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Nine Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

Catchers

Infielders

Pitchers

11 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Pitchers

Diamond Sports Group Planning To Cut Ties With 11 MLB Clubs

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Diamond Sports Group said in court today that it plans to broadcast just one MLB club next year, the Braves, per reporting from Evan Drellich of The Athletic. The company, which owns the Bally Sports Networks, also had deals with the Reds, Tigers, Royals, Angels, Marlins, Cardinals, Rays but plans on walking away from those. As Drellich notes, as part of the company’s ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, they can accept and reject contracts though the measures have to be approved by the court. The Brewers, Guardians, Twins and Rangers had one-year deals with Diamond for 2024. Those 11 clubs will now have to renegotiate new deals with Diamond or find other broadcasting arrangements.

Drellich provides some more specifics on X, noting that it’s more complicated than Diamond simply abandoning these 11 clubs, but that seems to be the company’s goal regardless. Alden González of ESPN adds some more details, noting that a confirmation hearing has been set for November 14 and 15 in Houston. The Marlins and Diamond have mutual interest in working out a new deal, per a report from Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. The Angels are working on a new deal with Diamond, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Per Drellich, league representatives said they were “sandbagged” by the news. “We have no information about what is being done,” said Jim Bromley, lawyer for MLB. “We’ve had no opportunity to review and now we’re in front of the court and being asked to make our comments.”

The ongoing financial situation of Diamond Sports Group has been a significant part of baseball’s economic landscape for a long time and this could prove to be a major development as part of that narrative. Largely due to cord cutting, the regional sports network model has been gradually collapsing in recent history. In the 2022-23 offseason, reports emerged that Diamond was in rough shape financially and the company filed for bankruptcy before the 2023 MLB season began.

They dropped their contracts with the Padres and Diamondbacks during that 2023 campaign. It threatened to do the same with the Guardians, Twins and Rangers for 2024 but ultimately renegotiated lower fees with those clubs and continued those broadcasts through this year. Now it seems like the company is continuing down this path but with an even more aggressive severing of their existing ties to Major League Baseball.

This is bound to have short-term effects on clubs and players. These contracts have been sources of significant revenue for clubs, as MLBTR covered earlier this year. The 11 teams that Diamond plans to cut ties with were previously receiving between $33MM (Brewers) and $125MM (Angels) on an annual basis. Per reporting in April, the Padres were set to receive about $60MM in 2023 before their deal with Diamond collapsed. The league reportedly covered about 80% of those fees last year but didn’t plan to do so in 2024 and beyond.

Uncertainty around broadcast revenue seemingly played a major role in the 2023-24 offseason, which was disappointing for players. Teams like the Padres, Rangers, Twins and others were either cutting payroll or not increasing it as much as had previously been expected, with the TV situation often being used as justification. This appeared to play a role in various free agents not finding markets as strong as they had anticipated and many of them lingered unsigned into the early months of 2024 and/or signed for deals well below projections. It seems fair to expect that similar narratives could emerge in the coming winter.

Per González, a company source says that Diamond is still hoping to sign new deals with the 11 clubs being cut out today. However, that would presumably involve reduce fee payments, such as those received by the Guardians, Twins and Rangers this year. As mentioned up top, the Marlins and Angels seem to expect to continue their relationship with Diamond/Bally in 2025, though negotiating new deals may take some time.

In the long-term picture, MLB might be happy to be further cutting ties with Diamond. They have continually expressed skepticism about the company’s plans to stay afloat. Diamond has tried various methods of refinancing, including signing a streaming deal with Amazon, but the league hasn’t seemed convinced that any of the company’s plans would lead to long-term stability.

As mentioned, the league has already started selling some games to fans in direct-to-customer fashion. Commissioner Rob Manfred has aspirations of marketing a digital streaming package consisting of several MLB teams, which fans could watch without blackout restrictions. MLB.TV already exists and allows fans to watch most games, but the RSN deals lead to certain teams being blacked out in the areas covered by those deals.

Having less commitment with Diamond going forward will increase the viability of that streaming plan over the years to come. However, as mentioned, less TV revenue figures to have a sizeable impact on the short-term economics of the game. This will lead to ripple effects throughout the upcoming offseason and will likely be worrisome for certain players hitting the open market in the coming weeks. New deals could be negotiated between now and the 2025 season, which could put some money back on the table, though likely less than in previous years.

There is also the matter of the fan experience, as there were times in 2024 where the Braves were not available on TV to some customers during a dispute between Bally’s and Comcast. For fans of these 11 clubs today, they will have to keep an eye on the proceedings to determine if their favorite club will still be accessed in the ways they are accustomed to or if they will have to switch to some new broadcast model.

Marlins Will Not Retain Any Of 2024 Coaching Staff

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1:20pm: Also among the cuts were head athletic trainer Lee Meyer and strength & conditioning coach Brendan Verner, per Mish and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. None of the coaches being dismissed were under contract for the 2025 season, per the report. Still, an overhaul of this magnitude is borderline unprecedented in recent big league history.

11:40am: The Marlins are gutting their coaching staff, as Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports that the entire staff has been informed it will not return for the 2025 season. Mish notes that there are a couple “exceptions” who have been told there’s some interest in a reunion, but even that’s dependent on the hiring of the incoming manager and any preferences that person may have. Specifically, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports that bench coach Luis Urueta and first base/outfield coach Jon Jay have been told there’s interest in a reunion, pending the managerial search. Both will be free to pursue other opportunities in the meantime, however.

All of this aligns with a report last night from Isaac Azout of Fish On First, who tweeted that the Marlins’ firings were being described to him as a “blood bath” that extended to the coaching staff, clubhouse attendants, performance staff and more.

Manager Skip Schumaker already departed the organization over the weekend. His impending exit was one of the worst-kept secrets around the league. The former big league utilityman and Cardinals bench coach was hired by former Marlins GM Kim Ng and won NL Manager of the Year honors last season in his rookie effort. His original two-year contract included an option for the 2025 season. However, after the Marlins hired Rays GM Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations, prompting Ng to walk away from the organization. Schumaker reportedly voiced frustration with the club’s direction — understandably so, given last year’s playoff berth — and management agreed to void the 2025 club option on his deal in order to allow him to explore new opportunities.

In addition to Urueta and Jay, today’s news presumably indicates that hitting coach John Mabry, assistant hitting coaches Bill Mueller and Jason Hart, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., third base coach Griffin Benedict, infield coach Jody Reed, bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda, bullpen coordinator Rob Flippo and field coordinator Rod Barajas will all be at the very least free to pursue other opportunities, if not dismissed outright.

Among the group, Stottlemyre figures to be a particularly hot commodity on the coaching market. He’s spent a dozen years on big league coaching staffs, serving as both a pitching coach and bullpen coach in addition to prior stints as a minor league pitching coordinator. He’s worked with the D-backs and Mariners organizations in the past but has spent the past seven years as the pitching coach in Miami, building a strong reputation along the way.

While the Marlins have regularly been a doormat in the NL East — with the exception of the 2020 and 2023 seasons — a strong core of touted young pitching has been a hallmark of the team in recent years. Stottlemyre alone isn’t to credit for that, of course, but his influence on the staff and the organization’s pitching development as a whole is clear. Cepeda, it should be noted, has been in lockstep with Stottlemyre throughout his time in the organization. He was hired as the Marlins’ bullpen coach back in 2019. The two have worked alongside one another for seven years.

That’s not to say others on the staff won’t be coveted free agents in their own right. Urueta spent 15 years in the D-backs system, rose to their bench coach under Torey Lovullo, and has interviewed for MLB managerial posts in the past. Mabry and Mueller, in addition to lengthy big league careers, have extensive coaching backgrounds across multiple organizations. Barajas, who also had a lengthy big league career, has served as the bench coach and interim manager of the Padres and has interviewed for various managerial posts in recent years (in addition to several years as a minor league manager in San Diego’s system). Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat speculates that Jay could wind up a target of the Cardinals, for whom he played six MLB seasons — though Jay could also join Schumaker wherever he lands his next managerial assignment.

Broadly speaking, the Miami coaching staff can hardly be faulted for the disastrous record this season. Bendix spent most of the 2023-24 offseason focused on reshaping the baseball operations department and did little to augment the actual Marlins roster. Injuries waylaid much of the pitching staff, and when Miami opened the season with a significant losing streak, the front office wasted little time in waving the white flag. Luis Arraez was traded to San Diego in early May, signaling exactly what type of direction the new baseball ops staff would be taking. No manager or coaching staff could’ve spun the ’24 Marlins into a contender, and other clubs will surely be cognizant of that as they show interest in a wave of newly available coaching talent.

MLBTR Podcast: Buster Posey Takes Over In SF And The Cardinals’ Succession Plan

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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…

  • The Giants firing president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and giving the job to Buster Posey (1:15)
  • The Cardinals will replace president of baseball operations John Mozeliak with Chaim Bloom after 2025 (15:05)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

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!

34 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Designated Hitter

Pitchers

Skip Schumaker Will Not Return As Marlins’ Manager

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TODAY: The Marlins officially announced Schumaker’s departure.

SEPT. 28: Skip Schumaker will not return as Miami’s manager in 2025, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. His tenure with the Fish concludes after two seasons.

The Marlins announced during Friday night’s win over the Blue Jays that Schumaker would return home to attend to a family health matter. Bench coach Luis Urueta will be the interim manager for the final two games of the season, tweets Isaac Azout of Fish on First. Passan writes that Schumaker informed Miami players that he would not be back next season after tonight’s game.

That couldn’t have come as much of a surprise to anyone on the roster. Schumaker has seemingly been on his way out of South Florida for months. Former general manager Kim Ng hired Schumaker — who’d been the bench coach in St. Louis — to replace Don Mattingly going into the 2023 season. He’d initially signed a two-year deal with a club option for 2025. Once the Marlins and Ng parted ways last offseason, Schumaker reportedly expressed frustration with the organization’s direction. The Marlins agreed to void the ’25 option as a result, giving the 44-year-old the chance to pursue other opportunities after this season.

The front office overhaul came within weeks of Miami surprisingly punching their ticket to the postseason. The Fish overcame a negative run differential to win 84 games and snag a Wild Card spot in 2023. While they were swept by Philadelphia in the first round, the unexpected postseason berth earned Schumaker the NL’s Manager of the Year award in his debut season. It was the team’s first playoff appearance in a 162-game schedule since their 2003 World Series title.

Owner Bruce Sherman was nevertheless dissatisfied with the organization’s recent misses in the draft and some ill-fated free agent moves (e.g. Avisaíl García, Jean Segura). Sherman tabbed former Rays GM Peter Bendix as president of baseball operations — a move that would’ve relegated Ng to second in the front office hierarchy. After Sherman informed Ng of his plans to hire a baseball ops president, she declined her end of a mutual option and moved on.

Bendix never seemed confident that the Marlins could replicate last year’s success. The Fish had a quiet winter — their only MLB free agent signing was a $5MM rebound flier on Tim Anderson — and seemed ticketed for another rebuild. A disastrous 0-9 start sealed their fate within the first two weeks. Miami traded Luis Arraez in early May and followed up with a major deadline sell-off involving most of their relievers, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trevor Rogers, Josh Bell and Bryan De La Cruz. Were it not for a devastating series of rotation injuries, they’d likely have torn things down further. Jesús Luzardo and Braxton Garrett would have been clear trade candidates if healthy.

Bendix’s skepticism about the short-term outlook has been borne out in this year’s results. The Fish lost 100 games for the fourth time in franchise history. They’ll either finish with the second- or third-worst record in MLB. (They’re one game behind the Rockies at the bottom of the National League.) At the same time, it’s entirely unsurprising that Schumaker preferred not to embark on a multi-year rebuild orchestrated by a new front office just months after leading the team to the playoffs.

There should be plenty of interest in Schumaker’s services. His aggregate 144-178 record wasn’t great, but that’s far more a testament to this year’s roster than an indictment of his managerial ability. His work in 2023 earned ample praise. The White Sox and Reds have managerial vacancies after firing Pedro Grifol and David Bell, respectively. Schumaker has been loosely linked to both jobs before his contract with the Marlins has expired.

Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a few weeks ago that he was among the Sox’s top targets. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Friday that Schumaker and former Cubs’ skipper David Ross are among the preliminary options under consideration for the Reds’ front office. It’s possible other jobs will open once the regular season concludes.

In Miami, Bendix begins his first managerial search as a baseball operations leader. The front office has presumably been preparing for a while, as they were no doubt aware of the probability that Schumaker would depart. It’s the next opportunity for Bendix and his group to put their stamp on the franchise as they go into another rebuilding year.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Marlins Outright Cristian Pache

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The Marlins sent outfielder Cristian Pache outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. Miami designated the former top prospect for assignment yesterday with Dane Myers returning from the injured list.

Miami claimed Pache off waivers from the Orioles shortly after the trade deadline. The defensive stalwart appeared in 35 games for the Fish. As has been the case at every MLB spot, he didn’t contribute offensively. Pache hit .183/.234/.283 in 64 plate appearances. He’s now a career .181/.243/.275 hitter in 251 big league contests spanning parts of five seasons.

Pache, 25, haș appeared with five MLB teams over that stretch. One of the headlining pieces in the Matt Olson trade between the Braves and A’s, he has simply never developed at the plate. Pache’s prospect stock was built largely on his perceived floor as an elite defensive center fielder. He has indeed proven a gifted defender — 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 17 Outs Above Average in a little more than 1500 career innings — but his bat has been so light that he’s limited to a fifth outfielder role.

While this was the fourth time in which Pache has been squeezed off a roster, it’s the first time he’s gone unclaimed on waivers. His three-plus years of MLB service give him the right to elect free agency. There’s no indication he’ll do so right now, but that’s immaterial. Pache will qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season regardless. Unless the Marlins call him back up within the next few days, he’ll hit the market.

Pache will probably be limited to minor league offers at this point. He’s out of options, so if a team were to sign him to a big league deal, they’d need to carry him on the MLB roster or put him back on waivers. His glove and former prospect status should lead to plenty of interest as a non-roster depth player.

Marlins Designate Cristian Pache For Assignment

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3:10pm: The Marlins have now officially announced these moves.

12:14pm: The Marlins are set to reinstate outfielder Dane Myers from the injured list and will designate fellow outfielder Cristian Pache for assignment in order to create roster space, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com.

Pache, 25, spent about seven weeks with the Fish after being claimed off waivers out of the Orioles organization in early August. He appeared in 35 games but totaled only 64 plate appearances with a bleak .183/.234/.283 batting line and 32.8% strikeout rate. The former top prospect played his typical brand of premium defense, but his continued offensive struggles and lack of minor league options have made it hard for him to stick on a roster this year. He’s also seen big league action with the Phillies and O’s in 2024, to say nothing of prior looks in Atlanta and Oakland.

Pache has appeared in parts of five big league seasons and tallied 610 trips to the plate over that half-decade run. His career .181/.243/.275 slash is right in line with the numbers he posted in both Philadelphia and Miami this year. Even in his top prospect days, Pache was viewed as a slam-dunk defender in center field but a work in progress at the plate. His offensive development has largely stalled out, but he’s been worth 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 17 Outs Above Average in just over 1500 career innings of defense in the majors. He’ll now head to waivers and potentially land with what would be his sixth organization in the past two calendar years.

The 28-year-old Myers has been sidelined since mid-July with a fractured ankle. He recently wrapped up a minor league rehab assignment during which he went 4-for-12 with a pair of homers in the final few games of the Triple-A season. Myers appeared in 40 games with Miami earlier this season and in 95 plate appearances turned in a sound .265/.337/.422 slash with a pair of homers, five doubles, a triple and four steals (in five attempts). Like Pache, he’s a right-handed hitter who can handle all three outfield positions. Myers doesn’t have the same defensive ability, but he’s a far better hitter than Pache and still has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season.

Braxton Garrett Suffers Setback In Elbow Rehab

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Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett was seemingly poised to be activated from the injured list to start tomorrow’s game against the Braves, but MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola was among those to note that the southpaw suffered a setback in his rehab today that will bring his 2024 season to a close. Garrett reportedly “felt something” in the back of his elbow after throwing a bullpen session yesterday, and the lefty is now set to undergo testing and turn his attention towards a healthy return to the mound in 2025.

The 2024 season has been one to forget for Garrett. The 27-year-old southpaw seemed poised to enter the season as one of the club’s most promising starters after pitching to a solid 3.63 ERA (124 ERA+) with a near-matching 3.64 FIP in a combined 247 2/3 innings of work for the Marlins over the previous two seasons. Unfortunately, no such successful campaign came to fruition as the lefty dealt with shoulder issues that sidelined him for the first six weeks of the season.

Upon returning to the club’s rotation on May 12, Garrett’s performance was mixed with several starts where he was shelled despite strong peripheral numbers with occasional dominant performances mixed in such as his four-hit, complete-game shutout of the Diamondbacks in his third start of the year. Overall, the lefty pitched to a lackluster 5.35 ERA in 37 innings of work across seven starts this year despite fantastic peripheral numbers, including a 2.5% walk rate and a 51.3% ground ball rate that gave him a 3.82 FIP and a 3.46 SIERA for his work this year.

It’s possible that his results would’ve eventually caught up to his strong peripherals had he been able to pitch more this season, but the lefty was placed on the injured list in late June due to elbow soreness that was eventually diagnosed as a forearm flexor strain. That proved to be his final start in the majors this year, though he began a rehab assignment earlier this month and had carved up minor league opponents with 15 strikeouts across 10 2/3 innings of work before suffering yesterday’s setback, suggesting his repertoire was in a relatively good place despite the long layoff.

Unfortunately, that layoff now figures to get even longer. While the results of Garrett’s testing have not yet been made clear, the club is now looking towards the 2025 season for the lefty’s return to action. With a 57-97 record, it’s been a disastrous season in Miami but the club does have some reasons to expect improvement next year, such as the excellent start Connor Norby has gotten off to since being acquired from the Orioles at the trade deadline back in July as well as the returns of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Jesus Luzardo, and now Garrett from the injured list.

With four above-average starting pitchers set to return to action next year after making anywhere from zero to 12 starts for the club this season, it’s not hard to imagine Miami turning things around in relatively short order if they can improve an offense that has few long-term pieces in place besides Norby, Xavier Edwards, Jake Burger and perhaps Kyle Stowers.

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