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Pirates Designate Tristan Gray For Assignment

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The Pirates designated infielder Tristan Gray for assignment, the team informed reporters (including Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Pittsburgh had not officially added Andrew McCutchen to their 40-man roster until this evening, so they needed to open a spot. McCutchen re-signed on a $5MM deal last month.

Pittsburgh claimed Gray off waivers from the A’s in the first few days of the offseason. The 28-year-old had spent a couple months on the A’s, as they’d only claimed him from the Marlins at the end of August. Gray has suited up for both those teams and had a brief stint on the Rays in 2023. Despite playing for a trio of clubs, he has just 17 games of MLB experience. He has hit .152 with one homer in 36 plate appearances.

The lefty-hitting Gray has a much more extensive minor league track record. The Rice product has taken nearly 1800 trips to the dish across four Triple-A seasons. Gray has hit .238/.306/.472 with 90 home runs in 443 games at the top minor league level. Strikeouts have kept him from getting an extended MLB look, as he has fanned in nearly 30% of his Triple-A plate appearances.

Gray has some power and a decent amount of defensive versatility. He has upwards of 1000 minor league frames at each of shortstop, second base and third base. Gray has just over 900 professional innings at first base as well. He has mostly played the corner infield in his limited big league time. He’s likely to end up on waivers again this week. Gray has been outrighted once in his career, so he’d have the ability to elect minor league free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Blue Jays Designate Brandon Eisert For Assignment

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The Blue Jays announced that they’ve designated lefty reliever Brandon Eisert for assignment. That opens a spot on the 40-man roster for Anthony Santander, who has officially signed his five-year free agent deal.

Eisert, who turned 27 yesterday, made his major league debut last season. He came out of the bullpen for three appearances, allowing three runs across 6 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out a pair. The Oregon State product spent the rest of the year with Triple-A Buffalo, where he turned in a 3.86 earned run average through 53 2/3 innings. He fanned an excellent 29.1% of batters faced against a 9.3% walk rate.

That was Eisert’s third consecutive season working mostly in Triple-A. He doesn’t have much else to prove there. Eisert has posted a cumulative 3.83 ERA through 183 1/3 innings. He has missed bats in all three years and owns a career 28.6% strikeout rate at the top minor league level. He pairs that with league average walk and ground-ball numbers.

Despite his solid minor league results, Eisert got only the briefest of looks in the Toronto bullpen. The Jays had the worst relief group in the American League last season. The front office seemingly didn’t expect Eisert’s arsenal to play at the MLB level, though. He doesn’t have prototypical power stuff. His fastball averaged 91.2 MPH in the majors and sat around 90 MPH in Triple-A. He threw the fastball around half the time while mixing in a slider and changeup during his minor league work.

Eisert’s upper minors track record and ability to throw multiple innings out of the bullpen could get him some attention. The Jays have five days to trade him or place him on waivers, which are a 48-hour process. Eisert still has two minor league options, meaning another team that is willing to carry him on the 40-man roster could bounce him between the majors and Triple-A for a while.

Braves, Chasen Shreve Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves are in agreement with lefty reliever Chasen Shreve on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA client will be in camp as a non-roster invitee and would lock in a $1.3MM base salary if he makes the big league roster.

Shreve, a former Atlanta draftee who debuted with 15 appearances for the club in 2014, made one MLB appearance as a member of the Rockies last season. He tossed a scoreless inning. That extended the veteran southpaw’s streak to 11 consecutive years logging some major league action. Shreve spent most of the ’23 season in the big leagues. He combined for 50 appearances between the Tigers and Reds, working to a 4.63 ERA across 44 2/3 frames.

While his big league appearance came with Colorado, Shreve played for a trio of Triple-A affiliates last year. He spent time in the Rangers, Yankees and Rox systems. Shreve turned in a cumulative 2.62 earned run average across 34 1/3 innings at the top minor league level. He fanned a strong 26.7% of opponents against a slightly higher than average 9.2% walk percentage. He got swinging strikes at a near-14% clip.

The results were good, but Shreve doesn’t have the velocity that teams prefer to stockpile in the bullpen. His fastball averaged 90 MPH in Triple-A last season. He averaged 89.4 MPH during his only major league appearance. He leans frequently on his slider and splitter to compensate for the fringe velocity. Shreve has neutral platoon splits over his career, so he’s not a great fit for lefty specialist work.

That’s not an issue for an Atlanta team that’ll have Aaron Bummer and Dylan Lee in the late innings. Angel Perdomo is out of options and will need to stick on the MLB roster or be made available to other teams. Depending on whether they carry Perdomo and keep Rule 5 pick Anderson Pilar, Atlanta could have two or three middle relief spots up for grabs in camp.

Dodgers Had Interest In Kirby Yates Prior To Tanner Scott Deal

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The Dodgers made a big addition to their bullpen this weekend, agreeing to a deal with the winter’s top free agent reliever, left-hander Tanner Scott. Prior to that agreement, the Dodgers had some discussions with right-hander Kirby Yates, reports Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.

The interest is perfectly understandable, as Yates is coming off an excellent season. He tossed 61 2/3 innings for the Rangers last year, allowing only 1.17 earned runs per nine. His 11.8% walk rate was fairly high but also not abnormal for him. He worked around those free passes by striking out 35.9% of batters he faced and also getting grounders on 45.5% of balls in play. He took over the closer’s role in Texas, earning 33 saves on the year.

Despite that excellent season, the righty’s market will be limited. He is turning 38 years old in March, which will naturally put a cap on how long teams are willing to invest in him. He’s also had plenty of injury issues over the years. He hardly pitched at all from 2020 to 2022, with Tommy John surgery being the main reason. He returned to the mound in 2023 and had decent but not outstanding results, with a 3.28 ERA that year. His 31.5% strikeout rate was quite strong but a few ticks below his 2024 level, while the walks were even higher, finishing at 14.6%.

Atlanta could have kept him around for 2024 via a $5.75MM club option but opted for a $1.25MM buyout instead. That led to Yates getting a one-year, $4.5MM deal from the Rangers, which worked out great. His excellent season will definitely get him a bump from that level, but some hesitation from clubs is still justifiable.

The Dodgers have generally been willing to invest in talented pitchers, despite injury concerns. That hasn’t always worked out, as they have sometimes been heavily snakebit over the years, though they just hoisted the World Series trophy last year.

The club presumably still has some interest in Yates but the Scott deal might also lower their urgency. It’s not as though the bullpen was a glaring weakness to begin with. The club’s relief corps had a combined ERA of 3.53 last year, a mark bested by only three other teams in the majors. They lost Blake Treinen and Joe Kelly to free agency at season’s end but re-signed Treinen last month and now have Scott in the fold as well.

RosterResource currently projects the club to run a six-man rotation next year, which is certainly a possibility. In 2024, they avoided using Yoshinobu Yamamoto on a five-day schedule in order to help him make the transition from Japan, where starters normally throw once a week. In 2025, they will be folding in Roki Sasaki, who is younger than Yamamoto and has had more injuries in his career. They will also be getting guys like Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May back from lengthy surgery absences. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow haven’t been workhorses in their career either. Clayton Kershaw will presumably re-sign with the club and be back in the mix, though he’s had his own share of injury concerns lately. In short, having six starters and lowering everyone’s workload would be sensible.

Running a six-man rotation would normally limit a club to a seven-man bullpen, since clubs aren’t allowed to roster more than 13 pitchers. Ohtani’s status as a two-way player means he can effectively be counted as a position player, allowing the Dodgers to have both a six-man rotation and eight-man bullpen at times, though not at the start of the season. Ohtani missed the 2024 season due to UCL surgery and then also required arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder just a few months ago. Last month, manager Dave Roberts said it’s unlikely Ohtani will be in the club’s rotation to start the year, so they may be capped at 13 pitchers and a seven-man bullpen until Ohtani can get back on the mound.

Scott and Treinen will be in two spots, with the Dodgers also having Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Anthony Banda and Ryan Brasier. That makes for seven arms that seem fairly locked in. Vesia is the only one that can be optioned and he just posted a 1.76 ERA last year. It’s still possible that the club signs Yates anyway then just waits to see if everyone stays healthy through the spring. If that comes to pass, they could then cut someone at the end of camp. But it’s also possible they will just pass on Yates and see how the season plays out with this group.

As mentioned, the club had a strong bullpen last year and has now added Scott to it. RosterResource also projects next year’s payroll at $369MM and their competitive balance tax number at $371MM, with both of those numbers close to $40MM beyond last year’s figures. Given how aggressive they’ve been, no one would be surprised if they kept adding, but they also might feel like they’ve done enough at this point.

If Yates needs to look elsewhere for his next contract, he should have plenty of options. He’s been connected to the Cubs, Tigers, Rangers and Diamondbacks this offseason and presumably has interest from other clubs as well. Teams like the Blue Jays, Orioles, Red Sox and Atlanta had some interest in Scott and could be looking elsewhere for relief help after he landed with the Dodgers. The relief market has been heating up more broadly of late, with Scott, A.J. Minter, Jose Leclerc, Jeff Hoffman and Andrew Kittredge agreeing to deals in recent weeks.

At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Yates for a strong one-year deal with a $14MM guarantee. That was a reflection of his aforementioned excellent season but also his yellow flags. The offseason has been kind to some relievers, with Scott, Minter and Clay Holmes surpassing projections, though the Mets plan to stretch out Holmes as a starter. Hoffman came in below his prediction but that seems to have been a result of some concerns about his shoulder in his physical. Treinen got a two-year deal despite the fact that he’ll turn 37 this year and has a lengthy injury history. All those factors should lead to a healthy deal for Yates, regardless of which team he ultimately lands with.

Giants, Joey Lucchesi Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants and left-hander Joey Lucchesi have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA Sports client gets an invite to big league camp and will make $1.5MM if he makes it to the majors.

Lucchesi, 32 in June, has spent the past few years as a depth arm for the Mets. Acquired from the Padres in the three-team January 2021 trade that sent Joe Musgrove from Pittsburgh to San Diego, Lucchesi went on to toss 38 1/3 innings for the Mets that year. He allowed 4.46 earned runs per nine but with strong strikeout and walk rates of 26.1% and 7% respectively.

Tommy John surgery in June put him out of action for the second half and he didn’t make it back to the majors in 2022. For the past two years, the lefty has mostly been kept in the minors, only getting into nine big league contests in 2023 and just two last year. His 57 innings in those 11 starts resulted in a 3.32 ERA but less impressive numbers under the hood, as his 16.2% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate were both subpar. He also tossed 204 2/3 innings in the minors over the past two years with a 4.57 ERA, 19.3% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate. After two years of fairly middling results, and Lucchesi exhausting his final option year, the Mets decided to move on. He was outrighted off the roster at the end of last season and elected free agency.

For the Giants, there’s no real harm in bringing him aboard on a minor league pact to see if the lefty can get things back on track. He once looked like a solid rotation option for the Padres, logging 293 2/3 innings over the 2018 and 2019 seasons with a 4.14 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 46% ground ball rate. He spent most of 2020 in the minors but put up fairly similar numbers in 2021 before his surgery.

The Giants have a good rotation on paper, though with plenty of uncertainty behind Logan Webb. Both Robbie Ray and Justin Verlander will be looking to bounce back after injuries prevented them from contributing much in 2024. Kyle Harrison has posted some solid numbers thus far but is still below 160 career innings in the majors. Jordan Hicks will once again be trying to carve out a rotation role after seemingly running out of gas last year.

The club also has some depth options, with guys like Landen Roupp, Hayden Birdsong, Mason Black and others on the roster, but Lucchesi will add to that depth in a non-roster capacity. If he gets back to the majors, he is out of options, but he has less than five years of service time. That means he could theoretically be retained via arbitration for 2026 if he’s holding a roster spot at the end of the upcoming season.

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers! Anthony fielded questions about an international draft, where Pete Alonso will end up, the Diamondbacks rotation, trade candidates for the Guardians to address the outfield, the Tigers' competitive outlook, Kyle Stowers' role in Miami, Anthony Rizzo's market, the Giants' next steps, historical comps for the Dodgers and much more!

 

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Andrew Knapp Announces Retirement

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Longtime major league catcher Andrew Knapp announced his retirement as a player on his Instagram page. “I completely dedicated my life to the game, and the game blessed me with so much,” he said. “Baseball has given me relationships that I will have for the rest of my life. It has taught be how to fail and how to persevere. It has taught me how to be confident but humble. It has taught me that people will remember you more because of what kind of person you are rather than what kind of player you were.” He then goes on to thank the many people that helped him along the way, including his agent, his teammates and particularly his family members.

Knapp, now 33, was once a notable prospect. The son of minor leaguer Mike Knapp, the younger Knapp showed enough promise at a young age to get drafted by the Athletics out of high school, selected in the 41st round in 2010. But Knapp decided to attend Berkeley instead, becoming a full-time catcher who hit from both sides of the plate. That led to the Phillies taking him in the second round of the 2013 draft and signing Knapp with a bonus of just over $1MM.

His development was slowed somewhat by Tommy John surgery, which he required late in 2013, but he still put up strong offensive numbers. He slashed .280/.355/.435 in 1,173 minor league plate appearances from 2013 to 2015, production that led to a wRC+ of 132. That offense, especially as a switch-hitter, gave Knapp some prospect helium. Going into 2016, Baseball America gave him a spot at the back of their top 100, putting him at #96.

Unfortunately, his major league offense never quite matched his production on the farm. He showed a bit of potential in his 2017 debut, producing a line of .257/.368/.368. His 27.5% strikeout rate was a bit high but he also drew walks at a strong clip of 15.2%. The overall production led to a wRC+ of 94, a bit below average overall but decent for a catcher.

He couldn’t maintain that level of performance, however. He got into at least 33 games for the Phils in five straight seasons from 2017 to 2021 but produced a combined line of .214/.314/.322 over that time, leading to a 72 wRC+. His 11.9% walk rate was a solid mark but his 31.7% strikeout rate was quite high. That includes a huge .278/.404/.444 showing in 2020, though that was a small sample of 89 plate appearances and he crashed back to earth with a .152/.215/.214 line in 2021.

Knapp’s glovework was never especially well regarded, with outlets like Baseball Prospectus and Statcast giving him negative grades for his framing, blocking and throwing. As a prospect, it was hoped that his offense could compensate for that, though it didn’t quite come to pass.

The Phils decided to move on after that rough showing from Knapp in 2021, outrighting him off the roster, which kicked off the journeyman phase of his career. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds going into 2022 but didn’t make the club out of camp. That led to him joining the Pirates, Mariners and Giants, though he only got into 16 major league games between those three teams that year. In 2023, minor league deals with the Tigers and Astros didn’t lead back to the big leagues. In 2024, he was with the Rangers on a minor league through the end of June. After being released, he got a major league deal with the Giants, but he was designated for assignment less than a week later after getting into three games. He was outrighted off the roster and elected free agency at season’s end.

Knapp has now decided to hang up his spikes and move onto the next phase of his life. His retirement statement didn’t lay out his career plans, though he has previously expressed a desire to become a manager someday, so perhaps he could start making moves on that trajectory now. He retires with 158 hits in 756 at-bats, including 31 doubles, four triples and 13 home runs. He scored 83 runs and drove in 66. We at MLBTR congratulate Knapp on carving out a major league career and wish him the best on whatever comes next.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

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On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training in just a few weeks, but there’s still plenty of offseason business to attend to. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the rest of the winter or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The Opener: Relief Market, Twins, Cardinals

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With the start of Spring Training just three weeks away, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Relief Market Fallout:

The biggest domino of the relief market finally fell over the weekend when southpaw Tanner Scott agreed with the Dodgers on a four-year, $72MM deal. Scott is the latest bullpen arm of note to reach an agreement in recent days, joining Jose Leclerc, A.J. Minter, Andrew Kittredge, and Jeff Hoffman. That movement on the relief market has allowed a lot of teams, including the big-spending Dodgers and Mets, to address their late-inning needs already.

But there’s still several clubs that appear to be in the market for late-inning relief help. The Orioles, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Cubs were all involved Scott’s market to some degree, with Chicago even putting forward a final offer of four years and $66MM that nearly matched that of Los Angeles. All four of those clubs could stay involved in the relief market going forward, with Chicago and Toronto already having been connected to the top remaining free agent reliever in righty Carlos Estevez in the wake of the Scott deal. Other top relievers available include Kirby Yates, David Robertson, and Kenley Jansen. Who will be the next to sign?

2. Twins trades on the horizon?

Over the weekend, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey indicated that the club’s trade conversations have begun to escalate in recent weeks. Minnesota has been one of the least active teams in the entire sport this winter, as their only addition to the 40-man roster with even a single plate appearance in the majors so far is Mickey Gasper, who the club swung a minor trade for last month. It’s long been clear that the club was facing severe budget restrictions this winter as ownership puts the team up for sale, and as such the front office is in a position where they’d need to trade away salary commitments in order to bring in additional talent.

Plenty of attention has been paid to the possibility of a Pablo Lopez trade this winter, but it seems more likely that the Twins would pursue trades involving pricey but less impactful veterans like Christian Vazquez, Willi Castro, and Chris Paddack as they try to remain competitive in the AL Central this year. If Minnesota manages to get a deal done, it could allow them to address the club’s hole at first base or add a much-needed right-handed complement to their heavily left-handed corner outfield mix with the money saved.

3. Cardinals Winter Warmup Wrap-up:

The Cardinals’ Winter Warmup fan event began over the weekend, with a number of headlines emerging from the comments made by players and personnel at the event. The festivities aren’t over yet, however, as more remains on the club’s schedule for the final day of the event today. Willson Contreras and Lars Nootbaar are both scheduled to be available for autographs, as is manager Oliver Marmol. The most notable event on today’s schedule, however, is certain to be a Q&A session with ownership. Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and team president Bill DeWitt III will both be present for the Q&A. Marmol is also scheduled to hold a Q&A later in the day.

Poll: Would You Trade The 2027 MLB Season For A Salary Cap?

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The past weekend seemed like something of a tipping point for fans of teams other than the Dodgers.  The Dodgers were able to land Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki on Friday for a mere $6.5MM bonus, given the restrictions on signing international players under the age of 25.  While Sasaki will enter the arbitration system for the final three years of team control from 2028-30, he still comes with incredible surplus value.

Then on Sunday, the Dodgers put an exclamation point on their weekend by signing the best reliever on the market, Tanner Scott, to the fifth-largest free agent contract ever at the position.  And yes, there was significant deferred money in Scott’s contract, but that’s a poll topic for another day.

We’ll hear from Sasaki soon enough, but surely the Dodgers’ previous monstrous offseason signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto helped lure him to Los Angeles.  Since the 2023 season ended, the club has also added Teoscar Hernandez (twice), Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and others, while brokering extensions for Glasnow, Will Smith, and trade pickup Tommy Edman.

It’s not easy to buy an MLB dynasty.  Others have tried, but the sport hasn’t seen back-to-back World Series winners since the 1998-2000 Yankees accomplished a three-peat.  Now, with a 12-team playoff format, that might be even harder for the Dodgers to pull off.

Most MLB teams don’t open their books to the public, so we don’t know how many clubs would be profitable at the $370MM payroll the Dodgers currently sport.  It’s fair to assume small market clubs could not support that type of payroll, even though some of them receive in excess of $150MM between national revenues and revenue sharing each year.

Some might argue that because of the nature of the MLB playoffs, the sport is already in good shape in terms of parity.  But because the Dodgers bring in so much revenue (particularly through their TV deal), they have advantages in acquiring players that many markets simply cannot match.  Maybe the Dodgers can’t guarantee a string of championships, but they haven’t won fewer than 98 regular season games since 2018 (extrapolating the pandemic season).  Their payroll is obviously part of their success.

The drumbeat from fans, at least on social media, seems to be getting louder for a salary cap.  It’s hard to argue: if all 30 teams were capped at spending, say, $200MM on player payroll, the regular season playing field would be leveled significantly.  There would be star free agents the Dodgers, Mets, and other big markets simply could not sign.  The salary cap would be tied to league revenue, and would rise accordingly.  I’m not convinced a salary cap (and floor) is the only way to improve parity, but it’s the most obvious one.

MLB owners have wanted a salary cap for a long time.  You may recall that was the reason for the 1994 strike, which cost us the World Series that year.  The players did not give in to that demand, though they did allow for the first luxury tax in subsequent years.

The thing about a salary cap is that it would almost certainly increase parity, but as the name states, it would also cap player earnings short of what the free market allows.  The expectation is that a salary cap would reduce the total amount of money earned by players, although commissioner Rob Manfred might argue that point.  That’s why MLB is not an unbiased source when they talk about how a salary cap is needed for competitive balance.

Baseball has always had the strongest union in sports, almost entirely because of one man: Marvin Miller.  Miller essentially created the MLBPA in 1966.  He ran it until 1982 and deserves credit for the advent of arbitration and free agency in MLB.  He also rallied players to go on strike or endure lockouts to ensure they only made forward progress, and did not accept a salary cap or even a luxury tax.

While the MLBPA has ceded ground since Miller retired, the sport still does not have a salary cap.  Baseball was able to avoid work stoppages since the ’94 strike, until owners locked out the players after the 2021 CBA expired in December.  Though negotiations often seemed perilous, ultimately a new five-year agreement was reached in March of 2022 and no games were lost.  The two sides seemed enough at odds that many observers wondered if we’ll simply now get a lockout every five years.

In the wake of the most recent CBA and given turmoil with television rights, MLB put together an “economic reform committee.”  The current CBA expires on December 1st, 2026.  It’s not hard to picture owners banding together for their strongest salary cap push since Bud Selig’s in ’94.  Assuming the MLBPA has enough solidarity under Tony Clark and Bruce Meyer to match its legacy, it follows that players might not give in, and some or even all of the 2027 season could be cancelled.

That leaves me with two questions for tonight’s poll.  (I apologize for my lack of clarity in the initial version of this poll: assume a salary cap comes with a floor).

 

And then the next question:

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