A’s Notes: Butler, Jump, De Vries
A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler will make his first Spring Training appearance tomorrow, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. He’ll serve as a designated hitter against the White Sox. The A’s are off on Wednesday but Butler could get his first outfield work during Thursday’s game against the Mariners.
Butler played through a right knee injury late in the 2025 season. He underwent postseason patellar tendon surgery but has maintained confidence he’ll be ready for Opening Day. Butler has been able to take hitting drills throughout camp. He’d been held out of game action until this week to avoid running at full speed.
The A’s have six remaining Spring Training contests. Butler could take 15-20 exhibition at-bats if they feel comfortable playing him on consecutive days. It appears he’ll be ready to go when the A’s head to Rogers Centre to take on the defending American League champions to begin the season.
Butler is coming off a .234/.306/.404 showing across 630 plate appearances. He had a 20-20 campaign and hit 30 doubles, but his rate metrics were around league average. Although it wasn’t a bad season, it was a step back from the huge 2024 second half that established him as a core piece. Playing through the injury probably had something to do with that. Butler took a .251/.326/.433 line into the All-Star Break but hit .203/.268/.351 in the second half.
He’ll man right alongside Tyler Soderstrom and Denzel Clarke in Mark Kotsay’s outfield. Butler fits best in a corner but has the athleticism to play center if Clarke’s strikeout concerns outweigh his defensive excellence.
Butler hasn’t been good against left-handed pitching, batting .228/.261/.397 while striking out a third of time in 234 career plate appearances versus southpaws. The A’s have remained committed to him as an everyday player. They claimed righty-hitting utility player Andy Ibáñez from the Dodgers last month. He’s primarily an infielder but could be an option in right field if the A’s wanted to shield Butler from lefties to give him some rest early in the season.
In other news, the team made a few camp cuts over the weekend. Top prospects Leo De Vries and Gage Jump were among those reassigned to minor league camp. Neither player is on the 40-man roster, nor were they expected to garner serious consideration for the Opening Day roster.
A midseason promotion could be on the table for either player. De Vries will play the entire season at 19, so that’d be an extremely aggressive call, but he’s coming off a .255/.355/.451 showing between High-A and Double-A. De Vries was six years younger than the average player at the Double-A level and more than held his own. He also had a remarkable first MLB camp, batting .409 with three homers and doubles apiece in 17 games.
Jump, a left-handed pitcher who turns 23 in April, took the ball four times this spring. He tossed 9 2/3 innings of two-run ball, striking out seven against three walks. Jump spent most of last year in Double-A, where he turned in a 3.64 ERA while fanning a quarter of batters faced across 20 outings. The back of the A’s rotation is open enough that it wouldn’t be a surprise if Jump pitches his way to West Sacramento by the All-Star Break.
MLB To Test Check-Swing Rule In Triple-A
Major League Baseball will implement a handful of rule changes at various levels of the minor leagues during the 2026 season. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs first reported the slate and those interested in the topic are encouraged to read that post in full.
The most notable is the introduction of the check-swing challenge system in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, beginning in early May. That allows a batter, pitcher, or catcher to challenge an umpire’s check-swing decision against bat-tracking technology. MLB had tested this rule in the Low-A Florida State League and the Arizona Fall League last year.
A check-swing challenge system requires an objective cutoff point. The threshold is whether the bat head breaks a 45° angle relative to the handle (essentially aligning with the opposite base line). Major League Baseball’s rulebook doesn’t have an official check-swing cutoff, instead leaving it at the umpire’s discretion as to whether the hitter offered.
As Longenhagen demonstrates with video, the 45° threshold is further along than what umpires have generally treated as the cutoff. That led hitters to successfully challenge a lot of calls last year. It appears that’s a deliberate consideration by the league. MLB’s memo notes a slight drop in the Florida State League strikeout rate after the check-swing challenge was implemented, “having a positive impact on balls in play and encouraging more extensive testing at higher levels.” It’s not a huge effect but one that would turn more swinging strikes into balls than vice versa.
The check-swing challenge will only be tested in the Pacific Coast League. In the other half of Triple-A, the International League, MLB will instruct umpires to visually use the 45° degree cutoff but will not give players the right to challenge. That’s seemingly to set up some kind of control group vs. the PCL while encouraging umpires to be more forgiving on check-swing calls generally.
Additionally, there’ll be a slight adjustment to the positioning of the second base bag in the International League. That change, which goes into effect in the second half of the 2026 season, moves the bag a little closer to the pitcher’s mound and reduces the distance from second to the corner bases by roughly nine inches in both directions. As with the previously implemented change to enlarge the bases, it’s designed to encourage more aggressive baserunning.
There are a few more minor tweaks related to pace of play and positioning of base coaches which the FanGraphs post covers in greater detail. There’s also the introduction of a reentry rule for a pulled starting pitcher at the rookie ball levels. Unlike the other rule changes mentioned here, that is not being tested for eventual implementation in MLB. That’s simply designed to avoid overworking young pitchers — most rookie ball players are teenagers — who are struggling to throw strikes, hopefully reducing injury risk.
MLB tests a number of rule adjustments in the minor leagues or independent ball. Some of them like the pitch clock, the ball-strike challenge system, and shift limitations make it to the highest level. Others (e.g. the DH “double-hook,” designated pinch-runners) have not.
The check-swing rule seems to be the one worth most closely following of this year’s group. “We haven’t made a decision about the check-swing thing,” commissioner Rob Manfred told Evan Drellich of The Athletic last June. “We do try to think sequentially about what’s coming. I think we got to get over the hump in terms of either doing (ball-strike challenges) or not doing it before you’d get into the complication of a separate kind of challenge involved in an at-bat, right? You think about them, they’re two different systems operating at the same time. We really got to think that one through.”
Latest On Angels’ Second Base Competition
One of the Angels’ biggest camp storylines is who they’ll tab as the starting second baseman. They narrowed the field over the weekend, optioning Christian Moore and Kyren Paris. They’re each going to open the year at Triple-A Salt Lake.
Moore seemed like a slight favorite for the job entering Spring Training. He was certainly the most exciting of the in-house options as a 2024 top ten pick who has hit well in the minors. Moore really struggled following an aggressive big league promotion last season, though. He struck out more than a third of the time while hitting .198/.284/.370 through 184 trips to the plate.
The Angels would have loved for Moore to seize the job in Spring Training. That’s not what happened, as he hit .175 with just one extra-base hit (a homer) in 40 at-bats. Moore will look to address some of the swing-and-miss concerns at Salt Lake to put himself in the running for a midseason promotion.
Paris is a career .157/.244/.290 hitter. He wasn’t going to win the second base job and probably needed a monster spring to put himself in consideration for a bench spot. He hit well on the surface (.333/.419/.556) but struck out nine times in 31 plate appearances. Paris has raw power but has held back by whiff concerns throughout his career. This will be his final minor league option year, assuming he spends at least 20 days there over the course of the season.
With Moore out of the mix, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com writes that non-roster invitee Adam Frazier is the favorite for the second base role. The lefty hitter has made a strong impression in camp, batting .348 while striking out just four times in 23 at-bats. Frazier’s profile is well established. He puts balls in play with minimal power and has been a below-average hitter since his 2021 All-Star season. He carries a .241/.302/.343 batting line in more than 1800 plate appearances between four teams over the last four years.
Manager Kurt Suzuki tells Bollinger he’s open to a platoon arrangement that’d pair Frazier with a righty bat. The 34-year-old is a career .200/.273/.333 hitter against southpaws, so it’s natural they’d keep away from lefty pitching if he breaks camp.
The Halos have a few right-handed infielders vying for one or two roster spots. Oswald Peraza and Vaughn Grissom are out-of-options former prospects who haven’t performed at the big league level. Chris Taylor and the switch-hitting Jeimer Candelario are in camp on minor league deals.
Peraza offers the most defensive value and has stepped up during Spring Training, hitting .351 with a pair of homers in 13 games. Grissom, acquired from the Red Sox in an offseason trade, is batting .185 despite only striking out twice all camp. Candelario and Taylor have each shown well in exhibition play but haven’t hit much in the regular season over the last two years.
The Angels would need to create 40-man roster space for any of Frazier, Candelario or Taylor. They have a pair of obvious 60-day injured list candidates in Robert Stephenson and Anthony Rendon. That essentially gives them two free roster spots with which to play.
Offseason In Review: Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies are mostly running back the same squad as last year, but with a few key adjustments.
Major League Signings
- DH Kyle Schwarber: Five years, $150MM (includes $15MM signing bonus)
- C J.T. Realmuto: Three years, $45MM
- RHP Brad Keller: Two years, $22MM (includes $4MM signing bonus)
- OF Adolis García: One year, $10MM
- RHP Zach Pop: Split deal, $900K in majors, $250K in minors
2026 spending (not including Pop): $66MM
Total spending (not including Pop): $227MM
Trades and Claims
- Claimed OF Pedro León off waivers from Orioles
- Selected RHP Zach McCambley from Marlins in Rule 5 draft
- Acquired RHP Yoniel Curet from Rays for RHP Tommy McCollum
- Acquired LHP Kyle Backhus from Diamondbacks for OF Avery Owusu-Asiedu
- Acquired RHP Jonathan Bowlan from Royals for LHP Matt Strahm
- Acquired RHP Chase Shugart from Pirates for IF Francisco Loreto
Option Decisions
- OF Harrison Bader declined $10MM mutual option
- Club exercised $9MM option on LHP José Alvarado
Notable Minor League Signings
- Liover Peguero, Bryan De La Cruz, Michael Mercado, Bryse Wilson, Levi Stoudt, Mark Kolozsvary, Tucker Davidson, Génesis Cabrera, Tim Mayza, Dylan Moore, Daniel Robert, Lou Trivino, Connor Gillispie
Extensions
- LHP Jesús Luzardo: Five years, $135MM (includes $32.5MM club option for 2032)
Notable Losses
- Ranger Suárez, Harrison Bader, Max Kepler (unsigned and serving PED suspension), Walker Buehler, Jordan Romano, Rafael Lantigua, Griff McGarry (Rule 5 draft), Matt Strahm, Weston Wilson (waivers), Nick Castellanos (released)
The Phillies went into the winter with a batch of notable players reaching free agency. Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Ranger Suárez and Harrison Bader were among the players heading to the open market. The Phils generally run one of the top payrolls in the league, but it never seemed like they would have the money to bring back all of them.
Schwarber and Realmuto felt like the priorities. Losing Suárez would hurt the rotation, but the Phils could still hope for a good starting group without him. There would be some extra risk because Zack Wheeler required surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome, but he is expected back fairly early in the 2026 season. Once he is back, four spots would be taken by Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo. The final spot could then come down to a battle between Taijuan Walker and Andrew Painter. Painter still has options and could be sent to Triple-A if he doesn’t win that battle. Walker has been nudged into a long relief role in the past and could wind up there again.
In center field, the Phils seemed committed to giving Justin Crawford a shot. He was pushing for a promotion in 2025 until they acquired Bader at the deadline. He is still not on the 40-man roster, but the Phils have more or less handed him the job for 2026. He has a particularly contact- and speed-based approach. He’s never hit ten home runs in a season but puts the ball in play and lets his legs do the work.
There is risk in relying on prospects with no major league experience but those are better fallback plans than the Phils had for the other spots. They didn’t have an everyday catcher waiting to take over for Realmuto and certainly didn’t have a Schwarber-esque bat to plug into the DH spot.
Schwarber’s market was hot, unsurprising for a guy who has been so good at the plate in recent years. It felt like the Phillies would match whatever other clubs were willing to offer — and that is exactly how it played out. The Pirates, shockingly, put forth an offer in the $120-125MM range over four years. The Orioles reportedly pushed the bidding up to $150MM over five years but the Phils got it done at that price. It’s a historic deal. Putting aside Shohei Ohtani, no primary designated hitter had earned a nine-figure deal in free agency before. No hitter, regardless of position, had reached nine figures going into his age-33 season.
For a 33-year-old DH to blow past both of those benchmarks and get to $150MM showcases just how good Schwarber has been. He just crushed 56 home runs last year while continuing to run elite walk rates. He has also erased his previous platoon issues, as he was actually better against lefties in both 2024 and 2025.
Bringing back Schwarber left Realmuto as the primary item on the to-do list but the Phils explored a different path. With Bo Bichette lingering unsigned into January, the Phils tried to take advantage by offering him a seven-year deal worth almost $200M. He decided to opt for the short-term route with high average annual values, accepting a three-year deal from the Mets worth $126MM with opt-outs.
With the Phils having Trea Turner and Bryson Stott in their middle infield, it seemed the plan was to put Bichette at third. The Phils could have then traded Alec Bohm and his $10.2MM salary, perhaps for catching. The Bichette offer was worth about $28MM annually, so they would have been adding about $18MM to the payroll if they were able to flip Bohm for a league minimum player or prospect. When Bichette went elsewhere, the Phils quickly turned to Realmuto and gave him $45MM over three years, or $15MM annually.
Bringing back Schwarber and Realmuto is nice, but there’s a bit of risk in continually committing to an aging roster. Both guys are now signed through their respective age-37 seasons. Turner and Bryce Harper are going into their age-33 seasons and still under contract into the next decade. Wheeler and Nola are in their mid-30s as well. There’s a financial aspect in hoping for Crawford and Painter to carve out roles on the 2026 club, but they also need some young guys to step up in order to avoid getting blindsided by the aging curve.
One area where change seemed to be guaranteed was right field. Manager Rob Thomson and Nick Castellanos had clashed a few times in the 2025 season. The organization seemed to have no questions about where they stood in terms of that spat. Within a few days of the Phils being eliminated from the playoffs, it was reported that Thomson would be back for 2026. He and the Phils would sign an extension in December.
Castellanos, on the other hand, was out the door. In mid-October, just a few days after the report of Thomson staying, it was reported that the Phils were going to move on from Castellanos. They held onto him throughout the winter to see if a trade could come together but it never did. He was released in February, just before camps opened for spring training.
In the interim, they had replaced him with Adolis García. He had been non-tendered by the Rangers after two down years. Castellanos is one of the worst outfield defenders in the league and García is pretty good with the glove, so he’ll certainly be an upgrade in that department. His offense is more questionable, as he is coming off a dismal .227/.271/.394 showing. He’s not too far removed from a 39-homer season in 2023 but is now 33 years old. Helping him get back on track will be pivotal to the Phillies’ success.
There was another bit of internal drama, but with no real consequences. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made some disparaging remarks about Harper’s 2025 season, which annoyed Harper and led to some brief trade rumors. Those rumors were quickly shot down and Dombrowski suggested the proverbial water had passed under the bridge.
A third note of clubhouse discord seemed to impact the club’s bullpen plans. Left-hander Matt Strahm was traded to the Royals for right-hander Jonathan Bowlan on Dec. 19. Dombrowski framed it as simply a product of circumstances. Bowlan is less established than Strahm, but he has big stuff, is still making the league minimum and can be controlled for six years. Strahm had one season left on his deal and will make $7.5MM in 2026. The Phils had three lefty relievers at the start of the winter, with José Alvarado and Tanner Banks being the other two. But in the days after the trade, it was reported that the Phils were motivated to move Strahm because he had regularly clashed with team officials.
Regardless of the motivation, a key piece of the bullpen had been subtracted. The Phils then used free agency to bolster the group, signing Brad Keller to a two-year deal worth $22MM. Keller was once a decent starter with the Royals but was largely in the injury wilderness in 2023 and 2024. He had a tremendous bounceback season out of the Cubs’ bullpen in 2025, tossing 69 2/3 innings with a 2.07 earned run average, 27.2% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 56.1% ground ball rate. Some clubs were interested in putting Keller back in a starting role but the Phils plan to deploy him as a reliever.
A few more notable developments popped up during spring training. Outfielder Johan Rojas has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He is the third member of the 2025 Phillies to receive a PED suspension, alongside Alvarado and Max Kepler. With the Phils giving Crawford the center field opportunity to start the season, Rojas was going to be a potential fallback plan if Crawford struggled.
It’s not a devastating loss, but it gives the Phils a bit less of a safety net in a position where they are taking a risk. Perhaps they’ll look to add some center field depth in the coming weeks as spring training ends and other clubs make their cuts, which will send some players to the waiver wire or back to free agency.
The other big development out of Phillies camp was the Jesús Luzardo extension. He and the club agreed to a five-year deal worth $135MM, beginning in 2027. That doesn’t impact the 2026 club but staves off a potential rotation pitfall a year from now. Both Luzardo and Walker were slated for free agency after 2026. The ’27 rotation projects to have a core four of Wheeler, Nola, Luzardo and Sánchez. With Walker’s impending departure, there’s a path for Painter or someone else to step up a seize a future spot. If not, the Phillies are never hesitant to spend in free agency.
On the whole, the Phils are mostly keeping the band together. The rotation is losing Suárez, but perhaps Painter can make up for his loss somewhat. The outfield has been shaken up a bit, with Crawford and García set to replace Bader and Castellanos. The bullpen has had a few changes as well.
But the core will largely be the same. With Schwarber and Realmuto back, those two will be lineup fixtures alongside Harper, Turner, Bohm, Marsh and Stott. It’s obviously a strong group, with an active streak of four straight postseason appearances. The playoff results have been more disappointing recently, but the regular season numbers keep getting better. They went from 87 wins in 2022 to 90, 95 and 96 in the next three campaigns.
It seems the club has tried to strike a balance. With most of those core players being in their mid-30s and signed for many years to come, there’s surely a concern about eventually getting too old at some point, but they do want to keep it going for now. They will try to get an injection of youth from Crawford and Painter. They almost got a bit more youth from the Bichette signing but couldn’t quite pull it off, which led to the Realmuto reunion and greater continuity.
How would you grade the Phillies' offseason?
Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images
Poll: How Will The Orioles Rotation Shake Out?
Yesterday, the Orioles announced they optioned left-hander Cade Povich to Triple-A Norfolk. That news was hardly a surprise, as Povich is perhaps the seventh or eighth starter on the team’s depth chart. Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers form a solid top two, while offseason additions Shane Baz, Chris Bassitt, and Zach Eflin fill the group out on paper.
That would leave Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer on the outside looking in. That’s at least true of Wells, who was officially informed he’d start the season in the bullpen two weeks ago. There remains a certain level of ambiguity regarding Kremer’s role, however. That’s a fairly new feeling for the right-hander, who has started 123 of his 126 games in the majors and been a full-time player in the majors since June 2022. In those four years, he’s been a solid but unspectacular back-end rotation piece with a 3.95 ERA and 4.17 FIP across 599 1/3 innings. He’s struck out 20.3% of his opponents while walking 7.4%, both numbers that hover right around league average.
Being a league average starting pitcher is hardly a bad thing. Volume has value, and Kremer’s 171 2/3 innings last year made him one of just 47 qualified starters in MLB. On the other hand, it’s not too difficult to improve on what he offers. Just 11 of those 47 pitchers had a worse season by ERA- than Kremer. Even by lowering the innings threshold to 100, Kremer clocks in ahead of just 40 of 119 starters on the list.
So, how is Kremer best used for Baltimore this year? The right-hander does have an option remaining, so the club could simply send him to the minors and have him at the ready in case one of their starting five gets injured. That could be preferable to moving Kremer to the bullpen. Having both Wells and Kremer in relief roles would leave the Orioles with their depth hollowed out to an extent. While there are certainly pitchers capable of sliding between the bullpen and rotation on a moment’s notice, it can take time for even players experienced in that sort of swing role to stretch out fully after moving from the bullpen.
The O’s could also give Kremer a spot in a six-man rotation. While the team’s bullpen has more than a dozen viable options, the only pitchers truly locked into spots appear to be Wells, Ryan Helsley, Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns and Yennier Cano. They’ll eventually reinstall Andrew Kittredge into the late-inning mix, but he’ll start the season on the injured list after battling shoulder inflammation early in camp.
That’s the sort of depth that could support a six-man rotation, especially with Wells available to cover multiple innings. That could be an attractive option given that the rest of the rotation has plenty of reason to need extra rest. Bradish is coming off UCL surgery. Bassitt is entering his age-37 season. Rogers has never made more than 25 starts, and Eflin just suffered through an injury-marred season that ended in back surgery. A six-man rotation would offer each of those players some additional rest days and make it much easier to keep that group fresh for what the Orioles are surely hoping will be a deep run into October.
That aforementioned offseason surgery for Eflin could, at least in theory, offer a third option. Kremer could begin the season as the Orioles’ fifth starter while Eflin opens the season on the injured list, giving him more time to build up and kicking the decision down the road for a few weeks. Eflin was targeting an Opening Day return to action as far back as December, but even at the time acknowledged that it was far from a sure thing.
Fast forward to today, and he’s so far made just two appearances in Spring Training, the latest of which was abbreviated by a rainout. While he impressed in both outings, neither lasted more than two innings. It’s unclear, at this point, if Baltimore will be able to get Eflin fully stretched out for the start of the season or if they would be willing to dedicate a spot in a five-man rotation to him if he isn’t built up to anything close to the 90-100 pitches typically expected of an MLB starter.
How do MLBTR readers think the Orioles will settle their Opening Day rotation? Will they send Kremer to the minors, place Eflin on the injured list, or use both in a six-man rotation? Have your say in the poll below:
What will the Orioles rotation look like on Opening Day?
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Zach Eflin will begin the season on the injured list. 52% (866)
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The Orioles will fit both Eflin and Kremer into a six-man rotation. 35% (577)
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Dean Kremer will begin the season in the minor leagues or the bullpen. 14% (226)
Total votes: 1,669
Mike Tauchman Has March 25 Opt-Out In Mets Deal
Outfielder Mike Tauchman is in camp with the Mets on a minor league deal. If the club doesn’t give him a roster spot at the end of camp, he can seek out opportunities elsewhere. Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that Tauchman has a March 25th opt-out in that deal. The Mets start the season on March 26th.
The Mets have two outfield spots spoken for. Juan Soto will be in left field and Luis Robert Jr. in center. The right field job was seemingly left open by design, as the Mets wanted to give prospect Carson Benge a chance to earn a spot. Benge has not yet made his major league debut, so the club needed to have some contingency plans. Tyrone Taylor is on the roster and could step up but he also would be a good fit as a glove-first fourth outfielder. Brett Baty is going to be in a super utility role and will be in the mix as well. Tauchman was brought in to give the Mets another option without taking up a roster spot. MJ Melendez was added to the roster but he has an option remaining and could be sent to Triple-A.
Benge is doing what he can to get the job, with a .367/.406/.433 line in spring so far. That’s held up by an unsustainable .440 batting average on balls in play but it’s encouraging nonetheless. Tauchman is putting up even better numbers. With a .400 BABIP, he has a .333/.481/.619 line in spring action so far.
Sammon floats the idea of both players cracking the roster but also notes it may not be realistic. With Francisco Lindor trending towards being ready on Opening Day, the roster is tight. Backup catcher Luis Torrens will have one of the four bench spots. Taylor and Mark Vientos are out of options and should have two more. The final spot could go to a backup infielder like Ronny Mauricio.
Mauricio does still have an option remaining, so the Mets could send him to Triple-A and add Tauchman to the bench. Doing so would leave them without a bench infielder, so the Mets would have to be comfortable with the versatility of their starters. Second baseman Marcus Semien and third baseman Bo Bichette are both former shortstops, with Bichette being an everyday guy there as recently as last year. Baty can play second and third. Vientos give them some cover at the hot corner. Jorge Polanco is expected to play a lot of first base but he also has recent experience at second and third.
It’s unknown how the Mets feel about that jumble but it’s theoretically possible they could feel comfortable without Mauricio in the mix. If he were sent to Triple-A, he could get some regular playing time, which he hasn’t had for a while. He missed 2024 due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Last year, he was still rehabbing that knee to start the year and then was mostly kept in a bench role once he was healthy. Vidal Bruján is only on the roster and out of options but the Mets may try to get him through waivers.
If the Mets don’t find a spot for Tauchman, he could find one somewhere else. He’s not a star but has been pretty solid for the past three years. Since the start of 2023, he has a combined .255/.359/.381 line, which translates to a 111 wRC+. He doesn’t have huge power but he has drawn walks at a strong 13% clip, while keeping his strikeouts down to a 21.3% clip. His defensive grades have been strong as well. FanGraphs credited him with 4.1 wins above replacement in 310 games over that span.
Despite the solid production, teams have somewhat surprisingly been averse to investing in him. The Cubs non-tendered him after 2024 despite a fairly modest $2.9MM projected salary from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. He spent 2025 with the White Sox and had another decent campaign but he was once again non-tendered, with Swartz projecting a $3.4MM salary.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
MLB Announces 80-Game Suspension For Johan Rojas
Major League Baseball announced today that Phillies outfielder Johan Rojas has received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for Boldenone, a performance enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that Rojas had tested positive for a PED but that he was appealing. It now appears the appeals process has been completed, as Rojas will begin serving his suspension to begin the 2026 season.
Rojas, 25, has been Philadelphia’s center fielder for a decent chunk of the past three seasons. He gets great marks for his defense and also steals bases but his offense has been more questionable. Since the start of 2024, he has a .237/.279/.312 batting line. That translates to a 64 wRC+, indicating he was 36% below league average at the plate in that time.
Despite his assets, the lack of offense has pushed the Phillies to move on from relying on Rojas. They acquired Harrison Bader at last year’s deadline. Bader became a free agent at season’s end but the Phils plan to give prospect Justin Crawford the job.
Rojas could have started 2026 as a fourth outfielder or perhaps getting regular playing time in the minors. If Crawford struggled in his first exposure to major league pitching, Rojas could have been a speed-and-defense fallback. That’s now off the table for the first half of the season. Rojas could return in the second half but players who receive PED suspensions aren’t eligible for the postseason.
Without Rojas, the Phils feel a bit light in terms of center field depth. Left fielder Brandon Marsh has experience there but is probably stretched defensively. Pedro León is on the 40-man but has just seven big league games under his belt. Utility player Dylan Moore has some limited experience in center. He’s not on the roster but could be selected to serve in a multi-positional bench role.
As Opening Day gets closer, it’s possible some other guys become available. As teams make their final roster decisions, some guys will end up on waivers or in free agency. Perhaps the Phillies can add some extra center field coverage in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images
Travis Bazzana Will Not Make Guardians’ Opening Day Roster
The Guardians are not planning to carry second base prospect Travis Bazzana on the Opening Day roster. According to Tim Stebbins of MLB.com, Bazzana has been informed he won’t make the team but will remain in big league camp for a few more days.
Bazzana, 23, seemingly came into camp with a legit chance to break camp. He is expected to be the club’s long-term answer at second base but the question is when that will start. The first overall pick of the 2024 draft, he split last year between Double-A and Triple-A, finishing his season with 26 games at the top minor league level. In his 120 Triple-A plate appearances, his 26.7% strikeout rate was a bit high but he ran a huge 24.2% walk rate in that small sample and hit four home runs. His .225/.420/.438 slash line led to a 138 wRC+.
Having already showed some success at Triple-A, there was an argument he was ready for the majors, especially considering that the Guards didn’t get much offense from their middle infield last year. On the other hand, his professional track record is still pretty limited. As mentioned, he was only drafted in 2024. He missed some time with injuries last year, appearing in 84 games in total. When combined with the 27 High-A games he played in his draft year, he has only 111 profesional games under his belt.
This month, Bazzana represented his native Australia in the World Baseball Classic, putting up a .188/.235/.375 line in four games. In Cactus League action, he has a .286/.333/.500 line in five games. It’s unknown if the Guards are putting any stock in those numbers or if they always had planned to send Bazzana back to the minors to start the year.
Once upon a time, it was basically guaranteed that a top prospect would be held down in the minors for the first few weeks of a season. By doing so, a club could prevent a player from earning a full year of service time in that season and therefore gain an extra year of club control over the player, a practice commonly referred to as service time manipulation.
The current collective bargaining agreement introduced some new measures, known as the Prospect Promotion Incentive, which have made it far more common for top prospects to break camp. Under these measures, a top prospect can earn his club an extra draft pick if he is promoted early in the season and then goes on to meet certain awards criteria. Also, a prospect can be awarded a full year of service time retroactively even if promoted later, if they are able to finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting.
Bazzana is a consensus top prospect, so the Guards could have given him the second base job out of camp and hoped for him to earn them a draft pick. It doesn’t appear they will go that route. Instead, they will send him to the minors, at least to start the season.
Last year, Gabriel Arias and Brayan Rocchio got the majority of the middle infield playing time in Cleveland. Both players were subpar at the plate. They actually had matching wRC+ numbers of 77 on the year, indicating they were each 23% below league average. Arias got strong reviews for his glovework at short, while Rocchio’s defensive metrics were more mixed.
It’s possible that those two are again the primary middle infielders to open the 2026 season, with utility players like Daniel Schneemann and Ángel Martínez also in the mix. Juan Brito is also on the 40-man roster and could push for some playing time, though he hasn’t yet made his major league debut. He still has an option and was limited by injuries to just 31 minor league games last year. The Guards could send him back to Triple-A for more reps but he has over 170 games played at that level overall.
Circling back to Bazzana, even if he doesn’t break camp, his PPI eligibility is still theoretically possible. The Guards have a 186-day season this year and a player needs 172 days in the majors to earn a full year of service time. They could promote him in the first two weeks of the season and keep PPI on the table. Perhaps there’s a scenario where he’s crushing the minors or someone else gets hurt and Bazzana is promoted early enough.
If nothing like that comes to pass, then it will be interesting to monitor exactly when he gets called up, as they will then have motivation to keep him down longer. In 2024, the Pirates held Paul Skenes down until the second week of May but he pitched so well that he earned a full year of service regardless. In 2025, Bubba Chandler was pitching well in the minors but the Bucs held him down until late August, seemingly hoping to avoid a repeat of the Skenes situation.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Jose Ramirez Day-To-Day With Shoulder Inflammation
March 16: Vogt said Monday that Ramirez felt better and there are no plans to send him for imaging (via Stebbins).
March 15: Guardians superstar Jose Ramirez made an early exit from today’s Spring Training game due to what manager Stephen Vogt described postgame (to MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins and other reporters) as “some left shoulder inflammation.” It is a “day-to-day” situation for now, Vogt said, and presumably the Guardians might do some precautionary tests just to make sure Ramirez’s shoulder doesn’t have any structural issues.
Vogt indicated that the injury occurred when Ramirez slid into third base while stealing the bag in the bottom of the second inning. This means Ramirez still felt good enough to play third for two more innings before Carter Kieboom pinch-hit for Ramirez in the bottom of the fourth, so at least the injury wasn’t serious enough to require an immediate removal.
It is entirely possible Ramirez could be back in action in a couple of days, and this minor shoulder problem becomes just a footnote in another tremendous season for the 33-year-old. Still, any potential injury involving Ramirez is noteworthy, given his status as one of baseball’s top stars and his outsized importance within the Guardians’ lineup.
Ramirez’s 13 seasons in Cleveland has him headed to Cooperstown, as the third baseman has hit .279/.353/.504 with 285 homers and 287 stolen bases over 6759 career plate appearances. Since the start of the 2013 season (Ramirez’s debut year in the majors), only six players have posted more than Ramirez’s 57.7 career fWAR. Ramirez is a perennial AL MVP candidate with four finishes within the top three of voting, including a third-place finish in 2025. Perhaps most importantly from the Guards’ perspective, Ramirez has been willing to accept multiple below-market extensions to remain in Cleveland, including another extension this offseason that will keep him with the Guardians through the 2032 season.
It isn’t a reach to say that any kind of significant injury to Ramirez could ruin the Guards’ 2026 season before it even begins. Even with Ramirez continuing to post MVP-caliber numbers, the Guardians were one of baseball’s worst offensive teams in 2025. After an extremely quiet offseason, Cleveland is running back virtually the same offensive core this year, hoping that a bounce-back season from Steven Kwan, continued development from Kyle Manzardo, and breakout years from rookies Chase DeLauter and George Valera can help the team more consistently produce runs. It’s a risky strategy, and one that still relies heavily on Ramirez being his usual self.
White Sox Place Alexander Alberto On Waivers
The White Sox have placed Rule 5 pick Alexander Alberto on waivers, reports James Fegan of Sox Machine. Another club could claim the right-hander but would be subject to the standard Rule 5 restrictions, meaning Alberto would not be eligible to be optioned to the minors. If he clears waivers, he will have to be offered back to the Rays.
This effectively means that Alberto isn’t breaking camp with the Sox. Chicago made two Rule 5 picks in December, taking right-hander Jedixson Paez from the Red Sox and Alberto from the Rays. Alberto has tossed 6 2/3 innings over seven spring appearances, having allowed ten runs, eight of them earned. He struck out seven batters but allowed 12 hits, issued four walks and threw one wild pitch.
Under the regulations of the Rule 5, the selecting team must pay $100K to the club they take the player from. The player cannot be optioned to the minors and must therefore stay on the active roster or injured list. If he survives a full season with his new club, including at least 90 days on the active roster, then his rights fully transfer over to the drafting club.
With Alberto’s rough spring showing, it seems the Sox aren’t going to break camp with him. It was always a long shot pick, as Alberto’s career topped out at High-A last year. To skip over Double-A and Triple-A and stick in the big leagues, even with a rebuilding club, would be a tall order.
It’s possible some other club takes a chance on the stuff. Last year, Alberto tossed 48 2/3 innings on the farm, allowing 2.59 earned runs per nine. His 10% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 30.6% of batters faced and induced grounders on 54.4% of balls in play. His cut fastball sits in the upper 90s while his upper 80s slider is considered a strong pairing. If no other club grabs him via waivers, he must be offered back to the Rays for $50K, half of the initial selection fee. The Rays would not need to carry Alberto on their 40-man roster.
Photo courtesy of Arianna Grainey, Imagn Images