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Bo Bichette Reportedly Open To Playing Second Base

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Bo Bichette is telling interested teams that he’s willing to sign as a second baseman, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. That’s not especially surprising but theoretically opens his market.

Bichette’s defensive fit has been the biggest question of his free agency process. He has played 6184 career regular season innings, all of them at shortstop. Public metrics haven’t looked favorably upon his work. Statcast has graded Bichette as an average or worse defender for virtually his entire career. Defensive Runs Saved was more positive over his first few seasons but has had him in the red in three of the past four years. Going back to 2023, he’s fifth from the bottom at the position with -15 Outs Above Average. DRS has him tied for eighth worst with a -11 mark.

It’s more a problem of range than any concern about his hands. He has only committed 11 fielding errors over the last three years, which isn’t many for a player who has logged almost 3000 innings at the infield’s most demanding position. He’s tied for ninth with 16 throwing errors in that stretch. He ranks middle of the pack in arm strength and is a below-average runner who doesn’t have great mobility. Statcast has graded him particularly poorly on batted balls by right-handed hitters, which a move to the opposite side of the diamond could mitigate.

Bichette could probably play an average or better second base. He made 30 appearances there in the minor leagues and more famously played there five times during this year’s World Series. Those were his first games back after a six-week absence due to a sprained ligament in his left knee. Bichette was clearly hampered physically and would have been a designated hitter if the Blue Jays didn’t have George Springer. Toronto needed to find somewhere to play Bichette to get his bat back in the lineup, but they kept Andrés Giménez at shortstop.

[Related: The Best Fits For Bichette]

Giménez is a superior defender even if Bichette is fully healthy. Very few middle infielders can match Bichette on the other side of the ball. He’s a career .294/.337/.469 hitter who has been a well above-average offensive player in every season besides 2024. He had a remarkable performance in the World Series, collecting eight hits (including a monster Game 7 home run off Shohei Ohtani) despite the knee pain.

There aren’t many teams actively seeking shortstop upgrades. The Padres, Rays, Guardians, Brewers, Marlins and Pirates could all improve the position. None of them are going to meet a potential $200MM+ asking price. Toronto would be better suited with Giménez at shortstop and Bichette at second base, though GM Ross Atkins suggested early in the offseason that they’d be willing to keep their old infield arrangement if Bichette wanted to stick at shortstop. Aside from the Jays, the Yankees and Tigers might’ve been the only teams that could plausibly offer Bichette a huge contract to play short.

Fielding interest as a second baseman could bring in teams like the Giants, Angels, Red Sox and Dodgers. It’s sensible to hear teams out even if only to expand the market. Last offseason’s top free agent shortstop, Willy Adames, expressed a similar willingness to move to second or third base. He wound up staying at his usual position with the Giants but commanded a seven-year contract despite San Francisco being the only high-spending club in need of a shortstop.

Twins, Dan Altavilla Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Twins reached a minor league deal with reliever Dan Altavilla, reports Franycs Romero. The MAS+ Agency client will presumably receive a non-roster invite to MLB Spring Training.

Altavilla spent the 2025 campaign with the White Sox. He was released in September despite tossing 29 innings of 2.49 ERA ball on the season. Altavilla’s 17.5% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk percentage were each far worse than the respective league averages. He only missed bats on 9.6% of his offerings. The Sox didn’t intend to offer him a contract for his final season of arbitration, so they dropped him from the roster a few weeks before the end of the year.

The 33-year-old Altavilla has appeared in parts of eight big leagues seasons between four teams. He’d only made seven combined appearances between 2021-24 before this year’s return run in Chicago. His 28 appearances were the second most of his career, trailing only the 41 games in which he pitched for the 2017 Mariners. Altavilla has a four-pitch mix led by a 96-97 MPH fastball. He didn’t miss many bats but got ground-balls at a strong 51.3% clip this past season.

Minnesota is a good landing spot for a depth reliever. The Twins dealt away most of their established bullpen arms at the deadline. Their only MLB acquisition thus far has been righty Eric Orze, whom they picked up from the Rays in a small trade as Tampa Bay created roster space to keep prospects out of the Rule 5 draft. The Twins should add a couple low-cost free agent relievers.

Justin Topa, Cole Sands and Kody Funderburk are probably the only pitchers locked into Opening Day bullpen roles. Topa is the only reliever on the 40-man roster who cannot be optioned. Altavilla would fit into that bucket as well by virtue of having five-plus years of service. If the Twins add him to the roster at any point, they wouldn’t be able to send him to Triple-A without his consent.

Giants Designate Joey Wiemer For Assignment

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The Giants are designating outfielder Joey Wiemer for assignment, the team informed reporters (including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). San Francisco needed to open a 40-man roster spot after signing reliever Jason Foley yesterday. They’ll need to open another spot once they finalize their two-year agreement with starter Adrian Houser.

San Francisco picked up Wiemer in a DFA trade with Miami last month. The 26-year-old always seemed a long shot to stick on the 40-man roster throughout the winter. Wiemer has bounced around over the past year-plus. He’s been traded from Milwaukee to Cincinnati to Kansas City, then landed with Miami on an August waiver claim. He’ll hope to land with a sixth organization within the next week.

Listed at 6’4″ and 226 pounds, the righty-swinging Wiemer has plus raw power. He’s also a plus runner who grades as a quality defender at all three outfield positions. The physical gifts are obvious, but his long levers have led to a lot of swing and miss. Wiemer has punched out at a near-30% clip across 499 career plate appearances, leading to a .205/.279/.359 batting line despite 16 homers and 12 stolen bases.

The Giants have five days to trade Wiemer or place him back on waivers. He has yet to clear waivers, so they’d be able to keep him in the organization as a non-roster player if they manage to sneak him through unclaimed.

Nationals To Hire Anirudh Kilambi As General Manager

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The Nationals are going to hire Anirudh Kilambi as general manager, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Kilambi, who had been with the Phillies as an assistant general manager, will be the second-in-command in the Washington front office under president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.

Kilambi, 31, began working for the Rays back in 2015 when he was in his early 20s. He worked his way up that organization to the position of assistant director of baseball research and development. In November of 2021, the Phillies hired him as assistant general manager when he was just 27 years old.

The Nationals have been busy overhauling their franchise. Their recent rebuild wasn’t showing enough progress, so president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were fired midseason. Toboni and Blake Butera have since been hired to take on those roles and Butera has also made a number of coaching changes. Since Toboni was hired, it has been reported that he would eventually hire a GM to be his top lieutenant, with Kilambi now tapped for the gig.

A key feature of the new regime has been youth. Toboni is 35 years old and Butera 33. New pitching coach Simon Mathews is 30. New first base coach Corey Ray is 31, as is Kilambi. “That wasn’t on purpose,” Butera recently said of the youth of his staff, per Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. “We weren’t trying to get young staff. Someone made a joke like, ’Did you tell Paul when you got hired that the staff has to be under 40 years old?’ You might not believe me, but no.”

While the Nats are surely looking at attributes other than age, it does make for an interesting symbol of the changing of the guard. Many in the industry viewed the Nats as behind the curve when it came to data and analytics as the front office was run by Rizzo, who is now 65 years old. Kilambi has a strong research and development background and is the latest injection of fresh blood as the Nats try to charge forward into what they hope is a bright future.

Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images

Cardinals Designate Matt Koperniak For Assignment

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The Cardinals announced that outfielder Matt Koperniak has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding 40-man move for right-hander Dustin May, whose signing is now official.

Koperniak, 28 in February, has been with the Cards since signing with them as an undrafted free agent in 2020. From 2021 to 2023, he produced pretty solid results as he climbed the minor league ladder. Across those three seasons, he stepped to the plate 1,399 times. His 10.1% walk rate and 16.1% strikeout rate were both solid figures. He produced a combined line of .293/.375/.441, which translated to a wRC of 112, indicating he was 12% better than league average at the plate.

He seemed to find a new gear in 2024, his first full season at Triple-A. He hit 20 homers and slashed .309/.370/.512 for a 128 wRC+. That may have been a bit fluky, as he got some help from a .351 batting average on balls in play, but the Cards seemed to believe in him. They added him to the 40-man roster in November of that year to keep Koperniak out of the Rule 5 draft.

He spent 2025 back at Triple-A on optional assignment and his results backed up. His home run tally dropped to 14, despite taking 23 extra plate appearances. His BABIP dropped to a more average-ish .283. He finished the season with a .246/.317/.382 line and 85 wRC+.

The Cards are rebuilding and will be giving playing time to younger players in 2026 but Koperniak wouldn’t have been at the front of the line after that performance. He’s instead been bumped off the roster and into DFA limbo. The Cards will now see if there’s any trade interest in him. If not, he’ll be put on waivers. He does still have a couple of options remaining and is considered a strong defensive outfielder, with experience at all three spots. If some club out there likes him, they could acquire him and keep in Triple-A as depth as they hope for a bounceback at the plate.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Athletics Sign Mark Leiter Jr.

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December 17th: The A’s have officially announced their signing of Leiter.

December 11th: The Athletics have reportedly reached an agreement with right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. on a one-year, $2.85MM contract. The signing is still pending a physical. Leiter is a client of VC Sports Group.

Leiter, 35 in March, made his big league debut back in 2017 but didn’t fully establish himself at the big league level until joining the Cubs in 2022. He served as a swing man and long reliever for Chicago that year, with a 3.99 in 67 2/3 innings of work in that role, but moved to a short relief role full-time in 2023. In 100 2/3 innings of work for the Cubs over the next two seasons, Leiter pitched to a 3.75 ERA with a 3.12 FIP while striking out 30.9% of his opponents and walking 8.8%.

Those exciting peripherals were enough to convince the Yankees to swing a trade for the right-hander at the 2024 trade deadline, but he struggled in New York even as his peripheral numbers remained strong. In 70 innings of work for the Yankees over parts of two seasons with the club, Leiter posted a 4.89 ERA despite a 4.07 FIP. In 2025, Leiter struck out 24.7% against a 7.8% walk rate while generating grounders on 45.5% of his batted balls allowed. Unfortunately for the righty, the results weren’t there enough for the Yankees to tender him a contract last month, and he wound up reaching free agency a year earlier than anticipated.

Headed into 2026, the A’s can expect Leiter to be a solid middle relief arm at least. His 4.15 ERA over the past four seasons is exactly league average (100) by ERA+, and the right-hander’s impressive splitter actually makes him particularly effective against left-handed batters. In 104 2/3 innings of work against lefties the last three years, Leiter has posted a 2.49 ERA and 2.57 FIP with a 32.1% strikeout rate. With league average results overall and elite numbers against lefties, Leiter has a much higher floor than a typical non-tendered middle relief arm, which is surely why he was able to command a solid guarantee even coming off a tough year in New York.

Leiter hasn’t managed to play up to his peripherals throughout his career, but if he can do so he could wind up a valuable setup man for the A’s this year. The righty’s 3.13 SIERA over the past three seasons ranks 13th among relievers with at least 150 innings of work since the start of the 2023 season, and that puts him on a similar level to well-regarded late-inning arms like Luke Weaver. Leiter’s .359 BABIP and 66.5% strand rate over the past two years indicate extremely poor fortune when it comes to batted balls and sequencing; if those numbers experience enough positive regression to get within spitting distance of league average, Leiter’s a good bet to be impactful at the back of the A’s bullpen next year.

It’s been a quiet offseason for the A’s so far, though there’s certain reasons for optimism regarding the club’s future. Nick Kurtz emerged as a potential superstar this year, and he’s backed by a core of exciting positional talent like Brent Rooker, Shea Langeliers, Jacob Wilson, and Lawrence Butler. The club’s pitching staff needs plenty of work if the team is going to contend in 2026, but adding Leiter to a bullpen that already houses respectable arms like Hogan Harris and Michael Kelly should be a small step towards accomplishing that goal. Jeffrey Springs and Luis Severino remain in the fold as solid back-of-the-rotation veterans, though it remains to be seen how much A’s ownership is willing to spend in order to augment that group. Whether the A’s are facing significant budget constraints or not, however, bringing Leiter into the fold as a reliever with possible late-inning upside on a relative bargain can only be a good thing for the club.

Robbie Hyde of Foul Territory first reported the agreement. Janie McCauley of The Associated Press reported the $2.85MM guarantee, after ESPN’s Jesse Rogers first noted it would close to $3MM.

Cardinals Sign Dustin May

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December 17th: The Cards officially announced May’s signing today. May will make $12.5MM in 2026 and the mutual option is worth $20MM, per Passan. It’s a $12MM salary and a $500K buyout on the option, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat.

December 13th: The Cardinals are expected to sign right-hander Dustin May, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027. May spent last season split between the Dodgers and Red Sox.

May was sent to Boston at the trade deadline for James Tibbs and Zach Ehrhard. After scuffling through 19 appearances with L.A., he battled injuries and poor performance with the Red Sox. May set career highs in innings (132 1/3) and games (25) last season, but posted an unsightly 4.96 ERA with an xFIP and SIERA in the mid-4.00s.

St. Louis was in desperate need of rotation depth after trading Sonny Gray to Boston and watching Miles Mikolas hit free agency. The club also lost swingman Steven Matz, who signed with Tampa Bay. May is set to join holdovers Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy in the rotation. May’s former teammate on the Red Sox, Richard Fitts, will likely be in the mix after coming over in the Gray trade. The Cardinals are considering converting Kyle Leahy into a starter to round out the staff.

The Dodgers spent a third-round pick on May in 2016. He emerged as one of the top pitching prospects in a system typically stocked with elite arms. May made his MLB debut in 2019, working largely out of the bullpen. He spent the majority of the shortened 2020 campaign in the rotation, making 10 starts. It would be the only time he would reach double-digit starts until this past season. Injuries capped May to just 20 games from 2021 to 2023. He missed all of 2024 due to flexor tendon surgery.

May stayed healthy for the first time in 2025, making 19 appearances for the Dodgers. He stumbled to a 4.85 ERA over 104 innings. Despite the performance, May still netted LA an intriguing prospect in Tibbs, a first-round pick in 2024 (by San Francisco). The veteran righty made just six appearances with the Red Sox before right elbow neuritis cut his season short.

The Cardinals are betting on May pairing the flashes of solid production he’s shown in prior seasons with the improved health from 2025. The 28-year-old recorded a sub-3.00 ERA in 2020, 2022, and 2023, albeit in abbreviated campaigns. While he did go down with the elbow issue in September, he still destroyed his previous career bests in terms of workload. May had totaled 101 innings over four seasons before putting up 132 1/3 frames last year. It was the first time in his six-year career that May showed the ability to stay on the mound for any kind of extended stretch.

May has a perplexing pitching profile. He has a GIF-worthy arsenal headlined by a high-spin sweeper and a fastball in the mid to upper-90s. Oddly, the repertoire hasn’t generated whiffs or strikeouts for much of his career. May spiked a 37.6% strikeout rate over five games in 2021, but he’s been at best an average strikeout pitcher in every other season. He posted a middling 21.1% mark between L.A. and Boston last year. May has a modest 8.8% swinging-strike rate for his career. None of his five pitches has a standout whiff rate.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post was first to report that the contract was for one year. MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo was first to note the deal included a club option for 2027.

Photo courtesy of Paul Rutherford, Imagn Images

Orioles Sign Albert Suárez To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced that they have signed right-hander Albert Suárez to a minor league deal. The righty will presumably receive an invite to big league camp in spring training, though the O’s didn’t explicitly say so.

Suárez, now 36, signed a minor league deal with the Orioles ahead of the 2024 season. At that time, he had spent a number of years pitching in Japan and South Korea. The deal worked out well for Suárez and the O’s last year. He was added to the roster in April and gave Baltimore 133 2/3 innings as a swingman with a 3.70 earned run average.

Unfortunately, 2025 wasn’t as pleasant. A subscapularis strain in his throwing shoulder put him on the shelf after just one appearance. He came off the injured list in September and made four appearances before going back on the IL, this time due to right elbow discomfort. The team announced in October that Suárez had a mild flexor strain and would avoid surgery.

Suárez crossed three years of service time in 2025, qualifying him for arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for just $900K, barely above next year’s $780K league minimum. The O’s decided not to tender him a contract after his injury-marred season. That sent him to free agency without being exposed to waivers, allowing them to re-sign him in a non-roster capacity.

Assuming he’s healthy in the spring, he can try to earn his way back onto the roster. Baltimore’s current rotation mix includes Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, Cade Povich, Tyler Wells, Chayce McDermott and Brandon Young. The O’s are expected to add to that group before the offseason is out. As the season goes along, injuries will surely pop up and Suárez may be needed for a spot start or a long relief role.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

Royals Sign Lane Thomas

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December 17th: The Royals have officially announced their signing of Thomas.

December 11th: The Royals and outfielder Lane Thomas are reportedly in agreement on a one-year contract. The Wasserman client receives $5.25MM with another $1MM available via incentives. Kansas City has a couple of open 40-man spots and won’t need to make a corresponding move once the deal is official.

Thomas and the Royals will be looking for a bounceback season, as he just suffered through an injury-marred 2025 campaign with Cleveland. Early in the season, he missed about a month due to a right wrist bone bruise. In the latter months of the season, he went on the injured list a couple of times due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. He required surgery in September with a projected recovery time of three to four months. Around those IL stints, he got into 39 games and hit just .160/.246/.272.

Prior to that, he had a solid run as a decent regular in the bigs, suiting up for the Cardinals, Nationals and Guardians. From 2021 to 2024, he got into 510 contests, hitting 67 home runs and stealing 66 bases. He produced a .248/.313/.426 line over that four-year span, which translated to a 103 wRC+, indicating he was 3% better than league average.

He was slightly better in the second half of that stretch. Over 2023 and 2024, he hit 43 home runs and stole 52 bases. His combined .255/.312/.439 line in those two seasons translated to a 105 wRC+. FanGraphs credited him with 4.3 wins above replacement, a bit better than two wins per year.

His defense has been more of a question mark. Outs Above Average has given him a minus-16 ranking for his career, but oddly considered him league average in center and subpar in the corners. Defensive Runs Saved has put a minus-18 mark on him, but most of that due to an odd minus-13 grade in 2024 alone.

He clearly has some wheels, as his sprint speed has been ranked in the 93rd percentile or above since he became a regular. With a bit of pop in the bat as well, he has been able to engineer some decent results when healthy.

The Royals have been struggling for years to get production from their outfield. In 2025, they got a collective .225/.285/.348 line from the grass. That resulted in a 73 wRC+, the worst such mark of any team in the majors.

Obviously, upgrading the outfield was going to be a priority this winter. It was recently reported that the club would be looking to add one outfielder via trade and another via free agency, with a right-handed hitter who can play center field being a specific target. The Royals currently project to have an outfield consisting of Jac Caglianone, Kyle Isbel and John Rave. All three hit from the left side. Caglianone was a top prospect coming into 2025 but he didn’t hit at all in his first 232 plate appearances in the big leagues. Rave has just 175 big league plate appearances without much success either. Isbel has more experience but is a glove-first center fielder. They picked up Kameron Misner, another lefty, from the Rays in a trade a few weeks ago.

Thomas has pretty strong platoon splits in his career. He has been punched out in 28.2% of his plate appearances against righties with a .220/.287/.383 line and 84 wRC+. With the platoon advantage, his strikeout rate drops to 19.3%. He has a .292/.359/.500 line against southpaws for a 135 wRC+.

The Royals shouldn’t be done adding to their outfield. As mentioned, they have been looking to make two additions. This at least gives them a short-side platoon guy who can be slotted into any of the three outfield positions, while also perhaps coming off the bench for pinch-running opportunities. His health may be a bit of a question mark with the aforementioned surgery, but the estimated timeline should allow him to be healed up by spring training.

It’s a modest free agent add but the Royals apparently didn’t have much to spend. Owner John Sherman said a couple of months ago that the 2026 payroll would likely be similar to what they had in 2025. RosterResource currently projects them for a $139MM payroll in 2026. That’s already above where they finished in 2025, before even adding Thomas onto the ledger. Perhaps the next move will come on the trade market. There have been plenty of rumors suggesting the club may be looking to deal from its starting depth in order to get another bat.

Will Sammon of The Athletic first reported the Royals were signing Thomas. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the $5.25MM guarantee and $1MM in bonuses.

Photos courtesy of David Richard, Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images

Yankees’ Allan Winans Granted Release To Pursue Opportunity In Japan

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The Yankees have granted right-hander Allan Winans his release so that he can sign with a team in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. It’s not yet clear which team the 30-year-old righty will be joining. His release opens a spot on the Yankees’ 40-man roster, which is now down to 36 players.

Situations such as this one tend to benefit all parties. The Yankees will lose some depth, but Winans wasn’t a lock to last the whole offseason on their 40-man roster anyhow — particularly since he’s out of minor league options. Japanese teams typically pay a release fee of a few hundred thousand dollars to a player’s MLB club in order to facilitate the release. Winans, meanwhile, will earn far more pitching overseas than he would on a split big league deal that sees him oscillate between Triple-A and the majors.

Winans has pitched in each of the past three major league seasons, albeit sparingly. He’s totaled 49 1/3 innings between Atlanta and New York but been roughed up for a 7.48 ERA in that time. His track record in Triple-A is superlative, however. He’s spent parts of fours seasons between the Braves’ top affiliate in Gwinnett and the Yankees’ top affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, combining for a 2.79 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate in 355 1/3 innings.

Despite that success at the top minor league level, Winans has been hit quite hard in the majors. The flat 90 mph he’s averaged on his four-seamer in the big leagues is well below the average in today’s era of increased velocity but is more common in NPB, where the average heater sits closer to 91 mph. Given his sharp command and strong track record in the minors, Winans should command a rotation spot in NPB and could fare quite well.

It’s increasingly common to see pitchers thrive overseas and come back to North America on notable free agent deals, though most typically throw harder than Winans. Pitching well in Japan could also position him to re-sign on a more lucrative deal in subsequent seasons. There are plenty of former fringe 40-man players in the majors who’ve gone overseas and enjoyed lengthy, lucrative careers pitching in NPB, the Korea Baseball Organization and/or Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League.

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