Nabil Crismatt To Undergo UCL Surgery
The Rangers revealed yesterday that right-hander Nabil Crismatt will undergo an elbow procedure, but further specifics weren’t immediately clear. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News has since written that Crismatt, who’s in camp with Texas as a non-roster invitee, suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament during his first bullpen session of camp. Whether he undergoes a full reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) or an internal brace procedure to repair/strengthen his current ligament, he’ll miss the entire season.
Crismatt, 31, signed on for a second stint with the Rangers this offseason. He pitched for their Triple-A club in 2024 but didn’t receive a call to the majors. The journeyman right-hander has pitched for four teams across the past six seasons, logging a combined 3.71 ERA in 211 big league innings. He’s fanned 20.6% of his opponents against a 7% walk rate and kept 49.2% of batted balls against him on the ground.
Crismatt spent the 2025 season with the D-backs and Phillies organizations, tossing 34 MLB frames for Arizona and matching his 3.71 career earned run average on the dot. He’s never been a hard thrower, sitting 89.5 mph on his sinker and 90 mph on his four-seamer throughout his big league career. His blend of grounders, above-average command and a knack for inducing weak contact have helped him to succeed more often than not in the majors.
Since he’s on a non-roster deal, Crismatt won’t be placed on the injured list and won’t accrue big league service. It’s a tough blow for the right-hander, who also logged 102 1/3 innings of 3.96 ERA ball in Triple-A last year. In addition to hoping to land a spot on the Rangers’ roster, he’d been slated to pitch for his native Colombia in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. That obviously won’t happen. Depending on which variety of UCL procedure he undergoes, Crismatt will likely be ready next spring (internal brace) or next April/May (Tommy John surgery).
Astros, Blue Jays Swap Jesús Sánchez For Joey Loperfido
The Blue Jays have acquired outfielder Jesús Sánchez from the Astros in exchange for fellow outfielder Joey Loperfido, per announcements from both clubs. Both players are on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding moves will need to be made.
Sánchez’s tenure in Houston will only wind up lasting half a season. Houston acquired the lefty-swinging slugger from Miami at last year’s deadline in a trade sending righty Ryan Gusto, minor league infielder Chase Jaworsky and minor league outfielder Esmil Valencia to the Marlins.
Sánchez came to the Astros with a track record of hitting right-handed pitching but struggled against right-handed and left-handed opponents alike in his new environs. He slashed just .199/.269/.342 (71 wRC+) in 160 plate appearances as an Astro — a far cry from the .253/.319/.428 line he’d posted in nearly 1300 plate appearances with the Fish dating back to Opening Day 2023.
The Astros could have non-tendered Sánchez on the heels of those struggles but chose to keep him around despite a projected arbitration salary of some note. The two parties agreed to a $6.8MM deal for the 2026 season. Toronto will take on the entirety of that sum in this swap and, as a second-time luxury payor in the top penalty tier, pay a 90% tax on top of what they will pay Sanchez.
It’s a heavy price to buy low on a player, but Sánchez touts a career .253/.324/.450 batting line against right-handed pitching and has plenty of encouraging underlying metrics. He’s averaged a hearty 91.1 mph off the bat in his career and logged a robust 45.7% hard-hit rate. Last year’s 75.9 mph bat speed ranked in the 93rd percentile of MLB hitters.
Sánchez is limited to the outfield corners on the defensive side of things but offers solid range and a plus arm. In 2777 career innings in right field, he’s been credited with 11 Defensive Runs Saved. Statcast rates him five Outs Above Average in that time. He hasn’t played as much left field but has above-average marks there from both DRS and OAA.
The Jays don’t have an immediate path to regular at-bats for Sánchez, who’s out of minor league options. He’ll presumably occupy a part-time role, mixing into the outfield corners alongside fellow lefty swingers Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger, who figure to patrol the corners alongside center fielder Daulton Varsho. Sánchez gives the Jays a viable option in either outfield corner and can obviously log some time at designated hitter if George Springer needs a breather. He’s a nice bat to have in a limited role, and if he hits well enough to merit a raise in arbitration, he can be controlled through the 2027 season.
The addition of Sánchez adds some power to a lineup that will again be without last winter’s major offseason signing, Anthony Santander, for an extended period of time. Santander missed significant time in 2025 and hit poorly when on the field due to ongoing shoulder troubles. He recently underwent surgery on that balky shoulder and will be sidelined for five-plus months.
Toronto had obviously been hoping that an offseason of rest could get Santander back to the form he showed in Baltimore from 2022-24, when he slashed .244/.317/.478 with 105 home runs (including 44 in 2024). Instead, it’ll be another largely lost season for the switch-hitting slugger. Sánchez doesn’t have the same offensive ceiling due to his long-running platoon struggles, but he adds some power to help the Jays compensate for that loss.
Loperfido, 26, returns to the organization that originally drafted him with this trade. Houston sent him to Toronto alongside righty Jake Bloss and infielder Will Wagner in exchange for left-hander Yusei Kikuchi at the 2024 trade deadline. He wasn’t likely to break camp with the Jays and may not do so in Houston, either. He’s entering his final minor league option season and has five years of club control remaining.
While Loperfido slashed .333/.379/.500 in 104 plate appearances for Toronto last season, there was a fair bit of smoke and mirrors involved in that batting line. His offensive output was propped up by a huge .431 average on balls in play that won’t be sustainable over a larger sample, and Loperfido logged a somewhat concerning 26% strikeout rate against just a 3.8% walk rate. His batted-ball metrics (87.3 mph average exit velocity, 37.1% hard-hit rate) were well below average. Loperfido spent the bulk of the 2025 season in Triple-A and was roughly a league-average hitter there, slashing .264/.341/.401 with a 21.4% strikeout rate and a below-average 7.8% walk rate.
Loperfido will have a chance to break camp with the ‘Stros but will need to earn his spot with a big spring performance. Houston has Jake Meyers locked into center field but minimal certainty otherwise. Rookie Zach Cole hit well in a 15-game cup of coffee last year, but he also struck out in 38% of his plate appearances after fanning at a 35% clip in the minors. His hit tool is a major red flag. Cam Smith was the talk of spring training last year, and the former top prospect had a hot start to his big league career before fading as the season went on.
Houston has been on the lookout for left-handed bats throughout the offseason and has continued its search in camp. Loperfido gives them a lefty hitter but does so at the cost of the left-handed Sánchez, so there’s no net gain. However, the most important aspect of this morning’s trade for the Astros could simply be shedding Sánchez’s $6.8MM salary from the books. General manager Dana Brown said in announcing the trade that he’s “not done” making moves (via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle).
Astros owner Jim Crane is reluctant to cross the luxury tax threshold for what’d be a second straight season, and prior to moving Sánchez, Houston was within $5MM or so of the $244MM tax line. Brown and his staff in the front office now have some extra breathing room as they look to make further additions to the roster. Houston’s infield logjam has been well-documented this winter, and corner infielder Isaac Paredes‘ name, in particular, has surfaced in frequent trade speculation. With some extra financial breathing room, the Astros have more leeway to make other additions without necessarily needing to move Paredes or find a taker for pricey first baseman Christian Walker (owed $40MM over the next two seasons) on the heels of a down year.
Phillies Release Nick Castellanos
The Phillies have released outfielder Nick Castellanos, per a club announcement. He’s now a free agent who can sign with any club for the league minimum.
Castellanos was slated to report to camp in the next few days. He’ll now stay at home and wait to learn where his next opportunity will come. He’s entering the final season of a five-year, $100MM contract that calls for a $20MM salary in 2026. The Phillies will remain on the hook for the entirety of that sum, minus the prorated portion of the league minimum paid to him by any other club who picks him up for even a portion of the season.
Today’s release should come as no surprise. Castellanos stood as an obvious trade or release candidate at season’s end, even before early-November reporting suggested that the Phils would cut ties with him. Earlier this week, it became clear that an inflection point was fast approaching. The Phillies weren’t able to find a taker for even a portion of Castellanos’ salary, it seems, so he’ll now head back to the open market and see if there’s interest from another team as a league-minimum player or minor league/non-roster player in camp.
Philadelphia’s signing of Castellanos always came as something of a surprise. They’d already signed Kyle Schwarber on a four-year, $79MM deal prior to signing Castellanos in the 2021-22 offseason. Both players profile as bat-first corner outfielders who are better suited for DH work, but the Phils opted to ink both to long-term deals, ensuring that one of the two would be in the outfield on a regular basis. That wound up being Castellanos more than Schwarber, and his annually poor glovework has only worsened over the course of his four seasons in Philly.
The hope for the Phils was that Castellanos’ bat would outweigh the negative contributions he’d made with his glove. He’d turned in a huge .309/.362/.576 slash with the Reds the season prior and was carrying an impressive .290/.345/.527 slash over the four years leading up to his Phillies deal.
Things didn’t pan out that way. Castellanos’ bat immediately went south in 2022. He hit just .263/.305/.389 in his first season of that five-year contract. He bounced back to an extent over the next two years (.263/.311/.454) but was barely above replacement level due to poor defense (-20 Defensive Runs Saved, -13 Outs Above Average). The 2025 season marked another step back. Castellanos hit .250/.294/.400 — about 10% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+ — and was dinged for -11 DRS and -12 OAA.
The Phillies might still have tried to coax something out of Castellanos in 2026 had tensions between the player and club not boiled over during the season. Castellanos was removed from a close game in Miami for defensive purposes and benched the next day after what manager Rob Thomson called an “inappropriate” comment. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported after the season ended that Castellanos’ teammates and coaches were “disgusted” by what he’d said. The outfielder later took a shot at Thomson’s communication skills down the stretch in the final weeks of the season.
Castellanos himself addressed the “Miami incident,” as he termed it, in a post on Instagram today. He made no mention of the comment that apparently rankled so many of his teammates but admitted to bringing a beer into the dugout out of frustration after being lifted from the game by Thomson.
“After being taken out of a close ball game in front of my friends and family, I brought a Presidente into the dugout,” the Miami-area native wrote. “I then sat right next to Rob and let him know that too much slack in some areas and too tight of restrictions in others was not conducive to us winning.”
In his note today, Castellanos thanked his teammates for taking the drink from his hand before he actually took a sip, apologized to them and reiterated that he apologized to both Thomson and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski for letting his emotions get the better of him. He added that he was prepared to share the details of the incident with the media at the time it happened but was instructed not to by Phillies management.
The question now becomes one of which — if any — team will be willing to give Castellanos a fresh start in hopes that he can get back to his prior levels of offense. While he still hit for a decent average and knocked in 70-plus runs in each of the past three seasons in Philadelphia, much of that had to do with lineup placement and a strong cast ahead of him (e.g. Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Schwarber).
Castellanos has never walked much and has turned in three of his four career-low walk rates since donning a Phillies uniform. The plus power he showed with the Tigers, Cubs and Reds prior to signing in Philadelphia has dwindled, too; he posted an ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) north of .200 for six straight seasons prior to his Phillies tenure (.229 overall). He topped .200 just once with the Phillies, in 2023, when he logged a .204 mark. He’s lost two miles per hour on his bat speed over the past three seasons and posted below-average numbers against fastballs for the first time in his career in 2025, hitting .236 with a meek .368 slugging percentage versus four-seamers.
A club with DH at-bats to spare could well look into Castellanos, but it’s unlikely anyone would sign him to log significant time in the outfield. Teams will surely be wary of the manner in which his relationship with the Phillies deteriorated as well. For instance, Isaac Azout of Fish On First reports that the Marlins, despite lacking an obvious solution at designated hitter, aren’t interested in bringing Castellanos into the fold.
Do The Brewers Have Another Move Up Their Sleeve?
Monday's surprise trade sending Rookie of the Year finalist Caleb Durbin from Milwaukee to Boston plugged a hole in the Red Sox' infield while ostensibly opening one for the Brewers. Not only did the Brewers trade their incumbent third baseman, the deal also sent Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler to Boston -- two of Milwaukee's top options on the third base depth chart. The Brewers picked up speedster David Hamilton in that swap and will give him some spring reps at the hot corner, but he's played all of one game professionally at third base. Hamilton's value is derived primarily from plus second base glovework and his abilities on the basepaths. He's not a natural fit to take the reins at third base.
Though the Durbin trade opened up a hole at third base, it also further deepened the Brewers' already deep collection of starting pitchers. Even after trading ace Freddy Peralta to the Mets for top prospects Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, the Brewers boast a starting staff that'll include Brandon Woodruff, Jacob Misiorowski, Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick in the top four spots. Plausible candidates for the fifth spot include Sproat, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby and newly acquired lefties Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan, who came to Milwaukee alongside Hamilton.
The Brewers are no strangers to putting the finishing touches on their big league roster once spring training is already underway. In fact, it's become almost something of an annual tradition. In 2025, Milwaukee didn't sign Jose Quintana until early March. Even their trade for Priester came a week or so into the season. In 2024, they signed Gary Sánchez and re-signed Brandon Woodruff after camp had opened. Their late signings in 2023 included Luke Voit, Justin Wilson and Jon Singleton.
By the time camp opens, many clubs have finished conducting the bulk of their heavy lifting. That hasn't been the case for the Brewers, and with at least one open question in their infield, it's fair to think president of baseball operations Matt Arnold and his staff are looking into one more finishing piece even as pitchers and catchers travel south to Arizona for the beginning of the Cactus League season.
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Jackson Holliday To Begin Season On Injured List Following Hamate Surgery
Feb. 12: Holliday had successful surgery today to address his fractured hamate bone, according to multiple reports, including from Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun. The second baseman is expected to be sidelined several weeks beyond Opening Day.
Feb. 11: Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday will open the 2026 season on the injured list after suffering a fractured hamate bone in his right hand during live batting practice on Feb. 6, president of baseball operations Mike Elias announced to the team’s beat this morning (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner). He’ll likely miss the first several weeks of the season.
Elias also added that infielder Jordan Westburg suffered an oblique injury three weeks ago while training but is only expected to miss the first few games of Grapefruit League play (via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko). The team isn’t concerned about his Opening Day status at this juncture. Righty Colin Selby, meanwhile, is dealing with inflammation in his right shoulder and is expected to open the season on the injured list (per Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun).
The Holliday injury is the most notable of the bunch. The former No. 1 pick and top prospect had been in line to open the season at second base after hitting .242/.314/.375 with 17 homers and 17 steals in his age-21 season with the O’s last year. Second base will now presumably fall to some combination of trade acquisition Blaze Alexander and utilityman Jeremiah Jackson. Alternatively, Baltimore could play Westburg at second base and give Coby Mayo some run at third base to begin the season.
Many fans on social media were quick to jump to the conclusion that the Holliday injury was a driving factor behind Baltimore’s acquisition of Alexander in last week’s trade with the Diamondbacks. However, the timing was a matter of happenstance; Holliday actually suffered the fracture in his hand/wrist the day after the Alexander trade was completed. Perhaps there was some modest concern about Westburg’s oblique at the time, but Holliday’s injury didn’t have any impact on that swap.
Hamate fractures are relatively common. Stars Francisco Lindor and Corbin Carroll are currently in similar boats at the moment. The resulting surgery typically sidelines players for anywhere from four to eight weeks. Hand injuries of this nature can often have a lingering impact on a player’s power output even after he’s cleared to return to the field, though every case is unique unto itself, of course. Assuming Holliday indeed hits the injured list, this will the first major league IL placement of his young career.
As for Selby, there’s less certainty on his outlook at the moment. The Orioles acquired him from the Royals in a July 2024 swap sending cash back to Kansas City. He spent the rest of that year and the majority of the 2025 season in Triple-A, but the 28-year-old righty was effective in 14 big league frames in 2025. Those 14 innings came over the life of 11 appearances and saw Selby hold opponents to five runs (3.21 ERA) on 16 hits and just two walks with 14 strikeouts. Selby also tossed 25 2/3 innings of 2.45 ERA ball at the Triple-A level, fanning 31.5% of his opponents there.
Selby’s IL placement opens up some space in the team’s Opening Day bullpen competition, which could create an easier path for lefty Grant Wolfram, righty Yaramil Hiraldo or out-of-options right-hander Rico Garcia. Right-hander Chayce McDermott, too, could find himself in that mix. He’s been a starter in the past, but Elias said today that the 27-year-old righty will be used as a reliever in the upcoming season (via Kostka). Righty Tyler Wells, meanwhile, will build up as a starter. There’s currently no clear rotation opening for him, but stretching out in camp will create some insurance for rotation injuries. Wells could open the season in a long relief role in the ‘pen or in the rotation with Triple-A Norfolk; he still has two minor league option years remaining.
Dodgers Trade Anthony Banda To Twins
1:17pm: The Twins sent $500K of pool space to the Dodgers in the deal, per Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. (International pool space must be traded in $250K increments.) For clarity’s sake, no actual money exchanged hands; rather, the Twins shrunk their league-allotted spending limit by $500K, while the Dodgers’ limit correspondingly increases by $500K.
12:27pm: The Twins have acquired veteran left-hander Anthony Banda from the Dodgers, per announcements from both clubs. Minnesota is sending international bonus space back to L.A. in return. Banda had been designated for assignment by the Dodgers last week. Righty Jackson Kowar has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot for Banda.
The Dodgers originally acquired Banda, now 32, in a cash deal early in the 2024 season. He quickly emerged as a quality bullpen option for them and spent the next season-plus as a frequently used southpaw for manager Dave Roberts. From 2024-25 in L.A., Banda logged a tidy 3.14 ERA with a 23.3% strikeout rate, 10.9% walk rate and 41.6% ground-ball rate. He averaged 96 mph on both his four-seamer and sinker while recording a 13.2% swinging-strike rate that suggests he could have a few more punchouts in the tank. Banda tallied 19 holds and two saves in 114 2/3 innings as a Dodger.
Banda’s 2025 season, however, wasn’t as sharp as his 2024 campaign. He lost a percentage point off his strikeout rate while his walk rate climbed by four points, from 8.6% to 12.7%. He still notched a 3.18 ERA in a career-high 65 innings, but his rate stats understandably gave the Dodgers some cause for concern.
The discrepancy between the bullpens in Los Angeles and Minnesota is underscored by the fact that this trade came together. The Dodgers deemed Banda expendable and jettisoned him and his $1.625MM salary. The Twins, meanwhile, traded some actual value to acquire him and will now count him among the most reliable arms in a bullpen that was torn all the way down at last year’s trade deadline. Minnesota traded five relievers — Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Brock Stewart and Danny Coulombe — dismantling what had been one of the league’s top relief units in order to scale back payroll and bring in some more controllable and affordable young talent in the process.
Where Banda was near the bottom of the pecking order in the L.A. bullpen, he now figures to be an option in high-leverage spots. That’s all the more true given his familiarity with new Twins skipper Derek Shelton, who managed Banda as a member of the Pirates back in 2021-22.
If Banda pans out in Minnesota, he can provide value to the Twins for multiple seasons. He currently has 4.135 years of MLB service, meaning he’ll be controllable through the 2027 season. He’ll be eligible for a raise in arbitration next winter, but his modest $1.625MM salary for the 2026 season means he won’t break the bank regardless of how well he pitches in what’ll be his debut campaign for Minnesota.
Banda joins the re-signed Taylor Rogers, Justin Topa and Cole Sands as the only members of the Twins’ bullpen with even three years of major league experience. The Twins also picked up righty Eric Orze in a small trade with the Rays early in the winter, and they got good work out of southpaw Kody Funderburk following that July fire sale in the bullpen (0.75 ERA, 28-to-10 K/BB ratio in 24 innings).
Veterans Liam Hendriks and Julian Merryweather joined up on minor league deals just yesterday and could factor into the group, as could any young starters who don’t crack a relatively crowded rotation picture. Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and out-of-options Simeon Woods Richardson all seem like rotation locks, health permitting. Former top prospects Taj Bradley, David Festa, Zebby Matthews and Mick Abel are among the candidates who’ll vie for the fifth spot (and possibly the fourth, if Woods Richardson is outpitched and heads to the bullpen himself).
Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll has been on the lookout for bullpen help throughout camp, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him further add to a perilously thin group of relievers in the days or weeks to come.
Kowar, 29, was claimed off waivers from the Mariners just eight days ago. The former first-round pick and top prospect has been derailed by injuries in his career but sits in the upper 90s with his four-seamer and sinker. He’s shown the ability to miss bats at times but struggles with sub-par command and too much hard contact allowed.
In parts of four MLB seasons (91 innings) between the Royals (his original club) and Mariners, the former Florida Gators star has been rocked for an 8.21 ERA. He posted a more palatable 4.24 ERA in 17 innings with Seattle last year, however, and notched a sharp 2.81 ERA in an additional 16 innings of Triple-A ball.
Kowar is out of minor league options. The Twins will hope to pass him through waivers and retain him as bullpen depth who’d be invited to big league camp and potentially stashed in the upper minors. If another club claims him, Kowar would need to stick on that team’s 40-man roster or else once again be exposed to waivers. The Twins can trade Kowar or place him on waivers at any point in the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so within a week’s time, we’ll know the outcome of Kowar’s DFA.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic first reported the trade and the Kowar DFA.
A’s Trade Mitch Spence To Royals
The Athletics have traded right-hander Mitch Spence to the Royals in exchange for minor league righty AJ Causey, per announcements from both clubs. Spence was designated for assignment by the A’s earlier this week. Kansas City placed righty Alec Marsh on the 60-day IL to open a roster spot for Spence.
The 27-year-old Spence didn’t have to wait long to find a new home after getting DFAed on Tuesday. He’ll head to Kansas City as a depth option behind a fairly set rotation. Marsh had labrum surgery in November and is set to miss the 2026 season. His placement on the 60-day was a formality.
The Athletics added Spence as a Rule 5 pick from the Yankees ahead of the 2024 season. He emerged as a mainstay in the rotation that year, piling up 151 1/3 innings across 35 appearances (24 starts). Spence posted an ERA in the mid-4.00s with subpar strikeout numbers. He did well to limit walks and got ground balls at an above-average clip.
The offseason additions of Jeffrey Springs and Luis Severino squeezed Spence out of the rotation. He made 32 appearances with the club, mostly out of the bullpen. Spence briefly returned to the rotation in June. His performance as a starter (5.05 ERA, 11 home runs allowed) led to a demotion to the minors. Spence returned to the A’s in September. He was hammered for nine earned runs in 10 innings to close the season.
Spence will be built up as a starter with Kansas City, but the club likes that he has experience in both roles, notes Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The Royals currently have Bailey Falter penciled into the swingman spot.
Kansas City took Causey in the fifth round of the 2024 draft out of Tennessee. The 23-year-old right-hander began his pro career at High-A this past season. After 40 1/3 innings of a 1.56 ERA with Quad City, he made the jump to Double-A. Causey maintained a sub-2.00 ERA in 21 games with Northwest Arkansas. He compiled a 1.72 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning in 48 appearances across the two levels. Scouting grades laud Causey’s slider and changeup. His sidearm delivery helps his 90 mph fastball play up.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Brewers, William Contreras Avoid Arbitration
The Brewers and star catcher William Contreras avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2027 season, per a team announcement. The Octagon client will earn $9.4MM in 2026, and the 2027 option is valued at $14.5MM, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Contreras’ camp had filed for a $9.9MM salary. The team filed at $8.5MM.
Contreras wasn’t eligible for free agency until the 2027-28 offseason, so the option doesn’t give the Brewers any additional club control. It does provide some potential cost certainty, however, while ensuring that this deal to avoid arbitration can’t be used as a data point in future arbitration cases; one-year arrangements with option years are considered multi-year deals for arbitration purposes and thus aren’t eligible to be cited as comps (by the Brewers or other clubs).
If Milwaukee ends up declining that option, Contreras would still be under club control. He’d simply be arbitration-eligible again. The Brewers declined a $12MM club option on Contreras for the upcoming season back in November. The two parties went back to negotiations, exchanged figures, and narrowly avoided a hearing.
Contreras’ $9.4MM salary lands just above the $9.2MM midpoint between the figures exchanged by team and player. If he has a big season and projects for a salary in the $14-15MM range, that 2027 option may end up being exercised, but if not, he’ll likely find himself in a similar boat next winter.
The 2025 season was a solid one but still a down year by Contreras’ lofty standards. After slashing .283/.363/.472 in three seasons from 2022-24, he hit “just” .260/.355/.399 in 659 trips to the plate this past season. Health was a factor, to be sure; Contreras played through a fracture in his left middle finger for the majority of the season — an injury originally revealed in May but not addressed in full until he underwent surgery following the season. In that sense, suiting up for 150 games, including 128 behind the plate, and delivering above-average offense is an impressive feat in and of itself.
The 2026 season will be Contreras’ penultimate year of club control. He’ll head into the year with a cleaner bill of health and look to get back to that 2022-24 form as the Brewers defend their NL Central crown. The general expectation is that Milwaukee will be in the thick of the division race — or at least the Wild Card chase — once again this season, even after trading ace Freddy Peralta and 2025 breakout rookies Isaac Collins and Caleb Durbin.
If that doesn’t come to pass, Contreras could well see his name surface in trade rumors this summer. Milwaukee tends to listen to offers on its best players as those players approach free agency. Josh Hader was traded at the deadline in his own penultimate season with the Brew Crew. This offseason, Peralta joined Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and others as the latest Brewers star to be traded as his control window waned. It’s likelier than not that Contreras will stick in Milwaukee through the current season, but his name will assuredly pop up on the rumor mill next offseason, regardless of what happens with that club option.
Guardians, Ben Lively Finalizing Minor League Deal
The Guardians are finalizing a two-year minor league contract with right-hander Ben Lively, per Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Lively, who underwent Tommy John surgery last June, is already at the team’s spring complex in Arizona, suggesting the deal should be wrapped up soon. He’s represented by Meister Sports Management.
A fourth-round pick by the Reds back in 2013, Lively struggled in a handful of major league opportunities with the Phillies and Royals in 2017-19 before heading over to the Korea Baseball Organization, where he enjoyed a nice two-and-a-half year run with the Samsung Lions. The Reds brought him back to North American ball ahead of the 2023 season, but he struggled in 88 2/3 frames (5.38 ERA) before being cut loose. Cleveland saw enough in his raw stuff and underlying metrics to bring him aboard on a major league deal in the 2023-24 offseason, and it proved to be a major bargain.
In 2024, Lively tossed 151 innings with a 3.81 earned run average, an 18.7% strikeout rate and a 7.8% walk rate over the life of 29 starts. He entered the 2025 season locked into a rotation spot for manager Stephen Vogt and posted a sharp-looking 3.22 ERA in nine starts, but the under-the-hood numbers were less encouraging. Lively’s strikeout rate dipped to 16.3% while his walk rate rose to 8.4%. His chase rate, swinging-strike rate and opponents’ contact rate all went in the wrong direction. Metrics like SIERA (5.30) and FIP (4.59) were far more bearish than his baseline earned run average.
Lively hit the injured list after just nine starts in 2025. He was originally diagnosed with a strained flexor tendon, but further imaging revealed significant damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow as well. The Guardians announced in late May that Lively was headed for Tommy John surgery and would also have that flexor tendon repaired in the process. The procedure came with a recovery period of 12 to 16 months, per the club.
Given that timetable, the two-year nature of this new arrangement makes sense. There’s at least a chance Lively could be back in the fold midseason, but his rehab could extend into September, effectively eating up the entire 2026 campaign. In that case, Cleveland would still retain the right-hander as a non-roster player over the course of the 2026-27 offseason, and he could compete for a spot in the rotation ahead of the ’27 campaign.
Lively obviously won’t be in Cleveland’s rotation mix heading into the season. The Guardians will rely on Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Parker Messick, Slade Cecconi and Logan Allen, perhaps with left-hander Joey Cantillo also factoring into the equation.
Braves Notes: Jimenez, Holmes, Alvarez
It’s been more than a year since right-hander Joe Jimenez pitched in a big league game. The now-31-year-old righty was terrific for the Braves in 2023-24, pitching to a combined 2.81 ERA and compiling 40 holds and three saves while fanning 30.1% of opponents against a 7.2% walk rate. Jimenez missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing surgery to repair cartilage in his left knee and underwent a second “cleanup” procedure this past November.
Atlanta transferred Jimenez to the 60-day injured list as soon as camp opened — thereby clearing a roster spot for the reacquisition of infielder Brett Wisely — but it sounds like the team is bracing for a potential absence much longer than two months. Manager Walt Weiss told the team’s beat yesterday that Jimenez is dealing with a “very complex injury” while explaining that he’s not sure whether Jimenez will be available at all during the upcoming season (link via Mark Bowman of MLB.com).
Obviously, there’s no timetable for Jimenez’s return at present. His absence is both a notable loss in the bullpen — where he’d join Robert Suarez as a key setup arm for closer Raisel Iglesias — and a weight on the club’s payroll. Jimenez signed a three-year, $26MM contract immediately following the 2023 season. He gave Atlanta one excellent year in 2024 but could now miss the entirety of years two and three on that contract. He’s being paid $9MM this year for a Braves club that’s about $20MM over the luxury threshold, per RosterResource. Jimenez will become a free agent at season’s end.
There’s better news on the health front when it comes to righty Grant Holmes. The 29-year-old was diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow last July and opted to rehab the injury rather than the more commonly taken route of UCL surgery (be it Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure).
Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Holmes is full-go in spring training and hasn’t had any setbacks in his recovery. He expects to build up as a starting pitcher but said he’ll be open to whatever role the organization has in store for him. President of baseball ops Alex Anthopoulos tells Bishop that Holmes had a “normal” offseason and called his progression a “significant change” relative to where things stood back in July.
Holmes’ health will be all the more pivotal in the wake of continued elbow troubles for fellow righty Spencer Schwellenbach, who’s already been placed on the 60-day IL due to bone spurs in his elbow and implied this week that he will likely require an arthroscopic procedure.
A former first-round pick, Holmes joined the Braves as a minor league free agent back in 2022. He’s since re-signed on a pair of minor league deals and eventually pitched his way onto the big league roster. He hasn’t looked back. Holmes broke out with a 3.56 ERA and terrific rate stats through 68 1/3 innings with the ’24 Braves and followed up with 115 frames of 3.99 ERA ball out of the rotation last season. His results and his command eroded over his final few starts, however, prompting the team to take a look at his elbow and discover the damage. If he’s back to full strength, he’ll give the Braves a rotation option alongside Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, Hurston Waldrep and others; Atlanta is also actively exploring the market for veteran starters.
Elsewhere in camp, infielder Nacho Alvarez Jr. is adding a new and unexpected skill to his repertoire. In a separate piece, Bishop writes that the 22-year-old third baseman (23 in April) quietly began working out as a catcher during the Arizona Fall League. He’s still only acclimating to the position and isn’t going to be a catching option come Opening Day, but Alvarez said he views the experiment as a means of putting “an extra tool in the toolbox” as he looks to carve out a big league role.
“It’s a nice piece to have, for us, and for (Alvarez) — for his career, really,” Weiss tells Bishop. “We look at him as an infielder, first, but we’re just introducing it to him and he’s handling it well so far.”
Alvarez is clearly blocked at the hot corner by Austin Riley, who’s entering the fourth season of a ten-year, $212MM contract. He’s played plenty of shortstop in the minor leagues, but the Braves used him exclusively at third base and second base last season despite lacking an obvious big league answer at short, likely indicating they don’t feel he can be a real option there.
In 240 big league plate appearances, Alvarez carries a tepid .216/.277/.298 batting line. The 2022 fifth-rounder shot quickly through the minor leagues, however, and is still younger than most big leaguers when they make their debut despite already having 66 games under his belt. In the 82 games he’s played at the Triple-A level, Alvarez touts a stout .288/.399/.440 slash with 11 homers, 12 doubles, a triple, 10 steals and nearly as many walks (48) as strikeouts (60), so it’s easy to see why Atlanta is eager to expand his versatility and find additional ways to mix him in at the big league level. There’s no telling when or even whether he’ll be even an emergency catching option in the majors, but it’s nonetheless notable that the team is embarking on the experiment.