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MLBTR Podcast: Vlad’s Massive Deal, Extensions for Merrill and Marte, And Quinn Priester Traded

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

Check out our past episodes!

  • Garrett Crochet’s Extension, Problems In Atlanta, And Other Early-Season Storylines – listen here
  • What We Learned From The Offseason – listen here
  • The Rays’ Stadium Deal Is Dead, Rangers’ Rotation Issues, And More! – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images

Octavio Dotel Dies In Roof Collapse Tragedy

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Former major leaguer Octavio Dotel has died in a tragic accident, Major League Baseball confirmed. The news was first reported by multiple outlets in the Dominican Republic, including Diario Libre. The roof of the Jet Set club in Santo Domingo collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning. As of Tuesday night, at least 98 people have lost their lives while nearly 200 more were injured, according to The Associated Press. Dotel was 51 years old.

Exact details of the tragic situation are difficult to pin down, but it appears hundreds of people were in the venue for a concert when the collapse happened. Dozens of people have been pulled out alive but many have died and the figures are likely to change. Dotel was reportedly trapped for about 11 hours before being rescued and initially survived, but was declared dead after being taken to a hospital.

Dotel was well known to baseball fans because he pitched in the majors for over a decade and bounced around to various teams. He made his major league debut with the Mets in 1999, working in a swing role. He was traded to the Astros ahead of the 2000 season and continued to work both out of the rotation and the bullpen for a while.

He eventually moved into a primary relief role and had more success. Though his earned run average was over 5.00 in both 1999 and 2000, he posted a 2.66 ERA in 2001. He tossed 105 innings over 61 appearances, only four of those being starts.

He continued working as a solid reliever for years after that, bouncing to the Athletics, Yankees, Royals, Braves, White Sox, Pirates, Dodgers, Rockies, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Tigers. He finished his career with a 3.78 ERA in 758 games. He recorded 109 saves and 127 holds. He won the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011. He was a part of a combined no-hitter with the Astros in 2003. He retired in 2014.

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our deepest condolences to Dotel’s family, friends and fans, as well as the hundreds of others who have been impacted by this awful event.

Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images

Rockies Promote Zac Veen, Option Jordan Beck

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April 8: The Rockies have formally announced the moves. Veen is up from Albuquerque for his MLB debut, while Beck has been optioned to Triple-A in his place.

April 6: The Rockies are promoting top outfield prospect Zac Veen for their next game against the Brewers on Tuesday, according to a report from Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Outfielder Jordan Beck will be optioned to make room for Veen on the active roster, and Veen is already on the club’s 40-man roster.

It’s a slightly delayed big league debut for Veen, who was in the conversation for an Opening Day roster spot but ultimately lost out to Beck, Sean Bouchard, and non-roster invitee Nick Martini for a shot at regular work in the corner outfield for Colorado to start the year. The 23-year-old was Colorado’s first-round pick back in 2020 and was a consensus top-50 prospect early in his pro career. That prospect status was built primarily on phenomenal performances at the Single-A and High-A levels, where he posted slash lines of .301/.399/.501 and .269/.368/.439 respectively.

He’s been limited to just 111 games by injuries over the past two years, however, which has dropped his prospect stock significantly. A lackluster stint at Double-A in 2022 where he hit just .177/.262/.243 across 34 games already presented some red flags, so many prospect evaluators bailed on Veen when he struggled to a lackluster .209/.304/.308 slash line in 46 games at the level in 2023, particularly when combined with a wrist injury that cost him most of the season. The outfielder’s numbers bounced back somewhat in 2024, as he slashed .258/.346/.459 across four levels of the minors last year while battling thumb and back issues that limited him to just 65 games.

Fortunately, he finally showed he could hit Double-A pitching in a 36-game sample last year and even held his own at Triple-A, with six homers in 21 games despite a 29.3% strikeout rate. That was enough to earn Veen a shot to prove himself during camp this year, and while he ultimately didn’t make the club’s Opening Day roster he made the most of the opportunity and hit well with a .270/.352/.460 slash line in 28 spring games. Since being demoted to Triple-A, he’s done nothing but hit, posting a scorching .444/.516/.778 slash line with as many extra-base hits (six) as strikeouts in his first seven games of the year at the level.

Clearly, that was enough that the Rockies couldn’t justify keeping him in the minors any longer. That leaves Beck ticketed for Triple-A, and the 38th-overall pick of the 2022 draft certainly didn’t do himself any favors this year when it came to keeping his roster spot. The outfielder’s showing in camp was solid enough, as he posted a .231/.306/.446 slash line in 24 games, but that line paled in comparison to that of Veen and Beck also struck out at a 34.7% clip. Once the regular season began, however, Beck’s production tanked as he’s gone just 3-for-23 with a 34.8% strikeout rate and zero extra-base hits. Combined with a lackluster .188/.245/.276 showing in 55 games last year, and it seems clear that the 23-year-old needs more time to develop in the minors before he’s ready for the majors.

What’s unclear is how playing time will be distributed in the Rockies’ outfield mix going forward. Martini and Mickey Moniak, both left-handed hitters, have largely platooned with the right-handed Beck and Bouchard in the outfield corners to this point. Brenton Doyle is locked into center field on a daily basis, and Veen makes little sense as a platoon partner for either Martini or Moniak given his status as a fellow lefty bat. Given Veen’s status as a (formerly) highly-touted prospect, it seems likely that the club will give him a run of everyday playing time going forward.

That could come at the expense of either Martini or Moniak, who would be relegated to a bench role, but it’s also at least possible the club is planning to move Kris Bryant into a reserve role. The club’s oft-injured $182MM man has struggled badly both during Spring Training and since the season began in his new role as the club’s regular DH, having collected just six total hits in 59 plate appearances between camp and the regular season. To what extent Bryant can handle playing the field is unclear after injuries limited him to just 159 games from 2022 to 2024, but it’s at least plausible the club could use him as a right-handed complement to Veen, Martini, Moniak, and Michael Toglia across the outfield corners, first base, and DH if they were to decide to move him to a part-time role.

Such a decision would be a bold one given both Bryant’s massive contract (which runs through 2028) and his previous success as a four-time All-Star and the 2016 NL MVP award winner. At the same time, the Rockies appear to be years from contention and Bryant simply hasn’t produced at the plate since the 2022 season, even when healthy enough to take the field. Perhaps the debut of Veen is enough to convince the club to try and maximize Bryant’s effectiveness in a more limited role going forward.

Rockies Promote Chase Dollander

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TODAY: The Rockies officially selected Dollander’s contract, and optioned Bradley Blalock to Triple-A in the corresponding move.

APRIL 4: The Rockies are going to promote their top pitching prospect, reports Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball. Right-hander Chase Dollander will make his major league debut when he starts for the club on Sunday. There’s already an opening on the 40-man roster, so the club will only need to make a corresponding active roster move.

Dollander, now 23, has been a hyped-up name for a while now. He put up big numbers for Tennessee and was ranked as one of the top players available in the 2023 draft. The Rockies selected him with the ninth overall pick and then signed him to a slot-value bonus of $5,716,900.

He made his professional debut last year in impressive fashion. He tossed 118 innings over 23 starts, going from High-A to Double-A in the process. He allowed just 2.59 earned runs per nine, striking out 33.9% of batters faced while giving out walks at a 9.4% clip.

Going into 2025, the industry consensus is that he’s one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America currently lists him #7 overall and MLB Pipeline #24. FanGraphs had him at #12 to start the season, but with the now-graduated Dylan Crews as one of the guys ahead of him. ESPN had Dollander at #14, though also behind Crews. Keith Law of The Athletic was more bearish, putting Dollander down at #75, with concerns about some of his results in Tennessee.

The Rockies reportedly gave some consideration to having Dollander in the season-opening rotation. They sent him to Triple-A Albuquerque instead, where he made one start, allowing one earned run over four innings. The big league club started the season with just four games before their first off-day, having Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, Ryan Feltner and Germán Márquez start those.

Austin Gomber likely would have had a fifth spot but he started the season on the 15-day injured list with shoulder soreness. He made a rehab start for Albuquerque but was scratched from making a second due to inflammation in that shoulder, per Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Perhaps due to Gomber’s setback, Dollander will get an early-season call-up.

The big unknown will be how Dollander handles the challenges of pitching at Coors Field, the most hitter-friendly venue in the big leagues. Geoff Pontes of Baseball America believes Dollander is well-positioned to succeed, even though plenty of other talented arms have struggled there. Pontes points out that pitchers with low release heights, such as Dollander, have previously fared well at Coors. The piece also cites the spin efficiency of Dollander’s fastball, which sits between 96 and 98 miles per hour, as a factor that could work in his favor. In addition that fastball, he throws a  changeup, a curveball and another breaking ball that is characterized as either a slider or a cutter by various sources.

If Dollander can thrive at Coors, he could become the most important arm in the rotation for their next competitive window. The club has been losing for a long time now but have seen some young players come up and establish themselves as building blocks, such as Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop and Brenton Doyle in center field.

In the rotation, there’s little long-term certainty. Márquez and Gomber are impending free agents while the contracts for Senzatela and Freeland are only guaranteed through 2026, with options for 2027. It’s possible the Rockies sign new deals with those pitchers but they’re all in their 30s now regardless. At 23 years old, Dollander could potentially be the rock of the group for many years to come, if everything breaks right.

Though he wasn’t on the Opening Day roster, he is getting called up early enough to potentially earn a full service year in 2025. A baseball season is 187 days long but a player needs only 172 days on the active roster or injured list to get a full year. If he’s not optioned down to the minors at any point, he would be on track to qualify for free agency after the 2030 campaign, though a notable optional assignment would push that trajectory by one year.

If he does stay up, the Rockies would be eligible to potentially receive an extra draft pick. The current collective bargaining agreement introduced measures to combat service time manipulation. One such measure is that a team can earn an extra draft if they promote a top prospect early enough to earn a full service year. To qualify, a player must be on two of the three Top 100 lists of BA, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. The player must then win Rookie of the Year or place in the top three of MVP or Cy Young voting in their pre-arbitration seasons.

Those will perhaps be factors later in the year. For now, one of the best young pitchers in the game is coming up to the majors. Facing big league hitters for the first time is always a fascinating challenge for any pitching prospect but the interest level is arguably even higher in this case, given the unique circumstances of Coors Field and Dollander’s potential importance to the franchise.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri and Steven Branscombe, Imagn Images

NL West Notes: Ohtani, Gomber, Birdsong

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The Dodgers have been taking things slowly with superstar Shohei Ohtani as he prepares for his return to pitching. After just over a month off from regular bullpen sessions, Ohtani resumed throwing last weekend and threw another bullpen session earlier today. As noted by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Ohtani threw 26 pitches, and for the first time this year he included his splitter in the bullpen session. This came after what Plunkett described as a “light” bullpen session on Thursday. While that’s a noticeable ramp-up in activity, it shouldn’t be mistaken for the Dodgers accelerating Ohtani’s timeline back to the big league mound.

According to Plunkett, manager Dave Roberts indicated that the club hopes to replicate something akin to the schedule Ohtani will have when he returns to the big league mound as a starter by having him throw off the mound twice a week: once with a lighter bullpen session on Thursday followed by a full session on Saturday. Despite the superstar now getting back on the mound somewhat regularly, Plunkett notes that there’s still a long way to go before he’ll be ready to pitch in a big league game for the Dodgers. He relays that, per Roberts, the next step for Ohtani would be to incorporate his entire arsenal into his bullpen sessions rather than exclusively fastballs and an occasional splitter.

It won’t be until Ohtani is using his full arsenal that facing live hitters in simulated games, which the Dodgers plan to use in lieu of a rehab assignment to get Ohtani up to game speed while still allowing him to continue serving as their everyday DH in the lineup, is on the table. He’ll surely need several of those outings before he’s ready to get into games, and Plunkett suggests that at this point a realistic timeline for Ohtani’s pitching debut with the Dodgers would be sometime in June “at the earliest.” In the meantime, the Dodgers are utilizing a rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, and Dustin May. Both Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin could also return from the injured list before Ohtani is ready to pitch, giving the Dodgers a host of potential options for the rotation.

More from around the NL West…

  • Rockies southpaw Austin Gomber began the season on the injured list due to soreness in his left shoulder, and while he was sent out for a rehab assignment just after Opening Day with an eye towards returning after just the first couple of weeks of the season, he was scratched from his next rehab start due to shoulder inflammation. That paved the way for Colorado to promote Chase Dollander to the big leagues, and Thomas Harding of MLB.com spoke to Gomber in more detail about the situation today. According to Harding, Gomber wasn’t able to pitch at maximum effectiveness during his rehab start even after receiving an anti-inflammatory injection in his shoulder. As a result, Gomber noted that the plan now is for him to have a slower and “more traditional” rehab process. He won’t throw for another week while the inflammation calms down, and will likely not return to the mound for another two or three weeks after that.
  • While the Giants initially planned to use young right-hander Hayden Birdsong as a long reliever and piggyback starter after he lost out on the fifth starter job to Landen Roupp, it appears that may no longer be in the cards. As noted by Justice delos Santos of Mercury News, manager Bob Melvin told reporters today that the club is now treating Birdsong as a “true reliever” after his limited usage to begin the season. Birdsong has appeared just once in the Giants’ first week of games, making a two-inning appearance that saw him throw just 27 pitches.  With Birdsong no longer stretched out as a starter for the time being, Melvin suggested that a one-inning appearance for the righty could be on the table. Birdsong pitched exclusively as a starter in the majors last year, with a 4.75 ERA in 16 starts, and hadn’t made a relief appearance in the major or minor leagues at the Double-A level or higher at any point in his career prior to his 2025 debut.

MLBTR Podcast: Garrett Crochet’s Extension, Problems In Atlanta, And Other Early-Season Storylines

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman, Imagn Images

Rockies Outright Sam Hilliard

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The Rockies announced that outfielder Sam Hilliard has passed through waivers unclaimed and been sent outrighted to Triple-A Albuquerque. He has the right to elect free agency but it’s unclear if he will.

Players with at least three years of major league service time can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. However, only players with at least five years of service can do so while retaining the salary they are still owed on their contracts. Hilliard and the Rockies avoided arbitration back in the fall, agreeing to a $1MM salary this year. Presumably, Hilliard won’t want to leave that on the table and will therefore report to Albuquerque.

If that comes to pass, Hilliard will provide the Rockies with a bit of extra outfield depth without taking up a roster spot. They currently project to have Brenton Doyle, Jordan Beck, Nick Martini, Mickey Moniak and Sean Bouchard rotating through the outfield spots. There’s not a ton of experience there, with no one in that group having reached four years of big league service time.

If any of them struggle or get hurt, the Rockies could bring Hilliard back up for some more playing time. He has shown some power and speed in the big leagues but with strikeout concerns as well. In 875 career plate appearances, he has 42 homers and has swiped 24 bags but has been struck out at a big 34.1% clip. His .219/.296/.438 batting line translates to an 84 wRC+.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

NL Injury Notes: Realmuto, Turner, Suarez, Abbott, Murphy, Freeman

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X-rays were negative on J.T. Realmuto’s left foot after he fouled a ball off himself in Saturday’s 11-6 win over the Nationals.  The Phillies took Realmuto out of the game, and the catcher also didn’t play today “more a precaution than anything,” manager Rob Thomson told reporters (including Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer).  Realmuto will likely be back in action tomorrow when the Phillies have their home opener, though Trea Turner could miss a third straight game as he recovers from back spasms.  Thomson said Turner was available off the bench today and might play Monday, though the Phils’ off-day on Tuesday would allow Turner to get a full four days of recovery time if he is held out of Monday’s lineup.

In other Phillies injury news, Ranger Suarez threw a 26-pitch bullpen session on Saturday, and an up-and-down bullpen is now slated for Tuesday.  If all goes well, Lauber writes that Suarez will make at least one minor league rehab start before being activated from the 15-day injured list.  Suarez was bothered by a bad back during Spring Training, and the Phils decided to put him on the IL to give him more time to heal up and them finish his spring preparations in advance of his 2025 debut.

More injury updates from around the National League…

  • Speaking of pitchers on the 15-day IL, the Reds told reporters (including Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that southpaw Andrew Abbott will throw his first rehab start with Triple-A Louisville on Tuesday.  Abbott is slated for another outing on April 6, and a decision will then be made about whether or not he might be activated onto the Reds’ roster.  A shoulder strain ended Abbott’s 2024 season in late August, and recovering from that strain set Abbott back in his usual offseason work, so the Reds opted to slowly ramp the left-hander up in Spring Training.  If all goes well, Abbott should line up to make his 2025 debut on April 11 or 12, depending on how Cincinnati sets up its pitching staff.
  • Braves catcher Sean Murphy will also probably be starting a minor league rehab assignment this week, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman writes that Murphy will likely take the field for the Braves’ A-level affiliate on Friday.  Murphy cracked a rib after he was hit by a pitch during a Spring Training game in early March, and we’ve already hit the lower end of the initial 4-6 week recovery timeline.  Still, Murphy appears to be making good enough progress that a return to Atlanta’s lineup should be feasible by mid-April.
  • Tyler Freeman left today’s game with a bruised left wrist after he was hit by a Taj Bradley pitch, but x-rays were negative, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding writes.  Freeman might be well enough to return to the Rockies’ lineup tomorrow, though since Colorado doesn’t play on Tuesday, this is another situation where a player with a minor injury might simply get an extra day to fully heal.

Offseason In Review: Colorado Rockies

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The Rockies are one of the few teams in the majors will no real shot at contending this year, so their offseason was understandably very quiet.

Major League Signings

2025 spending: $13MM
Total spending: $13MM

Option Decisions

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

There wasn't a lot of momentum for the Rockies going into the winter. 2024 was their sixth straight losing season. It was their second in a row getting to triple-digit losses. In the age of the expanded playoffs, most clubs are at least theoretical contenders, but the Rockies are one of a few that are clearly on the outside.

Such a team could perhaps find itself in plenty of offseason rumors anyway. The White Sox were coming off an atrocious 2024 season but still had notable trade candidates to talk about in Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr. The Rockies have been reluctant to make such moves, however. Ryan McMahon could have been an exciting offseason trade candidate if there was any indication the Rockies were open to moving him, but that has never seemed likely.

There were some reports early in the offseason with a bit of smoke, to a degree. The Rockies were reportedly looking to lower payroll, not surprising given their circumstances. They had some openness to trading Brendan Rodgers, Cal Quantrill and Justin Lawrence. They clearly didn't find much interest. Rodgers and Quantrill were later non-tendered. Lawrence was put on waivers and claimed by the Pirates.

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Rehab Assignments: Strider, Henderson, Gomber

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The Braves assigned Spencer Strider to Triple-A Gwinnett on a rehab stint this afternoon. The hard-throwing righty will pitch for the Stripers tomorrow in Charlotte. It’ll be his first regular season action at any level since he underwent an internal brace surgery to repair his UCL last April. Strider was able to make a pair of Spring Training appearances, where he combined for four innings. He struck out 10 of the 16 batters he faced.

Strider’s stuff is clearly sharp, but the Braves stuck to their plan to have him begin the season on the 15-day injured list. That’ll afford him a couple weeks to continue his build-up in the minors. Strider is first eligible to return on April 8. He’ll pitch at least twice in Gwinnett before the Braves decide whether to activate him. Grant Holmes and AJ Smith-Shawver are currently rounding out the rotation behind Chris Sale, Reynaldo López and Spencer Schwellenbach.

A couple other notable players are out on rehab stints of their own:

  • The Orioles assigned Gunnar Henderson to Triple-A Norfolk tonight. Last year’s fourth-place MVP finisher took three at-bats and played seven innings at shortstop during his first game action in a month. Henderson suffered a right intercostal strain early in Spring Training. He didn’t appear in a game after February 27 and only made three exhibition appearances overall. That Henderson was able to play in the first game of Norfolk’s season confirms it’s likely to be a short-term absence for Baltimore’s superstar. Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías are picking up the extra infield work alongside Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle.
  • Rockies starter Austin Gomber was shelved by shoulder soreness to begin the season. Colorado sent him to Triple-A Albuquerque to start their season opener this evening. Gomber tossed four innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts. He built up to 66 pitches. The Rox are opening with a four-man rotation because of off days built into their schedule during the first two turns. Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, Germán Márquez and Ryan Feltner could take every start until the second week of April — at which point there’s a good chance Gomber will be ready to rejoin the rotation.
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