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Enmanuel De Jesus Signs With KBO’s KT Wiz

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Left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus has signed with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization, per a club announcement. As noted by Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News, De Jesus is set to make $1MM in 2025, including a $200K signing bonus.

De Jesus is actually quite familiar with the KBO League after signing with the Kiwoom Heroes last December. The southpaw enjoyed a solid season for the Heroes last year as he pitched to a 3.68 ERA in 171 1/3 innings of work across 30 starts. He struck out 24.5% of opponents while walking just 6%, though his 22 home runs allowed held down his overall production. Even so, De Jesus clearly showed enough in his first season overseas to earn himself another contract ahead of his age-28 campaign.

A native of Venezuela, De Jesus signed with the Red Sox as an international amateur and made his pro debut back in 2014. The lefty pitched primarily out of the rotation during his time in the minors with Boston but in 2021 saw his role shifted to a more flexible one where he split time between the rotation and bullpen as he reached the upper levels of the minors. He made one start for the club at Triple-A before electing minor league free agency that autumn and latching on with the Giants on a minor league deal. He didn’t reach the big leagues during his year in San Francisco, as he struggled somewhat with the club’s Sacramento affiliate in 35 appearances (19 starts).

That led him to sign a fresh minor league deal with the Marlins during the 2022-23 offseason. His time at the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville was somewhat lackluster, as he pitched to a 4.78 ERA in 84 2/3 frames. That didn’t stop the Marlins from giving De Jesus his first crack at big league action, however. The lefty made two appearances with Miami in September, though both left much to be desired. Overall, he surrendered eight runs on nine hits, four walks, and three hit batters while striking out five across 6 1/3 innings of work. That disastrous start to De Jesus’s big league career led the Marlins to designate him for assignment not long after, and he once again elected to test the open market.

That, of course, led him to the KBO League, where he’s now revitalized his career. As De Jesus is just entering his age-28 season, it remains well within the realm of possibility that the lefty could attempt to make a stateside comeback at some point down the line, as KBO alum like Merrill Kelly and Erick Fedde have done successfully in recent years. In the meantime, however, he’ll look to replicate the success he had with the Heroes last year with KT in 2025.

Quick Hits: Snell, Orioles, Brash, Cubs

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The Orioles had “legitimate interest” in southpaw Blake Snell before he landed with the Dodgers on a five-year deal that became official earlier today, per a report from Roch Kubatko of MASN. Kubatko notes, however, that it’s unclear how advanced talks between Baltimore and Snell’s camp became before he settled on Los Angeles. Previous reporting indicated that the Orioles could get involved in the Snell sweepstakes, but Kubatko’s report is the first confirming Baltimore’s interest.

As the club looks to either reunite with right-hander Corbin Burnes or replace his production at the top of their rotation following his departure for free agency earlier this month, it’s hardly a surprise to hear that the club took a hard look at Snell while he was available. The two-time Cy Young award winner has been even better than Burnes from a run prevention perspective over the past three years, with a 2.82 ERA and 2.98 FIP in 412 innings. Burnes, meanwhile, lags behind in rate stats with a 3.08 ERA and 3.49 FIP, but his 590 innings of work dwarf Snell in terms of volume. That volume figures to be particularly attractive to an Orioles club that has serious health question marks surrounding a number of its starters, including Kyle Bradish as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery that figures to keep him out of action for at least the first half of 2025.

While Burnes seems likely to remain the Orioles’s top choice in free agency this winter, they’ve also been connected to southpaws Max Fried and Garrett Crochet in free agency and via trade respectively. It seems as though they’re also looking at mid-rotation arms as well, however, as they were recently linked to veteran righty Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi projects to be much less expensive than Burnes and Fried in free agency this winter, but that affordability comes with a much less impactful track record as the 34-year-old has a solid but unremarkable 3.75 ERA and 3.63 FIP across the past five seasons. The Orioles are quite familiar with Eovaldi, of course, as he spent seven seasons in the AL East with the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox from 2015 to 2022.

More tidbits from around the baseball world…

  • Mariners fans got an encouraging update on the status of right-hander Matt Brash recently, as Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reported earlier this week that the right-hander is ahead of schedule as he rehabs from his early May Tommy John surgery. Per Jude, the Mariners are “optimistic” that he could return to the club’s bullpen by the end of April this coming season, just under a year after he first went under the knife. Brash’s return would surely be a major boost for Seattle, as he established himself as one of the most exciting young arms in the club’s arsenal during a breakout 2023 campaign. After being moved to the bullpen partway through the 2022 season, Brash’s first full campaign as a reliever saw him lead the majors with 78 appearances while posting an excellent 3.06 ERA with an even better 2.26 FIP. He struck out an eye-popping 34.7% of batters faced that year, and if he can post numbers anything like that in 2025 he’ll be a phenomenal complement to closer Andres Munoz at the back of the Mariners bullpen next year.
  • The Cubs have yet to announce their finalized coaching staff for the 2025 season, but Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reported earlier this week that at least one more vacancy has been filled. After assistant pitching coach Daniel Moskos departed the organization to become the Marlins’ pitching coach, the club is promoting internally to replace Moskos by hiring Casey Jacobson. Jacobson has been in the Cubs organization since October 2019 and has spent the past two years as the senior coordinator of pitching development for the club in the minor leagues. Now, he’ll get the opportunity to work on a big league coaching staff for the first time in his career with a number of young arms such as Ben Brown, Jordan Wicks, and Porter Hodge expected to play roles for Chicago next year.

Dodgers Extend Tommy Edman

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The Dodgers and superutility man Tommy Edman have agreed to a five-year $74MM extension that runs from 2025 to 2029 and contains a club option for the 2030 season, the team has announced. The option for 2030 is worth $13MM and comes with a $3MM buyout. Edman will receive a $17MM signing bonus, and $25MM of the extension’s total value will be deferred and paid out over a span of ten years, starting five years after the deal is complete. Since Edman was already under contract for $9.5MM in 2025, the new deal is effectively a four-year extension worth $64.5MM in new money. Edman is represented by agent Jonathan Weiss.

Los Angeles was reportedly in the midst of “preliminary” discussions regarding an extension with Edman’s camp last week, and those talks have now come to fruition. It took the Dodgers only 53 regular-season games and 16 postseason games to decide that Edman was a player they wanted on the field over the long term, as the 29-year-old has already made a big impact since being acquired at the trade deadline.

The three-team, eight-player trade that brought Edman from the Cardinals and Michael Kopech from the White Sox proved to be critical to the Dodgers’ World Series title. At the time of the deal, Edman hadn’t appeared in a big league game following setbacks related to wrist surgery he underwent during the 2023 offseason. While he ultimately didn’t make his Dodgers debut until August 19, the switch-hitter made an immediate impression with the club as he seamlessly shifted between center field and shortstop down the stretch and into the postseason, all while hitting a respectable .237/.294/.417 (98 wRC+) in the regular season. In the playoffs, Edman went a level higher and hit .328/.354/.508 over 67 postseason plate appearances, and was named MVP of the NLCS.

By keeping Edman in the fold long-term, the Dodgers will retain a flexible player who can play all over the diamond and shift between the infield and outfield with minimal issues based on the needs of the club. That’s an archetype of player the club has coveted in recent years, as evidenced by their commitment to Chris Taylor and frequent deals with Enrique Hernandez. While Hernandez is currently a free agent and Taylor does not figure to be a regular fixture in the club’s lineup for 2025, Edman is joined by Mookie Betts as a player who offers the Dodgers plenty of flexibility in their lineup construction. A six-time Gold Glove winner in right field, Betts has in recent seasons begun to play an increasing amount of second base and even shortstop, and the club seemingly plans to play him on the infield dirt again in 2025.

With Betts, Gavin Lux, and Miguel Rojas poised to handle the middle infield for the Dodgers next year, that could leave Edman to patrol center field for the Dodgers on a regular basis next year. It’s a position he only picked up on a regular basis in 2023, but he’s been undeniably effective since moving there: he posted +1 Outs Above Average at the position in just 188 innings with the Dodgers this year after reaching an excellent +5 mark in 330 innings in center for the Cardinals in 2023. If he can maintain that level of defensive prowess at the position over a full season, Edman’s league average bat should make him a well above average regular overall for the Dodgers in 2025.

It’s already been a busy offseason for the Dodgers, as today’s Edman extension pairs with their blockbuster five-year deal with lefty Blake Snell earlier this week. With room to improve in the outfielder corners, holes to fill in the bullpen, and longtime franchise face Clayton Kershaw as of yet unsigned, there figures to be plenty more on president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman’s to-do list this winter. Having Edman’s plus defensive ability locked into center field for the foreseeable future could make the club even more comfortable pursuing offensive upgrades in the outfield corners. They’ve already been linked to corner bats without much defensive prowess such as Teoscar Hernandez and even Juan Soto, both of whom are rumored targets for L.A. this winter and would surely appreciate being flanked by a center fielder of Edman’s caliber.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the extension and the contract terms.  Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (X link) had the specifics on the deferred money.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Cardinals Expect To Field Interest In Steven Matz This Offseason

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As the Cardinals look to trim payroll and shift towards focusing on young players in 2025, they’ve widely been expected to look to trade a number of their more expensive, veteran players. It seems as though that won’t come to pass with Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray, both of whom seem unlikely to waive their no-trade clauses to facilitate a move elsewhere. Third baseman Nolan Arenado is seemingly open to a move, however, though his own no-trade protection means that he would need to approve of any deal as well. One veteran player who lacks no-trade protection, however, is southpaw Steven Matz. That could leave the Cardinals motivated to part with him this winter, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests that the club plans to “field interest” on both Matz and closer Ryan Helsley this winter.

MLBTR’s Anthony Franco discussed Helsley’s trade candidacy earlier this month, and previous reporting from Goold suggested that the Cardinals figure to set a high asking price for their closer. By contrast, Matz figures to be a more affordable player for teams to acquire who the Cardinals figure to be more motivated to move. The 33-year-old is entering the final year of his contract in 2025 and is due $12.5MM for next season. By offloading Matz’s contract, St. Louis’s payroll projection for next year (courtesy of RosterResource) would drop from just under $147MM to just $134MM. After the club spent $183MM on payroll in 2024, that type of drop off should be more than enough to accomplish their goal of reallocating funds away from payroll into their player development apparatus, and could even open the door to the club making some modest upgrades in free agency, whether that be a reunion with veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson or bringing a new arm into the organization.

While the Cardinals would surely like to offload the final year of Matz’s contract, that may be easier said than done. The lefty has had an up-and-down tenure with St. Louis since signing with the club prior to the 2022 season. He’s struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness throughout his time there, totaling just 197 1/3 innings of work during that time. Of his 52 appearances with the Cardinals, he’s started 34 while pitching out of the bullpen for 18.

His results have been roughly league average overall when he’s been healthy enough to take the mound, with a 4.47 ERA (95 ERA+), a 4.01 FIP, and a 21.9% strikeout rate. That production has been somewhat unsteady, however, with most of it coming during his mostly-healthy 2023 season. That year, Matz posted a 3.84 ERA (114 ERA+) with a 3.75 FIP in 105 innings of work. That solid work is sandwiched between two campaigns that saw him post an ERA north of 5.00. That includes this past season, where Matz struggled to a 5.08 ERA with a similar 4.88 FIP in 44 1/3 innings. He struck out just 17.4% of opponents this past year while posting a 7.9% walk rate that was his worst since 2018.

That’s not a particularly enticing body of work for potential trade partners, though that doesn’t mean Matz is impossible to trade. Notably, Matz has pitched substantially better in his relief outings with the Cardinals than he has during his time in the rotation. In 163 frames for the club as a starter, Matz has posted a 4.91 ERA. Meanwhile, his 33 1/3 innings as a member of the bullpen saw him post a much more intriguing 2.43 ERA. While the lefty’s overall results and durability as a member of the rotation leave his contract with little if any surplus value, it wouldn’t be a shock to see a club intrigued by his work out of the bullpen acquire him to act as a versatile reliever capable of stepping into the rotation if necessary. It’s a role some pitchers such as Nick Martinez, Jakob Junis, Spencer Turnbull, and Michael Lorenzen have found success with in recent years, and a team that values that sort of flexibility on their pitching staff like the Giants or Rangers could be a good fit for the lefty’s services.

Matt Davidson Re-Signs With KBO’s NC Dinos

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The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization are re-signing infielder Matt Davidson to a $1.5MM deal with a club option for 2026 valued at $1.7MM (h/t Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News).

Davidson, 34, first signed with the Dinos back in January. Once a first-round pick in the 2009 draft by the Diamondbacks and a regular on top-100 prospect lists in the early 2010s, Davidson has appeared in parts of six big league seasons but has never quite been successful in establishing himself in the majors. He played just 31 games total at the big league level for Arizona. While he hit a decent .237/.333/.434 in that time, he was shipped to Chicago in the deal that brought Addison Reed to the Diamondbacks the following offseason.

After arriving in Chicago, Davidson was relegated to the minor leagues in the first few years of his time with the organization, where he hit quite well; the slugger is a career .253/.335/.479 hitter at the Triple-A level and demonstrated 20-homer power for the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. He received semi-regular playing time with the White Sox from 2017 to 2018 and hit a respectable .224/.291/.435 with 46 home runs during that time, though he also struck out at an untenable 35.1% clip. Since the end of the 2018 season, Davidson has appeared in just 33 games at the big league level. Most recently, he hit .167/.167/.292 in an eight-game stint with the Athletics in 2022.

2023 saw Davidson head overseas to try his hand at playing baseball in Asia, though he initially did not head to the KBO. First, he went to Japan to play for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hiroshima Carp. He hit a middling .224/.288/.452 overall in 117 games for the Carp. While he slugged 21 homers, his high strikeout rates and lackluster on-base percentage led the club to part ways with him. That led him to the Dinos, and his first season in Korea could’ve hardly gone better. While serving as his club’s primary first baseman, Davidson slashed an excellent .306/.370/.633 in 131 games. He slugged a KBO-leading 46 homers, and his 1.003 OPS ranked third in the league.

That dominant performance clearly got the Dinos’ attention, and they were quick to lock him up for the next two seasons after his power helped to keep the team somewhat competitive during a disappointing 61-81 season. While Davidson’s deal guaranteed him just $700K last winter, this year he’s been guaranteed more than double that figure and could earn more than $3MM total over the life of the contract if the option for next year is picked up. Given Davidson’s age, it’s unclear whether attempting a comeback in the majors could be in the cards for him when his contract with the Dinos ends, though if he continues hitting as he did last year he could follow in the footsteps of Eric Thames and look to revive his stateside career after years of posting otherworldly numbers in KBO play.

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Brown, Cardinals

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The Pirates are making some changes to their front office, per a report from MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf notes that director of coaching and player development John Baker is moving into a new role with the club that will see him oversee the club’s performance team. While the move has not been announced by the club to this point, Stumpf adds that the search for a new farm director is already underway as Baker vacates the position.

A former player who spent parts of seven seasons in the big leagues, Baker retired from his playing career in 2015 and caught on with the Cubs in their front office that offseason as a special assistant. Baker eventually stepped into the role of mental skills coordinator with Chicago and remained in that role with the club until he departed for Pittsburgh during the 2020-21 offseason to take on his aforementioned role as director of coaching and player development. As Stumpf notes, the Pirates began implementing more individualized development plans for their players under Baker’s leadership.

With Baker now changing roles, the Pirates will need to fill both the farm director role. As Stumpf notes, that’s not the only high-level role that’s as of yet unfilled in Pittsburgh as the club will also need to hire a new director of pro scouting after moving him to a different, unspecified role within baseball operations. Those yet-to-be-named farm and pro scouting directors will join a wave of personnel hires by the Pirates this winter that already includes international scouting director Max Kwan, VP of research and development Kevin Tenenbaum, hitting coach Matt Hague, and assistant pitching coach Brent Strom.

More notes from around the NL Central…

  • Cubs fans received some good news yesterday when Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported that right-hander Ben Brown has been cleared for a normal throwing program this offseason. The 25-year-old was acquired by the club at the 2022 trade deadline in the deal that sent right-hander David Robertson to Philadelphia but didn’t make his big league debut until this year. The youngster looked quite good for the Cubs early in the season with a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 55 1/3 innings of work while swinging between the rotation and bullpen. He struck out 28.8% of opponents faced against a walk rate of 8.6% but saw is time in the majors cut short by a stress reaction in his neck that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Chicago reportedly plans to add a starting pitcher to the rotation alongside Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, and Jameson Taillon this winter, which could leave Brown to either compete with Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring or else spend the year in the bullpen.
  • The Cardinals are hiring Matt Pierpont as their director of pitching, as Pierpoint himself noted on X (h/t to Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). Pierpont, 33, pitched in the minor leagues for seven seasons before catching on with the Mariners as a coach prior to the 2021 season. Since then, he’s risen within the organization to the role of pitching coordinator. Now, he’s been promoted again as he moves on to St. Louis, where he’ll be tasked with working to improve the club’s internal pitching options. Andre Pallante and Sem Robberse are among the young pitchers at or near the major leagues, while top prospect Tink Hence dominated the Double-A level and could also look to make his big league debut at some point in 2025.

Angels Notes: Detmers, Further Additions, Anderson

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With the Angels’ recent signing of left-hander Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal now officially announced, GM Perry Minasian spoke yesterday to reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) about the club’s 2025 rotation and their plans for the rest of the winter.

Of note, Minasian suggested that with the addition of Kikuchi and fellow offseason addition Kyle Hendricks to the club’s rotation mix, the Angels currently have those two veterans, Tyler Anderson, and Jose Soriano penciled into the first four spots in their rotation for 2025. Notably, that leaves left-hander Reid Detmers fighting for a spot in the rotation alongside less established arms like Chase Silseth and Jack Kochanowicz. 2024 was a brutal season for Detmers, as the lefty surrendered a disastrous 6.70 ERA across 17 big league starts.

Weak as that production was, however, Detmers’s underlying metrics suggest his performance may have been slightly better than it looks on paper. His 27.9% strikeout rate was actually the best of his career, while his 9.7% walk rate was certainly elevated, but more or less in line with his 2023 performance. Detmers’s 4.72 FIP was “just” 13% worse than league average by measure of FIP-, and some metrics were even more bullish on his underlying numbers. His 3.86 xFIP was actually 6% better than league average, and a 3.77 SIERA actually places Detmers 43rd among 138 starting pitchers who threw at least 80 innings out of the rotation this past season.

While underlying metrics that compared Detmers to Corbin Burnes (3.75 SIERA) and Gerrit Cole (3.79 SIERA) in 2024 certainly don’t tell the whole story by themselves, they do provide enough optimism about Detmer’s future that it’s a surprise to hear he isn’t guaranteed a rotation spot next year. After all, the lefty posted a solid 4.15 ERA and 3.97 FIP across 53 starts in 2022 and ’23, and is just a few years removed from being the Halos’ first-round draft pick when they selected tenth overall in 2020. With that being said, it’s easy to imagine Detmers’s performance after coming back to the majors back in September raising red flags in the front office’s mind. While he struck out an eye-popping 34.2% of opponents in five starts down the stretch, he also struggled badly with the long ball, surrendering 8 homers and an untenable 15.6% barrel rate.

Minasian also didn’t rule out making further additions to the club’s rotation. “We’ll continue to look, from a free agent standpoint, from a trade standpoint,” he said, as relayed by Fletcher. “If there’s an upgrade, from a rotation standpoint, we’ll look to do it.”

With that being said, it seems as though upgrades to the rotation may take a backseat to upgrading other areas of the roster as the Angels look ahead to the remainder of the winter. Specifically, Minasian noted that they’d like to add depth to their bench and bullpen while focusing on lengthening the lineup with another bat. The club has already added Jorge Soler as an everyday DH and Travis d’Arnaud poised to act as a backup to Logan O’Hoppe behind the plate, but holes remain in a lineup that posted just a 90 wRC+ that was 25th in baseball last year.

Nolan Schanuel, Luis Rengifo, and Zach Neto figure to have regular roles on the infield, with Schanuel in particular seemingly locking up first base. Neto is sure to be the everyday shortstop when healthy, but he could miss the start of the season after going under the knife earlier this month. Kevin Newman and Scott Kingery have already been brought in to shore up the club’s infield depth on the bench, but another infield bat could help lessen the club’s reliance on oft-injured Anthony Rendon while also backing up Neto early in the season.

There’s also room in the outfield for another bat. Taylor Ward figures to be the club’s everyday left fielder, and Mike Trout will of course be an everyday player in the outfield when healthy enough to take the field. Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell currently figure to platoon in right field when everyone’s healthy, but upgrading that spot in the lineup could improve the roster, particularly if the addition was capable of playing center at least occasionally to lessen the defensive workload on Trout.

One other possibility Fletcher floats is the Angels considering a trade of Anderson. Anderson came up in the rumor mill ahead of the trade deadline over the summer, but no deal ultimately came together as the Angels reportedly preferred to hold onto players controlled beyond the 2024 season. Given that hesitance just a few months ago, it’s unclear if trading Anderson is something the Halos would seriously consider this winter, and it would hardly be a surprise to see him stay put.

The veteran southpaw is entering the final year of his contract with the Angels in 2025 following a decent season in 2024 where he posted a solid 3.81 ERA despite lackluster peripherals. Even if clubs project him to post numbers closer to his 4.66 FIP and and 4.37 xERA next year, his ability to eat innings (179 1/3 frames across 31 starts in 2024) could make him an attractive back-of-the-rotation candidate to teams in need of pitching and a deal would clear the final year and $13MM of his contract off on the Angels’ books to address other areas of the roster.

Of course, moving Anderson would be a step backwards in terms of depth for an Angels club that has already parted ways with Griffin Canning and Patrick Sandoval this winter. Removing Anderson from the club’s rotation would leave them with Kikuchi, Hendricks, Soriano, and Detmers as their front four starters with Kochanowicz, Silseth, and depth options like Sam Aldegheri in the mix for the fifth spot. With that being said, it’s at least plausible the club could listen to offers on him if they were to land a third external starter to join Kikuchi and Hendricks in the Anaheim rotation next year, whether that be in trade or free agency.

Braves Re-Sign Ray Kerr, Royber Salinas To Minor League Deals

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The Braves have re-signed left-hander Ray Kerr and Royber Salinas to minor league deals, according to the transaction trackers on the pair’s profile pages at MLB.com. According to that same source, the Braves have brought left-hander Kolton Ingram into the organization on a minor league deal.

Kerr and Salinas were both non-tendered by the Braves prior to last week’s deadline, but the duo will now return to the organization as non-roster depth. Kerr began his big league career with the Padres and posted solid numbers for San Diego in 2023, with a 4.33 ERA and 4.18 FIP in 27 innings that saw him strike out an excellent 30.3% of opponents. That relatively small sample of success was enough to convince the Braves to trade for him last winter, and the club took on the final year of Matt Carpenter’s underwater contract with San Diego in order to facilitate the deal. Unfortunately, Kerr struggled to a 5.64 ERA in 10 early season appearances before undergoing Tommy John surgery back in June. Now that he’s back with Atlanta, he’ll be able to rehab with the organization as he eyes a possible second-half comeback in 2025.

As for Salinas, he only joined the Braves organization earlier this month after being claimed off waivers from the A’s. It’s not Salinas’s first stint in the organization, however, as he actually signed out of Venezuela with Atlanta as an international amateur. After spending the first years of his pro career with the Braves, Salinas was traded to the A’s as part of the Sean Murphy deal prior to the 2023 season. The right-hander’s two year sojourn to Oakland saw him struggle to establish himself in the upper minors. After struggling to a 5.48 ERA in his first taste of Double-A action last year, he saw improved results (including a 3.68 ERA) in a repeat of the level this year but was torched to the tune of seven runs in 6 1/3 Triple-A frames. Looking ahead to 2025, Salinas figures to serve as non-roster depth for the club’s bullpen, which currently stands to be without A.J. Minter after the lefty hit free agency earlier this month and Joe Jimenez after the right-hander underwent surgery that will cause him to miss at least the majority of the 2025 campaign.

That role of non-roster depth also figures to apply to Ingram, who spent the 2024 season shuffling between four different organizations at the Triple-A level. In 51 2/3 innings of work at the level across the affiliates of the Giants, Mets, Rangers, and Cardinals, Ingram posted a solid 3.66 ERA while striking out 23.7% of opponents. The southpaw received his only big league exposure in 2023 as a member of the Angels. While he had impressed with a 2.95 ERA at the Double- and Triple-A levels that year, he was shelled to the tune of an 8.44 ERA in 5 1/3 frames during his first cup of coffee in the majors. Now more than a year removed from that frustrating debut, Ingram figures to look for an opportunity to break back into the big leagues with Atlanta next season.

Orioles Sign Franklin Barreto To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced earlier this week that they’ve signed infielder Franklin Barreto to a minor league deal. It’s unclear whether or not the deal includes an invitation to big league Spring Training next year.

Barreto, 28, signed with the Blue Jays as an amateur out of Venezuela and made his pro debut in 2013. He quickly rose among the prospect ranks in the early years of his career and was a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport by the time Toronto shipped him to Oakland in the Josh Donaldson trade back in 2015. He remained a consensus top-100 prospect over the next several years even as his offense took a step back after reaching the upper minors.

After hitting a solid .281/.340/.413 in 507 trips to the plate at the Double-A level in 2016, Barreto found himself promoted to Triple-A where he failed to put up big numbers despite the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League. Impressive as his .290/.339/.456 slash line at Triple-A in 2017 may look without context, it was actually just 3% better than league average by measure of wRC+. Barreto’s peripheral numbers were also lackluster as his strikeout rate jumped nearly ten points from where it was in Double-A, leaving his overall slash line propped up by an unsustainable .384 BABIP.

Despite those red flags, the A’s promoted Barreto to Oakland for his big league debut in 2017. The cup of coffee did not go especially well, as Barreto hit just .197/.250/.352 with an eye-popping 43.4% strikeout rate in 76 trips to the plate. That performance was 40% worse than league average by wRC+, and left the infielder once again relegated to shuttling between the Triple-A and big league levels the following year in 2018. That season, Barreto improved on his first taste of big league action the year prior to hit a respectable .233/.253/.493 with a 102 wRC+. While Barreto’s five home runs in 75 plate appearances helped to prop up his overall numbers, a 38.3% strikeout rate and a walk rate of just 1.3% suggested he still did not have the necessary plate discipline to be a regular contributor in the majors.

Things took a turn for the worse for Barreto from there, as he didn’t hit a lick in 68 big league plate appearances for the club over the next two years. The A’s eventually cut bait on the infielder partway through the 2020 season, when they shipped Barreto to Anaheim in exchange for veteran infielder Tommy La Stella. He made another 18 trips to the plate for the Angels down the stretch that year, but struck out at a 44.4% clip while hitting .118/.167/.118. That brief stint with the Angels represents Barreto’s last action in the big leagues. Since then, he’s spent time in both the Astros and Nationals organizations on minor league deals before departing affiliated ball for the Mexican League’s Diablos Rojos del Mexico earlier this year.

Barreto’s time in Mexico actually went quite well, as he lit up opposing pitching to the tune of a .343/.430/.576 slash line in 372 trips to the plate across 76 games. That evidently caught the attention of the Orioles, who have brought him into their organizational fold as a non-roster depth option for the club. Barreto figures to primarily act as injury insurance given Baltimore’s crowded infield mix that already features Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo, Ramon Urias, and Jorge Mateo. He primarily plays shortstop but has plenty of experience at second base and center field to go along with at least occasional work everywhere on the diamond except catcher.

Angels Sign Yusei Kikuchi

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The Angeles officially announced the signing of Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal on Wednesday afternoon. Kikuchi, a client of the Boras Corporation, is guaranteed $63MM. He’ll make even $21MM salaries over the contract.

Kikuchi, 33, spent nine seasons pitching for NPB’s Seibu Lions before he was posted for major league clubs prior to his age-28 campaign during the 2018-19 offseason. The lefty landed with the Mariners on a complex contract that guaranteed the southpaw $56MM over four years, with the fourth year being a $13MM player option that the Mariners could preempt by picking up a four-year club option worth $66MM.

Complicated as that contract was, however, Kikuchi’s time in Seattle was both disappointing and straightforward. The lefty struggled over his first two seasons in the majors, posting a lackluster 5.39 ERA and 5.17 FIP between the 2019 and ’20 seasons.

He managed to turn things around a bit in 2021, however, with a 4.41 ERA (96 ERA+) and a 4.61 FIP. While those numbers hardly jump off the page, Kikuchi was an All-Star in 2021 and looked dominant at times, with a 2.33 ERA and a 27.5% strikeout rate in an 11-start stretch from late April to early July. Kikuchi took a gamble and entered free agency despite his uneven season. That decision wound up paying off, as he would eventually sign with the Blue Jays on a three-year, $36MM contract. His time in Toronto started off much like his stay in Seattle, as he struggled badly in 2022 to the tune of a 5.19 ERA and 5.62 FIP in 100 2/3 innings of work split between the bullpen and rotation.

The lefty finally figured things out at the age of 32 last season, however, and showed off the consistent, mid-rotation production both the Mariners and Jays had dreamed on when signing him. In 32 starts for Toronto in 2023, Kikuchi pitched to a solid 3.86 ERA with a 25.9% strikeout rate against a 6.9% walk rate. That solid campaign seemed to tee the lefty up for another steady season in 2024, though he once again faced a number of ups and downs. Kikuchi’s time in Toronto this year saw him drastically underperform his underlying metrics, as he pitched to a lackluster 4.75 ERA despite his 26.2% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate both being improvements over the previous season. Despite that ugly ERA, the lefty had a 3.66 FIP, 3.51 SIERA, and 3.43 xFIP during his 22 starts with the Blue Jays this year.

Those exciting peripherals surely helped convince the Astros to package youngsters Jake Bloss, Joey Loperfido, and Will Wagner in a trade with the Jays that brought Kikuchi to Houston for the stretch run. That was a hefty price to pay for a rental, but the lefty made good on his price tag with ten dazzling starts for the Astros following the trade deadline. He racked up 60 innings of 2.70 ERA ball, struck out a whopping 31.8% of opponents while walking just 5.9%, and improved his overall season numbers to a league average 4.05 ERA with a 3.46 FIP that was good for the 16th-best mark among all qualified big leaguers this year, sandwiched comfortably between top free agent starters Max Fried (3.33) and Jack Flaherty (3.48).

Now, the Angels are betting on those excellent peripherals just as their division rivals in Houston did over the summer. Amidst a busy November where they’ve already struck early to land Jorge Soler, Travis d’Arnaud, Kevin Newman, and Kyle Hendricks via trade and free agency, the club has now gone out of its typical comfort zone to sign Kikuchi to the largest guarantee the Angels have given a free agent starter since right-hander C.J. Wilson’s five-year, $77.5MM deal in 2011. Kikuchi is just the second starter the club has signed to a multi-year pact since then, joining future rotation-mate Tyler Anderson. Kikuchi, Anderson, and Hendricks figure to create a veteran nucleus for Anaheim’s starting staff next year that could help to take pressure of younger arms such as Reid Detmers, Chase Silseth, and Jack Kochanowicz.

While Kikuchi’s up-and-down performance may cause his new deal to raise some eyebrows, the pact is right in line with the $60MM over three years that MLBTR predicted for the lefty on our annual Top 50 MLB free agents list. Kikuchi ranked 12th overall and 6th among starters on that list, placing him firmly behind top-of-the-class arms like Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, and Fried but in a similar conversation as fellow southpaw Sean Manaea among the better mid-tier options on the market. Notably, Kikuchi was unencumbered by a Qualifying Offer after being rendered ineligible by the midseason trade that shipped him to Houston. That surely made him more attractive to an Angels club that has relied heavily on the draft in recent years while fast-tracking players such as Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto, and Ben Joyce to the majors.

Prior to signing with Anaheim this morning, Kikuchi had been connected to the Cubs in free agency as the club seemingly plans to focus on the mid-tier of the starting pitching market this winter with a preference towards hurlers not encumbered by a QO. The Braves and Rangers are among the other teams rumored to be shopping in a similar tier of the market, and any team that missed out on Kikuchi should still have a few options at their disposal this winter. Flaherty, Nathan Eovaldi, Matthew Boyd, and Andrew Heaney are among the pitchers remaining unencumbered by the QO expected to land multi-year deals, and interesting one-year options such as Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer also remain on the table.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the terms.

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