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Anthony Santander, Jack Flaherty Reportedly Open To Short-Term Offers

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As the offseason’s free agent market has developed and with Spring Training looming just over the horizon next month, a report from Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic this evening suggests that some of the major free agents still available are weighing the possibility of turning towards short-term deals with high average annual values, as the so-called “Boras Four” of Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, and Jordan Montgomery did last winter after not finding the long-term pacts they were hoping for in free agency.

Per Rosenthal and Sammon, outfielder Anthony Santander and right-hander Jack Flaherty are both now open to considering that sort of deal. Sammon also confirmed previous reports that indicated the camp of first baseman Pete Alonso had made an three-year offer to the Mets that includes multiple opt-outs, though it remains unclear if he’s open to similar short-term offers from other clubs at this point.

It’s a notable update to the market of all three players. Both Santander and Flaherty were reportedly looking for five-year deals that could have reached into the range of nine figures. Santander in particular reportedly has a contract offer on the table from the Blue Jays as of last week, though given the fact that he’s now open to exploring short-term deals it seems as though that offer may not have been one the switch-hitter was interested in accepting. It’s easy to imagine the possibility of getting a high-end free agent on a short-term deal opens up the market for these players, or perhaps convincing teams already connected to the players to become more serious about their pursuits.

As one example, Flaherty has previously been connected to the Cubs but there’s been some suggestion that Chicago (who signed Bellinger to a short-term, opt-out heavy deal just last winter) has reservations regarding the right-hander’s asking price. The Tigers, meanwhile, have been connected to both Flaherty and Santander but have remained opportunistic in free agency, locking down one-year deals with Gleyber Torres and Alex Cobb to improve their roster without making long-term commitments. Either of these clubs could theoretically be enticed to step up their efforts if their target is now open to considering a short-term deal.

While shorter-term deals can be attractive to teams as a way to mitigate risk associated with a particular free agent, they can still come with complications. While the deals Snell and Chapman signed in San Francisco last winter were clear successes for both sides, with Snell dominating down the stretch in a Giants uniform before signing a lucrative deal in L.A. back in November while Chapman had a resurgent season and extended with the club long-term, not all deals of this variety work out quite so well. Montgomery’s deal with Arizona quickly turned out to be a disaster as the left-hander endured the worst season of his career, got demoted to the bullpen, and has been shopped as a potential salary dump by the Diamondbacks this winter. Bellinger, meanwhile, posted a solid but unspectacular season in Chicago that led the Cubs to dump his salary in a trade with the Yankees last month in order to create an opening in the lineup for the addition of a more impactful bat than Kyle Tucker.

Even with those potential downsides, it’s easy to see why clubs could prefer a short-term deal rather than one that puts them on the hook for a player’s decline phase. After all, the Cubs were still able to shed the vast majority of the money owed to Bellinger in trade even after a pedestrian 2024 season, and the Diamondbacks could end up doing the same even after Montgomery’s disastrous campaign. Swinging those deals would be far more difficult if either player were on lengthy deals with larger overall guarantees, even if the AAV of those deals would likely be lower.

For the players, this sort of approach comes with both pros and cons. There is of course risk involved that injury or poor performance leads to them hitting the market with less value than they had in their initial trip through free agency. In the case of Flaherty, who is currently unencumbered by a Qualifying Offer, taking a short-term deal comes with a bit of extra risk given that even a wildly successful season could end up not leading to the sort of lucrative long-term deal he’s hoping for given the fact that he could be tagged with a QO in a future offseason. For a player already tagged with a QO like Santander, however, signing a short-term deal and hitting free agency after another strong season could provide an even larger boost to his value by allowing him to re-enter free agency unencumbered in the future.

While a willingness to consider short-term, high-AAV offers should open the market up for these players to an extent, that shouldn’t be taken to mean that a massive shakeup is guaranteed. Those high annual salaries figure to be an obstacle for clubs in or on the cusp of luxury tax territory as well as those dealing with budget crunches. As one example, Rosenthal and Sammon suggest that Alonso could look to seek a deal that offers an average annual value of $31.1MM in order to land the AAV record for first basemen. While that appears to be speculative on the part of the pair and they go on to suggest deferred money that would lower the net present value to be involved, even an AAV in the $25MM to $30MM range is the sort of figure that the majority of small-market clubs and even big spenders deep into luxury tax territory could be even less willing to stomach than a somewhat longer-term deal with a lower annual salary.

Blue Jays Sign Jeff Hoffman

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The Blue Jays made a significant bullpen upgrade on Friday evening, announcing a three-year deal with Jeff Hoffman that guarantees $33MM. The CAA client reportedly receives a $5MM signing bonus and can earn another $6MM in incentives. He’d unlock $500K for reaching each of 60, 70, 80 and 90 innings pitched in all three seasons. He’ll make a $6MM salary next season followed by $11MM annually from 2026-27.

General manager Ross Atkins said in a statement that Hoffman “will get an opportunity to close games for us” (relayed by Keegan Matheson of MLB.com). That suggests they’re planning to keep the right-hander in the late innings. Hoffman had reportedly drawn interest from teams as a starting pitcher.

Hoffman, who turned 32 on Wednesday, returns to the organization that drafted him more than a decade ago. The righty was Toronto’s first-round pick (ninth overall) out of East Carolina in 2014. He was a high-profile starting pitching prospect who landed among Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects in each of his first three professional seasons. Hoffman didn’t spend long in the Toronto system. One year after the draft, the Jays dealt him to the Rockies as part of the return in the Troy Tulowitzki deadline blockbuster.

The early portion of Hoffman’s major league career was a struggle. Like many young pitchers, he had a tough time at Coors Field. Hoffman had an earned run average north of 6.00 over parts of five seasons with the Rox. Colorado swapped him to the Reds for Robert Stephenson in advance of the 2021 season. Stephenson and Hoffman were each former top prospects whose careers would take off after a move to the bullpen.

For Hoffman, that didn’t materialize right away. He had a pair of decent but unspectacular seasons in Cincinnati, combining for a 4.28 ERA over 66 appearances. He signed with the Phillies on a minor league deal coming out of Spring Training in 2023. Hoffman had the best two seasons of his career in Philadelphia. He made the big league roster in early May of the first season and turned in 52 1/3 innings of 2.41 ERA ball.

That performance made him a key piece of Rob Thomson’s leverage group heading into 2024. Hoffman posted even better numbers during his second season at Citizens Bank Park. He worked 66 1/3 innings with a 2.17 ERA while striking out more than a third of opposing hitters. Over his tenure with the Phils, Hoffman turned in a 2.28 earned run average with a 33.4% strikeout percentage. He kept his walks to a modest 7.4% clip and held opponents to a .180/.249/.295 slash in 473 plate appearances.

Of the 97 relievers who have logged 100+ innings over the past two seasons, only five (Emmanuel Clase, Tanner Scott, Ryan Helsley, Kirby Yates and Tyler Holton) have a lower ERA. Hoffman also ranks sixth in strikeout rate, trailing Aroldis Chapman, Josh Hader, Fernando Cruz, Kirby Yates, and A.J. Puk. He is in the top 10 in swinging strike percentage. The 6’5″ hurler has the stuff to match those results. His fastball sits around 97 MPH on average. Hoffman mixes four pitches and has overpowered hitters with both the heater and his upper-80s slider.

That production earned him a contract commensurate with what most top setup arms have made in recent offseasons. It’s an exact match for what Stephenson, last winter’s breakout free agent reliever, earned from the Angels. Joe Jiménez, Reynaldo López, Rafael Montero, Taylor Rogers and Clay Holmes all landed three-year deals that guaranteed between $26MM and $38MM. Jordan Hicks signed for $11MM annually but was able to secure a fourth year from the Giants as he entered his age-27 season.

MLBTR ranked Hoffman as the #2 free agent reliever behind Scott. We predicted a four-year, $44MM deal. While the AAV was accurate, teams evidently were unwilling to go to four years at that salary for what would be his age 32-35 seasons. Hoffman was reportedly hoping to land a deal similar to the three years and $38MM that Holmes received from the Mets. He comes up a little bit shy of that, at least in part because New York is going to give Holmes an opportunity to move to the rotation.

Robert Murray of FanSided reported this evening that Hoffman had been set to sign with the Orioles on a three-year, $40MM contract before Baltimore took issue with his throwing shoulder during the physical examination. Teams have different standards for the injury risk that they’re willing to tolerate. Baltimore has a reputation for being particularly attentive to the physical. Hoffman has not spent any time on the injured list over the last two years. He missed a good portion of the second half of 2022 because of a forearm issue. He did miss around two months due to a shoulder impingement early in the ’21 season as a member of the Reds.

The signing is perhaps some evidence of a thaw in what has been a slow-moving reliever market. It’s the second straight day in which one of the top bullpen arms has come off the board, as Baltimore agreed to a $10MM deal with Andrew Kittredge last night (after pulling out of the agreement with Hoffman). Scott remains unsigned and should land the most significant reliever contract of the offseason by a decent margin. Carlos Estévez, Yates and David Robertson are among the next group of back-end arms.

It’s Toronto’s biggest free agent move of the offseason. Their only previous signing had been a two-year, $15MM deal to bring Yimi García back to the organization. They also took on nearly $100MM and acquired middle reliever Nick Sandlin in the Andrés Giménez trade. The Jays had the worst bullpen in the American League last season. They non-tendered Jordan Romano after an injury-plagued season for their former All-Star closer. (Romano signed with Philadelphia as a key replacement for Hoffman.) The trio of new bullpen pickups join holdovers Erik Swanson and Chad Green as potential late-inning options for John Schneider.

According to RosterResource, Toronto’s luxury tax number is up to roughly $239MM. That puts them within a few million of the $241MM base threshold. The Jays narrowly dipped below the CBT line last season. They’d need to be willing to exceed that marker if they’re going to make a notable offensive upgrade beyond Giménez. The outfield is the biggest issue on paper, while the Jays could also look to solidify a third base position that currently features a handful of young, unproven infielders.

Jon Morosi of the MLB Network first reported that the Jays and Hoffman were discussing a multi-year deal. FanSided’s Robert Murray reported the $6MM in bonuses, which Kiley McDaniel of ESPN specified. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the signing bonus, while The Associated Press had the salary structure.

Image courtesy of Imagn.

17 Players Exchange Filing Figures

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This evening’s deadline to exchange filing figures has come and gone. The majority of arbitration-eligible players agreed to contracts to avoid going to a hearing. There were 17 instances where the player and team did not come to terms.

Technically, nothing prevents players and teams from continuing to negotiate. However, virtually every team takes a “file-and-trial” approach to the process. Clubs will mostly refuse to continue talks about one-year deals after this date. They’ll often make exceptions for discussions involving multi-year contracts or one-year deals with a club/mutual option. It’s unlikely that all of these players will end up getting to a hearing, but the majority probably will.

If the sides go to a hearing, a three-person arbitration panel will either choose the player’s or the team’s filing figure. They cannot pick a midpoint. That’s designed to prevent the parties from anchoring by filing at extremely high or low figures. Teams’ preferences for the file-and-trial approach follows a similar logic. The idea is to deter players from submitting a higher number from which they could continue to negotiate until the hearing begins.

The list of players who could go to a hearing this winter (service time in parentheses):

Angels

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Dodgers

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Pirates

Rays

Red Sox

Yankees

—————————————

Tucker and the Cubs have the biggest gap in filing figures at $2.5MM. He’s one of the top two free agents in next year’s class and is unlikely to sign an extension, so they’re almost certainly headed to a hearing. King, who will be one of the best pitchers on the open market next winter, is the only other player with more than $1MM at stake depending on the results of the hearing. The smallest divide is the paltry $150K gap between Rengifo’s and the Angels’ respective filing figures. Hearings are scheduled to begin on January 27 and could run through February 14.

2025 Arbitration Tracker

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Today is the deadline for players and teams to exchange figures in arbitration — an annual deadline that leads to a slew of one-year deals and, typically, a handful of multi-year deals. Today should see upwards of 100 players agree to salaries for the 2025 season, although the majority of clubs and players now wait until the very last minute to agree. The deadline for agreements is noon CT, and we’ll see terms on plenty of last-minute/buzzer-beating deals filter in shortly thereafter. Players and teams that do not reach an agreement will exchange salary figures at 7pm CT tonight.

Each player’s service time is in parentheses, and you can of course check back to see each player’s projected salary from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. We’ll keep this updated as deals come in — refresh for updates — and break off some of the larger, more prominent agreements in separate entries. All agreements are for one year unless otherwise noted.

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays 

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks 

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Red Sox, Garrett Crochet Have Had Preliminary Extension Talks

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The Red Sox made one of the biggest trade acquisitions of the winter, landing Garrett Crochet from the White Sox for four prospects. Boston apparently has interest in keeping their newly-acquired southpaw for the longer term.

Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the Red Sox and Crochet’s camp at CAA have had at least preliminary discussions about a long-term deal. Tomorrow is the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to exchange filing figures on salaries for the 2025 season. That doesn’t preclude the sides from continuing to negotiate, but it stands to reason they’ll attempt to hammer out a deal to avoid an arbitration hearing for this year.

Crochet is coming off his first full season as a starting pitcher. His early-career injuries and usage out of the White Sox’s bullpen limited his arbitration earnings. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects the southpaw for a $2.9MM salary. He’s controllable for one additional year and is on track to reach free agency after his age-27 season.

For the next two seasons, Crochet should offer immense surplus value. He turned in top-of-the-rotation numbers on a rate basis last year. Crochet worked to a 3.58 earned run average with a massive 35.1% strikeout percentage. Chicago limited his workload within starts down the stretch. He finished the season with 146 innings despite taking all 32 turns through the rotation. Boston presumably won’t have any qualms about fully unleashing Crochet in his second season as a starter.

Crochet’s contract status was a key issue heading into last summer’s deadline. The southpaw seemed an obvious candidate to move as the ace of a team that was headed to the worst season in modern history. Chicago held onto him instead, in large part because his camp indicated he wanted an extension to pitch into October. To be clear, there’s no indication that Crochet would take that stance again now that he has a full season under his belt. At the time, ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote that the asking price would’ve been above nine figures. Passan noted that Crochet’s camp could compare him to Tyler Glasnow, who signed for four years and $110MM in new money on his extension with the Dodgers.

It’s not a perfect comparison. Glasnow was one year from free agency and had banked significantly greater earnings. Crochet is an extra season away. However, Crochet’s second half probably pushes his asking price higher than where it had been at the deadline. He finished the year healthy and is a few months closer to free agency. Even last year’s capped innings tally is above Glasnow’s career high of 134 frames in an MLB season.

Jacob deGrom holds the record for the largest extension for a pitcher with between four and five years of service time. deGrom secured $120.5MM from the Mets covering his age 32-35 seasons. That was an anomaly, as deGrom was a late bloomer but was coming off a Cy Young season. Crochet would certainly look to top more recent precedents like Pablo López’s $73.5MM deal with the Twins and the $71.5575MM in new money which Mitch Keller got from Pittsburgh last spring. A four- or five-year term would seem the most likely midpoint if the sides can reach an agreement. That’d allow the Sox to buy out two or three free agent seasons while Crochet would still have an opportunity to cash in as a free agent at 30 or 31.

A’s Sign Brent Rooker To Five-Year Extension

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The A’s have officially announced a five-year contract extension with designated hitter Brent Rooker. The deal includes a club/vesting option for 2030. Rooker, a client of The Bledsoe Agency, is reportedly guaranteed $60MM. The option’s base value is $22MM and could push as high as $30MM based on his MVP finishes. Rooker had been under arbitration control for three seasons, so the deal buys out at least two free agent years.

Rooker receives a $10MM signing bonus and a $2MM salary for the upcoming season. He’ll make $6MM in 2026, $12MM in ’27, $13MM in ’28 and $17MM in ’29. The $22MM option would vest if Rooker reaches 500 plate appearances in 2029 or combines for 900 PAs between 2028-29. He’d also unlock the option with two top 10 MVP finishes between 2027-29. Finishing in the top 10 in MVP balloting in any of the next five years could escalate the option value.

It’s another significant investment in what has been a huge offseason by A’s standards. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, Rooker becomes the first A’s player to sign a five-year deal since the club extended starting pitcher Trevor Cahill for $30.5MM in 2011. It’s the team’s second investment for $60MM+ this winter. Last month, they added Luis Severino on a three-year, $67MM free agent deal that represented the largest contract in franchise history.

Rooker securing such a contract would have been impossible to envision two years ago. He landed with the A’s on a waiver claim early in the 2022-23 offseason. Rooker was a 28-year-old DH/corner outfielder who had bounced between the Twins, Padres and Royals without getting much of a look at any stop. As a former top 35 overall draft pick who had hit well in the minors, he was a sensible waiver target. The A’s certainly didn’t envision it working out this well, though.

The righty-swinging Rooker has become not only one of the most successful waiver claims in recent memory but one of baseball’s best hitters. He popped 30 home runs in 526 plate appearances to earn an All-Star selection in 2023. While he was snubbed from the Midsummer Classic last season, Rooker took another major step forward. He connected on 39 homers, 26 doubles and a pair of triples with a massive .293/.365/.562 batting line across 614 plate appearances.

Rooker finished tied for fifth (alongside José Ramírez and Marcell Ozuna) in home runs. Only Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Santander and Juan Soto hit more. Among hitters with at least 500 PAs, Rooker ranked in the top 20 in all three slash stats. He finished sixth in slugging — trailing Judge, Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr., Soto, and Yordan Alvarez.

It’s now two seasons of borderline elite offensive production. Rooker has a .272/.348/.528 slash through more than 1100 plate appearances in an A’s uniform. He’s in the top 15 in slugging percentage and ranks ninth in homers since the start of the ’23 campaign. He’s a middle-of-the-order presence.

There is a decent amount of swing-and-miss to his game. Rooker has fanned in more than 30% of his plate appearances with the A’s. Last year’s production was driven in part by a .362 average on balls in play that’ll be difficult to maintain. Rooker makes a ton of hard contact, though, so he’s probably in line for a modest BABIP regression rather than a huge drop-off.

The ball-in-play normalization happened at the end of last season. Rooker carried an unsustainable .390 BABIP into the All-Star Break. That dropped to .333 in the second half. To his credit, Rooker compensated by cutting his strikeout rate to a much more manageable 24.1% clip during that stretch. It remains to be seen whether he’ll maintain that level of contact, but it’s an encouraging development that presumably affirmed the front office’s confidence in his hitting acumen.

Even if he doesn’t hit .290 while pushing 40 home runs on an annual basis, Rooker should remain an impact bat. The A’s have made clear they envisioned him as the long-term anchor of their lineup. The team reportedly took him off the market in advance of last summer’s trade deadline. They had no interest in allowing trade rumors to rekindle during the offseason. GM David Forst declared within a week of the offseason beginning that the A’s weren’t dealing Rooker. They’re doubling down by committing to him through at least the 2029 season.

Rooker surpassed three years of major league service last season. He was entering his first of three arbitration seasons. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $5.1MM salary for next year. Rooker will reportedly receive $30MM over what would have been his arbitration window. That leaves an average of $15MM annually for the two free agent seasons. It’s not quite a front-loaded contract, but it appears Rooker will make a little more in the next couple years than he would have had he gone through the arbitration process.

The team makes that tradeoff for the chance to keep him at below-market rates during the 2028-29 seasons — which are scheduled to be their first two years in Las Vegas. The A’s didn’t have any money guaranteed beyond 2027. Severino and recent trade pickup Jeffrey Springs were their only players signed past next season.

The A’s revenue sharing status has been a significant storyline this offseason. Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported last month that the team could need to push its competitive balance tax payroll to roughly $105MM to avoid an MLBPA grievance. Teams are required to spend revenue sharing money on the on-field product.

Extending Rooker will push their tax number up, though it’s not by a huge amount. The contract comes with a $12MM average annual value. The AAV is the number used for tax purposes, so it wouldn’t matter how the salaries are distributed. Rooker had already been expected to make around $5MM next season. This adds roughly $7MM to the team’s tax number, which will check in around $97MM (as calculated by RosterResource).

The tax number isn’t finalized until the end of the year, so the remainder of the A’s offseason and in-season activity can push that further. Tax considerations are relevant but are far from the only reason for the A’s to make this deal. If they were solely concerned about pushing next season’s CBT number, they could have signed a handful of mid-tier free agents to one-year contracts.

Rooker turned 30 in November. A five-year commitment runs through his age-34 season. There’s some risk in a five-year deal for a player in his 30s who doesn’t provide much defensive value. Yet if Rooker continues hitting at anywhere near this level, his arbitration price tag would have climbed quickly anyhow. He could have put himself in position for an AAV in the $20-25MM range once he hit free agency, a number that the A’s may have been disinclined to match.

At the same time, it’s easy to see the appeal for Rooker of locking in the security. It wasn’t that long ago that he looked like a fringe roster player. He wouldn’t have gotten to free agency until his age-33 season, when a three- or four-year deal might’ve been the ceiling. Sacrificing a little bit of long-term earning upside to avoid injury risk over the next couple seasons is understandable.

This should also solidify Rooker’s spot in what looks to be an up-and-coming A’s lineup. Lawrence Butler, Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom, Shea Langeliers, JJ Bleday and rebound candidate Zack Gelof have promise as an offensive core. Last summer’s fourth overall pick Nick Kurtz could move quickly as a polished college hitter. The A’s still need a lot to break right to contend in 2025, but things are starting to come into focus. Soderstrom and Kurtz fit best at first base, so perhaps there’ll be a logjam down the line with Rooker locked in at designated hitter. That’d be a good problem to have if both young first basemen reach their offensive ceilings and Rooker continues to hit at an All-Star level.

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported that the A’s and Rooker were in agreement on a five-year, $60MM deal with a vesting option that could get to $30MM. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the option’s base was $22MM and that Rooker would make $30MM over the first three seasons. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the salary breakdown and the vesting provisions.

Image courtesy of Imagn.

White Sox Sign Josh Rojas

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January 8: The White Sox officially announced the deal today, and that Rojas will make $3.5MM this year.

January 2: The White Sox are in agreement with infielder Josh Rojas on a one-year deal, according to a report from Scott Merkin of MLB.com. The financial terms of the deal are not yet known.

Rojas, 31 in June, was non-tendered by the Mariners back in November. It was an outcome few would have expected early in the 2024 season. Rojas had been a key piece of the trade that sent closer Paul Sewald to Arizona at the 2023 trade deadline and had hit a respectable .272/.321/.400 (105 wRC+) down the stretch with the Mariners. He followed that up with a torrid start to the 2024 campaign as well, hitting .318/.408/.530 (175 wRC+) through the end of April. Unfortunately for Rojas, the wheels came off completely from there. The rest of the way, Rojas hit a paltry .208/.285/.301 (75 wRC+), including a brutal .184/.265/.272 (62 wRC+) slash line over the season’s final two months while the Mariners slipped out of the playoff picture.

That tough offensive season was enough for the Mariners to decide against tendering him a contract for the 2025 season MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected would’ve earned Rojas $4.3MM. Even so, a weak free agent market for infielders made Rojas immediately one of the more intriguing lower-level free agent options available on this winter’s market. While Rojas has generally been an average to slightly below-average hitter in the majors since becoming a full-time player in Arizona back in 2021, he’s an versatile fielder who has posted excellent defensive numbers in each of the past two seasons. Since the start of the 2023 campaign, Rojas has +8 Outs Above Average at second base and +6 OAA at third base. Defensive Runs Saved is slightly less bullish on Rojas but still rates him as an above average fielder overall, with +2 DRS at second and +5 at third over the last two years. Rojas also has experience at shortstop and in the outfield corners at the big league level, though without the same impressive metrics backing his performance up.

That positional versatility, plus defense, and history as a league-average hitter was enough to make Rojas a sought after role player for a handful of teams this winter, including the Cubs. While the north side’s reportedly “serious” interest in Rojas likely involved him taking a part-time role backing up Nico Hoerner and top prospect Matt Shaw at second and third base, he should have a clearer path to regular reps on the south side of town. The club currently projects to utilize some combination of Miguel Vargas, Lenyn Sosa, Jacob Amaya, and Brooks Baldwin between shortstop, second base, and third base in 2025. While Vargas seems ticketed for everyday starts as a recent top-100 prospect who was the centerpiece of the return Chicago received for Michael Kopech, Tommy Pham, and Erick Fedde last summer, Rojas should be able to capture regular reps at whichever of second or third base Vargas doesn’t end up playing.

That should be particularly true against right-handed pitching, as Rojas sports a significant platoon split and hit just .133/.224/.133 against southpaws last year. It’s possible the White Sox will afford him the opportunity to prove he can hit lefties while in the thick of a rebuild, though perhaps they’ll simply platoon him with a right-handed infielder like Sosa in order to maximize his numbers ahead of what’s sure to be another fire sale at the trade deadline this year. For the White Sox, the addition of Rojas provides some stability to an infield mix that was in desperate need of attention this winter and a potential midseason trade chip. Meanwhile, Rojas will have the opportunity to be a regular with the club and could play his way into a role with a contender down the stretch.

With Rojas off the market, a handful of interesting infielders remain available in free agency for teams in need of help on the dirt. Whit Merrifield, Donovan Solano, and Cavan Biggio are among the players available who could provide versatility in a part-time or bench role, while Jorge Polanco, Paul DeJong, and Jose Iglesias are among a handful of potential regulars available in the lower tiers of free agency. One other wild card on the infield market is Hyeseong Kim, who was posted by the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes last month and is available for MLB clubs to sign until tomorrow afternoon.

Braxton Garrett To Miss 2025 Season Due To UCL Surgery

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Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett will undergo a revision surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow with an internal brace, reports Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. The southpaw will miss the entire 2025 season. Mish adds that the Fish are looking at free agency as a way to replace Garrett in their rotation.

It’s another unfortunate development in the health department, both for Garrett and the Marlins. The lefty had Tommy John surgery as a minor leaguer in the summer of 2017, which led to him missing the back half of that season and all of 2018.

After recovering from that surgery, he got back on track and made it to the major leagues, serving as an up-and-down guy for the 2020 to 2022 seasons. In 2023, he seemed to establish himself as a viable big league rotation member. He tossed 159 2/3 innings for Miami that year, allowing 3.66 earned runs per nine. His 23.7% strikeout rate was around league average but he had a solid 49.7% ground ball rate and excellent 4.4% walk rate.

But 2024 was a challenge for him, as he made multiple trips to the injured list and only made seven starts. A left shoulder impingement put him on the shelf to start the year. He was back by the middle of May and made his seven appearances over the next few weeks, but then was back on the IL due to a left forearm flexor strain. He was rehabbing in September and seemed ready to come off the IL but suffered a setback when he “felt something” in the back of his elbow. He was diagnosed with an elbow impingement in October and seemed set for a mostly healthy offseason, but that prognosis has apparently changed.

It’s unfortunate for Garrett on a couple of fronts. He’s 27 years old, turning 28 in August of this year, so he’s now set to miss a full season of what could have been his prime. It will hurt him financially as well. He just qualified for arbitration for the first time as a Super Two player, meaning he’ll get four passes instead of the normal three. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $1.8MM salary next year. After missing all of 2025, he’ll likely be slated for the same salary when he hopefully returns to the mound in 2026. Even if he comes back healthy and effective, he’ll be nudging up his salary from a lower foundation than if he had stayed healthy.

For the Marlins, their rotation picture has frequently changed in recent years. The Fish managed to sneak into the playoffs in 2023, partially thanks to a starting staff consisting of Garrett, Sandy Alcántara, Jesús Luzardo, Eury Pérez and Edward Cabrera. But all of those guys were either hurt or ineffective in 2024, causing the club’s competitive chances to fall apart.

There was a chance of having that whole gang back together in 2025 but Luzardo was recently traded to the Phillies and now Garrett is going to be on ice. Miami isn’t planning to compete in 2025 anyhow, based on their lack of offseason additions as well as their trades of Luzardo and Jake Burger, but it’s still less than ideal for Garrett to go down like this. Given his age and years of club control, he was in line to be part of the club’s next competitive window. That could still be the case but the path ahead is a bit foggier now.

Going into 2025, they could still have a rotation core of Alcántara and Cabrera. They could welcome back Pérez midseason, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in April of last year. Ryan Weathers, Max Meyer, Valente Bellozo and Adam Mazur are candidates to take the ball as well. Prospect Robby Snelling isn’t yet on the 40-man but could push his way into the mix.

Given the club’s lack of offseason activity, both in the previous offseason and the current one, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they just rolled with that group and let the chips fall where they may, but it seems as though they will look to add a veteran via free agency. That is perhaps related to recent reporting that they may need to get their competitive balance tax number up to $105MM in order to avoid a grievance from the MLB Players Association related to the usage of their revenue-sharing funds. RosterResource currently pegs their CBT number at $83MM, so it seems they will have to find ways to bridge that gap.

Acquiring a player making decent money from another club would be one way to do that, but free agency is obviously another. The starting pitching market has been hot but guys like Jack Flaherty, Nick Pivetta Andrew Heaney are still out there. It would be a surprise if the Marlins went after those guys, who are surely looking for notable multi-year deals, but the market also has guys that will likely be limited to one-year deals such as Kyle Gibson, Patrick Corbin, Chris Flexen, Lance Lynn, Ross Stripling, Jose Quintana, Jakob Junis, Colin Rea, Spencer Turnbull and more.

Royals Re-Sign Michael Lorenzen

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Jan. 8: Lorenzen has passed his physical, and the Royals have formally announced his new contract. Their 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.

Jan. 6: The Royals and Michael Lorenzen are reportedly in agreement on a one-year, $7MM contract. The deal, which is pending a physical, comes with a $5.5MM salary for next season. There’s a $12MM mutual option for 2026 that would come with a $1.5MM buyout if the Royals decline their end of the option. The contract also contains $1MM in performance bonuses for the CAA client.

Lorenzen heads back to Kansas City after finishing the ’24 campaign with the Royals. Kansas City acquired him from the Rangers in a deadline deal that sent reliever Walter Pennington to Texas. Lorenzen made a strong first impression, turning in a 1.57 ERA across 28 2/3 innings while starting six of his seven outings.

That capped off one of the better seasons of his decade-long MLB career. Lorenzen finished the year with a combined 3.31 earned run average over 130 1/3 innings. He started all but two of his 26 appearances. It was the third straight solid year since Lorenzen moved to the rotation. He’d turned in a 4.24 ERA over 18 starts for the Angels in 2022 and combined for a 4.18 mark in 153 innings between the Tigers and Phillies in ’23.

In each of those seasons, Lorenzen has found bottom line success despite an unimpressive strikeout and walk profile. That was particularly true last year. His 18.1% strikeout percentage and 11.2% walk rate are a few points worse than the respective league averages. Lorenzen has missed bats on fewer than 10% of his pitches in consecutive seasons. Last year’s 9.1% swinging strike rate was his lowest mark since 2018.

Lorenzen nevertheless carries a 3.90 ERA across nearly 400 innings over the last three seasons. While he has outperformed his peripherals in each season, teams seemingly remain skeptical about his chances of doing so yet again. Lorenzen has been limited to one-year contracts with base salaries below eight figures in each of the last four offseasons. He reportedly sought a two-year deal last winter. Lorenzen lingered in free agency deep into Spring Training before heading to Arlington on a modest $4.5MM guarantee with $2.5MM in performance bonuses.

The 33-year-old jumped on a deal earlier in the winter this time around. Lorenzen earns a slight pay bump relative to last season. He’ll also get the benefit of sticking with the same organization with which he ended the previous year. This is the first time since Lorenzen’s early-career run in the Cincinnati bullpen that he’ll stick with the same team over an offseason.

Kansas City lost some mid-rotation stability when they swapped Brady Singer for Jonathan India early in the offseason. That vacated a rotation spot for Kyle Wright, who is coming back from shoulder surgery that cost him the entire 2024 season. Lorenzen could compete with Wright and Alec Marsh for the fifth rotation spot behind Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. Skipper Matt Quatraro could also turn to a six-man rotation or keep Lorenzen in long relief with the flexibility to move back into the rotation as injuries arise or workload management necessitates.

Previous reporting had indicated that Lorenzen, who had a bit of outfield experience with Cincinnati early in his career, could sign with a non-contender to take some at-bats. The idea would’ve been to reach the 20 games as a hitter necessary to qualify as a two-way player. That would’ve meant he would not have counted against a team’s 13-pitcher limit. There is no indication that the Royals — a team that made the Division Series last year and certainly intends to reach the playoffs again — is planning to do that.

Lorenzen’s salary brings the Royals’ payroll to roughly $121MM, according to the RosterResource calculations. They’d been around last year’s spending level before this signing, their first MLB contract since they re-signed Wacha shortly before free agency officially opened. It’s not clear how much room remains in the budget. Kansas City has reportedly looked for a middle-of-the-order bat after acquiring India to hit atop the lineup. Corner outfield and bullpen help are the biggest needs on paper.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Royals and Lorenzen had agreed to a one-year, $7MM deal that included a $12MM mutual option. Anne Rogers of MLB.com reported the salary and the option buyout. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic was first to mention the $1MM in bonuses. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Rays Sign Drew Rasmussen To Extension

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The Rays finalized a two-year extension with right-hander Drew Rasmussen on Tuesday afternoon. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client is guaranteed $8.5MM for what would have been his final two arbitration years. The deal includes a 2027 club option that has a base value of $8MM.

He will receive a $500K signing bonus, a $2MM salary next season, and a $5.5MM salary in 2026. The option comes with a $500K buyout. Various escalators could increase the option value by another $12MM. The price could increase anywhere between $1.5MM and $6MM based on Rasmussen’s health over the next two seasons. He could unlock another $6MM based on his start totals in 2026: $500,000 for eight starts, $750,000 for 12, $1MM each for 16 and 20, $1.25MM for 24 and $1.5MM for 28.

Ramussen, 29, missed the bulk of the 2023-24 seasons recovering from an internal brace procedure to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That surgery tamped down his workload in both seasons as well as his expected price tag in arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a modest $2MM salary for the talented righty in the upcoming season. By virtue of his salary and that signing bonus, he’ll top that sum under this new multi-year arrangement while also sacrificing a year of free agency to lock in some immediate earnings.

It’s an understandable trade-off for Rasmussen, who didn’t get a full look in a big league rotation until his age-26 season (2022) and has since missed ample time due to injury. A sixth-round pick of the Brewers back in 2018, Rasmussen signed for just a $135K bonus and didn’t make his big league debut until 2020. In total, he’s earned under $4MM in his career thus far.

Rasmussen was traded from Milwaukee to Tampa Bay in the 2021 deal that sent Willy Adames to the Brewers. He was sharp down then stretch in a hybrid role for Tampa Bay but had a full-fledged breakout in 2022, That season, Rasmussen pitched a career-high 146 innings and turned in a 2.84 earned run average with a slightly below-average 21.4% strikeout rate against a terrific 5.3% walk rate. He kept the ball on the ground at a strong 46.6% clip. Rasmussen averaged 95.5 mph on his heater, deftly avoided hard contact and recorded a 12.1% swinging-strike rate that suggested more punchouts could be in the tank down the road.

That indeed looked to be the case early in 2023, too. Rasmussen notched an even better 2.62 ERA but saw his strikeout rate spike to 26.6%. He maintained plus command (6.2%) and also saw his ground-ball rate surge to 52.6% — an increase of six percentage points over the prior season. For a span of 36 starts from 2022-23, Rasmussen pitched like a genuine No. 1 or 2 starter — a clear playoff arm who could pitch near the front of any rotation.

Injuries, however, had other ideas for the talented righty. The Rays announced on July 8, 2023 that Rasmussen would require surgery. He wound up missing 13 months of action, returning to a big league mound on Aug. 7 of this past season. The Rays used him primarily as a reliever. He “started” four games but did so throwing only two innings apiece and working as an opener. The results, however, were excellent. In 28 2/3 frames, Rasmussen posted a 2.83 ERA, 30.2% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 53.3% grounder rate.

The plan now is for Rasmussen to return to the rotation. He’ll join Shane McClanahan (returning from Tommy John surgery), Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Shane Baz and Zack Littell in a very talented mix of arms. Each of McClanahan, Rasmussen and Baz could face some form of workload limitations, as Baz has yet to pitch a full season since returning from his own ligament surgery in 2022 — though he did pitch 118 2/3 innings combined between Triple-A and the majors in 2024.

For the Rays, there’s little to no impact on their 2025 budget. Rasmussen will only earn a nominal $500K more than his projected arbitration price, thanks to that signing bonus. They’ll also lock in the right-hander’s 2026 salary, gaining some cost certainty. It’s possible that Rasmussen could’ve outpaced that $5.5MM salary in arbitration with a big year, but likely not by much, given the low platform from which he’d be starting. The concession for locking in that ’26 salary is giving up a would-be free-agent season — his age-31 year. So long as he’s healthy, that option will pay him at least $8MM, though with good health there’s a good chance it’ll be a fair bit higher.

While it’s not quite to the same scale as the Rays’ extension with former ace Tyler Glasnow, there are some parallels here. Tampa Bay is putting down some guaranteed money on a talented but oft-injured righty. Glasnow’s $25MM salary in the final season of his own extension was guaranteed, whereas Rasmussen will have to remain healthy to push close to that number. Still, it’s a potentially weighty salary by the Rays’ standards, and one that could render Rasmussen a trade candidate down the road. The extension gives the Rays some extra control over a potential frontline arm but also a viable trade candidate down the road. It’s perhaps cynical to point out the manner in which an extension boosts a player’s trade value in the immediate aftermath of the agreement, but the Rays have a track record of operating in this manner.

For the time being, Rasmussen will head into the season as a locked-in member of a deep and talented rotation. The Rays haven’t done much to improve their middling lineup — though Danny Jansen provides a potential notable upgrade behind the plate. Rather, they’ll apparently hope for big strides from ballyhooed third baseman Junior Caminero and rebounds from Josh Lowe and Christopher Morel, both of whom experienced notable drops at the plate following very productive 2023 campaigns.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported that the Rays and Rasmussen were nearing a two-year, $8.5MM extension with an $8MM option for 2027. Topkin reported the presence of escalators in the option, which The Associated Press specified.

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