The Opener: Opening Day Part 3, Hoerner, Team Debuts
With the 2026 season now underway, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Opening Day Part 3:
Most teams have already had their first game of the season, but a handful of clubs are only just now getting the Opening Day experience. The season begins today for fans of the A’s, Blue Jays, Rockies, Marlins, Royals, and Braves. The game between Kansas City and Atlanta is particularly exciting, given the impressive pitching matchup between a pair of excellent left-handers: Kansas City’s Cole Ragans and Atlanta’s Chris Sale. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15pm local time in Atlanta. Both Ragans and Sale missed time last year to injury, but the former has a 3.52 ERA in his last 45 starts while Sale has been even more impressive with a 2.46 ERA in 50 appearances.
2. Hoerner extension details incoming:
The Cubs and second baseman Nico Hoerner got together on a six-year extension last night. It’s the second six-year extension they’ve signed this week after star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong agreed to a $115MM deal. The financial details of Hoerner’s contract aren’t yet known but should come to light in short order. Hoerner would’ve been among the top free agents in this year’s class had he tested the open market after this season. It does bring about questions about the future of Matt Shaw on the Cubs’ roster, as Hoerner and new third baseman Alex Bregman are now both locked into the Chicago infield for the foreseeable future, leaving Shaw without a position.
3. Starters suiting up for new teams:
A pair of starters will be making their debuts with their new teams Friday. Tigers fans will get their first look at southpaw Framber Valdez, who’ll take on right-hander Michael King and the Padres. King is coming off an injury-marred 2025 season but is one of the most effective arms in the sport when healthy, while Valdez posted a 3.66 ERA with a 3.37 FIP in 192 innings of work last year.
Fans of Valdez’s former club in Houston will be getting their first look at right-hander Mike Burrows, who came to the ‘Stros from the Pirates in the three-team trade that sent Jacob Melton to Tampa Bay and Brandon Lowe to Pittsburgh. Burrows, 26, made 23 appearances (19 starts) for the Pirates last year and posted a 3.94 ERA, 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate in 96 innings. He’s gearing up for his first full big league season and will get started with tonight’s game against Yusei Kikuchi and the Angels.
Cubs, Nico Hoerner Agree To Extension
The Cubs and infielder Nico Hoerner have agreed to an extension, reports Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation. It’s a six-year deal, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Hoerner was slated for free agency after this year, with 2026 being the final season of his previous extension. The financial aspects of this new agreement have not yet been publicly reported.
Hoerner, 29 in May, has been the a key part of the Cubs for several years now. He doesn’t have a ton of power but provides strong offense with a consistent contact approach. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has almost 2500 plate appearances. His 6.4% walk rate and 10.2% strikeout rate are both well below league average. He only has 33 home runs in that time. But the contact approach has resulted in a .284/.339/.389 line and 105 wRC+ for that span. He finished each of those four seasons with a wRC+ from 102 to 109.
He combines that offense with strong attributes in other facets of his game. He has stolen 123 bases in that four-year span, with at least 20 in each season. Defensively, he is considered to be good enough to handle shortstop but has been bumped to the other side of the bag by the presence of Dansby Swanson. That has made him one of the best defensive second basemen in the league. Dating back to the start of 2023, the year he moved to second base, he has 32 Defensive Runs Saved and 35 Outs Above Average. The DRS total is behind only Andrés Giménez and Brice Turang, while the OAA number is behind only Giménez and Marcus Semien.
The combination is a valuable one. FanGraphs has credited him with a little more than four wins above replacement per year for a total of 17.4 fWAR since the start of 2022. He didn’t finish any of those four seasons lower than 3.8 fWAR.
Three years ago, the Cubs and Hoerner agreed to their first extension, a three-year deal worth $35MM. That was a bit of an odd deal, as it bought out Hoerner’s two arbitration seasons and then just one free agent year. Hoerner delayed his path to the open market for a relatively modest price.
As that deal played out, Hoerner became a plausible trade candidate for a few reasons. For one, he was getting closer to free agency, which often leads to increased trade speculation with many players. The Cubs also had some infield prospects pushing towards the majors, with Matt Shaw making his major league debut last year. The Cubs could have traded Hoerner to address another area of the roster, then put Shaw at second base. Given that another club could have put Hoerner at shortstop, perhaps that would have increased the trade return.
Instead, the Cubs are locking in another piece of their core. Third baseman Alex Bregman is signed through 2030 and Swanson through 2029. They agreed to a long-term deal with Pete Crow-Armstrong just a few days ago, so he’s going to be signed through 2032. Assuming this Hoerner deal starts in 2027, it will also run through 2032.
After 2026, the Cubs were facing a potentially huge amount of roster turnover. Hoerner, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Hoby Milner, Dylan Carlson, Michael Conforto and Tyler Austin are all impending free agents. Matthew Boyd, Hunter Harvey, Carson Kelly and Caleb Thielbar all have mutual options for 2027 but those are almost never picked up by both sides, so they should all be considered impending free agents as well. That is still something the club will have to plan for but locking in Hoerner takes one thing off the to-do list.
One player who could be impacted by this deal is Shaw. He played third base last year but the Bregman signing bumped him into a utility role for 2026. With Hoerner’s impending free agency, it was possible to imagine that being a one-year arrangement, as Shaw could then take over at the keystone starting in 2027. That’s no longer possible.
Shaw is going to be playing some outfield this year, so perhaps he could take over a corner next year with the impending departures of Happ and Suzuki, though that depends on him proving viable on the grass. He is still under club control for six seasons, so it’s also possible to imagine him being a future trade chip, if he could find a better path to infield playing time with another club.
Hoerner would have made for a fascinating free agent case. Second basemen normally don’t get massive paychecks in free agency but Hoerner could have marketed himself as a shortstop and perhaps some clubs would have viewed him as one. Teams also normally pay more for power than contact. A speed-and-defense profile can get paid but it’s also risky since those attributes fade over time. It would have been a unique free agency test case but that’s moot now.
The 2026-27 free agent class is particularly light in terms of hitters. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently took a look at the group in a post for Front Office subscribers. While recent offseasons have had clear standout bats like Corey Seager, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker, the upcoming winter doesn’t quite have that kind of star power. Franco highlighted Bo Bichette, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Daulton Varsho and Hoerner as the top position players in the class.
Hoerner certainly would not have been the best hitter in that bunch but the speed and defense put him up there in terms of overall value. Teams looking for middle infield help next winter will have to cross one name off what was already a somewhat flimsy list.
As of this writing, the numbers on the deal have not been reported. That makes it difficult to assess the long-term impact for the Cubs. What can be said is that they do have a good amount of payroll space available in the future. As mentioned, they have long-term commitments to Swanson, Bregman and Crow-Armstrong but that’s essentially it. Phil Maton and Shelby Miller are the only other players with guaranteed deals for 2027. By 2028, it’s just Bregman, Swanson and Crow-Armstrong.
Photos courtesy of Michael McLoone, David Banks, Imagn Images
A’s Gunnar Hoglund Diagnosed With Lumbar Spine Strain
The Athletics officially announced their Opening Day roster on Thursday morning. They enter the season as one of the healthiest teams in the league. Their only player beginning the year on the injured list is right-hander Gunnar Hoglund, whom the A’s announced is dealing with a lumbar spine strain.
Hoglund was a lock to open the season on the shelf, as he didn’t pitch at all this spring. He was hampered by a right knee injury early in camp. Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reported a couple weeks ago that a back injury had also arisen, though there wasn’t a specific diagnosis until today. The spine injury is apparently the bigger concern than the knee.
The A’s haven’t announced a return timeline. Hoglund’s IL placement is backdated to March 22, so he could theoretically return after 12 games. Given his lack of Spring Training work, he’ll certainly need more time than that. The A’s 40-man roster is at capacity, and Hoglund would be their only candidate for a 60-day IL move if they want to make any waiver claims or select the contract of anyone from within the farm system.
Hoglund is a former first-round pick of the Blue Jays whom the A’s acquired in the 2022 Matt Chapman trade. Injuries have kept him from establishing himself by his age-26 season. Hoglund was already midway through rehab from Tommy John surgery when he was traded. He battled a few setbacks and only threw 69 combined innings over his first two and a half minor league seasons. Hoglund’s stuff was down when he finally logged a full season in 2024.
Things seemed to be trending up early last year. Hoglund had an early-season velocity rebound and pitched well over six Triple-A starts. The A’s called him up and gave him six turns through the rotation last May. Hoglund struggled in his first crack at big league hitters, allowing a 6.40 ERA across 32 1/3 innings. He went down with a left hip injury. That was initially termed an impingement but later revealed to be a more serious labrum injury that required season-ending surgery.
Mike Tauchman Expected To Miss Six Weeks After Meniscus Surgery
Mets non-roster outfielder Mike Tauchman is expected to be out for six weeks after undergoing meniscus surgery on his left knee, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The team announced the operation last week but had not provided a timetable for his return.
The injury probably cost Tauchman a spot on the Opening Day roster. The 35-year-old was in camp on a minor league deal but had a solid path to breaking with the MLB club. The Mets were likely to call up top prospect Carson Benge as the everyday right fielder either way, but there was a depth spot for the taking. Tauchman’s left-handed bat would have fit well on a bench that leans to the right side. Jared Young made the team in that role instead.
Tauchman has been an above-average hitter in three consecutive years. He’s coming off a .263/.356/.400 showing across 385 plate appearances for the White Sox. Tauchman is a platoon player whose game is built around a patient approach that keeps his on-base percentage high. His spring numbers were similar, as he walked four times and was hit twice more in 35 trips to the plate.
It seems Tauchman will be back on the field sometime in the middle of May. He’ll presumably spend some time in Triple-A before the Mets reconsider whether to call him up. Young and MJ Melendez are the two left-handed hitting depth outfielders on New York’s 40-man roster.
Orioles Outright Jackson Kowar, Bryan Ramos
The Orioles announced this evening that reliever Jackson Kowar and infielder Bryan Ramos were outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk. Both players cleared waivers and will remain in the organization without holding a spot on the 40-man roster.
Kowar and Ramos were designated for assignment yesterday when Baltimore set their Opening Day roster. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so the O’s evidently began that before officially announcing the DFA. Both players are out of minor league options. They needed to hold an MLB spot or be dropped from the 40-man.
The Orioles added Ramos and Kowar late in the offseason. They acquired the former from the White Sox for cash, briefly lost him on waivers to the Cardinals, then claimed him back. The latter came over from the Twins in a cash trade at the beginning of Spring Training.
Ramos had a solid camp, batting .316 with a home run in 15 games. The righty-hitting corner infielder hasn’t hit much over 36 regular season contests, nor is he coming off a good year in the minors. Ramos batted .216/.309/.396 across 431 plate appearances with the White Sox’s top affiliate last year. The O’s opted for a more versatile defender, Jeremiah Jackson, as their final bench player to open the season.
Kowar, 29, has draft pedigree as a former supplemental first-round pick. He throws hard but hasn’t found much success at the big league level. The University of Florida product has allowed more than eight earned runs per nine with worse than average strikeout (20.3%) and walk (13.1%) rates over 91 MLB innings. Kowar had four walks and strikeouts apiece over six innings this spring. Yaramil Hiraldo and rookie Anthony Nunez secured Opening Day middle relief jobs, pushing Kowar off the roster.
Blue Jays Notes: Yesavage, Berrios, Bieber
Blue Jays personnel met with the media ahead of tomorrow’s season opener and provided updates on their injured starting pitchers. General manager Ross Atkins said that both Shane Bieber and José Berríos will be throwing from a mound this week, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, while Trey Yesavage had an encouraging showing in a minor league game recently. “Very encouraging in terms of stuff, velocity, recovery today, location,” manager John Schneider said of Yesavage, per Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet. Zwelling adds that Yesavage’s next outing could get to 45 pitches over three innings.
For the short term, the Jays appear light on rotation depth. They are beginning the season with a solid quintet of Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Max Scherzer, Cody Ponce and Eric Lauer but things could get dicey if anyone in that group gets hurt.
Their optionable depth starters are Ricky Tiedemann, Adam Macko and Lazaro Estrada. Tiedemann has been batting injuries for years, including during this year’s spring training. Macko has no big league experience yet. He was recently with the Canadian team in the World Baseball Classic and isn’t stretched out at the moment since that club used him as a reliever. Estrada has just two big league appearances and posted a 5.73 ERA at Triple-A last year. Bowden Francis will miss 2026 due to Tommy John surgery.
Thankfully for the Jays, it seems like their three injured guys aren’t too far off. Yesavage had a shoulder impingement a few weeks ago but is healthy now. He is just a bit behind schedule. The fact that he could soon get up to three innings and 45 pitches suggests that he could be in line for a fairly minimal stay on the IL.
The situations with the other two are a bit more murky. Bieber was back on the mound in 2025 after his 2024 Tommy John surgery. He experienced some forearm fatigue in the playoffs last year and in the offseason, so the Jays decided to slow-play his build-up in 2026. Now that he’s getting on a mound, he’s effectively at the beginning stages of a typical spring training ramp-up. Perhaps he’ll be in game shape in a month or so, though the team hasn’t put a specific timeline on him.
Berríos finished 2025 on the injured list due to elbow inflammation. He appeared to be healthy in spring training, tossing 10 2/3 innings over three appearances. But an issue then came up in an unusual way. He was planning to join the Puerto Rican team in the WBC and underwent a physical for insurance purposes. Though Berríos wasn’t experiencing any discomfort, that physical found some inflammation. Further testing revealed a stress fracture in his elbow about a week ago. Despite that ominous-sounding diagnosis, the club’s hope was that Berríos could start building back up after a bit of rest. That still seems to be the plan, based on this update.
The overall picture will be a situation to monitor in the coming weeks. As mentioned, the rotation feels a bit thin for now. If Yesavage, Bieber and Berríos can all get healthy in a month or two, it would theoretically lead to some tough decisions. Presumably, Lauer would get bumped to the bullpen, as that was the plan until it was clear Yesavage would start the season on the IL. Beyond that, it’s unclear how the Jays would handle it if they had more than six healthy starters, though that would be a good problem to have considering where things stand right now.
Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images
Rockies Select Valente Bellozo
The Rockies announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Valente Bellozo and optioned him to Triple-A Albuquerque. To open a 40-man spot for him, they placed right-hander RJ Petit on the 60-day injured list. Petit underwent Tommy John surgery recently and will miss the entire 2026 season.
Bellozo, 26, signed a minor league deal with Colorado in the offseason. When a team adds a player to the 40-man roster and immediately options him, it’s usually a sign that the deal had some sort of opt-out or upward mobility clause. Going this route prevents the player from getting away but also doesn’t require the team to bump anyone else off the active roster.
The righty didn’t have an especially strong camp, allowing 11 earned runs in 15 2/3 innings, but the Rockies presumably like his larger track record. He spent the past two years working in a swing role for the Marlins, tossing 150 innings over 45 games, including 19 starts. He allowed 4.20 earned runs per nine. His 15.2% strikeout rate was subpar but he limited walks to a 6.8% clip. The Rockies also might like his arsenal, as he has thrown six different pitches in his career, something the organization is seemingly trying to prioritize this year.
Miami outrighted him off the roster at the end of last season and he elected free agency, which led to his deal with the Rockies. Colorado’s pitching was historically bad last year. They have tried to make it more respectable for 2026 by signing Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano. Those three are joining Kyle Freeland and Ryan Feltner in the rotation to start the season. Chase Dollander is beginning the campaign in long relief.
The optionable rotation depth includes Carson Palmquist, Gabriel Hughes and Tanner Gordon. Now Bellozo will jump into that mix. Teams generally need 10 to 15 starters to get through an entire season these days, so Bellozo and those other guys should have opportunities throughout the year.
As for Petit, the Rockies selected him with the first pick in last year’s Rule 5 draft. Due to his surgery, he’ll spend the entire year on the IL. The IL goes away five days after the World Series. If he sticks on the roster through the offseason, the Rule 5 restrictions would carry over until he has spent 90 days on the active roster.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images
Luis F. Castillo Signs With Diablos Rojos De México
Right-hander Luis F. Castillo has signed with the Mexican League’s Diablos Rojos De México, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. The righty is represented by A & F Sports Agency.
Castillo, 31, is a journeyman depth starter. Last year, he briefly shared a roster with his namesake, the much more well known Luis Castillo. The lesser known Castillo began his big league career with three appearances for the Tigers in 2022.
He then went overseas for two years, pitching in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He was with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2023 and the Orix Buffaloes in 2024. Over those two seasons, he tossed 143 1/3 innings with a 3.01 earned run average.
He returned to North America by signing a minor league deal with the Mariners ahead of the 2025 season. He was added to the roster in early April and made two starts, allowing six earned runs in seven innings. He was then optioned to the minors. In May, he was designated for assignment and flipped to the Orioles but spent most of the remainder of the season on the minor league injured list. He was outrighted off the 40-man in the summer and became a free agent at season’s end.
Once again, he is heading to another country for an opportunity. Most deals for guys heading to Mexico have clauses that allow them to depart if they get an offer from an affiliated club, so it’s possible that could happen with Castillo. In the meantime, he’ll face the challenge of pitching in one of the most hitter-friendly environments. The league-wide slash line in the Mexican League was .295/.378/.465 last year.
Photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images
Astros Notes: Hader, Peña, Extensions
Astros closer Josh Hader opened the season on the 15-day injured list after experiencing biceps tendinitis during spring training. Fans hoping for a minimum stint will have to wait a bit longer than that. General manager Dana Brown told the team’s beat today that the target is for Hader to begin facing hitters at some point in mid-April (link via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). He’d presumably then need to make at least a couple appearances on a minor league rehab stint before rejoining the club. A return in late April seems like a best-case scenario, speculatively speaking.
Hader missed the final seven weeks or so of the 2025 campaign after suffering a capsule strain in his left shoulder. There’s no indication the shoulder is still bothering him at this stage. He’s one of four Houston relievers to open the season on the shelf, joining fellow lefty Bennett Sousa and righties Enyel De Los Santos and Nate Pearson. Sousa is dealing with an oblique strain. De Los Santos was slowed by a knee strain during camp. Pearson had offseason elbow surgery.
With Hader sidelined to begin the season, closing duties will fall to Bryan Abreu, who’s been one of the best (if not the best) setup men in baseball in recent seasons. Bryan King and Steven Okert had strong 2025 seasons and will serve as key setup men. It’s a patchwork group behind them. Rule 5 pick Roddery Munoz made the Opening Day roster. Ryan Weiss, who signed a big league deal after a breakout in South Korea, will make his MLB debut the first time he gets into a game. Christian Roa was a minor league signee. Kai-Wei Teng was acquired in a trade after being squeezed off the Giants’ roster. He has a 7.30 ERA in 40 2/3 MLB innings. AJ Blubaugh was tagged for a 5.27 ERA in 19 Triple-A starts last year.
The ‘Stros did get at least some good injury news recently Star shortstop Jeremy Peña managed to avoid an IL stint to begin the season despite suffering a small fracture in his finger during WBC exhibition play. He’s not in the Opening Day lineup, however. A team spokesperson tells Chandler Rome of The Athletic that Peña is getting some live at-bats over at the Astros’ Triple-A complex in Sugar Land this morning. The implication seems to be that while Peña won’t be out for a full 10 days, he needs a few more reps and/or a bit more healing before the team is comfortable plugging him into the big league lineup.
With Peña out, the oft-discussed Astros infield “logjam” has sorted itself out for at least Opening Day. Carlos Correa gets the nod at shortstop, while Isaac Paredes slots in at the hot corner. Jose Altuve and Christian Walker are on the right side of the infield, and Yordan Alvarez is at designated hitter. The team hasn’t indicated when Peña might return to the lineup, but with Houston facing lefties in three of their next four starts (Yusei Kikuchi tomorrow, Reid Detmers on Saturday, Ranger Suárez on Monday), they’ll hope to have their shortstop back in the fold; Peña is a career .302/.343/.469 hitter (128 wRC+) against left-handed pitching.
Both Peña and the aforementioned Abreu are nearing free agency. Abreu is in his final year of club control and will reach the open market at season’s end. Peña is controlled through 2027, as is Paredes. Ace Hunter Brown is controlled through 2028. Asked about the possibility of an extension for anyone on the roster, Brown said this morning that the club has had only internal discussions about potential long-term deals (via Chron.com’s Michael Shapiro).
“We haven’t really discussed at length with any of our players,” he said when asked to clarify whether any of those internal talks have extended into talks with various players’ representatives.
Brown has often voiced a desire to sign various core players to long-term arrangements, but since he was hired as general manager, right-hander Cristian Javier is the lone player to do so. There have surely been other efforts to come to terms with some of Javier’s teammates, but owner Jim Crane tends to shy away from long-term contracts in general. The six-year deals given to Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve are the longest in Crane’s 15 years owning the team. Alex Bregman, whose original Astros extension was $100MM over five years, is the only other Houston player to sign a nine-figure deal in that time. Hader’s $95MM deal is quite close, obviously, and the Astros have made nine-figure offers to keep both Bregman and Correa in free agency. Both found larger deals elsewhere.
Of course, not all of the listed players would necessarily command $100MM+. Abreu, good as he is, would fall shy of that. The Astros have talked more about trading Paredes than extending him. But to have any hope of signing Peña or Brown to a long-term deal — be it via extension or simply re-signing them in free agency — Houston would need to stretch well beyond Crane’s prior comfort levels.
Padres Notes: Sale, Gores, Payroll
It seems the process of selling the Padres is making good progress and could be completed in relatively short order. Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report that there are four groups still in the bidding. It was known that Jose E. Feliciano, Dan Friedkin and Joe Lacob were leading three of the groups. They report that Tom Gores, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Detroit Pistons, is leading the fourth. The report also suggests the bidding is hot and should push well beyond $3 billion, perhaps even getting beyond $3.5 billion. The next and final round of bidding is expected to take place in early to mid-April with an agreement potentially in place before that month is over.
Gores, 61, is the founder of Platinum Equity. Gores and that company bought Palace Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Pistons and their former arena, in 2011 for $325MM. He later bought out the company’s stake to become the sole owner. His other sports ventures have included attempting to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Detroit and purchasing a 27% stake in the NFL’s San Diego Chargers. Forbes currently pegs his net worth at $10.1 billion.
It’s not currently known if any of the four groups is considered a favorite over the others but it seems as though more clarity should be forthcoming soon, giving the reported timeline. If the reports on the potential sale price come true it will shatter a record. The highest sale price to date for an MLB franchise is the $2.4 billion Steve Cohen paid for the Mets in 2020.
Lin and Rosenthal point out that such a big price could impact the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association. The MLBPA could point to the sale as a sign that the economics of the game are strong even without a salary cap. The league is expected to push for a cap this winter during the anticipated lockout. On the other hand, Lin and Rosenthal point out that the San Diego market is unique and that other clubs such as the Twins and Nationals struggled to get around $2 billion when pursuing sales not too long ago.
The Seidler family announced in November that they would be pursuing a sale of the franchise. At that time, it appeared some squabbling within the family could hamper those efforts but reporting in February indicated that some of the legal bumps had been smoothed out and that five prospective buyers had submitted bids. The field has now been whittled down to the four aforementioned groups.
Turning to the 2026 team, the Friars yesterday put Yu Darvish on the restricted list. That came as a surprise since Darvish was expected to land on the injured list, as he is going to miss the entire 2026 season while recovering from elbow surgery. That he was instead placed on the restricted list suggests he is away from the team for some non-baseball reason.
Darvish’s contract had him slated for a $15MM salary this year but players on the restricted list are not paid, so the move led to speculation the Friars could perhaps redirect some savings towards a free agent. Lucas Giolito is the top unsigned guy and the Padres have rotation questions, so it was fair to wonder about a match there.
However, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune says that framing of the situation is not accurate. Acee says the club knew about Darvish’s situation for months and it had already been factored into their offseason, indirectly helping them sign players like Michael King, Miguel Andujar and Griffin Canning.
Photo courtesy of Lon Horwedel, Imagn Images