Red Sox Place Johan Oviedo On Injured List, Recall Tyler Uberstine For MLB Debut
TODAY: Oviedo will visit Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday, Cora told Christopher Smith and other reporters. Meister performed Oviedo’s previous Tommy John surgery.
APRIL 3: The Red Sox announced a slate of roster moves Friday morning, including an ominous 15-day IL placement for right-hander Johan Oviedo, who’s been diagnosed with a right elbow strain. Right-hander Tyler Uberstine has been recalled from Triple-A Worcester and will be making his major league debut whenever he first gets into a game. Boston also placed righty Garrett Whitlock on the paternity list, where he can spend a maximum of three days. Right-hander Zack Kelly has been recalled in a corresponding move.
Oviedo, 28, came to Boston in the offseason trade that sent touted outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia to Pittsburgh. He was terrific through four spring starts (11 1/3 innings, two runs on eight hits and six walks with 14 strikeouts) before being tagged for six runs in his final spring tune-up. Oviedo’s official Red Sox debut was ugly, however; the Astros tagged him for four runs on six hits (including a pair of homers) and a walk in 3 2/3 innings of long relief.
More alarming than the bottom-line results was the pronounced decline in Oviedo’s velocity. He’s averaged better than 95 mph on his four-seamer in his big league career and sat 94.4 mph this spring as he built up for the season. His fastball averaged 93 mph flat in that outing against Houston. Oviedo’s velocity on all of his pitches was down across the board. Manager Alex Cora said after the game that the team was confident Oviedo was healthy (link via MassLive’s Christopher Smith).
“We had a conversation with him today and there’s a few things that the pitching department has noticed,” Cora said at the time, seemingly implying that the issue was mechanical rather than physical. Clearly, the team’s thinking has changed. Cora said this morning that Oviedo has undergone both x-rays and an MRI (via Ari Alexander of 7News). The MRI results are being compared to prior MRIs.
The Sox have yet to provide further updates on Oviedo. That the injury is termed a “strain” (indicating it pertains to a muscle or tendon) rather than a “sprain” (pertaining to a ligament) is perhaps a reason for some cautious optimism, though flexor tendon strains frequently require lengthy absences in their own right. Until the team provides further updates, all that’s known is that Oviedo will be shelved for at least the next 12 days. (IL stints can be backdated up to three days, so long as the player has not appeared in a game in that time; Oviedo last pitched on March 30.) It bears mentioning that Oviedo missed the entire 2024 season and much of the 2025 campaign due to Tommy John surgery performed in December of 2023.
Uberstine, 26, was added to the Red Sox’ 40-man roster this past November. He pitched 120 2/3 innings of 3.58 ERA ball between Double-A and Triple-A last season, striking out 26.9% of his opponents against an 8% walk rate. He’s worked in a variety of roles during his climb through the minors, pitching as a starter, as part of a piggyback tandem, in long relief and in short relief.
Back in February, the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey took a look at Uberstine’s remarkable journey to simply end up in pro ball. Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes did the same last August. Uberstine was barely used on his high school team, was turned away from both the club team and actual D-I team at USC as a sophomore, and wound up transferring to Northwestern simply hoping to land a spot on the fringe of the roster, as he’d missed being part of a team during his early time in college. Uberstine posted a 5.90 ERA in his final season at Northwestern and was the Red Sox’ 19th-round pick in 2021, signing for a $97K bonus. Fans of any club will want to check out those pieces from Healey and Pontes for a look at the determination that led to this morning’s promotion for Uberstine.
2026-27 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings: April Edition
The 2026 season is underway and last offseason is officially in the books. While free agency hasn’t completely closed — Lucas Giolito continues to wait for an offer he and his camp find acceptable — we’ll take our first look at next winter’s class.
As a reminder, these lists are based on our predictions of a player’s market value. This isn’t strictly looking at the most valuable free agents. Players in their mid-to-late 30s are going to have a difficult time cracking the top 10 because they’re naturally limited to shorter-term deals. Even in what is shaping up as a weak class, everyone in the top five and arguably the top eight have a path to a nine-figure contract.
MLBTR publishes our first free agent power ranking each April. A player’s walk year performance is the biggest factor in what they make, but their play over one week of the ’26 season doesn’t have much of an impact on their initial ranking. At this point, we’re going more off age and career track record — particularly the past couple seasons. There’s a lot of volatility this far out.
That’s especially true for the 2026-27 class. In recent offseasons, it has been fairly easy to identify the top free agent hitter at least a year in advance. Over the past five years, the respective top free agents on our first in-season rankings were Kyle Tucker, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, and Corey Seager. Seager signed for $325MM, while the other four all set records for overall guarantee and/or average annual value.
This year also features a clear No. 1 free agent, but it’s a pitcher for the first time in years. Pitchers occupy the top two spots, in fact, and Jesús Luzardo would have made three of the top four if not for his recent extension with Philadelphia. Pitchers are riskier bets than an elite free agent hitter because of the ever-present worry of an injury that could wipe out a season or more.
There simply isn’t an impending free agent position player of Tucker’s or Seager’s caliber, much less an Ohtani or Judge. Nico Hoerner had an argument as the best or second-best free agent position player before signing a six-year extension with the Cubs last week. It’s the weakest hitting class in recent memory.
[Related: Who Will Be The Top Free Agent Hitter?]
The likelihood of a lockout looms over any projection of the 2026-27 offseason. It seems inevitable that MLB and the Players Association will not reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement before the expiration of the current CBA on December 1. MLB would immediately implement a lockout, freezing all roster movement and communication between teams and players until a new agreement is reached. The 2021-22 lockout brought the sport to a halt for 99 days.
The anticipated lockout isn’t a factor for this list. It’s too early in the process to predict specific contracts. It also doesn’t seem that last winter’s group of free agents feared the work stoppage. Four players accepted qualifying offers, setting the stage for a return to the open market during the expected lockout offseason. A handful of others took short-term deals at higher annual values with opt-out opportunities this winter. The CBA will be the defining story of next offseason, but it has no bearing on the first ranking of the class.
We’ll refresh these rankings at least twice more during the season as injuries and players’ performances change their market value. There’s frequent turnover in the back half of these lists throughout the season. A lack of top-end talent means that’ll be particularly true this year.
One final note: players whose contracts contain opt-out clauses or mutual options are considered for these rankings. Those whose deals have club options are not. For instance, there’s no scenario in which Ronald Acuña Jr. signs a massive free agent contract next offseason. The Braves are all but certain to exercise their $17MM option for the 2027 season. It’d take some kind of catastrophic injury for Atlanta to buy him out.
Onto the rankings:
1. Tarik Skubal, LHP, Tigers
Skubal enters his walk year on track for the largest pitching contract of all time. He’s probably the best pitcher in the game right now, no lower than second after Paul Skenes. Skubal is the two-time defending Cy Young winner in the American League.
Going back to the start of the 2024 season, he carries a 2.25 earned run average that ranks second among qualified pitchers behind Skenes. He’s third in strikeout rate after Garrett Crochet and Chris Sale, each of whom has thrown fewer innings. Only Logan Webb has logged a heavier workload. Skubal has been even more dominant in October, turning in a 2.04 ERA while striking out 38% of opponents in six career playoff starts.
Skubal has a prototype workhorse build and sits in the 97-98 mph range on his fastball. He dominates hitters from either side of the plate and has no issue working deep into games. The only potential concern is that Skubal has twice undergone elbow surgeries: a 2017 Tommy John procedure while in college and a ’22 flexor repair that cost him a year. Skubal has not missed a start since returning from the latter surgery.
As long as he stays healthy, he should shatter the record for the largest pitching contract ever. Excluding the Ohtani deal, that’s currently held by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who got to $325MM over 12 years. Skubal turns 30 in November, so he’s not signing for 12 years, but he could land a nine- or 10-year pact that beats the $43.33MM record average annual value for a pitcher. We’re probably looking at the sport’s first $400MM arm and the clear prize of the winter.
Skubal and agent Scott Boras have already broken new contractual ground. They were rewarded for a bold arbitration filing, resulting in a record salary ($32MM) and the largest single-year jump (nearly $22MM) via that process. He’ll be attached to a qualifying offer unless the Tigers unexpectedly face plant and trade him at the deadline (which makes a player ineligible for the QO). That’s irrelevant for players this good. Teams will happily forfeit a couple draft choices and international bonus pool money to install Skubal atop their rotation for the better part of the next decade.
2. Freddy Peralta, RHP, Mets
Peralta has been one of the best and most consistent starting pitchers in the majors for over five years now. From 2021 to 2025, he has thrown 738 1/3 innings, allowing 3.30 earned runs per nine. His 9% walk rate in that time is around league average while his 29.6% strikeout rate is tied for 16th among 208 qualified pitchers. He has a four-pitch mix consisting of a four-seamer, changeup, slider and curveball, getting good results will all four.
For that span, he has been credited with 14.8 wins above replacement from FanGraphs, making him one of the 20 most valuable pitchers in the league. He hasn’t had a major injury in that time. A lat strain limited him to 18 appearances in 2022, but he has made at least 30 starts in each season since.
After the Mets acquired Peralta from the Brewers this offseason, many expected an extension to keep him in Queens. However, it seems there may be a misalignment of priorities. President of baseball operations David Stearns prefers short-term deals, for all players but especially for pitchers. Including his time with the Brewers as well as with the Mets, he has only twice gone beyond three years for a pitcher. In both cases, they were five-year extensions for pitchers early in their careers. One was for Peralta himself, a $15.5MM deal signed before he was established. The other was a $20.5MM deal for Aaron Ashby.
The Mets would presumably offer Peralta a very high average annual value, but it seems he would prefer a more traditional long-term deal. He has publicly said he is hoping to sign a deal of seven or eight years in length. He would have a case for such a pact. His profile lines up fairly nicely with Dylan Cease, who just got a seven-year deal worth $210MM from the Blue Jays, though deferrals knocked the net present value down to the $180-185MM range. Here are the two pitchers from 2023 to 2025:
Peralta: 95 starts, 516 innings, 28.9% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate, 38.5% ground ball rate, .265 BABIP, 79.8% strand rate, 13% HR/FB, 3.40 ERA, 3.88 FIP, 3.63 SIERA
Cease: 98 starts, 534 1/3 innings, 28.8% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate, 37.5% ground ball rate, .304 BABIP, 69.3% strand rate, 10.3% HR/FB, 4.18 ERA, 3.45 FIP, 3.72 SIERA
The strikeout, walk and ground-ball profiles are extremely close. Peralta had a bit better luck in terms of batted balls and sequencing, giving him an edge in the ERA department, but advanced metrics put them much closer together. Front offices these days tend to overlook ERA, as Cease’s deal shows.
Peralta will be one year older than Cease, in baseball terms. Cease signed his deal with the Jays going into his age-30 season. Peralta turns 30 this June, so 2026 will technically be his age-30 campaign. However, the difference is actually just six months. Cease turned 30 in late December, about three months before his first start with the Jays. Peralta will turn 30 about nine months before the start of the ’27 season. Like Cease, he’ll be attached to a qualifying offer but shouldn’t be impacted by draft forfeiture.
3. Bo Bichette, 3B, Mets
Bichette was just one of the top free agents of the past offseason but has a chance to be in that position again. Though he did receive at least one long-term offer — the Phillies reportedly bid around $200MM — he opted to go for a short-term deal with an extremely high average annual values and opt-outs.
With a healthy season, Bichette could return to the open market with fewer questions. He finished last season injured and with an uncertain defensive future. He was never considered an excellent shortstop and then suffered a sprained PCL in his left knee late in the 2025 season. He finished the campaign on the injured list and missed the first few rounds of the Blue Jays’ playoff run. He was activated for the World Series but was clearly not 100% and was limited to second base and designated hitter duty.
Despite the question marks, Bichette still had a robust market thanks to his bat. He doesn’t walk much but is also tough to strike out. He generally has 20-plus homer power, giving him an intriguing contact/power combo. He has a .292/.335/.466 batting line in his career, resulting in a 121 wRC+, indicating he’s been 21% better than league average overall. Before the knee injury in 2025, he hit 18 home runs and slashed .311/.357/.483 for a 134 wRC+.
Bichette’s largest total offer this winter came from the Phillies, who put forth a seven-year framework worth around $200MM. Instead, he signed a three-year deal with the Mets. The $126MM guarantee is well shy of the Philly offer but allows Bichette to bank $42MM this year. If he decides to opt-out, he will collect a $5MM buyout on his way out the door. While turning down $200MM isn’t easy, Bichette can return to free agency with about a quarter of that money already under his mattress.
It’s also theoretically possible he could get an even better long-term offer this coming winter. He will be a year older but still relatively young, as he will turn 29 in March of 2027. The Mets are playing him at third base this year. Moving down the defensive spectrum hurts his earning power, but that was already the expectation for him. Having one year of experience should at least give him some proof of concept at a new position. Ideally, he won’t go into the coming offseason with any health issues. He was a $200MM guy a few months ago and should still be that a few months into the future. He’s ineligible for the qualifying offer after receiving one from Toronto last winter.
4. Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B, Yankees
There’s a clear tier break between the Nos. 3 and 4 players in the class. Chisholm seems to have the highest ceiling of the non-Bichette group of position players. He’s a lefty-hitting middle infielder with plus bat speed and athleticism. Chisholm was one of seven players to go 30-30 last season, setting a career-high with 31 home runs. His matching stolen base total was the second highest of his career.
The hangup is the amount of swing-and-miss in his game. Chisholm has fanned at a higher than average rate in every season of his career. He punched out in 28% of his plate appearances a year ago, batting .242 in the process. A personal-high 10.9% walk rate resulted in a solid .332 on-base percentage, but he has a more pedestrian .315 mark over his career. Chisholm’s career .247/.315/.451 batting line is around eight to nine points better than league average, in the eyes of park-adjusted metrics.
Free agency has generally been unkind to second basemen in recent years. Hoerner’s $141MM extension could be a nice boost for the position, but he may have gotten interest as a shortstop if the Cubs had let him hit free agency. That’s less likely for Chisholm, who is a solid but not elite second baseman and hasn’t played shortstop in five years. He could be an option for teams seeking third base or outfield help, though a downward trend in his sprint speed means he’s probably not returning to the everyday center field work he logged with Miami between 2023-24.
Chisholm will be eligible for qualifying offer. He wouldn’t have much delay in declining it if he repeats last season’s production. He’s one of the younger players in the class, not turning 29 until next February. Matching his 2025 numbers could set him up for a nine-figure contract.
5. Trevor Rogers, LHP, Orioles
The past 12 months have represented a remarkable turnaround for Rogers. Baltimore’s 2024 acquisition of the former All-Star lefty for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby was heavily scrutinized. He was bombed over his first four starts as an Oriole and optioned to Triple-A to end the ’24 season. He began last season on the injured list and was on optional assignment to Triple-A into the middle of June.
From the time of his final recall through the end of the season, Rogers ripped off 17 starts with a 1.92 ERA. He fanned a slightly above-average 24.4% of opponents against a 7.2% walk rate while holding hitters to a .185/.246/.272 line. Within a half-season, Rogers went from a depth piece to Baltimore’s Opening Day starter. He has opened this season with a pair of quality starts, allowing two runs with an 8-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first 13 innings.
Rogers’ dominant run prevention hasn’t come with a huge amount of swing-and-miss. He has good but not elite strikeout and whiff rates. His 93 mph average fastball isn’t overpowering on the surface. He gets a lot of weak fly-balls on the heater while using his changeup and sinker as ground-ball offerings. Rogers picked up a sweeper last year to build out the arsenal.
There are obvious red flags to which Rogers’ detractors could point. He’s not going to match last season’s .226 average on balls in play, even if it’s reasonable to expect him to sustain a lower-than-average BABIP based on hitters’ struggles squaring him up. Durability is the other big concern. Rogers has yet to reach even 140 innings in a big league season. He missed time early in his career due to back, lat and biceps issues. A right knee subluxation cost him the first six weeks of the ’25 campaign.
Rogers is among the highest variance players in the class. He could hit the market as a 29-year-old coming off a season and a half of ace-caliber production. Another injury or a slight drop in velocity or whiffs could quickly drop him back into prove-it territory.
There’s a lot of projection in slotting him this high, but it’s also a reflection of how few pitchers in this class are hitting the market in their primes. There are a handful of pitchers below Rogers on this list who have much longer track records, but they’re mostly into their early-mid 30s. Rogers has a chance at a five-plus year deal that most of the older, more established arms do not. He’ll be eligible for a qualifying offer.
6. Michael King, RHP, Padres
King can return to the market by opting out of the final two seasons of his three-year, $75MM deal. The right-hander had a fairly robust market last winter despite being limited to 15 starts, largely by a nerve issue in his shoulder. However, King was unlikely to command five or six years coming off that platform, so he opted for three years with opt-outs to return to the Padres.
This is almost entirely dependent on health. King performed at a borderline ace level throughout 2024 and the first two months of the ’25 season. He struggled down the stretch after returning from the nerve injury and an August IL stay due to a minor knee issue. After a shaky spring, he worked around four walks across five scoreless frames versus the Tigers in his season debut. His 94 mph average fastball was at typical levels.
King won’t be eligible for another qualifying offer. He turns 31 in May, so a free agent deal would begin with his age-32 season. Five-year deals for starting pitchers at that age aren’t common. A healthy season could get him to four years at a strong enough annual value to reach nine figures. Injuries could take him off the market entirely by leading him to forego the opt-out.
7. Daulton Varsho, CF, Blue Jays
Varsho missed the final month of the 2024 season due to a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery. The rehab from that operation, coupled with a separate hamstring strain, limited him to only 71 games in 2025. Despite that considerable time off, he still ranks fifth among all major leaguers, at any position, in Defensive Runs Saved over the past three-plus seasons at 44. The four players above him have all played at least 1000 more innings. Varsho’s 22 Outs Above Average tie him for 23rd in baseball in that same span. The Ultimate Zone Rating metric isn’t as commonly used as it was 15 years ago, but no player in MLB (min. 1000 innings) has been a better defender than Varsho since 2023 by measure of UZR/150.
A former catcher, Varsho took shockingly well to center field and now stands as one of baseball’s premier defensive players. He’s far from a one-trick pony, however, even if his glove is his best asset. The second-generation big leaguer has been a perennial threat for 20-plus home runs, but his power output exploded in 2025. Varsho belted 20 round-trippers in only 271 turns at the plate. He chipped in three more homers in 81 postseason plate appearances. If he’d maintained that regular season pace over the same 562 plate appearances he averaged in the three preceding seasons, Varsho would’ve topped 40 home runs.
That type of power output was a new development, and whether he can sustain anything close to it will go a long way toward determining the extent of his earning potential this coming winter. If Varsho can somehow maintain anything close to last year’s breakout .310 ISO (slugging minus batting average), he could be in line for a nine-figure contract. If his power comes back down to Earth, things are less certain. Varsho is a good player, but he’s strikeout prone and typically has only an average walk rate. That’s led to a career .295 on-base percentage, which many teams will see as a glaring red flag.
There’s a wide range of outcomes here, but Varsho is going to reach free agency as a 30-year-old. He’ll turn 31 in July of year one on his new contract. A plus-plus center field defender with 20-homer pop should, at the very least, command three to four years in free agency. If he can sustain last year’s power output, Varsho can more credibly look for a contract of five years, which might be enough to push him into nine-figure territory. It’d be a big bet to place on someone with such paltry OBP skills, but 40-homer pop and a poor OBP netted Anthony Santander a $92.5MM deal (albeit with heavy deferrals). Varsho should be more appealing if he can stay healthy and deliver a career-best performance in the power department. He’ll be attached to a qualifying offer.
8. Tatsuya Imai, RHP, Astros
Imai’s market didn’t materialize the way many expected last offseason. Despite several predictions of a nine-figure contract — MLBTR included — the Japanese righty wound up settling for somewhat of a prove-it deal. He signed a three-year, $54MM guarantee with the Astros which included opt-outs after the first two seasons.
The Astros also paid a $9.975MM posting fee to NPB’s Seibu Lions. In a sense, Houston was willing to spend nearly $28MM for one year of Imai’s services. That’s a decent amount, but scouts had enough trepidations about Imai’s command and the quality of his secondary pitches that teams weren’t willing to make a long-term commitment.
That’d probably change if he pitches at a mid-rotation level as a rookie. Imai is the youngest starter of note in this class, as he won’t turn 28 until May. He has a plus fastball that averaged 95.6 mph in his MLB debut. It was a rocky start overall, as he walked four batters and couldn’t escape the third inning, but one poor outing doesn’t say much about the caliber of pitcher he’ll be moving forward. (Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up five runs and lasted all of one inning in his own MLB debut.)
Imai probably won’t be in this spot on the next iteration of the free agent rankings. If he’s pitching well, he could jump into the top five based on the youth and velocity. If he struggles, he could drop off the list equally quickly. He would be eligible for a qualifying offer if he opts out of his current contract.
9. Randy Arozarena, LF, Mariners
Arozarena is an above-average everyday left fielder. He has been between 14 and 27 percent better than average at the plate in five straight seasons. He hit a career-high 27 homers while stealing 31 bags last year. Arozarena has gone at least 20-20 in each of the last five years and is a lifetime .250/.344/.433 hitter.
That blend of power and speed comes with some swing and miss. Arozarena has struck out a near-26% clip in his career and punched out in 26.9% of his trips last year. Defensive Runs Saved has graded him as a league average left fielder, while he’s generally a little worse than par by measure of Outs Above Average.
Arozarena will hit the market at age 32, likely with a qualifying offer attached. A high-AAV three-year deal seems likelier than four guaranteed seasons. His camp would probably try to beat the $66MM Teoscar Hernández contract if he has his usual year.
10. Seiya Suzuki, RF/DH, Cubs
Much of the Arozarena writeup also applies to Suzuki. The righty-hitting slugger owns a .269/.346/.472 slash over four big league seasons since signing out of NPB. He popped 32 homers with a .245/.326/.478 mark over 651 plate appearances last season.
Suzuki has plus power and takes a lot of walks. It comes with some strikeouts but not enough to prevent him from slotting into the middle of a lineup. Suzuki is probably a slightly better offensive player than Arozarena, but he faces more questions about his position fit and injury history.
The Cubs have used Suzuki frequently as a designated hitter over the past couple seasons. He has the speed and arm strength to play right field, where the public metrics have graded him as a slightly below-average defender. He missed time in 2023 and ’24 with oblique strains and began this year on the shelf with a minor PCL sprain in his right knee suffered during the World Baseball Classic.
Suzuki will be eligible for a qualifying offer. Like Arozarena and teammate Ian Happ, he’ll hit free agency as a 32-year-old corner outfielder. They’re all consistently good but not top-tier hitters, and clubs could reasonably order them in any way. They each have a shot at three years and more than $20MM per season. A fourth year for any of the three isn’t a complete stretch but also shouldn’t be considered likely. As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows, the only free agent deals of four or more years for outfielders 32 or older in the past decade have been for Starling Marte (four years, $78MM) and Lorenzo Cain (five years, $80MM) — both of whom played center field in their platform seasons.
Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically): Bryan Abreu, David Bednar, Shane Bieber, Kris Bubic, Jack Flaherty, Zac Gallen, Kevin Gausman, Trent Grisham, Ian Happ, Shota Imanaga, Brandon Lowe, Casey Mize, Adrian Morejon, Nick Pivetta, Brady Singer, Gleyber Torres, Taylor Ward, Brandon Woodruff
Respective images courtesy of Imagn Images.
Injury Notes: Eflin, Kirk, Cleavinger, Falter
Orioles righty Zach Eflin didn’t travel with the team to Pittsburgh. He’s on the 15-day injured list due to an elbow issue, and manager Craig Albernaz told reporters prior to today’s series opener against the Pirates that Eflin is headed for a second opinion with orthopedic surgeon Keith Meister (via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). Eflin exited his first start of the season in the fourth inning due to elbow discomfort. The O’s sent him for imaging and placed him on the 15-day injured list the following day. Albernaz did not disclose the findings of the original MRI.
It’s an ominous scenario for the Orioles and for Eflin, who returned to Baltimore on a one-year, $10MM deal after undergoing back surgery in August. The 31-year-old righty (32 next week) wound up making it back from that surgery in time for Opening Day but now has a separate injury issue threatening his ability to contribute. Eflin was terrific with the Rays and O’s from 2023-24, pitching to a combined 3.54 ERA in 343 innings across the first two seasons of a three-year, $40MM deal originally signed with Tampa Bay. He was rocked for a 5.93 ERA in 14 starts last season while trying to pitch through lat and back injuries.
A few more injury situations of particular note from around the league…
- The Blue Jays are awaiting x-ray results on catcher Alejandro Kirk, writes Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. The Toronto backstop left today’s loss to the White Sox in the bottom of the tenth with a left thumb injury. An Austin Hays foul tip struck Kirk awkwardly in his glove hand, and he left the game with trainers. Tyler Heineman came off the bench to finish the game (and showed some rust on a throwing error that allowed the tying run to score with two outs). Brandon Valenzuela is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. Skipper John Schneider indicated he’d get his first major league call if Kirk misses time.
- Rays lefty Garrett Cleavinger landed on the 15-day injured list this morning due to tightness in his right calf, per the team. Right-hander Hunter Bigge was recalled from Triple-A Durham in his place. It certainly doesn’t sound like a serious injury, but any absence for Cleavinger is notable for Tampa Bay. Though he’s not a household name, the 31-year-old southpaw pitched to a 3.04 earned run average with a 30% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate in 133 1/3 innings from 2023-25. He’s emerged as a key late-inning arm for skipper Kevin Cash, totaling six saves and 36 holds over the past two seasons.
- The Royals are also down a lefty reliever, as they placed swingman Bailey Falter on the 15-day injured list due to elbow inflammation. Luinder Avila is up from Triple-A and will start the first game of tomorrow’s doubleheader against Milwaukee. (Avila would have started tonight before the series opener was scrapped by weather.) Anne Rogers of MLB.com relays that Falter received an injection to treat valgus extension overload and will be shut down from throwing for a few days. The southpaw missed the final five weeks last season with biceps inflammation and has been tagged for five runs over 3 1/3 innings during his first two appearances.
Cubs To Place Cade Horton On Injured List With Forearm Discomfort
6:17pm: Skipper Craig Counsell tells Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic that Horton will go for imaging this weekend. The team will know once the results come back, but the righty will land on the 15-day injured list in any case.
3:56pm: Cubs righty Cade Horton exited today’s start after calling for a trainer in the second inning. The Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro points out that Horton’s final pitch was a fastball that clocked in about two miles per hour shy of his season average. Taylor McGregor of the Marquee Sports Network adds that the Cubs are calling Horton’s injury right forearm discomfort.
It’s an ominous development for a Cubs team that opened the season without ace Justin Steele, who is still on the mend from last April’s UCL surgery. Horton, 24, was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2025 after kicking down the door to the majors with a 2.67 ERA in his first 118 big league frames. The 2022 No. 7 overall pick’s 20.4% strikeout rate was a couple percentage points shy of average, but he offset that with strong command (6.9% walk rate), an average ground-ball rate (42.3%) and a knack for avoiding hard contact. He’s pitched 7 1/3 innings this season between his debut and today’s abbreviated start. Opponents have two runs on four hits and a walk.
Obviously, it’s too soon to say whether Horton will miss an extended period of time — if he misses any at all. Even a short-term IL stint would sting, however. The rest of the Chicago rotation includes Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga and trade acquisition Edward Cabrera. Steele and former first-rounder Jordan Wicks are both on the injured list already.
Veteran swingman Colin Rea is in the bullpen and could start in the short term if the Cubs need. He filled in admirably last year when injuries piled up on the starting staff. Rea posted a 4.33 ERA in 27 starts last season and a 0.56 ERA in 16 relief innings. He was manager Craig Counsell‘s go-to option today as well, taking over after Horton’s exit. Righty Ben Brown worked as a starter in camp and is still stretched out for multiple innings as well; he’s tossed 6 2/3 frames in two appearances this season.
Looking further down the depth chart, righty Javier Assad is in Triple-A and already on the 40-man roster. He’s pitched to a 3.43 ERA in 331 major league innings, mostly out of the rotation, though injuries limited him to 55 1/3 innings between Triple-A and the big leagues last year. Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is also in Triple-A but would need to be added to the 40-man roster. Veterans Kyle Wright and Vince Velasquez also opened the season with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Des Moines after signing minor league deals in the winter. Either could be called upon as short-term replacements, although like Wiggins, they’d need to be added to the 40-man roster.
Brewers Designate Steward Berroa For Assignment
The Brewers have designated outfielder Steward Berroa for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to top infield prospect Cooper Pratt, whose contract has been selected to the 40-man roster now that his previously reported eight-year extension has been finalized. Pratt will remain in Triple-A Nashville for the time being, according to the Brewers.
Berroa, 26, came to the Brewers in a cash swap with the Dodgers back in July. He appeared in two games with Milwaukee last summer, going hitless in six plate appearances but contributing a stolen base after he drew a walk. He’s totaled only 51 major league plate appearances between the Brew Crew and Blue Jays — the team that originally signed him. In that fleeting cup of coffee, Berroa is 6-for-42 (.167/.314/.190) with a double, eight walks and six steals.
In parts of four Triple-A seasons, the switch-hitting Berroa is a .255/.353/.373 hitter. That production has come in a sample of 673 plate appearances, during which he’s popped a dozen homers, tallied 25 doubles and three triples, and gone 69-for-86 (80.2%) in stolen base attempts. Statcast credits the 5’9″, 193-pound burner with 89th percentile sprint speed. Berroa has primarily been a center fielder in the minors but has more than 1000 innings in each corner outfield spot over the course of nine professional seasons. He’s drawn above-average grades for his range and arm during his limited MLB run in the outfield (5 Defensive Runs Saved, 3 Outs Above Average in only 120 innings).
This is Berroa’s final minor league option year. A team looking for some speed and/or outfield depth could be drawn to Berroa’s wheels, defensive versatility and knack for drawing walks. Anyone who picks him up would be able to send him to Triple-A without exposing him to waivers. Milwaukee can trade Berroa or place him on waivers at any point within the next five days. Since waivers are a 48-hour process, we’ll know the result of his DFA by this time next week.
Pirates Promote Konnor Griffin
April 3: Pittsburgh has formally selected Griffin’s contract, per a club announcement. Infielder Enmanuel Valdez was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.
April 2: The Pirates are calling up shortstop Konnor Griffin, the top prospect in all of baseball, to make his major league debut in tomorrow’s home opener, Pirates insider Jason Mackey reports. The team has confirmed Griffin’s promotion but has not yet formally selected his contract to the 40-man roster. They’ll need to do so and make corresponding 26-man and 40-man transactions prior to first pitch tomorrow.
Griffin was in the mix to break camp on Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster but was reassigned to minor league camp late in spring training. The two parties have continued talks on what would be a record-setting contract extension — expected to be both the largest ever for a player with little to no major league service time (surpassing Colt Emerson‘s recent eight-year $95MM deal with the Mariners) and the Pirates’ franchise-record contract ($100MM for Bryan Reynolds).
It’s possible the Bucs simply wanted Griffin to make his debut at home, popping ticket sales throughout the weekend and further boosting excitement for fans after an uncharacteristically aggressive offseason. It’s also feasible that the two parties have become close enough on a long-term contract that the Pirates are making the move to promote him now and will announce an extension not long after his debut. The benefits in that scenario are straightforward. Players who sign extensions before making their MLB debut are not eligible to net draft picks for their club under MLB’s prospect promotion incentives; players who sign extensions after debuting remain PPI eligible. So long as any contract is finalized after Griffin has debuted, he’d net the Pirates an extra draft pick either by winning 2026 NL Rookie of the Year honors or with a top-three finish in MVP voting in 2026-28. (A player can only generate one total PPI pick for his team.)
Griffin is still three weeks away from his 20th birthday, but the 19-year-old phenom will get his chance to prove he’s ready for the big time. A physical beast already standing 6’3″ and weighing 225 pounds, Griffin is perhaps the most touted No. 1 overall prospect in recent memory. He draws plus (60) to plus-plus (70) grades on the 20-80 scale for all of his tools across the board. Griffin is an elite runner who scouts believe can stick at shortstop while hitting for both average and power.
Selected with the No. 9 overall pick in 2024, Griffin has played just one full professional season, and the results were borderline comical. He sprinted through the minors last year, climbing from Low-A to Double-A and absolutely raking at each of his three stops. Griffin totaled 563 plate appearances overall and slashed .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs, 23 doubles, four triples and an eye-popping 65 stolen bases in 78 tries (83.3%). He walked at an 8.9% clip and struck out at a 21.7% rate.
Those numbers are staggering on their own. By measure of wRC+, Griffin was 65% better than an average hitter across those three levels. That ignores the context that the Mississippi native was among the youngest players — if not the youngest player — at all of those stops. Griffin hit just .171 in 46 spring plate appearances with the Pirates but still popped four home runs. He’s taken 21 plate appearances in Triple-A to begin this season and gone 7-for-16 with three doubles, three steals, five walks and only four strikeouts.
With the Pirates, Griffin will immediately step in as the team’s everyday shortstop. That’ll push Jared Triolo to a bench role for which he’s probably better suited. Triolo is an adept defender at multiple infield spots but carries just a .234/.319/.343 slash in 1054 plate appearances at the major league level. He can mix in at any of the four infield spots now, though he’s not going to supplant starters Spencer Horwitz (first base), Brandon Lowe (second base) or Nick Gonzales (third base) unless there’s an injury or a prolonged stretch of poor play from Gonzales as he acclimates to the hot corner.
Griffin steps into a big league lineup that has been substantially revamped since last season. The Pirates didn’t get the biggest fish they pursued this winter (e.g. Kyle Schwarber, Josh Naylor, Kazuma Okamoto), but they still brought in several established veteran bats who’ve unequivocally bolstered the offense. Lowe and outfielder Jake Mangum came over from the Rays alongside lefty reliever Mason Montgomery in a three-team trade sending young righty Mike Burrows to Houston. Ryan O’Hearn signed a two-year, $29MM in free agency. Marcell Ozuna later came aboard for a year and $12MM. Griffin now joins newcomers like Lowe, O’Hearn and Ozuna in the heart of a vastly improved lineup that Pirates hopes will better support the team’s excellent young pitching staff.
Service time considerations seemingly weren’t a factor in Griffin’s promotion. He’s still being called up in time to get a full year of major league service even without a Rookie of the Year win. His timelines for reaching arbitration and free agency would be rendered moot if Griffin eventually signs an extension, as many expect, but as things currently stand he’d be on track for arbitration eligibility following the 2028 season and free agency following the 2031 season, when he’d be just 25 years old (and going into his age-26 season). Griffin is so young that even a record-setting extension could still position him to reach the open market well ahead of his 30th birthday.
Griffin is the first of many young Pirates hitters who could impact the team this season. Pittsburgh also picked up touted outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia in a trade with the Red Sox, and he should get a look in the majors before too long. Infielder Termarr Johnson‘s stock has dipped in recent seasons, but he’s still just 21 years old and coming off a nice 2025 showing in Double-A. Catcher/first baseman Rafael Flores Jr., another trade acquisition (from the Yankees in last summer’s David Bednar swap) had a big season between Double-A and Triple-A last year and could hit his way into a bigger audition in 2026 as well.
For now, all eyes are on Griffin — both to witness the debut of one of the best prospects in recent memory and also to see whether he signs a franchise-altering extension that’d lock him in beyond his original six seasons of club control.
Pirates Designate Enmanuel Valdez For Assignment
The Pirates have designated infielder Enmanuel Valdez for assignment, per a club announcement. His 40-man roster spot goes to the game’s No. 1 overall prospect, shortstop Konnor Griffin, whose previously announced promotion to the majors is now finalized.
Valdez has seen action in parts of three major league seasons, including 102 plate appearances with Pittsburgh last year. The 27-year-old carries a lifetime .230/.288/.392 batting line in the majors and has tallied 14 big league home runs in 474 plate appearances. He’s a left-handed hitter who’s spent the bulk of his time at second base but also has experience at both infield corners and in both outfield corners.
Originally an Astros signee out of his native Dominican Republic, Valdez went from Houston to Boston alongside Wilyer Abreu in the lopsided deal that shipped catcher Christian Vazquez to the Astros in 2022. The Red Sox traded him to the Pirates in Dec. 2024, acquiring minor league reliever Joe Vogatsky in return.
While Valdez has yet to hit much in the majors, he’s a career .250/.343/.467 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons. He’s graded out as a poor second base defender in the majors but posted above-average marks in a small sample of 190 innings at first base. Valdez is in his final minor league option year, so any team that plucks him off waivers or swings a small trade for him would be able to send him to Triple-A without restriction — at least for the remainder of the current season. (He’ll be out of options next year.)
The Pirates can trade Valdez or place him on waivers at any point in the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so within one week’s time the outcome of this morning’s DFA will be known.
Sal Stewart, Reds Open To Extension Talks
The annual crop of spring/early-season extensions is still ongoing, and while the Reds and young slugger Sal Stewart haven’t yet had any substantial talks about a deal, Stewart tells Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he’s open to discussing a long-term pact. President of baseball operations Nick Krall voiced mutual interest when asked by Wittenmyer, though he gave standard caveats about asking price and finding a middle ground that works for all parties. To this point, there have not yet been substantial talks between the two sides.
“I’m definitely open to it,” said Stewart, noting how well the organization has treated him to this point in his career. “…I’m open to it because they took a chance on me when I was young, and I want to do it for this city. This city means a lot to me, and they’ve become my family.”
Since being called to the majors as a 21-year-old late last season, the now-22-year-old Stewart has done nothing but hit. He’s taken 84 plate appearances, ripped seven homers and four doubles, and mashed to an overall .311/.393/.649 batting line. He’s walked more than he’s struck out this season and has an overall 11.9% walk rate to a 21.4% strikeout rate. Stewart has posted sensational batted-ball metrics in his young career, averaging a comical 95.5 mph off the bat with a 19.6% barrel rate and a 55.4% hard-hit rate. He shouldn’t be expected to sustain those Aaron Judge/Kyle Schwarber-esque levels, but plenty of big league hitters aren’t physically capable of even fluking their way into that type of batted-ball quality over a stretch of 24 games.
Suffice it to say, Stewart looks the part of a middle-of-the-order slugger — precisely the type of hitter Cincinnati has struggled to develop in recent years. The former third baseman is being given every opportunity to run with the Reds’ primary first base job, and so far, the results speak for themselves. Stewart has already positioned himself for a quality payday, based on recent precedent for early-career extensions. Would the Reds pony up a competitive offer? That much remains unclear.
“It always depends on where each side is and what each side is looking for,” Krall said on the possibility. “…You have to find the right number for the club and the player to have it make sense.”
As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows, the Reds haven’t given been especially active on the extension front in recent seasons. They signed backup catcher Jose Trevino to a two-year deal guaranteeing him $11.5MM when he was on the doorstep of free agency, but that’s quite a different situation than the one in which Stewart finds himself. The only time in the past decade that Cincinnati has come to terms on a long-term deal extending club control over a pre-arbitration player is Hunter Greene‘s six-year, $53MM deal signed about three years ago. They’ve made other overtures, including a club-record offer to shortstop Elly De La Cruz last spring that didn’t come to fruition. Joey Votto‘s 10-year, $225MM deal is the largest in franchise history.
[Related: Largest contract in franchise history for every MLB team]
Stewart, coincidentally, is represented by the same agency as Votto. He and his team at MVP Sports Group won’t be seeking an arrangement of that magnitude, but recent precedent can provide some context on what Stewart might reasonably command.
Again using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, there have only been eight extensions over the past decade for position players with between one day and 171 days (one day shy of a year) of major league service time. Those deals range from Ceddanne Rafaela (another MVP client) signing at eight years and $50MM to Julio Rodríguez landing a 12-year, $210MM contract in Seattle. Four additional extensions for players with zero big league service include Detroit’s Colt Keith (six years, $28.6MM plus three options), Milwaukee’s Cooper Pratt (eight years, $50.75MM plus two options), Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio (eight years, $82MM plus two options) and Seattle’s Colt Emerson (eight years, $95MM plus one option).
Stewart’s offensive upside is considerably greater than that of Rafaela, meaning he could reasonably expect larger arbitration paydays and thus a larger guarantee on the contract. Conversely, Rodriguez had close to a year in the majors by the time he signed his deal. He’d already made the 2022 All-Star team and was the clear frontrunner in an AL Rookie of the Year race he’d eventually win with 29 of 30 first-place votes.
Landing between those two extremes would make sense. The Orioles got catcher/first baseman Samuel Basallo to sign for eight years and $67MM near the end of the 2025 season, just days after he’d first been summoned to the majors. Corbin Carroll had roughly the same number of games and plate appearances as Stewart when he signed for eight years and $111MM, though he was a more well-rounded prospect who offered huge baserunning/defense value on top of his bat. Stewart is more of a bat-first prospect, but the early returns on that bat are hard to ignore.
Aside from the previously mentioned six-year deal for Greene, the Reds don’t have much on the long-term books. Greene is signed through 2028 with a club option for 2029. He’s guaranteed a total of $41MM from 2026-28, or $60MM through 2029 if the option is exercised. Ke’Bryan Hayes is signed through 2029 but for a more modest total of $36MM (including the buyout on a 2030 option). No one else is is signed beyond the 2027 season. Closer Emilio Pagán and the aforementioned Trevino are the only players even guaranteed anything for 2027 — and Pagán could opt out following the current season.
That leaves the Reds on the hook for a total no greater than $42MM in any of the next four seasons. Obviously, there are arbitration salaries that’ll factor in to increase that number, and future trades and free agent acquisitions will also alter that bottom line. For the time being, however, there’s no financial roadblocks in place for a Stewart deal, especially considering that the early seasons of an extension would probably come with minimal salaries. Since contract extensions typically (albeit not always) mimic a player’s would-be earning progressions throughout arbitration, Stewart’s salary probably wouldn’t begin to really climb until after the very end of the club’s control windows over Greene and Hayes.
Nationals Release Matt Mervis
The Nationals have released first baseman Matt Mervis, per Bobby Blanco of MASNsports.com. He’d signed a minor league deal over the winter, spent spring training with the Nats, and opened the season with their Triple-A club in Rochester.
Mervis appeared in only one game with Washington’s top minor league affiliate prior to being released, going 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout. He was 3-for-12 with a pair of walks and strikeouts in 14 official spring plate appearances. He went 3-for-11 with a pair of doubles for Israel during the World Baseball Classic.
The Nationals added Mervis as first base depth back in December, but since signing him they acquired first base prospect Abimelec Ortiz from the Rangers as part of their return for MacKenzie Gore and more recently brought Curtis Mead over from the White Sox, giving them another first base option on the MLB roster and pushing Andres Chaparro down to Rochester. The need for further depth was lessened, as was Mervis’ role on the Rochester roster, and the two sides have now parted ways.
Mervis has logged big league time in each of the past three seasons, suiting up for both the Cubs and Marlins. He’s routinely clobbered Triple-A pitching, slashing a combined .264/.359/.522 with 71 long balls in 1318 plate appearances at the top minor league level. Strikeouts have been an issue his past few trips through Triple-A, however, and they’ve been an insurmountable obstacle for Mervis in the majors. Through 261 big league plate appearances, Mervis has slashed .165/.238/.322 with a huge 34.5% strikeout rate. Among the 521 players who tallied at least 250 plate appearances from 2023-25, Mervis ranked 502nd with a 66.9% overall contact rate and 506th with a 76.7% contact rate on pitches within the strike zone.
Mervis is now free to sign with any club seeking some first base depth and/or a left-handed power hitter to stash in Triple-A. Speculatively speaking, he also has a profile that we’ve seen command interest overseas in the past, though there’s no indication that’s a possibility for the 27-year-old slugger (28 later this month).
MLB Mailbag: Soriano, Ryan, Nats, Extensions, Rays, Cardinals
I'm pinch-hitting for Tim Dierkes one more time on this week's mailbag. In this edition, we'll look at (very) hypothetical trade possibilities surrounding the Angels' Jose Soriano and the Twins' Joe Ryan, some young Nationals, the recent wave of extensions, and some questions on the outlooks for the Rays and Cardinals. Let's begin!
Casey asks...
OK, you're the Angels (sorry). When do you trade Jose Soriano...to whom...and what would be a likely return??
I'll delve into some hypotheticals involving Soriano's trade value and potential suitors shortly, but first and foremost, I'd caution against the idea of the Angels trading him.
That may sound counterintuitive. After all, the Halos obviously aren't expected to contend this season. They're out to a 3-3 start on the year, but the team's bullpen is comprised of rebound candidates, its position player group is littered with strikeout-prone veterans whose best years are behind them, and the rotation has all of two established big league starters: Yusei Kikuchi and Soriano.
FanGraphs projects the Angels to go 71-85 over the rest of the season. Baseball Prospectus/PECOTA is far more bearish, projecting a 66-96 season even after a decent first week of play. Very few expect this team to compete. (Apparently that's OK for owner Arte Moreno, who recently claimed that winning isn't among the top five priorities for Angels fans. Got it, Arte.)
Beyond that grim outlook, the Angels' farm is one of the game's worst. Anaheim's system briefly trended upward several years ago, but that was short-lived. Frequent development misses and prioritization of players who are close to MLB-ready in the draft -- often in place of higher-ceiling talents who are further from the majors -- have left the team without much of a farm. That leads to repeated dice rolls on former top prospects; the current roster includes names like Oswald Peraza, Yoan Moncada, Alek Manoah, Grayson Rodriguez and Vaughn Grissom.
On the surface, all of that would seem to indicate a rebuild is nigh. The Angels haven't reached the playoffs since 2014. They haven't had a winning season since 2015. This is a team in dire need of a rebuild.
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