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Dodgers Claim Michael Siani, Designate Andy Ibanez

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The Dodgers announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed outfielder Michael Siani off waivers from the Yankees. Infielder Andy Ibanez, who just signed a one-year $1.2MM deal with L.A. earlier in the offseason, has been designated for assignment to open a roster spot. As is relatively common around the league, they’ll now hope that guaranteed salary helps sneak Ibanez through waivers unclaimed, so he can be stashed in Triple-A as a depth piece.

To call the 2025-26 offseason a whirlwind for Siani, an over-slot fourth-round pick of the Reds back in 2018, would be an understatement. He began the offseason as a Cardinals but has since bounced to the Braves, Dodgers, Yankees and now back to the Dodgers via a series of DFAs and waiver claims.

With pitchers and catchers slated to report to spring training next week, Siani could finally have a path to stick on a 40-man roster. Once camp opens, teams will be able to place injured players on the 60-day IL, even if it’s not with the Dodgers. Los Angeles could need a 60-day spot for Brock Stewart, depending on his recovery from September shoulder surgery. That could give him a little bit of cushion, but if L.A. needs to open a 40-man spot and once again designates him, Siani could land with another team that has more 60-day IL candidates and thus more flexibility to keep him on the 40-man.

Siani, 26, has spent his entire big league career with the Reds and Cardinals. In parts of four major league seasons, he carries a tepid .221/.277/.270 batting line (58 wRC+). However, he’s drawn excellent grades for his defense and baserunning. He’s played 1014 major league innings in the outfield — primarily in center but with fleeting corner appearances mixed in — and been credited with outstanding marks from Statcast’s Outs Above Average (16) and from Defensive Runs Saved (7). He’s also gone 21-for-26 in stolen base attempts, giving him a success rate of nearly 81%.

Siani has a minor league option remaining, which helps to explain why teams continue to claim him; if he ever makes it to the season with one club, he’s a nice fourth or fifth outfielder who can be stashed in the minors without needing to pass through waivers.

The 32-year-old Ibanez signed a major league deal in mid-January. It’s rare to see a player sign as a free agent and then be designated for assignment three weeks later, but since he’s out of options and signed a low-cost deal, Ibanez always felt like a candidate for this sort of move. Other clubs might be reluctant to claim him when he’s making more than the league minimum and rosters around the game are generally at capacity. If he clears waivers, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of any guaranteed money, so he’d surely accept.

Ibanez has played in parts of five major league seasons, all as a Ranger or Tiger. He’s a .254/.304/.389 hitter overall but a .280/.372/.452 hitter against left-handed pitching, specifically. Add in that he can capably handle first base, second base, third base or left field, and he’s a nice bench piece for a contender (particularly if he can be stashed as Triple-A depth). Ibanez did have a down season in 2025, even against left-handed pitching, slashing a roughly average .258/.311/.403 when holding the platoon advantage.

Since he signed as a free agent on a major league deal, Ibanez can’t be traded without his consent before June 15. He’ll very likely be placed on waivers at some point within the next five days, at which point he’d go through a 48-hour waiting period before learning whether he was claimed by another club or outrighted to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Kyle Bradish Wins Arbitration Hearing

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Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish won his arbitration hearing over the Orioles, the Associated Press reports. He’ll be paid the $3.55MM that he and his camp at All Bases Covered Sports Management submitted rather than the $2.875MM figure submitted by the team.

The 29-year-old Bradish returned from UCL surgery late in the 2025 season and tossed 32 innings with a 2.53 ERA, 37.3% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. The sinker that sat 95 mph prior to surgery clocked in at a near-identical average of 94.8 mph. Bradish can’t be reasonably expected to continue punching out 37% of his opponents over a larger sample, but the former Halos fourth-rounder — acquired in the trade sending Dylan Bundy from Baltimore to Anaheim — has proven himself to be a high-end starter when healthy enough to take the ball.

Dating back to 2023, Bradish carries a terrific 2.78 ERA in 240 innings. He has a 3.47 mark in his 357 2/3 frames overall. Beyond those solid baseline run-prevention numbers, he’s set down just under 26% of his opponents on strikes and walked only 7.8% of the batters he’s faced. The right-hander’s 2025 success was buoyed by an outstanding 14.6% swinging-strike rate and a 30.5% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate — both career-best marks.

As a Super Two player, Bradish earned $2.35MM in 2025, his first of four arbitration seasons. Today’s win secures him a 51% raise over his 2025 salary, as opposed to the team’s proposed 22% raise. Bradish will be eligible for arbitration twice more before qualifying for free agency in the 2028-29 offseason.

Heading into the 2026 campaign, Bradish currently projects as either the No. 1 or No. 2 starter in Baltimore. He’ll former a one-two punch with the resurgent Trevor Rogers, who rebounded from a nightmare 2024 season to record a dominant 1.81 ERA in 109 2/3 frames. Rogers’ 24.8% strikeout rate doesn’t stack up to that of Bradish over his past two seasons, and the former Marlins hurler was surely aided by a microscopic .226 average on balls in play. He still boasted better-than-average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates, just as Bradish has throughout his career. There are some health and workload questions regarding both pitchers, but they should form a high-end rotation pairing so long as they remain healthy.

Of course, the Orioles also remain in the market for further rotation reinforcements. They acquired righty Shane Baz from the division-rival Rays earlier in the offseason but continue to show interest in lingering free agents like Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen and Lucas Giolito. An addition at some point feels likely, but for now, Bradish will be in the mix to start one of Baltimore’s first two games of the 2026 season as the O’s try to shake off an ugly 2025 season and return to postseason play under new manager Craig Albernaz.

Bloom: Cardinals Still Seeking Outfield Addition

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The Cardinals’ offseason has primarily focused on subtracting veterans from the big league roster as the club embarks on a rebuild, but with yesterday’s Brendan Donovan trade now complete, most of the heavy lifting on the sell side of things has been complete. And although the main goals for president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom have been to restock the farm and trim payroll, the Cards could still have a few smaller-scale acquisitions in them. Bloom indicated at today’s press conference regarding the Donovan trade that he’s still hoping to add to his outfield, be it via free agency or trade (via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat).

It’s not the first time that Bloom has signaled a desire to add to his outfield. He voiced a desire to add a righty-swinging outfielder prior to the holidays, but those comments are now six weeks old, so it’s of at least some note that he’s still publicly stating that interest. Austin Hays, Harrison Bader, Rob Refsnyder, Willi Castro and Jorge Mateo have all signed elsewhere since Bloom’s past statements. St. Louis had some interest in Hays before he signed with the White Sox, and just this week they agreed to a minor league deal with righty-swinging Nelson Velazquez, who at least provides some righty-hitting depth.

Bloom didn’t specify the “right-handed” portion of that desire this time around, but with an outfield group including lefty swingers Lars Nootbaar, Victor Scott II and Nathan Church, it’d be a sensible pursuit. Right fielder Jordan Walker hits from the right side of the plate, as do infield/outfield options like Thomas Saggese and Jose Fermin, but the Cardinals don’t have any form of somewhat established right-handed-hitting presence in their outfield.

Options at this point are limited, regardless of handedness. If a right-handed bat remains the goal, then any of Miguel Andujar, Austin Slater or old friends Randal Grichuk and Tommy Pham remain available. Trade options are tougher to nail down, particularly with so many names off the board already, but the Cardinals aren’t likely to take on any notable veteran salaries (e.g. Nick Castellanos). Speculatively speaking, the Rays (Jonny DeLuca), Blue Jays (Jonatan Clase), Phillies (Johan Rojas) and Royals (Drew Waters) have some outfield options who have fallen down their depth charts this winter.

It’s still possible that any outfield needs in St. Louis could expand further, too. Nootbaar underwent surgery to remove bone spurs from both heels following the 2025 season and might not be ready for Opening Day, but he’s in the same service class as Donovan (two years of team control remaining) and has drawn interest not only this offseason but at the ’25 deadline and in the 2024-25 offseason. He could boost his stock with a big first half, thus making him a more desirable target for other teams at the ’26 deadline, but hanging onto him also inherently runs the risk of Nootbaar incurring another injury or simply struggling in the wake of that dual procedure on his heels.

Astros, Isaac Paredes Avoid Arbitration

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1:37pm: There’s also a 2027 club option on the deal worth $13.35MM, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. If Paredes finishes top ten in MVP voting, the club option converts to a mutual option. Even if the club/mutual option is eventually not picked up, Paredes will still be under club control for 2027 via arbitration. Most teams have a “file and trial” approach to arbitration, meaning they won’t negotiate one-year deals after the filing deadline. Most post-deadline agreement have an option tacked on to nominally adhere to this policy.

12:13pm: The Astros have avoided an arbitration hearing with infielder Isaac Paredes, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. The two parties settled on a one-year deal worth $9.35MM, landing right at the midpoint of the team’s $8.75MM submission and the $9.95MM sum submitted by Paredes’ camp at CAA. Houston and catcher Yainer Diaz had their arbitration hearing yesterday, per the Associated Press. A result is expected today.

Paredes, 27 in a few weeks, came to Houston as part of last winter’s Kyle Tucker blockbuster and enjoyed a solid year in the Astros’ infield. He missed nearly two months due to a hamstring injury but still popped 20 homers while batting .254/.352/.458 over 438 plate appearances when healthy.

While Paredes was on the shelf, Houston reacquired Carlos Correa in a deadline salary dump deal with the Twins. The ’Stros installed Correa at the hot corner in deference to standout shortstop Jeremy Pena. Since Paredes was sidelined into late September, the Astros didn’t have to deal much with the sudden glut of position players they had, but that won’t be the case heading into 2026.

Paredes appears to be a man without a position. Correa and Pena will again man the left side of the infield. The left field experiment for Jose Altuve didn’t prove all that fruitful, and Altuve is expected back at second base for the bulk of 2026. Christian Walker’s first year as an Astro was a disappointment, but he’s signed for two more years and owed another $40MM, so he’ll be back at first base. Yordan Alvarez will see occasional time in left field but will still take the majority of the Astros’ DH at-bats. Prospect Brice Matthews, a natural middle infielder, will likely be pushed to the outfield by the infield logjam.

All of that has led to plenty of speculation about a potential trade, though general manager Dana Brown has said repeatedly that he doesn’t feel obligated to trade from the group. Were there any interest in the remainder of Walker’s deal, perhaps that’d change things, but other clubs have understandably been unwilling to take on that $40MM on the heels of a down season for the 35-year-old.

While there’s no immediate spot for regular at-bats for Paredes, that doesn’t necessarily matter. It takes all of one injury for him to have an everyday spot in the lineup, after all, and even if the entire group stays healthy, he can play fairly regularly by spelling Correa at third, Walker at first, Altuve at second and Alvarez at DH. Correa and Alvarez, in particular, have lengthy injury histories and are prone to missing chunks of time.

This was the third of four trips through the arbitration process for Paredes, a Super Two player. He’s controlled through the 2027 season and will be owed one more arbitration raise next winter. The 27-year-old Diaz is arb-eligible for the first time this winter. He and his reps at PRIME submitted a $4.5MM figure, while the team countered at $3MM.

MLBTR Chat Transcript

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Steve Adams

  • Good morning! We’ll get going at 1pm CT, but feel free to ask questions ahead of time, as always.
  • Hello there! Let’s get going

Card fan from FL

  • cardinals getting 3 prospects  and two  draft picks for Donavan . What’s your take on the trade

M

  • How do you think the Mariners stack up against the rest of the AL now that they’ve added Donovan?

Bloomer

  • Where will the Cardinals offense come from Steve? This is gonna be a painful long season …..

Steve Adams

  • Not surprisingly, probably 50+ questions queued up on yesterday’s trade haha. I’ll spare you publishing them all and offer some thoughts (while also noting that Darragh and I broke this trade down for about 15 minutes on the episode of the podcast we recorded this morning, so keep an eye/ear out for that tomorrow morning!)
  • Donovan is an ideal fit for a Mariners team that has holes at 2B/3B/one corner OF spot and young options at each. He furthers their goal of cutting back on strikeouts/improving contact, and he does so while maintaining the flexibility/agility needed should any of Colt Emerson, Cole Young, Dom Canzone, etc. really show they need everyday ABs early in the season.
  • I think the Cards did well. They didn’t get a massive, marquee prospect but landed a top-100-ish guy (Cijntje), two recent top-100 draft picks (Peete, Ledbetter) and a pair of top-75 picks in the upcoming draft.Tai Peete (contact) and Colton Ledbetter (lack of any one true standout tool) both have some red flags but are solid additions to the middle tiers of the system. The picks are nice both for adding talent and giving them the flexibility to be creative if a first-round talent slides due to signability concerns.
  • The Rays’ side of this is the strangest to me, but I’ve come around on it. Williamson is a high-floor defender with decent contact skills who can back up at multiple positions. He has multiple minor league options remaining.Rays gave up a Comp pick for three years of a solid middle reliever (Bryan Baker) last July and another for a glove-first utility guy with decent contact skills this offseason. If you could guarantee a team an immediately usable RP or utility guy at the No. 70 pick, that guy would absolutely be scooped up.
  • It’s boring to say it works for everyone, but … I don’t have an immediately negative reaction to any angle of the deal.

Dana Brown

  • Donovan got that much. What could Paredes get?

Steve Adams

  • Probably less. He’s more expensive with no real defensive home and such an extreme pull-side, fly-ball approach that team with more spacious left field setups wouldn’t find him as valuable as the Astros and Rays did, for instance.Good player, don’t get me wrong, but I think Donovan had more trade value.

Logan and Robbie

  • Having Framber behind us makes a ton of sense, right? Right???

Steve Adams

  • Framber makes plenty of sense for the Giants. They’ve also signaled that they don’t want to sign a SP long-term this winter — their owner said as much publicly — and they also already signed a pair of (much lower upside) veterans in Houser and Mahle.I will say, the fit was better before the Giants signed Arraez to play 2B. That’s going to be a rough defensive left side of the infield for Logan Webb and any other ground-ball pitchers (like Valdez)
  • Speaking of which!

Confused Giant

  • Arraez and Devers on one side of the infield has to be one of the worst defensive pairings in baseball. How many grounders through the infield and missed double plays before Logan Webb asks for a trade? I have to believe he’s not getting to 200 innings with the Arraez-Devers defense extending innings. After working to improve the SF defense, is it surprising to see Buster Posey punt on one side of the infield?

Read more

Twins, Eduardo Salazar Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Twins and right-handed reliever Eduardo Salazar are in agreement on a minor league contract, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’ll presumably be in camp as a non-roster invitee later this month.

Salazar has pitched in each of the past three major league seasons, spending time with the Reds, Dodgers and Nationals, in that order. The 27-year-old righty has pitched 70 2/3 big league innings but been tagged for a grisly 5.99 ERA in that time. Salazar sat 95.1 mph with his four-seamer and 94.4 mph with his sinker in 2025, complementing that pair of heaters with a slider that averaged 87.5 mph. He’s fanned only 16% of his opponents in the majors against a 10.2% walk rate, but the right-hander does sport an encouraging 52.8% ground-ball rate.

Salazar’s production in the upper minors hasn’t been demonstrably better. He has a 5.71 ERA in 117 Triple-A frames with comparable strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates. That said, he did post quality swinging-strike and strikeout rates during his Triple-A time with the Nationals in 2024-25, which is notable given that Washington altered his pitch selection. He’d previously been almost exclusively a sinker/slider reliever with very occasional four-seamers and changeups. The Nats significantly upped his four-seam usage, so perhaps Minnesota is intrigued by what he’d look like with further tweaks to his pitch usage and/or pitch shapes.

There’s plenty of room in the Twins’ bullpen, should Salazar enjoy a nice performance in spring training or early in the season with the Twins’ Triple-A club in St. Paul. Minnesota had one of baseball’s best bullpens heading into the 2025 trade deadline and gutted it by trading Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe and Brock Stewart as part of an 11-player fire sale. They’ve done virtually nothing to revamp the relief corps this offseason. Taylor Rogers returned on a $2MM deal for what will be his age-35 season, and the Twins picked up righty Eric Orze in a small trade with the Rays.

That pair will join holdovers Justin Topa, Cole Sands and Kody Funderburk in what looks like one of the weakest bullpens in the sport. The Twins have more young starting pitchers in the upper minors than they have rotation spots available, so perhaps some of David Festa, Zebby Matthews, Taj Bradley, Connor Prielipp and Marco Raya will end up in the bullpen rather than on the starting staff.

Regardless, the Twins represent a good opportunity for someone like Salazar as he tries to find his footing in the majors. Salazar is out of minor league options. If he’s added to the 40-man at any point, he’ll need to stick or else be exposed to waivers. If things click, he can be controlled for five seasons, but there’s a lot that needs to go right before that’s a real consideration.

Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Steve Adams

  • Good morning! We'll get going at 2pm CT today, but feel free to ask questions ahead of time, as always!

Philly A's

  • Leo de Vries is slipping in the baseball america rankings, where all other outlets still have him as a top 5.  Does BA have a different matrix that they rank than others?

Steve Adams

  • Hello! Let's get going
  • I wouldn't say "falling" to No. 12 is a slip. The gap between the No. 5 and No. 12 prospect is more or less negligible. Maybe a half scouting grade. In this instance, you can look at the FV grades and see that's not even really the case.

Arthur Dent

  • With Logan Evans out for the season, can the Mariners afford to move any established pitching, like Bryce Miller for example, to upgrade the offense?

Steve Adams

  • The Mariners weren't ever keen on dealing one of their big league starters, and I would imagine that losing Evans only furthers reduces those chances.

John B

  • What do you think of the Giant's moves and do they push the team into contender status?

Steve Adams

  • I find them underwhelming as a whole. If they were going to spend $60-70MM in free agency, I'd have preferred they pursue some impact rather than just make a volume play to address a bunch of holes.The rotation still feels quite wobbly behind Webb. Arraez is a good value at 1/12 in a vacuum, but he's a poor fit for this roster if they're really going to play him at 2B every day.

    I'd love the Bader deal if they'd acquired a more impactful bat somewhere else, but adding him and Arraez to a lineup that already looked a bit light isn't all that encouraging.

wiseoldfool

  • Outlook on Drake Baldwin. Will Braves trade S. Murphy?

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Angels Designate Cody Laweryson For Assignment

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The Angels announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Cody Laweryson for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to infielder Yoan Moncada, whose previously reported one-year deal to return to the Halos is now official.

Laweryson was a November waiver claim out of the Twins organization. The 27-year-old (28 in May) made his big league debut this past season when he tossed 7 2/3 innings and held opponents to just one run. The 2019 14th-round pick set down seven of the 26 opponents he faced on strikes (26.9%) and didn’t issue a walk. Laweryson’s fastball sits at an average of 93.2 mph, and he rounds out his repertoire with a cutter and changeup.

That ascension to the majors capped off a strong overall year for the 6’4″ righty. Laweryson split the bulk of the season between Double-A and Triple-A, where he combined for 44 innings of 2.86 ERA ball. He posted better-than-average marks in strikeout rate (24.6%), walk rate (7.7%) and grounder rate (46.3%) in the minors.

Since Laweryson was only selected to the 40-man roster for the first time this past season, he has a full slate of three minor league option years remaining. He can be controlled for at least six full seasons. All of that could make him appealing to clubs looking for some flexible bullpen depth, though it bears mentioning that 2025 was a rebound campaign. Laweryson was tagged for a 4.80 ERA in 50 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball in 2023 and hit even harder (6.52 ERA) in 33 innings of Double-A relief in 2024.

The Angels can trade Laweryson or place him on waivers at any point in the next five days. If they go the waiver route, that’ll be another 48-hour process. His DFA will be resolved in a maximum of one week.

Angels Outright Wade Meckler

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The Angels announced Monday that outfielder Wade Meckler, who’d been designated for assignment last week, went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake. He has neither the three years of MLB service time nor the prior outright needed to elect free agency, so Meckler remain with the club as non-roster depth and presumably be invited to major league camp later this month.

Meckler, 26 in April, was a January waiver claim out of the Giants organization. He has just 20 big league games under his belt, all coming in 2023, when he hit .232/.328/.250 in 64 plate appearances. That cup of coffee came barely a year after he’d been taken in the eighth round of the 2022 draft, so some struggles at the plate weren’t exactly a surprise.

Since that brief 2023 audition, Meckler has spent the bulk of his time in Triple-A, where he’s a .296/.392/.429 hitter in 699 turns at the plate. He’s hit only 11 home runs but is a plus runner with high contact rates and a good eye at the plate. He’s fanned in only 16.7% of his plate appearances in Triple-A — a mark that’s well below the league average and not much higher than his gaudy 13.5% walk rate.

Meckler has played all three outfield spots, and the Giants gave him eight minor league games at second base this past season. He’ll stick with the Halos as a versatile bit of outfield depth. The Angels still don’t have a true center fielder. Jo Adell played there extensively last year but graded very poorly. Jorge Soler is sub-par even in a corner and isn’t an option in center. Trade acquisition Josh Lowe could get some run in center but has been below-average there in the past. The Angels might even try Mike Trout back in center at times this year, but his injury history and defensive decline are well known. Meckler could eventually resurface as an option to bring some speed and a truer center field presence to the roster.

Dipoto: Mariners Working On Another Addition

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Mariners fans holding out hope for a reunion with Eugenio Suárez finally got resolution on that front yesterday when the slugger agreed to a return to a different one of his former homes: Cincinnati. Suárez’s one-year, $15MM deal with the Reds takes another infield option off the board for a Seattle club that has reportedly spent the bulk of the offseason exploring options at both third base and second base. An addition could yet be on the horizon, however. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto hinted strongly on Seattle Sports’ Mariners Hot Stove Show this weekend that another move could yet be in the offing, telling host Shannon Drayer:

“There’s one more move that’s in us, that we want to make, and we’ve been grinding hard for the last handful of days to see if we can bring it through, and hopefully we do. … Our lineup took a huge step forward last year. Obviously we’ll be short a couple of bats that were there with us in Toronto to finish the season, but we get a full year of Josh Naylor. We get the upswing of our players as they get more exposure, especially Cole Young, who I think is going to break out for us this year. And I do hope there’s one more player coming along for the ride that might not be in a Mariners uniform just yet.”

General manager Justin Hollander similarly suggested that it’s “certainly” possible his club makes a move to add a hitter this week, per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. Jude writes that Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan still feels to be the likeliest target for the M’s, but Hollander stressed that the Mariners are being “open-minded” about ways to improve their lineup.

The fit between Donovan and the Mariners has been explored at length both here and elsewhere, for more than a year. Seattle’s interest into the versatile infielder/outfielder dates back to last offseason. The lefty-swinging Donovan is 29 years old, controllable for two seasons (earning $5.8MM in 2026), can play multiple positions capably (second base, third base, left field) and is a .282/.361/.411 hitter in four big league seasons. Donovan is one of MLB’s toughest strikeouts and is a quality defender who can bounce around depending on which of the Mariners’ young hitters breaks through.

That said, it also bears emphasizing that the Mariners have various spots at which they could pursue an upgrade if they’re indeed “open-minded” to other possibilities, as Hollander indicated. Young is the favorite for at-bats at second base but hit only .211/.302/.305 in 257 plate appearances as a rookie. He’s a former first-round pick and top prospect who’s still only 22, so there’s plenty of reason to be bullish. At the hot corner, Ben Williamson played good defense but hit only .253/.294/.310 in 295 plate appearances. Colt Emerson, one of the top 10 to 20 prospects in the entire sport, looms in the upper minors but only turned 20 last summer. He topped out with six games in Triple-A late last year and could be a third base option later this season.

At the moment, the DH spot will primarily be occupied by a combination of Dominic Canzone, Luke Raley and (on days when he’s not catching) MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh. Canzone was excellent with the M’s in 82 games last year (.300/.358/.481) but needed a .354 average on balls in play to get there and has no prior big league track record. Raley struggled through injuries and a downturn in performance but was a quality platoon slugger for Tampa Bay and Seattle in 2023-24.

There’s also some uncertainty in right field. Victor Robles was terrific down the stretch for the Mariners in 2024 but missed most of last year due to a shoulder injury and hit just .245/.281/.330 in 114 plate appearances when healthy. Canzone and Raley can also factor in out there, as can free agent pickup Rob Refsnyder, but there’s room for an addition there as well, be it via trade or a largely-picked over free agent class.

The flexibility to bring in someone at multiple infield positions or as part of the DH/right field mix creates a wide range of possibilities. Notable names who’ve yet to sign for the upcoming season include Miguel Andujar, Rhys Hoskins, Nathaniel Lowe and Marcell Ozuna (to name a few). Donovan is the most prominent name on the trade market, but the Nationals (CJ Abrams), Red Sox (Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu) and Mets (Mark Vientos, Brett Baty) are among the clubs who have had some prominent players’ names surface on the rumor circuit throughout the winter.

Currently, RosterResource projects a roughly $157MM for the Mariners’ Opening Day payroll. That’s north of last year’s mark by about $10MM but shy of where Seattle ended the season, following deadline pickups of Suárez, Naylor and Caleb Ferguson. Seattle’s franchise-record Opening Day mark was about $158MM back in 2018. Given this past season’s deep playoff run and the clear win-now mode in which they find themselves, ownership will presumably be comfortable with a new record mark for Opening Day, though there’s no firm indication yet as to how far past the current $158MM record they’re willing to push.

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