Emmanuel Clase, Luis Ortiz Shifted To Unpaid Non-Disciplinary Leave
Major League Baseball announced today that Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz will be shifted to unpaid, non-disciplinary leave to start the 2026 season. Last year, both pitchers were placed on paid administrative leave as part of a sports betting investigation. Evan Drellich of The Athletic was among those to pass the info along.
“As the legal proceedings involving Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz continue to move forward, MLB and the MLBPA have agreed that both players will remain on non-disciplinary leave from the Club without pay until further notice,” the announcement reads. “This agreement is not an admission of any wrongdoing by Clase or Ortiz. MLB has been closely monitoring the matter since alerting federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and will have no further comment until its investigation has been completed.”
Both pitchers were placed on administrative leave in July of last year as allegations surfaced that they had taken part in a gambling scheme whereby they would intentionally throw certain pitches out of the strike zone for the purposes of impacting prop bets. That initial placement was to last until August 31st but was later extended until further notice.
The two pitchers were indicted by prosecutors in Brooklyn in November, charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy. Both pleaded not guilty.
The trial was initially scheduled to begin in early May but Brant James of Yahoo Sports was among those to report that it has been pushed to November. MLB typically keeps an investigation open until the legal process is complete, so it seems possible that the two pitchers will stay on leave for the entire 2026 season.
If that comes to pass, it would lower Cleveland’s payroll, which is already one of the smallest in the league. RosterResource projects the club for $82MM in spending on this year’s roster. The Marlins are the only MLB club to come in underneath that. Ortiz has not yet qualified for arbitration. Clase signed an extension with Cleveland a few years ago and was slated to make $6MM this year. His deal has a 2027 club option worth $10MM with a $2MM buyout.
The club probably won’t run out and immediately spend those savings. There aren’t many free agents of note remaining on the market at this part of the calendar. It’s possible the extra budget space could impact their trade deadline strategy.
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Taylor Walls To Begin Season On Injured List
March 20: Walls tells Topkin that he’s been told he’ll be sidelined for a “minimum” of three to four weeks.
March 19: Rays infielder Taylor Walls has a right oblique issue and will begin the season on the 10-day injured list, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. That will likely lead to Carson Williams being the Opening Day shortstop, though Topkin notes the Rays are open to external additions as well.
The Rays came into camp with Walls and Williams as their top candidates for the Opening Day shortstop job. Walls is the more experienced of the two, having appeared in 480 games for the Rays over the past five seasons. He doesn’t provide anything with the bat, having hit .195/.286/.298 in his career. His defensive grades are mixed, with 52 Defensive Runs Saved at short but minus-14 Outs Above Average, but the Rays clearly skew to the positive side based on how they keep committing to him. They are paying him $2.45MM this year.
Williams has a chance to produce more than that in the long run but is still unproven. He is 22 years old, turning 23 in June. He got to make a brief debut in the big leagues last year, getting into 32 games. He hit five home runs but struck out at an awful 41.5% clip while only drawing a walk in 5.7% of his plate appearances. His minor league track record has been somewhat similar, though with more walks. In 111 Triple-A games last year, his 12.4% walk rate was quite good and he hit 23 home runs but with a very high 34.1% strikeout rate.
There are some skills there but Williams is clearly still young and raw. No qualified hitter had a strikeout rate greater than 32.3% last year. He’ll need to cut down on the punchouts and is still a work in progress. Understandably, the Rays feel he could still use some more polishing in the minors, as they optioned him to Triple-A Durham earlier this week.
The Walls injury may change that plan, at least for the short term. It’s unclear exactly how long Walls will be out. If the issue is fairly minor, he might only miss a week of the season since IL stints can be backdated by three days, even at the beginning of the schedule.
Until Walls is back, the shortstop depth will feel light. Prospects Jadher Areinamo, Gregory Barrios and Brayden Taylor are not too far off but neither has played at the Triple-A level yet. Ben Williamson only played third base for the Mariners last year but he has some minor league shortstop experience. He appears to be the club’s bench infielder at the major league level and would be the backup for either Walls or Williams.
As Topkin mentioned, it’s possible the Rays look for outside help. Perhaps they could find someone they like enough to bump Williams back down to Triple-A, but adding some minor league depth behind Williams could also be a possibility. Not a lot of teams are looking to trade starting-caliber shortstops at this time of year but some fringe guys may become available in the coming days. As teams break camp and make their final roster decisions, some will trigger opt-outs and become free agents while others will hit the waiver wire.
MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently took a look at some looming opt-out situations around the league. Orlando Arcia, Paul DeJong, Kyle Farmer and Dylan Moore are some guys with recent shortstop experience on that list, though Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports that DeJong plans not to trigger his opt-out. Moore is reportedly going to trigger his. Guys like Leo Jiménez, Brett Wisely or Tsung-Che Cheng could end up on waivers in the coming days. The Rays acquired Wisely and Cheng in the offseason but later lost both in subsequent moves.
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Hayden Birdsong To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
The Giants announced that right-hander Hayden Birdsong will undergo Tommy John surgery next week. He will miss the entire 2026 season and part of the 2027 campaign as well. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to pass the info along.
The news is not surprising but is awful for Birdsong and the Giants regardless. It was reported a few days ago that Birdsong had an elbow issue and would be getting a second opinion. He was then diagnosed with a forearm strain and a sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament. He took a few days to consider his options but it seems he is destined for the surgeon’s table.
Prior to this injury, Birdsong was slated to be one of the club’s top depth starters. They project to start the season with a starting five of Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahle, Adrian Houser and Landen Roupp. Due to injuries, teams usually need about a dozen starters to get through a full season. The Giants have Carson Seymour, Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell as optionable depth starters. Birdsong would have been in that group but has now been subtracted.
Birdsong should end up on the 60-day injured list whenever the Giants need a spot on the 40-man roster. The one silver lining of that outcome is that Birdsong will get a full year of service time and pay, more than if he spent the year as a healthy but frequently-optioned depth arm.
The typical recovery timeline for Tommy John surgery is usually 14 months or more. That means Birdsong won’t be available until about midway through the 2027 season, even in a best-case scenario. Ray and Mahle are both scheduled for free agency after 2026, so two rotation spots are potentially opening up. Those could be filled internally if guys like Seymour, Whisenhunt or Tidwell step up. The Giants could also make notable trades between now and then, in addition to potentially signing free agents next winter.
Time will tell what shape the rotation is in when Birdsong is again healthy but he should be a key part of the group regardless. He only has a 4.77 earned run average in his career so far but is only 24 years old and comes with some prospect pedigree. FanGraphs has been especially bullish, as they gave him the #42 overall spot at one point during the 2024 season. Birdsong posted a 2.51 ERA on the farm that year but then had a 6.23 ERA in Triple-A in 2025 and now he’s dealing with this lengthy rehab process.
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Braves Outright Ian Hamilton
The Braves announced that right-hander Ian Hamilton has been sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. There wasn’t any previous indication he was on waivers but it appears he was quietly passed through unclaimed in recent days. The move drops Atlanta’s 40-man roster count from 39 to 38.
Hamilton was non-tendered by the Yankees after the 2025 season. Atlanta gave him a roster spot in December. Hamilton’s deal has a non-guaranteed $1.05MM salary, per the Associated Press. By cutting him from the roster before Opening Day, Atlanta will only owe him 45 days’ prorated termination pay, or about $254K.
The righty has at least three years of service time, meaning he has the right to elect free agency. Since he has fewer than five years of service, he would have to forfeit any remaining salary commitments on his deal by exercising that right. It’s unclear what kind of salary he would be paid as a minor leaguer, which would impact his decision.
Hamilton had some good seasons in the Bronx. He gave the Yanks 95 2/3 innings over 2023 and 2024, allowing 3.10 earned runs per nine. His 10% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 27.4% of batters faced and induced ground balls at a 50.4% clip. His results backed up last year, as he posted a 4.28 ERA. His 25.3% strikeout rate was still good but a drop of a few ticks. He also saw his ground ball rate fall to 37.8% as his walk rate climbed to 13.3%. He was optioned to the minors for the final two months of the season.
That exhausted his final option year, so he will now be out of options going forward. That probably contributed to him getting pushed off the Yankee roster. He could have been retained for 2026 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $941K salary, barely above this year’s $780K minimum. The Yankees decided to non-tender him instead, sending him to free agency.
Atlanta now has a couple of roster spots to play with. They are likely to use one on Dominic Smith, whose path to playing time was opened by the Jurickson Profar suspension. The club might also select Martín Pérez or JR Ritchie to the roster. Atlanta also has several candidates to move to the 60-day injured list, with Joey Wentz, AJ Smith-Shawver, Hurston Waldrep and Danny Young all possibilities. With that flexibility, this Hamilton move was probably less about opening a 40-man spot and more just a reflection of the fact that he wasn’t going to crack the Opening Day active roster.
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Mets Option Ronny Mauricio
The Mets announced a series of roster cuts today. Most notably, infielder Ronny Mauricio has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. They also optioned right-hander Joey Gerber while non-roster pitchers Brandon Waddell and Mike Baumann were reassigned to minor league camp.
The Mauricio move might be a clue about some other moves the Mets will make to round out their Opening Day roster. Joel Sherman of The New York Post reports that third baseman Bo Bichette will play shortstop tomorrow with the possibility of the Mets beginning the season without a backup shortstop on the bench.
Bichette had been a shortstop for his entire career until recently. He finished the 2025 season on the injured list and missed the beginning of the Blue Jays’ playoff run. The Jays activated him for the World Series even though he clearly wasn’t fully healthy, then had him split his time between second base and designated hitter.
Even before that knee injury, Bichette wasn’t considered a strong defensive shortstop, so a move off the position felt inevitable. The Mets signed him this winter to get his bat in the lineup, even though they already had Francisco Lindor and Marcus Semien as their middle infield tandem. Bichette is going to be the regular third baseman but could perhaps serve as the de facto backup shortstop. Lindor is recovering from hamate surgery but is expected to be ready for the Opening Day roster.
Perhaps the Mauricio demotion is a sign that the Mets are indeed comfortable with that arrangement. The domino effect of that stance is that they could be able to promote prospect Carson Benge and also keep Mike Tauchman.
The Mets seem to have three of four bench spots locked up. Backup catcher Luis Torrens will have one. Corner infielder Mark Vientos should have another. Tyrone Taylor projects as the fourth outfielder. All three of those guys are out of options. Mauricio made sense as the fourth guy on the bench but he’s now out.
All offseason, president of baseball operations David Stearns has said that Benge would have a chance to make the team. As a safety net, they signed Tauchman to a minor league deal and MJ Melendez on a split deal. Melendez has an option and was sent down earlier this week. Benge has done his part to earn a spot, having put up a .406/.472/.500 line this spring. Tauchman has been making the team’s decision tough, putting up a .280/.419/.520 line.
Tauchman can opt out of his deal on March 25th if he’s not on the roster. Given his track record, he would likely trigger that clause and find a job elsewhere. If the Mets want to keep him around, then going with this shortstop plan would be a way to do that. Simultaneously, they could give Benge the regular right field job on Opening Day, keeping the possibility of the Prospect Promotion Incentive on the table.
If that’s the route they go, that could have impacts on others. Utility player Vidal Bruján is on the roster but out of options. The Mets could give him the final bench spot now that Mauricio has been sent down but that would mean letting Tauchman slip away. It’s possible Bruján gets nudged off the roster in the coming days.
As for Mauricio, he was once a notable prospect but his progression has been slowed a bit. He missed the entire 2024 season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was back on the field in 2025 but was in a bench role for most of the year. He got into 61 big league games and produced a tepid .226/.293/.369 line.
Optioning him to the minors would have the benefit of getting him some regular playing time, something he hasn’t had in a while. However, he has just one option season remaining. If he stays down for at least 20 days, he will be out of options in 2027.
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Paul DeJong Not Planning To Opt Out Of Yankees Deal
Infielder Paul DeJong does not plan to opt out of his minor league deal with the Yankees this week, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. He will stick with the Yanks and try to earn a roster spot. If he doesn’t get a spot on the Opening Day roster, he’ll report to Triple-A.
DeJong is one of several veterans with opt-out chances this week. Article XX(B) free agents, which is a designation applying mostly to guys with at least six years of service who finished the previous season on a major league roster, get three uniform opt-out dates in any minor league deal signed at least ten days prior to Opening Day. Those chances are five days before Opening Day, May 1st and June 1st.
The 32-year-old DeJong had to settle for a minor league deal after a frustrating season in 2025. He signed a $1MM major league deal with the Nats and started out as their third baseman but got hit in the face by a Mitch Keller fastball a few weeks into the season. He suffered a broken nose and was on the injured list for almost three months. He finished the season with a .228/.269/.373 line.
He didn’t get a major league roster spot this winter but is in a relatively decent spot to get one in the future. In the short term, the Yankees are fairly light on the left side of the infield. Anthony Volpe is recovering from shoulder surgery and is going to start the season on the injured list. José Caballero will cover that shortstop with Ryan McMahon at third. Amed Rosario is the backup infielder. Rosario has shortstop experience but only played two innings there last year. It seems possible that McMahon is effectively the backup shortstop.
Oswaldo Cabrera is on the roster but the Yanks might decide to send him to the minors, either on optional assignment or as part of a rehab assignment. Cabrera missed most of last season due to an ankle injury that required surgery. He is healthy now and has played in five Grapefruit League games so far. He could be on the big league bench but there’s also an argument for getting regular reps in the minors after so much missed time. Max Schuemann is on the roster but has options and hit .197/.295/.273 last year, so he’s likely ticketed for a depth role. Jorbit Vivas is also on the 40-man but he’s out of options and may get squeezed off.
Until Volpe gets healthy, DeJong has a chance to position himself to be the first man up if something happens to Caballero, McMahon or Rosario. Zack Short, Braden Shewmake and Jonathan Ornelas are also in the organization on minor league deals but DeJong has a far longer track record than any one of them.
It’s possible things change in the next few weeks. As mentioned, Cabrera is already back on the field. Volpe is expected to be back in the mix fairly early in the season. If a month of the campaign passes and DeJong feels he has been pushed down the depth chart, perhaps he would give more thought to opting out on May 1st.
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White Sox Return Rule 5 Pick Alexander Alberto To Rays
March 19: Alberto has been returned to the Rays after clearing waivers, the White Sox announced. Chicago’s 40-man roster drops to 39 players. Alberto does not have to be added to Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster. He’ll be assigned to a minor league affiliate to begin the season.
March 16: The White Sox have placed Rule 5 pick Alexander Alberto on waivers, reports James Fegan of Sox Machine. Another club could claim the right-hander but would be subject to the standard Rule 5 restrictions, meaning Alberto would not be eligible to be optioned to the minors. If he clears waivers, he will have to be offered back to the Rays.
This effectively means that Alberto isn’t breaking camp with the Sox. Chicago made two Rule 5 picks in December, taking right-hander Jedixson Paez from the Red Sox and Alberto from the Rays. Alberto has tossed 6 2/3 innings over seven spring appearances, having allowed ten runs, eight of them earned. He struck out seven batters but allowed 12 hits, issued four walks and threw one wild pitch.
Under the regulations of the Rule 5, the selecting team must pay $100K to the club they take the player from. The player cannot be optioned to the minors and must therefore stay on the active roster or injured list. If he survives a full season with his new club, including at least 90 days on the active roster, then his rights fully transfer over to the drafting club.
With Alberto’s rough spring showing, it seems the Sox aren’t going to break camp with him. It was always a long shot pick, as Alberto’s career topped out at High-A last year. To skip over Double-A and Triple-A and stick in the big leagues, even with a rebuilding club, would be a tall order.
It’s possible some other club takes a chance on the stuff. Last year, Alberto tossed 48 2/3 innings on the farm, allowing 2.59 earned runs per nine. His 10% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 30.6% of batters faced and induced grounders on 54.4% of balls in play. His cut fastball sits in the upper 90s while his upper 80s slider is considered a strong pairing. If no other club grabs him via waivers, he must be offered back to the Rays for $50K, half of the initial selection fee. The Rays would not need to carry Alberto on their 40-man roster.
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Latest On Royals’ Rotation
The Royals announced that right-handers Ryan Bergert and Mason Black have both been optioned to Triple-A Omaha. The two of them will begin the 2026 season as rotation depth options for the club.
The two came into camp blocked for rotation roles. Their only real path would be if someone ahead of them got injured. The Royals have been fortunate in that regard and should start the season with their projected top five of Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron. The most notable injury in camp thus far was an oblique strain for Stephen Kolek, who was likely ticketed for Triple-A.
With five healthy guys in the rotation, that squeezes Bergert and Black to the minors, where they should be joined by Ben Kudrna, Luinder Avila and Mitch Spence. Spence and Avila haven’t been officially optioned yet but Avila has been away from the club, playing for Venezuela in their World Baseball Classic championship run. Kolek can jump into that mix whenever he’s healthy.
With all of those depth options, it leaves Bailey Falter in an interesting spot. Per Anne Rogers of MLB.com, the Royals have considered using him as a sixth starter or long reliever but are also open to trading him.
Falter has been a serviceable but not dominant pitcher in his career. In 466 innings, he has allowed 4.58 earned runs per nine. His 6.9% walk rate is quite strong but he has only punched out 17.8% of batters faced.
Kansas City traded for Falter at last year’s deadline when Bubic, Ragans and Michael Lorenzen were all on the injured list. Lorenzen came back a few weeks later, which got Falter nudged to the bullpen. After two relief outings, Falter himself landed on the IL due to a left bicep contusion. He spent a little more than a month on the IL to finish the season.
Falter is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors. That means the Royals have to keep him on the active roster or else remove him from the 40-man entirely. A trade would be one way to do that but his value probably isn’t terribly high. As mentioned, his results have been more passable than great. He can’t be optioned down to Triple-A and is going to make $3.6MM this year.
While there are certainly other teams who could use some extra depth, they have other options. Free agency still has guys like Lucas Giolito, Tyler Anderson and Patrick Corbin out there. As Opening Day nears, there are some veterans who could opt out of minor league deals. Some arms will also end up on waivers as teams make their final roster decisions as well.
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Albert Suárez Has Opt-Out In Deal With Orioles
Right-hander Albert Suárez is in camp with the Orioles on a minor league deal. He can opt out of that pact at the end of spring training if not added to the roster, reports Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner. Kostka adds that teams are keeping tabs on Suárez and his status as that opt-out decision approaches.
Suárez, 36, spent 2019 to 2023 putting up good numbers in Japan and Korea. He returned to Major League Baseball in 2024 by signing with the Orioles and went on to have his best big league season to date. He gave the O’s 133 2/3 innings in a swing role, making 24 starts and eight relief appearances. He allowed 3.70 earned runs per nine with a 19.1% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate.
He wasn’t able to repeat that performance last year. He was beset by a subscapularis strain and a mild flexor strain, only making five appearances on the year. He was non-tendered at season’s end and re-signed to a minor league deal. He has a 7.59 ERA in a small sample of four appearances in Grapefruit League play this spring.
It doesn’t appear as though he has a great path to a roster spot with the Orioles right now. They currently have a rotation consisting of Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, Chris Bassitt, Zach Eflin and Dean Kremer. They could option Kremer but it feels a bit unlikely since he’s been in the rotation for most of the past five years.
Assuming those six guys are on the roster, that leaves rooms for seven more pitchers, given the roster limit of 13 arms. Ryan Helsley, Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns and Rico Garcia can’t be optioned. Yennier Cano and Tyler Wells have optioned but Kostka describes them as locks for the roster. Kostka also suggests Grant Wolfram is likely to get a spot as well.
That would be seven and would result in Jackson Kowar, who is out of options, getting squeezed out. Kowar has big velocity but hasn’t translated that into strong results yet. He has an 8.21 ERA in 91 big league innings.
It’s possible one spot could be opened if Eflin requires a stint on the injured list, though he seems to be trending towards avoiding the IL. If one spot does open up, Kostka suggests that it could go to Kowar or Suárez, though he also lists José Espada and Yaramil Hiraldo as possibilities. Those latter two guys have options and pretty limited big league experience. If the O’s want to maintain some depth, they could option them while using a spot to either select Suárez or keep Kowar.
With less than a week left in camp, decisions will need to be made soon, unless Eflin’s progress slows down or someone else gets hurt. Depending on how things play out in the coming days, it’s possible both Suárez and Kowar end up available to other clubs, Suárez via his opt-out and Kowar via waivers.
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Nationals Option Harry Ford
The Nationals announced today that catcher Harry Ford has been optioned to Triple-A Rochester while fellow backstop Riley Adams has been reassigned to minor league camp. That seems to set the stage for Keibert Ruiz and Drew Millas to be the club’s catching tandem at the beginning of the season.
The Nats have an interesting long-term catching mix. They acquired Ruiz from the Dodgers as part of the 2021 deal sending Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers. He and the club agreed to an extension in 2023, a deal which runs through 2030 and has club options for 2031 and 2032.
But since the start of 2024, he has poor defensive numbers and a .235/.266/.345 batting line. FanGraphs has considered him to be 1.3 wins below replacement level in that span. He was acquired and extended by the previous front office regime. President of baseball operations Mike Rizzo was fired last year as the club’s rebuild failed to proceed as hoped.
Paul Toboni was hired to replace Rizzo. One of the first significant moves of his tenure was to trade reliever Jose A. Ferrer to the Mariners, with Ford being the headliner of the return. Ford is one of the top catching prospects in the league. Seattle drafted him 12th overall in 2021 and signed him to a bonus of $4.4MM. With Cal Raleigh locked in as the catcher in Seattle, it made sense for the Mariners to put Ford on the trade block. Presumably, the Nats hope Ford is their primary catcher in the long term.
Ford’s major league track record consists of just eight games so far. He got into 97 Triple-A games last year and put up a .283/.408/.460 line. Even in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, that was 25% better than league average, by measure of wRC+. His defense was once considered questionable but he has made enough progress that he is expected by many evaluators to stick behind the plate for the long term.
Though Ford is still only 23 years old and lacking in experience, the Nats could have considered carrying him on the Opening Day roster due to the Prospect Promotion Incentive. He would have been PPI eligible if the Nats kept him on the active roster for long enough to earn a full year of service time. He could have then earned them an extra draft pick if he won Rookie of the Year or Most Valuable Player in his pre-arbitration seasons.
The Nats didn’t get a long look at him during Spring Training, as Ford joined the Great Britain team in the World Baseball Classic. He has only appeared in seven Grapefruit League contests, with a lackluster .214 /.353/.286 line in those.
For now, it seems the Nats will have Ford getting regular reps in the minors. That will give Ruiz a chance to continue as the regular catcher in the big leagues. Despite his recent struggles, it’s not out of the question for Ruiz to get back on track. He is only 27 years old and was able to be a league average hitter as of a few years ago.
If that doesn’t come to fruition, then it’s possible a time will come where Ford pushes for a regular role, which will get Ruiz bumped into being an overpaid backup. His contract isn’t especially onerous on an annual basis but there’s still quite a ways to go. He will make $5MM this year and next, followed by a salary of $7MM in 2028 and then $9MM in each of the final two years. That means he is still guaranteed $35MM over the next five years. The club options are valued at $12MM and $14MM, with no buyouts.
The timing of Ford’s eventual recall to the majors will impact his future earning power. He currently has 28 days of service time. If he spends about six weeks or more on optional assignment this year, he won’t be able to reach the one-year mark, which will push his path to free agency by a year. It also could impact when he qualifies for arbitration, depending on where the Super Two cutoff lands in future seasons.
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