Tucker Davidson Elects Free Agency
The Orioles announced this morning that left-hander Tucker Davidson, whom they designated for assignment on the final day of the regular season, elected free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.
A former top prospect with the Braves, Davidson bounced to the Angels and Royals before landing with the O’s for the 2024 season. He posted 4 2/3 scoreless frames in the majors this year, albeit with two walks against just one strikeout. The bulk of his season was spent in Norfolk, where he logged 115 2/3 innings with a 3.89 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, a 9.1% walk rate and a 45.7% ground-ball rate.
The 28-year-old Davidson split his time in Norfolk between the rotation and the bullpen, faring far better in the former. While his numbers as a starter were passable — 4.48 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate — he was much more successful coming out of the ‘pen. In 44 relief innings, he notched a 2.45 ERA, 23% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. As a starter, opponents batted .266/.336/.431 against Davidson this season. They flailed away at a .195/.263/.335 pace when he was pitching in relief.
Davidson will turn 29 in March. To this point in his big league career, he’s posted a 5.76 ERA in 129 2/3 innings. Certainly, that’s not an exciting profile, but there’s reason for cautious optimism moving forward. His work in relief this year was strong, and the brief MLB look he had with the Orioles featured a vary different pitch mix than he’s had in seasons past. Davidson has traditionally focused on a four-seam/slider combination, mixing in an occasional curveball as a change of pace. The Orioles had him scale back the usage of both his four-seamer and slider while adding a sinker and splitter that he used about 12% of the time each.
In all likelihood, Davidson will still be looking for a minor league deal this winter, but a former top prospect on the right side of 30 with solid Triple-A numbers and a tweaked pitch mix creates more intrigue than many other minor league free agents. He’ll be an option for clubs seeking rotation and bullpen depth alike.
Braves Expect To Exercise Club Options On Ozuna, Bummer, d’Arnaud
The Braves are planning to exercise their 2025 club options on designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, left-hander Aaron Bummer and catcher Travis d’Arnaud, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos implied as much at today’s end-of-season press conference, saying each has “put himself in a good spot.” All three had strong seasons — Ozuna in particular — so none of the decisions should register as a major surprise. Ozuna’s option calls for a $16MM salary next season, while Bummer will be paid $7.25MM and d’Arnaud $8MM.
Ozuna, 34 next month, slugged 39 home runs this season — the second-highest mark of his career — and turned in a robust .302/.378/.546 slash on the season. That production clocked in at a weighty 54% better than league-average, by measure of wRC+ (154). That’s the second-best mark of Ozuna’s career and his best mark in a full, 162-game campaign; his career-high 178 mark came during the shortened 2020 season. Dating back to 2023, Ozuna has clobbered 79 home runs for the Braves and played in all but 18 of their games.
Atlanta’s deadline acquisition of Jorge Soler makes the 2025 roster a bit clunky with Ozuna also in the fold. Both are nominal corner outfielders who are best deployed primarily as a designated hitter. The Braves plugged Soler into their injury-plagued outfield mix after acquiring him this summer, in hopes of bolstering a lineup that was missing Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II at the time.
Soler did just that, hitting .243/.356/.493 and clubbing nine homers in 193 plate appearances in his return to Atlanta, but he also posted brutal defensive marks in a third of a season of left field work (-10 Defensive Runs Saved, -6 Outs Above Average). With Soler signed through 2026, Atlanta could try to live with his defense for a year and then turn Ozuna’s DH slot over to Soler in 2026, but there will surely be at least some degree of trade chatter surrounding Soler this winter as well.
As for the other two option calls, both seemed obvious. Bummer was acquired from the White Sox last offseason and had a nice first year in his new environs, rebounding from a down year to provide 55 1/3 innings of 3.58 ERA ball with even better underlying metrics. The 6’3″ southpaw punched out 28.3% of his opponents and issued walks at only a 7.4% clip — the second-lowest mark of his career. His 59.7% ground-ball rate, while lower than his mammoth 64.9% career mark, was still about 17 percentage points higher than the league average. Add in the fact that his option came with a $1.25MM buyout (effectively making it a net $6MM call) and that his contract also contains a $7.5MM club option for 2026, and there was never much doubt he’d be back in ’25.
Turning to the 35-year-old d’Arnaud (36 in February), he’ll be back for a sixth season at Truist Park after slashing .238/.302/.436 with 15 homers in 341 plate appearances. That’s only a bit better than league-average on a rate basis (103 wRC+), but it’s strong production relative to catchers throughout the league, who tend to be about 10% worse than average at the plate. It’s particularly stout production for a team’s No. 2 catcher, which is the role d’Arnaud will occupy with Sean Murphy still in the early stages of a six-year contract.
Injuries to Murphy expanded d’Arnaud’s workload this year, and he handled the increased usage reasonably well on both sides of the plate. His 19.1% caught-stealing rate was below par, but not by much, and his framing work was roughly average. Statcast credited him as slightly better than average when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt. As d’Arnaud enters his age-36 season, it’s always possible that his defensive skills could drop off sharply, but assuming better health from Murphy, d’Arnaud will probably also be asked to shoulder a smaller workload than 2024’s 706 innings.
The Braves hold a fourth club option as well — a $7MM option on right-hander Luke Jackson. Atlanta reacquired the longtime Brave alongside Soler in that deadline swap with the Giants. He pitched 18 innings with a 4.50 ERA and huge 31% strikeout rate … but also a 13.1% walk rate. Coupled with his time in San Francisco, he finished the season with a 5.09 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate in 53 innings.
Jackson’s option comes with a $2MM buyout, but even at a net $5MM price the Braves seem likely to move on. Atlanta has a deep (and expensive) bullpen featuring Raisel Iglesias, Joe Jimenez, Pierce Johnson and the aforementioned Bummer. That quartet alone will combine for $39.75MM in 2025 salary. The Braves will also see lefty Dylan Lee reach arbitration for the first time.
Mets Outright Eddy Alvarez
Infielder Eddy Alvarez went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Mets earlier this week, per the league transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Syracuse but can reject that assignment to become a free agent — a path he’ll all but certainly take.
The Mets acquired Alvarez from the Red Sox in exchange for cash — a rare September swap that was allowed because Alvarez had been on a minor league contract at the time of the deal. New York selected him to the big league roster to help patch over its infield depth while dealing with multiple injuries. He went hitless in 11 trips to the plate and also pitched a scoreless inning of mop-up relief in a blowout loss. Alvarez was ineligible for the Mets’ postseason roster because he joined the organization after Aug. 31.
In parts of four big league campaigns, Alvarez is a .170/.257/.244 hitter in 154 plate appearances. He’s a career .277/.381/.467 hitter in eight Triple-A campaigns, however. He’s played primarily shortstop in his pro career but also has nearly 2000 innings at second base, more than 700 innings at third base, more than 300 innings in both outfield corners and 106 innings in center field over the course of 11 professional seasons.
Brent Strom Won’t Return As Diamondbacks Pitching Coach
2:57pm: USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that Strom, Fetters and Carlson have been fired by the Diamondbacks. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 adds that there are no other changes expected for the coaching staff and suggests the new pitching coach could be hired from outside the organization.
2:53pm: Changes are coming to the D-backs coaching staff in 2025. Pitching coach Brent Strom, bullpen coach Mike Fetters and assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson will not return in their current roles, Steve Gilbert of MLB.com reports. It’s not clear whether any of the three will be reassigned and hold a new position within the organization or if they’re moving on entirely.
The 75-year-old Strom’s run as Arizona’s pitching coach will draw to a close after three seasons. The longtime Astros coach hinted at retirement following the 2021 season and announced shortly thereafter that he would not return for a ninth season in Houston. At the time he stepped away from the Astros he noted “I haven’t had a summer in a long time” and quipped “I may just go lie on a beach in Mexico.”
Less than two weeks later, he was hired by the Diamondbacks. It was a move that surprised many, given his prior comments, but Strom resides in the Tucson area and felt the fresh challenge of working with a new organization near his home was too tempting to pass up.
Time will tell whether he plans to continue coaching, but he’s now spent four decades as either a major league coach (Astros, Royals, D-backs) or a minor league pitching coordinator/pitching instructor (Dodgers, Expos, Padres, Cardinals). It would certainly be understandable if he finally plans to step away from the game and enjoy retired life, though he’s among the most respected pitching minds in the game and would surely have interest from other clubs in a variety of roles — if the D-backs aren’t bringing him back in another capacity, of course.
Fetters has been with the D-backs organization for more than a decade, spending time as a scout before joining the coaching staff in 2012. He’s been Arizona’s bullpen coach for the past six seasons. Now 59 years old, he was a first-round pick by the Angels back in 1986 and went on to enjoy a 16-year career as a big league reliever, totaling more than 700 innings and piling up exactly 100 saves. The Diamondbacks are the only organization for which he has ever coached.
Carlson, 54, pitched in parts of four big league seasons and has been the team’s assistant pitching coach for three years. Prior to that role, he was a minor league pitching coach with the D-backs and also served as the organization’s minor league pitching coordinator.
Brown: Astros May Have To Get “Creative” With Payroll
The Astros’ incredible run of seven consecutive runs to the American League Championship Series ended yesterday when they ran into a scorching-hot Tigers club helmed by former Houston skipper A.J. Hinch. Although the ‘Stros had their shortest season since 2016 and have a number of high-profile free agents coming off the books, general manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada both made clear in addressing the team’s beat that there’s no plan to step back. Houston will unsurprisingly take aim at another deep postseason run next year, although the looming offseason could be one punctuated by some tighter-than-usual financial parameters.
“I think we’re going to have to make some wise decisions as to – are there younger players that we can call up and put in certain roles to maybe save some money here and … allocate that money to other places,” Brown said Thursday (X link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle. “…We may have to get a little bit creative.”
That’s an ominous sentiment for any fan to hear from a team’s GM at the onset of the offseason. A look at Houston’s payroll, however, reveals a similarly ominous setup. The Astros opened the 2024 season with a payroll around $235MM and finished out the year north of $244MM, per RosterResource. They already have $147MM in guaranteed contracts on next year’s books (including dead-money commitments to Jose Abreu and Rafael Montero). That doesn’t include a 10-player arbitration class — headlined by Framber Valdez and Kyle Tucker — projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to cost more than $57MM. Add in pre-arbitration players to round out the roster, and the Astros are sitting around the $212MM mark next year before making a single addition.
In the absence of any notable free agent departures, perhaps that’d be workable, but the Astros will see franchise cornerstone Alex Bregman reach the open market for the first time in his career next month. Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander is also a free agent, as is deadline pickup Yusei Kikuchi, who thrived in the Houston rotation down the stretch. Relievers Caleb Ferguson, Hector Neris and Kendall Graveman are free agents as well, as are role players Jason Heyward and Ben Gamel.
Bregman, of course, is the most notable name of the bunch. Espada plainly stated that he hopes Bregman will return and heaped praise onto the former No. 2 overall pick for not only his on-field contributions but the manner in which he’s been the heart and soul of the team’s clubhouse.
“I’ve talked a lot about how much I love the individual, the human,” Espada said of Bregman (X link via MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart). “I think what makes this team really good is the character of the people in clubhouse. He’s one of the best I’ve ever been around. I would love to have Bregman playing third base for us next year.”
Whether that’s feasible remains an open question. Teammate Jose Altuve has stumped for Bregman’s return in recent days — even before the team’s elimination — and Brown has said since being hired in the 2022-23 offseason that he hopes to keep Bregman in Houston for the entirety of his career. That talk has yet to manifest in the form of a contract, although the Astros are reportedly expected to put forth a formal offer soon. Brown doubled down on his hope of keeping Bregman and plans to talk with agent Scott Boras about a reunion (X link via McTaggart), but there are reasons to be skeptical of a deal coming to fruition.
The Astros, under owner Jim Crane, have never given out a contract longer than Yordan Alvarez‘s six-year, $115MM deal — nor have they given out a contract worth a larger guarantee than Jose Altuve‘s most recent $151MM extension. Josh Hader‘s five-year contract is the lengthiest and largest in guaranteed money that Houston has given to a free agent under current ownership. Bregman stands as one of the top-five free agents on this season’s market, arguably the No. 2 or 3 name in this year’s class behind Juan Soto.
Hitting the market in advance of his age-31 season, Bregman will have a case for a six- or possibly seven-year deal. He’s a year younger than fellow third baseman Matt Chapman, who just inked a six-year, $151MM extension to stay in San Francisco. Seven-year guarantees for position players beginning in their age-31 season or later are rare, as shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, though Marcus Semien (seven years, $175MM with the Rangers) stands as a recent prominent example.
Even if Bregman is limited to “only” six years, he’ll surely seek a larger guarantee than Chapman just received last month. Chapman didn’t have the benefit of open-market bidding, and Bregman, even if he can’t match Chapman’s wizardry with the glove, is a quality defender who has been the more consistent offensive player of the pair. In addition to the Astros, clubs like the Yankees, Tigers, Blue Jays, Mariners, Royals and Nationals could be in the market for third base help. Unexpected suitors frequently emerge in pursuit of top-tier free agents, too.
Given Bregman’s tenure with the team and value on and off the field, it’s certainly feasible that Crane could push beyond his previous comfort levels to keep him in the fold. In that case, Bregman would likely push Houston close to $240MM of payroll obligations — or at least north of $230MM on a backloaded deal. Creatively structuring the contract, however, wouldn’t impact the luxury tax in the same way it does bottom-line payroll. Luxury tax is calculated based on contracts’ average annual value; re-signing Bregman would push the Astros into tax territory for a second straight season and only the third time under Crane’s ownership.
Brown left open the door for virtually any possibility, telling reporters the Astros “are not taking anything off the table in terms of what we’ll do” (link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Still, it’s hard to envision a scenario where they both re-sign Bregman and add the bullpen pieces he also said will be a focus this winter (X link via McTaggart). Houston could always turn to the trade market to drop some payroll from other areas of the roster, but they surely won’t consider moving Altuve, Alvarez, Tucker or Valdez, and the contracts of Josh Hader and Lance McCullers Jr. aren’t going to draw interest from other clubs. Ryan Pressly‘s remaining one year and $14MM could be movable, but flipping him would only further the need to add bullpen arms.
One area the Astros don’t seem likely to spend heavily is in the rotation. Brown called next year’s staff “stacked.” The Astros will bring back Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti. Injured righties McCullers and Luis Garcia will hopefully be ready for the start of the season after missing all of 2024. Cristian Javier, Jose Urquidy (if he’s tendered a contract) and J.P. France could all be midseason reinforcements. Prospect Ryan Gusto, 25, had a nice season in Triple-A (3.70 ERA, 22.6 K%, 8.5 BB%, 148 1/3 innings).
It’s a group that, as of right now, doesn’t include Verlander. Brown touched on the subject of the three-time Cy Young winner (X link via McTaggart), noting that it “sounds like he wants to come back” but that he’ll “have some discussions with our front office … as to what’s best for the team.” Verlander spent much of the 2024 season on the injured list due to shoulder and neck injuries. He struggled badly enough down the stretch in his final six starts (8.89 ERA) that he wasn’t included on the team’s roster for the Wild Card Series against Detroit. With the Astros facing mounting payroll issues and already possessing a fairly deep stock of arms, a reunion may not be in the cards.
Young: Rangers Will Prioritize Pitching, Explore Reunions With Eovaldi, Heaney
The Rangers went from the top of the MLB mountain to missing the playoffs in the span of one season, due in no small part to an offense that sputtered throughout the season. Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim were among the regulars who struggled at the plate, while Texas was plagued by injuries to Corey Seager, Josh Jung and Evan Carter, among others. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News points out, the Rangers floundered against four-seam fastballs in particular.
Be that as it may, president of baseball operations Chris Young’s end-of-season press conference struck an optimistic tone regarding the in-house hitters the Rangers currently possess. “The biggest remedy, in my opinion, is improving the guys we currently have,” Young said (via Grant). The recently extended Rangers baseball ops leader called internal improvements to the lineup a “heavy priority” heading into next season.
With regard to outside additions, those will come more on the pitching side of the roster. MLB.com’s Kennedi Landri writes that Young specifically mentioned that he’d like to retain impending free agents Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney. Eovaldi triggered a $20MM player option this season when he reached a combined 300 innings between 2023-24, but he’s widely expected to decline that in favor of a return to the market (barring a hypothetical extension from his current club). Heaney exercised a player option following the 2023 season and returned to make 31 solid starts in this year’s rotation.
“As far as Evo and Andrew go, those are priorities for us,” said Young. “We love those guys. They helped us win a World Series. We would love to bring those guys back, and we’re going to explore every way we can to make that happen.”
Entering the 2025 season, Texas won’t be short on rotation options. Jacob deGrom should be the Opening Day starter now that he’s recovered from Tommy John surgery, though counting on him for a full slate of 30-plus starts doesn’t feel realistic when he hasn’t reached that total since 2019. He’ll be joined by Jon Gray, Tyler Mahle (also in his first full season post-Tommy John) and some combination of Dane Dunning, Cody Bradford, Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. With deGrom and Mahle both facing workload concerns and the bulk of the team’s other options yet to pitch a full season in a big league rotation, it’s understandable that the Rangers feel it not just prudent but pivotal to fortify the starting staff.
Reunions with Eovaldi and/or Heaney won’t come cheaply, however. Eovaldi’s two-year, $34MM deal proved to be a bargain, even as incentives ballooned his guarantee to a total of $38.5MM over his two years. He signed that deal coming off an injury-shortened year with the Red Sox, who’d issued him a qualifying offer and thus tied him to draft pick compensation. Now healthy and unencumbered by the weight of a QO, he should be able to top that $34MM guarantee even though he’s two years older than during his last trip to the open market.
Heaney, similarly, was coming off a season of just 72 2/3 innings with the Dodgers. He hasn’t looked as dominant in Texas as he did during that abbreviated run with L.A., but he just gave the Rangers a combined 307 1/3 innings of 4.22 ERA ball with more promising strikeout and walk rates of 23.2% and 7.6%, respectively. He could find another two-year deal in the market, and it’s possible that would come with a larger guarantee than the $25MM term on his last pact.
The extent to which Texas will be able to spend in free agency is not yet clear. RosterResource pegs them with about $148MM worth of 2025 commitments, and that’s not including arbitration raises for Dunning, Heim, Sborz, Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras — a group that MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects for a combined $25.5MM. Add in a slate of league-minimum players, and Texas is looking at around $185MM in total projected salary for next year’s 26-man roster. That’s $40MM shy of where they opened the 2024 season, so there’s clearly some room to spend, but that $40MM could dry up quickly if the Rangers are intent not only on adding at least one starter, but also on replacing effectively their entire late-inning relief corps.
To say Texas is likely to be active in the bullpen market would be putting things mildly. Kirby Yates, David Robertson, Jose Leclerc and Jose Urena — their top four relievers by innings pitched — are all free agents. Deadline acquisition Andrew Chafin has a $6.5MM club option ($500K buyout) that is not a lock to be exercised. Robertson has a $7MM mutual option ($1.5MM buyout) and will very likely decline his end of it. Yates, Robertson, Leclerc, Chafin and Josh Sborz — who missed most of the season due to shoulder problems — were the team’s go-to options in high-leverage spots.
Young didn’t comment on what level of increase will or won’t be possible. He plans to meet with majority owner Ray Davis in the near future to outline a spending plan. While Young avoided any firm declarations on payroll, he spoke about uncertainty regarding the team’s endeavors to create a proprietary regional sports network and pledged to build a “very good roster with whatever resources we have.”
On the surface, that’s a far cry from his Aug. 2021 comments wherein he pledged to be “very active” in free agency — and then followed through with blockbuster signings of Seager and Marcus Semien. More context on the Rangers’ potential spending figures to come to light as the onset of free agency draws nearer, but given the team’s current financial obligations and needs up and down the pitching staff, it’s hardly a shock that Young is prioritizing arms and hoping to see a talented core of hitters rebound at the plate next season.
Marlins Will Not Retain Any Of 2024 Coaching Staff
1:20pm: Also among the cuts were head athletic trainer Lee Meyer and strength & conditioning coach Brendan Verner, per Mish and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. None of the coaches being dismissed were under contract for the 2025 season, per the report. Still, an overhaul of this magnitude is borderline unprecedented in recent big league history.
11:40am: The Marlins are gutting their coaching staff, as Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that the entire staff has been informed it will not return for the 2025 season. Mish notes that there are a couple “exceptions” who have been told there’s some interest in a reunion, but even that’s dependent on the hiring of the incoming manager and any preferences that person may have. Specifically, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that bench coach Luis Urueta and first base/outfield coach Jon Jay have been told there’s interest in a reunion, pending the managerial search. Both will be free to pursue other opportunities in the meantime, however.
All of this aligns with a report last night from Isaac Azout of Fish On First, who tweeted that the Marlins’ firings were being described to him as a “blood bath” that extended to the coaching staff, clubhouse attendants, performance staff and more.
Manager Skip Schumaker already departed the organization over the weekend. His impending exit was one of the worst-kept secrets around the league. The former big league utilityman and Cardinals bench coach was hired by former Marlins GM Kim Ng and won NL Manager of the Year honors last season in his rookie effort. His original two-year contract included an option for the 2025 season. However, after the Marlins hired Rays GM Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations, prompting Ng to walk away from the organization. Schumaker reportedly voiced frustration with the club’s direction — understandably so, given last year’s playoff berth — and management agreed to void the 2025 club option on his deal in order to allow him to explore new opportunities.
In addition to Urueta and Jay, today’s news presumably indicates that hitting coach John Mabry, assistant hitting coaches Bill Mueller and Jason Hart, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., third base coach Griffin Benedict, infield coach Jody Reed, bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda, bullpen coordinator Rob Flippo and field coordinator Rod Barajas will all be at the very least free to pursue other opportunities, if not dismissed outright.
Among the group, Stottlemyre figures to be a particularly hot commodity on the coaching market. He’s spent a dozen years on big league coaching staffs, serving as both a pitching coach and bullpen coach in addition to prior stints as a minor league pitching coordinator. He’s worked with the D-backs and Mariners organizations in the past but has spent the past seven years as the pitching coach in Miami, building a strong reputation along the way.
While the Marlins have regularly been a doormat in the NL East — with the exception of the 2020 and 2023 seasons — a strong core of touted young pitching has been a hallmark of the team in recent years. Stottlemyre alone isn’t to credit for that, of course, but his influence on the staff and the organization’s pitching development as a whole is clear. Cepeda, it should be noted, has been in lockstep with Stottlemyre throughout his time in the organization. He was hired as the Marlins’ bullpen coach back in 2019. The two have worked alongside one another for seven years.
That’s not to say others on the staff won’t be coveted free agents in their own right. Urueta spent 15 years in the D-backs system, rose to their bench coach under Torey Lovullo, and has interviewed for MLB managerial posts in the past. Mabry and Mueller, in addition to lengthy big league careers, have extensive coaching backgrounds across multiple organizations. Barajas, who also had a lengthy big league career, has served as the bench coach and interim manager of the Padres and has interviewed for various managerial posts in recent years (in addition to several years as a minor league manager in San Diego’s system). Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat speculates that Jay could wind up a target of the Cardinals, for whom he played six MLB seasons — though Jay could also join Schumaker wherever he lands his next managerial assignment.
Broadly speaking, the Miami coaching staff can hardly be faulted for the disastrous record this season. Bendix spent most of the 2023-24 offseason focused on reshaping the baseball operations department and did little to augment the actual Marlins roster. Injuries waylaid much of the pitching staff, and when Miami opened the season with a significant losing streak, the front office wasted little time in waving the white flag. Luis Arraez was traded to San Diego in early May, signaling exactly what type of direction the new baseball ops staff would be taking. No manager or coaching staff could’ve spun the ’24 Marlins into a contender, and other clubs will surely be cognizant of that as they show interest in a wave of newly available coaching talent.
Ross Atkins Will Return As Blue Jays’ General Manager In 2025
11:00am: Atkins revealed during his own media availability that bench coach and offensive coordinator Don Mattingly will no longer oversee the team’s offense; he’ll fill a “more traditional” bench coach role. Between the change in Mattingly’s role and the reported firing of hitting coach Guillermo Martinez — which Atkins confirmed — the team will conduct an external search to bring in new voice to oversee the team’s offense.
10:15am: Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro is currently meeting with the media on the heels of a season he described as a “bitter disappointment” and announced that Ross Atkins will return as the team’s general manager for the 2025 season. “There won’t be a change with Ross,” said Shapiro. (Readers can watch the live press conference via Sportsnet.) The 2024 season was Atkins’ ninth season as Toronto’s general manager after spending 14 seasons as an integral part of Cleveland’s player development department. He signed a five-year contract extension covering the 2022-26 seasons back in April of 2021.
This past season was indeed a disaster for the Jays, who finished out the season at 74-88 — last place in the American League East. The Blue Jays made a spirited run at Shohei Ohtani in free agency last offseason but added primarily complementary pieces after he signed a ten-year deal with the Dodgers. The Toronto front office inked Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Yariel Rodriguez to multi-year contracts, also adding veterans Justin Turner and Kevin Kiermaier on one-year deals (Kiermaier’s second one-year pact with the Jays).
Depth proved to be an Achilles heel for the Jays as injuries mounted. Bo Bichette endured multiple IL stints and was limited to half a season’s worth of uncharacteristically feeble production at the plate. Alek Manoah underwent UCL surgery. Closer Jordan Romano pitched just 13 2/3 rough innings before undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery. Top prospects Orelvis Martinez (PED suspension) and Ricky Tiedemann (Tommy John surgery) had lost seasons. Meanwhile, key veterans like Kiermaier, George Springer, Danny Jansen, Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza and others turned in performances that were not commensurate with their prior standards. The Jays turned to a host of in-house stopgaps but, particularly in the bullpen, were unable to piece together a serviceable performance.
The end result saw Jansen, Kiner-Falefa, Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi Garcia and Nate Pearson all traded away in deadline swaps for younger talent. The Jays were universally praised for a strong return on Kikuchi, an impending free agent. However, that’s at best a silver lining when considering the team entered the 2024 campaign looking to build on last year’s Wild Card berth into the playoffs and was viewed as a legitimate contender in a deep AL East division.
Heading into the 2025 season, it’ll be incumbent upon Shapiro and Atkins to engineer an immediate turnaround, lest the calls for changes in leadership grow even louder. Asked about the club’s payroll outlook for the ’25 campaign, Shapiro demurred, calling it “early” to ask such a question and suggesting that next month’s GM Meetings or even December’s Winter Meetings would be a time at which he could offer a clearer answer. For now, the club’s president merely suggested he didn’t anticipate player payroll rising or decreasing in a significant manner.
If that’s indeed the case, Atkins will have his work cut out for him. The Jays entered the 2024 season with a club-record $225MM Opening Day payroll. RosterResource currently pegs them for just shy of $125MM in 2025 commitments, not including an arbitration class projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to cost more than $61MM in total. Add in a slate of league-minimum players to round out the roster, and the Jays are at just over $194MM. There are some likely non-tenders in this offseason’s class of arbitration-eligible players, but the group is headlined by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his projected $29.6MM salary, with notable paydays projected for Romano ($7.75MM), Daulton Varsho ($7.7MM) and Alejandro Kirk ($4.1MM) as well.
Asked multiple times about Guerrero’s future, Shapiro generally sidestepped the question. The slugger is entering his final season of club control before potentially becoming one of the most coveted free agents in recent memory. Manager John Schneider recently touted Guerrero as a generational talent. Asked today whether he agreed with that assessment, Shapiro questioned the definition of what constitutes a generational player and suggested that it’s tough to say right now, noting that Guerrero has the “potential” to become such a player but implying that such a label can’t be placed on him this early in his career.
Atkins spoke more directly on the matter of Guerrero’s future, suggesting that ownership will provide the support to make long-term commitments to both Guerrero and Bichette. That doesn’t guarantee an extension for either player will happen, of course, and Atkins noted that it’s “difficult” to construct a contract of such magnitude for even one player — let alone two players. Still, he voiced confidence that the Jays can support long-term deals for both and still have the resources needed to build a competitive roster around what would presumably be a pair of substantial contracts.
With regard to the forthcoming offseason, Atkins spoke generally about the need to be “more aggressive” with external additions to the roster than the Blue Jays were this past offseason, specifically in the bullpen. He also called adding a power bat “low-hanging fruit” but also noted that it’s not as simple as adding a pure slugger, citing a need to look at contact ability, on-base skills, and strengths against specific pitch types.
Asked whether the aforementioned Rodriguez and Bowden Francis have pitched well enough to solidify their spots in the rotation next season, Atkins praised both pitchers for the job they did in the season’s second half. The Jays will be in the market for both depth and “impact” starting pitching, per Atkins, but with Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, Rodriguez and Francis all in the fold, the GM said he feels fortunate to not feel a dire need to be in the market for a top free-agent starter.
The manner in which the Jays will pursue upgrades was left fairly open-ended. Both Atkins and Shapiro spoke favorably of the 13 young players Toronto acquired at this season’s trade deadline. Atkins acknowledged that while many of those players are viewed as potential near-term contributors, that influx of talent into the system also opens the door for potential trades involving some of those same prospects. The Blue Jays will explore both the free agent and trade markets as they look to revamp the roster, but it’s clear from both men’s comments today that the club does not plan to take any kind of step back and will endeavor to put a playoff contender on the field next year. That much has been reported at various points since the deadline, but today’s on-record commitment to such an approach from the team’s top two decision-makers is nevertheless notable.
Offseason Outlook: Washington Nationals
After more than three years of rebuilding, the Nationals enter the offseason with a very clean long-term payroll outlook, young core players emerging at multiple spots on the roster, and a front office that sounds motivated to get back into contention sooner than later.
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MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.