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Astros To Sign Luis Guillorme To Minor League Deal

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The Astros and infielder Luis Guillorme have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. The MVP Sports Group client also gets an invite to big league camp, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic.

Guillorme, 30, is a glove-first utility guy. He was able to produce offense around league average in the 2020 to 2022 seasons, which made him a useful player for the Mets. Unfortunately, his bat fell off in 2023, so the Mets non-tendered him.

That sent him into journeyman mode last year. He started the season with Atlanta and eventually bounced to the Angels and Diamondbacks. He produced a line of .205/.301/.273 between those three clubs, his second straight poor season at the plate. His combined line over 2023 and 2024 was .213/.296/.295 for a wRC+ of 68, indicating he was 32% below league average.

As mentioned, he was better before that. He slashed .278/.367/.344 over the three previous seasons, leading to a 107 wRC+. He didn’t provide much pop, with just three home runs in 559 plate appearances, but he walked at a 12% rate and only struck out 15.4% of the time. When combined with his glovework, FanGraphs credited him with 3.1 wins above replacement in 201 games over that three-year period.

Defensively, Guillorme has 1,339 1/3 innings at second base, 604 at third and 229 1/3 innings at shortstop. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have given him a grade of +7 at the keystone in his career, while his work at the other two spots has been considered close to average.

The Astros have a question mark at second base for the first time in years. Jose Altuve has had that position locked down since he debuted in the summer of 2011. He’s never been a great defender and the metrics have soured on him further recently. Since he’ll turn 35 years old in May, the club is reportedly considering a move to left field for Altuve.

Those reports originally surfaced in connection with rumors that they were still considering re-signing Alex Bregman, which would push Isaac Paredes from third to second. However, it has since become clear that Altuve could be moving to left field with or without Bregman involved. If Bregman signs elsewhere and Altuve ends up on the grass, the club will need solutions at second base.

Mauricio Dubón is on the roster but would ideally be deployed in a super utility role, playing infield and outfield. Shay Whitcomb and Zach Dezenzo are on the 40-man but neither has more than 20 games of MLB experience, and Dezenzo is more of a corner infielder regardless. The Astros signed Zack Short to a minor league deal last month for some extra non-roster depth and now Guillorme gives them another candidate to look at in camp.

The fact that Guillorme hits from the left side probably helps as well, since that has been a focus of the club this offseason. Yordan Alvarez is the only lefty hitter that seems locked into an everyday role at this point. Ben Gamel was signed as a possible outfield addition, though his deal isn’t fully guaranteed and he could be squeezed out if Altuve ends up in left. Guys like Jon Singleton and Taylor Trammell are also lefty swingers who could be on the bench, with Guillorme possibly joining them.

Cubs Notes: Assad, Birdsell, Rotation

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Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to camp for all 30 clubs this week, but the Cubs started a little earlier than everyone else. That’s due to the fact that the Cubs and Dodgers are starting the regular season early, flying to Tokyo to play a couple of games there in mid-March.

Inevitably, the opening of camp leads to revelations of injuries that weren’t previously known to the public. Cubs manager Craig Counsell relayed a couple of those to reporters, including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Right-hander Javier Assad is dealing with some oblique soreness while fellow righty Brandon Birdsell is dealing with an issue in the back of his shoulder. Per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, Assad is getting some imaging today.

At this point, it’s unclear if either issue is serious, though the club’s rotation depth could suffer if one or both of these hurlers have to miss some time. On paper, Assad would be in the club’s Opening Day rotation. Last year, he made 29 starts and logged 147 innings, allowing 3.73 earned runs per nine. He was probably a bit lucky to allow so few runs, as his 80.3% strand rate was well above the 72.1% league average, while his 19.4% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate were both subpar. Still, his 4.64 FIP and 4.72 SIERA still point to him being a passable back-end guy.

As of right now, the rotation to start the season would include Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd in four spots. Assad and Colin Rea would be candidates for the back end. If Assad is healthy, Rea could wind up in a long reliever role, or he could hold down the number five spot if Assad needs some time on the shelf.

Birdsell is further down the depth chart. A fifth-round pick from 2022, he is not yet on the 40-man roster. But he finished his 2024 season with 12 Triple-A starts with a 4.26 ERA, 26.2% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate. He’ll likely be back in the Iowa rotation to start 2025 as a top depth option, alongside guys like Jordan Wicks, Cody Poteet and Cade Horton.

Adding to the club’s starting mix is seemingly still a possibility. The Cubs were recently connected to the rumors surrounding Dylan Cease of the Padres. They also still have a bit of wiggle room in terms of the competitive balance tax, assuming they would rather not pay it this year. RosterResource puts their current CBT number at $209MM, more than $30MM away from the $241MM base threshold.

Cease is going to make $13.75MM this year, so he could easily fit into that remaining space. There are also a few mid-rotation pitchers still available in free agency, such as Andrew Heaney, Nick Pivetta, Jose Quintana and more. The club isn’t likely to rush out and make a panic move just because of a few spring injuries, but it’s an area they had their sights set on already. It’s possible that further developments that impact the overall group could increase the club’s desire to pivot to backup plans.

Marlins Sign Janson Junk To Minor League Deal

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The Marlins announced that right-hander Janson Junk has been signed to a minor league deal. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be in major league spring training as a non-roster invitee.

Junk, 29, spent 2024 bouncing around the league. He started the year with the Brewers as a depth arm, getting frequently recalled and optioned back down to the minors. The club designated him for assignment in late July when Devin Williams came off the 60-day injured list. Junk was put on waivers and claimed by the Astros, then went to the Athletics via another waiver claim about a month later. The A’s outrighted him off their roster shortly thereafter and he was able to elect free agency at season’s end.

Around those transactions, he was only able to toss eight innings in the majors. He also got limited big league work in the previous three campaigns, so he now has a 6.75 earned run average in 40 innings in his career overall. His 18% strikeout rate in that time is subpar but his 5.8% walk rate has been good and his 44.3% ground ball rate around average.

His minor league track record has naturally been larger and more impressive. Over the past four years, he has tossed 367 innings on the farm with a 3.83 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. That includes 60 1/3 Triple-A innings in 2024, working both out of the rotation and bullpen, with a 3.58 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 46.3% ground ball rate.

The Marlins have a fair amount of uncertainty on their pitching staff. In the rotation, they recently traded Jesús Luzardo and lost Braxton Garrett to season-ending surgery. Eury Pérez will return from his surgery this year, but probably not until the All-Star break. As of now, Sandy Alcántara, Ryan Weathers, Edward Cabrera and Max Meyer project as the front four, with guys like Valente Bellozo, Adam Mazur and others in the mix for back-end jobs.

In the bullpen, the Marlins traded away Tanner Scott, A.J. Puk, Bryan Hoeing, Huascar Brazobán and JT Chargois at the deadline. They current have no relievers with more than four years of service time, with Anthony Bender the only one over the three-year mark and Andrew Nardi the only other one beyond the two-year line. In short, it’s wide open.

Since Junk has pitched both as a starter and reliever, he’ll give the Fish a bit of extra depth in both departments. If he makes it to the majors, he is out of options, which will limit his roster flexibility. If he does get a roster spot, he has less than a year of service time, so he can be cheaply retained for the foreseeable future.

Dodgers Hire Farhan Zaidi As Special Advisor

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The Dodgers have hired Farhan Zaidi as a special advisor, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. He will also be assisting Dodgers part-owner and chairman Mark Walter with his other sports interests.

It’s a homecoming for Zaidi, 48, as he has worked for the Dodgers before. He got his start in the Athletics organization but was hired by the Dodgers in November of 2014, working as general manager under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

Four years later, Zaidi was hired away by a divisional rival. The Giants made him president of baseball operations for that club in November of 2018. His first two seasons in San Francisco weren’t remarkable, with the club finishing just below .500 in 2019 and 2020. But in 2021, the club amazingly won 107 games, narrowly edging the Dodgers for the division title. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep that going, finishing the next three seasons with a win total in the 79 to 81 range. At the end of September, Zaidi was fired and replaced by Buster Posey.

In December, it was reported that Zaidi was in talks to come back to the Dodgers in some capacity, which has now come to fruition. A person who has led a baseball operations department will often take on a lesser role as a sort of temporary measure, waiting for another opportunity to open up. Alex Anthopoulos was the general manager of the Blue Jays through the 2015 season, then took a role as vice-president of baseball operations with the Dodgers. He departed a little over a year later when a chance opened up to run the baseball operations department in Atlanta.

Based on Zaidi’s title in this role, it seems fair to assume that this will also be a bit less hands-on than his other recent gigs. He can contribute to the Dodgers a bit while keeping himself available for future front office opportunities that might open up. Walter is also a co-owner of the Premier League club Chelsea, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, in addition to owning the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Zaidi’s new role will also see him contributing to those ventures in some undefined way.

Free Agent Profile: Jakob Junis

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Spring training is ramping up this week but the offseason isn’t done. Seven of MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents remain unsigned, including one big fish in Alex Bregman, as well as plenty of mid-rotation starters.

Jakob Junis is one pitcher we considered for the list but who just missed the cut. The righty hasn’t appeared in any rumors of note this winter. MLBTR hasn’t written about him since he declined his end of a mutual option and became a free agent at the start of November.

The righty was a free agent last winter as well and agreed to a deal with the Brewers almost exactly one year ago. Reports emerged on February 5 of 2024 that he would sign a one-year deal with Milwaukee, a $7MM guarantee.

It took a bit of time for his season to get momentum. He made one appearance in early April before landing on the injured list due to a right shoulder impingement. His return was delayed by a scary fluke incident. He was doing some on-field jogging during batting practice before a game when he was struck by an errant ball. He didn’t come off the IL until late June.

After coming off the IL, he pitched multi-inning relief outings for the Brewers. But just over a month after being reinstated, he was flipped to the Reds as part of the deadline deal which sent Frankie Montas to Milwaukee. He pitched out of the Cincinnati bullpen for a while but moved to the rotation down the stretch as that club dealt with a number of injuries and was playing out the string on the season.

Despite the delayed ramp-up and the midseason change of scenery, Junis still managed to log some good numbers on the whole. He made 24 appearances, including six starts, throwing 67 innings. He allowed just 2.69 earned runs per nine frames. He got a bit of help from a .224 batting average on balls in play and a 77.9% strand rate, but his 3.69 FIP and 3.72 SIERA suggest he still would have been effective even with neutral fortune from the baseball gods. His 20.2% strikeout rate was down a bit from the year prior but he also dropped his walk rate all the way to a miniscule 3.2%.

That’s now four straight seasons of pretty decent production from Junis. Over the 2021 to 2024 campaigns, he made 33 starts and 70 relief appearances. In that time, he posted a 3.99 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate. Control is clearly a strength, as he’s never finished a season with a walk rate higher than 7.5%. His strikeout rates have been fairly average, but he has occasionally found an extra gear in that department. He punched out 24.4% of opponents in 2021 and 26.2% in 2023, though he was down closer to 20% in 2022 and 2024.

In terms of his arsenal, his four-seamer and sinker averaged around 92 miles per hour last year, though he also threw a slider, changeup and cutter. The slider has been his most important weapon, as he has thrown that more than any other pitch in each of the last five seasons. The Stuff+ metric has given the pitch a grade around 110 pretty consistently for the past five years and he averaged 13.4 inches of horizontal break on it in 2024, per Statcast, putting it 11th among sliders from qualified pitchers last year in that department. Hitters generally put up batting averages around the Mendoza line against it, including a slash of .183/.230/.346 last year.

Junis doesn’t have notable concerns in his splits. As a right-hander, lefties have hit him better, but not drastically so. He has allowed a line of .286/.340/.473 without the platoon advantage in his career, only a bit better than his .248/.300/.430 line allowed to righties.

He’s also capable of putting up decent numbers from both the rotation or the bullpen. As a starter over the past four years, he has a 3.76 ERA, 22.4% strikeout rate and 5.1% walk rate. As a reliever in that span, he has a 4.22 ERA that seems inflated by a .332 BABIP, as his 22.8% strikeout rate and 5.3% walk rate are very similar to his rotation work.

Based on the quiet winter, it’s possible that Junis will wind up with a similar deal to the $7MM guarantee he got last winter. In the past month or so, Michael Lorenzen, Martín Pérez and Colin Rea have signed one-year deals in that range, with Lorenzen getting $7MM and the other two getting $5MM. Here are the numbers for those guys over the past two years, with that range selected because Rea was pitching in Japan in 2022:

  • Junis: 153 innings, 3.35 ERA, 23.7% strikeout rate, 4.7% walk rate
  • Lorenzen: 283 1/3 innings, 3.78 ERA, 17.9% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate
  • Rea: 292 1/3 innings, 4.40 ERA, 19.9% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate
  • Perez: 276 2/3 innings, 4.49 ERA,  16.7% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate

Junis has a lower innings tally than everyone in that group, due in part to his injured list stint in 2024 and because the Giants mostly used him out of the bullpen in 2023. But on a rate basis, he’s been clearly a cut above those recent back-end starters/swing guys that have signed lately. Plenty of clubs still need pitching help and injuries will surely be discovered in the coming weeks as pitchers ramp up in camp. If some club goes out looking for late-winter bargains, Junis seems like a good candidate.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

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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.

Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training this week, but there’s still offseason business to attend to. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter 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.

Padres Sign Connor Joe

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TODAY: The Padres have officially announced Joe’s contract. Joe will earn $1MM in guaranteed money, Acee reports, and another $1.25MM is available in incentive bonuses.

FEBRUARY 7, 9:45pm: The sides have an agreement on a one-year deal, writes Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

5:20pm: The Padres are nearing a deal with infielder/outfielder Connor Joe, reports Dennis Lin of The Athletic. Financials for the John Boggs & Associates client aren’t publicly known at this time. The Padres have multiple 40-man vacancies, so no corresponding move will be required.

Joe, 32, has been roughly a league average bat in his career but decent in a platoon capacity. In his 1,582 plate appearances, he has hit .242/.337/.391 for a wRC+ of 97, indicating he’s just been 3% below par. A right-handed hitter, Joe has a .254/.350/.415 slash and 107 wRC+ against lefties, compared to a .235/.329/.377 line and 91 wRC+ against righties.

Defensively, he is capable of playing at first base or in an outfield corner. He has five Defensive Runs Saved as an outfielder in his career. Outs Above Average is a bit more pessimistic, giving him a -7 score. However, both metrics consider him above average as a first baseman.

The Pirates could have retained Joe for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $3.2MM salary, but the Bucs decided to non-tender him instead. That sent him into free agency without being exposed to waivers.

Though the financials of this deal haven’t been reported yet, it’s surely a fairly modest guarantee by MLB standards. That’s obviously attractive for the Padres, since the budget is clearly a major concern, as it has been for a while. Last winter, the payroll crunch was tight enough that they dealt Juan Soto to the Yankees. This winter, they’ve been fairly quiet, but rumors have swirled around players like Dylan Cease, Michael King, Luis Arráez, Robert Suarez and others.

The tight payroll situation is awkward because they have a few clear holes on the roster. Jurickson Profar hit free agency and signed with Atlanta, leaving an opening in left field. The first base/designated hitter situation is also somewhat open. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim hit free agency and signed with the Rays. The Padres are going to move Xander Bogaerts from second base, his primary position last year, back to short. That will seemingly allow Jake Cronenworth to move from first base to second base on a regular basis. Arráez, who served as the designated hitter a lot last year, could be the regular first baseman. Useful part-time players like David Peralta and Donovan Solano also hit free agency at the end of last season, subtracting from the bench/depth area.

Having Joe in the mix gives the Padres some options. He could see time at first base, pushing Arráez back into the DH spot. In left field, Tirso Ornelas projects as the top option at the moment despite having no major league experience. Bringing Joe aboard will push Ornelas down the depth chart, though he could still push for and earn playing time, with depth options like Eguy Rosario and Brandon Lockridge also possibilities to earn at-bats. Ornelas is a lefty bat, so perhaps a platoon with Joe is possible.

The market for part-time outfielders has been moving steadily in recent days. In the past two weeks, Austin Hays, Adam Frazier, Ramón Laureano, Randal Grichuk and Harrison Bader have signed one-year deals ranging from $1.5MM to $6.25MM. Joe’s details haven’t been reported yet but it’s possible he’s in there as well. For clubs still looking for outfield help, players like Alex Verdugo, Jason Heyward and Peralta are some of the unsigned options.

RosterResource currently puts the Padres at a payroll of $205MM and a competitive balance tax number of $245MM. It’s unclear exactly how much wiggle room they have in terms of the pure payroll. As far as the CBT goes, they are currently just $4MM over the $241MM base threshold. It’s presumed that they would want to be below that line, which is understandable, given how close they are.

They didn’t pay the tax in 2024, so they would be a “first-time” payor if they did so in 2025, which would lead to a modest 20% base tax rate for their overages. However, paying the tax also leads to lesser compensation when it comes to players rejecting a qualifying offer and signing elsewhere. Cease, King and Arráez are all impending free agents and candidates for a QO if they stick with the club through the end of the year, which could incentivize the Padres to duck under the tax line by season’s end if they’re at all close.

Looking At The Brewers’ Rotation Depth Options

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The Brewers have won the National League Central two years in a row and three of the last four. They will be looking to defend that title in 2025 but might face a steeper challenge than in years past. The Cubs have had an aggressive offseason, adding Kyle Tucker, Matthew Boyd, Ryan Pressly, Ryan Brasier and more. The Reds added Brady Singer, Gavin Lux, Austin Hays and will be getting several players back from injury. The Pirates have had a quiet winter but have a rotation loaded with young talent, fronted by Paul Skenes and Jared Jones. The Cardinals planned to do a teardown but ended up standing pat, so they’re going into the year with a very similar roster to the one that finished above .500 last year.

Milwaukee hasn’t done a lot to remake its roster relative to last year. They have added Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin but lost Willy Adames, Devin Williams and others. Whether the team is better or worse than last year is debatable.

The rotation wasn’t a strength in 2024. Their starters put up a collective 4.09 earned run average, putting them 17th out of the 30 teams in the league. Their bullpen was one of the best, however. Their relievers had a collective ERA of 3.11, second only to the Guardians, which helped the team cruise to that division title. That was despite Williams being injured for much of the year.

Going into 2025, the rotation looks like it could be in a similar situation overall, though with some personnel changes. Of the seven players that made at least nine starts for the club last year, four of them are gone. Frankie Montas and Joe Ross hit free agency at season’s end, the former by declining a mutual option. Bryse Wilson was outrighted and Colin Rea had a club option turned down, so they also hit the open market as well.

Freddy Peralta, Tobias Myers and Aaron Civale are the three holdovers. Cortes was brought in from the Yankees as part of the Williams trade. In an interview this week with Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, manager Pat Murphy confirmed that those four make up his rotation core to start the season. Brandon Woodruff, who missed 2024 recovering from shoulder surgery, will be in there at some point but probably won’t be ready by Opening Day.

“I would think those four guys are [penciled in],” Murphy said, “and you can put Woody in there, too. But you can’t have him ready to start the season; he probably won’t be. But I think it’s pretty safe to say that those five guys are starters that, when healthy, are going to get opportunities.”

Taking things easy with Woodruff makes sense after his lost season, but that means the club will likely have to reach into its depth. Perhaps that will only be for a short time, but injuries are inevitable over the course of a season. For the long term, the need will be even greater. Civale and Cortes are both slated to be free agents after the upcoming season. Woodruff will certainly join them, as his deal has a $20MM mutual option for 2026 with a $10MM buyout. That was basically designed so that he would re-sign but with the club able to kick most of the payment down the line until the end of 2025. Peralta can be retained for 2026 via an affordable $8MM club option but is slated for free agency after that.

That means Myers is the only guy slated to still be on the roster when November of 2026 rolls around. Even he is not a lock to keep a spot going forward, as his strong 2024 season came after several years of poor minor league numbers. In short, the long-term rotation is wide open. Can the Brewers fill some of that in with guys already in the system? Let’s take a look at some of the options.

Aaron Ashby

Ashby, 27 in May, seemed like a potential rotation building block a few years ago. He tossed 139 innings in a swing role over the 2021 and 2022 seasons. His 4.47 ERA wasn’t especially impressive but his 27.1% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 57.8% ground ball rate seemed like a solid recipe for success.

The Brewers were intrigued enough to make a bet on the lefty, signing him to a five-year deal during the 2022 campaign which guaranteed him $20.5MM and also came with club options for 2028 and 2029.

Unfortunately, shoulder problems got in the way. Arthroscopic surgery wiped out his 2023 season. He returned last year and was kept mostly in a relief role, but with some good results. Down the stretch, he tossed 19 2/3 innings over 12 appearances with a 1.37 ERA, 36.8% strikeout rate, 3.9% walk rate and 51.1% ground ball rate.

With those numbers, it might be tempting to keep him in a bullpen role, but the club seems interested in stretching him out. Back in November, Murphy said the club still hopes to see what Ashby can do as a starter. He still has one option year and can be sent to the minors if the club would like.

DL Hall

Hall, 26, was a first-round pick of the Orioles in 2017 and went on to be a top 100 prospect. He came to the Brewers as part of the Corbin Burnes trade last offseason. He hasn’t lived up to that prospect hype just yet.

He has pitched in the past three seasons but logged only 76 innings. His 4.74 ERA doesn’t impress but his 25.1% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 46.5% ground ball rate make for a decent mixture. A left knee sprain hobbled him last year, limiting him to just 84 frames between the majors and minors. In 2022 and 2023, the Orioles shuttled him between the majors and the minors, as well as moving him between starting to relieving. He tossed 98 innings in 2022 between the majors and minors, then 71 1/3 in 2023. His minor league work has generally featured big strikeout numbers but also plenty of walks.

Hall is still a work in progress but the Brewers probably don’t want to give up on him, given the upside here. Like Ashby, he has one option year remaining, so pitching out of the Triple-A rotation isn’t off the table. He has one year and 74 days of service time, meaning he is currently slated for five years of club control, though a lengthy optional assignment could push that to six. Either way, he’s cheap and controllable for a long time to come.

Robert Gasser

Gasser, 26 in May, won’t be an option in the short term but is definitely part of the long-term plans. A former top 100 prospect, he debuted with a splash last year by posting a 2.57 ERA in his first five big league starts. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery in June, wiping out the second half of his 2024. He’s now slated to miss most or perhaps all of 2025. He has less than a year of service time at the moment and the Brewers therefore have six years of club control over him.

Jacob Misiorowski

Misiorowski, 23 in April, is not yet on the 40-man roster but is one of the top pitching prospects in the league. He reached as high as Triple-A last year, though the club eased off his workload by having him pitch shorter stints out of the bullpen to finish the year. Between Double-A and Triple-A, he tossed 97 1/3 innings on the year with a 3.33 ERA. He struck out 30.5% of hitters and got grounders at a 45.8% clip but also gave out walks 14.4% of the time. Though the club eased off the gas, that innings total is still his personal high thus far.

The righty is clearly going to factor into the mix at some point, but there’s clearly still some development going on. 2025 will likely be about reining in the control and getting the workload beyond the 100-inning mark, but it’s entirely possible that he throws some big league innings this year.

Elvin Rodríguez

Rodríguez, 27 in March, is a wild card at the moment. He spent 2024 in a multi-inning role for the Yakult Swallows in Japan. He logged 45 innings over 32 appearances with a 1.80 ERA, 24% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate. Whether the Brewers view him more as a starter or a reliever is unknown.

Carlos Rodríguez

Rodríguez, 23, made a limited MLB debut last year. He tossed 12 1/3 innings over three starts with a 7.30 ERA. Over the past three years, he has logged 365 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.49 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate. Most prospect evaluators consider him a capable back-end starter but he’s still young and has a couple of options remaining, so he’ll likely be in the Triple-A rotation until circumstances change.

Chad Patrick/Logan Henderson

These two were each just added to the 40-man roster in November, to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft. Henderson, 23, is considered more of a legit prospect but he is still a question mark. Elbow surgery limited him to just 13 2/3 innings in 2022. He got that up to 78 2/3 in 2023 and then 81 1/3 last year. His minor league numbers are strong overall, with a 3.11 ERA, 34.1% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. However, he mostly gets by with a fastball/changeup mix that leads some to predict he’ll end up in the bullpen. Patrick is considered more of a depth/spot starter.

Bruce Zimmermann/Thomas Pannone/Easton McGee

These three signed minor league deals with the club this offseason. They all have a bit of major league experience and give the club some non-roster depth. Zimmermann has a 5.57 ERA in 158 1/3 innings and Pannone a 5.46 ERA in 118 2/3 innings, while McGee hasn’t allowed a run in his 9 2/3 innings.

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Though the Woodruff timeline creates some uncertainty, there are plenty of intriguing options here for the short term. But as mentioned, the Brewers will likely see three starters departing at the end of the year and a fourth after 2026. Ideally, guys like Ashby, Hall, Misiorowski and Gasser would step up take those spots, because the club usually doesn’t have a lot of spending power for bringing in free agents. That makes 2025 a key season in Milwaukee, since their future rotation plans are completely in flux.

Eury Pérez Targeting Return Around All-Star Break

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Marlins FanFest is taking place this weekend at loanDepot Park, giving members of the media access to players and staff. Right-hander Eury Pérez spoke today, giving an update on his situation, with Christina De Nicola of MLB.com among those to relay the particulars.

The young righty underwent Tommy John surgery in April of last year. Today, he said he has already thrown seven bullpens and described himself as 75%. As for a timeline, he says he’s targeting a return around the All-Star break in July. That roughly aligns with the normal timeline following such a surgery, as pitchers usually take 14-plus months to come back.

The Marlins don’t seem to have their sights set on competing in 2025. They went 62-100 last year and their offseason has been more focused on subtractions, at least when it comes to the major league roster. Their biggest signing has been adding utility player Eric Wagaman on a split deal. They traded Jesús Luzardo to the Phillies and Jake Burger to the Rangers, getting prospects back in both instances.

As such, Pérez and the club will have no real reason to rush the timeline. He is still quite young, not turning 22 until April, and is under club control through the 2029 season. Going at a measured pace and making sure he’s healthy for the long term is the sensible play. He was one of the top pitching prospects in baseball prior to his 2023 debut, when he tossed 91 1/3 innings with a 3.15 earned run average, 28.9% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate.

As of now, the Marlins project to have a rotation nucleus of Sandy Alcántara, Ryan Weathers, Edward Cabrera and Max Meyer. Options for the back end include Valente Bellozo, Xzavion Curry, Adam Mazur and Connor Gillispie. If all goes according to plan, Pérez will jump into that mix in July, just before the trade deadline. If the Marlins are out of contention as expected, then it’s possible that Alcántara, Weathers and Cabrera could be in trade rumors at that time.

Elsewhere on the Miami roster, manager Clayton McCullough provided an update on left-hander Andrew Nardi, per De Nicola and Isaac Azout of Fish on First. Nardi had “some stuff flare up in the offseason” and will be a bit behind schedule in spring training, though the team is still awaiting clarity on the severity of the situation.

It’s unclear exactly what “stuff” was impacted by this flare-up. Nardi was placed on the injured list in August of last year due to a left elbow muscle injury and finished the season there. It’s unclear if his current status is related to that IL stint.

If Nardi is healthy, he would likely be viewed as a trade chip this summer, again assuming the Marlins aren’t in contention. He can be controlled through 2028, but the Fish haven’t been shy about trading controllable players in recent years. That includes the aforementioned Luzardo and Burger, as well as guys like Luis Arráez, Jazz Chisholm Jr., A.J. Puk, Huascar Brazobán, Bryan De La Cruz, Trevor Rogers and Bryan Hoeing last year.

In 2023, Nardi posted a 2.67 ERA across 57 1/3 innings, pairing a 30.3% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate. In 49 2/3 innings in 2024, he actually increased his strikeout rate to 33.3% and lowered his walk rate to 8.6%. His ERA jumped to 5.07, but a lot of that was likely luck. His batting average on balls in play jumped from .288 to .325 from 2023 to 2024, while his strand rate dropped from 86.4% to 63.9%. Though his ERA almost doubled compared to the year prior, his 3.33 FIP last year was actually lower than his 3.60 FIP in 2023. His SIERA also dropped from 3.18 to 2.77.

Putting the last two years together, Nardi threw 107 innings with a 3.79 ERA, 32% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate. He won’t qualify for arbitration until after 2025 and would have three years of club control beyond that.

Twins Sign Harrison Bader

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The Twins officially announced the signing of outfielder Harrison Bader to a one-year deal with a 2026 mutual option. It’s a reported $6.25MM guarantee for the VaynerSports client. That breaks down as a $750K signing bonus, a $4MM base salary, and a $1.5MM buyout on the $10MM option. The buyout price could climb by another $1.5MM based on playing time: $200K at 400, 425 and 450 plate appearances, then by $450K at 475 and 500. There’s also a $500K assignment bonus if Bader is traded.

Bader, 31 in June, is a glove-first guy. From 2018 to 2024, he has been credited with 75 Outs Above Average, the top mark among all outfielders for that span. His tally of 48 Defensive Runs Saved in that stretch is only marginally less impressive, putting him sixth in the majors overall.

His offensive contributions have been less consistent, and more muted of late. From 2018 to 2021, he hit .244/.325/.420 for the Cardinals. That production translated to a 101 wRC+, meaning he was just 1% above average. Since he also stole 38 bases in that time and provided his aforementioned strong defense, he was a very valuable player in that stretch.

But in recent years, his batting has been a notch or two below that. Over the past three seasons, he has bounced from the Cardinals to the Yankees, Reds and Mets, hitting .239/.284/.360 for a wRC+ of 79. The glovework has still be strongly rated in that time and he swiped another 38 bags over those three years, but the diminished offense has naturally tamped his overall contributions.

On the whole, he has still been a useful player, even though the bat has been subpar. FanGraphs credited him with 3.7 wins above replacement over the past three campaigns, with at least 1.0 fWAR in each. Last year, he got into 143 games for the Mets. He hit 12 home runs and stole 17 bases. His batting line of .236/.284/.373 led to a wRC+ of just 85, but he was still worth 1.3 fWAR thanks to his speed and defense.

Bader seems likely to fill the role that Manuel Margot had in 2024. Margot appeared in 129 games for the Twins last year, though he was only in the starting lineup for 70. He spent a bit of time in all three outfield positions, doing some pinch hitting and pinch running. He stepped to the plate 343 times and hit .238/.289/.337 for a wRC+ of 79. He was once a strong glove-first outfielder like Bader, though the defensive metrics have soured on him over the past three years.

The Twins have a strong everyday center fielder in Byron Buxton, though he has struggled to stay on the field in his career. He has never played more than 140 games in a season and only once gone past 102. Last year, he got to that 102 number, which was just the second time in his career playing more than 92 games in a season.

As such, the Twins have seemingly made it a mission to have a strong center-field-capable fourth outfielder on the roster. They acquired Michael A. Taylor for the 2023 season, Margot last winter and are now going with Bader for 2025.

By having Bader on the roster, the club has some cover for if Buxton requires time on the injured list again. They also don’t have a surefire designated hitter, so it’s possible that Buxton serves as the DH with some regularity. Buxton is an excellent defensive center fielder himself, so that would rob him of some of his value, but having Bader take his spot in the field would at least mean there’s no downgrade out there. Going that route on occasion could perhaps allow Buxton stay a bit healthier than in some other years, thus staying with the club for a larger chunk of the season.

With Max Kepler hitting free agency, the Twins project to have Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach in the corners. Bader can spell those two on defense occasionally and also perhaps platoon with them, as he hits from the right side while Wallner and Larnach are lefties with notable career splits. Bader had reverse splits in 2024 but has hit .249/.314/.461 against lefties in his career for a 109 wRC+. That’s compared to a .239/.303/.367 line and 84 wRC+ against righties.

The Twins also have Willi Castro and Austin Martin as guys who could figure into the outfield mix, but they are also capable of playing the infield. Like with Buxton in the outfield, there are some health concerns on the dirt, as Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis and José Miranda have had notable injury concerns over the years.

It’s been a pretty quiet offseason for the Twins overall, with the front office apparently working under some notable constraints. The 2024 payroll dropped by about $30MM compared to the previous year, which was apparently due to the ongoing uncertainty with their broadcast deal with Diamond Sports Group. This year, the Twins are having MLB handle their broadcasts, which is likely to bring in less revenue than their previous arrangement. On top of that, the club is currently for sale. It’s possible that the current owners prefer to keep the long-term books fairly clean, leaving the future spending decisions to the new ownership group.

Going into this week, the Twins hadn’t made a significant trade nor agreed to sign a free agent to a major league deal. They have ramped up their activity, relatively speaking, by giving one-year deals to Coulombe and Bader this week. Bader’s deal does have a mutual option, but those are almost never picked up by both sides. They are essentially just an accounting measure to kick some of the spending to the end of the season.

For much of the offseason, it seemed as though the club might have to clear some payroll to make moves, perhaps by trading someone like Christian Vázquez or Chris Paddack. It remains to be seen whether that is still the case or if they found enough coins in the couch cushions to simply make these additions without subtractions.

There are still some viable infielders and starting pitchers in free agency, but the outfield market has been more picked over. As of a couple of weeks ago, Jurickson Profar was last outfielder still unsigned who profiled as a clear everyday player. He signed a three-year pact with Atlanta, leaving mostly part-time, role-playing types on the market.

Since then, a number of those players have signed fairly similar one-year deals. Austin Hays got $5MM from the Reds, Ramón Laureano got $4MM from the Orioles and Randal Grichuk got $5MM from the Diamondbacks. Those guys can all play center in a pinch but Bader is clearly above them defensively, which has perhaps allowed him to come out ahead. For clubs still looking for outfield help, Mark Canha, Alex Verdugo, Jason Heyward and David Peralta are some of the guys still out there.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that the Twins were signing Bader to a one-year deal with a mutual option. Ken Rosenthal and Dan Hayes of The Athletic reported the $6.25MM guarantee. Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune had the specific salary breakdown. Heyman had the specifics on the buyout escalators and the assignment bonus.

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