Yankees, Marcus Stroman Have Had Recent Discussions
The Yankees have held “productive” discussions with free agent right-hander Marcus Stroman recently, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com. There’s no indication that a deal is close at this time, but USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported over the weekend that the Long Island native had expressed interest in pitching for the Yankees (though the team hadn’t made an offer at the time).
On the one hand, signing Stroman is a straightforward means of addressing an obvious need for the Yankees. Beyond reigning Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole, the Yankees’ rotation is littered with question marks. Injuries torpedoed the bulk of Carlos Rodon‘s first season in the Bronx; he pitched just 64 1/3 innings with a grisly 6.84 ERA after signing a six-year, $162MM contract. Fellow southpaw Nestor Cortes was limited to a near-identical slate of innings (with better but still sub-par results — a 4.97 ERA) due to injuries of his own. Former top prospect Clarke Schmidt made 32 starts and piled up a career-high 159 innings but did so with a 4.64 earned run average. The Yankees traded Michael King to the Padres in the Juan Soto deal and saw Luis Severino sign with the crosstown Mets in free agency.
On the other hand, Stroman himself is coming off an injury-ruined second half of his second and perhaps final season as a member of the Cubs. The two-time All-Star had pitched his way into Cy Young talks through the first half of the season, compiling a pristine 2.28 ERA with a 21.4% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and a massive 60% ground-ball rate in his first 16 starts — a span of 98 2/3 innings. Stroman, however, allowed 30 runs over his next 30 innings before hitting the injured list with a hip injury. While rehabbing that, he was diagnosed with a rib cartilage fracture that kept him on the shelf all the way into mid-September. Stroman returned to pitch eight shaky innings and then opted out of the final year and $21MM of his contract.
Given that end to his season, Stroman himself has some injury question marks. Beyond that, the Yankees in particular stand as a surprising fit to some extent, given general manager Brian Cashman’s prior and unusually candid remarks regarding the right-hander. In September of 2019, Cashman acknowledged to Wallace Matthews of ESPN that the Yankees held some interest in Stroman at that year’s trade deadline — Stroman ultimately landed with the Mets — before adding that they passed because they “didn’t think he would be a difference-maker” and that the right-hander “would be in our bullpen in the postseason.”
Perhaps some of that still holds true; the Yankees could well view Stroman as their fourth starter in the event that each of Cole, Rodon and Cortes are healthy. Then again, Stroman has pitched to a sharp 3.48 ERA in 514 innings since the 2019 trade deadline, fanning 21.4% of his opponents against a tidy 7.3% walk rate and complementing those marks with a terrific 52.5% grounder rate.
Regardless of where the Yankees feel he’d slot into the staff, there’s little doubt that Stroman is a clear upgrade for the team’s rotation. Stroman’s performance has been consistently better than average, and his perennially strong ground-ball rates have helped him post low home-run rates throughout his career (despite frequently pitching in hitter-friendly settings like Toronto and Chicago). The Yankees, whose own home park is friendly to hitters, have shown a strong preference for grounder-heavy pitchers in the bullpen (e.g. Zack Britton, Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta, Joely Rodriguez), so it stands to reason that’d carry over to at least some extent in the rotation as well.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Mariners, Cory Abbott Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mariners are set to sign right-hander Cory Abbott to a minor league contract, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. The Dynamic Sports Group client will be in big league camp during spring training and compete for a roster spot. He’d be paid at an $800K rate in the majors, MLBTR has learned.
Abbott, 28, has logged big league time in each of the past three seasons, combining for 104 1/3 innings between the Cubs and Nationals. He’s struggled to a 6.02 ERA in that time while posting worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates of 20.2% and 11.4%.
A second-round pick by the Cubs back in 2017, Abbott posted lights-out numbers in the low minors and up through the Double-A level, but he’s struggled both in the big leagues and in Triple-A, where he carries a 5.45 ERA in three seasons. That said, Abbott has fanned a hefty 28.7% of his opponents at the Triple-A level and isn’t all that far removed from being a prospect of some note within the Cubs’ system; Baseball America ranked him 13th or better among Chicago farmhands each year from 2019-21, topping out at No. 8 in the system back in 2019.
The Mariners have regularly shown an ability to take journeyman arms and convert them into quality pieces of the pitching staff in recent years. Paul Sewald and Drew Steckenrider were both signed as minor league free agents before breaking out as key bullpen pieces in Seattle; Sewald in particular has emerged as a high-end big league reliever. Justin Topa was acquired in a minor swap with the Brewers. Lefties Gabe Speier and Tayler Saucedo were both waiver claims. Chris Flexen was signed to an affordable two-year deal after one year in the KBO and gave the M’s two strong seasons before falling off in 2023.
Certainly, not every dart throw made by the team will yield a turnaround along the lines those success stories, but the Mariners have somewhat quietly built up a nice track record of maximizing results from unheralded acquisitions of just this nature.
Soler: Marlins Have Not Shown Interest This Offseason
Slugger Jorge Soler opted out of the final season of his three-year, $36MM contract with the Marlins following the 2023 season, and while there’s been plenty of speculation about a potential reunion, Soler himself told reporters Tuesday that his former club hasn’t shown interest in re-signing him. “There has been no contact with the Marlins,” Soler told Yordano Carmona of Pelota Cubana and others at a training event hosted by the Cuban Professional Baseball Federation.
Early in the offseason, the Marlins were reported to have some level of interest in retaining Soler, but whatever interest they did or did not have apparently hasn’t resulted in talks between the two parties. The Mariners, Diamondbacks, Red Sox and Blue Jays have all been tied to Soler, to varying extents, over the past month. (Notably, the Mariners have signed Mitch Garver to a two-year contract and reacquired Mitch Haniger since first being linked to Soler, which could take them out of the running.) Whether any has made a formal offer isn’t clear, but with fellow righty-swinging slugger Teoscar Hernandez now off the board to the Dodgers, it’s possible Soler’s market could accelerate.
Soler, 32 in February, bashed 36 home runs and hit .250/.341/.512 in 580 trips to the plate with the Fish this past season. He did so while registering a 24.3% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate that both represent the second-best marks of his career. He posted an above-average .242/.326/.462 slash against right-handed opponents (110 wRC+) and absolutely demolished lefties with a .277/.393/.688 batting line that landed 81% better than league-average (181 wRC+).
Beyond the raw offensive output, Soler continued to post his annual brand of tantalizing batted-ball metrics; he averaged 91.3 mph off the bat and saw 48% of his batted balls top 95 mph. Both of those marks placed Soler in the top 20% of big league hitters, and he ranked in the top nine percent of MLB hitters with a 15% barrel rate.
Thunderous contact has long been a part of Soler’s game, but so have prodigious strikeout totals and questionable defense. His recent contact improvements have perhaps assuaged some concerns about the strikeouts. Soler recorded career-best contact rates on pitches in the strike zone (85.4%) and off the plate (60.1%) in 2023, leading to a career-high 75% overall contact rate. It’s still below the league average, but no longer egregiously so. And, for a player with this type of light-tower power, teams will typically live with some holes in the swing.
However, there’s no getting around the defensive concerns. Soler is best deployed as a primary designated hitter at this point. His once plus sprint speed has fallen to 26.6 feet per second (26th percentile of MLB hitters), and his arm strength clocks into just the 57th percentile. Miami trotted him out for just 241 innings of defense in right field last season, and most public metrics were quite down on his performance there (-5 Defensive Runs Saved, -3.1 Ultimate Zone Rating, -3 Outs Above Average).
A new club could still play Soler in the outfield on occasion — particularly with strikeout-heavy and/or grounder-heavy starters on the mound — and trust that he’ll at least make routine plays, but it seems doubtful any team would view him as an everyday corner outfield option. That said, there are very few power bats available on the open market this offseason, making Soler’s 36-homer platform year all the more appealing.
Soler has had roller-coaster of a career at the plate to some extent, but by measure of wRC+ he’s had just one below-average year overall dating back to 2018. In total, he’s slashed .243/.334/.486 over his past 2598 trips to the plate — numbers that don’t include his .242/.342/.606 postseason showing with the ’21 Braves, when he was named World Series MVP after belting three homers and plating six runs in the Fall Classic. He’s also considerably younger than fellow free agent DH candidates like J.D. Martinez (36) and Justin Turner (39), which could add to his appeal among teams seeking some right-handed thump.
Soler’s original three-year contract with the Marlins was signed when now-former general manager Kim Ng was running the team’s baseball operations. Ng declined her end of a mutual option at the beginning of the offseason, and the Marlins hired Rays general manager Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations.
Latest On Shota Imanaga
Jan. 9: Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports this morning that both the Giants and Angels now “appear to be looking elsewhere” (Twitter links). Heyman suggests that both the Red Sox and Cubs are “very much” still alive in the Imanaga bidding. That runs counter to reports from the weekend and from yesterday, though bidding on any free agent is, of course, quite fluid. Imanaga has a bit more than 48 hours remaining to come to terms with a team.
Jan. 8, 3:55pm: Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the Sox are considered a “long shot” to get Imanaga as things currently stand.
3:45pm: Star NPB left-hander Shota Imanaga will see his 45-day posting window come to a close on Thursday, meaning it’s only a matter of days before the 30-year-old will decide on his first big league team. Bidding for Imanaga has reportedly been strong, as he’s drawn interest from a wide range of teams thus far in his first foray into MLB’s open market. As the bidding period winds down, Imanaga’s market has unsurprisingly begun to take firmer shape.
Sankei Sports in Japan reports that the Angels and Giants are currently the leading candidates to sign Imanaga, although no decision has been made just yet. Similarly, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand suggests that the Giants are emerging as the favorites to sign the southpaw, though Feinsand adds that each of the Angels, Cubs and Red Sox remain in the fold to some extent. While there’s still a number of ways which the left-hander’s final decision could go, it’s at least notable that Feinsand characterizes a final four of sorts, while the reports out of Japan have the field narrowed further yet.
The Giants and Angels are both strong fits for Imanaga, who’s expected to top countryman Kodai Senga‘s five-year, $75MM contract with the Mets. San Francisco acquired former AL Cy Young winner Robbie Ray on Friday in a surprising trade with the Mariners, but Ray isn’t expected to pitch until midseason as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Similarly, right-hander Alex Cobb will open the year on the injured list while recovering from October hip surgery.
That leaves the Giants with ace Logan Webb as the most (arguably only) solidified member of the rotation. Veteran Ross Stripling, top prospect Kyle Harrison and 2023 rookies Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck are among the candidates to round out the staff, but there’s a good deal of uncertainty beyond that group. It’s true that Imanaga himself comes with his own uncertainty — he’s untested against big league hitters — but MLB scouts are intrigued enough by him that some believe his contract could approach nine figures. Clearly, there’s a prevailing belief throughout MLB that Imanaga is a legitimate mid-rotation arm, at the least.
A few hundred miles to the south, the Angels are facing some rotation questions of their own. Reid Detmers, Griffin Canning and Patrick Sandoval are all locked into spots, although Detmers and Sandoval both had down 2023 showings relative to their 2022 performance. That’s even more true of veteran Tyler Anderson, who had an All-Star ’22 showing with the Dodgers before posting a 5.43 ERA in year one of a three-year, $39MM free agent deal with the Halos. The Angels recently took a low-cost flier on Zach Plesac and have reportedly been prioritizing Blake Snell in the wake of Shohei Ohtani‘s departure, but Imanaga presents a mid-rotation option for them as well.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, will roll out a new-look rotation with or without Imanaga. Gone is oft-injured ace Chris Sale, who was shipped to the Braves (with cash) in exchange for second baseman Vaughn Grissom. He was quickly replaced by newly signed Lucas Giolito, who’s currently in line to be joined by some combination of Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck, Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock and Kutter Crawford.
As for the Cubs, they’ve been MLB’s least-active team this winter — at least when it comes to actually pushing deals across the finish line. Chicago has been connected to a litany of free agents and a handful of trade targets, but thus far the Cubs haven’t added a single player to their roster aside from catcher Brian Serven, whom they claimed off waivers from the Rockies last week. Chicago’s rotation currently includes Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks and Jameson Taillon, with veteran Drew Smyly and young arms like Hayden Wesneski, Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown and Javier Assad all in the mix for starts as well. It’s a relatively solid group, but the Cubs figure to make some kind of move to replace the outgoing Marcus Stroman.
Dating back to 2019, Imanaga boasts a 26.2% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate in addition to a cumulative 2.79 earned run average — including a no-hitter in the 2022 season. He’s not overpowering in terms of velocity, though MLBTR contributor Dai Takegami Podziewski noted back in September that he’d added some life to his heater and was averaging between 92-93 mph during the 2023 campaign. In addition to the guaranteed money owed to the pitcher himself, Imanaga’s new team will need to pay a release fee to his former team, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, which would be equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, plus 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter.
Rays Shopping Harold Ramirez
As is typical for the Rays in a given offseason, they’ve been active on the trade market so far in 2023-24. Tampa Bay has shipped out Tyler Glasnow, Manuel Margot, Luke Raley, Andrew Kittredge, Vidal Brujan and Calvin Faucher in a quartet of deals, and they’re likely not finished. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Rays have been shopping first baseman/left fielder/designated hitter Harold Ramirez to clubs in need of a right-handed bat.
The Rays’ willingness to trade Ramirez isn’t necessarily new or surprising. He stood as a logical trade candidate coming into the winter, given his projected $4.4MM salary in arbitration (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) and dwindling club control. Ramirez has just two years of club control remaining and limited defensive value, and Tampa Bay has regularly proven willing to trade bats fitting that description over the years. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported back in November that the Rays had explored trade scenarios involving Ramirez leading into the non-tender deadline. Still, it’s notable to see Rosenthal suggest that talks are ongoing and to suggest that the Rays themselves have initiated at least some of them.
Ramirez, 29, is out of minor league options — although his recent track record in the big leagues should leave him in no danger of being sent down anyhow. Since being acquired from the Cubs in a trade sending Esteban Quiroz back to Chicago, he’s tallied 869 plate appearances and turned in a .306/.348/.432 batting line with 18 home runs, 43 doubles, a pair of triples and eight steals (in 16 attempts). Ramirez hasn’t walked much in that time (4.7%) but has a lower-than-average strikeout rate (17.4%). By measure of wRC+, he’s been 23% better than average at the plate in a Rays uniform.
Of course, some of that stems from the Rays’ aggressive utilization of platoon setups. Ramirez has more than held his own against righties both with the Rays (.279/.332/.401, 107 wRC+) and in his career (.275/.314/.404, 99 wRC+). However, the overwhelming bulk of his damage has come when he’s feasted against left-handed pitching (.374/.412/.509 with Tampa Bay; .323/.363/.453 in his career).
The Rays gave Ramirez a combined 401 innings between first base and the outfield corners in 2022 but cut that already-small total to a tiny 117 innings in 2023. It’s clear that the organization is hardly enamored of his defensive aptitude, but there’s also little doubt that Ramirez can flat-out hit. He has more gap power than true home run pop, but any team in search of a right-handed bat would figure to be intrigued by the possibility of plugging Ramirez into at least a part-time role. Depending on the fit, he could profile as an everyday option for a team without a set option at designated hitter and/or some flexibility at first and in the outfield corners.
The deadline for teams and players to exchange arbitration figures is this coming Friday. That’s hardly a set deadline to move arb-eligible players, but it has also at times served as an impetus for some movement on the trade market for such players. Moving Ramirez could create some extra opportunities for the latest wave of talented young Rays hitters — a group including the likes of Curtis Mead, Jonathan Aranda and top prospect Junior Caminero. From a payroll vantage point, moving Ramirez would drop Tampa Bay’s projected Opening Day mark south of $90MM, creating additional room to pursue help at other areas of need (e.g. catcher, starting pitching) in free agency.
Marlins, Jonathan Davis Agree To Minor League Deal
The Marlins have agreed to a deal bringing outfielder Jonathan Davis back to the organization, as Davis himself announced on Instagram. Miami outrighted Davis off the 40-man roster at season’s end rather than tender him a contract in arbitration. The team has yet to announce the signing, but it’s a minor league contract with an invite to spring training, per Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base. Davis is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
Davis, 31, spent the bulk of the 2023 season with the Marlins organization after coming over in a May trade with the Tigers. He appeared in 34 games and tallied 104 trips to the plate, batting .244/.307/.378 with a pair of homers, four doubles, a triple and a steal in that time. He’s one of the game’s speedier options in the outfield, clocking in at an average sprint speed of 28.9 feet per second, according to Statcast, which places him in the 89th percentile of MLB players.
In parts of six big league seasons, Davis is a .198/.295/.276 hitter. He’s upped his walk rate considerably in recent seasons, however, drawing a free pass in 11.1% of his plate appearances dating back to 2021. Davis is also a lifetime .260/.362/.433 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons and is plenty experienced in all three outfield slots. Statcast pegs him as a plus defender in center, where he’s been credited with 11 Outs Above Average in 982 innings.
The Marlins have lefty hitters in center (Jazz Chisholm Jr.) and right field (Jesus Sanchez), with righty-hitting Bryan De La Cruz in left. Switch-hitting utilitymen Xavier Edwards and Vidal Brujan are also in the mix for outfield time, as is right-handed-hitting Peyton Burdick. Davis, another righty bat, doesn’t exactly profile as a platoon option for either Chisholm or Sanchez, as he’s a career .214/.338/.313 hitter even against lefties. However, if he makes the roster, he’d be an option to give either player an occasional breather (ideally against lefties) or rest day at designated hitter, and his speed makes him a viable pinch-running threat or late-game defensive upgrade.
Rays Sign Rob Brantly To Minor League Deal
The Rays announced Monday that they’ve signed veteran catcher Rob Brantly to a minor league contract and invited him to big league camp in spring training. He’ll compete with fellow non-roster invitee Alex Jackson and any subsequent catching additions for playing time alongside Rene Pinto.
Brantly, 34, has appeared in parts of eight big league seasons but never tallied more than 243 plate appearances in a single MLB campaign. He hasn’t appeared in more than six MLB games in a season since 2017 and didn’t appear in the Majors at all last year, spending 2023 with the Blue Jays’ Triple-A club in Buffalo.
In 456 trips to the plate as a big leaguer, Brantly carries a .225/.287/.326 batting line. He’s also suited up for a whopping 11 Triple-A seasons and delivered a .267/.325/.390 output in more than 2500 plate appearances. Brantly sports a career 29% caught-stealing rate, and Baseball Prospectus has credited him with strong framing marks in the upper minors dating back to 2019.
It still seems quite likely that additional catching help will be brought in by the Rays. Pinto is the only backstop on the team’s 40-man roster at present, and although he’s a talented defender he’s also a 27-year-old with just 188 big league plate appearances and a career .235/.255/.399 batting line in that tiny sample. Brantly is a long shot to crack the Opening Day roster, but he’s an experienced hand who can work with catching prospect Dominic Keegan and the team’s young pitchers in spring training and/or in Triple-A Durham this season.
Rockies Looking For Left-Handed-Hitting Outfielder
The Rockies deepened their rotation and catching corps late last week with signings of Dakota Hudson and Jacob Stallings, and their next move could be of similar scope in the outfield. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports that the Rox are looking for a “depth outfielder” — ideally someone who can handle all three positions while hitting from the left side of the dish.
As things stand, the Rockies have a largely right-handed outfield mix. Left fielder Nolan Jones bats left handed, but each of Brenton Doyle, Sean Bouchard and Hunter Goodman is right-handed — as are the bulk of the team’s upper-minors options (with the notable exceptions of top organizational prospects Zac Veen and Yanquiel Fernandez, though both are likely more than a year from the Majors still). Colorado re-signed franchise stalwart Charlie Blackmon earlier in the offseason, but he’s expected to reprise his role as the team’s primary designated hitter in 2024.
Adding some outfield depth from the left side makes a good bit of sense then, although the free-agent market is pretty light. It’d be a shock to see the Rockies spend at the levels necessary to sign Cody Bellinger, and the options beyond him aren’t exactly plentiful. Joey Gallo would make an interesting upside play at Coors Field, but his production has been in a free-fall since the 2021 trade sending him from Texas to the Bronx. Travis Jankowski and old friends Raimel Tapia and Rafael Ortega could make sense, with the latter two in particular likely to be available on minor league contracts.
Trade scenarios for this type of player abound. There are too many to list in full, though reasonable on-paper trade partners include the Royals (Kyle Isbel, Drew Waters), Mariners (Cade Marlowe, Taylor Trammell, Zach DeLoach) and Tigers (Akil Baddoo). It’s also possible that the Rox could simply fill the need with a spring waiver claim or deal for an out-of-options player who’s been squeezed out of a roster spot with his current team (e.g. Nick Gordon, Jake Cave).
The extent to which the Rockies can add to their payroll remains unclear. Colorado has added around $9-10MM in salary with the offseason pickups of Hudson ($1.5MM), Stallings ($1.5MM) and Cal Quantrill (projected $6.6MM salary in arbitration, via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). That said, the Rox still appear headed toward a reduced budget for the 2024 season. They didn’t lose much in the way of free agency — lefty Brent Suter being their lone departure of note — but GM Bill Schmidt traded away veterans like C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk, Brad Hand and Pierce Johnson at the deadline. That group combined to help push Colorado’s 2023 Opening Day payroll to a franchise-record $172MM, but they’re currently about $30MM shy of that total.
Like so many other clubs in MLB at the moment, the Rockies face ample uncertainty regarding their 2024 television broadcasts — and thus, their revenue. AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the RSN that previously broadcast the team’s games, is ceasing operations in 2024 (as first reported by Kyle Newman and Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post back in September). Saunders reported in a mailbag column over the weekend that MLB may step in to handle the Rockies’ broadcasts in 2024, but there’s yet to be a formal announcement on that matter.
However their broadcast situation plays out, it’s quite likely to adversely impact the team’s revenue. Couple that with the Rockies’ extreme longshot postseason odds, and it’s unsurprising (though surely still frustrating for their fans) that the team has had a rather quiet offseason and instead appears to be focusing on in-house development with an eye toward 2025 and beyond.
Mariners Still Exploring Infield, Bullpen Markets
It’s been an active two weeks for the Mariners, who’ve recently signed Mitch Garver to a two-year deal and shipped out Robbie Ray and Jose Caballero in trades that brought Mitch Haniger, Anthony DeSclafani and Luke Raley back to Seattle. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said this weekend that while his team feels more complete now than at any point this offseason, he’s still open to subsequent additions (link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).
More specifically, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Mariners are still hoping to acquire an infielder to make the club less reliant on the uncertain tandem of Luis Urias and Josh Rojas, who are currently projected to start at third base and second base, respectively. Seattle would also like to add a reliever, per Rosenthal, which Dipoto alluded to in his comments to Divish and others.
An infield upgrade is a sensible target for the M’s, given the volatility presented by both Urias and Rojas (and to a lesser extent, first baseman Ty France, who’s coming off a down season). From 2021-22, both Urias (.244/.340/.426, 111 wRC+) and Rojas (.266/.345/.401, 106 wRC+) were above-average performers at the plate, due in no small part to walk rates approaching 11%.
Rojas saw his walk rate drop to 7.7% in 2023, however, as he batted just .240/.303/.338 in 350 plate appearances. Urias maintained his walk rate but watched his hard-hit rate and exit velocity plummet en route to a middling .194/.337/.299 slash in 155 trips to the plate. Both players saw their strikeout rates tick up to near identical marks of 23.2% and 23.1% — slightly higher than league average but also well south of the 30%-plus rates of some names they shipped out in trades.
Both Rojas and Urias come with platoon issues of note, as well. The lefty-swinging Rojas has extremely similar rate stats against lefties and righties, with identical 93 wRC+ marks against each, but his production against lefties is contingent on a .361 average on balls in play that’s not likely to hold up. Rojas has punched out at an ugly 28.3% clip against southpaws compared to a 21% mark against righties and hit for more power when holding the platoon advantage as well (.098 ISO versus lefties, .122 versus righties). It’s the opposite for the right-handed Urias, who’s smacked southpaws at a .276/.353/.442 pace in his career but carries a .219/.326/.365 slash against right-handers.
Rojas and Urias are both capable of playing either second or third base, so there’s a potential platoon setup between the two. Alternatively, if the M’s succeed in adding a second or third baseman and prefer to go with one true starter at the other slot, both Rojas and Urias could profile as a potential utility option off the bench.
Because of the defensive flexibility the current group possesses, the Mariners could look for options at either second base or third base. Dipoto typically operates more on the trade market than on the free-agent market, though both provide myriad avenues to fill the team’s needs. Whit Merrifield stands as the top free agent at second base. The Mariners aren’t going to meet Matt Chapman‘s asking price at third base, but Gio Urshela and Justin Turner would represent much more affordable alternatives. Any of that trio would meet the Mariners’ previously stated goal of improving the club’s contact rate (which hasn’t exactly been strictly adhered to, when looking at the acquisition of Raley in particular).
On the trade market, Minnesota’s Jorge Polanco is a natural target who could step in at second base (speculatively speaking, to be clear). The Twins are deep in controllable young infielders and looking to slightly scale back payroll due to the RSN collapse that’s impacting budgets around the league (including the Mariners). The switch-hitting Polanco is earning $10.5MM this season and has a $12MM option for the ’25 campaign. The Reds, Orioles, Cardinals and Guardians are also deep in infield talent and could be intrigued by Seattle’s stock of young arms. That said, Dipoto cast significant doubt on his willingness to move a controllable starting pitcher with his weekend comments.
“We did a lot of groundwork on what it might look like if we did trade one of those young starters, and we never liked the way it looked,” Dipoto said (via Divish). He called retaining his stock of young arms (e.g. Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, Emerson Hancock) “Plan A” this offseason.
Within that same media session, Dipoto maintained an openness to further additions to the roster, speculatively rattling off the possibility of making “a fun addition in the bullpen” or more generally “an upgrade somewhere on the field that we don’t really have.” The Mariners have an imposing late-inning trio of Andres Munoz, Matt Brash and Justin Topa, but they’re relatively light on lefty options — with 28-year-old Gabe Speier and 30-year-old Tayler Saucedo as the only options on the 40-man roster. Both were solid in 2023, but neither had found any real MLB success prior to last season.
Dipoto has said previously that the Mariners’ 2024 payroll could increase over its 2023 levels, although a substantial increase hasn’t looked likely all winter. Ownership has rather clearly placed some fiscal constraints on Dipoto, GM Justin Hollander and the rest of the front office, as they’re among the many teams in the game facing financial uncertainty due to their own RSN situation.
Roster Resource currently projects a payroll of around $132MM for the Mariners, which sits about $8MM shy of last year’s end-of-season mark. Divish writes within his column that the Mariners want to leave some wiggle room for in-season additions, but there’s of course still some room beneath last year’s budget and the possibility that additional trades could further alter the current payroll outlook.