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KBO’s Samsung Lions Re-Sign Lewin Díaz, Denyi Reyes

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The Samsung Lions of the KBO League announced that they have re-signed first baseman Lewin Díaz and right-hander Denyi Reyes, per Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net and Jiheon Pae (X link). Díaz will get a $100K signing bonus, a $500K salary and $200K of incentives while Reyes gets a $200K signing bonus, $700K salary and $300K of incentives.

Díaz, now 28, was a very popular player during his time in North America, though without getting an extended big league opportunity. He started his major league career with the Marlins but only got limited looks in the three years from 2020 to 2022.

Having exhausted his options after that stretch, his grip on his roster spot became tenuous and he was designated for assignment by the Fish. Before the 2023 season started, he went to the Pirates, Orioles, Atlanta and Orioles again via waivers or cash trades. The O’s did eventually run him through waivers and didn’t call him up in 2023.

In general, Díaz has performed well everywhere except the majors. He hit .181/.227/.340 in his brief looks in the big leagues but had a much nicer line of .258/.340/.479 at the Triple-A level over the 2021-2023 seasons. He is also considered a strong defender at first base, so that made for an intriguing combination, likely why he kept getting so much attention.

He went to the Mexican League in 2024 and put up a huge slash of .376/.452/.647 in 75 games there. He then got a deal with the Lions in the middle of August, with a strong .282/.331/.518 line in 29 games in Korea, seemingly enough to convince the Lions to bring him back.

Reyes, now 28, was a similarly fringe roster player during his time in the affiliated ball. He got to make three appearances for the 2022 Orioles and then got into nine games for the 2023 Mets, posting a 6.26 earned run average in his 27 1/3 innings.

He posted some intriguing rate stats in the minors but was victimized by the long ball. From 2021 to 2023, he threw 209 1/3 innings on the farm with a 21.4% strikeout rate that was close to average and 5.7% walk rate that was quite strong. But thanks to 47 balls leaving the yard in that time, he had a 5.59 ERA.

Reyes signed with the Lions going into 2024 and went on to have a solid year, with the groundball-heavy league seeming to be a good fit for him. He logged 144 innings over 26 starts with a 3.81 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate, 62.3% ground ball rate and 15 homers allowed. The Lions were evidently pleased with that performance and will bring him back for 2025.

Both players are still relatively young and could try to return to MLB in the future if they continue to have good results overseas, as players like Erick Fedde or Eric Thames have done. For now, they will lock in some decent money that’s in the vicinity of the MLB minimum, which will be $760K next year.

Blue Jays Interested In Anthony Santander, Corbin Burnes

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The Blue Jays are interested free agent outfielder Anthony Santander, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Nightengale also mentions that the club is pursuing top pitchers like Corbin Burnes and Max Fried. The club has previously been connected to top free agent starters such as Fried and Blake Snell in recent weeks, so Burnes being on the list as well is aligned with those interests.

The connection with Santander is a sensible one. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco predicted the Jays to sign Santander when our Top 50 Free Agents list came out earlier this month. The Jays are a sensible fit for an outfielder and a potent bat, two boxes that would be checked by Santander.

Right now, the Jays have George Springer and Daulton Varsho as the two established big leaguers in their outfield. Varsho underwent shoulder surgery in September and it’s possible that he’ll miss the opening of the 2025 season. Springer is now 35 years old and has seen his wRC+ decline for five straight years now. He had a 155 wRC+ in 2019 but that number has gone to 143, 140, 133, 104 and 95 in recent years.

In addition to those two, the Jays have plenty of other theoretical options to take playing time on the turf. Nathan Lukes, Joey Loperfido, Jonatan Clase, Davis Schneider, Addison Barger and Steward Berroa are all outfield options on the 40-man roster, but there’s not much certainty there. Schneider is the only one with more than 81 big league games on his track record and he’s coming off a frustrating season. In short, there’s plenty of room for the Jays to make an external addition.

More broadly, some home run pop would be welcome in the lineup. The Jays were middle of the pack in terms of wRC+ and on-base percentage in 2024 but were 26th in the majors in terms of home runs, ahead of just the Marlins, Rays, Nationals and White Sox. Only six guys on the club got to double digits with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. the only Blue Jay to get to 20 dingers on the year.

Santander can certainly provide that power, having just hit 44 home runs this past year. With 105 homers over the past three seasons, he’s sixth in the majors for that time frame behind star sluggers Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso and Matt Olson. The Jays have a bunch of key contributors who hit from the right side, such as Guerrero, Springer, Bo Bichette and Alejandro Kirk, so Santander’s switch-hitting ability likely adds to the appeal. He’s not a great defender but he’s slashed .244/.317/.478 over the past three years for a 124 wRC+ and the Jays don’t have a full-time designated hitter, which could allow them to limit the downside of his glovework.

It seems fair to conclude that Santander would be a fallback plan in the event the Jays don’t succeed in landing Juan Soto. The Jays are one of the clubs still plausibly in the mix for Soto, with offers expected to come in this week.

Soto ticks a lot of the same boxes as Santander, as he’s a lefty-swinging outfielder with power, but he’s the more attractive free agent for a few reasons. Soto is far younger, as he is now 26 while Santander is 30. Soto’s elite eye at the plate is also in a different stratosphere compared to Santander. Soto’s 18.8% walk rate in his career is roughly double a normal league average and higher than his 17% strikeout rate. Santander, meanwhile, takes a free pass at a subpar 7.3% clip.

Based on those differences, Soto is going to be Plan A for a lot of clubs, who will then view Santander as a potential safety alongside other free agent outfielders like Teoscar Hernández, Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar and others. While MLBTR predicted Soto for a $600MM guarantee, Santander was projected for a deal of $80MM over four years, obviously far more affordable.

Santander has been connected to the Yankees this winter as one of many players the Yanks could turn to if they don’t get Soto and the Jays likely view their situation similarly. Soto is widely expected to secure a record-breaking contract of some kind, so teams will naturally want to assess their payroll ledgers and consider the domino effects of such a contract before pivoting to other moves.

On the pitching side, the Jays have been connected to a few starting pitchers already, as mentioned. The Jays have a veteran front three in their rotation, with Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt all under contract for 2025. Bowden Francis seems to have earned a rotation gig with his strong second half in 2024. Candidates for the fifth spot include Yariel Rodríguez and Jake Bloss, but Rodríguez also has plenty of relief experience and could be in the bullpen. Bloss still has options and limited experience, not having thrown much in the majors nor the minors.

Adding a pitcher like Fried or Snell or Burnes would obviously strengthen the group. Burnes has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past five years, though he hasn’t been quite as dominant over the past two. From 2020 to 2022, he had a 2.62 earned run average, 33.4% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 47.6% ground ball rate. In the two most recent seasons, it’s been a 3.15 ERA, with his strikeout rate falling to 24.3%.

That’s a bit of a concern but Burnes is still arguably the top pitcher available in free agency this offseason. MLBTR predicted Burnes for $200MM over seven years, with Snell at $160MM over five and Fried at $156MM over six.

There are many ways it could play out but it seems the Jays are setting their sights high after missing out on Ohtani last winter and then having a disappointing season in 2024. It’s also been suggested that the Jays could be quite aggressive this offseason since there are a few potential pivot points coming up. Guerrero, Bichette and Bassitt are all slated for free agency for 2025, while team president Mark Shapiro and manager John Schneider are each going into the final years of their respective deals as well. General manager Ross Atkins is under contract through 2026 though it’s been suggested that he may be under pressure to deliver in the upcoming season in order to stick around.

The Jays had an Opening Day payroll of $225MM last year, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, with RosterResource currently projecting them for $189MM in 2025. Shapiro had previously said he didn’t expect the club’s payroll to significantly increase or decrease relative to 2024, so the Jays could have something in the vicinity of $35MM to spend this offseason on a notable free agent.

Some reporting, including from Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, has pointed to ownership perhaps having a Soto and non-Soto budget. The club was apparently willing to go to greater financial extremes to sign Ohtani last winter but didn’t end up redistributing that money to other players after he signed with the Dodgers. Similarly, the payroll ceiling could be moved up to accommodate a Soto deal but not otherwise.

Regardless of how much money they end up spending this winter, draft pick forfeiture will be another cost the club will have to consider. Each of Soto, Burnes, Fried and Santander rejected a qualifying offer, as did other potential targets like Hernández or Willy Adames. Snell wasn’t eligible to receive a QO this offseason because he already rejected one a year ago.

The Jays are believed to have just snuck under the competitive balance tax in 2024 by trading away some veterans at the deadline, which impacts their penalties for signing a player who rejected a qualifying offer. A tax-paying club has to forfeit $1MM of international bonus pool space as well as its second- and fifth-highest pick in the next draft. If the Jays did indeed go under the CBT line in 2024, those penalties will instead be $500K of pool space and just the second-best draft pick. In recent years, the Jays have been willing to sign players who rejected qualifying offers, doing so with both Springer and Bassitt.

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.

The hot stove is starting to warm up, with a multi-year free agent signing and a notable trade in recent days. 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.

Rockies Non-Tender Cal Quantrill, Brendan Rodgers

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The Rockies announced they’ve non-tendered right-hander Cal Quantrill and second baseman Brendan Rodgers. Both players are now free agents and the club’s 40-man roster count drops to 38.

Quantrill, 30 in February, once seemed like a rotation building block for the Guardians but this is now two years in a row in which he’s lost his roster spot after a tough season. From 2020 to 2022, he tossed 368 innings for the Guards with a 3.08 earned run average. His 18.4% strikeout rate wasn’t amazing but he limited walks to a 6.7% clip and kept the ball on the ground 42.7% of the time.

But in 2023, shoulder inflammation limited him to 19 starts with a 5.24 ERA. His strikeout rate, which was already subpar, slid to 13.1%. The Guards designated him for assignment and flipped him to Colorado for minor league catcher Kody Huff.

The Rockies installed Quantrill into their beleaguered rotation, with Germán Márquez and Antonio Senzatela both recovering from Tommy John surgery. They avoided arbitration with Quantrill by agreeing to a $6.55MM salary. He went on to serve as a steady presence in the rotation but with fairly unexciting results. Over 29 starts, he logged 148 1/3 innings with a 4.98 ERA. His 44.4% ground ball rate was around league average but his 16.8% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate were both well below par.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Quantrill for a raise to $9MM next year, his final season of club control, but it seems the Rockies were uninterested in bringing him back at that price point. Marquez and Senzatela should be healthy for 2025, joining a rotation that figures to also include Kyle Freeland, Ryan Feltner and Austin Gomber, while prospect Chase Dollander is waiting in the wings.

Quantrill will now look for a change of scenery. Though the recent results haven’t been amazing, the Coors Field effect will naturally factor into how he’s viewed, with some clubs hoping to engineer a bounceback by moving Quantrill away from the mountains.

As for Rodgers, he was once a third overall pick and top 100 prospect but he has failed to live up to that hype. He has taken over 1800 plate appearances to this point in his career and has a batting line of .266/.316/.409. That translates to a wRC+ of 86, indicating he’s been 14% below league average overall.

The reviews of his glovework have been mixed. Outs Above Average has given him a -5 mark for his career. He was above average in 2022 and 2023 but then dipped back down again this year. He does have 12 Defensive Run Saved in his career but in eyebrow-tilting fashion. He’s been below average by that metric in most of his seasons but had a massive +22 grade in 2022, a mark that looks like a clear outlier.

Swartz projected Rodgers for a $5.5MM salary next year. Like Quantrill, he could only be retained for one more season before he was slated for free agency. Rather than pay Rodgers in that range for 2025, they will move on, sending him to free agency while they look for alternatives at second base.

Colorado could give some runway to prospect Adael Amador, but he will be only 22 next year and has just 10 major league games under his belt so far. Perhaps they can find a placeholder to take that spot in the meantime, either someone better than Rodgers or simply cheaper. Players like Gleyber Torres, Adam Frazier, Amed Rosario and others are available in free agency.

Angels Non-Tender Patrick Sandoval, Three Others

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The Angels announced that they declined to tender a contract to left-hander Patrick Sandoval, as well as infielder Eric Wagaman and outfielders Jordyn Adams and Bryce Teodosio.

Sandoval, 28, was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $5.9MM. However, he’s not a lock to pitch in 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in late June. In the event that he doesn’t pitch at all, he’d likely have been ticketed for a repeat of that $5.9MM salary in 2026. By tendering him a contract with that type of expected payday, the Halos would’ve effectively been running the risk of committing $11.8MM over two seasons just to get Sandoval’s 2026 season, when he’d be on an innings limit after that UCL reconstruction. He’d been slated to reach free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.

While the health outlook is uncertain, Sandoval is clearly a quality arm when healthy. He ought to be able to find a modest two-year deal that’ll pay him to rehab in year one and hopefully pitch in year two of the contract. Just days before his injury, MLBTR’s Steve Adams took a look at the similarities between Sandoval and oft-cited trade candidate Jesus Luzardo, noting that the two are quite comparable from a statistical standpoint.

Dating back to 2021, Sandoval sports a 3.80 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate in 460 innings of work. His command has never been great, but that walk rate is inflated by an anomalous 11.3% mark in 2023. Sandoval’s walk rate in the other three seasons has sat at 9.3% — not good, but not egregiously poor. The lefty sits 93-94 mph with his heater, misses bats at a roughly average level and piles up grounders at a strong 47.5% clip. He’s not a star, but Sandoval is a fine third or fourth starter for a competitive club.

Teodosio made his major league debut this year and played in five games. Adams and Wagaman were designated for assignment earlier this week. Any of that trio could potentially return on minor league deals. Sandoval is a near lock for a big league contract, potentially a backloaded two-year deal to cover the second season of his rehab.

Mariners Non-Tender Josh Rojas, Three Others

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The Mariners announced that they have non-tendered four players: infielder Josh Rojas, infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty, as well as right-handers JT Chargois and Austin Voth. Haggerty’s non-tender was reported earlier by Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X link).

Rojas, 30, has had an up-and-down career thus far. With the Diamondbacks in 2021 and 2022, he slashed .266/.345/.401 for a wRC+ of 106, indicating he was 6% better than league average over that span. He also stole 32 bases while bouncing around to the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as the outfield corners.

But his performance dipped badly in 2023, as he slashed .228/.292/.296 in 59 games for the Snakes that year. The Mariners then tried to buy low on him, acquiring him as part of the July 2023 trade headlined by Paul Sewald.

Initially, it seemed like the buy-low move might have worked, as Rojas slashed .272/.321/.400 for a 105 wRC+ in 46 games after the trade. The M’s gave him a $3.1MM salary for 2024 and hoped that he could keep it going, but this year’s line of .225/.304/.336 led to a wRC+ of just 91. He still stole 10 bases and bounced all over the diamond, but the club has decided to go in a different direction. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Rojas for a bump to $4.3MM next year, though the M’s clearly weren’t willing to bring him back at that price point, sending him to free agency instead.

It’s been reported that the Mariners are looking to upgrade their infield and this further cements that desire. They had already declined a club option on Jorge Polanco and traded away Ty France. Deadline acquisition Justin Turner hit free agency. That means shortstop J.P. Crawford is the only stable portion of the club’s infield mix at present. Luke Raley could get lots of playing time at first base but could also be in the outfield. Players like Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss, Austin Shenton, Leo Rivas, Samad Taylor or Tyler Locklear could be involved next year but the M’s will surely be looking for external additions in the coming months.

Turning to the others, Haggerty has been a useful part-time players for the Mariners in recent years but he only played eight games in 2024 due to a torn achilles. Voth and Chargois were each entering their final season of club control, so there was no long-term benefit to rostering them in 2025. Voth had a solid 3.69 earned run average this year but with a .236 batting average on balls in play. Chargois had a 2.23 ERA this year but is a journeyman who’s about to turn 34. Haggerty was projected for a salary of $900K, Voth $2.2MM and Chargois $1.7MM, but the M’s have balked at all of those prices and sent those players into free agency instead.

American League Non-Tenders: 11/22/24

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The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7pm CT. Here’s a rundown of the players on American League teams that have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month. All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency, where they’re eligible to sign with any of MLB’s 30 clubs.

Onto the transactions…

  • The Angels announced that they have non-tendered left-hander Patrick Sandoval, infielder Eric Wagaman, as well as outfielders Jordyn Adams and Bryce Teodosio. You can read more about those moves here.
  • The Astros tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Athletics announced that they did not tender a contract to right-hander Dany Jiménez, who was projected for a $1MM salary. He posted a 4.91 in 25 appearances for the A’s in 2024. He struck out 21.4% of opponents but gave out walks at a 16.2% clip.
  • The Blue Jays are planning to non-tender righty Dillon Tate, per Ben Nicholson Smith and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (X link). Tate was just claimed off waivers at the start of September and had a projected salary of $1.9MM. He’s a former fourth overall pick with some good numbers in his career but he missed most of 2023 due to injury and then posted a 4.66 ERA in 2024. The Jays are also non-tendering righty Jordan Romano, which you can read more about here.
  • The Guardians have non-tendered outfielder George Valera and right-hander Connor Gillispie, per Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com (X link). Both players were designated for assignment earlier this week.
  • The Mariners are going to non-tender outfielder Sam Haggerty, per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X link). He was limited to just eight games in 2024 due to a torn achilles. He was only projected for a salary of $900K but the M’s have decided to move on. They also non-tendered infielder Josh Rojas and righties Austin Voth and JT Chargois, moves that are covered with more depth here.
  • The Orioles plan to non-tender right-hander Jacob Webb, per Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner (X link). Webb was projected for a salary of $1.7MM next year. The righty tossed 56 2/3 innings for the O’s in 2024 with a 3.02 ERA and 24.5% strikeout rate, but an 11.4% walk rate.
  • The Rays announced they have non-tendered outfielder Dylan Carlson as well as left-handers Tyler Alexander, Colin Poche and Richard Lovelady. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relayed the news (X link) prior to the official announcement. Carlson once seemed like a building block in St. Louis but his offense has declined for three straight years now and he was projected for a $2.7MM salary. Alexander was projected for $2.8MM and had a 5.10 ERA this year. Poche had a solid 3.86 ERA but was projected for $3.4MM. Lovelady was designated for assignment a few days ago.
  • The Rangers tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Red Sox announced that right-handers Bryan Mata and Isaiah Campbell were both non-tendered. Those two had been designated for assignment earlier this week.
  • The Royals tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Tigers announced that they have non-tendered infielder Eddys Leonard as well as right-handers Ricky Vanasco, Brendan White and Wilmer Flores. Three of those four were designated for assignment earlier this week. Flores, the lone exception, is the younger brother of the same-named Wilmer Flores of the Giants. The younger Flores was once a notable pitching prospect but was injured for most of 2024.
  • The Twins tendered contracts to their entire arbitration class.
  • The Yankees have non-tendered infielder Jon Berti, per Robert Murray of FanSided (X link). He was projected for a salary of $3.8MM. He was injured for much of the year and only got into 25 games. The Yankees also announced that they have non-tendered left-hander Tim Mayza, who was projected for a $4MM salary but had a 6.33 ERA in 2024.
  • The White Sox will non-tender first baseman/outfielder Gavin Sheets, which MLBTR covered earlier today. The Sox later announced Sheets and also that they non-tendered right-hander Enyel De Los Santos as well. De Los Santos was projected for a salary of $1.7MM but posted a 5.20 ERA this year.

National League Non-Tenders: 11/22/24

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The deadline to tender a contract to arbitration-eligible players is tonight at 7pm CT. Here’s a rundown of the players on National League teams that have been non-tendered today. This post will be updated as more decisions are revealed. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for all players eligible for arbitration last month. All players who are non-tendered before this evening’s deadline go directly into free agency, where they’re eligible to sign with any of MLB’s 30 clubs.

Onto the transactions…

  • The Braves non-tendered outfielder Ramón Laureano, left-hander Ray Kerr, as well as right-handers Griffin Canning, Huascar Ynoa and Royber Salinas, which you can read more about here.
  • The Brewers parted ways with lefty reliever Hoby Milner, who’d been projected at $2.7MM for his final arbitration season. The typically reliable southpaw was tagged for a 4.73 ERA in 64 2/3 innings this year.
  • The Cardinals have non-tendered right-hander Adam Kloffenstein, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (Bluesky link). The righty only just made his major league debut in 2024 and was not yet arb-eligible. He immediately becomes a free agent without being exposed to waivers.
  • The Cubs have non-tendered infielder Nick Madrigal, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN (X link). Madrigal has hit .251/.304/.312 for a 76 wRC+ over the last three seasons with the Cubs and was projected for a $1.9MM salary next year. Chicago also announced they non-tendered outfielder Mike Tauchman, which comes as a bit of a surprise after he reached base at a .357 clip this year. Patrick Wisdom, Adbert Alzolay, Brennen Davis and Trey Wingenter — all of whom were designated for assignment earlier this week — were also dropped.
  • The Diamondbacks non-tendered lefty reliever Brandon Hughes, per a club announcement. The 28-year-old southpaw allowed 16 runs over 17 2/3 big league innings this year. He wasn’t eligible for arbitration but would’ve occupied a 40-man roster spot if offered a contract.
  • The Dodgers are non-tendering right-hander Brent Honeywell Jr. and left-hander Zach Logue, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (X link). Both pitchers are still in their pre-arbitration years, so this was more about the Dodgers sending them to free agency without exposing them to waivers, as opposed to cost cutting. Perhaps the club will look to re-sign them on minor league deals.
  • The Giants only made two non-tenders, parting with lefty Ethan Small and righty Kai-Wei Teng. Teng had been designated for assignment earlier in the week. Small, who was in his pre-arbitration years, spent the season in the minors or on the injured list.
  • The Marlins had zero non-tenders. They offered contracts to everyone on the 40-man roster.
  • The Mets dropped a trio of players from the 40-man roster: relievers Grant Hartwig and Alex Young and outfield prospect Alex Ramirez. Young was the only member of that group who’d been eligible for arbitration. The southpaw pitched well in a depth role, but the Mets didn’t want to keep him around at a $1.4MM projection. Hartwig made four appearances this year, while the 21-year-old Ramirez (a former top prospect) had a .210/.291/.299 showing in Double-A.
  • The Nationals announced that they have non-tendered right-hander Kyle Finnegan and Tanner Rainey, which you can read more about here.
  • The Padres dropped four players from the roster: righties Luis Patino and Logan Gillaspie, outfielder Bryce Johnson and infielder Mason McCoy. Patino, who underwent Tommy John surgery last summer, was the only member of the group who’d been eligible for arbitration. The other three cuts are simply about roster maintenance. The Padres could try to bring anyone from that group back on minor league deals.
  • The Phillies will not be tendering a contract to outfielder Austin Hays, which MLBTR covered earlier today.
  • The Pirates are expected to non-tender first baseman/outfielder Connor Joe and outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, per Alex Stumpf of MLB.com (Bluesky link). They are also non-tendering right-hander Hunter Stratton, per Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (X link). Joe was projected for a salary of $3.2MM next year and De La Cruz $4MM. Stratton had not yet qualified for arbitration. Joe has been around league average at the plate in his career but doing more damage against lefties. De La Cruz has hit .253/.297/.407 in his career for a wRC+ of 90. Startton had a 3.58 ERA this year but his season was ended by knee surgery, giving him an uncertain path forward.
  • The Reds have non-tendered right-hander Ian Gibaut, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Bluesky link). The righty was projected for a salary of $800K. He spent the vast majority of 2024 on the injured list due to arm trouble and only made two appearances on the season.
  • The Rockies moved on from starter Cal Quantrill and second baseman Brendan Rodgers, which MLBTR covered here.

White Sox Non-Tender Gavin Sheets

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6:05pm: The White Sox announced that they have tendered Vaughn a contract for 2025.

3:40pm: The White Sox are not going to tender a contract to first baseman/outfielder Gavin Sheets, per a report from Robert Murray of FanSided on X. Once official, Chicago’s 40-man roster count will drop to 38.

Sheets, 29 in April, was a second-round pick of the White Sox in 2017. He hit well throughout his minor league career, which made him a notable prospect in the club’s system for a while. Baseball America ranked him as one of their top 15 prospects in four straight years from 2018 to 2021. In the last of those years, he made his major league debut with a splash, hitting 11 home runs in just 54 games. That led to a .250/.324/.506 slash line and 123 wRC+.

But his production has fallen off since then. The Sox have given him 1,255 plate appearances over the past three years but Sheets has hit just .227/.291/.368 in those. That production translates to an 84 wRC+, indicating he’s been 16% worse than league average.

The Sox have had first base largely occupied by José Abreu and then Andrew Vaughn over the past few years. That has forced Sheets to spend more time in the outfield corners, where he’s not considered a strong defender, to put it mildly. In 1,618 innings on the grass, he has -22 Defensive Runs Saved and -13 Outs Above Average.

He crossed three years of service time in 2024, allowing him to qualify for arbitration for the first time. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $2.6MM next year. Given his performance thus far, it’s unsurprising that the Sox have decided they’re uninterested in bringing him back at that price point.

It’s possible that the two sides could reunite on a deal with a lower salary, but Sheets will now be free to talk to all 30 clubs and assess his options. If he latches on somewhere and gets back on track, he can theoretically be controlled for three more seasons.

The Sox still have Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Benintendi, their two highest-paid players, in their outfield mix. They just signed Austin Slater and added him to the group. Zach DeLoach, Oscar Colás, Dominic Fletcher and Corey Julks are also on the roster and should be battling each other for playing time. Vaughn is still the first baseman on paper, though it’s possible that he also winds up non-tendered today.

Giants, Mike Yastrzemski Avoid Arbitration

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The Giants and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski have avoided arbitration, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com on X. He will make $9.25MM in his final season before he is slated to become a free agent. That’s narrowly below the $9.5MM salary projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

Yastrzemski, 34, was a borderline non-tender candidate. That’s not so much a reflection of poor play on his part, simply that his salary had climbed to roughly match his value. The Giants could have considered moving on, using the savings to pursue marquee players, with the ability to sign someone roughly around Yastrzemski’s level later in the winter if they missed on the big guys.

But instead, they will stick with the proverbial bird in the hand, keeping Yas for one more go. Over the past six years, he has proven to be a fairly consistently above-average player, even if he’s something below a true star. In 694 contests, he has slashed .239/.322/.457 for a wRC+ of 112. In each full season, his wRC+ finished somewhere between 99 and 120. His home run total has always been between 15 and 25 in those full campaigns.

On top of that, his defense has been pretty steadily better than par. When combined with his solid work at the plate, he has been worth between 1.5 and 2.5 wins above replacement in each season of his career, per the calculations of FanGraphs.

A solid two-WAR player for $9.25MM is neither a bargain nor an egregious overpay. The Giants are evidently content with that equal value proposition, so Yastrzemski will stick around for one more year, barring a trade. The Giants are reportedly open to a swap, though the return won’t be massive with his salary roughly matching his expected production.

The club has Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos likely to be in the other two outfield slots next year, with Grant McCray, Jerar Encarnación, Marco Luciano, Blake Sabol, Wade Meckler and Luis Matos also in the mix. Perhaps they will pursue other players in the offseason who could make a Yastrzemski seem more possible, or perhaps the club will want to make room some of those incumbent players.

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