Brewers Place Christian Yelich On Injured List, Select Greg Jones
The Brewers on Tuesday placed outfielder/designated hitter Christian Yelich on the 10-day injured list due to a left groin strain, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Milwaukee selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Greg Jones from Triple-A Nashville to take Yelich’s spot on the 40-man roster. Left-handed reliever Rob Zastryzny has been moved from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot for Jones.
Yelich was out to a strong start, having slashed .314/.375/.451 with a homer, a triple, two doubles and three steals through his first 56 plate appearances. The 34-year-old left Sunday’s game with what the team first described as a possible hamstring injury, however, before eventually being diagnosed with the groin strain. There’s no immediate timetable for his potential return, though to this point there’s no indication that Yelich is expected to be faced with a particularly long absence.
More to come.
Orioles Place Ryan Mountcastle On 60-Day IL, Select Weston Wilson
4:12pm: The Orioles officially announced that Wilson’s contract has been selected and that Mountcastle has been placed on the 60-day IL. That’s one of just several moves for the O’s today. Baltimore also recalled righty Dean Kremer earlier today and just announced the acquisition of corner infielder Christian Encarnacion-Strand in a cash swap with the Reds.
3:43pm: Orioles first baseman/designated hitter Ryan Mountcastle is headed to the injured list after suffering a broken fourth metacarpal in his left foot while legging out a double this past weekend, manager Craig Albernaz tells the Baltimore beat (link via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko). Albernaz didn’t tip the team’s hand on whether Mountcastle would head to the 10-day or 60-day IL, suggesting only that both are under consideration. He added that he has not yet been told whether surgery is on the table.
Kubatko adds that infielder/outfielder Weston Wilson is on the Orioles’ taxi squad at the moment, making him a likely replacement, though the team hasn’t announced anything on that front. Jackson Holliday is with the club today at Camden Yards but is not yet ready for reinstatement from the IL. He’s merely taking some infield drills while Triple-A Norfolk is off. Holliday has yet to play this season after suffering a hamate fracture early in spring training.
Wilson isn’t on the 40-man roster, so assuming he is indeed the corresponding move, he’d need to have his contract selected. The Orioles have a full 40-man roster, though if Mountcastle heads to the 60-day IL, that’d open a spot.
The 29-year-old Mountcastle has hit decently in a far more limited role than he’s used to so far in 2026. He’s appeared in eight games and tallied only 15 plate appearances, going 4-for-14 with a double and a walk in that time. Baltimore’s signing of Pete Alonso and the ascension of catcher/designated hitter Samuel Basallo has substantially cut into Mountcastle’s playing time.
Even before the O’s signed Alonso, Mountcastle looked like a prime non-tender candidate. Injuries limited him to 89 games last season, and he slashed just .250/.286/.367 (81 wRC+) when healthy. He was due for one final raise in arbitration, and with a $6.787MM salary last year, he felt like a relatively pricey rebound candidate, given his limited defensive utility. Baltimore also had longtime top prospect Coby Mayo ready for a full-time run at first base (though obviously the Alonso signing changed that calculus).
The Orioles made the somewhat surprising call to tender him. They wound up coaxing some additional value by getting Mountcastle to agree to repeat his 2025 salary and tack on a $7.5MM club option for what should’ve been his first free agent year in 2026. However, Mountcastle still entered camp with a “square peg in a round hole” vibe as a clearly imperfect fit for an Orioles roster that had changed considerably since his run as a regular in the middle of the order. Unsurprisingly, the O’s looked into various trade possibilities throughout spring training, but no deal came together.
Mountcastle now heads to the injured list for a potentially prolonged absence. He’ll join third baseman Jordan Westburg, who’s hoping to avoid Tommy John surgery after being diagnosed with a UCL tear, in that regard. With Westburg sidelined, the aforementioned Mayo has been manning the hot corner but has struggled with the bat. An absence of some note for Mountcastle could give Mayo a longer leash to get right at the plate even when Holliday and possibly Westburg return to the fold.
Wilson, 31, was an offseason waiver claim out of the Phillies organization. He’s spent parts of the past three seasons in the majors with Philadelphia, hitting a combined .242/.328/.428 with nine home runs in 245 trips to the plate. Almost all of that production came in 2023-24, however. Wilson hit just .198/.282/.369 in a career-high 125 plate appearances in 2025 but raked at a .288/.375/.490 clip the prior two seasons.
Wilson has never hit righties much but feasted on southpaws in ’23-’24 before taking a huge step back in ’25. Even with last year’s lack of production in platoon settings, he’s a career .250/.359/.475 hitter (130 wRC+) against left-handed pitching. Wilson also owns a solid .247/.339/.462 output in nearly 1700 plate appearances of Triple-A work and will give Baltimore an option at all four corner positions. He batted .233/.395/.433 in 36 spring plate appearances but has mustered only a .195/.298/.366 slash in a comparable sample at Triple-A this year.
Tigers Claim Yoniel Curet, Transfer Parker Meadows To 60-Day IL
The Tigers announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Yoniel Curet off waivers from the Phillies, who’d designated him for assignment last week. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Detroit transferred center fielder Parker Meadows from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Meadows suffered a concussion and a forearm fracture last week in an outfield collision with teammate Riley Greene when both were tracking down a ball hit to the left-center gap.
Curet, 23, was optioned to the Tigers’ Rookie affiliate in the Florida Complex League. He’ll presumably ramp up there before heading to Triple-A Toledo. He hasn’t pitched since spring training, so he’s not ready to join a minor league affiliate just yet.
Originally signed by the Rays as an amateur out of his native Dominican Republic, Curet landed in Philadelphia by way of an offseason trade sending righty Tommy McCollum back to Tampa Bay. The Rays had designated Curet for assignment themselves in order to clear a roster spot for free agent signee Cedric Mullins.
Curet has yet to make his big league debut. He’s a hard-throwing, command-challenged righty who’s posted decent numbers in the upper minors and briefly cracked FanGraphs’ top 100 prospect list prior to the 2025 season. The 6’2″, 250-pound righty sits mid-90s with a four-seamer and sinker that can both reach the upper 90s. His go-to breaking pitch is a slider in the 87-88 mph range.
A shoulder injury limited Curet to 14 starts and a pair of relief outings in the Rays’ system last year. He totaled 55 1/3 innings with a 3.90 ERA, a sharp 25.5% strikeout rate but a concerning 12.8% walk rate.
While Curet has consistently missed bats in the minors, he regularly runs up poor walk rates. He looked to be on the right track in 2024, when he posted a sub-3.00 ERA with a 31.5% strikeout rate and a 10.7% walk rate that was down several percentage points from the year prior. That shot him up the rankings at FanGraphs, but last year’s shoulder injury was accompanied by that nearly 13% walk rate — including a 17.4% walk rate in 33 1/3 Triple-A innings. This spring, Curet faced 14 hitters and walked four of them. He plunked another. Overall, he was tagged for eight runs in 1 2/3 innings.
Time will tell what role the Tigers envision for the righty, but he’s worked consistently as a starter to this point in his career. Detroit could build him back up for some rotation depth, but it’s hard not to wonder what Curet’s already powerful arsenal might look like in short relief. The 95-96 he averages on his pair of heaters would presumably tick up a couple miles, and that slider could creep into the 90 mph range on average. Max-effort relievers tend to have a bit easier time running a higher-than-average walk rate than a starter who needs to turn the lineup over multiple times.
Scouting reports at FanGraphs, Baseball America, MLB.com and other public outlets have long suggested a move to relief could be in the offing eventually. For now, Curet is in his final minor league option year, so there’s no immediate urgency to sort it out. The Tigers can get him built up and see how he looks in a variety of roles.
As for Meadows, the move to the 60-day IL isn’t all that surprising in light of the fractured radius he sustained in pursuit of a potential game-saving catch. Today’s move to the IL means he’ll be sidelined into at least mid-June. A light-hitting plus defender who runs well, Meadows opened the season with a .250/.308/.333 slash in 39 turns at the plate. The 2018 second-rounder was hoping to move past a rough 2025 season (.215/.291/.330) and get back closer to his 2024 form (.244/.310/.433), but that rebound effort is on hold for a couple months at the very least. In the meantime, the Tigers have Wenceel Pérez, Javier Báez and Matt Vierling as options in center field.
Braves Designate Luke Williams For Assignment
The Braves announced today that outfielder Michael Harris II has been reinstated from the paternity list. In a corresponding move, infielder Luke Williams has been designated for assignment. Atlanta’s 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38.
Williams was only selected to the big league roster this past weekend when Harris went on paternity leave. He appeared in two games with Atlanta and took one plate appearance, drawing a walk in that lone trip to the batter’s box.
This is now four straight seasons in which Williams, 29, has suited up for Atlanta. He’s a clear favorite of the organization, even if his production in the majors hasn’t amounted to much. The 2015 third-rounder (Phillies) has totaled 350 plate appearances in the big leagues but sports just a .212/.272/.280 batting line. He’s a versatile defender with a decent track record in the upper minors, however.
Williams has played all four infield positions, all three outfield spots and even taken 11 innings of mop-up relief in his big league career. His career line in Triple-A is weighed down a bit by an especially rocky showing there last season, but he’s still a lifetime .255/.333/.401 hitter at the top minor league level, including a .282/.344/.495 slash in 55 games in 2024.
This is the fourth DFA of Williams’ career (not counting the original 2023 waiver claim that sent him from L.A. to Atlanta, as he wasn’t formally designated for assignment prior to being placed on waivers). The Braves have successfully passed him through waivers unclaimed on three separate occasions since first claiming him from the Dodgers. He’ll be placed on waivers or traded within the next five days, and the outcome of his DFA will be known within the next seven days, at maximum. (Waivers are a 48-hour process.) Williams will have the right to reject an outright assignment if he clears waivers, but even if he does, recent history tells us there’s a good chance he’d re-sign with the organization and head back to Triple-A Gwinnett anyhow.
Cardinals Notes: Naughton, Fitts
Cardinals left-hander Packy Naughton exited a recent appearance with the team’s Triple-A affiliate with an apparent elbow injury. Naughton missed badly while delivering a 1-1 pitch and immediately clutched his elbow (video link). That naturally prompted a visit from the trainer, and the southpaw left the game shortly thereafter. Per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, Naughton has been diagnosed with a UCL injury and is seeking a second opinion.
There’s more bad injury news down in Memphis. The team announced Monday that right-hander Richard Fitts is headed to the injured list after suffering a lat strain while pitching with the Redbirds. A timetable for his return isn’t clear, but lat strains often come with significant layoffs.
A UCL injury is an awful development for any pitcher but is particularly heartbreaking for Naughton, who hasn’t been able to catch a break when it comes to his healthy. He underwent Tommy John surgery in high school and has since undergone flexor tendon surgery (2023) and UCL surgery (2024). He signed a two-year minor league pact with the Cardinals in November of 2024 and missed the entire 2025 season mending from that second UCL surgery. He pitched just 2 1/3 frames with Memphis this season and now appears to be facing a third UCL procedure as he approaches his 30th birthday later this week.
Naughton has pitched in parts of three major league seasons, totaling 59 2/3 frames between the Angels and Cardinals. He was a ninth-round pick by the Reds back in 2017 and has been consistently effective in the minors when healthy. He has a 3.63 ERA in 476 minor league frames, including a 3.84 mark in Triple-A. His 4.98 earned run average in the big leagues is obviously a lesser mark, though it’s impacted in part by a lofty .330 average on balls in play. Naughton’s 18% strikeout rate in the majors is well below average, but his 8.3% walk rate is solid and his 51% ground-ball rate is quite strong.
Though many associate MLB’s ever-increasing rash of pitcher injuries with the game’s rapid rise in velocity over the past decade-plus, Naughton stands as a reminder that elbow troubles can take their toll on any pitcher. He’s averaged 91.8 mph on his sinker in his big league career and was sitting 91.9 mph in his brief return to the mound in Memphis this season.
Naughton isn’t on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster, but a strong return effort this season would have put him in line for a return to the majors. The Cards currently have JoJo Romero, Justin Bruihl and Jared Shuster as left-handed options in the ‘pen. Romero is a trade candidate as he navigates his final season of club control. Bruihl came to St. Louis in a cash swap with Cleveland after being designated for assignment in the offseason. Shuster is a minor league signee whose contract was just selected to the majors last week.
As for Fitts, he’s yet to make his Cardinals debut. The 26-year-old was acquired from the Red Sox in the trade that sent Sonny Gray to Boston this past offseason. He’s started 14 major league games and made one relief appearance, working to an overall 3.97 ERA in 65 2/3 innings.
Fitts entered camp this spring competing for a rotation spot. He had a rough showing and was optioned to Memphis but would’ve likely been the next man up had the Cardinals incurred an injury at the MLB level. He’s been excellent in Triple-A to start the season, posting a sub-2.00 ERA in his first 15 1/3 innings.
The Cardinals currently have Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy, Kyle Leahy, Dustin May and Andre Pallante in their major league rotation. Righty Hunter Dobbins — who also came over from the Red Sox via a separate trade this winter (Willson Contreras) — opened the season on the injured list while rehabbing the ACL tear he suffered last July. Fitts now joins prospects Tekoah Roby (Tommy John surgery last July) and Cooper Hjerpe (Tommy John surgery last April) on the minor league injured list.
That slate of injuries leaves the Cardinals with a thin rotation mix. Given the team’s struggles in the rotation to open the season, that’s all the more problematic. St. Louis starting pitchers have combined for a 4.92 ERA to begin the season — the fifth-worst mark in the majors. The rotation’s 13.6% strikeout rate is far and away the worst in baseball, which has led ERA alternatives to paint an even less optimistic picture. Cardinals starters rank 29th in SIERA (4.84) and 30th in Statcast’s expected ERA (6.02).
Reds Option Noelvi Marte
The Reds announced Monday that they’ve optioned struggling outfielder Noelvi Marte to Triple-A Louisville. A corresponding move wasn’t announced, but FOX 19’s Charlie Goldsmith reports that Cincinnati is expected to recall outfielder Rece Hinds from Louisville in Marte’s place.
The 24-year-old Marte’s run with the Reds has been filled with peaks and valleys. The former top prospect came to Cincinnati as part of the blockbuster trade sending Luis Castillo to Seattle and burst onto the MLB scene with a .316/.366/.456 batting line in his first 123 plate appearances in 2023 — his age-21 season. He was popped for an 80-game PED ban the following spring and looked lost in his return to the majors later in the season, slashing just .210/.248/.301 in 242 turns at the plate.
Marte’s stock hit a low point after that 2024 campaign, and in 2025 he was moved from third base to right field to accommodate deadline pickup Ke’Bryan Hayes. Marte’s stock was trending down, but he took to right field nicely, posting solid defensive grades while rebounding at the plate. He appeared in 90 games — 56 of them in the outfield — and batted .263/.300/.448 with 14 homers and 10 steals. Defensive Runs Saved credited him as a strong defender on the grass (+4), while Statcast’s Outs Above Average (-2) was more bearish. Still, even a slightly negative mark for an infielder who learned the outfield on the fly — midseason, no less — suggested he had the potential to develop into a solid defender there.
Obscured a bit by that solid rebound effort in 2025, however, was a poor finish to the season. Marte floundered down the stretch with a .184/.214/.276 showing in his final 103 plate appearances of the season. He punched out 33 times (32%) against just four walks (3.9%).
Marte belted four homers in 56 plate appearances this spring, but he also continued on that worrisome K-BB trajectory from the end of the ’25 season. He walked just once this spring while fanning 16 times (28.6%). So far, his regular season output sits at just .138/.194/.138 with 10 strikeouts (32.3%) and two walks (6.5%) in 31 plate appearances. Marte has lacked any semblance of pitch recognition, chasing a staggering 47.4% of pitches he’s seen outside the strike zone this year. That’s sixth-worst among the 290 MLB hitters who’ve stepped into the batter’s box at least 30 times this year. His 71.5 mph average bat speed is down nearly two miles per hour from last year’s 73.3 mph.
If there’s a silver lining to Marte’s struggles, it’s that he won’t turn 25 until after the season ends and is still in the second of his three minor league option years. There’s ample time for him to right the ship and get back on track. Even combining his end-of-season slump, his rocky spring and his woeful start to 2026, we’re looking at a sample of fewer than 200 plate appearances. He made tons of hard contact during Cactus League play, and he’s still sporting a contact rate north of 90% on pitches within the strike zone. It stands to reason that if Marte can scale back his chase rate closer to the 33.7% he averaged from 2023-25, he could yet re-emerge as a quality hitter. That’d still be north of this year’s 29.5% league average, but not by an especially alarming measure.
From a service time vantage point, the demotion isn’t likely to impact Marte’s potential path to free agency. He entered the season needing only 33 days on the big league roster/injured list to reach two years of service. He’s already more than halfway there. He’ll very likely be back up this season, which would keep him on pace to hit the open market following the 2030 season (assuming he gets back on track and plays well enough to merit accruing six years of service, of course). It could cost him in arbitration, however. Marte was on a clear path to Super Two status, which would make him arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three, but if he spends a notable portion of time in the minors, he won’t reach Super Two designation after all.
In place of Marte, the Reds will apparently turn to the 25-year-old Hinds. He’s a career .191/.245/.506 hitter in 95 big league plate appearances. He’s been even more strikeout-prone in the majors (38.9%) than Marte has during his slump, but Hinds has enormous raw power and has gotten out to a big start in Louisville. He’s slashing .354/.475/.771 with five round-trippers in his first 61 cracks at the plate. More encouragingly, he’s walked a dozen times (19.7%) with a manageable 15 strikeouts (24.6%). Hinds chased more than 37% of pitches off the plate in Triple-A last year and nearly 40% in the majors. This year, he’s sitting on an improved 31.3% chase rate in Louisville.
Hinds wrecked Triple-A pitching last year, too (.302/.359/.563) and flashed potential 30-30 upside with 24 big flies and 21 steals in only 107 games. It seems unlikely that he’ll make enough contact to reach that ceiling, but his power is readily apparent and Statcast credited him with 98th percentile sprint speed in 2025. The power-speed combination is understandably alluring, and he’ll get another opportunity to show he can stick in the majors while Marte looks to get back on track down in Louisville.
Cubs Place Cade Horton On Injured List With Forearm Discomfort
Today: Speaking on ESPN 1000 radio, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reported that Horton is set to visit Dr. Keith Meister later today, following an inauspicious MRI (per ESPN 1000’s David Kaplan). While a second opinion from a well-known orthopedic surgeon doesn’t confirm bad news, it’s no doubt a worrisome development for the Cubs and their young right-hander.
April 3, 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.
April 3, 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.
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.