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Cubs To Sign Nick Neidert To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs are adding right hander Nick Neidert on a minor league deal, according to Robert Murray of Fansided. The deal includes opt-out clauses which Neidert can trigger on June 1 and July 1 of 2023.

Neidert, 26, made a solitary start for the Marlins last season, going five innings and giving up two runs. At Triple-A, he tossed 46 innings of 1.96 ERA ball, with a 26.1% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate. He was designated for assignment by the Marlins and became a free agent last month.

Originally drafted by the Mariners in the second round of the 2015 draft, Neidert was traded to Miami as part of a deal for Dee Strange-Gordon in 2017. He made his big league debut for Miami in the shortened 2020 campaign, tossing 8 1/3 innings of 5.40 ERA ball. He’d continue to serve as a depth piece for the Marlins moving between Triple-A and the majors, and since his 2020 debut has thrown 49 big league innings for a 4.59 ERA.

While he’s posted strong numbers in the minors, Neidert’s struggled to punch out batters in the big leagues, working to a 13.3% strikeout rate over his three seasons. Neidert throws a four-pitch mix, tossing a low-90s fastball alongside a slider, changeup and curveball. He still has one minor league option remaining.

Pirates Notes: Reynolds, Starting Pitching, Cruz

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The Pirates have made a handful of moves to bring in major league talent this winter, but one of the biggest storylines remains the potential departure of star outfielder Bryan Reynolds. Reynolds handed in a trade request on December 3, but at this point remains on the Bucs’ roster, with the team reportedly setting a high asking price for the 27-year-old. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi adds a bit more depth to that, reporting Pittsburgh wants a top starting pitcher to headline the return. Morosi cites the Dodgers’ Bobby Miller and the Blue Jays’ Ricky Tiedemann – both of whom are top-40 MLB prospects – as examples of the sort of prospect they want.

While both L.A. and Toronto could make sense as speculative fits for Reynolds, neither has been reported as in discussions with the Pirates. That’s not true of the Yankees though, and Morosi further reports that New York has been in contact with the Pirates over the past few weeks. The Yankees’ major remaining off-season need is a left-fielder so the switch-hitting Reynolds makes plenty of sense, especially given the free agent market has thinned out considerably following Andrew Benintendi and Michael Conforto finding new homes.

As Morosi notes, one roadblock to a deal could be Pittsburgh’s desire for a starting pitcher to headline the deal. The Yankees’ system is headlined by position player prospects such as Anthony Volpe, Oswald Peraza and Jasson Dominguez. Their top starting pitcher prospects, according to Baseball America, are Randy Vasquez, Will Warren and Drew Thorpe, but all three project as back-of-the-rotation types rather than the frontline starter Pittsburgh is seeking. Clayton Beeter shot up New York’s prospect charts after coming over from the Dodgers in the Joey Gallo trade and would be an intriguing name to watch, but unlikely to headline any deal.

A potential trade of Reynolds would help to free up the surplus of outfielders the Pirates have. Alternatively, as Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic writes, general manager Ben Cherington could package up one of his lesser-known outfielders with other prospects in a deal, possibly for a starting pitcher.

“We would still like to add a starting pitcher. That market’s been strong, but we continue to stay engaged with some free agents and trade opportunities. Both of those can be hard to speculate, in terms of how likely it is to line up. We’d also like to add another position player, if we can,” Cherington said.

As things stand, the Pirates are slated to go with some combination of Reynolds, Jack Suwinski, Miguel Andujar and Connor Joe in the outfield at the major league level, with Ji Hwan Bae, Calvin Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njigba and Travis Swaggerty options as well, so it certainly makes sense that the Pirates could dip into that group to try and bolster another part of the roster.

Biertempfel’s report also provides some update on shortstop Oneil Cruz, who sustained an ankle injury playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

“He does have some swelling. He’s not gonna play right now and let that calm down. We’re going to try to get him to the States after the holidays, just to be sure about what’s going on. But all reports so far are that it’s a relatively minor thing. It should pass without being too much of an issue,” Cherington said.

While there’s nothing definitive there, it doesn’t seem like there’s too much concern over Cruz’ status from the Pirates. After belting 17 home runs and slashing .233/.294/.450 across 361 plate appearances, Cruz finished sixth in NL Rookie of the Year voting, and looks set to be Pittsburgh’s opening day shortstop in 2023.

Padres Sign Aaron Brooks To Minor League Deal

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The Padres have added some pitching depth, signing right hander Aaron Brooks to a minor league deal, per Chris Hilburn-Treckle of Baseball America. Brooks was a free agent after being released by the Cardinals at the end of the season.

The 32-year-old pitched 9 1/3 innings for St Louis last season, working to a 7.71 ERA in that short stint. He worked mostly as a starter at Triple-A, making 13 starts and two relief appearances for a 5.56 ERA across 59 1/3 innings.

He’s bounced around the leagues a bit since making his debut for the Royals back in 2016, getting into big league games for Oakland, St Louis and Baltimore since. All told, he owns a 6.55 ERA across 180 innings in the majors. While that’s come with a respectable 6.8% walk rate, his 16.1% strikeout rate is comfortably below league average while his 44.1 HardHit% also sits the wrong side of the league average.

Brooks throws a low-90s fastball, and mixes that in with a slider and changeup, and an occasional curveball. He’ll provide a bit of minor league pitching depth for San Diego, and should he find some success, can be controlled for at least the next three seasons.

Red Sox Have Interest In J.D. Martinez Reunion

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The Red Sox are among the teams showing interest in free agent designated hitter J.D. Martinez, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Martinez is a free agent after spending the past five seasons in Boston. The Red Sox opted not to offer him a qualifying offer at the end of the season.

The Red Sox don’t have a clear DH locked in for 2023, but there have been some concerns raised over the outfield defense of new signing Masataka Yoshida, and he has seemed like someone who could at least spend a decent chunk of time at the spot when he’s manning left-field. Martinez did not make a single outfield appearance in 2022, so bringing him back would be a vote of confidence in Yoshida’s ability to handle left on a day-to-day basis.

Martinez, 35, slashed .274/.341/.448 with 16 home runs over 596 plate appearances in 2022. While that was a bit of a drop from his best years, it was still good for a wRC+ of 119, or 19 percent better than league average. A year prior, Martinez hit .286/.349/.518 with 28 home runs and 43 doubles. While his strikeout and walk numbers remained steady between ’21 and ’22, his HardHit% dropped almost eight percentage points.

Originally developed by the Astros, Martinez spent three unsuccessful big league seasons in Houston before being released ahead of the 2014 season. He signed on with Detroit, and his career took off, as Martinez slashed a combined .300/.361/.551 with 99 home runs over three-and-a-half seasons with the Tigers. With the Tigers out of contention and Martinez in his walk year, they flipped him to the Diamondbacks at the 2017 deadline, and Martinez hit a staggering 29 home runs in 62 matches for Arizona, setting himself for a huge payday in free agency.

It was a lengthy free agency as Martinez batted away concerns over a foot injury the previous year, but in late February of 2018 Martinez signed with the Red Sox on a five-year, $110MM deal. Over the next five years in Boston, Martinez would mash 130 home runs and compile a .292/.363/.526 line. He’d also earn MVP votes in two of those seasons and go to the All Star game four times.

While Martinez’ career numbers speak for themselves, they have slowed down a touch as he’s aged, and his restriction to the DH spot makes his market hard to predict. Any number of teams, including the Red Sox, could do with a bat like Martinez’, but many teams prefer to keep the DH spot more open to cycle players through. As such, there’s not been a ton of reported interest in the veteran slugger. MLBTR predicted a two-year, $30MM for Martinez, and while the Red Sox are now the only team with reported interest, teams such as the Rays, Orioles, Twins, among others, could all have make sense as speculative fits.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/17/22

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There’s been a few minor league deals coming through of late, so here’s a quick recap.

  • The Dodgers have brought in catcher Patrick Mazeika on a minor league deal, per his MLB transactions log. Mazeika made big league appearances for the Mets over the past two seasons, slashing a combined .190/.236/.279 with a pair of home runs across 159 plate appearances. He was claimed off waivers by the Giants in August, before being released at the end of the season. Across 188 plate appearances between the Mets’ and Giants’ Triple-A affiliates, Mazeika slashed .253/.356/.352 with four home runs. The Dodgers have Will Smith and Austin Barnes tabbed to handle the catching duties this year, so Mazeika will provide some depth in the upper minors.
  • Oakland has added right-hander Garrett Williams on a minor league pact, per his MLB transaction log. Williams was originally drafted by the Giants in the seventh round of the 2016 draft, but made his way over to the Cardinals prior to the 2021 season. He showed some promise early on his minor league career, but has struggled in the upper minors. He owns a 4.46 ERA in 240 1/3 Double-A innings, and a 6.75 ERA in 80 Triple-A innings. He has flashed decent strikeout staff, boasting a 10.5 SO/9 in Triple-A, but control has been a huge problem, averaging a 7.9 BB/9 at the highest level of the minor leagues.
  • Colorado has signed shortstop Connor Kaiser to a minor league contract, per his MLB transaction log. The Pirates took Kaiser in the third round of the 2018 draft, and he briefly made it up to Triple-A with the Bucs before being released in May of this year. He latched on with the Padres, spending the rest of the year at Double-A and hitting .202/.299/.360 with seven home runs in 207 plate appearances.
  • The Nationals have added shortstop Nick Shumpert on a minor league deal, per his MLB transaction log. Shumpert was drafted out of high school in the seventh round by the Tigers in 2015, but he turned that down to go to college. He struggled at college, and wound up being taken in the 28th round a year later by the Braves. After three years in the minor leagues with Atlanta, Shumpert was released and turned to independent ball. The 26-year-old has spent the last four years there, and most recently slashed .265/.310/.421 with eight home runs in 375 plate appearances for the Cleburne Railroaders.

Orioles, Angels, Rangers Have Shown Interest In Rich Hill

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12:10pm: Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the Angels and Rangers have also shown interest in Hill this off-season. Texas has been active in the starting pitcher market already, landing Jacob deGrom on a five-year, $185MM deal, Andrew Heaney on a two-year, $25MM deal, bringing back Martin Perez via the qualifying offer and trading for Jake Odorizzi. With that quartet joining Jon Gray, there’s not an obvious rotation fit for Hill there, but it’s entirely possible their interest in the veteran came prior to their free agent signings.

The Angels have added Tyler Anderson on a three-year, $39MM deal to a rotation led by Shohei Ohtani. Left-handers Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers and Jose Suarez round out a typical five-man rotation, and all three have shown plenty of promise. Yet the Angels have tended to go with a six-man rotation to manage Ohtani’s workload, and while they’ve said they’ll be a bit more aggressive with Ohtani’s workload in 2023, adding a veteran arm certainly makes sense for the Halos.

8:34am: The Orioles are showing interest in free agent starter Rich Hill, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI. The team has already signed right-hander Kyle Gibson to a one-year, $10MM deal this off-season, but has long been rumored to be in the market for multiple veteran starters to bolster their rotation.

Hill, 42, played out last season on a one-year, $5MM (with $3MM more in incentives available) deal with the Red Sox – the seventh contract the Massachusetts local had signed with the team. The left-hander made 26 starts, tossing 124 1/3 innings of 4.27 ERA ball. He did miss some time with a left knee strain, but on the whole kept his strikeout and walk rates in line with a year earlier (below average strikeout rate, above average walk rate). A year prior, Hill threw 154 1/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball between time with the Rays and Mets, so while there’s a natural durability risk with a 42-year-old pitcher, Hill has made 57 starts over the past two seasons.

The veteran’s career has been something of a journey, spanning 18 years and 11 different teams. He originally debuted with the Cubs back in 2005, and spent the next ten seasons moving around the big leagues a bit, initially working as a starter before moving to the bullpen. A four-start, 1.55 ERA stint with the Red Sox in late in 2015 propelled a late-career resurgence for Hill, and he turned that into a one-year deal to pitch out of Oakland’s rotation.

Hill would turn in 14 starts of 2.25 ERA ball for the A’s in 2016, striking out batters at a 28.9% clip. He’d continue his front-of-the-rotation form even after a trade to the Dodgers, working to a 1.83 ERA over six starts down the stretch in LA. With a strong full season of work under his belt, LA opted to bring Hill back on a three-year, $48MM deal starting in 2017. It’d prove a wise move, as Hill would wind up making 68 starts of 3.16 ERA during his time with the Dodgers.

Things have dropped off a little in recent years for Hill, with his strikeout rate down almost 10% from 2019. Nonetheless, he still remains a solid back-of-the-rotation veteran arm. That holds plenty of appeal for the Orioles, who came into the off-season looking for rotation help. Jordan Lyles was the only pitcher to top 23 starts in 2022, but was bought out of an $11MM option and is a free agent.

As things stand, the Orioles’ rotation currently projects to include Kyle Gibson, Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells and top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez. Outside of Gibson, Wells’ two years of service time makes him the most senior in that group, while Rodriguez – as good as he projects to be – is yet to pitch in the big leagues, so the addition of a veteran arm certainly makes sense.

Baltimore is one of the 11 teams Hill has appeared for in the past, making 13 starts for the team back in 2009. That particular stint didn’t go so well, as Hill worked to a 7.80 ERA across 57 2/3 innings and wouldn’t make another big league start until turning his career around in Boston in 2015.

Hill was earlier linked to a return to Boston this winter, as he described a “mutual interest” between the two sides in working on an eighth contract there. This interest from Baltimore presents as Hill’s first reported alternative this winter.

AL East Notes: Blue Jays’ Catchers, Yoshida, Red Sox

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All off-season it’s seemed a matter of when not if the Blue Jays trade one of their three catchers – Alejandro Kirk, Danny Jansen and Gabriel Moreno. According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the Blue Jays were open to trading Jansen to bring in a starting pitcher, but after landing Chris Bassitt on a three-year, $63MM deal Feinsand reports that a trade is no certainty now.

In any event, Toronto is in a strong negotiating position as there’s a few paths they could go down. The clear top two free agent options – Willson Contreras and Christian Vazquez – are off the board, while the Braves have acquired Sean Murphy, making the Blue Jays the clear and obvious fit for any catcher-hungry teams. They could also opt to carry three catchers on the active roster, cycling players through the DH spot, or option Moreno back to Triple-A and go with a Kirk-Jansen tandem to begin the year at least.

The additions of Bassitt to the rotation and Kevin Kiermaier to the outfield decrease the clear needs for the Blue Jays to address this winter, but in a competitive AL East, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them ultimately opt to pursue further upgrades, whether via trade or free agency. As Jon Heyman of the New York Post notes, the Jays were finalists for Masataka Yoshida (the Dodgers were the other finalist) before he signed for the Red Sox. It’s not clear whether the Kiermaier signing arose because they missed out on Yoshida, or whether they tried to sign both, but given the former’s injury history and declining production it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them seek another outfielder.

Boston’s signing of Yoshida addressed the need to upgrade their offense following the departure of Xander Bogaerts to San Diego. It also likely spelled the end of any chance of Eric Hosmer, who was DFA’d yesterday, receiving regular at bats. The Red Sox look to have locked in youngster Triston Casas as their everyday first-baseman moving forward, while Yoshida (and others) could well take a few DH at bats as the Red Sox cycle through their outfielders. Boston’s chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom addressed the DFA of Hosmer to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.

“Our roster isn’t complete yet, but as we build our club, we feel it’s important to give Triston a clear lane, and that carrying two left-handed hitting first basemen would leave us short in other areas. Given that, it’s important to do right by Eric and give him time to find his next opportunity. We knew when we first got him that this day would come at some point, and wanted to make sure we treated him right.”

Cotillo also reports that the Red Sox tried hard to trade Hosmer prior to DFA’ing him, but found minimal interest in the league. Hosmer did receive a full no-trade clause as part of the trade that sent him from San Diego to Boston at the deadline, but Cotillo’s report said that the lack of trade interest meant the no-trade clause didn’t even come into play. The Red Sox can still trade him while he’s on waivers, but it seems likely he’d be released onto the open market.

While an outgoing trade of Hosmer seems unlikely, the team is working on incomings, and recently asked the Marlins about Miguel Rojas, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Rojas was one of the top defensive shortstops in the sport last season, and as Rosenthal notes, the Marlins value that defense and rebuffed Boston’s inquiry. Rojas is under contract for one more year at an affordable $5MM salary.

Yankees Sign Michael Hermosillo, Demarcus Evans To Minor League Deals

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The Yankees have added a bit of minor league depth, signing outfielder Michael Hermosillo and right-hander Demarcus Evans to minor league deals, according to each player’s MLB transaction log (here and here).

Hermosillo, 28 next month, has spent the past two seasons with the Cubs. He hit just .115/.250/.148 without a home run across 73 plate appearances and 31 games in 2022. He spent much of the year on the injured list with a left quadriceps strain, and only made an additional ten appearances at the Triple-A level, hitting .324/.400/.559 in 40 plate appearances. While that sort of sample size is far too small to draw accurate conclusions, he did hit .306/.446/.592 over 186 plate appearances a year earlier at that level, so he certainly can hit at the highest level of the minors.

Originally drafted in the 28th round by the Angels in 2013, Hermosillo came up through their system and made his big league debut in 2018. Despite tallying some promising numbers coming through the minors, Hermosillo never hit enough in the big leagues to stick, putting up a .188/.287/.288 line over 118 plate appearances in three years with the Angels. Combined with his Cubs work, that makes for a career .167/.268/.283 line with four home runs over 229 plate appearances.

Defensively, Hermosillo logged most of his time in center field, but also spent some time in left as well. On the whole, he’s been worth 3 Outs Above Average in 312 2/3 career innings in center, 1 OAA in 115 innings in left and 1 OAA in 126 innings in right. So even if the bat doesn’t show up in the big leagues, there’s a solid glove-first depth piece for the Yankees to cover any injuries.

Evans, 26, didn’t pitch in the big leagues last year but made appearances over the prior two seasons for the Rangers. Originally drafted in the 25th round in 2015, Evans came up through the Rangers’ system flashing big strikeout stuff, averaging a 13.5 SO/9 over his minor league career. He got a brief cup of coffee in the big leagues in 2020, pitching four innings to a 2.25 ERA. A longer stint was ahead in 2021, but the results didn’t come, as Evans was tagged for a 5.13 ERA over 26 1/3 innings. Despite striking out batters at an above-average 27.5% clip, the walks were an issue for Evans, as he handed out free passes at a 13.3% rate.

At Triple-A this year, Evans tossed 33 innings of 3.82 ERA ball. The same issues that plagued his big league stint were evident in the upper minors, as Evans offset a strong strike out rate (30.1%) with a poor walk rate (15.1%). His fastball sits in the low-90s, and he mixes in a cutter and a curveball. He’ll give the Yankees a bit of minor league bullpen depth at worst, with a bit of upside there if they can straighten out his walk problems.

Blue Jays Sign Kevin Kiermaier

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Dec. 15: The Blue Jays have formally announced their one-year deal with Kiermaier. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that the contract contains $750K of bonuses based on days spent on the active roster.

Dec. 14: Kiermaier’s contract is a one-year deal that comes with a $9MM guarantee, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link).

Between Kiermaier’s $9MM salary and the recent $21MM annual value on the Jays’ three-year deal with righty Chris Bassitt, the Jays now project to cross the luxury-tax threshold for the first time; Roster Resource pegs them at just over $234MM — a bit more than $1MM north of the $233MM cutoff point. Certainly there are ways for Toronto to duck back beneath the barrier if required — a trade of catcher Danny Jansen, for instance, would clear his projected $3.7MM salary and bring back help in other areas of need — but there’s no indication that ownership has placed given the front office any such mandates.

Dec. 10: The Blue Jays have an agreement in place with center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. The deal is pending a physical. It’ll be just the second team Kiermaier has played for, having spent ten big league seasons with the AL East rival Rays. He became a free agent for the first time after the Rays declined his $13MM team option for 2023. Kiermaier is represented by Equity Baseball.

Center field has been an area of need for the Blue Jays this winter, and they had previously been linked with Brandon Nimmo and Cody Bellinger.

The 32-year-old appeared in 63 games for the Rays last season, slashing .228/.281/.369 with seven home runs over 221 plate appearances. He’s always been known for his stellar defense in center field, and while that’s declined a bit in recent seasons he was still worth two Defensive Runs Saved there in 2022. The offensive production amounted to a below average wRC+ of 90, but his defensive work meant he was still worth 1.1 fWAR.

Injuries played a big part in Kiermaier’s 2022 season, as he landed on the IL in June with left hip inflammation. He was activated July 1, but by July 10 he was back on the IL with the same problem, which ultimately ended his season early. He’d wind up having surgery in August to address the labrum issue in the left hip, but the expectation at the time was that he’d be ready for spring training.

Kiermaier is a three-time Gold Glove winner who’s been one of the best center fielders in all of baseball for the past decade. Since his first full year in 2014, Kiermaier has been worth 147 Defensive Runs Saved, according to Fielding Bible. That’s the best of all outfielders and second overall behind Andrelton Simmons (who had 1,400 more defensive innings).

Despite 2022 being the worst defensive year of his career, it was still above average and there’s every chance his hip problem played a significant part in that. After all, just a year ago he was worth 13 DRS in 894 2/3 center field innings. He still ranked in the 93rd percentile in sprint speed and ranked well above league average in arm strength.

Offense has never been Kiermaier’s calling, and he owns a lifetime .248/.308/.407 line. That’s largely built off his early work, and since 2018 he’s put up a wRC+ of 79, 79, 94, 101 and then 90. There’s not a lot of power there (82 career home runs), and his strikeout rate has gradually ticked up to 27.6% in 2022 against a walk rate of 6.3%.

George Springer has been handling the bulk of the work in center field in recent seasons, but there’s been speculation that he’d move to a corner spot moving forward. The trade of Teoscar Hernandez to the Mariners and this signing of Kiermaier seems to confirm that, and it looks likely the Jays will line up with Springer and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the corner spots with Kiermaier manning center.

This move may not be the last outfield addition either, and the team could look to add a fourth offensively-minded outfielder at some stage. Ben Nicholson-Smith of SportsNet reports that the team has interest in both Michael Conforto and Michael Brantley. Signing either of those two would give the Jays a more flexible outfield group, and allow them to rotate options through the DH position as well depending on matchups, form and workload.

Photo credit: USA Today Sports.

Padres Still Want Starter, Corner Bat

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Even after adding Xander Bogaerts to an eleven-year, $280MM deal, the Padres are looking for more, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports they’re keen to bring in a starting pitcher and a corner bat.

The Padres have been busy this winter, signing Bogaerts and getting deep in the markets of Aaron Judge and Trea Turner before they signed elsewhere. They have seen starters Mike Clevinger and Sean Manaea depart in free agency (although Manaea is still available), while they weakened their depth a bit by dealing MacKenzie Gore to Washington in the Juan Soto trade, so it makes plenty of sense that they’ll now focus on bolstering their rotation.

Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell are currently lined up in San Diego’s rotation, while the re-signed Nick Martinez is expected to start the 2023 season there too (although he wound up in the bullpen after ten starts in 2022). Adrian Morejon is an option as a starter, but he only appeared out of the bullpen last year after returning from Tommy John surgery. There’s every chance the Padres still view him as a starter, but given he has two options remaining it wouldn’t hurt for them to add another starter to give them another option.

The Padres luxury tax payroll is projected at around $254MM now, just shy of the second tier of luxury tax penalties. That’d seem to make it unlikely that they’d pursue someone like Carlos Rodon – the top free agent starter available – but then again, it’d be foolish to rule San Diego out of anything at this point. The Padres did meet with Koudai Senga last month, and were reported to have interest in Seth Lugo as well, but either of those two or options like Nathan Eovaldi and Chris Bassitt could make sense. They could also look to the trade market where someone like Pablo Lopez could be available, but having pulled off some big trades in recent years they may be reluctant to part with more prospects.

A corner bat seems like less of a need for the Padres. It’s not entirely clear how the team will align defensively after bringing in Bogaerts, but there seems a good chance that Fernando Tatis Jr. (when he returns from suspension) and Soto handle the outfield corners, and Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth take the infield spots, especially after AJ Preller said (via The Athletic) Bogaerts would at least begin as their everyday shortstop. Tatis will return in late-April so they won’t be without him long, but the team may want to rotate some of their starters through the DH spot and so a utility-type free agent addition could make some sense there.

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