Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Offseason In Review: Los Angeles Angels

By | at

The Angels were the most active team in the first few weeks of the offseason. They added a mid-rotation starter and a new designated hitter to upgrade the middle third of the lineup. They went oddly quiet after that, leaving them to enter the season with a roster that again seems too thin to hang in the race all year.

Major League Signings

2025 spending: $47.25MM
Total spending: $95.25MM

Option Decisions

  • None

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The Angels finished 63-99 under first-year manager Ron Washington, narrowly avoiding what would have been their first 100-loss campaign. Only the White Sox, Rockies and Marlins had a worse run differential. They have the longest active playoff drought in MLB at 10 years.

Shortly after the season ended, owner Arte Moreno told Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register that he expected to compete for a playoff spot in 2025. "(General manager Perry Minasian's) marching orders are we need to build a team that can compete for a playoff spot. When you get to playoffs, anything can happen," Moreno said. The owner indicated he was prepared to raise payroll to make that happen. The Angels had cut spending by more than $40MM over the 2023-24 offseason.

Expecting to add 20+ wins within one offseason, even with a payroll spike, is unrealistic. Still, the Angels began the winter with a sense of urgency that reflected a real desire to improve in the short term. They pulled off the first major trade of the offseason within hours of the World Series concluding. The Angels took the remaining two years and $26MM on Jorge Soler's contract off the Braves' hands. Los Angeles sent Griffin Canning, whom they were presumably planning to non-tender, the other way. Atlanta subsequently cut Canning themselves, confirming that was purely a salary dump on their part.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
  • Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
  • Remove ads and support our writers.
  • Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker

Jung Hoo Lee MRI Shows No Structural Damage

By | at

March 18: Fans can seemingly breathe a sigh of relief as Lee’s MRI showed no structural damage, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. He’ll resume rehabbing from his back discomfort.

March 17: Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee was scratched from Saturday’s Cactus League contest due to back discomfort, and with the issue still bothering him 48 hours later, he’ll undergo an MRI, manager Bob Melvin revealed to reporters (link via Justice Delos Santos of the San Jose Mercury News). He’ll then have a followup with the team’s medical staff. Melvin anticipates having more information for the public tomorrow.

Lee, 26, signed a six-year, $113MM contract with the Giants after a terrific start to his professional career in the Korea Baseball Organization. He played in 37 games last year in his MLB debut and hit .262/.310/.331 with a pair of homers and some of the best contact skills in the sport (8.2% strikeout rate). Lee played 306 innings in center and drew average marks from Statcast with slightly below-average grades from Defensive Runs Saved. A shoulder injury suffered when colliding with the wall in trying to haul in a deep drive off Jeimer Candelario’s bat ended Lee’s rookie season; he suffered a dislocation and a torn labrum, necessitating surgery.

In his return to the Giants’ lineup this spring, the former KBO standout has looked excellent. He’s appeared in a dozen games and tallied 35 plate appearances with a .300/.400/.567 slash. Lee has homered twice and drawn four walks (11.4%).

Time will tell whether the issue proves serious enough for a trip to the injured list. The Giants initially indicated that Lee was going to miss a game or two not because of a back injury suffered during a game but rather sleeping on it in awkward fashion. Sending him for an MRI would suggest there’s something potentially more worrisome at play.

If Lee does need to miss any time, the Giants have options in center. Luis Matos and Grant McCray are both plenty capable at the position. Matos, 23, is a former top prospect who’s capable of playing all three outfield spots. He logged 19 games in center for the Giants last year. McCray played 37 games in center during his rookie season in 2024. Both young outfielders struggled greatly against big league pitching, but both have had strong performances this spring. McCray is hitting .314/.429/.514 with a homer and four steals in 42 plate appearances. Matos is batting .362/.375/.532 with a pair of homers in 48 plate appearances. Whoever lines up in center field will be flanked by left fielder Heliot Ramos and right fielder Mike Yastrzemski.

Angels Sign Travis Blankenhorn To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Angels have signed infielder/outfielder Travis Blankenhorn to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The log says the deal was signed on March 6 but the deal only became apparent today when he appeared on the Angels’ lineup card, as relayed by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Blankenhorn, 28, has an inconsistent track record. Broadly speaking, he has performed well in the minors. That has led to several brief chances in the majors, which he hasn’t been able to capitalize on. He appeared in each of the past five big league seasons, but didn’t get even 40 plate appearances in any of those. Overall, he has hit .154/.230/.264 in 100 trips to the plate, scattered across those five seasons.

But he’s had a massive tally of 3,445 minor league plate appearances. In those, he has a .256/.333/.456 batting line and 114 wRC+. That includes 1,506 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level from 2021 to 2024. In that time, Blankenhorn has 74 home runs, a 10.3% walk rate, a .254/.343/.489 batting line and 113 wRC+.

As mentioned, those strong minor league numbers have led to many call-ups. Most recently, he was with the Nats for a while in 2024 but hit .129 in 13 games. He was outrighted off the roster and elected free agency in September. Defensively, Blankenhorn is mostly an outfielder/first baseman at this stage. He has some previous experience at the other infield positions but none since 2022.

The Halos have Nolan Schanuel at first with Taylor Ward and Mike Trout projected to be in the outfield corners and Jorge Soler the regular in the designated hitter slot. They also have Ryan Noda, Niko Kavadas, Matthew Lugo and Gustavo Campero on the 40-man roster. It’s a tough path to playing time for Blankenhorn but he can at least get into some games and showcase himself, to Angels’ decision makers as well as those on other clubs.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Reds’ Alex Young Seeking Second Opinion; Elbow Surgery Possible

By | at

Left-hander Alex Young, in camp with the Reds on a non-roster deal this spring, is headed for a second opinion on an elbow injury, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Tommy John surgery is a possible outcome, per the report.

Young has pitched with the Reds in each of the past two seasons. Cincinnati flipped him to San Francisco last July in a deal netting outfielder Austin Slater. The Mets wound up claiming Young off waivers and non-tendering him in the offseason, at which point the Reds re-signed him to his current minor league pact.

Though he’s bounced around the league in journeyman fashion of late, Young has been quietly effective across the past three seasons. He’s pitched 96 big league innings between the Guardians, Giants, Reds and Mets during that time and turned in a 3.28 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.

Young has had a rough camp in 2025, though the elbow injury likely explains his struggles. He made his spring debut on Feb. 22, tossing a scoreless outing, and then was out of game action until March 4. He got back into another game on March 8 but allowed a combined six runs in two innings between those two final appearances before getting imaging performed on his ailing elbow.

Young has pitched in parts of six major league seasons and has more than four years of MLB service. In 277 2/3 innings, he has a career 4.34 ERA with 24 holds and a save.

Nationals Return Rule 5 Pick Evan Reifert To Rays

By | at

The Nationals have returned Rule 5 Draft pick Evan Reifert to the Rays, per announcements from both clubs. Washington’s 40-man roster is now at 39 players. The right-hander is back in the Rays organization and will not count against Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster. The fact that Reifert is being returned to the Rays indicates that he first cleared waivers after being made available to the league’s other 28 teams.

The 25-year-old Reifert (26 in May) signed with the Brewers as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and was traded to the Rays a bit more than a year later in exchange for infielder Mike Brosseau. He made his way to Double-A in 2024, pitching 41 1/3 innings of 1.96 ERA ball with an eye-popping 40.4% strikeout rate against a 9.9% walk rate. Despite the gaudy strikeout rate, Reifert was left unprotected last November and was the fifth player off the board in December’s Rule 5 Draft.

Last year’s 9.9% walk rate was higher than average but still far and away the best mark of Reifert’s career. He walked 14% of his opponents in 2021, 12.5% in 2022 and 37% in 2023 (in a tiny sample of 7 2/3 innings). Command has long been an issue, and that was again the case during spring training. Reifert issued a dozen walks and tossed three wild pitches in just 6 1/3 innings (39 batters faced).

Reifert has yet to pitch in Triple-A, but he’ll presumably do so this season. If the Rays can get his walk numbers back to even the 10-12% range, he has the potential to be an impactful big league reliever. The 6’4″ righty features a heater in the 94-97 range and an overpowering slider that MLB.com credits as a 70-grade pitch (on the 20-80 scale). FanGraphs touts that slider as a legitimate 80-grade offering … but couples it with 30-grade command.

Report: No Major League Offers For Verdugo This Offseason

By | at

Alex Verdugo is one of the most prominent names still lingering on the free agent market, and it doesn’t sound as though he’s been close to coming off the board at any point. Brendan Kuty of The Athletic reports that Verdugo has yet to receive a formal major league offer from any team since becoming a free agent back in November. Kuty chatted with now-former teammates Aaron Judge, Anthony Volpe, Marcus Stroman and Trent Grisham about the situation, each of whom expressed surprise that Verdugo is unsigned and spoke highly of him as a teammate and member of the Yankees’ 2024 clubhouse.

Verdugo has drawn at least some interest from big league teams this winter — the Pirates, Angels and Astros among them. While Verdugo may not have received a formal written offer, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported recently that Pittsburgh “floated” a number around $8MM in discussions with the outfielder before pivoting to sign Tommy Pham for a year and $4.05MM. It’s not clear whether Verdugo didn’t find that number appealing or whether the Bucs preferred to spread out their limited resources. They signed Pham and Andrew Heaney for a combined $9.3MM.

The Astros were known to be looking for left-handed-hitting outfield help, but the front office has spent the offseason facing payroll limitations. Owner Jim Crane was seemingly only willing to exceed the luxury tax for Alex Bregman and Bregman alone. Houston was only about $5-6MM shy of the tax threshold when Ben Gamel was signed to a one-year, $1.2MM deal that seemingly closed the door on any potential match with Verdugo.

Verdugo, 29 in May, is coming off the worst full season of his career. His lone year with the Yankees resulted in a .233/.291/.356 batting line that clocked in 17% worse than average, by measure of wRC+. That paltry end-of-season line comes despite a terrific start to his 2024 campaign. Through mid-May, Verdugo was batting .275/.362/.450 in 141 plate appearances. He fell into a deep slump shortly thereafter and never really managed to recover; over his final 480 trips to the plate, he mustered only a .221/.270/.330 output. The only qualified hitters with a lower wRC+ than Verdugo’s mark of 69 during that time (indicating he was 31% below par at the plate) were Maikel Garcia and Bryan De La Cruz.

Even with that rough year, however, it’s still a moderate surprise that Verdugo’s market has been so quiet. He’s more than a year shy of his 30th birthday, and from 2019-23 he was a solid regular, hitting a combined .283/.338/.432 with solid or better corner outfield defense. He averaged two to three wins above replacement per 162 games played during that stretch. He might not be an All-Star like some had envisioned during his yearslong run as one of the sport’s top 100 prospects, but Verdugo has generally been a serviceable regular outside of his rough 2024 campaign.

At this point, it seems he might need to wait for an injury to create an opportunity for him. While there are still several teams that could clearly use a corner outfield upgrade, most clubs in that situation have either spent the bulk of their offseason budgets (e.g. Royals) or shown little to no interest whatsoever in spending this winter (e.g. Marlins).

Offseason In Review: Baltimore Orioles

By | at

There was some hope that the Orioles would become big offseason players in the first winter under new owner David Rubenstein. That didn't exactly come to pass, though the O's still showed a bit more aggression than they have in a while.

Major League Signings

2025 spending: $67.975MM
Total spending: $100.975MM

Option Decisions

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

The Orioles hired Mike Elias as general manager in November of 2018. The initial years of his tenure saw the club act very conservatively, but for understandable reasons. They lost 115 games in that 2018 season and were looking at a long rebuilding period. They finally emerged with a winning record in 2022 and then made the playoffs in 2023, but the ownership situation was uncertain. The Angelos family had been squabbling over control of the club and there were whispers that the O's were for sale.

In the 2023-24 offseason, reports emerged that a group led by David Rubenstein was going to purchase the club. That sale didn't get approved by Major League Baseball until around Opening Day of the 2024 season. At that time, Elias had still never given a free agent a multi-year deal. Craig Kimbrel and his $13MM guarantee was the only signing to go beyond $10MM.

Many Oriole fans hoped that the regime change would lead to a huge shift in operating policy, similar to the way Steve Cohen turned the Mets into a powerhouse club. There were some positive signs during the 2024 season that such a path was possible. The O's acquired Zach Eflin at the deadline. His deal with the Rays was backloaded, with an $18MM salary in 2025 that the Orioles took on. They also acquired Seranthony Domínguez, whose deal contained an $8MM club option for 2025 that was eventually exercised.

Reading the tea leaves, it seemed like the club would be operating with some more spending capacity for 2025. In early October, just after the O's were eliminated from the playoffs, Elias fanned the flames a bit. He told members of the media that he was "pretty confident" the club's payroll would be going up. He later said that the O's were looking at "the whole spectrum" of available pitchers, adding: “If you’re running the team optimally….you’re certainly wanting to keep the whole menu of player acquisition open. That involves high-end free agent deals over many years. We’ve been engaged in those conversations already.”

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
  • Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
  • Remove ads and support our writers.
  • Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker

The Opener: Tokyo Series, Freeman, MLBTR Chat

By | at

With the 2025 MLB regular season now officially underway, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Tokyo Series continues:

Game 1 of the Tokyo Series is in the books. The Dodgers’ offense got to the Cubs’ bullpen after strong performances from starters Shota Imanaga (four scoreless frames) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (five innings of one-run ball). The Dodgers ultimately came away from the game with a 4-1 victory, and the Cubs will try to leave Japan with a split in Game 2 tomorrow morning. Youngster Roki Sasaki (2.35 NPB ERA in 2024) will make his MLB debut for the Dodgers, pitching opposite Cubs southpaw Justin Steele (3.07 MLB ERA in 2024). As was the case this morning, tomorrow’s game will take place at 5:10am CT (3:10am PT), and will be broadcasted nationally on FS1. Meanwhile, locals in Chicago and Los Angeles can tune into Marquee Sports Network and Sportsnet L.A. for their respective local broadcasts.

2. Freeman scratched from Game 1:

Just before the start of Game 1 this morning, the Dodgers announced that star first baseman Freddie Freeman had been scratched from the lineup due to left rib discomfort. Notably, Freeman played through a rib injury during the 2024 postseason. Freeman had previously indicated that his rib issue improved over the offseason with rest, however, and it’s unclear if today’s discomfort is related to that previous injury. The Dodgers figure to provide more details about Freeman’s status, including his availability for Game 2 of the series tomorrow, after the game. The Dodgers tabbed utilityman Enrique Hernandez to cover first base in Freeman’s absence this morning.

3. MLBTR chat today:

The regular season now officially underway, and the 28 teams that have yet to begin playing are sorting out their final roster decisions before stateside Opening Day later this month. Whether you have questions about an ongoing camp battle or a late spring trade proposal in the back of your mind, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be here to answer your questions during a live chat scheduled for 1pm CT later today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.

Braves, James McCann Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

March 18: McCann’s deal would pay him a $1MM base in the majors, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney.

March 17: The Braves are in agreement with veteran catcher James McCann on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Atlanta released Curt Casali from his minor league deal and reassigned Sandy León to minor league camp this afternoon. McCann is represented by the Ballengee Group.

McCann, 34, provides veteran insurance with Sean Murphy ticketed for the injured list to begin the season. Murphy and expected backup Chadwick Tromp are the only catchers on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. They’ll need to add someone else by the start of the regular season. Removing Casali and León from the mix made it seem inevitable that top prospect Drake Baldwin would get the Opening Day assignment. That still seems highly likely. McCann hasn’t had any game reps and Spring Training ends in one week. Mark Bowman of MLB.com writes that the plan is for the veteran to begin the season at Triple-A Gwinnett.

The righty-swinging McCann has spent the last two seasons backing up Adley Rutschman in Baltimore. He hit .228/.274/.382 in a combined 134 games. He has a bit of power but isn’t going to provide much from an on-base perspective. McCann is highly respected for his leadership and work with pitching staffs. He ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of arm strength and throwing out attempted basestealers. He has never graded well by public pitch framing metrics, while Statcast has graded him a little below average at blocking balls in the dirt.

Baldwin has had a big Spring Training. He’s hitting .333 with six walks and two strikeouts in 13 exhibition games. The former third-round pick combined for a .270/.384/.460 batting line between the top two minor league levels last season. He clearly has more offensive upside than McCann or Tromp bring to the table. That said, plenty of top prospects struggle in their first look at major league pitching. If Baldwin’s career gets out to a tough start, McCann could step in as the starter until Murphy returns from a broken rib. McCann has far more experience as a primary catcher than Tromp does.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top