Parker Mushinski To Opt Out Of Deal With Rockies
Left-hander Parker Mushinski was in camp with the Rockies on a minor league deal but is now heading back to free agency. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports that the southpaw has been informed that he won’t break camp with Colorado and will now opt out of his deal.
Mushinski, 30, had a camp of extremes. He racked up some strikeouts but also saw a lot of runs cross the plate. In 8 2/3 innings, he struck out 12 opponents but allowed ten earned runs via 11 hits and four walks. His .391 batting average on balls in play and 41% strand rate point to some poor luck in that small sample.
The Rockies had an awful pitching staff in 2025 and certainly had room for some new arms but they couldn’t find a spot for Mushinski. They’ll go into 2026 with Brennan Bernardino as the only lefty in their bullpen. Luis Peralta and Welinton Herrera are on the 40-man roster but will begin the season on optional assignment.
Mushinski’s major league track record consists of 33 innings pitched for the Astros over the 2022 through 2024 seasons. In that time, he has a 5.45 earned run average, 17.4% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 45.2% ground ball rate. He spent the 2025 season with the Guardians on a minor league deal. He tossed 50 Triple-A innings with a 3.78 ERA, huge 29.6% strikeout rate and strong 47.9% ground ball rate, but an ugly 14.8% walk rate.
He’ll head to the open market to see what opportunities await him now. There’s a ton of roster shuffling happening this week as clubs make their final decisions before Opening Day. As some guys get released or head to waivers, some clubs may find themselves light on lefty relief.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Phillies Re-Sign Tim Mayza To MLB Deal, Return Zach McCambley To Marlins, Re-Assign Lou Trivino
4:47PM: The Phillies also re-assigned right-hander Lou Trivino to Triple-A. Like Mayza, Trivino is an Article XX(B) player with an opt-out in his minors contract this weekend. It isn’t yet clear if Trivino will trigger his clause and enter free agency, or if he’ll bide his time at Triple-A until his next opt-out date on May 1.
9:21AM: The Phillies announced this morning that left-hander Tim Mayza was re-signed to a major league contract after the lefty exercised his opt-out clause in his minor league deal and was granted his release by the organization yesterday. To make room for Mayza on the 40-man roster, right-handed Rule 5 selection Zach McCambley was returned to the Marlins. McCambley was evidently place on (and successfully cleared) waivers at some point prior to the move to return him to Miami.
Mayza, 34, is entering his ninth major league season. He’s spent the majority of his career to this point as a member of the Blue Jays, and after an uneven start to his career when he made his major league debut in 2017 through the end of the 2019 season, he emerged from a 2020 campaign lost to injury to become one of Toronto’s more steady relief arms. From 2021 through 2023, Mayza turned in high quality results for the Jays with a 2.67 ERA and a 3.20 FIP in 155 innings of work. Of course, it should be noted that those strong numbers came with a major platoon split. While his ERA against southpaws was just 0.67, his numbers against right-handers were far more pedestrian: he sported a 4.19 ERA, a 3.96 FIP, and a 24.7% strikeout rate across those three seasons.
Even factoring in those lesser numbers against righties, however, Mayza’s fall from grace in 2024 was a shocking one. Across 50 appearances, the lefty’s ERA ballooned all the way up to 6.33, and while his 4.50 FIP suggests some of that was due to poor fortune on batted balls and sequencing he still struck out a paltry 14.4%. Ugly as those season long numbers are, however, Mayza did show some signs of returning to form after he was shipped to the Yankees midway through the season; in 18 innings of work with the Bombers, Mayza turned in a 4.00 ERA with a 3.94 FIP, though his strikeout rate still sat at a well-below average 16.2%.
That left Mayza in an uncertain place headed into 2025, and while he landed a big league deal with the Pirates he spent most of the season on the injured list due to a lat strain. He pitched just 15 total innings in the majors last year between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (who claimed him off waivers from the Pirates midseason). In that time, he posted a 3.78 ERA and 4.16 FIP that’s more or less in line with his work as a member of the Yankees. His strikeout rate did tick back up to a more respectable 20.3%, however, and that was enough to convince the Phillies to give him another shot on a minor league pact entering camp. Mayza’s 5.40 ERA in 8 1/3 spring innings isn’t exactly inspiring, but the big news from camp is that the strikeouts appear to be back. He’s punched out 27.0% of his opponents this spring, and that was enough to convince the Phillies to put him back on their roster for the 2026 season.
As for McCambley, the righty was a third-round pick by the Marlins back in 2020. Initially drafted as a starter, McCambley converted to relief during the 2022 season and climbed the rest of the minor league ladder as a reliever. He split the 2025 season between Triple-A and Double-A, and in that time posted a combined 2.90 ERA with a 33.1% strikeout rate in 62 innings of work. That was enough to catch Philadephia’s attention in the Rule 5 draft, but he walked (six) more hitters than he struck out (four) in his 7 1/3 innings of work with the Phillies during Spring Training. That lack of control was enough for the Phillies to decide to move on from McCambley, who now returns to the Marlins as a non-roster piece who could nonetheless be called upon to contribute out of the bullpen at some point this year.
Grayson Rodriguez To Begin Season On Injured List
TODAY: Suzuki told reporters (including Jack Janes) today that Rodriguez will indeed be placed on the IL. This sets Kochanowicz and Johnson up as rotation members, and Walbert Urena will also make the team in a long relief role. The 22-year-old Urena will be making his big league debut whenever he makes his first appearance for the Halos.
MARCH 19: Angels right-hander Grayson Rodriguez may begin the season on the injured list. Manager Kurt Suzuki told reporters, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, that Rodriguez has a “dead arm” and will be slowed down. With Opening Day now just a week away, that makes it possible Rodriguez starts the season on the 15-day injured list, depending on how things progress in the coming days.
At this point, it doesn’t appear to be a major issue. Rodriguez isn’t even being shut down, with Fletcher noting that he still threw today, but it’s concerning nonetheless. Injuries have been in the spotlight for Rodriguez in recent years. He made 43 starts for the Orioles in 2023 and the first half of the 2024 season. He hasn’t made an official start since July of 2024, primarily due to shoulder issues.
He underwent elbow debridement surgery in August of last year. He was flipped to the Angels early this offseason in a one-for-one-trade for outfielder Taylor Ward. After that deal, Rodriguez spoke about his health and seemed optimistic. He said that he had been dealing with bone spurs in his elbow for three or four years. He believed this was adding stress to his shoulder and causing his numerous problems with that part of his arm.
For Rodriguez to now be dealing with arm problems once again is less than ideal. Perhaps it will remain a fairly minor issue but the Angels don’t have a lot of margin for error. They came into camp with a rotation projected to include José Soriano, Yusei Kikuchi, Reid Detmers, Alek Manoah and Rodriguez. Soriano and Kikuchi are fine but the group is fairly questionable after that.
Detmers had a 3.96 ERA in relief last year but a 6.70 ERA as a starter the year prior. He has a 7.27 ERA in spring training so far. Like Rodriguez, Manoah is looking to bounce back after a lengthy injury absence, but he has a 9.39 ERA this spring.
If Manoah gets optioned or Rodriguez needs to spend some time on the IL, that could open a spot for Jack Kochanowicz. He’s having a good spring but posted a 6.81 ERA in the big leagues last year. Fletcher suggested yesterday that Ryan Johnson has a chance to earn a spot, getting an aggressive Opening Day nod yet again. The Angels gave him a spot in their bullpen to begin last season even though he hadn’t yet played a game as a professional. He posted a 7.36 ERA through early May, at which point he was optioned down to High-A.
It’s worth reiterating that there’s still nothing to indicate Rodriguez is dealing with any kind of major issue. He may still avoid the IL if he feels better in the coming days. Even if he lands on the shelf, Opening Day IL stints can be backdated three days, so he could be back in less than two weeks.
But the Angels are going into a season where they hope to contend but need a lot of things to go right in order to that to be possible. They went 72-90 last year and didn’t make strong moves to upgrade the roster this winter. The Playoff Odds at FanGraphs give them just a 4.9% chance of cracking the postseason. The PECOTA Standings at Baseball Prospectus are even more pessimistic, giving the Halos just a 0.1% chance.
A minor setback for a club’s fourth starter wouldn’t always be a cause for worry but it looms larger for the Angels than with other clubs since any setback can further diminish already-slim those odds.
Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images
Phillies Extend Cristopher Sanchez
4:27PM: The breakdown of Sanchez’s extension is provided by Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sanchez will still earn $6MM in 2027 and $9MM in 2028, matching the terms of his previous contract. He’ll get $15MM in 2029, $16MM in 2023, and then a jump to $30MM in each of the 2031 and 2032 seasons. There is a $1MM buyout on a $44.5MM club option for the 2033 campaign.
8:01AM: The Phillies have announced a contract extension for left-hander Cristopher Sanchez, as first reported by Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s a six-year deal that runs from 2027 through 2032 and includes a club option for the 2033 season. The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reports that the deal guarantees Sanchez $107MM, including the $3.5MM salary the southpaw is set to make in 2026. Francys Romero of Beisbol FR reports that the deal also includes “more than $13MM” in performance incentives. Sanchez is represented by Mato Sports Management.
The news is a shocking development given that Sanchez is entering just the second season of his four-year, $23.5MM extension with the Phillies. That deal had two affordable club options attached to the end of it, so the lefty was set to make just $47MM over the next five seasons. That makes this contract effectively $60MM in new money for the lefty’s age-34 and -35 seasons, with a club option for his age-36 campaign at a value that has not yet been reported.
It’s a nearly unprecedented move by the Phillies, whose initial extension with Sanchez had made him one of the most valuable assets in the entire sport. They’ve now traded the most, if not all of that surplus value to lock up the left-hander into his mid-thirties. Other teams have given established, franchise players extensions that take them well past their primes after already having those prime years locked up in the past, including the Guardians with Jose Ramirez back in January and the Diamondbacks with Ketel Marte last year. Those deals weren’t quite the same as this one, however. Both Ramirez and Marte had more than a decade of MLB experience under their belt and had already played out significant portions of their initial team-friendly extensions, even signing with the club multiple times. In addition, those teams had the motive of restructuring their star’s previous deal to include deferred money.
That’s not to say Sanchez is undeserving of his new payday, of course. After breaking out in 2024 and earning a trip to the All-Star game, Sanchez enjoyed one of the most impressive pitching seasons in recent memory this past season. The lefty spun a 2.50 ERA with a 2.55 FIP in 202 innings of work, striking out 212 batters across 32 starts. He paired his 26.3% strikeout rate with a 5.5% walk rate and a 58.3% ground ball rate, giving him a lower SIERA than every qualified starter in the NL and the third-lowest in baseball behind Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet.
By measure of fWAR, Sanchez’s 2025 season was a top-20 campaign by a qualified starter since 2015, tied with Cy Young-winning campaigns by future Hall of Famers like Chris Sale (2024), Max Scherzer (2017), and Justin Verlander (2019). Sanchez ultimately finished second behind Paul Skenes in Cy Young voting last year, but nonetheless established himself as among the upper-echelon of starters in today’s game with that performance. Clearly, the Phillies are betting on Sanchez to age well like those other elite arms did by signing him to a big-money extension for his mid-thirties. Philadelphia has been unafraid of signing players well past their prime years previously, as shown by the fact that Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are under contract through their age-37 seasons, while Jesus Luzardo‘s new contract extension includes a club option for his age-34 campaign.
With this new contract, Sanchez joins Luzardo (2032 club option) and Trea Turner (contract guaranteed through 2033) as the only three players under team control beyond the expiration of Bryce Harper‘s contract in 2031. This restructured contract for Sanchez could be an interesting data point for Harper and agent Scott Boras, as the two-time MVP and future Hall of Famer has previously publicly expressed a desire to extend or restructure his contract with Philadelphia to keep him in town beyond the 2031 campaign. Of course, those previous attempts were before this past offseason’s comments from Dave Dombrowski critical of Harper that drew the superstar’s ire, prompting trade speculation that Dombrowski later firmly shut down. Even if those tensions have been smoothed over at this point, it’s entirely possible that the Phillies would simply value adding a few more years to Sanchez’s contract more than doing the same with Harper, who will already be 38 years old in the final year of his current deal.
Craig Kimbrel Won’t Make Mets’ Roster
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told the media (including SNY TV) that veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel was told that he won’t be breaking camp with the team. An Article XX(B) free agent, Kimbrel had the chance to trigger the first of three opt-out dates in his minor league contract this weekend, and Mendoza’s comments seemingly indicate that the right-hander hasn’t exercised an out clause, as Kimbrel is considering staying in the organization.
“Now he is deciding whether he wants to stay, which looks like he’s leaning that way,” Mendoza said. “He likes it here, he wants to win, but he also is going to look around for opportunities. But there’s a good chance he stays back here in Florida, to continue to pitch and [wait] until the opportunity presents.”
Kimbrel has a 4.50 ERA over six Grapefruit League innings for the Mets, with five walks and five strikeouts. It wasn’t the kind of performance that would help what was already something of a longshot bid to make New York’s roster, and it could be that Kimbrel is fine pitching in the minors for now. Given how the Mets cycled through an endless amount of relievers last season, Kimbrel may figure it won’t be too long before he is needed in Queens, even if his call-up would come with the added wrinkle of a contract selection to the 40-man roster.
Making the Mets’ roster would also guarantee a $2.5MM salary for Kimbrel, and since New York is over the highest level of luxury tax penalization, the Mets would pay more than double that amount in additional taxes. While money isn’t exactly a top concern for the big-spending Mets, it isn’t absolutely no concern, and the front office may feel a reliever on a minimum salary is a better investment both financially and results-wise than what Kimbrel can offer at age 37.
Kimbrel has been bouncing around the league for the last few years, showing some flashes of his old All-Star form but without much consistency. In 2025, Kimbrel had a 2.25 ERA and a 34.7% strikeout rate over 12 innings with the Braves and Astros, but with a hefty 14.3% walk rate as well. Control has been an issue for Kimbrel even during his prime years, and he has also been hurt by an increased tendency to allow home runs.
There could still be a market elsewhere for Kimbrel’s services, if another team feels he still has something in the rank. Mendoza noted that playing for a contender seems to be a priority for Kimbrel, so he might not want to sign with just any team if he does re-enter the open market.
Guardians To Select Rhys Hoskins’ Contract
Rhys Hoskins will break camp with the Guardians, as the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports that Cleveland will be selecting the first baseman’s contract prior to Opening Day. The Guards will have to make a corresponding move to create space for Hoskins on the 40-man roster.
For making the team, Hoskins will now earn a $1.5MM salary for 2026, as per the teams of the minor league contract he signed last month. It’s a nice late birthday present for Hoskins less than a week after his 33rd birthday, though it was widely expected that Hoskins would be part of Cleveland’s roster. As an extremely quiet Guardians offseason comes to a close, Hoskins projects to be the only new offensive addition to a lineup that was one of baseball’s worst in 2025.
While the Guardians are primarily counting on such youngsters Chase DeLauter and Kyle Manzardo to generate more offense, the team will also see what Hoskins can bring in his ninth Major League season. Formerly a prominent power bat in the Phillies’ lineup, Hoskins hasn’t really been the same since missing the entire 2023 season due to a torn ACL.
Hoskins hit .223/.314/.418 with 38 homers over 845 PA with the Brewers over the last two seasons, translating to a 104 wRC+ and 1.1 fWAR. Hoskins’ 2025 campaign was better than his 2024, as he seemed to wear down in the last half of his return year. Last season, Hoskins was hampered by a sprained thumb that limited him to 90 games for Milwaukee.
Once a lefty-masher, the right-handed hitting Hoskins has had more modest numbers against southpaws in 2024-25, akin to his overall lesser production. Since Manzardo and C.J. Kayfus are both left-handed hitters, Hoskins provides cover for both players in the first base/designated hitter mix. Hoskins has never been known as a great defender, but 2025 was one of his best years with the glove, as per the public defensive metrics (+2 Defensive Runs Saved, +1 Outs Above Average).
White Sox Sign Reese McGuire
The White Sox announced that catcher Reese McGuire, has been signed to a one-year, $1.2MM contract. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers was the first to report the signing shortly before the club’s official announcement. No additional roster move was needed since the Sox had an open spot on their 40-man roster. McGuire is represented by Apex Baseball.
McGuire just opted out of a minor league deal with the Brewers yesterday and had 72 hours to explore the market for a new club. It took him about a day to land in a familiar location, as McGuire previously had a 53-game stint with the White Sox in 2022 (and he played on the other side of Chicago with the Cubs in 2025).
Signing a catcher didn’t seem any kind of priority for a Sox team that had Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero, and Korey Lee all lined up behind the plate, with Teel and Quero projected to get at-bats from both the catching position and the DH slot. However, Teel suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain during the World Baseball Classic that will keep him out of action for about 4-6 weeks, or roughly mid- to late April.
Teel told MLB.com’s Scott Merkin yesterday that he is “progressing fast,” and hoping to miss only about four weeks of time. Even with this positive update and the presence of both Quero and Lee, the White Sox apparently wanted to reinforce their catching depth, and perhaps retain the three-catcher plan they intend to deploy for the rest of the season. Lee is out of minor league options and sending either Teel or Quero down to Triple-A doesn’t seem to be in Chicago’s long-term interest (unless either is really struggling), so it creates an interesting question as to what will happen when Teel is healthy and the Sox are juggling four backstops.
For now, McGuire will suit up for his former team and look to provide his usual solid glovework. A top prospect back during his time in the Pirates’ farm system, McGuire has settled into a journeyman/backup type of career, playing for six different organizations during his career. McGuire has hit .248/.293/.374 with 25 homers over 1178 career plate appearances, with nine of those home runs coming last year with the Cubs (as part of a .226/.245/.444 slash line in 140 PA).
Mariners To Add Mitch Garver To Opening Day Roster
The Mariners are adding Mitch Garver to their Opening Day roster as their backup catcher, according to a report from Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. That seemingly leaves catcher Andrew Knizner without a spot on the club’s roster headed into the season. He’s on a $1MM contract for 2026 and cannot be optioned to the minors, so he’ll need to be traded or designated for assignment sometime before Opening Day if he isn’t making the team.
Garver, 35, is a veteran of nine MLB seasons and has spent the past two years in Seattle. The former Silver Slugger has spent much of his career on the injured list, but in his younger years often showed flashes of elite power when healthy coupled with a hefty dose of strikeouts. From 2019 to 2023, Garver appeared in 325 games (averaging just 65 per season) but in that time slashed a phenomenal .250/.346/.508 with 75 home runs, a 26.6% strikeout rate, and an 11.8% walk rate. Perhaps the most impressive of those five seasons was his 2023 campaign with the Rangers, where he made it into 87 games and clubbed 19 homers with a strikeout rate of just 23.8% against an impressive 12.8% walk rate.
It was a platform season strong enough that the Mariners decided to take a chance on Garver, signing him to the club’s first multi-year deal for a position player in years. Unfortunately, that contract did not go well. Garver’s offense has taken a big step back over the past two years as the strikeouts have returned while his power has dipped substantially. In 201 games with Seattle, he’s hit just .187/.290/.341 with a 29.6% strikeout rate and a wRC+ of 88, indicating he’s been 12 points worse than league average at the plate. He’s combined that with lackluster defensive numbers behind the plate, and the Mariners were widely expected to move on from the veteran this offseason.
Despite that, Garver re-signed with the club on a minor league deal at the outset of Spring Training. Contact has remained an issue for him this spring, as he’s gone just .182/.308/227 with 11 strikeouts in 26 trips to the plate during camp. That lackluster performance both in Seattle and during camp this spring makes the decision to go with Garver as the backup a somewhat surprising one. That’s particularly true given that Knizner is not only on a minor league contract but also has the five years of service time required to reject an outright assignment and retain his full salary even if he passed through waivers unclaimed following a DFA.
Of course, it should be remembered that Knizner is hardly an impact player in his own right. The veteran has appeared in parts of seven MLB seasons but is a career .211/.281/.316 hitter whose 2025 season was even less productive at the dish than Garver’s. Knizner is younger at 31 years old and has been viewed in some circles as a superior defender to Garver, but his metrics have actually been similar to Garver’s work in 2025 throughout much of his career. Given that Raleigh figures to play the overwhelming majority of games behind the plate, perhaps the Mariners are prioritizing bringing back a veteran leader from a club that fell just one game short of the World Series last year who Raleigh himself helped to bring back into the organization over the offseason.
Regardless of the reasoning, Garver now figures to serve as Raleigh’s backup, while Knizner is likely to be either traded or exposed to waivers before the season begins. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll have the opportunity to return to free agency and sign with any of the league’s 30 clubs. Given the dearth of catching depth around the league in recent years, Knizner could conceivably find a big league job somewhere, though it’s also possible he’ll have to settle for a minor league pact at this point and begin the season at Triple-A.
Nationals Designate Griff McGarry For Assignment
The Nationals announced today that they’ve designated right-hander Griff McGarry for assignment. The move clears a spot for Jorbit Vivas on the 40-man roster, whose previously reported acquisition from the Yankees is now official. McGarry was the Nationals’ Rule 5 draft pick back in December and now will be available to any of the league’s other clubs who are willing to claim him with Rule 5 stipulations attached. If he goes unclaimed, he must be offered back to the Phillies for $50K. If the Phillies pass on reacquiring McGarry, he can be outrighted off the roster into the Nationals’ farm system.
McGarry, 26, was a fifth-round pick by the Phillies back in 2021 and got some top-100 prospect attention earlier in his career. That was before his career took a turn for the worse in 2023, when he posted an ugly 6.00 ERA in 17 starts thanks to lackluster command. Those command issues caused the organization to move McGarry to the bullpen for the 2024 season, but his already-high 18.5% walk rate from 2023 ballooned to a whopping 24.0% when he moved into a relief role. That led the Phillies to return the right-hander to the rotation for 2025, and he turned in decent numbers across 21 starts, most of which were at the Double-A level. He still walked too many batters, with 13.9% of his opponents getting a free pass, but he managed to make up for that elevated walk rate with a sensational 35.1% strikeout rate.
That improvement was enough for the Nationals to roll the dice on McGarry back in December, but his signature command issues once again resurfaced during Spring Training. While he managed a decent 3.18 ERA in 5 2/3 innings of work, he walked (five) nearly as many batters as he struck out (six) in that time, leaving him with an 18.5% walk rate that would be difficult to justify carrying on a big league roster even for a rebuilding club. With optionable youngsters like Brad Lord and Ken Waldichuk capable of offering multi-inning relief with considerable upside and no Rule 5 restrictions, it’s not necessarily a surprising decision that the Nationals would opt for those arms rather than McGarry as they fill out their roster.
Should he go unclaimed on waivers, his upside is still considerable enough that it would be a surprise if the Phillies didn’t jump at the opportunity to reacquire him and continue his development throughout the 2026 campaign. Of course, it’s not impossible that he could be claimed; after all, McGarry was just the third-overall selection in the draft, meaning a number of teams later in the draft may well have considered drafting him themselves if he had fallen to them. Of course, it’s also a lot easier to draft a Rule 5 pick in December than it is to actually carry that player on their roster come March, so McGarry’s trip through the waiver wire will be one to watch over the coming days.
Dodgers Option Hyeseong Kim; Alex Freeland To Make Roster
The Dodgers announced a round of camp cuts today, headlined by their decision to option utility man Hyeseong Kim to Triple-A. Infielder Nick Senzel, outfielder Jack Suwinski, and catcher Seby Zavala were also re-assigned to minor league camp. That leaves the door open for infield prospect Alex Freeland to make the team’s Opening Day roster, and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic confirms that Freeland has been informed that he’s done just that.
Freeland, 24, was a third-round pick by the Dodgers in 2022 and made his big league debut last year. A consensus top-50 prospect in the sport last season, the infielder hit quite well at Triple-A with a .263/.384/.451 (115 wRC+) slash line across 106 games for Oklahoma City. Freeland swatted 16 homers and 30 doubles while walking at a whopping 16.3% clip and striking out 21.9% of the time. Those strong numbers didn’t translate to an 29-game cup of coffee with Los Angeles this last year, however, he hit just .190/.292/.310 across 97 trips to the plate.
Despite that tough start to his MLB career, Freeland will round out a Dodgers bench that already includes Santiago Espinal, Dalton Rushing, and Alex Call. Call and Rushing figure to serve in pure bench roles, backing up the outfield and catcher Will Smith respectively. As for Freeland and Espinal, however, they appear likely to share playing time at second base with veteran Miguel Rojas to open the season, while also filling in for Mookie Betts and Max Muncy on the left side of the infield as needed. With both Enrique Hernandez and Tommy Edman on the injured list to open the season, there’s plenty of room in the club’s infield mix for Freeland to earn himself playing time in the early days of the 2026 campaign.
It’s at least somewhat surprising that opportunity won’t go to Kim. The 27-year-old hit a solid .280/.314/.385 (95 wRC+) across 170 trips to the plate in a bench role for the Dodgers last year while handling second base, shortstop, and center field as needed. It seems as though production during Spring Training didn’t factor into L.A.’s decision regarding their final bench spot, either; Kim slashed an incredible .407/.448/.519 in 30 spring plate appearances, while Freeland struggled during camp with a paltry .116/.286/.233 slash line across 56 plate appearances. Jack Harris of the California Post notes, however, that the Dodgers felt Freeland’s discipline (with 11 walks and 11 strikeouts) was impressive and that Kim struggled with his mechanics during and after his stint with South Korea in the World Baseball Classic.
It’s also plausible that the decision to roster Freeland is about getting him an opportunity while there’s a relatively clear shot at regular playing time. Edman is expected to begin the year on the injured list, and while his stay may not be very long it could still allow Freeland to get consistent MLB playing time for a couple weeks. That could be hard to come by on the club’s roster once Edman returns from the shelf, and the Dodgers have at times had prospects struggle to break through due to lack of opportunities in this past. If that’s the case, it’s not hard to imagine Kim being the next man up for a bench role in the event Espinal or Rojas either struggles or heads to the injured list. Whatever the Dodgers’ exact reasoning may be, Kim will open the season at Triple-A for the second season in a row and look to stay ready for when a big league opportunity eventually does arrive.