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Rockies To Sign Michael Lorenzen

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The Rockies are in agreement with Michael Lorenzen on a one-year, $8MM contract, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The deal includes a $9MM club option for the 2027 season.

It’s the first MLB signing of the winter for Colorado, meaning it’s Paul DePodesta’s first notable pickup as their head of baseball operations. (The Red Sox are now the only team that hasn’t signed a big league free agent deal this offseason.) It’s likely to be the first of a few pitching adds for the rebuilding club. General manager Josh Byrnes said this week that they were hoping to bring in two experienced starters.

The Rockies very rarely add to their rotation via free agency. This is the first time they’ve added a free agent starter on a $5MM+ guarantee since the Kyle Kendrick signing in 2015. Coors Field obviously isn’t a preferred destination for most pitchers. That they’re riding a seven-year streak of finishing fourth or fifth in the NL West doesn’t help matters.

One thing they can certainly offer is opportunity. Lorenzen would be a sixth starter or swing arm for a lot of teams. He’ll get a guaranteed rotation spot in Colorado, where he lands behind Kyle Freeland as their most established arms. The 34-year-old righty has spent the past season and a half with the Royals. He worked at the back of Kansas City’s rotation for most of that time, including 26 starts in 27 appearances last year. Lorenzen pitched to a 4.64 earned run average over 141 2/3 innings.

A multi-inning reliever early in his career with the Reds, Lorenzen prioritized a rotation opportunity upon getting to free agency after the 2021 season. He has bounced around on a handful of one-year deals that have generally given him a back-end starting job. This is the fifth consecutive offseason in which he commanded exactly one year on an MLB contract. The deals have all guaranteed between $4.5MM and $8.5MM and have come with five different teams: the Angels, Tigers, Rangers, and Royals. He has also been traded twice and is now on his seventh team overall.

Lorenzen has surpassed 130 innings in each of the past three seasons. He has required an injured list stint in four consecutive years, but a 2022 shoulder strain led to his only lengthy absence. His recent IL stints have been for minor issues: groin, hamstring, neck and oblique strains — none of which cost him more than a month.

The 6’3″ righty works with one of the deepest arsenals of any pitcher in MLB. Statcast’s pitch tracking metrics identity seven distinct pitches, none of which he uses more than a quarter of the time. His four-seam fastball checks in around 94 MPH. He also throws a sinker, changeup, and four breaking pitches (slider, curveball, cutter, sweeper). Nothing stands out as plus in isolation, but he carves out decent results by mixing and matching. Lorenzen has a 4.10 ERA with a modest 19.3% strikeout rate against an average 8.7% walk percentage over the past four seasons.

Anything close to that production would make him one of Colorado’s best pitchers. Freeland was their only pitcher who made more than six starts and allowed fewer than 6.33 earned runs per nine innings. The rotation’s 6.65 ERA was historically terrible. Germán Márquez isn’t expected back in free agency. Antonio Senzatela was demoted to the bullpen late in the season and is expected to remain in long relief.

Freeland and Lorenzen are locked into the top two rotation spots. Ryan Feltner, Chase Dollander, Gabriel Hughes, Bradley Blalock, Tanner Gordon, McCade Brown and waiver claim Keegan Thompson are the other options on the 40-man roster. Feltner is the only one of the bunch who has had any kind of MLB success, and he’s coming off an injury-plagued season. Dollander is a former top 10 pick who held his own on the road but was terrible at Coors Field as a rookie. They’re penciled into the rotation for now, while the fifth starter job would be wide open if they don’t succeed in bringing in anyone else this offseason.

More to come.

Cubs Acquire Edward Cabrera

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The Cubs and Marlins have completed one of the more notable trades of the offseason — a swap that’ll send righty Edward Cabrera from Miami to Chicago in exchange for top outfield prospect Owen Caissie and minor league infielders Cristian Hernandez and Edgardo De Leon.

Cabrera, 28 in April, is a former top prospect who has shown flashes of excellence in the past but wasn’t healthy enough to deliver on that potential until a breakout 2025 campaign. Though he still logged some IL time this past season, he turned in a career-high 137 2/3 innings with a strong 3.53 ERA and encouraging underlying numbers. Cabrera punched out 25.8% of opponents, logged a career-low 8.3% walk rate — far better than the 13.3% clip he carried into the season — recorded a 46.6% ground-ball rate and sat 97 mph on his four-seamer (and 96.8 mph on his sinker) in 2025.

Early in the 2025 season, Cabrera missed two weeks with blisters on his pitching hand — his second career IL trip due to blister troubles. His second IL trip in 2025 was more alarming, as it was prompted by an elbow sprain late in the year. That’s a far more worrying injury, but Cabrera returned after only three weeks and fired nine generally solid innings across his final two appearances, sitting 97.7 mph on his four-seamer and 97.9 mph on his sinker during that time. Given the trade interest in him this offseason and a deal now nearing its completion, it doesn’t appear there’s any current concern about a major elbow injury looming on the horizon.

Beyond his premium velocity and quality rate stats, Cabrera’s contractual situation always figured to hold broad-reaching appeal. He’s entering the second of four arbitration seasons as a Super Two player and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a highly affordable $3.7MM in 2026. He’s under club control all the way through 2028, and based on the fairly low starting point in his arbitration journey, those three seasons aren’t likely to cost much more than $20MM overall.

Cabrera will slot into a deep Cubs rotation mix, joining Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Horton and veterans Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga (who accepted a $22.05MM qualifying offer in November). Acquiring Cabrera likely pushes veteran swingman Colin Rea back into a long relief role to begin the season, though he’d be among the first men up in the event of an injury elsewhere on the staff.

Right-hander Javier Assad is also in the mix, though he missed nearly all of the 2025 season due to a severe oblique strain and posted a career-low 15% strikeout rate in the 37 innings he managed to tally late in the season. Assad still has minor league options remaining, so he could be sent to Triple-A to begin the year or else considered for a multi-inning relief role similar to the one Rea might occupy. Other options down in Triple-A include hard-throwing 26-year-old righty Ben Brown and former top prospect Jordan Wicks (also 26). Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is not yet on the 40-man roster and has barely pitched in Triple-A, but he could be in line for a big league debut this coming season as well.

Of course, the Cubs will be eagerly awaiting the return of ace Justin Steele, ideally at some point in the season’s first half. The 30-year-old Steele was the team’s top starter from 2022-24, pitching a combined 427 innings of 3.10 ERA ball with plus strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates, but he made just four starts in 2025 before requiring UCL surgery in late April. Every rehab process is different, but it’s reasonable to expect that he could be back in June or July.

By the season’s second half, the Cubs could be looking at a rotation led by Steele, Horton and Cabrera, with veterans Taillon, Boyd, Imanaga and Rea among the options for the final couple spots. Injuries will almost always disrupt any team’s best laid plans, but that’s a quality group of arms that doesn’t even factor in Wiggins, who posted a 2.19 ERA and 31% strikeout rate in 18 starts (and one relief appearance) between Double-A and Triple-A last year.

On the Marlins side of things, Cabrera stood as an obvious trade candidate — but one who’d come at a fairly hefty price, given that salary and remaining club control. He landed on the back end of MLBTR’s Top 40 Offseason Trade Candidate list back in November.

It’s obviously not a financially driven move, but the Fish are deep in rotation options — with multiple top prospects nearing readiness — and have various holes in the lineup to fill. Swapping out Cabrera for a package headlined by Caissie works toward that end.

Even with Cabrera departing, Miami can roll out a rotation including Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Ryan Weathers and Braxton Garrett in the top four spots. Journeyman Janson Junk had a surprisingly nice showing with the Fish in 2025 and is an option either in the fifth spot or long relief. The same can be said for righty Ryan Gusto, whom the Marlins acquired in the deadline trade sending Jesus Sanchez to Houston. Former top prospects Max Meyer, Dax Fulton and Adam Mazur are all on the 40-man roster, too. Current top prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling could both debut this coming season. White, in particular, is regarded as one of the top prospects in the entire sport.

Caissie should step right into the Marlins’ outfield next season. The 23-year-old slugger made his big league debut this past season, struggling in a tiny sample of 27 plate appearances, but is a former second-round pick and longtime top prospect who has shredded minor league pitching. That includes a 2025 campaign in which he slashed .286/.386/.551 (139 wRC+) with 22 homers, 28 doubles and a pair of triples in 99 games/433 plate appearances of Triple-A work.

Caissie is a lefty-swinging corner outfielder with big power and big swing-and-miss tendencies. He fanned in nearly 28% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year. He’s regularly been able to offset the damage of those strikeouts by walking at high clips, however. He drew a free pass in 13.2% of his Triple-A plate appearances last year and has an overall 13.6% walk rate in five minor league seasons.

Scouting reports on Caissie praise his plus throwing arm but predict he’ll be limited to corner work (despite some early-career experience in center field). He has the makings of a prototypical three-true-outcomes right fielder. The Marlins could go with 2025 breakout slugger Kyle Stowers in left field and Caissie in right, thus giving them a pair of high-powered bats to plug into the heart of their order for the foreseeable future.

Because Caissie only made a brief MLB debut this past season, he still has six full seasons of club control remaining. He’s still rookie-eligible, so the Marlins could potentially pick up a draft pick for him via MLB’s prospect promotion incentive program, depending on when he’s brought up for his Marlins debut and (of course) on how he fares in awards voting early in his big league tenure. Caissie was only selected to the major league roster last offseason, meaning he’s only exhausted one minor league option year and still has two remaining.

Caissie joins Stowers and breakout center fielder Jakob Marsee in comprising a talented and intriguing outfield core. The Marlins’ lineup, in general, has gotten more interesting over the past couple years, thanks largely to the emergence of Xavier Edwards alongside those young outfielders. Former top catching prospect Agustin Ramirez hit for power in his rookie campaign this past season but struggled to get on base and played extremely poor defense behind the plate. Marlins president Peter Bendix has emphasized that the club hopes to continue developing Ramirez behind the plate, but he could see time at first base and DH in 2026, especially once top catching prospect Joe Mack debuts.

Hernandez, 22, is a speed-and-defense shortstop who spent the 2025 season with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. Baseball America recently ranked him 16th among Cubs farmhands heading into the 2026 season, noting that he has plus raw power but hits the ball on the ground far too frequently to ever tap into that pop. (This past season’s seven home runs were a career-high.) BA’s report notes that Hernandez has the tools to be an above-average defender but is often inaccurate with his throwing despite good arm strength.

Improving the accuracy on Hernandez’s throws seems like a more attainable goal than overhauling his offensive approach to get more loft without compromising his lower-than-average strikeout rate, but if the Marlins can fix both those traits, it’s possible they’ll have a starting-caliber shortstop on their hands. Those are big “ifs,” of course, particularly considering that Hernandez just hit .252/.329/.365 as a 21-year-old in his second stint with the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. He’s a project, but a capable shortstop coming off a 52-steal season (61 attempts) is a nice secondary piece to add to the system.

De Leon is the furthest from MLB-ready. He’s an 18-year-old who signed as part of Chicago’s 2024 international class. The 6′, 170-pound De Leon played with the Cubs’ Dominican Summer League club in 2024, hitting .277/.431/.433 in 181 plate appearances. He moved up to their Rookie-level Arizona Complex League affiliate in 2025 and slashed .276/.353/.500 in 153 turns at the plate. BA’s Geoff Pontes listed him as a sleeper prospect to watch heading into the 2026 season, citing his encouraging exit velocities and plus raw power.

With just 334 professional plate appearances under his belt and his 19th birthday still six weeks away, De Leon is a pure development project for Miami. He’s been a productive hitter in each of his two pro seasons, though, even with some moderately worrying swing-and-miss tendencies (28.8% strikeout rate in 2025). He’ll probably head to the Marlins’ Low-A affiliate to begin the 2026 season and doesn’t seem likely to be a potential major league factor until 2028 or 2029 at the earliest.

The Marlins remain a work in progress and will most likely enter 2026 as something of a playoff long shot, but there are a number of upward-pointing arrows on the roster, making it an encouraging time for Miami fans.

Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami first reported that a Cabrera trade between the two teams was near completion. Kevin Barral of Fish On First reported Caissie as the likely headliner. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com and Craig Mish of SportsGrid broke the news of the other two prospects in the deal. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the medical review process had been complete and the trade was official.

Blue Jays Continuing To Pursue Kyle Tucker

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The Blue Jays had already been one of the sport’s most aggressive teams before signing NPB star Kazuma Okamoto to a four-year, $60MM contract over the weekend. Okamoto joins Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce and Tyler Rogers as significant free agent acquisitions. They’ve also been one of the clubs most frequently tied to the top two free agent hitters, Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette.

There has been plenty of speculation that the Jays could be Tucker’s eventual landing spot. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com wrote yesterday that two of his sources pegged Toronto as the favorite for the market’s top player. Meanwhile, Mitch Bannon of The Athletic reports this evening that the Jays are making a stronger push for Tucker than they had earlier in the winter. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet adds that the sides have had recent conversations, though he suggests the door remains open to Tucker or Bichette. Toronto’s interest in Tucker stretches back to the beginning of the offseason; he visited the club’s Spring Training facility in Dunedin on December 3.

RosterResource calculates the Jays’ payroll around $280MM, which is already $40MM above where they opened the 2025 season. Their luxury tax estimate sits at $308MM, more than $20MM north of last year’s season-ending tax number. They’re above the $304MM mark that represents the top tier of penalization. That already has them on track to pay around $30MM in luxury taxes, more than all but four teams (the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and Phillies) paid last season. Any future spending is taxed at a 90% clip on the average annual value. A hypothetical $35MM AAV for Tucker would come with a $31.5MM tax on top of it.

[Related Poll: Will Jays Add Another Bat?]

It’s unclear how much of a deterrent the tax obligations are for the Jays. They’re already into uncharted financial waters after coming a few inches away from their first World Series in three decades. The Rogers ownership group and the front office are clearly committed to a win-now posture. George Springer, Shane Bieber, Kevin Gausman and Daulton Varsho will all be free agents next offseason. That’s a lot of money coming off the books but also four key contributors whom they’re not guaranteed to have back in 2027, which should only increase the motivation to make another run this year.

Tucker, a career .273/.358/.507 hitter, is the best offensive player available. He’d step into an everyday right field role, pushing Anthony Santander to left. The Jays would have Springer as their primary designated hitter. Okamoto and Addison Barger could play either third base or factor into the corner outfield. It wouldn’t leave much playing time for Nathan Lukes, who’d be a speculative trade candidate. Lukes is coming off a solid season (.255/.323/.407 with 12 homers) but isn’t the kind of player who’ll prevent teams from making a run at a star.

General manager Ross Atkins spoke in generalities this morning about the team’s diligence in looking for continued ways to improve (link via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). Atkins noted that any “additions at this point start to cut away playing time from players that we feel are very good major league pieces.” While it’s not a given that they’ll make any moves, that’d seemingly point toward them only strongly pursuing impact talent rather than targeting marginal upgrades over role players.

If the Jays were to land Tucker, that’d almost certainly close the door on a reunion with Bichette. One team signing the top three free agents in an offseason is essentially without precedent, and adding both players would push Toronto’s luxury tax number well above $350MM. Bannon indeed suggests that while the Jays aren’t out of the running for Bichette, a new deal with their longtime shortstop looks less likely after the Okamoto signing.

Playing Okamoto and/or Barger regularly at third base pushes Ernie Clement to second, where Bichette would probably be penciled in if he heads back to Rogers Centre. The bigger deterrent may simply be a reluctance on the team’s part to make a long-term commitment to Bichette. Bannon writes that a reunion could be more likely if the infielder settles for a shorter deal that allows him to opt out after the first season.

Angels Sign Kirby Yates

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January 6: Los Angeles officially announced the signing on Tuesday evening. Their 40-man roster count climbs to 38.

December 30: The Angels have reportedly agreed to a one-year, $5MM contract with free agent reliever Kirby Yates. The veteran right-hander is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Yates gives the Angels yet another veteran reliever with some closing experience who’s in need of a rebound — in his case, ahead of what’ll be his age-39 season. The Halos will hope to finally get a full workload out of Robert Stephenson in the final season of his three-year, $33MM contract. They’ve also signed former Jays closer Jordan Romano and veteran reliever Drew Pomeranz to low-cost, one-year contracts this offseason as well.

If healthy — a major caveat, given the injury history in question here — Yates could be the best of the bunch. The two-time All-Star led the NL with 41 saves back in 2019 and has twice posted full seasons with an ERA shy of 1.20, including as recently as the 2024 season with Texas.

Since an age-30 breakout with the Padres, the late-blooming Yates has pitched 355 innings with a 2.84 earned run average, 97 saves, 65 holds and only 13 blown save opportunities. He’s fanned a whopping 35.1% of his opponents along the way (backed by a huge 15.7% swinging-strike rate) and walked 9.6% of the batters he’s faced. Coincidentally enough, the Angels were the team from which the Padres claimed Yates off waivers. They’d picked Yates up themselves via waivers the prior October. He pitched only one inning as an Angel and was tagged for two runs.

Yates now returns for a second stint with the Angels. The signing reunites him with veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux, who was Yates’ pitching coach with the ’24 Rangers. Yates saved 33 games and posted an immaculate 1.17 ERA with a 36% strikeout rate that season.

That performance was enough to land him a hearty $13MM guarantee on a one-year deal with the Dodgers. But while Yates landed the first World Series ring of his career, the marriage didn’t go particularly well. He was thrice placed on the injured list — twice for hamstring strains and once due to a lower back injury — and pitched only 41 1/3 innings. The veteran righty’s 5.23 earned run average was one of the worst marks of his career, and his 92.8 mph average four-seam velocity was his lowest since 2013. Yates still punched out an excellent 29.6% of his opponents, but he was doomed by home runs, yielding an average of 1.96 round-trippers per nine frames.

While Yates has typically been excellent when healthy, he’s had his share of injuries. He pitched only 4 1/3 innings in 2020 due to bone spurs in his elbow. He signed with the Blue Jays in free agency that offseason but never pitched an inning for Toronto. He required Tommy John surgery at the end of spring training. From 2020-22, Yates pitched only 11 1/3 innings in the majors.

The Angels will bet on Yates’ track record and hope for better help. Between Yates, Stephenson, Romano and Pomeranz, they certainly aren’t lacking talent at the back end of the bullpen — but there’s a clear lack of consistency and durability. They’ll hope to add flamethrower Ben Joyce to that mix at some point this season, though his timetable for a return from last May’s surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder remains murky.

It’s not entirely clear where the Yates signing takes the Angels’ payroll. RosterResource projected them for a payroll around $172MM this morning, but that was before the Angels and Anthony Rendon agreed to defer the payment of the final year and $38MM on his contract for a reported three to five seasons. Details surrounding that still-fresh arrangement have yet to surface in full, but it’s clear that the Angels are quite a bit south of the roughly $206MM payroll figure at which they ended the 2025 campaign.

Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News first reported that Yates was signing a one-year deal with the Angels. Jon Heyman of The New York Post had the $5MM guarantee.

Dodgers, Braves Among Teams To Show Interest In Freddy Peralta

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Though the Brewers have continually downplayed the possibility of actually trading him, ace right-hander Freddy Peralta continues to draw a wide array of interest. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic include the Dodgers and Braves among a list of teams to inquire with the Brewers, joining a group of previously reported clubs that includes the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox. All of those clubs are still believed to have interest in the righty.

Peralta’s appeal is obvious. He’s a durable 29-year-old righty with a 3.30 ERA over his past five seasons, including a career-low 2.70 earned run average this past season (albeit with rate stats and fielding-independent marks that suggest it’s more reasonable to expect a low-3.00s ERA than another sub-3.00 mark). Peralta averages nearly 95 mph on his heater, misses bats at a high level, has only slightly worse-than-average command and, crucially, is earning just $8MM next season. That’s his final year before free agency, but even as a one-year rental, a team surrendering young talent to acquire Peralta would know that he’ll likely net a 2027 draft pick, as he’s a virtual lock to receive and reject a qualifying offer.

For luxury-paying clubs, Peralta’s modest salary is particularly enticing. That’s all the truer for teams like the Yankees, Mets and Dodgers, who figure to be in the top penalty tier for at least a third consecutive season. Those clubs are effectively paying double for any subsequent additions to the payroll. The Dodgers are already in the top tax bracket and thus would pay a 110% tax on any new additions to the payroll. The two New York clubs are just shy of the top tax bracket, but even while sitting in the third penalty tier, they’d be subject to a 95% tax. And both are close enough to the fourth-tier threshold that Peralta would put them right up against it or push them over.

For the Braves and Red Sox, the penalties would be far less severe. Atlanta didn’t pay the tax at all last year and is currently in the first penalty tier. They’d receive only a 20% ($1.6MM) slap on the wrist for adding Peralta’s salary to the ledger. The Red Sox would be crossing the tax line for just the second straight season, as they were under the threshold in 2024. They’re currently about $3MM shy of the tax cutoff, per RosterResource. As a second-time offender they’d pay a 30% tax on the first $20MM by which they exceed the limit. For Peralta, that’d be only a hair over $1.5MM.

In terms of roster fit, it’s pretty easy to see how Peralta would fit onto any of the listed clubs. Atlanta currently has Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Reynaldo Lopez and Hurston Waldrep lined up as its likely top five. Each of Sale, Strider, Schwellenbach and Lopez missed time with injuries in 2025. Lopez started only one game. Sale missed more than two months with fractures in his ribcage. Schwellenbach’s season ended in late June when he suffered a fracture in his right elbow. Strider posted a 4.45 ERA in his first season back from UCL surgery. Waldrep was impressive as a rookie but tossed only 56 1/3 innings in the majors.

The Dodgers certainly don’t “need” more starting pitching, but the old “no such thing as too much pitching” adage applies to veritably any club. Adding Peralta would be about further deepening the club’s October options. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski give the Dodgers an embarrassment of riches, and high-upside younger arms like River Ryan, Gavin Stone and Kyle Hurt are all on the mend from 2024 surgeries. Top prospect Jackson Ferris isn’t far from MLB readiness. It’s a deep group, but the Dodgers probably don’t want to simply presume that all of their more established arms will be healthy for the postseason. Bringing in another top-tier arm to join the group would further bolster their choices as they pursue an elusive threepeat.

The Yankees have yet to make an addition to the big league roster, beyond re-signing Ryan Yarbrough on a cheap one-year deal and selecting righty Cade Winquest from the Cardinals in the Rule 5 Draft. With Carlos Rodon, Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt all ticketed to open the season on the injured list, they could use some rotation help. The Mets, meanwhile, have subtracted more big names than they’ve added this winter. President of baseball ops David Stearns knows Peralta well from his Milwaukee days. The current Mets rotation is heavily reliant on rebounds from Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea as well as notable steps forward from prospects like Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat. The Red Sox have added Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo to what was already a pretty deep mix, but Peralta would be a clearer No. 2 option behind ace Garrett Crochet than Gray or right-hander Brayan Bello.

Other teams have surely shown interest in Peralta. Earlier in the offseason, it was reported that the Astros had looked into him, but they’ve since added Mike Burrows in a trade and Tatsuya Imai in free agency. The Orioles have shown interest as well, though Baltimore acquired Shane Baz and re-signed Zach Eflin, at least reducing some urgency. (Peralta would still be a notable and needed upgrade to the top end of the staff.) The Athletic’s report notes that some lower-payroll clubs are also looking into Peralta, given that his $8MM price point is affordable for any team.

Broadly speaking, it stands to reason that any 2026 postseason hopeful in the sport has probably at least gauged the asking price on Peralta. Rosenthal and Sammon suggest that a major league-ready starting pitcher is very likely to be a starting point in any talks regarding Peralta. Milwaukee won an MLB-best 97 games in 2025 and is seen as a favorite in the NL Central as a result. The Brewers know they could also get a compensatory pick in the 2027 draft if and when Peralta departs via free agency. They’re a revenue sharing recipient who doesn’t pay the luxury tax, so that pick would come at the end of the first round. That establishes a pretty reasonable base line that needs to be exceeded in any trade talks, and targeting MLB-ready help for a win-now club is only natural.

A Peralta trade shouldn’t be seen as likely. Milwaukee brass has publicly downplayed the possibility, but the Brewers will never fully close themselves off to trades of any notable stars as they approach free agency. Milwaukee traded Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and Josh Hader near the end of their original windows of club control, after all. However, the Brewers also held onto Willy Adames for the 2024 season, knowing he’d likely reject a qualifying offer and depart via free agency, which is precisely how things played out. Keeping Peralta would give Milwaukee a deep and talented rotation, as he’d be joined by Brandon Woodruff, Jacob Misiorowski, Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick, with depth options including Logan Henderson, Tobias Myers and former top prospect Robert Gasser, who’ll be returning from Tommy John surgery.

Join The Beta Test For The New Trade Rumors iPhone App

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It’s been 11 years since our iOS app launched. Now, the fully revamped version is almost ready for your iPhone or iPad.

Here’s what’s new:

  • Completely rebuilt and modernized interface, so that we can deliver new features and system integrations that we haven’t been able to before, and do so quickly.
  • Redesigned comment threads with improvements for composing and replying to comments.
  • Quick search for a team or player with the ability to read those feeds without adding them to your saved feeds. Great for quickly looking up things you might care about occasionally without clogging up your primary reading.
  • Trade Rumors Front Office content fully available within the app. Just go to the Settings icon in the upper right and log in.

To join the beta test, you’ll first need to download Apple’s TestFlight app from the App Store.  Then go here to download the beta version of Trade Rumors.  If you already have the old version of the app, the new app will take the place of it on your device.

Send your feedback to traderumorsapp@gmail.com, or leave a comment on this post.  We are eager to catch bugs and address other concerns before rolling the app out in the store.

Android user? Don’t worry, we’re revamping our Android app in much the same way.  Google seems to make large-group beta testing more difficult on Android, so we’re planning to just test it internally and roll it out to the store when it’s ready.

Athletics Sign Tyler Soderstrom To Seven-Year Extension

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Jan. 5: Some details on the breakdown are provided by Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Soderstrom gets a $3MM signing bonus and $1MM salary in 2026. His salary then jumps to $6MM, $10MM, $12MM, $16MM, $17MM and $19MM in the subsequent seasons. The 2033 club option is worth $27MM with a $2MM buyout. His 2032 and 2033 salaries can jump by $1MM or $2MM based on MVP finishing, though specifics of those escalators haven’t been reported. There should also be further escalators, considering Passan’s reporting that the deal can max out at $131MM. Soderstrom also gets some limited no-trade protection for 2032 and 2033, though details are also unreported in that department.

Dec. 29: The Athletics have formally announced the extension.

Dec. 25: The Athletics aren’t taking the holiday off. They’re in agreement with outfielder Tyler Soderstrom on a seven-year, $86MM extension, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Passan adds that there’s a club option for 2033 and escalators that could push the contract value by another $45MM if the option is exercised. The deal buys out at least three free agent years and potentially a fourth, keeping him under club control through his age-31 season. Soderstrom is represented by Paragon Sports International.

Soderstrom becomes the latest core offensive piece whom the A’s lock up on a long-term deal. They extended Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler on respective $60MM and $65.5MM guarantees last winter. Soderstrom tops those by a decent margin, becoming the largest contract in club history in the process. Their three-year, $67MM free agent deal with Luis Severino had previously been that high-water mark.

[Related: Largest Contract in Franchise History for Each MLB Team]

The lefty-hitting Soderstrom was a first-round pick in 2020. He’d been an excellent offensive player dating back to high school. The biggest question was where he’d fit on the other side of the ball. While Soderstrom was drafted as a catcher, most scouts felt he’d need to move off the position. That has essentially been borne out, as his only 15 MLB starts behind the dish came during his 2023 rookie season. The fallback for poor defensive catchers is generally first base, and that’s indeed where Soderstrom spent the early part of his big league tenure.

Soderstrom struggled over a 45-game sample as a rookie. His .233/.315/.429 slash across 213 plate appearances in 2024 was a significant step forward but hadn’t yet put him alongside Rooker, Butler and Shea Langeliers as clear members of the A’s core. Soderstrom entered this year with a little pressure in the form of 2024 fourth overall pick Nick Kurtz, a college first baseman who was expected to hit his way to the majors very quickly.

While Kurtz would do just that, Soderstrom’s breakout ’25 campaign ensured the A’s couldn’t afford to take him out of the lineup either. The 24-year-old was one of the league’s best hitters in the first few weeks of the season. He connected on nine home runs with a .284/.349/.560 slash before the end of April. Soderstrom was tied for fourth in MLB (behind only Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suárez) in homers through the season’s first month. By the time Kurtz forced his way to the majors on April 21, Soderstrom was locked into the middle of Mark Kotsay’s batting order.

That presented the A’s with a positional dilemma. Rooker is an everyday designated hitter. The 6’5″, 240-pound Kurtz wasn’t going to be able to play anywhere other than first base. Despite his catching/first base background, Soderstrom is a solid athlete and average runner. The A’s threw him into left field on the fly even though he’d had no professional experience there. They presumably expected to live with some defensive growing pains to keep his bat in the lineup.

Soderstrom dramatically exceeded those expectations. He graded 10 runs better than an average left fielder by measure of Defensive Runs Saved. Statcast graded his range five plays above average. Soderstrom ended the season as a Gold Glove finalist at a position he’d never played five months earlier. He joins Butler as core outfield pieces, ideally in a corner tandem flanking defensive specialist Denzel Clarke in center.

The increased defensive responsibility didn’t impact Soderstrom’s rhythm at the plate. He scuffled between May and June but rebounded with a .305/.359/.530 showing over the season’s final four months. Soderstrom finished with an overall .276/.346/.474 batting line while ranking fourth on the team with 25 homers. He improved his contact rate by six percentage points and held his own against same-handed pitching (.270/.315/.423) while teeing off on righties (.278/.356/.491). The  breakout also wasn’t a product of the A’s playing half their games at the hitter-friendly Sutter Heath Park. Soderstrom had an OPS north of .800 both at home and on the road.

As recently as this past summer, there was speculation about the A’s potentially swapping Soderstrom for a controllable starting pitcher. The extension firmly takes that off the table and ensures he’ll remain alongside Kurtz, Rooker, Butler and Jacob Wilson in an excellent offensive corps. The first three are signed through at least 2029. Kurtz and Wilson are under team control for five seasons. Langeliers has another two seasons of arbitration eligibility.

Soderstrom was already under club control for four seasons. He was a year closer to free agency than Butler was at the time of his extension, which explains why the price was a little more than $20MM higher. Soderstrom tops the $57.5MM guarantee which Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia received in the same service class, but that deal only extended K.C.’s control window by two seasons.

The A’s backloaded the Rooker and Butler extensions, with the highest salaries corresponding to their planned move to Las Vegas in 2028. The salary breakdown on Soderstrom’s deal hasn’t yet been reported. The A’s had a projected payroll around $87MM before today, as calculated by RosterResource. That’s $12MM above where they opened the ’25 season. General manager David Forst told MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos last week that the team was looking to upgrade a rotation that ranked 27th in ERA and 25th in strikeout percentage.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images.

Giants Sign Tyler Mahle

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January 5th: The Giants officially announced the Mahle signing today but still haven’t announced a corresponding 40-man roster move.

January 1st: Mahle is guaranteed $10MM on the deal, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Performance bonuses could bump it up near $13MM, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.

Dec. 31: The Giants are closing in on a deal with free agent right-hander Tyler Mahle, reports Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s a one-year pact, per Rubin. The 31-year-old Mahle is a client of ISE Baseball.

Mahle is coming off an injury-riddled 2025 with the Rangers, though he was productive when healthy. The veteran righty was one of the most pleasant early-season surprises, pitching to a 1.64 ERA over the first two months of the season. Mahle allowed two earned runs or fewer in 11 of his first 12 starts to begin the campaign. He was knocked around for eight earned runs across his first two starts of June, then hit the IL with shoulder fatigue. Mahle returned for a pair of outings in September, allowing a run over 9 2/3 innings.

Persistent maladies have limited Mahle to just 125 innings over the past three seasons. He made nine starts across a season and a half with Minnesota, missing time with a strained shoulder and a forearm issue. It was a disappointing outcome for the Twins, who parted with Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to land Mahle at the 2022 trade deadline. After signing with Texas in December 2023, Mahle missed the first four months of the year while recovering from elbow surgery. After three games with his new club, he went down with shoulder tightness and missed the rest of the year.

Mahle was routinely striking out more than a batter per inning during his peak years with Cincinnati, but those numbers have tailed off as the injuries have mounted. Mahle posted an uninspiring 19.1% strikeout rate last season. He sat at 92 mph with his fastball, down a couple of ticks from his best seasons with the Reds. The ERA estimators all suggest Mahle’s 2.18 ERA in 2025 should be viewed with skepticism. His xERA and xFIP were both above 4.00, while his SIERA was all the way up at 4.62. Mahle ran hot with home run luck (4.9% HR/FB), while also benefiting from a career-high 84.6% LOB%.

It was reported in mid-December that the Giants were still in the market for pitching after signing righty Adrian Houser. With Justin Verlander hitting free agency, the club entered the offseason with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray as the only guaranteed members of the 2026 rotation. Landen Roupp, who missed the final six weeks of the 2025 campaign with a knee injury, is also expected to be on the staff. Houser and Mahle are the favorites to round out the group.

President of baseball operations Buster Posey entered the offseason focused on adding to the rotation and the bullpen. While the club has been connected to some of the bigger names on the starter market, including Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen, the moves so far have been relatively minor. Houser came on board via a two-year, $22MM pact with a club option for a third season. The Giants added relievers Jason Foley and Sam Hentges on cheap deals. Mahle now joins the squad on a one-year deal.

Given the injury histories for Ray and Mahle, plus the limited track record for Roupp, San Francisco will likely need to lean on internal options for additional innings. Carson Whisenhunt, Carson Seymour, and Kai-Wei Teng all received opportunities last season, but none delivered useful results. Hayden Birdsong graduated from a long relief role to the rotation, but control issues led to a demotion to Triple-A. Keaton Winn and Blade Tidwell (acquired in the Tyler Rogers trade) missed time with injuries. Trevor McDonald might be the leading candidate to open the year as the sixth starter/injury fill-in. The righty closed the year with a pair of stellar outings, tossing six innings of one-run ball against the Dodgers and striking out 10 Rockies over seven frames.

RosterResource currently has the Giants’ payroll at $175MM for 2026. That mark doesn’t include Mahle’s deal or the $17MM payment owed to Blake Snell in mid-January as part of his deferred signing bonus. When adding in those considerations, the club is on track to comfortably exceed the $177MM it spent on payroll last season. The increase in expenses could be the reason the Giants ultimately rounded out the rotation with low-cost veterans in Houser and Mahle. A general hesitation by the front office to pursue long-term deals for starters likely also factored in.

Photos courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Royals Extend Matt Quatraro

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The Royals announced this afternoon that they’ve signed manager Matt Quatraro to a three-year extension. Quatraro was already under contract through 2026 but now has signed on for the 2027-29 seasons as well. The announcement notes that the deal includes a club option for the 2030 campaign.

Quatraro, 52, took over managing the Royals after the 2022 season, replacing Mike Matheny. Prior to taking his current role with the Royals, Quatraro served as a bench coach and third base coach for the Rays, as well as an assistant hitting coach in Cleveland. Quatraro’s first year at the helm in Kansas City was a disastrous one, as his team lost 106 games. That’s a record that can’t fairly be attributed to Quatraro in full, however, seeing as he inherited a franchise coming off a 97-loss campaign that last finished above .500 in 2015. After an aggressive push towards contention during the 2023-24 offseason, Quatraro managed to lead the Royals back into the playoffs as they posted a respectable 86-76 record.

That was good for second place in the AL Central that year and earned Kansas City a Wild Card spot. They ultimately swept the Orioles out of the playoffs that year before falling to the Yankees in a four-game ALDS. That season earned Quatraro a second place finish in AL Manager of the Year voting, just behind Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. After another busy offseason last year, the Royals were hoping to repeat that performance and return to the playoffs. Things didn’t go quite so well the second time around, as the team finished with an 82-80 record that left them five games back of the final Wild Card spot.

Disappointing as that outcome was, however, extensions for Seth Lugo and Maikel Garcia have suggested that the front office and ownership feel things are still trending in the right direction, and deals to bring in pieces like Isaac Collins and Matt Strahm further indicate that the Royals enter 2026 with postseason aspirations once again. That’s exceptional for a Royals club that had enjoyed just four season above .500 in the 30 years preceding Quatraro’s ascension to the manager’s chair. Given the team’s relative success under Quatraro compared to their recent history (the club’s back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014-15 notwithstanding), it’s hardly a shock that the Royals decided to work out a new deal with their skipper rather than have him enter the 2026 campaign as a lame duck.

With Quatraro now under contract for at least the next four seasons, the Royals will enter what could prove to be a pivotal season for the club with some stability in the dugout. As Kansas City looks to maximize it’s years with superstar and franchise face Bobby Witt Jr. under franchise control, they’ve aggressively added players to the team who figure to come off the books in the coming years. Lugo, Jonathan India, Michael Wacha, Carlos Estevez, Kris Bubic, and Salvador Perez could all reach free agency either this offseason or next. Another disappointing season could leave the team in a difficult spot given ownership’s apparent hesitance to add more to a payroll that’s already at franchise record levels. By contrast, a return to the playoffs could cement this as one of the franchise’s best stretches in recent history.

Blue Jays Sign Kazuma Okamoto

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TODAY: The Blue Jays officially announced Okamoto’s signing.  Right-hander Paxton Schultz was designated for assignment to open up a 40-man roster spot for Okamoto.

JANUARY 3: The Blue Jays have finally made a big strike in the Japanese market, as Toronto has signed infielder Kazuma Okamoto to a four-year, $60MM contract.  It is a straight four-year deal without any opt-outs.  The contract breaks down as a $5MM signing bonus and a $7MM salary for Okamoto in 2026, and then $16MM in each of the deal’s final three years.  Okamoto is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Okamoto’s 45-day posting window was set to expire tomorrow at 4pm CT, so it was expected that the infielder would settle on his first Major League team today and finalize the agreement (i.e. complete a physical) before Sunday’s deadline.  MLB Trade Rumors ranked Okamoto 19th on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, and our projection of a four-year, $64MM deal was just slightly above what Okamoto landed from the Jays.

Matching financial expectations is no small feat, given how Tatsuya Imai (three years/$54MM guarantee from the Astros with two opt-out clauses) and Munetaka Murakami (two years, $34MM from the White Sox) both had to settle for shorter-term deals in their trips through the posting window this winter.  Evaluators and scouts didn’t quite view Okamoto, Imai, and Murakami in the same tier as other big-ticket NPB arrivals from past seasons, though Okamoto perhaps had fewer red flags, resulting in his nice payday.

Okamoto’s contract also translates to a $10.875MM posting fee for the Yomiuri Giants, the infielder’s now-former NPB team.  As per the terms of the NPB/MLB posting system, the NPB team’s fee is 20% of the first $25MM of a player’s guaranteed MLB contract, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of all further spending.

It was a little under a month ago that Toronto was first linked to Okamoto, and the 29-year-old now projects to be the Jays’ regular third baseman.  Okamoto also has experience playing first base (making him an overqualified backup option to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) and in the outfield, so he joins Addison Barger and Davis Schneider as Blue Jays players who can contribute in both infield and outfield roles.

For Barger in particular, it now seems like he’ll platoon with Okamoto at third base, while playing in the corner outfield when he isn’t at the hot corner.  This could bump Ernie Clement into primarily a second base role, with Andres Gimenez expected to move from second base to an everyday shortstop role.  The right-handed hitting Clement can also spell the lefty-swinging Gimenez at shortstop when a southpaw is on the mound, with Schneider (another righty bat) moving to second base in those circumstances.

All of these moving pieces don’t even factor in the possibility that Bo Bichette could still re-sign with the Blue Jays, even with Okamoto now in the fold.  If Bichette returns to an everyday role at either shortstop or (perhaps more likely) second base, Barger or Okamoto could see more time in the outfield.  On the flip side, if the Blue Jays were to land another rumored target in outfielder Kyle Tucker, Toronto would then likely have to trade from a crowded outfield mix that would include Tucker, Daulton Varsho, George Springer and Anthony Santander splitting DH duty and one corner outfield slot, Nathan Lukes, Myles Straw, Joey Loperfido, and Okamoto, Barger, and Schneider all available in a part-time outfield capacity.

However things play out, it adds to what has already been a fascinating offseason for a Blue Jays team that came within two outs of winning Game 7 of the World Series.  The team’s efforts to add the final piece of the puzzle have mostly focused on pitching to date, with Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce signed to reinforce the rotation, and Tyler Rogers added to the relief corps.

Bichette and Tucker have naturally dominated the rumor mill when it came to possible lineup additions, and players like Cody Bellinger, Ketel Marte, Alex Bregman, and Yoan Moncada were also reportedly on Toronto’s radar.  The Okamoto signing probably closes the door on Bregman and Moncada specifically since the two are third basemen, unless the Jays made the curious decision of using Okamoto primarily as a corner outfielder.

Okamoto’s third base defense was strong enough to earn Golden Glove awards when playing with Yomiuri Giants in 2021-22, though he has played an increased amount at first base in the last three years.  Scouts generally view Okamoto as at least a decent defensive third baseman at the MLB level, and his ability to also capably handle first base and left field adds to his versatility around the diamond.

Moreso than his glovework, however, Okamoto’s biggest plus is his bat.  One of the top hitters in Japan for most of the last decade, Okamoto has hit .277/.361/.521 with 248 home runs over 4494 plate appearances with the Giants.  He had a run of six straight seasons of 30+ homers from 2018-23 before dropping to 27 long balls in 2024, and he hit 15 homers with a .322/.411/.581 slash line over 314 PA in 2025 in a season interrupted by an elbow injury that cost Okamoto roughly three months of the NPB campaign.

A six-time NPB All-Star and a member of Japan’s World Baseball Classic-winning team in 2023, Okamoto is known for his ability to generate power while still making a lot of hard contact without many strikeouts.  This approach fits right into the offensive gameplan that worked so well for the Jays in 2025.  Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins drew raves for his work in helping several Toronto hitters break out last season, and he could certainly aid Okamoto in making a smooth transition to MLB, perhaps particularly when it comes to adjusting to higher-velocity pitching.  As noted by Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, Okamoto has been inconsistent against higher-velo (94mph+) pitches, but he already showed improvement in this department in 2025.

The signing also represents a breakthrough for the Jays in their efforts to land a high-profile Japanese star.  The Blue Jays’ attempts to sign Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki during the previous two offseasons were all thwarted by the Dodgers, which added some extra sting when all three players (particularly World Series MVP Yamamoto) contributed heavily to Los Angeles’ narrow win over the Jays in the Fall Classic.

While the Dodgers weren’t publicly known to be in on Okamoto, such teams as the Red Sox, Pirates, Cubs, Angels, Mariners, and Padres were all linked to his market.  Earlier this afternoon, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand indicated that San Diego “could be the frontrunner,” but instead it was Toronto who ended up sealing the deal.

Okamoto’s $60MM contract represents another big expenditure for a Blue Jays organization that has already taken spending to team-record heights in recent years, and now put the club in the upper echelons of league-wide spending.  RosterResource estimates a $286MM payroll for the Jays in 2026, and a luxury tax number of around $308.8MM.

This puts Toronto over the highest tax threshold of $304MM, meaning the team will again see their first-round pick in the 2027 draft dropped back 10 places, plus they’ll face a 90% surcharge on any further spending.  It’s clear that the Jays and Rogers Communications (the team’s ownership group) are ready to flex their financial muscle more than ever in pursuit of a World Series banner, so more splurges on Bichette or Tucker can’t be ruled out.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan was the first to report the signing, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the contract’s length and value.  MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand added the details about the $5MM signing bonus and the lack of opt-outs, and the Associated Press had the annual salary breakdown.

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