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.
Kevin Alcántara Undergoes Sports Hernia Surgery
Cubs outfielder Kevin Alcántara has undergone surgery to repair a sports hernia, the team announced. Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times was the first to report the news.
The Cubs have not offered a clear timeline for Alcántara’s recovery, but the surgery was successful, according to Lee, so there’s no reason to believe this will affect his 2026 campaign. Corey Seager is a prominent recent example of a player who returned from sports hernia surgery. He had a hernia on his left side repaired in late January 2024 and recovered quickly enough to start at shortstop on Opening Day just two months later. The following September, he needed another hernia repair, this time on the right side, and he returned in plenty of time to post a .950 OPS in 18 games in spring training. Barring a setback, Alcántara should still have a relatively normal offseason.
Acquired from the Yankees in the 2021 Anthony Rizzo trade, the 23-year-old Alcántara is one of Chicago’s top prospects. The latest lists from Baseball America and MLB Pipeline have him ranked fifth in the system, while FanGraphs and Keith Law of The Athletic are even higher on his skills, ranking him as the Cubs’ No. 1 and a top-50 prospect in the game. His calling card is huge slugging potential. He hit 26 doubles and 17 home runs across 102 games at Triple-A in 2025, and evaluators who are bullish on his bat think he has even more power to unlock. It’s easy to see why that’s so tantalizing, especially coming from a center fielder with plus speed.
Alcántara has taken a couple of sips of coffee at the big league level in each of the past two Septembers but has yet to establish himself in the major leagues. In truth, he could probably benefit from some more minor league seasoning in 2026; his .273/.356/.470 slash line and 111 wRC+ in 137 career games at Triple-A aren’t quite as impressive as his numbers from the lower levels of the minors. In particular, his 29.6% strikeout rate is concerning. Unfortunately for the Cubs, however, they’ll soon have to make a difficult decision. Alcántara will be out of minor league options next season. Presuming he’s healthy, he’ll need a spot on Chicago’s Opening Day roster next year – unless they trade him first.
Nick Krall Downplays Possibility Of Reds Trading Starting Pitching
It was starting pitching depth that carried the Reds to their first full-season playoff appearance in more than a decade. Their bats ranked 14th in runs per game, 19th in OPS, and 24th in wRC+. Their gloves ranked 20th in errors, DRS, and FRV. Their bullpen ranked 14th in ERA, but 27th in xERA and 27th in SIERA. Yet, the Reds finished 83-79, edging out the Mets for the NL’s final Wild Card spot. How did they pull it off? Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Brady Singer, Nick Martinez, Zack Littell, and Chase Burns had a whole lot to do with it. Those seven arms combined to start 152 of Cincinnati’s 162 games, pitching to a 3.69 ERA (84 ERA-) in 832 innings. Their collective 16.4 FanGraphs WAR and 8.64 Win Probability Added as starters helped the Reds finish with the second-best rotation fWAR and third-best WPA in the sport.
Martinez and Littell are set to hit free agency, but Greene, Lodolo, Abbott, Singer, and Burns will be back. Three promising arms who missed 2024 with injuries – Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, and Julian Aguiar – should factor into the mix as well, as could top prospect Chase Petty. That’s a lot of names for one rotation.
Yet, president of baseball operations Nick Krall doesn’t seem overly eager to deal from that area of strength. “I wouldn’t say no,” he told reporters (including Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer), when asked about the possibility of trading a starter this winter. “But when you trade pitchers, you’ve got to go [back]fill them somehow. We all know how it works, where you run out of innings at some point in the season, guys get hurt, things happen.”
The POBO’s comments hit on a key point. The 2025 Reds didn’t just succeed because their starting pitchers were excellent, but because their staff was so deep. Trading away too much of that depth could leave the team scrambling in the case of injuries next season. Greene, Abbott, Lodolo, and Singer are presumably locks for 2026. Meanwhile, Burns, Lowder, Williamson, Aguiar, and Petty all have minor league options; presuming one of them wins the final rotation spot out of spring training, the other four (if healthy) can wait in the wings at Triple-A. Excluding openers, the Reds used 10 different starting pitchers in 2025. They’re going to need more than five to get through another campaign.
That’s especially true with this group of arms. Singer has proven himself to be a durable workhorse over the past few years. But no one else on Cincinnati’s staff has ever made 30 starts in a season. Abbott qualified for the ERA title for the first time in 2025, but Greene and Lodolo have yet to accomplish that feat. Burns, Lowder, Williamson, Aguiar, and Petty have started a grand total of 49 games in their young careers, and 26 of those belong to Williamson. As general manager Brad Meador mentioned, the Reds are “going to have to manage the innings of a handful of those guys.”
Krall also acknowledged that trading from his major league pitching depth might not be the most straightforward way to improve other areas of the roster.
“It’s really hard to say we’re going to go trade a pitcher – and I’m not sure you’re going to trade a pitcher for offense,” he explained. “You might end up trading the pitcher for a prospect and then go have to sign the offense.”
[Related: Cincinnati Reds Offseason Outlook, for MLBTR Front Office subscribers]
None of this is to say the Reds won’t end up trading a starter. It’s just not a given. Asked about the possibility of dealing Greene, an All-Star on an incredibly team-friendly contract (he’s guaranteed just $42MM over the next three years), Krall could have shut down the line of questioning. Instead, he replied, “I don’t want to speculate on anybody that’s going to get traded or not traded at this point.” The Reds aren’t actively shopping any of their young starters, but it doesn’t sound like anyone is untouchable either. After all, if anyone were untouchable, one would think it would be Greene.
That said, for all the same reasons the Reds wouldn’t want to trade Greene, he would bring back a nice return in a deal. All of Cincinnati’s starters are cost-controlled, with Singer, Lodolo, and Williamson still in their arbitration years, and Abbott, Burns, Lowder, Aguiar, and Petty not yet eligible for arbitration. Yet, Greene is both a proven ace and a high-upside young arm, and he is under team control through the 2030 season. That’s a valuable player.
If the Reds are looking to shave payroll, trading Singer would be their best course of action; he is projected to make $11.9MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility. If they’re trying to bring back an MLB-ready position player without significantly weakening their rotation for 2026, then it’s Petty, still a top prospect, who makes the most sense to move. However, if the goal is simply to find the best possible return, it’s Greene who would command such a package.
Nothing Krall said suggests Greene is on the block. But he had a chance to say Greene was off limits, and he didn’t take it. Instead, the POBO only said that he didn’t want to speculate about trade candidates because he hadn’t “had any conversations with other clubs.” Of course, Krall also said that when a team trades a pitcher, they have to somehow fill his spot. Greene, it should go without saying, wouldn’t be easy to replace. So, a trade still seems improbable – but perhaps it’s slightly closer to being a real possibility than Reds fans might want to believe.
Jack Flaherty Undecided On Player Option For 2026
Following the Tigers’ 15th-inning loss to the Mariners in Game 5 of the ALDS, right-hander Jack Flaherty (who pitched two scoreless innings late in the game) spoke to members of the media about how much he enjoyed returning to Detroit this season. “I came back here for a reason, to be with these guys, play with them, and be part of this team. I didn’t want to leave it last year,” he explained (per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi).
Flaherty, 30 next week, signed a two-year, $35MM guarantee with the Tigers in the offseason. Earlier this season, he increased that guarantee by reaching the 15-start threshold and escalating his 2026 player option from $10MM to $20MM. In a few weeks, he’ll have a decision to make: Will he opt in for 2026 or return to free agency for a third year in a row?
According to Morosi, Flaherty has not yet decided what he’s going to do. In an MLBTR poll at the end of September, more than 60% of readers said he should stay with Detroit, but Tigers beat writer Evan Woodberry of MLive.com claims “it would be a surprise” to see Flaherty pick up his option.
Flaherty signed a one-year, $14MM deal with the Tigers in his first offseason as a free agent. He was two years younger than he is now, but he was coming off a mediocre season (144 1/3 IP, 4.99 ERA, 4.53 SIERA, 1.8 fWAR) and had dealt with significant injuries in both 2021 and ’22. Following a much stronger 2024 campaign (162 IP, 3.17 ERA, 3.10 SIERA, 3.3 fWAR), he re-entered free agency but failed to land the long-term deal he was surely looking for, ultimately settling for his aforementioned two-year deal in February. That contract initially came with a $17.5MM average annual value, which he increased to $22.5MM. Now another year older and coming off a less impressive season (161 IP, 4.64 ERA, 3.67 SIERA, 2.5 fWAR), it’s worth wondering if he’ll want to risk another disappointing foray into free agency.
Because he was traded to the Dodgers ahead of the deadline in 2024, Flaherty was not eligible to receive a qualifying offer last offseason. It’s certainly possible he opts for free agency, only to receive a qualifying offer (projected to be worth around $22MM) and take it, earning himself an extra $2MM. The righty is precisely the type of player whose earning power could be hamstrung by a qualifying offer, so he might prefer to accept it, play another season with Detroit, and try to enter free agency in a stronger position the following winter. It seems like a safe bet that Flaherty could out-earn $22MM on a multi-year deal this offseason, but the AAV would likely be lower. If he believes he can produce a stronger campaign in 2026, he could maximize his total earnings by taking the $22MM and looking for a more lucrative long-term contract a year from now.
If Flaherty returns next season, the Tigers might run with a very similar rotation to the group they used in 2025, featuring Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, and a hopefully healthy Reese Olson. As things stand, Troy Melton, Keider Montero and Sawyer Gipson-Long could compete for the final spot, although president of baseball operations Scott Harris would be wise to look for some outside help.
Astros Make Several Changes To Coaching Staff, Front Office
GM Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada are sticking around, but that doesn’t mean the Astros aren’t making big changes. The team is parting ways with hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker, catching coach Michael Collins, head athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall, and assistant GM Andrew Ball, as relayed by Brian McTaggart of MLB.com and Chandler Rome of The Athletic.
It’s no shock that the Astros are looking for new blood. They missed the playoffs this year for the first time since 2016, after a season marred by injuries and offensive inconsistency. McTaggart confirmed yesterday that both Brown and Espada would return in 2026, but it appears that Cintrón, Snitker, Collins, Randall, and Ball aren’t so lucky.
Cintrón first joined the Astros as an interpreter and soon became the first base coach. He and Snitker, previously a minor league hitting coach, took over as Houston’s co-hitting coaches in 2019, and they filled the role together for the next seven years. There is no question that they inherited a highly talented group, but all the same, Cintrón and Snitker deserve their fair share of credit for guiding an offense that led the AL in all three triple-slash categories from 2019-24. Unfortunately, the Astros finished with just a 100 wRC+ in 2025, indicating league-average levels of offensive production. The hitting coaches can’t be blamed for the departure of Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman or injuries to Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes, but nonetheless, it’s not surprising that the organization decided to head in a new direction.
Speaking of injuries, Alvarez and Paredes were far from the only Astros to miss significant time, and that likely explains why Randall is out of a job after 10 seasons as Houston’s head athletic trainer. According to the Baseball Prospectus Injured List Ledger, no team lost more value to the IL than the Astros in 2025. And while some of those injuries might have been unpredictable and unpreventable, the club dealt with some particular scrutiny for how it handled injuries to Alvarez and Jake Meyers.
Collins grew up playing cricket in Australia (per Leah Vann of Chron) before learning to play baseball and quickly generating interest from MLB scouts. After a long minor league career, he moved into minor league coaching and eventually joined the Astros as a bullpen catcher in 2018. He took over catching coach duties the following season.
Ball previously worked in the Rays and Angels front offices before he joined the Astros as an assistant GM prior to the 2022 season. He was part of the team that temporarily took over Houston’s front office the following winter in the interim period between the end of James Click’s time as GM and the beginning of Brown’s tenure. According to the Astros’ website, Ball’s duties included overseeing the team’s research & development and sports medicine & performance departments.