White Sox’ Mike Vasil To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
White Sox righty Mike Vasil will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2026 season, the team announced Tuesday. Vasil exited his most recent Cactus League outing due to elbow soreness and had been sent for imaging.
It’s as unwelcome a birthday present as one could imagine for Vasil, who’ll turn 26 on Thursday. The former Mets farmhand made his big league debut with the South Siders in 2025 and carved out a big role on the staff, piling up 101 innings of long relief over 47 appearances (three of them starts). He notched a sparkling 2.50 ERA, and while his pedestrian 19.4% strikeout rate and poor 12.3% walk rate led metrics like SIERA (4.58) and FIP (4.32) to view his work more harshly, Vasil looked like a strong candidate to make the club because of his ability to provide bulk relief behind a generally shaky rotation.
Instead, Vasil will spend the entire season on the injured list. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that he’ll accrue a full year of major league service and pay while rehabbing from the forthcoming UCL reconstruction. Vasil picked up a full year of service in 2025 as well, so he’ll be controllable for at least four more years upon his return in 2027. He’ll still have a full slate of minor league options remaining as well.
If not Vasil, the White Sox could look to free agent signees Sean Newcomb and Erick Fedde as long relief/swingman options, though Fedde at least appears ticketed for a rotation spot with the recent announcement from manager Will Venable that Newcomb will begin the season in the bullpen (via Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times). Southpaws Chris Murphy and Tyler Gilbert are also candidates to serve as long relievers out of Venable’s bullpen. Both have had solid spring showings, and both have minor league options remaining.
Yankees Notes: Cole, Rodón, McMahon
It’s been 371 days since Yankees ace Gerrit Cole underwent Tommy John surgery, and the wait to see him back on a mound seems to be over. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that Cole will start tomorrow’s Grapefruit League game for the Yankees. He’s slated to pitch one inning in his return to game action.
An exact return timetable for Cole remains unclear. The 35-year-old is still a lock to open the season on the injured list. Even if tomorrow’s one inning goes off without a hitch, he’ll need further time to build up to a starter’s workload. That can’t be accomplished in the final week of spring training, but it’s at least feasible that if Cole is ready to throw an inning in a game right now, he could return to the Yankees in late April.
Cole didn’t pitch at all in 2025 after suffering a torn ulnar collateral ligament last spring and undergoing Tommy John surgery on March 11. Elbow troubles also limited him to 17 starts (95 innings) in 2024. He hasn’t had a full, health seasons since 2023 — though that proved to be quite the year; Cole tossed 209 innings with a 2.63 ERA, made his sixth All-Star team and won his first Cy Young Award. There’s no telling to how his elbow will respond to tomorrow’s more intense setting until he takes the bump, but the fact that he’s doing so a week before the Yankees even open their season is an encouraging development for Yankee fans.
There’s also good news on the team’s other high-priced but injured starter. Carlos Rodón underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow back in October. Manager Aaron Boone said when camp opened that the big lefty could be back before the end of April. Those comments came nearly a month ago, but it appears Rodón is still on that same track. Boone told reporters this morning that he expects Rodón back “at some point in April,” via Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. Boone did not commit to the left-hander pitching in a game before spring training ends but also didn’t rule it out. He’s slated for a live batting practice session this week.
Rodón, 33, pitched 195 1/3 innings with a 3.09 earned run average last season. He stepped up in a big way following Cole’s injury, as both that innings count and his 33 games started were career-high marks. Rodón’s injury history is well known, and October’s surgery is the latest data point on his track record, but the 2024-25 seasons marked the first time in Rodon’s career that he started 30-plus games in back-to-back seasons. He’s a long shot to make it three in a row this year, but if he can return in April and remains healthy, he won’t be too far shy of 30 starts.
Good news notwithstanding, the Yankees will open the season with two of their “big three” free agent starters on the shelf. The third, left-hander Max Fried, will get the ball on Opening Day against Giants ace Logan Webb in San Francisco next Wednesday. He’ll be followed in some order by Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil, Will Warren and offseason trade acquisition Ryan Weathers. All four members of that quartet have minor league options remaining, so their performances both late in camp and early in the season will be worth watching with a close eye. By early May, it’s possible that two of those younger, less-established arms will have been optioned to Triple-A (assuming good health throughout the group — which is never a given).
On the position side of things, Boone confirmed today that he’d be comfortable with Ryan McMahon playing shortstop in a regular season game (via Kirschner). The 31-year-old is slated to open the season at third base but has been getting reps at shortstop throughout camp. He’s one of the game’s better defenders at the hot corner, and it seems he’s shown enough this spring to gain Boone’s trust as a backup option.
McMahon isn’t going to start at shortstop with any regularity, but his ability to at least capably handle that position in a pinch is notable. Anthony Volpe will begin the season on the injured list following offseason shoulder surgery, paving the way for José Caballero to start at shortstop early in the year. Light-hitting utilityman Max Schuemann is the only real shortstop option on the 40-man roster beyond McMahon, so McMahon’s ability to function as Caballero’s backup impacts the composition of the club’s bench.
Backup catcher J.C. Escarra, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and veteran infielder Amed Rosario are all locked into bench spots. Rosario was a shortstop earlier in his career but rated poorly there and played only two shortstop innings last year and 101 the year prior.
If not McMahon, the Yankees might have felt they needed Schuemann or a non-roster invitee like Jonathan Ornelas, Zack Short or veteran Paul DeJong on the bench. All four have had decent or better spring showings. McMahon serving as Caballero’s primary backup option gives Boone and GM Brian Cashman some more flexibility when deciding on the final spot, however. That could pave the way for non-roster pickup Randal Grichuk to make the club and serve as a righty-swinging complement to Trent Grisham, who batted .182/.303/.348 against lefties even during 2025’s breakout year.
Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Good afternoon! Hope the weekend treated everyone well. I'll get started at about 2pm CT (give or take a minute or two), but feel free to start asking questions in advance, as always.
- Greetings! Let's begin
cambo
- How do you see the Rockies 1st base gig shaping up all season?
Steve Adams
- I assume you're going to see at least four guys with 20+ starts there: Edouard Julien, Troy Johnston, Blaine Crim and TJ Rumfield. Charlie Condon could be an option later in the year, too. I'll go with Julien as the 1B leader among the guys listed here, with Rumfield in second. Julien can't be optioned and is a poor 2B defender, so I think they'll just stick him at 1B if he hits at all.
Bill G
- Prediction Time: Why is it easier to predict who will come in last in each division than it is those who will come in first?
Steve Adams
- A bad team is only going to get worse due to injuries. Tougher to tell which good team(s) are going to fall victim to that randomness. Plus, most truly bad/last-place teams don't have a lot of depth or good farm systems on which to draw (which is part of why they're predicted last in the first place).
Stealing Home
- I've been listening to fantasy podcasts and one thing I don't understand is the love for Cory Seager and the fear for Trevor Story. Can you explain this? CBS actually went as far as to say even if you only get 3/4 of a season out of Seager it's better than most SS behind him over a full season, where Story landed on their dud list. I know both have great talent, roughly the same age and have been injury prone in their careers, but are they forgetting the great fantasy season Story had? Very similar to Lindor but he's being drafted 10 rounds later. To be fair Seager is being drafted around where Story is. If I knew both would stay healthy, I would be hard pressed to pick one over the other.
Steve Adams
- Story's season last year was both the first time he's taken 400 plate appearances AND the first time he's reached 20 HR or 20 SB since 2021. Last year feels like a ceiling year for Story, who's 33 years old and has the type of K-BB profile that's inherently going to leave him with a much lower floor than someone like Seager.Seager has his own durability concerns, but he's a perennial monster in the batter's box. He strikes out way less, walks way more, hits the ball harder and generally does everything better than Story. He's more than a year younger, too.
- The only way I'd ever take Story over Seager would be if you told me Seager was only going to play 70 games and Story would play 150. Even then, I'd be tempted to take Seager and just piece SS together (or fiendishly use that crystal ball outlook to trade him after 67 games, haha)
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Joe Musgrove Likely To Open Season On Injured List
A Padres club already thin on rotation depth delivered some rough news for fans Monday, as manager Craig Stammen revealed that righty Joe Musgrove is expected to open the season on the injured list (video link via 97.3 The Fan). Musgrove hasn’t thrown in more than a week. Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that he didn’t recover as well as hoped following an exhibition start against Great Britain’s World Baseball Classic club.
It’s an ominous update, though it’s worth noting that Stammen didn’t suggest there had been a setback of any note. Musgrove hasn’t pitched since the 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery that cost him the entirety of the 2025 campaign.
“He’s most likely going to start on the IL this year,” Stammen said Monday morning. “We’re getting to the point where he’s taken enough time off that it’d be hard to ramp him up to get him to be a viable starter that could throw five innings, 90 pitches. … This was part of the plan. We knew he was going to have to take some time off. We knew we were going to have get him ready for the entire season and not just Opening Day.”
Getting a healthy Musgrove back in the fold will be key to the Padres’ chances at contending this season. San Diego’s rotation depth has thinned over the past year. Yu Darvish is injured and contemplating retirement. Dylan Cease became a free agent. Righties Stephen Kolek and Ryan Bergert were traded to the Royals last summer. Prospects Braden Nett and Henry Baez were sent to the Athletics as part of the Mason Miller trade.
A healthy Musgrove is arguably the Padres’ best pitcher. From 2021-24, the now-33-year-old righty gave his hometown club 559 1/3 innings of 3.20 ERA ball, fanning a sharp 25.5% of opponents against a terrific 6.1% walk rate. Musgrove doesn’t throw especially hard, sitting a bit north of 93 mph with his heater, but he has good command and induces both chases off the plate and swinging strikes at league-average or slightly better rates.
It’s always been fair to wonder how many innings the Padres can reasonably expect from Musgrove after a layoff of nearly 18 months. The uncertainty surrounding his workload is one of many pressing questions about San Diego’s starting staff.
The Padres now enter the year with Michael King (also coming off an injury-truncated season) and Nick Pivetta locked into spots. Randy Vásquez and free-agent pickup Germán Márquez are both likely to be in the starting five as well, though Márquez has been shelled this spring coming off his own worrying return from UCL surgery in Colorado. In 6 2/3 innings, he’s allowed nine runs on 10 hits and four walks. Vásquez posted a solid 3.84 ERA in 133 2/3 innings last season but did so with the third-worst strikeout rate (13.7%) of any pitcher in MLB (min. 100 innings pitched). Metrics like SIERA (5.43) and xFIP (5.51) both pegged him bottom-two in that same subset.
Options to fill out the rotation behind King, Pivetta, Vásquez and Márquez are fairly suspect. Left-hander JP Sears is on the 40-man roster but hasn’t seemed to have the confidence of the organization since coming over alongside Miller in that aforementioned trade. The Friars gave him only five starts last year despite the fact that he’d been a staple in the Athletics’ rotation. He spent the rest of his time with the organization in Triple-A last summer, and Sears has had very rough spring (8.44 ERA in 10 2/3 innings). Righty Matt Waldron is also on the 40-man roster but is behind in camp and could start on the IL himself. San Diego also signed Griffin Canning in free agency, but he’s a lock to open on the IL as he finishes rehabbing last year’s ruptured Achilles tendon.
In all likelihood, the Padres will need to break camp with at least one non-roster invitee in the rotation (barring further additions). Walker Buehler, Marco Gonzales and Triston McKenzie are the most prominent names to have signed minor league deals this offseason. None of the three have pitched well this spring. Buehler is the only one who’s allowed fewer runs than innings pitched (four runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts in 6 2/3 frames).
Given the lackluster options and the nature of their early schedule, the Padres may not even fill Musgrove’s rotation spot at all. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the Padres could open the season with a four-man rotation. Acee calls King, Pivetta and Vásquez locks, adding that Buehler has “likely” earned a spot, while Márquez’s spring struggles have at least created some doubt about his ability to handle the job.
San Diego has a pair of off-days within the first eight days of the season. That’ll allow them to skip the fifth spot in the rotation twice in their first ten games. The Padres’ bullpen is among the deepest and most talented in the sport, too, so even when they finally do need a fifth starter, they could opt for a bullpen game while awaiting Musgrove to get into game shape. Someone like Márquez or Sears could open a bullpen game and perhaps navigate the opposing lineup once before turning over to the bullpen.
There’s no obvious answer in sight at the moment, which will make the final week-plus of camp worth watching with a careful eye. Each of Márquez, Sears, Buehler and Gonzales should have another appearance or two to try to stake a claim to the job, and ever-active president of baseball ops A.J. Preller could always try to creatively bring in another arm. One of the remaining free agents (e.g. Lucas Giolito, Tyler Anderson, Patrick Corbin) probably wouldn’t have time to ramp up for the season, but there will be plenty of names hitting waivers or being granted their release from minor league deals over the final few days of camp.
Cardinals Notes: Velázquez, Church, Gorman
The Cardinals spent much of the offseason looking for a right-handed bat to add to their outfield group. Interest in Austin Hays, Miguel Andujar and old friend Harrison Bader did not lead to a deal, however. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat writes that the Cardinals had a tough time selling the opportunity to veterans seeking big league deals, as someone like Hays or Andujar would only be assured playing time while Lars Nootbaar mended from his dual heel surgery. Once healthy, Nootbaar will rejoin an outfield also expected to include defensive standout Victor Scott II in center field and former top prospect Jordan Walker in right field.
The looming return of Nootbaar would be a sensible deterrent for any veteran looking to maximize playing time in order to secure a multi-year deal in the future (e.g. Hays, Andujar) or one who was seeking a multi-year opportunity this winter (e.g. Bader). That wasn’t as big a factor for players simply looking for non-roster opportunities, however, and Jones writes that one such player is now all but guaranteed a spot on the Opening Day roster: Nelson Velázquez.
The 27-year-old Velázquez has had a monster spring, clubbing four homers in 39 plate appearances with an overall .333/.436/.727 slash and six walks against only three strikeouts. He also had a nice showing in the Puerto Rican Winter League, hitting .277/.377/.423 with 22 walks against 29 strikeouts in 159 turns at the plate.
Velázquez has played in parts of three major league seasons between the Cubs and Royals, combining for a .212/.286/.433 batting line and 31 home runs in 615 plate appearances. There’s little doubting his power potential, but a 28.8% strikeout rate has held him back. Velázquez’s approach isn’t particularly poor; he walks at a slightly better-than-average 8.5% rate, and his chase rate on balls off the plate is several percentage points shy of average. Rather, his sub-par hit tool has been the primary deterrent. Velázquez’s 76.2% contact rate on pitches over the plate is nearly nine percentage points shy of average, however, and his 43% contact rate when he does chase off the plate is 14 percentage points lower than average.
That said, Velázquez has made some gains in terms of cutting his strikeout rate and upping his walk rate both in winter ball and in his past couple runs at the Triple-A level. He’s certainly not going to continue his preposterous spring training production, but even some modest gains in his contact ability could help him break through as a power-over-hit corner bat. Assuming he indeed makes the roster, he’ll have the opportunity to carve out some staying power even after Nootbaar returns. Velázquez is out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent down without passing through waivers, but he’s also controllable for five more seasons via arbitration. At the very least, he’s put himself in strong position to earn another big league opportunity after spending 2025 in Triple-A (between the Pirates and Royals).
Also in strong position is outfielder Nathan Church, writes Bill Ladson of MLB.com. The lefty-swinging 25-year-old has hit .286/.412/.429 in 34 turns at the plate this spring. He could find himself in something of a platoon situation in left field (with Velázquez) or fill a more traditional fourth outfielder role. He’s capable of playing all three spots and was credited with four Outs Above Average (per Statcast) and five Defensive Runs Saved in just 164 big league innings last year.
Church hit just .179/.254/.250 in a cup of coffee that spanned 65 plate appearances last year. His work in the minors, however, was far more impressive. In 385 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A, he slashed .329/.386/.524 with 13 homers, 16 steals, an 8.6% walk rate and just a 9.6% strikeout rate.
“His demeanor has been different, overall confidence is better,” manager Oli Marmol tells Ladson in discussing the difference between what he saw in Church last summer and what he’s seen this spring. “Mechanically, he has made some changes to be more consistent.”
Teammate Nolan Gorman has also been seeking consistency — in his case, for the past several years. The former first-rounder and top prospect has shown flashes of enormous power potential in the past but still hasn’t solidified himself as a productive regular. Part of that has been scattershot opportunities with Nolan Arenado at third base and Brendan Donovan seeing lots of time at second base; neither is on the roster anymore. Significant strikeout issues have been a more alarming factor. Gorman has gone down on strikes in 34% of his 1581 career plate appearances.
As Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, Gorman met with a private hitting instructor early this offseason at Arenado’s recommendation. A two-week regimen led to some mechanical changes with his setup (specifically his back elbow) and has helped him to find a more consistency with getting his front foot down during his swing.
Spring stats provide a small sample that ought to be taken with a major grain of salt, but Gorman has taken 37 plate appearances and given some reason for optimism, hitting .250/.351/.625 with three homers, five walks (13.5%) and just six strikeouts (16.2%) in 37 plate appearances.
MLBTR’s Anthony Franco previewed what looks like a make-or-break year for Gorman back in late January. With no real roadblock to playing time at third base, Gorman should be in the lineup more days than not have a bit more of a set position than in the past, when he’s bounced between third base, second base, first base and designated hitter. He’s now north of three years of major league service time as well, so if Gorman’s egregious strikeout rate resurfaces and continues to weigh down his overall production, he’d be a non-tender candidate following the season.
Which Top Prospects Could Be On 2026 Opening Day Rosters?
In the not-too-distant past, it was relatively rare for organizations to break camp with their very best prospects on the roster. It still happened at times, but MLB's service time structure was set up such that keeping a top prospect in the minors for even two weeks to begin the season effectively ensured that he'd be controllable for seven years rather than the standard six. There were obvious exceptions to this thinking -- Atlanta fans surely remember Jason Heyward breaking camp as a 20-year-old and belting a three-run homer on Opening Day -- but there were far more cases of keeping a player in the minors to buy the extra year. Kris Bryant, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer and others were all called to the majors just when they'd spent enough time in the minors to give their clubs an extra year of control. There was nothing inherently nefarious about the gambit; teams were operating within the collectively bargained rules and making business decisions.
The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement sought to implement some real incentives for teams to bring their best players north to begin the season, however, and by and large they've been effective. With the Prospect Promotion Incentives (PPI), any prospect who appears on two recognized top-100 lists and is called up early enough to earn a full service year can net his team a bonus draft pick, either in that season's Rookie of the Year voting or in MVP/Cy Young voting over the next three seasons.
There's also a disincentive to holding a player down. For those same qualified top prospects, a top-two finish in either league's Rookie of the Year voting will net a full year of major league service time, regardless of when they were called up. Said prospects still have around 90% of a season in such instances, which is more than enough time to turn in a ROY-worthy performance.
Teams now know that holding a player down for 15 days or so might lead to him getting a full year of service anyhow and comes with the disadvantage of rendering that player ineligible for future PPI picks. As such, it's become increasingly common for touted prospects to break camp on their teams' rosters.
With that in mind, and with fewer than two weeks to go until Opening Day, it seems worth running through a slate of top prospects who could factor into their teams' Opening Day plans.
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José Berríos Visiting Specialist Due To Elbow Inflammation
Blue Jays righty José Berríos was slated to join Puerto Rico for the quarterfinal round of the World Baseball Classic, but those plans were called off when his tournament physical revealed a bout of elbow inflammation (via MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson). An MRI did not reveal any structural damage, but the inflammation was still curious, given that Berríos hasn’t experienced any discomfort. Still, in light of the unexpected diagnosis, he’s headed for an in-person visit with Dr. Keith Meister to take a closer look, per Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet. That visit will come next Tuesday. Berríos will not throw in the interim.
At present, there’s no indication that Berríos is dealing with a major injury — or even a minor one of all that much note. The 31-year-old veteran (32 in May) ostensibly hasn’t experienced any pain, and it’s possible a clean bill of health will have him back on the mound in short order.
Toronto’s offseason dealings have left the veteran Berríos in an uncertain state. He’s been a starter every year of his major league career — one of the most durable and consistent of the past decade. Dating back to 2018, he leads Major League Baseball in both games started (234) and innings pitched (1367 2/3). Berrios started a full slate of 12 games during the shortened 2020 season and has started 30 or more games in each other season dating back to 2018.
Despite that durability, Berríos has largely been pushed out of the Jays’ rotation. Shane Bieber exercised his $16MM player option to begin the offseason. Toronto then signed Dylan Cease to a seven-year contract and KBO returnee Cody Ponce to a three-year deal. Max Scherzer signed a one-year deal earlier this month.
Toronto’s rotation mix entering the season includes Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Bieber, Berríos, Ponce, Scherzer and Eric Lauer. They’re eight deep in terms of quality big leaguers, with only last year’s breakout rookie and postseason hero, Yesavage, able to be optioned. Clearly, he’s not going to be sent down anytime soon.
Injuries tend to alleviate this sort of crunch in the short-term, but that isn’t necessarily the case here. Bieber is behind schedule due to forearm fatigue but has been throwing recently. A season-opening stint on the 15-day IL still seems likely, but it probably won’t keep him out long. Each of Cease, Gausman, Yesavage, Ponce, Lauer and Scherzer appears healthy. The Jays had suggested they’d be deliberate in building Scherzer up slowly, but he tossed four sharp innings in his first spring start.
However it shakes out, Berríos is in an odd spot. Barring a major injury, he’ll be on a crowded pitching staff that doesn’t have a clear rotation spot for him. He’s coming off one of his weaker seasons but was still plenty serviceable last year. In 166 innings, he posted a 4.17 ERA, 19.8% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. The right-hander’s 93 mph average four-seamer was a career-low, and his 92.2 mph average sinker was the second-lowest of his career. That walk rate, while solid, was the second-highest of his career in a full season and a notable step up from the 6.7% he’d logged from 2017-24.
There was some thought that perhaps the Jays would look to trade Berríos this winter, but that’s not an easy undertaking. He’s entering the fifth season of a seven-year extension. Berríos is still owed $66MM over the next three years, which is surely more than he’d have received in free agency this winter. His contract also contains an opt-out clause after the 2026 campaign, so even if a team believed Berrios to be a prominent bounceback candidate and was proven right with a vintage 2026 showing, he’d likely then trigger the out clause and head back into free agency.
Berríos’ $131MM contract also includes a limited, eight-team no-trade clause. That clause will be rendered moot 128 days into the season, when he reaches 10 years of major league service and receives 10-and-5 rights. The 10-and-5 provision — 10 years of major league service, the past five with the same team — grants any player full veto power over trade scenarios.
For now, Berríos’ status is in limbo because of his own health. If he requires an IL stint to begin the season, he’ll (likely) join Bieber there. Toronto could open with a rotation headed by Cease, Gausman, Yesavage, Ponce and Scherzer, with Lauer in a swing role. It’s possible that the Jays simply won’t simultaneously have all eight starters healthy at any point this season. In that scenario, they’d be glad to have the depth. But if Berríos and Bieber are cleared to return in early-to-mid April, Toronto is going to have some tougher choices ahead.
Lauer has taken a team-first approach, praising the tightknit group of rotation options and saying he’ll pitch in whatever role he’s asked — but he’s also conceded that he’d prefer to start, all else being equal. He’s a free agent at season’s end, after all, and working as a starter is his best path to maximizing his earning power. That situation, combined with forthcoming updates on Berríos and Bieber, make the Jays’ rotation group a particularly interesting one to watch in the final couple weeks of camp.
Rangers Designate Alexis Díaz For Assignment
The Rangers announced Friday that right-hander Alexis Díaz has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster goes to veteran lefty Jalen Beeks, whose previously reported one-year contract with Texas is now official.
Díaz, 29, signed a major league contract of his own with the Rangers earlier in the winter. The former Reds All-Star is being paid $1MM this year but has struggled immensely in spring training after a discouraging 2025 showing. Díaz has appeared in three official spring games and walked four of the 13 hitters he’s faced. He’s plunked another. Considering he walked 14.1% of his opponents in the majors last year and more than 16% of his Triple-A opponents, continued command problems of this magnitude stand as a notable red flag.
It’s possible that for the Rangers, attempting to pass Díaz through waivers at some point was the plan all along. It’s become increasingly common for teams to sign free agents who have fewer than five years of service time to major league contracts with modest salaries and then pass them through waivers. (Díaz has 3.088 years of service.) Those players aren’t able to retain the remainder of their guaranteed salary upon rejecting an outright assignment. If Díaz goes unclaimed — which seems likely given last year’s struggles and his poor command this spring — he’ll very likely accept an outright assignment and give the Rangers some depth and a reclamation project with which to work at the Triple-A level.
Early in his career, Díaz looked to be following in the footsteps of older brother Edwin Díaz in a march to stardom. He finished fifth in 2022 NL Rookie of the Year voting after pitching 63 2/3 innings with a 3.07 ERA, 10 saves, 13 holds and a gaudy 32.5% strikeout rate. His 12.9% walk rate was an eyesore, but Díaz offset the free passes with a glut of strikeouts. His velocity and strikeout rate have dipped in each subsequent season, however, and Díaz’s struggles reached a tipping point last year.
The Reds optioned Díaz to Triple-A on May 1 after he was rocked for eight runs in his first six innings (during which he walked five men and hit another two). Four weeks later, he was traded to the Dodgers. Los Angeles called him up mid-July and gave him nine innings, during which he was tagged for five more runs. Díaz was designated for assignment in early September and claimed by the Braves, who gave him another 2 2/3 innings during which he served up three more runs. Díaz finished the season with an 8.15 ERA in 17 2/3 big league innings. He logged a 5.61 ERA in 25 1/3 Triple-A frames.
Díaz is a recognizable name with plenty of track record, but at this point he’s more than two full years removed from his last campaign as a high-end reliever (2023). The Rangers can spend the next five days trying to trade him before he has to be put on waivers, though he can be waived at any point in the interim as well. Any team that claims Díaz would be on the hook for that $1MM salary. As previously noted, if Díaz passes through waivers unclaimed, he’ll surely remain in the organization by accepting an outright assignment, as rejecting would mean forfeiting that $1MM guarantee.
A’s Notes: Muncy, Gelof, Hoglund
The A’s entered spring training without a set option at third base, but 23-year-old Max Muncy has begun to separate himself from the pack, writes Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. There’s no shortage of coincidence in the A’s finding themselves with a hit-over-glove prospect named Max Muncy at third base for the second time in the past decade, but the hope now is that the younger Muncy (no relation to the older) can solidify the hot corner.
A first-round pick back in 2021, the now-23-year-old Muncy hit .325/.397/.504 in Triple-A last season. He struggled badly in 220 major league plate appearances but had a productive stint in the Arizona Fall League and is absolutely mashing this spring: .419/.526/.839 with three homers and as many walks as strikeouts (seven) in 38 plate appearances. The question surrounding Muncy isn’t hit bat but whether he can handle third base from a defensive standpoint.
“Our biggest focus right now is on the defense,” manager Mark Kotsay tells Gallegos. “We’ve been working really hard with him in those areas, and we’ve seen some improvement. We’re going to continue to follow that progress.” Readers will want to check out Gallegos’ piece in full, as he also chats with Muncy extensively about some of the swing/approach changes he implemented in the Fall League and about the challenges of transitioning from shortstop to third base (a move that’s often taken for granted).
Meanwhile, another formerly touted young Athletics infielder, Zack Gelof, made his Cactus League debut this week, writes Courtney Hollmon of MLB.com. Gelof went 2-for-4 with a double in his first game action since suffering a dislocated shoulder on a diving play at second base last year. That injury ended his season, but Gelof’s 2025 campaign never really got off the ground thanks to a hamate fracture and a stress fracture in his ribcage. He played in only 30 games with 101 plate appearances last season, slashing just .174/.230/.272.
It’s easy to write off the 2025 campaign as one ruined by injury, but Gelof already faced some questions this time last year. Was he the dynamic rookie we saw in 2023, when he hit .267/.337/.504 with 14 homers and 14 steals in only 60 games, or was he the lesser version of that player we saw in 2024, when he hit .211/.270/.362 with 17 homers, 25 steals and a sky-high 34.4% strikeout rate?
Gelof, still just 26 years old, is hoping to get back to that 2023 form but now has a less certain role on the club. The A’s acquired Jeff McNeil from the Mets this offseason and are plugging him in at second base. Muncy is the front-runner over at third base, a position Gelof hasn’t played since 2022. The former second-round pick tells Hollomon that he’s been working out both in the infield and in the outfield as he hopes to improve his versatility and win a spot back on the roster. Gelof still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so he could open the season in Triple-A if the A’s want to get him more exposure at multiple positions in the upper minors.
Elsewhere in A’s camp, there’s more unwelcome news on oft-injured righty Gunnar Hoglund. The 26-year-old righty, who headlined the Athletics’ return in the trade sending Matt Chapman to Toronto, made his big league debut last season but pitched just 12 games between Triple-A and the majors. He was recovering from Tommy John surgery at the time of the trade and missed the final three months last year due to a hip impingement.
This spring, Hoglund has been dogged by a knee injury early in camp. He’s now also dealing with a back issue, per Gallegos. Hoglund hasn’t gotten into a spring game yet and doesn’t appear likely to do so before the season opens. He was likely bound for Triple-A even if healthy, but another pair of injuries is disheartening for the 2021 first-rounder (selected six picks ahead of Muncy and 41 ahead of Gelof).
Hoglund pitched well in Triple-A last season and enjoyed two terrific starts to begin his MLB career (11 1/3 innings with three runs on 11 hits and one walk alongside 10 strikeouts). He was rocked for 20 runs over his next 21 frames, however, including an eight-run drubbing at the hands of the Blue Jays before landing on the injured list for the remainder of the season.
Cubs Notes: Boyd, Outfield, Shaw
Left-hander Matthew Boyd returned to the Cubs after his stint with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and was promptly named the team’s Opening Day starter by manager Craig Counsell. He’ll take the ball and be followed by Cade Horton, Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga in some order. Righties Javier Assad and Ben Brown are potential 40-man alternatives, and veteran Colin Rea will open the season in a swingman role in the bullpen.
Boyd, who turned 35 last month, tossed a career-high 179 1/3 innings with the Cubs last season. He worked to a strong 3.21 ERA with a slightly below-average 21.4% strikeout rate but a terrific 5.8% walk rate. Boyd is entering the second season of a two-year, $29MM contract. He already unlocked $500K of incentives last year based on his workload, and he’ll be paid $14.5MM in 2026 with the opportunity to earn another $500K via incentives (reaching 120 innings). He’s also owed a $2MM buyout on a 2027 mutual option that won’t be picked up by both parties.
In other Cubs news, the team announced its latest wave of cuts this morning. Lefties Luke Little and Ryan Rolison were optioned to Triple-A, as was fleet-footed outfielder Justin Dean. The Cubs also reassigned a handful of non-roster players to minor league camp — Vince Velasquez most notable among them.
By sending Dean to Triple-A to begin the season, the Cubs made it quite likely that they’ll open the season with a current non-roster veteran holding a bench spot as a reserve outfielder. Former top prospect Kevin Alcántara remains in big league camp and is on the 40-man roster, but he has an option year left and is currently 4-for-21 with nine strikeouts in 23 official spring plate appearances. The team would presumably prefer him to be playing every day in Iowa rather than sitting on the bench and grabbing a start or two per week anyhow.
The most notable non-roster outfielders in camp are Dylan Carlson, Michael Conforto and Chas McCormick. Carlson has been the most productive of the bunch and offers the bonus of being a switch-hitter who can handle all three outfield spots. Conforto is a pure lefty who’s not an option in center field, though he has the most prominent major league track record of this group (albeit not in the past couple seasons). McCormick is a righty-hitting center fielder who can handle all three spots and has crushed lefties in the past (but struggled against all opponents in 2025).
One player who clearly seems ticketed for a heavily used role off the bench: former top prospect Matt Shaw. The 24-year-old hit just .226/.295/.394 as a rookie but did have a nice showing over the season’s final three months. The Cubs’ signing of Alex Bregman displaced Shaw from last year’s home at third base, and he’s now moving into more of a utility role.
We’ve already seen Shaw get some reps in the outfield and at second base, but The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma writes that he’s now working first base into his repertoire as well. Shaw tells Sharma that he worked out at first base for about three days before making his debut at the position there during yesterday’s Cactus League game.
Getting some work in at first base is all the more important in the event of Tyler Austin‘s knee surgery, which will keep him sidelined for several months. Austin returned from Japan’s NPB this year, signing a one-year deal with the Cubs to serve as a righty-swinging complement to Michael Busch at first base and the provide some pop off the bench.
That role is obviously on hold for the time being, and with no clear option to step up and take it — right-handed-hitting corner infield prospect Jonathon Long has been slowed in camp by an elbow issue — Austin’s injury could create some additional at-bats for Shaw in the early portion of the season. Busch batted .207/.274/.368 against lefties last season and is a career .230/.295/.356 hitter in left-on-left settings. Shaw hit .250/.318/.490 versus left-handers last year and finished as a Gold Glove finalist at the hot corner, so he should have the athleticism and defensive acumen to handle a multi-position role.