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Rays, Taylor Walls Avoid Arbitration

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The Rays announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Taylor Walls to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2026 season. In doing so, the two parties avoided an arbitration hearing. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Walls will earn a $1.4MM guarantee: a $1.35MM salary this coming season with a $50K buyout on a $2.45MM option for the ’26 campaign. The price of that option would be bumped by $50K, to $2.5MM, if Walls tallies 450 plate appearances, Topkin adds. Walls is represented by Vayner Sports.

Walls and Tampa Bay had exchanged figures last week, with the shortstop filing for a $1.575MM salary to the team’s $1.3MM submission. (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $1.3MM salary for Walls.) It’s the first trip through the arbitration process for the infielder, who’s under team control through 2027 regardless of the outcome of that 2026 option.

The 28-year-old Walls had a brutal season at the plate in 2024 but is a talented infield defender capable of handling multiple positions. In 252 plate appearances, he slashed only .183/.282/.248 with one homer, five doubles, three triples and 16 steals (in 20 attempts). Walls did continue to show a disciplined approach, walking in 12.3% of those 252 turns at the plate — right in line with his career 12.1% mark. His contact profile was sub-par, however. Walls averaged only 86.2 mph off the bat with a bleak 24% hard-hit rate, and he punched out in 26.6% of his plate appearances.

Defensive metrics are divided on Walls, who’s primarily been a shortstop (1983 big league innings) but also has ample experience at second base (524 innings) and the hot corner (419 innings). Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating think he’s a flat-out plus with the glove. DRS, in particular, credits Walls with a whopping career mark of +35 at shortstop alone (plus another 15 DRS between second and third). Statcast has generally favored his work at third base but is down on Walls at shortstop, pegging him at two outs below average in each of the past two seasons.

The Rays clearly feel Walls is better than Statcast measures him to be. At least insofar as making the plays he’s supposed to, there’s good evidence to back that up. Walls was charged with only three errors in last year’s 625 innings of defense. He made a combined eight errors across three positions in 792 innings in 2023.

Even if the Rays decline Walls’ option for the 2026 season, he’d be under team control and arb-eligible a second time. They’d likely only do so if they felt Walls comfortably projected for less than the 75% raise his option value represents — although in that scenario, he’d be a potential non-tender candidate as well.

For now, Walls is the favorite to open the 2025 season at shortstop, though he’ll have some competition from fellow middle infielder Jose Caballero. In all likelihood, one will start the year at short and the other will fill a utility role, although Osleivis Basabe could get himself back into the mix if he shows signs of a rebound from a dreadful 2024 season this spring.

The Opening Day assignment doesn’t necessarily carry as much weight as who’ll finish the season at shortstop, though. Walls, Caballero and to a lesser extent Basabe will all be in the mix, but all eyes will be on 2021 first rounder Carson Williams, whom Baseball America just this morning tabbed as MLB’s No. 11 overall prospect. Williams, regarded as a plus defender at short, posted a .256/.352/.469 slash in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting this past season, putting him about 42% better than average in that league, by measure of wRC+. The 21-year-old (22 in June) is likely ticketed for Triple-A to begin the season and could make his MLB debut at some point this summer, depending on how he fares early on.

Lou Trivino Works Out For Teams

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Free-agent righty Lou Trivino threw a bullpen session for interested clubs down in Florida yesterday, reports SI’s Pat Ragazzo. The incumbent Yankees were on hand to take a look, as were the Dodgers, Giants, Cubs, Reds, Royals and Guardians, per the report. That’s not an exhaustive list of the teams in attendance, but it speaks to a decent level of intrigue surrounding the 33-year-old Trivino, who’s on the mend from a series of arm injuries that have kept him off a big league mound since 2022.

Trivino was traded from the A’s to the Yankees alongside Frankie Montas back in 2022 and posted a pristine 1.66 ERA in 21 2/3 frames following his cross-country move to the Bronx. His 2023 season was torpedoed by an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery, however, and lingering elbow inflammation as well as a shoulder issue prevented Trivino from returning to the majors in 2024. He pitched 11 minor league frames as part of a rehab assignment before that shoulder issue popped up and shut him down.

At his best, Trivino throws hard, misses bats and picks up grounders at a well above-average rate. He averaged just shy of 96 mph on his four-seamer and sinker alike in the three seasons prior to his elbow troubles, and Trivino has whiffed nearly one-quarter of his MLB opponents while keeping 47.4% of batted balls against him on the ground. His command has never been great, evidenced by a 10.6% walk rate in the majors, but he was a key late-inning arm both in Oakland and more briefly in New York. He sports a career 3.86 ERA with 37 saves and 52 holds.

Ragazzo notes that Trivino was hitting 94 mph on his sinker in the workout for clubs. Obviously, that’s a ways shy of peak velocity, but spring training hasn’t even begun yet. It stands to reason that with a ramp-up period, Trivino could gain a bit more of that velocity back. A return to his 97 mph averages from early in his career — or even the 95.8 mph he averaged in ’22 — isn’t a certainty, but it’s at least relatively encouraging that he’s already within reach of his pre-injury velocity before even getting to work with a team.

Any of the clubs mentioned could make sense as a fit for Trivino, though if he’s looking for a clear path back to the big leagues, the Dodgers’ veteran-laden bullpen probably doesn’t offer that. (That said, L.A. has a knack for maximizing pitcher performance, which surely does hold appeal to a rehabbing veteran like Trivino.) The Yankees traded for Trivino once and re-signed him to a major league deal after non-tendering him post-2023. They clearly like him, though they only have three optionable relievers at the moment: Jake Cousins, Ian Hamilton and Fernando Cruz. The former two had strong seasons in the Bronx in 2024, while the latter was just acquired in the trade of Jose Trevino.

Dodgers Gauging Trade Interest In Ryan Brasier

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It’s been an eventful week in the Dodgers’  bullpen. Los Angeles agreed to sign top free-agent reliever Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72MM guarantee over the weekend and is working to finalize a deal with fellow late-inning weapon Kirby Yates. At the same time, they’ve learned of some forearm inflammation for top setup man Michael Kopech (which may or may not have influenced the decisions to more aggressively pursue Scott and Yates).

There could be more activity on the horizon. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports that with the likely need to open a 40-man spot — they’re currently at 39 players, with Scott and Yates yet to be announced — the Dodgers have been shopping around some of their “surplus” of big league players who could be squeezed out by the recent additions. Among the names being discussed with other clubs, per the report, is righty reliever Ryan Brasier.

Brasier, 37, signed a two-year deal with the Dodgers last winter. He’s guaranteed a total of $9MM over the term of the contract and is owed $4.5MM in 2025. The veteran righty has enjoyed a resurgence in L.A. after hitting a rough patch in his final couple years with the Red Sox. Brasier pitched to a solid 3.54 earned run average in ’24, albeit in a sample of just 28 innings. A calf strain shelved Brasier for more than three months this past year, though he finished the season healthy. Still, between that performance and a big second-half showing in L.A. the prior season, Brasier boasts a 1.89 ERA, 24.9% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate in 66 2/3 frames as a Dodger.

Strong as that performance has been, Brasier could find himself the odd man out. The Dodgers are adding Scott and likely Yates to a late-inning group that already includes Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia and 2024 breakout lefty Anthony Banda. Brasier was already used primarily in low-  and medium-leverage spots last year anyhow. Scott and Yates (again, if finalized) would add two premium high-leverage arms to the fold. The Dodgers could be without Kopech early in the season, but they’re still expecting to get more innings from him than they did last year, since he was a deadline pickup who didn’t join the club until late July. They’ll also hope for a healthier year for Treinen, who was limited to 46 2/3 innings in 2024.

Beyond the wealth of experienced names pushing Brasier to an ostensible low-leverage role, the Dodgers’ bullpen simply lacks flexibility as currently constructed. Vesia is the only Dodgers reliever who can be optioned, but he’s coming off a 1.76 ERA and 33.1% strikeout rate over 66 1/3 innings. He’s not going to be sent to Triple-A anytime soon. The Dodgers also seem likely to deploy a six-man rotation early on, leaving only seven spots in the bullpen. Simply adding Yates into the mix would seemingly necessitate a trade of a reliever, and it’s defensible if Brasier is viewed as the odd man out.

From the Dodgers’ perspective, moving Brasier would save more than $4.5MM anyhow. His contract contains $2MM per season worth of incentives based on appearances, and they’re of course in the top tier of luxury penalization. Brasier’s $4.5MM annual value on his contract comes with a 110% tax; he’s costing the Dodgers $9.45MM for the upcoming season. Dealing him won’t reduce their penalty level at all, but trimming nearly $10MM off the 2025 budget and opening up further roster space hold obvious appeal.

The looming additions of Scott and Yates to the roster aren’t the only moves on the Dodgers’ horizon. At some point, they’ll formally bring Clayton Kershaw back into the mix. The two parties could theoretically wait until camp opens so Kershaw’s deal can be accommodated by transferring a pitcher to the 60-day injured list, but there’d still be active roster considerations with that move. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May are all in the rotation mix at present. Scott, Yates, Phillips, Kopech, Treinen, Vesia and Banda are in the ’pen.

That’s 13 pitchers even without Kershaw. Injuries could sort that out organically, with Kopech an obvious possibility to miss some time early in the year. Having such depth is never bad for a club, but the potential for additional names to be squeezed off the 40-man roster is readily apparent. Among the players on the 40-man roster but ticketed for Triple-A are pitchers Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, Michael Grove, Ben Casparius, Justin Wrobleski and Nick Frasso.

Rich Hill, Jesse Chavez Plan To Pitch In 2025

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Veteran pitchers Rich Hill and Jesse Chavez are 45 and 41 years young, respectively, and both recently told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that they intend to pitch in 2025. Both hurlers appeared in the majors this past season, albeit quite briefly in Hill’s case.

Hill made clear from the beginning of the 2023-24 offseason that his plan was to sign midseason. Doing so, he hoped, would keep his arm fresh down the stretch after he faded badly in 2023. More importantly, it would afford him more time to be at home early in the year with his family and to coach his son’s team. He wound up signing an incredible eighth contract with the Red Sox in August but pitched just 3 2/3 MLB frames before being designated for assignment and released.

As recently as 2022, Hill pitched a full season and was generally effective, despite that being his age-42 campaign. That year saw him make 26 starts, pitch 124 1/3 innings and notch a respectable 4.27 ERA with a 20.7% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate — despite averaging just 88.5 mph on his four-seamer. He was out to a solid start in 2023 with the Pirates, working to uncannily similar numbers through 13 starts (4.23 ERA, 21.5 K%, 7.4 BB%). Hill hit a wall at that point, however, and limped to a 6.57 ERA over his final 74 innings.

Hill hinted earlier this offseason that while he was still (at the time) undecided about pitching in 2025, if he did so it would likely again be on more of a full-season schedule. He’s also suggested he wouldn’t limit himself to pitching with teams near his Boston-area home. Only time will tell whether a club takes a look, but there’s little harm in what would surely be a minor league deal and non-roster invitation to camp.

As for Chavez, he’s coming off a much different year. Though he’s on the “wrong” side of 40, Chavez looked solid. In 63 1/3 innings for the Braves, he notched a sharp 3.13 ERA with a passable, albeit below-average 20.8% strikeout rate and a quality 7.2% walk rate. Chavez’s sinker sat at a career-low 90.7 mph, and his cutter lagged further behind at 88.5 mph on average. But the crafty right-hander nevertheless enjoyed plenty of success, due in no small part to solid command and a plethora of weak contact.

Atlanta generally used Chavez in low-leverage spots last year, but he was a member of the team’s setup core as recently as 2023, when he picked up 13 holds and regularly appeared in medium- and high-leverage situations over the life of 36 games.

Despite his age, Chavez has now turned in four straight seasons with a sub-4.00 ERA. His collective earned run average dating back to 2021 is a sparkling 2.91, and he’s logged at least average walk rates every year along the way, with the ’24 campaign being the only one of the four wherein his strikeout rate was below-average. Chavez has posted better-than-average grounder rates in each of the past two seasons, too.

Chavez seems to find his way back to the Braves every season. He signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in 2021, was selected to the major league roster in June and quickly emerged as a key bullpen piece. He inked a minor league deal with the Cubs in 2022, made the Opening Day roster with Chicago, and was traded to the Braves less than three weeks later in exchange for Sean Newcomb, who’d been designated for assignment. The Braves traded him to the Angels at that year’s deadline, but when the Angels placed Chavez on waivers late in August, there were the Braves to once again claim him back.

Chavez signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in November 2022 and spent most of the 2023 season on their roster. He inked a minor league deal with the White Sox last winter, was cut loose late in camp and, to the shock of no one, signed a minor league deal with the Braves. They selected him to the 40-man roster three days later.

Another minor league deal between Chavez and the Braves isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion, but it sure wouldn’t come as much of a surprise, either. The fit is even more sensible with Atlanta already having lost right-hander Joe Jimenez to knee surgery that’ll probably wipe out his entire 2025 season.

Angels, Jose Quijada Avoid Arbitration

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The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Jose Quijada to a one-year contract with a club option for the 2026 season, avoiding arbitration in the process. Quijada, a client of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, will be paid $1.075MM this coming season, per the team. (The Angels are one of just a few major league teams that publicly announce financial details of their transactions.) The 2026 option is valued at $3.75MM.

Quijada had filed for a $1.14MM salary in his second trip through the arb process. He was recovering from Tommy John surgery during his first trip through arbitration and thus landed on an $840K salary that wasn’t too far north of last year’s $740K minimum. The Halos countered with a $975K proposal.

Today’s agreement checks in north of the midpoint between those two sums. Because it includes a club option, it won’t be considered a true “one-year deal” for the Angels or other clubs leaguewide; that’s important with regard to arbitration specifically, as arb negotiations are based on comps for prior one-year deals for players in the same service class. Even if the Angels decline the club option, Quijada would remain under their control for 2026 and would simply be arbitration-eligible once again.

The 29-year-old Quijada finished up his recovery from that 2023 Tommy John procedure in late July. He returned to the Halos and appeared in 22 games in the season’s final nine weeks, logging 19 1/3 innings with a tidy 3.26 ERA. He set down a hearty 28.6% of his opponents on strikes but also issued walks at an alarming 20.2% clip. Command has been a long-running issue for Quijada but not to that extent; in 108 2/3 prior big league innings, he’d walked 13.8% of batters faced.

Even with that problematic command, Quijada comes at an affordable rate and brings some clearly tantalizing traits to the table. He logged a big 14% swinging-strike rate this past season, in part due to an uncanny knack for missing bats within the strike zone. Opponents made contact at just a 78.8% clip on in-zone pitches offered by Quijada — well shy of the 85.2% league average. The lefty’s velocity also strengthened over the course of his return; he averaged 93.5 mph on his heater through his first two weeks off the injured list but sat 94 mph on average thereafter. With a bit more time to continue building up, he may well have returned to the 94.5 mph average he posted in his last full, healthy season in 2022.

With Quijada’s case now resolved, the Angels have cleared up one of three pending cases. Infielder Luis Rengifo filed for a $5.95MM salary. The team countered at $5.8MM. Outfielder Mickey Moniak filed at $2MM to the team’s $1.5MM. You can read more about the reasons for teams and players go to battle over ostensibly trivial sums like this in this 2015 piece I wrote after chatting with several general managers and assistant GMs around the league.

Mariners Outright Samad Taylor

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor, whom they designated for assignment last week, passed through waivers unclaimed and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma. He’ll remain with the organization and presumably head to major league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.

Seattle acquired Taylor, now 26, just under one calendar year ago. He’d been designated for assignment by Kansas City, and the M’s scooped him up by trading a player to be named later (eventually announced as Natanael Garabitos) to the Royals in return.

Taylor appeared in only three games for the Mariners this past season, going 2-for-5 in that time. He spent the vast majority of the season in Tacoma, where he posted a .262/.352/.380 slash in 136 games and 599 plate appearances. Taylor’s 11.4% walk rate and hefty 50 stolen bases are both plenty appealing, but he posted bottom-of-the-scale batted-ball metrics: an 86.1 mph average exit velocity and 26.6% hard-hit rate in Tacoma. He also fanned in 26% of his plate appearances.

Defensively, Taylor has played primarily second base in his career, though has has experience at shortstop, third base and all three outfield slots. The Mariners will surely be happy to stash that versatility, blistering speed and patient approach at the plate in the upper minors as non-roster depth.

Blue Jays, Astros Among Teams Interested In Jurickson Profar

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It’s been a quiet winter for Jurickson Profar thus far, but with fellow outfielders Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hernandez and Tyler O’Neill all off the board now, Profar stands as the top corner outfield bat on the market. The Blue Jays, who just signed Santander for five years, and the Astros are among the teams with interest in the switch-hitting Profar, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported on the MLB Network this morning (video link). The incumbent Padres have also been tied to Profar this winter and very clearly love him as a player and person, but it’s far from clear the  front office will have that kind of spending power. The Friars have reportedly been working to scale back payroll this winter, and that was before recent ownership tumult.

Profar, 32 next month, is fresh off a career year where he improved in just about every measurable category. His .280 average, .380 on-base percentage and .459 slugging percentage all ranked as career-best marks. The former top prospect made massive gains in exit velocity, barrel rate and hard-hit rate, all while posting his best walk rate (11.4%) since 2021 and his lowest strikeout rate (15.1%) since 2020. Profar has long had a plus eye and excellent bat-to-ball skills, but the contact he made was often lacking punch. That wasn’t at all the case in 2024, as he swatted a career-high 24 homers and tacked on 29 doubles in 158 games/668 plate appearances.

The fit with Toronto isn’t as clean with Santander now in the fold on a $92.5MM contract, but there’s still room to move things around. Playing Santander regularly in right field — or having Santander and George Springer split time between right field and designated hitter — would open up left field for Profar (who could see occasional DH time himself). That’d likely come at the expense of playing time for Nathan Lukes and Will Wagner, but Profar would be a pronounced upgrade over both if he can replicate or even approximate last year’s breakout showing.

Payroll-wise, the Jays’ signing of Santander pushed them up into the second tier of luxury penalization. They very narrowly dipped under the tax line in 2024, resetting their penalty level in the process, meaning they’d be on the hook for a 32% for any dollars allocated to Profar (or another free agent). They’re currently projected by RosterResource at $237MM of Opening Day payroll, which would be a club record.

Turning to Houston, their outfield is a clear weak spot on the roster — at least on paper — following the trade of Kyle Tucker to the Cubs. Houston will have Jake Meyer in center field, where he’ll be flanked by a combination of Chas McCormick, Taylor Trammell and Mauricio Dubon. Other options on the 40-man roster include Kenedy Corona, Pedro Leon and Cooper Hummel. Clearly, an upgrade would be a worthwhile pursuit.

Ownership’s wherewithal to make such an addition is an open question. Jim Crane has said he’s open to paying the luxury tax for a second straight season — and just the second time in his ownership tenure — but there’s been mixed messaging with regard to his actions. On the one hand, Houston offered Alex Bregman a reported six-year, $156MM contract. That’s a legitimate offer, and the corresponding $26MM average annual value would’ve sent the ’Stros careening into the middle tiers of luxury penalty.

On the other hand, trading Tucker, even with an extension unlikely, represents a step in the opposite direction. Granted, that swap helped to pave the way for the signing of Christian Walker on a three-year, $60MM deal. But, it can be argued that if Crane were truly amenable to stepping over that tax threshold, he could’ve fit Tucker and Walker onto the roster. The team has also been shopping reliever Ryan Pressly throughout the offseason, and general manager Dana Brown even kicked the winter off by speaking of a need to “get creative” with payroll. None of those facts portend a willingness to exceed the tax barrier — at least not by any notable amount.

As things stand, RosterResource has the Astros over the tax threshold, but only by a narrow margin of about $3MM. A trade of Pressly or another player — e.g. McCormick, Dubon, Victor Caratini — could drop them back under that line, but it’d be tough to shoehorn Profar in under the barrier without finding a trade partner for Pressly and another player. If Crane is willing to take a small CBT hit, knowing dead-money commitments to Jose Abreu and Rafael Montero will help them reset their penalty level next offseason, then moving Pressly on its own might be enough to make things line up.

Time will tell how the market for Profar plays out, but he’s now the most-productive left fielder still sitting on the market. He’s reportedly been seeking a three-year pact. It’s unlikely that’d come with the type of AAV secured by Hernandez ($22MM) or Santander ($18.5MM), but something in the range of O’Neill’s three-year, $49.5MM contract wouldn’t have seemed too outlandish coming into the offseason. With many teams already having filled their roster needs, demand might not be sufficient to get Profar to such heights, but a multi-year deal and eight-figure AAV still seem plenty feasible.

Dodgers, Kirby Yates Reportedly Reach “Tentative” Agreement

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10:55am: There’s nothing official in place yet, per reports from Jack Harris of the L.A. Times and Ken Rosenthal and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (among others). Harris writes that the two parties are “working toward a deal,” while The Athletic indicates “serious” negotiations are taking place. There could simply be semantics at play. Nightengale’s initial report plainly stated that a physical still needs to take place, so there’s never been firm indication of a final deal yet. A physical for a 38-year-old pitcher with Yates’ injury history isn’t necessarily a layup, but that seems to be the stage they’ve reached. If all goes well, a deal would be announced in the next few days.

9:52am: The Dodgers and reliever Kirby Yates have reached a “tentative” agreement, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The contract is pending completion of a physical. Yates, a client of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, would be the second high-profile bullpen addition for the Dodgers in recent days; they also inked Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72MM deal over the weekend. If the physical goes well and the deal is indeed finalized, L.A. will need to make a corresponding transaction to remove someone from the 40-man roster.

It’s the latest strike in an offseason spending blitz that has seen the Dodgers make free agent plays for Scott, Blake Snell, Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Treinen, Michael Conforto and international stars Hyeseong Kim and Roki Sasaki. Those additions come as Los Angeles looks to become the first repeat World Series champion since the Yankees’ threepeat back in 1998-2000.

Manager Dave Roberts’ bullpen has been completely remade over the past six months, beginning with the deadline acquisition of Michael Kopech. In late July, closer Evan Phillips was struggling at the time of that Kopech acquisition, and much of the bullpen was in a state of flux. Since then, the Dodgers have acquired Kopech, activated Treinen from the injured list (and, this offseason, re-signed him to a two-year deal) and now signed both Scott and Yates in free agency. A late-inning contingent of Scott, Yates, Kopech, Phillips and Treinen is very arguably the most talented quintet of any team in baseball.

It should be noted, however, that Nightengale suggests the Dodgers recently learned of an injury to Kopech that could cost him at least a month of the season. Details on said injury have yet to surface, but that revelation likely played a part in the team’s decision to close an agreement with Yates.

Yates himself isn’t without risk. He’ll turn 38 in March, and he pitched all of 11 major league innings from 2020-22 due to injuries (Tommy John surgery, most notably). The veteran closer returned with a healthy but shaky season for the 2023 Braves, logging a sharp 3.28 ERA in 60 1/3 innings but also walking nearly 15% of his opponents. He improved across the board with the 2024 Rangers, firing 61 2/3 innings of 1.17 ERA ball with a gargantuan 35.9% strikeout rate. His 11.8% walk rate was still noticeably higher than the 8.2% league average but a substantial improvement over his 2023 campaign nonetheless.

Yates ranked second among all free agent relievers in strikeout rate last year, trailing only Aroldis Chapman. He paced all qualified free agent relievers in ERA and ranked seventh or better in SIERA (2.85), K-BB% (24.1) and swinging-strike rate (15.2%). No qualified free agent reliever missed bats within the strike zone as much as Yates; his opponents’ 74.3% contact rate on pitches in the strike zone sat at the top of this year’s free agent class and sat as the third-best mark in all of baseball for pitchers with at least 60 innings pitched, trailing only Josh Hader and Mason Miller.

Dating back to his breakout with the 2018 Padres, Yates has consistently been outstanding when healthy enough to take the hill. He’s pitched 257 innings in that time and boasts a 2.21 ERA, 35.5% strikeout rate, 10% walk rate and 15.2% swinging-strike rate. He’s leaned on a lethal four-seamer and splitter pairing that’s helped him miss bats in droves while piling up 93 saves and 30 holds in 262 appearances on the mound.

The Dodgers are already well into the fourth and final tier of luxury penalization. Any dollars allocated to Yates will come with a 110% tax, as was the case with Scott. RosterResource already projects the team’s luxury tax ledger to sit at a staggering $371MM; the addition of Yates could push their CBT number close to $400MM. The Dodgers were already set to owe around $108MM in overage taxes before the signing of Yates; presuming he gets an eight-figure salary, they’ll very likely owe more than $120MM in taxes alone.

Cubs, Trevor Richards Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Trevor Richards, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. Richards, a client of Apex Baseball, will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.

The 31-year-old Richards has spent the bulk of the past four seasons with the Blue Jays but was traded to the Twins just prior to the 2024 trade deadline. He posted a 4.55 ERA with a 22.4% strikeout rate and a career-high 12.6% walk rate between Toronto and Minnesota this past season and carries a 4.60 earned run average over the past four seasons.

Richards has posted a combined 29.1% strikeout rate in 266 1/3 innings dating back to 2021, showing a clear ability to miss bats. He’s battled command troubles along the way, however, both in terms of finding the strike zone at all (11.3% walk rate, 29 wild pitches) and in terms of precision when he does put the ball over the plate (1.39 HR/9).

Although Richards is right-handed, he’s been far more effective against lefties than against righties, due in large part to his top secondary offering being a plus changeup. Lefty batters have hit just .220/.315/.371 against Richards in his career, while righties have a more productive .248/.320/.433 slash.

The Cubs have worked to add to their bullpen this offseason but thus far have made primarily marginal acquisitions. Chicago bid aggressively on top closer Tanner Scott — a notable departure from president Jed Hoyer’s aversion to multi-year deals for relievers — but were reportedly the runner-up prior to the Dodgers. The Cubs have signed Caleb Thielbar and acquired Eli Morgan from the Guardians. They’ll both be in the Opening Day bullpen. Other offseason pickups include DFA additions Matt Festa (acquired for cash) and Rob Zastryzny (claimed off waivers). Richards joins a group of non-roster signings also featuring Phil Bickford, Ben Heller and Brooks Kriske.

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