Offseason In Review: Detroit Tigers
After Detroit surprised the baseball world by sneaking into the playoffs off the back of a late-season surge and wound up making it within a game of the ALCS, the club entered the offseason looking to assert itself as a contender but fell short in many of its most significant pursuits.
Major League Signings
- Jack Flaherty, SP: Two years, $35MM (can opt out after 2025)
- Gleyber Torres, 2B: One year, $15MM
- Alex Cobb, SP: One year, $15MM
- Tommy Kahnle, RP: One year, $7.75MM
- John Brebbia, RP: One year, $2.75MM
- Manuel Margot, OF: One year, $1.3MM
- Jose Urquidy, SP: One year, $1MM (plus 2026 club option)
2025 spending: $67.8MM
Total spending: $77.8MM
Option Decisions
- Casey Mize, SP: Team declined $3.2MM club option; retained control via arbitration
Trades and Waiver Claims
- Traded RP Devin Sweet to the Phillies for cash
- Traded RP Alex Faedo to the Rays for minor league C Enderson Delgado and cash
- Traded RP Mason Englert to the Rays for minor league RP Drew Sommers
- Acquired RP Bailey Horn from the Cardinals for cash
- Acquired OF Brewer Hicklen from the Brewers for cash
Notable Minor League Signings
- Jordan Balazovic, Andrew Chafin, Dietrich Enns, David Hensley, Matt Gage, Jahmai Jones, Ryan Miller, Brian Serven
Extensions
- None
Notable Losses
Fans in Detroit and many around the game believed that 2024's surprise success would spur the Tigers to act more aggressively this winter than they had during president of baseball operations Scott Harris's previous seasons at the helm. Those expectations made plenty of sense on paper. After all, Detroit had just made the postseason for the first time since 2014 amid a season where they enjoyed a breakout from superstar southpaw Tarik Skubal. He asserted himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball, winning both the Cy Young award and the Triple Crown in the American League, but now has just two seasons remaining before he's scheduled to reach free agency.
When the final years of team control over a breakout superstar were combined with an excellent season from Riley Greene, positive signs from other foundational youngsters like Colt Keith and Reese Olson, and a barren payroll that featured less than $40MM in guaranteed salary commitments for 2025, it seemed clear that this offseason was as good of an opportunity as the Tigers could expect to push their chips in and build a World Series contender. That's not how the 2024-25 offseason panned out for the club, however. While the Tigers were involved on at least some level with a number of potentially impactful players on the market, the vast majority of those efforts to acquire impact talent did not pan out.
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The Opener: Braves, Dodgers, Padres, Tucker
On the heels of a huge extension in San Diego, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Dodgers, Braves streaking:
The reigning World Series champions are off to a phenomenal start, having won their first seven games in a row. After sweeping the Cubs out of Tokyo last month, the Dodgers then swept the Tigers out of Dodger Stadium and since then have taken two of three from the Braves. As noted by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, the 7-0 start to the season matches the 1933 Yankees for the strongest start to a season of any reigning World Series champion in history, and is also the Dodgers’ best start to the regular season since they relocated to Los Angeles in 1958.
On the other side of things, Atlanta can’t buy a win. They’re the only club that’s yet to win a game this season, and their nine runs scored across six games is tied for the fewest in the majors. The Dodgers will attempt to keep the good times rolling at 5:38pm local time tonight with lefty Blake Snell (3.12 ERA in 2024) on the mound, while Atlanta will counter with righty Bryce Elder (6.52 ERA in 2024) as they try to stop the bleeding.
2. Padres also streaking:
Phenomenal as the Dodgers’ start to the 2025 campaign has been, they’ve not been able to put away their division rivals. The Padres have gotten off to almost as strong of a start, winning all six of their games to this point in the season. They were the beneficiaries of Atlanta’s struggles for the first four games of the year, and since then have taken the first two games of their series against the Guardians to run up a 6-0 record on the season. They’ll be going for their second consecutive sweep today at 1:10pm local time in San Diego with right-hander Dylan Cease (3.47 ERA in 2024) on the mound. Cleveland, meanwhile, will counter with righty Ben Lively (3.81 ERA in 2024). Fortunately for the Guardians, they’re not in as dire straits as the Braves are after taking two of three in their opening series against the Royals.
3. Tucker looks to continue homer streak:
There’s a fourth noteworthy streak going on in the National League at the moment, although this one isn’t about the club’s records. After scuffling during the Tokyo Series, newly-acquired Cubs star Kyle Tucker has looked more like himself at the plate since the club returned stateside. Overall, he’s hitting an incredible .353/.450/.853 in 40 trips to the plate across eight games. He leads all of baseball with 12 hits, five doubles, 11 RBI, and 29 total bases, but the streak in question has to do with the long ball.
Tucker’s homered in four consecutive games after hitting a long ball off newly-minted A’s starter Luis Severino last night, and he’ll go for a fifth straight homer against A’s lefty Jeffrey Springs at 12:35pm local time in West Sacramento this afternoon. He’d become just the fifth Cubs player in history to have five games in a row with a homer, joining Sammy Sosa in 1998, Ryne Sandberg in 1989, and Hack Wilson in 1928… as well as teammate Michael Busch, who accomplished the feat just last year.
The Opener: Braves, Red Sox, Debuts
On the heels of some early morning news, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Outfield uncertainty in Atlanta:
Yesterday, the Braves received some tough news when their biggest offseason addition, outfielder Jurickson Profar, was suspended for 80 games after testing positive for PEDs. The 32-year-old will miss the remainder of the first half and be ineligible for the postseason this year due to the suspension. The news leaves the Braves scrambling to fill out an outfield that looked solid entering the year. Ronald Acuna Jr. is still about a month away from returning to action after last year’s torn ACL, which has left Jarred Kelenic to handle right field on an everyday basis. With Kelenic in right, Bryan De La Cuz and recent waiver claim Stuart Fairchild appear most likely to be tasked with handling left field for the time being, though the club did sign outfielder Alex Verdugo late last month and could lean on him once he gets up to speed after missing most of Spring Training.
2. Extension season in Boston:
The other big news yesterday was a report that the Red Sox and left-hander Garrett Crochet have reached an agreement on a six-year extension that guarantees the southpaw $170MM. The news came as something of a shock after the sides reportedly tabled extension talks when the start of the season came and went without an agreement, but Crochet will now put pen to paper on an agreement a week after the regular season begins. The Red Sox have not yet officially announced Crochet’s extension, though that can be expected to happen in relatively short order. With Crochet locked up long-term, the question remains if any other key pieces of the club’s future will land long-term deals of their own. In particular, eyes will be on second baseman Kristian Campbell after reports over the weekend indicated that Campbell’s camp and the Red Sox are deep into discussions regarding an extension for the well-regarded prospect.
3. Harrington, Smith to debut today:
The morning began with some news on the prospect front, as the Pirates are poised to select the contract of right-hander Thomas Harrington ahead of his big league debut against the Rays later today. The 23-year-old is set to take on righty Shane Baz in Tampa at 7:05pm local time this evening, but he’s not the only player scheduled to make his big league debut today. On the south side of Chicago, right-hander Shane Smith is poised to debut against the Twins at 6:40pm local time this evening. The club’s pick in December’s Rule 5 draft is just a few days shy of his 25th birthday and will celebrate by making his first big league start opposite Minnesota right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson, a former consensus top-100 prospect who pitched to a 4.17 ERA and 4.12 FIP in 28 starts for the Twins last year.
Pirates To Select Thomas Harrington
The Pirates are poised to promote right-hander Thomas Harrington to the majors for today’s start against the Rays in Tampa, according to a report from Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Harrington is not yet on the 40-man roster, so the club will need to make a corresponding move to open up a spot for Harrington before he can officially be selected.
Harrington, 23, was a first-round pick by the Pirates in the 2022 draft. He was the 36th selection in the draft, the Pirates’ second pick after infielder Termarr Johnson went number four overall. After he posted an impressive 2.53 ERA and 30% strikeout rate in 15 starts for Campbell during his draft year, the Pirates held off on putting Harrington in pro games until 2023. He more or less picked up right where he left off despite the layoff with a 2.77 ERA and 26.7% strikeout rate in eight starts at the Single-A level. That got him a quick promotion to High-A, where he faced a bit more adversity but still managed a solid 3.87 ERA in 127 1/3 innings across 18 starts while punching out 28.2% of his opponents.
The right-hander built on that solid first season as a pro with a dominant one in 2024. Though a rotator cuff injury cost him some of his 2024 campaign, Harrington made the most of his opportunities when he was healthy enough to take the mound, with an incredible 2.24 ERA and a 27.4% strikeout rate in 68 1/3 innings of work at the Double-A level. That earned him a promotion to Triple-A, where his strikeout rate dropped to just 21.2% but he nonetheless managed to post a solid 3.33 ERA across eight starts. Harrington’s breakout performance last season and success at the highest level of the minors put him on the radar for a big league debut this year, and he’s now set to get that opportunity later today.
The righty’s strong performance in 2024 was also enough to make him a consensus top-100 prospect, rated as the #74 prospect in the sport by Baseball America and #79 by MLB Pipeline at the outset of the 2025 season. He’s since moved up a spot on both lists following the graduation of Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews yesterday. Harrington features a deep pitch mix headlined by a fastball that tops out at 95mph and an above-average slider, though he also features a cutter and curveball, both of which grade out as roughly average. The main selling point of Harrington’s overall package is pinpoint control, however; he walked just eight batters in 46 innings at Triple-A last year and has a tidy 6.1% walk rate across all levels of the minors.
When Jared Jones went on the injured list to open the season, Harrington was in the mix for the fifth starter job with the Pirates but ultimately lost out to right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski, a former first-round pick in his own right with a 2.91 ERA in 86 1/3 career innings at the big league level entering the 2025 season. With that being said, it still did not take long for Harrington’s call to the big leagues to occur. It’s unclear whether today’s appearance will strictly be a spot start for the youngster or a more significant opportunity, though it should be noted that Mlodzinski surrendered four runs on seven hits and two walks in 3 2/3 innings of work during his first start of the season last night.
That’s the sort of performance that could, at least in theory, open the door for Harrington to claim a rotation spot with a dominant outing. As a consensus top-100 prospect called up in the early days of the season, Harrington would be eligible to earn the Pirates a prospect promotion incentive draft pick if he sticks on the active roster for the rest of the 2025 campaign. Harrington would need to win the NL Rookie of the Year award or finish in the top three of NL Cy Young award (or MVP) voting during his pre-arbitration years in order to bring back a PPI pick for Pittsburgh.
Rotation depth is perhaps the biggest strength of the Pirates’ roster. An on-paper starting five of Paul Skenes, Jones, Mitch Keller, Andrew Heaney, and Bailey Falter is already one of the most solid rotations in the National League, and the presence of youngsters like Harrington, Mlodzinski, Braxton Ashcraft, and star pitching prospect Bubba Chandler serve to lengthen out the club’s depth chart significantly. That rotation depth is robust enough that the Pirates felt comfortable trading a controllable young arm in Luis Ortiz even after a season where he posted a 3.32 ERA in 137 2/3 innings of work. That trade netted the Pirates a comparably controllable young hitter in Spencer Horwitz, who opened the season on the injured list due to wrist surgery but figures to settle in as the club’s everyday first baseman once healthy.
Offseason In Review: Boston Red Sox
After finishing 2024 with an 81-81 record, the Red Sox rose from their lengthy slumber to once again assert themselves as a force in the offseason market with substantial upgrades all around the roster. Will it be enough to get back to the postseason?
Major League Signings
- Alex Bregman, 3B: Three years, $120MM (deferrals knock NPV to roughly $95.1MM, deal includes opt-outs after first two seasons)
- Walker Buehler, SP: One year, $21.05MM
- Aroldis Chapman, RP: One year, $10.75MM
- Patrick Sandoval, SP: Two years, $18.25MM
- Justin Wilson, RP: One year, $2.25MM
2025 spending: $79.55MM
Total spending: $172.3MM
Option Decisions
- Lucas Giolito, SP: Exercised $19MM player option
- Rob Refsnyder, OF: Team exercised $2.1MM club option
Trades and Waiver Claims
- Acquired SP Garrett Crochet from the White Sox for minor league C Kyle Teel, minor league OF Braden Montgomery, minor league INF Chase Meidroth, and minor league SP Wikelman Gonzalez
- Acquired C Carlos Narvaez from the Yankees for minor league SP Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz and international bonus pool space
- Traded INF Enmanuel Valdez to the Pirates for minor league RP Joe Vogatsky
- Traded RP Cam Booser to the White Sox for minor league SP Yhoiker Fajardo
- Acquired RP Jovani Moran from the Twins for C/INF Mickey Gasper
- Acquired C Blake Sabol from the Giants for international bonus pool space
- Traded RP Chase Shugart to the Pirates for minor league RP Matt McShane
- Traded RP Noah Davis to the Dodgers for cash
Notable Minor League Signings
- Austin Adams, Matt Moore, Sean Newcomb, Adam Ottavino (later released), Robert Stock, Abraham Toro, Trayce Thompson, Seby Zavala
Extensions
- None
Notable Losses
- Cam Booser, Noah Davis, Luis Garcia, Mickey Gasper, Wikelman Gonzalez, Bailey Horn (waivers), Danny Jansen, Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin, Chase Meidroth, Braden Montgomery, Tyler O'Neill, James Paxton, Nick Pivetta, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, Lucas Sims, Chase Shugart, Kyle Teel, Naoyuki Uwasawa, Enmanuel Valdez
After four straight seasons without a playoff berth, the Red Sox entered the winter with plenty of positive signs. Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, and Richard Fitts looked like an enviable nucleus of young rotation talent under team control, while Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu enjoyed breakout seasons in the outfield. With the best young talent, including baseball's #1 prospect Roman Anthony, and three other top-50 talents in Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, and Kyle Teel knocking on the door, it seemed clear that the time was now for the club to push its chips in and force open a new competitive window.
While there was some skepticism about the club's intentions at the outset of the offseason, particularly after last winter's "full-throttle" comments led to a quiet offseason that brought little new talent into the fold, the club quickly showed itself to be a legitimate threat to spend when it emerged as a surprise finalist for the services of Juan Soto alongside expected contenders like the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, and Blue Jays. The Red Sox ultimately fell short of that pursuit, finishing alongside Toronto ahead of L.A. but behind the two New York teams. Even as Soto landed in Queens, however, Boston's apparent willingness to give out a contract in the range of $700MM made clear they were serious about improving this winter.
In the aftermath of Soto signing elsewhere, the Red Sox had two main priorities to address: adding a big right-handed bat to the lineup, and bringing in an ace (preferably one that throws left-handed) to lead their young but talented pitching staff. Initial attempts to bring in players like Max Fried (who eventually signed in the Bronx) and Teoscar Hernandez (who eventually returned to the Dodgers) fell apart, but the Red Sox didn't let the league's biggest spenders nabbing their top targets stop them from addressing their needs in a big way. During the Winter Meetings, the Red Sox echoed the Chris Sale trade by swinging a blockbuster with the White Sox that saw them surrender a bevy of talented prospects in exchange for an extremely talented southpaw.
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Poll: Who Will Win The AL West?
Opening Day has finally arrived, and teams all around the league are gearing up for another pennant chase in hopes of being crowned this year’s World Series champion. Of course, there’s still another seven months to go before someone raises the Commissioner’s Trophy. Until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. We’ll be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. That series has already covered the National League, with the Dodgers, Cubs, and Phillies each coming out on top in their respective divisions. Now, the series moved on to the American League with a look at the AL West. Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.
Houston Astros (88-73)
The only club to make the playoffs from the AL West last year, the Astros enter the 2025 season on the heels of a postseason that snapped their nearly decade-long run of trips to the ALCS. After a winter where the team parted ways with longtime franchise stalwarts such as Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Justin Verlander, and Ryan Pressly, the team is looking very different than it has in previous years. There’s some clear signs of weakness, most notably the fact that the club’s outfield depth is thin enough that their starters in the outfield corners are two infielders: longtime second baseman Jose Altuve has moved to left, while top third base prospect Cam Smith is patrolling right field with just five games of experience outside of A-ball.
Flawed as the club’s roster may be, there’s still plenty to like about the Astros in 2025. Christian Walker is an upgrade at first base and Isaac Paredes is an All-Star caliber hitter who should benefit greatly from the Crawford Boxes as he steps into the third base job vacated by Bregman. Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown have a chance to form a strong front-of-the-rotation duo, while few teams boast a pair of arms better than Josh Hader and Bryan Abreu at the back of their bullpen. Whether that will be enough to maintain a stranglehold over the AL West in 2025 even after this winter’s departures remains to be seen, however.
Seattle Mariners (85-77)
2025 ended in soul-crushing fashion for Mariners fans as they missed the playoffs by just one game for the second consecutive season. The club’s offseason was similarly disappointing as well; despite rumors of trades that would’ve sent players like Triston Casas, Nico Hoerner, and Alec Bohm to the Pacific Northwest making their way through the rumor mill this winter, the club was content to simply re-sign Jorge Polanco and bring in veteran infielder Donovan Solano to augment a lineup that was in the bottom ten for runs scored last year.
Fortunately, there’s still some reason for optimism headed into 2025. The club’s elite rotation remains in place, and a quintet of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller, and Luis Castillo should still give them an excellent chance to win on any given day, particularly with a strong bullpen that features fireballers like Andres Munoz and Matt Brash on the back end. A big year from Julio Rodriguez would go a long way to correcting last season’s offensive woes, but even if Rodriguez starts out slowly again in 2025 he’ll have support from a full season of deadline addition Randy Arozarena, who posted strong numbers down the stretch after being acquired from the Rays last summer. Will that be enough to get the club their first division title since 2001?
Texas Rangers (78-84)
When looking at clubs that finished below .500 in 2024, there’s arguably no team with more helium entering the 2025 campaign than the Rangers. The 2023 champs didn’t have the most explosive offseason, but nonetheless enter the season with an overhauled bullpen highlighted by Chris Martin and Robert Garcia as well as a pair of solid additions to the lineup in Joc Pederson and Jake Burger. The upside a healthy season from Jacob deGrom could offer the rotation is impossible to overstate, and the middle infield tandem of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien once again figures to be among the best in the sport.
If there’s a flaw in the club’s present construction, it’s a heavy reliance on youth. The club’s vaunted Vanderbilt duo of Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker are supremely talented and were always expected to be a big part of the team in 2025, but leaning on both youngsters as members of the Opening Day rotation is a tall ask given the pair’s inconsistency and inexperience at the major league level and highlights the lack of reliability in the club’s rotation outside of Nathan Eovaldi. In the lineup, meanwhile, Wyatt Langford appears to be as good as bet as any sophomore player can be to have a big year, but both he and Evan Carter struggled to stay healthy in 2024. Will those youngsters be able to carry the Rangers back to the playoffs?
Athletics (69-93)
West Sacramento’s temporary baseball team showed signs of life for the first time in a while during their final months in Oakland, even ending the season with a solid 32-32 record after the All-Star break. After departing Oakland, the club aggressively attempted to improve this winter. They signed right-hander Luis Severino and traded for southpaw Jeffrey Springs to bolster the rotation while adding Gio Urshela to the lineup and Jose Leclerc to the bullpen. That group of additions join a solid core featuring Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Mason Miller, and Shea Langeliers.
As solid as that collection of talent is, however, the A’s will need a lot more to go right in order to compete this year. Steps forward from homegrown arms like JP Sears and Joey Estes would go a long way, as would former and current top prospects in the lineup like Tyler Soderstrom, Max Muncy, and Jacob Wilson breaking out and playing up to their ceilings. It’s certainly not impossible to imagine most of that happening. And if it did, the team surprising and making it back to the postseason for the first time since they tore down their core from the late 2010s should be on the table.
Los Angeles Angels (63-99)
Anaheim’s first year post-Shohei Ohtani could hardly have gone worse. Franchise face Mike Trout played just 29 games last year, and very few things went right for the club as they narrowly avoided a 100-loss season. That didn’t stop them from making an effort to improve this offseason, however. The club added Jorge Soler to the lineup for a stable source of power, with Yoan Moncada, Travis d’Arnaud, and Tim Anderson filling out the bench. Meanwhile, Yusei Kikuchi, Kyle Hendricks, and Kenley Jansen were added to the pitching staff to deepen the rotation and bring a proper closer into the bullpen.
Kikuchi, Soler, and Jansen are all solid pieces, but the club will need more than those ancillary additions to bounce back from a dreadful 2024 campaign. Trout putting together his first fully healthy season in half a decade would go a long way, and the club’s decision to shift him to right field could help in that goal. Outside of that, the club will need its young position players like Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto, and Logan O’Hoppe to step up and put together big seasons if it has any hope of catching up to the top dogs in the AL West.
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Just two seasons after the top three AL West clubs finished within a game of each other in 2023, that same trio appear set to jockey for the top spot in the division once again. After years of being the prohibitive favorite on paper, the Astros look more vulnerable than ever. Will their offseason additions be enough to keep them on top, or will the Mariners’ impressive rotation or the Rangers’ infusion of young talent be enough to finally overtake Houston? Or, perhaps, you think the Athletics or Angels will surprise with their respective collections of offseason additions and talented youngsters. Have your say in the poll below:
Who Will Win The AL West?
-
Texas Rangers 37% (2,219)
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Houston Astros 22% (1,311)
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Seattle Mariners 20% (1,228)
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Los Angeles Angels 12% (736)
-
The Athletics 10% (578)
Total votes: 6,072
The Opener: Campbell, Twins, A’s
As the early days of the 2025 regular season continue, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Campbell, Red Sox nearing agreement?
Over the weekend, it was reported that the Red Sox and star prospect Kristian Campbell were “deep” into talks regarding a contract extension. If a deal were to be finalized, it would guarantee the 22-year-old a life-changing sum while allowing Boston to keep a potential star beyond his years under team control, which are currently slated to expire following the 2030 campaign. Campbell himself briefly commented on the report following Saturday night’s game, confirming to reporters that his camp has been discussing a contract with Red Sox brass but declining to say whether he considered the sides close to a deal.
2. Twins roster move incoming:
Yesterday, it was reported that right-hander Randy Dobnak is set to be designated for assignment by the Twins as the club looks to freshen up its bullpen prior to today’s game against the White Sox in Chicago. It’s not yet known which player will be joining the club’s roster in Dobnak’s stead. Southpaw Kody Funderburk is the only pure reliever on the 40-man roster in the minors right now, but it’s possible Minnesota will instead opt to carry a non-roster pitcher like Alex Speas or Scott Blewett given the 40-man roster spot Dobnak’s DFA will open. Starters like David Festa and Zebby Matthews could also be called up to offer the Twins some length out of the bullpen.
The decision to DFA Dobnak isn’t exactly a shocking one. The right-hander lacks the requisite service time to reject an outright assignment while still being paid the remaining $4MM on his contract. That salary makes Dobnak unlikely to be plucked off of waivers by a rival club and makes Dobnak himself highly unlikely to reject an outright assignment, meaning that despite a lack of minor league options, the Twins can shuttle him between Triple-A and the majors via DFA without much risk of losing him.
3. A’s hosting first home opener in West Sacramento:
The Athletics and Cubs are set to play the first home game of the former’s season tonight at 7:05pm local time. For the first time in decades, said home opener will not occur in Oakland. Instead, tonight will officially kick off the era of Major League Baseball in West Sacramento as the A’s call Sutter Health Park their home for the next three seasons before they can move into their planned long-term home in Las Vegas.
Some visiting players (including Cubs reliever Ryan Brasier) have voiced discomfort and frustration with the situation, as noted by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, who writes that the visiting clubhouse has drawn particular ire for its cramped accommodations that don’t measure up to the typical major league standard. Regardless, big league games will be played at the Triple-A ballpark for at least the next three seasons. That starts tonight, when Cubs right-hander Ben Brown (3.58 ERA in 2024) takes on A’s righty Joey Estes (5.01 ERA in 2024).
Logan Gilbert Expressing Interest In Future Extension With Mariners
As the regular season gets underway, fans in Seattle enter the year on the heels of an offseason that didn’t see the Mariners make many significant changes to the roster, with veteran infielder Donovan Solano standing as the club’s most notable addition. Even after that quiet winter and missing the postseason in both 2024 and ’23, however, the team still remains in good position to compete in 2025 thanks primarily to an elite starting rotation that features four young, homegrown arms with front-of-the-rotation abilities: Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo. Seattle resisted overtures from clubs all around the league regarding their top starters this winter, and Adam Jude of the Seattle Times indicates that the club could have an eye on keeping those young arms in town long-term.
“Frankly, I’d love to see all the four young pitchers stay here,” Mariners chairman John Stanton told Jude. “It takes an interest on the players part and an interest on the organization’s part. But I think we, as an organization, are real believers in having a core group. There’s some symmetry … in keeping a group together that is as talented as our guys are, and I feel great about that.”
Stanton’s comments track with the club’s organizational philosophy of prioritizing extending their in-house talent rather than signing players in free agency. Julio Rodriguez, Luis Castillo, and J.P. Crawford are among the current Mariners who have signed lucrative extensions with the club after either being developed by the club or acquired via trade. Just before Opening Day, the Mariners added another player to that list when they locked up star catcher Cal Raleigh on a six-year extension that will keep him in Seattle through at least the end of the 2030 season. The $105MM pact, which comes with $99.4MM in new money, locks up Raleigh after a three-season stretch where he emerged as one of the best offensive catchers in the sport and on the heels of a Gold Glove winning 2024 season.
Raleigh’s strides behind the plate have been such that he’s been nearly universally lauded among the Mariners’ pitching staff, with Gilbert in particular offering effusive praise for his longtime battery mate. Jude relays that the right-hander noted that the club’s decision to extend Raleigh “definitely” gives him further reason to stay in Seattle long-term, though it’s clear that Gilbert has interest in an extension even outside of continue to work with Raleigh.
“[The Mariners] know where I stand,” Gilbert said, as relayed.by Jude. “Seattle has become like home for me, and I’d love to be able to finish my career here.”
It’s less clear where Kirby, Woo, and Miller stand on the possibility of signing with the club long-term, but Gilbert’s desire to stick around is surely encouraging news for Mariners fans. The club’s ace has been among the most reliable pitchers in baseball since his breakout 2022 campaign, with a 3.36 ERA (112 ERA+) and a 3.50 FIP since then. He’s combined those solid results with durability that’s become rare in today’s game. In each of the past three seasons, Gilbert has posted between 32 and 33 starts, and his 208 2/3 innings of work in his first career All-Star campaign last year led the major leagues and helped him to a sixth-place finish in AL Cy Young award voting.
With two seasons of team control remaining after this one and his 28th birthday approaching in May, it seems as though Gilbert is entering a phase of his career where an extension could make plenty of sense for both sides, guaranteeing the righty significant money through his early-to-mid 30s while extending the Mariners’ window of control through the rest of Gilbert’s prime.
All this being said, it doesn’t appear likely that a deal is around the corner. Gilbert acknowledged to Jude that it’s been “a while” since the Mariners approached his camp about the possibility of an extension, and added that he would be hesitant about opening up extension talks during the season. Those comments would suggest that, if an extension between the sides were going to come together, it would most likely wait until the coming offseason, when Gilbert will be preparing for his penultimate trip through arbitration.
Rangers Place Josh Jung On Injured List
The Rangers announced this afternoon that they’ve placed third baseman Josh Jung on the 10-day injured list due to neck spasms. The move is retroactive to March 29, meaning that Jung will first be eligible for activation on April 7. Infielder Jonathan Ornelas was recalled from the minors in a corresponding move.
It’s surely a frustrating turn of a events for Jung, as the 27-year-old was looking to get off to a strong start this year after having his 2024 season derailed by a fractured wrist on April 1 of last year. This year, he won’t even make it to April without being placed on the shelf. As worrisome a sign as that may be, all indications from team officials have suggested Jung’s current ailment is not a particularly serious one. As noted by Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News, manager Bruce Bochy indicated to reporters that he expects that Jung will require only a minimum stay on the injured list.
Jung’s latest trip to the injured list doesn’t seem to be especially indicative of the severity of his neck problem, as the club was viewing him as day-to-day as recently as yesterday (as noted by MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry). The decision to place Jung on the shelf, it seems stems not from Jung’s own injury but rather an issue utility man Josh Smith is suffering from. Smith was playing third base during yesterday’s game but, as noted by McFarland, left the game with a left quad contusion after colliding with the wall in foul territory. Smith is currently considered day-to-day, but is out of the lineup today due to the issue.
With both Jung and Smith down for the time being, the Rangers felt they needed additional conver on the infield, prompting them to place Jung on the shelf so they could bring Ornelas up to the majors. The 24-year-old has just 26 games under his belt in the majors over the past two years and offers little offensive upside, but is a strong defender all around the infield with the speed to steal 15 bases in a season. Ornelas can fill a utility role for the club while Ezequiel Duran and (when healthy enough to return to the lineup) Smith cover for Jung at first base.
Losing Jung, the club’s selection with the eighth-overall pick in the 2019 draft, stings for the lineup. The 27-year-old enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2023 where he was named an All-Star and finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting. Since the start of that season, Jung has slashed a strong .267/.311/.454 across 170 games in the majors and was off to a hot start this year with three hits in his first seven at-bats. Fortunately, Smith should be a perfectly adequate replacement once he’s back in the lineup, as he had a breakout season of his own last year, hitting .258/.337/.394 in 592 trips to the plate while serving in a super-utility role. Smith’s versatility and solid bat even earned him the AL Silver Slugger award for utility players last year, and he figures to once again fill a similar role in 2025.
Athletics Claim Angel Perdomo, Designate Esteury Ruiz For Assignment
The Athletics announced this afternoon that they’ve claimed left-hander Angel Perdomo off waivers from the Angels. In a corresponding move, center fielder Esteury Ruiz was designated for assignment. The Angels separately announced that left-hander Jose Quijada as cleared waivers and been assigned outright to the minor leagues.
Perdomo, 31 in May, signed with the Blue Jays out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut back in 2012. He didn’t end up cracking the big leagues until the shortened 2020 season, however, at which point he was a member of the Brewers. Perdomo struggled badly across parts of two seasons in Milwaukee, with an 8.24 ERA and a 6.43 FIP in 19 2/3 innings of work across 22 appearances. While his 33.7% strikeout rate was nothing short of excellent, Perdomo was held back by a massive 23.5% walk rate.
The southpaw went on to spend the 2022 season in the Rays farm system, where he pitched quite well at the Triple-A level, before signing a minor league deal with the Pirates for the 2023 season. He pitched solid for Pittsburgh that year, with a 3.72 ERA and 3.01 FIP in 29 innings of work as he struck out a sensational 37.6% of his opponents. Unfortunately, elbow issues cut Perdomo’s season short and he ultimately required Tommy John surgery during the offseason. That led the Pirates to designate the lefty for assignment, at which point he was claimed by Atlanta and signed to a split deal for the 2024 season.
Perdomo ultimately did not pitch in 2024, however, and though he stuck with the club over the offseason he was ultimately traded to the Angels earlier this month. He was DFA’d by Anaheim prior to Opening Day, and now finds himself headed north to West Sacramento where he’ll get the opportunity to join the A’s bullpen if he can prove he’s healthy and effective. The southpaw’s Spring Training was something of a mixed bag, as he impressed with a 1.80 ERA but walked (6) nearly as many batters as he struck out (8). If he pitches as well as he did for Pittsburgh, however, Perdomo could wind up being a solid complement to Mason Miller from the left hand side in the late innings.
Making room for Perdomo on the 40-man roster is Ruiz. The center fielder is most famous for being the centerpiece of the return the Athletics received in a controversial three-team trade that sent franchise catcher Sean Murphy to Atlanta and promising young backstop William Contreras to Milwaukee. While Contreras has gone on to put himself on the shortlist for the title of best catcher in baseball with the Brewers, the return the A’s received for Murphy has largely failed to produce in the majors. That includes Ruiz, who appeared in 132 games in 2023 as the club’s regular center fielder and swiped a league-leading 67 bases in 80 attempts. Impressive as his wheels were on the basepaths, however, he was a pedestrian defender in center field and failed to hit enough to justify his everyday job, slashing just .254/.309/.345 in 497 trips to the plate.
The 2024 season saw Ruiz open the season with the club but get optioned to the minor leagues in fairly short order. Overall, he hit just .200/.270/.382 with five steals in nine attempts across 29 games with the A’s during their final season in Oakland before missing the majority of the season with a wrist sprain and ultimately undergoing knee surgery in September. Ruiz came into camp with a chance at a job with the A’s this year, but hit just .121/.171/.152 in Spring Training, leaving the club to option him to the minor leagues. Evidently, the A’s feel he no longer has much of a future with the organization following the emergence of pieces like Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday. Going forward, they’ll have one week to work out a trade involving Ruiz or else he’ll need to be placed on waivers. Should he pass through waivers unclaimed, the club will have the opportunity to outright him to Triple-A to serve as non-roster depth going forward.