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Rangers Shopping Jonah Heim, Adolis Garcia

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The Rangers are shopping catcher Jonah Heim and outfielder Adolis Garcia ahead of the non-tender deadline on November 21st, according to a report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Passan adds that both players are candidates to be non-tendered if Texas is unable to work out trades for them.

Both longtime stalwarts of the Texas lineup were featured on MLBTR’s list of the Top 40 Trade Candidates for the 2025-26 offseason. While Heim and Garcia were both key parts of the core that won the 2023 World Series for the Rangers, neither has played especially well since then. Heim was a four-win player and an All-Star in 2023 but since then has slashed just .217/.269/.334 (71 wRC+) in 255 games with sharply declining defensive metrics behind the plate. Garcia has fallen from similar heights, as he garnered MVP votes and won a Gold Glove in 2023 but has hit just .225/.278/.397 (89 wRC+) in 289 games the past two seasons.

Given each player’s past success, it’s not impossible to imagine either one bouncing back to be quality players in 2026. With that being said, the Rangers are facing payroll constraints this winter that will make it difficult for them to roll the dice on either player. That makes the decision to shop them on the trade market an easy one, as they can look to potentially recoup some value for one or both players before they’re forced to either pay the pair hefty arbitration salaries or non-tender them, cutting them from the organization for no return whatsoever.

Of the two, Heim appears to be far more tradable. He’s projected for a salary of just $6MM by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz in 2026 as he heads into his age-31 campaign. That’s not a particularly onerous figure for even teams with real budgetary concerns, and between that light salary and the dearth of quality catching options around the league it would make sense if another club was interested in rolling the dice on Heim. Teams like the Rays, Padres, Astros, and Phillies all could be in the market for catching help this winter and could consider giving Heim a look.

Garcia, by contrast, seems harder to convince a team to take a chance on. He’s entering his age-33 season and is projected for a $12.1MM salary in 2026. While the market for right-handed outfielders is somewhat sparse this winter, players like Austin Hays, Miguel Andujar, and Rob Refsnyder all provided above-average offensive production from a corner outfield spot this past year and would likely be able to be had for much less than Garcia’s arbitration price tag. Teams might even see Garcia as more comparable to a roll of the dice on a player like Randal Grichuk, Lane Thomas, or Starling Marte, any of whom could be had in free agency much more affordably without having to trade anything away.

As for the Rangers, they’ll need to find another complement to Kyle Higashioka behind the plate if they wind up trading or non-tendering Heim. Garcia would be easier to replace internally given the presence of controllable outfielders like Alejandro Osuna and Michael Helman, though the team’s need for more offense could still lead them to peruse external additions to help Wyatt Langford, Josh Smith, and Evan Carter out on the grass as well.

Mets Making Brandon Nimmo, Kodai Senga Available In Trade Talks

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With Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz headed into free agency on the heels of a season where the Mets shockingly missed the postseason, it goes without saying that some significant changes will be coming to the Mets’ roster this winter. Much of the focus, naturally, has been on potential additions, whether that’s bringing back Alonso and Diaz or making a splash in the starting pitching market. There’s also been plenty of talk regarding players the Mets could look to part ways with on the trade market, however, and today Jeff Passan of ESPN made clear that two more names are available on the Mets’ roster: outfielder Brandon Nimmo and right-hander Kodai Senga.

Nimmo, 33 in March, is a somewhat surprising trade candidate due to the many complications surrounding a potential deal. The veteran has spent all ten seasons of his MLB career in Queens and has a no-trade clause. Nimmo would have to agree to any trade, which would naturally limit his suitors. While hardly an albatross, his contract isn’t exactly appealing, either. Nimmo has five years left on the eight-year, $162MM contract he signed with the Mets during the 2022-23 offseason. Just over $101MM of that money has yet to be paid out, and it’s hard to imagine Nimmo approaching five years and $101MM in free agency this winter if he was a free agent.

That would likely leave the Mets in a position where they would need to pay down a significant portion of Nimmo’s contract in order to facilitate a deal. Nimmo has been generally productive throughout his time in New York but has watched his numbers fall off a bit over the past two seasons. Since the start of the 2024 campaign, he’s slashed a combined .244/.326/.418 with 48 homers and 52 doubles, a 22.7% strikeout rate against a 9.8% walk rate, and a wRC+ of 111. He’s been worth 5.8 WAR according to Fangraphs and 5.1 WAR according to Baseball Reference over the past two years. While he was once a capable center fielder, his defense has dropped off enough that he’s more of a roughly average glove in a corner outfield spot, with -1 Outs Above Average and +3 Defensive Runs Saves in outfield this season with him starting 146 of his 147 games in the field out in left.

A two-to-three win corner outfielder is certainly something plenty of teams could use, and Nimmo does deserve acknowledgement for his reliability. Outside of his 32-game debut season in 2016, Nimmo has never posted a wRC+ below 108. Injury woes early in his career have subsided as well, and he’s played in at least 150 games with at least 650 plate appearances in each of the past four years. That four year stretch has seen him average 22 homers, 28 doubles, and a 10.2% walk rate against a 21.0% strikeout rate. With an above average track record in the outfield, he’ll surely be appealing to teams if the Mets were willing to pay down enough of his salary to make the inevitable decline as Nimmo enters his mid-to-late 30s easier to stomach.

Finding a fit for Nimmo’s services depends entirely on how much money the Mets would be willing to eat and where Nimmo would be willing to be traded. The Royals and Guardians are two of the teams most desperately in need of outfield help in the game, but they operate with small budgets and may not be the sort of consistent contender a veteran like Nimmo would surely prefer to play for. The Phillies have money to spend, a hole in the outfield, and recent success, but it would be a shock to see the Mets trade a franchise stalwart to one of their biggest rivals. Perhaps the Yankees would be a fit as they look for outfield help, though the club may simply prefer to re-sign Cody Bellinger or Trent Grisham rather than bring Nimmo into the fold.

As for Senga, the mercurial right-hander has already been known to be garnering interest on the market, though the Mets’ level of interest in moving hasn’t been clear. Passan reports that the righty is “extremely available,” however, and adds that multiple executives expect him to be traded this winter. The Orioles, Cubs, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Padres are on a long list of teams known to be looking for starting pitching help this winter, and any could make sense as trade partners for the Mets if they do decide to move Senga. The two years and $28MM guaranteed remaining on Senga’s contract could make him a particularly intriguing fit for teams hoping to fill a rotation spot on a budget like San Diego.

While the Mets are expected to add to their rotation rather than subtract this winter, room will need to be made in the rotation mix for external additions as well as up-and-coming youngsters like Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat.  That’s enough to make a Senga trade worth thinking about for the front office, especially given the highs that could make him enticing to suitors have been matched by equally distressing lows.

The righty sports a career 3.00 ERA and 3.82 FIP across three seasons in the majors to go with a 26.8% strikeout rate, but an 11.1% walk rate, struggles bouncing back from injuries, and the fact that he’ll turn 33 in January all raise questions about his future. Senga struggled badly enough in the second half this past year that he agreed to be optioned to the minor leagues in September and would only have been part of the Mets’ playoff picture if their rotation mix suffered multiple October injuries, suggesting that the organization had little faith in the righty at the end of this past season.

Kazuma Okamoto To Be Posted November 19th

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It’s been known for nearly a month now that NPB infielder Kazuma Okamoto is set to be posted by the Yomiuri Giants this winter, but a report from Nikkan Sports (Japanese language link) this morning provided a bit more specificity regarding Okamoto’s timeline. He’ll be officially posted tomorrow, on November 19th, and that will kick off a 45-day window for teams to negotiate with Okamoto, who is represented by Scott Boras of the Boras Corporation.

That’s the same posting date as right-hander Tatsuya Imai, a fellow Boras client. Boras told reporters (including those at Nikkan Sports) that the pair would follow the same approximate timeline. They’ll be posted tomorrow before traveling to the United States in early December. That sets them up to be in the country in time to begin negotiations with clubs ahead of this year’s Winter Meetings, which are set to run from December 7 through December 10 this year. The posting window for both Okamoto and Imai is set to end in early January, but it would not be a surprise to see the pair to sign before the holidays given the slowdown of activity around that time.

Turning back to Okamoto specifically, the 29-year-old is coming off a strong season in 2025 that was abbreviated by an elbow injury. While he only played in 69 games, he managed to slash .327/.416/.598 with 15 homers and 21 doubles in just 293 trips to the plate. He also showed strong contact ability and plate discipline with 11.3% strikeout and walk rates. That’s an unusually low strikeout rate by his standards, but even his 17.7% clip since the start of the 2018 season is nothing to scoff at. Impressive as Okamoto’s career .277/.361/.521 slash line in Central League play is, however, it’s worth remembering that NPB pitchers often lack the same high-end velocity that has become routine in MLB. Some scouting reports, including that of Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs, have noted that Okamoto’s numbers suffer against mid-90s and higher velocity. Of course, that’s also a flaw that can improve with great exposure to those types of pitches.

Okamoto has spent plenty of time at both infield corners over the years, and there’s been some debate about his fit defensively in the majors. He’s generally viewed as more capable of sticking long-term at the hot corner than fellow infielder Munetaka Murakami, though it’s fair to expect some teams to view him as capable of being a regular at third while others see him as more of a first base only defender. Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso stand at the top of the third and first base markets, respectively, with Eugenio Suarez, Jorge Polanco, and Luis Arraez standing out among the other notable corner infield options available.

MLBTR predicted a four-year, $64MM deal for Okamoto at the outset of the offseason, though it’s worth noting there’s at least some reason to believe Okamoto, Imai, and Murakami could all outperform expectations financially, at least to some extent. Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that some MLB clubs are hoping to “avoid falling further behind” the Dodgers in the Japanese market, and that this sentiment could help the three top NPB talents coming over from Japan this winter secure better-than-expected deals.

The team that ultimately signs Okamoto will owe Yomiuri a posting fee on top of whatever they guarantee the infield. The posting fee works out to be 20% of the first $25MM Okamoto signs for, 17.5% of the contract’s next $25MM, and 15% of any money above the $50MM mark. If Okamoto were to sign for the $64MM guarantee MLBTR predicted he’ll land, the signing team would owe a posting fee of approximately $11.5MM, which would take the total financial outlay for Okamoto’s services to $75.5MM.

The Opener: QO Deadline, Rule 5 Protection Deadline, Naylor

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Deadline for qualifying offer decisions:

Today’s the deadline for players who were extended the qualifying offer to make their decisions on whether to accept the QO or head into free agency encumbered by draft pick compensation. The majority of the 13 players who received a QO will reject it without much thought, but there are a handful of edge cases who could at least consider accepting the one-year, $22.05MM deal rather than testing the open market. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco conducted a poll of MLBTR readers last night that suggested fans believe Tigers second baseman Gleyber Torres is the most likely player to accept. That’s MLBTR’s own judgment, as well; Torres was the only player we predicted would accept the QO in our Top 50 MLB free agents list. Shota Imanaga, Zac Gallen, and Trent Grisham are among the other players who could plausibly opt to accept the QO today.

2. Rule 5 protection deadline:

Today isn’t just the deadline for QO decisions. While the QO decisions get much of the attention, today’s deadline on protecting prospects from the Rule 5 draft by adding them to the 40-man roster figures to impact every club in the league. Teams with cluttered 40-man rosters will be looking to either trade Rule 5 eligible prospects they can’t fit on the roster or discard players already on the 40-man to make room for those prospects. Meanwhile, teams with plenty of 40-man roster space will be looking for the opportunity to add players squeezed out of other organizations to their own rosters. While the Rule 5 draft itself won’t occur until the Winter Meetings next month, today’s efforts to protect players from it figure to spark plenty of movement around the league.

3. Naylor introductory press conference:

Josh Naylor’s five-year deal with the Mariners is now official. As a result, the Mariners are hosting a press conference to officially re-introduce Naylor to the media as a long-term member of the organization later today. Naylor himself will be present, of course, as well as his agent, president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander. Dipoto and Hollander’s presence could leave the door open for hints towards the Mariners’ plans for the rest of their offseason, which could offer insight onto how they’ll continue to build on this year’s team after missing the World Series by just one game and making one of the largest free agent investments of Dipoto’s tenure with the organization into Naylor.

Phillies Interested In Re-Signing Harrison Bader

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After a disappointing seasons that saw them earn a bye through the Wild Card series but immediately fall to the Dodgers in the NLDS, the Phillies are in an uncertain spot as the team figures to look very different by the time Opening Day rolls around. Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto are free agents, while Nick Castellanos is expected to play elsewhere next year. While the team’s roster is in flux more than usual this winter, it’s long seemed likely that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski would look to engage with some of those outgoing free agents.

That includes some players who haven’t been around quite as long as the team’s veteran core, as Dombrowski indicated to reporters (including Lochlan March of The Philadelphia Inquirer) that the team not only has interest in bringing free agent outfielder Harrison Bader back into the fold, but has also conveyed that to Bader’s camp already this winter.

“They know we’d like to bring him back,” Dombrowski said during last week’s GM Meetings, as relayed by March. “They also had expressed that they want to see what’s out there, because this was the best year he’s had, I think, in quite a while.”

That would seem to indicate that Bader won’t be jumping the market to sign right away, the way Josh Naylor did last night when he re-upped with the Mariners. Still, a reunion between Bader and the Phillies would make plenty of sense. After being dealt to the Phillies from the Twins at the trade deadline, Bader found another gear amid what was already a career year. In 50 games with Philadelphia, Bader slashed .300/.361/.463 (129 wRC+) to boost his season-long slash line to .277/.347/.449 (122 wRC+). Bader’s 7.8% walk rate was his best full-season mark since 2019, and while he struck out at an elevated 27.1% clip he made up for it by slugging a career-high 17 homers and 24 doubles.

This year’s performance from Bader was enough for him to profile as a solid regular in an outfield corner offensively, but even as his defensive metrics have slipped from once-elite levels he remains a solidly above average defender all across the grass, including center field. That adds a solid floor of production to the upside Bader flashed this year, and it’s been widely speculated that the 31-year-old will be able to land a multi-year guarantee this year on the back of his strong 2025, and MLBTR’s own prediction is that he’ll secure a two-year, $26MM guarantee.

For a team that enters the offseason with only Brandon Marsh locked into its outfield for next year, it’s easy to see why bringing back Bader would make plenty of sense. With that said, the Phillies are far from the only team that Bader could be a fit for. His old stomping grounds in both Queens and the Bronx could both use a center fielder, and teams like the Angels, Orioles, Guardians, Giants, and Royals are all known to be on the prowl for help either in center or the outfield generally this winter.

Some of those teams may be priced out of Bader’s market when all is said and done, and not all of them are perfect fits, but it’s a large enough cast of potential suitors that even with Philadelphia’s interest in a reunion Bader could have some incentive to wait out the market for at least a little while yet. Meanwhile, the Phillies will need to prioritize bigger ticket free agents like Schwarber and Realmuto themselves, whether that comes by way of re-signing them outright or finding another way to replace their production for 2026.

Padres Re-Sign Kyle Hart

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The Padres announced they’ve re-signed Kyle Hart to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2027 season. The Nello Gamberdino client is reportedly guaranteed $1.2MM. He’ll be paid $1MM in 2026 and is guaranteed a $200K buyout on the $2.5MM option. The option price would climb by $250K apiece if Hart reaches 16 and 20 starts next season; it’d jump another $500K at 24, 28 and 32 starts. The buyout price would climb by $100K each at 50, 55 and 60 appearances.

Hart, 33 next week, posted a 5.86 ERA in 43 innings of work for the Padres this past year while splitting time between the rotation and bullpen. The lefty inked a $1.5MM guarantee with San Diego back in February that came with a $5MM club option for the 2026 season that Padres opted to decline earlier this month. That wasn’t necessarily a shock given his lackluster performance; even during his time at Triple-A El Paso, Hart posted a middling 4.10 ERA in 63 2/3 innings of work with a strikeout rate of just 18.5%. 2025 marked his first work in the majors since his 2020 big league debut with the Red Sox, which lasted all of 11 innings.

During the interim, Hart had bounced between various minor league affiliates before heading overseas to pitch for the KBO’s NC Dinos. He made 26 starts for the Dinos in 2024 and pitched exceptionally, with a 2.69 ERA and a 28.8% strikeout rate across 157 innings of work. It was a strong enough season that Hart looked to return to the big leagues and see what he could do at the highest level, but things didn’t work out quite so well last year. Hart is hardly the first player to dominate overseas but struggle to replicate his production stateside, as even 2023 KBO MVP Erick Fedde struggled in the big leagues this past year after enjoying a strong return season with the White Sox and Cardinals in 2024.

Regardless of Hart’s struggles last year, however, it’s understandable that San Diego decided to re-up with the lefty for 2026. The Padres are a team in desperate need of volume when it comes to rotation-capable arms. Dylan Cease and Michael King have both departed the organization for free agency and, while Joe Musgrove is expected back next year from injury, it’s already known that Yu Darvish won’t pitch next year. Musgrove and Nick Pivetta are both quality veterans, but Randy Vasquez, JP Sears, and Matt Waldron are all questionable as quality regulars in a contending rotation. That’s true of Hart as well, of course, but having additional depth behind that group figures to be valuable in order to avoid a situation like the one San Diego faced in 2021 when a lack of pitching depth forced them to turn to displaced veterans like Jake Arrieta and Vince Velasquez as they narrowly missed the playoffs due to a late September collapse.

Signing Hart helps fill out the depth on a budget, but it won’t do much to solve the problem of San Diego needing additional impact in the rotation. The Padres have operated with some financial uncertainty in the years since Peter Seidler’s death, and the recent announcement that ownership intends to explore a sale of the franchise further clouds the club’s financial picture in the short-term. That’s not to say making a splash in free agency and adding a mid-rotation or better arm to the mix is completely out of the question; they did manage to find room in the budget to add Pivetta just last year, after all. That could lead to a creative solution like trying Mason Miller or Adrian Morejon in the rotation as the team’s best option if they hope to add an impact starter with a pursuit of someone at the top of the market like Cease or Framber Valdez seemingly unlikely.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the guarantee, option price/buyout, and maximum value of the escalators. The Associated Press had the specific escalator breakdown. Image courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images.

Yankees To Re-Sign Ryan Yarbrough

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12:32pm: Yarbrough will receive a base salary of $2.5MM in 2026 with an additional $250K in performance bonuses available to him, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

9:56am: The Yankees and left-hander Ryan Yarbrough are nearing an agreement on a one-year, major league contract per a report from Robert Murray of Fansided. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that the deal is pending a physical. The specifics of the contract are not yet known.

Assuming the deal makes it over the finish line, it’ll be a starkly different offseason experience than Yarbrough had last year, when he lingered on the market until February before catching on with the Blue Jays on a minor league deal. He opted out of that deal just before Opening Day, which led him to a major league contract with the Yankees for the 2025 campaign. It was a decent enough year for the lefty in the Bronx, as he pitched to a 4.36 ERA across 64 innings of work split between eight starts and 11 relief appearances.

That’s roughly league average (94 ERA+) production on the surface, and more advanced metrics are something of a mixed bag but generally support that sentiment. His 5.06 FIP is well below par, but much of that has to do with an inflated home run rate. Yarbrough allowed 13 homers in just 64 innings of work despite an entirely manageable 6.9% barrel rate that was largely in line with his career norms. Yarbrough’s work in New York actually tied a career high (20.8%) for strikeout rate and saw him limit walks to a decent 7.2% clip. His 4.14 SIERA clocks in right around league average, as does his 4.30 xFIP.

While the specifics of the contract aren’t yet clear, re-upping for another year certainly seems to make sense for both sides. Signing this early in the offseason offers Yarbrough a level of certainty he wasn’t afforded last year while allowing the Yankees to build some depth into their rotation mix that will surely prove valuable headed into 2026. While the Yankees have a deep group of starting options with Gerrit Cole expected back from Tommy John surgery early next year plus Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Will Warren and Cam Schlittler, it’s not hard to see why the team could use some additional depth.

Cole and Rodon both won’t be ready for Opening Day, while Clarke Schmidt is unlikely to be a factor until late in the year after his own Tommy John surgery. Gil appears to be healthy but has a lengthy injury history that could make relying on him for 30 starts a tall order as well. With so much uncertainty among that group, the addition of Yarbrough offers a steady veteran to offer roughly average production when filling those gaps. Yarbrough is more than comfortable bouncing between the rotation and bullpen after doing so throughout virtually his entire career, and having him available as a long relief arm could be valuable for a bullpen that figures to be searching for innings help after losing Devin Williams and Luke Weaver.

Whatever the cost of Yarbrough’s contract ends up being, it should serve as no impediment to the Yankees as they look to fill out the rest of their roster. The club has its work cut out for it this winter, as they’ll need to replace Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, Paul Goldschmidt, and Amed Rosario (along with Williams and Weaver) as they head into free agency on top of whatever other upgrades the club is interested in making to its roster. Given Schmidt’s injury, perhaps even the addition of another starter could be on the table if the team wants to have young pitching to dangle in trade talks or have the luxury of being patient with Cole as he gets his elbow ready for game action next year.

Image courtesy of Jesse Johnson, Imagn Images.

The Opener: Naylor, Mariners, Nationals

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As the first major piece of the offseason puzzle shakes loose, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Naylor nearing deal:

The big news from this weekend was the Mariners and first baseman Josh Naylor getting together on what’s expected to be a five-year deal in the range of $90MM-$100MM. That Naylor re-upped in Seattle is hardly a surprise given that president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto had made it extremely clear that retaining Naylor was a “priority” for his front office headed into the winter. Naylor himself was candid about enjoying his stay in town as well, as well. Even if it was an expected outcome, however, a deal coming together so quickly and at a level that seems likely to meet or slightly exceed MLBTR’s five-year $90MM prediction for his eventual contract seems like a good sign for the players on the market this winter. The deal figures to be made official at some point in the near future, and a more specific breakdown of the contract structure is likely to be revealed in the coming days as well.

2. What’s next for Seattle?

Now that Seattle has landed their top priority of the winter, it’s fair to wonder what a team that came just one game from the World Series this season will do moving forward. It would make sense for them to continue looking for ways to bolster their infield, given that Jorge Polanco and Eugenio Suarez both hit free agency alongside Naylor to open up holes at second and third base. The Mariners are also known to be looking into the high leverage relief market this winter. One other question would be about the future of Harry Ford, who showed himself to be ready for the big leagues but is blocked from everyday playing time by Cal Raleigh behind the plate. Perhaps Ford could be tabbed as the team’s backup catcher and get semi-regular starts elsewhere in the lineup, though it also seems as though a trade may not be off the table.

3. Nationals to introduce Blake Butera:

As noted by Bobby Blanco of MASN, newly-minted Nationals manager Blake Butera will be available to the media later today in an introductory press conference scheduled for 1:30pm local time. Butera, 33, is the youngest manager in MLB as he steps into his new role and is arguably among the most unorthodox in a sea of unusual managerial hires this winter. President of baseball operations Paul Toboni will presumably be in attendance as well and has spoken effusively of his new skipper in previous comments to the media. Prior to being hired by Toboni, Butera had served as the Rays’ senior director of player development and was a manager in the minor leagues for four seasons.

Tom Timmermann Passes Away

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Former big league pitcher Tom Timmermann passed away this past week at the age of 85, according to multiple reports. The right-hander spent parts of six seasons in the majors.

Timmermann was signed by the Tigers and made his pro debut in 1960 at the age of 20. He’d go on to spend nearly a decade bouncing around the minor leagues, working as both a starter and a reliever, until he eventually made his big league debut with Detroit on June 18, 1969. He recorded 1 1/3 scoreless innings in his debut to kick off what was a strong season out of the bullpen in his rookie year.

After pitching to a 2.70 ERA in 46 2/3 innings out of the bullpen, Timmermann made his first career MLB start in the penultimate game of Detroit’s season. He managed a complete game where he surrendered three runs to the Orioles but came away with the win after striking out future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson and teammate Boog Powell as they wrapped up brilliant campaigns that saw them both finish in the top 3 of AL MVP voting that year.

Even after his impressive finish to the 1969 season, Timmermann didn’t manage to break into the Tigers rotation right away. He spent the 1970 and 1971 seasons largely in the bullpen and pitched to roughly average results across 169 1/3 innings, though he did manage to record 31 saves along the way. In 1970, he set the team record for appearances by a pitcher with 61 and was named Tiger of the Year by Detroit’s chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

It was in 1972 when Timmermann finally got the opportunity to start in the majors on a regular basis. Then in his age-32 season, Timmermann started 25 of his 34 games that year and pitched quite well with a 2.89 ERA in 149 2/3 innings of work. It was a solid enough performance, but it wasn’t enough to earn the right-hander another look in the rotation for the 1973 season. The Tigers put him back in the bullpen, though Timmermann’s chance to start would later come at the cost of his roster spot in Detroit. On June 15, nearly four years to the day after his big league debut, Timmermann was traded to Cleveland in exchange for future All-Star Ed Farmer.

The move to an eventual 90-loss club in Cleveland allowed Timmermann the opportunity to start, but he didn’t do very well with the change of scenery. The right-hander pitched to a 4.96 ERA across 33 appearances for the franchise during the 1973 and ’74 seasons. The last game of his major league career arrived on April 26, 1974, when he threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief and was credited with a win over an Angels lineup that coincidentally included Robinson. Timmermann pitched at the Triple-A level for the Toledo Mud Hens and Oklahoma City 89ers to close out his season before calling it a career after the 1974 season.

In all, Timmermann recorded a 3.78 ERA in 548 innings of work at the big league level across six MLB seasons. He posted an even 35-35 record with 35 saves recorded in that time, and struck out 315 batters throughout his big league career.  Though it wasn’t known until long after his big league career had come to a close, Timmermann was also the biological father of former big leaguer Phil Leftwich. Leftwich was born nearly a month to the day prior to Timmermann’s MLB debut but was put up for adoption as an infant, and the connection between the two wasn’t discovered until Leftwich (who pitched for the Angels in parts of three seasons from 1993 to 1996) was on the cusp of his own big league debut.

MLB Trade Rumors joins the rest of the baseball world in extending our condolences to Timmermann’s family, friends, and loved ones.

Mariners Notes: Ford, Right Field, Hancock

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With Mitch Garver headed into the open market, the Mariners have a hole to fill on their roster without a clear backup for Cal Raleigh behind the plate. As noted by Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, GM Justin Hollander indicated at the GM Meetings this past week that, as the roster is currently constructed, that backup catching job would go to longtime top prospect Harry Ford.

“As of today, Harry would definitely be the backup,” Hollander said, as relayed by Divish. “I think that Harry’s in a great spot. He has checked all the boxes along the way that you would want from a high school catcher coming through the draft. He’s performed at every level.”

It’s not hard to see why Hollander feels positively about Ford, who has been a consensus top-100 prospect for years and got a brief taste of the majors late in the season with eight games down the stretch this year. Ford hit .283/.408/.460 in 97 games at the Triple-A level this year, an impressive slash line that was good for a 125 wRC+ even in the Pacific Coast League’s inflated offensive environment. He struck out just 19.2% of the time while sporting a massive 16.2% walk rate, and while he didn’t run as often as he had in the lower minors (just seven steals on the year) he did slug a career-high 16 home runs. Overall, it was a strong showing for the 22-year-old and clearly sets him up to be ready for more exposure to major league pitching in 2026.

Whether that comes in Seattle or elsewhere has not entirely been decided yet, however. Divish notes that while the Mariners do seem comfortable having Ford join the roster as the backup to Raleigh, they remain open to trade offers that involve Ford. That’s a sensible position to take, given that Raleigh has cemented himself as baseball’s best catcher after posting perhaps the best season at the position in MLB history this past year. With the Mariners surely intent on continuing to play Raleigh (who has started at least 114 games behind the dish in each of the past three seasons) as much as possible, the role of backup catcher isn’t quite as important for Seattle as it is for other teams.

While there are no obvious alternatives in the organization to Ford at the moment, Divish points out that a number of viable backup options figure to be available on minor league or low-cost big league deals. Many of those options could surely offer similar production to Garver in the spot. Given the scarcity of quality catching options around the league, if another team views Ford as a plug-and-play starter behind the dish they might value him enough to make the return for his services worth the downgrade from Seattle’s perspective. A weak catching market in free agency that is highlighted by J.T. Realmuto and Victor Caratini should only further bolster Ford’s value if the Mariners were to decide to shop him this offseason.

Turning away from Ford, Hollander also expressed confidence in the group of players they already have in the organization when it comes to filling out the outfield next season. Randy Arozarena is locked in as the club’s everyday left fielder (barring a move that sees him traded, at least), while Julio Rodriguez has cemented himself as a franchise cornerstone in center. Right field was handled by a hodgepodge of different players throughout 2025, and in 2026 Hollander points to three names who could factor into the mix: Luke Raley, Dominic Canzone, and Victor Robles.

Even though none of them were impact players in 2025, it’s not hard to see why the Mariners would want to give that trio a run at the position rather than pursuing an external addition. Raley is just one year removed from back-to-back seasons where he slashed .246/.326/.476 while totaling 41 homers and 42 doubles across 255 games. While Raley has never been successful against left-handed pitching, it’s not at all difficult to imagine that he could rebound enough to be worth affording regular playing time to when a right-handed starter is on the mound for the opposing team. Robles, meanwhile, missed all but 32 games this past year due to injury and was someone the Mariners believed in enough that they afforded him an extension just two months into his tenure with the organization.

Canzone has the weakest overall track record of the three, but actually delivered by far the best results this year. In 82 games as a part-time player for the Mariners, Canzone raked to the tune of a .300/.358/.481 slash line with 11 homer and 11 doubles while he struck out at a reasonable 21.9% clip. A tough postseason where he went just 3-for-28 with a walk and ten strikeouts saw him leave 2025 on a sour note, but the 28-year-old clearly had a 2025 worth building on next season. Perhaps adding a second right-handed hitter to the mix alongside Robles could allow the Mariners to maximize matchups and create depth in the event of injury, but an everyday starter in the outfield does seem unnecessary given the far more significant holes around in the infield.

Another place where it seems the Mariners could look to go internal is with starting pitching depth. Divish reports that right-hander Emerson Hancock is expected to prepare this winter and enter Spring Training as a starting pitcher. Hancock has served as a swingman with below average results (4.81 ERA, 5.23 FIP) across his three seasons and 162 2/3 innings of work in the majors, but looked quite good in short relief down the stretch for Seattle this year. That made some wonder if he would stick in the bullpen full-time going forward, but it seems as though the Mariners value Hancock’s versatility given their lack of upper-level starting pitching depth. Beyond their starting five pitchers, only Logan Evans has spent significant time starting at the big league level aside from Hancock.

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