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Latest On Shota Imanaga

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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.

Six Teams Interested In Ryan Brasier

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Free agent reliever Ryan Brasier is drawing interest from at least six different teams, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Jon Heyman of the New York Post.  Goold writes that the Cardinals and Dodgers are involved in the market, while Heyman writes that the Angels, Cubs, Orioles, and Rangers also have interest.

Brasier has already pitched for both Los Angeles teams, as he made his MLB debut with nine innings for the Angels back in 2013 and then seemingly got his career back on track with the Dodgers last season.  The right-hander posted a 6.16 ERA over 83 1/3 innings with the Red Sox in 2021 and in the first two months of the 2022 campaign before he was released, and then signed to a minor league contract by the Dodgers in June.

Secondary metrics (especially in 2022) indicated that Brasier was pitching better than his ERA would indicate, and the turn-around came once he donned Dodger Blue.  L.A. selected Brasier’s contract in late June and he was almost untouchable the rest of the way, posting an 0.70 ERA over 38 2/3 innings out of the Dodgers’ bullpen.  Brasier had a 26.6% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate, and 51.1% grounder rate as a Dodger — all major improvements over his numbers in Boston last year, though Brasier also enjoyed a .183 BABIP in Los Angeles, as opposed to a .344 BABIP with the Red Sox.

As The Athletic’s Chad Jennings explored in August, Brasier started throwing a cutter for the first time in his career and the results were immediate.  Not only did batters hit only .152 against Brasier’s new offering, he noted that “having another pitch to get guys off certain other pitches.  But (while) working on the cutter, some other stuff started to come back.”

The cutter’s effectiveness adds yet another wrinkle to the up-and-down nature of Brasier’s career.  After his cup of coffee with the Angels in 2013, he didn’t return to the majors until 2018, as the righty spent the interim years pitching with the Athletics’ Triple-A team and with the Hiroshima Carp in Japan.  Brasier returned to North America by signing a minors deal with the Red Sox in 2018, and he unexpectedly emerged as a key bullpen weapon for the eventual World Series champions.  Brasier had a 1.60 ERA over 33 2/3 regular-season innings for the Sox that season, plus a 1.04 ERA in 8 2/3 postseason frames.

The remainder of Brasier’s time in Boston was much shakier, as he ended up with a 4.55 ERA over his 209 2/3 career innings in a Red Sox uniform.  As he now enters his age-36 season, however, Brasier again seems like an intriguing relief option given how well he pitched with the Dodgers.  His age and somewhat inconsistent track record could limit him to a one-year contract, yet with so much interest in his market, Brasier might be able to land some type of option for the 2025 season depending on how sold teams are with his late-season performance.

Rockies Sign Dakota Hudson, Jacob Stallings

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6:55pm: MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports the finances for the free agent deals (on X). Hudson will make $1.5MM and can earn another $1.5MM in incentives. Stallings is guaranteed $2MM, taking the form of a $1.5MM salary next year and a $500K buyout on a 2025 mutual option.

2:24pm: The Rockies are planning to announce one-year deals with right-hander Dakota Hudson and catcher Jacob Stallings, per a report from Thomas Harding of MLB.com. The Rockies subsequently announced the moves, announcing two corresponding moves as well. Catcher Brian Serven was claimed off waivers by the Cubs while infielder Alan Trejo was outrighted to Triple-A.

A first-round selection by the Cardinals in the 2016 draft, Hudson was a quick riser who made his big league debut with the club back in 2018. Early in his career, the groundballer significantly outdid his peripheral stats to perform at a mid-rotation level for the Cardinals. From his big league debut until the end of the shortened 2020 campaign, Hudson impressed with a sterling 3.17 ERA in 241 innings of work despite a concerning 4.74 FIP. That elevated FIP was thanks primarily to a subpar 18.1% strikeout rate against an elevated 11.6% walk rate. Only Andrew Cashner, Antonio Senzatela, and Clayton Richard posted worse K-BB ratios than Hudson during that time among pitchers with at least 200 innings of work. With that being said, Hudson’s whopping 57.3% grounder rate actually led all pitchers over the same period.

Hudson lost nearly the whole 2021 season to Tommy John surgery and his performance began to take a turn for the worse the following season. In 139 2/3 innings of work across 27 appearances (26 starts) that year, Hudson saw his strikeout rate plummet to just 13.1% while his walk rate stayed relatively stagnant at 10.2%. That extreme lack of swing and miss left Hudson with a career-worst 4.45 ERA despite a still-strong 53% groundball rate and just 7.2% of the fly balls he did give up leaving the park for home runs.

Those red flags in Hudson’s profile led to an even more difficult 2023 season, where the right-hander spent much of the season in the minor leagues and struggled to a 4.98 ERA with a 5.06 FIP in 81 1/3 innings of work. When looking exclusively at the time Hudson spent in the Cardinals rotation following the departures of Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline, Hudson’s numbers are even more concerning as he posted a 5.23 ERA and 5.45 FIP in 62 innings across those 11 starts. Hudson’s peripheral numbers also declined significantly as his groundball rate dipped to 51.5%, his strikeout rate fell to 12.7%, and his fastball velocity cratered to 91.3 mph. Each of those figures was the worst of his career and a far cry from the 57.3% grounder rate, 18.1% strikeout rate, and 93.8 mph fastball velocity Hudson showed in the first three seasons of his career.

Given Hudson’s longtime struggles and worsening peripherals, it wasn’t much of a surprise when St. Louis opted to non-tender the right-hander back in November rather than retain him for the 2024 campaign. While Hudson’s salary in Colorado isn’t yet known, it’s unlikely to be higher than Hudson’s arbitration projection (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) of $3.7MM. Given that, the signing is a solid, low-cost gamble by the Rockies. Groundballers like Hudson are less subject to the difficulties of pitching at Coors Field than pitchers that allow more contact in the air, as highlighted by the previous successes of arms like German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela in the ballpark.

With that being said, both of those aforementioned hurlers figure to open the season on the injured list while rehabbing Tommy John surgery. That leaves the Rockies without their rotation’s backbone, and Hudson figures to join the club’s Opening Day rotation alongside Kyle Freeland and Austin Gomber as well as fellow offseason acquisition Cal Quantrill. Even if Hudson can’t recapture his previous form in Colorado, he could eat innings for the club until Marquez and Freeland are ready to return. And if Hudson manages to find success with the Rockies, the club can control the 29-year-old through arbitration in 2025.

Stallings, 34 last month, was a non-tendered back in November by the Marlins. A seventh-round pick in the 2012 draft by the Pirates, Stallings made his big league debut in 2016 and received brief cups of coffee in the majors over three seasons before earning a regular role as the club’s back-up catcher in 2019. He made the most of the opportunity, combining strong defense behind the plate with a respectable .262/.325/.382 (82 wRC+) slash line in 210 plate appearances. That strong full-season debut earned Stallings a look as the club’s primary catcher over the next two seasons, and he did well for himself in the role with a .246/.333/.371 (92 wRC+) line in 154 games behind the plate. Stallings also saw his already solid defense behind the plate improve to the point of winning a Gold Glove at the position in 2021.

During the 2021-22 offseason, the Pirates decided to ship Stallings to Miami in exchange for a package of three players. That decision proved to be a wise one as Stallings saw his performance quickly crater upon joining the Marlins. During his two seasons with the club, he’s slashed just .210/.287/.290 (62 wRC+) in 660 trips to the plate while his formerly Gold Glove caliber defense has crumbled to more or less league average. Statcast estimates Stallings to have been worth +2 framing runs and +5 blocking runs in 2021; by contrast, the veteran was worth -5 framing runs and just +2 blocking runs this past season. That massive downturn in performance on both sides of the ball led the Marlins to non-tender Stallings prior to his final trip through arbitration, where he projected to earn $3.6MM.

Like Hudson, the details of Stallings’s arrangement with the Rockies are not yet clear, though his guarantee is unlikely to surpass that aforementioned $3.6MM figure. In Colorado, Stallings figures to be reunited with Elias Diaz after the two shared time behind the plate in Pittsburgh back in 2019. After earning his first career All Star appearance in 2023, Diaz figures to remain the club’s primary catcher. With that said, Stallings represents a considerable upgrade over the combination of Serven and Austin Wynns the Rockies used to back up Diaz last year. With a stronger backup option to Diaz, the club can afford to take some of the load off of Diaz’s shoulders after a season where he caught a whopping 126 games.

Speaking of Serven, the 28-year-old backstop is headed to Chicago after being squeezed off the Rockies’ 40-man roster by the addition of Stallings. A fifth-round pick by the Rockies back in 2016, Serven made his big league debut in 2022 but has struggled to hit at the big league level with a career .195/.248/.314 slash line in 228 major league plate appearances. Serven appears unlikely to supplant Yan Gomes or Miguel Amaya as part of the Cubs’ primary catching tandem, but he has options remaining and could provide depth for the club at the Triple-A level alongside the likes of Jorge Alfaro and Joe Hudson, both of whom the Cubs brought in on minor league deals earlier this offseason.

As for Trejo, the 27-year-old made his big league debut with the Rockies back in 2021 and has held a utility role with the club ever since, slashing .243/.292/.367 in 145 career big league games while playing second and third base as well as shortstop. Trejo figures to head to Triple-A to open the season and act as non-roster infield depth for the Rockies going forward.

Mets Showing Interest In Various Starting Pitchers

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The Mets are interested in rotation upgrades and appear to be casting a wide net in that search. Jon Heyman of The New York Post lists Hyun Jin Ryu, Sean Manaea and Shota Imanaga as pitchers they are considering. A report from Joel Sherman of The New York Post echoes those names while also adding Dylan Cease and Brandon Woodruff to the list.

The club has already made a couple of moves to bolster a rotation that has changed a lot in the past year. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander were traded at last year’s deadline, then Carlos Carrasco reached free agency. The depth also took a hit when it was reported that David Peterson required hip surgery that would prevent him from being with the club at the start of the upcoming season.

That left Kodai Senga and José Quintana as the two leading incumbents at the start of the offseason, with pitchers like Tylor Megill and Joey Lucchesi also on hand as options. The Mets have signed since Luis Severino to a one-year deal and acquired Adrian Houser in a trade with the Brewers. Those two likely push Megill and Lucchesi into a battle for the fifth spot in the rotation, but Sherman relays that the club would like to add one more arm and push those two further into depth roles. Both pitchers are still optionable and don’t need to be on the active roster if the pitching staff if strengthened.

New president of baseball operations David Stearns is plenty familiar with Woodruff from his time in Milwaukee. He would be more of a long-term play though, unlikely to help the 2024 club too much. He underwent shoulder surgery in October and is slated to miss most of the upcoming campaign, which led the Brewers to non-tender him. But with the Mets looking at 2024 as a sort of transition year with an eye towards more aggressive contention in 2025, perhaps the two sides can line up on some kind of two-year deal. That would allow Woodruff to bank some money while rehabbing and then give the Mets the upside of bolstering their club next year.

If Woodruff can overcome his shoulder woes and return to his previous form, he would upgrade any rotation in the league. He has a career earned run average of 3.10 in 680 1/3 innings dating back to his 2017 debut. He has struck out 28.9% of batters faced in that time while walking just 6.5% of them and keeping 42.8% of balls in play on the ground. Health has been a bit of an ongoing issue, as he’s never been able to throw 180 innings in a big league season, but the results on a rate basis have clearly been excellent.

As for Cease, his ERA flared up to 4.58 in 2023 but his peripherals were still above average, including a 27.3% strikeout rate and 13.6% swinging strike rate. Over the past three years, he has made 97 starts with a 3.54 ERA and 29.8% strikeout rate. He tallied 12.6 wins above replacement over those three seasons, according to FanGraphs, which puts him eighth on the pitching leaderboard for that stretch.

He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a salary of $8.8MM this year and will be due one more raise before becoming a free agent after 2025. That means he will be paid way less than a pitcher of similar skill who is looking for a free agent deal, but it also means the White Sox are setting a very high asking price. It was reported last month that they asked the Reds for four of that club’s top prospects in exchange for Cease. The Reds seem to have given up on the pursuit, signing Frankie Montas instead.

For the Mets, giving up a significant prospect package like that would be a surprise. They have been open about their desire to build a strong prospect pipeline in order to ensure continuous contention and have been even more focused on the long-term plan this offseason. Though Sherman says the Mets continue to check in with the White Sox, the Mets aren’t considered as likely to land him as a team flush with prospects like the Orioles.

Ryu, 37 in March, would line up with the club’s offseason M.O., as they have given out one-year deals to Severino, Harrison Bader, Joey Wendle, Jorge López, Austin Adams and Michael Tonkin. It appears to be a strategy of spreading money around and improving depth while not committing any future money. It’s also possible that any player in this batch who plays well will end up on the trading block if the Mets are out of contention a few months from now.

Given Ryu’s age and recent health history, he is likely looking at a one-year deal as well. He missed most of 2022 recovering from Tommy John surgery, though he did return last year and toss 52 innings for the Blue Jays with a 3.46 ERA. His 17% strikeout rate was below average but he limited walks to a 6.3% rate and kept 45.6% of balls in play on the ground. He may have been a bit lucky to keep as many runs from scoring as he did, given his .272 batting average on balls in play and 77.6% strand rate. ERA estimators such as his 4.91 FIP and 4.69 SIERA weren’t as enthused with his performance. On the other hand, perhaps he could shake off some more rust and have better results this year now that he’s further removed from his surgery. As recently as 2020, he finished in the top three in American League Cy Young voting.

Manaea, 32 in February, is coming off a couple of shaky years in terms of results. He has been a solid mid-rotation option in his career but his ERA jumped to 4.96 in 2022 and was at 4.44 last year. Digging into his most recent campaign provides more reason for optimism, something recently explored here at MLBTR. Notably, Manaea added a sweeper to his arsenal in late May and had significantly better results, 6.61 ERA before and 3.60 ERA after adding that pitch. At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Manaea could land a two-year, $22MM deal this winter.

As for Imanaga, he stands out from the other names on this list as he seems slated for a far more lengthy commitment, though the Mets have been connected to him in the past. MLBTR predicted he could land a five-year, $85MM contract, but with recent reporting suggesting he has enough interest to push past $100MM. Sherman throws a bit of cold water on that today, however, suggesting there are concerns around a 2020 shoulder surgery and also how his tendency to work up in the zone might make him homer prone in the majors.

If the market drops, perhaps the Mets will sense an opportunity to bolster their long-term rotation outlook, in contrast to their other moves this winter. Quintana, Severino and Houser are all set to be free agents after 2024, so they have very little rotation certainty going forward. The 30-year-old Imanaga has a 3.18 ERA in his NPB career and just posted a 2.80 mark in 2023. In addition to the Mets, he’s had interest from clubs like the Red Sox, Giants, Yankees and Cubs, though Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported today that the Cubs aren’t seen as a likely landing spot for the lefty. Imanaga’s posting period end on January 11, giving him less than a week to get a deal done.

Cubs To Sign Colten Brewer

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The Cubs are apparently in agreement with Colten Brewer on a contract for 2024, per a post from Brewer’s own Instagram page. It’s not yet clear if the arrangement is a major or minor league pact.

Brewer, 31, was a fourth-round pick by the Pirates in the 2011 draft. After several years in the Pirates and Yankees farm systems, Brewer made his big league debut with the Padres in 2018 though the right-hander struggled to a 5.59 ERA across 11 appearance that first season. From there the right-hander joined the Red Sox, the club with whom he spent most of his time in the majors. In parts of three seasons with Boston, Brewer posted a 4.98 ERA and 5.20 FIP across 81 1/3 innings of work. While he struck out a respectable 20.3% of batters faced during that time while generating a solid 50.4% groundball rate, Brewer walked a whopping 13.3% of batters faced during his time with the Red Sox.

Those control issues led the club to designate Brewer for assignment back in June 2021. He was eventually outrighted to Triple-A and spent the remainder of the season in the minor leagues before signing a minor league deal with the Royals the following offseason but was confined to the minor leagues for the entire 2022 season. During his 18-month stint at the Triple-A level, Brewer put up a relatively pedestrian 4.53 ERA over 57 2/3 innings of work as his walk rate remained over 10%.

That didn’t stop Brewer from landing with the Rays on a minor league deal during the 2022-23 offseason, though he ultimately wouldn’t make it to Opening Day as a member of the organization. The Rays instead got together with the Yankees on a minor trade before the start of the season that shipped Brewer to the Bronx, where he joined the club’s 40-man roster. He put up decent enough results in 8 1/3 innings of work for the big league club with a 4.32 ERA, but was nonetheless designated for assignment in mid-April.

Brewer accepted an outright assignment with the Yankees and pitched exceptionally well in 20 innings with the club’s Triple-A affiliate, posting a 1.35 ERA with a whopping 29.9% strikeout rate. That brief flash of dominance earned Brewer attention from Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hanshin Tigers, and he signed with the club for the remainder of the 2023 season. Though he managed just 12 1/3 innings down the stretch in Japan, the strong numbers continued. Brewer allowed an ERA of just 2.19 across 14 appearances overseas, striking out 30.2% of batters faced while walking 11.3%.

Brewer’s stretch of dominance in the upper minors and abroad last season has seemingly caught the attention of the Cubs. Chicago is among a handful of clubs known to be looking for relief help this winter along with the Cardinals, Rangers, and Astros. Brewer could conceivably bolster the depth of a club that saw the likes of Michael Fulmer and Brad Boxberger depart for free agency. With that being said, the addition of Brewer seems unlikely to take the Cubs out of the relief market given their reported interest in some higher-level arms like former Rays righty Robert Stephenson and veteran closer Liam Hendriks. For now, Brewer figures to enter Spring Training with a shot at a role in the club’s bullpen competing alongside the likes of Daniel Palencia and Jose Cuas.

Cubs Hire Jason Kanzler As Director Of Player Development; Promote Ryan Otero To Pitching Director

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5:57PM: The Cubs have also promoted Ryan Otero to be the team’s new director of pitching, The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma reports.  Otero has worked in the Cubs’ player development and research & development departments since 2018, and he worked as the assistant director of pitching last season under Breslow.

4:15PM: The Cubs have hired Jason Kanzler as their new director of player development, according to reporter Michael Schwab (X link).  Kanzler will move to the front office from the dugout, as he has been a member of the Astros coaching staff for the last three seasons.

Jared Banner had previously worked as Chicago’s VP of player development, yet with Banner now promoted to the assistant GM role, it seems as if the Cubs are shuffling some responsibilities within their office.  The farm director duties will now be overseen by the 33-year-old Kanzler, who just wrapped up his minor league playing career in 2015.

After three seasons in the Twins’ farm system, Kanzler became a teacher, while also keeping his foot in the door of a baseball career by working as an assistant coach in the Cape Cod League.  This led to a job as a minor league hitting coach and coordinator with the Astros beginning prior to the 2019 season, and then a promotion to the big league staff prior to the 2022 campaign.  Kanzler worked as a Major League coach in that first season, and then received a more distinct title of assistant hitting coach in 2023.

Cubs Sign Joe Hudson To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs have signed catcher Joe Hudson to a minor league deal with an invitation to major league Spring Training, per Eric Treuden of Jays Journal.

Hudson, 33 in May, has 18 games of major league experience to this point in his career. Those games were scattered between the 2018 Angels, 2019 Cardinals and 2020 Mariners. He hit a combined .167/.219/.200  in a small sample of 33 plate appearances, though he’s generally been considered strong on defense.

His offense has been better in the minors, including a batting line of .230/.330/.398 across five different seasons at the Triple-A level. That includes a 2023 stint with the Braves on a minor league deal, wherein he got into 69 Triple-A contests. He struck out in 29% of his trips to the plate this year but also drew walks in 16.2% of them, leading to a slash of .232/.371/.395 for the year and a 99 wRC+.

The Cubs are a bit thin at the catcher position, with Yan Gomes and Miguel Amaya the only two currently on the 40-man roster. Amaya has just 53 games of major league experience while Gomes is going into his age-36 season. Hudson and Jorge Alfaro, who also signed a minor league deal with the Cubs this offseason, will provide the team with some experienced non-roster depth.

Cubs To Hire Darren Holmes As Bullpen Coach

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The Cubs are hiring Darren Holmes as bullpen coach and Mark Strittmatter to serve as catching coach, reports Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic. Those are expected to be the final two hires for Craig Counsell’s first staff in the Windy City.

Holmes joins the organization after four years in Baltimore. The Orioles initially hired him to work as bullpen coach going into the 2020 season. A winter later, he was promoted to assistant pitching coach. Holmes held that role under Chris Holt for three seasons before Baltimore changed its pitching voices this past October. Holt was moved back into an overhead role with the organization, while Holmes departed entirely.

The 57-year-old Holmes pitched parts of 13 seasons as a big league reliever. Before his time in Baltimore, he had spent five seasons as the bullpen coach in Colorado. He’ll bring plenty of experience to a relief corps led by Adbert Alzolay, Julian Merryweather and Mark Leiter Jr. Chicago relievers finished 13th in ERA (3.85) last season. They were fourth in strikeout rate (26%) but issued walks at an 11% clip that was lower only than the 12% mark posted by a rebuilding A’s club.

Strittmatter, 54, has worked with catchers in the Rockies organization for the better part of two decades. He had some experience on a big league staff before serving as minor league catching coordinator since 2013. Strittmatter briefly reached the majors as a player in 1998.

Sharma notes that the Cubs are expected to soon announce the entirety of the coaching staff. Holmes and Strittmatter will round out a group of previously-reported hirings including Ryan Flaherty as bench coach, returnee Dustin Kelly (hitting coach) and new addition John Mallee (assistant hitting coach) on the offensive side. Tommy Hottovy and Daniel Moskos are back as the lead and assistant pitching coaches, respectively. Mike Napoli and Willie Harris will return as the base coaches.

The Best Remaining Fits For Cody Bellinger

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For the past six weeks, the offseason has centered on three individuals: Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. With the first two having found new homes and Yamamoto expected to choose his team within a week or two, there’s likely to be greater attention placed on Cody Bellinger.

MLBTR’s #2 free agent entering the winter, Bellinger has had a quiet offseason since declining his end of a mutual option and rejecting a qualifying offer from the Cubs. Early reports tied the lefty-hitting center fielder to the Yankees, Giants and Blue Jays. The incumbents have some amount of interest in a reunion, although the presence of highly-regarded rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong gives them leverage to pass on what’s surely still a lofty asking price.

Last week, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman wrote that Bellinger’s camp at the Boras Corporation were seeking to reach or surpass $200MM. Yet it’s fair to presume that the former MVP’s market has dwindled over the past month. Along with Soto, the Yankees acquired Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham to join Aaron Judge in the outfield. San Francisco signed Jung Hoo Lee to play center field instead. That knocks out the two teams widely perceived as the favorites. (At the beginning of the offseason, every MLBTR staffer pegged the Giants or Yankees as Bellinger’s landing spot in our Free Agent prediction contest.)

Where does that leave things for the two-time All-Star?

Likeliest Fits

  • Angels: It’s difficult to identify exactly where the Angels go from here. Los Angeles has thus far limited its offseason activity to a trio of low-cost middle relief additions (Luis García, Adam Cimber and Adam Kolarek). Ohtani was their top priority. After losing him, they’ll need to determine how aggressively to add to a roster that won only 73 games despite his MVP performance. GM Perry Minasian and new skipper Ron Washington have been clear they’re not about to rebuild. Bringing in a front-line starting pitcher appears the top priority, but they’ll also need to address a lineup that ranked 16th in runs and lost a .304/.412/.654 hitter. Bellinger would give the Angels an option to cover center field if Mike Trout needs any time on the injured list. He’d push Mickey Moniak to a fourth outfield role and could take some of the available DH at-bats. He’s also a marquee name who starred in Los Angeles, which could hold appeal to owner Arte Moreno.
  • Blue Jays: USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote over the weekend that the Jays looked like the top suitor for Bellinger. It’s not hard to see why. The Jays came up empty on their pursuits of Ohtani and Soto. While no one would consider Bellinger the same kind of upgrade, Toronto still has ample short-term payroll space and a need for a left-handed bat. They’re also without a clear answer in center field after Kevin Kiermaier hit free agency. The Jays could sign a corner outfielder and bump Daulton Varsho to center (or simply try to re-sign Kiermaier), but Bellinger is the best all-around position player on the open market.
  • Cubs: Bellinger was among the Cubs’ most valuable players a season ago. While they may have initially viewed him as a one-year stopgap to Crow-Armstrong, there’s an argument for bringing him back. The Cubs don’t have a clear option at first base, where Bellinger is a plus defender. His ability to play all three outfield spots would afford the organization the flexibility to start Crow-Armstrong in Triple-A (where he struck out at a concerning rate in 34 games last season) without needing to rely on journeyman Mike Tauchman to maintain his surprisingly strong form from 2023. Even if Tauchman and/or Crow-Armstrong prove deserving of everyday playing time, the Cubs could rotate Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki through designated hitter to keep their outfield fresh.

Longer Shots

  • Mets: New York could upgrade over either Starling Marte or DJ Stewart in the corner outfield. There’s room for Bellinger to join Brandon Nimmo as a long-term outfield investment, but it doesn’t seem that’s how the front office is approaching this winter. The Mets are in on Yamamoto but appear to view him as an exceptional case in what’d otherwise be a relatively quiet offseason as they focus primarily on 2025.
  • Nationals: While Washington isn’t an immediate contender, they could make a legitimate push for the playoffs by the ’25 season. Bellinger, who turned 28 in July, would still project as a productive player during that window. The Nats have top outfield prospects Dylan Crews and James Wood looming, but only Lane Thomas should have a short-term spot locked down. The Nationals struck early on the Jayson Werth signing to accelerate a rebuild a decade ago. There’d be some sense in doing that again, but they’ve been fairly quiet in recent offseasons and still have organizational uncertainty regarding their local TV deal as part of the contentious MASN arrangement with the Orioles.
  • Phillies: Philadelphia is involved on Yamamoto, suggesting an ability to stretch the budget for the right player. Whether Bellinger qualifies isn’t clear. Brandon Marsh is a solid center field option, while the Phils have Johan Rojas and Cristian Pache as options for the corner opposite Nick Castellanos. It’s not a terrible outfield, but it’s also perhaps the weakest area of an otherwise excellent roster. The Phils haven’t shied away from pursuing star talent under owner John Middleton and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.

Payroll Questions

  • Mariners: Seattle is likely to bring in at least one outfielder to join Julio Rodríguez and a group that otherwise consists of players like Dominic Canzone, Taylor Trammell and Sam Haggerty. Bellinger fits on the roster, but the M’s have thus far sliced payroll amidst uncertainty about the revenues from their local TV deal with Root Sports. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto hasn’t signed a free agent hitter to a multi-year contract in his eight-plus years leading the Seattle front office. Breaking that streak with Bellinger would be a massive shift in operating procedure.
  • Padres: Much of what applies to the Mariners can be said about the Padres. They want to compete after a disappointing playoff miss. They need outfield help to do so. Yet they’re also facing questions about their broadcasting deal and have only cut payroll so far this offseason. With Lee’s six-year, $113MM deal pushing beyond their spending range, it’s hard to see how they could make Bellinger work.
  • Rangers: The defending World Series winners could ostensibly make room for Bellinger, perhaps by trading incumbent center fielder Leody Taveras to address an injury-plagued rotation. GM Chris Young has suggested they’re unlikely to make the kind of free agent splash they have in prior offseasons, though, so it’s far likelier they stick with an internal group of Adolis García, Taveras and Evan Carter while awaiting the arrival of top prospect Wyatt Langford.

Cubs, Tom Pannone Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Cubs are in agreement with left-hander Thomas Pannone on a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (on X). He’ll be in major league camp as a non-roster invitee. Pannone would be paid at an $800K rate for any time on the MLB team.

Pannone returns from South Korea, where he spent a half-season with the Kia Tigers. The 29-year-old also played part of the 2022 campaign with the Tigers before returning to the affiliated ranks last offseason. He reached the majors for one game with the Brewers, working 2 2/3 innings of relief. Milwaukee granted him his release in July so he could re-sign with the Tigers.

Over 16 appearances in Korea, he worked to a 4.26 ERA across 82 1/3 frames. Pannone had a modest 18.8% strikeout rate while walking 6.6% of batters faced. It marked a step down from his KBO performance in 2022, when he’d posted a 2.72 ERA over a near-identical workload.

Before this year’s cup of coffee in Milwaukee, Pannone’s big league experience was with the Blue Jays between 2018-19. He pitched in a swing capacity for Toronto, allowing 5.43 earned runs per nine over 49 appearances (13 of which were starts). Pannone has compiled a 5.10 ERA with a 21.4% strikeout percentage in 305 career Triple-A frames. He’s out of options, so if he cracks Chicago’s MLB roster at any point, he’d need to remain in the majors or be designated for assignment.

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