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Padres Have Shown Interest In Sal Frelick

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The Padres are known to be on the lookout for outfield help and spoke to the Brewers about Sal Frelick at some point, per a report from Dennis Lin of The Athletic.

The San Diego offseason has largely been defined by financial concerns. The club’s aggressive spending in past offseasons, as well as the collapse of their TV deal with Diamond Sports group, left them having to cut payroll this winter. The largest chunk that they cut out of their spending was when they traded Juan Soto and Trent Grisham to the Yankees for several young pitchers. Soto eventually agreed to a $31MM salary in his final arbitration year and Grisham agreed at $5.5MM.

The Friars have since signed a few relievers but the payroll is well down. Roster Resource has them at $159MM in terms of pure payroll and $216MM in terms of the competitive balance tax, the wide disparity owing to some backloaded deals, since the CBT is calculated by a contract’s average annual value. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Padres had an Opening Day payroll of $249MM last year, which they are now significantly below. The club reportedly prefers to keep their CBT under the $237MM threshold, giving them about $20MM of wiggle room, which tracks with recent reporting that the club has about $20-30MM left to spend this offseason.

But they still have many holes to fill. The rotation could use another arm or maybe two. There’s room for a designated hitter or potent bench bat type, while the two outfield vacancies still remain. The club recently re-signed Jurickson Profar, but he would be best served to be in a bench/utility role rather than an everyday player.

Given the number of spots to fill and the tight budget, the club has naturally explored cheap external options. It was reported last week that the club had interest of Jarren Duran of the Red Sox. Both he and Frelick are still in their pre-arbitration years, meaning they could potentially provide the Padres with many years of cheap control. However, the flip side is that the acquisition cost in terms of players heading the other way would naturally be higher.

Frelick, 24 in April, made his MLB debut last year and generally performed well. His 16.6% strikeout rate was well below league average and his 12.2% walk rate a few ticks above. He only hit three home runs in his 57 games, but his .246/.341/.351 slash line still got him close to league average overall, a 92 wRC+. He also stole seven bases without being caught while getting strong grades for his glovework. He produced six Defensive Runs Saved and seven Outs Above Average in that brief showing last year, while also getting a mark of 4.5 from Ultimate Zone Rating.

In addition to that promising debut, he also carries prospect pedigree with him. He was selected by the Brewers with the 15th overall pick in 2021 and was been considered a top 100 prospect while pushing towards the big leagues. Even though his power impact is considered limited, he is still expected to be a viable gap hitter who provides value via his on-base abilities, speed and defense. If the power were to develop later as he matures, that would only improve the equation.

It’s understandable that the Padres would be interested in such a player, as he is clearly talented and also comes with six cheap years of control. That also makes him attractive to the Brewers, however, and they are undoubtedly setting a high asking price.

It’s possible they have some openness to a deal based on their roster, as they have plenty of other outfielders on hand. Prospect Jackson Chourio could be in the picture this year after signing an $82MM extension. Christian Yelich is still a regular in left. Frelick would be in the mix for playing time alongside players like Garrett Mitchell, Joey Wiemer, Blake Perkins and Chris Roller. It’s possible to subtract Frelick from there and still have a decent outfield. Frelick, Wiemer and Mitchell are all glove-first types but Chourio is expected to cover center field for years to come, so perhaps they would be better off trading someone from that group and getting a typical power bat to put into a corner.

It’s unclear when these talks took place or if anything got close. Despite their recent Corbin Burnes trade, the Brewers aren’t tanking, as they targeted MLB-ready pieces in that deal and have spent money on players like Rhys Hoskins, Gary Sánchez and Jakob Junis. If they were to consider any kind of Frelick trade, they would likely be looking for players who could help them compete in 2024. Whether the Padres have the pieces to get that done, and the willingness to give them up, remains to be seen.

Elsewhere in Padres’ notes, Lin adds that it’s unclear if Ha-Seong Kim would be eligible for a qualifying offer if traded between the Padres’ Seoul Series and the resumption of their season. Players are normally ineligible for a qualifying offer if traded midseason. The Padres have an unusual start to their schedule, with two games in Seoul against the Dodgers March 20 and 21, then a gap until they play the Giants on the league-wide Opening Day of March 28 in San Diego.

Kim is an impending free agent, as his deal has a mutual option for 2025 but those provisions are almost never picked up by both sides. With the Padres looking to cut some costs, Kim’s name has popped up in trade rumors. The Padres could move Jake Cronenworth back to second base and then use the money saved by trading Kim to find first base help. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible that they may prefer to hold off on such a deal until after the Seoul Series so that Kim can play in front of the fans of his home country.

But taking such a path may not allow them to market a future QO to a trading partner. Hypothetically, a team acquiring Kim might plan on making him a QO at season’s end and recouping some the value that they gave in the trade. Such a situation has never previously occurred and Lin reports that MLB and the MLBPA would have to discuss it if it came to pass, which would seem to muddy the waters a bit on a possible trade.

MLBTR Podcast: Jorge Soler, Veteran Catcher Signings and the Padres’ Payroll Crunch

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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…

  • Which teams do you think have a chance to exceed expectations this year like the Diamondbacks and Reds did last year? (26:00)
  • Matt Chapman to the Cubs for one year and $27MM plus a $30MM mutual option for 2025 with a $3MM buyout, who says no? (30:40)
  • Does Carlos Santana make the Twins better? (34:00)

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!

Brewers Trade Clayton Andrews To Yankees

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The Yankees have acquired left-hander Clayton Andrews from the Brewers in exchange for minor league righty Joshua Quezada, the teams announced Wednesday. New York transferred righty Scott Effross, who’s recovering from December back surgery (that was just announced today), to the 60-day injured list. Milwaukee designated Andrews for assignment last week.

Andrews, 27, made his big league debut with Milwaukee in 2023, though things didn’t go as he’d hoped. He pitched just 3 1/3 innings but was torched for ten earned runs on the strength of three homers in that brief cup of coffee.

Ugly as that tiny sample was, Andrews had much more encouraging results in the minors. He spent the bulk of the 2023 campaign with the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in Nashville, pitching to a tidy 2.53 ERA in 57 frames out of the bullpen. Andrews fanned a hefty 31.1% of his opponents in Nashville and posted a solid 45.7% grounder rate, but his 13% walk rate was an eyesore that’ll clearly need improvement if he’s to carve out a big league role for himself.

A 17th-round pick by the Brewers back in 2018, Andrews still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, which will give the Yankees some flexible depth in the bullpen. He’s a three-pitch lefty who averaged 94.8 mph on his heater in 2023 and also mixed in a changeup and slider. Andrews’ changeup is considered his best pitch, hence the reverse splits he showed in ’23; righties hit him at just a .215/.312/.349 clip while fellow lefties managed a healthier .233/.337/.438 slash.

As for the Brewers’ end of the swap, they’ll pick up a 19-year-old righty who’s entering just his second professional season. Quezada signed with the Yankees out of Nicaragua during last year’s international amateur free agency period. He spent the season with the Yankees’ short-season affiliate in the Dominican Summer League, where he pitched 46 1/3 innings of 3.69 ERA ball. The 6’2″, 185-pound Quezada fanned exactly one quarter of his opponents and issued walks at a 9.4% clip. Quezada wasn’t one of the team’s high-profile signings on last year’s international market and didn’t rank among the Yankees’ top 30 prospects, but he turned in a nice debut campaign and will give the Brewers a lottery-ticket arm to stash in the lower levels of their system.

MLBTR Podcast: The Sale of the Orioles, Corbin Burnes Traded and Bobby Witt Jr. Extended

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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 Steve Adams 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!

Brewers To Sign Gary Sánchez To One-Year Deal

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The Brewers are reportedly signing free agent catcher Gary Sánchez to one-year deal with mutual option with a $7MM guarantee. The club’s 40-man roster is full and a corresponding roster move will be required when the deal is made official. The backstop is represented by MDR Sports Management.

Sánchez, 31, had a frustrating time getting a job last year but made the most of it when he finally got one. He initially signed a minor league deal with the Giants but opted out when that club wouldn’t give him a roster spot. He landed another minor league deal with the Mets and did get called up to the big leagues but was quickly put on waivers.

A claim by the Padres was the opportunity he needed. He went on to take 260 plate appearances over 72 games with San Diego, hitting 19 home runs in that brief time. His batting average and on-base percentage were low, as his fairly normal for him, but his .218/.292/.500 batting line in that time nonetheless translated to a wRC+ of 115 indicating he was 15% better than the league average hitter.

With Sánchez, the power has always been there, but his defense has been more questionable throughout his career. He seems to have improved over time, however. Defensive Runs Saved has given him positive grades in each of the past two years, including a +7 mark in 2023. Each of FanGraphs, Statcast and Baseball Prospectus considered his pitch framing to be a positive over the past two seasons. His throwing arm has always been considered strong with his blocking a weakness, though even his blocking grades have improved in the past few seasons as well.

His strong campaign in 2023 was cut short when he suffered a wrist fracture in early September. Between that and the late start, he only got into 72 contests with the Friars but still managed to produce 1.8 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs and 2.5 per the calculations of Baseball Reference.

In terms of intangibles, his tenure with the Padres overlapped with the breakout of Blake Snell last year. Through 10 outings last year, Snell had an earned run average of 5.04. But he posted a tiny 1.18 ERA over his final 22 starts, lowering his season ERA to 2.25 and earning himself a second Cy Young Award. Sánchez caught the first 18 of those 22 games, missing the last four due to the aforementioned wrist injury. Snell spoke positively of their relationship to Dennis Lin of The Athletic during the season.

Despite the strong season, there are concerns with Sánchez. As mentioned, he was a poor blocker earlier in his career. He’s never been a huge batting average or on-base guy, apart from the very early parts of his career. Strikeouts have occasionally been a problem, with his 26.8% career rate a few ticks north of typical averages. His power also eluded him in 2022, as he hit just 16 home runs in 128 games for the Twins that year.

But overall, the package has appeal. Apart from that power outage with the Twins, he’s always hit 20-35 home runs or has at least has been on pace to do so. The defense has been a struggle but has improved over time. In every full season dating back to 2016, he’s produced at least 1.3 fWAR. Even if you ignore the hot start to his career and look at 2018 to the present, he’s 10th among active catchers in fWAR.

He received interest from the Padres and Pirates this winter but will end up in an interesting landing spot with the Brewers. They already have a really good catcher in William Contreras. That perhaps suggests Sánchez will be a sort of backup catcher but part-time designated hitter. The right-handed-hitting Sánchez has fairly neutral platoon splits for his career but was excellent against southpaws last year. He hit .267/.304/.680 against lefties, 162 wRC+, but .194/.282/.406 against righties for a 90 wRC+.

The Brewers have a bunch of outfielders and Sánchez may have to split the DH time with them, but the platoon situation might work well there. Each of Christian Yelich, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick and Jake Bauers hit from the left side. Perhaps Sánchez can give Contreras the occasional breather behind the plate while also taking some at-bats away from that group by slotting in as the DH against tough lefties. This signing may perhaps bode poorly for Eric Haase, who was signed by the Brewers in December. He’s generally considered a bat-first catcher but struggled badly at the plate in 2023. He can also play the outfield but the Brewers have tons of guys battling for jobs out there. Since he’s out of options, he may find himself squeeze off the roster at some point.

The Brewers have been quite active in recent weeks, signing Rhys Hoskins before flipping Corbin Burnes to the Orioles for Joey Ortiz, DL Hall and a draft pick, then signing Jakob Junis and now Sánchez. The subtraction of Burnes obviously weakens their rotation, along with the loss of Brandon Woodruff, who was non-tendered after requiring shoulder surgery. But the additions of Hoskins and Sánchez, along with the impending debut of center field prospect Jackson Chourio, could have their offense making up some of the difference.

The club only allowed 647 runs last year, the lowest in the majors, whereas their 728 runs scored was middle of the pack. Perhaps they will allow a few more runs this year but also score a few more. Then again, based on how busy they’ve been in the past couple of weeks, they may not be done making moves. Roster Resource pegs their current payroll at $111MM, well below last year’s $126MM figure.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that the Brewers were signing Sánchez and added the $7MM guarantee. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that there was a mutual option for 2025.

Brewers Designate Clayton Andrews For Assignment

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The Brewers are designating left-hander Clayton Andrews for assignment, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. That move will open up a spot on the 40-man for right-hander Jakob Junis, who was reported to have signed with the club earlier this week. That deal is now official.

Andrews, 27, just got to make his major league debut last year in cup-of-coffee fashion. He was added to Milwaukee’s roster at the start of July and then was shuttled to Triple-A Nashville and back frequently, getting optioned four times in the back half of the season. He managed to make four major league appearances in there, allowing 10 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings with four strikeouts and two walks.

That’s a tiny sample of work and he spent far more time in Triple-A. He tossed 57 innings at that level last year, allowing 2.53 earned runs per nine innings. His 31.1% strikeout rate was quite strong and he got grounders on 45.7% of balls in play but he also issued walks to 13% of hitters that came to the plate against him.

That walk rate is certainly troubling but Andrews may have been shaking off some rust after a lot of time off. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 and then Tommy John surgery prevented Andrews from throwing for much of the two following seasons.

His first outings in the majors weren’t great but he had a pretty solid showing in the minors last year, after three years of not being able to pitch much at all. He still has a couple of option years remaining and clubs are often on the lookout for left-handed relief depth. The Brewers will now have one week to try to work out a trade or pass Andrews through waivers. Since he has neither a previous career outright nor three years of service time, he wouldn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment. That means he would stick with the Brewers as non-roster depth if he were to pass through waivers unclaimed.

DL Hall Planning To Compete For Rotation Role With Brewers

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The Brewers acquired hard-throwing lefty DL Hall alongside infielder Joey Ortiz from the Orioles in last week’s Corbin Burnes blockbuster. While GM Matt Arnold was noncommittal about Hall’s role in a chat with reporters in the immediate aftermath of the trade, the 25-year-old indicated the organization views him as a starting pitcher.

“When they called me, they asked me how my training had been going, what I was preparing for. Luckily, I was preparing to be a starter. They want me to be a starter,” Hall said in an appearance on Foul Territory yesterday afternoon (YouTube link).

That the Brewers still view Hall as a rotation fit isn’t surprising. If Milwaukee felt the 6’2″ southpaw was unlikely to stick as a starter, they might not have made him one of two key pieces in a return for their ace. That’s not a unanimous opinion among evaluators, however. Some scouting reports on Hall indicate he’s a better fit for the bullpen because of well below-average control.

Over parts of six seasons in the minors, Hall has walked 13.4% of opposing hitters. He handed out free passes at a similarly concerning 13.8% clip over 49 innings for Triple-A Norfolk a year ago. Hall worked in an abbreviated starting capacity early in the Triple-A season, typically going four to five innings in an appearance. He pitched in a traditional single-inning relief role there late in the year, aligning with his usage at the MLB level.

Other than a 3 2/3-inning start in his major league debut in August 2022, Hall has pitched exclusively as a reliever in the majors. He has a 4.36 ERA in 29 appearances, striking out 29% of batters faced. The former first-round pick has shown better control in that limited big league sample, walking a league average 7.6% of his opponents.

Expecting Hall to maintain a sub-8% walk rate over a full season as a starter is likely too optimistic given his minor league numbers. He will very likely need to cut his walks from the minor league levels if he’s to stick as a starter. Only two MLB pitchers logged at least 100 innings while walking more than 13% of opponents a year ago.

One of them, Blake Snell, won the Cy Young, so it’s not impossible to thrive with this kind of scattershot control. It requires absolutely dominating hitters when the pitcher is around the strike zone, though, with Snell fanning over 31% of opponents and holding batters to a pitiful .180 average. (The other pitcher with 100+ innings and a walk rate above 13% was Michael Kopech, who had a 5.43 ERA.) Hall is credited by prospect evaluators with as many as four plus or better pitches. He has the potential to overpower opponents, but he’d have to walk a very tight rope if he doesn’t get the free passes in check.

It’s worth noting that Hall’s comments about competing for a rotation spot came before Milwaukee agreed to a $7MM deal with free agent righty Jakob Junis last night. Even with Junis expected to take a season-opening rotation spot, it’s unlikely Milwaukee’s usage plans for Hall are any different. The Brewers still have one or two jobs up for grabs behind Freddy Peralta, Junis, and Wade Miley. Hall joins righties Colin Rea and Joe Ross and southpaws Aaron Ashby and Robert Gasser in that competition. Prospects Carlos Rodriguez and Jacob Misiorowski could pitch their way into the mix during the season.

Hall still has one option year remaining. The Brewers can move him between Milwaukee and Triple-A Nashville for another season if he doesn’t stake a claim to a permanent rotation role on Opening Day.

Brewers Sign Jakob Junis

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The Brewers announced that they have signed free agent righty Jakob Junis to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2025. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (X link) initially reported the deal. It’s a one-year, $7MM guarantee for the Wasserman client, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. Junis will receive a $4MM salary next season and a $3MM buyout on the 2025 mutual option, which The Associated Press reports is valued at $8MM. He’s expected to open the year in Milwaukee’s starting rotation.

Junis hit the open market for the first time coming off a quietly strong platform showing. The 31-year-old pitched 86 innings over 40 appearances as a multi-inning reliever for the Giants a year ago. He turned in a personal-low 3.87 ERA while striking out an above-average 26.2% of opposing hitters. That was the best mark of his career, as was his 11.3% swinging strike rate.

An uptick in velocity played a part in his improved swing-and-miss results. Junis averaged 93.7 MPH on his sinker, above the 91-92 MPH range in which his fastball had sat for his career. He also added a tick to his slider, which clocked in at 84.2 MPH on average after sitting in the 82-83 MPH area in prior years. Adding some speed to the slider was probably more important than the extra life on the fastball. Junis uses the breaking pitch at an atypical rate.

The slider has been his primary pitch in each of the last four seasons. He pushed it to new heights in 2023, turning to the breaker nearly 63% of the time. That didn’t come at the expense of the strong control he’s shown throughout his career. He walked under 6% of opponents for the fourth time out of his five MLB seasons with 40+ innings.

As one might expect given his slider/sinker profile, Junis has been more effective against same-handed hitters. Since the start of 2022, righty batters have a .254/.297/.414 line while striking out nearly a quarter of the time against him. Left-handed bats have fanned at a modest 20.3% rate and turned in a robust .290/.341/.494 showing over that stretch.

It’s easier for a manager to navigate around those platoon issues when Junis is pitching in a relief role, even one in which he frequently works multiple innings. It could be a bigger concern as a starter, although it wouldn’t be surprising if skipper Pat Murphy tends to minimize his exposure to opposing lineups more than twice in an outing.

That’s generally how Milwaukee seems to be approaching the 2024 rotation. They’ve moved on from their pair of co-aces. Brandon Woodruff was non-tendered after the revelation he needed shoulder surgery, while Corbin Burnes was traded last week. That left the Brew Crew with Freddy Peralta as the unquestioned staff ace, followed by pitchers with varying degrees of injury or performance concerns.

Milwaukee re-signed Wade Miley and Colin Rea to factor into the middle of the staff. They took a flier on Joe Ross, who missed most of last season working back from 2022 Tommy John surgery. Hard-throwing southpaw DL Hall came back from Baltimore in the Burnes return. Aaron Ashby is still trying to carve out a rotation role despite various injuries, including a shoulder procedure that wiped out his ’23 season. Prospects Robert Gasser, Jacob Misiorowski and Carlos Rodriguez loom in the upper minors.

It’s unlikely to be the kind of dominant rotation Milwaukee has trotted out in recent seasons, even if there’s a decent amount of intrigue with Junis, Ashby and the aforementioned collection of young pitchers. There aren’t many reliable sources of innings, which could force Murphy to lean heavily on his relief group.

The $4MM salary brings Milwaukee’s payroll projection around $105MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. That’s well below last year’s approximate $119MM mark. It’s unclear whether ownership is willing to match last season’s spending level. If there’s payroll room, the roster could benefit from an additional bench bat and perhaps another left-handed reliever to pair with Hoby Milner.

MLBTR ranked Junis as the offseason’s #47 free agent, predicting a two-year, $15MM guarantee. He comes up short of that figure on a one-year deal. He’ll look to establish himself as a starter before returning to free agency next winter in advance of his age-32 season. The mutual option is essentially an accounting measure that allows the Brewers to push $3MM of the guarantee to the start of next offseason. Mutual options are almost never exercised by both sides, so Junis is very likely to head back to the market a year from now.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Giants Acquire Ethan Small

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The Giants have acquired left-hander Ethan Small from the Brewers for cash, the team announced. Milwaukee had designated him for assignment last week after acquiring Joey Ortiz and DL Hall for Corbin Burnes.

Small was a somewhat surprising DFA who always looked likely to attract interest from another team. He was Milwaukee’s first-round pick in 2019 and initially perceived as one of the better pitching prospects in their organization. While Small’s place in the farm system had fallen in recent years, he’s coming off a reasonably promising showing for their top affiliate in Nashville.

Working as a full-time reliever for the first time in his career, Small pitched to a 3.18 ERA over 51 Triple-A innings a year ago. He punched out an impressive 28.5% of opposing hitters. He paired that with a concerning 11.2% walk percentage. That surely played a part in Milwaukee deciding not to give him much of a shot at the MLB level. Small has only pitched in the big leagues four times, twice apiece in each of the last two years.

The Mississippi State product doesn’t throw especially hard. His fastball averaged 92 MPH in his limited MLB look last season. An atypical over-the-top arm slot adds some deception to his delivery, though, and prospect evaluators have credited him with a plus changeup.

San Francisco had an opening on the 40-man roster after last week’s Bay Area swap sending Ross Stripling to Oakland. They’ll use that to take a flier on Small, at least for the time being. The Giants are reportedly in talks with Jorge Soler and would need to create a roster spot if those discussions result in an agreement. Small has one minor league option remaining, so the Giants could keep him in Triple-A for the upcoming season if he holds his spot on the 40-man.

Orioles Notes: Burnes, Cease, Hicks

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The Orioles completed one of the offseason’s biggest trades in landing Corbin Burnes from the Brewers earlier this week, and it was a move that GM Mike Elias said the organization had been “talking about…since when the World Series ended.” It was heavily expected that the O’s would be looking for significant rotation help during the winter, and Elias shared some details on the search when speaking with reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and MLB.com’s Jake Rill) on a conference call in the aftermath of the trade.

“Corbin Burnes is exactly what we needed.  We were in a dogged pursuit of him the entire offseason,” Elias said.  “Obviously, there were other starting pitchers who we pursued, but it’s harder to have somebody higher than Corbin Burnes on your wish list.  It’s a tremendous impact.”

Milwaukee’s side of the deal involved two big league-ready young players (Joey Ortiz and DL Hall) with top-100 prospect pedigrees, as well as the Orioles’ Competitive Balance Round draft pick (currently 34th overall in the 2024 draft order).  It was a noteworthy amount to give up even for a team as rich in minor league depth as the O’s, but Elias felt it was worth the plunge.

“We’re giving up a lot of long-term talent and also a couple of players that were going to contribute to the 2024 Orioles,” Elias said.  “So I mean, this is a risky move, but it lined up for both sides.  We weren’t going to force it necessarily, but our wish list was a rotation upgrade and I certainly think that the Cy Young winner and with his body of work qualifies as that. We couldn’t have found a better upgrade and now we just have to go play the games.”

While the Orioles’ offer was enough to sway the Brewers, it apparently wasn’t enough to get the White Sox to move Dylan Cease, another pitcher known to be on Baltimore’s list of potential targets.  USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports that the O’s “offered basically the same package” to White Sox, as well as an unknown additional player.  The larger size of the offer probably reflects the fact that Cease is arbitration-controlled through the 2025 season while Burnes is only controlled through 2024, yet it still wasn’t enough to meet Chicago’s asking price for Cease’s services.

Past reports have suggested that the Sox have a particular interest in Jordan Westburg, Heston Kjerstad and Colton Cowser, among many of Baltimore’s top prospects.  It can be assumed that none of these blue-chippers weren’t the mystery fourth part of the Orioles’ offer to Chicago, so speculatively, it could be that the White Sox asked for one of the trio as the top position-player piece instead of Ortiz.  Considering that the Sox have reportedly been looking for additional pitching in other Cease-related trade talks with the Mariners and Reds, it could also be that the White Sox wanted a better pitcher included than Hall, or perhaps a pitcher as the fourth element if the Orioles had offered a position player.

These talks are again indicative of the very large price tag that the White Sox are demanding for Cease, which isn’t really surprising given how he is their biggest trade asset apart from Luis Robert.  It also understandable why the Orioles ultimately pivoted from these talks with Chicago to closing the deal on Burnes, as Burnes provides a higher ceiling as a more consistent ace-level pitcher even if he comes with one less year of control than Cease.

Obviously some of this discussion is just conjecture since we don’t know exactly what the Orioles put on the table for Cease, yet it also speaks to the interesting juggling act Elias has been facing in determining how to put the best “final touch” on the AL East-winning roster.  It can be assumed that pretty much every rival team has been asking about the top tier of names in Baltimore’s farm system in any trade talks, so Elias technically has the minor league depth to complete just about any deal, he naturally isn’t going to deplete that depth for just any pitcher.

Speaking of Kjerstad and Cowser, it wouldn’t be surprising to see either youngster play big roles in whatever success awaits the 2024 Orioles, though they’re part of a crowded outfield, first base, and DH picture that also includes Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander, Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn, and even more up-and-coming prospects in Coby Mayo and Kyle Stowers, among others.  Even with all these options on hand, Nightengale reports that the O’s still had interest in bringing back Aaron Hicks before the veteran outfielder signed with the Angels earlier this week.

After an injury-plagued stint with the Yankees, Hicks revived his career after joining the Orioles last season, hitting .275/.381/.425 over 236 PA and acting as a veteran leader within the young clubhouse.  Since the Yankees are still covering Hicks’ previous contract through the 2025 season, the outfielder was available on only a minimum MLB salary to any team this winter, giving him presumably a pretty wide range of suitors.

Though the Orioles are in a better position to contend than the Angels in 2024, it could be that Hicks simply felt he wouldn’t get as much playing time in Baltimore than he would in Los Angeles.  Though the Angels have a fair amount of outfield options themselves, Mike Trout’s injury history and the unproven big league track records of Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell leave more room for Hicks to become a lineup regular.

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