D-Backs Looking At Right-Handed Bench Bats
The Diamondbacks signed Joc Pederson late last month and plan to use him as their primary designated hitter, but the Snakes remain on the lookout for a right-handed bat to pair with Pederson, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Among the names they’re considering are Randal Grichuk, Adam Duvall and Tommy Pham, he adds.
Beyond Pederson at designated hitter, Arizona also has lefties in center field (Alek Thomas) and in right field (Corbin Carroll). The team’s re-signing of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on a three-year pact helped to balance out an all-lefty outfield mix, but in the event that Gurriel misses any time, the top option to replace him would be lefty-swinging Jake McCarthy. As such, there’s reason to have interest in a right-handed outfield bat beyond simply wanting a platoon partner for Pederson.
The mere possibility of Pederson and Pham on the same roster will prompt boundless quips about fantasy football, but the two would form a rather natural platoon in Arizona’s DH slot. Pederson has made a career of slugging against right-handed pitching (.242/.344/.490) but carries a bleak .209/.293/.329 slash against lefties — including a .186/.327/.279 output with the Giants in 2023. Pham, meanwhile, is a .271/.381/.453 hitter against southpaws.
Pham, 36 next month, hit .262/.332/.435 against lefties in 2023 — a season split between the Mets and the D-backs. It’s not the first time this winter that Arizona has been linked to a reunion with Pham, and their ongoing interest suggests that beyond giving the Snakes a useful right-handed bat, he was a good fit in the team’s clubhouse. Defensively, Pham is primarily a left fielder at this stage of his career. He did log 45 frames in center last season, but he hasn’t played the position even semi-regularly since 2018.
Duvall, who turned 35 in September, has generally even splits in his career: .232/.301/.469 against lefties and .232/.287/.473 against righties. He strikes out a bit more and walks a bit less against right-handers but doesn’t overwhelmingly favor pitchers of either handedness. That might make him a suboptimal platoon partner for Pederson, but it does give him some more utility of the D-backs incur injuries in their outfield and/or at designated hitter, with Pederson.
Duvall graded out as an elite corner outfield defender earlier in his career, but metrics like Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have viewed him as more of an average outfielder as he progresses into his mid-30s. The Red Sox did give Duvall a career-high 478 innings in center field last season, though the results weren’t what the team had hoped (-5 DRS, -4 OAA).
At 32 years old, Grichuk offers a younger version of a comparable skill set. He’s a career .267/.315/.507 hitter against left-handed pitching and has experience at all three outfield positions. Though he drew strong grades for his center field defense earlier in his career, defensive metrics have increasingly panned his work there. Grichuk is still a capable corner outfielder with average speed and above-average arm strength, and last year’s massive .328/.388/.607 slash against southpaws is particularly appealing for a team specifically looking for help against lefties.
The Diamondbacks currently project for a $142MM payroll, per Roster Resource, which would top their prior franchise record by nearly $11MM. That apparently won’t stop general manager Mike Hazen and his staff from pursuing further upgrades in free agency. None of Pham, Grichuk or Duvall will break the bank — all could likely be had on one-year contracts — but every dollar spent on payroll at this point pushes the D-backs further into uncharted territory.
Brandon Marsh Out Three To Four Weeks Following Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
11:21am: Dombrowski tells reporters that Marsh’s injury occurred during a workout a few days ago (X link via Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer). The debridement procedure that was performed was tied to “floating cartilage” in Marsh’s knee.
10:21am: The Phillies announced Friday that outfielder Brandon Marsh underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee this morning. He’s expected to return to game activity in three to four weeks, per the team, and the Phillies anticipate that he’ll still be ready for Opening Day.
Marsh, 26, was acquired from the Angels at the 2022 deadline in a trade sending catcher Logan O’Hoppe to the Halos. It was a somewhat rare one-for-one swap of two well-regarded young players whose positional fit was stronger with another club than the one that drafted him. Marsh hit the ground running in Philly and has seized a regular spot in the outfield, batting .280/.360/.457 in 610 plate appearances since that swap.
While he’s played plenty of center field for the Phillies, Marsh will likely slide over to left field in 2024 in deference to defensive standout Johan Rojas, whom president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said earlier this week is “likely” to be his Opening Day center fielder. Marsh has been a capable enough defender in center, but he graded out as a plus in the corners last year. More than that, however, Rojas posted otherworldly defensive marks in just 392 innings of center field work: 15 Defensive Runs Saved and 6 Outs Above Average.
The Phillies were already known to be poking around the market for another bench bat, and it’s fair to wonder whether this injury news regarding Marsh might push them a bit harder to find a right-handed-hitting outfielder. Marsh is a career .223/.278/.312 hitter against southpaws anyhow, and while there’s no indication that this is expected to be a long-term issue, it’s also not uncommon to see a relatively minor surgery bring about some lingering issues.
Right now, Cristian Pache is the Phillies’ fourth outfielder — though utility infielder Edmundo Sosa has also seen some time in the outfield as well. Both are right-handed, but both are also defensive-minded players. If Marsh experiences any kind of setback, the Phillies could turn to a platoon arrangement with Pache and fellow reserve Jake Cave in left field, or the club could take a look at a non-roster depth option like Cal Stevenson. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see at least another non-roster invitee brought into camp to join that mix, and Dombrowski acknowledged earlier this week that the club “might” end up signing another bat for the Major League bench, so a more notable addition than another NRI shouldn’t be ruled out entirely.
Blue Jays Announce Yariel Rodriguez Deal, Designate Otto Lopez For Assignment
After a lengthy wait, the Blue Jays have formally announced their signing of right-hander Yariel Rodriguez. It’s a five-year, $32MM deal for Rodriguez, per the team, as opposed to the four years and $32MM that was previously reported. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Toronto has designated utilityman Otto Lopez for assignment. Rodriguez is jointly represented by WME and Born To Play.
Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic reports that the fifth year on Rodriguez’s contract is a player option valued at $6MM. If Rodriguez declines that option, the team will then have the ability to exercise a $10MM club option. That could take the contract to $36MM over five years, though Francys Romero reports that the total money can climb as high as $40MM, which suggests there are some additional incentives baked into the arrangement.
It’s been more than three weeks since Rodriguez and the Jays agreed to terms on a contract, but he’s been unable to finalize the pact while awaiting a visa allowing him to enter either Canada or the United States. The expectation has been that whenever Rodriguez acquired the requisite documentation to enter either country, a physical would be completed and the deal would be finalized in short order.
Just 26 years old, Rodriguez has starred for los Ganaderos de Camaguey in his native Cuba and for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. His work in NPB, in particular, caught the eye of Major League scouts, and with good reason. Rodriguez’s 3.03 ERA in three seasons with the Dragons is impressive on its own, but his most recent season featured 54 2/3 overwhelmingly dominant innings: a 1.15 ERA, 27.5% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate out of the Chunichi bullpen.
It should be noted, of course, that those numbers came during the 2022 NPB season — not in 2023. Rodriguez pitched for Team Cuba during last year’s World Baseball Classic but did not return to the Dragons for the 2023 season as he set his sights on a move to Major League Baseball. The Dragons placed him on the restricted list for the 2023 season and granted him his release in early November. He’s since hosted multiple showcases for MLB teams and been viewed as one of the more fascinating free agents on the market.
Of course, Rodriguez is also one of the most volatile free agents in play this winter; it’s hard enough to project how much of a player’s success in the Cuban National Series and/or in NPB might carry over to an MLB setting — but that’s all the more complicated when he didn’t even pitch during the preceding season outside of a brief WBC appearance. There’s a good bit of upside, to be sure, but given the long layoff, acclimation to a new culture and step up in overall level off competition, there’s a wide range of plausible outcomes for Rodriguez in MLB — specifically in his first season.
It’s not yet clear just what role Rodriguez will fill with the Jays. He made some starts in NPB but worked primarily as a reliever — exclusively so in his final season with the Dragons. Back in Cuba, be worked primarily out of the Camaguey rotation. Toronto general manager Ross Atkins issued a statement today praising Rodriguez’s ability to generate swings and misses before noting that he provides “starting depth” but could also fill multiple roles on the team.
Given Rodriguez’s lengthy layoff from pitching — and even lengthier layoff from working a full starting pitcher’s workload — it’d be a surprise to see him jump right into the Jays’ rotation. In all likelihood, he’ll be on an innings cap this year, and it’s even possible that Toronto could want to get him some work in Triple-A before thrusting him into the MLB spotlight. Logically speaking, it’s natural to think he could fill a long relief/spot starter role and build up innings this year, with an eye toward stepping into the 2025 rotation on a more permanent basis. But, if the Jays have a need in the late innings Rodriguez clearly has the raw stuff to pitch in that type of leverage role as well.
Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser profiled Rodriguez and several other international free agents (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shota Imanaga, Jung Hoo Lee, Yuki Matsui, Woo Suk Go) earlier in the offseason, writing that Rodriguez’s fastball sits around 96 mph and can reach triple digits on occasion. Glaser credited the hard-throwing Rodriguez with an above-average slider but called his splitter “fringy” and his curveball “below-average.” The Jays could certainly help the 6’1″ Rodriguez refine some of those offspeed offerings, but even if he’s operating with “only” a plus heater and above-average slider, that could be enough to make him a viable big league setup man or multi-inning reliever.
As for the 25-year-old Lopez, he’ll now be traded or placed on outright waivers within the coming week. The right-handed hitter has appeared in the big leagues sparingly over the past two seasons, collecting six singles in ten at-bats. Lopez looked to be on the cusp of breaking through to the majors for a larger opportunity when he batted .297/.378/.415 in 391 Triple-A plate appearances in 2022, but his bat took a sizable step back in 2023, evidenced by a tepid .258/.313/.343 slash in 346 plate appearances at that same level.
Scouting reports on Lopez have touted his plus hit tool and speed, but he has bottom-of-the-scale power, evidenced by the fact that he’s never topped five homers in a season and has just seven long balls in 931 Triple-A plate appearances. He’s swiped 90 bases in 518 minor league games but has only a 70.8% success rate. Lopez has seen time at second base, shortstop, third base and in the outfield, but skeptics question whether he has the arm to play on the left side of the infield.
Because he’s out of minor league options, Lopez would’ve needed to make the Blue Jays Opening Day roster or else be traded elsewhere or placed on waivers (likely following a DFA). The Jays made the move proactively rather than carry Lopez throughout spring training. He’ll now be available to the other 29 clubs via trade or waivers, but any team that acquires him will need to carry Lopez on its own Opening Day roster or else try to pass Lopez through waivers before sending him down to the minors.
Rangers Sign Adolis Garcia To Two-Year Deal
5:19pm: The Rangers made it official, announced they have signed Garcia to a two-year deal. Per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, Garcia will make $4.75MM this year and a base of $9.25MM next year.
11:33am: Garcia is guaranteed $14MM over the two-year term, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The contract contains a series of escalators based on MVP voting that could further increase his salary in year two of the deal. The contract can max out at $20.25MM total over two years, Heyman adds.
10:58am: The Rangers have agreed to a two-year contract with star outfielder Adolis Garcia, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The deal is still pending completion of a physical, and there are still some details to be finalized, but the general framework is in place. Garcia is represented by Octagon.
The agreement comes on the same day that Garcia and the team were slated to head to an arbitration hearing. Garcia’s camp had filed for a $6.9MM salary for the upcoming season, while the team had countered at $5MM. That hearing will now no longer be necessary, and the two-year term on the deal eliminates the chance of a hearing next offseason as well. Garcia will still be under club control for one final year after this two-year pact draws to a close, so the two sides will again have to deal with a potential arb hearing in the 2025-26 offseason.
Garcia, 31 next month, has emerged as a late-blooming star and one of the driving factors behind the Rangers’ 2023 World Series title. He’s been a key presence in the lineup and in the outfield for Texas in each of the past three seasons, hitting .246/.305/.472 (110 wRC+) with plus defense and baserunning.
Garcia’s 2023 campaign, however, was far and away his best overall season to date. Garcia posted a career-best 10.3% walk rate and career-low 27.7% strikeout rate while hitting .245/.328/.508 with 39 home runs — second-most in the American League and tied for seventh-most in all of MLB. That performance earned Garcia an All-Star nod, and his premium defense resulted in his first career Gold Glove Award. His heroics continued into the postseason, where he hit .323/.382/.726 with a staggering eight home runs in just 15 games and 68 plate appearances. Garcia was on another level during the ALCS, when he clocked five home runs and slugged just shy of .900 en route to ALCS MVP honors.
An ill-timed oblique strain suffered on a swing during Game 3 of the World Series prompted the Rangers to remove Garcia from their World Series roster, but Texas soldiered on without their star right fielder and toppled the upstart Diamondbacks in a 4-1 series victory. By all accounts, Garcia has long since healed up from that injury and is a full-go for spring training.
Heading into 2024, Garcia will again reprise his role as the team’s primary right fielder. He’ll likely be joined by center fielder Leody Taveras, but the complexion of the Texas outfield is beginning to change in dramatic fashion. Top prospect Evan Carter made his big league debut late in the 2023 season and took the playoffs by storm. He’s just 21 years old, but after hitting .306/.413/.635 in 75 plate appearances down the stretch and .300/.417/.500 in another 72 postseason trips to the plate, he’s the heavy favorite to play left field regularly.
Meanwhile, 2023 No. 4 overall pick Wyatt Langford breezed through minor league pitching in 2023, batting .360/.480/.677 in 200 plate appearances across four levels. Langford reached Triple-A for the final five games of his season and is in the mix to break camp with the Rangers. He could join Carter and Garcia in a carousel of sorts between the outfield corners and the DH spot in manager Bruce Bochy’s lineup.
Padres Sign Wandy Peralta
The Padres finalized the signing of reliever Wandy Peralta on a four-year free agent contract. The MAS+ Agency client has the right to opt out after each of the first three seasons. He is reportedly guaranteed $16.5MM. Peralta will make $3.35MM this year, followed by a $4.25MM player option for 2025, and $4.45MM player options for the following two years. San Diego had five open spots on the 40-man roster, so they didn’t make a corresponding transaction.
Peralta, 32, has been one of the steadiest relievers in the Yankees’ bullpen for the past several seasons. From 2021-23, the southpaw logged 153 innings and turned in a 2.82 ERA with a 21% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate and excellent 56.5% ground-ball rate. He’s also limited hard contact quite nicely, sitting in the 88th percentile (or better) of MLB pitchers in opponents’ average exit velocity during each of the past four seasons.
In 2023, Peralta had some uncharacteristic command struggles, as his walk rate jumped from 7.6% to 13.6%. He also plunked a career-high six batters — as many as he’d hit over the four previous years combined. Still, the track record is good, he kept his ERA below 3.00 even with the shaky command, and at 32 he’s younger than most of the other southpaws available. The Yankees reportedly had interest in retaining him, and the Mets were known to have some interest as well. Instead, he’ll head clear across the country and join a revamped Padres bullpen that has lost closer Josh Hader to the Astros but has added several interesting arms.
Peralta joins star NPB left-hander Yuki Matsui and star KBO righty Woo Suk Go as free-agent pickups for San Diego president of baseball operations A.J. Preller. The Friars also acquired Enyel De Los Santos in a trade sending Scott Barlow to Cleveland. That quartet will join right-hander Robert Suarez as he seeks a bounceback after a difficult 2023 campaign. Righty Steven Wilson is also locked into a middle relief role.
It’s almost unheard of for a reliever to sign a deal with three opt-out provisions, but Preller has shown a willingness to utilize opt-out clauses more than any executive in the sport as a means of luring free agents to San Diego. Both Matsui and Suarez have opt-outs in their five-year contracts (which is an extremely rare length for relief contracts as well). Recent offseasons have also seen the Friars grant opt-out clauses to Michael Wacha, Nick Martinez, Seth Lugo, Matt Carpenter, Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer (multiple opt-outs, in the case of Wacha and Martinez).
The frequent opt-out provisions are clearly a successful tactic in terms of reeling in free agents, but they’re also one of the main factors behind the Padres’ perennial roster churn. Moreover, the risk is rather clear from the team vantage point; if Peralta pitches well in 2024, he’ll likely opt back into free agency next season and turn the contract into a one-year deal. If he’s injured or performs poorly, the Padres will remain on the hook for what could quickly look like an undesirable contract. And, even if Peralta is pitching well this summer but the Padres fall from contention, the trio of opt-outs will sap much of Peralta’s trade value. Any potential trade partner will be wary of acquiring a player who’ll bolt for free agency at season’s end if things go well but is still guaranteed additional seasons if the trade pans out poorly.
The uncommon structure of the contract also succeeds in lowering the luxury tax hit for the Padres, who’d surely like to dip beneath the $237MM threshold and reset their penalty after soaring past last year’s tax barriers. The Friars have trimmed back much of their actual, bottom-line payroll but are still only about $22MM shy of that first-tier tax level after signing Peralta, per Roster Resource. That’s due largely to backloaded contracts for Machado, Matsui, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth.
Peralta’s addition provides a solid veteran arm to what looks like a volatile Padres bullpen. While all of Suarez, Matsui and Go are clearly talented, there’s a broad range of outcomes on each of the three as Suarez looks to put last year’s injuries behind him while Matsui and Go transition to North American ball after starring in their respective leagues across the Pacific. That’s key for the Padres, as is getting Peralta on an affordable yearly rate. While there’s ample downside because of the opt-outs, as previously discussed, the contract also creates the possibility of getting one year of Peralta at a highly affordable rate that wouldn’t have been otherwise feasible.
The lower salaries on the contract also leave Preller & Co. some additional wiggle room as they look to round out a top-heavy roster. The Padres have clear needs in the outfield and rotation, and they could also use another bat to bolster the corner/designated hitter mix. The Padres, though, were also looking to reduce payroll by as much as $50MM from last year’s $255MM mark. They’re currently at a projected $160MM. On the surface, that seems to leave ample room for further additions, but as already noted, the team is only a notable addition or two away from being right back up against the luxury threshold, which could prove instructive in forecasting the remainder of their offseason dealings.
Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin of the Athletic first reported the Padres and Peralta were in agreement on a four-year, $16.5MM contract with three opt-out clauses. FanSided’s Robert Murray reported the salary breakdown.
Latest On Astros, Alex Bregman
Feb. 8: The Astros spoke to Boras yesterday, GM Dana Brown said Thursday (X link via Rome). Brown stressed that there’s no timetable for extension talks but echoed Crane’s comments that the team “will make an [extension] offer” to Bregman.
Feb. 7: The Astros locked up one franchise icon yesterday, perhaps for the remainder of his career, when signing second baseman Jose Altuve to a five-year, $125MM deal that runs through his age-39 campaign. Altuve’s extension status has been a talking point for the past year, as the eight-time All-Star had been slated to reach free agency this coming offseason. Third baseman Alex Bregman finds himself in a similar scenario, entering the final season of a nine-figure extension and on the cusp of free agency. However, talks with the 29-year-old Bregman are another beast entirely — a reality owner Jim Crane acknowledged when speaking to Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle.
While Crane candidly stated that the organization will “definitely” make a long-term offer to Bregman before he reaches the market, he also acknowledged that Bregman’s age makes him “a little different circumstance.” That’s something of an understatement. Bregman, who like Altuve is represented by the Boras Corporation, is currently slated to head into free agency in advance of his age-31 campaign. Altuve would’ve turned 34 in May of the first season of a potential free agent deal.
That gap in age sets vastly different market expectations — as does the difference in position. In recent offseasons, the market hasn’t rewarded pure second basemen at nearly the same levels as third basemen. And with Bregman hitting the market prior to his age-31 season, a deal ranging from seven to nine years in length seems plausible in a way that simply wouldn’t have been the case for Altuve entering his age-34 season.
A look at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker highlights the discrepancy. Prior to Altuve’s new deal, the largest free-agent deal or extension inked by any second baseman in the past five years was Marcus Semien‘s $175MM contract and Andres Gimenez‘s $106.75MM extension. Flip the position to third base, and free agency has provided $300MM and $245MM deals to Manny Machado and Anthony Rendon, respectively, while the extension market has seen Austin Riley, Nolan Arenado and Rafael Devers all eclipse $200MM (and $300MM, in Devers’ case). When switching to age-based criteria, Aaron Judge‘s $360MM contract began with his age-31 season, whereas no position player contract beginning at age 34 had topped Josh Donaldson‘s four-year, $92MM deal.
At today’s press conference to formally announce the Altuve extension, Boras was asked about the possibility of a Bregman extension. As one would expect, he didn’t rule anything out, telling reporters: “Alex has made it clear that he’s open to listening to whatever the Astros have to say” (X link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic).
But, as we’ve previously noted here at MLBTR and as Rome outlined concisely in his latest mailbag column (which Astros fans, in particular, will want to check out in full), the type of commitment it’ll require to sign Bregman long-term isn’t one that the Astros have been willing to make in the past. Owner Jim Crane has never signed a player for more than a $150MM guarantee and has never given out a contract longer than Yordan Alvarez‘s six-year deal. Bregman, if he has a “typical” year in line with his career levels, figures to be positioned to top both of those figures by a wide margin.
Even assuming Bregman rejects a qualifying offer — which seems like a given if he produces at his usual levels — a seven-year deal would seem like the bare minimum, and a lengthier pact would be considered likely. Bregman would be the clear top third baseman on next year’s market and could wind up being considered the No. 2 or No. 3 overall free agent behind Juan Soto. He’ll be in a tier alongside stars like Pete Alonso, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Willy Adames, among others, in that regard. Boras touched on this today, telling the Astros beat that because of the age at which they signed their previous contracts and the age at which they are (or were, in Altuve’s case) scheduled to hit free agency, that Bregman faces “a more normal free agency dynamic” than Altuve would have (X link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle).
From a payroll standpoint, the Astros could certainly make a Bregman deal work — even after inking Altuve. Roster Resource projects a bit more than $117MM in guaranteed money on the 2025 books. Adding in a new Bregman contract and arbitration raises for stars Kyle Tucker and Framber Valdez could add as much as $65-75MM to that number, but Houston is set to trot out a $240MM payroll in 2024 and will exceed the luxury tax threshold this year. Extending Bregman would mean committing to having four players — Bregman, Altuve, Hader and Alvarez — all locked up through at least the 2028 season, but the frontloaded nature of Altuve’s contract will mean he’s only earning a $10MM salary in each of those seasons. As such, it’d be plenty plausible to have Altuve ($10MM), Hader ($19MM), Alvarez ($26MM) and Bregman and have that quartet account for well shy of $100MM.
An extension for Bregman shouldn’t be waved off as a sheer impossibility, but it’d take a change in the club’s contractual norms for one to come together this spring. Houston fans can point to the fact that the Josh Hader signing represented just that sort of philosophical shift, as it was a much larger deal than Crane has typically been willing to commit to a free agent, but a Bregman extension would represent an even larger departure from prior norms, given the dollars at stake.
Dodgers, Chris Owings Agree To Minor League Deal
The Dodgers signed veteran utilityman Chris Owings to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league spring training, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Owings, an ACES client, has already arrived at Dodgers’ camp today, he adds.
Though he’s appeared in each of the past 11 MLB seasons, Owings is still just 32 years old and won’t turn 33 until mid-August. He suited up for 11 games with the Pirates in 2023 — his sixth MLB club — and appeared in 11 games. Owings went 4-for-25 (all singles) with a dozen strikeouts and no walks. He fared better with the Bucs’ Triple-A club, slashing .241/.349/.449 with 15 homers in 371 trips to the plate.
Owings is a career .239/.286/.364 hitter in 2489 MLB plate appearances. He’s played every position on the diamond other than catcher and first base, though the bulk of his career has been spent as a middle infielder.
Given the infield depth the Dodgers possess already, it seems like Owings will wind up being stashed as a depth piece in Triple-A (or perhaps catching on with another club later in spring). Los Angeles has Freddie Freeman at first base, Mookie Betts at second base, a returning Gavin Lux at shortstop and Max Muncy at the hot corner. Veterans Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas offer versatile options from the bench, and former top prospect Miguel Vargas remains on the 40-man roster as an option who’s likely ticketed for regular at-bats in Triple-A to begin the season.
Red Sox, Michael Fulmer Agree To Minor League Deal
The Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran right-hander Michael Fulmer, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Fulmer isn’t expected to pitch in 2024 after undergoing a UCL revision in his right elbow back in October. As such, it’s a two-year minor league pact, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Presumably, that’ll come with a 2025 spring training invite. The Red Sox didn’t formally announce Fulmer’s deal, but they did make their previously known minor league pact with Dalton Guthrie official, adding that he’s been invited to big league camp this spring. The Sox also announced minor league deals with non-roster invites to camp for infielder Joe Dunand and righty Melvin Adon.
Of the names in question, Fulmer is the most recognizable. Now 30 years old (31 in March), Fulmer was the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year with the Tigers when he pitched 159 innings of 3.06 ERA ball out of the Detroit rotation. A solid followup season in 2017 looked to have entrenched Fulmer on the starting staff in Detroit, but injuries have largely derailed that promising start to his big league tenure.
Since 2018, Fulmer has undergone ulnar nerve transposition surgery, meniscus surgery in his right knee, Tommy John surgery and now a revision of that originally ligament repair in his pitching elbow. That doesn’t include oblique, shoulder and back strains that have also sent him to the injured list for various stints over the past six years. Since pitching 323 2/3 innings of 3.45 ERA ball over his first two MLB seasons combined, Fulmer has pitched a total of just 350 1/3 MLB frames in the past six seasons.
Some of that is due to a 2021 move to the bullpen. Fulmer looked to have found a second act in his career upon making that shift. He saved 14 games for the ’21 Tigers and from ’21-’23 pitched 190 1/3 frames of 3.55 ERA ball between the Tigers, Twins and Cubs. This latest procedure and another year lost to arm troubles again clouds his long-term outlook, although he’ll be just 32 years of age in 2025, so there’s still plenty of time for Fulmer to have a nice long run as a reliever if his arm can hold up. By virtue of this minimal-risk arrangement, the Red Sox will get to take the first look at his chances of doing so.
Turning to the 28-year-old Dunand, he made a brief MLB debut with the Marlins in 2022 (three games) but is best known as the nephew of Alex Rodriguez. Dunand went 3-for-10 with a homer and a double in his brief look with the Fish but has an uneven track record in Triple-A. The former second-round pick struggled greatly with the Marlins’ Triple-A club in 2021-22 before making some notable strides with the Braves organization in 2023. Dunand hit .268/.362/.481 (111 wRC+) with 17 homers in 403 Triple-A plate appearances last season, though his prior Triple-A struggles are reflected in a career .233/.325/.407 output at that level.
Dunand has played both positions on the left side of the infield extensively, though he’s appeared slightly more often at third base (1962 innings) than at shortstop (1810 innings). He’s also logged 506 innings at first base and made brief cameos in left field and at second base. He’s a right-handed bat who’ll give the Sox some depth at a variety of positions.
Adon, 29, has spent his entire professional career in the Giants organization prior to this signing. He ranked 17th or better among San Francisco prospects each year from 2017-19, per Baseball America, but has seen his stock fade due to persistent command troubles and recent injury woes (shoulder surgery, most notably).
Adon’s fastball has previously sat in the upper 90s and climbed as high as 102 mph, and scouting reports have touted a plus slider for him as well. Despite two plus offerings, he’s shown bottom-of-the-scale command in the upper minors, walking 13% of his Double-A opponents and more than 17% of his Triple-A opponents. He’s also plunked 25 hitters and thrown a whopping 67 wild pitches in just 457 professional innings. Adon has above-average strikeout rates in Double-A and Triple-A, but not to the extent one might expect based on the quality of his raw pitches.
Dombrowski On Phillies’ Offseason, Wheeler, Rojas, Painter
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski joined the 94 WIP Morning show with Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie on Wednesday, touching on a broad-reaching number of Phillies topics (Audacy link to the entire 20-minute interview). It’s a good listen for fans of any club — Phils fans in particular, of course — wherein Philadelphia’s top decision-maker discusses his team’s relatively quiet offseason, the state of the rotation and the outfield, Zack Wheeler‘s future with the club, top prospect Andrew Painter‘s health and quite a bit more.
Among the more notable takeaways was Dombrowski’s reply when asked a potential late move for one of the remaining big-name starters on the board. Dombrowski didn’t comment on either Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery by name but expressed that he’s content with the club’s rotation. As far back as early November, Dombrowski touted fifth starter Cristopher Sanchez as someone the team believes can be a big regular in the rotation, and his comments today mesh with that line of thinking. Dombrowski didn’t expressly rule out the addition of another starter but implied that the team wasn’t about to pay market rate for one of the remaining names out there.
“I can’t tell you that somebody doesn’t fall into your lap at some point where you say, ‘Gee, that’s an opportunity we can’t turn down,'” Dombrowski said. That suggests a willingness to remain open-minded to some late, unexpected drops in price but doesn’t sound like a portent for an aggressive pursuit of a top-tier free agent.
That said, there was at least one name the Phillies considered worthy of an exception: Yoshinobu Yamamoto. It’s already been reported that the Phillies were a legitimate suitor for the 25-year-old NPB ace before he signed a record deal with the Dodgers, and Dombrowski now confirms that his team was “very involved” in Yamamoto’s market. The veteran baseball ops leader went so far as to say that others might be “shocked” to learn how much money the Phillies ultimately offered — naturally, he declined to specify — before indicating that Yamamoto simply had a preference to be a Dodger. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber reported last week that the Phils also made a 12-year offer, although it’s unclear if they were willing to match the $325MM guarantee which Yamamoto received from Los Angeles.
Obviously, any multi-year addition to the rotation could provide the Phillies with some insurance in the event that Wheeler departs as a free agent at season’s end. But Dombrowski called Wheeler “one of the best pitchers in baseball” and stressed that it’s “important” and a “priority” for the Phillies find a way to re-sign the right-hander.
Wheeler, 34 in May, has outperformed the five-year, $118MM contract he signed with the Phillies in the 2019-20 offseason. He’s garnered Cy Young consideration in three of his four Phillies seasons, highlighted by a second-place finish in 2021 and a sixth-place finish in 2023.
Over the past four seasons, he’s tied with Corbin Burnes for the fourth-most innings in Major League Baseball and leads MLB in FanGraphs’ wins above replacement. He’s notched a tidy 3.06 ERA despite typically playing in front of one of the game’s weakest defenses, thanks in large part to a sharp 26.7% strikeout rate and excellent 5.3% walk rate. A new contract for Wheeler would begin with his age-35 season, which caps his earning potential to an extent, but recent history has shown teams are willing to pay elite arms even at the late stages of their careers.
A look at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker highlights some recent examples of age-35 (or older) pitchers cashing in. Jacob deGrom signed a five-year deal with a $37MM annual value, while Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander both inked multi-year deals at a $43.333MM AAV. The AAV on Yu Darvish‘s extension, beginning in his age-37 season, is just $18MM — but that was a function of the Padres drawing out the term in order to drive down the annual salary for luxury-tax purposes. Darvish still secured a $90MM guarantee on that frontloaded deal and was two years older than Wheeler will be in year one of a theoretical free agent pact or extension. Suffice it to say, Wheeler will be the relatively rare big leaguer who has a chance at multiple nine-figure contracts in his career.
On the point of the team’s defense, Dombrowski cited that as a primary reason the team has not pursued additional outfield help with much aggression this spring. Young Johan Rojas dazzled with his defensive ratings (+15 Defensive Runs Saved, +6 Outs Above Average) in just 392 innings of center field work. Asked if Rojas will be the team’s primary center fielder this season, Dombrowski all but anointed the 23-year-old.
“Likely? Yes,” Dombrowski replied. “Definitively? No. We saw enough the last couple months in August and September that we liked what we saw. I’ve talked to our hitting people at length about his progress over the winter time. He’s worked extremely hard. He’s made adjustments that he needs to make. I’m not saying he’s going to come up and hit .300 with 20 home runs off the bat, but I think he can do enough offensively and contribute from an offensive perspective. And when you add his speed and his defense, all of a sudden he becomes a real plus for us. So yes, I do think he’ll be up, but he has to earn that, too. We’re not just going to give it to him.”
Even as he made those caveats, Dombrowski also spoke of the team’s desire to get Kyle Schwarber more time at designated hitter and to keep Bryce Harper at first base as a means of improving the defense (as opposed to the alternative scenario where Schwarber plays left field and Rhys Hoskins were re-signed to split time between DH and first base). Rojas’ bat looked impressive during his brief regular-season look, as he hit .302/.342/.430 in 164 plate appearances, but that was buoyed by an unsustainable .410 average on balls in play. His bat went ice cold in the playoffs, too, as Rojas fell into a woeful 4-for-43 swoon and struck out in a third of his plate appearances.
Despite the postseason struggles, it appears Rojas will have first crack at the regular center field job. The Phillies are generally thin in terms of outfield depth, and this afternoon’s DFA of Simon Muzziotti could add to that if he’s traded or claimed by another club. There’s perhaps the chance that the Phils could add a bench bat to the mix, and outfield would be a natural spot, given the lackluster offensive contributions of Jake Cave and limited track record of Cristian Pache.
Dombrowski acknowledged the possibility of adding a bench bat, simply noting “that might end up happening,” but he didn’t characterize it as a major item that’s yet to be checked off the to-do list. Speaking in general terms, the Phillies’ president again implied that between wanting to give Rojas a real chance and the veteran nature of much of his roster, free agents have seen greater opportunity for playing time with other clubs thus far. There’s still quite a few names yet unsigned, so it stands to reason that the Phils could eventually find a bargain addition to deepen the mix. Pache, Cave and utility infielder Edmundo Sosa are all out of options, however, so adding a player to the bench mix would likely mean jettisoning someone like Cave, who’s already agreed to a $1MM salary for the 2024 season. That isn’t likely to be a major roadblock to any further additions, but it’ll factor into the calculus all the same.
The Phillies will effectively return the same bullpen in 2024, though again, Dombrowski indicated it’s not necessarily for lack of trying. He noted that the team has been in on at least “a couple” of notable names but that one, in particular, took an opportunity to be a starting pitcher elsewhere. Another simply preferred to be closer to his home on the west coast. Again, Dombrowski didn’t mention names, though Jordan Hicks and Reynaldo Lopez stand out as two bullpen arms who surprisingly landed rotation opportunities in free agency (Hicks in San Francisco, Lopez in Atlanta). Hicks, in particular, was rumored to be on the Phillies’ radar as a free agent.
Starting pitching depth, too, has been a recent area the Phillies have been searching. They signed former Braves first-rounder Kolby Allard to a split big league deal last month due in no small part to the fact that he has a minor league option remaining. That same line of thinking surely influenced today’s claim of righty Max Castillo from the Red Sox.
The Phillies have top prospects Mick Abel and Griff McGarry working through the minor league system, and while both could make their debuts in 2024, neither has yet pitched even five innings above the Double-A level. Painter was a rotation candidate early last season but wound up going down with an elbow injury that ultimately required Tommy John surgery. Dombrowski said in this morning’s interview that Painter has begun “tossing” a ball recently and is on schedule but that the organization is “looking toward 2025” with regard to the prized righty and isn’t planning on him pitching in games this season. There’s always the possibility his recovery progresses more quickly than expected, but the 20-year-old right-hander doesn’t appear to be someone the Phillies are banking on for even a late-season cameo.
Mariners Claim Canaan Smith-Njigba, Designate Darren McCaughan
The Mariners announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba off waivers from the Pirates. Right-hander Darren McCaughan was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. At least for the time being Smith-Njigba will head to the same city as his younger brother, Jaxon — a wide receiver for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
Now 24 years old, Smith-Njigba was one of four players the Yankees traded to Pittsburgh in the trade that brought righty Jameson Taillon to the Bronx. He’s posted nice minor league numbers but seen minimal time in the big leagues. Through 44 MLB plate appearances, Smith-Njigba is a .135/.250/.243 hitter, but he’s posted a .273/.366/.439 slash in parts of three Triple-A campaigns. That includes a 2023 season that saw him slash .280/.366/.473 (110 wRC+) with 15 homers, 28 doubles, a triple and a 21-for-26 showing in stolen base attempts. Smith-Njigba also walked at a strong 11.9% clip with Indy this past season, but his 26.5% strikeout rate could stand to improve.
Smith-Njigba has drawn praise for above-average raw power and speed in the past, though that raw power hasn’t translated to much in the way of home runs. Last year’s 15 round-trippers were a career-high, and he’s only reached double digits in homers in one other season. Smith-Njigba’s strong walk rates and left-handed bat will help the Mariners to replace some of the outfield depth they lost when trading Zach DeLoach to the White Sox and Jarred Kelenic to the Braves. He has a minor league option remaining and has hit reasonably well at virtually every minor league level, evidenced by a career .277/.382/.429 slash in six professional seasons.
McCaughan, 28 next month, has spent his entire career in the Mariners organization since being taken in the 12th round of the 2017 draft. He’s twice received a call to the big leagues but has just 14 MLB frames under his belt, during which he’s been slammed for 11 earned runs. The right-hander posted respectable Triple-A numbers in a hitter-friendly league environment during the 2021-22 seasons but was roughed up for a 5.83 ERA in 139 Triple-A frames in 2023. Overall, he carries a career 5.22 ERA in parts of five seasons with the Mariners’ Tacoma affiliate, though his aforementioned ’21 (4.46 ERA, 121 innings) and ’22 (4.55 ERA, 154 innings) performances were a far sight better.
The Mariners will have a week to trade McCaughan or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He still has a minor league option remaining. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment by virtue of a previous outright earlier in his career, but his longstanding tenure in the Mariners organization could make him likelier to accept if things reach that point.