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Mets Outright Dylan Covey, Luis De Los Santos

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The Mets sent righty Dylan Covey and infielder Luis De Los Santos outright to Triple-A Syracuse, the team announced. Both players were designated for assignment last week — Covey as the corresponding move for Ryne Stanek, De Los Santos when the Mets signed Nick Madrigal.

Both players were offseason additions, so neither has played a game for the Mets. Covey signed a one-year split contract the day after the conclusion of the World Series. That came with an $850K base salary in the majors and a $350K salary for whatever time he spends in the minors. The contract is designed to make it likely that the Mets can keep him as depth. Covey has been outrighted multiple times in his career, which gives him the right to decline the assignment in favor of free agency. However, he’d forfeit his $350K minor league guarantee to test the market, so he’ll presumably accept the assignment and get a non-roster invitation to Spring Training.

Covey has a 6.18 earned run average over 307 1/3 major league innings. The 33-year-old has started 46 of his 100 big league appearances. Covey has been a long reliever for the past two seasons. He worked to a 3.77 ERA through 43 frames between the Dodgers and Phillies in 2023. His 15.7% strikeout rate was well below average, but he kept the ball on the ground at a strong 54.3% clip. A shoulder strain cost him most of last season. Covey tossed 15 Triple-A frames in the Philadelphia system. He posted a 1.20 ERA behind a massive 71.4% grounder percentage.

De Los Santos was a waiver claim out of the Toronto organization. He had signed with the Jays out of the Dominican Republic in 2015. He played eight seasons in the minors and was called up for the first time after the trade deadline. De Los Santos appeared in 13 games late in the year, hitting .172 with a pair of doubles across 31 plate appearances.

The righty hitter appeared in 43 contests with Triple-A Buffalo last season. He hit .268/.376/.486 over 154 trips to the plate. That improved his career Triple-A batting line to .228/.343/.393 in parts of three seasons. De Los Santos has shown a decent eye (12.7% walk rate) with below-average contact rates at that level. Primarily a shortstop, he has a decent amount of experience at all four infield positions. This is his first outright, so he’ll remain with the Mets.

Astros Re-Sign Ben Gamel

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The Astros have re-signed Ben Gamel to a one-year major league contract. The Wasserman client is reportedly guaranteed a $200K signing bonus and would secure a $1MM base salary if he breaks camp. The Astros have a 40-man roster opening thanks to the Ryan Pressly trade, so no corresponding move was necessary.

GM Dana Brown has spoken all offseason about the team’s desire for a lefty-hitting outfielder. Gamel fits the bill and has some familiarity in the Houston clubhouse. The Astros snagged him off waivers from the Mets last August. Gamel provided a bit of a boost offensively, hitting .259/.377/.362 in 20 games. His season ended in mid-September when he broke his left fibula, sustained when he crashed into the outfield wall while tracking down a Mickey Moniak fly ball. Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that the veteran outfielder is expected to be a full participant in Spring Training.

Gamel, 32, has appeared in the majors in nine straight seasons. He played somewhat regularly with the Mariners, Brewers and Pirates between 2017-22. He has spent the last two years as a depth option. He made six appearances for the 2023 Padres and combined for 38 games between the Mets and Astros last year.

In a little over 2300 career plate appearances, Gamel owns a .252/.334/.382 slash line that is roughly league average. He has middling power with a very patient plate approach. Gamel’s willingness to work deep counts has translated to a strong 10.5% walk percentage, though he has also fanned in around a quarter of his trips to the dish. He has been an excellent Triple-A performer throughout his career, hitting .303/.381/.468 across 420 games at the top minor league level.

While Gamel addresses Houston’s desire for a lefty-swinging outfielder, he doesn’t have huge platoon splits. He’s a career .252/.337/.387 hitter against righties and carries a .252/.324/.364 slash versus left-handed pitching. Gamel is a fringy runner who is limited to the corner outfield, where defensive metrics have graded him as a below-average defender.

Gamel should have a real opportunity to play his way into a decent amount of playing time in Houston. The Astros have a thin outfield following the Kyle Tucker trade. Defensive stalwart Jake Meyers is ticketed for regular run in center field. Chas McCormick will get the bulk of the playing time in right field. He’s looking to rebound from a career-worst .211/.271/.306 showing. Gamel may end up as the Opening Day left fielder. Manager Joe Espada said that he’d prefer to limit Yordan Alvarez’s outfield work to keep him healthy. Taylor Trammell, a career .167/.270/.363 hitter who took eight MLB plate appearances last year, projected as Houston’s left fielder before this signing.

Utilityman Mauricio Dubón will be in the mix at various infield and outfield positions. The Astros have kicked around the idea of giving Jose Altuve some left field work. If Houston re-signed Alex Bregman, that’d push Isaac Paredes to second base and move Altuve into left field every day. While that door remains cracked as long as Bregman remains unsigned, the Astros don’t seem to be confident in their chances of re-signing him. Their pursuit of Jorge Polanco as an infield fallback came up short. Houston could theoretically make Dubón a full-time second baseman and commit to pushing Altuve to the outfield, but that’d limit their versatility off the bench.

Offloading $8.5MM of Pressly’s $14MM salary dropped the Astros below the luxury tax line. RosterResource calculates their CBT around $237MM, making the assumption that Gamel will stick on the roster into the regular season and count for a $1.2MM tax hit. That puts the Astros around $4MM shy of this year’s base threshold. Owner Jim Crane has shown a willingness to exceed the threshold if it meant getting Bregman back at a favorable price — they’ve reportedly had a six-year, $156MM offer on the table for most of the winter — but it doesn’t seem the Astros want to go beyond the line for marginal upgrades.

Chandler Rome of The Athletic first reported that the Astros were re-signing Gamel. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that it was an MLB deal that included a $200K signing bonus and a non-guaranteed $1MM salary. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported the condition that the salary became guaranteed if Gamel were on the Opening Day roster.

Image courtesy of Imagn.

Dodgers Add Brandon McDaniel To Coaching Staff

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The Dodgers announced their full coaching staff this week. Most of manager Dave Roberts’ staff is coming back, but there are a few alterations. First base coach Clayton McCullough departed to take the skipper job with the Marlins and will be replaced by Chris Woodward. Third base coach Dino Ebel will also take up a role working with outfielders. MLBTR covered those two developments in November. The club also announced this week that Brandon McDaniel joins the staff as major league development integration coach.

McDaniel, 41, is not new to the organization. He has been working various roles throughout the system over the years, often working in the realm of strength and conditioning. For the past few years, he has had the title of vice president of player performance. He will now have an official role on the staff for what will be his 13th year working for the club at the big league level.

The rest of the staff will be filled out by Danny Lehmann, Bob Geren, Mark Prior, Robert Van Scoyoc, Aaron Bates, Connor McGuiness and Josh Bard, with all of them returning to their previous roles.

Fantasy Baseball: The Seventh Annual Sleepys (Hitters)!

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Ya-aawwwwwn. Much like the mighty grizzly bear, I've spent the cold winter months of the midwest hibernating in my west county burrow. The calendar has now flipped to February, though, and I've awakened to see all of the telltale signs heralding the full arrival of fantasy baseball season... Football is finally ending and birds are almost chirping, while dozens of podcasts extensively extol the virtues of the same seven players. And just yesterday, Eno Sarris emerged from his local craft brewery and saw his own merm's shadow, officially ushering in 30 more weeks of content. Huzzah!

 

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Can The Astros Find Their Left-Handed Bat And Sill Stay Under The Luxury Tax?

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It’s been a whirlwind offseason for the Astros. While Houston isn’t rebuilding by any stretch, it’s fair to call this something of a transitional winter. They’ve traded an MVP-caliber outfielder (Kyle Tucker) to the Cubs and appear likely to part ways with a cornerstone of their World Series teams (Alex Bregman) in free agency. Justin Verlander is in San Francisco. Longtime closer Ryan Pressly followed Tucker to Wrigleyville in a separate trade. With those names out the door (or likely out the door, in Bregman’s case), the ’Stros have brought in Isaac Paredes, Christian Walker, Hayden Wesneski and their new top prospect, Cam Smith.

Owner Jim Crane has maintained that the club has the “wherewithal” to match last year’s spending (i.e. pay the luxury tax) in the right scenario and for the right player. Presumably, with Houston leaving its six-year, $156MM offer to Bregman on the table — even after acquiring Paredes and Walker and even as Bregman seeks lengthier/larger contracts elsewhere — Crane feels a Bregman reunion is such a scenario/player. However, general manager Dana Brown said yesterday that he hasn’t recently talked to agent Scott Boras and used the past tense when talking to the Astros beat about Bregman (video via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). A reunion doesn’t seem likely.

In that same media availability, Brown continued to voice his hope to acquire a left-handed bat — ideally in the outfield:

“We’re trying to get a left-handed bat for the outfield,” said Brown. “Most of the options are slim to none, but we’re still working through it and grinding to get some left-handed at-bats in our outfield.”

Cynics will point out that Houston had one of the best left-handed hitters in all of baseball (Tucker) and traded him to the Cubs — although doing so brought them multiple years of control over their new third baseman (Paredes), their potential fifth starter (Wesneski) and their new top prospect (Smith). Tucker wasn’t likely to sign an extension, and the ’Stros undoubtedly received more long-term value than they’d have garnered with a compensatory draft pick by simply letting Tucker reach free agency. That long-term value comes at the cost of a lesser 2025 roster but could well prove to be the best play in the long run.

Regardless of how one feels about the Tucker trade, he’s gone and won’t factor into this year’s roster. That leaves the Astros with a heavily right-handed lineup. Paredes, Walker, Jeremy Pena, Jose Altuve, Yainer Diaz, Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick all bat from the right side. Yordan Alvarez is the lone left-handed bat assured to be in the lineup.

On top of that general lack of lefties, the Astros also more broadly lack certainty in the outfield. Meyers plays great defense but is a .222/.290/.369 hitter over the past two seasons. McCormick is coming off a career-worst .211/.271/.306 batting line. The other outfield spot, as things stand, projects to be filled by a combination of utilityman Mauricio Dubon and DFA pickup/former top prospect Taylor Trammell. Houston can hope that a combination of Kenedy Corona, Pedro Leon, Jacob Melton, Quincy Hamilton and Cooper Hummel can factor into the outfield puzzle, but no one from that group is close to established in the majors. Leon’s stock is down considerably from when he was Houston’s top prospect. Melton is still well-regarded but didn’t hit all that well in last year’s Triple-A debut.

Even if someone from that group steps up, the Astros arguably need better outfield options. Alvarez played 53 games in left field last year, and manager Joe Espada said this week that the club hopes to reduce that number significantly in 2025, so more time on the grass for the team’s top slugger isn’t the answer. One injury or continued offensive decline for Meyers or McCormick could lead to a disastrous outfield setup.

It all leaves the Astros in a tough spot. They’re about $4.75MM shy of the $241MM luxury tax threshold, per RosterResource, with an owner who seemingly doesn’t want to cross that line for anything other than a Bregman reunion (at the Astros’ price rather than Bregman’s price). There are some free agents who could fit the bill, but would they sign for under $5MM? That’s far less clear.

Let’s run through some potential options.

Free Agents

Jason Heyward: The Astros got a decent run out of Heyward after the Dodgers cut him loose. He appeared in 24 games and hit .218/.283/.473 with four big flies in just 61 plate appearances. Heyward still plays a strong right field, but he’s coming off an overall .211/.288/.412 showing last year. He and McCormick could form a platoon, but Heyward only has 73 plate appearances versus lefties over the past three seasons combined. He shouldn’t face them. Given his age (35), marginal 2024 showing and platoon splits, it seems plausible that the Astros could sign him for something similar to Ramon Laureano’s $4MM in Baltimore and keep themselves under the tax line.

David Peralta: The 37-year-old Peralta hit .267/.335/.415 for the Padres in 2024, with about 90% of his plate appearances coming against right-handed pitching. As with Heyward, he’s a veteran in the twilight of his career who’d require strict platooning. That said, Peralta has consistently hit right-handed pitching, with the 2023 season standing as the lone exception of note in recent years. He bounced back nicely in 2024 after signing minor league deals with the Cubs and Padres. A big league deal with a small enough guarantee to comfortably remain under the luxury tax at least feels plausible.

Eddie Rosario: After four productive years as a regular in Minnesota, Rosario has alternated between league-average offense and bottom-of-the-scale production, in every-other-year fashion, from 2021-24. He posted exact 100 wRC+ marks in ’21 and ’23 but hit .212/.259/.328 (63 wRC+) in 2022 and .175/.215/.316 (45 wRC+) in 2024. A minor league deal with a low base salary seems to be the likely outcome here. The Astros could swing that, but there’s zero guarantee that the 33-year-old Rosario can bounce back from that woeful ’24 showing. Over his past 1517 MLB plate appearances, he’s hitting .231/.278/.396 (82 wRC+).

Alex Verdugo: Still just 28 years old, Verdugo picked a poor time to have a career-worst season. He hit just .233/.291/.356 as the Yankees’ regular left fielder last year, and that came despite a blistering start to the season. From mid-May onward, Verdugo fell into an interminable slump and ranked as one of the game’s least effective hitters. In Verdugo’s final 480 plate appearances, he posted a .221/.270/.330 slash. That’s 31% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+. Verdugo is very likely looking at a one-year deal, but he made $8.7MM last season, so a cut to less than $5MM is probably a hard sell. Plus, most teams with interest in Verdugo are likely willing to include incentives to boost whatever base salary he accepts. For the Astros, such an arrangement might push them north of the tax line again.

Plausible Trade Options

To be clear, this isn’t an exhaustive list of every left-handed bat the Astros could pursue — nor is it necessarily a collection of high-impact, cost-effective prospects. Sure, the Astros would probably love to pry Heston Kjerstad away from the Orioles, but short of offering up a compelling top-of-the-rotation arm like Framber Valdez — which doesn’t at all seem like something Houston is considering/has considered — a prospect of that caliber isn’t likely to be available. Some of these names have, and surely will again, already come up in trade talks, but broadly speaking this is a speculative list of potential fits who’d check some boxes for Houston.

James Outman, Dodgers: Outman was one of the Dodgers’ top-ranked prospects a few years back but hasn’t been able to overcome his penchant for strikeouts. The outfield in L.A. no longer has room for him. Teoscar Hernandez, Tommy Edman and Michael Conforto look likely to start there, and even if Edman shifts to the infield, Andy Pages has leapfrogged Outman on the depth chart.

Outman posted a miserable .147/.256/.265 slash in 156 plate appearances with the Dodgers last season but slashed .248/.353/.437 in 567 turns at the plate the year prior. He hit .279/.390/.543 in Triple-A last year. Outman has a minor league option remaining, so the Dodgers don’t need to be in any rush to trade him. He’s nice depth to have on hand. But he’s also 27 going on 28 (in May), not in the team’s immediate plans, and has fast-rising prospects Josue De Paula and Zyhir Hope climbing the minor league ranks behind him.

Jesus Sanchez, Marlins: After a brief run of trying to compete, the Marlins are back to teardown mode — perhaps even more so than at any point in recent history. They traded 10 big leaguers last year between Opening Day and the deadline, and they’ve shipped out Jesus Luzardo this offseason as well.

Sanchez, earning $4.5MM this year, is one of two players on Miami’s active roster earning more than $2MM. (Ace and likely summer trade chip Sandy Alcantara, at $17MM, is the other.) Since he’d effectively be replacing a league-minimum player, he’d be a net $3.75MM add to the team’s luxury bill, allowing Houston to stay under the tax line. Sanchez has subpar plate discipline and can’t hit lefties. He also has enormous raw power and elite batted-ball metrics. He’s only an average runner but nonetheless swiped 16 bags in 18 tries this past season. Since 2023, the 27-year-old is hitting .252/.319/.431 with 32 homers in 931 plate appearances. He’s a solid, if unremarkable right field defender and is under club control through 2027. With the Marlins in a rebuild, Sanchez could be had for prospects.

LaMonte Wade Jr., Giants: Wade is probably a stretch as a regular outfielder. He ranks among the game’s slowest runners, sitting with seventh percentile sprint speed, per Statcast, and the Giants haven’t played him on the grass even semi-regularly since 2021-22. The Astros have a grounder-heavy rotation, though, and the short left field porch at the newly renamed Daikin Park inherently reduces the amount of ground Houston left fielders need to cover (especially relative to Oracle Park in San Francisco).

Wade excels in two key areas, however. He hits right-handed pitching and, more broadly, he gets on base. Wade has walked in nearly 13% of his career plate appearances. That includes a 14% clip across the past three seasons and a massive 15.5% mark in 2024. He’s a lifetime .251/.359/.431 hitter against righties. Wade is earning $5MM in 2025, his last year before free agency. The Astros can probably shoehorn him into the payroll and narrowly duck under the tax line. He’s lined up to be the Giants’ primary first baseman in 2025, but the Giants have listened on Wade this winter and there are first base alternatives still on the market that San Francisco could pursue if they receive an offer to their liking for Wade.

Jack Suwinski, Pirates: Similar to Outman, Suwinski is a strikeout-prone lefty who had an encouraging 2023 showing (26 homers, .224/.339/.454, 112 wRC+) before tanking in 2024. The Bucs opened 2024 with Suwinski locked into their outfield but optioned him multiple times amid a disastrous .182/.264/.324 performance at the plate. Part of Suwinski’s struggles were BABIP related, as he hit just .225 on balls in play, but poor luck doesn’t tell the whole story. He saw notable drops in his excellent batted-ball metrics from ’23 and saw his ground-ball rate skyrocket from 27.9% to 46.4%. Even with above-average speed, that’s a bad trend for a pull-heavy lefty.

The Bucs still have one unsettled outfield spot, and Suwinski will be in the mix barring a late acquisition. Strikeouts are an issue, but Suwinski walks a lot (career 12.1%), runs well and is a passable, albeit slightly below-average left fielder. He hasn’t reached arbitration yet, so salary isn’t an issue.

Jake Fraley, Reds: There’s no urgency for the Reds to move Fraley, but he’s a moderately priced ($3.125MM) lefty who’s controlled through 2026 and could feasibly net Cincinnati a bullpen option in a trade. Fraley is a career .264/.346/.440 hitter against righties. He runs and throws well but still draws only average (or slightly below) grades for his glovework in right field. The Reds recently added Austin Hays on a one-year deal. They now have Hays, TJ Friedl, Gavin Lux, Spencer Steer and Stuart Fairchild as big league outfield options, with Rece Hinds, Blake Dunn and Will Benson on the 40-man roster and likely Triple-A bound. They could afford to move Fraley for some relief help.

Andrew Benintendi, White Sox: Maybe we’ve reached the point of silliness here. Benintendi is owed $47.5MM over the next three seasons and hasn’t panned out at all since signing a five-year deal with the South Siders. That said, he quietly batted .251/.326/.470 (124 wRC+) with 16 homers over his final 322 plate appearances. Would the White Sox eat a (significant) portion of the contract to move on? Would they take back an underwater contract like Rafael Montero (still with the organization after being outrighted, still owed $11.5MM) or erstwhile top starter Lance McCullers Jr. ($34MM through 2026)? Calling Benintendi any sort of a solution is an extreme stretch, but he finished nicely in 2024, is still only 30 and was a quality all-around performer as recently as 2022.

Longer Shots

There are ample names to consider around the league, but many would require the Astros to part with talent from their current big league roster. The D-backs have received interest in Jake McCarthy and Alek Thomas this winter — likely some from the Astros — but both will play big league roles, with McCarthy in particular looking like a starter for a win-now Arizona club. The Cardinals don’t have a great spot for Alec Burleson other than DH but also have no reason to consider moving him unless they’re getting meaningful prospects in return. Atlanta’s signing of Jurickson Profar leaves Jarred Kelenic without an everyday role once Ronald Acuña Jr. returns, but the Braves are probably reluctant to move on after engineering a convoluted series of salary-driven trades to acquire/purchase Kelenic last offseason.

There are countless scenarios to draw up, but the bottom line is that Houston faces an uphill battle in adding a credible left-handed bat to its outfield group if Crane remains intent on staying under the tax threshold for anyone other than Bregman.

Rangers Sign Matt Festa To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers announced that they have signed right-hander Matt Festa to a minor league deal. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client will be in camp as a non-roster invitee. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported the deal prior to the official announcement.

Festa, 32 in March, spent the latter half of the 2024 season with the Rangers. He was selected to the roster in August and tossed 22 2/3 innings for them in what remained of the schedule, allowing 4.37 earned runs per nine. His 25% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate were both a bit better than average.

Despite that decent showing, he was bumped off the roster last month, getting designated for assignment when Texas signed Chris Martin. He was flipped to the Cubs for cash but only lasted a few weeks with that team. The Cubs gave him the DFA treatment to open a roster spot when they acquired Ryan Pressly.

Festa cleared waivers and was outrighted by the Cubs to Triple-A Iowa. Players with at least one previous career outright, such as Festa, have the right to reject another outright assignment in favor of free agency. It appears that he did indeed elect free agency and has circled back to the Rangers.

He now has 117 1/3 major league innings under his belt with a 4.60 ERA. His 10.3% career walk rate is a tad high but he has paired that with a strong 25% strikeout rate. The Rangers have been trying to bolster their bullpen on the cheap this winter. They lost Kirby Yates, David Robertson, José Leclerc and Andrew Chafin to free agency at season’s end. That gave them a lot of work to do but they have had a clear goal of avoiding the competitive balance tax this winter.

They acquired Robert Garcia, who has not yet qualified for arbitration, in the Nathaniel Lowe deal. They have signed Martin, Jacob Webb, Shawn Armstrong and Hoby Milner to one-year deals, each worth less than $6MM. They have given minor league deals to Jesse Chavez, Codi Heuer, Patrick Murphy and now Festa. If Festa gets added to the roster at any point, he is out of options but has just over two years of service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration.

Poll: Who’s Winning The Offseason In The NL West?

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The calendar has flipped to February and the start of Spring Training is just a matter of days away. While some notable free agents (including nine of MLBTR’s Top 50 MLB Free Agents for the 2024-25 offseason) remain unsigned, most clubs have already done the heavy lifting in terms of preparing their roster for the 2025 season. In the coming days, we’ll be taking a look around the league at which clubs have had the strongest offseason to this point. So far, the Mets and Cubs have decisively won the polls covering the NL East and Central respectively. Today, the focus shifts to the NL West.

The west coast represents the class of the National League given that they’ve represented the senior circuit in the World Series in each of the past two seasons. The division has sent at least two teams to the postseason in each of the past five seasons, and this offseason finds three of the club’s five teams firmly in win-now contention windows while a fourth has also begun acting aggressively. Which team has done the most to set themselves up for success this winter? Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The reigning World Series champions may have stayed mostly on the sidelines during the bidding for top free agent and $765MM man Juan Soto, but that in no way means they’ve had a quiet offseason. The Dodgers have been one of the league’s most active teams this winter, re-signing Teoscar Hernandez and Blake Treinen, extending Tommy Edman, and also making a number of additions in free agency. The club kicked off the winter by poaching lefty Blake Snell from their division rivals in San Francisco and haven’t let up since, adding Michael Conforto to the outfield and Hyeseong Kim to the infield while bolstering the bullpen with both Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, arguably the two best closers available in this winter’s market.

The most notable addition of the winter for Los Angeles, however, was surely longtime NPB phenom Roki Sasaki, who was posted despite not yet being eligible for anything more than a minor league contract and international bonus pool money. Getting Sasaki under such favorable terms would be a coup for any team, and it only serves to strengthen the Dodgers further. That’s not to say their offseason has been flawless, however. Their roster crunch reached a point where they had to sell off some of their less-necessary 40-man prospects and depth pieces like Diego Cartaya, Gavin Lux, and Ryan Brasier. Aside from that, the club’s biggest question mark in 2025 was the shortstop position, and that remains largely unaddressed as the club plans to give veteran star Mookie Betts another run at the position despite his lack of experience there. Even with a potential hole at short if Betts is unable to handle the position, however, the Dodgers have set themselves up well as they look to defend their World Series title in 2025.

San Diego Padres

It’s been a quiet and disappointing offseason in San Diego amid discord within the club’s ownership group and a clear budget crunch that has hampered president of baseball operations A.J. Preller all throughout the winter. The departures of Scott, Jurickson Profar, Donovan Solano, and Ha-Seong Kim in free agency have left the club’s strong core without much of its supporting cast, and San Diego’s hopes of landing Sasaki were dashed by their rivals in L.A. despite a strong push that made them a finalist. The club’s only big league signing to this point in the winter has been re-signing Elias Diaz to help shore things up behind the plate. It’s a welcome addition but hardly a needle mover, and it seems as though the Padres may not be able to make more impactful additions without trading a player like Dylan Cease or Luis Arraez to clear salary.

Arizona Diamondbacks

After missing the playoffs by just a hair in 2024, the 2023 NL champions have not been resting on their laurels this winter. The club re-upped with Randal Grichuk yesterday to keep a key right-handed bat in the outfield mix, and while the losses of Joc Pederson, Christian Walker, and Josh Bell to free agency are all sure to sting the lineup the addition of Josh Naylor in a trade with the Guardians should help to ease that blow considerably. By far the club’s most notable addition, however, is that of Corbin Burnes. Arizona managed to reel in the offseason’s top pitching free agent on a surprisingly favorable six-year guarantee, and the 2021 NL Cy Young award winner will now join Zac Gallen at the top of an already-strong rotation that also features Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt, and Jordan Montgomery. With that being said, the club still has one major question mark in the lineup after letting Pederson’s role as the regular DH go as-of-yet unfilled, and the club’s efforts to add a closer to their relief corps have not yet come to fruition either.

San Francisco Giants

Much like the Diamondbacks, the Giants’ offseason is highlighted by one major, splashy signing: they added shortstop Willy Adames to their infield on the largest free agent contract in club history, pairing him with recently-extended third baseman Matt Chapman to form a dynamic duo on the left side of the infield for years to come. Aside from that signing, perhaps the biggest addition to the Giants organization of the offseason was longtime franchise face Buster Posey taking over for the exiting Farhan Zaidi as president of baseball operations.

Since adding Adames just before the Winter Meetings, however, things have been fairly quiet in San Francisco. Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander was brought in to help Logan Webb anchor the rotation after Snell departed for Los Angeles, but Verlander turns 42 later this month and it’s fair to wonder how much he has left in the tank after a difficult 2024 season. That appears to be all the club plans to do this winter, as Posey recently suggested that the organization feels “pretty set” with their offseason moves despite departures like Michael Conforto and Taylor Rogers having gone as-of-yet unanswered.

Colorado Rockies

Coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons, the Rockies have continued to eschew the full rebuild strategy other bottom-feeders like the White Sox and Marlins have taken up in favor of retaining their veteran players to serve as a bridge to their younger pieces. That’s led to extremely quiet offseasons in recent years, and this one has been no exception to that. The club added some infield depth by signing Thairo Estrada and Kyle Farmer to one-year deals as they look to replace Brendan Rodgers, but those are the club’s only big league free agent additions of the winter.

Arguably their most impactful move was re-signing catcher Jacob Stallings on the heels of an excellent rebound season with the club last year, and he should help to solidify the catcher position until well-regarded prospect Drew Romo is ready to take over regular catching duties. The pitching staff has been almost entirely unaltered aside from the departures of Daniel Bard and Cal Quantrill, however, and there hasn’t been a bat brought in to replace the production of retiring franchise stalwart Charlie Blackmon.

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This offseason has been a bit of a mixed bag around the NL West, with three of its five clubs making multiple major additions to the roster but the other two having done very little to this point in terms of either buy-side or sell-side moves, instead largely remaining stagnant. The Dodgers have been, unsurprisingly, the most active club of the winter both within the division and arguably in baseball as a whole. With that said, however, Arizona’s coup in bringing Burnes into the fold and San Francisco’s record-setting deal for Adames are strong moves that could catapult either club back into the postseason after missing out last year. Colorado’s trend of modest offseasons has continued, however, and with the caveat that Preller can never be counted out when it comes to making bold moves, it seems that the Padres have elected to join them in that quiet approach to this point in the offseason.

Of the five NL West clubs, which one has had the strongest offseason so far? Have your say in the poll below:

Yankees Claim Owen White, Designate Allan Winans

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The Yankees have claimed righty Owen White off waivers from the Reds, per a team announcement. It’s their second waiver claim in the past 20 minutes, as New York also claimed infielder Braden Shewmake from the Royals. The Shewmake claim brought their 40-man roster to capacity, so the Yankees have designated righty Allan Winans (another waiver pickup) for assignment in order to open a roster spot for White.

Like Shewmake, White is a former top pick — No. 55 overall to the Rangers in 2018 — whose original club has moved on. He ranked among the game’s top-100 prospects head into the 2023 season but has seen his stock tumble in the years since. White posted a 4.22 ERA with a middling 17.2% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate in 108 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in 2023. He spent most of the 2024 campaign back in Triple-A and was tagged for a 5.64 ERA in 99 frames with slightly improved strikeout and walk rates.

The 25-year-old White has pitched in the majors, but with exceeding brevity. He’s tossed a total of seven MLB frames and been clobbered for 13 runs in that time. His velocity ticked up a bit when the Rangers moved him to the bullpen last year, but Baseball America noted in this year’s scouting report on him that his stuff had dropped in general relative to the point at which he was drafted. For a pitcher whose pro debut was delayed for about three years due to Tommy John surgery and the canceled 2020 minor league season, a loss in stuff and step backward in development is unfortunate but not necessarily shocking.

Baseball America also notes that after a midseason grip change, White’s slider sharpened; the Yankees could well be betting on some in-season changes that are obscured by his broader struggles. White still has a minor league option remaining, so they can afford to take a gamble on the former top prospect and see if they can unlock some of those gains over a larger sample and convert White into a viable relief option.

Winans, 29, pitched in the majors with the Braves in both 2023 and 2024 but was hit hard. Opponents tagged him for a 7.20 ERA in 40 innings. The Yankees claimed him off waivers about two weeks ago.

Winans sits 90-91 with his four-seamer and 89-90 mph with his sinker, so he’s not the prototypical power arm that today’s front offices covet, but he does have a strong Triple-A track record and a minor league option remaining. In 256 innings of Triple-A work, he carries a 3.26 ERA, 21.8% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. Between that performance and the remaining option, another club could look at him as a worthwhile depth addition. The Yankees will have five days to trade Winans, after which he’d have to be placed on outright waivers, which last for 48 hours.

Yankees Claim Braden Shewmake

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The Yankees announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed infielder Braden Shewmake off waivers from the Royals. He’ll bring their 40-man roster to capacity, meaning New York will now need to make a roster move once lefty Tim Hill’s deal is finalized. Kansas City designated Shewmake for assignment last week. They’d claimed him off waivers from the White Sox earlier in the season.

The 27-year-old Shewmake spent the 2024 season with the White Sox after being acquired in the trade that sent left-hander Aaron Bummer from Chicago to Atlanta. The former first-round pick has appeared in parts of two big league seasons but has posted a bleak .118/.127/.191 batting line in 71 plate appearances between the Braves and Sox. He hasn’t offered much more offense in the upper minors, where he’s a .240/.299/.395 hitter in 866 Triple-A plate appearances.

Shewmake clearly doesn’t hit much, but he’s regarded as a surehanded infielder with strong defensive tools at multiple positions. He’s spent the bulk of his career at shortstop but has experience at second base and third base as well. Statcast credits him with better-than-average sprint speed and arm strength, though he’s not plus in either regard.

The addition of Shewmake is a depth play for the Yankees and surely not intended to address the hole in their lineup at either second base or third base (depending on where Jazz Chisholm Jr. plays). Shewmake has a minor league option remaining and could provide depth at multiple spots around the diamond if he sticks on the 40-man roster into the season. However, with a move needed to open space for the aforementioned Hill, Shewmake could find himself designated for assignment once again, with the Yankees hoping to pass him through waivers and keep his glove in Triple-A as a non-roster depth piece.

Orioles, Terrin Vavra Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles are bringing infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra back to the organization on a minor league contract, MLBTR has learned. The NPG Sports client be invited to major league spring training.

Vavra, 27, was a third-round pick out of the University of Minnesota by the Rockies back in 2018 but has spent the bulk of his career in the Orioles organization. The Rox traded the former Golden Gopher to Baltimore alongside Tyler Nevin in 2020’s Mychal Givens trade.

Vavra has played in parts of two big league seasons with the O’s, logging a combined 159 plate appearances with a .254/.331/.304 batting line (87 wRC+) in that time. Vavra was briefly in the Mariners organization last summer after the O’s designated him for assignment and lost him to Seattle on waivers. It was a short stay, as he was cut loose by the M’s after just three games in Tacoma and wound up re-signing to finish out the minor league season back with the Orioles organization. He’ll now land back with the O’s for another stint on another minor league deal.

While he was drafted as a shortstop, Vavra has spent more time at second base in his professional career. He’s logged nearly 500 innings in the outfield in recent seasons as well, spending time at all three positions. Vavra has played in parts of three Triple-A seasons and carries a career .283/.382/.413 batting line at the top minor league level. He doesn’t have one standout tool but has walked in a strong 11.7% of his Triple-A plate appearances against a slightly lower-than-average 21.6% strikeout rate. Statcast credited Vavra with above-average sprint speed as recently as 2023, placing him in the 64th percentile of big leaguers.

Baltimore obviously has a crowded infield that’s headlined with former top prospects. Gunnar Henderson is locked in at shortstop and has developed into an MVP-caliber talent. Jordan Westburg will be back at third base after a breakout 2024 showing. Jackson Holliday has yet to solidify himself in the majors, but the former No. 1 pick and No. 1 overall prospect only turned 21 in December. He’ll get the opportunity to claim the second base job. Ryan Mountcastle is a relative veteran at first base now, and top prospect Coby Mayo would likely get a look in the event of a notable injury at either infield corner. The outfield is arguably even more crowded after offseason signings of Tyler O’Neill, Ramon Laureano and Dylan Carlson added to incumbents Cedric Mullins and Colton Cowser.

Suffice it to say, there’s no real path to an everyday role for Vavra, but his ability to back up at multiple spots and his OBP-driven skill set at the plate could put him into the bench mix. If nothing else, he’s a nice versatile hand to have waiting in the wings down in Triple-A Norfolk.

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