ugly 14.2% pace.

Going into 2024, the Jays reportedly had some openness to trading Manoah, with the Angels checking in on him at that time. However, the Jays didn’t pull the trigger on a deal and he opened the 2024 season with Toronto. He was slowed by some shoulder soreness during the spring and began the season on the injured list. He was reinstated in May and then made five decent starts, with a 3.70 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. However, he then went back on the IL, this time due to an elbow sprain. He required Tommy John surgery in June of that year.

Manoah then spent the rest of that season on the IL. The Jays held him on the roster through the winter and tendered him a contract. They avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $2.2MM salary for 2025.  They then put him back on the 60-day IL in March. He began a rehab assignment in July. Rehab assignments normally are capped at 30 days for pitchers but guys recovering from Tommy John can push that to 60.

By the middle of September, Manoah’s clock was up but the Jays had a rotation featuring Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Chris Bassitt, José Berríos and Max Scherzer, with Trey Yesavage lurking in Triple-A. Manoah also hadn’t done much to force the issue, as he had a 19.6% strikeout rate and 12.8% walk rate during his rehab outings. He was reinstated from the IL but optioned to Triple-A Buffalo.

Later that month, the Jays needed a 40-man spot to reinstate Anthony Santander from the 60-day IL. Manoah was designated for assignment as the corresponding move. With the trade deadline having passed, the Jays had to put him on waivers, with Atlanta claiming him. They held him on their roster for a while but then non-tendered him. It might seem a bit odd to claim a player off waivers and then cut him shortly thereafter. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible Atlanta tried to sign him for 2026 but then non-tendered him when they couldn’t agree on the price point.

For the Halos, it’s a low-cost bet on a bounceback. The salary isn’t much beyond the league minimum, which will be $780K next year. Manoah also still has options, so it’s possible he could be pitching in Triple-A as depth.

Pitching has been a weakness for the club for quite a while and 2025 was no exception. The staff as a whole had a 4.89 ERA this year, putting them ahead of just the Rockies and Nationals. That includes a 4.91 ERA from the rotation, again ahead of just Washington and Colorado. Tyler Anderson became a free agent at season’s end, thinning out the group even more.

Going into 2026, there is very little certainty in the rotation group. Yusei Kikuchi and José Soriano have two spots spoken for. Reid Detmers seems like he’ll get a chance to return to the rotation but he’s a big question mark after struggling in 2024 and then pitching out of the bullpen in 2025. There are a few other guys in the mix, such as Jack Kochanowicz, Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri, though those guys have fairly mixed track records.

Since the offseason has begun, this is the second time the Angels have bought low on a former big name. A couple of weeks ago, they traded Taylor Ward to the Orioles in order to nab Grayson Rodriguez. It’s a somewhat similar situation to Manoah, as Rodriguez was the 11th overall pick in 2018 but has seen his career thrown off course by injuries. Perhaps the Angels will make more of a surefire rotation addition later in the winter but they have stuck with the less certain guys so far.

It’s hard to know what to expect from Manoah now. It’s been a few years since he was both healthy and effective. He was averaging just 91 miles per hour on his fastball in Triple-A this year. That’s almost three ticks below his 2022 season, when he averaged 93.9 mph. Perhaps being further removed from his surgery will allow him to find a new gear. If not, the Angels won’t have lost much. If it works out, Manoah will finish the 2026 season with less than six years of service, so he could be retained via arbitration for the 2027 season.

Photos courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images

Blue Jays Still Exploring Rotation Additions After Dylan Cease Deal

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The Blue Jays made a big move to upgrade their rotation by signing Dylan Cease to a seven-year deal, but they may not be done. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports that the Jays have remained engaged on the starting pitching market even after agreeing to terms with Cease. The report mentions that the Jays had interest in Joe Ryan of the Twins and MacKenzie Gore of the Nationals prior to the trade deadline, while also suggesting the Jays have some interest in free agents Michael King and Cody Ponce.

The Toronto rotation currently projects to include Cease, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos, with guys like Eric Lauer, Ricky Tiedemann and Bowden Francis in the mix as well.

That’s a pretty strong group but there are some question marks. Bieber’s decision to trigger his $16MM player option has led to speculation he may not be 100% healthy. He could have taken a $4MM buyout and returned to free agency, only needing to get $12MM to come out ahead, but a new deal would have required him to pass a physical. To be clear, that’s entirely speculative. There has been no public indication anything is wrong with Bieber, but it’s one possible explanation for why he didn’t pursue a larger deal. Another explanation could be that he simply wanted to stay with the Jays for another year before heading to free agency after a fully healthy season.

Beyond that, Gausman turns 35 in January. Yesavage had a tremendous debut late in the year but is still light on big league experience. Berríos had a mediocre 2025 and finished the season on the injured list due to elbow inflammation, though he is supposedly going to have a normal offseason. Lauer worked both as a starter and a reliever in 2025 and seems likely to do so again next year. Tiedemann has been on prospect lists for years but already had workload concerns before Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2025 season. Francis had a good showing in 2024 but was held back by shoulder problems this year.

There’s also the long-term picture to consider. Gausman, Bieber and Lauer are all slated for free agency after 2026. Berríos can also opt-out of his deal at that time. There’s reportedly been some consideration of trading Berríos but that will be a challenge considering his health status, results and opt-out. The general point is that there’s not a lot of long-term certainty. Signing Cease upgraded the rotation for the upcoming campaign and beyond. Yet another acquisition could do the same.

Gore is a pretty straightforward trade candidate. The Nationals are rebuilding and aren’t likely to be contending for a while. Gore is controlled for two more years and is represented by the Boras Corporation. It’s not true that Boras clients never sign extensions but it’s a decent bet that Gore and Boras are looking forward to free agency.

It’s notable that the Jays were interested in him ahead of the deadline but his situation has changed a bit since then. He was dominant through the All-Star break in 2025, as he had an 3.02 earned run average, 30.5% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate at that time. But he struggled down the stretch and went on the IL twice, first due to shoulder inflammation and then an ankle impingement. His results suffered and he finished the year with a 4.17 ERA.

The Nats are getting interest in Gore this offseason but could perhaps wait until the upcoming trade deadline if they don’t get offers to their liking. He is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $4.7MM next year, with another arbitration control beyond that. The Nats have very little on their books and don’t need to move him for financial reasons. If the Jays want to circle back to Gore, they might have to put a notable prospect package on the table.

The situation with Ryan is somewhat analogous. He is also two years away from the open market, with a projected $5.8MM salary next year. He has been a pretty consistently above average pitcher in his career. In his 641 1/3 innings, he has a 3.79 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate.

The Twins seemed to kick off a rebuild or retool or reset or whatever at the deadline. They traded a number of relievers, including Louis Varland to the Jays, and sent Carlos Correa back to Houston. Coming into this offseason, many expected Ryan and other Twins to be on the trade block but Minnesota’s president of baseball operations Derek Falvey has downplayed the idea that he needs to continue subtracting from the roster.

If the Jays can’t find solutions on the trade market, they could sign another free agent. Nicholson-Smith reports that King “could be” of interest. Though the Jays wouldn’t sacrifice prospects directly, they would still be hurting their farm system. King rejected a qualifying offer from the Padres and is therefore tied to the associated penalties. Since the Jays paid the competitive balance tax in 2025, they would have to forfeit two draft picks and $1MM in international bonus pool space. Cease also rejected a QO from the Padres, so the Jays have already paid that price. If they were to end up with Cease and King, that would mean giving up a total of four draft picks and $2MM from their bonus pool.

It’s unclear if the Jays would be willing to go down that road. It presumably depends on what kind of financial price they would have to pay to sign King. He seemed on track for a nine-figure deal before injuries hampered him in 2025. MLBTR predicted him for a four-year, $80MM deal but it’s possible King looks for a shorter deal with opt-outs, so that he can return to free agency with a healthier platform season.

He had a really strong run from the second half of 2023 through the beginning of 2025. With the Yankees in 2023, he was blocked and stuck in a relief role. As the Yanks were playing out a lost season two years ago, they let King take a rotation job. He performed well and was flipped to the Padres prior to 2024, which eventually became his best season. From August 24th of 2023 through May 18th of 2025, he tossed 267 2/3 innings with a 2.72 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate. FanGraphs had him seventh among pitchers in the majors in wins above replacement for that span, behind only Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Zack Wheeler, Logan Webb, Cole Ragans and Cease.

The latter months of 2025 were marred by injury, however. A nerve injury in his shoulder put him on the shelf for several months. He came off the IL in August but left knee inflammation sent him right back there. He returned in September and wasn’t amazing, allowing ten earned runs in his final 15 2/3 innings. The Padres gave the Game Three start in the Wild Card round to Yu Darvish, who was 39 years old and battling elbow problems which would require surgery a month later, instead of King.

It all makes King one of the more interesting free agents of the offseason. He was a borderline ace for a while there but also has only one big league season with more than 15 starts. Teams likely have varying opinions on what they expect from him going forward.

As for Ponce, he’s also a wild card, but for different reasons. His MLB track record is small but he’s been pitching well overseas. He just wrapped up a season in which he tossed 180 2/3 innings for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization with a 1.89 ERA. His 252 strikeouts were a single-season KBO record. He was named the league MVP for his dominant season but remains unproven in North American ball. Regardless, it has been reported that he could earn $30MM to $40MM on a three-year deal.

Time will tell how aggressively the Jays go after another rotation upgrade. They still have needs elsewhere, including the back of the bullpen. Bringing in an impact bat, such as Kyle Tucker or reuniting with Bo Bichette, seems to be on the to-do list as well. RosterResource projects the Jays for a $263MM payroll and $272MM competitive balance tax figure next year. Those numbers were $258MM and $283MM at the end of 2025. It’s unclear how much farther they can push things but perhaps their deep playoff run in 2025 has created some extra spending capacity in 2026.

Photo courtesy of Matt Krohn, Imagn Images

Nationals Have Discussed MacKenzie Gore With Multiple Clubs

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Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore is a logical trade candidate this winter. According to Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan of ESPN, Washington’s new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni has discussed Gore with multiple unnamed clubs but has a high asking price.

The case for the Nats to listen on Gore is straightforward. The club’s rebuild stalled out to a point that the franchise is undergoing a major shakeup. They fired president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and managed Dave Martinez in the summer. Toboni and Blake Butera are now in to replace them. The club would not have gone down that road if they expected a return to contention in the short term. Presumably, the new guys will have a few years of leeway to steer the ship in a new direction.

Gore is 26 years old, turning 27 in February, and is two years away from free agency. As a Boras client, he isn’t terribly likely to sign an extension this close to the open market. He is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a salary of just $4.7MM and would be due another raise in 2027. Over the past two seasons, he tossed 326 innings for the Nats with a 4.03 earned run average.

He showed a higher level of upside for most of 2025. He had a 3.02 ERA through the All-Star break. His 7.7% walk rate was better than average and his 30.5% strikeout rate was quite strong. Only four qualified pitchers were ahead of him in terms of that strikeout rate, an impressive set of names which included Tarik Skubal, Zack Wheeler, Garrett Crochet and Hunter Brown.

He didn’t finish on a high note, however. He twice went on the injured list in the second half, once due to shoulder inflammation and the second time due to a right ankle impingement. Around those IL stints, he had a 6.75 ERA, bringing his season-long ERA up to 4.17.

Combining the club’s situation with Gore’s talent, affordability and window of control, there’s a clearcut case for him to be available. For all those reasons, MLBTR ranked him #1 on our list of the Top 40 Trade Candidates, which was published at the beginning of the offseason. That makes it unsurprising that Toboni has discussed Gore with various clubs this winter. It would be more surprising if he hadn’t.

What remains to be seen is if he gets an offer he considers strong enough to accept now. There’s an argument that perhaps he should wait until the trade deadline. It would give the newly-hired Toboni more time to get settled in and build out his staff before making a potentially franchise-altering move. As mentioned, Gore didn’t finish 2025 on a strong note. Perhaps a good start to the 2026 campaign would increase his trade value relative to today. During the offseason, interested teams can pivot to free agency, an option they won’t have in July.

On the other hand, it’s also possible that Gore will have less trade value a few months from now. If he suffers a notable injury in the first few months of the season or perhaps just posts some numbers that are more decent than ace-like, that could have a negative impact on the offers coming into Washington.

What might work in the Nats’ favor is that some other speculative trade candidates might be less available. Sonny Gray has already come off the board, having been traded to the Red Sox. The Marlins were expected to have Sandy Alcantara and/or Edward Cabrera on the block but they reportedly might need to add payroll this winter, making a trade less likely. The Twins seemed to kick off a rebuild at the trade deadline but president of baseball operations Derek Falvey recently pushed back on the idea that the team will keep selling. Perhaps that means Joe Ryan and Pablo López will stay in Minnesota.

Teams like the Brewers, Pirates and Royals could have pitching to move but they would likely be looking for big leaguers in return. The Nats, presumably, would be focused more on prospects who can help in the long term. For teams shopping in that aisle, Gore is the most attractive option.

Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images

Nationals To Hire Corey Ray As First Base Coach

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The Nationals are going to hire Corey Ray as first base coach, reports Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post. He had previously been working for the Cubs in the minor leagues. He will replace Gerardo Parra as the first base coach in Washington.

Ray, 31, was once a high profile prospect. The Brewers selected him fifth overall in the 2016 draft and signed him with a $4.125MM bonus. He clearly had incredible tools in terms of power and speed but he had trouble recognizing breaking pitches. This led to a lot of swing-and-miss, especially as he climbed the minor league ladder and faced better pitching. When he first reached Triple-A in 2019, he struck out in 38.7% of his plate appearances. He would lower than number in future seasons but still ended up walking back to the dugout about a third of the time.

His prospect stock dimmed but the Brewers still didn’t want to lose him in the 2019 Rule 5 draft, so they added him to the 40-man roster. He stuck on the 40-man for a while but only got into one major league game, on April 24th of 2021, going 0-2 with one walk, one strikeout and one run scored. He was sent through waivers unclaimed in June of 2022. He became a minor league free agent at season’s end and didn’t sign anywhere else.

In the spring of 2023, the Cubs hired Ray to serve as a bench coach for their Single-A Myrtle Beach affiliate. Going into 2024, he was named manager of the club’s Arizona Complex League team. Nusbaum notes that Ray has also been serving as the organization’s baserunning coordinator.

The Nats are undergoing a major overhaul of their organization. Their ongoing rebuild has failed to show much progress and so just about everything is on the chopping block. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were fired midseason. In September, Paul Toboni was hired as the club’s new president of baseball operations.

In October, it was reported that interim manager Miguel Cairo wouldn’t be continuing in that role while six coaches would only be brought back if the new manager wanted them on the staff. Those six were pitching coach Jim Hickey, hitting coach Darnell Coles, third base coach Ricky Gutierrez, bullpen coach Ricky Bones, catching/strategy coach Henry Blanco and Parra. Blake Butera was hired as the new manager a couple of days after that reporting. Since then, the Nats have hired Michael Johns as bench coach, Simon Mathews as pitching coach and now Ray as first base coach.

Fresh blood seems to be the name of the game. Johns is 50 years old but Toboni is 35, Butera 33 and Mathews 30. As mentioned, Ray is just 31 and not too far removed from his playing days. Younger doesn’t necessarily mean better and the Nats are presumably looking at attributes other than just age but it is perhaps an interesting symbol of how the organization felt it was falling behind the times and needed to quickly modernize.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Rockies Sign Nicky Lopez, John Brebbia To Minor League Deals

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The Rockies have signed infielder Nicky Lopez and right-hander John Brebbia to minor league deals, reports Kevin Henry of the Denver Gazette. Both players will receive invites to big league spring training. Lopez is represented by CAA and Brebbia by Icon Sports Management.

Lopez, 31 in March, has largely been a glove-first infielder in his career. He did have a nice .300/.365/.378 showing in 2021 but that seems to have been fuelled by a .347 batting average on balls in play, far higher than any other season he has played. In his career, he has stepped to the plate 2,374 times with just seven home runs. His 14.3% strikeout rate is quite low but his 7.6% walk rate is subpar. Put it all together and he has a .245/.310/.311 line and 73 wRC+, indicating he’s been 27% below league average at the plate.

Despite the lack of punch with the bat, Lopez has been able to carve out big league playing time on the strength of his defense. He has experience at all four infield spots and in left field. Reviews on his shortstop defense are mixed. He’s been credited with -11 Defensive Runs Saved at that spot, although a lot of that comes from a -9 in just 344 2/3 innings with the White Sox in 2024. Outs Above Average, meanwhile, has ranked him as 33 runs better than par at short. Both metrics give him positive reviews at the other positions he’s played.

Lopez got pushed to a fringe roster player in 2025. He got close to everyday playing time from 2019 to 2024 but he only got into 19 games and received 28 plate appearances this year. He had brief stints with the Angels and Cubs early in the year, then was stuck in the minors for the final few months of the season, bouncing to the Diamondbacks, Yankees and Cubs again.

The Rockies have plenty of uncertainty on their roster. They just lost 119 games and are retooling the organization. On the infield, Ezequiel Tovar is locked in at short but the other positions are up for grabs. Tyler Freeman, Kyle Karros, Troy Johnston, Adael Amador, Warming Bernabel, Ryan Ritter and Blaine Crim are all on the roster but Freeman is the only guy in that group with more than 60 games in the big leagues. Freeman can also play the outfield and might end up there, depending on what other moves the Rockies make.

In short, there’s lots of room for a veteran infielder. The Rockies had guys like Orlando Arcia, Thairo Estrada and Kyle Farmer on the roster in 2025 as veteran utility types but they’re all free agents now. If Lopez eventually cracks the roster, he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent as a guy with at least five years of big league service time.

As for Brebbia, he’s a buy-low move for the Rockies. He had a strong run from 2017 to 2023, tossing 299 2/3 innings for the Cardinals and Giants, allowing 3.42 earned runs per nine. His 25.5% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate over that span were both better than league average. He got enough leverage work to earn two saves and 47 holds in those seasons.

The past two years haven’t been as smooth, however. He signed a one-year, $5.5MM deal with the White Sox going into 2024. Between Chicago and a brief appearance with Atlanta late in the year, he had a 5.86 ERA. However, his 27.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate were still strong. His ERA spike seemed to be connected to a career-high 11 home runs allowed.

The Tigers signed him to a one-year, $2.75MM deal going into 2025, hoping for a bounceback. They didn’t get it. He struggled and was designated for assignment in June. Like the year before, he was briefly scooped up by Atlanta. He finished the year with a 7.71 ERA over 22 appearances. His 22.6% strikeout rate was around average but his 10.4% walk rate was subpar. His home run woes continued, as he allowed five in less than half as many innings pitched as in the year prior.

The Rockies had a collective 5.99 ERA in 2025, the worst such mark in the majors. They have very few experienced pitchers on the roster. Kyle Freeland and Antonio Senzatela are the only two with more than five years of service time. Neither has been especially effective in recent years. If they get back on track in 2026, they will likely be traded since both are only signed through 2026, with contract options for 2027.

Brebbia is turning 36 in May and spent part of 2025 on the injured list due to a triceps strain. Maybe the odds of a bounceback aren’t great, particularly if he ends up pitching in Coors, but the Rockies need pitching more than any other club and will likely take a number of fliers on pitchers like this. They recently signed Parker Mushinski to a minor league deal and will certainly ink a few more deals of this type.

Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images

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