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Mariners Outright Austin Kitchen

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The Mariners announced Thursday that left-hander Austin Kitchen, whom they’d designated for assignment in order to open roster space for newly signed Donovan Solano, went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma.

Kitchen, 27, was a September waiver claim out of the Marlins organization. He didn’t pitch in a big league game with the Mariners following that claim but did log his first seven MLB frames with Miami last year. That brief cameo didn’t go well, as Kitchen was tagged for 11 earned runs in that time.

Kitchen posted a more encouraging 3.78 earned run average in 52 1/3 frames of Triple-A work between three organizations (Rockies, Marlins, Mariners). The southpaw averages just 90.7 mph on his fastball and doesn’t miss many bats, but he posted a hearty 55.1% grounder rate in the minors last year and has a lengthy history of keeping the ball on the ground at plus rates. He’s also shown generally good command, walking only 6.5% of his opponents in four minor league seasons.

Now that Kitchen has cleared waivers, he’ll remain in the organization as minor league depth. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so if the Mariners select him back to the big league roster, he can be optioned freely without needing to return to waivers. Seattle has a trio of left-handed relief options already on the 40-man roster: Tayler Saucedo, Gabe Speier and recent waiver claim Tyler Jay.

Alex Bregman Not Considering Short-Term Deals

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As several of the top free agents of the offseason linger on the market with spring training now under a month away, some have reportedly pivoted to consider short-term/opt-out laden contracts. Pete Alonso and the Mets are reportedly discussing a three-year arrangements with at least one opt-out. Both Anthony Santander and Jack Flaherty have recently signaled willingness to consider similar structures. As for third baseman Alex Bregman, however, agent Scott Boras tells Bob Nightengale of USA Today that his client remains focused on a longer-term pact and suggests that there’s ample interest to make that happen.

“Bregman’s a championship player, teams know it,” Boras tells Nightengale. “It’s really a matter of his decision-making and theirs, about how you can close up that gap. There’s substantial interest (in long-term) deals.”

Nightengale adds that the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Tigers are among the teams still “engaged” with Bregman. The Cubs showed some cursory interest as well, per a recent report from Bruce Levine of 670 The Score, but that was more a matter of due diligence to see if Bregman is open to the precise type of short-term arrangement against which Boras is pushing back.

One element of the slower-than-expected market for Bregman (and perhaps for Alonso, Flaherty and Santander) posited by Boras is a simple decrease in the number of teams willing to spend. For a second straight offseason, there’s a group of clubs that is looking to reduce payroll or at least not add to the budget in a meaningful way — largely due to concerns regarding the in-flux status of their television broadcast rights.

While there are some clubs this offseason who’ve spent after a quiet winter in free agency last time around, there are indeed quite a few whose ownership groups have handcuffed the baseball operations staff. The Padres, Twins, Cardinals, Braves, Brewers and Marlins have yet to sign a free agent to a fully guaranteed big league deal. (Atlanta, Milwaukee and Miami have given a handful of split major league deals to players with minor league options remaining.)

Each of those clubs other than Miami has been a notable buyer, to varying extents, in the free-agent market as recently as one or two years ago. Several others — Mariners ($3.5MM), Rockies ($9.75MM), Rays ($8.5MM), Pirates ($8MM) — have spent under $10MM in total. That’s one full third of the teams in MLB whose combined free agent expenditures total $29.75MM — or just barely more than Max Fried will earn annually with the Yankees.

Not all of those clubs would’ve been players for Bregman, Alonso and others with a normal offseason of spending permission from ownership, of course. But their lack of activity has lessened the demand for mid-tier and lower-tier free agents, leaving a larger supply of options for the offseason’s actual spenders to peruse.

Bregman has received at least one long-term offer, as the incumbent Astros put forth a reported six-year, $156MM deal early in the offseason. That pact is surely no longer on the table, as Houston pivoted first to an effort to acquire Nolan Arenado — a deal that Arenado blocked with his no-trade clause — and then to sign Christian Walker at first base. Having already acquired infielder Isaac Paredes from the Cubs as part of their return for star outfielder Kyle Tucker, Houston now has Paredes at the hot corner, Jeremy Peña at shortstop, Jose Altuve at second base and Walker at first base. They’re also just north of the luxury tax threshold, and there’s been talk of potential trades to dip back under that number. Suffice it to say, $26MM per year for Bregman no longer feels plausible in Houston.

Bob Uecker Passes Away

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The Brewers announced this morning that former big league catcher, legendary broadcaster and franchise icon Bob Uecker passed away last night. He was 90 years old. The Uecker family has since issued a statement detailing that he “faced a private battle with small cell lung cancer since early 2023, which he met with the same strength and resilience that defined him.” Uecker continued calling Brewers games throughout the 2023-24 seasons. The Brewers issued the following statement:

Today we take on the heaviest of burdens. Today, we say goodbye to our beloved friend, Bob Uecker.

Ueck was the light of the Brewers, the soundtrack of our summers, the laughter in our hearts, and his passing is a profound loss. He was the heart and soul of Wisconsin and a dear friend. Bob loved people; his presence warmed every room and he had a way of welcoming all of us into his world as if we were lifelong friends.

Saying goodbye to Bob shakes us all. He was so much more than a Milwaukee Brewers icon. He was a national treasure. Bob entertained us with his words and storytelling, so it is no surprise that his passing now leaves us at a loss for our own words.

There is no describing the impact Ueck had on so many, and no words for how much he was loved. We are left with a giant void in our hearts, but also remember the laughter and joy he brought to our lives.

It’s a devastating loss for fans everywhere. After 54 years of calling games in Milwaukee, Uecker’s voice is synonymous with Brewers baseball, but his celebrity and popularity transcend those Midwest roots. Nary a baseball fan in the world is unfamiliar with his humor and wit. Uecker’s mastery of storytelling and self-deprecating humor — particularly his willingness to poke fun at his own six-year playing career, during which he batted .200/.293/.287 — provided ceaseless entertainment for those who were tuning in at any given moment.

Even those who don’t follow the game closely surely have fond memories of Uecker’s frequent appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, his portrayal of fictional play-by-play man Harry Doyle in the Major League franchise of films, and his starring role in six seasons on Mr. Belvedere.

Baseball and the broadcast booth were always Uecker’s home. He stayed loyal to his native Milwaukee, calling games for more than half a century and building a legacy that will be forever remembered by not one but two statues in his honor at the team’s home park. But Uecker’s larger-than-life personality and unyielding charm made him a natural, beloved celebrity who entertained not only baseball fans but people all over the globe. Few can claim to have reached such a broad audience and done so while being so universally cherished.

Uecker was a titan of the broadcast world — one of MLB’s most beloved characters by fans, media and players alike. In 2003, he was deservingly enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, where he delighted the audience with a speech teeming with the type of humor and wry delivery that only Uecker and his signature voice could provide.

We at MLBTR extend our most heartfelt condolences to the Brewers organization, the Uecker family and those who were lucky enough to call him a friend, and we join the countless baseball fans around the world with a heavy heart in light of this morning’s news. Rest in peace, Mr. Baseball.

Pirates Acquire Brett de Geus

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The Pirates have acquired right-hander Brett de Geus from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash, per announcements from both clubs. Toronto designated de Geus for assignment last week to create 40-man roster space for Jeff Hoffman.

The 27-year-old de Geus pitched 11 1/3 innings in the majors last year over the course of brief stints with the Mariners, Marlins and Blue Jays. He yielded nine earned runs in that time (7.15 ERA) and has a career 7.48 ERA in parts of two big league seasons (61 1/3 innings).

Obviously, that number is an eyesore, and de Geus’ career marks in Triple-A don’t inspire much more confidence (6.66 ERA in 50 innings). However, teams looking beneath the hood will see a sinker that averages better than 96 mph, consistently plus ground-ball rates, and interesting swing-and-miss data on the 6’2″ righty’s secondary offerings (cutter, knuckle curve, and seldom-used splitter). A former Rule 5 pick, de Geus has seen time with the Royals, Mariners, Marlins, Jays and now Pirates over the past two calendar years.

While de Geus will have to earn a spot in Pittsburgh’s bullpen — if he survives the rest of the winter on the 40-man roster — he won’t necessarily have to break camp with the club if he doesn’t. He has two minor league option years remaining, so the Bucs can hold onto him as relief depth to begin the season if they’re so inclined, with no risk of exposing him to waivers.

Despite the lack of success in the majors and upper minors, de Geus has been on four different 40-man rosters since April and six dating back to 2021. On the one hand, it’s easy to argue that’s because he’s routinely proven expendable. On the other, it’s also indicative of the fact that even with the unsightly earned run averages, teams have had a hard time sneaking de Geus through waivers. It’s clear that clubs are intrigued by his raw stuff, even if the results have yet to line up.

Mets Claim Austin Warren

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The Mets announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed right-hander Austin Warren off waivers from the Giants, who designated him for assignment last week. New York’s 40-man roster is now up to 38 players.

Warren, 29 next month, has seen small amounts of action in four straight big league seasons. He pitched for the Angels from 2021 to 2023 and then the Giants in 2024, though his workload stayed below 21 innings in each of those campaigns. Put together, he has thrown 48 2/3 innings, allowing 3.14 earned runs per nine. His 18.8% strikeout rate is subpar but his 7.4% walk rate and 46.2% ground ball rate are both strong numbers.

He underwent Tommy John surgery while still with the Angels in May of 2023 and spent the rest of that year on the injured list. He was released going into 2024 but managed to secure a big league deal from the Giants. He spent a decent chunk of 2024 on the IL as well but was back on the mound by season’s end.

Though his major league track record is fairly limited, spending most of the past two years on the injured list pushed him to Super Two status this winter. Back in November, he and the Giants avoided arbitration by agreeing to a split deal. Per the Associated Press, Warren will have a salary of $785K in the majors and $350K in the minors. When the club claimed Sam Huff a week ago, they bumped Warren off the roster, perhaps hoping to have him clear waivers. However, the Mets seem to like Warren at that price point and have snagged him off the wire.

Perhaps the Mets see the potential for a bit more with Warren. Over the past four years, he has thrown 104 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.05 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate, while getting grounders on roughly half of the balls in play he’s allowed. If he can bring a few of those punchouts up to the big leagues, that would be a nice step forward. He still has one option year and can therefore be shuttled between Triple-A and the majors fairly freely. If he still has a roster spot at season’s end, he can be retained for 2026 via arbitration.

Giants Trade Will Kempner To Marlins

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The Marlins announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Will Kempner from the Giants in exchange for international bonus pool space. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t necessary. San Francisco also acquired international bonus space when trading catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol to the Red Sox today. Since pool allotments must be traded in increments of $250K, they’ve added at least half a million dollars to their spending power on the international free agent market.

The Giants signed top international prospect Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez for a $3MM bonus earlier today — a sum that represents more than 58% of their entire bonus pool. San Francisco entered the 2025 signing period tied with the Dodgers for the lowest pool in MLB at $5.146MM, due largely to forfeiting $500K when signing both Matt Chapman and Blake Snell last winter after the pair rejected qualifying offers from their former teams.

Kempner, 23, was the Giants’ third-round pick back in 2022. He missed the entire 2024 season due to a broken foot but posted interesting results in 2023. The former Gonzaga starter moved to a relief role with the Giants and pitched to a combined 3.73 ERA and 28.1% strikeout rate across three levels (Class-A, High-A, Double-A). That includes a 2.91 ERA with a huge 32.6% strikeout rate and a 9% walk rate in 34 innings of relief in High-A that season.

Kempner works off a mid-90s sinker and a sweeper, both of which receive plus grades from Baseball America and FanGraphs. BA ranked him among the Giants’ top 30 prospects in both 2023 (No. 26) and 2024 (No. 29). Command is an issue for Kempner, who’s walked 11.2% of his opponents in pro ball and plunked another 3.7% of them.

Even with two plus pitched, allowing 15% of your opponents to reach base without having to put a ball in play isn’t a recipe for success. That said, he’s still barely had one full season of professional coaching, so it’s not exactly surprising that another club is taking an interest in that pair of impressive offerings and hoping to rein in the righty’s command. He’ll likely begin the 2025 season in Double-A, where he’s still only thrown 1 2/3 innings in a 2023 cameo.

Giants Trade Blake Sabol To Red Sox

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2:04pm: The teams have announced the moves.

1:48pm: The Red Sox have a deal in place to acquire catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol from the Giants, as first reported by Hunter Noll of Beyond the Monster. Boston will send international bonus pool space back to the Giants. Right-hander Chase Shugart is being designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the Sox’ 40-man roster, Noll adds. San Francisco designated Sabol for assignment last week.

Sabol, 27, was the Giants’ Rule 5 pick out of the Pirates system prior to the 2023 season. He stuck on San Francisco’s roster all year, posting a .235/.301/.394 batting line (91 wRC+) with 13 home runs but an ugly 34% strikeout rate. Sabol’s Rule 5 selection came on the heels of a stout .284/.363/.497 slash between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022. With that big performance and a respectable rookie showing in the big leagues, he looked as though he could have a role on the Giants for several years to come.

That, however, was not to be. Sabol spent nearly the entire 2024 season in Triple-A and struggled considerably. He slashed .246/.340/.388 there — about 15% worse than league-average production. He went 10-for-32 in a tiny cup of big league coffee, bringing his career rate stats to .243/.313/.392 in 382 plate appearances. That wasn’t enough to save his spot on the roster following a regime change in the Giants’ baseball operations staff that has seen former NL MVP Buster Posey take over as the department’s president.

Sabol has caught 458 innings in the majors and played 271 innings of left field. He didn’t grade as a plus defender in either spot, though both positions come with a pretty small sample of playing time. The Giants added a bit of first base to Sabol’s defensive repertoire in 2024. He’s now caught 1843 innings, played 943 innings across all three outfield spots and played 172 innings at first base since being selected by Pittsburgh in the seventh round of the 2019 draft. Sabol has a pair of minor league option years and five seasons of club control remaining.

With the Red Sox, Sabol will compete with Carlos Narvaez — and any additional catching depth brought in by the Sox — to see who’ll serve as the backup to starting catcher Connor Wong in 2025.

For the Giants, adding some extra pool space is notable. San Francisco punted on a combined $1MM of pool space last offseason when they signed Matt Chapman and Blake Snell after they rejected qualifying offers. That left them tied with the archrival Dodgers for the smallest international bonus pool in the game, at $5.146MM. Between this swap and the trade of righty Will Kempner to the Marlins, they’ve added to that pool by at least $500K, as international allotments must be traded in increments of $250K. The Giants spent $3MM — more than 58% of their initial pool — on top international signing Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez earlier today, so the extra dollars will help to offset some of that weighty bonus.

Turning to the 28-year-old Shugart, he made his big league debut with the Sox this past season, yielding four runs on eight hits and three walks with eight strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings of relief. He spent the bulk of the 2024 season in Triple-A Worcester, where he logged a 4.46 earned run average, 25.6% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate in 70 2/3 innings, mostly out of the bullpen.

Shugart was originally selected by the Red Sox in the 12th round of the 2018 draft. He generally posted solid numbers up through the Double-A level before struggling mightily in his first two seasons of Triple-A ball in 2022-23. This past year was the first in which he’s posted solid numbers at the top minor league level. During his brief big league look, he showed a five-pitch mix — four-seamer, cutter, sinker, slider, changeup — and sat 96.1 mph with his heater. He didn’t induce many swings and misses in the big leagues but turned in a solid 11.7% swinging-strike rate in Worcester.

The Red Sox will have five days to trade Shugart. If not traded by then, he’ll need to be placed on waivers, which is a 48-hour process itself. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, the Red Sox can retain him as non-roster depth in Triple-A and invite him to big league camp this spring. Within the next week, he’ll have some form of resolution on his current DFA status.

Giants Have Had Recent Talks With Randal Grichuk

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The Giants have had recent talks with free agent outfielder Randal Grichuk and his representatives at Excel Sports, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Giants have been looking for ways to upgrade the offense, and the veteran Grichuk would give them a right-handed bat to pair with lefty-swinging outfielders Jung Hoo Lee and Mike Yastrzemski.

Grichuk, 33, was outstanding at the plate for the division-rival Diamondbacks in 2024, batting .291/.348/.528 with a dozen homers, 20 doubles, a pair of triples, a career-best 7.2% walk rate (still below league-average) and a career-low 16.5% strikeout rate. As is typically the case, he was used selectively, with 184 of his 279 plate appearances coming versus left-handed pitching.

Grichuk, as he tends to do, absolutely torched southpaw opponents. He slashed .319/.386/.528 against lefties — good for 51% better than league-average production, by measure of wRC+. He was more strikeout-prone and less likely to walk against righties, but Grichuk maintained his power output even against same-handed opponents; in 94 plate appearances against right-handers, he hit .242/.274/.527.

Also by measure of wRC+, the Giants were one of the ten best teams against lefties in 2024. That’s largely due to the preposterous production of young righty-swinging outfielder Heliot Ramos in such situations (.370/.439/.750). Any player would be hard-pressed to replicate stats that outrageous, however, and San Francisco also lost two of its better hitters against southpaws from last season; Jorge Soler (.277/.387/.500) was traded to the Braves at the deadline, and Michael Conforto (.284/.349/.537) signed with the Dodgers.

Shortstop Willy Adames, who signed a seven-year deal with the Giants earlier this winter, also hits right-handed but has been far more productive against righties than lefties in his career (and in 2024). A signing of Grichuk would help to deepen the lineup against lefties and offset some of the production lost to the departures of Soler/Conforto and some likely regression from Ramos.

As things stand, RosterResource projects the Giants’ payroll just shy of $182MM. That’s not particularly close to the franchise-record $200MM. Their CBT ledger sits at $222MM, leaving them $19MM from the point at which they’d have to pay the luxury tax for what would be a second straight season. Impressive as Grichuk’s 2024 season was, he won’t command anywhere near the type of guarantee that’d push the Giants close to that tax threshold, so he’d be an affordable add that also leaves room for some additional spending, even if the aim is to reset their CBT penalty level.

Nationals Outright Joan Adon

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that right-hander Joan Adon passed through waivers unclaimed after he was designated for assignment last week. He’ll remain with the organization and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. Washington designated Adon to clear roster space for free agent signee Amed Rosario.

The 26-year-old Adon has logged big league time with the Nats in each of the past four seasons. He’s totaled 132 1/3 innings but sports a 6.66 earned run average in that time. He’s fanned 19% of his opponents, issued walks at an 11.3% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a 45.3% rate. Both those strikeout and walk rates are worse than league-average, but Adon’s grounder rate is a few percentage points above par and he averages about 95 mph on his heater.

Adon has been durable in the upper minors, typically working as a starter, but he’s also gotten some bullpen work in recent seasons as his big league results have been lackluster. Given that he sits nearly 95 mph as a starter when he’s facing lineups multiple times, it’s fair to wonder how high that velocity might trend upward if he were to move to short relief stints.

Adon was out of minor league options, so the Nationals would’ve had to either break camp with him on the Opening Day roster or jettison him from the 40-man by way of trade or DFA at some point during spring training. Now that he’s cleared waivers, he’ll head to big league camp this spring as a non-roster invitee. If he doesn’t pitch his way back into the big league plans, he’ll start the year in Rochester and bide his time while waiting for another opportunity.

Washington’s rotation mix is deeper after signing Michael Soroka and re-signing Trevor Williams. That pair will join MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker, Jake Irvin and DJ Herz — all four of whom delivered some encouraging performances in 2024 (albeit with some late fades as that group surpassed previous career-high workloads). With that group of six starters in the fold and top prospect Cade Cavalli hoping for a healthy 2025 campaign, Adon has been pushed a ways down the depth chart. A full-time look in the ’pen could be interesting, but it’s not yet clear how the Nats will utilize him moving forward.

Daniel Bard To Throw Off Mound In February, Planning To Sign In April

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Veteran right-hander Daniel Bard missed the 2024 season after undergoing surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right elbow. He sat down with Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring Podcast eight months ago to discuss how the injury impacts his mindset, his daily routine and to give an inside look into the life of an injured pitcher. He also suggested within that his recovery would be about a full year. That timetable still seems largely the same. Bradford reports this morning that Bard is planning to resume throwing off a mound early next month. He’s hopeful of signing with a team in April and pitching in games not long after.

Bard’s surgery repaired only his flexor tendon and not his ulnar collateral ligament, the pitcher himself told Bradford in that interview. He’d been pitching through elbow pain for some time but reached a point where he could no longer complete a bullpen session. An MRI revealed the need for surgical repair.

Now 39 years old, Bard posted elite results as recently as 2022, when he notched a dominant 1.79 ERA with a 28.2% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate in 60 1/3 innings for the Rockies. His 34 saves that season were a career-high and ranked sixth in all of baseball. He was a heavily speculated trade candidate that summer, given his status as an impending free agent on a non-contending Colorado club, but the Rox inked Bard to a two-year, $19MM extension instead.

Clearly, that deal didn’t pan out. Bard was brilliant in April and May the following season before taking a step back in June/July and cratering in August and September. The righty told Bradford he was pitching through elbow pain for much of that 2023 season.

Since returning from a six-year absence in the major leagues back in 2020, Bard has been inconsistent but effective on the whole. He sports a 3.83 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and a bloated 13.5% walk rate that’s skewed by the 21.1% walk rate he logged in ’23 while pitching through elbow pain and anxiety. Bard attributed his dominant 2022 showing to scrapping his four-seamer and changing the arm slot on his sinker; if he can get back to anything close to that form, he’d be a bargain for anyone who signs him.

That’s far from a given, of course, but the most recently healthy version of Bard we saw was one of the best relievers in the sport. Given that he’s going to wait until he’s close to game-ready to sign, it’s possible Bard will sign a prorated big league deal and then consent to be optioned when April rolls around. Presumably, he’ll host a workout/showcase for interested teams at that point. He’s spent the past four years in the Rockies organization and spoke fondly of his time there and his teammates with the club, which could give the Rox a leg up if they’re interested in a reunion, but a healthy Bard should draw interest from a wide range of teams.

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