Blue Jays Extend Ross Atkins, John Schneider
The Blue Jays announced this morning that they’ve signed GM Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider to contract extensions. Both were entering the final seasons of their current contracts, but Atkins has re-upped on a five-year deal that will take him through the 2031 season while Schneider will return on a two-year deal that lasts through the 2028 campaign.
The news is hardly surprising following Toronto’s impressive run in the playoffs last year, where they secured the AL pennant and came just shy of besting the Dodgers in seven games during the World Series. While Toronto ultimately lost Game Seven of that series, it’s easy to see that ownership is pleased with the club’s performance. Not only was the team green-lit to acquire Dylan Cease and pursue other big names on the free agent market like Kyle Tucker this winter, but Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers also decided to give team president and CEO Mark Shapiro a five-year contract extension back in December that runs through 2030. Once Shapiro received an extension, both Atkins and Schneider were widely assumed to eventually follow suit around the league.
Atkins joined the Jays prior to the 2016 season, and he’s overseen the beginning of the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. era in Toronto. While Guerrero signed with the organization as an international amateur a few months before Atkins and Shapiro arrived, every professional game he’s played during his career has been with them at the helm of the club. Guerrero has been the face of Toronto’s return to relevance after a rebuilding period early in Atkins’s tenure with the organization, from the second year of his career in 2020 onward the Jays have made the postseason four times in six years with a 472-398 record overall. That’s roughly an 88-win pace over the last six years, and under Schneider’s leadership over the past three years they’ve gone 257-229 they’ve managed a roughly 86-win pace with two playoff berths.
It may have seemed to be a no-brainer that the club would decide to keep the good times rolling with their current group after this year’s run to the World Series, but that was hardly a guarantee this time last year. One year ago, Guerrero had not yet signed an extension, the club had whiffed on both Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto in free agency during back-to-back offseasons, and the Jays were coming off a deeply disappointing 88-loss season that saw the club sell at the trade deadline and called their longer-term viability as a contender into question. It’s fortunate that the organization’s banner year in 2025 answered those questions, because it’s not hard to imagine another poor performance on the field from the club last year ending in changes to the front office and dugout rather than contract extensions for the organization’s leadership.
As Atkins, Schneider, and Shapiro head into the 2026 season and look ahead to at least a few more years running the Blue Jays together, long-term deals for Guerrero, Cease, Alejandro Kirk, and Andres Gimenez figure to make them all staples of the organization going forward. Other pieces under long-term control include Trey Yesavage, Anthony Santander, Kazuma Okamoto, Louis Varland, and a collection of young hitting talent headlined by Addison Barger. It’s a solid group overall, though the next few years will also see the team contend with the impending free agencies of George Springer, Daulton Varsho, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and other key members of the roster who will need to be replaced.
Hayden Birdsong To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
The Giants announced that right-hander Hayden Birdsong will undergo Tommy John surgery next week. He will miss the entire 2026 season and part of the 2027 campaign as well. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to pass the info along.
The news is not surprising but is awful for Birdsong and the Giants regardless. It was reported a few days ago that Birdsong had an elbow issue and would be getting a second opinion. He was then diagnosed with a forearm strain and a sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament. He took a few days to consider his options but it seems he is destined for the surgeon’s table.
Prior to this injury, Birdsong was slated to be one of the club’s top depth starters. They project to start the season with a starting five of Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahle, Adrian Houser and Landen Roupp. Due to injuries, teams usually need about a dozen starters to get through a full season. The Giants have Carson Seymour, Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell as optionable depth starters. Birdsong would have been in that group but has now been subtracted.
Birdsong should end up on the 60-day injured list whenever the Giants need a spot on the 40-man roster. The one silver lining of that outcome is that Birdsong will get a full year of service time and pay, more than if he spent the year as a healthy but frequently-optioned depth arm.
The typical recovery timeline for Tommy John surgery is usually 14 months or more. That means Birdsong won’t be available until about midway through the 2027 season, even in a best-case scenario. Ray and Mahle are both scheduled for free agency after 2026, so two rotation spots are potentially opening up. Those could be filled internally if guys like Seymour, Whisenhunt or Tidwell step up. The Giants could also make notable trades between now and then, in addition to potentially signing free agents next winter.
Time will tell what shape the rotation is in when Birdsong is again healthy but he should be a key part of the group regardless. He only has a 4.77 earned run average in his career so far but is only 24 years old and comes with some prospect pedigree. FanGraphs has been especially bullish, as they gave him the #42 overall spot at one point during the 2024 season. Birdsong posted a 2.51 ERA on the farm that year but then had a 6.23 ERA in Triple-A in 2025 and now he’s dealing with this lengthy rehab process.
Photo courtesy of Eakin Howard, Imagn Images
Josh Hader To Begin Season On Injured List
Star Astros closer Josh Hader will begin the 2026 season on the 15-day injured list, manager Joe Espada announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). He’s been slowed by a biceps issue this spring after missing the final seven weeks of the 2025 season due to a capsule strain in his shoulder. Hader has progressed to throwing and pitched an encouraging bullpen session yesterday, Kawahara adds, but the team simply won’t have enough time to get him built up before the season begins. Righty Bryan Abreu will very likely be in line to close games for Houston while Hader is shelved.
Hader’s Opening Day status has been an ongoing question throughout camp. Both the left-hander himself and team officials have repeatedly expressed optimism about the manner in which he’s progressing through rehab while simultaneously declining to commit to an Opening Day timetable.
While it’s an obvious blow to the Astros’ early-season fortunes, it’s still relatively good news. There’s no indication that last year’s shoulder injury has carried over into the 2026 season, nor does it seem the biceps injury is particularly nefarious. The Astros’ track record when it comes to framing player injuries is worth keeping in mind, but to this point it seems there’s hope for Hader to be back in Espada’s bullpen relatively early in the season.
Abreu, 29 in April, is among the stronger fallback options any team has for its closer in all of baseball. The 6’1″, 230-pound flamethrower owns a masterful 2.30 earned run average across his past four seasons in Houston. He’s punched out at least 31.7% of his opponents in each of those four seasons and 34.3% overall. Abreu’s 10.4% walk rate could stand to improve, but he’s proven so adept at missing bats that the slightly elevated walk rate hasn’t been a real issue for him. Abreu sat 97.3 mph on his four-seamer last season, and his 16.6% swinging-strike rate since 2022 ranks sixth among the 280 big league pitchers who’ve tossed at least 200 innings in that time (trailing only Hader, Andrés Muñoz, Dylan Lee, Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley).
As for Hader, an exact target date for his return remains up in the air. His 2025 season was shaping up to be one of his best. Prior to his injury, that lanky southpaw tossed 52 2/3 innings with a 2.05 ERA, a 36.9% strikeout rate, a 7.8% walk rate (second-lowest in his career) and 28 saves in 29 opportunities. He’s entering the third season of a five-year, $95MM contract signed prior to the 2024 campaign.
Hunter Greene To Have Bone Chips Removed From Elbow, Likely Out Until July
Reds ace Hunter Greene will undergo surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow today, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The team is hoping to have him back at some point in July. He’ll be placed on the 60-day injured list whenever Cincinnati needs to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
The Reds revealed late last week that they’d sent Greene for multiple waves of imaging and hoped to have further news early this week. Greene himself said at the time that he’s navigated bone spurs for some time but had recently received a clean MRI on his ulnar collateral ligament. Doctors hadn’t recommended surgery for the bone chips until this point. He experienced some pain late last season, and doctors recommended an injection at the time. That allowed Greene to have a normal offseason, but he experienced renewed discomfort upon ramping up in camp and will now head under the knife.
Greene is far from the only pitcher in MLB to pitch through some known bone spurs or loose bodies in his elbow. Most professional pitchers have some degree of wear and tear in their elbow and/or shoulder, be it bone chips or mild damage to a ligament, flexor tendon, rotator cuff, labrum, etc. Reds fans will surely feel frustration that the discomfort dates back to last season but is being addressed in 2026. Surgery is a last-resort option, however, and hadn’t been recommended until this latest wave of discomfort set in.
Losing Greene is a gut-punch for a Reds rotation that had looked like one of the game’s strongest, on paper. He was in line to start Opening Day and be followed by Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, Brady Singer and one of Chase Burns or Rhett Lowder, both former top-10 picks in the draft and highly touted top prospects. Greene’s injury now opens the door for both Burns and Lowder to make the staff — particularly after Chase Petty was optioned yesterday — although left-hander Brandon Williamson remains in camp and could be an option as he returns from a 2025 season lost to injury.
A former No. 2 overall draft pick, Greene has been one of the game’s best pitchers on a rate basis over the past two seasons. However, he’s also missed considerable time due to a pair of groin strains in 2025 and some elbow discomfort in 2024. He’s started 45 games across dating back to ’24 and worked to a 2.76 ERA with a 29.2% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 33.5% ground-ball rate. Last year’s 15.4% swinging-strike rate was fourth-best in MLB (min. 100 innings pitched), trailing only Tarik Skubal, Dylan Cease and Logan Gilbert.
Greene is entering the fourth season of a six-year, $53MM extension. The 26-year-old is being paid $8MM this season before making $15MM and $16MM in 2027-28. The Reds hold a $21MM club option (with a $2MM buyout) over his 2029 season. With Greene on the shelf to begin the year, Abbott has been named the Reds’ Opening Day starter. President of baseball operations Nick Krall said last week at the time Greene was being sent for an MRI that he didn’t envision turning to free agency even in the event that Greene would be sidelined for a significant period of time.
Nationals Sign Zack Littell
The Nationals have formally added a second veteran starter in free agency, announcing the addition of righty Zack Littell on a one-year deal with a mutual option for the 2027 season. Littell, a client of CAA, will reportedly be guaranteed $7MM with another $2.5MM available to him via innings-based incentives. Left-hander Richard Lovelady was designated for assignment to open roster space, per the team.
Littell’s deal reportedly pays him a $3MM salary but also includes a $4MM buyout on that mutual option. Since mutual options are never exercised, that amounts to little more than an accounting measure; the Nats are kicking $4MM of his $7MM commitment to the 2027 books rather than the 2026 books. The contract is also said to contain $100K bonuses for every tenth inning pitched from 100 through 140. Littell can earn $250K for reaching each of 150 and 160 innings, and the deal has $500K bonuses upon reaching 170, 180 and 190 innings.
Heading into the offseason, we ranked Littell 35th among the offseason’s top 50 free agents, predicting a two-year deal. He’ll have to settle for just a one-year pact, and the righty could be on the move again relatively soon if the rebuilding Nationals move him at the trade deadline.
The 30-year-old Littell is a veteran of eight big league seasons but spent most of that time in a bullpen role. In the first five seasons of his MLB career, Littell posted a 4.08 ERA (104 ERA+) with lackluster peripherals in 169 2/3 innings of work. After the 2022 campaign, Littell rode the DFA and waiver carousel throughout the 2022-23 offseason. He eventually wound up with the Red Sox to start the season, but he made just two appearances in the majors before being once again designated for assignment. That led him to the Rays, with whom he managed to transform himself from a fringe member of the 40-man roster into a solid rotation arm.
Upon arriving in Tampa, Littell moved into a swing role for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. He posted a 3.93 ERA with a nearly matching 3.99 FIP in 87 innings split between 14 starts and 12 relief appearances. Littell’s 19.8% strikeout rate in those outings was hardly exciting, but he made up for it with pinpoint command that allowed him to post a 2.5% walk rate and an 8.2% barrel rate.
That control and command style was enough to earn him a full-time rotation job headed into the Rays’ 2024 season, and he rewarded the team with a career year. In 29 starts for the Rays in 2024, Littell posted a 21.5% strikeout rate against a 4.7% walk rate while pitching to a 3.63 ERA (110 ERA+) with a 3.81 FIP. His 156 2/3 innings of work made him just one of just 71 pitchers to throw more than 150 innings that year, and only 15 of those pitchers surrendered fewer runs than Littell.
Littell remained generally effective in terms of run prevention last year, logging a 3.81 ERA (111 ERA+) in a career-high 186 2/3 innings across 32 starts for the Rays and Reds. The bottom-line results were similar, but Littell’s rate stats took worrying steps in the wrong direction. His strikeout rate plummeted to just 17.1%, while his barrel rate jumped to 9.8% as he allowed the second-most homers in all of baseball last season. Perhaps some of that can be explained by Littell pitching his home games at the hitter-friendly Steinbrenner Field and Great American Ballpark, but a 4.40 SIERA suggested that Littell was more of a back-end starter than his results may have indicated.
The result was a soft free agent market for Littell this offseason. A reunion with the Rays once seemed to be on the table, but Tampa Bay instead brought in Steven Matz and Nick Martinez. KSTP’s Darren Wolfson reports that the Twins at least checked in late in the offseason, but weren’t inclined to match the Nationals’ offer.
The Nationals were the ones to ultimately bring Littell into the fold, with some past connections possibly helped complete the deal. New president of baseball operations Paul Toboni formerly worked in the Red Sox front office, new manager Blake Butera spent years managing in Tampa’s farm system, and new pitching coach Simon Matthews was the Reds’ assistant pitching coach in 2025, so all three have direct familiarity with Littell’s work.
D.C. is unlikely to compete for a playoff spot this year as they reboot their rebuilding efforts under Toboni. As such, the team has pursued just short-term and relatively inexpensive veteran signings like Littell and Miles Mikolas, and made another move for the future in trading MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers. The Gore trade diminished an already questionable Washington rotation, so Littell will reinforce a starting five that seems set to include Mikolas and another new signing in Foster Griffin. The last two spots in the rotation figure to go to some combination of Cade Cavalli, Brad Lord, Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin, and Mitchell Parker.
ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan were the first to report the agreement between the two sides. The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka (multiple links) had the details about the one-year term and mutual option. The Banner’s Andrew Golden first reported the financial guarantee. Jon Heyman of The New York Post and Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic added specifics about the breakdown and incentives.
Inset photo courtesy of Joe Puetz — Imagn Images
Phillies Sign Jesús Luzardo To Extension
March 10: The Phillies have formally announced Luzardo’s extension. According to Dan Gelston of the Associated Press, the $32.5MM club option converts to a $10MM club option if Luzardo spends 130 consecutive days on the injured list.
March 9: The Phillies and left-hander Jesús Luzardo have agreed to an extension, according to various reports. He was previously slated for free agency after 2026. It’s reportedly a five-year pact starting in 2027, which guarantees the Roc Nation Sports client $135MM. There is also a $32.5MM club option, though Luzardo can boost that by $2MM with each top five Cy Young finish, giving him a chance to potentially raise it as high as $42.5MM. He will receive a $1MM assignment bonus each time he is traded until he reaches 10-and-5 rights.
Luzardo, 28, was once one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and he has established himself as a legit big league arm in the past few years. With the Marlins in 2022 and 2023, he made 50 starts and logged 279 innings, allowing 3.48 earned runs per nine. His 7.9% walk rate and 40.1% ground ball rate were close to league average as he struck out a strong 28.7% of batters faced. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged in the upper 90s while he also made good use of a mid-80s changeup and slider.
He had a bit of a dip in 2024. He missed time due to some elbow tightness and also due to a lumbar stress reaction. He only made 12 starts on the year and had a flat 5.00 ERA. The Phils still liked the player enough to take a chance on him going into 2025. They sent prospects Starlyn Caba and Emaarion Boyd to the Marlins in exchange for Luzardo and Paul McIntosh.
The bet paid off, as Luzardo returned to form in 2025. He made 32 starts and threw 183 2/3 innings with a 3.92 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 42.8% ground ball rate. He also made two postseason appearances with a 2.35 ERA. He finished seventh in National League Cy Young voting.
As mentioned, 2026 was slated to be Luzardo’s final arbitration season before he would become a free agent. He and the Phils avoided arbitration by agreeing to an $11MM salary for this year. He could have played out the campaign and would have been in position for a strong contract if he had another good season. He’s currently 28 years and old, turning 29 in September.
The top free agent deals for starting pitchers have been around $200MM in recent years, with Max Fried, Corbin Burnes and Dylan Cease all getting to that range. Fried got $218MM. The latter two got $210MM, both with notable deferrals.
Luzardo hasn’t quite put up the same kind of results as those guys. Burnes and Fried have posted ERAs under 3.00 pretty regularly. Cease has had a more wobbly ERA but with comparable strikeout and walk rates to Luzardo with greater availability. Luzardo would have been younger than everyone in that group, however. Cease and Burnes signed their deals going into their age-30 seasons, while Fried was going into his age-31 campaign.
Players who sign extensions a year from the open market generally sacrifice a bit of upside in exchange for the security of locking in a deal that is still quite large. Dating back to 2017, the top extension for a pitcher with service time between five and six years was $131MM over seven years for José Berríos.
Like Luzardo, Berríos was going into his age-28 season and would have been a free agent ahead of his age-29 campaign. Berríos was also generally a guy with an ERA in the 3.50 range, though with greater durability. Berríos agreed to his deal before working out a salary for his final arbitration season. When considering the $11MM Luzardo is getting in 2026, he will make $146MM over the next six years.
Waiting until after 2026 to sign could have led to an even greater contract, but it also would have come with risk. In addition to his aforementioned 2024 injuries, Luzardo also missed a few months due to a forearm strain in 2022. A notable injury in 2026 could have led to him heading into the winter with significantly less earning power, so he is taking the proverbial bird in the hand with this deal.
For the Phils, they have not been shy about spending money on starting pitching. Going into the 2020 season, they signed free agent Zack Wheeler via a five-year, $118MM deal. Ahead of the 2023 season, they gave Taijuan Walker $72MM over four years. Going into 2024, they brought back Aaron Nola with a seven-year, $172MM pact. They then extended Wheeler for $126MM over three years. They also recently locked up Cristopher Sánchez, who was still in his pre-arbitration years, with a four-year deal worth $22.5MM.
Going into 2026, Wheeler may start the season on the injured list but could be back fairly early. For the 2026 season, health permitting, the four primary starters will be Wheeler, Nola, Sánchez and Luzardo. The fifth could be Walker but also could be prospect Andrew Painter.
Looking ahead to 2027, Luzardo was slated for free agency and Walker as well. That would have left the Phillies with a core of Wheeler, Nola and Sánchez. Wheeler is signed through 2027 and plans to retire after that. Painter could theoretically fill one spot but he’s a big question mark right now. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 and 2024. He was back on the hill in 2025 but posted a 5.40 ERA in Triple-A.
Rather than waiting until next winter to address the 2027 rotation, they have proactively signed Luzardo to stick around. Since this appears to be a new contract, it shouldn’t impact the 2026 competitive balance tax. Luzardo will still have an $11MM hit this year. For the five years from 2027 to 2031, he’ll have a $27MM hit, the average annual value of his $135MM guarantee for those years.
The long-term books have a lot on them. As far out as 2030, the Phils have Nola, Luzardo, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner all signed to deals with CBT hits of over $24MM. RosterResource already projects the club for a CBT number of almost $160MM for that 2030 season, before factoring in arbitration players or any other deals signed between now and then. But the Phils have generally been fine spending on the guys they like as they keep this core going.
For any club who was hoping to make a run at Luzardo next winter, they will have to consider other options. The 2026-27 free agent class already feels a bit light and will now have one fewer marquee name. Tarik Skubal will headline the group of starting pitchers, followed by guys like Freddy Peralta, Kevin Gausman and others. Burnes, Sonny Gray and Tatsuya Imai and others could shake things up by opting out of their deals.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the two sides had agreed to a five-year deal starting in 2027. Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia first reported the $135MM guarantee. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the option details. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported on the assignment bonus. Photos courtesy of Brett Davis, Jonathan Dyer, Imagn Images
Joey Wentz To Miss 2026 Season Due To Torn ACL
Braves left-hander Joey Wentz has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will miss the entire 2026 season. Mark Bowman of MLB.com was among those to relay the news. Wentz will be transferred to the 60-day injured list whenever the club needs a roster spot, though their 40-man count is currently at 39 due to outfielder Jurickson Profar landing on the restricted list for a PED suspension.
Wentz, 28, was covering first base on a bunt attempt in yesterday’s game when he appeared to injure his right leg. Though he was carted off the field, initial tests seemed to suggest he may have avoided serious injury. It seems that further testing contradicted the first reports.
The lefty was claimed off waivers in July of last year and was effectively in the rotation from that point on. He made 13 starts and one relief appearance for Atlanta, allowing 4.92 earned runs per nine. His 23% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate were both close to league average. He qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player and the club felt good enough about that performance to tender him a contract. The two sides avoided arbitration in November by agreeing to a $900K salary for 2026.
As of a few weeks ago, Wentz was a bit buried in the depth chart but the Atlanta rotation has been hit hard since camp has opened. Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep each required surgery a few weeks ago, as both pitchers had loose bodies in their elbows that needed removing. Their specific timelines aren’t clear but each is slated to miss months.
After those two surgeries, Atlanta projected to have a rotation with four spots going to Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo López and Grant Holmes. That left Wentz, Bryce Elder and José Suarez battling for the final spot. Since all three are out of options, one of them was probably going to break camp in a long relief role.
Even before this recent spate of injuries, there was an argument for Atlanta to add more rotation depth, as even the guys who aren’t currently hurt have question marks. Sale has been injury prone in recent years, making more than 2o starts just once in the past six years. Strider returned from internal brace surgery last year but posted a lackluster 4.45 ERA. López only made one start last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament last year and is currently trying to pitch in 2026 without surgery. Elder had a 5.30 ERA last year. Suarez is a fringe roster guy who rode the DFA carousel this winter.
Despite all of that uncertainty, the front office hasn’t shown much urgency in adding more arms. It was reported in mid-February, as the Schwellenbach and Waldrep injuries were coming to light, that Atlanta didn’t have much interest in Chris Bassitt before he signed with the Orioles and had not been involved with free agent Lucas Giolito. Up until yesterday, Zack Littell was still out there but he now has an agreement in place with the Nationals.
It’s possible that recent events make the club more likely to make an addition. If the budget was the problem, the Profar suspension helped them out, as he won’t be paid his $15MM salary this year. Atlanta saved about $18MM in total when factoring in tax savings. With the freed-up cash and now yet another injury, perhaps president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos does turn to free agency. In addition to Giolito, guys like Tyler Anderson and Patrick Corbin are still unsigned. More arms could shake loose as Opening Day approaches and other teams make cuts.
For now, the top depth options include Didier Fuentes, JR Ritchie, Martín Pérez, Carlos Carrasco and Elieser Hernández. Fuentes was hastily promoted last year at the age of 20 and was lit up in his first four big league starts. Ritchie is one of the club’s best pitching prospects but he has no major league experience and just 11 Triple-A starts under his belt. The other three are veterans who haven’t had much big league success in recent years.
As for Wentz, it’s a frustrating setback as he had a real chance to earn a rotation gig. Instead, he’ll spend the season on the shelf. If there’s one small silver lining, he’ll earn a full year of service time while on the IL, but he’ll be a non-tender candidate going into 2027.
Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Re-Sign Max Scherzer
TODAY: Scherzer’s contract also contains full no-trade protection, Jon Heyman reports.
MARCH 2: The Blue Jays officially announced they’ve re-signed Max Scherzer to a one-year contract. The Boras Corporation client is reportedly guaranteed $3MM and can earn up to $10MM in incentives. He’d earn his first $1MM bonus at 65 innings and reach another $1MM bonus for every tenth inning, up through 155 frames overall. Toronto cleared a 40-man roster spot over the weekend by waiving infielder Ben Cowles, who was claimed by the Cubs.
It’s the future Hall of Famer’s second season in Toronto. The three-time Cy Young winner signed a $15.5MM deal with the Jays during the 2024-25 offseason. He was coming off an abbreviated season in which he’d been limited to nine starts for the Rangers. Scherzer had undergone back surgery the previous offseason, and a nerve issue in his throwing arm limited him once he recovered from the back procedure.
The arm remained problematic last season. Scherzer left his team debut after three innings because of thumb soreness. That had been traced to the nerve issue and ultimately led the Jays to shut Scherzer down for a couple months. He didn’t return to an MLB mound until late June.
Scherzer was able to avoid the injured list after that point but didn’t perform to his usual level. He allowed more than five earned runs per nine innings for the first time in his career. He closed the season with a 5.19 mark over 85 innings. Scherzer only once allowed more than four runs in a start, but he only went beyond five innings on seven occasions. He had six quality starts in 17 appearances.
The 17-year veteran is still capable of missing bats at a league average level. He struck out a slightly above-average 23% of batters faced against a tidy 6.4% walk rate. The issue is the damage hitters have done when they make contact. Scherzer allowed more than two home runs per nine innings for the first time in his career. It was the fourth-highest homer rate in MLB among pitchers who threw 70+ innings.
Scherzer’s fastball averaged 93.6 mph last season. That’s a tick higher than his 2024 mark, reversing a slight downward trend in his velocity during his late 30s. He nevertheless had a tough time getting hitters to chase his breaking pitches outside the strike zone. Scherzer obviously doesn’t have the same caliber of stuff he did at his peak, which makes him more hittable when he’s forced to challenge hitters. He has allowed a higher than average home run rate in three straight seasons.
At age 41, Scherzer profiles as a back-end starter on paper. Yet he has a wealth of big game experience and showed he’s still capable of getting outs on the biggest stage. The Jays left Scherzer off the roster for their Division Series matchup with the Yankees. They brought him back for the AL Championship Series against Seattle and the World Series showdown with the Dodgers.
Scherzer tossed 5 2/3 frames of two-run ball to get the win in ALCS Game 4. He struggled a bit in Game 3 of the World Series before coming back with one run allowed in 4 1/3 innings in Game 7. Scherzer left the mound with a 3-1 lead in a performance that would have been etched into Toronto sports history if the bullpen had held the lead.
They’ll aim to get over the hump in 2026. Assuming Scherzer builds up in time for Opening Day, he’ll probably slot into a six-man rotation to begin the season. Shane Bieber will begin the year on the injured list after experiencing forearm fatigue during the playoff run. Toronto had been slated to open the season with a starting five of Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, José Berríos and Cody Ponce.
Yesavage is entering his first full MLB season. Ponce is a bit of a wild card in his return from Korea. Scherzer presumably isn’t going to log 150+ innings at this stage of his career. Opening with a six-man rotation would allow the Jays to take some of the burden off a rotation that shouldered as heavy a load as possible into October.
That comes with a trickle-down impact on the bullpen, however. The 13-pitcher limit means the Jays would be down to a seven-man bullpen if they go this route. That increases the importance of having a quality long reliever like Eric Lauer to handle multiple innings.
At the same time, this makes it less likely that Lauer will have a chance to win a rotation spot. The left-hander is an impending free agent and said he’d prefer a starting opportunity. There hasn’t been any indication that Lauer would seek a trade if the Jays keep him in a relief role, though the southpaw told Mitch Bannon of The Athletic he believes that pitching out of the bullpen last season cost him money in arbitration. Lauer lost his hearing, meaning he’ll make the team’s desired $4.4MM salary rather than his camp’s $5.75MM filing figure.
That could be a situation worth monitoring if everyone remains healthy closer to Opening Day. For now, this looks like the ideal outcome for the Jays and Scherzer alike. The $3MM base salary will push their franchise-record luxury tax payroll to approximately $319MM, according to RosterResource. The Jays are taxed at a 90% rate on spending above $304MM. This signing comes with a $2.7MM base tax. Earned performance bonuses are part of a team’s CBT calculation, so the Jays would also pay that 90% fee on any dollars that Scherzer unlocks by hitting innings milestones throughout the year.
Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the agreement. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet had the $3MM base and $10MM in incentives. Heyman reported the incentive structure. Image courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images.
Rangers Sign Andrew McCutchen To Minor League Deal
March 6: McCutchen passed his physical, and the Rangers have formally announced his signing.
March 5: The Rangers are bringing veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen aboard on a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The Aegis Sports client’s base salary would be $1.25MM if he makes the team, per Grant. It can max out around $2.5MM if he makes the roster and hits his full slate of incentives, per Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports.
McCutchen, 39, is years removed from peak form but still turned in a .239/.333/.367 slash (95 wRC+) last year in what now looks like his final season with the Pirates. His .267/.353/.389 output against left-handed pitching was a bit above average, and he knocked lefties around at a heftier .261/.383/.410 clip as recently as 2023.
For the past three years, McCutchen has suited back up for his original club in Pittsburgh, where he was a first-round pick who broke out as a star and eventually won National League MVP honors. The hope for both McCutchen and the Pirates was that he’d return to play out his final seasons where it all began, leading a more competitive Bucs club back to the playoffs in the twilight of his career.
That storybook ending never came to be. Pittsburgh struggled in each of the past three seasons, finishing under .500 each year along the way. The Bucs fired manager Derek Shelton last May and took a more urgent and aggressive approach to building up their offense this winter. Pittsburgh acquired Brandon Lowe via trade and signed free agents Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna. They had even bigger targets throughout the winter (e.g. Kyle Schwarber, Josh Naylor, Kazuma Okamoto, Eugenio Suárez). All those pursuits cast doubt on whether there was room for one more go-around with McCutchen on what’d have been a more nostalgic/sentimental reunion. Last month’s signing of Ozuna all but confirmed that the book on the three-year reunion with McCutchen had been closed.
McCutchen now heads to the Rangers in hopes of grabbing a bench spot. His right-handed bat makes for a natural platoon complement alongside designated hitter Joc Pederson. Cutch could also see some time in the outfield corners when Texas faces off against left-handed starters, with Wyatt Langford shifting over to center field in place of lefty-swinging Evan Carter, who has just five hits in 68 career plate appearances against southpaws.
There’s little sense citing McCutchen’s career .289/.387/.514 slash against lefties, since so much of that is influenced by otherworldly production during his MVP peak. However, even over the three seasons in his late-career return to PNC Park, McCutchen hit .244/.353/.392 in 435 plate appearances. That sort of production is more solid than eye-catching, but it’d still mark an upgrade over the awful .225/.290/.363 batting line the Rangers turned in versus left-handed pitching in 2025.
Pirates, Reds Swap Tyler Callihan For Kyle Nicolas
The Pirates announced they’ve traded relief pitcher Kyle Nicolas to the Reds for left fielder/second baseman Tyler Callihan. Both players were on the 40-man roster, so there’s no corresponding move.
It’s a swap of talented but largely unproven players between the NL Central rivals. Nicolas, 27, has the more significant MLB experience of the two. A second-round pick by the Marlins in 2020, he was traded to Pittsburgh as one of two prospects the following year for Gold Glove catcher Jacob Stallings. Nicolas was a starting pitcher at the time but always projected to a bullpen future because of spotty command.
Nicolas debuted as a September call-up in 2023. The Ball State product has opened each of the following two seasons on optional assignment to Triple-A Indianapolis. Nicolas has posted below-average numbers at the MLB level but remains an intriguing depth piece with big stuff.
In 98 MLB innings, Nicolas carries a 4.68 earned run average. He has struck out a league average 22% of opponents while issuing walks at a lofty 12.2% rate. He split his time evenly between the majors and Triple-A last year. While he allowed nearly five earned runs per nine at the MLB level, he posted a 3.79 ERA with an excellent 31% strikeout rate against minor league opposition. Nicolas walked more than 12% of Triple-A opponents and has posted double digit walk rates at almost every stop of his professional career.
The command will probably keep Nicolas in middle relief. He’d have the raw stuff to pitch at the back of a bullpen if he can find a way to throw more strikes. Nicolas sits in the 97-98 mph range with his heater and has a pair of power breaking balls: a 90-91 mph slider and mid-80s curveball.
He also uses his 6’3″ frame to get down the mound and generate a lot of extension, though the long levers have also seemingly held him back from finding consistency in his delivery. Nicolas commanded the ball better down the stretch last season. He walked only 8.4% of opponents while posting a 3.46 ERA in 26 innings after the All-Star Break. It’s a small sample but perhaps something to build off as he tries to earn a permanent bullpen spot.
Nicolas has a little over one year of service time. He’s at least two years away from arbitration and five years from reaching free agency. He has one minor league option remaining, so the Reds can send him to Triple-A Louisville without exposing him to waivers. Nicolas tossed two scoreless innings this spring before joining Team Italy for the World Baseball Classic. (He’s from Ohio but has a family link to Italy that made him eligible to participate.)
Cincinnati doesn’t have a ton of roster flexibility in the bullpen, where six of their relievers cannot be optioned. Graham Ashcraft has options but is a lock to begin the season in the late innings. Unless the Reds move on from Sam Moll, they’d only have one bullpen spot available between Nicolas, Luis Mey, Connor Phillips and Zach Maxwell. The latter four pitchers all have big arms but come with strike-throwing questions.
The Pirates subtract from their bullpen depth to take a flier on an intriguing hitter who hasn’t found a position. The 25-year-old Callihan was an overslot third-round signee out of high school in 2019. Scouts have praised the lefty hitter’s offensive aptitude while panning his defense. The Jacksonville native has a career .262/.332/.417 batting line over six minor league seasons.
Callihan’s performance in the low minors was a little inconsistent. He has posted better numbers as he’s climbed the minor league ladder. Callihan hit .271/.345/.413 in Double-A two seasons ago and was out to a .303/.410/.528 start over 24 Triple-A contests last year. The Reds called him up at the end of April.
Unfortunately, Callihan didn’t get a chance to establish himself as a rookie. He suffered a gruesome injury just six days into his big league career.
Callihan was playing left field against the Braves on May 5. Matt Olson hit a line drive that sliced away from him down the left field line. Callihan slid to try to catch the ball and was unable to brace himself before hitting the wall with his outstretched glove hand. The collision broke his arm and forced him to undergo season-ending surgery. (Adding insult to injury, Olson trotted around for an inside-the-park home run because Callihan had touched the ball in fair territory.)
That ended his debut campaign after six at-bats, in which he collected his first career hit and run batted in. Callihan entered Spring Training without any restrictions and has gotten into seven exhibition contests, going 2-9 with a home run.
Baseball America ranked Callihan the #20 prospect in the Cincinnati system over the offseason, while Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted him 29th in the organization. Callihan has improved his plate discipline and has above-average raw power, but his strikeout rate has climbed in the upper minors.
He’s a below-average defender at second base who probably fits better in left field or at first base. There are some similarities to last winter’s Spencer Horwitz pickup in that regard, though Horwitz had a much longer track record of hitting in Triple-A than Callihan does.
Callihan has less than one year of service and has two minor league options remaining. He’ll battle for a bench job in camp but seems likelier to begin the season in Indy. He can factor in as a bat-first utility type throughout the season if he’s hitting well in the minors.
Respective images via Jordan Godfree and Sam Greene, Imagn Images.