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White Sox Acquire Max Stassi From Braves

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December 11: Atlanta is paying Stassi’s deal down to the league minimum, according to the Associated Press; they’ll send $6.26MM in cash. That amount also counts against the Braves luxury tax number, which sits at an estimated $263MM according to Roster Resource. As second-time payors in the second tier of penalization, they’ll pay a 42% tax on that money. Stassi will cost the Braves around $8.89MM overall.

December 9: The White Sox have acquired Max Stassi and cash considerations from the Braves in exchange for a player to be named later. Both teams have announced the deal. Per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun Times, the Braves are expected to pay for the majority of Stassi’s $7MM salary next season.

Stassi, 33 in March, spent just one day in the Braves organization after being acquired from the Angels yesterday in a multi-played deal with the Angels alongside infielder David Fletcher. Now, the veteran catcher is off to his third organization in two days, where he figures to have the opportunity to step into a regular role on the south side of Chicago. The White Sox lost Yasmani Grandal to free agency earlier this offseason and were in need of a veteran backstop to pair with youngster Korey Lee behind the plate in 2024.

It’s a need Stassi is more than capable of fulfilling. While the veteran missed the entire 2023 season, only the first half of his absence was due to the left hip strain that prevented him from being on the Opening Day roster in Anaheim last season. Stassi recovered from that issue midseason, but he and his wife revealed last month that the three-months premature birth of their son necessitated Stassi to step away from the game and attend to his family for the remainder of the 2023 campaign.

That said, Stassi is expected to return to the field in 2024 and has shown himself to be a quality big league catcher over the past few seasons. Initially drafted by the A’s in the fourth round of the 2009 draft, Stassi made his big league debut back in 2013 with the Astros but did not find a regular role in the majors until the 2018 season when he split time behind the plate in Houston with Brian McCann and Martin Maldonado. Stassi did well for himself in a backup role that season, slashing a respectable .226/.316/.394 in 250 plate appearances. While Stassi struggled through 51 games in 2019, prompting the Astros to trade him to the Angels at that year’s trade deadline, Stassi was given a more prominent role upon his arrival in Anaheim.

In 118 games between the shortened 2020 campaign and his first full season as an Angel in 2021, Stassi combined above-average offense at the plate (113 wRC+) with strong defense behind it to be the ninth most valuable catcher in the league according to fWAR. That strong performance led the Angels to sign Stassi to an extension, though that decision would prove ill-fated. As effective as Stassi was during those two seasons, he took a step back in 2022, slashing a meager .180/.267/.363 (63 wRC+) at the plate while posting framing numbers that were closer to average than the elite figures he had posted earlier in his career.

While the struggles Stassi faced in 2022 and his time away from the game in 2023 make it an understandable decision for the Angels and Braves to go in another direction behind the plate in 2024, it’s easy to see why the addition of Stassi would be intriguing for the White Sox. After all, Lee has less than 100 plate appearances of experience in the big leagues and, even if the club believes the former top-100 prospect to be their catcher of the future, will surely need time and assistant as he looks to transition into a new role as a full-time big leaguer. The addition of a veteran catcher such as Stassi should help with that transition, while also creating a substantial bit of upside for Chicago. Stassi’s contract includes a $7MM 2025 club option that features a $500K buyout; if the veteran is able to regain the form he flashed in 2020 and 2021, that $6.5MM decision would be a no-brainer to pick up and make for an attractive trade chip as the White Sox retool their roster with an eye toward the future.

For the Braves, the deal clears a portion of Stassi’s salary from their books while clearing an unnecessary piece from their roster. Atlanta already had one of the best catching tandems in the game with Sean Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud behind the plate, rendering Stassi as largely superfluous. In conjunction with the trade that brought Stassi and Fletcher to Atlanta in exchange for Evan White and the deal that shipped Marco Gonzales to the Pirates, the Braves have shaved roughly $5MM off their payroll since acquiring Gonzales and White as part of the Jarred Kelenic trade during the Winter Meetings while adding a bench piece in Fletcher who better fits the club’s roster than any of Gonzales, White, or Stassi.

Reds Sign Jeimer Candelario To Three-Year Deal

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The Reds officially announced the signing of third baseman Jeimer Candelario to a three-year contract with a club option for 2027. Candelario, a client of Premier Talent Sports and Entertainment, is guaranteed $45MM. The option could take the total to four years and $60MM.

Candelario, 30, is coming off one of the finest seasons of his career, having turned in a combined .251/.336/.471 batting line with 22 home runs (a career-high), 39 doubles, three triples and an 8-for-9 showing in stolen base attempts. That production came in a season split between the Nationals, who signed him to a one-year $5MM deal after the Tigers non-tendered him last winter, and the Cubs, who originally signed Candelario, traded him to Detroit in 2017, and reacquired him this past July.

Prior to his big league debut, Candelario was a touted prospect who ranked near the top of the farm systems in both Chicago and Detroit. He enjoyed an impressive rookie showing in 2017 (.283/.359/.425 in 38 games) but struggled to replicate that production in 2018 and saw his offense crater in 2019. Candelario bounced back with the Tigers both in 2020 and 2021, but Detroit cut him loose after a down year in 2022, wherein he posted a .217/.272/.361 slash in 467 plate appearances. Though Candelario’s time with the Tigers came to an unceremonious end, the switch-hitter has now played at a roughly three- to four-WAR pace in three of his past four seasons between the 2020 season, when he hit .297/.369/.503 in the shortened 60-game campaign, and his strong showings in 2021 and 2023.

That performance has positioned him nicely as one of the offseason’s top positional free agents. MLBTR ranked him thirteenth on our annual Top 50 MLB free agents list while projecting him for a four-year, $70MM deal. Only Shohei Ohtani, Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, and Teoscar Hernandez ranked higher than Candelario among free agent position players this offseason. Our projection came in higher than Candelario’s actual guarantee, which saw him receive a slightly lower AAV and one less guaranteed year than we projected him for.

While the Reds are an unexpected fit for Candelario at first glance, given the club’s glut of young infield talent, they were first linked to him several weeks ago. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported this morning that the Reds met with Candelario’s reps twice during this week’s Winter Meetings and could look to add Candelario to the roster, thus pushing utilityman Spencer Steer to the outfield and possibly opening the door for the Reds to deal an infielder for rotation help. With Candelario, Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand all seemingly lined up for regular playing time on the infield dirt, it’s possible that Jonathan India or Noelvi Marte could find themselves dangled in trade talks as the odd man out, with the other likely getting regular reps at DH.

That the Reds are poised to enjoy such an embarrassment of riches around their infield could certainly behoove them if they look to trade from their depth to address other areas of need on the roster. This offseason’s positional class of free agents is among the weakest of the past several years, and has left plenty of teams on the lookout for potential upgrades to their lineup. The Reds, by contrast, are in need of pitching upgrades (even after landing right-handers Nick Martinez and Emilio Pagan late last month) after posting the league’s third-worst rotation ERA (5.73) and landing in the bottom six in terms of overall team ERA (4.83).

To that end, it’s hardly a surprise that the Reds have been connected to the likes of right-handers Tyler Glasnow of the Rays, Shane Bieber of the Guardians, and Dylan Cease of the White Sox in trade talks this offseason. Any of those front-of-the-rotation arms would represent a major improvement over Cincinnati’s current rotation, which currently figures to be headlined by youngsters Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott. If the Reds are indeed successful in leveraging their excess infield depth to land an ace-caliber arm for the rotation, signing Candelario will have allowed the club to make such a deal without dealing more significant damage to a promising young core of hitters, similarly to how the Marlins shored up their rotation depth by signing Johnny Cueto just days before shipping Pablo Lopez to Minnesota in a package that brought back Luis Arraez last winter.

While the $15MM average annual value of Candelario’s deal makes the club’s new infielder their most expensive asset, the signing only boosts the Reds’ projected payroll to $86MM for 2024, according to RosterResource. That’s roughly in line with the payroll the club ended the 2023 season with, and a far cry from their all-time high of $126MM (per Cot’s Baseball Contracts) back in 2019. In other words, the Reds should have plenty of room to make additional moves to shore up the club on the heels of an 82-win 2023 season that saw them finish just two games back of an NL Wild Card spot, even after adding Candelario to the mix.

Mike Rodriguez first reported the Reds and Candelario were in advanced discussions. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand was first to report an agreement had been reached. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported the three-year, $45MM guarantee with a fourth-year club option that could tack on another $15MM.

Dodgers Re-Sign Joe Kelly

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The Dodgers announced that they have re-signed right-hander Joe Kelly to a one-year, $8MM contract. Los Angeles passed on a $9.5MM club option on the ACES client last month, instead buying Kelly out for $1MM and sending him into free agency.

This will mark Kelly’s third separate stint in Dodger Blue.  The reliever first joined the team on a three-year, $25MM free agent contract during the 2018-19 offseason, and after L.A. declined a $12MM club option for a fourth year of that deal, Kelly signed with the White Sox on a two-year, $17MM pact.  2023 was the last guaranteed year of that deal, and with Chicago caught in the midst of a disastrous season, the Sox moved Kelly and Lance Lynn to the Dodgers prior to the trade deadline.

Kelly had a 4.97 ERA over 29 innings for the White Sox prior to the trade, but he regained his form in his old stomping grounds with a sparking 1.74 ERA in 10 1/3 innings over 11 appearances for the Dodgers.  Since Kelly’s secondary numbers with Chicago had been far more impressive than his ERA, the Dodgers bet correctly that Kelly was due some positive course-correction.  For the season as a whole, Kelly posted a 4.12 ERA, 58% grounder rate, 35.7% strikeout rate, and 10.7% walk rate over 39 1/3 innings.  While the walk rate is on the high side, the outstanding strikeout and grounder numbers made up for some shaky control, and Kelly’s arm is still very live at age 35, with a fastball averaging 98.9mph.

Despite these results, Kelly’s health has been a question mark, which likely factored into the Dodgers’ decision to decline that $9.5MM option.  Kelly has been on the injured list eight times over the last four seasons, with three of those stints (due to forearm inflammation, elbow inflammation, and a groin strain) coming in 2023.  While none of the injuries were overly serious, the cumulative IL time cost Kelly around two months of the season, and creates some doubt about how well he can hold up over the course of a full campaign and into what the Dodgers hope will be a deep run into the playoffs.

The bullpen was a big strength for the Dodgers last season, and reinforcing that strength is of particular import considering all of the questions L.A. is facing in the starting rotation.  The Dodgers will surely add some depth and possibly even some superstar arms to the pitching staff by winter’s end, yet obviously it helps the run prevention efforts on the whole if the relief corps has enough depth and quality to help bail out the starters.  Evan Phillips will return as the closer, with Kelly joining Brusdar Graterol and Caleb Ferguson as primary setup options.

Robert Murray of FanSided originally reported that the two sides were “very close” to a deal. Jim Bowden of The Athletic first reported the terms.

Dodgers Trade Victor Gonzalez To Yankees

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11:03am: The two teams have announced the trade.

9:48am: The Yankees are acquiring left-handed reliever Victor Gonzalez and minor league infield prospect Jorbit Vivas from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league infielder Trey Sweeney, reports Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. Yesterday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the Yankees were acquiring a pair of 40-man players from the Dodgers in exchange for a prospect not on New York’s 40-man. The trade clears a pair of spots on L.A.’s roster to accommodate the signings of Shohei Ohtani and Joe Kelly.

Gonzalez, 28, has a minor league option remaining but also comes to the Yankees with a solid MLB track record. He’s capable of stepping directly into manager Aaron Boone’s bullpen and will likely be viewed as a favorite to do so. He has far more big league experience than fellow southpaw Matt Krook, making Gonzalez an option to join Nick Ramirez as a second southpaw option for Boone.

Gonzalez missed the 2022 season due to an elbow injury that required an arthroscopic debridement procedure, but he’s logged 89 1/3 innings for the Dodgers from 2020-23, pitching to a 3.22 earned run average with solid strikeout and walk rates (23.2% and 8.4%, respectively) in addition to a massive 58.1% grounder rate. The Yankees tend to gravitate toward relievers with plus ground-ball rates and better-than-average velocity, and Gonzalez checks both boxes, averaging just under 95 mph with a sinker that tops out in the upper 90s.

Gonzalez’s 2023 season wasn’t as sharp as his dominant 2020 MLB debut, but he still posted a 4.01 ERA with strikeout and walk rates that were actually improvements over their 2021 levels. The lefty is also among the game’s best in terms of inducing weak contact, evidenced by a career 84.9 mph average exit velocity and 30.7% hard-hit rate — both drastically lower than this past season’s respective league averages of 89 mph and 39.2%.

The Yankees can control Gonzalez for an additional three seasons. He’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn just a $1MM salary in 2024 and will be due subsequent raises building off that foundation in 2025 and 2026 before reaching the open market in the 2026-27 offseason. Gonzalez offers a similar skill set to that of free agent Wandy Peralta, whom the Yankees have reportedly had interest in re-signing, but Gonzalez will come at a fraction of the fiscal cost.

New York also acquires the 22-year-old Vivas, who’s generally considered one of the better prospects in a deep Dodgers farm. MLB.com pegs him tenth in the system, while FanGraphs had him 11th and Baseball America ranked him 20th. All of those rankings are dated by a few months now, but there’s little that Vivas did during his 2023 campaign to radically drop his stock. He posted an excellent .280/.391/.436 slash with 12 homers, 21 steals and more walks than strikeouts in 109 games as a 22-year-old against older competition in Double-A last year.

Vivas jumped to Triple-A late in the season and turned in a lackluster .225/.339/.294 showing at the top minor league level, but that came in a tiny sample of 121 plate appearances and still came with elite walk (12.4%) and strikeout (15.7%) rates. He’s seen time at both second base and third base, though scouting reports on him question whether he’ll have the arm to ultimately handle the hot corner in the Majors. Even if he doesn’t, Vivas is a close-to-MLB-ready second base prospect with a plus hit tool, double-digit home run power and solid baserunning instincts.

In exchange for an affordable Peralta replacement and a quality second base prospect, the Yankees will surrender Sweeney, whom they selected with the No. 20 overall selection in the 2021 draft. Sweeney briefly reached Double-A as a 22-year-old in 2022, but the 2023 season was his first year with notable experience at that level. The 23-year-old handled himself well, batting .252/.367/.411 in a generally pitcher-friendly setting, popping 13 homers and swiping 20 bases with a gaudy 13.8% walk rate and lower-than-average 19.1% strikeout rate.

Sweeney is a well-regarded prospect himself, but perhaps a step below the rung many Yankees fans would expect based on his draft pedigree. FanGraphs ranked him third in the Yankees’ system, but MLB.com had him eighth and Baseball America tabbed him 15th. Sweeney is a bat-first prospect whose long-term future hinges on whether he can stick at shortstop, move to third base on a full-time basis, or settle in as a utility infielder who can bounce around the diamond. He’s a relatively near-MLB addition to the Dodgers’ system, effectively replacing Vivas but doing so without requiring a spot on the 40-man roster until next offseason.

Roki Sasaki Asks To Be Posted For MLB Teams, Chiba Lotte Marines Likely To Deny Request

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Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki has asked the Chiba Lotte Marines to make him available to MLB teams via the posting system this winter, according to Sponichi Annex (Japanese language link from Yahoo Japan).  Nippon Professional Baseball teams have until December 15 to post players for possible moves to Major League Baseball in advance of the 2024 season, and this brief timeline alone makes it highly unlikely that the Marines will grant Sasaki’s request.

In the broader picture, it is quite rare for Japanese players to ask to be posted so early in their careers, as the 22-year-old Sasaki has only played three seasons in NPB.  As per MLB’s posting rules, players must be at least 25 years and have at least six pro seasons under their belt in order to receive anything more than a minor league contract.  Big league clubs could also only pay such players money from their international bonus pools, and with this year’s international signing window yet to open on January 15, teams have long since committed the bulk of their pool money to prospects.  Shohei Ohtani faced these restrictions when he came to the majors at age 23, and thus received only a minors deal from the Angels and a $2.3MM signing bonus.

Jorge Castillo and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times profiled Sasaki last month, noting that Sasaki’s contract with the Marines “is thought to” have an escape clause that would allow the righty to leave for the majors at any time.  Ohtani enacted such a clause in 2017, though Ohtani had played five seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

The Sponichi article didn’t give any mention about such a contractual opt-out, though the unusual timing of Sasaki’s request perhaps does indicate that he has some leverage to take this rather immediate plunge into the posting system.  Castillo/Harris wrote that the Dodgers, Padres, and Giants have all “intensely scouted” Sasaki in Japan, and at one point, the Dodgers thought that Sasaki would be available as early as this offseason.

Sasaki wouldn’t achieve full free agency until he has nine seasons of service time, and in general, NPB teams don’t post players early until they’re a year or two away from that nine-season threshold.  For instance, Yoshinobu Yamamoto played seven seasons with the Orix Buffaloes before the Buffaloes agreed to post the star righty this winter, and the 25-year-old Yamamoto now looks poised to command a contract well north of $200MM.

Yamamoto’s combination of youth and skill has all but guaranteed a huge contract, yet even his number could pale in comparison to what Sasaki might receive.  Though he would seemingly be limited to a minor league deal at first and would have to wait at least a few seasons into an MLB career to sign an extension without drawing attention from the league office, that might be a risk Sasaki is willing to take given the potential huge payoff down the road.  In the interim, he won’t be lacking in compensation, since a jump to the majors would surely boost his endorsement appeal.

Over 283 2/3 career innings with the Marines, Sasaki has a 2.00 ERA, 34.4% strikeout rate, and 5.12% walk rate, and these video-game numbers are only part of Sasaki’s burgeoning legend.  His fastball routinely sits in the upper-90s and has topped out at 102.5mph, and his forkball is arguably an even deadlier pitch.  Sasaki’s pitched well for Japan’s gold medal-winning team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and he has two NPB All-Star appearances on his resume.  Most famously, Sasaki came within an inning of back-to-back perfect games — he tossed a perfecto against the Buffaloes in April 2022 that saw him record 13 straight strikeouts amidst an NPB-record 19 K’s in his masterpiece of a start.  Incredibly, Sasaki followed that up with eight perfect innings in his next outing before being pulled before the start of the ninth due to pitch count reasons (102 pitches).

The Marines’ desire to preserve Sasaki’s arm and overall health has been a main storyline of his career.  He was the first overall pick of the 2019 NPB draft, yet he didn’t make his debut with Chiba until May 2021, as the team wanted to ease his development into pro ball.  Sasaki missed about six weeks this season due to an oblique strain, limiting him to 91 innings for the 2023 campaign.  As MLB’s Dai Takegami Podziewski noted in his last installment of the NPB Players To Watch feature, durability is basically the last question Sasaki has to really answer about his long-term potential, and the righty’s 6’4″, 203-pound frame would suggest that he is perhaps built to hold up under the larger workloads faced by Major League pitchers.

While it remains to be seen if Sasaki will actually be able to enter the 2023-24 free agent market, it would obviously be a game changer in a winter that already has a lot of high-end starters still on the board.  If nothing else, Sasaki’s request might well be setting a stage for a posting next winter, when he could join another loaded pitching class that might include Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Walker Buehler, Shane Bieber, Tyler Glasnow, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and possibly even Gerrit Cole if the Yankees don’t enact a contract clause preventing Cole from opting out.

Red Sox Acquire Tyler O’Neill

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The Red Sox brought in outfield help on Friday night, announcing the acquisition of outfielder Tyler O’Neill from the Cardinals. Right-handers Nick Robertson and Victor Santos are going back to St. Louis.

O’Neill, 29 in June, has had a mercurial career but showed his tremendous ceiling as recently as 2021. He played 138 games that season, hitting 34 home runs. He struck out at a high 31.3% clip but hit .286/.352/.560 overall for a wRC+ of 143. He also received strong grades for his outfield defense and stole 15 bases. That all-around production led to a tally of 5.5 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, whereas Baseball Reference had him at 6.1 WAR.

But the results since then have been less impressive, with injuries seeming to drag him down. In the past two seasons, O’Neill has hit the injured list due to a right shoulder impingement, a left hamstring strain, a lower back strain and a right foot sprain. He’s been able to get into just 168 games over those two campaigns, hitting 23 home runs and producing a batting line of .229/.310/.397. That amounts to a wRC+ of 98, indicating he’s been just a bit below league average.

It appeared that he had fallen out of favor in St. Louis over that time. In early 2023, he and manager Oli Marmol got in a bit of a spat, where the skipper publicly admonished O’Neill for a perceived lack of hustle. Though the outfielder pushed back on the idea that he wasn’t giving full effort and also seemed displeased with Marmol making the disagreement public.

As the Cardinals fell out of contention during the most recent season, it seemed as though O’Neill could have been traded at the deadline a few months ago, since he’s slated for free agency after 2024. But no deal materialized and he stuck with the club into the current offseason. In recent weeks, trade rumors surfaced and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak did little to quell them. “In the outfield, right now, if we were to play tomorrow it’d likely be [Lars Nootbaar], Tommy Edman and [Jordan Walker],” said Mozeliak during the Winter Meetings earlier this week. “Our fourth outfielder would be Dylan Carlson. … Tyler O’Neill is somebody that we are listening to on trades.”

But for the Red Sox, O’Neill makes plenty of sense. After they traded Alex Verdugo earlier this week, their outfield projects to have lefties Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu. The club also has righties Ceddanne Rafaela and Rob Refsnyder, but the former has just 28 games of experience while the latter is a platoon specialist. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow recently spoke about how the club would like to add a right-handed hitter capable of playing center field, but that it wouldn’t be a need.

O’Neill does indeed hit from the right side and has played some center field, having logged 303 2/3 innings there over 40 games in his career. The defensive reviews are mixed but it’s hard to glean much in such a small sample.

He will likely not be Plan A in center anyhow. Per a report from Jen McCaffrey and Chad Jennings of The Athletic this week, the club considers Rafaela a viable center field option. Even if he were to struggle in his first extended stretch of play in the big leagues, Duran has spent plenty of time up the middle and Abreu has seen action there as well. But all told, he balances the mix and will be a low-cost upside play for the Sox.

As mentioned, O’Neill is slated for free agency after 2024. Per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, he’s projected for a salary of just $5.5MM next year before reaching the open market. If he gets back to his 2021 upside, he would be a bargain and could help the club return to contention or perhaps turn into a midseason trade chip if the Sox are out of the race. If he continues to struggle, he can yield playing time to Duran, Rafaela or Abreu, depending on who is performing well.

The Cardinals came into this offseason with a notable position player surplus. Mozeliak outlined the outfield situation, which also includes players like Alec Burleson and Richie Palacios. But they also have Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt on the infield corners. Up the middle, they have Masyn Winn, Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan as potential options.

It was thought that they would use this surplus to add their rotation, where they were looking to add three arms. But they rather quickly signed Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson to bolster their starting group. That led to recent speculation that an eventual position player trade would return bullpen help or prospects.

Robertson, 25, was drafted by the Dodgers and added to that club’s 40-man roster earlier this year, but he was flipped to Boston as part of the Enrique Hernández trade from a few months ago. He has 22 1/3 innings of MLB experience between the two clubs with an earned run average of 6.04, though with more encouraging peripherals. He struck out 24.5% of batters faced while walking 8.5% and getting grounders at a 47.1% clip. His .397 batting average on balls in play and 57.5% strand rate were both on the unlucky side of average, leading to a 3.88 FIP and 3.76 SIERA.

He was even better in the minors, having tossed 42 2/3 Triple-A innings between the two clubs with a 3.16 ERA, 33.1% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. He still has a couple of options, so the Cards don’t need to commit an active roster spot to him right away, but he’s already had some MLB experience and could potentially be part of their club in the coming season.

Santos, 23, has mostly been a starter in the minors but hasn’t ever really been a top prospect, though he has received plaudits for his command. He tossed 145 innings in 2022, split between Double-A and Triple-A with a 4.97 ERA. His 20.6% strikeout rate was a bit below average but his 5.6% walk rate was quite strong. He didn’t pitch in 2023 because of injury. He’ll provide the Cards with a bit of non-roster depth for their starting staff.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported O’Neill was being traded to Boston. Sean McAdam of MassLive reported that St. Louis would receive two minor leaguers. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported that Robertson and Santos were going to the Cardinals.

Braves Acquire Max Stassi, David Fletcher

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The Braves and Angels have lined up a swap of change-of-scenery candidates. Atlanta announced the acquisition of infielder David Fletcher and catcher Max Stassi for minor league first baseman Evan White and reliever Tyler Thomas. The Braves’ 40-man roster count is up to 36; the Halos will be at 39 once they finalize one-year free agent deals for Luis García and Adam Cimber.

It’s an odd fit for the Braves, who aren’t in need of catching help. Atlanta has Sean Murphy as their starter and re-signed Travis d’Arnaud to an $8MM deal to work as the backup. Stassi gives them a third experienced, fairly highly-priced catcher. Since it’s unlikely they’d want to carry all three — none of whom can be sent to the minor leagues — Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets that they plan to flip Stassi elsewhere.

Atlanta has already moved a trio of players whom they’d acquired in previous offseason trades. Right-hander Jackson Kowar, added from the Royals for Kyle Wright, went to the Mariners in the deal that brought in Jarred Kelenic. As part of the Kelenic trade, the Braves agreed to take on salary on the underwater contracts for left-hander Marco Gonzales and White. Gonzales was dealt to the Pirates for a minimal return on Tuesday, while White is now himself shipped away in this swap with the Angels.

Now they’ll try to move Stassi, who is under contract for $7MM next season. He’s also guaranteed a $500K buyout on a $7.5MM team option for the 2025 campaign. The Halos had signed him to an extension on the heels of a combined .250/.333/.452 showing between 2020-21. That contract didn’t work as the organization envisioned. Stassi slumped to a .180/.267/.303 line over a personal-high 375 plate appearances in 2022.

The 32-year-old didn’t appear at all in 2023. Stassi began the season on the injured list with a left hip strain. While he recovered from the hip issue midseason, he remained away from the team to attend to a family issue. After the season, Stassi and his wife Gabrielle revealed their son had been born three months prematurely in mid-April and had spent the past few months in NICU. In November, Angels GM Perry Minasian told reporters that Stassi was planning to play in 2024 (link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register).

In the season’s final month, the Angels had placed Stassi on the restricted list. That ensured he wouldn’t be paid for the last few weeks as part of the organization’s ultimately successful effort to limbo below the luxury tax line. There’s no public indication that affected the franchise’s relationship with Stassi, but he also seemed an arguably superfluous part of the roster. Logan O’Hoppe has emerged as the top option behind the plate with Matt Thaiss backing him up.

Fletcher likewise signed an extension that hasn’t panned out. The glove-first infielder inked a $26MM guarantee in April 2021. At the time, the Angels envisioned him as a long-term starter at second base thanks to a strong showing in the shortened 2020 season. That looks like an anomaly, as Fletcher’s offense has evaporated in the three years since then. Going back to the start of the ’21 campaign, he’s a .259/.296/.327 hitter.

The Angels twice ran Fletcher through waivers this year. He played in only 33 MLB games while getting into 85 contests at Triple-A Salt Lake. Fletcher made a ton of contact with minimal power impact at the top minor league level, hitting .330/.382/.428 with a microscopic 6.3% strikeout rate across 380 plate appearances.

Fletcher will make $6MM next season, is guaranteed $6.5MM in 2025 and will take home at least a $1.5MM buyout on a ’26 club option. That’s well above what he’d have received were he a free agent this offseason. He’s a plus defender at each of second base, shortstop and third base. For the Braves, he’ll serve as utility infield depth behind Ozzie Albies, Orlando Arcia and Austin Riley. It’s a role that had been played by Nicky Lopez in the second half of last season, but Atlanta packaged him in the Aaron Bummer trade with the White Sox.

It’s strictly a financial move for the Angels, who also clear two spots on their 40-man roster. White had been a highly-regarded prospect during his time with the Mariners. Seattle signed him to an extension before his MLB debut. That didn’t work, as the righty-hitting first baseman turned in a .165/.235/.308 line in 84 big league games between 2020-21. White hasn’t played in the majors in two years and has barely played in Triple-A because of various injuries, including multiple surgeries on his left hip.

Atlanta passed White through waivers just yesterday. The Angels will take on the remainder of his contract: $7MM next season, $8MM in 2025 and a $2MM buyout on a ’26 club option. He’ll likely start next season in Salt Lake.

Thomas is a left-handed pitcher who turns 28 in a few weeks. The Braves had just selected him in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft out of the Mets organization. The Fresno State product has appeared in parts of six minor league seasons. He has a 4.30 ERA over 130 2/3 career innings at Double-A with scant experience at the Triple-A level.

The Braves agree to take on an extra $6MM next season, while the Halos are assuming an additional $1.5MM between 2025-26. Atlanta is also assuming $6MM in luxury tax obligations for the upcoming season. A traded player’s luxury tax number is recalculated as the average annual value of what remains on their contract at the time of the trade (including option buyouts). Stassi is guaranteed $7.5MM for one season, while the remaining $14MM over two years on Fletcher’s deal is a $7MM average value. White is due $17MM over two seasons, an $8.5MM annual hit. There’s a $6MM gap between the $14.5MM which Atlanta is assuming versus the $8.5MM they’re shipping out.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the terms of the trade.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Diamondbacks Sign Eduardo Rodriguez To Four-Year Deal

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After falling to the Rangers in the World Series, the upstart Diamondbacks have acted quickly and decisively to bolster their rotation. Arizona announced the signing of left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez to a four-year contract with a conditional option for 2028. It’s reportedly a four-year, $80MM guarantee for the Mato Sports Management client.

The deal is slightly backloaded, with Rodriguez making $14MM in the first year, followed by salaries of $20MM, $21MM and $19MM. He’s guaranteed a $6MM buyout on a mutual/vesting option for 2028. The option would vest at a $17MM salary if Rodriguez pitches 150 innings in 2027 or 300 innings between 2026-27. It would vest at $18MM if the southpaw gets to 175 innings in ’27 or 350 frames in ’26-’27. The option price can escalate based on Rodriguez’s Cy Young finishes, while the deal contains a 10-team n0-trade list.

For the reigning NL champions, Rodriguez provides a third playoff-caliber arm to pair with 2023 NL Cy Young award finalist Zac Gallen and veteran right-hander Merrill Kelly. Despite excellent performances from the club’s top two arms, who combined for a 3.39 ERA across 64 starts, the club’s overall rotation ranked just 21st in the majors last season with a 4.67 ERA. That’s thanks to a dearth of quality options behind Gallen and Kelly. Arizona relied on the likes of Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson, and Zach Davies in the rotation for much of the year, each of whom posted ERAs north of 5.00 — though Pfaadt had a solid finish and was excellent during the postseason.

Adding Rodriguez to the mix should help the club’s run prevention efforts considerably. The 30-year-old southpaw enjoyed a career year in 2023 as a member of the Tigers, finishing the season with a 3.30 ERA and 3.66 FIP across 152 2/3 innings of work while striking out 23% of batters faced against a walk rate of just 7.7%. Those strong overall numbers on the season well may have been even stronger had Rodriguez managed to stay healthy all season, as the lefty cruised to a 2.13 ERA and a 25.5% strikeout rate across his first eleven starts of the season.

Unfortunately, Rodriguez subsequently suffered a ruptured pulley tendon at the end of May that wound up sidelining him for the entire month of June. Upon returning in early July, Rodriguez struggled to match his excellent first half performance. The southpaw delivered decent results, with a 4.24 ERA and 4.08 FIP over his final 85 frames, though his strikeout rate dipped to just 21.2% while his walk rate climbed to 8.9%. Fortunately, Rodriguez bounced back down the stretch to post a solid 3.60 ERA in September. Assuming the left-hander is fully healthy entering the 2024 campaign, he would be a strong addition to most any rotation in the majors.

Rodriguez’s strong platform campaign landed him the #11 spot on MLBTR’s annual Top 50 MLB free agents list, where we projected him for a four-year, $82MM deal. He’ll land right in that range, though Rodriguez managed to secure additional incentives that could raise the value of the contract further. While Rodriguez was the seventh-highest rated pitcher on our list, he actually edged out veteran right-hander and fifth-highest rated pitcher Sonny Gray’s total guarantee with the Cardinals by $5MM. That being said, Gray’s contract comes with a substantially higher AAV.

The Diamondbacks have shown a willingness to operate at this level of the rotation market in the past. Setting aside the six-year, $206.5MM megadeal the club signed Zack Greinke to prior to the 2016 season, the largest free agent contract the Diamondbacks have offered to a pitcher was a five-year, $85MM contract for left-hander Madison Bumgarner. That contract proved to be a disaster for Arizona, as Bumgarner posted a 5.23 ERA and 5.17 FIP across 69 starts for the Diamondbacks over the life of the contract before being released early in the 2023 campaign despite remaining on the books for the 2024 season.

The deal pushes Arizona’s payroll into uncharted territory, with RosterResource projecting the club’s 2024 payroll at $114MM prior to the addition of Rodriguez. Factoring in the club’s new addition, they Diamondbacks are on the hook for $134MM in salary commitments for the 2024 campaign, just barely edging out the club’s all-time high payroll of $131MM back in 2018 (per Cot’s Baseball Contracts). The Diamondbacks have made no public indications about their financial limits this offseason, so it’s unclear how much more room, if any, the club has to maneuver for future additions. If the club has more payroll space to work with, an additional rotation arm to shore up the back of the club’s rotation could make sense, as well as a right-handed hitter to slot in at DH. To that end, the club has recently been connected to Lucas Giolito, Seth Lugo, Justin Turner, and J.D. Martinez, though it’s unclear if the club’s interest in the aforementioned starters remains following the signing of Rodriguez.

Jon Morosi of MLB.com first reported that the D-backs were a finalist to sign Rodriguez. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides had agreed to a four-year deal worth around $20MM annually. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal broke the exact guarantee and value of the vesting option. Robert Murray of FanSided was first with the specific salary structure and vesting provisions.

David Rubenstein Reportedly In Talks To Acquire Baltimore Orioles

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Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein is in talks to acquire the Baltimore Orioles, according to a report from Gillian Tan of Bloomberg. The O’s are currently owned by the Angelos family.

It’s unclear at this point what stage the talks are at or if any kind of deal is close at this time. It also doesn’t seem like Rubenstein is the only person pursuing the club, as the report states that he is “among suitors pursuing a transaction.” Whether the Angelos family has pursued this or have merely been approached by prospective buyers isn’t clear, but there has been plenty of uncertainty in recent years about the future of the franchise.

Peter Angelos, now 94, was the principal investor of a group that purchased the franchise in 1993. After he collapsed in 2017 due to the failure of his aortic valve, larger roles were taken up by his wife Georgia and sons John and Lou. In June of 2022, reports emerged of infighting between the family about control of the club, with MLB approving John as the club’s “control person” in 2020. Multiple lawsuits were filed and the reporting of the legal battle revealed that Georgia had hired Goldman Sachs to look into a possible sale of the club. In February of this year, it was reported that the family members had reached an agreement to drop their lawsuits against each other. “I would say that there’s not a plan to change the principal ownership or the managing partnership and there would be no reason to,” John said on the matter in February.

Amid all of the drama over the ownership situation, there has also been an ongoing situation regarding Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The club’s lease on the facility runs through 2023. They had an opportunity to extend that for five years but chose in February not to do so. The hope was that they could work out a longer deal that would allow them to take advantage of a new Maryland law and borrow $600MM for stadium upgrades. Both John and Maryland Governor Wes Moore have made public statements expressing optimism about getting a new deal done.

In August it was reported that John was trying to leverage the stadium negotiations into acquiring public land. He reportedly envisioned developing a mixed-use area with commercial and retail spaces, emulating to The Battery and Truist Park where the Braves play in Georgia.

In September, John and Gov. Moore announced a new 30-year lease between the club and the state, though this was actually misleading. Reporting from the next day revealed that they had merely signed a memorandum of understanding, which was legally non-binding. The lease is still set to expire on December 31 and recent reporting has suggested the two sides may have to sign a short-term extension of a year or perhaps even go month-to-month, per Hayes Gardner of The Baltimore Sun, while working out a longer deal.

In addition to all of that, the club has made almost no long-term investments in any players. The O’s haven’t signed a free agent to a multi-year deal since March of 2018, with was Alex Cobb’s four-year deal. Since then, the only contracts longer than one year the club has given out have been two-year extensions to John Means and Félix Bautista, both players that were already under club control and rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. For much of that time, the club was in rebuilding mode. But even as they have returned to contention in the last two years, including winning the AL East with 101 wins in 2023, they have yet to make any kind of commitment to anything down the road.

Rubenstein, 74, is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, a private equity company. He was born in Baltimore and Bloomberg estimates his net worth as $4.6 billion, though Forbes comes in below that at $3.6 billion. Forbes also currently values the Orioles franchise at $1.713 billion, about 10 times more than the $173MM price point when it was purchased in 1993.

To this point, it’s unclear if Rubenstein actually has a chance of acquiring the club or if he would approach any of the aforementioned issues differently. But if he were able to seal the deal and change the way the club operates, that would obviously be a franchise-altering development. It could also have ripple effects outside the O’s since they have an ongoing dispute with the Nationals over MASN and rights fees dating back to the Nats moving from Montreal to Washington in 2005. The Lerner family has been trying to sell the Nats in recent years but that MASN dispute has reportedly been a significant obstacle in doing so.

Astros Sign Victor Caratini To Two-Year Deal

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The Astros announced the signing of free agent catcher Víctor Caratini to a two-year contract. It’s a reported $12MM guarantee for the ACES client.

Houston general manager Dana Brown has made clear the team was looking for a #2 catcher. The Astros are turning the starting job over to 25-year-old Yainer Diaz, who posted an impressive .282/.308/.538 line as a rookie. Diaz still worked in something of a timeshare with veteran Martín Maldonado in 2023 — the young player also took a fair number of reps at designated hitter — but the Astros declared Diaz their top catcher from the outset of the offseason.

Backing up a very talented young catcher is familiar territory for Caratini, who played that role with the Brewers in 2023. Working behind William Contreras, Caratini played in 62 games and tallied 226 plate appearances. The switch-hitter had spent the last two seasons with Milwaukee overall. The Brewers had acquired him from the Padres shortly before the 2022 campaign. Caratini slumped to a .199/.300/.342 line during his first year but rebounded with a solid .259/.327/.383 showing a season ago.

A first-time free agent, the Puerto Rico native turned 30 in August. As one of the youngest catchers in the class, it’s not a surprise that he secured a multi-year pact. While he doesn’t bring much power to the table, Caratini has solid bat-to-ball skills. He struck out in fewer than 20% of his plate appearances last season while making contact on over 80% of his swings (a few points above the 76.4% league average).

On the other side of the ball, Caratini’s best trait is his pitch framing. Statcast has credited him as better than average at securing strikes throughout his career. He has rated reasonably well at blocking pitches in the dirt as well, although his arm strength is fringy. Of the 54 catchers with 20+ throws to second base this year, only Logan O’Hoppe and Yasmani Grandal had longer pop times on average.

Caratini nevertheless brings some positives on both sides of the ball. He’s a better offensive player than Maldonado, who now is almost certainly headed elsewhere after spending the last four and a half seasons in Houston.

If the salaries are distributed evenly, the contract brings the Astros’ payroll projection to roughly $222MM (via Roster Resource). More notably, the $6MM average annual value puts Houston’s estimated luxury tax tab right at the $237MM base threshold. The Astros have tended to hover around the tax line, aligning with Brown’s comments throughout the offseason that the club is working with a fairly limited amount of financial flexibility. Now that backup catcher has been solidified, they figure to turn their attention to the middle relief group.

Chandler Rome and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Astros were in agreement with Caratini. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the two-year term, while Mark Feinsand and Brian McTaggart of MLB.com were first with the $12MM guarantee.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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