Rays Sign Jake Odorizzi To Minor League Deal
The Rays have signed old friend Jake Odorizzi to a minor league contract, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The Excel Sports Management client already in camp. Odorizzi tells Topkin that he’d been throwing teams throughout the winter in search of a big league contract, but his familiarity with the organization and a clear opportunity in an injury-plagued rotation paved the way for the current agreement. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that Odorizzi will be paid at a $1.5MM rate in the big leagues with $500K bonuses available for reaching 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150 innings on the season.
Tampa Bay already entered the season knowing that Shane McClanahan is likely to miss the season due to last August’s Tommy John surgery, while both Drew Rasmussen (internal brace surgery last July), Jeffrey Springs (Tommy John surgery last April) and Shane Baz (2022 Tommy John surgery) are midseason additions at best. This week, they learned that young right-hander Taj Bradley will open the season on the injured list due to a pectoral strain that still doesn’t have a definitive timetable for his return. Unsurprisingly, they’re bringing in some veteran rotation depth.
Odorizzi himself is on the mend from an injury. He was traded from the Braves to the Rangers in the 2022-23 offseason but wound up requiring arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder in early April, which knocked him out for the entire season. He never threw a pitch for Texas.
It’s been an up and down few years for Odorizzi, who from his peak with the Rays and Twins was a durable and quite effective mid-rotation arm. In a six-year span from 2014-19, the right-hander tossed 991 2/3 innings of 3.88 ERA ball, striking out 23% of his opponents against an 8.2% walk rate. Odorizzi has never been a flamethrower but has typically posted solid spin rates on his 91-95 mph heater and missed bats at the top of the zone. He was an All-Star with the Twins in 2019 when he pitched 169 innings of 3.51 ERA ball with a career-high 27.1% strikeout rate.
That season prompted the Twins to issue a qualifying offer, which Odorizzi accepted. He returned to Minnesota for the shortened 2020 season but wound up only making four starts due primarily to an intercostal strain. Odorizzi returned to free agency, inked a two-year deal with the Astros, and split the 2021-22 seasons between Houston and Atlanta, combining to toss 211 innings with a 4.31 ERA and diminished 19.8% strikeout rate. A flexor strain in his right arm in 2021 and a tendon strain in his lower leg in 2022 cost Odorizzi more than three months of action during that two-year period.
It’s not entirely clear when Odorizzi will be game-ready, but he could very well emerge as an option at some point in the season’s first few weeks. The Rays currently project to deploy right-handers Zach Eflin, Aaron Civale, Zack Littell and Ryan Pepiot in the top four spots of the rotation. Other options for starts include swingmen Tyler Alexander and Chris Devenski, both of whom were being stretched out to three innings during camp anyway. Prospect Jacob Lopez is also on the 40-man roster, while non-roster options of note include prospect Mason Montgomery, NPB signee Naoyuki Uwasawa and journeyman righty Jacob Waguespack.
Braves Sign Adam Duvall
The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve signed veteran outfielder Adam Duvall to a one-year, $3MM contract. The CAA client will return for a third stint with Atlanta. The Braves’ 40-man roster had multiple open spots, so a corresponding move was not necessary.
Less than one month after Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos indicated that the team was not planning to platoon newly acquired outfielder Jarred Kelenic in left field, Anthopoulos now tells the Braves beat the opposite: the righty-hitting Duvall will pair with the left-handed Kelenic in left field (X link via Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
The change in plans is likely attributable to multiple factors, including a presumable drop in Duvall’s asking price and also Kelenic’s struggles thus far in spring training. The once-ballyhooed prospect, whom the Braves effectively paid around $26MM to acquire (between eating bad contracts and the associated luxury-tax hits), is off to a 2-for-30 start with four walks and seven punchouts this spring. Kelenic has struggled against lefties throughout his still-young career, evidenced by a .189/.255/.311 slash (61 wRC+) and 29.9% strikeout rate against them.
Duvall, 35, has played with five teams in his career but spent more time with Atlanta than any other club. In parts of five prior seasons, he’s batted .224/.285/.464 — numbers that generally align with his career marks. He’s a strikeout-prone slugger whose paltry walk rates lead to low batting averages and poor OBP marks, but Duvall offsets those flaws with plus power and typically plus defensive grades in the outfield corners. Though he’ll be in a platoon role in this latest Braves stint, he has roughly even splits in his career: .232/.301/.469 (101 wRC+) versus left-handed pitching, .232/.287/.473 (97 wRC+) against right-handers.
Duvall spent the 2023 season with the Red Sox and was the game’s hottest hitter for the first ten days of the season before fracturing his wrist on a diving attempt in the outfield. He missed exactly two months and returned to post .223/.273/.474 slash that’s right in line with his career marks. Duvall swatted 21 homers in just 353 plate appearances with Boston — the best power output of his career on a rate basis — but also fanned in more than 31% of his plate appearances for a third consecutive season.
The Sox surprised many onlookers when signing Duvall to serve as their primary center fielder, and defensive metrics were down on his performance there. It’s reasonable to expect a bounceback in a less-demanding and more familiar left field setting, where Duvall has logged more than 68% of his career innings.
Despite the modest price tag, Duvall was relatively popular in terms of the number of teams showing interest in him this winter. The Red Sox, Angels, Twins, Blue Jays, Padres and D-backs were just some of the clubs connected to him, though many went in other directions. Minnesota seemingly preferred a truer backup center fielder and acquired Manuel Margot. Arizona took a more prototypical lefty masher in Randal Grichuk. San Diego was connected to Duvall as recently as Monday, but it’s possible Duvall simply preferred to return to the organization he knows best. Given his history with the club and given that the Braves are one of the largest postseason favorites in the entire sport, it’d be hard to blame him.
Because the Braves are already well into the second tier of luxury-tax penalization and are a second-year offender of the CBT, they’ll be taxed at a 42% clip on Duvall’s signing. That comes to a modest $1.26MM slap on the wrist and brings the total cost of acquisition on Duvall to $4.26MM. Per RosterResource, the Braves are now up to just over $273MM in luxury obligations. If they cross the $277MM mark, they’ll be taxed at a 72.5% rate on subsequent additions and see their top pick in next year’s draft dropped by ten spots.
White Sox Move Michael Kopech To Bullpen
The White Sox are moving starter Michael Kopech to a bullpen role to begin the 2024 season, general manager Chris Getz announced to reporters on Thursday (X link via Sox Machine’s James Fegan). That’ll further shake up a rotation that suddenly projects to look quite different following last night’s trade sending Dylan Cease to San Diego.
Kopech was once a highly-touted prospect but has struggled to establish himself as a viable big league starter and is now on the cusp of his 28th birthday. Selected by the Red Sox with the 33rd overall pick in 2014, he was a top 100 prospect as he worked his way up the minor league ladder and was a key piece of the 2016 trade that sent Chris Sale to Boston.
The White Sox were surely hoping that Kopech would be a building block of their future rotation and promoted Kopech in August of 2018, but he required Tommy John surgery just about a month later. He missed all of the 2019 season and then sat out the 2020 pandemic season as well. After missing two full years of his development, he pitched primarily in relief in 2021 to build up his workload. He tossed 69 1/3 innings over 44 appearances that year with a solid 3.50 earned run average.
In 2022, he was finally able to secure a rotation gig at the big league level and the results were mixed. On the surface, his 3.54 ERA over 25 starts looked nice, but the numbers under the hood were less encouraging. His 21.3% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate were both a bit worse than league average. He seemed to have had some luck keeping runs off the board thanks to a .223 batting average on balls in play and 74.2% strand rate. His 4.50 FIP and 4.73 SIERA suggested that he may not have been as effective as his ERA implied.
Last year, his luck turned for the worse, as he finished the season with a 5.43 ERA. His control took a concerning blow, as he gave out walks to 15.4% of opponents. He was bumped to the bullpen late in the year but seemed like he had a path to continue starting in 2024. The Sox traded Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito at the deadline last year and then saw Mike Clevinger hit free agency coming into this winter. Rumors swirled around Dylan Cease all winter until he was finally traded to the Padres yesterday.
Despite all of those holes in the rotation, it seems the Sox don’t have much faith in Kopech as a starter at the moment and he’ll wind up in the bullpen. For what it’s worth, he’s allowed six earned run in seven innings this spring, giving out six walks in the process while also hitting two batters. He’s now just two years away from becoming a free agent so perhaps the Sox will give rotation opportunities to younger guys during their current teardown, while perhaps Kopech can turn himself into a trade chip if he can serve as an effective reliever.
Kopech doesn’t seem thrilled with his new assignment. “It’s not my first choice where I want to be,” he said to reporters, including Scott Merkin of MLB.com. “I like starting, but I’ve had success in that role. And ultimately we are looking at what’s best for the team this year. If I can help us win games in the back of the game, I’m excited to do that.”
The Sox have brought in various fresh arms to the system this year, having signed Erick Fedde and Chris Flexen while also trading for Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster, Drew Thorpe and Jairo Iriarte. They got Jake Eder from the Marlins in last year’s Jake Burger trade. Garrett Crochet seems poised to move in the opposite direction to Kopech, jumping from a relief role into the rotation.
For now, the rotation projects to include Fedde, Flexen, Crochet and Soroka in four spots. The club was recently linked to free agent Michael Lorenzen and Clevinger as well, so a late signing could fill out the rotation. As the season rolls along, some guys will get hurt or may end up as trade targets at the deadline. Soroka and Flexen are impending free agents while Fedde is on a two-year deal. If Lorenzen or Clevinger sign, they would presumably be for one- or two-year deals.
As rotation spots open, perhaps Kopech could retake one, but the group of Shuster, Thorpe, Iriarte, Eder and others will be jockeying for auditions. With the club clearly focused on the future, they may be more inclined to give opportunities to those young and controllable guys as opposed to a 28-year-old whose club control is running out.
Trevor Stephan, Daniel Espino Require Surgery; Gavin Williams To Open Season On IL
Guardians setup man Trevor Stephan will be undergoing a UCL reconstruction procedure (i.e. Tommy John surgery) within the next seven to 14 days, the team announced. Cleveland had shut Stephan down for three weeks in late February, but the discomfort in his arm persisted and subsequent testing has revealed that his ulnar collateral ligament is “not providing adequate stability.”
There’s further discouraging news on righty Daniel Espino — formerly one of the top prospects in all of baseball. The 23-year-old righty, who missed the entire 2023 season due to a capsule tear that required shoulder surgery, underwent a second shoulder procedure yesterday — this one to repair new capsule damage as well as his rotator cuff. He’s expected to miss the entire 2024 season, though an exact timetable on his recovery isn’t yet known, per the team.
In addition to that pair of injuries, starting pitcher Gavin Williams will begin the season on the injured list, tweets Mandy Bell of MLB.com. He’s been slowed by some discomfort in his right elbow this spring. A recent MRI came back clean, but he’ll go another four days before he resumes his throwing program and will need to build back up from there. By that point, he’ll be about two weeks removed from his last game action.
If that’s not enough bad news for Guards fans, Bell adds that lefty Sam Hentges is headed to have some swelling in his finger checked out. There’s no indication that’s a serious issue, but it’s yet another health situation for the team (and fans) to monitor for now.
The 28-year-old Stephan has proven to be one of the best Rule 5 selections by any team in recent memory. Taken out of the Yankees organization prior to the 2021 campaign, he’s logged 63 or more innings in each of his three seasons in Cleveland. Stephan owns six saves and 50 holds over that stretch, having climbed the ladder from low-leverage and mop-up settings to a prominent late-inning piece in each of the Guards’ past two seasons.
From 2022-23, Stephan tossed 132 1/3 innings of 3.40 ERA ball with a stout 28% strikeout rate and better-than average walk and ground-ball rates of 7.8% and 44.6%, respectively. Fielding-independent metrics like FIP (2.90) and SIERA (3.18) feel he’s been even better than his already sharp earned run average.
Stephan signed a four-year, $10MM contract extension covering the 2023-26 seasons last spring. That deal includes club options for both the 2027 and 2028 seasons as well. He’ll be paid $1.6MM this year as he rehabs throughout what would otherwise have been his first arbitration season. He’s guaranteed salaries of $2.3MM in 2025 and $3.5MM in 2026 before the team must decide between a $7.25MM club option of $1.25MM buyout for the 2027 season. If Cleveland picks that option up, they’ll have a $7.5MM option for the 2028 campaign as well. There’s no buyout on that second option.
With Stephan now ticketed for the 60-day injured list, the Guardians will lean on trade acquisition Scott Barlow as the primary setup man to All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase. Righties Eli Morgan and Nick Sandlin will also be in the mix for leverage spots, as will Hentges, assuming his finger injury doesn’t prove to be something serious. It’s possible the Guardians could look outside the organization for some additional arms to join the fray, though that’d likely come via waivers or perhaps a DFA trade late in camp. The free agent market for bullpen arms has been largely picked over, and Cleveland clearly didn’t have much money to spend this winter, making it seem unlikely that any additional salary will be added.
The news on Williams also carries immediate impact for Cleveland. While there’s no indication he’s dealing with a significant injury or facing a long-term absence, it seems he’ll miss at least a couple starts to begin the year. The 24-year-old ranked among MLB’s top pitching prospects prior to making his debut in 2023, and he lived up to that billing with 82 innings of 3.29 ERA ball during a sharp rookie campaign.
Williams’ 23.5% strikeout rate was narrowly above average, while his 10.7% walk rate is a bit inflated and could stand to improve a couple ticks. That shaky command prompted metrics like FIP (4.05) and SIERA (4.61) to take a more bearish outlook. Still, Williams throws hard, misses bats at average or better levels and limited hard contact rather nicely as well (88 mph average exit velocity, 38.6% hard-hit rate). There’s plenty to like about his outlook moving forward, and his presence alongside fellow sophomores Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen has the makings of the next wave of impressive homegrown talent from Cleveland’s unrivaled pitching development pipeline.
Espino, 23, once shined brightest among that incredible stock of young pitchers in the Cleveland system, but injuries have completely derailed his trajectory. Beyond what will now be a two-year absence from the mound due to multiple shoulder surgeries, Espino was also limited to just 18 innings in 2022. That year included a monthslong stay on the injured list due to tendinitis in his knee, as well as a second absence surrounding shoulder pain that has now clearly spiraled into an overwhelmingly problematic issue. Prior to the injury deluge, Espino dazzled scouts with a triple-digit fastball, plus or better slider and two other pitches — changeup, curveball — that projected to be at least average offerings.
On the one hand, Espino has youth on his side. On the other, consecutive missed seasons due to shoulder surgeries is a massive roadblock for any pitcher to overcome. His last procedure came with a timetable of 12 to 14 months. A similar or even lengthier timetable could push him deeper into the 2025 season. By that point, Espino will have thrown just 18 innings over a four-year period. The obvious hope is that he can put all these injuries behind him and eventually reach the majors, even if in a shorter relief role to help mitigate some workload concerns, but injury troubles of this magnitude are hard to overcome.
As for Hentges, he might not be a household name but he’s a credit to Cleveland’s pitching development himself. The 2014 fourth-rounder was hit hard as a starter in his debut campaign back in ’21 but has since emerged as one of the team’s top relievers. From 2022-23, he’s pitched 114 1/3 innings with an excellent 2.91 ERA, a very strong 27.4% strikeout rate, a better-than-average 7.9% walk rate and a sensational 60.1% grounder rate.
Gerrit Cole Meeting With Dr. Neal ElAttrache Today
March 14: Cole is meeting with Dr. ElAttrache today, tweets Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Manager Aaron Boone expects more information on his status this evening, although that doesn’t ensure that the Yankees will publicly disclose an update tonight.
March 13: Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole will miss at least the first month or two of the season due to an elbow injury, report Jon Heyman and Mark Sanchez of the New York Post. Cole underwent an MRI earlier this week after experiencing difficulty recovering between spring starts and throwing sessions. The Yankees haven’t made a formal announcement on the injury or a timetable yet. Heyman reports that initial imaging on Cole’s right elbow has not detected a ligament tear, though there’s some inflammation and swelling still present. Cole’s MRI has been reviewed by multiple parties, including renowned surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache. Per the report, ElAttrache did not see a ligament tear but nonetheless suggested an in-person visit to personally examine Cole.
While it’s a sigh of relief that early imaging didn’t reveal a major tear, the fact that Cole is going for further testing remains an ominous sign. Inflammation can at times be substantial enough that it masks structural damage. Only time will tell whether that’s the case with Cole. Regardless, to call even an absence of roughly four to eight weeks for Cole a major blow for the team would only be stating the obvious. The 33-year-old righty is on the short list of baseball’s best and — until now — most durable pitchers. Furthermore, the Yankees’ rotation behind Cole is rife with question marks.
New York signed right-hander Marcus Stroman to a two-year, $37MM deal in the offseason, but Stroman’s All-Star 2023 season was cut short by second-half injuries — a hip issue and rib cartilage fractures. He was sporting an ERA in the low-2.00s for much of the season but was hit rocked in July while pitching through the hip injury and struggled down the stretch after returning from what wound up being an extended absence due to the rib troubles.
Lefties Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes were both limited to fewer than 65 innings in 2023, and neither pitched anywhere close to his 2021-22 form. Rodon’s season was particularly alarming, given that he’d pitched at Cy Young-caliber levels the prior two years and inked a six-year, $162MM deal with the Yankees just last offseason. A forearm strain and hamstring strain combined to limit Rodon to 64 1/3 innings — during which time he posted a 6.85 ERA with a 22.4% strikeout rate that was 11.5 percentage points shy of his ’21-’22 rate. Cortes, meanwhile, twice hit the IL with a strained rotator cuff in his left shoulder. His 4.97 ERA in 63 1/3 innings was more than double the 2.44 number he’d posted the year prior.
Right-hander Clarke Schmidt was the only other Yankees pitcher to make even 20 starts last year. He took the ball for a full slate of 32 games, pitching 159 innings with a 4.64 earned run average. Schmidt’s 21.5% strikeout rate was below the league average, but his 6.6% walk rate was strong and his 43.8% grounder rate, which clocked in a couple percentage points ahead of the average starting pitcher. Schmidt was too homer-prone (1.36 HR/9) but at least looked like he could give the Yankees around five competitive innings every fifth day, which could prove crucial with Cole shelved for a notable period and several injury question marks alongside him on the starting staff.
The Yankees traded away a significant amount of rotation depth when dealing Michael King, Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez to the Padres as part of the Juan Soto trade. Remaining in-house options for the now-vacant rotation spot include young righties Clayton Beeter, Luis Gil and Yoendrys Gomez — all three of whom are on the 40-man roster. Veteran righty Luke Weaver inked a one-year, $2MM deal and was expected to serve as a swingman, but he has ample starting experience in the majors and pitched well in three September starts for the Yanks last year. Top prospects Chase Hampton and Will Warren were both invited to camp as non-roster players, but neither is on the 40-man roster.
Of course, the possibility remains that the Yankees will go outside the organization to bring in a more established arm. Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery remain unsigned, but the 110% luxury tax the team would pay on top of either player’s salary could prove exorbitant. Snell, in particular, would also cost the Yankees their second-highest draft choice in 2024 and require them to forfeit $1MM in bonus space from next year’s international amateur free agency pool. Ownership’s appetite for signing either player will now be tested. If not them, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote last night that righty Michael Lorenzen “could be an option” for the Yankees, though it’s not clear if the two parties have had any serious talks recently.
The trade market offers at least one more marquee name, and that seems to be the Yankees’ current area of focus. GM Brian Cashman and his staff have reportedly already presented the White Sox with a new offer for top starter Dylan Cease, though they’re joined by both the Rangers and Padres in their late pursuit of the 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up. The ChiSox had previously insisted that the Yankees include top outfield prospect Spencer Jones in any trade for Cease. The Yankees have balked at that ask. The new proposal to the Sox reportedly does not include Jones, though with several teams in the mix for Cease and the Yankees now staring down a potential two-month absence for Cole, it’s possible they’ll eventually acquiesce and meet Chicago’s asking price.
Tommy Edman To Open Season On Injured List
After casting doubt on Tommy Edman‘s availability for Opening Day earlier in camp, the Cardinals confirmed Thursday that their expected center fielder will open the season on the injured list. Manager Oli Marmol announced to the Cardinals beat that Edman will be shut down from hitting entirely for the next week, as it’s still causing him pain in his surgically repaired wrist (X link via Katie Woo of The Athletic). It’s still not clear whether left fielder Lars Nootbaar, who’s been slowed by a pair of fractures in his ribcage, will be cleared for Opening Day. Marmol added this morning that Nootbaar will be reevaluated Saturday (X link via John Denton of MLB.com). He’s been engaged in limited baseball activities for the past week.
Edman, 28, has primarily been a middle infielder in the past but handled himself well in 310 innings of center field work last season, drawing plus grades from metrics like Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average. Defensive versatility has been one of his calling cards since he debuted in the majors, as he’s played every position other than catcher, first base and pitcher — drawing positive defensive marks everywhere he’s been.
With top shortstop prospect Masyn Winn on the cusp of MLB readiness, the Cardinals’ plan has been to move Edman to center field. Veteran Brandon Crawford was brought in as a veteran contingency plan at short in the event that Winn struggles, further cementing Edman’s role in the outfield, where he’d be flanked by Nootbaar and slugger Jordan Walker — in the event that all three are healthy.
That won’t be the case to begin the season. Edman, who missed time in 2023 with inflammation in his right wrist, continued to play through discomfort even upon returning from the injured list in 2023 and wound up undergoing arthroscopic surgery in October. The wrist injury could well have contributed to a decline in production at the plate; Edman hit .265/.324/.400 (106 wRC+) in 630 plate appearances in 2022 and got out to an even stronger start in April 2023 before his bat cratered. He was hitting .265/.339/.480 through early May but slipped to .244/.298/.378 over his final 418 trips to the plate. Edman finished out the season about eight percent worst than league-average, by measure of wRC+, with an overall batting line of .248/.307/.399.
With Edman now ruled out for Opening Day, it could be Dylan Carlson getting the nod in center field. The switch-hitter has been the subject of trade rumors for much of the past year, but the Cardinals never found an offer to their liking and will now at least temporarily turn center field back over to the former top prospect. Other outfield options on the 40-man roster include slugger Alec Burleson and defensive-minded Michael Siani.
It’s also possible that Victor Scott II, who stole a staggering 94 bases between High-A and Double-A last year, will crack the Opening Day roster. He’s had a big showing in camp, hitting .370/.469/.444 with four steals in 32 plate appearances, but Scott has also yet to play a single game above that Double-A level at which he topped out in 2023. Scott is regarded as a plus-plus defender in center field with 80-grade speed and negligible power. If he makes the club and Nootbaar joins Edman on the injured list, the Cards could put Scott’s glove in center and slide Carlson over to left field.
There are a fair number of moving parts in the St. Louis outfield mix, which has become typical for the organization over the years as they’ve struggled to retain any kind of long-term continuity in the group. Scott’s performance and Nootbaar’s health will be key storyline for the Cardinals in the final couple weeks of camp. Scott would need to be selected to the 40-man roster if he wins a spot on the Opening Day squad.
Offseason In Review: Kansas City Royals
Raise your hand if you had the Royals being one of the top-five spenders in free agency on your offseason bingo card back in November. Kansas City is focused on improving in the here and now, and their offseason reflects that.
Major League Signings
- Seth Lugo, RHP: Three years, $45MM (opt-out after year two of the contract)
- Michael Wacha, RHP: Two years, $32MM (opt-out after year one of the contract)
- Hunter Renfroe, OF: Two years, $13MM (opt-out after year one of the contract)
- Chris Stratton, RHP: Two years, $8MM (opt-out after year one of the contract)
- Will Smith, LHP: One year, $5MM
- Adam Frazier, 2B/OF: One year, $4.5MM
- Garrett Hampson, INF/OF: One year, $2MM
- Austin Nola, C: One year, $1MM
2024 spend: $53MM
Total spend: $110.5MM
Option Decisions
- None
Trades and Claims
- Acquired RHP Nick Anderson from Braves for cash
- Acquired RHP Kyle Wright from Braves for RHP Jackson Kowar
- Acquired RHP John Schreiber from Red Sox for minor league RHP David Sandlin
- Traded RHP Jonathan Heasley to Orioles for minor league RHP Cesar Espinal
- Traded RHP Taylor Clarke to Brewers for minor league RHP Ryan Brady and minor league SS Cam Devanney
- Traded OF Edward Olivares to Pirates for minor league INF Deivis Nadal
- Traded RHP Dylan Coleman to Astros for minor league RHP Carlos Mateo
- Traded 2B/OF Samad Taylor to Mariners for player to be named later or cash
- Selected RHP Matt Sauer from Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft
Extensions
- Bobby Witt Jr., SS: 11 years, $288.777MM (Witt can opt out after year seven; Royals have additional club options for 2035-37 seasons if Witt does not opt out)
Notable Minor League Signings
- Luis Cessa, Austin Cox, Sam Long, Mike Brosseau, Dan Altavilla, Sandy Leon, Tyler Duffey, Josh Lester, Logan Porter
Notable Losses
- Zack Greinke, Brad Keller, Matt Duffy, Bubba Thompson (waivers), Tucker Davidson (waivers), Max Castillo (waivers), Collin Snider (waivers), Samad Taylor, Edward Olivares, Dylan Coleman, Taylor Clarke, Jonathan Heasley, Jackson Kowar
The Royals’ second season under general manager J.J. Picollo, who replaced longtime president of baseball operations Dayton Moore after his firing, took a markedly different tone than the first. Kansas City spent more money on one individual signing, right-hander Seth Lugo, than they had in the entire 2022-23 offseason. Lugo proved to be one of two notable additions to the rotation, joining righty Michael Wacha in what should be a far more competitive pitching staff than the Royals ran out in 2023.
Lugo and Wacha will largely replace outgoing franchise icon Zack Greinke and non-tendered righty Brad Keller, who combined for 36 starts last year (27 from Greinke, nine from Keller). They’ll join last year’s deadline prize Cole Ragans and returning right-hander Brady Singer in a Kansas City rotation that should be far, far more stable than the 2023 group. Last year, only four Royals — Greinke, Singer, Ragans and Jordan Lyles — even started more than nine games.
While Lugo and Wacha aren’t exactly aces, the Royals hope they’ve unearthed one in the 26-year-old Ragans, who starred for them following his acquisition in the Aroldis Chapman swap with Texas. Ragans’ 2.64 ERA, 31.1% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 45.5% grounder rate have the look of a top-end starter. Lugo thrived in a move to the rotation in San Diego last season, notching a 3.57 ERA in 146 1/3 frames. Former and once-again teammate Wacha delivered a second straight solid season in San Diego and joins up with Lugo again. If the Royals can get something closer to the 2022 version of Singer (as opposed to the 2023 version), the rotation could be a strength. Lyles will eat innings in the fifth spot, but in-house names like Daniel Lynch IV and Alec Marsh could eventually push him for that spot.
Lugo and Wacha weren’t the only starters the Royals acquired, but they’re the only ones who’ll pitch for Kansas City in 2024. The Royals bought low on injured Braves right-hander Kyle Wright, shipping change-of-scenery candidate Jackson Kowar to Atlanta in order to pick him up — knowing full well that shoulder surgery will cost Wright the upcoming season. He will spend the year on the 60-day IL, but he has two remaining seasons of club control beyond the 2024 campaign. Adding him at the cost of a now twice-traded former first-rounder, Kowar, is a nice bit of long-term business for a team that has been plagued in the past by a lack of pitching depth.
Kansas City’s bullpen additions might not have generated as much attention but represented an even broader-reaching overhaul of the staff. Free agents Will Smith and Chris Stratton bring closing and setup experience — to say nothing of a pair of 2023 World Series rings — to the 2024 Royals. They cost a combined $13MM in guarantees, with Stratton coming aboard on a two-year deal with a surprising player option (more on that in a bit).
Right-hander Nick Anderson was a buy-low addition who has been dominant at times but rarely healthy. Righty John Schreiber had a big 2022 in Boston and took a step back in 2023 thanks largely to a spike in walk rate. But Schreiber misses bats at above-average levels, keeps the ball on the ground well and hadn’t struggled with his command prior to the 2023 season. Anderson is controllable through 2025 and cost only cash. Schreiber has three years of control and cost the Royals right-hander David Sandlin, a 2022 eleventh-round pick who’s significantly improved his prospect status since being selected.
Royals relievers in 2023 ranked 29th in the big leagues in terms of ERA and were 25th or worse in FIP and SIERA. Only two teams saw their bullpens walk relievers at a higher rate, and Kansas City’s 22.8% strikeout rate from the ‘pen was tied for 22nd in MLB. All of that includes a strong three months from the aforementioned Chapman in addition to contributions from Jose Cuas and Scott Barlow, both also moved at the deadline.
Generally speaking, it was a group that needed work, and the additions of Smith, Stratton, Anderson and Schreiber should go a long way toward helping the unit overall. The Royals will also hope that they struck gold on righty James McArthur, whom they acquired in a DFA trade with the Phillies last May. McArthur posted underwhelming numbers in both Philly and Kansas City … at least until a September call-up in which he fired off an incredible 16 1/3 innings of shutout relief with just five hits and no walks against 19 strikeouts. McArthur has also dominated in a small sample of 6 1/3 spring innings (one run) and is a clear name to watch for this team.
The additions on the position-player side of things were far more modest. Hunter Renfroe received a somewhat surprising two-year pact after a pedestrian showing with the Angels and a very rocky finish with the Reds. He’s a clear 20-homer bat who’ll add some needed punch to the K.C. lineup, but Renfroe’s once-elite defensive ratings and his power output have both dropped off recently. A move to Kauffman Stadium probably won’t help the latter, and his career .300 OBP (.297 in ’23) is a curious fit for a club that ranked 28th in the majors with a collective .303 OBP last season.
Adam Frazier joins Renfroe as something of a buy-low play on a veteran who’s seen better days. An All-Star with the Pirates, Frazier’s bat hasn’t been the same since being traded from Pittsburgh to San Diego at the 2021 trade deadline. He’s taken 1268 plate appearances with the Padres, Mariners and Orioles but mustered only a .244/.305/.345 slash in that time. Frazier’s $4.5MM guarantee with the Royals isn’t much by today’s standards, and his excellent bat-to-ball skills mesh with a Royals club that has tended to prioritize contact over power. Even during his rough stretch since that ’21 trade, Frazier has fanned at just a 12.9% clip. He won’t be the starter at second or in left field — that’ll be Michael Massey and MJ Melendez, respectively — but he gives the Royals some depth at both spots and a contact-oriented bat off the bench.
Speaking of the bench, that’s been overhauled as well. Gone are Samad Taylor, Edward Olivares and Matt Duffy, among others. Frazier will join superutility man Garrett Hampson as a free-agent pickup for the bench. Hampson posted roughly average offensive numbers in Miami last season — well ahead of his previously middling career marks — and can play just about anywhere on the field. He’s not an elite defender at any one spot and is a candidate to regress with the bat (.379 BABIP, 26.6% strikeout rate), but the Royals love speed and Hampson clocked into the 98th percentile of MLB players in sprint speed last year, per Statcast.
Kansas City also picked up Austin Nola on a cheap one-year deal late in the offseason after the Padres cut him loose. He has a minor league option remaining and could thus be ticketed for Triple-A, but Nola has experience playing multiple infield positions in addition to catcher and the Royals have considered carrying him along with both Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin on the roster. Perez is better suited as a DH at this point but still figures to catch his share of games. If the Royals choose to carry all three, Nola gives them a viable backup on days they want to DH Perez and start the defensively superior Fermin behind the dish. If they don’t, he’ll give them an experienced backup option in Omaha.
The biggest piece of business for the Royals, however, was their franchise-record-shattering extension for shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. The $288.777MM deal more than tripled Perez’s $82MM pact, which had stood as the previous high-water mark for the franchise. Witt improved across the board as a sophomore in his age-23 season, with gains in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, walk rate, strikeout rate, power output, defensive grades, exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate. He finished the season one steal shy of the exceptionally rare 30-homer, 50-stolen base campaign.
Royals fans have legitimate cause to celebrate Witt’s extension, though it’s perhaps not the career-long commitment to the franchise most would believe at first glance. The opt-out provision after the contract’s seventh season has a strong chance to be exercised, at least if the two parties don’t revisit his contract status closer to that decision point. After the 2030 season, Witt will be guaranteed (ahem) “just” four years and an additional $140MM as he enters his age-31 season. It’d be an easy call for a player with his ability to trigger that opt out even in 2024, and salaries in MLB will presumably only have moved forward further by that point. The two parties could always look to renegotiate a longer pact at that point — one that decisively keeps Witt in Kansas City for his entire career.
Even if they don’t do so and Witt eventually takes the opt-out route, there’s still plenty to be happy about for the Royals. It’s true that the opt-out and enormous guarantee create more injury downside than legitimate contractual upside for the Royals, but that was the cost of buying out at least three prime-aged free-agent seasons on a 23-year-old superstar who looks likely to be a bona fide MVP candidate multiple times over the seven seasons in which the Royals have complete control over him.
Opt-outs were a common theme for the Royals this winter, not only in their extension with Witt but in nearly every free agent contract they doled out. Lugo can opt out after the 2025 season. Each of Wacha, Renfroe and even Stratton gains the ability to opt out after the upcoming season. Not long ago, opt-out clauses were generally reserved for the game’s elite free agents, but the Royals joined a growing number of smaller and mid-market teams that have used them as leverage to lure second- or even third-tier free agents. Stratton securing a 2025 player option as a 33-year-old reliever who averages just over 93 mph on his heater and has narrowly kept his ERA under 4.00 over the past four seasons was particularly surprising.
For the Royals, the opt-out provisions may have been something of a necessary evil, though. Free agents tend to want to sign in winning situations, and the team lost a whopping 106 games during the 2023 campaign. Even when offering multi-year deals, the Royals’ recent run of futility in the AL Central — one of baseball’s weakest divisions — is a tough sell to free agents who have a decent market. Offering the leverage of a competitive year-one salary with the allure of a return to the market next winter if things go well is a strong sweetener — one at which many clubs would likely balk.
There’s real downside to the gambit. If Wacha were to sustain a major injury or regress to his 2019-21 form, for instance, a team with the Royals’ typically modest payroll would be on the hook for a significant sum. The Padres gave Wacha a series of opt-outs when signing him last offseason, but that was effectively a mechanism to duck the luxury tax. Wacha was guaranteed $26MM on his “four-year” deal but was never likely to trigger a series of $6.5MM player options. In essence, the player options just tamped down the contract’s AAV because they’re considered guaranteed money.
The Royals’ series of opt-outs is far different; they’re guaranteeing market-rate salaries and pairing that with immediate opportunities to return to the market (or, in Lugo’s case, an opportunity two years down the line). If any of Wacha, Stratton or Renfroe exercise that player option, it’ll be because the 2024 results weren’t there, and that’ll be a notable and likely unwanted salary on the books for the 2025 Royals.
It’s a gamble the Royals probably prefer not to make but one that might have been necessary to bring about this type of change in a single offseason. And, make no mistake about it, this is an unequivocally improved and deepened Royals roster. The question is whether they’ve done enough to earnestly contend. A full season of Ragans could go a long way toward improving the outlook, if he can sustain his post-trade breakout. Ditto McArthur, though his success was in an even smaller sample. The rest of the Royals’ pickups were largely focused on raising the floor, but few come with star-caliber upside.
Any such improvements will need to come internally. A fully healthy, breakout season from first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino seems plausible. Nelson Velazquez won’t keep homering at the pace he did in ’23 (14 homers in 147 plate appearances), but he makes gobs of hard contact and looked like a potential middle-of-the-order bat after coming over from the Cubs. The Royals will need similar strides from Melendez, Massey and/or first baseman/DH Nick Pratto if they’re to gain the necessary ground to compete for a postseason berth. They finished 31 games back of the Twins and 33 games out of a Wild Card spot in 2023, and the AL Central has only seen the Tigers get better.
There’s no doubt the Royals are better, but even with so many additions, they could face an uphill battle as they look for not only their first trip to the playoffs since winning the 2015 World Series — but their first winning season since that fateful year.
How would you grade the Royals' offseason?
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B 53% (1,211)
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A 25% (576)
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C 15% (354)
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D 4% (91)
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F 2% (57)
Total votes: 2,289
Brewers Notes: Turang, Frelick, Ortiz, Rea
For a second straight season, Brice Turang will open the year at second base for the Brewers. Manager Pat Murphy confirmed the decision to name Turang as Milwaukee’s starting second baseman last night (link via David Adler of MLB.com). Murphy opined that Turang is poised to take a “quantum leap” forward in 2024 and solidify himself as an everyday player in the big leagues after an up-and-down rookie season that left him with lackluster offensive numbers.
Turang, 24, was the No. 21 overall pick in the 2018 draft and ranked among Milwaukee’s top prospects for several years before making the 2023 Opening Day roster and debuting in the majors. He posted above-average but not elite numbers in Triple-A during the 2022 season prior to that MLB debut, but his first year in the big leagues highlighted some of the limitations in his game. Turang has long been touted as a plus defender and plus runner, but he hit just .218/.285/.300 in 448 plate appearances last season. The resulting 60 wRC+ suggests that Turang was a whopping 40% worse than average at the plate.
While Turang’s 21% strikeout rate was a bit lower than the league average and his 8.5% walk rate was sound, he also put together one of the weakest batted-ball profiles in the sport. Turang ranked in just the fifth percentile of MLB hitters in terms of barrel rate, per Statcast, while his 26% hard-hit rate landed in the fourth percentile and his 85.5 mph average exit velocity placed in only the second percentile. Turang’s sprint speed was elite, but even in spite of his wheels he batted just .268 on balls in play because of that penchant for feeble contact.
Even amid questions about his offensive outlook, the glove and speed will land him another Opening Day nod at second base. That sets the Milwaukee infield everywhere but the hot corner. Rhys Hoskins has first base locked down. Willy Adames will return at shortstop. Heading into camp, it looked like the third base job could be Joey Ortiz‘s to lose, but Milwaukee’s decision to experiment with top outfield prospect Sal Frelick at third base has created more of a competition.
Murphy and Brewers infielder coordinator Matt Erickson have heaped praise onto Frelick for his work at third base this spring, writes Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The 23-year-old has “immediately” checked every box the team would like to see in terms of his footwork in the infield, Erickson tells Hogg, expressing further confidence that Frelick’s mechanics on more difficult on-the-move throws can improve with experience. Erickson noted that the overall package of defensive skills at third base is still not on par with others in camp, but that’s to be expected for a player who didn’t even play at the hot corner in his amateur days. Moreover, both Erickson and Murphy are amazed that Frelick has already come as far as he has.
The result could be something of a split workload for Frelick between right field and third base. The Brewers acquired the slick-fielding Ortiz alongside left-handed rotation hopeful DL Hall in the trade sending ace Corbin Burnes to Baltimore. Ortiz, like Turang, is considered a plus defensive shortstop but won’t get much opportunity at that position due to the presence of Adames. He could log considerable time at the hot corner, though Adler suggests Ortiz could also see time at second base against left-handed pitching. He’s a right-handed bat and natural option to spell Turang, who hit just .188/.278/.188 (35 wRC+) against southpaws.
A strict platoon arrangement for the group might not be the answer, however. While Ortiz can play either third or second against lefties, both Turang and the lefty-swinging Frelick (.184/.279/.289, 59 wRC+) struggled greatly in limited action against left-handed pitching. Right-handed-hitting Andruw Monasterio turned in a .291/.387/.392 slash (118 wRC+) against lefties and could spend time at third base if/when Ortiz slides over to the keystone to spell Turang against southpaws. Similarly, outfielder Joey Wiemer (.267/.298/.517, 115 wRC+ against lefties) could potentially spell Frelick against lefties.
If anything, Frelick’s burgeoning versatility and the blend of right- and left-handed-hitting infield/outfield options only gives Murphy more fuel to play matchups against opposing pitchers. Importantly, all of Turang, Ortiz, Frelick, Wiemer and Monasterio grade as above-average to plus defenders at their respective positions (at least, in the case of the outfield with regard to Frelick). There’s considerable opportunity for all five to work their way into the lineup for semi-regular playing time, if not more.
As far as the Milwaukee rotation is concerned, there’s still some fine tuning to be sorted out, but one open question became clear this week when Murphy confirmed that right-hander Colin Rea will be in his rotation (via Adler) He’ll be penciled into a starting staff that also includes Freddy Peralta and Jakob Junis. Veteran Wade Miley has been behind schedule due to shoulder troubles but progressed to facing teammates in a simulated game today, tweets Hogg. A firm timeline for his return remains unclear and dependent on how he continues to progress.
Rea, however, will be assured a starting job. That’s a notable development for a journeyman right-hander who’s bounced from the Padres, to the Marlins, to the Cubs, to the Brewers, to Japan and back to Milwaukee. The 33-year-old pitched 124 2/3 innings for the Brew Crew in 2023, logging a 4.55 ERA with strong command and solid ground-ball tendencies but a slightly below-average strikeout rate. He’s been sharp so far in spring training, firing eight innings — including four no-hit frames his last time out — with a dozen strikeouts and just two walks.
Rea inked a one-year, $4.5MM deal back on Nov. 2. He’ll earn a $3.5MM salary in 2024 and is guaranteed that plus a $1MM buyout on a $5.5MM option for the 2025 season. He can also pick up an additional $500K of incentives each season, based on innings pitched, giving him the opportunity to earn $10MM over the next two seasons in Milwaukee.
Padres, White Sox Have Recently Discussed Dylan Cease Trade
Trade talk surrounding White Sox righty Dylan Cease has apparently rekindled in full. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reports that the Padres and White Sox have recently discussed the 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up, which aligns with yesterday’s report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, wherein he noted that the White Sox have had several members of their front office present to get first-hand looks at the Padres in recent days. The Friars join the Yankees and Rangers as clubs prominently linked to Cease in the second act of his offseason trade candidacy.
By now, the merits and risks regarding a trade for Cease have been well documented. He’s an affordable — $8MM in 2023, arb-eligible in 2025 — 28-year-old righty with two years of team control who demonstrated his upside with a second-place Cy Young finish in 2022 but struggled through a down year in 2023, when he notched a 4.58 ERA with slightly diminished (but still far better than average) strikeout and velocity numbers. Cease has worse command than one would prefer from a top starting pitcher, which has long been an issue, but he and other Sox hurlers have also been harmed by perennially poor defensive alignments behind them.
Last year’s pedestrian ERA notwithstanding, Cease is a durable power pitcher whom other organizations undoubtedly view as a playoff-caliber starter — if not a true No. 1 then at least a strong No. 2-3 option in a postseason rotation. No pitcher in baseball has started more games than Cease’s 109 dating back to 2020 — his first full season at the MLB level. Even if one were to assume that Cease’s 2022 season was an outlier, career-best campaign while his 2023 ERA was somewhat fluky in nature, a look at his entire body of work over the past three seasons reveals strong overall numbers: 526 2/3 innings of 3.54 ERA ball with a huge 29.8% strikeout rate against an elevated 10.1% walk rate. Fielding-independent metrics tend to support the idea that Cease’s talent level lands somewhere in the mid- to upper-3.00s.
In terms of pure team fit, the Padres are as strong a match as one could conjure up. The Friars’ offseason has been something of a financially motivated reset, but the team isn’t about to enter a full-scale rebuild with Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove all signed long-term. The Padres only have three clear starters at the moment in Musgrove, Darvish and trade acquisition Michael King, who came over from the Yankees in the Juan Soto swap.
Adding Cease to the rotation and cementing the top four spots would create a fifth-starter battle including Matt Waldron, Randy Vasquez, Jhony Brito, Pedro Avila, Jay Groome and others. The team’s chances of competing with that group vying for only the final spot in the rotation, obviously, would be far greater than needing to rely on two names from that unproven group to carry the back end of the staff. (Some of those names, of course, could be included in a theoretical trade package with the White Sox.)
The affordable nature of Cease’s contract surely appeals to a San Diego club that has slashed the present-day cost of its roster by nearly $100MM. That’s doubly true in that Cease’s $8MM salary wouldn’t put the Padres anywhere particularly close to the $237MM luxury-tax threshold they’re clearly hoping to avoid. RosterResource projects San Diego at just over $216MM in luxury obligations. Cease would be a net $7.26MM in luxury considerations, bringing the team to around $223.5MM. That’d still leave some room if president of baseball operations A.J. Preller wants to add Cease and pursue one more free agent outfielder, as has been rumored; the Padres were connected to Adam Duvall, Michael A. Taylor and old friend Tommy Pham earlier this week.
While Preller’s years of frenetic activity on the trade market lead to constant churn in the farm system, the Padres remain strong in that regard. Each of MLB.com, ESPN and Baseball America rank the Padres among the sport’s top six farm systems, due largely to strong drafting and international scouting, in addition to replenishing some of their lost depth in the trade that sent Soto and Trent Grisham to New York. Top prospect Jackson Merrill looks on track to be the team’s Opening Day center fielder and is surely all but untouchable alongside ballyhooed catcher Ethan Salas. But the Friars have as many as six other prospects who’ve drawn top-100 fanfare, in addition to a slew of near-MLB-ready talent that could entice the ChiSox to part with Cease.
Rays’ Taj Bradley To Open Season On Injured List
Rays right-hander Taj Bradley, who underwent an MRI after being scratched from yesterday’s spring start, will open the season on the 15-day injured list after being diagnosed with a pectoral strain, manager Kevin Cash announced this morning (X links via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Bradley will be shut down from throwing entirely for “at least” the next two weeks and will be reevaluated at that point. Even in a best-case scenario where he’s cleared to resume throwing at that point, he’d need to build back up and go on a minor league rehab assignment before he’s an option to rejoin the big league rotation.
Bradley’s pec strain is the latest in a series of health troubles for a Rays rotation that is among the most talented in the sport but is also currently among the most injury-ravaged. He’ll join Shane McClanahan (Tommy John surgery in August), Jeffrey Springs (Tommy John surgery in April) and Drew Rasmussen (internal brace surgery in July) on the injured list for a Tampa Bay club that is still awaiting the return of former top pitching prospect Shane Baz, who underwent his own Tommy John procedure in 2022.
On the surface, Bradley’s loss may not seem critical. The 22-year-old debuted to considerable fanfare in 2023 but turned in an uneven season, ultimately finishing the year with a 5.59 ERA in 104 2/3 big league frames. For a pitcher who entered the season widely considered among the sport’s top 50 to 75 overall prospects, it wasn’t the most exciting debut. Bradley had his share of strong performances but struggled more often than not in his first taste of the majors.
Despite the shaky bottom-line run prevention numbers, however, Bradley offered plenty of reason for optimism. His 28% strikeout rate is well north of the league average, while his 8.5% walk rate is solid. He averaged a strong 96.2 mph on his heater and posted slightly better-than-average marks in swinging-strike rate (11.3%) and opponents’ chase rate (32%). His primary issue last year, both in the big leagues and in Triple-A, was seeing an inordinate percentage of his fly-balls end up leaving the yard (19.2% in the majors, 23.1% in 10 Triple-A starts).
That hasn’t been an issue for Bradley at all in the past, however, even in his first run through the Triple-A level in 2022. Prior to the ’23 season, Bradley actually had posted a considerably lower-than-average HR/FB mark throughout his minor league career. Metrics like xFIP and SIERA, which normalize a pitcher’s HR/FB rate, viewed him in a far more favorable light (3.83 and 3.82, respectively). And with 142 1/3 innings pitched in 2023, Bradley was set to enter the 2024 season without any real limits on his workload. A breakout season seemed quite plausible.
Any such steps forward will be placed on hold indefinitely for the time being, which is a major setback for a Rays club that’s already uncharacteristically thin on rotation depth. Tampa Bay will enter the season with Zach Eflin, Aaron Civale and converted reliever Zack Littell in the top three spots of the rotation. Twenty-six-year-old Ryan Pepiot, acquired from the Dodgers in the Tyler Glasnow trade, will likely grab the No. 4 spot on the staff. He’s long been a touted prospect himself and carries excellent results in the majors to date, but injuries have regularly limited him as well. He opened 2023 on the 60-day IL with a Grade 2 oblique strain and pitched just 64 2/3 frames overall.
Rotation alternatives in camp include Jacob Lopez, Tyler Alexander and Chris Devenski, all of whom are on the 40-man roster. Alexander has started games for the Tigers in the past and had been ticketed for a swingman role with Tampa Bay, but he could conceivably get a look early in ’24 now. He and Devenski were both being stretched out to handle at least three innings at a time in camp anyhow, and either could be pushed beyond that point.
In terms of non-roster players, former NPB starter Naoyuki Uwasawa and prospect Mason Montgomery are the most interesting candidate names in the group. Uwasawa, 30, has a career 3.19 ERA in nine NPB seasons and tossed 170 innings of 2.96 ERA ball for the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2023, but he’s a soft-tosser with sub-par strikeout rates even in Japan. He’s been rocked for 13 runs in just 5 2/3 innings in spring training thus far. Montgomery, meanwhile, has just 16 innings above the Double-A level under his belt and has been tagged for three runs in his 4 1/3 spring frames.
Cash indicated that the Rays will consider several in-house options to replace Bradley in the rotation, though another injury on an already thinly stretched pitching staff will undoubtedly lead to both speculation and some internal discussions about adding from outside the organization. The Rays’ projected $99MM Opening Day payroll (via RosterResource), somewhat incredibly, is already a franchise-record for the club. That casts doubt on whether they’d even be able to bring in one of the second-tier remaining arms in free agency, such as Michael Lorenzen or Mike Clevinger.
That said, there will also be several veteran arms on minor league deals elsewhere in the league who’ll likely opt out in the latter stages of camp, plus a slew of pitchers made available via DFA and waivers as other clubs set their Opening Day rosters. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see the Rays add some extra depth in some form between now and Opening Day, particularly if they begin to get the sense that Bradley’s injury will require a longer shutdown period than that best-case outlook of two weeks.