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Rangers’ MRIs On Mahle, Bradford Come Back Clean

By Steve Adams | March 12, 2025 at 11:23am CDT

March 12: Mahle’s MRI came back clean, tweets Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. The plan will be for him to get back on the mound within the next few days.

Texas had another injury scare pop up when southpaw Cody Bradford reported elbow soreness, but he’s also received a clean MRI, president of baseball operations Chris Young announced this morning (via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). He’ll still be shut down from throwing for the next four to five days in hopes that the discomfort subsides, but the imaging seems to have ruled out a severe injury.

March 11: The Rangers scratched right-hander Tyler Mahle from today’s scheduled Cactus League start with what the team termed “forearm soreness,” per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The Rangers called the move precautionary, but forearm discomfort is always an ominous development for a starting pitcher — particularly one who’s still working toward his first full season since 2023 Tommy John surgery. At this time, the team has not planned an MRI, per Victory’s Jared Sandler.

Mahle, 30, started five games for the Twins in 2023 and pitched quite well before an elbow impingement and flexor strain prompted a four-week shutdown. Not even two weeks later, Minnesota announced that Mahle would require Tommy John surgery, ending his 2023 campaign.

Mahle became a free agent at season’s end, and the Rangers signed him to a two-year, $22MM deal. It’s a backloaded contract — $5.5MM in 2024, $16.5MM in 2025 — reflecting the idea that the hope was for Mahle to pitch a bit late in 2024 and be a full-fledged member of the 2025 starting staff. It was a heavier commitment than is typical for starters who sign two-year deals while they’re on the mend from UCL reconstruction in the first place, and the fact that Mahle pitched only 12 2/3 frames last year makes the commitment all the more substantial.

At his best, Mahle was an underrated mid-rotation arm with an air of further upside. Home runs plagued him frequently during his early days with the Reds, and it comes as no surprise that his splits away from the launching pad known as Great American Ball Park were far more encouraging than his output at home. Mahle showed plenty of ability to miss bats and posted roughly average walk rates for most of his career.

A healthy Mahle would slot into the middle of a boom-or-bust Texas rotation that’s rife with talented arms and even more packed with questions. Jacob deGrom was baseball’s most dominant arm until injuries derailed his mid-30s. He’s pitched 197 1/3 innings since 2021. Nathan Eovaldi was excellent in his first two seasons with the Rangers but has already had a pair of Tommy John procedures in his career. Jon Gray has been on the injured list in each of the past six seasons. Cody Bradford missed about half of the 2024 season with a back injury. Jack Leiter, who started in place of Mahle today, is a former No. 2 overall pick who has struggled immensely in the big leagues (8.83 ERA, 35 2/3 innings) and through much of his pro career in the minors. Former Vanderbilt teammate Kumar Rocker has surpassed Leiter in terms of prospect stature, but he’s less than two years removed from Tommy John surgery himself.

If Mahle ultimately needs some downtime, the Rangers can still go with a rotation including Eovaldi, deGrom, Gray, Bradford and one of Leiter/Rocker. Prospect Emiliano Teodo is also on the 40-man roster but the club intrigued by the possibility of him in a relief role, while non-roster candidates in camp include Adrian Houser, David Buchanan, Dane Acker and Caleb Boushley.

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Texas Rangers Cody Bradford Tyler Mahle

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Rangers Sign Hunter Strickland To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | March 12, 2025 at 10:35am CDT

The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve signed veteran right-handed reliever Hunter Strickland to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp. The All Bases Covered client will be reunited with his first big league skipper, Bruce Bochy, who managed him as a rookie with the 2014 Giants.

Strickland, 36, has had a rollercoaster run in terms of year-to-year performance recently, but he’s coming off a strong season with the Angels. Last year, the right-hander tossed a career-high 73 1/3 innings for the Halos and recorded a tidy 3.31 earned run average in that time.

Strickland’s 19.4% strikeout rate was lower than average and the 22.2% mark he carried into the 2024 campaign, but he turned in a solid 8.2% walk rate and did a nice job avoiding hard contact. Opponents averaged 88.9 mph off the bat against him and logged a 35.5% hard-hit rate. Strickland has long been adept at inducing harmless infield flies, and that continued in 2024 when 16% of his fly-balls were of the infield variety. That’s a good bit higher than the league-average 10% and generally tracks with Strickland’s career rate dating back to 2017 (15.7%).

While Strickland has had some rough seasons throughout his career, he’s been good far more often than he’s been ineffective. He touts a 3.40 ERA in his career and a 3.61 mark across the past three seasons. His heater has dropped a good bit from the 98 mph he averaged early in his career, sitting at 94.5 mph in Anaheim last year, but Strickland has generally remained a solid middle relief arm.

The Rangers have completely overhauled their bullpen this offseason, bidding farewell to Kirby Yates, Jose Leclerc, Andrew Chafin and, presumably, David Robertson. While Robertson remains unsigned, the Rangers are about $4.5MM shy of the luxury tax threshold, per RosterResource, and ownership appears loath to cross that mark once again.

In place of that departed quartet, Texas has acquired Robert Garcia from the Nationals (in exchange for Nate Lowe) and signed free agents Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Webb and Luke Jackson to small big league deals ranging from $5.5MM guaranteed (Martin) to $1.25MM (Webb, Armstrong).

Strickland will compete with fellow non-roster vets like Jesse Chavez and JT Chargois as he vies for a spot in Bochy’s bullpen. He’s an Article XX(b) free agent (i.e. six years of service, finished the prior season on a major league roster/injured list), meaning that his minor league deal will have three uniform opt-out dates included by default: five days before Opening Day (March 22), May 1 and June 1.

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Texas Rangers Transactions Hunter Strickland

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White Sox Sign Travis Jankowski To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | March 12, 2025 at 10:31am CDT

The White Sox announced this morning that they’ve signed veteran outfielder Travis Jankowski to a minor league contract. The Excel Sports client will head straight to big league camp. He’d been with the Cubs on a minor league pact for the early portion of spring training. While the Cubs didn’t make any formal announcement about Jankowski’s release or him opting out of that deal, he’s clearly parted ways with Chicago’s north-side squad as they travel to Tokyo for next week’s series against the Dodgers.

Jankowski, 33, had a solid year with the Rangers in 2023 as the fourth outfielder on their World Series-winning roster. He appeared in 107 games, tallied 287 turns at the plate and delivered a respectable .263/.357/.332 batting line (97 wRC+) to go along with quality baserunning and glovework. He wasn’t able to follow up on that in a return effort with Texas in 2024; Jankowski played in 104 games last year but hit just .200/.266/.242 in 207 plate appearances.

Dating back to his 2015 MLB debut in San Diego, Jankowski has appeared in parts of ten straight big league seasons, suiting up for the Padres, Reds, Phillies, Mets, Mariners and Rangers along the way. He’s a lifetime .236/.319/.305 hitter with good speed who can handle all three spots in the outfield.

Jankowski will give the White Sox some outfield depth at a time when at least two members of their expected Opening Day roster are now slated for the injured list. Left fielder Andrew Benintendi suffered a broken hand when he was hit by a pitch earlier in Cactus League play. That injury will keep him off the field through at least the end of camp and possibly into mid-April. He’ll then need a rehab assignment. Reserve outfielder Austin Slater, who inked a one-year deal in free agency, is dealing with an oblique strain suffered last week. The Sox estimated he’d be out of game action for two to three weeks, leaving a season-opening IL placement a real possibility.

Jankowski is a known commodity for new White Sox skipper Will Venable, who was on the Rangers’ coaching staff for each of the past two seasons. He’ll compete for at-bats in left field or off the bench. Luis Robert Jr. is slated to man center field, with offseason signee Mike Tauchman in right. The ChiSox also signed Michael A. Taylor as a glove-first option off the bench. Other outfielders on the 40-man roster include Dominic Fletcher and Oscar Colas. Joey Gallo, Corey Julks and Cal Mitchell are among the other non-roster outfielders in camp.

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Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Transactions Travis Jankowski

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White Sox Option Colson Montgomery

By Steve Adams | March 11, 2025 at 3:01pm CDT

The White Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve optioned top shortstop prospect Colson Montgomery to Triple-A Charlotte. He’ll begin the season there. Chicago also optioned righties Nick Nastrini and Owen White to Charlotte. Non-roster first baseman Tim Elko was reassigned to minor league camp as well.

The Montgomery news doesn’t register as a huge surprise, given the way his spring has played out. The 23-year-old is widely ranked among MLB’s 100 best prospects, but he was slowed by back spasms in camp and has only taken nine plate appearances thus far. The former No. 22 overall pick is also coming off a rough 2024 season in Triple-A. Though he hit well for the final five weeks of the season, he finished out the year with an ugly .214/.329/.381 slash (88 wRC+) and a 28.6% strikeout rate. A big spring showing certainly could’ve thrust Montgomery into the mix for a roster spot, but he’ll head back to Charlotte and work toward a big league debut that will very likely happen at some point in 2025.

With Montgomery headed for the minors, the White Sox’ options at shortstop include Jacob Amaya, Lenyn Sosa and Brooks Baldwin. Prospect Chase Meidroth, acquired from the Red Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade, is also still in the mix but is not on the 40-man roster. The 23-year-old Meidroth had a nice year in Triple-A Worcester in 2024 but has struggled in his limited spring work thus far. Amaya has seen the most time at short this spring out of any option for the position.

The White Sox only selected Montgomery to the 40-man roster this past November, doing so in order to protect him in his first offseason of Rule 5 eligibility. As such, this will be just the first of his three option years being burned (assuming he stays in Triple-A for more than 20 days). The Sox could’ve considered bringing Montgomery north in hopes of securing future draft picks under MLB’s prospect promotion incentive (PPI) program, but between his back issue, last year’s rough numbers and a 1-for-9 performance with five strikeouts when he was in the spring lineup, they’ll go another direction.

Nastrini started eight big league games last year but was tagged for an ERA north of 7.00 and walked more batters than he punched out. He whiffed a quarter of his Triple-A opponents but was still hit hard there. He’ll likely stay stretched out as a starter in Charlotte and should get multiple opportunities to establish himself in the majors in 2025.

White is a former top prospect with the Rangers who bounced around the league via waivers this offseason. He split 2024 between the bullpen and rotation for Texas’ top affiliate. White only pitched one official inning in a Cactus League game this spring.

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Chicago White Sox Brooks Baldwin Chase Meidroth Colson Montgomery Jacob Amaya Lenyn Sosa Nick Nastrini Owen White

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MLBTR Chat Transcript

By Steve Adams | March 11, 2025 at 1:00pm CDT

Click here to read a transcript of today’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.

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MLBTR Chats

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Could The Rays Still Move A Starting Pitcher?

By Steve Adams | March 11, 2025 at 12:05pm CDT

The Rays entered the offseason with at least seven rotation-caliber arms on the roster. Each of Shane McClanahan, Taj Bradley, Drew Rasmussen, Zack Littell, Shane Baz, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Pepiot has had success in a big league rotation, though injuries have hobbled several of that group in recent years. Tampa Bay already thinned out that stock of arms (and, naturally, trimmed payroll) by shipping Springs and lefty Jacob Lopez to the A’s in a deal netting them righty Joe Boyle, minor leaguers Will Simpson and Jacob Watters, and a Competitive Balance (Round A) draft pick in 2025.

The Rays now have “only” six starters with proven (to varying levels) track records in the majors. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that they’re still planning on a five-man rotation, however, adding that trading a starter in the late stages of spring training is “not out of the question.” At best, that very lightly leaves the door for a trade propped open. There’s nothing to strongly suggest the Rays are planning to deal from the rotation. Still, it’s nonetheless worth examining the team’s options if it comes to that point.

The veteran Littell would be the most obvious candidate to change hands. Tampa Bay moved the now-29-year-old righty from the bullpen to the rotation midway through the 2023 season, and the results have been better than anyone could’ve reasonably predicted. Littell solidified the staff in the second half of ’23 and pitched a career-high 156 1/3 innings with a 3.63 ERA over 29 starts last season. Since moving to a starting role after the Rays claimed him from the Red Sox, Littell has started 40 games and logged a combined 3.65 ERA with a lower-than-average 20.4% strikeout rate but a sensational 4.1% walk rate.

Each of the Rays’ other starting pitchers is signed or controlled via arbitration through at least the 2027 season. Littell is a free agent following the 2025 campaign. He’s being paid a reasonable $5.72MM. He’s not an ace by any stretch of the imagination, but based on how he’s fared since July 2023, the right-hander could step into the third, fourth or fifth spot in most big league rotations.

Trading anyone from the rest of the group is tougher to envision. McClanahan has pitched at a Cy Young level when healthy but missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He’s controlled through 2027. Moving him right now would mean moving their most talented starter at a time when they’d be selling low. Rasmussen signed a two-year deal with a club option earlier this offseason. That bought out his remaining arbitration seasons and gave Tampa Bay control over his first free-agent year by way of that 2027 club option. Flipping him so soon after signing him to that deal is extremely difficult to envision; MLB teams simply don’t sign a player to extension and then trade him prior to ever appearing in their jersey under the terms of that new contract.

Baz and Pepiot are under club control through 2028. The former is earning $1.45MM in 2025, while the latter has yet to reach arbitration. (Baz did so as a Super Two player.) Bradley can’t become a free agent until the 2029-30 offseason. We’re talking about the Rays, so the “never say never” caveat always applies to some extent, but acquiring four or five seasons of anyone from that bucket would very likely come at a steep price and require a team to part with MLB-ready bats that are both high-upside and controllable for a similar or even lengthier window.

Any team even contemplating a trade from the rotation at this stage of the calendar will be wary, of course. As we’ve seen throughout the league — most prominently up in the Bronx — perceived starting pitching “surpluses” can turn into deficits quickly this time of year. The Rays won’t move someone just to trim payroll, but they have depth even beyond the six arms mentioned here.

The previously mentioned Boyle, for instance, is having a nice spring and has experience in a big league rotation already. Following his acquisition in the Springs trade, president of baseball operations Erik Neander called the 6’7″ righty someone who has “the physicality and the stuff to fit at the front of the rotation.” Boyle averages nearly 98 mph on his heater but has severe command issues that need to be ironed out. Righty Jacob Waguespack might be Triple-A bound but has 105 2/3 big league innings under his belt. Prospects Joe Rock and Ian Seymour both had some success in Triple-A last year (the latter in particular). There’s no such thing as “too much” rotation depth, but that group could further embolden the Rays to listen on Littell or another big league starter if a team makes a compelling offer.

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Tampa Bay Rays Drew Rasmussen Ian Seymour Jacob Waguespack Joe Boyle Joe Rock Ryan Pepiot Shane Baz Shane McClanahan Taj Bradley Zack Littell

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Latest On Alex Verdugo

By Steve Adams | March 7, 2025 at 6:46pm CDT

With fewer than three weeks until Opening Day, Alex Verdugo remains unsigned. The former Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees outfielder stands as one of the higher-profile names who’s yet to come to terms on a deal with a team for the upcoming season. He’s been tied to each of the Astros, Pirates and Angels over the course of the offseason, although the former two clubs have since signed different corner outfielders. Pittsburgh inked Tommy Pham on a one-year, $4.25MM deal. Houston brought Ben Gamel back on a one-year, $1.2MM deal (though reportedly, only Gamel’s $200K signing bonus is guaranteed on that deal).

It’s not fully clear what type of situation Verdugo has been seeking. The 29-year-old is presumably looking for a big league deal, even on the heels of a down year and in the waning stages of the offseason, but preferences regarding asking price, location, etc. remain unclear. Jon Heyman of the New York Post offers some context, however, reporting that prior to signing Pham, the Pirates “floated” the idea of signing Verdugo for  “around $8MM.”

It bears emphasizing that there’s no indication an $8MM offer was ever formally presented to Verdugo. Heyman’s report also doesn’t specify the timing of that “floated” proposal. If it was early enough in the offseason, perhaps Verdugo felt he had sufficient interest to eclipse that mark or at least other clubs showing interest at a similar rate.

It seems clear now that the opportunity in Pittsburgh has passed, with Pham in the fold there. The Bucs have Pham, Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds lined up for outfield work. Pham could always be pushed to a bench role, but he suggested early in camp that one of the reasons he chose to sign with the Pirates over other suitors was a greater opportunity for at-bats. It seems as though the Pirates communicated to Pham that he’d have the chance for plenty of playing time. Plus, with Pittsburgh’s payroll at $88MM — a bottom-of-the-barrel mark relative to the rest of the league but right in line with last year’s level for the Buccos — ownership may not be comfortable putting any more dollars into the team.

At this point in the offseason, it’s difficult to imagine Verdugo securing $8MM. There aren’t many teams with a clear need for a corner outfielder, and many of the potential suitors have minimal budget space. One of the reasons the Astros signed Gamel is that owner Jim Crane is loath to exceed the luxury tax for a second straight season. Gamel came at a bargain rate. Houston is less than $5MM from the CBT threshold, per RosterResource. The Royals have been seeking outfield additional bats, but their projected $132MM Opening Day payroll is the second-highest in franchise history and is already nearly $20MM north of last year’s mark.

At this point, it might take a spring injury to an established big league outfielder to spur a team to make a compelling offer to Verdugo. The Guardians (top prospect Chase DeLauter) and Tigers (Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling) both have injuries in their outfield mix, but there’s no indication either would consider a run at Verdugo. The Yankees increasingly seem unlikely to have Giancarlo Stanton for the early portion of the season, but they still have a full outfield (Jasson Dominguez, Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham) and seem to be near owner Hal Steinbrenner’s spending limit. The Rangers have had some injuries (Wyatt Langford, Adolis Garcia), but they’re short-term in nature and Texas is in a similar position to Houston with regard to the luxury tax.

Verdugo took to Instagram earlier this week to post a highlight reel with the caption “in due time” — a fitting descriptor of where things seem to stand. An opportunity will present itself eventually, but for now, it seems the 28-year-old (29 in May) will have to wait things out.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Alex Verdugo

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George Kirby Shut Down Due To Shoulder Inflammation, Will Open Season On Injured List

By Steve Adams | March 7, 2025 at 2:44pm CDT

Star Mariners right-hander George Kirby has been shut down from throwing due to shoulder inflammation and will very likely open the 2025 season on the 15-day injured list, general manager Justin Hollander announced to the team’s beat today (video link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times). There’s no structural damage at play, and Hollander made clear that Kirby felt he could continue pitching, but the team is understandably taking a cautious approach with such an important member of the pitching staff. Said Hollander:

“George Kirby has not been feeling great after his outings. In the outings, he’s throwing the ball well — same velocity as you would expect. He just hasn’t felt like he’s bouncing back great. We did an MRI — MRI looks great. No structural concerns whatsoever, and I will repeat that: zero structural concerns. There is some inflammation in there that we need to get out, so much to George’s chagrin, we are going to take the ball out of his hands. … This is more like a week-to-week thing than a day-to-day thing. We just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the big picture of the whole season as opposed to worrying about Opening Day.”

Hollander didn’t paint the issue as one that would require a long-term absence, but it’s nevertheless a cause for concern and a blow to the team’s short-term outlook. Kirby, the 20th overall pick in the 2019 draft, made his big league debut in 2022 and immediately cemented himself as one of the sport’s most promising young pitchers. The now-27-year-old righty has pitched 511 2/3 innings in the major and turned in a 3.43 ERA with a solid 23.3% strikeout rate and a minuscule 3.1% walk rate. He has arguably the best command of any pitcher in MLB and has parlayed that into an All-Star appearance and a top-10 Cy Young finish in his young career.

Kirby has never been on the major league injured list, though Divish notes that he missed a month during the 2021 minor league season due to mild inflammation in his shoulder and also had a bout of inflammation while pitching at the Mariners’ alternate site during the shortened 2020 season. Neither instance proved to be a long-term issue, and the M’s are surely hopeful that’ll be the case this time around as well.

There’s no immediate timetable for Kirby’s return. In his absence, Seattle will still have an outstanding top-four consisting of Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo. Righty Emerson Hancock is the most experienced depth option on the 40-man roster, although the former No. 6 overall pick (2020) hasn’t yet lived up to that draft billing. He’s pitched in the majors in each of the past two seasons and delivered 72 1/3 innings with a 4.71 ERA. Hancock’s 7% walk rate is strong, but his 14.3% strikeout rate ranks seventh-lowest among the 449 pitchers with at least 70 combined innings over the past two seasons.

Other depth options in camp include righty Blas Castano, who’s also on the 40-man roster (but has not yet made his MLB debut) and non-roster invitees Logan Evans, Jhonathan Diaz, Luis F. Castillo and Casey Lawrence. Evans is generally ranked within the top 10 of an absolutely stacked Mariners farm system after posting a 3.20 ERA in 107 Double-A innings last year. He’s not far from being MLB-ready. Diaz and Lawrence are journeymen who’ve both had brief stints with the M’s in the past. Castillo made a brief MLB debut with the 2022 Tigers and has since spent two seasons in Japan, pitching to solid results.

For all the accolades heaped on their top-five starters, the Mariners are relatively light on depth options behind that prized quintet. It’s difficult to convince veterans who settle for minor league deals to sign on with a team that pretty clearly lacks a path to the majors, as exemplified by the Mariners and Phillies in recent seasons. The M’s generally need to rely on in-house development for depth. Hancock and Evans are products of that process, but the Mariners have also seen prospects like Taylor Dollard and Sam Carlson derailed by injury and traded others like Adam Macko, Connor Phillips, Brandon Williamson and Levi Stoudt in recent years.

It seems unlikely the Mariners would immediately go outside the organization for any sort of notable addition. Beyond the fact that Kirby doesn’t appear ticketed for a long-term absence, the M’s have scant payroll space, as their bare-bones offseason made abundantly clear. Beyond that, any new arms brought into the fold might not be built up in time to factor into the Opening Day rotation.

One route the team could take would be opportunistically grabbing a rotation arm off waivers if the opportunity presents itself, or scooping up a veteran who’s been in camp with another club but is informed he won’t make that team’s Opening Day roster. There aren’t any immediate options available in that regard, but as teams begin to set their rosters in the weeks ahead, both avenues can become more viable paths for Seattle to bolster its depth.

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Newsstand Seattle Mariners George Kirby

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Aaron Ashby Shut Down For Two Weeks, Expects To Build Back Up As Starter

By Steve Adams | March 7, 2025 at 2:37pm CDT

Brewers southpaw Aaron Ashby has been sidelined by an oblique strain that’s likely to keep him on the shelf to begin the season, but the lefty did get some good news on his latest wave of imaging. Per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, the second opinion on Ashby’s most recent MRI was more favorable than the first. He’ll be shut down for two weeks and then anticipates that he’ll resume building up as a starter.

That the plan for him is to continue stretching out as a starter isn’t a huge surprise, given Milwaukee’s need for rotation depth. The Brewers just inked Jose Quintana on a one-year deal, but they also lost lefty DL Hall to the 60-day injured list and will be without Brandon Woodruff for the beginning of the season as he continues a slow build back from a significant 2023 shoulder surgery.

At present, the Milwaukee rotation includes Freddy Peralta, Aaron Civale, Nestor Cortes, Tobias Myers and Quintana. The Brewers also signed veteran swingman Tyler Alexander to a one-year deal last month, but the Quintana signing likely pushed him to the bullpen.

Depth options beyond that group are inexperienced. Righties Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick are on the 40-man roster but have yet to make their MLB debuts. Young righty Carlos Rodriguez has a dozen MLB frames to his credit. Fellow right-hander Elvin Rodriguez, who signed after a nice showing as a reliever in Japan, has all of 33 MLB innings. Non-roster options include Bruce Zimmermann and Thomas Pannone, neither of whom has had a sustained run of success in the majors. Top prospect Jacob Misiorowski will probably get a look in 2025, but he’s a 2022 second-rounder with only 170 pro innings to his name — just 17 of them coming in Triple-A.

It seems as though Ashby could be throwing before the end of spring training and thus could head out on a Triple-A rehab assignment early in the season. A mid- or late-April return seems plausible, barring setbacks. Ashby himself hasn’t quite solidified a spot in the majors, though he pitched quite well in 28 1/3 innings last year — mostly in relief. He’s oscillated between the rotation and the bullpen in Milwaukee through parts of three MLB seasons over a four-year span.

Entering the 2021 season, Ashby was among the Brewers’ top-ranked prospects. He showed promise in his rookie campaign, posting a pedestrian 4.55 ERA in 31 2/3 innings but punching out better than 29% of his opponents against a serviceable 9% walk rate. For a 23-year-old who’d just set down a gaudy 36% of his Triple-A opponents on strikes, it was a solid debut.

Ashby continued down a similar track in 2022. Though he was sporting a mid-4.00s ERA in July, he’d turned in excellent strikeout numbers and moved into the Milwaukee rotation. The Brewers and Ashby agreed to a five-year, $20.5MM extension that summer, which looked to lock the southpaw in as a foundational piece of the pitching staff.

As is too often the case for young pitchers, injuries intervened. Ashby hit the injured list with shoulder inflammation just one month after signing his contract. He returned for the final couple weeks of the season and pitched quite well. Further shoulder woes surfaced in 2023, however, and he missed most of the season with an impingement and a tear in his labrum.

Despite debuting in 2021, Ashby has only 167 1/3 big league innings. Though he’s yet to claim a long-term spot in the rotation, the fact that he’ll build back up as a starter once his oblique injury calms down suggests that he could get that opportunity this year. Presumably, a healthy Ashby would be one of the first names called if the Brewers incur an injury elsewhere following his return (depending on Woodruff’s status at that time). Ashby is still under contract through 2027, and the team holds a pair of club options on him for 2028 and 2029.

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Milwaukee Brewers Aaron Ashby

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The Cubs’ Bullpen Outlook

By Steve Adams | March 7, 2025 at 11:11am CDT

The Cubs entered spring training this year with their bullpen largely set. Offseason trade acquisitions of Ryan Pressly and Ryan Brasier added a pair of veteran righties — including a closer, Pressly — to the late-inning mix. Chicago signed lefty Caleb Thielbar to a one-year, $2.75MM deal. That trio joined Porter Hodge, Tyson Miller and Keegan Thompson as virtual locks. All three holdovers pitched very well in 2024, and the latter two are out of minor league options.

There are plenty of candidates for the remaining spots, the bulk of whom are on the 40-man roster already. Righty Julian Merryweather is coming off a poor showing in an injury-marred season that included an April rib fracture and season-ending knee surgery in September. He yielded 11 runs in 15 innings (6.60 ERA), but Merryweather was excellent in 2023, logging a 3.38 ERA and 32.3% strikeout rate in 72 innings for the Cubs. He’s also out of minor league options, which surely gives him a leg up on others. (Four scoreless spring innings with a 5-to-1 K/BB ratio so far isn’t hurting his cause, either.)

Others on the 40-man roster include righties Nate Pearson, Eli Morgan, Jack Neely, Daniel Palencia, Ethan Roberts and Gavin Hollowell. All have at least one minor league option remaining. However, the Cubs have at least one non-roster invitee who’s making a push for a spot: veteran righty Brad Keller.

Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote yesterday that Keller’s average fastball is up more than three miles per hour this spring, sitting 96.3 mph and topping out at 98 mph. Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and manager Craig Counsell both spoke highly of Keller’s stuff this spring, with the skipper noting to Lee that Keller has been “more than we expected” so far in camp. Keller’s four runs in seven innings of work don’t stand out, but teams are far more focused on raw stuff, velocity and command when looking at such a small sample. Keller has allowed only seven hits and a walk while punching out six hitters and inducing grounders at a 48% clip so far.

Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reports that Keller’s velocity jump and smoother mechanics have not only made him a legitimate consideration to break camp but made it “likely” that the team will add Keller to the roster. The veteran righty has a looming opt-out opportunity in his deal, so the Cubs will either have to select his contract to the big league roster or risk him landing with another team. His minor league pact comes with a $1.5MM base salary, per Mooney, making Keller an affordable addition to the relief corps if the team sees fit.

Adding Keller to the mix, however, comes with complications. Right now, the Cubs have six relievers who cannot be optioned to the minors in the running for bullpen spots: Pressly, Brasier, Thielbar, Miller, Thompson and Merryweather. Hodge has a full slate of minor league options remaining, but coming off a 1.88 ERA and 31.7% strikeout rate in 43 rookie innings, he’s not going anywhere. He’s locked into a seventh spot in the ’pen.

Effectively, unless the Cubs are willing to move on from Merryweather, they only have one bullpen spot available. Plugging Keller into that spot would render their bullpen largely static, barring injury. Keller has more than five years of MLB service (6.062, to be more specific). He can’t be optioned without his consent.

That level of bullpen inflexibility is tough for any team to manage. Early off-days in the season would help, but if the Cubs needed to call up a fresh arm at any point, they’d be left choosing between optioning Hodge or designating someone for assignment. It’s not an ideal setup.  (The Mets faced a similar situation with their bench when weighing whether to re-sign Jose Iglesias, which is largely why he ended up with the Padres.)

The situation would only grow murkier when righty Javier Assad is healed up from an oblique injury. Assad has been ruled out for Opening Day and is presumably IL-bound to begin the year. If he returns in April, however, he’d likely push righty Colin Rea from the fifth starter’s spot to a long relief role. Rea, like many of his teammates on the staff, can’t be optioned. The Cubs could technically option Assad, but he pitched 147 innings of 3.73 ERA ball out of the rotation last year; his strikeout, walk an home run rates all point to some regression, but Assad has still pitched well enough to this point in his career (3.40 ERA in 294 innings) that he can be considered a lock when healthy.

It’s always possible that further injuries sort the situation out organically. Injuries, particularly on the pitching side of things, are an inevitability for any team over the course of a six-week spring training and 162-game season. But with the bulk of the pitching staff healthy right now and minimal flexibility due to their lack of optionable arms, the Cubs seem like they’ll be forced into some decisions on those out-of-options arms sooner than later.

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Chicago Cubs Brad Keller Daniel Palencia Eli Morgan Ethan Roberts Gavin Hollowell Jack Neely Julian Merryweather Keegan Thompson Nate Pearson Porter Hodge Tyson Miller

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