The Opener: Corner Infield Market, DFA Resolutions, Christmas Eve Transactions
As you’re getting ready to hang your stockings by the chimney with care, here are three things to watch for (other than Santa Claus) on Christmas Eve:
1. The corner infield market is heating up:
On Sunday morning, the White Sox came to terms on a two-year, $34MM contract with NPB first baseman/third baseman Munetaka Murakami. Later that day, the Red Sox swung a trade with the Cardinals to acquire a slugging corner infielder of their own, first baseman Willson Contreras. Then, on Tuesday, it was the Pirates who joined in on the fun, coming to terms with Ryan O’Hearn on a two-year, $29MM guarantee.
In addition to those recent moves, corner infielders have overrun the rumor mill lately. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported over the weekend that Blue Jays officials have had “recent contact” with Scott Boras regarding his client Alex Bregman. The star third baseman is the top unsigned corner infield free agent from MLBTR’s Top 50 list. Mariners GM Justin Hollander also reconfirmed his team’s interest in reuniting with third baseman Eugenio Suárez, while Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted that, before the Pirates signed O’Hearn, they had “multiple virtual meetings” with Kazuma Okamoto, another All-Star first baseman/third baseman from NBP.
One also has to wonder if more corner infield-related trade rumors are soon to come. One of Ryan Mountcastle or Coby Mayo is likely to be on the trade block now that Pete Alonso is ensconced at first base in Baltimore, and Triston Casas could be on the move after Contreras’s arrival in Boston. What’s more, the fact that the Cardinals have now traded Contreras and Sonny Gray only seems to make a Nolan Arenado deal more likely. While any notable trades and signings probably won’t take place on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, keep an eye out for the next big corner infield transaction that’s surely on its way.
2. DFA resolutions coming for Noel and Wiemer:
Today marks a week since the Guardians and Giants DFA’d outfielders Jhonkensy Noel (also known as Big Christmas) and Joey Wiemer, respectively. There hasn’t been any news about either player since, but that should change today. When a player is designated for assignment, his team has seven days to either trade him or pass him through waivers. If no trade comes together and the player goes unclaimed, his team can send him outright to the minor leagues. Neither Noel nor Wiemer has the necessary service time to reject an outright assignment, so if they do clear waivers, the Guardians and Giants will be able to keep them in their organizations.
3. Last-minute holiday shopping?
Yesterday featured two official major league signings and news of another, with Jacob Webb joining the Cubs, Sean Newcomb joining the White Sox, and O’Hearn reportedly agreeing to terms with the Pirates. Today, however, is likely to be a slow news day around Major League Baseball. Trades and free agent signings are almost as rare on Christmas Eve as they are on Christmas Day. Of course, that doesn’t mean a move is out of the realm of possibility. Just last year, the Twins sent left-handed reliever Jovani Morán to the Red Sox in exchange for catcher/utility man Mickey Gasper on December 24.
Some of the biggest Christmas Eve transactions in MLB history include Mark McGwire re-signing with the Athletics in 1992 (five years, $28MM) and Reggie Jackson returning to the Athletics on December 24, 1986 for what would be his final season. Funnily enough, the A’s are also one of just three teams in the last decade to sign a major league deal with a free agent on Christmas Eve. The Cubs officially signed Drew Smyly in 2022, the Mets came to terms and announced a deal with Dellin Betances in 2019, and the A’s finalized a contract with Mike Fiers on the holiday in 2018. Fiers would go on to throw a no-hitter for Oakland the next May.
Cody Ponce Has Drawn Interest From MLB Teams
Former MLB pitcher Cody Ponce is generating interest from MLB clubs after a dominant season in the KBO. Francys Romero reports that numerous teams have scouted the right-hander over the course of the 2025 season.
Ponce, 31, was Milwaukee’s second-round pick in 2015. Four years later, the Brewers flipped him to the Pirates ahead of the deadline in exchange for Jordan Lyles. After five seasons in the minors, Ponce made his MLB debut for Pittsburgh in 2020, and from 2020-21, he appeared in 20 games (five starts) at the big league level, pitching to a 5.86 ERA and a 4.38 SIERA in 55 1/3 innings. Following the 2021 season, the Pirates released him so he could sign with NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Over two seasons with the Fighters, Ponce was solid if unspectacular, making 24 starts with an ERA about 10% higher than league average. The highlight of his tenure with the club was the no-hitter he threw in 2022. Unfortunately, the righty struggled tremendously in 2024 after leaving the Fighters and signing with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Although he improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio, his groundball rate fell by about five percentage points, and he pitched to a 6.72 ERA in 15 games (12 starts). Some of that was surely the result of bad luck – his .382 BABIP was 20 points higher than that of any other NPB pitcher (min. 50 IP) in any of the previous five seasons – but nonetheless, he ended up spending almost as much of the season with the Golden Eagles’ farm team as he did with the NPB club.
In 2025, Ponce opted for a fresh start in South Korea, leaving the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to sign with the Hanwha Eagles. His move to the KBO turned out to be just what he needed. Over 29 starts and 180 2/3 innings, the 6-foot-6 right-hander pitched to a league-leading 1.89 ERA. Ponce set the KBO single-season record with 252 strikeouts and also set a new single-game record in the KBO by punching out 18 opponents. Ponce’s velocity has taken a notable step forward. After sitting 93.2 mph with his heater back in 2020-21, he now sits 94-98 mph and has added a kick changeup that wasn’t part of his repertoire during his MLB run.
Ponce also finished tied for the KBO lead in wins, securing the Triple Crown as he led the Eagles to an 83-57-4 record in the regular season – and an appearance in the Korean Series. His stellar performance earned him the Choi Dong-won Award, given annually to the best starting pitcher in the league.
The last two winners of the Choi Dong-won Award, Erick Fedde (2023) and Kyle Hart (2024), both signed guaranteed contracts to return to Major League Baseball after their award-winning seasons in the KBO, so it stands to reason that Ponce could pursue an MLB deal of his own if his goal is to end up closer to home. While he struggled during his brief stint with the Pirates, that was a 55-inning sample from five seasons back.
Ponce’s stuff has since ticked up, and his more recent accomplishments against NPB and KBO hitters could certainly convince a team to look past the reasons the Pirates released him all those years ago. Ponce throws harder and misses bats at a higher rate than either Fedde or Hart did during their time in South Korea. If Ponce indeed opts for a return to North American ball, a multi-year deal — perhaps even one topping Fedde’s $15MM with the White Sox — shouldn’t come as a major surprise.
Angels Outright Four Players
October 25: Kieboom has also elected free agency, as per his MLB.com profile page.
October 23: Brogdon and Fulmer have cleared waivers and elected free agency, according to a team announcement.
October 22: The Angels removed a pair of infielders from their roster today, the team announced. Carter Kieboom and Logan Davidson both cleared waivers, and the Angels sent them outright to Triple-A Salt Lake. This was the first career outright for Davidson, who therefore had no choice but to accept the assignment. Kieboom, however, was outrighted by the Nationals in March 2024. So, he had the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, a right he quickly exercised.
According to the transaction tracker on MLB.com, the Angels have also outrighted right-handers Connor Brogdon and Carson Fulmer (h/t to Ethan Hullihen on X). However, neither player was mentioned in the team’s announcement today. Both Brogdon and Fulmer have the necessary service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, and the team may be simply waiting on Brogdon and Fulmer to formally make that decision – a decision they are both all but certain to make, presuming they have indeed been removed from the 40-man roster.
Kieboom, 28, was once a highly-touted prospect in the Nationals organization. Yet, he just couldn’t translate all that potential into big league success. All told, he played 133 games for Washington from 2019-23, batting .199 with a .598 OPS. He struck out 138 times and ground into 17 double plays in 508 trips to the plate. His -2.0 FanGraphs WAR might be overstating just how much he struggled with the Nationals – he was somehow worth -0.6 fWAR in just 11 games in 2019 – but with those numbers, and his frequent injuries, it was hardly surprising to see him outrighted before the 2024 campaign.
After slashing .265/.365/.386 (103 wRC+) in 91 games at Triple-A that year, Kieboom elected free agency and signed a minor league pact with the Angels last December. He put up very similar numbers with the Salt Lake Bees for most of 2025, until the major league club selected his contract in mid-September. Playing first base for the first time in his MLB career, he appeared in three games for L.A., going 2-for-8 with one RBI. Now a free agent once again, he will presumably look to sign a new minor league deal and try to earn a more substantial big league opportunity in 2026.
Davidson, 27, made his MLB debut earlier this year with the Athletics. He was the A’s first-round pick in 2019, but a fall down the defensive spectrum and continued struggles with the strikeout caused his prospect shine to fade. He played in nine games for the Athletics in May and June before he was optioned, and about a month later, he was designated for assignment. The Astros claimed him off waivers, but a .681 OPS with Triple-A Sugar Land led to another DFA in September. That’s when the Angels swooped in. Davidson went 4-for-22 in 10 games with L.A. until he was optioned once again toward the end of the season. He will stick around in the organization for now and hope to earn his way back to the big league roster.
Roberts: Alex Vesia “Most Likely” Won’t Pitch In World Series
When the Dodgers announced their roster for the World Series this morning, Alex Vesia was the most notable name missing. The team explained that he and his wife were dealing with a “deeply personal family matter” and that an update would be provided at a later date.
Speaking to reporters at the Rogers Centre (including Sonja Chen of MLB.com), manager Dave Roberts said Vesia would “most likely” not pitch in the World Series. Of course, having been left off the roster, the southpaw would have only been available as an injury replacement in any case. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman explained that the team chose not to place Vesia on the family emergency list, which could have allowed him to come back sooner, so as not to pressure him to rejoin the team (per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times).
Vesia has been one of L.A.’s most trusted relievers for the past five seasons, pitching to a 2.68 ERA and a 3.16 SIERA in 270 innings since 2021. Only two pitchers have thrown more innings in relief with a lower ERA in that time: Emmanuel Clase and Raisel Iglesias. Vesia’s brief trip to the injured list earlier this year with an oblique strain was the first of his Dodgers tenure, and his stuff looked every bit as nasty upon his return. Although he was charged with two earned runs in his first outing of the playoffs, the lefty gave the Dodgers 4 1/3 scoreless after that, collecting either the win or a hold in each of his next six appearances. Needless to say, his arm will be missed against the Blue Jays, whose bats have been red-hot in October.
In more Dodgers bullpen news, Roberts explained that Tanner Scott was left off the World Series roster because his stuff “wasn’t quite there” in his latest throwing sessions (per Harris). The skipper described it as a “medical” decision rather than anything to do with the pitcher’s performance (per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic).
Scott was removed from L.A.’s NLDS roster to undergo what Roberts called a “minor procedure” to address a lower-body abscess (per ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez). That meant he was ineligible to pitch in the NLCS. The southpaw initially expressed hope that he could rejoin the Dodgers should they make the World Series (per Jon Heyman of the New York Post), but it was never clear if he would have enough time to ramp back up.
Scott struggled in the first season of his four-year, $72MM contract with L.A., putting up a 4.74 ERA and blowing 10 saves in 33 chances. His strikeout rate dropped, his groundball rate plummeted, and opponents hit him much harder than they had before. That said, pitch models like PitchingBot, Stuff+, and StuffPro were still high on Scott’s arsenal, and his 3.43 SIERA suggested his ERA was bloated by bad luck. Perhaps most importantly, the Dodgers continued to trust him in high-leverage spots. Without Scott and Vesia, the Dodgers will be missing the two lefties they turned to most this season with games on the line.
Giants, Logan Porter Agree To New Minor League Deal
Logan Porter will be back in the Giants organization in 2026. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the catcher has re-signed with San Francisco on a new minor league contract that includes an invitation to spring training.
Porter, 30, began his career in the Royals organization in 2018 and made his MLB debut for Kansas City in 2023, appearing in 11 games. He went 6-for-31 with a double and a home run, throwing out one of seven would-be base-stealers and making one error behind the plate. While he did not appear in the majors the following season, Porter bounced between three organizations. The Royals traded him to the Giants in June, and he opted out of his minor league contract with San Francisco in July. He then signed a split agreement with the Mets, but found himself designated for assignment shortly thereafter. He finished out the year in New York’s minor league system.
In November 2024, Porter returned to the Giants on another minor league deal to compete for their backup backstop job in 2025. While he failed to make the roster out of camp, he did manage to earn a brief call-up in June when starting catcher Patrick Bailey suffered a neck strain. In five games, Porter went 1-for-7 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and two runs scored. He played 21 2/3 innings behind the dish. After being DFA’d in July, he quickly signed a new minor league deal with San Francisco and played out the season at Triple-A Sacramento. He finished the year with a .212/.346/.316 slash line (85 wRC+) for the River Cats, a notable step back from his .267/.370/.453 line (115 wRC+) at Triple-A the year before.
Offensive struggles aside, it’s clear the Giants like what Porter brings to the table as organizational catching depth. While it seems unlikely that he’ll earn the Opening Day backup job in 2026, he can provide the team with a veteran safety net in case of injuries.
Nationals To Hire Justin Horowitz As Assistant GM
The Nationals are set to hire Justin Horowitz as an assistant general manager, as first reported by Joe Doyle of Over-Slot Baseball. Previously the Pirates’ director of amateur scouting, Horowitz will now work under Washington’s new president of baseball operations, Paul Toboni.
Toboni, like Horowitz, has a background in amateur scouting. In fact, Horowitz worked under Toboni in the Red Sox’s amateur scouting department for several years. That’s surely no coincidence. To that point, the first assistant GM Toboni hired this offseason was Devin Pearson, who just so happened to be his successor as Boston’s director of amateur scouting in 2023. Toboni clearly wants to improve Washington’s draft performance – years of poor drafting almost certainly led to Mike Rizzo’s unceremonious ousting just before the draft this past summer – and hiring Horowitz is a step toward achieving that goal. While it’s difficult to accurately evaluate a draft class without the benefit of hindsight, Pittsburgh’s performance in two drafts under Horowitz, 2024 and 2025, was widely praised.
The Nationals made several personnel changes after hiring Toboni, and former assistant GMs Eddie Longosz and Mark Scialabba were among the casualties. Mike DeBartolo, Washington’s interim GM between the Rizzo and Toboni eras, remains with the organization, but it’s unclear if he will serve as an AGM alongside Horowitz and Pearson or if he’s taking on a new role. DeBartolo has worked in the Nationals’ front office for than a decade, including as an AGM from 2019 until his temporary promotion in July.
The Athletic’s initially reported that Toboni would bring on a GM “soon,” but that was now a month ago, so it’s unclear if hiring a second-in-command remains a priority for the Nationals and their new chief baseball executive. Ironically enough, the Nationals are also without a director of amateur scouting after losing Brad Ciolek to the Tigers last month. According to Doyle, this is a hole the team does indeed still intend to fill.
Rockies To Part Ways With Pitching Coach Darryl Scott
Darryl Scott will not return as the Rockies’ pitching coach in 2026, according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Scott briefly played in Colorado’s minor league system in 1995 and 2000 and later rejoined the organization as a minor league coach in 2009. He has worked for the Rockies in various capacities ever since, including as a pitching coach for four of the team’s minor league affiliates.
Ahead of the 2020 season, the Rockies promoted Scott, then their minor league pitching coordinator, to the major league coaching staff. He took over the role of bullpen coach from Darren Holmes, which he would hold for two seasons. In October 2021, he was promoted to pitching coach, replacing Steve Foster.
In four seasons under Scott, Rockies pitchers rank third-last in the majors in adjusted ERA (ERA-), trailing only the Athletics and Nationals. Even accounting for park factors, their ERA has been more than 10% higher than league average in each of the past four years. They’ve ranked 30th out of 30 teams in strikeout rate every year of Scott’s tenure as pitching coach, and they haven’t limited walks or hard contact to compensate for all those batters they’ve failed to strike out.
Scott can’t take the blame for all, or even most, of his team’s pitching struggles. It’s not as if the now-ousted GM Bill Schmidt ever gave him a ton of talent to work with. Not to mention, coaching in the high altitude of Coors Field is an unenviable task for even the most ambitious of pitching gurus. Still, it’s not a good look for Scott that Colorado’s pitching only seemed to get worse in every season under his supervision. Several of the team’s pitchers have regressed in recent years, and few have lived up to their full potential.
So, the Rockies will add “pitching coach” to their list of offseason needs, although hiring a new front office leader and deciding whether interim manager Warren Schaeffer will stick around next season are significantly higher up on the task list. To that point, Scott might not even be the only coach the Rockies have to replace this winter. If their new executive wants a new manager, their new manager could very well decide to overhaul the coaching staff and hire a group of his own.
Guardians To Prevent Emmanuel Clase From Playing In Venezuelan Winter League
Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extrabase. ccording to a new report from The Athletic’s
Luis Ortiz) So, turned to the Tiburones instead of the Estrellas Orientales, the whom he played in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 offseasons. Alvarez Montes suggests the Tiburones will try to dispute the Guardians’ decision, but it’s not a fight they’re likely to win.
Clase and Ortiz have been on non-disciplinary paid administrative leave since July, due to an ongoing MLB investigation related to sports betting. Their leave was originally scheduled to last through August 31, but on August 31, MLB and the MLBPA agreed to extend the leave “until further notice.” In a short statement announcing the indefinite extension, the Guardians made clear that they would not comment further until the investigation was complete. Indeed, no meaningful details have since emerged about the situation or either player’s future in MLB. The Athletic’s Zack Meisel reported from Cleveland’s end-of-season press conference on October 7 that there was “still no clarity” regarding either Clase or Ortiz. President of baseball operations Chris Antonetti suggested he’s hopeful the investigation wraps up over the offseason, but he wasn’t able to offer a concrete timeline. “We have to plan as if they won’t be here,” the executive explained.
Coaching Notes: Varitek, Ramirez, Molina
Jason Varitek has filled various roles for the Red Sox since he hung up his catching gear after the 2011 season. For the past five years, he has held a full-time role on Boston’s coaching staff. Initially, the team’s game planning coordinator, he later added catching coach to his duties. When the Red Sox hired Parker Guinn last offseason, Varitek’s title changed to game planning and run prevention coach for the 2025 campaign.
The three-year deal Varitek signed before the 2023 season expired at the end of this year, but MassLive’s Chris Cotillo reports that the Red Sox and their former captain are hammering out the details of a new contract. The “likeliest outcome,” according to Cotillo, is that Varitek will return in the same capacity in 2026. Earlier this week, Cotillo reported that all but one of Boston’s coaches were expected to return to their roles next season, with assistant hitting coach Ben Rosenthal the only exception.
Of course, the fact that Varitek has not yet signed a contract with the Red Sox leaves open the possibility that he could seek a more prominent role elsewhere. Several teams are still hunting for new managers, and while Varitek’s name hasn’t come up in many managerial rumors recently, the Giants reached out to him with interest in 2023, and he interviewed with the Mariners in 2015.
In other coaching news…
- Another Red Sox great is looking to break into the coaching game. Nine-time Silver Slugger winner Manny Ramirez, who won two World Series titles alongside Varitek in Boston, has once again expressed his desire to become an MLB hitting coach, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Heyman notes that Ramirez is “getting word out to all 30 teams” that he is interested and available. The 12-time All-Star reportedly offered his services as a hitting coach to one unspecified MLB manager last offseason (per MassLive’s Sean McAdam), but this is his most overt attempt to secure such a gig. His accomplishments on the field speak for themselves – a .312 batting average, 555 home runs, and 1,831 RBI – but his coaching experience is limited. He spent a few months as a player-coach for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs in 2014 and continued on as an organizational hitting consultant through 2016. Years later, he signed on with the Sydney Blue Sox of the Australian Baseball League as a player-coach for the 2020-21 campaign. However, COVID-19 delayed the start of the season, and Ramirez was eventually released two games into the year due to injuries. This past September, he told Foul Territory that he spoke to the Red Sox about a potential coaching opportunity last year, but their conversations never progressed to anything serious.
- Yadier Molina, himself a former perennial All-Star and two-time World Series champion, has also thrown his hat in the proverbial ring for a coaching job. He posted a message on his Instagram account today saying that he is “ready to return to the field – whether as a coach or a manager – in MLB, Mexico, or wherever.” Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that Molina’s desire to coach isn’t new information, but his comments today move up the timeline. Meanwhile, MLB.com’s John Denton reports that Molina has already had conversations with the Cardinals and manager Oliver Marmol about taking on a formal coaching role with the club. The nine-time Gold Glove winner returned to St. Louis this past summer as a guest coach for two games. At the time, he told reporters, including Denton, that coaching and managing were in his future plans, but that he was focusing on his family for the time being. He has, however, gained international managerial experience in recent years, including managing Team Puerto Rico at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He will return to manage the team in this winter’s upcoming WBC.
Rays Re-Sign Kodi Whitley To Minor League Deal
Kodi Whitley will return to the Rays organization in 2026. According to Matt Eddy’s minor league transactions roundup at Baseball America, the right-hander has signed a new minor league pact with the club.
Now 30 years old, Whitley joined the Cardinals organization in the 2017 draft and made his MLB debut for St. Louis in 2020. Over parts of three seasons with the Cardinals, he pitched to a 3.38 ERA in 42.2 innings of mostly low-leverage relief before he was outrighted at the end of the 2022 campaign. He has not pitched in the major leagues since.
Whitley spent 2023 at Triple-A with the Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals) and, after his mid-July release, the Gwinnett Stripers (Braves). Unfortunately for the righty, his 5.49 ERA and 5.12 FIP in 57.1 innings seemed to scare off potential suitors the following year. The Braves organization released him weeks before Opening Day in 2024, and he went unsigned the rest of the season.
A year later, however, the Rays came calling, inking Whitley to a minor league deal. While he missed about half of 2025 with injuries and failed to make his way back to the big leagues, he showed signs of promise when he took the mound. In 28.2 innings of minor league work, he struck out 38 batters and walked only four. Evidently, the Rays saw enough to want to take another look at his arm in 2026. If Whitley manages to make it back to the majors, he will have one option year remaining, which could help him to stick around on Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster.